Ever since the release of one of the best comedies in the last decade, 2017’s “The Big Sick”, actor Kumail Nanjiani has been in demand in several movies in the last few years. The problem with hitting it so big with The Big Sick, is that it is going to be close to impossible to surpass or even equal the quality of this film – which is a true story about Kumail and his wife Emily and her almost dying of a rare disease.

The new movie “The Lovebirds” was supposed to be released in theaters prior to the Pandemic, but instead it has been released on Netflix, that one day may be the place we all see movies in the new world that will be unveiled after this horrendous Corona-virus finally goes away.

The Lovebirds is a farce that starts out with a young couple Jibran and Leilani, who are having nothing but problems and arguments in their relationship, until they run into a crooked cop and witness his murder of a man on a bike. What follows is a disjointed story that even involves a sex club of masked people that reminded me of “Eyes Wide Shut” – another strange movie from 1997, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

For the most part, the farcical story that follows does not work, despite the subtle and sarcastic humor that Kumail is becoming known for. Some of the jokes do work, but not enough of them to recommend this film as a solid comedy. I mostly agree with the low 66% critic and 53% audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes, and unfortunately I do not recommend this film.

In 2017 the movie “Hangman” was released and because it rated so badly (only 5% by Rotten Tomatoes) it was bought by almost no theaters in this country. Most unbelievable about this bad movie, is that for some reason Al Pacino, one of the best actors of all time, signed on to make it. Hangman is one of those Hollywood situations where there are favors involved and a named actor might agree to act in several movies for a production company or an up and coming director – regardless of the quality of the script. In situations like this, the favor is greater than the desire to only act in the best possible productions.

This story is about the game Hangman and a serial killer who hangs his victims and then decorates the crime scene with the hangman game – adding a new letter from the last name of each victim with each new murder. Many of the scenes are unnecessarily gruesome and there are not nearly enough twists and turns to make this movie interesting enough to recommend. I do not agree with the 5% consensus on Rotten Tomatoes, giving this film now on Netflix – a low 30% overall rating. If you are a big fan of Al Pacino, Brittany Snow or Karl Urban, then maybe this movie might be worthy of some time during quarantine, but for the rest of us, this one should be missed.

As most would agree, especially the veterans of World War 2, “Saving Private Ryan”, released in 1998 is by far, the best and most realistic war movie ever made. Some 12 years before Saving Private Ryan, the movie “Platoon” directed by Oliver Stone was considered the best and most realistic war movie of all time. So good in fact that Platoon won the best picture Oscar in 1987 and Oliver Stone won best director.
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There are many things that stand out in this film, starting with Charlie Sheen as the lead actor in what turned out to be his best ever movie role, by far. Costars Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe were nominated for best supporting actor and Sheen was not nominated and in my opinion this was yet another Oscar mistake. The war action was some of the most realistic and horrific that I have seen in any movie battle scenes. Most especially the final jungle battle at night that also included a Vietnamese soldier who ran into a tent with a bomb, blowing up everybody inside. Hand to hand combat as the American forces are overrun by the North Vietnam soldiers during the final battle is some of the most impressive war action ever filmed.
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Platoon is still shown on many cable stations and for the few who have never seen this great war movie, I give this film my highest recommendation.
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