Movie Review: The Roses

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The new movie “The Roses” is a remake/reimagining of “The War of the Roses”, released in 1989, that starred Michael Douglass and Kathleen Turner. This story is about a marriage and the long-term degradation of the relationship over many years.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Theo Rose, an architect, and Olivia Colman plays Ivy Rose, who becomes a very successful Chef who starts several restaurants in Mendocino, California. Meanwhile, her husband, Theo, loses his job as an architect after one of his buildings collapses following a severe storm. The problems start with Ivy becoming very successful and opening restaurants, and Theo becoming the house husband. The issues with marriages dissolving is the same, “he thinks, she thinks”, due to bad communication over a long period of time. Very often we think the other person is thinking something that they aren’t because there is no communication between the two people.

This story is about the man is no longer making a living and he starts thinking his wife no longer respects him – which may or may not be true. Of all the things that can go wrong in a marriage, money problems are the number one reason for divorce, with the very obvious exceptions celebrities like Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez and Angelina Joule and Brad Pitt, reminding the world that there is much more to a long term relationship than just money. Theo in his first task as a house father, starts athletic training for his son and daughter, turning them into major athletes that causes resentment from Ivy who thinks that Theo is trying to steal her children.

This film also stars Kate McKinnon as Amy and Andy Samberg as Barry who are the friends of the Rose’s. While Kate is her normal funny self, she has a somewhat sick and tired looking appearance that is part of her role as a an emotionally drained person, disillusioned about her married life. Samberg is also funny in his role as Theo’s friend and lawyer who later represents him in a volatile divorce hearing with Allison Janney in a scene that is both real life vicious and funny at the same time.

There is a very violent climax scene that will remind everyone of the original “War of the Roses”, although the violence between Ivy and Theo is less than the original movie.

I was surprised at the relatively low 63% rating on Rotten Tomatoes for this film, with the acting alone worth a solid 75%. I give a solid recommendation to this movie which is a reminder of the realities of love, marriage and divorce.

Movie Review: Honey Don’t

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It is not often that a bad movie is released that is directed or written by either Joel or Ethan Coen. Unfortunately, this is the case with the new and very strange film “Honey Don’t”. This movie has three major stars, Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, and Chris Evans, who probably all took their roles only for the opportunity to work with the Coen brothers, regardless of the quality of the story or screenplay.

The erratic, haphazard story of the strangely titled Honey Don’t is about a private investigator Honey O’Donahue, played by Qualley, who investigates a series of murders in the depressing town of Bakersfield, California ( this movie was shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico). As she investigates the different murders, while visiting a series of broken-down locations and homes, even more killings occur, some of them extremely violent, where most of the killings seem to be excuses to keep the audience from dozing off, as most of this movie is very boring.

I was surprised someone as talented and funny as Aubrey Plaza took this role as a police officer, as there are several shockingly raunchy scenes with Margaret Qualley and an extremely violent scene with Qualley later in the movie. What were these two up-and-coming actors thinking, taking bad roles in a bad movie with horrific scenes like these?

Chris Evans plays a local, perverted evangelist, Reverend Drew Devlin, in a role he will likely regret later in his career. The problem with clout in Hollywood is that a famous and respected director or writer can create a bad project and still attract named actors. The worst example of this is last year’s disaster, “Megalopolis”, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who spent 124 million dollars of his own money to make one of the worst movies ever produced.

This movie is categorized as a dark comedy, which is used as an excuse for some of the insane and disturbing scenes. There is nothing funny here, within a film that really has no plot and no reason for existing. I agree with the very low ratings of 47% on Rotten Tomatoes and do not 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.