Movie Review: Honest Thief

Posted on October 16, 2020 by jjcwn • Posted in Action Movie, Bank Robber, liam neeson, Uncategorized • Tagged Action Movie, Bank Robbery • Leave a comment

The word from the movie industry (much like Broadway) is that any thoughts of a realized rebound in 2020 are out the window. The promised release of all 2020 blockbuster movies coming out this year now have all been pushed into 2021. This is why Regal Cinemas has decided to close down all of its US locations for a second time this year. The final straw happening with the new James Bond movie being pushed to April 2021.

The other large movie chain AMC has recently announced that they are running out of money and could be out of business by year end.

Many in the financial world are predicting the total collapse of the movie industry as it existed in 2019 and unfortunately because of Covid-19, they could all be right. Nobody would have imagined 1 year ago all that has happened in 2020; a year far worse than any year anyone alive can remember.

As far as the new movie “Honest Thief”, starring Liam Neeson and Kate Walsh many critics will say that we have seen most or all of the scenes in similar movies in the past and Liam Neeson is still capitalizing on his great 2008 performance in “Taken”. This is all true, but overall I thought that the story and the message make this one worth a visit.

This story is about a former bank robber, played by Neeson who wants to come clean and give back the 9 million dollars he stole years earlier in exchange for getting a much lighter sentence so he can be with his new girlfriend, played by Walsh. Unfortunately due to human greed and the amount money involved this idea goes very south quickly and what follows is a believable story and some good action. The very low 37% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes for this one are way off – once again proving that the critics are wrong too much of the time. To give a good movie like this one only 37% makes no sense. More in line with reality is the 71% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes that I agree with. I do recommend this movie.

Netflix Series Review: Away

Posted on October 10, 2020 by jjcwn • Posted in movie reviews, Space Travel, Uncategorized • Tagged Netflix Series, Space Travel • 1 Comment

The new 10 part Netflix series “Away” is about a real life trip to Mars and for the most part is about the reality of space travel of this magnitude and so many things that can go wrong. This series stars Hilary Swank as the commander of the spaceship that takes off from the moon and travel to Mars. During the trip to Mars, commander Emma Green, played by Swank and her crew encounter and then solve numerous problems life threatening problems. Some of them are solved by Green’s husband Matt Logon played by Josh Charles from Earth. I thought all of these problems were believable and the drama of finding solutions to each obstacle is one of the best parts of this 10 part series.

Many would argue that no woman who was married with a child would ever consider taking a trip to Mars that would take her away from her daughter and husband for years – one of the main areas of drama during this entire series. Over the last number of years, there have been people who have volunteered for trips to Mars, even under the condition where they would never be able to return. I have always wondered how long someone who made a decision like this, would have a huge change of heart after months and years in the middle of nowhere with no chance to ever return to earth. Before the United States or any other country can travel to Mars, thousands of problems and scenarios will have to be solved, starting with the human problems that will be the most challenging.

I thought both the science and the drama in this series was very well produced and acted and I am surprised at the relatively low 60% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, go figure. My rating for this series is a very solid 80% and I do recommend it.

Movie Review: Kajillionaire

Posted on September 29, 2020 by jjcwn • Posted in Homelessness, Kajillionaire, movie reviews, Screenwriting • Leave a comment

The new movie “Kajillionaire” is for any person in the world, who thinks that being broke, heavily in debt or even being close to homeless is not a big deal. Not only is all of this a big deal, but for so many millions of people in the world, it can be a fate worse than death.

The story of Kajillionaire is about an older man and woman and their 20-something daughter who are on the outer fringes of living on the streets. They run scams, some of them very complex that involve faking lost luggage at the airport. They duck under a fence to avoid their landlord who is renting them a former small office room that leaks foam from a next door car wash. This film stretches to a highly unusual level of storytelling that in some areas barely make sense with storylines that in some ways seem connected but then drift away. Many times when I see movies that try so hard to be different – they do not work, but this movie works and for the most part well done.

Kajillionaire stars Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Winger, Richard Jenkins and Gina Rodriguez. This is movie is not a comedy, it is a dark drama about the harsh realities of life in this country for people with no money. Over time, people become desperate animals just to survive one day to the next – and all of this makes Kajillionaire a difficult story to watch. The acting is very solid throughout, with Rodgriguez character joining this group of 3 drifters in the middle of this story – a part of the story I found to be somewhat unbelievable.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Kajillionaire are a very high 88% but a very low 54% audience rating. I am more in the middle, around 72%, with a passing rating. This is not the great movie some of the critics are raving about because some parts of this story did fail and other areas are so disjointed that they do not seem to make sense. Trying to be unusual too often in any story can ruin the final production – the best recent example of this is the movie Tenet. Overall, I do recommend this movie for its stark and depressing reality of people living on the edge.