“Borderlands”
(Science-Fiction/Action/Comedy: 1 hour, 41 minutes)
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Jack Black and Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rated: R (Intense sequences of violence and action, language and some suggestive material.)
Movie Review:
“Borderlands” proves not all video games translate well as a screenplay. This action science-fiction movie is an assortment of concepts haphazardly combined.
“Borderlands” is an adaptation of the action role-playing, first-person shooter video game. The movie follows a ragtag team of misfits. Their mission is to save a girl, Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), who holds the key to unimaginable power. Tina’s father is Atlas (Édgar Ramírez), the powerful tyrannical chief executive of the Atlas Corporation, and he wants his daughter returned. Lillith (Blanchett), Roland (Hart), Krieg (Munteanu), Dr. Patricia Tannis (Curtis) and robot Claptrap (Voice of Black) work as an unconventional team to save Tina while chased by Atlas Corporation’s paramilitary force Crimson Lance and psychotic muscle men on the planet Pandora.
Eli Roth (“Thanksgiving,” 2023) directs this movie that appears put together with a team with attention-deficit disorder. Roth’s photoplays, rather hit or miss, are always entertaining. This one is too because of peculiar circumstances and characters, which video gamers will appreciate while others wonder what this sugar rush is.
“Borderlands” is such a hodgepodge of visuals, substories and multiple characters that it appears to lack focus, although it has a straightforward plot. The main story is interrupted by flat character associations, unconvincing stunts and mediocre comedy that misses the campy threshold.
Grade: C- (It needs a customs and border protection directorate.)
“Cuckoo”
(Horror/Thriller/Mystery: 1 hour, 42 minutes)
Starring: Hunter Schafer, Jan Bluthardt, Dan Stevens and Marton Csokas
Director: Tilman Singer
Rated: R (Bloody images, violence, language and brief teen drug use)
Movie Review:
Tilman Singer’s last foray into the horror genre was 2018’s “Luz.” He returns with “Cuckoo,” a creative movie that plays with audiences’ reality with its film editing to create an eerie appeal similar to Director Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” (1980).
American Gretchen (Schafer) reluctantly moves to a remote German Alps resort with her father Luis (Csokas), stepmother Bethe (Jessica Henwick) and young mute half-sister Alam (Mila Lieu). Herr König (Dan Stevens) owns the resort. He appears a strange man to Gretchen. Even more, the place is prone to odd tenants and strange occurrences.
“Cuckoo” is a mystery. Along the way, viewers get some scary thrills also.
Achievement comes from the talents of its cast. Hunter Schafer (television’s “Euphoria”) plays 17-year-old Gretchen with a certain edgy seriousness that works for her role. Jan Bluthardt plays his role in a manner that has one questioning his character’s sanity, although he tells Gretchen and the audience what is happening in his own shadowy presentation.
The award for a creepy persona belongs to Dan Stevens’ König. His disposition, especially that voice, screams “stranger danger.”
The apex near the conclusion of this movie goes askew with wild explanations of what is happening. “Cuckoo” moves from horror to just plain weird at that point. Still, it is engaging in that classic 1980s horror mode.
Grade: B- (Characters appear cuckoo but watchable.)
“It Ends with Us”
(Drama/Romance: 2 hours, 10 minutes)
Starring: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar and Jenny Slate
Director: Justin Baldoni
Rated: PG-13 (Violence, including domestic confrontations, sexual content and strong language)
Movie Review:
Most cinematic relationships are like a multilevel building. You get one story before and another after. This is the case with “It Ends with Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel.
The first part of this story is a romance between florist Lily Blossom Bloom (Lively) and neurosurgeon Dr. Ryle Siegfried Kincaid (Baldoni). She is beautiful, and he is seductively charming. Their romance blossoms. Soon, Lily, who is the daughter of an abused mother at the hands of her ruthless father, must confront a volatile crisis of her own.
Blake Lively appears real in movies. She does not seem like a celebrity playing a character. She has a simple appeal that works in roles, making her believable. Here, she is paired with Justin Baldoni who acts and is the director. They are an enticing couple. One wants them to succeed even though their relationship is not sustainable.
This exists because the movie makes Baldoni’s Ryle appealingly handsome, intelligent man of romance. The movie never makes him disgusting enough to hate. The hope remains they will resolve their issues as Ryle appears to love her. Plus, he has many good characteristics. This makes Baldoni’s character likable. His character’s romantic appeal and other qualities make it easy to sympathize with Lily’s dilemma regarding their relationship.
This screenplay holds back, fulfilling its PG-13 rating when it could have made circumstances more dire. However, the movie works as drama, especially for those who are fans of the book.
Grade: B- (See it with us.)