On DVD & Blu-Ray: April 17, 2018

A QUIET PLACE Review

There is a lot to say about A Quiet Place, the third directorial effort from John Krasinski (The Office) starring real-life wife Emily Blunt in their first on-screen collaboration (and as a married couple no less), but more than anything this is a movie that encapsulates the equal amount of unexpected fear as compared to the expected amount of joy that comes along with becoming and being a parent. It is something society doesn't often prepare you for and that you don't hear much about when embarking on this particular chapter in your life. People tell you how it will change your life, certainly, and how it will do so for the better as well as how tough things will be at different times for different reasons, but no one ever seems to warn expectant parents just how much fear will encompass their lives and in what are otherwise seemingly normal of situations. This isn't what A Quiet Place is about outright, but as the father to a three year-old daughter that is what A Quiet Place is most explicitly about to me. It is a summation and tense execution of what it feels like to solely be responsible for the lives of those that are dependent upon you whether they see it that way or not; they simply expect you to be there for them because that has always been your role without a second thought to the worry and fear that role might encompass and carry. A child's perspective is difficult to re-adjust to the point they understand the full spectrum of various emotions we as human beings are capable of experiencing, but there is something inherent when becoming a parent where your brain automatically switches to all-of-a-sudden be weary of any potential dangers to your child while at the same time coming to the realization your strengths and abilities might not be enough to protect them from whatever the world throws at them. Granted, A Quiet Place is this times fifty-seven and represents the worst-case scenario of what are most of the time internalized fears, but that is what makes the film so effective and ultimately, so moving. At the center of the story is a family unit that has been fractured by grief in the midst of having to adjust to this new way of life thanks to an extra-terrestrial threat whose origins remain a mystery sans some quick glances at a few newspaper clippings, but the context doesn't matter as much as the concepts that bound forth from its simple, but intriguing premise. Through all of this, Krasinski hones in on what makes the premise work so well, that being the grief, necessary coping, and inherent fear that inevitably comes with making ourselves vulnerable enough to care so much about others. Realizing these emotions and this feeling of need to protect and shelter those you are responsible for even when you have no idea how you might accomplish as much into a tight, ninety-minute actualization that will have you holding your breath and remaining as still as the reflections we see on screen.

RAMPAGE Review

Rampage is the happy meal version of a movie. It's cheap and easy and you walk away mostly satisfied even if there was no nutritional value whatsoever. It's a strange world where Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson can still be seen in theaters in his last big-budget action adventure that involves a jungle and then the first time we see the chrome-domed former wrestler in Rampage he just so happens to once again be making his way through a similar environment; it’s as if the star is guiding us out of one movie and into the next. As we are welcomed into this new world of Rampage by The Rock himself we are introduced to his Davis Okoye, a primatologist AKA someone who studies nonhuman primates, who works at the San Diego Zoo and has essentially fostered one of the last remaining albino gorillas to be his own. George, as played through motion capture not by Andy Serkis, but by Jason Liles, is a seven foot tall, five hundred plus-pound primate who can communicate with Johnson's Davis with as much ease as a deaf child might be able to communicate with their hearing enabled parent and who also has a good sense of humor about himself and his circumstances. The one thing Rampage does better than it has any right to do is develop this relationship between the two biggest stars on screen meaning Johnson is really just that good at making audiences believe he is the coolest guy around. Not everyone could make befriending a monkey cool and inspiring as opposed to the weird and off-putting looks most would get, but the guy does it; acting as if it's the most normal thing in the world and oh yeah, he was also part of an anti-poaching military force once upon a time too, so stick that in your pipe and smoke it. And sure, the fact it’s The Rock that is both this intelligent and extremely fit guy who clearly has a streak of compassion with an especially soft spot for animals is part of the appeal in Rampage as it is the ability The Rock brings along with his presence that makes a movie as ridiculous as this work as well as it does…even if it probably shouldn't. That said, and having never played the video game on which this is based, I expected the latest from director Brad Peyton (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, San Andreas) to be a little more fun than this ends up being. Yes, there are moments of pure outrageous bliss, but they are too few and far between to make Rampage feel like the large-sized combo it was advertised to be. Rather, Rampage is drenched in that Happy Meal feeling from its quick and easy delivery to its processed if not convenient conclusion.

On DVD & Blu-Ray: April 10, 2018

First Trailer for NIGHT SCHOOL Starring Kevin Hart & Tiffany Haddish

It comes as no surprise that just over a year after Tiffany Haddish was welcomed into Hollywood with more enthusiasm than anyone since J-Law six years ago that she would be headlining a comedy with Kevin Hart set to premiere in the typically dry time between the summer movie season and awards season where it will undoubtedly make all the money. Night School, an out and out comedy about a group of troublemakers, including Hart's character, who are forced to attend night school in hopes of obtaining their GEDs, pits Hart as a successful business owner who has nowhere to turn after he loses said business in an accidental fire against Haddish. This will seemingly build a love/hate relationship with Hart's student as he was hoping to skate by in acquiring the few credits he was missing for his GED while Haddish's character, well, it's kind of unclear where she falls at the moment as she is initially indifferent towards the night school gig, but as a full-time teacher seems to have a fun rapport with everyone else at the school including Taran Killam's principal who defaults to using "black voice" when in the company of Hart and Haddish. It's a funny running gag in the trailer and I'm curious as to whether this will come out as PG-13 or R as I would have assumed it to be the latter, but this first look gives the impression Universal might prefer to play it safe and capitalize off the pairing of its two stars with as wide an audience as possible. Girls Trip director Malcolm D. Lee (who also made both Best Man films) is at the helm here as well and while his full filmography would suggest a spotty track record his most recent works including Best Man Holiday, the third Barbershop film, and last summer's massive aforementioned comedy that made Haddish a household name have leaned toward the better end of the spectrum than the other. While Lee's latest certainly doesn't look like anything that will break the mold it definitely has the components and credentials to make me excited at the prospect of it. Night School also stars Ben Schwartz, Rob Riggle, Keith David, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Anne Winters, Jacob Batalon, Mason Guccione and Romany Malco and opens in theaters on September 28th.