Creed II and The Grinch opened this week in local (PH) theaters, while Widows opens on December 5th. The first is a very predictable crowd pleaser that’s pleasing to look at, sounds good to listen to, and has plenty to root for. The second is so Christmassy, you’re gonna die. The last one tries too hard to be important.
Creed II
Directed by Steven Caple Jr.
Based on characters from the Rocky film series
Link and images from Warner Bros. Pictures
Rocky simply refuses to die. They introduced Rocky as having Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Creed (2015) but that didn’t seem to have any mention in Creed II. The point is, the Rocky story is far from over, even if this is about Adonis Creed. But here we are on the eighth Rocky movie. The first, third and seventh installments received Academy Award notices, so this series has a good history of watchability.
In the last film, Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) overcame his reluctance to take on the legacy of his father, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers,) to become a professional boxer himself under the helm of former heavyweight champion Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone.) He doesn’t win the title fight, but earns the respect of everyone establishes his name as Adonis Creed.
In Creed II, Adonis, now the light heavyweight champion, fights for the legacy of his child with wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) against Viktor Drago (newcomer Florian Munteanu,) son of Apollo Creed and Balboa’s arch-nemesis, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren.( Viktor, too has to fight for his own legacy – to reclaim his father’s honor in Russia, after being cast out since the defeat from Balboa. And so a battle is set between old foes and new.
There’s a lot of fan-service in this film, even if Balboa and Drago don’t exactly physically exchange punches (which is kind of a bummer, but we know they’re both ancient.) The setups are quite reminiscent of Rocky IV (the episode with Drago,) wherein the first encounter results in Creed’s loss after Balboa advises against the challenge, and the final encounter where Creed overcomes everything on Russian soil, this time with Balboa at his corner. To the tune of Rocky’s theme, of course.
Replace Bianca with Adrian, Drago for Drago, Creed for Balboa and you get the Rocky IV film again (in general, plot-wise.) It even includes Balboa’s signature back-to-basics redemption training, this time to the exalting baton of Ludwig Göransson music that will surely land onto most every gymrat’s motivational workout playlist.
The film is shot like a gorgeous sports documentary, performances are on point, especially Stallone’s, and the film has a bop soundtrack. Plenty of things to like.
It’s just that for most of the film’s two-hour-plus run, the film plays through predictable beats from setup to setup including Drago’s visit to the famed steps of Philadelphia Museum of Art, down to the last count in the finale fight when you see it. Rocky and Adonis’s dynamics are on point but trite, while Adonis and Bianca’s are almost perfunctory. It manages to stay engaging despite the familiar character challenges with heartfelt earnestness from the cast.
There’s no denying that there’ll be another Creed film down the line. Whether or not that Non-Hodgkin lymphoma will have any bearing on Rocky depends on the writers’ (Stallone included) whims.
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The Grinch
Directed by Yarrow Cheney, Scott Mosier
Based on the book “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” by Dr. Seuss
Link and images from United International Pictures
Dr. Seuss’s most famous scrooge gets a color-saturated computer animation treatment that’s bursting to the seams with Christmas joy and cuteness, it’s the other side of the same coin with Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas from 1993.
Illumination studio’s The Grinch, the grouchy titular character (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) hates Christmas so much, he decides to end Christmas once and for all by dressing up as Santa and stealing all the Christmas-themed items and gifts in Whoville on Christmas Eve.
But a spunky little girl Cindy Lou Who (Cameron Seely) wants Santa to help her overworked mommy Donna (Rashida Jones,) and plots to trap Santa in her house so she can ask him her wish personally. Sounds like something The Grinch won’t like even more.
Faithful to the 1957 source material including the participation of Grinch’s loyal mutt Max, the film makes a quick statement to repeat the book’s critique of the commercialization (or materialism) of Christmas. The design takes after Illumination’s last animation The Lorax in 2012 but with far brighter and warmer holiday hues. Textures are far more advanced with the ruffling of fur and dynamics of wind and snow. We’ve come to a point when CG animation mimics motion in real life quite exactly.
But there’s nothing remarkable to say about this cute Christmas story about the more important things of the season except maybe to point out that the Grinch and Whoville universe exists in the same human universe that listens to the Jackson 5, Nat King Cole, José Feliciano and The SUpremes. It’s strangely distracting from the animated-ness of everything, and yet God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is sung by a choir to remind The Grinch about Jesus. Are there Catholic Whos too?
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Widows
Directed by Steve McQueen
Based on the 1983 ITV series of the same name
Opens December 5 in cinemas
Link and images from 20th Century Fox
Fancy a heist movie starring A-list actresses. No, not Ocean’s 8 – but that was more satisfying to watch. I don’t get how this film rates 90+% on Rottentomatoes, Widows tries hard to be important, tries hard to be relevant, tries to be artsy, tries do do and be a lot of things at the same time.
A botched robbery results in the death of four notorious criminals, including their high profile leader Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) who is implied to somehow be influential in the political circles of the South Side of Chicago. The money that Harry stole belonged to crime boss Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry) who is now threatening Harry’s widow Veronica (Viola Davis) to return the money.
Armed with only a notebook from Harry, Veronica gathers the other widows left by Harry’s team (Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki) to plan a heist against Manning’s opponent, Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell) who is from a prominent political clan. The odds are against the widows.
Key indicator of the film’s many ambitions is the explosive botched robbery escape that’s intercut for jarring effect with Veronica and Harry in the bedroom, sometimes in extreme closeups to Veronica’s eyes. Artsy? If only it were consistently so – editing doesn’t seem to have a particular philosophy or reasoning other than to sequence the events because the stylistic storytelling happens only in the beginning.
I’m tempted to declare clichéd character profiles (a snobbish rich woman, a struggling working family woman and a prostitute) but that’s just part of the frustration watching this experiment.
Shock value? There’s Daniel Kaluuya’s viciously cold Jatemme Manning, brother to Jamal and head henchman who stabs a paraplegic without blinking. Dirty old white politician? The senior Mulligan, Tom, played by Robert Duvall. MeToo, Racial Profiling, Corrupt Churches – etcetera, etcetera? It has those too.
What annoyed me to the end is not the myriad issues nor the overbearing grimness (yes I get it, it’s not really about the heist) – but I kept wondering what Veronica was doing the entire month that she could supposedly, as a smart woman in the film, have done in about two weeks? Really. We know what Rodriguez’s character was doing, we know what Debicki’s character was doing. Somehow, Veronica who is said to be with the Teachers’ Union, seems to be just going around town or lounging at home carrying the dog with nary a purpose, before crunchtime at deadline. Like she didn’t see that was coming for her driver, Bash (Garret Dillahunt.) It’s annoying when a character is presented to be smart, but is portrayed not being smart as they should be. Such is the film.
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