The Commuter (2018)

Score: 3 / 5

I'm not sure Jaume Collet-Serra can do much better than The Shallows. At least not when he's teamed with Liam Neeson.

To give credit where it's due, the duo make a hell of a pair. The Commuter marks the fourth time the pair has teamed up (and I confess I haven't seen any of the previous collaborations, though they have been on my list for a few years now). Liam Neeson, once the great actor and now only a great action hero, is eminently watchable, and Collet-Serra certainly knows how to handle him. The director, on the other hand, started by making horror movies that, while not great, have a life of their own, and has since continued by making exciting if unimportant action thrillers.

Like this one. Michael McCauley (Neeson) is a former police officer and current insurance salesman. His life is described in an opening montage, depicting his relationship with his family, his work, and the train on which he commutes daily. One day, he's unexpectedly fired from his job, and on his way home he meets a mysterious woman (Vera Farmiga) who approaches him and offers conversation. She proposes a hypothetical situation -- involving him making a choice to do a meaningless task, the repercussions of which he would remain ignorant -- which he laughs about before entertaining. He quickly learns the situation isn't hypothetical at all, and the consequences of his actions will be deadly. Not to himself, but to a total stranger. What is he to do?

Well, as we totally expect, he tries to escape, to fight back, to find a loophole. But forces beyond his awareness are conspiring against him, and as the clock ticks and the train nears its destination, McCauley has to make terrible choices to save as many people as he can. The movie has a perpetual forward motion, much like the train itself. Unfortunately, also like the train, the movie is endlessly predictable and familiar. There's not much novelty here, no matter how hard supporting players like Farmiga and Patrick Wilson try to make it interesting.

I personally loved The Shallows, the director's return to horror two years ago, with its gorgeous visuals, surprising violence, and wicked sense of fun. And the best elements of that have been replicated here, especially in shots of the sunset filtering in through the train windows. Fabulously atmospheric, the film marries the blue-collar grunge of the characters to the higher aesthetic that, really, all filmmaking should aspire for, while keeping everything fast and thoughtless. It's, really, a damn good summer flick. Or it would have been if it had been released in summer.

As it is, it feels like a pretty but hollow homage to other, more original films. It's got the tightly-wound mystery and suspense elements of a Hitchcock piece with the wild thrills of a roller coaster, but nothing feels terribly important. Which might be fine if you want to lean back with a beer and beat the heat. I'd rather watch that shark movie instead.

IMDb: The Commuter

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Score: 4.5 / 5

It's one of those amazing things that happen once in a while, an Event, a cultural watershed, a work of consummate pop art that is so dense, so important, and so spectacular that it's hard to be critical. At least, it is for me. Fans of the franchise who watch the whole damn series every year multiple times will lose their minds over this movie. I know because I am one of those crazies.

In the (penultimate) culmination of each of the eighteen films in the Marvel Studios universe, Infinity War sees all the superheroes join together. Well, almost all (where the hell are Hawkeye and Ant-Man?). Essentially taking all the little tidbit scenes of Thanos as a launch pad, the film starts with a devastating look at the Big Bad in action. The mad purple titan (played by Josh Brolin) is a beast of a villain, intelligent and chilling and even sad, on par with Killmonger as one of the most interesting characters in the franchise. He seeks to destroy half the universe to save life from overpopulation, and he's one of the rare villains whose evil endgame isn't totally insane. He can actually make it happen, and he does.

Oops, spoiler alert.

While Thanos's arc is a riveting story -- especially after having been teased for so long -- the rest of the film feels a bit haphazard and slipshod. Don't get me wrong: It's all dazzling and funny, poignant and sad, action-packed and explosive. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo (of the last two Captain America films) do some damn amazing work here, and the writers have obviously worked hard to tie together so many various characters and plot strands into a more or less cohesive film. Simply graded on a scale of grandeur and epic proportions, Infinity War is one of the best franchise-based movies ever made.

Yet on its own, or from a non-fan perspective, I imagine it's a mess. It's all crazy action and bright colors and fast scene changes between characters who never see each other and planets you may or may not remember from other films. Even I had trouble making connections once or twice -- wait, those two guys don't know each other? What did we last see him/her doing? Why is so-and-so in this place at this time? -- and I'm about as hardcore a fan as we come. And that's just because the movie is so bloated, so full, and so confident in telling its own story. I suspect that watching the film on its own would be woefully unsatisfactory. It works as a result of its connections to all the other movies.

And that's why I love it. And feel a little weird about it.

Actually, my exact feelings can be summed up by the last scene of the film, which is a bitch of a cliffhanger. Stunning as it was in the moment, I couldn't help but feel disgusted. As if we weren't already going to pay to see any and all MCU movies already, you're going to insult us with a big-ass cliffhanger that forces us to come again? Really? I felt the same way at the end of the second Hobbit film. You're not making a television serial, dudes. Make a movie and call it good. Especially since the studio has already announced sequels for at least half the characters who dissolve into dust. We know the Guardians will be back (even though all of them "die"). We know T'Challa and Peter Parker will be back. It's almost certain Strange will be back. It just felt like a cheap way to titillate fans who don't know how franchise contracts work and don't follow any social media.

That said, DAMN, I need to see this movie again. And you do too.

IMDb: Avengers: Infinity War

Breaking In (2018)

Score: 2.5 / 5

You could do a lot worse than watching Gabrielle Union kicking ass and taking names for an hour and a half. The filmmakers also could have done a lot better.

After the untimely death of her estranged father (who is, in the first scene, suddenly murdered), Shaun brings her two children to his gorgeous rural mansion. We learn a bit about his life and her childhood before we see that the house is a fortress with reinforced windows and an extensive security system. Why? It doesn't take long before we find out, as thieves infiltrate the house looking for a safe.

Thankfully, despite their brutality, the thieves are not totally competent, nor are they all on the same page. They botch corralling the family and so, while they have the children locked inside with them, Shaun is left to her own devices outside. As their leader (Billy Burke) notes, this is a problem. Fear they can handle. Desperation, however, is completely out of their hands.

I have an incredible weakness for home invasion thrillers. Even the worst of the genre I'd prefer to watch over almost anything else, any day. There's something deeply disturbing to me about a home becoming a war zone. I also think these films can be super subversive in portrayals of domesticity, gender norms, violence, and those "what if", prepare-for-everything debates. And while Breaking In is by no means the most effective example of this genre, it provides just enough novelty to keep things interesting.

Novelty? In a movie that clearly rips off everything from Trespass to Panic Room and When a Stranger Calls? Well, sure. It normalizes black families on screen in a genre that often relegates people of color to villainous or victimized roles. It celebrates the strength, intelligence, and resourcefulness of a powerful black woman. And, of course, as the title suggests, the movie is less about breaking out of domestic constraints (as is so often the case in this genre) than it is about reclaiming stolen and violated territory.

All that's not to say the film isn't without its problems. Richard Cabral plays one of the thieves with chilling skill (he's a really effective bad guy), but it's unfortunate that the only Latino character is also the most brutal and treacherous. Billy Burke as the leader is just boring; this blame may be shared with the writer, as the characters are all incredibly flat. And director James McTeigue, who displayed such stylized aesthetic in V for Vendetta and The Raven, is here mostly just going through the motions of thriller traditions without imbuing his film with any inspired vision. As much as I enjoyed the movie, I couldn't help but wonder why he chose this story to tell, and why he didn't add any flair of his own design.

IMDb: Breaking In

Bad Samaritan (2018)

Score: 1 / 5

I knew going in it wouldn't be a favorite, but nothing prepared me for this trashy, ugly, and downright stupid mess of a movie.

In a Frankenstein conglomeration of (better) movie references, Bad Samaritan sets off as the story of Sean and Derek who work as valets and, while their clients are eating, burgle houses. Unfortunately, they break into one that belongs to a serial killer and come across a kidnapped girl. Panicking, they do several more stupid things and get the serial killer hunting them too.

The two boys (played by Robert Sheehan and Carlito Olivero) may be pretty, but no amount of big round eyes or spicy accents can save them from themselves. Unbearably stupid, they put the blonde girls of '70s slasher movies to shame, and by the halfway point of the film -- which lasts almost two torturous hours -- I was rooting for them to die already.

Which is saying a lot, because the serial killer was also a total waste. Apparently tormented by a memory of killing prized horses (because that's such a compelling backstory?), he has turned his attentions to "breaking" young women. Well, and possibly men, but the movie seems to take delight in sadistically torturing the women. Too harsh? Try the camera that lingers on the body of our protagonist's girlfriend, or the repeated shots ad nauseam of the kidnapped girl strapped to a chair with a severely bruised face. David Tennant plays the killer (whose real name is irrelevant by the time we actually learn it) with bizarre mood swings and a few moments of psychotic rage that made me snort out loud in the theater. I will never understand why people think he's such a great actor.

The movie isn't bad just because of him, though. The story, while maybe a little interesting, is an irritating blend of plot points from other things, and feels like it was written to be a fanfic corruption of Don't Breathe with a few extra scenes from Disturbia and a rich version of Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs. The plot plods along slowly with sudden revelations and contrivances that are more groan-inducing than anything. A single screenshot of the killer's face and suddenly the FBI knows his identity, his criminal history, and his entire psychological profile? I think not, honey. Characters are flat and outrageously stupid until random moments when their ineptitude pays off; yeah, I'm thinking of that Chekhov bolt cutter under the seat.

The only thing I liked about this movie -- except Robert Sheehan's voice, eyes, hair, and outfits -- are the sets of the killer's house (gorgeous) and the hero's flat (comfy). But when you hate all the characters and the camerawork is rudimentary and uninspired and the score sounds like it was lifted out of someone else's equally poor movie, a couple nice sets are not enough to distract you from how much time you're wasting watching this garbage.

By the by, this movie was even less enjoyable than The Snowman. At least that one was pretty. Have we reached an age where serial killers have to live on television to be interesting? God, I hope not.

IMDb: Bad Samaritan

The Ritual (2018)

Score: 4 / 5

It's basically a freaky, updated version of The Blair Witch Project with a gimmicky premise, an unnecessarily changed setting, and someone's Swedish fantasies. And it's fabulous.

The Ritual concerns a group of four young men who, to honor their recently murdered friend, go hiking in rural Sweden. The gorgeous protected land harbors a dark secret, though, as the friends soon learn. Something is moving in the shadows of trees. Someone is leaving wooden figures in the forest. Something gutted an elk hanging twenty feet off the ground.

As nightmares begin to plague the group they seek a way out of the forest. But now tensions are running high and it becomes clear their health -- and, you know, lives -- are in danger.

It's a thrilling story -- old as time, still so haunting -- in a fresh setting. Not much else is fresh here. Not the monster, which is fabulously realized as a creature from nature, a "jotunn" or troll of Scandinavian myth. Not the pagan cult that worships it. And certainly not the way the young men are ritually sacrificed to the beast.

But originality doesn't always make a film worth watching. The Ritual is brilliantly acted, especially by Robert James-Collier, and beautifully shot. The images of the forest and mountains are breathtaking. The special effects and design of the monster are surprisingly good. And, of course, if you, like me, are a total sucker for pagan cults and mythic monsters and deep dark woods, you'll love this movie too.

IMDb: The Ritual

The Discovery (2018)

Score: 1.5 / 5

Mary Steenburgen interviews Robert Redford, a scientist who has apparently proven the existence of an afterlife. We gather that his discovery has led to an epidemic of suicides. When asked if he feels responsible, he denies it. Immediately one of the crew members kills himself on camera, and we watch Redford's horrified reaction. That's how The Discovery begins. Unfortunately, the first scene is the best in the movie.

The movie is fairly grim, but it doesn't sustain its tone or its urgency. As soon as Jason Segel shows up and starts flirting with the suicidal Rooney Mara, I lost interest. That was the next scene. They're so unlikable and have no chemistry, but they way they interact it's clear they will end up romantically involved before long, which is just dumb.

The characters aren't interesting, and they're played flat as pancakes. Half the dialogue is muddied and stunted, mixed as though they were speaking from opposite ends of a hallway or on a bad phone connection. Between revelations of relationships and the afterlife, the plot simply loops back on itself, reviving and resuscitating just when you hope it'll stay dead.

Re-enter Rob Redford as a Mad Scientist and cult leader, isolated in his mansion. The film feels weirdly like The Master and Flatliners had an ugly baby. The cult members have all tried to kill themselves and now wear jumpsuits and worship Redford because it makes them...happy? I'm still not sure. I also just didn't care. The movie is clearly a ripoff of other stories, and can neither make itself interesting nor tonally consistent.

I only watched this the other day, and I can't even remember how it ends. I may have fallen asleep watching it, which tells you all you need to know.

IMDb: The Discovery

The Party (2018)

Score: 4.5 / 5

God, I love dinner parties.

Janet hosts a dinner party for friends and colleagues to celebrate her promotion as minister for health for the political opposition. As wine flows and cocaine is snorted, secrets begin to come out, and one by one the characters assault the veil of propriety. The party could have gone much better.

To talk more about the plot is to ruin the fabulous experience of the film. Shot in gorgeous black and white, this 70-minute chamber piece feels often as though it were being performed on stage in front of you. We're intimately familiar with these characters, which makes their barbed zingers all the more potent.

As they descend to animalistic impulses -- mostly violent words but occasionally violent actions -- we are both horrified and ecstatic. Nothing is better then watching this fabulous cast sink their teeth into meaty material. Nothing is better than Patricia Clarkson consoling Kristin Scott Thomas with "I think you're having...a feeling." Nothing is better than Emily Mortimer weeping over Cherry Jones sleeping with Timothy Spall. Nothing is better than Bruno Ganz awkwardly petting people.

The one-liners are as funny as they are painful, and though we might be grateful we're not the punchline, I couldn't help but feel as the movie clipped along that we are nevertheless complicit in their cruelties. While this particular piece isn't as exhausting as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, as colorful as God of Carnage, as culturally relevant as Beatriz at Dinner, it finds its niche quickly and efficiently. As delightful as it is repulsive, The Party works best when it's at its worst.

IMDb: The Party