Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
8/20/2024: Despite what I just did on 8/18/2024—made a short posting here about how my computer seemed near death so I wasn’t sure when movie reviews would be coming forth again—as fate always has it, I’ve managed to resurrect my aging machine (in sync with my aging body) just enough to get an abbreviated version of what I intended for this week into “print” before I haul this little monster in for repair (or burial, depending on what the problem is; therefore you might not see anything from me next week [or more?]). So, with things as semi-normal (including keeping one of my cats off the keyboard [cartoon kitty above doesn’t look like my grey-and-white Mindy but reminds me of one of my former-felines, Inky, who used to be quite a presence when I’d post these reviews]), I’ll proceed with comments on a couple of recently-seen streamers. My goal in choosing one to watch was avoiding too much trust in my local San Francisco Chronicle critic, Mick LaSalle, who’d encouraged me (when I was short on decision time last week) to invest in The Instigators (Doug Liman, review in our August 14, 2024 posting) even though I found later it’s earned only 41% positives at Rotten Tomatoes, so when he was equally-encouraging about The Union, although with a slightly-lower rating, I checked RT in advance this time only to find roughly the same negative response so I sorted through my list of previous-releases, found the RT evaluation of Am I OK? to be in the low 80s, went with it (LaSalle didn’t review it, instead the Chronicle brought in Jocelyn Noveck who wasn’t as impressed as the RT folks); I liked Dakota Johnson but not a lot else; to satisfy my curiosity about The Union, though, I also saw it, found it to be in a similar state so I’ll give you some responses on this other one as well. All right, here we go in a shorter-than-usual fashion.
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
SHORT TAKES
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
Lucy’s (Dakota Johnson) a 32-year-old L.A. spa receptionist who has nothing going romantically—she tells her long-time best friend, Jane (Sonoya Mizuno)—as the only guy in her life is Ben (Whitmer Thomas), whom she treats like a mild acquaintance even though he frustratingly tries to take things further. Jane then gets a promotion that will relocate her to London (grew up there until she was 16) so she and boyfriend Danny (Jermaine Fowler) go to dinner with Jane to celebrate. With Danny away to the restroom, Jane tells Lucy she once kissed a girl as a teenager, leaving Lucy to wonder if she, herself, might be lesbian which Jane encourages her to explore with massage therapist co-worker Brittany (Kiersey Clemons), who’s been acting flirtatious with Lucy. She tries to follow-up, invites Brittany for dinner at home, but her friend talks about a male ex, even as she admits she’s on the sexuality-spectrum, kisses Lucy, and leaves. Jane takes Lucy to a lesbian bar, yet that goes nowhere also, then results in a bitter fight between the friends; however, Lucy connects with Brittany again, they have sex, Lucy thinks she’s found a mate, but Brittany leaves early the next morning, then goes back with her ex, may move to Portland with him. Jane’s under a lot of pressure about the trans-Atlantic move, doesn’t look forward to sharing her new job with obnoxious co-worker Kat (Molly Gordon), is surprised/disappointed when Danny suddenly says he’s not coming with her.
⇒Meanwhile, Lucy quits her job to return to her love of painting, goes out casually with various women she finds on dating apps, renews her platonic friendship with Ben, then reconciles with Jane, even offers to drive her to the airport. On the way, Lucy reveals she’ll be on the plane also, coming to London to help her friend settle in for a while before returning to her newly-emerging life in southern CA.⇐ There’s more talk than imagery about sex here so don’t watch this to become either horny or repulsed because it’s much more about the personal lives of individual women and their interconnections. Overall, it’s pleasant enough to watch, although except for Johnson’s continuing command of acting in recent films there’s not much else happening in my estimation, yet the CCAL generally sees more value in it, with the RT positives at a solid 81%, while the Metacritic average score is 72% (in line mathematically with my 3 stars), so if you want to stream it you’ll find your only option is Max if you’re a subscriber or want to try out this platform for a month ($9.99 with ads, $16.99 without). I’ll leave you to your decision while you listen to my usual review-ending Musical Metaphor, this time being Brenda Lee’s “All Alone Am I” (a 1962 hit on her 1963 album named for the song) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_dfxm_SGFo (live from The Ed Sullivan Show in ’63) because this is how Lucy seems to feel for most of this movie: “All alone with just the beat of my heart / People all around but I don’t hear a sound / Just the lonely beating of my heart,” with Lee’s spoken interlude about halfway through the song indicative of Lucy at her most melodramatic.
The Union (Julian Farino) rated PG-13 109 min.
Here’s the trailer:
When I watched this last weekend it was out of curiosity—and I enjoy seeing Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg just about anytime—so I wasn’t planning on writing about it (maybe a little) so I took no notes; now, I’ll have to rely on memory (Oh no!) with hopes I get even a short report correct on the plot facts, so here goes. Mike McKenna’s (Wahlberg) a NJ construction worker who accidently runs into his old high-school girlfriend, Roxanne Hall (Berry), in a bar some 20 years later. They end up in a potentially-romantic nighttime outdoor spot, but she knocks him out with a syringe, he wakes up in London where he quickly learns she works for a very secret USA government agency, The Union, who need to retrieve a priceless briefcase containing a computer program with data on all of the West’s clandestine agents. (They lost it during a firefight in Trieste, Italy, with several of their agents killed so they need a “nobody” on this job to fool the interested parties [Russia, China, Iran, North Korea—seems like there’s 1 more] intending to buy it at a private auction, so they won’t be aware of this truly-secret agent getting into the game.) Mike agrees to the plan (basically trying to stay close to Roxanne), goes through a rigorous 2-week training, then is in action across Europe where he has to kill to survive. The CIA provides the $5 million needed to buy a device to enter the online auction, but during an attack it gets dunked into a sink full of water so his team has to invade North Korea’s quarters to steal their device. Needless to say, there’s a lot of killing, active car chase scenes, some sneaky action from Lorraine McKenna (Lorraine Bracco) and Roxanne’s husband, Frank Preiffer (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), supposedly dead in Trieste though he now ends up with the briefcase.
⇒Along the violent way as this story unfolds, The Union London HQ is firebombed, seemingly the result of dangerous mole activity within the organization by its leader, Tom Brennan (J.K. Simmons), but that was a plot line I didn’t follow too well nor remember the outcome of. At the story’s climax, Frank's on a short pier waiting for a boat to retrieve him when Mike and Roxanne catch up, shoot him dead, get the precious briefcase. As best I remember (questionable), Mike stays in London to work with The Union, fully reconnects with Roxanne as they celebrate before heading off on another dangerous assignment.⇐ The critical consensus for this one is clearly in OCCU territory, RT 38%, MC 44%, but if you’re interested in seeing it you can turn to streaming for Netflix subscribers (or, for a month you could pay $6.99 with ads, $15.49 without, to try it out). It’s certainly an active experience with the leads always a pleasure to watch, although it also serves as commentary on the MPA ratings as even mild allusions to lesbian sex in Am I OK? get an R whereas all these killings in The Union only result in PG-13, yet the debate goes on as to whether the USA is overwhelmed with a gun culture. Oh well, if you need something to help take your mind off that how about my Musical Metaphor of another oldie, Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent Man” (1966 album …And I Know You Wanna Dance) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBHcWvqXUQI to celebrate Mike signing up to "sing along" with Roxanne for their ongoing commitment to saving this world for the rest of us.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
IMDb staff picks of 5 Things to Watch; 23 recent theatrical releases you can stream at home.
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list). Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us! Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us there in order to comment (FB procedures: frequently perplexing mysteries for us aged farts).
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please
use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.
OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.
Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 3,179—a huge drop-off from the marvelous 40-50K of some recent months; never overestimate yourself! (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.) Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):
No comments:
Post a Comment