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Movie Review: A Little Prayer

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The new movie “A Little Prayer” is one of the most subtle and quiet movies I have ever seen. This story is about the small middle-class lives of people who live in average ranch houses and work in a small local sheet metal factory owned by Bill, played by David Strathairn, who is a Vietnam veteran.

Numerous stories comprise this quiet tale, including the infidelity of Bill’s son, David (Will Pullen), with a coworker, Narcedalia (Dascha Polanco), who both work at the sheet metal company. David is cheating on Tammy (Jane Levy), who lives with him in his parents’ house. It turns out that David has some serious emotional problems as a war veteran after his return from IRAQ, which adds another dimension to David’s serial cheating. It was good to see Jane Levy again after the cancellation of her very good TV show “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” in 2021.

The most difficult to watch part of this film is the return home of Pattie (Anna Camp), who is an abusive mother to her 5-year-old girl, with several scenes that were hard to watch. Pattie has returned home because she left her husband and is in the middle of a divorce. I found it unusual that nobody in the family objected to Patti’s constant berating of her child, Hattie (Billie Roy), which I thought at times was too much and amounted to overkill.

This story demonstrates that a movie does not have to be shocking, overly different, with explosive emotional scenes to be an excellent film experience. Problems come to all of us regardless of age or financial status. A Little Prayer demonstrates so many problems in a subtle and quiet way that I have never seen in any movie.

This film is extremely well acted, with a very high 92% Rotten Tomatoes rating, and I agree with this rating and highly recommend this movie.

Movie Review: Highest 2 Lowest

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The new movie “Highest 2 Lowest” is the latest Spike Lee-directed movie. His last film was five years ago, “Da 5 Bloods”, released in 2020 on Netflix. This is the 5th collaboration between Spike Lee and Denzel Washington who stars in this film as a music mogul in New York City named David King, who is a major risk taker and has built a music empire that is either doing well or about to collapse from bankruptcy.

There are several speeches in this film about risk, success, and failure that are very well written, all ultimately about what is most important in life: how hard it is to succeed, and how easy it can be to lose everything are some of the best parts of this story.

There is a huge deal that David King is trying to make with this company that surprisingly turns into a kidnapping of David’s son, Trey, played by Aubrey Joseph, and a mistake by the kidnappers that adds many story twists and impossible decisions, making this movie a standout kidnapping story.

The acting is outstanding, including David King’s best friend, Paul Christopher, played by Jeffrey Wright, and his wife, Pam King, played by Ilfenesh Hadera. Former NBA player Rick Fox plays himself as a high school basketball coach, and there are several references to his time in the NBA and especially the great playoff matchups with the Boston Celtics.

The twists towards the end of this story and the ending are very well done and never predictable, with my only negative comment involving the too-long music montage fillers at certain parts of this film.

The rap star A$AP Rocky is great in his role as Yung Felon, with some of his arguments and speeches with Denzel Washington at the end of this movie performed very impressively. The singer Sunni Valentine plays an aspiring singer Julie Tucker, with her only appearance at the end of this film, with a great performance of her song “Highest to Lowest”, trying to convince David King to sign her to a music contract.

The Rotten Tomatoes consensus of 90% is correct this time. I agree with this rating and highly recommend this film.

Movie Review: Nobody 2

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The new movie “Nobody 2” is the sequel to “Nobody”, released in 2021. This movie is almost entirely about the most violent and awkward fight scenes in the history of cinema, with the huge bus fight in the first movie being one of the most insane and crazy fight scenes ever filmed.

With this new version, there are several fight scenes as long and as crazy as the first movie, with the main character, Hutch Mansell played by Bob Odenkirk, taking on as many as eight attackers all at the same time, and despite being about five feet nine and maybe 200 pounds, Hutch manages to win every time. What is always ridiculous about movies like this, including the “John Wick” series, is that with so many guns and so many attackers all attacking at the same time, there is no way any of these fights would not result in the instant death of Hutch Mansell. The solution to this is to try to make the action scenes more believable, rather than so insane, but after all, this is a movie.

There is not much of a plot for this second installment, other than Hutch and his family, including his wife, Becca Mansell played by Connie Nielsen, and his two kids, Sammy and Brady, played by Paisley Cadorath and Gage Munroe taking a trip to an amusement park, where the arguments and fights with the townspeople starting with Gage start within minutes of their arrival. One shove of Hutch’s daughter by one of the security guards, and the insane fighting starts, and is followed by several more fights, one in a boat that is almost as impressive as the bus fight in the first movie.

Hutch’s father David, is also in the sequel, played by Christopher Lloy,d and his brother, Harry played again by RZA make the majority of their appearances during the final action scenes that resolve a huge battle at the amusement park between an evil woman, who heads a drug cartel, named Lendina, played by Sharon Stone. Two men, Hutch and a former member of the cartel, Wyat Martin, played by John Ortiz, hold off about 25 of Lendina’s soldiers, making for a finale that will remind everyone of all the John Wick movies.

Nobody 2 is not as good as the original, but the well-choreographed action fight scenes and special effects are enough to make this a solid recommendation, and I agree with the 78% Rotten Tomatoes consensus.