In the movie news these days there’s a daily announcement of what’s coming up at the Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off in just over a month. Stephen Spielberg was mentioned early on. Meanwhile, Warner Brothers has trashed an entire movie. Bat girl It’s apparently almost complete, but it won’t be in theaters or streaming. And these are already available…
Bullet train: 3 stars
Thirteen lives: 2 ½
prey: 3 ½
The lake: 3
The bear: 4
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BULLET TRAIN: You won’t find a more confusing, wacky, pointless action movie in theaters this summer, but take it seriously. It’s also a lot of fun. It’s fast, of course, set almost entirely on Japan’s famous high-speed rail system and based on a popular novel from there. It’s got star power with Brad Pitt in the lead, a strong cast with him, and a couple of surprise uncredited cameos. And it has a narrative that throws out everything the writers came up with. Can’t two characters agree if they killed 16 or 17 people? Add a montage so they and we can count them. Much of the film has that tone of farce.
Pitt plays an assassin assigned to ride the train and make off with a briefcase full of money. He doesn’t know that there are four other killers on it that day, and hardly any passengers. Everything is eventually explained, involving a Tokyo crime boss (Hiroyuki Sanada), an upstart Russian gangster (Michael Shannon), an injured boy, a son being hunted, a suspicious woman, possibly a murderer, (Joey King) passing by. below the name Prince, and others. Code names are common, such as the “twins” Tangerine and Lemon. Pitt’s name is Ladybug. His former stuntwoman David Leitch directed, as he did for Deadpool 2 and brings a similar cheeky comedic vibe here. He looks like he’s been studying Guy Ritchie’s movies and early Tarantino’s. But he has trouble resolving the very complex plot and the movie feels like it’s slowing down before it reaches its destination. Before that: at full speed. (In theaters) 3 of 5
THIRTEEN LIVES: Now I have seen three feature films about the cave rescue in Thailand from five years ago. This one from Ron Howard is by no means the best and considering his skill as a director it is a disappointment. It doesn’t have half the suspense of the second film, the documentary The rescue Y it doesn’t even mention, as the first movie did, that a man from Langley, BC was among the many divers who showed up to help. By the way, there is another version coming next month. Netflix will have a series to tell it all again.
Howard’s version has a great virtue: it delves into the details of the story. As you probably remember, 12 soccer-playing boys and their coach took a side trip to a long cave after a game and got trapped when a sudden rain storm flooded their way out. The parents were frantic; the officers didn’t know what to do and the Navy Seals they assigned to the job didn’t have the experience. Cave diving is a particular skill, more demanding than regular diving. The whole problem is not explained properly here and that results in a weaker voltage than it should be.
People who could do it flew, particularly two from England (played here by Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell). They are not even labeled as cave divers but as rescue specialists. The film gets distracted by overtelling some details. That also dampens the suspense, although the talk about the novel way of getting the boys out is fascinating. Joel Edgerton, as an Australian diver who happens to be an anesthesiologist, came up with the idea. Sedate them, for the long underwater tow. Even that isn’t shown very tensely or even clearly. By the way, Bron Creative, the company from Burnaby, BC, is one of the producers. (Streaming on Prime Video) 2 ½ of 5
PREY: Little did we know that when we saw Arnold Schwarzenegger fight the Predator 35 years ago, the alien had already been on our planet before. It threatened the Comanche people some 300 years earlier, as this film by Dan Trachtenberg shows. A young warrior named Naru is the first to sense that the creature is near and has trouble telling others about it. It is not surprising. You can’t see it most of the time. He is translucent, sometimes just a few twinkling lights, usually just a warped distortion of air.
But Naru (played by Amber Midthunder) can hear her spaceship. Ella’s brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) doesn’t believe her. He and his mother (Stefany Mathias) don’t even understand why she spends her time trying to be a hunter when staying home is the norm. That’s a modern take on the role of women back then, but it effectively creates the tension between her and them and sets up the shock of the creature’s inevitable attack. We get the battle and the carnage that we expect in these movies, but also something surprising: a respectful representation of the indigenous culture and the life they lived. The natural plants used for medicine. The waste they deplored among the white hunters in their territory. French hunters in this case. The indigenous characters are all played by indigenous actors. That adds to the authentic feel, even though his speaking style is contemporary. “Don’t wet your bowstring,” says one. the Predator The sequels were bad. This prequel is not. (Disney+) 3 ½ of 5
EL LAGO: o nx̌aʔx̌aʔitk has a novel approach to one of the key issues at the moment: reconciliation with indigenous peoples. He shows it by example. It’s hard to imagine if there can be many others like this, but this is part of the musical history, part of the artistic project and it’s about listening to each other and understanding each other.
It begins in the 1950s, when composer Barbara Pentland was encouraged by a group in Ontario to write an opera about the relations between indigenous peoples and settlers. She was based on the writings of a woman who in the 1870s lived on the shore of Lake Okanagan and thus near the Westbank Indian Reservation. The opera was not performed because the Ontario group disbanded, but years later, singer Heather Pawsey found the libretto and decided to have it played. To improve the work, she collaborated with a local sylix woman, Delphine Derickson, who happened to be an elderly woman and singer. They removed references that were out of date or insensitive and basically brought them up to date and in doing so got to know each other’s cultures better and became friends.
They arranged for the entire opera to be performed at Quail’s Gate Winery. Why there? Because the original house of the woman who inspired the opera, Susan Allison, is still there. There is film; which I think is from that first performance, which seems to have been quite an event. The music doesn’t seem to be too exciting and we only get bits and pieces, not the form of the whole opera. The film is a bit dry but well intentioned. We understand what director John Bolton is saying about comparing cultures. Example: For some, there is a holy spirit in the lake. The settlers think it is a “malevolent monster” that some call Ogopogo. Fascinating story. (VanCity Theatre) 3 of 5
BEAR: I don’t usually cover shows, but this one has developed such a strong reputation in the US that it was worth checking out now that it’s started on Disney+ here. And judging by the first two episodes it is. This is workplace drama, heightened with a lot of tension, deadlines, disagreements, and competition on a very lively watch. The episodes are about half an hour each and the two I watched ended too soon. You get attached to these characters.
Jeremy Allen White stars as a young chef who returns to Chicago to run a small sandwich shop that had been owned by his deceased brother. He has been to a fine dining restaurant and wants to bring some of that atmosphere to this restaurant. But with each of his ideas, he clashes with his cousin (Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), who is sure he knows better and says so out loud. The other characters are mostly on the sidelines not sure who will win. , although she has just hired a new intern.(Ayo Edebiri) supports her because she is ambitious, she will be promoted to sous-chef as the series progresses and the name of the restaurant, The Original Beef of Chicagoland, will be changed to The Bear. I’ll be interested to see why and if it can be turned into a Michelin-level restaurant.In the meantime, there’s a lot of stress, hectic activity, and acrimony in the workplace well-directed by Christopher Storer.(Disney+) 4 of 5