JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK: 3 STARS
Who exactly is Jack Reacher? If you are a reader, he’s the protagonist of 20 books by British author Lee Child. If you’re a moviegoer, he’s a bone-crunching former major in the U.S. Army Military Police Corps who looks a lot like Tom Cruise. According to the new movie “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,” he’s “the guy you didn't count on.”
When we first see Reacher it’s four years after his exploits in his eponymous debut film. With the help of Maj. Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) he has just broken up—and beaten up—a ring of smugglers. When he arrives in Washington to thank her, and possibly wine and dine her, he is shocked to discover she's been court-martialled, accused of espionage. His efforts to get to the bottom of the case suggest she was arrested because she had a hard drive with sensitive info. “What did you expect,” he’s asked, “a picture of her in a Burka and having drinks with the Taliban?”
After a daring prison break, he and Turner hit the road, trading quips and punching faces with a deadly ex-military hitman (Patrick Heusinger) hot on their trail. Their efforts to clear her name and uncover a far-reaching conspiracy are complicated by the presence of Samantha (Danika Yarosh), a 15-year-old who may or may not be Reacher’s daughter.
The addition of a kid changes the dynamic of the film. The first Reacher movie was a fun but violent ride, designed to keep fans of Cruise’s action-man persona happy until the next “Mission Impossible” instalment came along. It was an old-fashioned movie, the kind of flick that Steven Seagal might have starred in circa 1992. It was a bare-bones action movie and predictable but Van Dammit, taken for what it was, it was also a bit of fun.
The new one delivers much of what we expect—the Statham-esque levels of hand-to-hand kickassery and the Tom Cruise Run©, hands extended, are present—but this is a kinder, gentler Reacher. He’s still a violent animal who can kill you in 300 different ways, but he’s more human now. At least he’s not a total monster, even while he’s snapping someone’s spine.
The movie bare-knuckles its way through the story at a breakneck pace. Cruise and Smulders are sort of a Mr. & Mrs. Smith, a deadly duo who never allow romance to get in the way of their appetite for bodily destruction. Their relationship is a mix of “Roadhouse”- style fighting and cutesy rom-com dialogue.
It all adds up to an action movie for those who like a dose of sentimentality with their spinal injuries.
OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL: 3 STARS
Ever since a Ouija Board connected Captain Howdy to Regan MacNeil in “The Exorcist,” filmmakers have used the spirit boards as a way to plunge their characters into deep demonic trouble.
In 2014, a group of friends uncorked some supernatural woes in “Ouija.” Now comes a prequel (insert spooky Theremin music here), “Ouija: Origin of Evil.” Set almost 50 years before the events of the first film, the action takes place in 1967 Los Angeles.
Looking for a way to freshen up their sham séance business, Alice Zander (Elizabeth Reaser) a.k.a. Madame Zander Fortune Teller and her daughters Paulina (Annalise Basso) and Doris (Lulu Wilson) run a home séance business, specializing in parlour tricks to comfort the living relatives of the recently deceased. “We give them closure,” says Alice. “We heal their hearts and you can't do that without some showmanship.”
To freshen up their act and attract new customers Alice adds in a Ouija Board. “What this?” asks Doris. “A new prop for work,” replies Alice cheerily. What she doesn’t know is that the harmless looking board is also a gateway for demons and all manner of unspeakable supernatural strife.
When young Doris uses the witchboard to contact her dear, departed father she becomes possessed by a most unwelcome spirit. “I believe she is channelling powers we cannot understand,” says Father Tom Hogan (Henry Thomas).
Is “Ouija: Origin of Evil” a vast improvement on the 2014 original? The planchette (the Ouija’s triangular cursor) points to Yes. If “Ouija” was one of the lamest mainstream horror films of recent memory, its prequel is one of the best.
Director Mike Flanagan provides jumps, scares, creepy visions and a suitably spooky visualization of the demonic possession, but brings generally more atmosphere than actual thrills. Instead he builds tension throughout, slowly working up to a ghost story climax that delivers solid scares.
He’s aided greatly by the youngest member of his cast, Lulu Wilson, who has a face that switches instantly from endearing to eerie. As the spirits possess her she takes on a creepy-kid face that could win her an award for weirdest kid since “Children of the Corn.”
Add in some Nazi doctors, spirits nosier than whoever is spying on you through your iPhone right now and a mysterious hole in the basement wall and you have a welcome addition to the Ouija Board genre.
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: 2 STARS
It’s hard to know how to classify “Keeping Up with the Joneses,” a new film starring Jon Hamm, Gal Gadot, Isla Fisher and Zach Galifianakis. Billed as an action comedy, it contains as many laughs as your average Jason Bourne movie, and as much action as your typical comedy. If anything, it’s a study of quietly desperate suburban life. Now that’s a barrel of laughs!
Karen and Jeff Gaffney (Fisher and Galifianakis) live a quiet life on a quiet Atlanta residential cul-de-sac. He’s a people person, a sensitive HR head at tech giant MBI, she’s a designer and neighbourhood busybody. He doesn't like spicy food, she doesn’t like the new, impossibly good-looking couple, Natalie and Tim Jones (Gal Gadot and Jon Hamm), who have moved in across the street.
Tim is a travel writer who speaks many languages, Natalie devotes time to charity and does a food blog. The couples seem to have nothing in common—the Gaffneys idea of travelling is going to Epcot—"You can do every country in like three blocks"—and yet a friendship is struck until some snooping reveals the neighbourhood newbies are actually spies working on a case. Seems the cul-de-sac is a hotbed of international intrigue and the Gaffneys may be involved.
“Keeping Up with the Joneses” is an odd couples movie with so few laughs its hard to believe it was directed by the Greg Mottola, who also gave us “Superbad” and the ET comedy “Paul.” The “they’re not who they seem to be” premise is either a classic or a tired bit, depending on your point of view. Either way, a twist or two could have freshened the screwball idea up but instead Mottola shrugs the heavy lifting onto Galifianakis and Fisher. Both can be funny and both will do almost anything to get a laugh but no amount of slapstick and face pulling can inject yuks into what is a sitcom idea stretched thin.
But at least there’s some action, right? Not so fast. There are a handful of tame action sequences synced to lame music that appears lifted from a 1980s action adventure TV show.
So, with few laughs and lame action what’s left? Hamm’s rugged good looks? Gadot’s cheekbones? Check and check, both are on display but their genetic gifts are not enough to make their characters interesting.
“Keeping Up with the Joneses” will make you jones for laughs and action.
MEAN DREAMS: 3 STARS
The word “hardscrabble” comes to mind while watching “Mean Dreams,” a new thriller from director Nathan Morlando. The two lead characters, star-crossed teenagers Casey (Sophie Nelisse) and Jonas (Josh Wiggins), don’t have any easy go of it. Her father Wayne (Bill Paxton) is a physically abusive drunk, while Jonas’s dad treats the 15-year-old like an adult. It’s a hard-knock life, one that forces the two to mature quickly and make grown-up decisions.
Casey and Wayne are new to town. Wayne divides his time between drinking and looking for ways out of their new podunk town. He’s a lawman with little respect for the law, anything or anyone, including his daughter. When Wayne almost kills Jonas, Casey’s new neighbour and love interest, and local law enforcement (Colm Feore) doesn’t seem interested in helping, the young man takes it on himself to put some space between his new girlfriend and her abusive father. Their new life begins with the theft of $1 million in drug money, an action that brings serious consequences.
Echoes of “Badlands,” Terrence Malick’s 1973 tale of young love on the run, hang heavy over “Mean Dreams.“ Casey and Jonas are more innocent than Holly Sargis (Sissy Spacek) and Kit Carruthers (Martin Sheen) but their journey into antisocial behaviour rings a bell. Director Morlando may not be treading new ground here, but emotionally he veers off the beaten track, adding elements of innocence among the wolves that lends the story a welcome human aspect and motivation for their actions.
The villains—Paxton and (SPOILER ALERT) Feore are suitably villainous, amoral and sleazy excuses for human beings, but it’s too bad they feel like they just stepped out of Central Casting. Paxton is undeniably entertaining as the ruthless and vicious father figure, but he’s a mish-mash of every redneck creep we’ve seen before. Feore is given even less dimension, but is an imposing figure nonetheless.
The real heart and soul of “Mean Dreams” lies with Nelisse and Wiggins. If we don’t care about them, we don’t care about the movie but the two young leads are appealing even when they are pushed to extremes.
THE HOTEL DIEU: 3 STARS
“The Hotel Dieu” is an earnest coming-of-age story about the emotional aftermath of a serious car accident. Teenager Luke (Andrew Rotilio) and brother Travis (Charlie Hamilton) survive, but the younger man is left with permanent damage to his eyes. As his treatment at the Hotel Dieu progresses, so do his chances of regaining his sight but his recovery brings with it sobering realizations about his life. Therapist Dr. Lawrence (Bob Douglas) and fellow patient Jade (Jessica Siegner) aid Luke in his physical and emotional recovery. First-time feature director Adrian Thiessen makes the most of a micro-budget, presenting a handsome-looking movie that occasionally drifts into melodrama but stays on track by virtue of solid performances.
