Review by Dan Skip Allen Along with being a huge movie fan, I'm a big fan of rock ‘n’ roll music, among other things. I grew up on the second British Invasion back in the ‘80s. I then transitioned into being a grunge/alternative rock fan in the ‘90s, and progressed into the inevitable metal music fan in the 2000s. A mix of all those subgenres of rock n roll is a band that came onto the scene in the 2010s called Imagine Dragons. They have been labeled the Nickelback of today's era of music. I disagree! They are a multifaceted band with many influences, and Imagine Dragons Live in Vegas is a perfect showcase for them. Many bands do live concert films, so why not them? They started out on September 7th, 2011 but fast forward to 2022 last year, for this concert, in Allegiant Stadium, in their home of Las Vegas. As they say, "Home Means Nevada.” The members of the band, Dan Reynolds (lead singer), Ben McKee (bass), Wayne Sermon (guitar), Daniel Platzman (drums), and Elliot Schwartz (keys and other instruments), discuss their meteoric rise to fame in the typical way documentaries use — talking heads. Director Matt Eastin also used narration from the lead singer and other members of the band during the concert, in which they performed all their biggest songs — ”My Life,” “Believer,” “Thunder,” “Follow You,” “Whatever It Takes,” and “Natural,” among others. They definitely had a rapport with this Las Vegas crowd, although that shouldn’t be unexpected since it's a home-field advantage. They were always going to cheer for their hometown boys. A few of their songs were a little more special to the band and the audience on hand. “On Top of the World” had everyone in the building singing along, and “Demons” is dedicated to Dan Reynolds’s sister who died of cancer. “Radioactive,” as we all know from the LeBron James Gatorade commercial, blows the roof off of Allegiant Stadium. A few tricks they pull off are the stage rising, the lead singer playing on the piano, and like a lot of bands using pyro to great effect. They are pulling out all the stops..
Some of the best moments for me though were when they stopped the show to go to the B-Stage and do an acoustic performance in the middle of the show, where the lead singer ran around the crowd in the middle of it. Another is where Cirque du Soleil comes out on stage for “Sharks.” And again, they do voice-over/pyro before “Enemy.” These were the standout moments of the live concert. I've grown to love this band over the last ten or so years. They have a nice blend of rock ‘n’ roll songs and poppy hits I can get behind. I haven't seen them live myself, but I will someday. I still find myself singing along to their songs, despite what reputation they have, negative or otherwise. They represent an inspiring brand of music people should listen to. Their lyrics are catchy, and I enjoyed Imagine Dragons Live in Vegas tremendously. I think it'll be a huge hit on Hulu when it airs. Imagine Dragons Live in Vegas streams on Hulu beginning July 14. Rating: 4/5
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Review by Dan Skip Allen After winning his last big case, Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia Rulfo) has become a big man in town in Los Angeles. He's doing a lot of press regarding his newfound fame. That doesn't change things for him in his personal life or with his two exes. A potential new client could be what he needs to get his mind off of all the stuff going on in his personal life. Maybe even a new love interest could help him going forward. This is the life of The Lincoln Lawyer, though: hard and heavy. Season two of The Lincoln Lawyer has come out relatively quickly for a television show. Season two has been split into two halves. Part one is five episodes and gets a whole new story set up, so the second half of the season can be finished later this summer. I'm sure it's going to be very good, considering the source material it's based on: the popular book series of the same name by crime author Michael Connelly. Season Two adapts The Fifth Witness, the fourth book in the Lincoln Lawyer series. The show, like the book, has many twists and turns, which shows the main character of the series driving his 1964 Lincoln Continental convertible and other Lincoln SUVs around Los Angeles. This season is pretty straightforward in its adaptation of the book. The story goes pretty quickly, as some of the story is adapted in the first two episodes of the season. That allows the rest of the series to deal with the main part of the story. Which is an investigation and trial of a restauranteur, Lisa Trammell (Lana Parrilla), who supposedly kills a real estate developer named Russell Bondurant. The Lincoln Lawyer has a very good supporting cast of characters that help the main character in his cases. He has two ex-wives, a PI, a sometimes chauffeur, police detectives with whom he interacts throughout the series, and other judges and lawyers. All these characters play an important role in the show because the title character can do it all alone. Good courtroom dramas or shows surrounding courts or the law have to have plenty of great supporting characters with their own subplots that help make the series better. As far as courtroom dramas go, this show handles the courtroom scenes very well. It's hard to get shoddy camera work or cinematography by me. This show knows its bread and butter and gets these scenes right. The book uses these scenes in a very dramatic way, and the show should do the same. Most of these types of shows exaggerate the courtroom sequences, but so far in two seasons, they have been depicted very well. I love seeing this character do his work in his element.
Part one of Season 2 uses a framing device that is narrated by the main character. He is being beaten up in a car garage. The framing device doesn't seem to have much to do with the main plot in the first five episodes, though. Rather than be a straightforward series, the showrunners and writers create new and interesting ways to tell the story, which was told phenomenally in the book by Connelly. It's hard to take great written work and make a good television show or film. This one does just that. The creators, writers, and directors of the series have a great leader behind them. David E. Kelley has had his history with legal television shows such as this, having worked on Ally McBeal and Boston Legal were two successful series. Having this one on a streaming service allows him and others involved in the production to do more and make something grittier. The first part of The Lincoln Lawyer Season 2 gets things going in the right direction for this legal drama led by Kelly. Netflix picked up the rights for this series for a reason. It's ripe with drama and twists and turns based on Connelly's books. The supporting cast is terrific, while the lead actor Garcia Rulfo is very good. He proves this time around that he is the guy for the role. There is just enough in this part of Season 2 that will bring viewers back for the second part. Having read the book, I know where it goes, and audiences will surely love it. The Lincoln Lawyer is now streaming on Netflix. Five out of ten episodes reviewed. Rating: 3.5/5 Review by Dan Skip Allen The Mission: Impossible franchise has become one of the biggest in Hollywood. It wasn't always that way though. In fact, it was on the brink of cancellation after the third movie. Tom Cruise has brought this franchise back from the dead as his own. He has made this series a must-see viewing for the entire world because of what he puts into every installment. I can vouch for him regarding the latest film in the franchise Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One. It's incredible! Like all Mission: Impossible films, this one starts with the obligatory scene where a mission is presented to Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) for him to accept in five seconds or less, as the message will self-destruct. This time out, Cruise's character gets involved in a mission to retrieve a double-faceted key. This key is tied to an entity that controls various scenarios and multiple sequences of events. He gets the old team together, Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg) once again, and they are in a race against time and an old nemesis, Gabriel (Esai Morales), Hunt thought long gone from his past. This series of films has had one thing that makes it stand out: the stunts and action sequences, mostly involving Cruise's character. In Dead Reckoning Part One, Cruise and the director Christopher McQuarrie have upped their game. A handful of action scenes, one involving a motorcycle jump off a cliff into a BASE jump onto a train, were breathtaking. Another involved a car chase, where Cruise and Haley Atwell's character Grace were handcuffed together in an old-school Yellow Fiat racing through the streets of Rome. Atwell's character was also a key player in an airport scene. With all the action sequences must come scenes where the actors are just talking. Many scenes explain the whole situation involving the villainous AI at the core of the story, and how it works and affects this entire situation. The dialogue is a bit clunky, and between action scenes, isn't as good as it should be. The script is lacking in that regard, although some people might be willing to see past this. There is a shorthand with this cast from previous films in this franchise, but new actors add a new element to the movie. As mentioned before, there are scenes involving Atwell's character that are quite funny. They had me and the rest of the theater in stitches. The mix between funny and more dramatic scenes added a nice juxtaposition to the story.
I grew up watching Tom Cruise movies from when I was a little kid. Risky Business was the first of his films I had seen at the age of 9 or so. Cruise has come a long way since then. He was in a streak in the ‘80s and ‘90s of being a leading man in various roles like Top Gun, Days of Thunder, and others. He tried doing more character stuff, like Born on the Fourth of July and Magnolia, but I think he reserved himself the fact that he was an action star. Part of that was when he got the rights to the Mission: Impossible IP — a popular television show from the ‘60s with catchy theme music to go along with it. He turned this IP into an extravaganza of filmmaking with various feats of amazing action sequences. One was of him hanging off of the tallest building in the world in Dubai, the Birch Khalifa in Ghost Protocol, and another was of him holding his breath underwater for an incredible amount of time in Rogue Nation. He has turned this one-time television series into his action series or superhero franchise. They continue to get bigger and bigger, with Cruise as the lead. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, like many of its predecessors, has a complicated storyline. The key at the forefront is what's called a MacGuffin — an item or something that drives the story forward. Along with the cast that had to sad all the complicated dialogue, this was a key — pun intended — part of the movie. These films have a fantastical element to them, and the filmmakers have to get the audience watching in the theater to believe in them. I believed wholeheartedly in what Cruise and McQuarrie were trying to do and say with this film. I looked past the clunky dialogue in a few scenes. I think a lot of people around the world will as well. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One hits theaters on July 12. Rating: 4.5/5 Review by Dan Skip Allen Netflix has had a few popular shows for young audiences, such as Cobra Kai, Stranger Things, and The Witcher. The Witcher is based on a video game and book series. The show represents those two separate mediums nicely; but also stands on its own as an entirely different thing unto its own. Henry Cavill, as Geralt of Rivia, the title character, is quite the draw, however, that will only last for this third season. He's gone after this season, so season three has to deliver. As we pick up season three of The Witcher, the three main characters — Geralt (Henry Cavill), Yennefer (Anya Chalotta), and Ciri (Freya Allen) — are on a journey through some random woods. The purpose of their journey is to keep Ciri safe. There are plenty of people trying to capture her and return her to her place or use her for nefarious reasons. Using a bit of sneakiness involving the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey), they figure out that a member of the Brotherhood is trying to take over the North. The Witcher has always had a way of being entertaining. It's a show with some good genre sensibilities. One of those is the monsters the characters fight. This season has three nasty monsters Cavill's character has to fight. The creators are good at coming up with interesting and creepy-looking creatures for the world. One of the things about The Witcher that has improved from Season 1 to 3 is the production value/design. It seemed a bit amateurish in season one, and now it seems Netflix has spent some money on this show. The look of it is much better. The sets don't look cheap. It seems like people have taken more pride in this series and put more effort into making it look better. Now, it'll never look as good as Game of Thrones, but it's better than it has been. Another season this season is better than the previous ones is the writing. The scripts by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and many others have been better than previous seasons. They have a more nuanced feel, where multiple characters have separate arcs, but also fit into an overall storyline for the entire season. Split into two halves, the first five episodes of season two do a great job of setting up the second batch of episodes.
The best episode of this batch of episodes is the fifth episode. It features a ball where all the main players except two are in play. They literally have a dance around this big ballroom where they are trying to manipulate and gain favor from Cavill's character. The games they play in this episode show how much the direction and writing have improved from season one to three. The various moving around and switching partners made for interesting television. This was a good change from all the fantasy stuff the show is known for. There are just so many different hands on this season that it has me excited for the second half. Various subplots and character arcs make me intrigued by what's in the future of the show. The three main actors have come a long way from season one of The Witcher. Henry Cavill, which was the main draw going into this series, is now part of a true ensemble of actors who bring their best to the table. Add in better production design, creatures, and writing, and you have a good first part of season three of The Witcher. The Witcher is now streaming on Netflix. Five out of eight episodes reviewed. Rating: 3.5/5 Review by Dan Skip Allen I've been a fan of Westerns since I was a little kid. Films like High Noon, Unforgiven, and Once Upon a Time in the West showed me what great filmmaking, acting, and writing can do for this genre that has had better days. Recently, some newer voices have put their stamp on the Western genre. None have made a film like Surrounded, though. It is one of the best Westerns I've seen that uses the female gaze as a plot device. Mo Washington (Letitia Wright) is a young woman who disguised herself as a man and joined the Union to fight in the Civil War. She learned a lot while fighting for her life and the country that didn't care about her, gaining some gunfighter skills in the process. Five years later, she got her claim to a parcel of land in Colorado and plans to go there via Brushwood Gulch, New Mexico. She buys a ticket for a seat on a stagecoach before a ruthless killer, Tommy Walsh (Jamie Bell), and his crew hijack the coach. She is again in a fight for survival from all sides. The director Anthony Mandler uses a story by Andrew Papgana and Justin Thomas, who wrote the screenplay. He creates a battle of wills between the Wright and Bell characters for most of the film, sending them into a game of cat-and-mouse. Who can outdo the other? It's a classic Western trope used to perfection in this movie. This confrontation between these two is why this film is worth seeing. One of the other reasons why this movie is so good is how it's filmed and lit. Mandler, his director of photography Max Goldman, uses natural light to film this movie. The sunlight is used fifty percent of the time, and it's glorious. Yes, there is the occasional lens flare, but the terrain looks gorgeous. The mountains, streams, hills, trees, and everything in between are brought to vivid life. I love how good this movie looks. Besides Wright and Bell, there is a nice supporting cast that compliments the two leads. Brett Gelman, Jeffrey Donovan, and Michael K. Williams (in his last role before he died in 2022) all give good performances. They add an element to the story that keeps it interesting. This is a spotlight for Wright and Bell, though. They both bring their A-game that accentuates their abilities as actors.
Mandler, the writers, and especially Wright use this story and role to show young girls that there are roles out there that show Black women in a dominating and powerful role. She is a woman with a past, but has a future. She is determined to make it in a world that hates her. As revenge films or female gaze movies go, this one does a great job of showing a strong woman with good skills and puts them to work well. MGM has been on a winning streak lately, with several films that have done well with critics and fans. In a packed summer full of blockbusters, Surrounded will have a hard time finding an audience. If I had my way, everybody would see this film. It's a movie that deserves everyone to see, not just women and girls. Fans of revenge films and Westerns will surely love this movie. Surrounded hits VOD on June 20. Rating: 4/5 Review by Dan Skip Allen Film fans and comic book aficionados were first introduced to the Skrulls in Captain Marvel in 2019. Led by Talos (played by Ben Mendelsohn), in a twist from the comics, they were peaceful, and the Kree were the evil race of aliens. The popularity of the comic book series Secret Invasion made it difficult to do the comic book series as a film or television series because of that fact. Marvel and Kevin Feige had defied the odds from the beginning of the MCU, so he has created a Disney+ series about Secret Invasion anyway, and he relied on one of his most reliable actors in the franchise to return and reprise his role: Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Secret Invasion is a show rooted in reality. With the USA having multiple adversaries, including Russia, China, and Iran, it was easy for the creator of the series, Kyle Bradstreet, to set the show in a realistic world. With the help of director Ali Salim, he grounded the six-part series in a world we can all relate to. Throw in some CGI of actors transforming back and forth from Skrulls to humans, and you have an authentic spy-type show. That's what this series is in the end. Part of making the series as realistic as possible for audiences is casting great actors who give the show gravitas that it needs to be believed. Marvel and Kevin Feige have always gotten the best to portray roles in their films and television series, and this one is no better than the rest. It co-stars multiple Oscar and Emmy Awards winners in key roles, starting with Olivia Colman as an MI6 agent, Emelia Clarke as the daughter of Talos Giah, and Kingley Ben Adir — no stranger to chameleonic performances, because he's played Barack Obama and Malcolm X, and will be Bob Marley in a film later this year — as the leader of a terrorist group of Skrulls trying to start World War III between the USA and Russia. This great cast really brought their A-game to this show. I was a big fan of the comic book series Secret Invasion because it wasn't like much I'd read before, and I love the fact that I didn't know who could have been a Skull or not. That series is vastly different from this one, though. This series has a few components that made it stand out. One of them is a flashback element, helping viewers get an idea of what the motivations of the main bad guy were, and how he is connected to Nick Fury. Why is this a fight? Nick Fury has to fight on his own without superheroes. That is an excuse not to have them in the series. From the two episodes of six I have seen, this is for a more subtle approach to the story from the popular comic book crossover series. A few things I noticed in the show that stood out to me while watching the first two episodes were the cinematography by Rami Adefaresin. He went against the grain in how he lit and made this series look. It has a gritty neo-noir look to it, with many scenes shot at night in dark alleyways or in London in the rain. The look of the show played into the whole Spy Game mixed with Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe the showrunner was going for. The second is the score by Kris Bowers. He created an intense score that played into the whole trust issues of the series. The music was moody and atmospheric. I loved how it made me think about what was going on at various times. It's like a character in the show all on its own.
Samuel L. Jackson had had a lot of success in his career, but arguably he hasn't had as much popularity in his career as when he uttered those famous words at the end of Iron Man, "we need to talk about the Avengers Initiative." Those words in that scene launched his career into the stratosphere. This series allows him to be more dramatic than he has been in the MCU. He has been more comedic. It almost seemed as if he hadn't taken his role as Nick Fury as seriously as he should have. Maybe he's winking at the camera at various times in his MCU career. Well, that's not the case here. He brings his A-game, and that's one of the best reasons to see this show. Secret Invasion is one of the best MCU series I've seen thus far. Grounding it in a realistic setting and using a spy or political thriller setting makes it stand apart from other MCU shows. Also, the look of it and the music give a feel and sound that is dramatic. Add in a stellar cast of actors who have won a bunch of awards or been nominated for awards, and you have a good mix. The best ingredient in this six part series is Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. He knows what he's doing with this character at this point in his career. He brings everything he has to this character and this show. I'll just have to wait to see how it unfolds. Secret Invasion streams on Disney+ beginning June 21. Two out of six episodes reviewed. Rating: 4/5 Review by Dan Skip Allen Star Trek: Strange New Worlds left fans on quite the cliffhanger in the last episode of Season 1 of this prequel series. Una Chin Reilly (Rebecca Romjin), an El-Aurian, was arrested for concealing her identity on her Starfleet Application. Season 2 picks up with that particular thread in episode two, but there is also a bit of that story in episode one of Season 2 as well. Episode one was a good old-fashioned adventure, with Spock (Ethan Peck) stealing the Enterprise to help La' An Noonien Singh (Christina Chong), who was embroiled in the throes of a Klingon moon. They interrupt a mission to start a war against the Klingons. Doctor M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) get into a huge fight with the Klingons and almost die. This was a great way to start Season Two of this fantastic series. Another lingering plot thread from Season One was the lingering war with the Gorn and lizard-like species that plant their eggs in those they capture until they burst out and kill them. They are a nasty race of creatures with an Alien sense about them. They were only in one episode of the original Star Trek series called "Arena," where Captain Kirk fought one in a fight for his life. They have gotten more screen time in this series, though, and have become a main threat for the crew of the Enterprise and the Federation in Strange New Worlds. They are added to the threat of the Klingons and the Romulans, who are already the main threats. The main character of the show is Christopher Pike (played by Anson Mount). He is the captain of the Enterprise in the 23rd Century when this show takes place. Mount has had an interesting career so far, but I think he is just getting his sea legs — or space legs, if you will — playing this character. He hasn't had that breakout episode like he did in Season One yet. He has just played his Captain's role in all the episodes given to me to review. His dreams of his impending doom from Season 1, I'm sure, will pop up again this season. Just not yet. As the main character, he has been lacking a little bit this season. My favorite episode of Season 2 of the six I watched is "Charades," where Peck's Spock and Bush's Nurse Chapel are on a mission to explore an anomaly, and Spock somehow gets turned into a human. This makes for some fun stuff, where Spock learns about his new human traits, and he has to do some stuff with his wife, her parents, and his mother, which has to do with his Vulcan impending marriage. The thing is, he's still human, so this is a problem. I enjoyed all the fish-out-of-water moments that a Vulcan being turned into a human could cause.
A few of the other members of the bridge crew have stand-alone episodes where they are being featured. Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), and La'An Noonien Singh (Christine Chong) all have character-building episodes where they get the chance to shine in Season 2. Throw in a few guest appearances from characters from Season 1, including Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk, and you have a good batch of new episodes so far. I just feel Season 2 isn't as good as Season 1. Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, Dan Liu, and Jenny Lumet have created a fine Star Trek show. They have taken the spirit of the original series and infused it into this series nicely. They just haven't hit their stride on Season 2 yet. The last four episodes still remain, and maybe the creators will salvage this season yet. I feel Season 2 lacks the fun and enjoyment of Season 1. Nevertheless, it's still new Star Trek, and we should all be thankful for that, I guess. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams on Paramount+ beginning June 15. Six out of ten episodes reviewed. Rating: 3/5 Review by Dan Skip Allen Feel-good movies come in all shapes and sizes. More often than not, they are usually Christian or religious films. Mending the Line is a feel-good movie without a religious angle. It's just a film with a story that gets you in the feels. That's a type of movie I can always get behind, especially since it has good acting from Brian Cox and Sinqua Walls and a good story I'm sure many people can get behind. Mending the Line, as the title suggests, has many fishing analogies. It uses this premise to give a therapeutic message to the viewers watching it and the characters within the story. When it comes to war or traumatic experiences, it's hard to find ways to recover from post-traumatic stress disorder. In this case, fly fishing worked for this man (played by Sinqua Walls) and in return, the older man (played by Brian Cox) got to impart his wisdom to someone else who needed it. As fast as the acting goes, Sinqua Walls has been an actor popping up a lot lately. He was in the thriller Nanny last year, and this year he's in the remake of the sports classic White Men Can't Jump, the horror comedy The Blackening, and this film. He stretches his acting abilities in this movie. Playing a Marine going through PTSD is not easy. He makes it look that way, though. Throw in another amazing actor, Brian Cox – who has won Emmy awards for his role as the surly owner of a multi-billion dollar company, Logan Roy, in Succession — and you have a good team. They play off each other nicely. Cox takes the surly part of his Logan Roy role and adds it to this Vietnam vet who doesn't get along with many people. If it weren't for his doctor, he wouldn't even be around anyone, but she said he couldn't fish alone. Besides the two main characters, there is a supporting cast that compliments the two leads. A doctor played by Patricia Heaton has a difficult job dealing with these men with these ailments. Wes Studi (Dances with Wolves) plays the owner of a hunting/bait and tackle store, who's a reluctant friend of Cox's character. And Perry Mattfeld plays a librarian who reads to men at the hospital Heaton's character works and Walls’s character lives. She has issues she's dealing with regarding traumatic experiences and helps Walls's character out while they become friends.
The writers and filmmakers are rather new to making films with a few under their belt, but they captured familiar tropes with this movie. They put the main characters into a difficult situation and see how they work themselves out of it. It has worked time and again over the years. It's a tried and true formula for this type of movie. And more often than not, I get hooked by them. This one was a pleasant surprise because I didn't know what to expect, but I very much enjoyed it. Mending the Line takes popular tropes of feel-good films and mixes them with good acting from Cox, Walls, and the rest of the cast and perfectly fine writing and direction to make a movie people should see. In a world of sequels, remakes, and summer blockbusters for the kids and everyone in between, this movie is for those looking for something different and on another level. The older, more mature generation will probably gravitate towards this film, and maybe they'll drag some young folks to it just for the heck of it. Who knows? Maybe they'll enjoy it like I did. Mending the Line hits theaters on June 9. Rating: 4/5 Review by Dan Skip Allen Sebastian Maniscalco may not be a household name, but he is a renowned stand-up comedian from Chicago. He released 6 stand-up specials, and he's had a few supporting roles in films such as Martin Scorsese's The Irishman as Joe Gallo and Peter Farrelly's Green Book. About My Father is the semi-autobiographical story of a hilarious moment in his life, where he introduces his father to his in-laws to interesting results. Maniscalco wrote the screenplay with Austen Earl. It's a story he's clearly passionate about. It's somewhat of a fish-out-of-water tale. This man and his father have lived different lives than his wife (played by Leslie Bibb) and her eccentric family. To get his father's approval to marry her, he must bring him to their nice ritzy house in Virginia. His cheap and old ways clash with their posh, rich ways. Maniscalco and fledgling director Laura Terruso worked well together to craft his story into something relatable for audiences of all backgrounds. The various parental figures in the movie represent two different sides of the same coin in a way. You have one group that lets their children do what they want and support them, while another parent is staunch and stricter with his son regarding finances and how to handle himself. These two opposing sides of this group of people create a fun dichotomy throughout the film. Robert De Niro is known for his serious roles in The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas, but in the late ‘90s, he started branching out into more comedic roles. He starred in such films as Analyze This and Analyze That, as well as the Meet the Parents franchise. He has transitioned nicely into these comedic roles because he tends to play the straight man, while everybody else does the comedic stuff around him. He made the occasional ad lib, though, which can be beneficial to some scenes, and proves a particularly useful skill here. Maniscalco and De Niro are a good father-son team in this movie. They have good chemistry with one another. That being said, it sometimes seems they are on an island by themselves. The rest of the cast, from Leslie Bibb to David Rasche, and even Kim Cattrall, are always one step behind them. In one scene, for instance, the family is taking a Christmas card photo, and both Maniscalco and De Niro go for it during this scene, wearing outlandish costumes to get the cheap laugh. When the others do or say stuff, it's not as funny. I just didn't buy them as these characters apart from an occasional laugh.
The main thing about this film I liked also works against it, and that's the fact that we've seen this story done to death before. I like this sort of story, but couldn't these guys and gals come up with something original? Sure, there is a montage showing the backstory of where these people come from, which was narrated by Maniscalco himself. And the narration was enjoyable to listen to during the entire film, but the rest was a cookie-cutter story the audience had seen before. About My Father has some moments that had me laughing out loud and other bits that didn't land with me or others watching the movie. Maniscalco and De Niro had great chemistry that I'm sure they developed over working on The Irishman and this film. I loved their characters’ relationship in this movie. I felt some of the humor fell flat, though, and those two were on an island by themselves at the time. Still, all said and done, this was a mostly enjoyable in-laws comedy. It'll be good counter-programming for people who want something different this Memorial Day weekend. About My Father hits theaters on May 26. Rating: 3/5 Review by Dan Skip Allen Sometimes I come into films completely cold. I'll have no idea what I'm going to be watching, and when I've finished watching the said film, I'm pleasantly surprised. One of those instances was Stay Awake. I was recommended this movie by a fellow film critic and friend. I'm glad he recommended it to me because it's very relatable for me now once I've watched it. I was pretty surprised by what I saw. This film focuses on two brothers, Ethan (Wyatt Oleff) and Derek (Fin Argus) and their obese mother, Michelle, played by This Is Us star Chrissy Metz. At first glance, this family seems okay, except there's an undercurrent of drug abuse on behalf of the mother. She has gone through some traumatic stuff in the past. Now, her two sons have to deal with their burgeoning romances, school, work, and their ill mother. It's a lot for two young men their age to handle. As I mentioned, this film hit home for me for two main reasons. One is that my mother was obese and had many health issues. She had to raise four kids while being overweight and sick most of the time. Throw in an alcoholic husband/father who wasn't there most of the time, and you can see how this can be difficult for anybody, especially a single mother. The Metz character has similar issues, just in a different context. The second thing that is very relatable in this movie is that I have a twin brother. We lived at home most of our lives, so we got a firsthand taste of my mother's illnesses and the domestic problems between my mother and father. My brother wasn't a little older than me, like these two were, but like them, we were very close. And for a long time, I truly loved my mother, but she did something to me where I couldn't love her anymore. These two boys had similar issues, with their mother being selfish and not caring about her kids. You rarely find a film that reflects your own background, like this one did for me. Yes, this story took place in Virginia, whereas I was from Massachusetts. It doesn't matter where you come from, though. This is a story that many people may relate to on some level. Alcohol was the demon in my family, not drugs, but they both can do similar damage. They can both cause trauma for the individual affected by them and the family on the periphery of said abuse. In this case, the two sons.
Wyatt Oleff has been a young actor who has found prominence recently with his roles in the It films and most recently in City on Fire, the Apple TV+ streaming series. Fin Argus is a relatively newer actor on my radar. They both played characters I was somewhat familiar with, though. One has a dead-end job at a bowling alley, and the other has a future he has to go forward with without his girlfriend. She would have just caused him distractions in his young life. Going to school away from her is probably a better idea than being distracted all the time. It reminded me of my younger brother, who went into the Navy to escape the town we lived in. Both actors played their roles well. I felt for the situation they were both put in regarding their mother. Chrissy Metz has been nominated for various awards for her role in This is Us. She is obviously considered a good actress. Still, I don't think the director did enough to get her to go to the places she needed to go to in this role. We the viewer see her in various places where we know she is getting treatment for her illness, and multiple times in the hospital because of her addiction, but she doesn't go to the next level where other actors in similar times have gone there. I would have liked to see her go to the next level in this role. All that said, Stay Awake was a good film with relatable topics for me personally. The mother specifically, but also the two brothers, reminded me of myself and my family. It was an eye-opening film because I didn't expect to see something hit home so much while watching it. The writer-director Jamie Sisley got the film into a place where it will be relatable and affecting to others watching. I hope people give this a chance. It's not your normal family drama, but it has enough drama to go around for all the characters involved. Stay Awake hits theaters on May 19. Rating: 3.5/5 |
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