Netflix Movie Review: Pain Hustlers

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With outstanding series like Dopesick (Hulu) and Painkiller(Netflix) currently streaming, it is no surprise that the new movie “Pain Hustlers” the true story about the salespeople of Insys Pharmaceutical who lied, bribed doctors, and sold dangerous pain-killing drugs that killed so many people has been released on Netflix.

Pain Hustlers stars Emily Blunt as Liza Drake a down-and-out single mother with a daughter, living in the garage of her sister with her mother. Liza seems to have no chance to lift her life out of the hole it’s in until she interviews with a failing Pharmaceutical company named InSys. Even though Liza is completely unqualified and has no college degree, she is hired by her interviewer Pete Brenner, played by Chris Evans himself, adding made-up qualifications to Liza’s resume. At the beginning of this true story, nobody can blame Liza from trying to escape from her poor squalor nowhere life into trying to sell doctors a highly effective pain killing cancer drug and making commissions that eventually became 600 thousand for one year.

The problem with situations like this is greed. Within this true story, it was also the insanity and greed of the CEO of the company Dr. Neel, played by Andy Garcia. As soon as sales flattened for the pain-killing drug that was only created for cancer patients, Neel demanded that they “go off the label” and bribe doctors to prescribe the drug for all pain. Soon after this, some people started to die of overdoses. What is most amazing about this true story is the blatant disregard to the rules set by the FDA, with the desire for so much money that all involved ignored the possibility of going to jail for many years because what they were doing for so long was against the law.

The other player in this opioid pain killing disaster is the company Purdue Pharmaceutical, the subject of the great Hulu series Dopesick (reviewed in this blog). Due to the greed of this now-bankrupt company, tens of thousands of Americans died from drug overdoses caused by Purdue’s main painkilling drug OxyContin. Purdue is now bankrupt as of 2022 as is Insys in 2019 and this also included jail time for the CEO and all the executives of this company.

For reasons unknown, the critics on Rotten Tomatoes are rating this very good Netflix movie only 22%. This is dead wrong, with my rating of 80% for a solid look at the reality of what people will do for money.

Movie Review: Freelance

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The new movie “Freelance” starring John Cena, seems like a grab-bag of action movie ideas that were either used in previous films or just thrown away. The story is about a former Army Veteran, now bored with his life, who goes back to his life as a mercenary, running in the jungle, dodging helicopter fire, trying to save a reporter and the leader of some Latin American company under attack by other hired mercenaries – already who cares.

Everything in this movie has been produced 100 times before in much better action movies. There is nothing new in this screenplay that was written by Jacob Lenz – that according to IMDB is his first. This production could be another example of a favor bank gone bad because Freelance is one of the few movies receiving a zero on Rotten Tomatoes. If this is not a favor bank movie it is hard to believe money was spent to produce a screenplay this bad and convince several named actors to make this film. I often think about so many very great screenplays that will never made or even seen by a producer, and a movie like this is made during a time when the best movies of the year normally are released.

The story of a frustrated lawyer returning to his “more happy life” of fighting battles around the world stars John Cena as Mason. He finds himself in a Latin American country protecting a famous reporter Claire Wellington played by Alison Brie. What follows is gunfire, chase scenes, downed helicopters, and attempts at very subtle humor mostly by Cena that fails almost every time. There is a continuing attempt at humor involving a back problem with John Cena’s character, which is another unnecessary part of this alarmingly bad movie. Actress Alice Eve plays Mason’s wife, in a small part, that is a harsh reality of being an actress in Hollywood – sometimes you have to take a small role in a bad film, hoping something much better might someday come along. I hope this movie is not too much of a setback for all involved.

The solution with this movie is to just find any other current action film on Netflix and watch that instead. This one rates about 20%, and is a big time miss.

Movie Review: Nyad

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When I first heard while watching the movie Nyad, about the all-time greatest long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad that it takes 60 hours to swim 103 hours from Key West Florida to Cuba I thought about how hard it must have been just to stay awake for 60 hours (the record is 19 days). Then add the incredible achievement of swimming in a dangerous shark and jellyfish ocean non-stop for 103 miles. This achievement is probably the most impressive of any long distance athlete in history.

During this very good drama/biography about Diana Nyad, her full story is revealed about the first attempt in 1978 to swim from Cuba to Key West followed by the years 2011 and 2013 and five more attempts, when Diana was over the age of 60. The odds are extremely high that nobody will ever be able to achieve this 103-mile swim from Cuba to Key West Florida again, no matter how old they are. There are too many problems with ocean currents, jellyfish, sharks and cold water. Most people would just give up after 1 attempt, especially if they almost died like Diana, who was in grave danger of dying several times.

On August 31, 2013, Nyad finally achieved her life long dream at age 64, of finally swimming to Key West from Cuba on 1:55 PM EDT on September 2, 2013 after 53 hours of swimming. The most impressive thing about this impossible task was that Nyad never gave up trying, even after everybody around her did.

The movie stars Annette Bening as Nyad and Jodie Foster as Bonnie Stoll, Diana’s lifelong friend and trainer. Both performances are excellent throughout this story which is entirely about Dianna’s nonstop obsession of achieving her impossible dream. This story has many highs and lows and after the 4th attempt that was close but once again failed, it seemed that this impossible dream was finally over until Diana tried one last time when she was 64 years old. One can only imagine the pain of swimming for 60 hours in the ocean while swallowing sea water, with your face constantly swelling and damaged by the harsh conditions.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Nyad are a very high 86% and I recommend this film.