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Flash Movie Review: Hold Your Breath
IF I AM NOT READING A BOOK or listening to music, I always have the television turned on, even if I have no plans to watch it. I use a TV as background noise because I am uncomfortable being in silence. There is a reason for it. There was a television show that debuted when I was a small child of six or seven years of age. I probably was too young to watch it, because I always dreamt of a horrible nightmare when I went to sleep after having watched the show. Every episode started out with the television screen going black and a single white dot would appear in the center. A voice would come on and tell us not to adjust our television sets, there was nothing wrong with them. I believe the next thing the announcer said was they were taking control of our sets and that is when that white dot turned into a wavy line, getting smaller and bigger at times. I can remember snippets of the different episodes, but each week there was always a “monster” or alien being since the show leaned more towards science fiction as opposed to something like The Twilight Zone. I would be terrified of the monsters; some with extra powers or wanting to do experiments on humans. Even if I closed my eyes during a scene, I still would wake up in the middle of the night from a bad dream. THAT SHOW WAS THE START OF me not liking silence. As I grew older and no longer needed a babysitter, I could not handle being in a quiet space. Any little sounds coming from the house or outside would cause me to jump. One time there was some noise I heard coming from the back porch. I quickly turned off all the lights and hid in the kitchen pantry. Not because I was hungry, but because from there I could sneak peeks at the back door, to see if a human shadow loomed up. I would stand in there for 15-20 minutes before I thought it was safe to come out. Through the years, past my college graduation and moving out into my own apartment, I was the same when it came to hearing noises. Imagine living in a big courtyard apartment building; there were always various noises sounding off; my television and music player were my constant companions. It is as if my mind is always ready to take a pessimistic view when it comes to hearing an uncommon sound that I cannot explain. I do not know if it is a good or dreadful thing, that I understood what the main character was going through in this dramatic, horror thriller. WITH HER HUSBAND AWAY FOR WORK, a wife had to take care of the house and their children during the Oklahoma dust storms that ravaged the state. The fact that there might be something else bad outside made raising their kids all the harder. With Sarah Paulson (Run, American Horror Story-TV) as Margaret Bellum, Amiah Miller (The Water Man, War for the Planet of the Apes) as Rose Bellum, relative newcomer (Alona Jane Robbins as Ollie Bellum, Annaleigh Ashford (American Reject, B Positive-TV) as Esther Smith, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear-TV, No Hard Feelings) as Wallace Grady; this movie was beautifully filmed. I enjoyed the atmospheric scenes mixed in with the starkness; they helped with creating the bleakness of the environment. Sarah and Amiah were especially strong with their characters; Sarah was especially riveting. However, my interest periodically faded at times because the script created this series of repetitive scenarios that did not build up the tension or move the story forward. There needed to be more tension that would have led to a stronger ending. Even if I did not like hearing unfamiliar sounds when I am alone, after seeing this picture, I am amazed at the people who survived these storms back in the 1930s in Oklahoma.
2 ¼ stars
Flash Movie Review: Joker: Folie A Deux
I BELIEVE I AM A MARKETER’S dream because I like trying out new products. Not every kind of product, mind you, just those that are in my wheelhouse. They say variety is the spice of life, and in certain circumstances that is true; however, when it comes to food items I have my limits. I remember when my favorite candy-coated chocolate candy came out with a caramel flavor; I had to buy a bag the next time I went to the grocery store. It was terrific. Now if you are not a fan of caramel then this item would not do anything for you, I get it. The same thing with my favorite chocolate sandwich cookie. They came out with a thin version, touting less calories. That may have been questionable, but I enjoyed them because I like the chocolate cookie part more than the creamy filling. The cookies recently came out with a cola flavored cookie which just seems wrong to me. Now on the other hand, when I see or read about a new product or flavor that uses weird combinations, at least weird in my mind, I must wonder who would buy such a thing. The candy-coated candies tried a new flavor: jalapeno peanut chocolate. They were a flop. One of the most unusual items I have ever heard about were pumpkin spice scented flushable wipes. I wonder who would use such a thing. BESIDES THE FOOD CATEGORY, THERE ARE certain things/ideas I hear about that do not sound good to me. There was talk at one time about creating a Titanic themed resort in Las Vegas. The hotel would be in the shape of the ship. Personally, I thought it was a poor idea to turn a tragic event into a happening Vegas resort. The movie with Kate Winslet was wonderful; however, when I heard, there was talk to turn it into a Broadway musical, I found it disturbing. Though it could be said of the film, the idea of cashing in a tragedy makes me uncomfortable for some reason. The only example I can come up with is basing a musical on a meat packing plant or something similar. This mixing of two genres or two ideas that share nothing in common does not seem to work in my opinion. Or, let me say it in a different way; it often does not end in success. Here is the perfect example: I do not want to see comic book characters thrust into singing in a musical number. You will understand with my review of this musical drama thriller. WHILE WAITING FOR HIS TRIAL, A prison inmate finds the love of his life, who appears to be in perfect synch with him. With Joaquin Phoenix (Beau’s Dead, The Sisters Brother) as Arthur Fleck, Lady Gaga (House of Gucci, A Star is Born) as Lee Quinzel, Brendan Gleeson (In the Heart of the Sea, The Banshees of Inisherin) as Jackie Sullivan, Catherine Keener (The Adam Project, Get Out) as Maryanne Stewart, and Zazie Beetz (Nine Days, Deadpool 2) as Sophie Dumond; this movie was one of the worst films I have seen this year. There was very little positive about it except for Lady Gaga. As far as I was concerned, she was the star of the movie and with the little portion of the script given to her, she turned it into a solid piece of work. The script was looney with most of the action taking place in prison but being broken up with several musical numbers. Joaquin cannot sing, which only made watching this film more painful. I could not wait for this movie to be over, having sat through it with no movement of story or purpose. It came across as someone’s pipe dream, and whoever greenlighted this production should not be allowed to keep their position. As a side note: I read in the newspaper that ticket sales dropped 81% after its first week at the theaters. That should tell you everything you need to know.
1 ½ stars
Flash Movie Review: Rebel Ridge
HE WAS A SHORT, SLIGHT MAN with a close-cropped beard and straight brown hair that always looked feathery. This was my first impression of my yoga instructor, who would remain mine through the first year of my training to become an instructor. There was gentleness and kindness about him; he always took the time to work one on one with each of us in class. Whenever he would demonstrate a pose, he moved into it like a cat, slow and determined. Because I was so focused on taking notes and looking at the poses he did, I did not notice him as much if that makes sense. I was looking to see where hands and feet needed to be rather than focusing on the way his body would move into the pose. Around halfway through the year we had a celebratory event where multiple classes would come together. It was part doing yoga and part mingling. I met some of the upper-class students and watched them during our yoga session. They were so smooth as they moved into the various poses. During the break, I went up and talked with them, asking about their experience at the school. At some point, one of them asked me who was my instructor. When I told him, he said I had the best teacher in the school. I was thrilled to hear it. WHAT HE SAID NEXT THREW ME for a loop. He asked if I knew about my instructor’s background. I said no. He told me something that stunned me. My instructor was involved with the military until a tragic event shattered his leg. The story this upper-class student told me was after the event my teacher was sent home for multiple surgeries and a lengthy rehabilitation. This student told me to look at the instructor’s body when he moves into a pose. Since he was ahead of me in school, I thought I would see what he was talking about and look at my instructor’s body when he was doing poses. It turned out I had to look more than once because what I saw was fascinating. The fact his leg was shattered, I would never have known. Each time his body moved into a pose I would see his smooth, pliable limbs turn into sculpted, solid muscle. Not like a heavy weightlifter’s muscles, more like a Michelangelo statue. They would rise from his skin and form this rock-solid landscape across his body. I would have been most curious to hear what he used to do in the military because he was nothing what I pictured a military person to be. I was reminded of him because of the main character in this action, crime thriller. MAKING HIS WAY TO POST BAIL for his cousin, a former Marine finds himself in a town that could make better use of his bail money. With Aaron Pierre (Brother, Old) as Terry Richmond, Don Johnson (Knives Out, Book Club: The Next Chapter) as Chief Sandy Burnne, AnnaSophia Robb (Soul Surfer, Bridge to Terabithia) as Summer McBride, David Denman (The Equalizer 3, The Office-TV) as Officer Evan Marston, and Emory Cohen (Brooklyn, Lords of Chaos) as Officer Steve Lann; this drama was slick and to the point, taking me by surprise. I thought the cast, especially Aaron, was excellent. The story is a no-frills good against evil type of story and I fell right into it. The action was intense, and the fight scenes were well done. In a way, it was refreshing to watch an action film without the special effects or wild camera work or a multitude of dead bodies; I felt I was following a simple, story that could have been based in truth. On some level, this movie reminded me of an old-fashioned western film besides reminding me of my past yoga instructor.
3 stars
Flash Movie Review: The Killer’s Game
I KNEW TWO INDIVIDUALS, A FRIEND and an acquaintance, who chose to ignore their mortality. It was some time after they had received the news about their medical test results that I met them; so, if they acted differently prior to the news, I had no knowledge. My friend and I met at a party we were both attending. We had a similar sense of humor which made our conversation easy, which led us to hang out together. The acquaintance was a friend of a friend despite my friend wishing she could have more than just a platonic relationship with this guy. Both guys were extreme extroverts. My friend told me about his health status early in our relationship; the other guy never divulged his health status until it became obvious something was seriously wrong with him based on the physical changes taking place with his body. Over several months, my friend was acting more extreme and outrageous. If everyone was having a couple of cocktails at a party, he was having several until he was numb in the throes of drunkenness. I noticed the same behavior with the acquaintance. If there were drugs at a party, he was taking the most until he was either bouncing off the walls or falling asleep in mid-sentence. Both became heavy risk-takers. The friend’s friend got sicker and sicker until they died while walking down the street one night. My friend took a job offer out of state and no one ever heard from him again. So, I do not know if they are dead or alive. A DIFFERENT EXAMPLE OF A PERSON dealing with their own mortality was a relative of mine. After receiving their dire medical results, they chose not to do any treatments because they were known to have bad side effects. Instead, my relative chose to have a decent quality of life for as long as they could last. Being around them, one would never know something was wrong; they chose to enjoy every second of living, from meeting friends for dinner, to going to concerts, to hosting family events. Instead of ignoring their condition, they would acknowledge it whenever anyone asked how they were doing. I was in awe of her strength and commitment to enjoy everything they could while they were alive. A common phrase they would say is. “Don’t leave with any regrets.” If I were in a similar situation, where I was to receive negative health results, I would like to think that I would be strong and fight it. However, until one is in that situation, I honestly do not know if I have that inner strength to fight it to the best of my abilities. I for sure know I would not choose the option the main character did in this action, comedy, thriller. AFTER RECEIVING THE RESULTS OF HIS medical tests, a hired assassin decides to hire a hit on himself. When the assassins started going after his girlfriend, he had only one option, to protect her. With Dave Bautista (My Spy franchise, Glass Onion) as Joe Flood, Raffaello Degruttola (Rush, Unlocked) as Dr. Kagen, Sofia Boutella (Star Trek Beyond, Kingsman: The Secret Service) as Maize Arnaud, Ben Kingsley (Night Hunter, Sexy Beast) as Zvi Rabinowitz, and Antonia Desplat (Witchboard, Shantaram-TV) as Aimee; this film based on the book felt like a John Wick wannabe. However, I was pleasantly surprised that Dave’s character had a love interest because his imposing presence normally would not lead him to such roles. The action scenes were intense and there were multiple scenes with blood and violence. There really was nothing new about the story/script, but I still enjoyed watching it. There were a couple of times where I chuckled and other times where I cringed from the violence. The main draw for me was watching Dave and I was entertained by his and Sofia’s acting. There were multiple scenes of blood and violence throughout this film.
2 ½ stars
Flash Movie Review: The Fall Guy
WHEN ONE IS YOUNG, THEY WILL do foolish things. Add in the love factor and whatever common sense is left gets pushed to the side. Why does it take one’s older self to realize that? Back when I was young and participating in the dating world, I now look at some of the things I did and cannot believe it. At one time, I was dating someone who shared my sense of humor and had similar likes and dislikes. One thing that we were apart from was our tastes in music. They were a big country music fan, and I was a disco baby. Country music was never part of my music library, nor my family members. However, I had feelings for them and wanted to make a good impression; so, I agreed to go to a country western bar and did it with an enthusiastic smile on my face. I was told the place had a big dance floor and they would teach me how to dance. Because I was a fitness instructor and choreographed my routines to music, I felt I would be able to manage the country dancing with no problem. The night of our date, I dressed up in my new clothes, including cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. By the time we got to the club my feet were hurting me. Our first dance lesson was iffy; I could not get the rhythm for two-stepping. We eventually got through but with me still fumbling at times. Looking back, I wonder if that was the start of the deterioration of our relationship. WITH ANOTHER RELATIONSHIP, I WAS DATING a landscape architect. Having grown up in apartments, the closest I came to being involved in such a field was having a droopy houseplant. Maybe because I had purchased a house just prior to our meeting, they were excited to oversee the landscape around the house. I sat through drawings they did and saw photos they pulled up online of different plants and flowers they thought would look good in the front lawn and backyard. I agreed to everything and wound up spending more money than I had, but I wanted to make them happy. What troubled me was knowing I could not sit back and watch but had to be a participate in this endeavor. On a Saturday, they arrived in a rental truck with bags of dirt, plants, and gardening tools. We spent the entire day digging, moving, and planting foliage. The sun was beating down and I was being bitten up by bugs; I hated it. Once everything was done, every weekend turned into a lawn and garden activity. I did not have an interest in cutting the grass or trimming bushes; I intended to pay someone to do it for me. But because I was in love, I endured it for a couple of months before making excuses for not going outside to help. As time progressed, whether there was some disappointment or anger involved, the relationship ended. The lesson learned is to be yourself from the start and let the chips fall where they may. Plus, luckily, I did not have to do what the main character was doing in this action, comedy romance. AFTER AN ALMOST CAREER-ENDING ACCIDENT, a stuntman is drawn back into the business because an old flame requested him. And, because the movie star of the film was missing. He would need to find out what happened to the star while still doing his stunts during the production. With Ryan Gosling (Barbie, The Gray Man) as Colt Seavers, Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer, Mary Poppins Returns) as Jody Moreno, Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train, Nocturnal Animals) as Tom Ryder, Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso-TV, Sex Education-TV) as Gail Meyer, and Teresa Palmer (Warm Bodies, Lights Out) as Iggy Starr; this was an absolute fun film to watch. Turn your brain onto mute and sit back and enjoy the chemistry between Ryan and Emily, along with the great acting from the entire cast. The script had its flaws, action was the main engine driving this machine; but I thought the tongue in cheek flavor, the stunts and the mix of drama thrown in made for an entertaining picture. Kudos to the actual people who created the stunts. This is the type of film where one comes as themselves and simply enjoys the experience.
3 ¼ stars
Flash Movie Review: The Killer
I SPOTTED SOMETHING DARK, BURIED UNDERNEATH a pile of blankets that were on the top shelf of a closet. I was using a stepstool to reach the blankets and spotted something that was barely peeking out from underneath. Sliding my hand under the blankets, I felt a stiff leathery cover; I thought it might be a book, except it felt bigger. Having to use both hands, one to hold the blankets back and the other to drag the item out from underneath, I pulled it to the edge of the shelf and had to use both hands to lift it up, so I could finally see it. To my surprise, it was a large, leather covered album or binder. There was gold tooling on the cover that had cracks and wrinkles. I carefully stepped down off the stepstool with the album and sat down in a chair so I could place it on my lap to see what was inside. From underneath the cover as I was opening it, fell out fragments of yellowed paper. There was writing on them, but it was so faded I could not make out any full words. Turning over the cover page which was just a sheet of tissue or wax paper, there sealed onto the stiff page was a handwritten recipe. The handwriting was not familiar to me, nor was there any type of date written to give me an idea of how old the album could be. EACH BLACK CARDBOARD PAGE HAD ANYWHERE from one to several recipes. Because I had been teaching myself how to cook and bake, I was fascinated with this find. Maybe it was a book of family recipes; I needed to find out. Page by page I scanned each recipe until suddenly, one recipe stuck out from all the rest. The name written on top spelled out a word I had not heard since I was a little boy. Was it possible this desert bread recipe was for the one we used to have when I was a small child? I was determined to make it and find out; however, the recipe listed only the ingredients, not the amounts, oven temperature or time for baking. From the ingredients, I only needed one item that I ran to the store to buy. Keeping a piece of paper nearby, I listed what amounts I was guessing, while judging how the batter looked. My first attempt was dry with no taste. My second attempt only filled up the loaf pan halfway, but it came out hard with still no taste. In four weekends, my seventh attempt was a success; the dessert loaf was in fact the one I used to eat when I was a kid. I was ecstatic with the results. From this experience, I must wonder if writer and director John Woo felt the same about doing this updated version from the original one, he did thirty-five years ago. ON ASSIGNMENT TO KILL HER TARGET at a nightclub, along with any witnesses, a feared assassin backs off from killing a blinded woman at the scene of the massacre. The assassin’s “good deed” would not go unpunished. With Nathalie Emmanuel (The Invitation, Game of Thrones-TV) as Zee, Omar Sy (The Book of Clarence, Jurassic World franchise) as Sey, Sam Worthington (Avatar franchise, The Exorcism) as Finn, Diana Silvers (Booksmart, Space Force-TV) as Jenn and Said Taghmaoul (Wonder Woman, Three Kings) as Prince Majeb Bin Faheem; this current version still had John Woo’s trademark bloody violence. The action/fight scenes were beautifully choreographed as well as edited. I enjoyed Nathalie’s and Omar’s performances to the point I would not mind if they starred in a sequel. With so much action and chase scenes, I thought the script was shallow; I did not feel connected to the characters. There were times, I felt I was watching a video game instead of a movie. Despite what I have said and because I was in the mood for a steady action film, I still enjoyed watching this remake. Once again, there were multiple scenes with blood and violence.
3 stars
Flash Movie Review: Blink Twice
ON OUR RECENT VACATION, WE HAD several casual encounters with one particular couple, a man and woman. The first time we met them was in the ship’s main dining room; they were seated next to us. The man looked older than the woman but if I had to guess, I would say she was in her 50’s and he was in his late 60’s or early 70’s. While looking at their menus, she saw my entrée and asked how I liked it. It was an item on the daily special menu, and it was quite good. Expressing this to her, she turned to the man and asked him what he thought about it. He agreed with her but said he wanted to see what else was being offered for dinner. Having the opportunity to look at them directly, I believed they were not married because neither was wearing a wedding ring. The woman’s clothes, in my opinion, were tight on her; I did not know if it was intentional or not. Her blouse, which was cut low to expose and amplify her ample chest also revealed a couple of rolls from her stomach. I am not judging by any means, just describing what I saw. She wore a flashy necklace and a few sparkling bracelets and rings on her hands. I noticed her hair was dyed blonde because of the beginning of darker roots emerging from her scalp. The four of us had a further short verbal exchange before they went back to studying their menus. WHEN THE WAITER CAME TO THEIR table, I could not help but hear what was being said. What caught my ear was something that I could never understand; one person ordering for the other. The waiter had asked the woman if she was ready to order and the man answered, telling the waiter what she would have for dinner. Because our tables were close to each other, I had not heard any discussion between the two on what they wanted to eat. For the duration we were sitting there, I had to wonder how well they knew each other. As it turned out, we happened to bump into them at a couple of other meals and on one of our excursions. What struck me odd about the excursion was the fact we were told how to dress, due to the strenuous trek we would be following, and yet this woman was wearing shoes with high heels. For some reason, I started wondering what kind of relationship they had because it just seemed off to me. Having now seen this mystery thriller has only made me even more curious about those two. AT A FUNDRAISING GALA, A TECH billionaire invites one of the servers to join him and his friends on his private island for a fun and exciting vacation. Once arriving and partaking in the daily antics, the waitress begins noticing some strange things that make her question what she is experiencing. With Naomi Ackie (Lady Macbeth, The Score) as Frida, Channing Tatum (Fly Me to the Moon, The Lost City) as Slater, Alia Shawkat (The To Do List, Whip It) as Jess, Christian Slater (Freelance, Chupa) as Vic and Simon Rex (Scary Movie franchise, Red Rocket) as Cody; this film written and directed by Zoe Kravitz started out well. I thought Zoe did a decent job with directing the movie, building up tension, with her shots and pacing. However, after a while the story started to drag on me. I thought the cast did a respectable job with the script, despite it being somewhat predictable and confusing at times. For example, I thought Geena Davis’s character was distracting and odd. It appeared to me Zoe was trying to get a message across; however, I felt it got bogged down due to her dealing with various aspects of bringing her story to the big screen. There were several scenes with blood and violence.
2 ½ stars
Flash Movie Review: Alien: Romulus
THE THREE OF US MET AT a restaurant housed in an historical building, dating back 1 ½ centuries ago. The structure was huge, originally built to house and store train locomotives. My friend and I were going to meet a childhood friend of his who I had only met a couple of times; they had a much longer history together than I did with my friend. Once we were seated at a table, we marveled at the original brick and limestone making up the walls. Huge wooden rafters crisscrossed above our heads, like a multi highway interchange, supporting the roof. I took a couple of photos while seated, using the wide angle setting to capture the vastness of the cavernous dining room. We caught up with each other on our current state of being while the waitstaff politely checked in wondering if we needed anything to start before ordering our meals. Each of us ordered a drink and decided to order our food choices as well because we were hungry. While we waited for the food to come, my friend and his friend began reminiscing about their childhood homes that were next to each other, wondering what they must look like now. Their conversation quickly became filled with memories they shared; I simply listened and enjoyed hearing about some of their antics. ONE OF THEIR STORIES WAS ABOUT the time they ran away with a shopping cart from a store and took turns riding it as the other one pushed. They went to a short side street in their neighborhood that was on a decline. Using the cart like a sled, without the capability of steering, each of them would sit in the cart and ride it down the street until it either tipped over or crashed into the curb. Their story triggered a memory of mine; a time where my friends and I took the lids off garbage cans and used them as saucer sleds down a hill we had in our neighborhood. We did not have to own sleds, the garbage can lids worked just as well, at least the metal ones. I shared my memories with them and as the day progressed, they mentioned several other stories that triggered my memories as well. Though I did not grow up with them, I could easily understand how they felt reliving their times together because I had had similar experiences with my friends. While watching this science fiction, horror thriller, I once again found myself reminiscing about my time years ago sitting in a theater and being petrified. A SMALL GROUP OF SPACE COLONISTS see an abandoned space station as a way out. However, once aboard they make a terrifying discovery that could have far-reaching consequences. With Cailee Spaeny (Civil War, Priscilla) as Rain, David Jonsson (Industry-TV, Deep State-TV) as Andy, Archie Renaux (Morbius, The Greatest Beer Run Ever) as Tyler, Isabela Merced (Instant Family, Dora and the Lost City of Gold) as Kay and Spike Fearn (Aftersun, Sweetheart) as Bjorn; this latest installment of the long running movie franchise had slick production values, which created scenes filled with dread and tension. The music and sound editing were perfect accompaniment as well. while the cast also worked well together. As for the script, there were references to the original film; however, I do not feel one needed to have seen it to understand what was going on in this one. The story took a long time to kick into gear, where I was teetering onto boredom, but things finally picked up in a big way. With thrills and fright, I found myself tapping into my memories of watching the 1979 film. I felt more connected to the past characters than the ones in this picture. However, the visual and audio stimuli kept me engaged along with my memories.
2 3/4 stars
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
I SIMPLY SAID, “HOW ARE YOU doing,” then spent the next ten minutes cringing. Looking for a housewarming gift, I went to the nearby shopping mall. I knew there were a couple of stores that could serve my purpose. While walking to the store after finding a nearby parking spot, I crossed paths with a former co-worker. What had caught my eye first was seeing a woman walking towards me with a black eye patch over one of her eyes. I then realized we used to work together. Part of me wanted to ask what happened but I did not want to make her uncomfortable; so, I just said “Hi, it is so good to see you.” She replied in kind and then I said those four fateful words, “How are you doing?” and she pointed to the eye patch and asked me how I liked her new accessory. Before I could think of something to say, she began telling me what happened to her. She had woken up one morning and saw a halo around everything she was seeing around her. She knew that was a warning sign for a detached retina, so called the eye doctor immediately and they rushed her that day for an appointment. I stood there listening to every procedure the doctor had to do on her eyeball to correct her situation. From numbing this to removing that, with detailed descriptions of all the instruments being used, I was close to being nauseous. I have a thing about eyes. It was more information than I ever needed to know. I AM ALL FOR A GOOD story but sometimes people, like the co-worker I mentioned, share more information that people may not need to hear. On the other hand, I recently saw my neighbor at the grocery store. He is a recent widower. Going up to him, I asked how he was doing. He explained he was teaching himself how to cook. I offered my help, though I am a novice. He said he wanted to make one of his wife’s favorite dinner meals. He shared with me his memory of his first time eating it while they were dating. By listening to him, I found out they had been married for 50 years. They met in high school and through those years they dated on and off on a casual basis. When they discovered they were accepted at the same university, their dating became serious. It was such a beautiful story; I teared up and was grateful he shared it with me. So, you see, sometimes hearing about the background to a story is an added plus. Unfortunately, we cannot pick and choose which stories we want to hear. For this prequel, I still am not sure if I needed to know all about it. YEARS BEFORE HE WOULD BECOME THE president of Panem, a young Coriolanus Snow, played by Tom Blyth (Scott and Sid, Billy the Kid-TV) was smitten by a young tribute from District 12. With Rachel Zegler (West Side Story, Shazam! Fury of the Gods) as Lucy Gray Baird, Viola Davis (The Woman King, The Unforlivable) as Dr. Volumnia Gaul, Fionnula Flanagan (Sight, The Others) as Grandma’am, and Hunter Schafer (Cuckoo, Euphoria-TV) as Tigris; this action, adventure, dramatic thriller left me with mixed feelings. There were some exciting scenes, but there were some that went flat. I enjoyed the sets and costumes, especially Viola Davis’s character which she made a real force on screen. From what I remember about the previous films, this one’s script lacked emotional punch and excitement. I do not want to say it is because they did not have Jennifer Lawrence, but I will say it was a combination of the cast and directing that created bland scenes. I also was not that thrilled with how the story turned out. I do not believe one needs to see the other movies to watch this one. Because this science fiction film is already becoming forgettable to me, I do not think there is a strong need to know the pre-story to the Hunger Games saga.
2 ½ stars
Flash Movie Review: Trigger Warning
IT HAD BEEN A LONG TIME since I had been back in my old neighborhood. A friend wanted to see where I had grown up, so we took a drive to the north side of the city, where I was born. Our first stop was the apartment building where my family had lived. As I drove up to it, the building looked cleaner than I had remembered it. The windows were new with brown vinyl molding around them. How I remembered the old windows, where we would have to slide the screens off before winter and replace them with a storm winter window to keep the frigid cold out of our apartment. I noticed the front doors had metal boxes with the doorbells on them. When I lived there the doorbells were inside the lobby. On one of the front doors there was a for sale sign. I was stunned to the point I had to pull over and run out to see what was for sale. It turned out the apartments were converted to condominiums. And the price was a bigger surprise. I had to drive around the alley to see the back of the building and was confronted with another major surprise. What used to be the basement where we had storage lockers, washers and dryers was now indoor parking spots. The third surprise was seeing the back porches and stairways were all enclosed now. Wow, no more talking to the neighbors sitting out on their porches. AFTER I GOT OVER THE INITIAL shock of seeing the changes in my childhood home, I drove us around the neighborhood to show my friend places that held special memories for me. Passing first my high school, it looked close to the same except all the doors were now metal security doors and every classroom had a window unit air conditioner. There still was the asphalt baseball diamond with blades of grass spearing out of its cracks. As we continued to drive around, with me pointing out various places that had meaning to me, we wound up at the commercial street where we did most of our shopping. The area was unrecognizable to me. Gone was our grocery store, pharmacy, my favorite fast-food restaurant, and the clothing store where I got my very first suit. I could not get over the difference; there were various small, independent shops with handmade signs in various languages. I remembered a pristine-looking street but what I saw now was loose newspaper pages, empty cans and wrappers scattered about. I found it sad and tired looking, nothing that I remembered from when I was growing up. My memories painted a prettier picture, which led me to believe the main character in this action, crime thriller was experiencing the same thing when she returned home. RETURNING HOME AFTER HER FATHER HAD died in a tragic accident, a special forces commando riles up a violent gang when she starts looking for answers to the questions, she has about the circumstances involved around her father’s death. With Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four franchise, Sin City) as Parker, Mark Webber (Flesh and Blood, The End of Love) as Jesse, Anthony Michael Hall (War Machine, Live by Night) as Ezekiel, Alejandro De Hoyos (The Contractor, The Man from Toronto) as Harry and Tone Bell (Sylvie’s Love, The Weekend) as Spider; this film served my purpose. After being on vacation for a few weeks, I was looking for a short mindless diversion to all the built-up work that accumulated while I was away. That is the only positive thing I can say about this movie. Both the story and script were a cheap knock-off of other films from this genre that were done better. Nothing felt connected to me; the acting, the characters and scenes all seemed as if the cast and crew just wanted to get the picture done quickly. Plus, it was predictable. The only reason to see this film is if you have time to waste with nothing else to do.
1 ½ stars
moviejoltz 