The Magnificent Seven

A town on the western frontier during gold rush days is being bullied by a land owner. Townspeople are being killed and land being stolen in service of said landowner gaining control of local gold mines. Enter Denzel Washington as bounty hunter / gun for hire (with his own beef to pick with said land owner) as charismatic savior of the town. Washington rounds up a cadre of "tough customers" to help him in his deposing (disposing?) of bad land owner. All of this you know exactly from the beginning, and you know exactly how it will play out. And yet somehow I still found this enjoyable and fresh. Maybe because a western is so rare that even a formulaic one is novel. Maybe because of the all star cast. Maybe because after midnight on a holiday break my bar for excellence is quite low. Regardless, without using the word excellence in a direct connection to the film, I do enjoy me a good western with requisite bad-guy heroes saving a town from bad-guy varmints.
4 stars

The Thomas Crowne Affair

Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway star in this 1968 heist thriller. McQueen is millionaire socialite Crowne, and he gets his kicks planning the perfect bank heist. Dunaway is the insurance detective charges with finding the culprit when no clues are available to the police. A match of wits paired with falling for each other puts both in a difficult place. Decent, but the chemistry between these two on screen did not knock me over, which I expect would be necessary for a film like this.
3 stars

Security

Antonio Banderas is an out of work vet needing a job. He takes the only thing available to him, night security at a mall. The other security guards are caricatures of incompetence with suddenly highly specialized and valuable skill sets. In his first night on the job, a young girl who is running from someone is let it, and now it is up to Banderas and his night security compadres to save the day. Classic 1 vs. 100, hands vs automatic weapons, good vs evil scenario that utilizes the entire mall as the canvas to project the girl. Low creativity, low quality plot, low value added, highly formulaic.
2 stars

The Mysteries of Laura (serial)

Debra Messing plays a NY homicide detective who is clearly one of the best in the business. She seems to have a sense for where the case needs to go, and then pursues the killers with commitment. At the same time, she is down to earth, struggles with her ex-husband, raises twin boys and is always eating. Somehow this "regular girl" portrayal is buyable and endearing. Equal parts police procedural and pleasant comedy with the right balance throughout, this was a nice diversion.
4 stars

Dark Matter (serial)

Season 3

Space Opera a la Firefly and Killjoys, this group of scoundrels woke up on a ship without their memories. The first two seasons developed the new personalities (they didn't remember, so they created a new history and crystalized into a family/team). In this third season, we pick up with the burgeoning corporate war and our crew navigating how to "do good". I really enjoyed the storytelling and the world created, but lost interest in the characters along the way. I think they have run their course for me, without enough depth to sustain my care for any longer. So interesting, but ultimately succumbs to formula (read boring).
2 stars

Free Fire

A gun deal gone wrong. In an out of the way warehouse, a gun dealer is making a sale when, due to a series of character idiosyncrasies, the deal falls apart and both buyer and seller need to extricate themselves from the sale... via gun battle of course. So effectively, this is the warehouse version of Everly, but without the unknown motivation. Here everything is out in the open, and the gun battle takes the entire film. Character depth (such as it is) needs to be developed between bullets. An interesting challenge, I am sure, as a filmmaker, and therefore I would say this is definitely an "art film", in the grindhouse tradition. I kept with it, wondering where it would go. Alas... nowhere...
2 stars

Wheelman

The getaway driver for a heist is contacted mid-heist via "the guy who hired him" and told to drive away with the goods. So he does, double crossing his partners in crime. And now he needs to find out what is going on (since "the guy who hired him" was connected to him through his crime broker friend). This feels like a cross between Locke and Baby Driver. Though not as good individually as either film, it has a look & feel that I like with the driver (and hence viewer) effectively tied to the vehicle throughout. Picking up and dropping off passengers, we are always from the point of view of the car (mostly) and it makes for a fun perspective on the action-drama.
4 stars (out of 5)