Tag Archives: Glen Powell

Movie Review: How to Make a Killing

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It is never a good sign for a new movie release when a key fact on the poster does not match the movie. The main character, Becket Redfellow, can inherit 18 Billion Dollars (from the movie), not 28 Billion Dollars (from the movie poster). From ChatGPT, this could be about movie marketing, but for me, this looks like a glaring error right from the start.

After one of the women in a wealthy family marries the wrong man, whom she later divorces after having a son, she is barred from having anything to do with the family or their money. What doesn’t make much sense in the movie’s main premise is how her son could have any claim to the 18 billion dollar family fortune after she was banned from the family, and later dies. Why would her son somehow be able to kill the seven relatives in the family who are the remaining heirs, and then be somehow unbanned from the family because he is the only remaining relative? It also does not appear that the son or his mother are the kind of people who would consider mass murder for money. Why would anyone think they could kill seven people in a row and get away with it? From the start, this logline or movie concept should never have been greenlighted.

“How to Make a Killing” stars Glen Powell as Becket Redfellow, Margaret Qualley as Julia who is a former insane girlfriend of Becket, Jessica Henwick who plays the love interest in Becket and Ed Harris as Whitelaw Redfellow, who is the head of the family and the subject of a hunting rifle and bow and arrow scene with Becket at the end of the film – one of the few impressive scenes in this below average movie. Unfortunately, this movie does not work on several levels, including the rare attempts at humor or irony.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are a correct and very low 48%, and I agree with this rating and do not recommend this film.

Movie Review: The Running Man

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There should be a documentary made about the decision makers in Hollywood who decide what movies to remake. Almost forty years ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger made the original “The Running Man” about a man who tries to escape being killed by assassins, fully televised for a huge cash prize. Kind of like a modern day Rome and the Coliseum, from 2000 years ago. This movie also starred Richard Dawson as the host of the show and the accurate Rotten Tomatoes rating were 59% for a movie that was at best, below average and close to B movie status.

Why then, when producers are looking for a good acting movie premise for the rising career of actor Glen Powell, would this be the vehicle for his first solo action movie? The reason is, it takes too long, to create a new idea and write a new screenplay, so in order to take less risk, a well known movie name from a long time ago is chosen that starred a very well known actor in the hope that name recognition mostly from baby boomers would help make this movie a hit or be profitable. Unfortunately, this is a bad movie, no matter how much name recognition and action scenes you throw at it. It is slow, stupid in too many places and implausible throughout because as is always the case, writing a great screenplay is the most challenging part of movie making. Without a great story foundation, the movie will never been good and in the majority of cases will lose money – especially when the budget is 110 million dollars.

This film stars Sean Hayes as one of the hosts of the show Running Man, Lee Pace, as an evil assassin, Michael Cera who appears at the end of this movie for mostly filling time and Josh Brolin as Dan Killian, starring in the part originally played by the late Richard Dawson. Why Brolin took this part in a movie this bad, is anyone’s guess.

The low Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie are a correct 64% made even worse by a bad movie that runs too long another big mistake here. I rate this movie a run for your life, big pass.

Movie Review: Twisters

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The summer blockbuster hit “Twister” was released in May 1996 and had some of the best tornado special effects ever filmed. For many fans of the first film, the new remake “Twisters” will not disappoint as far as the special effects which are as good and in some areas better than the original. I was surprised that while the special effects in this new movie were impressive, considering the advances in technology in the last 28 years I was expecting more spectacular action scenes.

With the increasing number and severity of global warming, this new Twister remake has been expected. This time around, this new film has more science as far as ideas on how to stop a tornado once it starts. Once again “Dorothy”, the flying plastic balls that when released into the funnel cloud send signals that give scientists an idea of how a tornado forms, to better understand these increasingly devastating weather disasters from happening are a minor part of this new film. There was a good amount of science in this story, which is why storm chasers risk their lives chasing these dangerous violent weather phenomena.

While this new movie is a remake of the original it is significantly different enough as far as the story and what happens as well as the characters with two scientists Kate, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Tyler played by Glen Powell who are mostly at odds, and then become more than friends later in this story.

There is significantly more death in this remake, especially at the beginning of this movie, where Kate experiences the deaths of several of her friends. Realizing that there are real storm chasers who devote their lives to trying to solve the most dangerous weather conditions in the world, you have to admire the courage it would take to do drive an SUV into a tornado to make a living. The idea this movie proposes to insert chemicals into an active tornado to stop it might be a viable idea in the future, using electric drone SUVS, assuming that such chemicals could ever be created.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this film of 77% is accurate and I give it a solid recommendation mainly for the special effects.