Author Archives: jjcwn

Movie Review: The Protege

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Some movies seem like they are a jumbled version of so many other films, or scenes within similar movies that are just thrown together. The new movie “The Protege” is one of those films with a flimsy storyline tied together with action karate scenes and a pretty dumb ending all of which we have all seen many times before.

The Protege stars Maggie Q, one of the more well known female/movie karate experts. Many of her action scenes are very impressive but not nearly enough to save this mostly bad movie – about several hired killers that are all out for revenge. Michael Keaton also stars as one of the antagonists and once again Samuel L. Jackson is in this movie as the friend to Maggie Q’s character. My question as I sat through this excuse for violence and explosions is why any of these 3 actors read the script, and then agreed to make this film. Why was this bad screenplay even greenlighted in the first place?

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Protege are a low 62%, with my rating around 40% and a recommendation that this run of the mill action movie should be skipped.

Netflix Movie Review: Beckett

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A car accident involving a young couple, Beckett played by John David Washington and April, played by Alicia Vikander leads to a complex kidnapping involving dirty cops that results in Beckett running for his life for the entire movie. This is the main problem with the new Neflix movie “Beckett” because watching someone run through the hills and forests of Greece can become very old, very quickly.

One of the most interesting things about this film is trying to figure out why Alicia Vikander agreed to take a part this small and insignificant given that she recently won an Academy Award. This film starts out well enough with the relationship between April and Beckett traveling together in Greece, but then it deteriorates into a mostly on foot series of chase scenes with a very injured Beckett running from one person trying to kill him after another. The fact that Beckett is so injured from the car accident and being shot multiple times makes just about all the action scenes in this movie incomprehensible. One of the last scenes involved Beckett jumping 4 stories of a parking garage on purpose to land on a car he was chasing after being severely injured by yet another gunshot. This was probably the stupidest scene in this pretty bad movie. After Becket landed on the car, still alive, was one of those times where you just had to wonder what the director was thinking.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings this time around of 51% are correct along with the very low 38% audience ratings. My rating is also about 50%, mainly because of the constant running scenes and the fact that no human body can be injured this badly and continue to function. I rate Beckett as a pass.

Apple TV Movie Review: Coda

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The new movie streaming on Apple TV “Coda” is about a teenage girl in high school, who is the only hearing member of her family with extraordinary singing ability. Ruby Rossie, played perfectly by actress Emilia Jones is the most valuable member of her family due to her hearing ability. Her father owns a fishing business and Ruby’s ability to hear makes her importance to the family business paramount, creating a great deal of responsibility and pressure for a girl so young. She has a brother a few years older who is also deaf and has problems with Ruby being so important all the time..

From the start of this outstanding movie, it was immediately obvious that this was something special. A rare film that you will remember long after you see it. Coda is the reason why avid moviegoers go to the movies – to hopefully stumble on a great film. Coda is one of this films.

Marlee Matlin stars as Ruby’s mother, and since winning the Academy Award in 1986 for “Children of a Lesser God”, Matlin has continued to be one of the very few deaf actors to appear in mainstream movies. Troy Kotsur plays Ruby’s father Frank and the owner of a fishing business that is getting ripped off by the bigger players who underpay for the fish they catch, and add a Government backed machine to track the movement of each fishing business. This side story is a very important part of the story because of the responsibility it adds to Ruby’s life as a teenage girl about to go to college.

Most impressive is actress Emilia Jones who plays Ruby. She can not only sing, but is a natural actor – so good in this movie that in my opinion, she is a shoe-in to receive an Academy Award nomination for best actress. I was also impressed with the music in this film, as Ruby’s music teacher tries to teach her how to be a great singer, leading to a shot at a scholarship at a local music school. Ruby’s conflict over leaving her very dependent family and pursuing music school provides the best parts of this excellent film.

The Rotten Tomatoes reviews for Coda are an extremely high 96% – and I agree with this high rating and give Code my highest recommendation.