Without Remorse

A Tom Clancy novel made into film with Michael B Jordan as the protagonist John Kelly. Kelly is a military special ops soldier who is caught up in a multi-layered CIA plot ultimately leading so personal loss. Next step, personal revenge, uncovering a national security threat along the way. But is he being manipulated the entire way? We cannot expect originality since this is a 1993 Tom Clancy story, but even so, this feels like a going-through-the-motions origin story, something that we hope will lead to a new franchise. Technically well done, but it has no heart or soul.  

2 stars (out of 5)

Mortal Kombat

Based on the characters and world of the video game, a battle is brewing between earth and outworld. This movie is a bit of backstory, telling where the characters come from and we see the development of their particular skillset. Having no background with the video game, I found it to be an average, at-best, fantasy world, with many small details clearly meaning more to the gamers than I. 

2 stars (out of 5)

Minari

A family moves from California to Arkansas so they can own their own land, begin farming and build something for themselves. The fact that this is a Korean American family led me to expect cultural or racial tensions as the primary plot driver. I was happily disappointed. Instead, the story of Minari is the story of a family (any family) with a dream, and with family disagreements. With kids who are growing up and learning about life. And with setbacks and difficulties and "regular" life trauma. In many ways it is Little House on the Prairie of the 1980's. Perhaps it glosses over the cultural and racial tension that must have been present, but this allows me a view into a multigenerational family life that I might have been too distracted to see otherwise. 

5 stars (out of 5)

Thunder Force

Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spenser are lifelong friends. McCarthy rough around the edges and Spenser singularly focused on combatting supervillains that killed her parents. When it is time for their high school reunion, Spenser misses (as usual) to work on her project, McCarthy goes to get her and (surprise!) gets accidentally injected with super-strength serum. Spenser takes the other half (invisibility) and the two become a crime fighting duo. Of course, they are still actually middle age women so there is a learning curve. I laughed... I enjoyed...

4 stars (out of 5)

Tough as Nails (serial)

2 seasons

A small reality show competition where tradespeople come together, form teams, and compete for both individual and team glory (and cash). One novelty here is that even if you are eliminated from the individual grand prize competition, you stay on the show for the entire run, helping you team to win cash in team challenges. So eliminated, but not really. The challenges are mostly fun and the personalities are all regular people who mostly you would want to know.

4 stars (out of 5)

Promising Young Woman

Cassie (Carey Mulligan) is a single woman working as a barista with (according to her parents) no ambition in life. She dropped out of med school, haunted by the death of her closest college friend and really spends her time trying to come to terms with what happened. She is battling a culture of misogyny in the only way that she can think of, one guy at a time. When she connects with Ryan, a former classmate, maybe things are turning around. What particularly strikes me about this film is the number of times we hear "It's not my fault" or "I didn't do anything wrong" from completely delusional men who are unable to see that they have any responsibility for their own actions. I hope that that the portrayal is caricature, but I am afraid it is more indicative of main stream toxic masculine culture than not. While there are some light moments and some "romantic comedy" threads, this film is tragedy throughout. 

5 stars (out of 5)

Blue Bloods (serial)

11 seasons

I've been working on this for quite awhile. Tom Selleck is the patriarch of a NYC law enforcement family. He plays Frank Reagan, police commissioner. His father was commissioner before him, one son is a detective, one a former lawyer now uniformed officer, one a killed on the job officer and a daughter who is a prosecutor in the DA office. At times preachy, at times sappy, but still a solid police procedural. The family famously has dinner every Sunday together and that is where the "moral of the story" flies. For me, the glue that holds this entire series together is Donnie Wahlberg (Danny Reagan) oldest son and detective. He is the down to earth, imperfect, perfectly played character that the series needs. He is the only one that finds the right balance. Overall, think NYPD Blue crossed with Touched by an Angel. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Inkmaster

11 seasons

A tattoo art reality series. Each season, 18 artists move to New York, live in a house together, and compete in challenges to determine who is the best. Challenges are sometimes design and art related with strange media (use domino's, or gunpowder, or ...). This show is all about the practice and art of tattoo, so even though the contestants live in a house, and even though there is drama, the drama is way less than on other reality shows where the drama is the show. I also love that from season to season, the formula is adjusted (individuals, then teams, then pairs, then coaches, etc.) to keep the format fresh. Well done. My critique is that the 18 artists are definitely not 18 of the best tattooists in the country. Maybe 5-6 are really good. Some are just bad (poor technique or one style only) so the really good art starts showing up after a few weeks. I don't watch much reality, but this one I like.

4 stars (out of 5)

Godzilla vs. Kong

The titans have been vanquished and Kong is kept "prisoner" on Skull island. But he is lonely. Humans are still worried about other titans and develop a defense program (where of course the leaders have alternative plans to become apex predators themselves). In the end, this plays more like Batman vs Superman (where the "vs" should literally be in quotes), but on a titan scale. Largely forgettable.

2 stars (out of 5)