Khartoum (1966)

Director(s): Basil Dearden, Eliot Elisofon. Cast: Charlton Heston. 128 min. UK. Adventure/War.

Another of the "mad-man-in-the-desert" myriad of movies made in the wake of Lawrence of Arabia's success - including Charlton Heston on a crusade to "save his people", the Egyptians, through the Nile ... again (I kid you not). But when it came to panoramic desert spectacles, David Lean had already set the bar too high. So the only mention-worthy element, is one performance, so brilliant, that even with a mid-movie discovery of the actor’s identity by mere chance, I still couldn’t recognize him. Yes ... that good. See if you can guess without looking at the cast list.

Mo says:

Rocketman (2019)

Director: Dexter Fletcher. Cast: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard, Gemma Jones. 121 min. Rated R. UK/USA/Canada. Musical/Biography.

Obviously, to be compared with the other recent singer/musician biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody. But this is another entity. Rocketman, as opposed to Bohemian, is a musical, and characters breaking into song and dance in the middle of a serious conversation, drains the dramatic pull of Elton John’s life story - already much less colorful than Freddy Mercury's (hello? Elton is still alive). The movie does create transcendental moments of musical glory befitting the songs being sung, but even those aren't as awe-inspiring as Bohemian's rare but mentionable ones. Career-defining act by Taron Egerton.

Mo says:

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

Director: Michael Dougherty. Cast: Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn. 132 min. Rated PG-13. USA/Japan. Action/Fantasy.

An exercise in stupidity. Monster battle after monster battle after monster battle, decimating cities and making the apocalypse look fun, connected by a story-less story. After we learn (spoiler alert yeah sure ha ha ha) except for Godzilla all other monsters came from outer space, as a companion viewer chided, you wonder how aliens always decide to unleash their carnage on none other than the capitals of each country. The saving grace, are a multitude of great actors who deliver insane dialogue while apologizing to us from the bottom of their hearts, that hey ... someone needs to pay the bills.

Mo says:

Christopher Robin (2018)

Director: Marc Forster. Cast: Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell. Rated PG. UK/USA. Adventure/Comedy.

Comparable to how Spielberg showed us the dilemma of Peter Pan growing up in Hook, Marc Forster illustrates another fictional character's adulthood tragedy, and how elements of the past try to pull him back into the innocence of childhood. The reason Spielberg’s narrative worked and Forster's doesn't, is that the great auteur told a cautionary tale for adults, while this movie is a warning for ... kids? When they haven’t even experienced the complexities growing up entails? There are some funny correlates from Pooh stories in a fictional Christopher Robin's adult life, but overall, this is a misdirected message.

PS: Okay, there are some memorable Winnie the Pooh quotes in there: "I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I’ve been."

Mo says:

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019)

Director: Alex Gibney. 119 min. Documentary.

The fake-it-to-make-it story of Elizabeth Holmes, the twenty-something entrepreneur who set out to revolutionize medical lab testing, was already told in John Carreyrou's fascinating book, "Bad Blood'. So when prolific documentarian Alex Gibney directs, you expect greater use of the visual tools film offers - not just a first half reveling how Holmes impressed others, and a second half disproving how she failed them. What irked me, was showing how another documentary grand-master, Errol Morris, promoted Holmes by filming some of her ads, and in effect, making him look like an idiot. Trust me - there's much more intrigue to this tale.

Mo says:

Shazam! (2019)

Director: David F. Sandberg. Cast: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Asher Angel, Djimon Hounsou. 132 min. Rated PG-13. Fantasy/Comedy.

Any polishing of the currently rusty superhero sub-genre is welcome. Well ... maybe not any. Shazam! is a nice rejuvenation of the 70's TV show, but doesn't keep the material available to kids, as profanity, violence, and themes of killing your own family members keeps it just short of an R rating. So, besides Deadpool, if you're not making a superhero movie for kids, then who are you making it for? We're living in an era where you're prone to cringe and worry, when the POTUS speaks on prime-time TV, or superheroes and super-villains duke it out on the screen.

Mo says:

Welcome to Marwen (2018)

Director: Robert Zemeckis. Cast: Steve Carell, Eiza González, Gwendoline Christie, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Mann. 116 min. Rated PG-13. Japan/USA. Biography.

What I've never been able to wrap my head around, is Robert Zemeckis still being a child - and I don't mean that in a good way. He's determined to show us "cool" ... without substance; always seeking out the most eye-popping glamour or newest movie-making technology. This film continues the trend: based on a true story (documented in the 2010 film Marwencol), he uses CGI animation, shocking imagery, and topless Barbie dolls, to attract our attention to a man's recovery from a brutal hate crime. Strange how you'd train under a mentor like Spielberg, and hardly grasp his film-making maturity.

PS: Another documentary-to-live-action transformation, after Zemeckis turned Man on Wire into The Walk. Enjoyed The Walk immensely better than Welcome to Marwen.

Mo says:

Us (2019)

Director: Jordan Peele. Cast: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss. 116 min. Rated R. USA/Japan. Horror/Thriller.

I know you shouldn't score a movie based on a director's other merits, and I know Peele's Get Out probably created insurmountable expectations. But coming out of Us, I found myself unsatisfied for at least a minimum of logic to the dark science-fiction the film's horror is based on. And when that's missing, you're left with an overlong home invasion movie, supposedly a metaphor for how America destroyed itself. Of course, a nice ending twist suggests Peele is replacing Shyamalan for cool twist endings - but long story short, the director is not in control of his material here ... at all.

PS: You'll find references to The Shining or DePalma's split-diopter shots, but somehow I kept being reminded of It Follows. Lo and behold, I later discover the two films were shot by the same cinematographer.

Mo says:

The Mule (2018)

Director: Clint Eastwood. Cast: Clint Eastwood, Dianne Wiest, Taissa Farmiga, Laurence Fishburne, Bradley Cooper, Michael Peña, Andy Garcia. 116 min. Rated R. Crime/Drama.

In his "last movie" for the nth time, Eastwood tells the true story of a 90-year-old who became a drug cartel mule. Perfectly cast as a clueless but self-assured nonagenarian, Eastwood once again manages to pull it off, and attract our sympathy as a man who has selfishly ignored his family all his life in pursuit of some trivial dream. And of course, there is a fulfilling ending to the story, but again, Eastwood made me wonder what motivated him here to think: I have to make this movie before I die ...

Mo says:

Creed II (2018)

Director: Steven Caple Jr.. Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Dolph Lundgren, Brigitte Nielsen. 130 min. Rated PG-13. Sports/Drama.

Amazing how Rocky movies never lose their charm - at least enough to watch the next installment. We've watched Rocky movies all our lives, and even the worst ones remind us of specific life periods; a fact which the franchise makes full use of. Imagine: after Apollo's son is trained by Apollo's trainer's son to go up against the son of Rocky's nemesis in Rocky IV (and predictably, loses), Rocky takes it upon himself to train him, again, to fight, again (wild guess to what ends). And we still watch it. Even Brigitte Nielsen repeats her three-decade-old throwaway role. That charming.

Mo says:

Bumblebee (2018)

Director: Travis Knight. Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena. 114 min. Rated PG-13. USA/China. Action/Sci-fi.

I watched this just because of its insanely high ratings, but then realized it's just another Transformers movie.

Mo says:

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Director(s): Anthony Russo, Joe Russo. Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Brie Larson, Tom Holland, Karen Gillan, Zoe Saldana, Evangeline Lilly, Tessa Thompson, Rene Russo, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Tom Hiddleston, Danai Gurira, Dave Bautista, Tilda Swinton, Jon Favreau, Hayley Atwell, Natalie Portman, Marisa Tomei, Taika Waititi, Angela Bassett, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, William Hurt, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Redford, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Stan Lee. 181 min. Rated PG-13. Action/Fantasy.

Finally, the 3-hour conclusion - to a 10-year, 20-movie journey (just look at the ensemble cast). The Russo Brothers have tied all the loose ends, assured the continuation of Marvel’s money-making process, and even fit the narrative to two of the major actors' ending contracts with the studio. I can feel the sarcasm in my words. But no; this is a decent movie, and takes its time to tell a good story. But at the end of the day, it's just a bookend. After all, how could it have ever met the once-in-a-lifetime peak its predecessor Infinity War achieved?

Mo says: