The trend right now in movie theaters, especially after the release of the horrendous Tenet is that for a significant period of time, low rated movies will be released because the vast majority of the movie-going public is still not going to movie theaters. The thinking here is, why risk releasing a huge and very expensive movie before we know if anyone is going to risk going to see it? All of this makes sense, and we all wonder when the movie industry will ever get back to normal again assuming this can ever happen, considering this world wide Pandemic.

As far as the new movie “Ava” starring Jessica Chastain, John Malkovich, Common, Geena Davis and Colin Farrell, I wondered how such an impressive list of A rated actors would all agree to make a movie like “Ava” – at best a below average production. This film reminded me of last years bad movie “Anna”, where a woman who is working in some kind of a high level spy agency (never fully defined or explained) is fighting and killing everybody she faces, despite being outnumbered and injured during so many of her encounters. All movies like this are both unrealistic and in most cases ridiculous because there is just no way that any one person can overcome so many attackers at the same time. The movie Die Hard 1,2 and 3 are examples of “realistic action” where the person is fighting off one person at at time, and sometimes does not actually win the battle. Hopefully one day we can do away with unrealistic action movies like Ava, in favor of physical conflict that not only makes sense, but is realistic.

The other problem with Ava is that the reason for Ava, played by Jessica Chastain is never really explained. She is assigned to kill people, but why? What is the purpose of this spy agency Ava works for and who are these people she is killing? This is all skipped over in favor of mostly inane Karate action. The third problem with this movie is the side story, involving the actor Common who was Ava’s previous boyfriend who is now about to marry her sister. He has a gambling problem and his issues with gambling and a late night dance and gambling club has no connection to the main story, that is never fully understandable on its own.

The Rotten Tomatoes ranking for Ava are a very low 20% and I agree with this ranking and wonder once again, why any named actor would take the role after reading the screenplay. I have seen worse movies that are like this one, but Ava is not worth wasting your time.

The documentary, currently streaming on HBO MAX – “Class Action Park” is one of the rare documentaries that has to be seen to be believed. From the late 1970s to the mid 1990s, entrepreneur Gene Mulvilhill created a water park he called “Action Park” in Vernon New Jersey. For reasons that will not make sense to anyone who sees this documentary, this entertainment resort became the most dangerous in the history of the United States. Despite 5 deaths and hundreds of injuries, this park continued to operate unchecked for almost 20 years. One would have thought that because of all the lawsuits and injuries, the State government of New Jersey would have shut the park down, but this never happened – until word of mouth and financial issues finally closed the park for good on September 2, 1996.

There are numerous side stories in this documentary and interviews with many of the former workers and one woman who lost her son who died on one of the most dangerous rides in Action Park. The owner of the facility, the late Gene Mulvilhill, never settled any of the many lawsuits, choosing instead to fight every one of them to make others think twice about suing him. The rides were never inspected and even built by workers who had no engineering experience and as a result just about every ride in the resort was extremely dangerous.

Mulvilhill even created his own fictional insurance company, so he would not have to pay the very high insurance rates to cover the park. The events that led to this resort being open for so many years is another documentary in itself, to investigate the corruption of that allowed this park to be open for so long with no government regulation.

I highly recommend “Class Action Park” as one of the best documentaries of his kind I have ever seen.