Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of June 28, 2021
The Boss Baby: Family Business
Rated PG for rude humor, mild language and some action
In theaters and streaming on Peacock
Taking place years after the events of the first Boss Baby, Tim (voice of James Marsden) and his little brother Ted (Alec Baldwin) are now adults who have drifted away from each other. Tim now has a young family and Ted is a lonely billionaire (as expected). But when adults become endangered by the whims of a maniacal school master (Jeff Goldblum) the brothers combine forces (having been magically converted to their original young selves) in order to take on the threat. Honestly, I expected so much less from this project. I found the original rather dumb with only an occasional clever reference, and the basic premise just didn’t make enough sense. Luckily, the story here is much more universal, and although the plot, and much of its points, are absolutely ridiculous, due to its crazy frenetic energy and pure confidence in its own silly directive, the movie finds a way to work without being overly irritating to the adults in the room. B
The Forever Purge
Rated R for strong, bloody violence and language throughout
In theaters
This 5th movie in The Purge franchise goes to Texas where we find two families who both find a way to survive the night of The Purge (where murder is legal once a year for twelve hours), only to discover that the purgers have developed an underground coalition to keep reaping havoc across America, long after it is no longer legal. In order to survive further, the two families have to come together to protect each other and possible make it to Mexico where the Mexican government is allowing American asylum seekers. Just like the other major release this week, Boss Baby, I expected so much less than what we got here. Immediately it becomes easy to be impressed by the cast, featuring Josh Lucas, Ana de la Regular and Will Patton, who all do an admirable job given this material. And while there are plenty of cheap scares and scenes of overly-gratuitous violence, it is far more of a political commentary than torture porn flick, which makes the film way more interesting than it deserves to be. All of the films have had that edge to them to date, but this one takes it in a much more real-feeling scenario as tensions within America are hotter than ever. That being said, I’m not sure this kind of film is what we need to bring people together. It might have quite the opposite effect as it is easy to see who the monsters are in the plot, and I’m betting that will cause more anger from the right rather than the desired fear of what they might become if things don’t calm down. C+