{"id":51851,"date":"2022-01-03T15:44:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T20:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=51851"},"modified":"2022-01-03T15:44:32","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T20:44:32","slug":"holiday-leftovers-three-movie-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2022\/01\/holiday-leftovers-three-movie-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Leftovers – Three Movie Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            It has been well-established that \u201cSpider-Man: Far From Home\u201d dominated the box office over the Christmas and New Year weekends, with \u201cSing 2\u201d putting in a strong showing at #2. After that came a cluster of also-rans, none of which did particularly well critically or commercially. Rather than single one out, I\u2019ve decided to take a look at three in one sitting, starting with the biggest disappointment\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe Matrix Resurrections\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Only $30 million over two holiday weekends? For a franchise that held the record for biggest opening weekend for an R-rated movie for over 10 years? The new movie must really be bad to perform this poorly. And yes, it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are back for this shameless cash-grab of a sequel (minus the part where it grabs much cash). Beloved original cast members Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving are not back, their roles recast with Yahya Abdul-Manteen II and Jonathan Groff, respectively. I\u2019m sure the film explained why Morpheus and Agent Smith don\u2019t look the same this time around, but I couldn\u2019t follow it. Just like I couldn\u2019t follow the movie digging up one piece of 20-year-old \u201cMatrix\u201d lore after another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film makes lots of meta-jokes about how the series should have been left alone, but the soulless studio had to interfere. The trilogy wasn\u2019t exactly perfect the way it was, but this way-too-late revisiting isn\u2019t helping its legacy, and the self-deprecating humor only makes things worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Matrix Resurrections\u201d is rated R for violence and some language. Its running time is 148 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe King\u2019s Man\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I enjoyed 2014\u2019s \u201cKingsman: The Secret Service\u201d and even have a soft spot for its 2017 sequel \u201cThe Golden Circle.\u201d This prequel gave me much less enjoyment and it will not occupy a soft spot in my heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Ralph Fiennes stars as Duke Orlando of Oxford, a British aristocrat in the early 20th<\/sup> century that desperately wants to stop the world from going to war, to the point where he will engage in some battles of his own. I guess Fiennes saw the success of his \u201cSchindler\u2019s List\u201d costar Liam Neeson and decided that he too could reinvent himself as an action star in his 50\u2019s. He\u2019s trying, but the rest of the movie lets him down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The other two \u201cKingsman\u201d movies balanced outlandishness and heart so well, but this one just takes itself too seriously too often, especially in a storyline where Orlando\u2019s son (Harris Dickinson) wants to go off to war. Things are only fun when the villains are onscreen, with Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) being a particular scene-stealer. The film is unsure of what tone it wants, which ironically makes me very sure that it\u2019s an uninteresting mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C- <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe King\u2019s Man\u201d is rated R for sequences of strong\/bloody violence, language, and some sexual innuendo. Its running time is 130 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAmerican Underdog\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The story of Rams great Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi) is seemingly tailor-made to be an inspirational sports movie. We see the quarterback as he rises through high school, ekes out a decent run in college, goes undrafted for the NFL, falls, lasts one day with the Packers, falls, falls, falls, makes a comeback through arena football, and finally makes it into the NFL for a first-year Super Bowl win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But it\u2019s not all about football. We also follow him as he pursues a relationship with his eventual wife Brenda (Anna Paquin). This is a struggle too, as the couple has to deal with financial woes, a special needs child, and a demanding road schedule. But there\u2019s a Brenda Warner credited as an executive producer in the film\u2019s titles, so my guess is that things work out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Simply put, if this is the kind of movie you like, you\u2019ll like this movie. I\u2019m not a sports guy, and some of the conflict seemed forced despite its real-life basis, but I see the appeal. Like its main character, this movie has a big heart, if not much else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmerican Underdog\u201d is rated PG for some language and thematic elements. Its running time is 112 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver             It has been well-established that \u201cSpider-Man: Far From Home\u201d dominated the box office over the Christmas and New Year weekends, with \u201cSing 2\u201d putting in a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":51856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[1000],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51851"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51857,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51851\/revisions\/51857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}