Popcorn Perspectives
Week of July 2, 2018
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Rated R for strong violence, bloody images, and language
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 63%
In Theaters
Shifting its focus from the war on drugs to the war on illegal immigration and trafficking, Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin return as an assassin and a federal agent who place their sights on disrupting the cartels by trying to get them to fight each other for something the US government is secretly instigating. What was most impressive about the original Sicario was how the third act changed the entire film’s theme and plot in a way that managed to thoroughly excite audiences, including me. Here we get quite the opposite. While the first act almost feels like an advertisement for Trump’s wall by creating a world where Muslim terrorists sneak in through Mexico to commit random and senseless violence in the U.S., it is still quite frightening and the story feels organic throughout. This leads to some seriously exciting set pieces pulled together by a script that gets you salivating for each subsequent next scene. The big change here is that while the end of the film once again changes its theme and plot, it does so in a way that steals from the momentum the rest of the film had going. Its a real disappointment to say the least. For ninety minutes I was thinking to myself that this is the best-written movie of the year so far. This twist actually converted the film from a great movie into a mediocre one at best. C+
Blockers
Rated R for crude and sexual content, and language throughout, drug content, teen partying, and some graphic nudity
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%
Available on disc and streaming
Blockers takes the plot of American Pie and asks the question: what if girls made the same pact to lose their virginity on prom night? The big difference here is that the story is largely about the parents of the three girls, John Cena, Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz, as they attempt to do everything they can to stop their precious daughters from doing the deed. While there are some serious problems with the plot, namely the girls make their pact on the day of prom and two of them don’t even have dates yet and the logistics for everything are almost perfect, the story makes the many mistakes easy to forgive as it shifts from being about the girls to rather being about the parents who just can’t deal with the fact that their girls will eventually grow up. And while the film has a severely raunchy but very funny side, its sentimental side wins out by the end. Sure it suffers from a lack of originality, but it does so unabashedly, standing firmly on the legs of the talented cast, its funny jokes and gags, and its great big heart. B+
Beirut
Rated R for language, some violence and a brief nude image
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%
Available on disc and streaming
From Rogue One and Bourne Identity screenwriter Tony Gilroy comes this state department drama that couldn’t find an audience in theaters, but that will hopefully fare better for home viewers. Jon Hamm plays a former diplomat from Beirut who is asked by the CIA to go back in order to help rescue a friend he left behind years ago. While Hamm hasn’t exactly pulled off the same success in theaters as he did on TV, this role is perfect for him and really shows off his chops. Honestly, the film is relevant, interesting and exciting. Unfortunately, it probably needed a bigger A-list cast to find its box office footing. B+