6 Underground (2020)

It’s always baffled me how audiences root and cheer for the good guys taking out the bad guys despite a massive body count of collateral damage. The opening 20 minutes of action saw property damage on the scale of a Midwestern tornado with pedestrians getting slaughtered willy nilly.

Meanwhile, we the audience, don’t know who these guys are. We don’t know why they are doing it. And we don’t know why we should care about any of this. There’s no backstory or character development of any kind at this point--only senseless violence without purpose.

It’s a B-movie with high production value. No thought was given to dialogue or continuity. If you are wetting your jammies in anticipation for the next Fast & Furious clown show, this should help tide you over.

Rating: F

Now You See Me (2013)

Preposterous, but fun. Magicians behaving like borderline superheroes in a mix of The Italian Job and Tomb Raider.

Rating: C

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Not exactly the movie I anticipated going in. I was looking forward to more of a gorilla warfare killing spree. Instead, the plot was much more involved, with very little action scenes by the rebel squad. It's a drama, first and foremost, with extremely violent intermissions.

As a Tarantino loyalist, it hurts me to say that I wish the film had gone in the direction I expected. More run and gun, less plot and intrigue. I would have liked to learn more about the various members of the band, how they got their nicknames, where they are from, how they came to be recruited, and the various interactions among them as they cut their way through he Nazi lines. We got one solitary scene of that.

It's not a bad movie, just not the one I was hoping to see.

Rating: B-

Beginners (2010)

An odd, sad romantic drama. It was the blossoming relationship between Ewan and Anna that held my interest. The dialogue is very poetic and it’s obvious this film is based upon someone’s personal experiences. I could have done without all the dude on dude smooching, and I don’t care if I’m politically incorrect for saying so. Christopher Plummer was quite brilliant though. Not one of my favorite Mike Mills films.

Rating: C