Michelle Pfeiffer

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum-meh-nia

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
  • IMDb: link

With several of the big Marvel heroes phased out, it falls on Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) to move from plucky comic relief to tentpole of the MCU. Rudd’s third Ant-Man film as a lead is his weakest, although he’s certainly not to blame. Scott Lang continues to be fun and charming as the script moves characters through brightly colored CGI-manufactured sets for both joke and sight gag payoffs. And while many of those do offer a chuckle, ultimately that’s not much more to the script as when screenwriter Jeff Loveness attempts to get serious your attention will shrink to quantum levels.

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Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
  • IMDb: link

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil movie reviewHonestly, other than the look of Angelina Jolie as the title character, I could remember almost nothing about 2014’s Maleficent walking in to view its sequel. In five years, I’m betting I’ll remember even less about Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

Jolie and Elle Fanning return as the sorceress Maleficent and the Queen of the Moors, Aurora. The film opens with a proposal by Prince Philip (Harris Dickinson) to wed Aurora and unite his father’s human kingdom with the magical realm that Maleficent turned over to Aurora at the conclusion of the first film. While Philip’s father (Robert Lindsay) is quite taken with the idea, neither Maleficent nor the prince’s mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) think much of the pairing as both hold bigoted views towards the other kingdom and the races that inhabit them.

The crux of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil isn’t really about Maleficent. Nor is it about Aurora and her love story. Instead, the film is focused on the evil machinations of Queen Ingrith (Pfeiffer) as she works to spur on a war that antagonists on both sides are more than willing to fight once she lights the spark.

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Ant-Man and the Wasp

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  • Title: Ant-Man and the Wasp
  • IMDb: link

Ant-Man and the Wasp movie review

2015’s Ant-Man was a fun and lighthearted entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe that, while mostly enjoyable, would certainly rank among the weaker (and more forgettable) entries to the MCU. Ant-Man and the Wasp brings back former thief turned super-hero Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), the original Ant-Man Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly), and most of the supporting cast and characters from the first film including Scott’s former prison buddies and family. As in Ant-Man, several people are after Pym and his work. And given Scott’s improbable return from the Quantum Realm at the end of the first movie, Hank Pym plans of his own.

Although the plot of the film is a bit too convoluted for its own good as it continues to juggle multiple plots and characters (many of whom get far more screentime than necessary), I found the sequel more enjoyable than the original playing off established relationships and concepts introduced in Ant-Man. Following Avengers: Infinity War, smaller stakes (both literally and figuratively) also prove to be a nice change of pace from the universe threatening death dealer.

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Ladyhawke

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Ladyhawke
  • IMDb: link

LadyhawkeMy favorite Richard Donner film is neither Superman nor Lethal Weapon; it’s 1985’s Ladyhawke which starred a pre-Ferris Bueller Matthew Broderick as a thief named Gaston who becomes entangled in a tragic love story between the former Captain of the Guard Navarre (Rutger Hauer) and the beautiful Isabeau (Michelle Pfeiffer). With the help of a drunken priest (Leo McKern), Gaston will be charged with helping to break the curse laid on the two lovers by the jealous Bishop of Aquila (John Wood) which keeps them together but forever apart.

Set to an electronic score by Andrew Powell and the stunning cinematography of Oscar-winner Vittorio Storaro the medieval fairy tale about love, faith, hawks, wolves, dark magic, and a thief becoming a hero, remains one of the most unique films of its time. Pfeiffer has never looked better on film and she and Hauer sell the tortured nature of their existence while Broderick’s wisecracks provide just the right counterbalance to their tragic tale.

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The Family

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Family
  • IMDB: link

The FamilyAfter mixed success in the low-rent action genre, writer/director Luc Besson turned his attention to dark comedy with 2013’s The Family. The results of an American mobster (Robert De Niro) and his family (Michelle Pfeiffer, Dianna Agron, John D’Leo) in Witness Protection in small town in Normandy, France, is actually better than some of Besson’s other recent efforts (such as Taken 2).

Centered mostly on the family’s inability to adapt to new surroundings yet again after being forced to relocate by the FBI agent (Tommy Lee Jones) in charge of their safety we see several instances of “The Blakes” using violence, intimidation, and even explosives to get what they want.

De Niro has fun with the mobster’s selfish actions involving attacking both a plummer and the head of a local chemical plant polluting the water supply while working on memoirs no one in the FBI ever wants to see the light of day. He even agrees to speak at a local film debate where his real personal experience comes in very handy.

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