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Movie Review: Don’t Worry Darling

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The new movie “Don’t Worry Darling” directed by Olivia Wilde has more to do with the marketing power of the Rotten Tomatoes Web Site than the story within this film. Over the years, Rotten Tomatoes has become so powerful, that its ratings can completely make or break the box office of any movie even before it is released. This is the case of Don’t Worry Darling which is nothing more than a combination clone of both “The Stepford Wives” and “The Matrix”. Unfortunately, originality does not come from combining two other ideas that are original and then expecting anyone will think that a “combination of 2 great story ideas” will also be considered original. In my experience, most audiences do not like any movie or TV show that they view as a rip-off. Originality and quality are what sell, not playing the odds of trying to capitalize on something that worked in the past.

Considering the money and time involved to produce a movie like Don’t Worry Darling – what happened with this film is that the producers knew that the critics on Rotten Tomatoes would be giving this movie a low 38% rating long before it was released, so the producers decided to put out manufactured news stories to try and save the box office. These stories included having one of the lead actors Harry Styles, supposedly spitting on Chris Pine. Other stories circulated about Olivia Wilde’s firing of Shia LaBeouf, who was originally hired for the Harry Styles role. There were other stories about conflicts between the director Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh. We have seen this before, when producers are so desperate to save a movie that they insert last-minute nude scenes or create major news stories to save the box office of a newly released movie – mostly because of the low Rotten Tomatoes ratings. This also happened with Sylvestor Stallone’s recent movie on Amazon Prime, “Samaritan” which was released days after the announcement that Stallone would be getting a divorce from his wife Jennifer Flavin after 25 years. Some days ago, it looks like Stallone and Flavin may have reconciled. The problem with this strategy is that the public knows that this is a marketing ploy to get people to pay for a new movie that might not be any good.

Remarkably, this film is almost entirely told from the perspective of Alice Chambers, played by Florence Pugh. All of the other actors in this production have very small parts compared to Pugh, which I thought was a flaw in the overall screenplay. The problem with the convoluted concept of this story is that the ultimate payoff takes too long to be fully revealed and when it is fully revealed, some of the previous scenes in some cases do not hold water. The positive aspects are that Florence Pugh (despite her extremely unfortunate last name) is a big-time upcoming new star, who is a strong enough presence to carry this entire movie – despite its obvious flaws. She has an almost perfect movie star face, that deserves a better screenplay than this one. Other stars including Chris Pine and Harry Styles hold their own despite their relatively small presence within this story.

I agree with the low scores of 38% on Rotten Tomatoes and do not recommend this film.

Independent Movie Review: The Haunting of the Murder House

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I am proud to report that for the 5th time in the history of this blog, which started almost 8 years ago, I have been asked to review an Independently produced movie “The Haunting of the Murder House”.

For all aspiring movie directors, actors, and screenwriters, the dream for all of us is to win an Oscar. To one day be one of the very lucky few who are standing on the Oscar stage after years of impossible and unlikely struggles to finally realize a dream that for all of us, seems so far away. As a screenwriter, how can someone even get an agent, because, without an agent, you cannot even submit a screenplay to any producer? As an actor, how many rejections and auditions will it take to get that lucky break, that first part that just maybe be the one that starts your acting career. As for writers and actors, your career is in the ever-changing and very often inaccurate opinions of other people, who somehow found themselves in a career in show business ahead of you. For a director, sometimes the only way to break into this impossible field is to start your own production company, spend your own money and produce your own movies. This is the essential idea behind Independent “Indy” film productions.

I have always had great admiration for all of the 5 producers who have asked me to review and promote their films. This respect and admiration come from the work it takes to write and direct any new movie and the financial risk it takes to produce a movie on your own. Independent filmmaking represents great risk against little chance of reward in almost all cases. Behind all of this is someone who is willing to pay the dues it takes to break into what many of us believe is just about the best industry to work in.

Unfortunately, this film (see Vimeo link below) represents the harsh reality of trying to write, produce and direct any movie with little budget. The actors in this horror film all look like they have never acted before with on-the-nose dialogue throughout this entire production. The constant dialogue of WTF and Holy S – are used far too often at a level I have never seen before. It seems the idea behind this film was to achieve some kind of a “Blair Witch Project” concept that unfortunately fails because of too many flaws in the acting, dialogue, and overall story.

I do recommend this film for all those are appreciate those to are in the movie trenches, trying to achieve their dreams in the only way possible – by taking risks and forever trying by continuing to create, act and write.

The Haunting of the Murder House

Hulu Series Review: Mike

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The most remarkable thing about the new 8-part Hulu series “Mike” is how dead-on accurate the actor who plays Mike Tyson, Trevante Rhodes, is in this role. Rhodes mirrored Tyson’s speaking style, his mannerisms, physique, even his hand movements while he talks. This performance is so good, it should receive an Emmy award nomination.

This entire 8-part series follows the entire life of Mike Tyson, using flashbacks to show Mike Tyson’s performances for the Broadway play, “Mike Tyson: The Undisputed Truth”, produced and directed by Spike Lee play, released in 2012. When this play was released in 2012, I was most impressed that any former boxer could stand in front of an audience and give a 2-hour speech in front of a large audience. It is one thing to perform in front of many people when boxing and another thing to travel around the country and perform in a one-man play.

The story of Mike Tyson’s life is an extremely tragic one. He had no father, he was constantly bullied by the criminal element during his childhood and he and his mother traveled to different abandoned buildings in Brooklyn just to find shelter, for most of his childhood. By a series of extremely unlikely events after being arrested over 20 times, Mike Tyson found himself being trained by one of the best boxing trainers in the world, Cus D’Amato. Were it not for Cus D’Amato not only training Tyson but even adopting him, Mike Tyson would never rose to the top of the boxing world as the youngest world champion. When D’Amato died in 1985, understandably, Tyson started a downward spiral that included marrying the wrong woman, Robin Givens, massive spending, drug use and unfortunately suffering his first loss as a boxer to Buster Douglas in 1990. All of this was self-destructive behavior due to the combination of the loss of D’Amato who meant everything to him and the fact that Tyson always hated himself and deep down never thought he was deserving of so much money and Worldwide fame.

Much of this is hard to watch, especially the part when Tyson spent 3 years in jail for the rape of Desiree Washington played very well by Li Eubanks. Unfortunately for Mike Tyson himself, this series does not paint a good picture to support his version of events that led to his 3 years in jail.

The biting of Evander Holyfield’s ear is also a major part of this well-told story and from Mike Tyson’s perspective Holyfield’s head butting into Tyson’s face in both fights (not clear whether this was intentional or by accident) does give some support to Tyson flying into a rage during the second fight. The comment Tyson made during the fight, “if he is going to fight dirty, then I am going to fight dirty” is an important moment in this series. Very clearly, the referees did a horrible job controlling Holyfield’s head butting, that should have included disqualifying him. Instead, Holyfield did not even lose points for the rounds where he headbutted Tyson, that in the first fight resulted Tyson almost knocked out in the second round. None of this is an excuse for what Tyson did, but if the referees did their jobs correctly, then Tyson would not have gone crazy from desperation.

I thought this series was extremely well produced and acted and once again I am not surprised that the critics are so wrong on Rotten Tomatoes, giving this very impressive series only a 42% rating. My rating is a solid 85% and a strong recommendation.