'Crawl' (2019) Review

Synopsis: A young woman, while attempting to save her father from a Category 5 hurricane, finds herself trapped in a flooding house and must fight for her life against alligators.

Runtime: 87 minutes

MPAA Rating: R (for bloody creature violence and brief language)

Who should see it? Adult fans of intense thrillers.

Directed by Alexandre Aja and featuring a screenplay from Michael and Shawn Rasmussen, Crawl is this summer's original creature-feature. It's effectively Sharknado but taken seriously with the plausible Floridian combination of hurricanes and alligators. The situational pairing of these ferocious beasts and unforgiving weather conditions is terrifying in-of-itself. However, Aja elevates that intensity by trapping his protagonists in a claustrophobic crawl space. As the father and daughter nearly escape one predicament, another obstacle emerges in their path. Rinse-and-repeat. Yet these circumstances remain tense and gripping throughout the film in spite of their seemingly repetitive function. 

Viewers will witness these characters narrowly cheat death on numerous occasions, which some audience members may call into question, but their survival never feels guaranteed. The odds are stacked against the family as they endure harsh hardships amidst the storm. An atmospheric paranoia pervades due to the troublesome surroundings. Fantastic effects work regarding weather and gators further accentuate this feeling of unease in addition to Max Aruj and Steffen Thum's heart-pounding score. However, I'd say Crawl's greatest strengths are its simplicity and efficiency.

Many of this summer's movies became bogged down in attempting to accomplish too much. Crawl had one goal in mind, pit humans against nature, and show them struggle to survive. Aja delivers just that in a well-paced sequence of escalating events. Tension is ever-present and continuously building, as the obstacles are more insurmountable by the second. The water's rising and the gators are hungry, so time is of the essence and a sense of urgency lingers throughout the film's 87-minute runtime. The intensity of Crawl's lead performances lends further credence to it all.

Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper demonstrate immense range as their characters authenticate the severity of their situation and fractured relationship as father and daughter. The ill-timed heart-to-heart conversations and painful suffering Haley and her father endure are equally convincing on account of Scodelario and Pepper. They spout cheesy dialogue that may leave you rolling your eyes, but they speak with such gusto you can't resist admiring their spirit!

In a summer jam-packed with sequels and remakes, Crawl is a refreshing change of pace as something not associated with a pre-existing franchise. It's genuinely a smaller-scale, suspenseful popcorn flick worth sinking your teeth into!

Film Assessment: B

'Maze Runner: The Death Cure' Review

I'm well aware of that this review is ridiculously late, but I figured it would be worth it for me to share my thoughts regardless. I saw Maze Runner: The Death Cure two Saturdays ago, but I've neglected to write anything about it because I was working on a few other posts that demanded a higher priority of attention. For those curious, I'm seeing Black Panther tonight and will quickly get to work on uploading a review before I go out of town for the weekend. 

'Maze Runner: The Death Cure' Review

In Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Thomas leads his group of escaped Gladers to save their friends in a daring rescue. To do so, they'll have to break into WCKD's seemingly impenetrable base of operations known as the Last City. Meanwhile the organization desperately searches for a cure for the Flare virus inside the city's heavily fortified walls.

The Death Cure functions as a final farewell to both the Maze Runner series and America's fleeting love affair with the dystopian young-adult genre. In 2012, the success of The Hunger Games lead Hollywood to rampantly adapt other dystopian YA book series to the big screen. This YA craze brought us a few film franchises (Maze Runner, Divergent), but Hollywood soon learned their lesson when Allegiant flopped and caused the final flick in the Divergent series to be banished to the realm of television where it'd never be made... With all this being said, I commend 20th Century Fox and Wes Ball for sticking it out and finishing what they started with The Maze Runner and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, but I'm even more impressed that they didn't follow that obnoxious trend of splitting the final book into two parts!

While I didn't read any of the Maze Runner books, I enjoyed the first film for what it was and felt the franchise had a lot of potential till I was tremendously disappointed by The Scorch Trials... Therefore, I didn't know what to expect with this third entry, seeing as the first had an intriguing premise which essentially married Lord of the Flies with a dystopian setting and abundant instances of exciting action while the sequel squandered all that with a story that hopelessly meandered once the characters made it out of the maze. My biggest gripe with the previous two installments though was that they each ended with lingering, unanswered questions. However, I'm unsure whether this complaint should be levied against the respective movies or the source material itself since I never read the books. Nevertheless, I had hopes The Death Cure would tie up these loose ends, and screenwriter T.S. Nowlin seems to have made it a priority to resolve just about every character and story arc that had previously been introduced.

However, this brings about another problem all together. The issue being that the story is simply overcrowded with dangling plot threads (new and old), which in turn meant that quite a few of their respective resolutions were half-baked in execution. There's also an odd sense of importance placed on wrapping everything up, to the extent that the most important arcs don't really receive their proper due and I felt rather apathetic about the whole thing. Maybe this all worked much better in the book, but a sound send-off was lost in the translation to the big screen.

On that note, it's perplexing that the finale depends on a relationship between two characters that it hardly touched on previously. Although there were certainly inklings of a romantic connection between Thomas and Teresa, the shared history between these characters was a little unclear and wishy-washy because of their amnesia. Yet Nowlin and Ball expect audiences to take a leap of faith and invest themselves in a relationship where most of the interaction between love interests occurred off-screen, which is an even heftier task because the leads lack a convincing chemistry and their characters are fairly flat. Notwithstanding a lifeless love affair, Dylan O'Brien and Kaya Scodelario are quite committed on their own. The romance fails more on account of the inadequate set-up than because of the two actors. 

With that being said, it's such a shame that there's an IMMENSELY entertaining action film trapped inside the confines of an unnecessarily, overcomplicated story structure. If the preceding chapters of the series demonstrated anything, it was that Wes Ball is well-capable of delivering on all the riveting action you could possibly ask for. Sadly this came at the expense of a serious on-set injury for O'Brien that delayed the film's release an entire year, but I can foresee Ball shepherding a solid action franchise if he had a more established screenwriter working alongside him. 

In regards to the sprawling ensemble, everyone brings a quality performance to the table based on what they're given to work with. Front and center in the role of Thomas, O'Brien makes for a solid action star so it's a shame to see his talent go to waste starring in mediocre action movies rather than leading higher-callibur projects. Scodelario is also sufficient as Teresa and equally deserving of better work. Filling out the supporting roles is an interesting mixture of youthful actors and recognizable veterans including the likes of Ki Hong Lee, Thomas Brodie Sangster, Dexter Darden, Rosa Salazar, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen, Patricia Clarkson, Barry Pepper, and Walton Goggins.

I'd say that Maze Runner: The Death Cure is comparable to a sprinter trying to run a marathon. While The Death Cure starts off strong, it doesn't have the stamina to entertain and invest audiences for two and half hours. Even though the senseless spectacle can certainly be enjoyable in the moment, The Death Cure lost most of its momentum two hours in and is fairly forgettable afterwards. Too bad Wes Ball wasn't able to offer audiences a remedy for that...

Film Assessment: C+

'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales' Review

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales charts a new course for the spirited swashbucklers by steering the franchise closer to its humble beginnings. Dead Men Tell No Tales follows the adventures of Henry Turner, son of Elizabeth and Will Turner, as he searches for a means to free his father from his cursed fate. Turner then enlists the help of astute astronomer Carina Smyth and disreputable drunk Jack Sparrow to embark on a quest and find the treasured Trident of Poseidon, an artifact said to grant the wielder complete control of the seas with the power to break any curse. In the midst of all this, a vengeful Spanish specter Captain Salazar escapes the Devil's Triangle with an army of apparitions and a particularly unpleasant ambition. 

Dead Men Tell No Tales is the fifth entry to the Pirates franchise and after Curse of the Black Pearl, the savvy seafarers have landed ashore from their their subsequent plunders with receding riches among their treasure trove. Despite the diminishing returns of the succeeding ventures, I still manage to let loose a hardy "Yo-ho!" anytime Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man's Chest, or At World's End sail my way because that original trilogy knew how to handle the cultivating crew. However, On Stranger Tides waded into unfamiliar waters in hopes of extending the franchise only to meet a rocky reception and nearly sink the ship. 

Thankfully, all hands were called on deck so Norwegian co-directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg were able to save Disney's lucrative vessel just when I thought these pirates were about to walk the plank and abandon ship. Rønning and Sandberg ensure that everything encountered along the voyage looks and sounds tremendous, harkening back to the strange, supernatural elements Verbinski interposed into his own swashbuckling stories. 

For starters, every orchestral score in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has sounded exceptional, regardless of the film's quality, and this entry is no exception. Though Hans Zimmer abandoned ship and the score includes a number of familiar sea shanties, composer Geoff Zanelli proudly waves the Jolly Roger in his deconstruction & reconstruction of the pivotal Pirates themes. Elsewhere, the hair & makeup team alongside the commendable costuming crew continue to impress, despite dressing the cast in the usual pirate garb. I'm sure it must be a huge ordeal to ensure each pirate has the distinct and adequate attire, so the simple fact that each cast member looks great is enough for me to tip my hat to those members of the crew!

The vfx artists and production designers prove to be no land lubbers either, considering they are able to craft an authentic tropical background that these rum-smitten sailors can inhabit. The film looked leagues better than On Stranger Tides from start-to-finish and bolstered an awesome, unabridged aspect ratio in IMAX that further enraptured me. On the flip side, I was a bit worried about the look for Salazar and his ghastly crew judging from the trailers. Fortunately, my concerns were ill-suited because the dastardly Spanish crew looked exceptional thanks to a mix of profound practical prosthetics and illustrious CG-effects.

**Spoiler warning in case you somehow haven't seen any of these movies I'm about to mention**

Other technical accomplishments to note include Disney's alarming ability to de-age actors lately. You may have noticed this in various Marvel Studios entries including Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 that all featured brief scenes with a younger version of a prominent character (Hank Pym, Tony Stark, and Ego respectively).

**End of spoilers**

I previously haven't brought this up in any reviews because each of those occurrences were well under-wraps and I was avoiding spoilers. However, Disney has put this de-aged Jack Sparrow front and center in their marketing material so I think it's safe to talk about it. While I don't think there has been a misstep yet, I'd place the de-aged Sparrow among the upper escalate of examples because he's onscreen longer and maintained the authenticity throughout. It's truly incredible that technology has come this far that studios can now effectively de-age an actor and practically bring a deceased one back to the big screen (in the case of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story).

On the other hand, Dead Men Tell No Tales doesn't play out nearly as well on paper. Jeff Nathanson penned the seadog's screenplay and does an adequate job finding a means for the story to carry onward but the plot's riddled with meaningless side-quests involving extraneous characters. Dead Men Tell No Tales could have easily had the shortest running time in the series if Nathanson had thought to throw out a few of these meandering plot lines and insignificant characters. On top of that, the story basically follows this ridiculously repetitive pattern of [interchangeable character] is captured and [interchangeable character] is free. There were a number of clear comedic attempts that fell flat or pandered primarily to children, in quite a few of these instances absolutely nobody in my theater even chuckled. The dialogue is what failed to elicit a response most of the time and Sparrow's schtick hasn't completely worn off because some of the situational humor works quite well! 

Even when Dead Men Tell No Tales sails around in storytelling circles, there's an adequate level of enjoyment to be had. A bank heist at the film's outset literally gives the one featured prominently in Fast Five a run for its money and there's some zombie sharks in the second act that were particularly cool. Dead Men Tell No Tales has all the outlandish, outrageous pirate escapades you were missing in On Stranger Tides but very few of them are on par with the set pieces concocted by Verbinski.

If you're a stickler for continuity, Dead Men Tell No Tales will raise some serious concerns regarding its well-traversed story routes, pirates lore, and the mythical side of the Pirates universe but these things may sail away completely unnoticed by casual Caribbean tourists. Dead Men Tell No Tales somehow managed to simultaneously feel the furthest removed and most interwoven of the Pirates films thus far and I'm lost for words at how that was even possible. There are a number of cameo appearances that I found amusing and worth mentioning, but you may already know about them thanks to the film's marketing so they aren't exactly surprises. 

Meanwhile, Johnny Depp's performance as Captain Jack Sparrow has definitely improved from his turn in On Stranger Tides. He's no longer the lead so he doesn't have as much weight on his shoulders and is able to let loose as a supporting character again. Depp will never not be a great Jack Sparrow, but he's as kooky caricature once more. Nathanson unintentionally set up an interesting arc for Sparrow regarding his fall from grace but Depp never gets to tackle the underlying emotional vulnerability I was hopeful to see because he's too busy parading around for laughs. I'm doubtful Depp and the Caribbean's creative forces will ever be able to recapture the restrained, comedic brilliance of his debut but anything's possible. 

Filling out the crew, Brenton Thwaites and Kaya Scodelario are thrown out into the seven seas with hopes they would be able to recapture the Bloom/Knightley pairing from the original trilogy. While they come closer than the last feeble attempt, the two simply don't have the spark. Thwaites is a serviceable plucky lad and Scodelario plays the adept academic to a tee. Both are fine in their respective roles but neither were able to carry the weight required to completely fill the void left by Will Turner/Elizabeth Swann.

However, Javier Bardem oozes the appropriate amount of menace as Spaniard spirit Captain Salazar and stood out as the best baddie this franchise has seen in some time. Bardem wasn't given much to work with but he successfully elevated his character and projected a huge screen presence as you'd suspect an Oscar winner would. Geoffrey Rush also goes all in with his rotten, roguish portrayal of Captain Barbossa and Kevin McNally makes for a nice addition as dedicated first mate Gibbs.

When it comes down to my Memorial Day movie recommendation, it really depends on what you as a viewer would like to watch. If you want to see a gallivanting, enjoyable romp across the sea, go see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Crude comedy? Baywatch. Suspenseful sci-fi? Alien: Covenant. Out-of-this-world superhero story? Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. You can't really go wrong with any of those options provided you're seeking that specific source of entertainment. Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled to the WONDER-ful horizon. I guarantee if you feel lost in the summer sea of blockbusters, you'll be shouting "Land, ho!" next weekend.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is being billed as the "final adventure" but with a post credit scene offering a titillating tease for a sixth installment and the insane international business these pirates manage, I can't help but feel there will be a few more adventures for Captain Jack on the horizon. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales offers plenty of reasons to raise the Jolly Roger thanks to its capable cast, refreshing tropical visuals, elaborate action set pieces, and another sea-spirited score. Dead Men Tell No Tales is by no means the optimal expedition but it was reassuring to see Jack Sparrow and his merry band of marauders change course.

Film Assessment: C+