Backwards Week New Releases For Home Viewing

I for some reason, brain lapse maybe, I jumped ahead last week and posted this week releases and skipped last week ...working backwards and if you have any interest in my opinion for last weeks new releases for home viewing....here they are!!

SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING
Directed by John Watts
Screenplay by 5 writers ...No Shit....5
Starring Tom Holland; Michael Keaton; Marisa Tomei; Robert Downey Jr; Jon Faverau; Laura Harrier; and Jacob Batalon



Tom Holland has arrived as the new Spider-man!! This movie follows Spider-man as he tackles The Vulture (Keaton). He fights mentally with his place in the Avengers. He also has to find his way through the hallways and growing up in his high school.
If you read my blogs ...you already know I am Superhero "movied" out. Superhero movies feel too long, with lazy story lines, turning the movie theater into one big screen video game. So here comes the ...I guess the third re-imagining of Spider-man....and this one does a lot right.

Let me start with the script:
The script has Peter Parker spending more time in his high school, just being a high school teen and  hanging out with his best buddy Ned than fighting bad guys. This really worked. This gave us character development. We also get to know the people around him, who we then, as the viewers, care about as much we care about Peter.
The fight scenes...like in many of the last superhero films...are over extended (I am looking at you the overrated Wonder Woman also), not in this Spider-man. The fight scenes are short and use less of that video game/CGI look during the battles.
I also liked how the script connected with the last Avengers film.This film drops us off right after the film....where Peter returns  from the battle, and still struggles to find his place in the new world he now lives in.

Then there is the casting which is spot on:

Tom Holland is very good as Peter Parker. I forget sometimes he is British having to do all this with an American twang. He pulls Spider-man off as your everyday high school student, and by night he is still your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man.
Tom's costars in high school are great because they run the gambit of the hallways of a high school. The Crush (Liz ...played by Harrier, but a little bit underused). Jealous bully (Flash played wonderfully by Tony Revolori). Outcast cool (Michelle ...fantastic!! Played by Zendaya.) Best friend (Ned .Who takes on the viewers eyes, as he watches his friend climb ceilings, wonderfully played by Batalon). All these young actors make this film rise above the dredge of the superhero films released in the last couple years.
The connections or link between this film and the last Avengers film...with cameos by Downy Jr and Evans is well done. It is done softly, well as soft as Ironman can be.. Yes both are cashing in, but both are very good and funny and clearly are not just mailing it in. Also the wonderful Faverau returns as Happy Hogan, he is great and very funny just trying to babysit Parker from a distance.
Then there is a wonderful performance by Michael Keaton as Toomes/The Vulture. He is not sinister. He is just an angry businessman. Who is going to cash in by selling these arms and no one will get in his way. He is just surviving. So he plays the part spot on. He is bad, but you kind of feel his struggles. He just goes about things the wrong way. See the credits!!

Problems? Yes.

- I bring this up often. Where is the tension for our superheros? The end game will be okay. Spider-man falls from high heights, but he falls, rolls over and gets up. They do not die (as of this date), yes Superman dies but did he really(See new JLA). Yes I understand kids are watching, but remember the adults are paying the cash and it seems like there really is no fear for our superheroes. So they put the superheroes friends in jeopardy. Still a bone has to break when you fall off big buildings at some point. OKAY!!! I know!!! Relax it is make believe....but after awhile I feel like during fight scenes I can leave the theater and comeback 10 minutes later and not miss a thing because the hero never gets hurt. No tension.
-Last problem. Marisa Tomei as May Parker. Barely in this film!! You have Marisa Tomei, you cannot find room for her in the script!!

Well 4 out of 5 stars for Spider-man Homecoming. 4 stars for a person who is "Superhero'd" out is pretty good.




GIRLS TRIP
Directed by Malcom D Lee
Screenplay by 3 writers!
Starring: Queen Latifah; Regina Hall; Jada Pinkett Smith; and Tiffany Haddish




Four college roommates, Ryan (Hall), Sasha (Latifah), Lisa ( Pinkett-Smith), Dina (Haddish),  get back together for a girls trip to New Orleans. Where good times begin and deep personal issues come to the surface.
You cannot think about this film without thinking about the movie that came out before this...Rough Night. Rough Night was not very good...this film did a lot right and it wins you over.


Positives:
-Just great performances highlighted by Regina Hall playing the emotional part. She becomes almost the straight "woman"as the film moves on. Tiffany Haddish is flat out hilarious. In fact Haddish walks a fine line between annoying and funny and she pulls it off. Latifah is more of the motherly figure. Pinkett-Smith starts as the straight "woman" surrounded by the humor, but she relinquishes that to Hall as the film move on (no spoilers here).
-Though some parts of the script is preposterous....see concert scenes...it stays real. You feel what each character is going through.
-They went R. And was not afraid of it. They went big...no pun intended...and earned it. So many films are afraid of the R because they are afraid of losing that teen audience. No fear here. In fact you will never look at a grapefruit the same way again.
-Chemistry. You really believe these ladies could be friends. So casting is spot on.

Negatives?
- One big one and that is over two hours for this comedy. Waaaay toooo loooong. This really needed an editor. It needed to maybe pull back on one of the party scenes. Maybe that is a sign of the three writers being too many. There is a scene involving hard liquor and wild behavior that was not as funny as the rest of the film. Edit that long scene out and the film would have been stronger.

That being said...one of the funniest films of the year that is for sure....4 out of 5 stars for Girls Trip. It does everything that Rough Night could not. You come for fun. You come for laughs. You come for heart. It delivers. I would like to see these four in another film together...a part 2.

From the shadows as always thanks for your time.