"American Pharoah Makes His Run For Glory"

Yesterday, since there are no sports on, I decided I am going to start pepping myself up by reminiscing on some of my favorite sports-watching memories. So here is DAY TWO

"American Pharoah Makes His Run For Glory..."

Almost five full years ago, I was home, spending a sleepy Saturday in the apartment I lived in by myself. Most of my friends were either working or attending the wedding of a coworker who later become my supervisor (hi Joy!). Slightly bored, I decided to do something different for lunch, so I went to T.G.I. Friday's. Like I usually do when I go by myself, I sat at the bar. I don't drink, but when you sit at the bar, you get your food faster, you can usually enjoy some conversation with the bar tender or fellow bar patrons, and you can watch the TVs, which typically cover sports. That day, while there was some coverage of baseball, basketball, and NASCAR, I noticed that the majority of live coverage was in anticipation of that afternoon's Belmont Stakes, one of the Big Three American horse races.

I know next to nothing about horses, and horse-racing. I had horseback riding lessons once a week for about six months when I was eleven, I saw "Seabiscuit", I wrote an article on my alma mater's equestrian team once for a journalism class, and I have a vague memory of watching the Kentucky Derby once with my dad, and that's it.

But the hype that day was not just that there was a horse race, but that there was a chance one of the horses could win the racing Triple Crown, having already captured the Preakness and the Derby that year. No horse had won the Triple Crown since the great Secretariat in 1973. The horse in question was American Pharoah, and yes, the name did have that unique spelling of the word "pharoah".

Obviously, I'm not big into horse racing, but I like sports, especially if there's a chance to see some fun/cool history, and I knew the race wouldn't last long. Better yet, it was on NBC, one of the two channels my TV antenna picked up with regularity in my apartment. So I left T.G.I.F, went home, and turned on coverage. I didn't REALLY care, but I thought, why not, I'll root for American Pharoah.

The race started! And American Pharoah was not in the lead. Immediately, the commentators began to mutter amongst themselves, because this was the big storyline they had been prepped to cover. But that Pharoah gained quickly, squeaking past others to take a short lead over the early leader, a horse called Frosted. But his lead grew. And grew. And grew.

Apart from the final result, the race is best known for Larry Collmus's enthusiastic, thrilling live commentary of the race's closing moments:
"And they're into the stretch, and American Pharoah makes his run for glory as they come into the final furlong! Frosted is second, with 1/8th of a mile to go! American Pharoah's got a two-length lead! Frosted is ALL OUT at the 16th pole, and HERE IT IS!!! The 37-year wait is over! American Pharoah is FINALLY THE ONE! AMERICAN PHAROAH HAS WON THE TRIPLE CROOOOOWN!!!!"

Almost five years later, listening to that commentary STILL gives me chills, and often brings tears to my eyes. The Belmont bleachers were full of people jumping up and down, screaming and hugging, because they'd seen something historic. Pharoah's elderly trainer Bob Baffert and his family dissolved into tears in their section of the stands. Jockey Victor Espinoza punched the air in delight as Pharoah surged across the finish line in full stride and looked ready for another go. Meanwhile, I was in my apartment jumping around, full of adrenaline, HYPED, because I had not only seen great sport, but I had seen history.

This still stands out as one of the most unique sports-watching experiences of my life. Not something I normally watch, I didn't even know it was happening until a few hours before, but it was instantly historic, with an instant-classic call, and the mental image of that strong, beautiful horse charging across the finish line amidst adoring applause is one that never fails to warm my heart.

"The Greatest Comeback In Postseason Baseball History"

The recent Unpopular Opinion Game on Facebook reminded me that a lot of people don't care for watching sports. While I have a difficult time understanding and relating to that, we all like what we like. That said, I mean it when I say nearly three weeks without any major sports (with no reprieve in sight!) has been difficult. For a lot of us, if we can't go out, can't hang out with people, can't go anywhere, we're used to at least having a "big game" to watch, especially this time of year.

So, I'm going to start, once per day, posting something about my all-time favorite sports-watching experiences, and I would invite my sports-fan friends to do the same. Instead of being sad/bored without sports on now, let's reminisce and celebrate what sports have brought to our lives.

For me, there is and probably always will be one sporting event that stands above all others. That is the 2004 American League Championship Series, in which the Boston Red Sox became the first team in MLB history to win a best-of-seven postseason series after trailing 3 games to 0.

I didn't watch a lot of baseball in the early 2000s. I had stopped collected cards and my Orioles were terrible, so why bother? Moreover, those were the years in which I got big into movies, so my mind was occupied with other things.

PLUS, where baseball was concerned, the New York Yankees were annoyingly good. They had the most money, had won 4 of the previous 7 World Series, and were packed to the brim with highly-paid stars you claimed to hate but really just wanted on your team (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, A-Rod, Hideki Matsui, Gary Sheffield, Jorge Posada, etc...). So it was little surprise when I heard on ESPN one morning that they were well on their way to another World Series, up 3-0 on the good-but-not-AS-good Boston Red Sox. BUT THEN....

Okay, to be honest, I didn't actually watch any of the series until it was 3-1, after the Red Sox got one back on a 12th-inning walkoff home run by David Ortiz in Game 4. That was the game with Dave Roberts' famous 9th-inning steal against Mariano Rivera, which led to the Sox tying the game when they were two outs from being eliminated and sending the Yanks to the Series.

But, MAN, I tell you what. I watched EVERY PITCH of the final three games, including the 14-inning, almost 6-hour Game 5 in Boston, a nerve-shredding thriller that ended when David Ortiz did it again, fouling off six pitches in a row before hitting a bloop single to center field that scored Johnny Damon for another walk-off win.

Game 6 was another classic. That was the game with Curt Schilling's bloody sock (he pitched six full innings on a severed ankle tendon) and the two calls that the umpires initially got wrong, but, after convening, changed their minds and got right. First, that Boston second baseman Mark Bellhorn had hit a shot into left field that actually went into the stands for a home run...it didn't bounce off the wall for a double like they originally thought. Secondly, A FRAUD Alex Rodriguez ABSOLUTELY slapped the ball out of the glove of Boston pitcher Bronson Arroyo on his way to first, leading to the Yankees tying the game late. This was correctly ruled interference, A-Rod was out, and the Yankees had a run taken off the board. Ultimately, the Sox won a nailbiter when the Yankees left the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth.

Game 7 turned out to be a bit of anticlimax (though any non-Yankee fans were NOT complaining). Ortiz hit a two-run homer in the first inning. A couple batters later, Johnny Damon hit a grand slam to make it 6-0, and the Red Sox ultimately won the game 10-3. Sounds like a blowout, and it was...but I still remember the 7th inning, when the Red Sox brought in Pedro Martinez in relief, and the Yankees staged a mini-rally, grabbing three quick runs to give the Yankees and their fans hope. The "WHO'S YOUR DAD-DY!!??!" chants from the New York crowd were audible from the TV. (I remember I got really annoyed and anxious during this part of the game. I made some sharp comment to my Mom, at which time she left to watch the game elsewhere with my dad. My older sister blamed for me being mean and chasing her off, though my Mom has since claimed this was not why she left the room, haha.) But, ultimately, it was only a mini-rally, and the Red Sox won.

It was historic in so many ways. The Red Sox became the first baseball team ever to erase an 0-3 deficit and win a best-of-seven series. The Yankees became the ultimate chokers, the first team to ever LOSE a series after taking that kind of advantage. The Red Sox won the pennant, then went on to sweep the Cardinals in the World Series to end the "Curse of the Bambino", ending an 86-year championship drought that supposedly started because they traded a promising young player named George Herman Ruth to the Yankees after failing to recognize his potential.

Oh, and THIS then-high school junior won $3 bucks in a bet with his New York-native teacher, who had been sure the Yankees would win. :D

I don't watch as much baseball as I used to. But the 2004 ALCS ALWAYS stands out as one of the most epic and memorable sports-watching experiences I've ever had.

THE PREDATOR

The Predator (2018)

Grade: 3/10

Starring: Boyd Holbrook, Jacob Tremblay, Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key, Thomas Jane, Augusto Aguilera, Yvonne Stravhoski and Alfie Allen

Rated R for strong gory violence and language

Wow. Even in a time when just about every other movie that comes out is an underwhelming sequel, reboot, or remake that doesn't do its original source material justice, that was bad. The Predator, the fourth film in the loosely-connected series that began with the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic Predator, is dead-on-arrival, an uninspired, lazy, unconvincing and feeble exercise in plotting, characterization, and direction. After a semi-inspiring opening, the movie falls apart fast; it couldn’t have been more than 20 minutes into this movie that my mouth was hanging open in disbelief. I can’t remember all the worst movies I’ve seen in theaters in recent years—Pixels, Suicide Squad, Warcraft, Independency Day: Resurgence, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom come to mind—but this is down there with them.

Co-written and directed by Shane Black, one of the stars of the original (the nerdy, joke-cracking Hawkins, who was the main cast’s first victim in 1987), The Predator begins with a spaceship chase through the cosmos. The larger ship damages the smaller and sends it hurtling toward Earth. The crashing ship’s trajectory interrupts a cartel bust by a couple of super-special-Ops troopers, including sniper Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook of Logan). The beastie inside the ship makes quick work of McKenna’s two cohorts, but he manages to injure it with its own armband cannon, and makes off with the other gear he can find, including its high-tech, infrared-vision helmet. Knowing he’ll be busted soon by suits ready to “disavow” him and lock him away, McKenna mails the salvaged predator suit parts to the home of his estranged son (Jacob Tremblay, of Room) and wife (Yvonne Strahovski of The Handmaid’s Tale) to keep them out of government hands.

The predator’s crashed ship is raided by government/military types, and the alien itself ends up in a lab being gawked over by Traeger, a glory-hound federal agent (Sterling K. Brown), and Dr. Brackett, an alien scientist/enthusiast (Olivia Munn). Meanwhile, after an interrogation, McKenna is put on a bus with some other burn-outs headed for a military prison. But when the predator breaks lose and goes on a rampage, McKenna and his Con Air-style group of ragtag misfits take over their bus, and head for McKenna's home, where his young, on-the-spectrum son has accidentally activated the predator gear that came in the mail. It soon becomes the belief of Traeger, Brackett and McKenna that the predator gear is summoning, or at least providing a tracking signal for, another, more dangerous predator.

Now that doesn’t sound too bad, right? Well, it’s hard to believe this movie came from one of the stars of the beloved original, because none of the above is done with any conviction at all. Scenes are lazily written and developed. The actors are either trying too hard for this lousy material or not giving a crap, and even for an action movie, the central dynamics (McKenna’s care for his son, the alien expert’s interest in the predator, the ragtag misfits) are outrageously unconvincing. While this movie’s throwback to the classic “Get to the choppa” line gave me a little bit of a chuckle, the updated iteration of another iconic line is delivered so blandly it made me think Olivia Munn didn’t want to say it on camera, but was contractually obligated. Even the special effects are underwhelming. Maybe it’s because we didn’t see much of the unmasked predator in the other films (including 2004’s mediocre Alien vs. Predator), but after a couple long looks at the predator who breaks out of the lab, I started wondering if it had always been that unimpressive.

I hope the actors listed in my obligatory “starring” section above got paid a lot for their efforts, because some of them are or have been associated with some pretty decent works in recent years, and they just embarrassed themselves. Holbrook gets the most screen-time and therefore has at least a modicum of personality, but he’s basically playing the hothead he played in Logan, minus the hint of sleazy menace (plus, he and Strahovski combine to play perhaps the least-convincing parents/estranged couple in the history of movies or TV). I’ll give Tremblay a pass, because he’s just a kid, but most of the other actors should take their paychecks and never look back. Munn has a couple moments where she’s trying, but otherwise mostly looks nonplussed by the lameness of the script. Sterling K. Brown (recently in high-bar fare such as The People vs. OJ Simpson, This is Us, and Black Panther) is slumming here, so at least he looks like he’s having a reasonably good time playing the obligatory human baddie. It’s McKenna’s Con Air/Suicide Squad-inspired ragtag crew that are the real problem, though. The great comedian Keegan-Michael Key is grating, but at least he cracks a few Hawkins-worth jokes in his twitchy portrayal of a loony, and Trevante Rhodes parlays his notable charisma into a decent death scene. But the group as a whole are an embarrassment, a disastrously-written attempt to capture the ragtag-crew fun that was prevalent in ‘80s hits (the squad in the original Predator, the crew from Aliens). Thomas Jane and Augusto Aguilera, in particular, veer back and forth between I’m-embarrassed-for-you and what-the-hell-are-you-even-doing levels of badness. I assume money, along with the hope that maybe this known franchise property would take off (spoiler: it hasn’t, and it won’t) got these actors involved, but all of them should fire their agents. 

Yeah, this was close to a complete disaster of a movie. The obligatory third-act action has a couple thrills, but they’re mild and the un-special special effects don’t help (possibly the only moment that jumped out as a “hey, cool!” moment was when an especially large predator crushed another one’s skull). Late attempts to conjure sentiment for those who were killed off and plug a sequel only prolong the viewer’s agony.

Bottom Line

This was bad. I don’t remember being so jaw-droppingly-shocked at a movie’s transparent awfulness—and occasionally laughing aloud at its stupidity—in the theater since Suicide Squad (if a movie is mentioned in the same breath as that movie, that’s not a good thing). Other than the barest action-movie thrills, The Predator offers nothing of value (and even those thrills are muted by the mind-numbing stupidity of what’s come before). If you love the original Predator, go re-watch it (I watched it on HBOGO this week). You’ll be better served. Sitting through this was an ordeal.

The Predator (2018)

Directed by Shane Black

Screenplay by Shane Black and Frank Dekker

Based on Characters Created by Jim Thomas and John Thomas

Rated R

Length: 1 hour, 47 minutes

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Rating: 7.5/10

Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Paul Bettany, and Erin Kellyman, with Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca and Featuring the Voices of Phoebe Wallter-Bridge (as L3-37) and Jon Favreau (as Rio Durant)

Rated PG-13 for intense action and destruction

Before I go any further, I want to reassure my readers of two things:

1)      I will reveal only minor plot/character details below. In other words, you will find no spoilers here.  J

2)     My complaints with Solo are mostly with the writing and the plot of this particular film. I know a worry about this particular “Star Wars Story” has been that it could potentially damage the reputation of one of the most iconic and beloved movie characters of all time—the one played by Harrison Ford in the original Star Wars trilogy and the recent reboot/sequel The Force Awakens. I want to put those worries to bed. While 28-year-old California native Alden Ehrenreich (sounds like “All-din Aaron-rike”) is obviously not Harrison Ford, his performance is strong, and his portrayal of a younger version of the cocky, constantly-improvising rogue feels enjoyable and lived-in. I believe it is easy to buy into Ehrenreich’s performance in this movie without thinking much about Ford—and I mean that in the best way possible.

a.       In other words, I believe, even if you are a die-hard Harrison Ford/Han Solo fan, you can see this movie and walk away without feeling any worse about the original Star Wars and Ford’s iconic portrayal.

Solo: A Star Wars Story represents the tenth time (not counting the little-seen animated Clone Wars movie) viewers have beheld the blue letters “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” on the big screen. Here, for the first time, those iconic words are followed by more words, these explaining that the story opens on the ship-building planet of Corrella (the first of many Easter eggs in the movie). It’s a grim, trashy, industrial planet, filled with coercion and slave labor. There we meet the apparently-orphaned Han, who is one of many street urchins who report to a creepy alien mistress and her goons. Soon enough, the crafty Han manages to escape and bribe his way onto a transport heading off-planet. In need of money and stability, he enlists in the Imperial Navy, creating the surname Solo as he goes. Quickly disillusioned after beholding the cold-blooded nature of the Empire’s incursions onto other planets, he falls in with a group of mercenaries in disguise, among them the smarmy Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and his lover Val (Thandie Newton). Han decides to join them and their alien pal Rio Durant (voice of Jon Favreau) on a big smuggling score that could make them all rich. Along the way, Han meets and becomes fast friends with the wookie Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo, in his second stab at the role after taking over for Peter Mayhew in The Last Jedi), whose astounding physical strength is obviously a helpful asset in a life of crime. As part of the team, Han must soon show his skills at piloting, shooting, gambling (in a mano-a-mano with Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian) and flirting, which he engages in the with the alluring lieutenant (Emilia Clarke) of a nasty crime lord (Paul Bettany) to whom Beckett is in debt.

That’s all the plot detail I will reveal, though the ensuing story does race around the galaxy a bit, featuring such important entities as the Millennium Falcon, the Kessel Run (“no ship has ever made it in less than 20 parcecs”, we’re told), and L3-37, Lando’s droid gal pal (voiced by Phoebe Wallter-Bridge). Along the way, we get countless more Easter Eggs, including a few famous costumes and trinkets, references to Tatooine, Kashyyk, Scarif, and the Hutts, the Falcon’s famous hologram chess game, and a late cameo by a popular character from the prequels (don’t worry, this is a character we actually liked). But there are lots of new details in this densely-plotted film as well, including a shipment of volatile explosives, a large-scale droid revolt, terrifying intergalactic monsters, the sinister-sounding crime group Crimson Dawn, double-crosses galore, and a few mentions of a “rebellion”.

As stated previously, I’m not going to compare Ehrenreich to Ford. What I will say is that Ehrenreich is instantly likable whether wisecracking, flirting, or scheming, and he’s convincing as this kind of character. He brings the same energy here that John Boyega has brought to the character of Finn, though it is here in service of a better-defined and developed character. No one will forget that Harrison Ford originally played this exact character in four films across 38 years, but, knowing getting Ford for this film was an impossibility, I went into it pretending it was a fan fiction (which it essentially is) and I have next to no complaints about Ehrenreich as Han Solo.

Apart from Han and the always-lovable Chewie, the other major returning character is Lando. In the performance that many were eagerly anticipating, Donald Glover has a ball, charming, cheating, grinning, and wise-cracking, but putting his foot down when the going gets tough.

But Glover’s performance—while a fun reminder of Billy Dee Williams’ work in the originals—is not one that holds the movie together. Apart from Ehrenreich, the majority of the heavy lifting here is done by Woody Harrelson and Emilia Clarke. Harrelson, with his world-weary features and sly, sometimes sinister quips, is perfect for this role as the slippery but determined Beckett—the exact kind of person you’d think a young Han Solo would have learned from. This character may seem par the course for Harrelson at this point (Woody Harrelson as Himself?), but the actor brings his usual charm and gets to have a little fun romancing Thandie Newton and blasting away during hair-raising action sequences. Meanwhile, Clarke, in a role that is not entirely unlike her rags-to-riches queen on Game of Thrones, shows endearing shades of charm, humor, vulnerability, and grit as Qi’ra, who’s basically an indentured servant to the crime lord Vos. Along with Ehrenreich, she’s part of an appealing pair with outstanding chemistry. Finally, memorable contributions are made by Bettany—who has fun with a hissworthy villain after a career mostly spent playing warm, best-friend types—and Wallter-Bridge, who’s off-screen work as the voice of L3-37 fits nicely with the series’ tradition of droids often being the most lively and spunky characters around (a la C-3PO, R2D2, and Rogue One’s K2SO).

There’s a lot to like in this movie, as I’ve stressed. The opening scenes are a terrific tone-setter, the cast is great, and there are some fun and intense action sequences. It’s fun to see how Han met Chewie (hard to think of a less-likely way for two to become best friends), and how Han met and one-upped Lando.  So why’d I only give it a 7?

Well, if the first “Star Wars Story” film, Rogue One, was one half iffy and meandering and one half outstanding, I’d say Solo is two-thirds “pretty good” and one third “um…what?” It sets up nicely, gets to the first action sequence(s) in short order, and engages us right away. But there’s so much going on that I felt like it started to lose me. Honestly, it really lost my full interest somewhere during the all-important Kessel Run sequence. I won’t reveal what happens in that sequence, but I can reveal that, if you asked me, now, to tell you what the Kessel Run is and how the Millennium Falcon made it, in supposedly record time, I would have no idea how (I’m still not even sure whether a “parcec” is a length of time or a unit of space, given its arguably contradictory use in other Star Wars films). I do feel like the movie misses out on showing us a few key moments earlier, such as Han’s first sit-down with Beckett, Val and the gang (they didn’t trust him minutes before, so I’m curious to see how their first real interaction went after they accepted him into their group) and the film shockingly does not show us the first time Han boards the Millennium Falcon (it does show us his first arrival in the cockpit, though, to the strains of the classic score, which is a pretty cool moment). And the third act, where the characters decide to suddenly rebel (a big buzzword in this series) against the crime lord Vos, really lost me. A random patchwork alliance and a couple of eyebrow-raising “big reveal” moments, and, suddenly, the main characters are fighting against the crime lord even though they can pay him off, get their money, and get away Scot-free? A few scenes are filled with twists that felt so manufactured it put me in “okay-just-get-this-over-with" territory as the viewer, never a good thing when you’re trying to bring your big action/spectacle movie to a moving climax.

There’s also a really clear plug for a potential sequel (series) at the end, which is a little wearying. So we’re still doing this, are we?

Where does Solo rank in the Star Wars saga so far? That, you’ll have to decide for yourself. I’d put it somewhere in the middle of pack. It’s better-made, -acted, and –written than the infamous prequels, and its characters resonate more than the short-lived protagonists of Rogue One, but the latter stages feel so fabricated and forced it took a lot of air out of the balloon. Still, it could’ve been worse.

Bottom Line

While Solo: A Star Wars Story is not the best Star Wars movie we’ve had, it’s also not the worst. Its winning cast, intense action and exciting plot make it a largely enjoyable experience. There are lots of Easter eggs for diehard fans, as well as plentiful strains from the beloved score. And Alden Ehrenreich is great stepping into the person of the iconic title character—I don’t think this film harms the reputation of the character Han Solo or the original Star Wars movies at all. But things do get a little complicated and a little forced late in the going, which keeps more from a more enthusiastic recommendation.

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Directed by Ron Howard

Screenplay by Jonathan Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan

Based on Characters Created by George Lucas

Rated PG-13

Length: 2 hours and 15 minutes

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Rating: 8.5/10

STARRING: Dave Bautista, Paul Bettany, Chadwick Boseman, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benicio Del Toro, Peter Dinklage, Robert Downey Jr., Winston Duke, Idris Elba, Chris Evans, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Holland, William Hurt, Scarlett Johansson, Pom Klementieff, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Olsen, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Pratt, Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Sebastian Stan, Benedict Wong and Letita Wright

Featuring the Voices of Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Vin Diesel as Groot,

and Josh Brolin as Thanos

RATED PG-13 for intense action and violence, language, scenes of destruction, scenes of torture, and emotional content

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

If Avengers: Infinity War existed in a vacuum – one where the moviegoing public knew nothing about such things as actors’ contracts, extended universes, or planned sequels – it might go down as one of the most astonishing, audacious blockbuster films ever made. It’d be up there with The Dark Knight as one of the rare “mainstream entertainment” films in which actions had real, harrowing consequences, and no one onscreen was safe.

Well, we don’t live in a vacuum, so, as stunning as parts of Infinity War were, I’ll only truly be satisfied with the movie's quality after we’ve seen the next one (the still-untitled Avengers 4). While there are sequences in Infinity War that have the ability to draw gasps and tears from viewers, and leave whole theaters in silence, I have a feeling some, if not all, of those sequences will be undone, thereby relieving audiences of some of their shock, grief, and rage, and this movie of a great deal of its impact and profundity.

That being said, Infinity War is still a pretty audacious film. Or, rather, the effort and planning that went into its conception were pretty audacious.

I remember when I saw the original Iron Man, which was released in theaters on May 2, 2008. I was more or less dragged to it, thinking it would be some other over-the-top superhero hype piece (remember, this was less than a year after Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy crashed and burned with an over-the-top third installment). I left Iron Man pleasantly surprised by the mix of action, wit, and spectacle, all of which was fronted by a terrific performance from recovering-addict actor Robert Downey Jr. Having never read comics, I knew little about the extended universe and the crossover stories that would bring together heroes and even side characters from two, three, four, five different stories. It was difficult to imagine then. All that to say, while it’s been a highly-publicized ride, it’s still pretty impressive to see Infinity War, the 19^th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which features appearances by characters who all appeared in at least one of 18 other films. And it doesn’t even feel overstuffed. True, not every character gets a meaty dramatic arc, an epic monologue or a character-building flashback, but here’s a movie built off a literal decade of other films (since ‘08, only 2009 had no MCU films) that does some level of justice to each of those other movies, and yet also moves forward with an intriguing, engaging, powerful story of its own.

DISCLAIMER: I feel like I don’t need to say this, but I will: Infinity War includes characters/elements from Iron Man and every MCU film since, including February’s Black Panther. I don’t think you have to have seen all of them, but if you have not seen most of them – particularly recent ones like Panther and November’s Thor: Ragnarok – you will be lost. In fact, Infinity War opens immediately after the climax of Ragnarok, at least as shown in that film’s post-credit scene.

Early in Infinity War, we find the Guardians of the Galaxy traveling through space in response to an interstellar distress call, thinking they might save some people and make some money in the process. The Guardians, as you likely know, are comprised of half-human Peter Quill/Star Lord (Pratt), quasi-love interest/lethal assassin Gamora (Saldana), brooding humanoid Drax (Bautista), wide-eyed Mantis (Klementieff), scientifically enhanced Rocket Raccoon (Cooper) and tree creature Groot (Diesel). The Guardians soon stumble across Thor (Hemsworth), a survivor of the now-wrecked ship that was carrying the survivors of Asgard’s Ragnarok-wrought doom. A distressed Thor promptly tells the Guardians about Thanos (Brolin), a hulking purple Titan with monstrous minions, an intergalactic army, and supernatural strength. Gamora, who was raised and trained by him after being stolen away from her family, knows there’s more to the story. Thanos wears a high-tech gadget known as the Infinity Gauntlet, a metal device that was made to combine the powers of the six all-powerful Infinity Stones. The Stones (five of which have appeared in other MCU movies) are: the purple Power Stone, the green Time Stone, the blue Space Stone, the yellow Mind Stone, the red Reality Stone, and the only one that has yet to be unveiled, the orange Soul Stone. According to Gamora, if Thanos can get a hold of all six and plug them into the Gauntlet, he can destroy half of the existing universe with a literal snap of his fingers. As of the Guardians’ finding Thor, he has nabbed two of them. Worse, two others are on Earth.

One of the earthbound stones is the Time Stone, which is in the possession of the metaphysical wizard Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch). Because one of Strange’s order’s sanctums is in New York City, it’s there that some of Thanos’ minions first touch down, starting a fracas between them, Strange, Strange’s assistant Wong (Wong), and bystander Tony Stark/Iron Man (Downey Jr.). This destruction and fighting also catches the attention of Queens-born teenager Peter Parker (Holland), who is better known as Spiderman.

Another stone, the Mind Stone, was embedded into the head of Vision (Bettany), who is laying low in Europe with his sweetheart, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Olsen). When Thanos’ minions come after them seeking the Mind Stone, this attracts the attention of Steve Rogers/Captain America (Evans), as well as Sam Wilson/Falcon (Mackie), Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Stan) and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Johansson). These multiple instances of chaos soon capture the attention of other earthbound heroes like James Rhodes/War Machine (Cheadle) and Bruce Banner/Hulk (Ruffalo), and lead to all the heroes hiding out in the secretive African nation of Wakanda, which is led by T’Challa/Black Panther (Boseman), his younger sister/tech whiz Shuri (Wright), and his wise, skilled right-hand Gen. Okoye (Gurira).

All these heroes and their powers make for quite a sight and quite a team, but when Thanos shows up, he proves more than a match for them, even without his minions and his army. And the more Stones come into his possession, the more powerful he gets.

As you can see by the cast size and the sheer number of power-imbued heroes on the scene, Infinity War is a massive, sprawling film. And yet, despite its size, its length (149 minutes), and the amount of computer-generated effects onscreen, it holds the viewer’s attention effortlessly. This is partly because the film hits the ground running, opening with an epic mano-a-mano between the big green Hulk and the like-sized Thanos, and rarely slows down after that. But in reality, it’s due to the characters and, more than that, to the heads at Disney/Marvel who’ve been planning this massive crossover for years.

In recent years, audiences and critics have (rightfully) derided Marvel’s main competitor – DC – for rushing into crossover films like Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, and Justice League in an attempt to catch the public’s interest (and dollars) in the same way the MCU. The failure, on one level or another, of each of those overwrought films feels all the more damning in the face of Infinity War, which is almost always interesting, and flat-out entertaining, through two-and-a-half jam-packed hours. Here, you can jump between one pack of heroes harnessing the power of an exploding star, another group in an epic tag-team fight against Thanos, and another in an apocalyptic showdown against Thanos’ minions and army, and be equally-entertained all the way around. As viewers, we’re invested in all of it, and it’s a treat to be pulled away from one engaging action to another and be reminded oh yeah, this is in the same movie! Marvel has put in the time and money, weathered some more modest hits, occasional middling critics’ reviews and some fan backlash to bring all these pieces together. Now, they can reap the fruits of that labor by putting together a film with a main cast of about 25 characters, and do it almost seamlessly. With a bare minimum of exposition and backstory, audiences are treated to largely-realized characters in a number of dream scenarios: serious-minded Thor joining forces with the quippy, irreverent Guardians; alpha dog Tony Stark having a battle of wits and egos with Doctor Strange; Stark exercising parental instincts in dissuading the ambition of adventure-hungry Peter Parker; star-crossed lovers Vision and Scarlet Witch fighting to keep hope alive; the Guardians battling Stark, Strange, and Parker in a confused, wild scuffle; and our most familiar heroes (Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk) coming face-to-face with Thanos, their most dangerous adversary yet. Along the way, we get touching flashbacks, alternate-reality shocks, and epic music cues. Infinity War is a massive entrée, and with all the seasoned ingredients present (finally!), it goes off like gangbusters.

In such a huge film, the focus isn’t on the actors so much as the characters, but most of the well-known thesps acquit themselves well. Downey Jr. is in his eighth go-round as the wisecracking, furiously entertaining Stark, and he continues to fit the role like a glove, though Stark is a much more haunted, guilt-ridden, contentious presence than he was when we first met him. Saldana gets a meaty role – what with Gamora reconnecting with her haunted past as an orphan of genocide, then an unwitting assassin trainee – and makes the most of it, up to a devastating moment when she underestimates the depth of Thanos’ cold-hearted ambition. Hemsworth has some nice moments playing off the Guardians and showing how Thor has grown from a pompous heir into a weary, humbled warrior more worthy of his tremendous displays of power. Olsen and Bettany have a sweet, sincere chemistry, though it comes with layers of fear and deep emotion as Vision more than once wonders whether he ought to simply destroy himself rather than allow Thanos to obtain the Mind Stone that gives him his life force.

Thanos himself is a treat, played by a near-perfect mix of CGI and gravel-voiced Josh Brolin. One of the main weaknesses of the various MCU films has been the fairly forgettable villains, but with Thanos being the biggest baddie of them all, the MCU clearly needed to step up their game. They do, and it works. Towering, muscle-bound and coldly decisive, Thanos lives up to his reputation as a monster who would order the massacre of a planet’s population as soon as set foot on its surface. He’s powerful—never out of a fight and equal to nearly all our heroes. But he’s also revealed to be a somewhat weary figure. Thanos acts with the resigned conviction of someone who has had an all-important destiny thrust upon him—one that feels at least partially unwanted (remember that old cliché about power and responsibility?). And yet he plows forward, killing people, approving genocide, and destroying worlds, all in the name of improving the quality of life for select individuals in an overcrowded universe (sound familiar at all? If not, take look at your history books.). And in a turn that may surprise many, he turns out to truly care for Gamora, who has always thought of Thanos as one who stole her away, corrupted her and exploited her.

As mentioned, many of the returning actors in this film give strong, memorable performances. But it’s Brolin/Thanos – in his first significant part after a few tease moments in other MCU films – who really stands out. He’s a worthy entrant in this packed cinematic universe, and one of the X-factors in this engaging monolith of a film.

Infinity War is not perfect. As much as this movie has to cram, not all of the characters get particularly juicy bits to play (the Wakandan entrants, in particular, are short-changed). There’s the aforementioned question of whether any of the drastic things that occur within the film’s runtime will end up being permanent, or whether this movie will end up something of a tease. I know that’s me being cynical, but it is a real question, one that prevents me (and perhaps others) from fully realizing the emotion of this story. How will this movie look in hindsight, after we’ve seen its conclusion? I have another nitpick I will not go into in depth for fear of spoilers—to put it simply: at one point, a character suffers a wound that probably should be fatal, but our attention is diverted and it is never mentioned again.

Plus, there’s my ever-present complaint with the MCU—that they insist on infusing humor into moments/scenes/settings where humor is not needed. It’s not that I’m against these movies being funny. Iron Man makes wisecracks—that, I get. And this movie reminds me what a ball it is to be around the Guardians when they are having a good time. But when Thor is fresh from seeing his friends/countrymen killed, and he’s making jokes? When entire scenes are undone just to do more Drax-is-clueless gags? This reliance on humor shows itself in more than one way—Chris Pratt, for example, has some of his most emotional moments yet as Star Lord, and his transitions from comedy to drama aren’t always convincing. Pratt’s a natural comedian, but a master of teary-eyed drama he is not.

Still, these are little complaints. I’ve sat through the movie twice, and would gladly do so again. Infinity War is immediately among the MCU’s best entries—worth all the time, hype, and money committed to it.

Bottom Line:

Avengers: Infinity War is the 19^th film in the MCU, and all 18 that came before have been building toward it (and its forthcoming sequel). I’ll say it’s one of the best (probably not the best, but in the conversation), though my overall opinion of its quality and relevance depends on what happens in the next movie. The writing is strong, pulling together more than 20 established characters without any real stretches in credulity, and it gives them a more than worthy foil in the hulking, conflicted Thanos. The effects are excellent, as usual. This is a hugely impressive achievement, and I’m very interested to see what history will ultimately say about this movie—part one of a pet project Marvel/Disney have been working on for 10 years.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

Based on the comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Rated PG-13

Length: 149 minutes

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Rating: 8/10

STARRING: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Hedges, John Hawkes, Abbie Cornish, Zeljko Ivanek, Clarke Peters, and Peter Dinklage

RATED R for language (including racial slurs and some sexual references), bloody images, some violence, and emotional content

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri starts out almost flawlessly but can’t quite stick the landing.

A darkly-comic film that’s said to be a major contender for year-end awards, Three Billboards is about as good as can be for probably the first hour—the cast is perfect, the writing is superb, the cinematography is excellent, there are laughs as well as moments of genuine, tear-jerking pathos to be had—but it doesn’t quite deliver. Where fellow awards contender The Shape of Water had a strong finish after a somewhat rushed and cluttered first act, Three Billboards has a magnificent first hour and then can’t quite figure out where to go. It’s a shame, but it can’t fully mar my impression of a movie that was near-perfect early on.

Raped While Dying.

Still No Arrests?

How come, Chief Willoughby?

Those are the phrases the quietly-furious Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) pays to have posted on three large advertising billboards on a back road of her rural podunk Missouri town, Ebbing, nearly a year after the violent death of her teenage daughter Angela. While the road is no longer the major thoroughfare it once was, when the words are obligingly posted by advertiser Red Welby (Caleb Landry Jones), within hours, the entire town of Ebbing is in an uproar. Mildred’s quietly suffering son Robbie (Lucas Hedges) is picked on at school. Her hard-drinking ex, Charlie (John Hawkes) comes by to tell her how enraged and ashamed he is. People on the street start talking and pointing. Local news crews come asking for interviews. And Red, the advertiser, faces boycotts and anger for helping Mildred. After all, everyone knows about Angela’s tragic passing, but they also know Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), the police chief, a decent man who has recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. One particularly ticked person is police deputy Dixon (Sam Rockwell), a hick-dumb good ol’ boy who still lives with his momma and worships Chief Willoughby. As Mildred, Red and Chief Willoughby feel the heat, all these inter-connected characters are forced to do some soul-searching even while the prospect of solving the mystery of Angela’s killer seems as distant as ever.

Let’s get this out of the way real quick: despite the murder-mystery that is the first domino in this series of events to fall, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is not a whodunit. Whoever so horribly violated Angela and then killed her – and thus scarred Mildred and her family in an irrevocably way – is a dark mystery that gnaws at all the major characters, but it doesn’t define the movie. Mildred’s angry, desperate, last-gasp act to have the billboards updated with her furious messages and the havoc it creates in a small circle of characters is what writer/director Martin McDonagh is really going for. And it’s tremendous in conveying that.

But, again, that is all there is to Three Billboards. In hindsight, it seems almost obvious that the movie doesn’t go anywhere besides small-town-in-an-uproar, because that’s really the only direction it can go if it’s not going to go the whodunit route, become an investigation movie, an action movie, or (least likely, but still not out of the realm of possibility) a romance that springs up to help Mildred cope with this tough stage of her life. It does offer some characters the chances to turn some personal emotional and psychological corners, but it does so in a quieter way than one might expect or want. Shoot, Three Billboards does stray toward convention with a late minor revelation that could have proven a more black-and-white ending, but also would have made this strongly acted and well-made film suddenly feel more like a far-fetched episode of Law & Order: SVU.

Still, if you’re here for small-town kerfuffle, you’ll get it here (Mildred gets a reprimanding visit from her former parish priest, and has a wild run-in with her dentist, about her peace-disturbing billboards). If you’re looking for some tense drama, you’ll get that, too, most notably in a devastating one-take scene where Deputy Dixon has a fit of grief-driven rage in the middle of the town. If you want emotional drama, the Hayes family has a scary domestic confrontation, and Chief Willoughby’s progressing cancer tugs the heartstrings (Abbie Cornish, as his long-suffering wife, has a heart-shattering soundless reaction when she gets some bad news). And if you are here for various in vogue socio-political commentaries about police, color, class, gender, small-town Southern traditionalism, or even the stigma of having some you love be the victim of a high-profile crime, you’ll get that, too.

Does it get a little preachy? Yes. Would that take any more away from the film if it had somehow had a more satisfactory ending? No.

Overall, writer/director McDonagh is to be praised, as are his actors. Frances McDormand fits the role of the brittle, quietly seething Mildred like a glove, the natural steel in her eyes making us believe every bit of her small-town stubbornness, snark, and fury. Woody Harrelson, too, is perfectly cast, delivering one of the performances of his career as the witty but haunted man who’s staring his own mortality in the face. The actor, who has a tendency to seem like every role he gets was made for him, has been getting some Best Supporting Actor buzz, and I’d love to see him get an Oscar nomination for this fine, scene-stealing role. Fellow Best Supporting Actor contender Sam Rockwell is surprisingly affecting in a memorable turn as the maladroit Dixon, the dumb-hick-cop-caricature turned on its head. Younger actors Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Hedges, and Samara Weaving all make memorable impressions, and former Oscar nominee John Hawkes makes the most of a few pivotal scenes. The movie’s failings are the fault of the writer, not the actors, who make up one of the year’s finest ensembles. Only the great Peter Dinklage doesn’t have the effect desired, if only because he is sadly under-served by the script, which gives him a relative cameo in a role that goes nowhere.

In Summary

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is a mouthful of a title, and it’s an intriguing, deeply-felt, and at-times hilarious look at how one woman’s stubborn, angry, outside-the-box act turns a small town on its head, and affects a wide range of people. The movie begins with a first hour that feels pretty much perfect, and, while it doesn’t quite follow through in delivering the most satisfactory ending, I still see why the movie’s a major Oscar contender. The cast, which includes a gimmie Best Actress nominee (Fargo’s Frances McDormand) and dueling worthy Supporting Actor contenders (Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell), is phenomenal in a series of multi-dimensional, well-written roles. The cinematography and score are solid. The socio-political commentary is there without smacking you in the face. Best of all, this is an ORIGINAL work—not based on anything. Seriously. I went out of my way to see this affecting dramedy, and I’m glad I did.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Directed and Written for the Screen by Martin McDonagh

Rated R

Length: 1 hour, 55 minutes

THE SHAPE OF WATER

The Shape of Water (2017)

Rating: 8/10

STARRING: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Octavia Spencer, and Michael Stuhlbarg

RATED R for language, nudity and sexual content, and violent material including bloody images and scenes of torture

The Shape of Water sniffs greatness, but it doesn’t quite reach it.

From the weird and often wonderful mind of Mexican auteur Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak), The Shape of Water wants to be a lot of things. First and foremost, it is a tale of forbidden love, a deep connection that springs up between two beings of different species. The second most prominent and familiar aspect is that of a thriller, with themes of government secrets, paranoia, espionage, and military-sanctioned torture. It is also a study in loneliness, about individuals who feel different and disconnected from those around them for one reason or another. In addition, because the main characters live in an apartment above a movie theater and often watch or reference classic movies on TV, it’s clear there is a love letter to cinema packed in here, signed affectionately by Mr. del Toro. All these elements are interesting, and make for a full movie-going experience, but, for this reviewer, it was a little too much. The many plot strands allow for a number of effective characterizations (and the actors are terrific), but arguably the most important plot strand (and the movie’s main selling point), the cross-species romance, doesn’t get the time to truly develop against all this other material. Perhaps it would have been different in a longer movie, or in a film where the main romantic couple could, you know, talk to each other.

After all, the protagonist, Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), is mute, the apparent victim of a childhood attack that left her with prominent scars on both sides of her throat. The object of her affection is a startling aquatic humanoid creature (Doug Jones, Mr. del Toro’s usual muse, under tons of makeup) who is the object of study in the secretive government lab in which Elisa works as a cleaning lady. When we first meet Elisa, she has a routine down pat. She sleeps through the day, wakes in the early evening to boil eggs, has some “adult quiet time” in the bath, picks out a favorite pair of shoes, and visits her neighbor Giles (a warm, wonderful Richard Jenkins), a gay artist who shares Elisa’s love of old cinema (the movie takes place in the 1960s). Elisa then takes a bus into work, where she meets up with the feisty Zelda (Octavia Spencer, supplying most of the film’s humor), who chatters away as the two scrub floors, toilets, and even, on occasion, the top-secret lab rooms. Elisa and Zelda are supervised by the smart, quiet Dr. Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg), who himself is overseen by the stone-faced, moody government spook Strickland (a reliably scary Michael Shannon). After an accident in which Strickland loses a few fingers, Elisa and Zelda are rushed in to clean up the mess. It is there that Elisa discovers the creature, whom Strickland claims to have discovered and captured in South America. The creature cannot speak, but it picks up some of Elisa’s sign language easily enough, and Elisa learns that they share a mutual love of eggs and music. But when Strickland gets orders to have the creature killed so it can be taken apart and studied, Elisa panics, and, with her friends, she begins devising a plan to have the creature freed in the ocean.

That might sound straightforward. That is a basic synopsis—it’s also the movie I thought I was going to get. But The Shape of Water is not just focused on Eliza, but breaks off to follow Giles, Strickland, and even Dr. Hoffstetler into their personal lives. Sometimes this is effective (such as in Giles’ repeated failed attempts at getting a painting published for an ad company, or Dr. Hoffstetler’s growing suspicion Russians are spying on him) and sometimes it is not (scenes of Strickland’s home life – including a cold and manufactured sex scene between him and his wife (Lauren Lee Smith) – add nothing to the film).  But it does detract from the romance at its center. Again, Elisa can’t speak, and neither can the creature. And (thankfully) Twilight this isn’t. We don’t get long scenes of characters staring into each other’s eyes or attempting to define their feelings. But we also get little build for Elisa is going out of her way to sneak into the high-tech lab safe-room to visit the creature, laying out eggs for its enjoyment, and even bringing her record player in to serenade it in its water tank. One wonders if the movie would have been more successful overall (given its many plot strands) if the connection between the two was not intended to be romantic but more of a kinship, simply a good-hearted desire to save it from government experimentation and exploitation. This would still have captured the audience’s interest and had us rooting for her to sneak the creature to safety before Strickland can kill it, but might not have raised expectations for us to feel something more. Similarly, the “love of cinema” aspect feels tacked on. Except for one luminous fantasy/dream sequence, the idea that Elisa lives above a movie theater adds nothing to the movie.

Still, the movie may only be missing a small handful of Elisa- and- creature-based scenes from being great. The creature is a gorgeous sight to behold (kudos to Jones for sitting through what must have been a marathon makeup job every day), and there are a couple other brilliant visuals.

The government/lab thriller works, Elisa’s relationship with Zelda works, and our peeks into the lives of Giles and Dr. Hoffstetler are effective. The movie is clearly not only a commentary on cross-species/forbidden lovers but also on different types of loneliness. Those who cannot speak are lonely. Those with an unrequited crush or a misunderstood sexual orientation are lonely. The wives of brooding, deadbeat husbands are lonely. It can even be hard being the one near the top of the food chain, when your life, reputation and even freedom are based on the whims of those above you. Again, kudos to all the actors for their heartfelt, lived-in work.

In Summary

The Shape of Water ranks near the top of Mexican writer/director Guillermo del Toro’s filmography, a film that juggles elements of a romance, a thriller, a multi-pronged character study and a love letter to film all in one. It feels like a bit too much – the romance, though admittedly hamstrung by the fact that neither partner can speak, didn’t quite inspire in me the feelings intended – but the movie still falls just short of being great. There are some stunning visuals, palpable tension, and terrific performances from half a dozen actors, a couple of whom will likely end up contenders for Academy Awards. This surrealist, borderline-fantasy is a hard R (unnecessary nudity and scenes of a nasty government agent taking a cattle-prod to a sensitive aquatic humanoid will do that), but it’s an intriguing film not just about a fantastical cross-species romance or height-of-the-Cold-War paranoia, but also a study in what means to be lonely, and be different, in a world where everybody else either fits in or pretends to. Mr. del Toro has made some interesting, genre-splicing films before (Hellboy, Pacific Rim, Pan’s Labyrinth), and this is one of his best.

The Shape of Water (2017)

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor

Rated R

Length: 2 hours and 3 minutes