Blog Archives
Flash Movie Review: Killer Heat
MY FIRST EXPOSURE TO TWIN SIBLINGS was a movie where teenage twin sisters swap places and scheme to reunite their divorced parents. Seeing the two sisters together looking identical fascinated me. I was too young to realize that it was one actress playing both sisters. The next time I encountered twins was watching a television show called Family Affair. The twins were Buffy and Jody, a brother and sister, but they were not identical. Except for these two experiences, I had no contact with any sets of twins until I was in high school. And then, it was like an explosion because there were several sets during my four years in school. A couple of them were identical twins; one in particular was always difficult to figure out who was who, until you talked to them for a little while. One brother was into sports, and I thought was mean; the other one was more into the social clubs like film and debate team which suited his friendlier personality. I remember one time when they swapped their classes for one period. I had the nicer brother in my classroom, and I knew within a matter of minutes that the other brother was sitting next to me instead; he did not say hello, which the nicer one always did when coming in and sitting down at his desk. Surprisingly, the teacher did not know the difference. THERE WAS ANOTHER SET OF TWIN brothers in the school that were both bullies, one was worse, however. They would pick on students all the time; in the classroom, lunchroom and outside on the school grounds. I learned quickly to stay away from them as best as I could. It was not until the end of our sophomore year that some of us found out the two brothers were not twins. The meaner one was held back a year; in other words, he flunked a grade. The two brothers decided to tell everyone they were twins so the older one would not be embarrassed. The thing I found interesting about the sets of twins in school was when there were two girls or a girl and a boy set, they were never competitive with each other. Sure, they may have had some form of sibling rivalry, but I never saw one trying to beat out the other. It was only the sets that had two boys that were competitive at our school. Even if the personalities were different, they still had a strong streak of competitiveness. Granted, none of them could match the competitiveness of the twins in this romantic, crime mystery drama, and I am grateful for it. AFTER A YOUNG ROCK CLIMBER FALLS from a cliff to his death, one of the family members secretly hires a detective to investigate all the clues to see if things match up. As the detective delves deeper into the case, his own issues begin to come out. With Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Trial of the Chicago 7, Flora and Son) as Nick Bali, Shailene Woodley (Dumb Money, To Catch a Killer) as Penelope Vardakis, Richard Madden (Eternals, Game of Thrones-TV) as Elias ‘Leonidas,’ Clare Holman (Let Him Have It, Inspector Lewis-TV) as Audrey, and Babou Ceesay (Eye in the Sky, We Hunt Together-TV) as Georges Mensah; this film was shot in the beautiful island of Crete. The outdoor scenes were stunning. I enjoyed the performances from the cast, but the script did not offer them much to work their craft. The characters were one-dimensional, which turned many scenes into standard fare. I liked the idea of the story, and I thought Joseph and Shailene could have turned into characters with depth and emotion; though no fault of their own, I was disappointed. Well, at least I enjoyed the scenery.
2 stars
Flash Movie Review: The Best of Enemies
EVERYTHING I SAW AND LEARNED LED me to believe dogs and cats were mortal enemies. From cartoons to movies, as far as I knew if the 2 of them saw each other they would fight until one got hurt or worse. As a kid everyone I knew who had pets always had only one species if there were multiple pets in the household. If a family had a cat they would only get another cat as a pet; the same held true with dog lovers. I had a parakeet; so, I would never have considered getting a cat, because in my mind cats ate birds. Do you remember Tweety and Sylvester? I rest my case; this is where I learned never to mix a cat and a bird. Then there was Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Since coyotes looked like dogs, I assumed dogs were not fond of birds either. I doubt I was the only one who thought this way; I am sure many kids around the same time were thinking the same thing about never mixing different species together. The same holds true for some of the movies I saw as a child where I would see a dog chasing a cat. NOW GRANTED THERE ARE ANIMALS WHO eat other animals for food. I remember seeing a movie that showed a lion going after a herd of wildebeests. It was obvious to me the wildebeests were afraid of the big cat. I translated that as hate. Did the wildebeests instinctively know from birth to fear the big cats or was it something they learned I wondered. I realized at an early age that humans do not come into the world knowing how to hate; they had to be taught on how to do it. I am not talking about hating a specific vegetable or fruit; I am referring to being taught that something or someone is no good, inferior, is bad. I learned about prejudice outside of the classroom, where some kids would make fun of me because I was not the same religion as them. There was a student in class who was quite vocal about his hatreds. He would bully those kids who did not fit into his beliefs. It was awful the way he would make fun of certain students, using their features as examples of what was wrong with them. I had thick curly/kinky hair when I was in school and he took great delight in calling me racist, horrible names. He did not have to be that way, but that is how he was taught. If only there had been someone who could have shown and taught him a different way; someone like the activist in this biographical, dramatic film. WHEN HER DAUGHTER’S SCHOOL CAUGHT ON fire and burned, civil rights activist Ann Atwater, played by Taraji P. Henson (Proud Mary, What Men Want), was determined to find another school for her daughter and the other students to attend. There were people in the community who hated her idea. With Sam Rockwell (Vice, Mr. Right) as C.P. Ellis, Babou Ceesay (Free Fire, Eye in the Sky) as Bill Riddick, Wes Bentley (American Beauty, The Hunger Games) as Floyd Kelly and Anne Heche (Wag the Dog, Six Days Seven Nights) as Mary Ellis; this historical story set in Durham, NC during the 1970s was brought to life by Taraji and Sam. They were dynamite in their roles to the point where I believed who they were portraying. The story was incredible and full of poignant moments that the writers could have taken and made them stand out. I wish they had done that because this historical event deserved a powerful script instead of the sanitized one in this picture. However, it did capture and keep my attention while showing a dramatic time that was brought on by hatred.
2 ½ stars
moviejoltz 