Sometimes, when producing a movie, it is based on having a great story, while at other times, it is based on having a great cast. Of course, many other factors can make or break a film, but let’s concentrate on these first two and ask a simple but essential question. What happens when you potentially have the first two, but they conflict? I believe that director Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard, Monsters and Men) likely faced that decision in Joe Bell. Here, he had the true story of a father walking from his hometown in Oregon to New York City to raise awareness for bullying after Jadin (Reid Miller), his openly gay 15-year-old son, committed suicide after being repeatedly tormented at school because of his sexual orientation.
Category Archives: Mark Wahlberg
All the Money in the World (2017)
You know it’s a great year for actresses in a leading role when Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine, Manchester by the Sea), arguably the greatest actress of her generation, gives one of the greatest performances of her career and won’t even get a sniff when it comes to an Oscar nomination. But that is what we had in 2017. We have a year that, as a whole, hasn’t produced a lot of great movies, nor has it given us many great performances for actors in a leading role, but has given us so many amazing lead actress performances that the likes of traditional heavyweights Williams, Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game), Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes), Jennifer Lawrence (mother!). Williams gives one of the top five performances of her career in Ridley Scott’s (Gladiator, The Martian) All the Money in the World. But it likely will be forgotten for two reasons. The first is that it is not one of the five best performances of the year and thus won’t be recognized during awards season. The other is that they reshot a good portion of this movie following the claims of sexual assault against Kevin Spacey, one of the key figures in the movie. The movie might be more known for what went on behind the scenes than for its final product. Scott replaced Spacey with Christopher Plummer (Beginners, The Last Station), brought in all the key players to reshoot the scenes involving this character (often 18 hour days), spent an additional $10 million to do so, and only delayed the release of this movie by three days. It was the right thing to do. I applaud Scott and all of the people who sacrificed time and money to do what was the right decision. If you’ve heard about this, I’ll mention that I did too. But I felt it was downplayed some because Plummer was only in a few scenes. That is not the case at all. In my opinion, Plummer made this film. He stole every scene he was in, and it’s impossible to picture anybody doing a better job. This decision could earn All the Money in the World its only two Oscar nominations (Best Supporting Actor, Best Editing). All in all, it’s a very good movie with top-notch performances. But it isn’t quite as memorable, nor does it hold the weight of the movies that the Academy will recognize this Oscar season.
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Patriots Day (2016)
Too soon? Money grabber? These are two fair questions about the timing of Peter Berg’s (Deepwater Horizon, Lone Survivor) 2016 Patriots Day. The movie is based on the April 15, 2013, Boston City Marathon bombing, killing three people and wounded hundreds of others. It might seem like it’s too soon for a movie studio to be capitalizing on the tragic events of that day. For many, the event is still fresh in their minds. When I saw the trailer for this movie for the first time, I tended to agree. But after seeing this movie, I have changed my mind and instead will go with the mindset that if you’re going to make a movie out of a tragic event such as the Boston City Marathon bombing, you better get it right. And I’ll be the first to say that Berg and all those associated with this movie did, in fact, get this right. It was a respectful movie that looked at the incident from a variety of angles. And while I have not researched fact versus fiction yet, I will give Patriots Day the benefit of the doubt and say that it checked its facts before production. I know that the lead character Seargent Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg – The Fighter, Daddy’s Home), is not an actual character but is a composite of various officers in the Boston Police Department. I’m lukewarm on whether I like this or not. I like this idea. As you watch this film, you’ll quickly learn that Tommy has to be fictional because there is just no way one person can be in every single important situation in the film. It makes Tommy out to be a singular hero. I understand the Hollywood aspect, but I also understand paying homage to a true story. I think I would have preferred each character of the Boston Police department to be more accurately portrayed. Still, with an abundance of characters, I could see how that could take away from the effective storytelling of the film.
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Deepwater Horizon (2016)
If you’re going to make a big-budget disaster movie, it might as well be based on a true story. Personally, I’m so over the huge blockbuster disaster movies like The Day After Tomorrow, Poseidon, Independence Day, The Core, Volcano, Into the Storm, Armageddon (which I actually really like), San Andreas (which I also kind of liked), Dante’s Peak…the list goes on and on. The point of these movies, and so many others, is to make a big buck. Forget about the plausibility; most of these movies are utterly ridiculous. The hero(es) always overcome the most extreme circumstances and, often, end up saving the world in the end. Now while the 2010 disaster caused the worst offshore oil spill in United States history and made British Petroleum (BP) the most villainous company on the face of the planet at the time, the story of Deepwater Horizon does take some liberties along the way. While the unfortunate events on that night of April 10th certainly did happen, the events on that rig felt very much like James Cameron’s Titanic after the ship hits the iceberg.
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Daddy’s Home (2015)
With apologies to the extremely funny The Campaign, first-time co-director John Morris and Sean Anders’s (Horrible Bosses 2, Sex Drive) Daddy’s Home is, ironically, Will Ferrell’s (Old School, Step Brothers) best-starring comedy role since 2010’s The Other Guys. It’s not a movie I thought I would particularly like and one that I had serious doubts about as much as 20 minutes in (I hadn’t laughed but maybe one time), but as the movie progressed, it got funnier and funnier. By its conclusion, it became a somewhat memorable movie that I wouldn’t put on the “A-shelf” comedy list but might find itself just a notch below. What made the movie work was the dynamics between Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg (Lone Survivor, The Fighter), who didn’t have the same chemistry they had when they teamed partners in the buddy cop The Other Guys but were still pretty close. While Daddy’s Home was 100% completely predictable, it didn’t make it any less fun, and while Ferrell and Wahlberg weren’t exceptionally awesome in the scenes where they weren’t together, it more than made up for during the scenes where they shared screen time.
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