Three Movies

Sometime during the past three or four weeks, I went to see three movies. And now I'm finally catching up on my reviews of them.

The first one was The Accountant 2, in blatant violation of my personal policy not to watch sequels when I never saw the original film. However, it beat whatever else was on offer at the time. It stars Ben Affleck as a guy with some kind of savant syndrome, which seems to mean he's a violent sociopath with genius-level math skills, and Jon Bernthal as his brother, a world-class killer for hire. A Treasury Department investigator, perhaps foolishly, involves them in her search for a missing family after some guy, played by J.K. Simmons, gets murdered to death while looking for them. Also, a nameless female assassin is involved for some reason – though, counterintuitively, she kills not J.K. but most of the kill squad sent to get him. The guy she doesn't get, gets J.K., but now the case he's on reaches out and grabs Affleck because he can somehow tell – from one faded photograph and a strange remark by a call girl – that the kid has the same condition he has, and he's being held hostage by some very bad guys.

Well, yes, the kid is being held by some very bad guys – guys so bad that they decide to kill all the hostage kids to cut their losses. But this just means that Bernthal and Affleck have to move faster and hit harder. Meanwhile, the kid's surviving parent is also involved in a way that'll raise your blood pressure, if you watch this movie. It's a brutal, ultra-violent story, slightly redeemed by an interesting relationship between the two brothers, a bizarre school/family populated by brainiac kids who somehow reminded me of Sherlock Holmes' Baker Street Irregulars, and a kitty cat. I didn't not enjoy it, which perhaps reveals something awful about me.

Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) Affleck and Bernthal bond (-ish) on the roof of the camper where Affleck maintains his home and personal arsenal. (2) How the irregulars hack the information Affleck needs off a computer practically under the nose of the person using it. (3) The climactic race and rolling battle.

My next pick was The Last Rodeo, directed by Jon Avnet, who also directed Fried Green Tomatoes. It stars Neal McDonough as a former rodeo bull rider who takes a last-minute run at the Professional Bull Riders world championship when his grandson needs money for brain surgery. Also appearing are Mykelti Williamson as his longtime bullfighter, Christopher McDonald as a rodeo promoter and Sally Jones (For All Mankind) as McDonough's daughter. Also, McDonough's actual wife, Ruvé McDonough, appears in flashbacks (and, I guess, a hallucination) as the cowboy's late wife.

The story has a heartwarming component, and the actors put a lot of emotion into their scenes, and of course, the man vs. bull combat is pretty impressive. The themes of fighting back against incredible odds, healing the consequences of your past mistakes and risking complete obliteration for someone you love add up to a powerful movie. Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) Williamson calls McDonough to account for falling off the world after his wife died. (2) The young rodeo star eats crow after McDonough proves himself in the arena. (3) McDonough thinks he sees his dead wife in the stands.

Most recently, and against another personal policy of mine, I went to see Disney's live-action remake of one of their animated features: Lilo and Stitch. This time, however, I wasn't weighed down by a keen memory of the original movie. In fact, I'm not sure I've actually sat through the whole thing. So, I was able to judge this movie on its own merits, which I reckon are pretty good.

The movie features, in addition to some attractive young people whose names I forget, old familiar faces such as Courtney B. Vance, Tia Carrere and Jason Scott Lee, plus medium-range familiar face Zach Galifianakis, or whatever his name is. It involves aliens landing on earth, a creature genetically engineered as a force of destruction becoming a family pet, and two sisters struggling to make a go of things after their parents' death. In Hawaii, which lends it a certain cultural and scenic color. So it combines tender family drama with rip-roaring action, sci-fi weirdness and fast-paced comedy.

Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) Stitch realizes he's hurting his human found family and goes back to the animal shelter where they found him. Awww. (2) Lilo's sister saves Stitch from drowning in the ocean, a remarkable rescue both under the water and on land. (3) The villain stalks his creation through the sisters' home, trashing it with his sci-fi weapons. Bonus scene: When the villain gets caught in a spacetime portal loop, and how he gets out of it. Comedy gold!