Review – Gaming Wall Street

It’s retail-stock-trading douchebros against the Wall Street elite in a battle that sadly can’t be lost by both sides. The story begins with a bunch of millennial investment nerds who caused some serious problems for a hedge fund that was shorting stock in Gamestop. Before it’s done, however, the scandal sheds some light on just how much of our economy is based on fraudulent transactions by some of America’s “too big to fail” financial institutions. The production loses a star for a completely unnecessary bear hunting sequence, but otherwise it’s fascinating, unnerving stuff. Mildly amusing

Review – Wartorn 1861-2010

This excellent, all-too-brief documentary focuses on PTSD among American veterans from the Civil War to current conflicts. Doubtless due in part to the star power of executive producer James Gandolfini, the crew gets candid access to Army doctors, military commanders, PTSD victims and their families. The result is a poignant portrait of how attitudes have changed in the last century and a half and how the problem still destroys lives. My only gripe was that this could have been longer, making more room for the Korean War and for vets suffering from PTSD without having been directly exposed to combat. Worth seeing

Review – Elizabeth I

Helen Mirren once again plays an English queen in an uneven biopic. This two-part, four-hour monster buys heavily into the theory that the love lives of historical figures are far more interesting than anything they ever did to or for the nations they governed. The acting is good, as are the production values. It just isn’t a particularly interesting story. Mildly amusing

Review – Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

Third verse, worse than the first. Though the action shifts to London this time, we’re still firmly rooted in familiar territory. The tear-jerker ending might have been more effective if any of the rest of the movie had given the audience anything to care about. See if desperate

Review – Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

This time around I didn’t go into the experience expecting it to be good, so I wasn’t disappointed when it wasn’t. In this episode the hero from the original is a shopping channel millionaire who gets awkwardly transplanted back into his previous career as a night watchman at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Only now the magical doodad that brings the exhibits to life at night has been shipped to the title location in Washington. Before things can be set aright, the story picks up Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams), George Armstrong Custer (Bill Hader) and Hank Azaria doing his best Boris Karloff impression as the ancient Egyptian villain. The accent and some of the other gags are entertaining, but more often than not the humor follows the drawn-out, un-funny precedent set by the first one. Mildly amusing

Review – Cruella

I walked away disappointed by Disney’s attempts at a post-modern reimagining of the villain from Sleeping Beauty. Thus I was pleasantly surprised by what they did with Cruella de Vil. Emma Stone is charming as the title character, a streetwise orphan trying to go legit as a fashion designer. Her elaborate stunts aimed at her Miranda-Priestly-esque boss (Emma Thompson) are clever and entertaining. And this is the most extensive use of rack music I’ve ever seen. Overall this is an entertaining transformation of one of the most despicable characters in the studio’s history. Worth seeing

Review – 47 Ronin

This production is roughly one third Japanese legend and two thirds Hollywood action movie. Though I understand that adding Keanu Reeves to the mix must have helped sell the concept to box-office-conscious studio executives, the explanation for how a white guy ended up connected to the nobility of feudal Japan took some time and detracted from the main story. Overall the movie is flashy, fast-paced and expensive without being anywhere near as interesting as some other tellings of the tale. Mildly amusing

Review – Fun and Fancy Free

Emerging from its wartime loss of materials and animators, Disney re-enters the realm of theatrical-release by combining two shorter productions that were originally both supposed to be feature length. The first, “Bongo,” marks one of the rare occasions the studio ever paid royalties to the author of a source story. Alas, Sinclair Lewis’s dumb story about a bear who escapes from a circus rattles on for quite some time without ever supplying enough entertainment to justify its existence. The second half – “Mickey and the Beanstalk” – features a familiar story and stars a trio of familiar characters. Even so, it takes some strange twists (why does the giant have to be a shapeshifter in addition to being huge?). And it gets interrupted frequently by the live-action comedy stylings of Edgar Bergen and his dummies. The result is more nostalgic than it is entertaining. Mildly amusing

Review – Jungle Cruise

Once again a Disney theme park ride gets turned into a lackluster movie. I guess it’s been long enough since the Brendan Fraser version of The Mummy came out that the filmmakers figured they could boost the plot and characters without anyone noticing. Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson have both done better work elsewhere, but for the most part this is an entertaining little action adventure picture. Mildly amusing