Quick takes on Prey and other films

I didn’t see Lightyear when it hit theaters a couple months ago. Like a lot of people seemingly, I heard some bad reviews and didn’t bother. I should know by now, never count Pixar out. I caught it on Disney+ and I have to say, I really enjoyed it as a light hearted adventure film for kids, or like me, kids-at-heart who fondly remember the original Toy Story film. As the opening title card tells us, this is the movie that caused a child name Andy to fall in love with Buzz Lightyear. In the movie, Space Ranger Buzz is leading an expedition to a new planet when they discover that the planet holds hostile life (plants and giant bugs that attack), but Buzz and his team of scientists are stranded with no way to get off the planet. Fellow Space Ranger, and Buzz’s best friend, Alisha Hawthorne agrees to watch the temporary base while Buzz experiments with testing hyperspace fuel around their solar system, with the ultimate goal of getting everyone off the planet. Unfortunately for Buzz, traveling at those speeds slows time for him, so every time he goes in space, he’ll come back just a few minutes later, while years have progressed on the planet. After a dozen or so tests, Buzz hasn’t aged at all, but all of his friends are gone, replaced with a new generation who’ve been born on the planet, and now call it home. As such, they are ready to put an end to Buzz’s tests and give up on leaving the planet, so Buzz has to steal the starship for one final test. This last one is successful and he finally reaches hyperspace speed, but when he returns to the planet, a long amount of time has passed. Buzz finds that while he was gone, the settlement has been attacked by a squad of robots, brought by a spaceship, and commanded by the evil Zurg. Teaming up with his old pal Hawthorne’s granddaughter and a couple other misfits, Buzz has to find a way to destroy the robots and rescue the settlers. Fantastic visuals, a good story, lots of laughs, the film really has it all. I can see my own granddaughter watching this one again and again, much like I did on the original. ★★★★

I loved director Joanna Hogg’s film The Souvenir a couple years ago, so I’ve been looking forward to the followup. The film follows Julie as she is trying to move on after her boyfriend Anthony’s overdose and death. She spends time with her parents, Anthony’s parents, a therapist — no one seems to have the answers she’s looking for. She decides to finish film school, and moves forward with doing her final student film project as a story about her life with Anthony. Making the film proves to be cathartic, but there are bumps in the road. Though Julie has talent, she is indecisive as a first-time director. Actors become frustrated with her lack of direction, and the lighting guy in particular blows up at her for not sticking to a script so they can plan out shots ahead of time. Julie has to push through if she’s going to realize her dreams, as well as find peace with Anthony’s passing. The pacing is slow, as it was in the first film, but whereas I really dug that one, this film felt pretentious and contrived. Julie and her snooty, artsy friends are awfully full of themselves, and the viewer is expected to belong to this pompous crowd too. Such a letdown after the emotional roller coaster of the first movie. ★½

I’m sure The Duke is a great film. Lots of critics and regular moviegoers think so. But it did not connect with me in any way. The based-on-a-true-story film about the robbery of Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington in 1961, it follows a nearly-retired man named Kempton Bunton (the always affable Jim Broadbent) on his quest to get better benefits for the working class. Kempton refuses to the pay the UK television tax (something that is still around today; who knew about this?!), much to the consternation of his wife Dorothy (Helen Mirren) and family. While in London to drum up interest in his campaigns, Kempton sees the opportunity to steal the painting on display, and secrets it back to his flat, where he hides it behind a false wall in a wardrobe. He then goes on a crusade to ransom the government, with the funds to be used for charities. This is about as far as I got in the movie. The light hearted comedy wasn’t doing anything for me, and the supposed charm that was supposed to be in the movie must have gone right over my head. I was bored out of my mind and had to give up 40 minutes before the finish line. I guess I’ll never know what became of Kempton and the painting. ½

What a rebound! Fire in the Mountains is a fantastic film taking place in the Indian Himalayas. We meet the key figure, Chandra, in the opening scene. Along a road outside of town through the valley of the mountains, she is meeting tourists coming off a bus. She competes with a man to get a family to stay at her family hotel. Her competition tries to get the family to stay with him, telling them that Chandra’s hotel is far off the road, but in the end, Chandra’s price is the best, so the family goes with her. The camera follows their trek as they climb the mountain, and it is indeed a long walk, but the scenery along the way is simply amazing. At their destination, we meet Chandra’s family. She is wife to Dharam, a laborer who maybe drinks a bit too much, and they have two kids: teenage daughter Seema and 11-ish year old boy Prakash. Prakash is unable to walk, and forced to rely on his mother to carry him up and down the mountain to see doctors who don’t know why he can’t walk (we see in other scenes that Prakash is faking it; he leaves the wheelchair at night when no one is around). Dharam has high hopes for Seema, who seems to be a good student, but the family doesn’t know that she is more obsessed with TikTok than schoolwork. Chandra’s one goal is scrounging every dollar she can in order to convince the town politicians to build a road up the mountain. Not only would this help her family business, but it would let their wheelchair-bound son go to school again. Chandra is the only strong foundation in the house, and you get the impression that they’d all fall apart without her. When she finally hits her breaking point at the end of the film, the result is gripping. ★★★½

When I first heard of a new Predator film, and after the utter disaster of the last one, I didn’t have very high expectations. But when hype started to build over the last couple months, and then some pretty high reviews began hitting earlier this week, I came into Prey pretty excited. And it did not disappoint! Taking place in 1719 on the American great plains, the movie follows a Comanche woman named Naru. She has dreams of being a hunter like her brother and the other men in the tribe, but her mother wishes she’s pursue healing, for which she’s already shown no small skill. Naru and her pet dog, Sarii, roam the area around their home, looking for prey as Naru practices her skills. She and her tribe will become the prey though, as an alien predator comes to the area. It takes place a couple hundred years ago, so the predator’s technology isn’t as advanced as it will be in the movies of the 80s through 2018’s The Predator, but the alien is still a supreme hunter and physically superior to humans (and a bear, as we see in the movie), so he will not go down without a fight. The action is top notch, but there’s plenty of suspense too. It’s a bit gory, as you’d expect, so it may make some queasy stomachs lurch, but that kind of stuff doesn’t mother me, and I loved the movie. As exciting as they get. ★★★★½

• TV series currently watching: The Witcher (season 2)
• Book currently reading: The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan