Shipping up to Boston
In this week’s Criticize This! we take a look at the latest Boston-set crime movie, another crazy indie horror, and a video game adaptation that could be the biggest flop of the summer.
THE BIG ONE
When it comes to crime movies set in Boston, you have gold standard options like The Town and The Departed and lesser-quality fare like The Boondocks Saints and What Doesn’t Kill You. Doug Liman’s The Instigators falls somewhere in between.
Starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, the movie goes through the motions of what it thinks the audience will want out of a silly heist movie, with so-so results. Affleck, who also co-wrote the script, is the comedic relief and delivers on the task at hand. Damon plays a more serious character, but we never really connected with him, which is odd from such an accomplished actor.
Reviews from both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes have not been favourable, and it currently has a 42% critics score and a 50% audience rating. On the IMDb, it’s sitting at a 6.1 out of 10 with a few hundred reviews.
“There are laughs and clever bits of business in The Instigators, but there’s never a reason to care,” Tim Grierson wrote in his review for the Los Angeles Times. On ComingSoon.net, Johnathan Sim wrote that it’s “a disappointing movie that desperately wants to have fun but doesn’t know how.”
It’s far from perfect, but it has some charm to it, especially from supporting cast players Hong Chau, Alfred Molina, Michael Stuhlbarg, Ron Perlman, and Paul Walter Hauser, who we wished we saw more of on screen.
Liman, who is known for churning out watchable action movies like Edge of Tomorrow, The Bourne Identity, and the recent Road House remake, also helps make the material work better than any other director probably could have.
In one of the few positive reviews of the movie, Pete Hammond wrote for Deadline Hollywood that it is “pure, often riotously funny summer entertainment, a perfect blend of genres from action to comedy to crime, not a minute of it to be taken seriously.” And Liz Braun’s review on Original-Cin sums it up nicely, calling it “fast, funny and entirely forgettable.”
Our take: If you’re a fan of silly heist/action movies, you’ll probably find something to enjoy in The Instigators. Just don’t rush to watch it thinking it’s the next great Boston crime film.
The Instigators is now streaming on Apple TV+.
IN THEATRES
Cuckoo
For those not totally sold on Longlegs or the slower pace of Oddity, Cuckoo might be the oddball horror movie that will finally do it for you this summer.
Starring Hunter Schafer (Euphoria, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) and Dan Stevens (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Abigail), the movie currently has a 79% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with Schafer’s performance being the highlight of many reviews.
WATCH: Trailer for Cuckoo
Along with Schafer, who we agree is great in it, we also enjoyed the vibe and style of Cuckoo. And while we didn’t find it as unsettling as Longlegs or Oddity, there are a lot of WTF moments and way more traditional horror movie scare tactics that should keep audiences engaged.
Cuckoo is now playing in select theatres across Canada.
It Ends with Us
Blake Lively stars in this adaptation of the beloved bestselling Colleen Hoover book that deals with generations of domestic violence. Lively is being praised for the portrayal of her character, Lily Bloom, but most critics say It Ends with Us is sugarcoating a serious topic. While the film only has a 58% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, fans of the book seem to be enjoying it as it has a whopping 95% audience rating!
Borderlands
Eli Roth’s adaptation of the video game Borderlands has a solid cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Edgar Ramírez. But with hardly any promotion ahead of time, we had a feeling this was not going to be good. And sure enough, critics and audiences are ripping it to shreds.
“It’s impressive how Roth can elicit the poor quality of 2000s video game adaptation energy yet somehow forget the [discernible] sense of fun or style that made even those terrible movies stand out,” Giovanni Lago wrote for Next Best Picture. In a first reaction review on X/Twitter, Movie Scene Canada posted that it was “as predictable as films come these days” and that it’s “borderline unwatchable.” Yikes!
We would bet good money that this will end up being the biggest flop of the summer, if not the entire year.
TOP BOX OFFICE
STREAMING
MaXXXine (VOD)
Wrapping up the trilogy that also includes X and Pearl, we enjoyed Ti West’s MaXXXine the most out of the three.
Set in 1985 Hollywood during the Night Stalker murders, it’s got an excellent look and feel to it reminiscent of Paul Schrader’s Hardcore or Ken Russell’s Crimes of Passion. Mia Goth delivers another memorable performance as adult film actress and wannabe Hollywood star Maxine Minx, and the supporting cast, which includes Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth Debicki, and Giancarlo Esposito, are all excellent in their roles.
The film has a 72% critics score and a 78% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a 6.5 out of 10 on the IMDb. For reference, X, which we enjoyed, has a 94% critics score and a 76% audience rating, and Pearl, which we found extremely boring, has a 92% critics score and an 83% audience rating. X also has a 6.5 out of 10 on the IMDb, while Pearl has a 7 out of 10.
Despicable Me 4 (VOD)
There’s nothing wrong with Despicable Me 4 (the kids seemed to enjoy it), but it’s time to put this series to bed as it’s getting a bit repetitive. And this might be a controversial hot take, but the Minions are no longer cute and funny and they’re now just obnoxious and annoying. While critics gave it a low 55% score, the audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes is sitting at 88%.
Also streaming this week: One Fast Move, starring K.J. Apa, and Dev Patel’s Monkey Man are both on Prime Video, The End We Start From is on Paramount+, and The Creator is on Crave.
COMING SOON
In the dark comedy/thriller Blink Twice, Channing Tatum plays a tech billionaire who invites a group of people to a wild party on a private island. After a bit of crazy fun, it appears (from the trailer at least) that things get a bit weird.
We’re excited to see how this turns out when it hits theatres on August 23 as it’s Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, and it also stars Christian Slater, Alia Shawkat, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan, and Naomi Ackie.
Check out the trailer for Blink Twice on our YouTube channel and tell us what you think?
ON DISC
The one great thing about 4K Blu-ray is rediscovering old favourites in a whole new light. So, in preparation of the upcoming sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, we recently re-watched Tim Burton’s 1988 original on the Ultra High-Def format.
From Michael Keaton’s hilarious performance to Danny Elfman’s memorable score, plus the visual style of the film Burton is now known for, Beetlejuice works on many levels. Add in a great supporting cast that includes Winona Ryder, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and Catherine O’Hara, and it still holds up quite well (except for Jeffrey Jones, who we’re trying to forget).
For a movie that’s 36 years old, the picture and sound quality of Beetlejuice is impressive on 4K Blu-ray. There’s a handful of scenes where the special effects look dated (mostly the sandworm scenes), but the overall 4K transfer is sharp and clean. The 7.1 Dolby Atmos surround mix is also quite stunning and it highlights Elfman’s score perfectly.
Special features are sadly lacking, and only include a few episodes of the Beetlejuice cartoon and the original trailer. A regular Blu-ray copy of the movie is also included.
You can currently buy Beetlejuice on 4K Blu-ray for $26.70 from Amazon.ca.
Other great movies from the ’80s on 4K Blu-ray to check out include The Goonies, Footloose, and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.
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