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Flash Movie Review: The Beekeeper
SOMETIME IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, I CANNOT remember the year, I learned even when you are in the right, you do not always win. We were playing the game of tag in the school playground during recess. All of us were running around to avoid getting tagged. At some point I could not spot the tagger. Right then, he jumped out behind a group of girls and pushed me while yelling, “Tag, you are it!” As I started to fall, I instinctively extended my arms out to break the fall. However, by doing so, I accidentally scratched a girl’s arm as I fell. She ran and told a teacher, and I got in trouble. I tried explaining my side of the story to the assistant principal but could see she had already made up her mind and did not care what I had to say. I was not allowed to go out for recess the rest of the week as punishment. I was angry about it because it was not my fault; it was not like I was trying to scratch her on purpose. The boy who pushed me never got in trouble. It was on that day I learned something that I have seen from time to time: Not all “bad” people get punished for their deeds. AT ONE OF MY EARLIER JOBS, I had a boss who was a horrible man. It was several months in my position before I decided he had a “Napoleon” complex, also known as short man syndrome. He was aggressive and domineering, treated all his employees as if they were his personal butlers and/or slaves. I will never forget the time he took his hairbrush out of his drawer and handed it to an employee, telling them to clean it. The employee hesitated for moment, I think out of shock; but my boss noticed and yelled at them to stop dawdling. I realized right then that I had it easier because he would toss me the keys to his car and tell me to take it to the carwash. I had no issue doing it, but I did not know what I would do if I had to clean his hairbrush. In my position and being observant, I was convinced he was stealing from the company. Some customers came in and paid cash for their orders. My boss always worked with those individuals. Because one of the items sold was not a stock item, I remembered it but never saw the receipt for the sale. After some digging for the next couple of weeks, I realized that my boss was making the sales but pocketing the cash. From my time there, he never got caught and because I was still in school, I felt no one would listen to me, the newest employee. It proved to me again that bad people do not always suffer the consequences of their actions. With my mind set on this way of thinking, you will understand why I had such an enjoyable time watching this action thriller. A MAN WITH A MYSTERIOUS PAST sets out on a mission of vengeance after he sees what happens to the nicest woman he ever met. With Jason Statham (The Meg franchise, Wrath of Man) as Adam Clay, Emmy Raver-Lampman (Blacklight, Central Park-TV) as Agent Verona Parker, Bobby Naderi (Bright, Under the Shadow) as Agent Matt Wiley, Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games franchise, Five Nights at Freddy’s) as Derek Danforth and Jeremy Irons (The Flash, Assassin’s Creed) as Wallace Westwyld; if you are a fan of the John Wick franchise then you will enjoy this movie. The script is perfectly suited for Jason’s acting abilities, with a touch of humor and brutality. There were multiple scenes of heavy violence and blood. Despite the illogical and farfetched scenes, I still enjoyed all the thrills and non-stop action. This is one of those pictures where you sit back and do not put a lot of thought into what is taking place; just sit and go with the story. I will say I was surprised with the way the story turned out, finding it interesting for this type of genre. And especially for me, I enjoyed the lesson being taught. Check your brain at the door if you plan to see this killer of a movie.
2 ¾ stars
Flash Movie Review: Leave the World Behind
MORE TIMES THAN NOT, WHENEVER I must go inside the bank to see a teller, I get a brief perplexed look when I tell them I do not have an ATM card. It is automatic for them to ask their customers to swipe their ATM card to begin the transaction. When I say I do not have one, they look up at me with this odd look before asking for a form of ID. I am so used to it now that it does not bother me. There is something about doing online banking that makes me uncomfortable. Who knows, maybe if I start traveling more and cannot always be back home to pay a bill on time, I might have to make arrangements to make payments online; however, for now, I am not interested in doing such a thing. I do not know what it is, but the more things turn to electronic internet-based methods, the more leery I become. Recently I discovered with my new vehicle I can lock, unlock, and start it with my phone. No one at the dealership mentioned it; I just happened to come across it when I was looking for something on the app that was downloaded to my phone when I purchased the vehicle. Though the idea of starting my car before I get inside of it on a cold wintery day sounds appealing, I am unsettled about the prospects that this app might be something that hackers would attack to take my car away from me or get used if I am the victim of a carjacking. These are things I think of. THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS OUT there that I could get stuck dwelling on. Such a great idea of the air tags to keep track of one’s luggage when traveling, but then I find out ex-partners/stalkers use them to track their victim. Or I know someone out of state who drives an electric car. There was a power outage that lasted several days. They were not able to drive their car because they did not have sufficient time to charge it. Though I certainly benefit from some of the technical achievements brought into our world, I am concerned that too much will be operated through a sole source that could wind up giving us a negative experience. There are refrigerators, washers, dryers, automobiles, picture frames, televisions, and many more that are “cloud” based. I worry what if the power goes out or there is a computer malfunction or worse, a computer attack that brings everything to a standstill? Watching this dramatic, mystery thriller did nothing to soothe my concerns. WHEN TWO STRANGERS COME TO THE house that a family has rented for vacation, claiming they are the owners, the family members have no way to see if the strangers’ story is true because the internet was down. With Julia Roberts (Ticket to Paradise, Ben is Back) as Amanda Sandford, Mahershala Ali (Green Book, Swan Song) as G.H. Scott, Ethan Hawke (The Black Phone, The Northman) as Clay Sandford, Myha’la (Dumb Money, Bodies Bodies Bodies) as Ruth Scott and Farrah Mackenzie (Logan Lucky, Ascension) as Rose Sandford; this film was disturbing. It started out slowly, but as it moved along the tension kept building. The cast did a wonderful job with their acting, blending well with each other. For me, there were parts of the story that were uncomfortable and scary; but then some scenes seemed odd, not making much sense. I thought the writers were adding things into the story just to scare the viewer, even if they were not relevant to the story. By the time the ending came along, I was disappointed. The idea for this story was excellent; it sure made me react to it. Also, I felt it was a topic that might be on many people’s minds. I just wished the writers dug deeper into the characters and painted a broader picture of the world around us.
2 ½ stars
Flash Movie Review: The Killer
THROUGH THE YEARS, THE TALENT I saw in employees went from one extreme to the other, from crazy to amazing and everything in between. I recently told you about the switchboard operator who dropped acid. Believe me, she was just one of many characters I used to work with at my various jobs. At one place, I sat across a fellow employee who was obsessed with keeping their workspace perfectly clean. I mean to the point they would spray half a can of sanitizer all over their desk after removing everything off it. This meant they were disconnecting their phone and computer every day for this deep cleaning. The amount of sanitizer that they sprayed was so thick that you could see a cloud of it forming above them as they began to wipe everything down. Another employee at the same company threw off our supply budget because of the amount of paper towels she went through each day, washing her hands, face, and meal utensils that she kept individually wrapped in a plastic storage bag. It was obvious to me that both these individuals had OCD issues. I could at least understand where they came from with their daily rituals. But what can you say about the new employee who on their first day of work, kept leaving their training to ask a fellow employee if they could go out for lunch sometime. It was a form of harassment that the person had the power to correct but chose not to do so. The Human Resources department terminated their position. ONE OF MY MAIN GOALS AT my various jobs was to avoid conflict. I cannot manage drama, both at home and at the office. From the different companies I have worked at, I usually will study those employees who display vast knowledge and skills in their line of work. Though it is a cliché, I want to learn from the best. There was an employee at one company who not only had the knowledge for what their job required, but they also had the temperament. It was fascinating watching this person in a meeting because when asked to explain something, they would be able to communicate it in easy terms for the rest of us to understand. Their knowledge of the inner workings of the company was vast; they were like the resource center for the employees. I have to say it was impressive to see someone so skilled at their job. If my occupation were in the same field (gratefully not) as the main character in this action, crime film he would be someone I would watch and study. WHEN AN ASSASSIN MISSES HIS INTENDED target, not only was his reputation put in jeopardy but his life as well. With Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs, The Light Between Oceans) as The Killer, Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton, Three Thousand Years of Longing) as The Expert, Charles Parnell (A Million Little Pieces, The Last Ship-TV) as The Lawyer-Hodges, Arliss Howard (The Time Traveler’s Wife, Full Metal Jacket) as The Client-Claybourne and Kerry O’Malley (Cowboy Drifter, 1923-TV) as Dolores; this adventure movie was an interesting study. I thought Michael was perfect in the role. At first, I felt lost watching this picture; I was not sure where it was going. However, as the scenes unfolded, I started to appreciate the work being done in creating a sense of tension, dread, drama, along with an unbelievable, intense fight scene. If only the writers could have started adding these things in earlier, it would have made this a better viewing experience. Though this film will not win any awards, it was an interesting inside look at the mind of an assassin.
2 ½ stars
Flash Movie Review: Locked In
I KNEW HIM BEFORE AND AFTER. We were acquaintances; he was a friend of a friend of mine. He had few filters, so he shared more information about his life than most people cared to hear. However, because he was fun and engaging, many folks just went along with whatever he was saying. I am not a mind reader or psychic, but after hearing about several of his dating exploits, I had a sense he was not as interested in the person as he was in what they did for a living. The more time I spent with him socially, the more I felt I was correct about my feelings. He was looking for someone with a large bank account who could take care of him. It was not my place to judge him; if there was someone out there who wanted to take care of him, then I had no issues with it. When he talked about a recent date he was on, he did not mention some key words like fun, enjoyed, kind. He would make mention of their fancy watch or expensive car or large residence. For me, these were not important things that I cared about when dating a person. These types of comments were mentioned over and over during his “before” years. THE “AFTER” YEARS WERE THE ONES where he found what he was looking for in a date and they settled down to form a couple. The person he found came from money, something about a family company in business for a few generations. If you care to know; yes, they had an expensive watch, a fancy car and a huge home. They had traveled all over the world and as far as I could tell they loved him. My friend’s friend started coming to our social events dressed in the latest fashions, talked about the places the two of them traveled, flying to New York City for the weekend to see a Broadway show, the expensive restaurants they had visited; you get the idea. This is why I refer to him as “before and after” because there was such a drastic change in him once he found and dated someone who could provide him with all the things he had been searching for. I could not tell you if love was involved on his part; I have only heard him express his love for inanimate objects. Through my life experiences, I have never met anyone else like him except possibly one of the main characters in this dramatic, mystery thriller. LINA, PLAYED BY ROSE WILLIAMS (MRS. Harris Goes to Paris, A Quiet Passion), was grateful for the kindness her mother’s friend showed her by taking her in after her mother’s death. The kindness began to wear thin once Lina found the woman’s son attractive. With Famke Janssen (X-Men franchise, Redeeming Love) as Katherine, Alex Hassell (The Tragedy of Macbeth, Violent Night) as Doctor Lawrence, Finn Cole (F9: The Fast Sage, Peaky Blinders-TV) as Jamie and Anna Friel (Limitless, Land of the Lost) as Nurse Mackenzie; this film had the trappings of a good suspense story, but the script kept getting in the way. The characters were never fully developed, and the dialog lacked authenticity. I was drawn by the scenes with Nurse Mackenzie, but there were not enough of those good scenes to make up for poorly done ones. The twists and turns offered seemed more done to provide a shock value than giving them some added weight to make sense. I enjoyed the look of the movie and the settings, but again, I did not feel a connection to the characters. This film was more like a jigsaw puzzle, where the writers took bits and pieces of other films and recreated them for this one without giving much thought to the fact, they made no sense.
1 ¾ stars
Flash Movie Review: Thriller 40
WALKING INTO A CLUB ALONE FOR the first time can be a daunting experience. I remember being nervous because I was not the best when it came to making small talk. On the other hand, I did not realize the music would be so loud that I could barely hear the person standing next to me. The first time I went to a club, I spent the whole time standing just off the dance floor, watching people dancing on what looked like a stainless-steel dance floor. I was fascinated at the way people were dancing, some were on the beat, others were not, some thought they were doing the same moves that John Travolta did in Saturday Night Fever but were not. It was interesting watching how people went up to strangers to ask them for a dance. I felt safe in my little nook overlooking the dance floor and preferred to just be an observer. In my brain, it was important for me to feel like I was fitting in with the crowd; I simply was interested in what people wore, how they moved and when I could hear how they talked to each other. Honestly, being a people watcher by nature I loved the experience. And I also had the video monitors that were spread throughout the club that were always a nice diversion. My usual time frame was to stay between 2-4 hours. As I made my way home, I would try to remember certain songs I had heard through the night that I liked, to see if I could purchase them. IT WAS ONLY AFTER A FEW times going that something extraordinary took place one night. Everything was the same; I was standing in my nook watching everything around me while tapping my foot to the beat of the music playing. The monitors that were all playing music videos suddenly went dark and the music stopped. People turned, looking at each other with perplexed looks on their faces. Suddenly words appeared on the screens; it was a quote from Michael Jackson. Then an image of an old car appeared driving down a country road. Michael was behind the wheel. No one moved in the club; everyone’s attention was directed at what was taking place on the monitor screens. The only sound in the place was the ice clinking in people’s glasses. After the car ran out of gas the scene changed to Michael and his date walking down the lane. It was not much longer before Michael started singing and dancing around her. I had never seen a video go this long and, more impressively, told a story. It was just like a movie! If by chance anyone reading this has never seen the video, I will not mention any more details about it. Let me just say everyone in the club went wild with the video. After it was over the DJ played the song again and everyone, I mean everyone including me, packed onto the dance floor as we all tried imitating some of the dance moves while laughing and smiling at each other. That is the way I was able to break the ice with several people that night and wound-up becoming friends with them. All thanks to that extended Michael Jackson video. IT IS FORTY YEARS LATER AND as you can see; I still remember the first time I ever saw that video. Prior to its debut, there was nothing like it in the music industry. This documentary directed by Nelson George (Finding the Funk, A Ballerina’s Tale) was a behind the scenes peek at the creation of the Thriller video. If you are not a fan of Michael’s music, then you probably would not get much out of this movie. Because of my fond memories, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this picture filled with personal interviews of people involved back then, along with current artists like Mary J. Blige, Brooke Shields, Misty Copeland who were affected by seeing Michael’s performances. I would have appreciated more people talking about their feelings and experiences, plus allowing the performance clips to go on longer. No matter how Michael’s career veered to his early death, at that moment in time when the Thriller album came out, it was an historical event that to this day can still move people.
3 stars
Flash Movie Review: Silent Night
I MAY HAVE MENTIONED A LONG time ago one among the many things that motivated me to lose weight was a pair of bell-bottomed pants. Seems strange when I see that statement down on print, but it was true. Bell bottoms became a fashion trend when I was in elementary school; everyone, both girls and boys, wore them. I was not able to because they did not come in my waist size. It was one of those life events that influenced me because it was then I realized my excess weight made me different from the other kids. It did not matter there were other kids bigger than me; I took it personally as if the pants manufacturing companies were picking on me. Because I desperately wanted a pair, I started dieting. Granted there were many other reasons such as being called a variety of names by the bullies of the school and the humiliation of the yearly weigh-in at the first gym class of the new school year that could have been used for motivation. All of this deeply affected me to the point I decided to do something about it and began to diet. I still remember how I would eat cottage cheese for breakfast and chicken bouillon soup with oyster crackers for lunch. I cut out desserts and after a few months maintaining this way of eating, I was rewarded by receiving a pair of blue bell-bottomed pants. OUTSIDE INFLUENCES CERTAINLY CAN BE STRONG motivators as you can see. For me it was a sense of peer pressure and peer abuse that made me change my eating habits. However, I must say I have found motivation in my dreams and vision of what kind of life I wished to live. Teaching aerobics came about because of my love of music. I took that love and choreographed a variety of moves into a routine to each song I played in class. A friend of mine could not stand to be alone with herself so she quickly found someone and married them in a matter of a couple of months. This may not have been the healthiest choice to rectify the situation. The point being, she was determined to take matters into her own hands and force her way to a marriage. One never knows what is in store for them that triggers such a strong response; outside factors mixed in with one’s emotions can truly become a powerful event. Though it might be tough for some viewers to watch, this action thriller directed by John Woo (Red Cliff franchise, Face/Off) shows what a person can do when they experience a strong outside factor. WHEN HIS SON WAS KILLED IN the crossfire between two rival gangs, the little boy’s father begins a path that will avenge his son’s needless death. With Joel Kinnaman (RoboCop, The Suicide Squad) as Brian Godlock, Catalina Sandino Moreno (A Most Violet Year, Marie Full of Grace) as Saya, Kid Cudi (Need for Speed, House Party) as Vassell, Harold Torres (Memory, Run Coyote Run-TV) as Playa and Vinny O’Brien (Stoker Hills, Jexi) as Anthony Barello Esq.; this violent and bloody film took me by surprise because there was no dialog in the movie. I appreciated the premise of the story, but I thought the execution of it was too slow paced. For the first half of the picture, I noticed I was getting bored. If one does not use dialog, then the actors must be able to communicate with their faces and that was the issue I had with the movie. Joel, I felt, did not effectively communicate with his facial expressions. The action when it finally came, was intense and as I said earlier, violent and bloody. There also was a sense of non-believability in several scenes. By the time the film ended, I was left with a sense of emptiness, no feelings either way which I bet I could convey without saying a word out loud.
2 stars
Flash Movie Review: Meg 2: The Trench
TO ME, ENTREES ARE SIMPLY THE vehicles that get me to desserts. I always like to say I want to have something sweet as the last thing I taste at a meal. I have always been like this, even when I was a small boy. In fact, there were many times I would avoid eating everything on my plate so I would have room to eat dessert. Gratefully for me, I made changes to my eating habits so I would not stuff myself with sweets after lunch or dinner and gain hundreds of pounds. It is funny, if it is homemade desserts, I can chow down on them. If they are store bought, I have better self-control. However, as I have gotten older that idiom, “too much of a good thing” has come into play. These days if I overeat too much sugar, I feel lethargic and heavy, not to mention feeling guilty. I do not know what it is about homemade sweets, but if I love them on first bite you can rest assured, I will go for more of it. There is a way that works for me on how to control my urge to overeat on desserts. If possible, I will freeze dessert items, then slowly dole them out to myself throughout the weeks. This way I won’t find myself getting ill from eating so much of a good thing. MY PHILOSOPHY OF TOO MUCH OF a good thing, is not good for you covers more than eating desserts. I recently discovered a supplement I was taking twice a day was the reason for my stomach issues. In my brain, I thought if I took more of the product, I would feel better faster; it turns out that was not the case. Since I stopped doubling the dose, I have been feeling much better. Another area I noticed where moderation could come in handy is the application of people’s makeup. I have seen individuals with so much makeup on their face that you can see where it cracks from their expressions. I know this is my personal taste, but I am also not a fan of houses that are decorated with an overabundance of holiday items. Do not get me wrong, I am on board when the decorations are within a theme; however, when there appears to be no rhyme or reason to how the decorations are placed on the lawn, the house, the surrounding trees/bushes and garages, it looks like a mess to me, and things just get loss in the mass of a glowing aura around the property. To sum up, all that I am saying is it is not necessarily a good thing to have so much more of something that it loses its distinctiveness. It certainly was the case in this action, adventure horror film. WHILE ON AN EXPEDITION AT THE bottom of the ocean, a research team discovers an unknown mining operation wreaking havoc with nature’s boundaries. What ensues could tip the balance of power in nature’s pecking order. With Jason Statham (Wrath of Man, Wild Card) as Jonas Taylor, Jing Wu (Wolf Warrior franchise, The Wandering Earth) as Jiuming Zhang, Shuya Sophia Cai (Somewhere Only We Know, The Meg) as Meiying, Cliff Curtis (Doctor Sleep, Risen) as Mac and Page Kennedy (Bad Roomies, The Upshaws-TV) as OJ; this film took what was in the original movie and supersized everything. I will say there were some exciting action sequences and a few thrills; but overall, I found the script a clumsy mess. The dialog was stunted, and it had a formulaic plot. For Jason, this picture was geared to him; it was loaded with a bunch of action scenes. For me, I would have preferred more depth and variation in the story and scenes. This is one fish fry that you might want to miss.
1 ¾ stars
Flash Movie Review: Five Nights at Freddy’s
ONE OF MY EARLIEST MEMORIES OF amusement parks was me vomiting into a trash container. I remember the park because the ride I got sick on was one of those haunted, fun house attractions. There was a huge head that looked like an evil genie perched above the entryway, with its eyes moving from side to side as if scanning the park for its next victims. It was a family outing with a group of relatives and for the younger ones, which included me, this was our first time attending the amusement park. When I walked into the fun house, it was nearly pitch-black inside. There were objects that glowed and appeared to be floating in the air. At certain turns a mechanical figure would spring out to scare onlookers who were walking by. Being so young, I did jump and get scared multiple times; but, with my relatives nearby I never got to the point of being crying scared. I remember we came to a juncture where we had to go through a door that had cobwebs on it. Once we were through, we heard the door lock. We continued walking until we found ourselves in a dark space where the walls were formed into a full circle. As we gently walked into it, the continuous wall started to turn. In other words, it was like walking into a barrel that started rolling down a hill, but this rolling device stayed in one place. I could not keep my balance, constantly falling. As the pictures on the walls rolled by, I started to feel nauseous. Miraculously the spinning stopped, and a hidden door opened into the sunlight. I staggered out and made it to the trash container in time before my stomach decided to evacuate all its contents. ONE WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT WOULD have been my last time at an amusement park; but because of my earlier enjoyment of rides and carnival foods, I ventured to other amusement parks and learned what attractions were more agreeable with me and my body. I was a sucker for the games of chance, convinced I could win a stuffed animal easily. There was the shooting gallery where water guns were used to hit a target that would inflate a balloon. The first balloon to pop would be the winner. I never won that game. I also failed at the ring toss on top of a glass bottle and the pseudo basketball hoop game. I believe it was after a couple of years that I finally won one of those games; throwing a ball to knock off from their shelves, three hairy troll dolls. Out of the prizes offered, I chose a small, stuffed purple monkey. I felt so proud of myself. It was a good thing I did not have the knowledge then to add up how much it cost my family to pay for all the tries I took to finally win that small stuffed animal. There were so many different amusement parks I used to attend and gratefully not one of them was like the one in this mystery, horror thriller. DESPERATE TO EARN MONEY TO KEEP his daughter, a down on his luck father takes a nighttime security guard job at an abandoned amusement park. What he would experience would be worse than any of the rides. With Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games franchise, The Long Home) as Mike, Piper Rubio (Holly & Ivy, For All Mankind-TV) as Abby, Elizabeth Lail (Countdown, Ordinary Joe-TV) as Vanessa, Matthew Lillard (Scooby-Doo franchise, The Descendants) as Steve Raglan and Mary Stuart Masterson (Fried Green Tomatoes, Blindspot-TV) as Aunt Jane; this movie based on a video game was lost on me. Maybe if one was familiar with the game, the movie would make better sense; I found it simply odd and dull. I enjoyed Josh’s and Mary’s performances, but the script was a jumble of things that were never fully explained. As the movie was nearing its end, I thought the story was weird and made little sense. It might be best to take your money and use it to spend a day at an amusement park. There was an extra scene during the ending credits.
1 ½ stars
Flash Movie Review: Fair Play
AT A BUSINESS EVENT, I WAS introduced to a husband and wife, where the wife was the major breadwinner in the family. She was the head of her department that employed over 100 people. Their work directly affected the financial stability of the company. Her husband worked but I was not clear about what he did for a living. From the various times I ran into them at business functions, he was always there no matter where in the country the event was being held. I have known many couples where one makes a substantial amount of more money, so I am never surprised by such things. But here is the interesting thing I found with this couple; I have been around attendees and co-workers of the wife who mention the husband is a freeloader. They say he comes to every business event that involves a free meal. It is funny, because I have attended various events that served a meal, but I am not a fan of buffets. Hearing these comments made me wonder if they would have said the same thing if the husband’s and wife’s roles were reversed, where he was the major money earner, and the wife was not. The times I have been around the couple, I never got a sense that he was threatened or upset that his wife made more money than him. ON THE OPPOSITE END OF THE spectrum, I know a couple where the husband and wife both worked, but the wife had a difficult time remaining at a job. I knew she did not have a college education, not that it always means something, but it seemed to me she did not want to work. She was taking temporary jobs, working with a temp agency. One job would last one month, then she would have a couple of weeks off before she got assigned to another company. As time went on, it seemed as if her time off between jobs was being extended further and further. Normally, I would not pay attention to any of this because it is not my business; however, whenever I was around the two of them the husband would make passive aggressive remarks about her not earning her keep. For example, she was talking about a wedding they were going to attend and how she wanted to get a new outfit for it. Her husband suggested, in that pseudo kidding way, she find a job to pay for the outfit; except, I could tell he was not kidding. It came to the point I was uncomfortable engaging with them when they were together. I was feeling that same uncomfortableness as I watched the main characters in this dramatic, mystery thriller. WORKING AT THE SAME COMPANY CAN be challenging for a couple. Especially, when the policy frowns on such relationships. When one of the couple’s job duties changes, it sets in motion a series of events that test the couple’s resolve. With Phoebe Dynevor (The Colour Room, Bridgerton-TV) as Emily, Alden Ehrenreich (Oppenheimer, Cocaine Bear) as Luke, Eddie Marsan (Happy-G0-Lucky, Vera Drake) as Campbell, Rich Sommer (The Devil Wears Prada, Mad Men-TV) as Paul and Sebastian De Souza (Kids in Love, Medici-TV) as Rory; I thought Phoebe and Alden were excellent as a couple. The range of emotions they displayed made for some exciting moments in the story. I was fully engaged as the story unfolded, fascinated with not only the emotional side of the story but the business side as well. Unfortunately, the last part of the movie did not maintain the clarity of the story. I was getting confused and thought the script dipped into comic book theatrics. Also, it seemed as if the characters lost some of their authenticity. This could have been a fascinating study of gender equality/inequality, but the message got somewhat lost.
2 ¾ stars
moviejoltz 