Director/co-writer Denis Villeneuve has done it again. Literally.

Audiences who loved his 2021 take on Frank Herbert’s “Dune” will be doubly pleased with the sequel. If this brand of visually magnificent, narratively sluggish storytelling wasn’t for you the first time, the sequel won’t win you over.

It’s that simple.

Either way, it’s best to bone up on the first film, commit the galaxy of complex names and tribes (save our hero, Paul) to memory and find the sweetest IMAX screen possible.

That’s the best way to digest the sights and sounds of “Dune: Part II.”

The story picks up more or less where the 2021 film left off. 

Paul Atreides (an assured Timothee Chalamet) and Fremen soldier Chani (Zendaya) are pitted against House Harkonnen and its Jabba-esque leader Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård).

The prize? Domination, of course, and access to Arrakis’ invaluable spice resources.

The indigenous Fremen mostly believe Paul is the chosen one/prophet/Neo stand-in, and he uses that status to guide the fight against Team Harkonnen. He’s joined by his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), pregnant with Paul’s future sibling.

Said sibling communicates with Lady Jessica throughout the film, a subversive pro-Life spirit sure to be dissected in the coming weeks.

“Dune: Part II: doesn’t lack for charismatic co-stars. Javier Bardem makes a sizable mark as Stilgar, a Fremen elder open to an outsider like Paul saving his people. Josh Brolin’s return to the saga as Gurney Halleck is equally welcome.

Need villains? Christopher Walken gets too little screen time as the elderly Emperor, and Florence Pugh’s Princess Irulan feels like a starry place holder for the promised third film.

She has little to do save show off some royally cool outfits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Far better is Austin Butler as Harkonnen prince Feyd-Rautha, a brute with serious fighting chops and screen presence to spare.

Betcha miss streamlined sci-fi names like Jar Jar Binks, no?

Miraculously, Chalamet and Zendaya bond as warriors who might be falling in love between battles. Why “miraculously?”

Villeneuve infamously distanced himself from dialogue in a recent interview, and a quick glimpse at the “Dune” saga shows he cares about spectacle above all else.

It’s not a bad position given his status as our finest visual storyteller not named Nolan. The “Dune” films are stunning to behold, on par with anything James Cameron could uncork. “Part II” continues that spiky tradition. The opening sequence, a quasi-battle, is lush and inviting, its visual snap elevating it beyond a mere fight between warring forces.

It’s not the only time you’ll need to push your jaw back to its original, upright position.

“Dune: Part II” smells and sounds like a blockbuster, but it never succumbs to formula or trite resolutions. It’s an arthouse popcorn movie, a contradiction that Villeneuve pulls off. He’s aided by another bravura score by Hans Zimmer, leveraging the theater’s speakers in ways that creep up and down your spine.

Magnificent.

Cinematographer Greig Fraser’s work is equally imposing, and while CGI trickery is afoot in every sequence Fraser and Villeneuve bring a tactile snap to everything on screen.

So what’s the downside? Like the first installment, “Dune: Part II” feels heavy from start to finish. It’s never buoyant, even during its most arresting moments. It’s like listening to a story narrated by someone buried to his neck in sand.

You can feel it even if it’s hard to describe.

Not every sci-fi adventure needs to be as light, as accessible as “Star Wars” or “Star Trek,” but a happy medium still feels out of reach for the saga.

There’s still so much to savor in the sequel, making complaints feel like grains of sand in an Arrakis oasis.

HiT or Miss: “Dune: Part II” is everything a Hollywood blockbuster should be minus the formulaic beats and giddy sense of escapism.

The post ‘Dune: Part II’ Delivers More of the Spectacular Same appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

The kids are not remotely all right.

“The Coddling of the American Mind,” sparked by the book of the same name by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, takes a few beats to get to the heart of the matter.

Yes, young people will always struggle with school, dating drama and more recent stressors like social media. What academia has piled upon them is far worse, and we’re seeing the fallout in shocking statistics tied to depression, anxiety and even suicide.

“Coddling” could have drilled deeper into its subject matter, and some segments are too ambitious for the 90-minute format. It’s still a lively, critical X-ray of a societal crisis.

WATCH: Official Trailer – "The Coddling of the American Mind" Movie https://t.co/CA5MTg0SFu

— Stephen Oliver (@StephenCOliver) February 16, 2024

The documentary focuses on a small group of students who ran headfirst into Academia’s woke indoctrination buzz saw. The students hail from across the globe, but their stories are remarkably similar.

They entered college hoping to expand their minds and take part in the American dream. It wasn’t long before they embraced victimhood status, a journey with a profound impact on their mental health.

Microaggressions. Trigger warnings. Ableism. Sexism. Systemic Racism. And George Floyd.

“Is this how the world works? Something dark entered my heart,” recalls Kimi, a talented Uganda woman whose entire life shifted after arriving on a U.S. campus. Her woke makeover left her depressed, confused and unable to tap into her artistic side.

Young Saeed from Nigeria imagined college life as teeming with smart debates and mind-expanding conversations. Instead, he quickly learned to self-censor for his own good.

Either you nod along with the groupthink or take social cover.

Director Ted Balaker (“Can We Take a Joke?”) marries traditional documentary tricks with fractured animation that would look at home in a Monty Python sketch. The latter suits the subjects’ deteriorating mental health all too well.

Balaker pairs that visual approach with overhead shots of bucolic college campuses, contrasting it with the horrors awaiting each freshman class.

“Coddling” eschews a typical narrator to coalesce the arguments in play, a choice that makes the film’s first 20 minutes a bit muddy. The approach eventually works in the film’s favor.

This isn’t Left vs. Right or Conservative vs. Liberal. It shouldn’t require an ideological lens to see how fundamentally flawed the DEI-style theatrics are for young minds.

New college students are bombarded with cutesy animation comparing micro-aggressions to mosquito bites and snippets asking them, “Can you help me find my trigger?”

It’s almost farcical in tone, but “Coddling” is in no mood for laughter.

The recent docuseries “The Reformers” landed harder punches on what Elon Musk dubbed the “woke mind virus.” “Coddling” is less confrontational, but its arguments hit on similar themes.

Humans need adversity, not trigger warnings. Safe spaces only delay the hardships life offers. Coddling students makes them weaker and less able to fight for the structural changes they desperately crave.

Social media’s impact on all of the above gets a close-up later in the film, but it could have played a larger role in the narrative. The documentary also flirts with the country’s political divisions. Here, too, the topic is so vast it might have been left out entirely to focus on the indoctrination and its chilling fallout.

The latter connects to one of the source material’s “great untruths” – “Us v. Them.” That’s what too many universities push on students.

The results too often speak for themselves.

“The Coddling of the American Mind” comes courtesy of Substack, not any major or minor film studio. That alone speaks volumes.

So does the film’s tone.

This isn’t as brash as a Dinesh D’Souza feature. Nor do the key players demonize familiar targets (Donald Trump, Musk, etc.). It’s an olive branch to well-intentioned academics who don’t realize the harm they’re inflicting on Gen Z.

it’s impossible to think otherwise after this thoughtful, and occasionally shocking, expose.

HiT or Miss: “The Coddling of the American Mind” is an essential document describing the mental health toll woke makeovers have on American teens.

The post ‘Coddling’ Doc Destroys Woke Universities, Trigger Warnings and More appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Drone warfare changed how America goes to war and, to an extent, the way filmmakers bring combat scenes to life.

The bravura 2015 film “Eye in the Sky” explored the morality of pushing buttons to win battles (and potentially kill innocents in the process).

“Land of Bad” veers in a different direction. Hard.

The thriller follows a Delta Force mission depending on those “eyes in the sky” to lead the way. It’s gripping from start to finish, and some of the sharpest scenes come courtesy of a drone pilot seated in a Las Vegas command center half a world away.

Take a bow, Russell Crowe.

Liam Hemsworth stars as Kinney, a JTAC (Joint terminal attack controller) teamed with battle-tested soldiers to retrieve a CIA asset held in a terrorist compound.

The mission is fraught with danger. It’s just a four-man unit, not counting the proverbial eyes in the sky. The uncompromising landscapes of Jolo Island in the southwest Philippines offer their own perils.

Kinney is as green as they come, but he gets a crash course in survival when the mission goes south. He’s forced to scramble for safety, all the while communicating with “Reaper,” a grouchy drone pilot played by Crowe.

Reaper and his no-nonsense partner Nia (Chika Ikogwe) guide Kinney’s way, but there’s little they can do about surprise hostiles, RPGs and other threats on the ground.

Shot in Australia’s Gold Coast, “Land of Bad” brings a ferocious energy to standard-issue fight sequences. Shrewd editing helps, but director William Eubank’s eye for the unorthodox brings snap to gun battles and hand-to-hand fights alike.

Get him a “John Wick” sequel or spinoff gig, stat.

The screenplay, credited to Eubank and co-producer David Frigerio, packs plenty of laughs between the explosions. Reaper and Nia solidify their bond early in the film, and the former’s short fuse adds another source of tension to the story.

He doesn’t do well with authority, a trope enlivened by Crowe. 

High on adrenaline, Land of Bad is up for theatrical release on February 16.

Directed by William Eubank, the film stars Liam Hemsworth, Russell Crowe, Luke Hemsworth, Ricky Whittle, and Milo Ventimiglia in pivotal roles.

The cast and crew spoke to WION’s Zeba Khan (@zessz)… pic.twitter.com/adTjWfwJnF

— WION (@WIONews) February 15, 2024

There’s nothing woke about “Land of Bad,” nor do we endure any moral handwringing. That’s not to say the U.S. military is deified in any fashion. One character curses out the “alphabet” institutions (you know who they are) and arrogance is the order of the day with some higher-ups.

The action scenes are the main attraction, and the balance between realism and Hollywood razzle dazzle is darn near perfect.

So is Crowe, who brings so much to a role that forces him to emote from a seated position. A third-act wrinkle sends him out into the world, and he’s so colorful you wish HBO would make a series following him around in his day-to-day life.

Hemsworth’s awkward chemistry with his teammates (Milo Ventimiglia, Ricky Whittle and brother Luke Hemsworth) offers another satisfying layer.

RELATED: DECORATED SOLDIERS PICK BEST, WORST WAR MOVIES

Even in quieter moments, “Land of Bad” suggests the nuances of modern combat. How fast can a Hellfire missile reach its target? Can soldiers stay one step ahead of danger when the enemy’s position is fed into their earpieces?

Do we pay a price, morally or spiritually, for killing without getting our hands dirty?

The latter is suggested via a sequence involving a Muslim terrorist. It’s not a talking point, just an organic part of Kinney’s transformation.

There’s not a Rambo-like soldier in “Land of Bad.” These warriors bleed and make poor decisions. They don’t take down dozens of terrorists with one wave of their machine gun.

This is war, albeit Hollywood style. It’s also one of the year’s most welcome surprises given the modest marketing machine behind it.

HiT or Miss: “Land of Bad” serves up thrilling action, authentic military scenes and just enough Hollywood sizzle to make everything pop.

The post ‘Land of Bad’ Offers Everything You Crave in a Military Thriller appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” inspired a flood of flashy copy-cats.

His imitators aped his blend of hot action and cool banter. Suffice it to say few could come close to the real deal.

That’s being generous.

“Drive-Away Dolls” plays like a facsimile of a Coen brothers romp. Quirky dialogue. Spastic action. Southern twang talk. It’s just as shallow, if not worse than the weakest Tarantino clones.

Now comes the shocking part. Ethan Coen co-wrote and directed this monumental misfire.

Jamie and Marian (Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan) couldn’t be more different. Jamie is the ultimate hedonist, seeking 24/7 pleasure from an endless string of female partners). Marian is more reserved, preferring to read Henry James and wait for the right girl to come along.

Jamie ignores her friend’s desires and drags her hither and yon for sexual hookups. Along the way they decide to head south to visit Jamie’s Aunt in Tallahassee. To get there, they use a “drive-along” service which lets them borrow a car.

A mixup finds the duo transporting a sought-after package of unknown origin. Before long a pair of dim-witted thugs are on the women’s trail.

“Drive-Away Dolls” wraps in just 84 minutes, but the film feels at least twice that long. It’s chockablock with filler, from ‘60s-style interstitials to interminable scenes of women making out and/or having sex.

It’s 2024. There’s nothing novel or shocking about the latter.

The film’s many sex scenes add nothing to the plot or the characters in question. Marian gets not one but two flashbacks of her as a teen discovering her attraction to women.

Fine. Except we already know she’s a lesbian. She’s not shy about it, just shy about her dating mores. So these scenes add nothing to the story.

And they have plenty of company.

Other sequences make no sense. One character is pulled over by a cop for no reason whatsoever. What’s the charge … Walking While Woman?

One explanation? We need to make our heroines into … victims.

Matt Damon (barely) appears in the film as a “family values” politician, code for eeee-vil Republican hypocrite. Except he’s on screen for all of five minutes, and the screenplay can’t flesh him out in any manner.

It’s lazy virtue signaling for an audience eager for vapid, on-screen empowerment.

Yes, a Coen brother went woke. Sigh.

RELATED: ENJOY THESE PERFECT ‘RAISING ARIZONA’ MOVIE QUOTES

“Dolls” is obsessed with sex. Endless scenes feature women engaging in oral sex, swapping makeout partners or otherwise fixated on the subject. A savvy film would hint at all of the above, not repeatedly stop the story cold to linger over these moments.

The MacGuffin reveal is so dumb it sinks whatever integrity the movie had up until that point. It’s a sign that the filmmakers don’t care about anything above the story’s empowerment shtick.

It gets worse.

The film’s bumbling goons are bloodthirsty or restrained, all depending on the scene in question. They bicker endlessly and nothing they say is enlightening or amusing. It’s just noise.

The man behind the thuggery, initially played with promise by Colman Domingo, loses any menace he flashed earlier in the film.

Need another annoying character who lacks purpose, humor and consistency? Beanie Feldstein plays Jamie’s ex-lover and a police officer. The film slumps whenever she’s on screen, and that’s saying something since the film exists in a perpetual slump.

On paper, “Drive-Away Dolls” is a raunchy, hilarious caper, the kind that zips by with witty exchanges and toe-curling action. Making the protagonists lesbians adds something new to the formula.

On screen, the laughs are few, the pacing is sluggish and the characters are uniformly grating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We’ll end the review with a tiny spoiler because this film richly deserves it.

Our heroines meet an older, God-fearing black woman late in the film, and they explain why they’ve decided to move north once their vacation ends. Their destination state allows for same-sex marriages (even though the story is set in 1999 and that wasn’t true at the time).

The film previously suggested people of faith are bad with a capital “B” courtesy of Damon’s character. This particular character is black, so she must have the “right” opinion on gay marriage. So she smiles and suggests that changing mores is a good thing.

This critic isn’t personally weighing in on gay marriage, pro or con. Just noting that to be true to the character’s faith and generation would likely mean she’d reject it on some level.

That’s how woke storytelling works. Or, to be more accurate, doesn’t.

HiT or Miss: “Drive-Away Dolls” is a career low for Ethan Coen and a disaster for anyone expecting the breezy romp the subject matters implies.

The post ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ – Ethan Coen Goes Solo (And Pathetically Woke) appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

The story behind “Ordinary Angels” is almost too perfect for a major motion picture.

A woman attempting to rebuild a life stained by alcoholism rallies a community to save a girl’s life, battling a mountain of medical bills in the process.

In some hands “Ordinary Angels” would be a treacly, faith-based misfire.

Director Jon Gunn (“The Case for Christ”) had other ideas. His take on the material is faith-kissed but filled with rough, ungainly edges. That makes the story’s lump-in-your-throat moments, and there are a good half dozen or so, pop off the screen without 3D goggles.

Alan Ritchson stars as Ed Schmitt, a widower faced with another heart-breaking reality. His young daughter Michelle (Emily Mitchell) is very sick, and without a liver transplant she may not see her pre-teen years.

The medical bills are suffocating him, and there’s little hope a transplant can come in time to save his little “butterfly.”

By luck or fate, Sharon (Hilary Swank) hears about Ed’s plight. She’s a hard-drinkin’ gal who knows she needs something, anything, to turn her life around. She thinks she finds it in the Schmitt family, steering her formidable charm to do more than raise money for their medical bills.

She wills their small town to fight for Michelle’s survival.

You think you know where “Angels” is going at every turn and more times than not you’ll be right. Still, the screenplay by Meg Tilly (yes, that Meg Tilly) and Kelly Fremon Craig (“The Edge of Seventeen”) is shrewd enough to lean into the formula while making it feel fresh.

RELATED: IS ‘FATHER STU’ THE BEST FAITH-BASED DRAMA YET?

Sharon’s intrusion into the Schmitt family’s life is all-encompassing. Ed welcomes her support, but he’s old school enough to know she’s bullying past some serious boundaries.

It’s clear her efforts aren’t just the work of a good Samaritan. It’s a reclamation project, a way to make amends for being a distracted mother to her own, now-adult child.

Ritchson’s Ed is curt and stoic, refusing to accept help at times and making sure he’s protecting his family for Sharon’s hard-charging efforts. He can seem ungrateful, but it’s easy to see how bewildered he is processing so many pulls on his heart.

His child. His late wife. The home that marks his ties to both his late wife and a carefree past long since gone.

Ritchson underplays it like a heartland dad of yore. It’s a sneaky, powerful performance.

#AboutLastNight ”This is a film that reminds us of the good in life.” Hilary Swank at the New York premiere of her film “ORDINARY ANGELS.”

Based on a true story, #OrdinaryAngelsMovie centers on Sharon (Hilary Swank), a fierce but struggling hairdresser in small-town Kentucky… pic.twitter.com/BvRmYOiwhF

— Critics Choice Awards (@CriticsChoice) February 20, 2024

Swank is the opposite, a force of nature directing her energy at everyone in her path. The Oscar winner doesn’t paper over Sharon’s flaws. They’re palpable even when she’s getting things done with merciless speed.

Heck, the way she integrates herself into the Schmitt fan would give anyone pause. It’s that tension, that portrait of an addicted personality in flux, that brings life to the formulas in play.

FAST FACT: “Ordinary Angels” has an unlikely music connection. Veteran singer Dave Matthews co-produced the film, making it just the second feature film he’s produced to date. Matthews heard about the true story behind the movie and fought for it to become a motion picture.

The film’s faithful elements are modest and necessary given the true story in focus, but it’s never in the form of speeches or other unwelcome scenes. A poignant moment finds Ed’s older daughter coaxing Dad to pray with her. He’s torn between rage at God and being the kind of dad who supports his child no matter what.

What could have been a preachy, throwaway moment becomes something special, much like “Ordinary Angels.”

HiT or Miss: “Ordinary Angels” shows more than the power of prayer. It’s a testament to good actors given a screenplay worthy of the amazing story in play.

The post Heartbreaking ‘Ordinary Angels’ Upends Faith-Based Rulebook appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

How many unique comic characters do we see these days?

Think Austin Powers, Capt. Jack Sparrow and Derek Zoolander. These larger-than-life types are played by actors who never step out of character for a nanosecond.

Esther Povitsky’s character in “Drugstore June” is cut from similar cloth. June defies pat labels, providing a fresh source of laughter in this 90-minute treat. Chances are you’ll want to see her again as soon as possible.

Povitsky’s June works at a drugstore and still lives at home with her dysfunctional Ma and Pa (Beverly D’Angelo and James Remar, both rock solid). Her life revolves around live streaming every inane thought that pops into her head and fleeing “trauma” in the form of mild insults and observations.

The early scenes suggest director/co-writer Nicholaus Goossen is gunning for woke snowflakes who overshare on social media. That’s June, to a point, but she won’t be defined by that glib assessment.

Her drugstore gets robbed early in the film, and June eventually decides to take up the investigation after being grilled by two fed-up cops. She’s no Columbo, to put it mildly, but she might just get results.

That’s as much plot as “Drugstore June” allows, but it’s more than enough to keep our attention. The rest is up to Povitsky and a small band of comics-turned-actors to enliven the film and keep the laughs flowing.

That means “Drugstore June” co-producers Bill Burr and Al Madrigan steal scenes as a family doctor and detective, respectively. Trevor Howard’s weed-addled entrepreneur heists a few more. Comic Ms. Pat just needs seconds of screen time to do the same.

The laughs spread liberally across the film, but “Drugstore June” doesn’t work without Povitsky. Her June should be detestable – she’s entitled, lazy and disconnected from reality.

What’s to love … or even like?

Except a great performance supersedes all of the above and makes us connect with a deeply flawed soul. We love June despite ourselves.

“Drugstore June” doesn’t deliver outrageous set pieces you’ll tell your friends about. Instead, the comedy is baked into the narrative and the smiles don’t fade until the final seconds.

Goossen and Povitsky have plenty to say about today’s youth, from June’s toxic younger brother (Brandon Wardell) to the main character’s inability to leave the nest. The film’s withering take on social media should feel stale by 2024 but it never does.

‘Drugstore June’ Avoids Comedy Pitfalls

June’s attempts to seduce a drugstore customer (Danny Griffin) prove hilarious, and the film’s modest attempts at dream sequences similarly score.

Even better? 

June’s visit to a marijuana dispensary, which packs more laughs than most modern comedies.

Movies like “Drugstore June” can fail for many reasons.

• Wrong casting
• Wrong tone
• Inconsistent tone
• Third-act lectures (one scene comes close but quickly swerves away)
• Twee storytelling
• Uneven screenplay
• Character exhaustion

None of the above apply to “Drugstore June.” It’s a future cult classic for all the right reasons.

HiT or Miss: “Drugstore June” is a delight, a cleverly constructed character study of someone we may think we’ve seen before, but every new scene reminds us we haven’t.

The post ‘Drugstore June’ Delivers Dizzying Millennial Satire (With a Twist) appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

One of the biggest problems with “Maestro” is that it isn’t political enough.

In trying to dramatize the life of Leonard Bernstein, director/star Bradley Cooper has been not so much dishonest as semi-honest; we get only a sliver of the many facets of one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th century.

Bernstein the Private Man is the focus here.

We get some but not enough of Bernstein the Conductor and Bernstein the Mentor. The near-total absence of Bernstein the Composer is simply inexcusable.

The movie expects modern viewers to be familiar with a man who has been dead for more than 30 years and whose dominating cultural presence stretched from the late 1940s to the late 1980s.

That’s a great disservice to both the film’s subject and its audience.

Anyone familiar with Bernstein will walk always frustrated that the man’s tremendous artistic contributions are left almost untouched. Those unfamiliar with him will wonder why this person deserved a big-budget biopic in the first place.

Who is this Berstein we see on the screen? Certainly not the man who bridged high culture and pop culture more successfully than any other American before or since.

The tunesmith who helped write the immortal songs for “On the Town” and “West Side Story” and who also penned an operetta based on Voltaire’s “Candide” and a symphony based on Plato’s Symposium is barely present.

We also don’t get the man who helped revive the reputation of Gustav Mahler; although we see Bernstein conducting Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, it takes place late in the film, in 1973, a full decade after his more important performance of the same symphony in tribute to the recently-murdered John F. Kennedy.

Completely absent is the man who composed the extraordinary and influential film score for “On the Waterfront,” who popularized classical music to the masses with his TV specials and who helped mentor everyone from Stephen Sondheim to Yo-Yo Ma.

We do at least get the director of the New York Philharmonic, but not enough of him at work in this role, or in his larger role in disseminating classical music to the general public. It’s not insignificant that the film’s centerpiece – the aforementioned Mahler symphony – takes place not in New York, but in London.

But we at least get the Political Bernstein, don’t we? There’s no way Hollywood would overlook this dimension of his historical character, right?

Strangely enough, the answer is no once again.

We don’t get the lifelong liberal activist, who spoke out against HUAC and Vietnam at a time when it threatened his public standing (Cancel Culture remains toxic no matter who is doing it or why), campaigned to free imprisoned artists in the Soviet Union while supporting the civil rights movement at home and less admirably hobnobbed with the Black Panthers and other members of the far Left.

The latter inspired Tom Wolfe to coin the term “Radical Chic.”

You’d think this alone would be enough to make him a hero in the eyes of contemporary tastemakers, but no, none of his political activity comes up either.

So what is left to film? The emphasis is instead overwhelmingly on his marriage to his wife Felicia (Carey Mulligan) and his children, and his maintaining a double life through numerous affairs with other men. Bernstein also embarked on numerous heterosexual affairs as well, but mentioning those would presumably make him look bad.

By focusing on Bernstein’s family and clandestine romances, the film fails to address the most interesting of all his relationships, the one he had with the United States itself.

Cooper’s performance as Bernstein doesn’t help.

So far, he’s been at his best in seriocomic leads (“Silver Linings Playbook”) or ensemble comedies (“The Hangover”), but has yet to give a satisfactory performance as a dramatic lead.

In straight dramas, Cooper has an annoying habit of developing a set of limited mannerisms as the basis for his performance and then refusing to deviate from this superficial characterization.

He previously did so in “A Star is Born” and “Nightmare Alley,” and does so here again. Yes, the makeup job on him is amazing, but it conceals a shallow portrayal that only occasionally conveys the inner turmoil that the real man must have gone through.

There are times, especially late in the film when he tries to affect a gruffness in his voice to denote the aged Bernstein, where Cooper seems to be parodying Alec Guinness’s performance in “The Horse’s Mouth.” The latter is a far more successful portrayal of artistic genius struggling with the pains and pressures of mid-century life (in both senses of the word).

Cooper does demonstrate that, like Robert Redford and George Clooney, he’s possibly a better director than he is an actor. Although the script is as perfunctory as one of Ken Russell’s musical biopics of the Seventies, the film manages to be almost as visually striking, if obviously far less flamboyant and overblown.

Maybe Cooper should have concentrated on his directorial task and passed the acting baton to someone who might have done a better job at creating a fully-realized and believable Bernstein.

The fine work by Mulligan and most of the rest of the supporting cast (even Sarah Silverman manages to stay on the right side of annoying) indicates that Cooper is better at getting good performances out of other actors than he is at getting one out of himself.

The release of “Maestro” coincided with that of “Archie,” the highly-acclaimed TV miniseries about the life and times of Cary Grant. Perhaps that’s also the route that the makers of “Maestro” should have taken.

Sharing Bernstein’s staggering life over six or seven hour-long episodes might have given them the chance to orchestrate every dimension of a complicated career and personality.

A few pages of his life in a little over two hours feels like an unfinished symphony.

A.A. Kidd is a sessional university instructor in Canada who proudly volunteers for the Windsor International Film Festival. He appreciates classic movies, hard science fiction and bad puns.

The post ‘Maestro’ Leaves Out the Very Best of Leonard Bernstein appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

We owe “The Marvels,” “Eternals” and “Morbius” an apology.

Who knew superhero fare could sink as low as “Madame Web?”

This obscure, Spider-related heroine yields a terrible origin film, the kind with so many flaws it’s hard to point in just one direction.

The film’s future isn’t bright, but it could be reborn as a camp classic. That’s not what Hollywood’s once-mighty genre needs at this moment.

A clunky flashback in the Amazon jungle sets the Webb family story in motion.

Our heroine’s pregnant mother (Kerry Bishe) is murdered after discovering a rare spider with the potential to cure any number of illnesses.

Her baby miraculously lives, and we see her adult self when the story moves ahead to 2003. That’s Cassandra “Cassie” Webb (Dakota Johnson, miscast) who works as an EMT alongside her platonic partner Ben Parker (Adam Scott of “Parks & Recreation” fame).

Does that name sound a tad … familiar?

‘Madame Web’ Can See the Future … But Not Film’s Flaws

Cassie suffers a near-death experience while saving a man trapped on a bridge, and she suddenly has the power to see the near future. If things go south in her vision, then she can choose a different course of action to avoid that fate.

What. A. Superpower.

That gift still comes in handy when she runs into Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), a man obsessed with killing three young women who pose a threat to his evil plans.

Why?

They’ll be super-powered one day in a very Peter Parker fashion.

Cassie meets the women in question (Sydney Sweeney, Isabel Merced and Celeste O’Connor) and she may be their only hope for survival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“Madame Web” starts poorly and never finds its footing. The opening scenes induce unintentional laughter, and it won’t be the only guffaws echoing in the theater.

Johnson remains an endearing on-screen presence, but she lacks the charisma a genre film demands. That’s still superior to her nemesis. Rahim delivers one of the worst performances in a superhero film … ever.

It’s that relentlessly bad.

Blame director S.J. Clarkson, who never gets a proper handle on the material and clearly could have coaxed better line readings from Rahim and co. In her defense, she’s forced to work with a script she penned alongside three collaborators.

This script might have passed muster for an “Afterschool Special” of yore, but for a film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe it’s soul crushing.

What Year Is This, Anyway?

The story may be set in 2003, but the villainous Ezekiel taps into technology that’s very much of this moment. Then again, plot chasms litter the film and prove a constant distraction.

This critic’s personal favorite? Several characters are reportedly kidnapped mid-movie, and hours later a subway rider is shown reading a newspaper announcing their abduction.

Printing presses didn’t work that fast in 2003 … or today.

Sony confirms #MadameWeb has 0 post-credit scenes pic.twitter.com/aYWemWbFLv

— Culture Crave (@CultureCrave) February 13, 2024

The film falls flat during rare attempts at character development. Cassie is shown as distant, even rude, to the patients she helps save in her line of work.

Later, she’s willing to sacrifice everything to help three women she just met without any sense of personal growth. Huh?

The action scenes do little to pick up the slack, and the foreshadowing employed during one scene is so obvious your eyes will roll like a slot machine during the inevitable callback.

Alternately silly and clunky, “Madame Web” brims with cringe-worthy scenes. If you can watch the endangered trio dancing on a table for the bemusement of some horny young men you’ve got a steel spine.

And you’ll howl when Cassie keeps taking out Ezekiel using only a motor vehicle.

Even worse?

Cassie takes a quick solo trip to the Amazon and, well, it’s hard to even describe how ludicrous this detour proves without spoiling what could be a killer cult film highlight in 2034.

Or sooner.

HiT or Miss: “Madame Web” is a poorly realized origin story weighed down by wan effects, worse dialogue and silliness from start to finish.

The post Run, Don’t Walk Away from ‘Madame Web’ appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill leading “1883.”

Dwight Yoakam playing white trash to perfection in “Sling Blade.”

Trace Adkins starring in, well, seemingly everything according to his IMDb page.

Jumping from country music to acting is fairly common. Some even try their hands at moving behind the camera. Yoakam wrote, directed and starred in the bizarre “South of Heaven, West of Hell,” post-“Sling Blade.”

Toby Keith never boasted the movie credits of his fellow country musicians, but he did star in, produce and co-write a feature based on his hit song, “Beer for My Horses.”

Keith passed away after a battle with stomach cancer at the age of 62 earlier this week. No doubt just hearing his name sets off many beloved songs in minds across the country.

“Beer for My Horses,” a call for good, old-fashioned Texas-style justice, was more than likely one of those tracks.

Toby Keith passed away on February 5th, 2024 at the age of 62. RIP Toby

Here is ‘Beer For My Horses’ pic.twitter.com/oV4QnY5EqR

— Mississippi Sambo (@MS_Sambo_) February 6, 2024

The “Beer for My Horses” movie doesn’t have the same legacy as Keith’s song, but it’s a unique pit stop in his long and rocking career.

The 2008 film stars Keith as Rack, an Oklahoma deputy who finds himself up against a drug cartel after he arrests a higher up making a robbery. Along the way, his old flame (Claire Forlani) is kidnapped.

There’s also Ted Nugent playing a bow and arrow-carrying deputy who has his badge tattooed on his chest, Willie Nelson as the smoke-friendly head of a traveling circus and comedian Rodney Carrington (who co-wrote with Keith) as a mistake-prone deputy.

Nothing in “Beer for My Horses” takes itself all that seriously.

The flick may have been led by Keith while he was still putting out chart-topping hits, but it ended up with a small release. Produced by CMT Films and Keith’s own Show Dog Productions, “Beer for My Horses” was distributed by Roadside Attraction with a limited theatrical run, likely to support the eventual home video release.

It made under $700,000 in theaters.

Helping Keith piece the scrappy production together was longtime collaborator Michael Salomon, who had previously directed music videos for the musician, including “Beer for My Horses.”

The Salomon-directed music video tells a separate story of a detective (Keith) who calls in his retired cop father (Willie Nelson) to help catch a serial killer.

The music video mostly avoids comedy and plays things straight, but the film adaptation abandons that approach and goes for laughs. The film relies on Carrington’s Lonnie to lighten scenes up and act as a constant comic foil for Keith’s straight man.

The decision to go for humor over something more in tune with the music video may have come down to budget constraints. Plus, Keith was likely smart enough to know people watching him and Nelson hunt a serial killer would be a goofy concept anyway.

On this day, Aug 8, 2008

The movie Beer for My Horses was released.

The comedy film starring and co-produced by Toby Keith was based on his song by the same name.

The film which was co-written by Keith and Rodney Carrington also featured Willie Nelson. pic.twitter.com/HpbNrIMCEm

— Steve's Country Road – Status: Happily Married (@StevesCountryRd) August 8, 2021

The film itself is far from perfect, but Keith had the same likability in front of a movie camera that he did behind a microphone. He holds his own just fine in this nearly-forgotten picture. He likely could have had more of a film career, but his only other major acting work was 2006’s “Broken Bridges.”

The first half of “Beer for My Horses” is charming enough, but clunky in introducing Keith’s Rack as an arrested development type and setting up the supporting players.

Once Rack heads to Mexico to save the girl and shoot the bad guys it finds better footing. That includes Nelson’s amusing circus subplot and a musical number by Carrington set in a truck-stop bathroom.

It’s all nonsense, but that’s all it wants to be.

“Beer for My Horses” has that independent, yet populist spirit Keith captured so well in his music. The man had plenty to say, but he also just wanted to entertain.

Consider his decision to perform at Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Artists who chose to perform at the ceremony were accused of making a divisive, political declaration of hate, rather than accepting the honor to perform at arguably one of the country’s most important events.

Keith was open about his conservative views, but when he defended his decision to perform, it was the artist and entertainer in him that bit back.

The man just wanted to play.

“I don’t apologize for performing for our country or military,” he said at the time, noting he’d also performed at events for both George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Flashback!

Toby Keith at President Trump's Inauguration singing "American Soldier"

He was a Legend & Inspiration to every Country music fan, Military Member & Patriot!
God Bless you & RIP pic.twitter.com/7QBmlXWGWh

— JamieR {} Army Girl (@Jamierodr14) February 6, 2024

“Beer for My Horses” should not be oversold as some essential Keith work, but it is born from that same spirit that fueled his music.

Keith teased potential “Beer” sequels, but those plans never panned out. Salomon and Keith continued working together though, teaming up for some flashy music videos, including 2010’s “Bullets in the Gun,” which serves as its own short film.

Keith’s music videos almost always had a cinematic flare and offered a different artistic perspective beyond the songs.

“Beer for My Horses” may represent just a brief foray into filmmaking for Keith, but like a lot of his songs, it’s perfect for a few friends and some red solo cups.

Zachary Leeman is a reporter who has been published on websites such as Breitbart, LifeZette, and Mediaite. His novel “Nigh” will be released later this year from publisher Gilded Masque.

The post Toby Keith Rounded Up the Boys To Make ‘Beer for My Horses’ appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Why did it take so long to see a biopic of reggae superstar Bob Marley?

His life and musical legacy offer an endless amount of material, from his cultural cache to music that feels as fresh today as it did during the 1970s.

After watching “Bob Marley: One Love,” starring Kingsley Ben-Adir as the reggae icon, the biggest takeaway is clear. We’re still waiting for a great Marley biopic.

A text scroll announces we’ll enter the Bob Marley story near the end. It’s 1976, and the superstar is prepping to play a peace concert in his war-torn Jamaica.

Huh? Didn’t “One Love” just hopscotch over some potentially rich material? Perhaps. We still could learn plenty from a tightly focused portrait. Every biopic doesn’t demand the “cradle to grave” approach.

The story begins with Marley’s attempt to bridge the political divide in his homeland. Music can change the world, he earnestly believes, and his quasi-apolitical brand could be what his struggling nation needs.

Except the screenplay, credited to four scribes, ditches that element early on to focus on Marley’s “Exodus” album and tour.

We see some insightful peeks behind Marley’s creative process, his tight-knit band of musicians and family members including Rita Marley (Lashana Lynch, excellent when called upon to enliven a scene).

Yet “Marley” never rises to the level of either “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Rocketman” or even the underrated “Get On Up,” the James Brown biopic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Director Reinaldo Marcus Green (“King Richard“) can’t convey the majesty of Marley’s live performances. It would be forgivable if he saved his cinematic strength for the smaller moments of the icon’s life. Here, too, he falls back on biopic cliches, lackluster studio re-creations and in-fighting that never rises to a full boil.

One example? A brutal argument between Bob and Rita suggests their complicated relationship. What kept this combustible couple together? Why did he see her as his muse despite copious infidelity?

He famously stepped out on Rita early and often, but the film barely hints at his indiscretions. Marley died at 36 and sired 9 children before he left this mortal coil. (He also adopted two children)

Lynch delivers a fiery turn as the legend’s love, but the story affords her few chances to dig her heels into the part. 

EXCLUSIVE CLIP: Jammin’ in the studio @BobMarley (played by Kingsley Ben-Adir) performs his 1977 reggae smash “Jamming” alongside his full Wailers band in the upcoming biopic ‘Bob Marley: One Love’
‌
More on the @OneLoveMovie, in theaters Feb 14, at https://t.co/lnpNW7xIqT pic.twitter.com/VO2V87tP3v

— Stephen Marley (@stephenmarley) January 30, 2024

We see glimpses of a young Bob Marley via flashbacks, but the sequences add little to our understanding of the flawed but fascinating singer. The biopic fares better incorporating Marley’s spiritual side, a blend of Rastafarian empowerment and the Bible.

There’s no preaching here, but we see how deeply Marley thought about larger issues than himself. And having multiple Marley members as co-producers means we see few if any, flaws on screen.

“One Love” clocks in well under two hours, a rarity in our bloated film age. That’s admirable, but perhaps a biopic of such an artist deserves a little more screen time, if only to fill in critical gaps.

We learn little about Rastafarian culture, and a quick glimpse of Biography.com’s essay on Marley delivers far more than the film can offer.

They missed a great story, forcing audiences to scramble back to this smart 2012 documentary.

Ben-Adir does an admirable job conveying Marley’s laid-back style, his stage presence and mysterious air. It’s not full-on mimicry, but the actor conveys a musical giant searching for his purpose.

The film, on the other hand, seems less sure of what it wants to be.

At least we have the music, as potent and mesmerizing as ever. “One Love” leans into it aggressively, and it’s like a beloved character who keeps returning to the screen. Few artists delivered such indelible songs.

The end credits offer a hint at what “One Love” is missing. Why the film’s creative team decided to tack it onto the end rather than bring it to dramatic life is a mystery that deserves to be solved.

HiT or Miss: Don’t blame stars Kingsley Ben-Adir or Lashana Lynch for “Bob Marley: One Love’s” failures. Their driven performances keep this mediocre biopic aloft. 

The post ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ Can’t Find Man Behind the Legend appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Even easy-to-please horror fans must be exhausted by the genre’s tropes.

• Young, pretty casts
• Cabins in the woods
• Masked killers with their own theme music

It’s why “Out of Darkness” feels refreshing from the jump.

The story is set 45,000 years in the past. Suffice it to say no one’s taking selfies or dreading prom night.

The film’s stark setting sets it apart from most genre films. If only the story’s key twist felt more organic it might have turned “Darkness” into an instant classic.

“Out of Darkness” follows a tight-knit clan searching for a new land to call home. Their needs are simple. Shelter. Food. Warmth.

The patriarch Adem (Chuku Modu) is cocksure and brave, and he’ll need both qualities to tend to his starving partner Ave (Iola Evans).

Odal the elder (Arno Luening) throws cold water on Adem’s plan, his skepticism giving the film’s first act some bite. Young Beyah (Safia Oakley-Green) is dubbed a “stray,” someone who travels with the group but has no blood ties.

Yes, that matters.

A new threat emerges that shoves Odal’s doubts aside. Something sinister lurks on the outskirts of their camp. Is it the demons that wait in the unexplored dark? Or something even worse?

We’ve seen this scenario before. A group is set upon by a mysterious force and, one by one, their numbers dwindle. In horror parlance that’s called a body count.

That template rarely feels as primal as what “Out of Darkness” delivers. The main characters communicate well, but they rely on their senses – taste, touch and smell – to guide their decisions.

That leaves poor Beyah more vulnerable than the others. She is becoming a woman, a development Adem notes with brute interest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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First-time feature director Andrew Cumming impresses in virtually every category that counts. He’s created a stone-age environment that looks and feels authentic, down to the dirt-streaked faces of his characters. He uses the natural terrain to build suspense and uncertainty, and the early attacks on the clan are ferocious.

The cast effectively suggests a primitive culture dealing with an unknown force. There’s no humor here, nor moments that connect to modern times.

The emergence of one character, though, is very much a 2024 construct. That’s all the spoiler alert required.

The film moves at a slower pace than most thrillers but the smaller details keep our attention. The rest is how primitive souls process an existential threat. 

The third act ratchets up the excitement, but a sizable reveal does the story few favors when compared to earlier sequences. The screenplay, often pedestrian due to the confines of the culture, takes a stab at dramatic relevance in its waning moments.

The results underwhelm.

“Out of Darkness” earns points for painting on a bright new canvas, and even its flaws can’t hide the joys from that risk-taking effort.

HiT or Miss: “Out of Darkness” is an impressive debut for director Andrew Cumming, but a nod to modern times sours the film’s critical moments.

The post ‘Out of Darkness’ Taps Primal Terror Vein appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Some movies don’t age well for any number of reasons.

The special effects, for example, look so clunky it’s hard to fall under the movie’s spell. Others boast themes that no longer apply to modern life.

The 1984 charmer “Mr. Mom” falls into that category. Stay-at-home dads destroyed the movie’s premise.

The 2014 dramedy “The Way Way Back,” in contrast, only gets better with age. The film earned a respectable $21 million at the U.S. box office a decade ago but didn’t pierce the zeitgeist like other indie darlings.

That’s a shame. It’s also the perfect film for teenage boys caught between childhood and life’s next, imposing steps.

Liam James stars as Duncan, a teenager forced to vacation with his single mother (Toni Collette) and her unctuous beau Trent, (Steve Carell, effectively cast against type).

Duncan is a mess. He’s awkward in that unmistakable teenage way, and he knows his mother has picked the wrong partner. Trent tries to empower Duncan by saying he’s a “3” out of “10” but can improve his lot in life and, by extension, his rating.

Father figures don’t get much worse than that.

Duncan’s misery lifts when he stumbles onto a gig at the Water Wizz park. His boss Owen (Sam Rockwell) takes Duncan under his wing, sensing a kindred spirit beneath the slumped shoulders and mop of hair.

“The Way Way Back” is frequently funny, but comedy isn’t the point. It’s a character study of a teen desperate for a lifeline. His father appears to have moved on to a new family, and his mother needs a partner so badly she’ll settle for one who won’t nurture Duncan in ways he desperately needs.

Add Allison Janney as a hard-partying parent with an uncomfortable quip for every occasion, and you have a film that captures adolescence in all its pain and glory.

A few moments test our twee meters, like how Duncan loosens up during a confrontation with local dancers. And the adorable girl next door (wonderfully played by AnnaSophia Robb) is almost too good to be true in how she sees past Duncan’s wall of insecurity.

Rockwell told The Guardian he channeled something he saw in the 1979 camp comedy “Meatballs” where Bill Murray bonded with a similar castoff, this time played by Chris Makepeace.

For this latest role in The Way, Way Back, he looked to the 1979 summer camp comedy Meatballs. “The relationship between Owen and Duncan is very similar to the relationship between the kid and Bill Murray in that film,” he explains. “There’s a few other archetypes, like Walter Matthau in The Bad News Bears or Richard Pryor in Bustin’ Loose. It’s the grouchy adult who speaks to children like they’re adults.”

Coming-of-age films hold a special place in pop culture.

They’re instantly identifiable and connect with something inside us no matter how old we may be. They remind us that others have been there, too, and the journey is fraught with obstacles and, eventually, joy.

Several scenes in “The Way Way Back” might be hard to duplicate today. Nat Faxon, who co-wrote and co-directed the film with Jim Rash, ogles a bikini girl in one scene to both Duncan and Owen’s bemusement.

Good luck greenlighting that moment now, even though it captures how the male mind works. 

Plus, Janney’s character constantly teases her teen son Peter about his “lazy eye,” a running gag sure to trigger cries of “ableist!”

But that’s life, warts and all, something “The Way Way Back” acknowledges with insight and warmth. The way Rockwell’s Owen makes Peter feel comfortable with his condition is a thing of beauty.

So is the film, one of the best coming-of-age yarns in quite some time.

The post Is ‘The Way Way Back’ the Best Coming of Age Movie in Years? appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Before Jake Gyllenhaal body-shamed us with his unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt and Doug Liman declared a David and Goliath battle against Amazon over the streaming reboot of an ‘80s classic there was 2006′s “Road House 2: Last Call.”

The little-seen sequel follows up on 1989’s “Road House” where Patrick Swayze rips a man’s throat out, Sam Elliott schools us on facial hair and Kelly Lynch redefines knockout.

We’re not here to talk about that flat-out masterpiece but the sequel few fans actually saw.

“Road House 2: Last Call” follows DEA agent Shane Tanner (Jonathon Schaech) as he is called home to Louisiana after backwoods drug dealers (led by Jake Busey) try moving in on a rowdy bar owned by his uncle, Nate Tanner (Will Patton).

There’s a lazy subplot about Shane having a mild obsession with finding the person who killed his father, Dalton (Swayze). Yes, they kill Dalton offscreen.

The less said about this miscalculation, the better.

The problems of “Road House 2” (besides its questionable existence) are common threads among many DTV movies of its era. DTV means “Direct to Video,” which is now an acronym that shows off your age.

Before streaming took over our lives, companies like Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (behind “Road House 2”) would use budgets made up of pocket change, bubble gum and a decent check for a yesteryear star to churn out video candy for rental store shelves.

FAST FACT: Director Kevin Smith and producer Scott Mosier recorded a commentary track for a 2006 DVD release of “Road House” (around the same time “Road House 2” was released). According to Smith, he and Mosier spoke about loving “Road House” during their “Clerks” commentary track and the next thing he knew, they were asked to be part of a new “Road House” release.

These flicks either relied on stars professionally down on their luck (think Wesley Snipes, Steven Seagal) or recognizable titles to throw together a poster. They’d typically turn a profit before ending up in a Walmart discount bin (Did I just date myself again? Are those still a thing?).

For instance, did you know there is a “Cruel Intentions 2” and “Cruel Intentions 3?” There’s also a “Boogeyman 2” and “Boogeyman 3.” If you don’t remember the original “Boogeyman,” it’s okay. These flicks don’t typically build on each other.

This is where “Road House 2” at least deserves some credit.

It acknowledges the first film and includes plenty of callbacks from the original movie (like “Pain don’t hurt” and Dalton’s bouncer rules). It also makes the original “Road House” look like it commanded a budget of about $200 million.

It’s not all bad with “Road House 2.” Schaech is a committed lead (he co-wrote the movie), Patton levels up anything he’s in and Busey is an angsty, drug-dealing antagonist who is fun to watch in a going-for-Nicolas-Cage-broke sort of way.

What the flick is missing are moments.

“Road House” contains ridiculous or ridiculously committed moments that keep the film fresh in fans’ minds. “Road House 2,” unsurprisingly, doesn’t have any of these stand-out scenes. It’s a padded-out movie that is barreling towards its end.

It also barely earns its R-rating, which is almost criminal for a “Road House” sequel.

One element common to action movies today that fans are spared in “Road House 2?” The death-by-a-million cuts editing that requires four dozen shots to watch a man hop a fence and always promises to cut away just when the camera might pick up something interesting.

The “Road House 2” stunt coordinator was J.J. Perry, who has worked on much better action films, including “The Rundown.” The fights here feel reminiscent of that early Dwayne Johnson picture, albeit on a discount.

“Road House 2” doesn’t rewrite the rules on bare-knuckle brawling, but it does let its actors and stunt people throw around some old-school punches (complete with that ‘80s sound effect that makes every punch sound like a slap heard ’round the world). It’s not high entertainment, but hey, it’s something, especially when we’re talking “Road House 2.”

Take it outside. Road House is open for business March 21 on @primevideo. #RoadHouseMovie pic.twitter.com/4lm7QeO9ny

— MGM Studios (@mgmstudios) January 25, 2024

According to Schaech, the original intention was for “Road House 2: Last Call” to be a remake. The eventual sequel was part of a bizarre run in his career where he starred in multiple DTV sequels that had nothing to do with their supposed predecessors.

“I did a film with [Camilla Bella] 20-plus years ago and she was a kid in it. It was called ‘Lily,’ but they re-titled it ‘Poison Ivy 2.’ When I made ‘Road House,’ it was supposed to be a remake, but they made it a sequel. ‘8MM 2’ had nothing to do with the original film. It was renamed that so they can sell it,” Schaech told Film International in 2018.

“Road House 2: Last Call” feels like a pilot that would have been thrown together in the early ‘90s meant solely for syndication to capitalize on the success of “Road House” without Swayze.

Ahead of the unceremonial video release of “Road House 2: Last Call,” co-screenwriter Miles Chapman attempted to defend the absence of Swayze in the story.

“I know there has been some negative reaction to the news that Patrick Swayze won’t be appearing in the film. Well, all I have to say is that Will Patton and Jonathan Schaech are carrying the torch proudly,” the “Escape Plan” screenwriter told The Hollywood News in 2006, per Moviehole.

In 2022, Chapman’s tune was slightly different.

The screenwriter told the “Indie Film Hustle” podcast that “Road House 2” suffered from a low budget and a brutal 17-day shoot. He also revealed that the original plan was to always have Swayze’s Dalton in the story, acting as “an Obi-Wan Kenobi in the bouncer world kind of thing.”

“If I was a little more savvy back then, I would’ve known that there was no way he was going to do this thing,” Chapman said.

Zachary Leeman is a reporter who has been published on websites such as Breitbart, LifeZette, and Mediaite. His novel “Nigh” will be released later this year from publisher Gilded Masque.

The post Wait … They Already Made a ‘Road House’ Sequel? appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.