Death Of A Unicorn Is A Fun Watch, A Working Man Is OK And Other Movie Reviews

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This has been an especially bizarre week at the theater. I've seen a unicorn die, Jason Stratham beat the shit out of dozens of men, Robert De Niro played two parts in the same movie and somehow two movies about The Last Supper came out.

Death Of A Unicorn is a creative movie that takes some big swings. Not all of them land and the third act is too long. But, isn't that what we want in a movie? To take chances and give us something unique?

The biggest reason this movie works is the comedy and the casting. Paul Rudd makes being funny effortless. Anthony Carrigan was hysterical as a butler that is constantly annoyed. What sets this ahead of something like (also from A24) Opus is that while both have an "eat the rich" mentality throughout. Death Of A Unicorn is more clever and humorous about it.

For a movie with flaws (what I mentioned earlier and weak CGI), they were ones I could look past. This consistently entertained and amused me. I'll also never look at unicorns the same way.

Death Of A Unicorn: B-

A Working Man delivers the bare minimum of what you'd expect from this. But it's not fun or silly enough to be the rewatchable and goofy movie that it should be.

Jason Statham deservingly is the heir apparent to the kinds of movies that Liam Neeson used to be in. This movie's primary plot is very similar to Taken. But these is a need for fun action movies where a guy just beats the shit out of people.

It does completely waste the very good David Harbour and Michael Pena. Harbour especially is a big name from Marvel movies and Stranger Things. He must have been available for only a day or two of shooting because he is barely in this and in an pretty inconsequential role.

I can't recommend this to a general audience. Novocaine is smarter and better. Flight Risk is dumber than this but that you can laugh at more. But having said that director David Ayer and Statham are a good combo. They just need to have more fun.

A Working Man: C+

For a movie about crime, The Alto Knights commits the worst crime a movie can commit: it's soulless. There is almost an imaginary filter between you and the screen which makes you not give a shit about what you are seeing.

This also does itself no favors. A huge part of the third act is dedicated to cars stuck in the mud. It's so sad that Barry Levinson, who has directed Rain Man, The Natural and one of my personal favorites Sleepers, helmed this lifeless slog.

Robert De Niro wasn't bad playing two different roles but it was completely unnecessary. The movie would have been better with Joe Pesci or Al Pacino in the hothead Vito Genovese part. But, maybe those two wisely read the script. Some parts of this were very distracting, like the half dozen Sopranos actors that keep popping up or that we are supposed to believe Debra Messing is around the same age as De Niro.

The Alto Knights is a lifeless movie that is also a poor photocopy of Casino. I guess it's to Casino's credit that even its hardly warmed over leftovers aren't completely terrible.

The Alto Knights: C

There are TWO The Last Supper movies out in theaters right now. I shit you not. The first one that came out was The Last Supper, which is a horrible movie. The last title card says: THIS IS MORE THAN A MOVIE. IT'S AN INVITATION TO KNOW JESUS. I don't see myself RSVPing.

If the intention is to to appeal to an audience that isn't religious, The Last Supper does nothing to win them over. There is no character development to speak of. It's just a series of Jesus' most famous moments (you're getting more than just The Last Supper). Look at The Last Temptation Of Christ or Jesus Christ Superstar. Those are interesting ways to his those points but also be unique.

I can't recommend this movie to anyone, even the ultra-religious. It's a weak movie with a bad script and worse performances. The other Jesus movie I saw this week was better. There's also a cartoon coming out this month. I have to imagine that will be better. Can't be much worse.

The Last Supper: D-

The other Last Supper movie is The Chosen, which is a show on Amazon Prime that is also releasing it's Season 5 in theaters. It seems to be a smart play as it opened #3 for the weekend. Part 1 is episodes 1& 2 of that season.

That is a much better viewing experience than The Last Supper movie that I just wrote about. This has high production values and there is care put into it. With it being a television show, they can spend time not just on motives but also how people lived back then. This does a decent job with the dramatic elements but really misses when it tried to be comedic. This is humor that's more awkward and out of place than a Marvel movie.  

I can't recommend this to a general crowd however, I'm not religious and while this was not bad, I have no urge to watch previous seasons. It wasn't strong enough for me to have any interest beyond what I saw on screen. But, if you religious or have any interest in seeing a show about Jesus, then you could do a lot worse.

The Chosen: Last Supper Part I: C

If you liked The Thing, you still might really not like Ash. I know I sure didn't. It does have similar beats to that great movie except you don't care about any of the characters here. When one of the two leads doesn't even really know herself, how can we know her?

Director Flying Lotus seems to be very focused on visuals yet this movie is badly lit. 80% of this is shrouded in darkness. Turn a fucking light on! 

The premise could be interesting enough. Final Girl wakes up in a spaceship to find her crew dead. But instead of interesting twists, things happen pretty much how you'd expect them to. Also, the casual language used makes me think this takes place today yet they are on another planet so it must take place decades from now? They also open a toolbox and you'd think it was from the 1980's. I guess a good Phillips head screwdriver never goes out of style.

If you want to see a good Aaron Paul sci-fi movie, check out the Black Mirror (feature length) episode Beyond The Sea. It's a much better option than this cold and predictable trip into darkness.

Ash: C-

2025

1)Presence

2)Black Bag

3)Novocaine

4)DEATH OF A UNICORN

5)The Damned

6)One Of Them Days

7)Paddington 3

8)Valiant One

9)Rule Breakers

10)Heart Eyes

11)Mickey 17

12)Last Breath

13)Flight Risk

14)Den Of Thieves 2 

15)Dogman

16)Companion

17)A WORKING MAN

18)THE ALTO KNIGHTS

19)Looney Tunes

20)Opus

21)Becoming Led Zeppelin

22)Captain America: BNW

23)THE CHOSEN PART I 

24)Riff Raff

25)Inheritance

26)Night Of The Zoopocalypse

27)ASH

28)The Unbreakable Boy

29)Brave The Dark

30)Wolf Man

31)The Monkey

32)Love Hurts

33)THE LAST SUPPER

34)In The Lost Lands