XXX: The Return of Xander Cage

Director D.J. Caruso’s XXX: The Return of Xander Cage is an action-packed film that is sure to please fans of the genre around the globe.

Vin Diesel and fellow Producers Jeff Kirshenbaum, Joe Roth and Samantha Vincent have wisely chosen a story requiring a multi-racial international cast of interesting characters and Casting Agents Miguel Fernandez, Edna Lerebours and Anne McCarthy have successfully delivered a fun group of actors, including Samuel L. Jackson, Ice Cube, Toni Collette, Donnie Yen, Deepika Padukone, Kris Wu, Ruby Rose, Tony Jaa, Nina Dobrev and Rory McCann.

Action film lovers will enjoy the stunts and Writer F. Scott Frazier’s script provides some good laughs, as well.

At a time when the desire to experience surrogates kicking ass is at a peak, XXX: The Return of Xander Cage fills the need.

I give it a 3.9 out of 5.

20th Century Women

Writer/Director Mike Mills’ 20^th Century Women is an endearing film about the effect of burgeoning feminism on three women in the late ‘70s.

Annette Bening plays Dorothea, the 55-year-old matriarch of a house under reconstruction as she tries to keep some of the “old values” alive and raise her 15-year-old son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) into whatever manhood is supposed to be in an age of rapid change.

 

Greta Gerwig is a 20-something would-be rebel, who lives with them and Elle Fanning is Jamie’s 17-year-old best friend, who is trying to figure out the balance between sex and friendship.

Billy Crudup plays a once-hippy handyman, living in the household while doing the reconstruction.

The interplay of these delightful and beautifully portrayed characters as all of them come-of-age is what makes the film work.

My only criticism is that it is a bit too long.

Despite that, 20^th Century Women gets a 4 out of 5.

Nocturnal Animals

When I was watching Writer/Producer/Director Tom Ford’s horrible Nocturnal Animals, I could not help feeling sorry for Amy Adams, hoping she had, somehow, been coerced into acting in this piece of cinematic garbage instead of volunteering to participate.  Why Amy?  You’ve done nothing that deserves such penance!

The film…no, soapopera…has the most ghastly opening ever with a 400-500lb. naked woman, tossing her flabs of skin around as she cavorts on a stage.  I couldn’t read the credits as I had to turn away from the screen.

The travesty went down from there with a tasteless story of revenge that, ultimately, became laughable as a result of both story and acting.

 

There should be a warning for any viewer contemplating suicide.  This piece of junk might just push them over the edge.

If there is anyone who likes this crap, who isn’t already in therapy, I would be happy to point them in the direction of a reputable psychiatrist.

Only for Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey's occasional interesting images do I give Nocturnal Animals a 1 out of 5.  I hope all involved have been properly disinfected.

If I had seen it before my blog on The Best Films of 2016, it would have tied for Worst Movie of the Year.