Tag: jeremy renner

TAG (2018) & GAME NIGHT (2018) movies reviewed

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TAG (2018) and GAME NIGHT (2018) occupy the same shelf in my mind. Both are foul-mouthed comedic romps of mischief between grown ups acting like kids who take their kid games a little far. Ed Helms and Jason Bateman, the interchangeable well-meaning married men who hesitate then act with whimsy edging on insanity. Rachel McAdams & Isla Fisher play the competitive trophy wives with violent tendencies but good hearts. Increase the casts to ensembles including the likes of SNL’s favorite Mad Man John Hamm, New Girl‘s Nick  Jake Johnson, Avenger’s Hawkeye Jeremy Renner and more. Roll those dice, and it’s game on.Car chases, crazy fight sequences, violence, drug use and constant language, as well as some blatant discussions about sex make both of these pretty edgy almost raunchy comedies.If we’re talking straight filmmaking, the major flaws lie in negligent storytelling, not poorly made movies. In fact, some decent editing and stunt work exist in both films.  Game Night is a quick giveaway in which the characters know too much too soon and are able to escape and outwit the bad guys every time.Tag entrusts some all-stars with too many boring scenarios hoping famous faces will mask the lack of plot. Otherwise, they could never get a gorgeous journalist to tag along for such a spiraling schlep.I suppose some would say I’m being too harsh to mindless dirty comedies. Perhaps some would prefer the bliss of ignorance. I suppose in this time-is-money world, I would just prefer to protect viewers from wasting both.

ARRIVAL (2016) movie review

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arrival-gifStunning. Director Denis Villeneuve has created a Malick-esque dream beauty, like frosting over a well-crafted sci-fi cake. Arrival pushes viewers to appreciate language, love, and time spent in wholly new and extraordinary ways.Jeremy Renner as Ian Donnelly in ARRIVAL by Paramount Pictures

I loved it. It married my nerd-loves as language acquisition and grammatical structure met science fiction. In it, an accomplished professor, a linguist, is charged by the military with the impossible task of communicating with an alien species that has dropped down to earth in a shell-like ship. maxresdefault-3In translating the alien language, she learns much about herself, of course.arrival-movie-amy-adams

It seems simple enough, but it embraces pain and loss as a central concept within its discovery and curiosity.thumbnail_24812In 5th grade, schools took whole classes for an overnight field trip to the Science Center downtown Seattle, and we visited the longhouses and dinosaur exhibits and slept in the planetarium. With the stars overhead and dinos to my left, I felt transported by curiosity, allowed to dream beyond space and time, moved by the importance of single moments in time and how single choices affect the universe. See Arrival like that. Sit in awe for a few hours and be inspired by all that collaboration and kindness can produce.

It isn’t really about aliens and first contact. It’s really about choosing love even when you know it will involve pain.maxresdefault-4

AMERICAN HUSTLE (2013) movie review

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American Hustle Film SetChristian Bale will break your heart. His soft-spoken badger-like hunched persona seeks redemption, grace, requited love.

american-hustle-am_2769649aAmy Adams will make you question a million motives. She’s snake-like, a survivor. The tin-man shell coating, like clear polish, only glosses over her wounded, exposed red-beating soul.

American-Hustle-Bradley-CooperBradley Cooper will finally allow you past his pretty boy image and let you almost dislike him. He pitches back and forth, buoyed by power potential, by recognition, by attention-deficient, by hunger, by ideas unexamined and unrealized.

jennifer-lawrence-first-american-hustleJennifer Lawrence will make you laugh a hearty Napoleon Dynamite type laugh that you feel guilty for exhaling once it’s out. She’s the available one, the ironic truth teller, the unwanted wife.

AMERICAN-HUSTLE-13Jeremy Renner will win your vote. He’s cool, collected, the honest family man politician from a time when most thought  that men like him told the truth.

mc-american-hustle-01This film is a foul glimpse at underbelly life in the attempted pursuit at middle class. It’s untaught good intentions misguided and nearly mobbed out of existence. It’s life in the 70’s. It’s ABSCAM and FBI half-truths. It’s the birth of the “science oven.” It’s a masters class in acting. It’s David O. Russell on his A-game.

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Every character actively pursues love, to know and be known, the internal meditative dialogue of need and desire. All seek redemption. All hunger for normalcy and fight to find it.

THE BOURNE LEGACY (2012) movie review

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Matt Damon spent the trilogy discovering his mad new skills and putting them to good use protecting himself from assassins while piecing together the puzzle of his broken memory.


Jeremy Renner knows his story, perhaps too well. He’s haunted by the known. He knows his skills, how he got them, and potentially how to keep them. Therein lies his quest.

This film opens with the flattened puzzle sans one piece – Bourne. So audience members begin to feel smarter than the best brains in the film. Then before we know it, we’re sucked in again to a parallel story. We are driven by curiosity and respect for the guy who can sense what’s coming and know how to take out any assailant with bare hands and the random makeshift weapon. It makes you wonder if the dreamers behind this series watched a lot of MacGyver growing up.

This film rides the rollercoaster of action sequences. Down time for Norton to strategize and yell at people. Renner running icy mountains. More Norton talk time. More Renner running, now in hotter climate. Add Weisz. Run. Talk. Run a ton. Out.

Bourne was never alone. The operations were endless. The interactions infinite. This is not the end of Bourne.