‘Yesterday’ Movie Review

‘Yesterday’ (2019)
Working Title Films

Directed by: Danny Boyle
Written by: Jack Barth & Richard Curtis
Starring: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Joel Fry, Kate McKinnon, Ed Sheeran & Ana de Armas

Summer is always a grab bag of movies. Some are the standard schlock, we get several blockbusters, a few romantic comedies, the occasional horror flick, etc. Every so often, we also get a film that defies exact classification and hits us like a refreshing evening breeze. ‘Yesterday‘ is just such a film. Co-written by Richard Curtis (‘Love Actually‘, ‘Pirate Radio‘) and directed by Danny Boyle (‘Slumdog Millionaire‘), ‘Yesterday’ isn’t exactly a rom-com, nor is it technically a drama or a plain outright comedy movie but it blends a little bit of all of these aspects into a fun, trip down the imaginary “What if…?” path.

The premise is simple: a struggling songwriter & musician (played brilliantly by Himesh Patel) gets into an accident during a mysterious world wide blackout. When he regains consciousness, he finds he’s the only one in the world who is able to remember The Beatles. With no one else having ever written these classic songs, he immediately sets to recording the many hits from The Beatles catalog and then passes them off as his own which suddenly catapults him into the fame, stardom and acclaim that he’s always wanted. But it doesn’t come without a cost. The cast is wonderful and seem to have a natural chemistry. Ed Sheeran was delightful as himself (one would hope, yeah?) and Lily James always lights up any scene in which she appears with a charismatic grace that effortlessly seems to guide her along. Kate McKinnon is a favorite of mine and there simply aren’t enough adjectives to describe her comedic exuberance. 

The few problems I did have with this film are that the “incident” that resulted in this “Beatles blackout” was never explained. Not a deal-breaker and who knows if an explanation would have added or detracted from the story, but it still left me puzzled that it was never really addressed. The other issue I had was with the romantic aspect of the movie. The two main characters of Jack & Ellie are JUST friends throughout the first half of the film with Ellie also acting as Jack’s manager. They even make it a point of saying so several times early on in the movie. Therefore the sudden confession from Ellie that she has always loved Jack felt to me as though it were merely an afterthought in the plot. Luckily Himesh Patel & Lily James have such a good on-screen chemistry that it was something else I was able to brush aside. The music is great and the journey on which we are taken in the film is a fun one. I was also surprised once or twice by where the film went which was something that I’m not used to with many of today’s  Hollywood fare. ‘Yesterday’ is a fun, feel-good flick that you don’t need to think too hard about so just sit back, listen to the music and enjoy the ride. Even with it’s minor flaws, I’d say ‘Yesterday’ is able to “Come Together” to a 7.5 out of 10. Get your “Ticket To Ride” at theaters now for what promises to be one of the warmest movies of the summer.

‘Men In Black: International’ Movie Review

‘Men In Black: International’ (2019)
Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures & Amblin Entertainment

Directed by: F. Gary Gray
Written by: Matt Holloway, Art Marcum & Lowell Cunningham
Starring: Tessa Thompson, Chris Hemsworth, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Rebecca Ferguson & Kumail Nanjiani

Now that we are in June, it’s time for the onslaught of summer blockbusters to start hitting theaters. And when it comes to summer blockbusters, ‘Men In Black‘ always comes to mind. It’s been 7 years since the third movie in the franchise was released. This time around, we get a different cast and an international setting (it even says so in the title). Tessa Thompson plays Agent M who has spent her whole life trying to find and join MIB since an alien encounter as a child changed her life. Now that the head of the New York office (Emma Thompson) has given her a chance, her first mission is to investigate something “off” about the London branch. She is greeted by the head of that bureau (Liam Neeson) and ends up forcing her way onto an assignment with Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) protecting an alien dignitary. But when the job goes sideways, the alien reveals the fact that MIB has a mole within its ranks and it becomes a race against time to protect a weapon given to M by the alien and discover just who the traitor among them could be!

While this film isn’t quite as perfect as the original ‘MIB’, it still carries a hefty amount of fun. Tessa Thompson & Chris Hemsworth have the same chemistry that they displayed in 2017’s ‘Thor: Ragnarok‘ and seem to effortlessly glide through the film while charming the audience along the way as they carry us across the globe with them. The CGI alien character of Pawny (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani) becomes the duo’s de facto sidekick and provides some great comedic bits without ever veering into “Jar Jar” territory. As a fan of the MIB films, I would say that this latest entry is serviceable & solid, but it just never quite feels like it stretches to the heights that the original or even the sequel attained. The acting is great and there is no shortage of action, but my main gripe is that the reveal of the mole is telegraphed early on and I easily saw it coming from the first act leaving no real surprise for me at the end of the film. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give ‘Men In Black: International‘ a solid 7. Despite the flaws, it’s still a very engaging and fun way to kick off summer movie season!

 

‘Dark Phoenix’ Movie Review

‘Dark Phoenix’ (2019)
20th Century Fox Pictures & Marvel Entertainment

Directed by: Simon Kinberg
Written by: Simon Kinberg
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee & Jessica Chastain

The newest X-Men film from 20th Century Fox is also the last. ‘Dark Phoenix‘ will hit theaters this weekend and will bring to a close Fox’s run of doing X films with the rights to Marvel’s Merry Mutants now belonging in the Disney stable after the latter’s purchase of the former earlier this year. I was hoping that the franchise would close out with a bang but sadly it ended up going out with a long, tired sigh. The decision to revisit the Dark Phoenix story line after the 2006 attempt in ‘X-Men: The Last Stand‘ originally raised some eyebrows, but many were optimistic that the wrongs of that film would be righted in the 2019 telling. Unfortunately, this version just ends up making a complete batch of all new wrongs.

For those unfamiliar with this classic X-Men tale from either the comics or from the 2006 film mentioned earlier, X-Men team member Jean Grey is imbued with the cosmic entity known as The Phoenix Force. It ends up making her the most powerful being on the planet and also ends up corrupting her mind. Her teammates want to save her, but an alien race known as the D’Bari, whose planet was destroyed by The Phoenix, want to harness that power to make Earth their new home. We end up getting the tired tropes of friends becoming enemies and enemies becoming friends, a few decent fight scenes and, at the end, a film that feels more like a last minute attempt to elevate writer / director Simon Kinberg‘s ego (since the 2006 film that he also wrote is often regarded as one of the weaker entries in the series).

‘Dark Phoenix’ suffers from the previous films’ scrambling of the time lines between the original movies and the new ones. I found myself wondering “How can THAT happen if….?” but then I was forced to dismiss it away as being probably dealt with in one of the other films, but not being memorable enough to cement that detail in my mind. The frequently changing cast within the series also leaves one with a lack of investment in any of their fates no matter how badly the writing insists that we care. Therefore, the circumstances surrounding Jean’s increase in powers, her change to the dark side and her subsequent “redemption” don’t hold nearly as much sway as Kinberg would probably have wanted.

Rather than using the Shi-Ar as the alien race that is after The Phoenix Force, the lesser known D’Bari are introduced. For the casual movie goer, this isn’t necessarily an issue, but the X-Men fans will be left shaking their heads wondering “Why?”. Jessica Chastain, who is normally fantastic, does what she can with the role she was given but seems rather flat as the villain and, instead, feels like she’s only there to give some kind of push back to the heroes. This serves to lessen the feeling of Jean Grey being the villain of the piece (as she should be in a movie titled after her darker alter ego). It also leaves Sophie Turner‘s performance feeling a little wooden, in my opinion. Normally James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender have been the stand outs in this latest crop of X-films and whether it was the knowledge that this was their last outing in the roles of Professor X and Magneto, respectively, or just due to the weak writing, even they seemed tired of it all. For me, the stars who really seemed invested were Tye Sheridan as Cyclops and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler. Even Jennifer Lawrence seemed like she had mentally checked out in this one.

At the end of the day, the film has one or two decent action sequences but suffers from bad writing, a hurried plot and an ending that lacks any kind of punch at all. If you’re a fan of the X-Men comics, this movie will not be a winner for you. If you’ve enjoyed the previous X-Men films, then you might find a few enjoyable moments, but chances are you’ve already enjoyed those moments when this plot was done better back in 2006 with the 3rd film. On a scale of 1 – 10, Cerebro cannot detect anything above a 3.5. If you’re in the mood for a movie this weekend, may I suggest checking out ‘Rocketman’, ‘Brightburn’ or ‘Godzilla’ and save this one for Redbox or Netflix. For me, it’s very sad to see my favorite Marvel super heroes team go out on such a low note.