This week The Movie Mensch saw three of the big releases that Hollywood produced and for those wondering how many, if any, you should see, well, we’ve got your answers.
First off, I’ll give you my quick thoughts on each of the three films and then check out the link below for my full thoughts on the weekly ScreenPicks.com movie podcast.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back: We enjoyed, but did not love, 2012’s Jack Reacher and was frankly surprised that the film was giving a sequel. But when your star, Tom Cruise, is the producer and he wants a second franchise beyond Mission Impossible, then he gets a second franchise beyond Mission Impossible.
The second Jack Reacher is an improvement on the first, not that that is saying much. But, this time out Cruise appears to be slightly in autopilot mode and kind of mailing it in. He could play these characters in his sleep, and although he doesn’t quite do that here… he seems more engaged in his last turn as Ethan Hunt. The headline in this production is the performance of Cobie Smulders. The star kicks serious ass as a military woman who is drawn into Reacher’s latest military controversy and rises to the occasion to save his name and save the day.
Grade: B-
Ouija: Origins of Evil: The first Ouija movie failed on so many levels. It continued the trend of films that were made from board games that never quite clicked. What is so astounding about Ouija: Origins of Evil is it comes off as an Oscar-worthy film compared to the first one.
The prequel takes place in the mid-60s and finds Elizabeth Reaser as Alice Zander. She’s a séance holder, who is more scam artist than seer of the dead. When her daughter Lina (Annalise Basso) brings home an Ouija board, at first mom thinks it is a great tool for their speaking to the dead shtick. Suddenly, when Alice’s youngest daughter Doris (a stunning Lulu Wilson) plays the game by herself trying to speak to her recently dead father, it unleashes a demonic force that no one in the family is prepared for.
Ouija: Origins of Evil is a pretty horrifying and stunningly scary film that is a great addition to the Halloween movie landscape in the days leading up to the October holiday.
Grade: B+
American Pastoral: Ewan McGregor chose a Philip Roth Pulitzer Prize winning book to make his directorial debut. Good choice or an example of someone who reaches for the stars and doesn’t quite get there. Well, it’s more the former actually as American Pastoral is a deeply moving portrait of an American family torn apart by the issues that tore apart the country in the 1960s.
McGregor plays the patriarch, with Jennifer Connolly giving another great performance as the matriarch. But it is Dakota Fanning’s turn as the rebellious turned revolutionary daughter that makes this film truly tick. When she disappears after being charged with a bombing in their quaint little town, her powerful turn is felt when he character fails to be on the screen for a good hour. It is quite the feat.
McGregor is quite the first time director and our take-away above all else from American Pastoral is we cannot wait to see what the Scotsman does next.
Grade: A-
Check out my full thoughts on all three films with the ScreenPicks podcast below:
Next week, The Movie Mensch reviews Inferno. Yup… Dan Brown and Tom Hanks are back at it!