The thinking in Hollywood California about the idea of pairing actor Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista was probably that they are such an unlikely pair and so different culturally that this would lead to a new buddy-cop-comedy team. Nanjiani was so funny in the movie “The Big Sick”, that he will be funny again in this movie. Unfortunately the movie The Big Sick had a great script and Nanjiani was funny, because the dialogue and situation was funny. This is not the case with Stuber. Everything starts with a great idea, then a great story and screenplay and there are never any shortcuts.

The story of Stuber starts out impressively with some very good action scenes that were very effective, but not believable given that two characters fall from heights of over two stories, which is supposed to kill any human being. The Karate expert Iko Uwais is in these scenes, and he is arguably one of the best movie Karate experts of all time. Once the movie is past the opening scenes, what follows are some boring chases and a story-line involving corrupt police officers that we have all seen thousands of times before. Some attempts at comedy with Uber driver Stu, played by Nanjiani and a police officer Vic, played by Bautista mostly all falls very flat. The actress Mira Sorvino also appears in this film in a small role and it was nice to see her in a movie again, but its too bad that her white hot career of some 15 years ago is at least for right now, a distant memory. The comedy movie test that I always use also failed, because there were almost no laughs during the almost 2 hours of this film.

I agree with the low ratings on Rotten Tomatoes for Stuber that are a low 46% and I do not recommend this movie.

The new movie “Crawl” gets high marks for originality. A father and daughter are trapped in a basement during a major Hurricane surrounded by very large Alligators. I have to admit, I have never seen something like this before. The only problem with this story, is the same problem with all movies like this; people do stupid things more for Hollywood drama rather than because they are panicked. If someone panics and does something stupid because they are about to be eaten by a huge Alligator, then this makes sense and is understandable. However, some of the decisions in this movie, especially towards the end are just plain dumb and are only for increasing the drama, rather than enhancing what is a pretty good story. Crawl delivers what it promises, I just wish it could have done this with some more common sense and intelligence.

The Rotten Tomatoes are a surprisingly high 88% for Crawl, but my grade is only an average 75%, mostly for the very well done special effects than the story and some of the very bad decisions the characters make to try and survive.

There should be more movies like “Wild Rose” made, for the millions of young people who aspire to move to Hollywood to be an actor or a famous singer. The odds are very long and what this film shows, is the truth about these long odds. The reality of the luck involved, the disappointments and heartache, the breaks that are needed and might never come. It all amounts to gambling with your entire life. There are the lucky few and the thousands who never make it. It doesn’t matter that you work hard to achieve your dreams or that you may actually be the most talented, like the singer in this movie. What matters is that Rose-Lynn has been the absentee single mother to 2 kids starting at age 18. Her talent will always come in second to her children.

The lead character of Wild Rose,Rose-Lynn is played by Jessie Buckley, who is not only an outstanding actor in this role, but a great singer as well. Her mother Marion, played well by Julie Walters comes to her daughters rescue frequently because of the late nights and drinking that come with her daughters life as a lounge singer.

This movie takes place in Scotland, a very unlikely location for a singer who wants to become a country singer who lives in Nashville. One problem wit this film is because of the very thick Scottish accents, many times it was impossible to fully understand what people were saying.

The message of this movie is a good one. Just because the odds are long and probably impossible does not mean to not try to achieve your dreams.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for Wild Rose are a very high 94% and I agree with this assessment and highly recommend this film.