2023 - THE BIKERIDERS, interesting look into a world of supposed macho men.

The filmmaker Jeff Nichols continues to make very interesting films in this era of unending superhero movies.  The problem is that he unfortunately hasn't had his breakout film yet.  The Bikeriders is a fascinating look at a culture of blue collar men who strut their masculinity like roosters by forming a motorcycle club.

This film is extremely well cast with Tom Hardy as the leader of a bike club called the Vandals.  In his group is one Benny Cross played by Austin Butler who becomes attracted to  a woman named Kathy Bauer in an impressive performance by Jodie Comer.  The film follows these over aged delinquents through the years until the eventual breakup of the club.

 

Really this film belongs to Jodie Comer.  She is playing a character who on the outside doesn't seem to bright but is actually very aware of the situation and the consequences she has allowed to get herself in.  She narrates her story to a reporter throughout the film which allows the viewer to get caught up in the dynamics of the bike club.

 

This is an excellent drama, well directed, photographer and acted.   A high recommendation for an  interesting adult drama.

The film was written by Jeff Nichols, the running time is 116 minutes.

2024 - REBEL MOON - PART TWO: THE SCARGIVER, ? huh ?

After sitting through over two hours of this movie last night I still don't know what to make of it.  As everyone is aware this is the second part in Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon series he made for Netflix and I'm fairly certain that there will not be a part three even though the end of this thing leaves it open for a part three

It's pointless to comment on this film as the critics have already torn it apart calling it one of Zack Snyder's worst movies if not the bottom of his film making barrel.  Critics have pointed out that Rebel Moon - Part Two is really a mash up of The Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven and of course a Star Wars film and we're not talking one of the better Star Wars films, it's more like The Return of the Jedi the notorious teddy bear film.

It's completely pointless to criticize much less understand what the thinking and decision making was that led to this expensive film.  The fact of the matter is that this movie exists and that's about all you can say about it.

 

The film runs 122 minutes, the writing credits are Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten.

2023 - COUP DE CHANCE, Woody Allen at 87

This a minor but decent Woody Allen drama from a director who has had his ups and downs in his personal and professional life.  This film will be known as the one that Woody Allen shot in the French language after having his script translated.  Apparently this was the way he was able to get financing for this film.

Coup De Chance does rehash themes from Woody's previous dramatic films, betrayal, lust, retribution, etc.  Allen is an old hand at juggling his stories around to make interesting films even if his themes are the same.  The story is about a love triangle. A woman gets involved with an old school mate while her extremely jealous and as it turns out very dangerous husband becomes aware of what's going on.

 

As with all Woody Allen films, it looks great. Vittorio Storaro no spring chicken himself at age 83 photographed the film.  Storato had been associated with Coppola, Bertolucci and Argento so how could it not look good.  Frankly having Woody Allen's dialog translated into French almost works better for the film.  At times the characters in many of Allen's films could get mighty pretensious with the stuff that comes spewing out of their mouths about art and philosophy.  As usual in one of Allen's films the actors give good performances and this time in French.

At age 87 it's hard to believe Allen has many more films in him but if Coup De Chance is his last film it's not a bad way to end his career.

The was of course written by Woody Allen, the running time is 93 minutes.

2023 - ONE LIFE, a true but boring story

The inspirational true story of a man named Nicholas Winton.  Winton was a stockbroker in England just before World War II broke out.  He traveled to Czechoslovakia to help with the relocation of mostly Jewish children before the Nazi's attacked.  Working with a group of aid workers he was able to relocate over 600 children to England.  This is a moving story however this is not a good movie.

A dull and very plodding film.  The storytelling is strictly from the made for TV school of film making.  I suppose you could call it a "Lifetime" film made for the big screen.  I've seen this story before.  Richard Chamberlain did a version of a rescue story called Wallenberg: A Hero's Story  which was about a Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during World War II and of course there's Schindler's List one of Spielberg's best films.  Not to make light of Winton's accomplishments but he was hardly the only person attempting to make a difference.

 

It's difficult to describe how such and underwhelming film could be made about Winton. He appears to be a genuinely good man. The film just doesn't seem to be able to explain what motivated him to save these children.  Winton's accomplishment's were generally unknown until he appeared on a crummy British reality show called "That's Life" which basically used his story for filler on one of their TV shows.  The film really doesn't make it very clear that Winton even at the age of seventy nine was still trying to bring attention to the plight of refugees fifty years later.  

 

What the film has going for it is a good cast with Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn playing the older and younger versions of Winton.  Helena Bonham Carter is good as the young Winton's mother who was also instrumental in getting the children out of Prague.  Lena Olin, Marthe Keller and Jonathan Pryce (in a very small role) are also excellent.  I hate to be so critical of this well meaning film but Winton's story really needed a better storyteller.  There's a reason Steven Spielberg's Schilndler's List is one of the best films on the subject of the Holocaust, he is a very skilled filmmaker and had a great passion for this story.

The film was written by Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake, the running time is 110 minutes.

2023 - AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM, it's not good, it's not bad it's just what it is.

Coming in at the tail end of the superhero comic book cycle, this film was a big financial flop.  This was attributed to what is now called "superhero film fatigue," the audience was finally burning out on this genre.  The reality of this failure may be a little more complicated.  

The film slavishly followed the usual superhero formula.  A superhero takes on a really powerful bad guy as usual.  First he kind of whips the bad guys butt, then the bad guy comes back and really whips the superhero's butt and finally the superhero gets even more super and really really whips the bad guys butt.  Lots of butt whipping.

As usual the superhero is a wise cracking guy with a joke or a smart ass line for every dangerous occasion.  At times it seems like he would be at home doing stand up at a Los Angeles comedy club.  There's the usual female eye candy girlfriend and the action scenes are completely improbable since they have been created in a computer by probably dozens if not hundreds of computer nerds.  Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom slavishly follows this formula.

  

Jason Momoa is Aquaman and he handles the jokes fairly well, he certainly is pumped up either the result of an exercise regime or computer enhancement who can say?  The film is colorful enough since it's set under the sea and has lots of pretty colors of fish and coral reefs and stuff.

 

This film really isn't the disaster that the majority of the critics said it was, it's just unnecessary.  Looking back over all of these superhero movies from the last ten years or so it's pretty clear their lack of plot or interesting stories were covered up by lots of action and fast ADHD editing.  I watched this film as I was counting coins in my spare change jar and I can report at no time did I have trouble following the narrative since there is basically no narrative to speak of.  The film is for the most part competently made.

The film was written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick but five people take story credit which includes Jason Momoa and the director James Wan,  always a bad sign.  The running time is an overlong 124 minutes.

2023 - ARE YOU THERE GOD IT'S ME MARGARET, does not star Jason Statham

This is a well made and well acted but really kind of boring film.  Are You There God It's Me Margaret is based on a popular young adult novel by the author Judy Blume.  The story is about the trials and tribulations of a 12 year old girl who just happens to live in a really nice suburban house, has two adoring parents a grandmother who is very attached to her and attends a lily white school in the suburbs which has the usual token minority kids sprinkled throughout the classrooms.

Our heroine Margaret is apparently conflicted about her religious identity since her mother is Christian and her father Jewish.  She has one way conversations with "god" and seems to develop an obsession with developing breasts and having her period.  Now this may be all good and fine as a device to hang on a story. Maybe lots of teenage girls do encounter these types of body and emotional issues while growing up.  However it makes for very low key drama to put it mildly.  It's hard to work up much sympathy for the privileged Margaret.

 

 

 This film is frustrating towards the end.  After about 90 minutes of Margaret's alienation she suddenly sees the light, befriends the outcast girl in school and finally gets her period.  This all comes out of nowhere.  The viewer is left wondering if that's all there is to this film.

 

 Probably the most interesting character is Margaret's mother played by Rachel McAdams.  She's a woman trying to find herself in a brain dead suburban neighborhood.  The mother must also deal with her hard core fundamentalist Christian parents and their anger with her in her marriage to a Jew.  In fact when we cut away from the mother's story to the anxiety riddled Margaret it seems like kind of a cheat of an interesting story line.

 

This film got very good reviews but had very poor box office.  As well made as it is it essentially comes off as a good TV movie.  The film just seems to have a very limited appeal to general audiences

Written by Kelly Fremon Craig, the running time is 106 minutes.

2023 - THE BOYS IN THE BOAT, another boring true life story

Another boring true life story.  This makes two in a row I've viewed.  I could probably just cut and paste my last post about Big Eyes into this post and save some time. But I march on.  The Boys in the Boat is about the 1936 University of Washington junior varsity rowing team who went from being considered underdogs in the sport of boat rowing to competing against the Germans in the Berlin Olympics.  Will these plucky lads beat out those nasty Nazi's?  The bigger question should be doesn't anyone remember the film Chariots of Fire anymore?

This film is based on a well regarded book but you would never know it. Apparently the incidents in the film are mostly true but the screenplay presents them in such a way that they come off as a bunch of uninspired cliches.  The film is photographed in that usual movie way where the color is kind of dull.  The intention is to give the film the feeling of watching an old movie. However  I just kind of doubt people in  the Depression walked around looking like they were color de-saturated characters.  

 

This rowing team is presented like the "Great White Hope" of the Olympics against the Hitler bunch.  However the real star of the 1936 Berlin Olympics was runner Jesse Owens who is only mentioned in passing.  So where's a film about him?

 

I've listened to interviews with the director George Clooney on podcasts.  He seems like a thoughtful smart guy.  He's also a very fine actor in films like The Descendants, Michael Clayton and the funny O Brother, Where Art Thou?.  But for some reason he doesn't seem to be able to bring the intelligence he has shown as an actor to directing films.  When he was planning this film didn't he take a hard look at the story and ask what can I do to avoid the usual cliches in this type of sports story?  Once again this is another film where the production design and costumes are more interesting than the story.

The screenwriter is Mark L Smith, the running time is 124 minutes.

2023 - OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE - an entertaining action thriller

Kind of a mouth full for a film title.  This action comedy from Guy Ritchie seems like it could be a part of his Man From Uncle film universe.  Guy Ritchie likes to work with the same actors in this case Jason Statham, Hugh Grant and Josh Hartnett to name a couple.  In this film he's added the comedian Aubrey Plaza and "Westley" from The Princess Bride, Cary Elwes.

The plot is about a team of intelligence agents out to recover some gizmo called "The Handle" which is some kind of super weapon or something from Billionaire Hugh Grant (in a very funny performance).  Grant has a thing about Hollywood actors so secret agent Statham (in a real amusing deadpan performance) and his team recruit an action star played by John Hartnett (another funny performance), to get inside Grant's estate.  Along the way Statham and his team must do battle with a rival bunch of spies to get "The Handle."

 

This is all fairly entertaining stuff and it lets Ritchie stage his usual over the top action scenes.  But for nonsence like this, all of the fighting and running around is very entertaining.  As I indicated earlier this film reminds me of Ritchie's underrated action film The Man From Uncle a film that also featured Hugh Grant although he's a lot funnier here.

 

This film unfortunately was released while the COVID pandemic was going on so it didn't do particularly well at the box office, it's still entertaining.

The screenplay is by Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson and Bill Block.  The running time is 114 minutes.

2023 - THE EQUALIZER 3, probably the final film in the series

Denzel Washington is back as Robert McCall, The Equalizer in the third and hopefully final film in the series.  It's hard to believe anyone had any interest in this film. The first Equalizer was competently made and a decent action film but I never thought this series was setting the film world on fire.

This time McCall is in Italy righting the wrongs of the innocent.  For McCall this involves killing a lot of people.  He lets his guard down after one mission and ends up with a bullet in his back.  He's nursed back to health by a doctor and gets involved in the lives of a seaside town in Italy called Altamonte.  Anyway the town is loaded with lots of Mafia guys who are using it as a gateway to run illegal drugs etc.

 

As usual the audience can expect the typical Equalizer bloodbath as McCall runs around shooting lots of Mafia guys to save the day.  Denzel Washington is a very charismatic actor but at age sixty nine he looks tired and worn out and really appears to be dragging himself through the hit man motions.  I suppose the chief if only interest in this film is the appearance of twenty nine year old Dakota Fanning who last appeared with Denzel in Man on Fire back in 2004 when she was ten years old.  She plays the clueless CIA agent in this film who Denzel has to save yet again twenty years later.

 

The Equalizer 3 is nothing new, I've seen this plot line probably over 100 times.  Clearly Denzel and the the director Antoine Fuqua like working with each other.  This is probably the fifth film they have made together.  I just wish they would aim a little higher than spewing out another film version of Death Wish.

The film was written by Richard Wenk who seems to specialize in these old guy action films.  The running time is 109 minutes.

2023 - THE BOY AND THE HERON aka How Do You Live?

Supposedly Miyazaki's last film however there are rumors that he is actually working on another project.  Hayao Miyazaki is 82 years old so who can say what is exactly going on with him.  The Boy and the Heron is in many ways a typical Miyazaki film if you can use the word typical when it comes to one of his films.  The film looks beautiful, the storytelling is interesting and the hand drawn animation is impressive.

 Prior to seeing this film I sat through the usual bunch of film previews which included two computer animation cartoon films.  One of them was about a bunch of ducks flying around New York for some reason and the other was the latest sequel from the once mighty Pixar studios, a company which seems to have lost it's way when it comes to making good films.  The point of all this is, the artistry of The Boy and the Heron really puts that computer animation junk to shame.

 

The plot of this film is difficult to summarize, it's loaded with symbolism and references to Japanese mysticism and culture.  There is the personal journey of a young boy who from what I can tell learns to be less selfish in life and starts to accept the role of fate for better or worse. But this is a very trite explanation of a very layered and complex film narrative.

 

This film is an impressive achievement particularly in animation.  Written by Hayao Miyazaki, the running time is 124 minutes.

2023 - MEG 2: THE TRENCH, stupid but kind of entertaining action film

It's hard to understand how a pretty good director like Ben Wheatley got mixed up in this sequel to The Meg, a film nobody was asking for.  The answer probably is that the first Meg movie made a decent chunk of money and Wheatley probably needed to work.  But for the most part this is a stupid summer action film with just enough violence to entertain the average movie goer.

The main lead Jason Statham is one of those action actors whose persona for the most part makes watching a lot of the poor action films he appears in watchable.  Would all of those Expendables movie be even worth a viewer’s time if Statham wasn't in them giving his usual intense action performance?

 

Anyway, The Meg 2: The Trench is one mixed up mess of an action movie.  The big shark from The Meg is back and just for good luck the film throws in a couple of more big sharks.  A great deal of the film is set at the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean which has a secret mining operation going on surrounded by lots of prehistoric creatures with big teeth.  Into this scene comes do-gooder Statham and his team which consists of an adopted teenage girl (she saves the cute puppy), a jive talking black guy and a tough chick who's good with a weapon and kind of hot.  They all end up battling monsters, terrorists and greedy capitalists, it's one jumbled mess of a plot line.

The film's climax is set at a resort where everyone shows up, the heroes, the bad guys and the monsters.  It's only in these final scenes where Wheatley gets to crank up some ridiculously violent encounters that are actually kind of funny at times. Yes this is a stupid movie but kind of an entertaining one with scenes plagiarized from Jurassic Park, Jaws and that other man eating shark classic Deep Blue Sea.  

This film did well at the box office so I guess there will probably be a Meg 3.  Written by by Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris.  The running time is 116 minutes.

2023 - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE DEAD RECKONING PART ONE, ??

Of the three big action films this summer, this was probably the best of the bunch.  Furious X was plagued by a glut of supporting players, a ridiculous villain and a bunch of very obvious computer generated action scenes.  Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny had an 80 year old hero and a nasty streak to it that the film couldn't overcome. What all three of these films do have in common is their extraordinary running time, they all come in at a bloated two hours plus.

Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning at least has a sense of humor something which the other two films didn't even remotely possess.  To sit through these kinds of action films and not have a couple of lighthearted moments shows a failure to understand how to entertain an audience looking for some escapism.

The action scenes in Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning are for my money better thought out and staged.  The car chase scene is entertaining compared to the boring Furious X car chases and the large scale action piece on the train is certainly more thrilling than the overblown time travel climax in the Indiana Jones movie.  However this Mission Impossible film lets these scenes go on and on and on which ultimately dilutes the thrills.

Finally, there is absolutely no excuse for the lengthy running time on this current Tom Cruise action epic.  This film could have easily lost a good thirty to twenty minutes which would at least made it more playable for the audience.  The formula for these films is also starting to look like it's out of gas. This is essentially the same movie as the last six Mission Impossible films.  The sixty year old Tom Cruise may be getting a little old for this action hero stuff.  There was clearly a lot of digital cleanup going on with his face. 

The film was written by Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen, the running time is 164 minutes.

2023 - BOTTOMS, uneven but ranchy and funny teen comedy

A couple of loser teenage lesbians hatch a plan to hit on some sexy cheerleaders they have the hots for. To accomplish this they start a "fight club," for girls in their school, and this kicks off a very funny and fairly dirty teen comedy which a bunch of women  playing high school students who don't particularly took like teenagers.  

There is some very twisted humor in this film, dumb football players, a nasty school principal and a clueless teacher who is their advisor for the fight club.  Lots of jokes about school lunch and homecoming also figure into this film.  The two lead actors Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri work very well together as a comedy team.  Rachel Sennott in particular definitely has a way with dialog, she has a very sharp tongue.

 

It's easy to make one of these dumb teen high school sex comedies.  Usually the filmmakers just put in a bunch of silly sex jokes and mix it up with some female nudity.  However this is a rather unusual film that manages to even exaggerate the usual tropes in this stupid genre in a funny and at times witty way and not exploit the women in the cast.

 

This film is almost the flip side to Barbie, a film about female empowerment on the crude side.  Did I mention the film has a lot of smutty (but funny) humor?  The film was written by Rachel Sennott and the director Emma Seligman, the running time is 91 minutes.

2023 - THE LITTLE MERMAID, another live action remake of a Disney cartoon

This  overlong remake of another Disney cartoon was not the money making success the company was hoping for.  The film apparently will make back it's production and marketing costs but it won't be a billion dollar hit. There has already been a lot of finger pointing about what went wrong. 

 The right wing bunch had a problem with the skin color of the title character played by the singer/actor Hallie Bailey.  The foreign market did not embrace the film particularly the Asian market. The budget of probably 250 million dollars didn't help.  However I would argue that the whole Little Mermaid experience was just plain tired.

The original film zipped along at under 90 minutes, this behemoth lumbers along at over two hours.  The original film had a score with at least three decent songs this new version has additional and very forgettable songs by Lin Manuel Miranda who somehow scored a producers credit.  What was short and compact in the cartoon now is an overproduced mess with lots of CGI stuff.  

Hallie Bailey seems a competent and charming performer but there is so much "computer magic" applied to her it's hard to know when she is a live actor or yet another enhanced computer generated character.  The character of Eric her love interest is completely bland and his scenes just stop the film cold.  Daveed Diggs was a big deal when he appeared on stage in Hamilton as Thomas Jefferson.  Here he's nothing more than a crab and not even a real crab.  The less said about the rapper Awkwafina the better, she's just another voice in yet another computer generated character.  I'm sure the price tag for Melissa McCarthy wasn't cheap.  Javier Bardem who at one time worked with Pedro Almodóvar is now a fish king or something and what exactly did those two bring to the film? A bigger question, what is the point of even using actors if you take their images and completely modify and digitize tham?

 

I fully realize the Disney studio is in the business to make money and they are going to gamble on sure things like Marvel movies, Star Wars movies and their library of animated cartoons.  However the creative inspiration for this stuff just does not seem to be there these days.  The computer artists put a lot of colorful digital image junk in almost every scene in the movie but after a while it just doesn't mean anything.  The director Rob Marshall is supposedly the guy in charge but lets face it the real behind the film talent are the hundreds of computer nerds who overlay this stuff on to the film.  It appears the public is beginning to get burned out on the Marvel and Star Wars stuff and this flop won't help.  Will Disney ever be able to develop new and interesting ideas?

  

The screenplay was written by David Magee who wrote the equally inspid Mary Poppins Returns for Disney.  The running time is 135 minutes.

2023 - INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY, second of the 2023 big summer action movies

 Objectively, when you sit back and give it a little thought the only really good Indiana Jones film was the first one Raiders of the Lost Arc.  The next four films in the series are really not very good.  Only the film making skill of Steven Spielberg and his production team made those films interesting.  Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was not directed by Spielberg and frankly the movie is a very joyless film.

Back again is Harrison Ford in what has to be his final appearance as Indiana Jones.  This time his partner is the actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge who comes off as a rather abrasive character. Of course there is a little kid involved played by some actor named Ethan Isidore who is also a rather unlikable character.  Naturally the Nazi's are back.  Mads Mikkelsen who specializes in playing nasty European villains is of course cast as a nasty European Nazi villain.

The story has Indy jumping around the world in search of some kind of time travel device.  The action scenes which are unending are really not that exciting.  If you've seen one overlong chase you have kind of seen them all.  This movie wants to an exciting summer ride but so many people are shot and stabbed that the brutality in the films kind of takes the fun out of it. As a side note with all this semi graphic violence what does the Walt Disney Company add as a disclaimer?  A warning that people are smoking in some scenes.

Four writers were involved in this film and probably a bunch who are uncredited.  Although Spielberg didn't direct this film he apparently had a great deal of input into it.  John Williams as usual has to do a lot of heavy lifting with his music to make the film exciting.  The film was expensive, there is a lot of computer generated imagery crap in it and I'm sure Harrison Ford didn't come cheap.      

The film was written by Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp and the director James Mangold,  The running time is an incredible 154 minutes.

2023 - FAST X , "This is the song that never ends."

Number 10 in the gearhead action espionage series.  Fast X isn't good and it isn't bad, if just unfolds with the same old stuff as usual.  Our hero Dominic Toretto ( Vin Diesel pushing 56 years old) is the leader of our team of good guys for hire.  By now the cast in the series has completely swollen with so many characters from the various films that it's difficult to remember who was introduced in what film not that it really matters anymore. Characters who die come back to life, new family characters are introduced in this case Rita Moreno as great grandmother Toretto for no apparent reason.

Charlize Theron is "Cyper" the super bad gal that the Toretto gang has been doing battle  with in several films. For the flimsiest of plot points she becomes an ally in their fight against a real bad guy Dante Reyes played by Jason Momoa.  Jason Momoa is even worse than Charlize Theron and Momoa plays him like some kind of weird cross dressing or bisexual or gay super villain, who can tell.  Momoa is seeking revenge for the death of his father which occurred in Fast Five, (2011 release), which was 12 years ago, talk about holding a grudge.

 

Anyway we are off almost immediately with the now typical over the top car stunts and action pieces as the gang rushes around the globe tying to save Dominic's son who first showed up in The Fate of the Furious, (2017 release).  You might as well throw into the cast mix Brie Larson, Helen Mirren, Jason Statham, Scott Eastwood, Jordana Brewster, Gal Gadot, John Cena  Dwayne Johnson, Pete Davidson the late Paul Walker's daughter and in the typically thankless role as Dominic Toretto's wife Michelle Rodriguez.  All of these cameos and short parts only add length to a film that is already incredibly overlong.

 

The film ends in the great tradition of 1930's cliffhanger serials. However the producers of Fast X certainly didn't learn any lessons from those old serials because each chapter in those old films ran about 30 minutes.  The film has a whopper of a 141 minute running time.  It will be interesting to see if Universal Studios films Fast XI or whatever they are going to call it, this film was not the financial blockbuster the studio was hoping for.

The film was written by Dan Mazeau and Justin Lin.  Lin was the original director of this film but he walked off the set a week into production.

2023 - THE FLASH, a jumbled mess of yet another superhero movie

 Like the plate of spaghetti noodles that Bruce Wayne shows Barry Allen as a way of demonstrating the various twists and turns of the different timelines in the multiverse, the screenplay for The Flash drowns in a lot of plot, subplots, Easter eggs, surprise actor appearances and overblown action sequences.

When I was a kid you could read a DC comic in about 10 or 15 minutes, the plot lines were simple and the action was direct.  This superhero story comes in at 144 minutes and just refuses to end. I suppose there is some entertainment in seeing 71 year old Michael Keaton put on the bat suit again but his part is on the shall we say small side.  At least he does better than the actor playing Supergirl who basically shows up to throw bad guys around.

 

The central plot is about Barry Allen going back in time to save his mother from being murdered.  Back in time he goes and he meets his younger self so you get a lot of supposedly humorous scenes with the two Barry's interacting.  This whole mess of a movie ends with all the timelines crashing together and in what is the ultimate superhero film nerd scene all the various actors who played Superman show up in pointless blink or you'll miss them cameos.

 

For all the action scenes and the razzle dazzle special effects The Flash will probably be forgotten in a short time.  This is yet another disappointment from Warner Brothers Studios.  They have struggeled  to find the right formula for the most part to make these DC Superhero movies.  

The film was written by Christina Hodson who has had her hand in to many of these superhero films.