Tag Archives: Mark Wahlberg

Movie Review: By Any Means

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The new movie “By Any Means” is loosely based on the murder in 1966 of Vernon Dahmer by the KKK, who was a prominent civil-rights advocate and Mississippi NAACP leader. The FBI hires Greg Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg) to obtain information about this murder, “by any means”, using Scarpa’s Mafia experience to torture witnesses to get the information they needed. This is the essential problem with this movie: way too many scenes of people being tied to chairs and beaten in the face and the legs with fists and baseball bats.

Why would the producers not know that this many scenes of human torture would never be considered any level of entertainment? Wahlberg, once again, is perfect in his role as an extremely disgusting and unlikeable lowlife who has no decency or morals. Scarpa’s too many scenes of extreme violence and torture trying to obtain information became old after the first scene with him beating the legs of a man with a baseball bat way too many times. By the end of this movie, the scenes of human torture became unbearable to watch. Had the interrogation scenes been reduced by half, this movie would have had a chance to be considered an above-average movie.

The FBI hired agent Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) to ride with Greg Scarpa into Mississippi, creating an extremely volatile relationship throughout this story, leading to a fist fight between the two of them based on disagreements over the violent methods Scarpa uses to obtain information. Both actors are good in their roles, but unfortunately, this kind of story we have seen way too many times before. There is nothing new here, with a story that is, at best, only average, with the only revelation about the FBI using a Mafia hitman to illegally obtain information.

The low Rotten Tomatoes rating of only 51% is correct this time around, and I do not recommend this movie.

Movie Review: Flight Risk

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One of the first things to recognize about the new Mark Wahlberg movie “Flight Risk” is that on all the movie posters there is a very small mention of director Mel Gibson. The reasons for this are because of Gibson’s drunken rant with police on July 28, 2006, which included anti-Semitic remarks and other offensive comments. Ultimately this incident 18 years ago derailed Gibson’s career in Hollywood. Gibson has had some comebacks over the years, most notably, directing the movie “Hacksaw Ridge”, released in 2016, arguably one of the greatest war movies ever produced. Considering this incident from 2006 and the ones that followed, it is rather remarkable that Gibson continues to work in the film industry.

The other issue I found unusual about this film is that Mark Wahlberg, who plays a small plane pilot who is a murderer working for a mob boss, shaved his head, with the idea that Wahlberg would look more evil if he was bald. Mark Wahlberg can play an evil person without being bald, so risking a shaved head for a movie (what if it does not grow back?) made no sense for this role.

The story of Flight Risk is a simple one. A former accountant for a Mob boss has evidence that can put him in jail. Unfortunately, this accountant, Winston, played very well by Topher Grace has tried to run away to Alaska only to be captured by an FBI agent Madolyn played by Michelle Dockery in a run-down Motel. Typical of Alaska, the only way to transport Winston out of the remote from where he was found to Anchorage is by chartering a small plane. This plane was piloted by a hit man hired by the Mob boss, Daryl, played by Mark Wahlberg. The first flaw here is when the FBI is involved they would hire their own pilot and use their own government plane, never risking what happened in this story. Once again Topher Grace seems to play himself in this story, recognizing him rather than his character, who is a nervous self-deprecating weak man.

After the first 15 minutes of this 87-minute movie is the interaction between the three characters as Madolyn figures out that Daryl is not the real pilot, and fights with him violently several times, eventually using her Tazer to subdue him. What follows is Madolyn figuring out via radio contact with her co-workers at the FBI that there is a mole that created this dire situation on this small plane that almost crashes into the mountains several times as Madolyn desperately tries to land with the help of an air traffic controller in Anchorage.

Overall, I thought this was a solid action movie with a believable plot and action scenes. This film does play like a typical January B movie release, but it will hold your interest throughout the 87 minutes.

I can only guess that the extremely low 21% Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this film are because of the ongoing hatred of Mel Gibson, with my rating 70% and a moderate recommendation for the acting and believable story and action scenes.

Movie Review: Arthur the King

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For any aspiring screenwriter or movie producer, submitting the script for the new movie “Arthur the King” would most likely be rejected because the story of one exceptional dog following a group of 4 endurance racers through a huge forest and mountains would be considered too unbelievable. For this story to be greenlighted as a major movie, it would have to be a true story, which it is. However this film does not begin with the standard, “this is a true story” message at the start of the movie, you have to wait until the end to realize that this incredible series of events actually did happen.

This story follows the career of an Ironman athlete Mikael Lindnord, played by Mark Wahlberg, who assembles a group of friends and endurance racers to participate in the world’s most difficult endurance race, the “Adventure Racing World Championships”. This race includes running, hiking, climbing, biking, and kayaking through the most difficult terrain in the Dominican Republic. I remember thinking while watching this film, why anyone would ever want to risk their lives for a sporting event like this that requires a team of 4 extreme athletes to trek through 435 miles of mountains and jungle in 10 days.

To participate in this race, Lindnord has to get corporate sponsorship and assemble a group of 3 other athletes, finally accepting only 50 thousand dollars to risk the lives of 4 people. I wondered how any person could make a living in a sport like this, with so little money involved with so much danger.

The majority of the movie is about the preparation for the race and establishing the relationships between the other 3 participants, played by Nathalie Emmanuel, Simu Liu, and Ali Suliman – with the dog, making his first appearance with the group of athletes after the first 70% of this story. The dog, who the group named Arthur the King, is an abandoned stray in the city of Santo Domingo, who after hooking up with the team mid-way through the competition bonds with Mikael Lindnord and displays a level of intelligence that is unmatched by any dog I have seen portrayed in any movie. Somehow, this dog was able to follow the group of adventure racers through over 200 miles of jungle and mountains and managed to save several of their lives along the way.

Several highly emotional scenes between the dog and Mikael Lindnord are very well done, especially with an ending that is worth sitting through these 90 minutes. This is a story that is definitely for dog lovers and reminds all of us that there is so little we truly know about the intelligence of pets.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating of only 67% is once again, way off, with my rating a solid 85% recommendation.