Author: BRWC

Oppenheimer – The BRWC Review. By Daniel Rester. 

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” 

Julius Robert Oppenheimer, quoting from Bhagavad Gita, made these words infamous when he uttered them. The theoretical physicist became known as the “father of the atomic bomb” after being the director for the Los Alamos Laboratory, which assisted with the Manhattan Project under Major General Leslie Groves during WWII. The bombs created led to the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Oppenheimer eventually feared the further creation and use of atomic weapons. His stances and past associations with Communist members led to the revocation of his security clearance, staining his character for some. 

All of this and more is captured in Christopher Nolan’s 3-hour biopic Oppenheimer. It’s a mostly brilliant, occasionally exhausting picture that moves ten miles a minute and is filled with wall-to-wall dialogue. It is indeed Nolan’s most talky film, with the conversations often accompanied by Ludwig Göransson’s rich but overused music score. Nolan frames the film with Oppy’s security clearance meetings and a cabinet hearing for Lewis Strauss while detailing Oppenheimer’s personal life and the Manhattan Project at the center. The film covers a lot of ground, but Nolan’s intelligent writing (based on the 2005 book American Prometheus) and Jennifer Lame’s precise editing help ameliorate the more convoluted sections. 

The cast of big-name stars is huge, with the great Cillian Murphy leading the way as the title character. His performance here ranks among his best as he shows Oppenheimer’s struggles and successes expertly. Murphy’s eyes do a lot of acting while the others’ mouths are moving. 

Matt Damon plays Groves with some humorous touches while Emily Blunt plays Katherine, Oppenheimer’s alcoholic wife, with fierceness. Florence Pugh portrays Jean Tatlock, who Oppenheimer had an on-again-off-again relationship with. Robert Downey Jr. dominates the last hour of the film as Strauss, turning in the most memorable supporting performance in the film. The rest of the shiny cast includes – deep breath – Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Jason Clarke, Kenneth Branagh, Benny Safdie, Jack Quaid, Tom Conti, Alden Ehrenreich, Dane DeHaan, Gary Oldman, and Matthew Modine, just to name a few. 

Being a Nolan film, the production aspects are very impressive. Oppenheimer was shot on IMAX 65 mm film by Hoyte van Hoytema and the film used little to no CGI according to Nolan. The images and practical effects are simply astounding at times, especially during the Trinity test scene; the sound design during that section is expertly done too as silence is as important as the boom. The subtle old-age makeup used throughout is also excellent. 

Oppenheimer is a long film, but it never causes a sense of ennui. The subjects are both intriguing and terrifying as Nolan warns against nuclear possibilities and character assassination. His cast handles the material with skill and no one comes up as a weak link. The technical craft on display is sublime. Nolan could have trimmed a few sections down and let other scenes breathe without music a bit more often, but for the most part Oppenheimer is a terrific picture that will likely be an Oscar season favorite.                  

Rating: 8.7/10

Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts – The BRWC Review. By Jake Peffer.

Here we go again, it’s another Transformers movie! This series has seen many ups and downs throughout the years. Age of Extinction and The Last Knight are certainly the downs while the first Transformers in the series as well as the excellent Bumblebee make up the highs of the series. Rise of the Beasts manages to be one of the better entries, however that isn’t saying much as the of the series has mostly fallen flat. 

Taking place in 1994, a new faction of Transformers called the Maximals, join forces with the Autobots to help save the world from a new foe. Along for the ride are Noah (Anthony Ramos) and Elena (Dominique Fishback), two humans that lend their hand to help save mankind. Story-wise this isn’t too different than what we’ve seen in essentially every other Transformers movie. Basically, it’s just, “we have to go stop the bad guy from getting the thing that they’ll use to destroy the world,” and so on and so forth. 

While Rise of the Beasts is arguably one of the better entries in this franchise, it is not without its faults. It was hard to get invested this time around. It is nice that the focus of the movie is more so on the Transformers themselves and not so much on the humans, but we’ve seen this story play out time and time again and with not much different here it was hard to care about much that was happening. That’s not to say there aren’t things to enjoy with the movie overall.

The action sequences all tend to work fairly well. All the effects and CGI look well done and seem to be polished quite nicely. There really aren’t many human characters outside of the two main leads. Both Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback do well, respectively, in their roles. More back story is given to Ramos’ character so there is more weight for him to carry whereas Fishback’s character is just kind of an added addition and not much is given to her than the bare minimum. Some big names show up in the voice cast such as Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh and Peter Cullen. However, it’s Pete Davidson as Mirage that ends up stealing the show with his energetic performance.

At the end of the day this just felt like another entry in the franchise. It is not bad by any means but there is nothing overly great about it to make it worthwhile. Everything is perfectly fine and done well enough but ultimately there just isn’t anything to put it over the edge. The best part of the movie is honestly the great soundtrack that is covered with great 90’s hip hop classics. When the best part of your Transformers movie is the hip hop soundtrack that might be a bit of a problem. If you’re a fan of the series, you should have a good time but this won’t bring in any newcomers.

Rating: 5/10

The Blackening: The BRWC Review. By Jake Peffer.

Parodies can be a hard genre to make worthwhile. Sometimes it can be difficult to take something that a lot of people enjoy and poke fun at it, but also make it clever enough to make an impact. We usually see one or two a year and the ones that stand out are too few and far between. The horror genre seems to be the best genre to take a stab at (no pun intended) when it comes to trying to parody a genre. Movies like Cabin in the Woods as well as Tucker and Dale vs. Evil do a great job at taking the typical tropes from horror movies and making fun of them in a clever way.

The Blackening is the latest release to try something new and put its own spin on many common stereotypes in horror movies. Director Tim Story and company attempt to poke fun at the stereotypes involving black characters in horror movies and it makes for what is easily one of the funniest movies of the year.

The story follows seven black friends who plan a get together on Juneteenth weekend at a cabin in the woods. Most of the group haven’t seen each other in years but they all fall right back into place with one another as they plan to have a great weekend together. While at the cabin the group discovers a secret game room where inside lays a board game called The Blackening. Our group soon finds out that they are now in the middle of a game of life or death as a mysterious voice now tells them to play the game and win or else, they will die one by one. 

This was a pleasant surprise to see. So far in the year there haven’t been too many comedies that have stood out. The Blackening may very well be the best comedy thus far in the year. There is a lot packed into this little comedy but there is so much to enjoy. Tim Story is able to get so much out of so little. With an extremely talented cast and well written script you couldn’t have asked for a better combination. Everybody is on their game here and the laughs don’t stop coming.

Not only does the movie do a great job at having fun with black character tropes but it’s able to have fun with the horror genre as a whole. There never really is a dull moment as the story goes along and the jokes keep on flying. At times there are jokes you may miss because you’re still laughing at the previous one. Everybody in the cast is really bringing their all and there is not a weak link in the group. The standouts are definitely Jermaine Fowler as Clifton and Dewayne Perkins, who also co-wrote the movie, as Dewayne. Their characters steal every scene and they have so many key moments throughout the movie.

While there are some minor things from time to time that don’t work, The Blackening is an all-around entertaining watch. It is consistently funny throughout; the cast all play off one another quite well and if you’re a fan of the horror genre you should get a kick out of the tropes, they poke fun at. This gets a full recommendation from myself, and it is worth seeking out.

Rating: 7.5/10

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One: The BRWC Review. By Joe Muldoon.

There are certain films, certain franchises, that go beyond being mere movies; they are cinematic events. The latest entry into the acclaimed Mission: Impossible series is one such event. If last year’s Top Gun: Maverick gave cinema a jolt back to life in the post-pandemic recovery era, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has just given it a strong dose of adrenaline. Every new M:I film sees the ante gradually upped, and with Ethan Hunt’s latest jaunt, staggering new heights are reached.

When you’re at the box office and pick up a ticket to see a film from the franchise, you know precisely what you’re going to get: stunts, chases, thrills – all of these are offered up in great abundance here. Over the past few years, it feels as though blockbusters have been slowly increasing in length, and you’d normally be forgiven for baulking at the 163-minute runtime, but with Dead Reckoning Part One, it importantly doesn’t feel like a long film.

The story is one fans of the franchise will know all too well: Ethan Hunt and his motley team are tasked with retrieving two pieces of a key that grants the holder access to a terrifyingly advanced rogue AI ominously known as ‘The Entity’. As is to be expected, several world superpowers are desperate to gain possession of this key, and Hunt’s team is hunted down by very capable foes, themselves seeking to intercept it. Naturally, Hunt’s mission –as he chose to accept it– is far from straightforward.

Joining the franchise is newcomer Grace (Hayley Atwell), a crafty pickpocket who, after unwittingly gatecrashing a retrieval mission that goes awry, finds herself joining Hunt and becoming snarled up in the deadly hunt for the key. Returning to comprise Hunt’s team are beloved franchise regulars Luther (Ving Rhames), Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson), and Benji (Simon Pegg), all of whom bring a familiar quasi-familial (and sometimes comedic) warmth to the affair.

Though Esai Morales is superb as the viciously sinister Gabriel, I think it’s Pom Klementieff who particularly shines as the enigmatic antagonist Paris. Having more than earnt her stripes here, I feel very comfortable arguing that Klementieff would make for an excellent action star – perhaps a standalone series or role in the John Wick franchise could be in the pipeline? The only particularly lamentable aspect of her character is her relatively low screentime, but this simply makes me cherish the time she did have onscreen.

It’s somewhat prophetic that Dead Reckoning Part One voices deep concerns for AI and its unfathomably destructive capabilities, should it fall into the wrong hands. AI discourse has crept its way into most facets of life, including into the film industry itself. With the petrifying rise of deepfake technology (which franchise lead Cruise knows all too well) and studios nefariously experimenting with replacing humans with AI writers, it’s quite apt that this film has reached our screens when it has, with this topic.

Tom Cruise has always been a megastar, but Dead Reckoning Part One may very well have established him as the ultimate action star, and he shows no signs of slowing down. Cruise was 57 when initial shooting commenced, and 59 when it eventually wrapped. Whilst I sit writing this review at age 23 with a depressing amount of white hairs and a dodgy back from a sedentary work-from-home lifestyle, Cruise insists upon performing some of the most awe-inspiring death-defying stunts committed to film. If ever there’s been a compelling case for the Academy Awards to create a long-overdue Oscar category for Best Stunt Work, it’s the work that Cruise put into this performance.

Christopher McQuarrie’s most recent directorial excursion (and third contribution to the series) has taken the action genre maybe as far as it has ever been. John Woo (who also directed Mission: Impossible II) gave us grit, Michael Bay gave us explosions, Kathryn Bigelow gave us conflict; Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has given us a potentially epoch-defining spectacle, transcending traditional action cinema. With exhilarating chases, intense fight sequences, and an utterly nail-biting finale, a clear message has been sent – action blockbusters are back, and you’d best stay tuned for next summer to do it all again.

By Joe Muldoon.

Insidious: The Red Door – Review. By Daniel Rester. 

Patrick Wilson makes his directorial debut with Insidious: The Red Door, the fifth film in the supernatural horror series. It sees the return of Wilson as Josh Lambert, who was the main character of the first two entries; the third and fourth chapters were prequels that focused more on psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye, who barely features in this one). While Wilson certainly puts in effort both in front of and behind the camera, Insidious: The Red Door never quite comes up with a strong enough argument for visiting Josh and the rest of the Lamberts again.

Dalton (Ty Simpkins) is all grown up now and heading to college to study art. Both he and his father Josh have foggy heads due to the erasing of their memories of the ghoulish events from before. They both begin experiencing strange things again as “The Further” and astral projecting come back into their lives. 

Insidious: The Red Door starts well enough as it reintroduces the Lambert characters and provides a new setting with the college campus. Simpkins takes the lead this time around and remains excellent throughout as Dalton, providing a less-is-more performance. Some of the runtime is dedicated to Dalton and his new friend Chris (Sinclair Daniel) as they try to find out what is happening to him. The film probably would have worked better if it solely focused on Dalton and Chris’ relationship as the shifts to Josh and his ex-wife Renai (Rose Byrne) are less interesting.  

Unfortunately the film starts to really fizzle out by the second half as it becomes more and more routine with the scares and twists. The screenplay by Scott Teems, from a story by Teems and franchise creator Leigh Whannell, ultimately doesn’t come up with enough fresh territory to explore within The Further. Much of the plot has Josh and Dalton playing catch-up on events the audience already knows about. The climax then places the characters in a familiar position against the notorious red-faced demon once they are finally up to speed. 

Though Wilson is working with a bland script, he does show some promise as a director as he gets what juice he can out of the material. One scene involving an MRI scanner is memorable as Wilson lets the suspense build as Josh is stuck in the confined space of the medical machine. More sequences like that could have helped Insidious: The Red Door stand out more. Instead it comes across as a mostly mechanical sequel. 

Rating: 5.5/10