Movie Review: The Dog Stars

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There are numerous issues with the new movie “The Dog Stars”, starting with how strange it is that a director with the clout of Ridley Scott would read this script and agree to make this film. The title of this film also makes little sense; yes, there is a dog, and at times they do look at the stars. This phrase refers to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, which is commonly called the “Dog Star.” Despite all of this, this story is about a virus that almost wipes out the human population. The Dog Stars is not a good title for this movie.

One of the few good points is that this time around, the virus that almost wipes out the population of the world does not turn people into flesh-eating zombies, for a refreshing new idea about a virus. We have all seen enough zombie movies, both on television and in movie theaters. Enough already.

This story takes place in a bombed-out, disaster-stricken Denver, Colorado, in the year 2035, ten years after the Pandemic. The main character is Hig (Jacob Elordi), a pilot who lives with a friend and mentor, Bangley (Josh Brolin), in a broken-down house/garage, where Bangley is frequently sitting at the top of a tower, shooting anyone who comes close to their shelter with a high-powered rifle. Most impressive is the number of burned-out, broken cars and planes that are constantly littered throughout all the scenes, accounting for most of the production costs. The other remarkable thing about this movie is how thin the action is, with very little happening, making this movie somewhat like the television series Seinfeld (the show about nothing).

Due to restlessness, Hig flies his plane into a new area of Colorado, has major engine problems, is barely able to land the plane, and then runs into a father and daughter, Pops and Cima, who are trying to survive in the middle of nowhere. What follows is very little story and then another bout of restlessness where the three of them somehow are able to fix the plane (never explained), clear the land for a runway, and wind up at an airport where it seems that everybody is crazy. The head of this insane airport is Darline (Allison Janey) – another well-known actor who read the script and agreed to act in this movie, forcing all of us to wonder why.

The ending is very anticlimactic and boring, like too much of this story, with an abrupt ending that was a good thing, because the movie was finally over.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this mostly bad movie is a correct 40%, making this movie, considering all the well-known people involved, a big miss.

Movie Review: Tony

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In July 2021, the documentary film “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” was released and was an impressive film with actual film footage about the later life and suicide of Anthony Bourdain, who passed in June 2018 at 61. It was suggested during many of the later scenes that Bourdain might have killed himself over the Italian actress and filmmaker, Asia Argento, after they broke up a year earlier and she was with another man, although this reason for his suicide has never been verified. Perhaps another reason could have been the exhausting demands of his TV show, “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown”, in which Bourdain travelled the world non-stop for years, visiting some of the world’s poorest countries.

The new movie “Tony” is about Bourdain’s (Dominic Sessa) extremely unlikely start at 18. He wanted to be a writer and applied for a writers’ fellowship at Vassar College, which he did not get. What followed was Bourdain falling into a life-threatening depression and getting a desperate job as a dishwasher at a run-down restaurant in Provincetown, Massachusetts, so he could sleep on a hammock on the restaurant owner’s (Antonio Banderas) porch. This one unlikely event, which was caused by a series of insane circumstances in the life of a homeless, depressed, and desperate young man, led to Bourdain becoming one of the most well-known chefs in the world. Bourdain also wrote the book “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly”, which sold millions of copies.

This story also has a sub-story about a love interest with Bourdain moving to Provincetown to follow Nancy (Emilia Jones), who he later discovers has a boyfriend. Emilia Jones was the star of the outstanding movie CODA, which won the Academy Award in 2022. There are numerous conflicts and fights mainly stemming from another co-worker, Sal (Leo Woodall), and his drinking and drug use.

The best part of this movie is the scenes where Bourdain slowly starts to appreciate the art that comes with being a great chef with the help of the owner of the restaurant, who becomes his mentor. Eventually, Tony Bourdain gives up his ambitions of becoming a writer to become a great chef, later changing his first name to Anthony.

Tony is a very good biographical movie about life, and how directions can change, based on the most unlikely circumstances. Tony is getting very high 95% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, with my rating at 90% and a solid recommendation.

Movie Review: The End of Oak Street

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“The End of Oak Street” is one of the very few movies involving dinosaurs chasing and killing people, aside from the seven Jurassic Park films. When it comes to dinosaurs, with no exception, there will be scenes with people running for their lives and being eaten alive.

This new movie has the interesting idea of a small town in the 1980’s that transports through a portal of time back to millions of years ago, where dinosaurs dominate the planet Earth. This is, of course, completely crazy, but it sets the stage for highly unusual scenes of people running for their lives and being attacked and killed by a number of different dinosaurs around a normal lower-class neighborhood.

This film stars Anne Hathaway (Denise Platt) and Ewan McGregor (Greg Platt), who are having relationship problems with hints of a possible divorce. They have two children, Brian Platt (Christian Convery) and Audrey Platt Maisy Stella. In terms of character development and any complex story, understandably, this is not that kind of movie.

The first 20 percent of this film is just setup for the run for your life rest of the story. My main problem with this movie is that there are too many scenes where the characters do things that nobody would ever do in real life. The worst one is Brian leaving the protection of his house to chase after his dog, with giant man-eating dinosaurs running all over the neighborhood. Obviously, nobody would ever do this. There was one shocking scene that seemed way out of place in this film, where two dinosaurs are mating. This scene should have been cut from this movie, including the selfie that Denise takes of her husband standing in front of the mating dinosaurs. What were they thinking with this scene?

The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 84% for this film is mostly correct, with my rating at 80% and a mild recommendation, mainly for some of the impressive special effects.