There is much to unpack with Francis Lawrence’s (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, I Am Legend) ambitious spy thriller Red Sparrow, a 2018 early summer release that mainly flew under the radar domestically ($46 million) but excelled internationally ($150 million). Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) is, as of 2018, probably the actress who can command the most money per movie. If not number one, she’s pretty darn close. But that doesn’t mean that every movie she does will earn her an Oscar nomination or gross $100 million. And she’s not that choosy. Since bursting onto the scene with 2010’s Winter’s Bone, the first of her four Oscar nominations and one of the best breakout performances in the last 25 years, Lawrence has starred in more than 15 movies before the release of Red Sparrow. And while she can excel at portraying various characters, a Russian spy will not go down as one of her Top 10 performances of all time. It’s not that she was as bad as Dominika Egorova, a Russian ballet dancer who is, more or less, forced into the life of being an undercover operative after a terrible leg injury ruins her dancing career and leaves her needing money to pay for her mother’s medical expenses.
Category Archives: Genre
Papillon (2018)
Had I truly known the plot of the 1973 original, I don’t think there is any way I would have gone my entire adult life without seeing Franklin J. Schaffner’s cult classic Papillon. With that information stated, I am glad I never saw the original before watching Michael Noer’s (Nordvest (Northwest) remake of the same title. I went into the film fresh, with no expectations. Nor did I know anything about the story other than it was a prison movie. But after watching just 30 seconds of the trailer and understanding that prison backdrops are often the set of some of my favorite movies, I knew I would see the film and that I would see it in the theatres.
The Greatest Showman (2017)
I’m not going to lie. The only reason I watched Michael Gracey’s The Greatest Showman was that it was the topic of one of the sermons at my church. Each year, we have a summer movie series (In 2018, the movies were Forrest Gump, Good Will Hunting, The Princess Bride, and The Shawshank Redemption. I had seen all four, of course, and watched all of them again before that week’s service to refamiliarize myself with each of these fantastic films. Then, on Labor Day weekend, we have our Family Weekend, where the church’s children sit with their caregivers rather than go to the classes they usually attend. We show a truncated movie version, and this year, it was The Greatest Showman. So, I added it to my Netflix queue. It arrived two days before my church service, and I watched it the night before. I’m usually not a fan of musicals, but I enjoyed The Greatest Showman and would consider watching it again one day.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
Mission Impossible: Fallout could be a template for creating action movies. This is everything you want in a pure action movie, offering the same suspense, mystery, and comedic tones you expect from this top-of-the-line franchise. Tom Cruise (Born on the Fourth of July, A Few Good Men) reprises his most recognizable character (Top Gun came out over 30 years ago. Maverick is great, Ethan Hunt is the identifiable Cruise character, at least for anyone younger than 35). I’ve spent a good part of the last two decades knocking Tom Cruise for his choice of roles, wishing he would return to the types of roles that earned him three Academy Award nominations between 1990-2000. And honestly, at the time, I thought he was phoning it in for box office dollars. I understand an action flick here and there.
The Hurt Locker (2009)
“The rush of battle is a potent and almost lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” – Chris Hedges, author of War Is A Force that Gives Us Meaning.
2009’s The Hurt Locker is one of the finest movies ever. It was utterly gripping in its year of release and is a movie that will remain relevant until the end of time. It was monumental that director Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break, Zero Dark Thirty) became the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director and the first woman to direct a Best Picture of the Year. It only took 80 years. Just as impressive, and a significant credit goes to Bigelow, was the breakout performance for two future Hollywood A-listers in Jeremy Renner (The Town, Wind River) and Anthony Mackie (The Adjustment Bureau, Triple 9). Ironically, both have landed themselves as Avengers characters, something I will touch on later in this review. There have been many excellent movies about the war in Iraq (Stop-Loss, The Green Zone, The Messenger, Grace Is Gone, Lions for Lambs, In the Valley of Elah, Jarhead), The Hurt Locker is second, falling just behind Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper. And it’s close. Each is a film that should receive multiple views. Each had a lead that hit his performance entirely out of the park, had incredible direction, and had a chilling score that could be listened to on a quiet night on the couch at home. It is, without a doubt, a movie that should be viewed by anyone who enjoys/appreciates war movies.