BEAST: 3 STARS
鈥淏east,鈥 a new nature-gone-wild flick starring Idris Elba and a big, angry CGI lion, and now playing in theatres, is a throwback to man versus beast movies like 鈥淛aws鈥 and 鈥淎naconda.鈥
鈥淚鈥檝e never seen anything like this,鈥 says wildlife biologist Martin Battles (Sharlto Copely). 鈥淢ultiple attacks, without eating its prey. Lions don鈥檛 do that. At least no lion I鈥檝e ever seen.鈥
Elba is Dr. Nate Samuels, a recently widowed father of two teenage daughters, Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries). In an attempt to reconnect with his kids, he arranges a holiday to a South African wildlife reserve, run by Battles, a childhood friend of his late wife.
Daniels met his wife in South Africa, and, although he was separated from her when she passed, he wants his daughters to connect to their mother鈥檚 homeland.
The trip is idyllic until they arrive at a village that has been devastated by a gruesome lion attack. Soon, they meet the culprit, a wrathful male lion who regards all humans as enemies after his pride was wiped out by poachers. The lion is now fighting back.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the law of the jungle,鈥 says Battles. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the only law that matters.鈥
Elba hasn鈥檛 had great luck with felines on screen (see 鈥淐ats鈥), and faster than you can say, 鈥淥ld Deuteronomy,鈥 Samuels and his family are engaged in a horrifying fight for their lives.
鈥淚t鈥檚 you against him,鈥 says Battles. "And that is not a fight you are designed to win.鈥
As a thriller 鈥淏east鈥 is so predictable the subtitle could have been called, 鈥淢aul鈥檚 Well That Ends Well.鈥 Nonetheless, Icelandic director Kormákur does stage a few, straightforward action scenes in long takes that will make your blood pressure rise. The fight sequences in and around the Jeep the main cast spends most of the film in are claustrophobic and primal, with a real sense of danger.
Screenwriter Ryan Engle attempts to weave some father-daughter dynamics into the story, but we鈥檙e not here for the dysfunctional family stuff. We鈥檙e paying top dollar to see Idris Elba punch a lion in the face (before you @ me, these are CGI creations, no animals were harmed in the making of this movie) and so he does in fine B movie style.
鈥淭he Ghost and the Darkness鈥 this ain鈥檛.
Between lion attacks, the silence is filled with a variety of dialogue that ranges from, 鈥淵ou stay right here,鈥 to 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to get out of here.鈥 Elba does bring some emotive qualities to this action character, while Copely lends the story some grit. As the sisters, Halley and Jeffries bring a mix of steeliness and empathy. There is more to them than being scream queens on the Savannah.
鈥淏east鈥 is not an ambitious film, but it doesn鈥檛 have to be. It has Elba and enough angry animal action to make its 90 minutes fly by in the swipe of a lion鈥檚 paw.
ORPHAN: FIRST KILL: 3 STARS
Thirteen years after creepy kid Esther was revealed to be a grown woman in the original thriller 鈥淥rphan,鈥 she鈥檚 back in a prequel that sets up the events of the first film. Isabelle Fuhrman returns to play the crazed-killer orphan of the title, a 30-something woman afflicted with a hormone disorder that stunted her physical growth. 鈥淪he never grew older,鈥 says her doctor. 鈥淎t least on the outside.鈥
The action in 鈥淥rphan: First Kill,鈥 begins at the Saarne Institute, an Estonian psychiatric hospital home to a dangerous killer named Leena (Fuhrman). 鈥淟eena may look like a child, but she is a grown woman.鈥
One murderous rampage later, she escapes, and, after some quick online research, finds a missing kid she resembles. Using the name Esther, she makes her way to Connecticut, and poses as the long-lost daughter of Allen (Rossif Sutherland) and Tricia Albright's (Julia Stiles). She rocks a Wednesday Addams kind of look, wearing old-fashioned ribbons in her hair to disguise the scars from the electric shock treatment at the hospital, and says she picked up her heavy accent after being kidnapped and taken to Russia.
Greeted warmly by Allen and Tricia, son Gunnar (Matthew Finlan) isn鈥檛 as overjoyed. 鈥淪he has an accent now and dresses like Lizzie Borden,鈥 he says when asked what Esther is like since her return.
So far, the movie echoes the original film, but then comes a twist that gives new meaning to the old saying about cleaning up after the kids.
鈥淥rphan: First Kill鈥 maintains the mix of camp and gore that made the first movie memorable. The 30-year-old killer in the body of a child is an absurd premise, but it鈥檚 handled with the right amount of dark humour, style and bloody kills, making it campy, good fun. Much of this has to do with the twist鈥攚hich I can鈥檛 tell you about鈥攂ut it also helps that Fuhrman, who last played this character when she was a pre-teen, is able to sell the idea of Esther as a child-woman.
Director William Brent Bell uses a number of tricks, like forced perspective and child actor doubles, to establish the illusion that Esther is a teenager and create a sense of continuity with the first film. Thirteen years is a long layover between movies, but the two films fit together snugly.
鈥淥rphan: First Kill鈥 may be the prequel nobody was waiting for, but after a slow start in the movie鈥檚 first half, it picks up and freshens up the story with a ghoulishly fun twist and some good creepy kid action.
SHARP STICK: 2 ½ STARS
Frank and provocative, 鈥淪harp Stick,鈥 the new film written and directed by 鈥淕irls鈥 creator and star Lena Dunham, returns to familiar ground with a sexual coming-of-age story.
Kristine Froseth stars as 26-year-old Sarah Jo. A sexually inexperienced woman who had a hysterectomy at age 17, she still lives at home with her mom (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and wannabe Instagram influencer sister (Taylour Paige). She scrapes by babysitting for Zach, son of Josh (Jon Bernthal) and Heather (Dunham). Heather is pregnant and Josh has a wandering eye, which happens to land on the flirty Sarah Jo.
Their 鈥漚ffair鈥 culminates with a tryst on the floor of a cramped laundry room, setting Sarah Jo off on a journey of sexual discovery involving lots of pornography, a fixation on adult film star Vance Leroy (the ornately tattooed Scott Speedman) and carefully organized, random 鈥渆ducational鈥 hook-ups.
鈥淪harp Stick鈥 reverberates with echoes of the frankness of 鈥淕irls鈥 and the edgy work of filmmakers like Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, but never rises to the level of any of those namechecks.
Dunham has woven some interesting characters to surround Sarah Jo, like her mother Marilyn, played by Leigh, a much-divorced Hollywood hanger-on, and twerking sister Treina, but she hasn鈥檛 given her main character any real depth. She is thirsty for carnal knowledge, and approaches it like a job, with a check list to boot, but aside from the humour inherent in that, Sarah Jo鈥檚 arc simply isn鈥檛 that interesting. Her desperation to prove to herself and others is repetitive, her actions so naïve they suggest her emotional age is far less than her stated age of 26. Given her mother鈥檚 openness regarding sex, it doesn鈥檛 ring true that Sarah Jo is completely unfamiliar with anything to do with sexuality.
鈥淪harp Stick鈥 does have a few funny scenes, an interesting character or three, and an uncomfortable yet refreshing candidness about sex but, by the time the end credits roll, Sarah Jo鈥檚 journey is the film鈥檚 least interesting element.
DAY SHIFT: 3 STARS
鈥淒ay Shift,鈥 a new action comedy starring Jamie Foxx and now streaming on Netflix, brings a supernatural twist to the familiar story of a father doing what he has to do to hang on to his family.
Foxx plays Bud, a San Fernando Valley pool cleaner and undercover vampire slayer. A fearless hunter of the undead while on the job, at home he鈥檚 a devoted father, but things aren鈥檛 going well. He and his wife Joceyln (Meagan Good) have separated, and unless Bud can come up with $5,000 to pay for private school tuition for daughter Paige (Zion Broadnax), mother and daughter are going to move to Florida.
Neither the pool cleaning or freelance vampire killing pay what they used to, and when a local pawnbroker (Peter Stormare) offers him a fraction of what his trophy vampire fangs are worth, he is left with only one option, join the vampire-hunter鈥檚 union.
Trouble is, they don鈥檛 want him. 鈥淵ou expect me to let you back in where the sun don鈥檛 shine?鈥 asks union leader Ralph Seeger (Eric Lange). He鈥檚 a rebel, he doesn鈥檛 follow the rules, he鈥檚 a wild card, but when legendary vamp killer Big John Elliott (Snoop Dogg) vouches for him, Bud gets in. However, the union has him on probation and his every move will be monitored by straight-laced union rep Seth (Dave Franco).
鈥淚 have to be with you at all times in the field,鈥 Seth says. 鈥淯nion rules.鈥
Bud can now earn the money he needs to keep his family together, unless elder vampire Audrey San Fernando (Karla Souza) gets her bloody revenge on him for killing her undead daughter.
鈥淒ay Shift鈥 is an action comedy with an emphasis on bloody action. Between the decapitations, martial arts fight sequences, wooden stakings and Snoop鈥檚 Big Bertha rapid fire machine gun, this one has a much higher body count than your usual laugh fest. Foxx does his best to bleed the laughs out of the script. He鈥檚 a convincing action star, a kind of jokey Blade, who also has a way with a one-liner. His presence adds some much-needed lightness and his chemistry with Franco makes the character of Seth a tad less irksome.
鈥淒ay Shift鈥 suffers from an underwritten script and overwrought plot turns, but despite all that, the action, Foxx and Snoop makes for a pretty good Saturday-matinee-style horror comedy, à la 鈥淢onster Squad鈥 or 鈥淔right Night.鈥
CARMEN: 3 STARS
Set in a quaint village in Malta in the 1980s, 鈥淐armen,鈥 a new film starring Natascha McElhone as a middle-aged woman who finds a new path in life through romance, is part coming-of-age, part travelogue.
McElhone is Carmen, a 50-year-old woman, loosely based on director Valarie Buhagiar鈥檚 own aunt Rita. In her village in Malta, tradition has it that when a man enters the priesthood, his sister comes along as caretaker of the church. Beginning at age 16, Carmen lives a life of service, 34 years of toil, until her brother unexpectedly drops dead.
Free of her obligation to the church, Carmen embraces life. She gets her hair done for the first time, offers very practical and playful advice to the villagers through the confessional, and finds romance with Paulo (Steven Love), a younger man who runs a pawnshop.
As Carmen discovers new ways to move forward with joy, we learn about the path that brought her to this stage of her life.
鈥淐armen鈥 is an empathetic and optimistic movie about a second chance at living life to the fullest. McElhone brings a spirit of generosity and warmth to the character鈥檚 journey. Carmen鈥檚 life is blossoming, but her awakening isn鈥檛 easy and McElhone acknowledges her character鈥檚 struggle. Everything is new, and while Carmen is on the brink of becoming overwhelmed, this skillful performance also shows us how eager she is to embrace life鈥檚 opportunities.
The simple story is enhanced by the lead performance, and cinematographer Diego Guijarro鈥檚 gorgeous photography. This small Mediterranean island nation appears locked in time, a modern town rooted in the past, surrounded by travel brochure-ready scenery. It鈥檚 pure eye candy and serves as a perfect backdrop to this story of tradition and rebirth.
鈥淐armen鈥 aims to make you feel better on the way out of the theatre than you did on the way in. It鈥檚 an admirable goal, and even if the movie doesn鈥檛 reinvent the feel-good-movie wheel, it accomplishes what it sets out to do.
