THE TWO POPES (2019) – My rating: 8/10

“The Two Popes” is a biographical drama directed by Fernando Meirelles and written by Anthony McCarten. The film is adapted from McCarten’s 2017 play “The Pope”. I don’t think this movie is for everyone however for those who are okay with about a third of the dialogue set in a foreign language (English captioned)  and don’t mind a slower-paced film, The Two Popes, which is very well written and directed, is probably for you.

In April 2005, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce), the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, is called to Vatican City after the death of Pope John Paul II to elect a new pope. German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Anthony Hopkins) is elected Pope Benedict XVI; Bergoglio, a close runner-up, received the second-highest vote count. Seven years later, the Catholic Church is embroiled in the Vatican leaks scandal, and Benedict’s tenure has been tainted by public accusations regarding his role in the cover-up. Controversy rages over how the Church handled pedophile priests, especially Peter Hullermann, who Cardinal Ratzinger had personally relocated to a different parish where he continued abusing children. The pope repeated his decision to transfer Hullermann each time his behavior was exposed.

Meanwhile, Bergoglio submitted his resignation as Archbishop, but the Vatican has not responded. As he prepares to go to Rome and personally deliver his resignation letter to the Pope, he receives a request to come to the Vatican. Bergoglio and Pope Benedict meet at the Palace of Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s summer residence. The two debate the roles of God and the church. Benedict recounts what led him to the priesthood and talks about his personal interests. The two watch Benedict’s favorite TV show, Kommisar Rex, further delaying their discussion about Bergoglio’s resignation.

Bergoglio recounts his early life and path into the church. He ended his marital engagement and joined the Jesuits. He was met by Father Franz Jalics (Lisandro Fiks) and Father Orlando Yorio (Germán de Silva), who becomes his spiritual friends. Benedict rejects Bergoglio’s resignation, saying the world would perceive it as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and weaken the Catholic Church. Benedict and Bergoglio put aside their differences and chat informally, gradually warming to each other.

This story is so emotional and heartfelt, one should make sure tissues are available when watching.  The scenery is absolutely beautiful, from the outfits worn by the Pope, Archbishops, and Cardinals to the actual rooms of the Vatican and the summer residence of the Pope.  I think The Two Popes should have gotten a nomination for Cinematography.   I feel this film has a soft tone to its aura and a spiritual ambiance that sets the mood for the audience. I was totally wrapped up in this story of two men (who are not without sin) confess their biggest indiscretions to each other before making the biggest decision of their lives.  The Two Popes is a very intense movie with a surprising and satisfying ending. The Two Popes is currently digital streaming on Netflix.  Since it’s snowing here, I’m enjoying having the luxury of watching several films from the comfort of my recliner because of Netflix.  While The Two Popes may be a tad bit slow, the film is brilliant and deserves attention from the “world of movie lovers” for its achievements.  Check It Out!

[THE TWO POPES is Oscar-nominated for BEST: Actor, Supporting Actor and Original Screenplay — TOTALING 3  OSCAR NOMINATIONS]

 

THOR: RAGNAROK (2017) – My rating: 9/10

Thor: Ragnarok is a superhero action film based on the Marvel Comics character Thor and is the sequel to 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. The film is directed by Taika Waititi from a screenplay by Eric Pearson and the writing team of Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost.  It is my humble opinion that Thor: Ragnarok is the best of the Thor trilogy.  It’s well written with an excellent plot and an enjoyable host of characters, new and old.  As of late, we’ve been bombarded with super heroes and gods from other planets as well as AFI, cyborgs, robots and transforming machines that come to save or destroy the world, in abundance.  Not that Thor is not more of the aforementioned group, it’s just more relatable and pleasant in terms of the human aspect.

Thor opens two years after the Battle of Sokovia with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) imprisoned by the fire demon Surtur (Clancy Brown (voice)) on the alien planet of Sakaar.  Surtur reveals that Thor’s father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is no longer on Asgard and that the realm will soon be destroyed in the prophesied Ragnarök once he successfully unites his crown with the Eternal Flame that burns beneath the city.  Thor manages to break loose and defeat Surtur, confiscating the crown and stopping the impending Ragnarök.

Thor returns to Asgard to find his adopted brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) posing as his father. Thor forces Loki to help him find their father and with directions from Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) on Earth, they locate Odin in Norway. Odin explains that he is dying, and that his passing will allow his firstborn child, Hela (Cate Blanchett), to escape from a prison she was sealed in long ago. Hela had been the leader of Asgard’s armies, and had conquered the Nine Realms with Odin, but had been imprisoned and written out of history after her ambitions became too great. Odin dies, and Hela appears. She destroys Thor’s hammer Mjolnir, and when Thor and Loki attempt to flee through the Bifröst Bridge, she pursues them and forces them out into space to die. Hela arrives in Asgard, destroying its army and the Warriors Three; resurrects the ancient dead who once fought with her, including her giant wolf Fenris; and appoints the Asgardian Skurge (Karl Urban) as her executioner. She plans to use the Bifröst to expand Asgard’s empire, but Heimdall (Idris Elba) covertly steals the sword that controls the Bridge, and hides away with the rest of Asgard’s citizens.

Thor crash-lands on Sakaar, a garbage planet surrounded by wormholes. He is captured by a bounty hunter named Scrapper 142 / Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and taken to serve as a gladiator for the planet’s ruler, the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), with whom Loki has already become ingratiated. Thor recognizes 142 as one of the Valkyrior, a legendary force of female fighters who were killed defending Asgard from Hela long ago. Thor is forced to compete in the Grandmaster’s Contest of Champions, facing his old friend the Hulk / Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo).

As you can see, Thor: Ragnarok has extensive content.  This is just an introduction into a brilliant story of survival, love and leadership with loads of action and fantasy.  There are more twist and turns than I can count and I promise, you won’t be bored.  I loved all the character revivals and introductions.  Good job, good message, good movie and brilliant acting.

I’ve provided some additional history into a few of the characters, compliments of : Kevin Feige, Taika Waititi and the cast of Thor: Ragnarok at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con

WARNING — LOTS OF SPOILERS BELOW:

• Chris Hemsworth as Thor:
  The crown prince of Asgard based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name, who has become a “lone gunslinger” searching for the Infinity Stones. Hemsworth had become “a bit bored” with the character after portraying Thor four times previously, and wanted to take some risks and experiment: the character has shorter hair in the film, wears a different outfit, his hammer Mjolnir is destroyed and he loses an eye. Director Taika Waititi added that “stripping” the character down like this allowed him to become a refugee at the end of the film. Waititi also wanted to use more of Hemsworth’s comedic talents showcased in films like Vacation (2015) and Ghostbusters (2016), and cited Kurt Russell’s portrayal of Jack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China as an influence on the character.
• Tom Hiddleston as Loki:
  Thor’s adoptive brother and nemesis based on the deity of the same name.  Hiddleston was interested in how Loki’s attitude has changed, saying, “he is always a trickster. It is trying to find new ways for him to be mischievous”. As the ruler of Asgard since the end of Thor: The Dark World, Hiddleston notes that “Loki has devoted most of his efforts to narcissistic self-glorification. Not so much on good governance.” He also added that “the idea that Thor might be indifferent to Loki is troubling for him, because that’s a defining feature of his character … ‘My brother doesn’t love me; I hate my brother.’ And the idea his brother’s like, yeah, whatever, it’s an interesting development.”
• Cate Blanchett as Hela:
  Odin’s first born child and the goddess of death, based on the deity Hel, who is inadvertently released from her prison. Blanchett noted the difficulty of playing the role in a motion capture suit rather than costume, feeling the character’s headdress is “such a huge part of when she comes into the height of her powers in the film”. Hela’s design was taken from Thor: God of Thunder by Jason Aaron, while the character Gorr from that comic, who has the ability “to manifest an infinite number of weapons”, inspired a similar ability for Hela. Blanchett worked with stuntwoman Zoë Bell, Hemsworth’s personal trainer Luke Zocchi, and studied capoeira for the role.
• Idris Elba as Heimdall:
  The all-seeing, all-hearing Asgardian sentry of the Bifröst Bridge, based on the deity of the same name, who has gone into self-imposed exile during Loki’s reign. After Hela invades Asgard, he helps to hide its vulnerable citizens. Describing Heimdall’s character arc in the film, Winderbaum says, “he’s gone from this elder statesmen, the gatekeeper to Asgard, to this badass warrior-wizard character who lives in the hills and kicks a lot of ass throughout the entire film.”
• Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster:
  One of the Elders of the Universe who rules the planet Sakaar, and enjoys manipulating lesser life-forms. Goldblum described the character as “a hedonist, a pleasure-seeker, an enjoyer of life and tastes and smells”. He also said that Waititi encouraged improvisation in order for Goldblum to “make [the character his] own”. Waititi explained that Grandmaster does not have blue skin in the film as the character does in the comics, because Goldblum had already played a blue-colored character in Earth Girls Are Easy, and because Waititi did not want to detract from Goldblum’s personality by concealing his appearance. Grandmaster is the brother of Benicio del Toro’s Collector from Guardians of the Galaxy, and producer Kevin Feige expressed interest in seeing the two together in a future film.
• Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie:
  A tough, hard-drinking Asgardian bounty hunter, based on the mythological being Brynhildr, who was once a legendary warrior of the Valkyrior and now works for the Grandmaster under the designation “Scrapper 142”. Thompson said the various versions of the character from the comics “left us a lot of leeway” in creating the film version.^[20] Waititi “wanted to make sure we weren’t making a female character that was boring and pretty” and Feige said Marvel wanted to pair Thor with a love interest more his equal than Jane Foster. Thompson was inspired by pictures of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day while training for the role and worked with dialect coach Andrew Jack to create an Asgardian-sounding accent that was different enough to sound like she had been away from there for a long time. Thompson will appear in future MCU films.
• Karl Urban as Skurge:
  An Asgardian warrior, who guards the Bifröst Bridge in Heimdall’s absence and chooses to join Hela to survive. Urban shaved his head for the role, and worked out to “get into the zone and feel” the part even though his body is hidden under a costume. Urban said Skurge “makes a deal with the devil” and becomes Hela’s “henchman. He does the dirty jobs. And that sort of is something he has to—it plays on his conscience.”
• Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk:
  A genius scientist who, because of exposure to gamma radiation, transforms into a monster when enraged or agitated. He becomes a successful and popular gladiator on Sakaar. He is in “perma-Hulk mode”, having suppressed the Banner side for a few years, and forming the vocabulary “of a toddler” with the level of Hulk’s speech being “a big conversation” between Waititi and Marvel since it was taking into account future appearances for the character. Ragnarok begins an arc for the character that continues in Avengers: Infinity War and its untitled sequel, stemming from discussions Ruffalo had with Feige.  Ruffalo felt Hulk was “much more of a character than the green rage machine you’ve seen in the Avengers movies. He’s got a swagger.” Waititi provided additional motion capture for the Hulk after Ruffalo had completed his scenes.
• Anthony Hopkins as Odin:
  The king of Asgard, father of Thor, and adoptive father of Loki, based on the deity of the same name. The character is in exile on Earth, and was originally intended to be a “crazy-looking” hobo on the streets of New York City, but Waititi ultimately felt that this was tragic rather than funny given the character’s death during the sequence. The sequence was changed to take place in Norway, to “honor” the character’s past and be more authentic to his role as a king of Asgard. Waititi was surprised by the improvisational ability of Hopkins after he was told “to be funny and to really destroy what’s come before [with the role] and recreate it.”

Additionally, Tadanobu Asano, Ray Stevenson, and Zachary Levi reprise their roles as Hogun, Volstagg, and Fandral, respectively, members of the Warriors Three.  They are all killed early in the film, which Feige called “noble ends” that served to establish the threat of Hela and the danger she poses to the main characters. Benedict Cumberbatch reprises his role as Stephen Strange from the film Doctor Strange. Rachel House, who has appeared in several of Waititi’s films, plays Topaz, the Grandmaster’s bodyguard, while Waititi portrays Korg, a gladiator who befriends Thor. Waititi provided a motion-capture performance for the character, who is made of rocks, and wanted to do something different by having the character be soft-spoken, ultimately basing Korg’s voice on that of Polynesian bouncers. Waititi also provided the motion-capture performance for the fire demon Surtur, based on the mythological being Surtr, with Clancy Brown providing the voice for that character. Thor co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance as a man on Sakaar who cuts Thor’s hair. There are also several cameos in a sequence where Asgardian actors perform a play based on the events of The Dark World: Sam Neill, who Waititi previously worked with on Hunt for the Wilderpeople, plays the Odin actor; Luke Hemsworth, brother of Chris, plays the Thor actor; and Matt Damon plays the Loki actor.

TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT (2017) – My rating: 8/10

Transformers: The last Knight is why I bother to critique movies.  From all that I read from the critics, I almost didn’t go to see this sequel.  While it wasn’t the greatest sequel, it was far from the worse.  Of course this is my opinion, which is all relative.  I enjoyed it enough to recommend it and give it a decent rating.  I really don’t know what the critics are looking for.  I was entertained and the acting was good.  The story was good as well as the special effects and action.  As a matter of fact, I was happy to not see endless destruction of cities and buildings where they normally take place.  I’m not sure what prompted the low scores or bad write ups for this movie.

The last Knight starts in the year 484 AD, with a battle being fought between the Saxons and King Arthur (Liam Garrigan) and his army, who are reluctantly relying on wizard Merlin (Stanley Tucci) to win the war.  However, Merlin, who previously forged an alliance with the Knights of Iacon, a group of twelve Transformers hidden on Earth, is off begging the knights to help him in this time of need.  Unable to help, a transformer presented Merlin with an alien staff to help King Arthur triumph over the Saxons instead.

Moving to modern day; most governments on Earth have declared Transformers illegal, and have created a multinational Transformer Reaction Force (TRF) to eliminate alien robots. Despite the absence of Optimus Prime (who left the planet in search of his creator), new Transformers are continually arriving on Earth.  The latest ship to arrive crash-lands in Chicago and is found by a group of children. When a TRF mecha confronts the kids, they are saved by Izabella, (Isabela Moner) a survivor of the Battle of Chicago, and her Transformer companions, Sqweeks and Canopy, but Canopy is killed by the TRF in the process. Bumblebee and Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) arrive to help the children to escape.

In the meanwhile, on the far reaches of the Solar System, Optimus Prime discovers that Cybertron, the Transformers’ home world, which is now disassembled into pieces, is heading directly for Earth. Optimus finds the being in control of Cybertron’s movement is a sorceress named Quintessa, (Gemma Chan) who professes to be the maker he is searching for. According to Quintessa’s story, the staff that the knights gave to Merlin was stolen from her.  Using her powers, she places Optimus Prime under her control, dubs him “Nemesis Prime,” and charges him with the task of recovering the staff. She also alleges, Earth is actually Cybertron’s “ancient enemy” Unicron, and she intends to drain his life force so that Cybertron can be restored.

Eventually, Yeager is tracked to the junkyard hideout where several old Transformers, Autobots, Dinobots, Decepticons, Jimmy, (Jerrod Carmichael) a close friend and employee of Yeager’s and Izabella live, as well as manage repairs of the surviving incoming Transformers and all that comes with them.  Yeager is approached by Cogman, (Jim Carter) the Transformer envoy and loyal butler of British Lord, Sir Edmund Burton, (Anthony Hopkins) who takes him and Bumblebee to England to meet his master. There, Yeager also meets Viviane Wembly, (Laura Haddock) an Oxford professor and last descendant of Merlin. Burton explains that he is the last living member of the “Witwiccan” order, an ancient brotherhood dedicated to guarding the secret history of Transformers on Earth.

From this point, you have a pretty good plot.  Transformers are now banned from Earth, there’s a newly formed group who are responsible for keeping the Transformers from entering called TRF, a British Lord is trying to get the last descendant of Merlin along with Yeager to retrieve the staff (that was given to Quintessa) and also use the emblem fused onto his arm by a Transformer against Quintessa to stop her from destroying Earth and Optimus Prime.  Of course there’s endless twist and turns I can’t tell you about at this point, as not to spoil the movie. The special effects are awesome, the acting is great and the action is plentiful.  This is not a bad sequel — I was entertained and not bored or disappointed.  However, I don’t think you need to spend the extra money for 3D.  If you like the Transformer series, you should check this one out!

 

 

THOR: THE DARK WORLD (2013) – My rating: 8/10

Chris Hemsworth is still ‘eye candy’ in this latest version of Thor.  I didn’t think this movie was going to tell a solid story but it did.  Completely entertaining with the right touch of seriousness, Thor also made me laugh out loud.  There was humor galore.  I’ve always felt Natalie Portman was not the right person to play Thor’s girlfriend but there she is.  I would have liked Jaimie Alexander, who plays Sif, to play Chris’s love interest instead.  Getting back to the movie, I loved it.  I love Anthony Hopkins who played Odin (Thor and Loki’s father) and Tom Hiddleston who played Loki (Thor’s brother).  There was lots of action and adventure right down to the very end.  I highly recommend seeing Thor: The Dark World on the big screen.

…

RED 2 (2013) — My rating: 8/10

Movies like this should always be viewed as fantasy.  If you do that, you’ll be able to appreciate it for the pure entertainment value.  Red 2 has everything from Marshall Arts to gun slinging, car chasing agents from the USA to China to the USSR.  May I dare say, it’s a love/hate relationship between all.  It seems a lot of today’s movies incorporate massive destruction i.e., Iron Man 3, Pacific Rim, Transformers along with the killing of not 1, not 2, but 100’s of agents and/or personnel.  Since Red 2 starred an older group of actors (Hollywood’s finest) you might expect the action would lean toward the slow side.  Not Red 2.  It was fast moving and basically fun, as well as funny and destruction was kept to a minimum.

I encountered an elderly couple walking to their car after the movie who told me Red 2 was in fact a bit too fast for them to fully process.  I could understand because of their age.  It got me to thinking, what will I be saying about movies in 20 years from now.  I’m used to fast and furious but will I be able to process it.  Will the mode change again or will I have to sit it out, due to old age?  What movies should I recommend to the elderly now?  Well for today, I really enjoyed Red 2.  Catherine Zeta-Jones is absolutely gorgeous and Helen Mirren’s body puts all to shame, old and young.  I recommend Red 2 for the under 80 crowd.  If you love Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and the legendary Anthony Hopkins,  take a chance and see it at any age.  Excellent sequel — I definitely missed Morgan Freeman.