It has been said that screenwriting is the most difficult of all art forms. The reason is that there are so many moving parts to any screenplay and they all have to interact with each other and be understandable and make sense and conclude in a satisfying way. This is why most screenplays require so many re-writes. The new movie “A Simple Favor” attempts a very challenging and complex story with many movie parts. The story works mostly, but there were several holes in the logic that involved many different movie parts that made this film very far from perfect, but OK enough to recommend. There is one caveat that involves the constant showing of a painting this movie that I thought was in very bad taste – most especially they showed this painting way too many times. The good news is that at least there was no smoking.

This movie stars two well known actors, Blake Lively with Anna Kendrick getting by far the most screen time. Both are very good in their roles but this movie is not up to Oscar level caliber.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie are a solid 82% and I agree with this rating. I do recommend A Simple Favor.

In 1987 screenwriter Shane Black came out of nowhere and created a 4 movie franchise when at only age 22 he wrote and then sold a groundbreaking screenplay called “Lethal Weapon”. This is the dream of all aspiring screenwriters, to sell that one different movie idea that becomes a huge hit.

For some reason Shane Black is now involved in the Predator franchise with the new movie “The Predator” that he both co-wrote and directed. Unfortunately, he just may have ended this franchise, because this movie is so bad. The screenplay is both fragmented and boring with a group of known actors in an attempt to use their name recognition to save a bad script. This never works in my experience as a movie-goer.

As far as the actors in this movie I was most surprised to see the great actor Sterling K. Brown in his second movie since he has become famous on the great TV show “This is Us”. His first movie “Hotel Artemis” was also a very bad movie and now with The Predator it is now clear that Brown is going for the big money rather than waiting for quality productions. While you cant blame Brown for wanting to cash in on his new fame after the huge dues he has paid as an actor, the problem is that if he keeps making bad movies like this one, he may never get the movie role that shows what a great actor he is. I was also surprised to see the actor Thomas Jane in this mess, who seems to have had a downhill ride in the movie business since he made the very good movie “The Punisher” in 2004. Jane plays an soldier who has of all things Tourette’s – in an obvious attempt by Shane Black to puff up a bad screenplay with some verbal outbursts created to surprise the audience before they doze off; and I did myself, twice. Olivia Munn also appears in this movie as a Biologist who also seems to be well trained with high level military firearms – how stupid is this? The Rotten Tomatoes for this film are a very low 34% and my rating is only about 10%.

There was a hint at the end of this bad movie about a new Predator creature and a possible sequel. If that happens, hopefully there will be a much better script next time. The Predator should be skipped and represents another great opportunity lost to create something new within the now 31 year old Predator film franchise.

The movie “The Bookshop” is the very definition of a low budget art movie. Its about a woman named Florence Green in a small town somewhere in the hills of England, where it is always dark and cloudy. This woman wants to open up a bookstore where there has never been a bookstore, and most of the population does not even read. There are numerous messages here, but the most important one I gleaned from this film is that no matter where you are in the world there are evil people who derive pleasure from hurting someone else or trying to destroy their dreams. This is more difficult to watch in the case of this story about an extremely likable main character played by Emily Mortimer, who just wants to sell books and be happy. She befriends an older wealthy man in the town who loves to read played by Bill Nighy who tries to help her when her business runs into problems because of the people trying to ruin her book shop.

The issue I had with this movie was that it was too slow and boring in too many places. I found the external shots of the outdoor scenes rather depressing because it always seemed like it was dark and about to rain. I did not really understand the point of the ending and in the end, this movie was perhaps trying to be too artsy for me to recommend. This might be a movie for some people, especially those who love books, but not for me.