Venom (2018): Venom created by David Michelinie and Todd MacFarlane; written by Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel; directed by Ruben Fleischer; starring Tom Hardy (Eddie Brock/Venom), Michelle Williams (Anne), and Riz Ahmed (Carlton Drake/Riot):
I guess it's good that the current superhero glut can result in even marginally offbeat projects based on Marvel and DC characters. Venom isn't a good movie, but it's intermittently fun, and the goopy creature effects are a far cry from most normal Marvel and DC movie fare.
In the comics, Venom was what happened when Spider-man's black-and-white alien symbiote costume he acquired in the Secret Wars event in the mid-1980's acquired a new host because it was driving Spidey crazy and he got rid of it. You may remember events like this from Spider-man 3. Yes, Venom has appeared in a movie before, its host Eddie Brock played then by Topher Grace.
Now Eddie Brock is a formerly heroic, now down-on-his-luck journalist in San Francisco who acquires the symbiote (or is acquired by the symbiote) while trying to resurrect his career by blowing the whistle on Riz Ahmed's mad billionaire scientist. Ahmed barely registers as an evil version of Elon Musk. Well, more evil. He torpedoed Brock's career because Brock discovered he was doing some crazy experiments on people who subsequently died.
The symbiote gives Eddie a wide, ill-defined range of superpowers along with a blobby covering that looks a lot like Spider-man because, well, Venom was a Spider-man suit in the comics. The suit likes eating human heads and Tater Tots. What larks, Pip!
Our lumpy, lumpen anti-hero eventually learns the value of human life and saves the world from some stuff. It seems like about 20 minutes of story has been cut that showed Venom's progress from head-eater to Earth-lover. Oh, well.
Tom Hardy is hilarious doing some insanely bad accent that's supposed to be... Brooklynese? I have no idea. Venom sounds like Tom Hardy doing a Keith David impersonation. Michelle Williams looks absolutely lost in a CGI-laden action movie. And Riz Ahmed, as noted, is barely there.
This is not a good movie, but it's oddly charming and enjoyable enough to waste time with. And as it's technically part of the Spider-verse Sony still has rights to despite their NuX2 Spider-man movies now being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.... well, that astronaut is the son of J. Jonah Jameson, who in the comics became the werewolf Man-Wolf after visiting the Moon. I hope that happens in a subsequent Venom movie!!! Lightly recommended.
All the Money in the World (2017): adapted by David Scarpa from the book by John Pearson; directed by Ridley Scott; starring Michelle Williams (Gail Harris), Christopher Plummer (J. Paul Getty), Mark Wahlberg (Fletcher Chase), Romain Duris (Cinquanta), and Charlie Plummer (John Paul Getty III):
Once upon a time, American oil tycoon J. Paul Getty was the richest man in the world. And once upon a time, Kevin Spacey played him in this film!
Ridley Scott replaced Spacey after allegations of Spacey's sexual improprieties hit the press, resulting in a re-shoot with Plummer subbing for Spacey.
Plummer is excellent, all rotted and wormy noblesse oblige as the eccentric billionaire. When his namesake grandson gets kidnapped in Italy, Getty is less than helpful to the boy's desperate mother, divorced from Getty's addiction-addled son.
It's not a great film, but it certainly holds one's interest. Michelle Williams is terrific as the mother. Near the end, one realizes that one of the reasons Scott did the project was so that he could do an extended homage to Citizen Kane. There are certainly worse reasons to make a movie. Recommended.
The Greatest Showman (2017): written by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon; directed by Michael Gracey; starring Hugh Jackman (P.T. Barnum), Michelle Williams (Charity Barnum), Zac Efron (Philip Carlyle), Zendaya (Anne Wheeler), and Rebecca Ferguson (Jenny Lind):
Surprising box-office hit (nearly $500 million worldwide!) is a zippy crowd-pleaser. Just don't expect historical accuracy. It's a light, frothy musical about how difference needs to be accepted and celebrated... um, by exhibiting those differences in circuses and carnivals and P.T. Barnum's weird-ass New York museum.
The movie is sort of set in the 1840's and 1850's, though this never seems to be stated and there are several elephant herds of anachronisms and mistakes to muddy the temporal waters. Let's just say that the real-world events the movie was "based on" occurred between 1840 and 1860 and that the movie itself in set in "the before-time" or perhaps "Oldey Timey Days." They're Oldey Timey because no one has a cellphone.
To understand the lack of historical accuracy, simply note that the depiction of P.T. Barnum in a recent episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow was more accurate. And that's a goddam show about time-travelling superheroes.
Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, a distracted-looking Michelle Williams and the rest of the cast sing and dance up a storm in what is essentially the world's longest United Colours of Benetton ad. To fully enjoy the movie, avoid finding out what travelling act first made P.T. Barnum famous. It's a racist show-stopper to movie enjoyment! Lightly recommended so long as no one mistakes it for history.
