Creed turned out better than I think everyone on the outside of production thought it would. It’s got the three staples of a great film present and accounted for.

A great script. Brilliant concept and writing to further the best Rocky films. Adonis Johnson is the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed, one-time foe and eternal friend of Rocky. Apollo cheated on his wife with Adonis’ mother and after his death, at the hands of Drago in Rocky IV, Apollo’s wife finds Adonis in foster care and adopts him. Adonis grows up with guidance but only knows his father through his legacy. Now in his mid-twenties, we see that boxing is in his blood. He explores the sport by teaching himself,  but  he still feels aimless and incomplete. Looking to fill the void he feels, he moves cross-country to find Rocky, to learn from the only other person who truly knew his father. Creed is the story of Rocky coming full circle in his boxing career, to help the boy of his friend come out of the shadows and be his own man. The setup works and the execution does too. Each beat of Adonis’ journey is an important one and brings back the feelings that made everyone fall in love with Rocky almost 40 years ago.

The actors that make it work. Michael B. Jordan is a hell of an actor. He’s bopped around TV for some time (he’s in The Wire!) and I think he first got the biggest movie attention from his role in Chronicle. The following year he blew people away in Fruitvale Station. You give this guy the material and he’ll do it justice. He’s fantastic as Adonis, he’s a joy to watch transform on screen and completely believable as a boxer. Sylvester Stallone gets to remind everyone again of how great an actor he is. Nearly 70 years old, Rocky stepping into the ring doesn’t make sense. Seeing him come out of retirement (he owns a restaurant), persuaded by Adonis to actually enter a boxing gym and then train him (another smart thing, Rocky sets him up with a team, he doesn’t do it all himself) and share his life is really touching. They go through a lot together and the difference in their age goes beyond the amount of wrinkles on a face; it’s experience, overcoming, and understanding. This story is so much more satisfying than rebooting Rocky with a new guy in the role. There’s only one Rock and that’s Sly Stallone.

The direction. A good looking movie in every regard, director Ryan Coogler knows how to set up a scene and get out of the way when necessary. Then, when the action comes, he brings a deft hand to some phenomenal boxing scenes. It’s thrilling, real (even if it is exaggerated, the final fight shows endurance that isn’t possible) and never confusing. He even pulls off a “spin around the actors” moment that usually makes me mad. It almost always looks bad, forced and pointless, but Coogler does it just right.

I’m all for a direct sequel if the whole team stays together to make it. Coogler’s got a big gig with Marvel next, so if the writers come together in the next year, he’d probably be replaced.

Screened at the Beverly Hills Film Festival on April 9th, 2016

Full disclosure: I’m friends with director/co-writer Jeremy Profe

Personally, I’ve never looked into John Lennon’s death in any detail. I knew the basics that he was shot in NYC in the early 80’s and that he was pronounced dead at the hospital. So it was with great interest that I sat down to watch The Lennon Report. As this is about one of the most beloved people in music, the filmmakers had a delicate line to walk. How would they handle this and what would the message be?

The story told here, is of the men and women who tried to save Lennon’s life. The police who responded to the emergency call discovered who he was and brought him to the hospital in a squad car because the ambulance was taking too long to get to them. At the hospital, no one knew who had been brought in, just that this man was shot multiple times and desperately needed their help. Who was on the table had no effect on their methods and dedication, they did their absolute best to save a life.

The movie is well paced at 90 minutes thanks to smart dialog and careful editing that knows when to hold beats and when to move on. At the beginning it’s all about how two people get to the hospital: Lennon and Alan Weiss. At first, you wonder why the interest in Weiss, who works for ABC Channel 7 Eyewitness News. In what amounts to kismet, Weiss is put into Lennon’s sphere and breaks the news to the world that Lennon was murdered. The film appropriately moves about from Weiss, the doctors, the security of the hospital and the intensely personal tragedy that Yoko Ono went through that night.

I don’t know the budget of this indie movie, but I can tell that all of it ended up on screen. It’s fantastic looking and Jeremy Profe has a terrific eye behind the camera. Really well shot, I was surprised at the amount of single take set ups. Difficult to do but incredibly engaging when done correctly, their hard work paid off. A very small and intimate movie (there are very few locations), I was also impressed by the lighting work that added a great sense of focal depth and realism to each scene.

The cast is full of great up and comers as well as a few more notable highlights (Richard Kind, David Zayas, and Evan Jonigkeit). My main focus was on my two favorites: Walter Vincent as Alan Weiss and Karen Tse Lee as Yoko Ono. Vincent is terrific and believable, going from a funny thorn-in-the-side of his boss to a passionate, if not grating reporter to those working in the hospital. While Vincent’s acting resume may not be extensive right now, his work here indicates that he’s going to make waves from here on out. I’m going to keep my out for him. Lee has quite a few TV credits to her name and she blew me away with this performance. As Yoko Ono, she’s the voice that John no longer had. Away from being a celebrity that the entire world knew, he was a husband and father. Lee brings out an astonishing and a much-needed level of humanity in each of her scenes. Everyone else in this movie knew who John was, and is shocked by the events of the night, but they didn’t know who John is. Her whole night is a steady decline of horror and mourning and Lee nails every part of it. From the hope that her love is going to be OK, to her reaching out to a friend for help and comfort, to the ultimate loss and then concern for her son. I have a hard time describing the masterful work she does, you need to see it. Amazing casting find, these scenes could have ended up much differently with another actress.

With all the positive, I can think of two things that bothered me. The first is the soundtrack which I felt was often too loud in the mix, making it dominate a scene. and too literal. There’s no nuance to the music, it doesn’t guide you but tells you ‘this is how you feel right now’. Second, there is a scene near the end in a locker room with Barbara (Stef Dawson) and Dr. David Halleran (Evan Jonigkeit) that doesn’t work well. It’s a very important moment and the tone of the scene feels off as does the chemistry between the actors (it’s also my least favorite in terms of direction). In a film that’s so well done, it’s an odd moment that comes off as if it was pulled out of a daytime soap opera. In talking with Profe after the movie, he told me it was shot on the second day of filming so his two principle actors had no time working together prior to this very difficult scene (the production was shot in about 3 weeks). That explains why it felt off and hey, that’s the monster of film. You do your absolute best every day and work with what you got.

The Lennon Report is a terrific movie and a very promising launch to many new players in the industry. Careful and thoughtful consideration was given to the subject matter and to all of those involved in the actual event. Really well written, performed, and produced, the end product is one that can be held up proudly to  audiences.

This is a tough one. I’m a mark for Batman and was anxious to see this from the moment it was announced. I don’t agree with the brutal reviews, but it’s undeniable that a lot of weird choices were made to get Batman and Superman to fight. I enjoyed myself, but Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice could have and should have been much better. Spoilers all over the place.

I like Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne and Batman. I wasn’t up in arms when he was cast I think he’s one of the better ones we’ve had on screen. He fits both personas and this Batman is the fighter we’ve always wanted to see on film. The Arkham games come to life and all of his costumes look spot on. Most of his motivations work with Batman lore and follow many established stories (Batman has plans for every Justice League member in case they break bad. He trusts no one, it’s what he does). He kills a bunch of people, though. I can wave away throwing people into walls by saying “He’ll get out of a hospital eventually.” But when he guns down people in the Batplane? He should be firing smoke/gas canisters, not bullets. That car he dragged around and used as a projectile? They’re all dead. Change that so he just disables the cars out of the chase. It’s set up that he’s at wits end for going out as Batman every night for 20 years but it comes off as him being lazy. Batman doesn’t get lazy.

Superman isn’t Superman enough. I understand him at the start. His depression and being upset that his actions cause people to fear him. But he still goes out and helps everyone he can. For some reason, that emotion somehow gets rolled into anger on screen. He glowers a lot. That’s Batman’s thing, not Superman’s. He straight up threatens Batman and that justifies Batman to try and take him down. It’s heavy handed, weird and a shortcut on the writers part. There’s a lot of needless edges to the dialog, where there is any. That’s one of the major problems, there’s too much silent mean mugging going on. This sounds like a section from the D.A.R.E handbook, but Superman needed to take the ultimate high road with Batman and just refuse to fight him and explain what was going on. He clearly manhandles Batman so why not just hold him down and talk to him (I know why, the rest of the movie would have to be basically rewritten)? When he meets Batman at the Batsignal, he opens up to talk Batman down but gets annoyed (reads as angry) when he’s forced to defend himself from Batman’s first wave of offense. It’s a forced fight.

For the most part, I like Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. I’ve never been a hardcore fan of the character, but I like the general ideas and he does some downright devious stuff to get what he wants. As the general theme of this movie, not all of it is handled well. Not enough is given to his ego, jealousy, and motivation. His exposition when he talks to other characters gets into rough, overwritten and clumsy territory. In an effort to make Lex seem smart and witty, the writers came up with many esoteric lines that don’t work and are just confusing. It’s like Dennis Miller got a crack at the script for some reason. When he loses his train of thought and rambles like a nutter should have been taken out, that’s not Lex either.

Wonder Woman, on the other hand, they landed with both feet squarely on the ground. Love Gal Gadot in every scene she’s in, I wish there was more of her. She needs to talk to Batman and Superman way more! She’s amazing in action. Her entrance in battle got cheers from the audience and seeing her smile as she got back up after getting knocked down was perfect. I’m looking forward to her solo movie now.

Doomsday looked a lot better in the final film than the trailers. That whole sequence was a ton of fun. I don’t mind the ending and I really dug seeing the silver S, it’s a nice reference.

The way it stands BvS could use some simplification to bolster the best parts.  The easiest thing to do is to streamline the first act to cut down on the jumping around. We don’t need to see the Wayne’s get killed. It’s done, everyone knows Batman’s motivation. Dump the dreams and premonitions too, they add nothing and are confusing jumps out of the story we should be focusing on.  Tossing those dreams also means that time travel Flash in the Batcave can work better. Timing the appearance right after Bruce wakes up from a nightmare (or does he?) makes it look like another dream and you don’t know what you’re supposed to take away from it.

The moment that bonds Batman and Superman to work together doesn’t work right. The dialog just needs to be reworked (I keep coming back to this motif, don’t I?). Instead of the name “Martha” getting Bruce’s (confused) attention, doesn’t it make more sense for the downed Man of Steel to directly appeal to Bruce with “You are going to let Lex  kill my mother”? I think that’s a more elegant way to get Bruce to stop and listen.

There are big logic jumps for characters in the last act, many of which seemed like parts were edited out. Lois does things to help out that she has no way of knowing she would need to do. Lex’s less dialog does a hardcore reference to Darkseid that most people will not get. I only knew the reference because I saw an extended scene of Lex in the spaceship that was cut online. Cutting that earlier stuff could have meant having the time to leave that in. There are a lot of plot details that rely on hardcore DC comic knowledge to understand. That adds to the confusion.

Let’s lighten things up too while we’re at it. Ma Kent’s line, “I thought so. It’s the cape.” That’s great! More of that!

As much as Nolan’s movies lifted from The Dark Knight Returns, BvS went whole hog and it’s worse because of it. It uses the results of that book without the correct set up so those major themes don’t work right. An original idea could have worked much better. This should have been Batman/Superman not BvS.

As messy as it is, I did like quite a bit of this. I liked it more than Dark Knight Rises which had more than a few ponderous decisions in it.  Despite the dark pallet, a lot of this movie looks fantastic. I don’t understand why they put a dark filter over all the day scenes but that’s what they did. There are some striking comic book panels captured to film and Zack Snyder didn’t go overboard with the CG. I dig the main character themes (WW’s is amazing) by Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL too.  Sure there’s wasted potential here, but there’s a lot set up by the end that I’m looking forward to. I liked seeing the introduction of the Justice League members and I’m optimistic they’ll get those solo movies right. Make these characters live and work together like they do on the page and these DC movies will take flight.