This week we take a breather from superheroes to look into the lives of some frazzled women. Join us as we chat about Tully and Overboard, as well as The Endless and Foxtrot, plus all that’s fit to consume in home entertainment.
Listen to the full podcast HERE.
by Hope Madden
More than 30 years ago, Garry Marshall directed one of those Eighties films: good-heartedly hateful and contrived in that colorfully rom-com way, Overboard.
It is the ridiculous story of comeuppance wherein a small-town carpenter (Kurt Russell), cheated out of payment by a scantily clad, uppity billionaire (Goldie Hawn), concocts a plan to get the money he is due when she washes ashore with amnesia.
Flash forward several decades and director Rob Greenberg makes his feature debut after a lifetime of sitcoms, revisiting Leslie Dixon’s 1987 screenplay.
His update sees Kate (Anna Faris) as a single mom just trying to pass that damn nursing exam so she can quit her two jobs (pizza delivery, carpet cleaner) and offer a better life for her three daughters.
She’s sent to sop up the champagne spillage on a yacht, meets spoiled heir Leonardo (Eugenio Derbez), argues and ends up in far worse financial trouble than she’d been in a day before.
Now she’ll never get that nurse’s license!
When the billionaire washes up back in Elk Cove, Kate’s pizza place boss (Eva Longoria) figures the least he owes Kate is some some day labor (so she doesn’t have to replace that job he lost for her), and enough chores to give Kate the time to study.
Only until the exam—then we’ll tell him.
The premise is no fresher or more believable this time around, though they do update in a couple of interesting ways. Leonardo is a Mexican heir; the day laborers only speak Spanish and most of the pizza crew is bilingual Mexican American, so about fifty percent of the film is subtitled.
This is an interesting choice, since the point of both versions of Overboard is to point out the hideous gap in work ethic and morality you can find between the rich and poor. Choosing not to “Roseanne” that image of the American working poor was a solid decision. Not that it can help this movie.
This is simply not a premise that has the strength to stand the test of time. The original was a success on the charm and natural (and obviously abiding) charisma of its stars. Why was it successful? Goldie Hawn was a comic genius, Kurt Russell was gorgeous, and it was the Eighties. That is it.
The remake has none of those things going for it. Greenberg, updating Dixon’s script with Bob Fisher (Wedding Crashers), can’t write his way out of the contrivance. Though Faris is certainly a talent, she lacks the charisma to carry a film.
Perhaps most damaging is the utter absence of chemistry between the leads, making every inch toward romance feel unnatural and, honestly, almost creepy.
by Hope Madden
There is something very clever about the way Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead’s movies sneak up on you. Always creepy, still they defy genre expectations even as they play with them.
Camp Arcadia offers the rustic backdrop for their latest, The Endless. A clever bit of SciFi misdirection, the film follows two brothers as they return to the cult they’d escaped a decade earlier.
Just to visit.
Do you ever have those dreams where you find yourself back in your hometown and no matter how hard you try, you can’t leave? No? You must not be from Tiffin, Ohio.
Benson and Moorehead capture that particular panicked feeling, each slow-moving moment generating a louder and louder echo in your head, yelling: Why are you still here? Go already!
The other thing the directing pair creates with uneasy authenticity is that spotty forgiving and unforgiving bond between siblings.
The directors themselves play those siblings. Though Moorehead and Benson have had cameos in their previous films Spring and Resolution, as well as a handful of other horror flicks, The Endless, penned by Benson, is the first film they anchor.
Their acting chops are mainly solid, although perhaps not lead-worthy. Moorehead’s innocence and whining sometimes feel forced. Meanwhile, Benson’s character’s motivation is at times suspect, and he’s unconvincing as a sheltered, shell-shocked, co-dependent.
Though the lead performances sometimes undermine the agile storytelling, the turns the directors draw from their ensemble are strong across the board. Welcome familiar faces in a third-act surprise prove the filmmakers’ nimble skill with a fantasy storyline that could easily collapse on itself but never does.
It is this story and the pair’s storytelling skill that continues to impress. Their looping timelines provide fertile ground for clever turns that fans of the filmmakers will find delightful, but the uninitiated will appreciate as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRg7lwDsGpw
by Thomas van Wageningen
At Veboli, we’re always thinking of ways to improve the movie advice we give the movie lovers on our site. Last summer we rounded up movie critics from all over the world, including five here at MaddWolf, to connect movie lovers to critics that best understand their own taste in movies. This, of course, generates a lot of data (Holy crap, there are more than 20,000 reviews!). With all that data, I wondered: how do you users compare to critics?
Before diving into the genres, let’s look at how the critics here at MaddWolf compare to the average user’s ratings on Veboli. George Wolf’s taste in movies is the most similar to the average Veboli user, Rachel Willis’ taste is the most unique. Below is a table of all the MaddWolf movie critics and their average difference from the average user rating on Veboli.
| Critics | Average Difference |
| George Wolf | 0.9 |
| Hope Madden | 1.0 |
| Matt Weiner | 1.1 |
| Christie Robb | 1.6 |
| Rachel Willis | 1.9 |
Take Fight Club and The Lion King for example. The average ratings on Veboli for these two movies are 7.6 and 7.3. George gave these two movies an 8 and a 7 whereas Rachel gave them a 6 and a 10. Most of George’s ratings are pretty close to the the average rating of all of the users on Veboli while Rachel has more ratings that are farther from the average.
Looking at the table, I at first thought MaddWolf’s got three pretty average critics and two more unique ones. Which it turns out was a pretty accurate statement. The average critic has an average difference per rating of 1.08. But this misses an even bigger pattern! The average user has an average difference per rating of 1.51. Users on Veboli are a pretty diverse group of movie lovers. Some of the users even have an average difference of higher than 5. That’s crazy! If users on average give a movie a 5, these users would give it either a 0 or a 10.
I thought that horror would have the largest average difference between users and critics. I thought laughing, sympathizing and thinking are things that most people generally like in movies. But being scared is something that some people love and others hate. But horror’s only the sixth most disagreed upon genre, with adventure, science fiction, action, fantasy, and drama all having slightly higher average differences in ratings by users and critics.
So what did I find? It seems like factual movies (documentaries and historical movies) are less controversial than the more fictional movies (fantasy, horror and science fiction). The more energetic, fast-paced movies (action and adventure) are generally the most controversial. Below is a table of all the genres and the average difference in ratings between users and critics. The lower the average difference, the more users and critics agree about the movies in that genre.
|
Genre |
Average Difference |
|
Western |
0.9 |
|
Documentary |
1.0 |
|
Music |
1.0 |
|
History |
1.2 |
|
Animation |
1.3 |
|
Mystery |
1.4 |
|
Family |
1.4 |
|
Crime |
1.4 |
|
Romance |
1.4 |
|
Comedy |
1.4 |
|
Thriller |
1.4 |
|
Horror |
1.4 |
|
Drama |
1.5 |
|
Fantasy |
1.5 |
|
Action |
1.6 |
|
Science fiction |
1.6 |
|
Adventure |
1.6 |
Head over to Veboli to see more movies that users and critics disagree or agree on. If you’d like to see more of the data on how users compare to movie critics explored, let us know in the comments below!
PS, The Wizard of Oz has a difference of 2.3, critics seem to like it much more than users.
Great animation, very good foreign drama, better-than-expected war drama and one seriously disappointing ghost story—these are the choices. Let us help you with that.
Click the film title for the full review.
Just the one big one to talk through—with no spoilers! Maybe a little bit about superhero crushes, though. So, it’s Avengers: Infinity War as well as what’s new in home entertainment. Check out the full podcast HERE.
by Hope Madden
There are some great films that spare you the exposition, dropping you instead into the center of the action and leaving you there, breathless, until the final credits. Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, for instance, exists in this Act 2-only universe.
When it’s done well, it can be a breathless, sometimes blistering ride.
Unfortunately, Downrange doesn’t do it well.
Director Ryûhei Kitamura (Midnight Meat Train) strands you with six motorists—just good looking kids ride-sharing their way with strangers across a deserted highway toward whatever.
One blown tire brings the carpool to a screeching halt, but it isn’t a stray pothole to blame (they’re obviously not driving through Columbus right now). No, it’s a well-aimed bullet, and these travelers have unwittingly volunteered to become target practice for some lone gunman (don’t call him a terrorist!) hiding in the tree line.
It’s not a bad set up, really, if a little clichéd and convenient: out of the way (read: no cell reception), car full of strangers (read: character development will unfold by way of action), escalating tension and drama.
How does the roadkill stew Kitamura makes from these ingredients wind up so bland? Once he puts these ducks on this pond, he can’t find anything imaginative to do with them.
The story is thin, yes—it’s a scene, really, stretched for 90 minutes. But it can be done. Greg McLean did it in 2007 with a raft full of tourists and a big gator in Rogue, but he had Radha Mitchell, Stephen Curry, John Jarratt and Mia Wasikowska—actors whose names you may not know but whose talent you would recognize. Downrange doesn’t have that.
To be fair, the cast struggles with more than just limited ability. They quickly lose the opportunity to feel authentic under an abundance of heavy breathing, high tension close-ups as each ducks and contorts to avoid the spray of bullets and body fluids.
The film isn’t terrible, it’s just tedious. Its nihilism feels undeserved, more like a lack of imagination than a cynical choice. A situation both so precise and so familiar requires some surprise—either in style or in narrative decision—to compel attention. Kitamura can muster neither.
Downrange is a Shudder exclusive, debuting April 28.
by Hope Madden and George Wolf
Let’s say you recently penned Captain America: Civil War, an exceedingly successful comic book franchise effort weighed down by the mushrooming of heroes. So. Many. Heroes.
And let’s say it went so well that you are now tasked with the new Avengers movie—the film that takes very nearly every hero from your last effort and tacks on, say, 7 or 8 more. You would almost have to immediately think about thinning the herd, right?
Yes.
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (who’ve penned all three Captain America films) weave a Marvel Universe-spanning tale that asks whether or not things would work out better if we had about half as many people to deal with. That seems like writerly self-reflection right there.
Thanos (Josh Brolin, who villains it up for Deadpool 2 next) believes in balance. He’s been collecting Infinity Stones across all the different Marvel movies so he can create this Justice Friends adventure and rid the universe of half its inhabitants.
Wait, Thanos is a Guardians of the Galaxy villain, right? Does that mean Starlord’s entire rag-tag crew will join the Avengers (and Dr. Strange and Black Panther and Spiderman and on and on)? So, Chris Pratt, Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth?
Correct.
All we need to defeat Thanos is Chris Pine. No way six Infinity Stones can outshine the wattage of all the Chrisses!
The screenplay offers smart comic moments that suit individual characters (Drax! Teenaged Groot!) and never undermine the drama, of which there is plenty. And balance is clearly on the minds of the writers as well as directors Anthony and Joe Russo (who helmed the last two Captain American films and love Cleveland). The storyline divides up nicely to allow the plethora of personalities to shine, each in their own way.
Though the film runs a full 2 ½ hours with the end-of-credits stinger, it never drags. Plenty happens, all of it rooted in character and held together by Brolin, who gives the film a layered epicenter through his memorable CGI/voice performance.
The Thanos facial effects rank somewhere between Planet of the Apes and Superman’s mustache, while the outlying worlds and creatures sport satisfactory shine.
But we cannot get behind what they’re doing with Hulk. Not digging it.
The very best films in the Marvel universe excel in nuanced big thinking (Black Panther, Winter Soldier) or bullseye tonality (Spider-Man: Homecoming). Infinity War gets close on both battlegrounds, but lays up to bet on its own long game.
True, that sounds like cliched word salad, but we’re steering clear of planet spoiler.
Infinity War tackles some big ideas and makes some brave choices that may cause you to reassess the entire Marvel franchise.
Not everyone will be pleased.
But props to Markus, McFeely and the Russos, for being unmoved by the Last Jedi fanboy uproar and following an ambitious vision. And their film does entertain. There’s not a minute of bloat and there is plenty of thought-provoking story likely to make this a movie earning more respect through time and space.
Heaps of movies to veg out and watch from the couch this week. We got docs, we got historical dramas, we got cartoons, we got action flicks. We got it all, and we’ll help you sort it.
Click the film title for the full review.
Join us in the Screening Room where we discuss I Feel Pretty, Super Troopers 2, Traffik, You Were Never Really Here and everything fit to watch on home entertainment.
Listen to the full podcast HERE.
