Honest Thief

— [Amazon Prime streaming.]

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[2020. 99 min. Directed by Mark Williams. Starring Liam Neeson, Kate Walsh, Jai Courtney, Jeffrey Donavan, and Anthony Ramos.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/honest-thief-movie-review-2020

Those Who Wish Me Dead

— This thriller grows on you, taking its own time to focus everyone’s stories so they intersect and pick up steam, managing to pit the primary characters against both man and nature—if the gun-toting hitmen don’t get them, there’s always the raging fire headed their way from the other direction! It strikes me as the kind of film that people will claim suffers from an uneasy pace, or too little motivation and backstory, but the pacing seems appropriate to me and the flashbacks and early scenes satisfied my need for backstory. In the end it’s about coming to terms with your own past and demons and bouncing back. It’s a story of redemption. I was happy to while away part of an afternoon watching it. [HBO Max streaming.]

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[2021. 100 min. Directed by Taylor Sheridan. Starring Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Finn Little, Jon Bernthal, and Aidan Gillen.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/those-who-wish-me-dead-movie-review-2021

Hacks

— I'm hooked by about the third episode. Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder are both great and the personal stories under the jokes are rich and carefully revealed. [HBO Max streaming.]

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[2020. One season, 10 episodes. 27-35 min./episode. Starring Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder, Rose Abdoo, and Paul W. Downs.]
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-reviews/hacks-review-hbo-max-jean-smart-1166522/

Greenland

— [HBO Max streaming.]

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[2020. 119 min. Directed by Ric Roman Waugh. Starring Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, and Roger Dale Floyd.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/greenland-movie-review-2020

Jupiter’s Legacy

— “Jupiter’s Legacy” jumped back and forth between the first half of the 20th century and present day a bit more than I would have liked and the 3rd or 4th episode tried my patience, but overall it was pretty good. The past sequences are vaguely “origin” stories for current day superheroes who are getting on in years and need to turn things over to a younger generation, but the times have changed, values are different, and questions concerning what’s right, just, or fair keep surfacing as the old moral code seems to be crumbling. It's not a great series, but that didn't stop me from watching all 8 episodes. I wasn’t happy with the season’s conclusion and always prefer series that provide more answers than threads hanging. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2021. One season, 8 episodes. 35-56 min./episode. Created by Steven S. DeKnight. Starring Josh Duhamel, Ben Daniels, Leslie Bibb, Andrew Horton, Elena Kampouris, Mike Wade, and Matt Lanter.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/ambitious-jupiters-legacy-examines-changing-definition-of-heroism

Stowaway

— This was a little disappointing from a visual standpoint, probably because there have been so many memorable films in space in the past decade (First Man, The Martian, Interstellar, Gravity, Guardians of the Galaxy, Moon). What it does well, it really does do well—questioning the value of sacrifice, the relative value of one life over another, and even the value of space travel itself. It unfolds at a leisurely pace, presents the ethical dilemma that is the crux of the story, then explores all options. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2021. 116 min. Directed by Joe Penna. Starring Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson, and Toni Collette.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/stowaway-movie-review-2021

Tenet

— Christopher Nolan is talented and can create wonderful films and complicated worlds. He definitely has a fascination with time and reality and “Tenet” fits neatly among some of his other films (“Inception,” “Insomnia,” “Momento”). While some focus on recesses of the brain, others deal with illusion and reality, and this one, along with “Momento,” with chronology and the time continuum. They all tend to hold you in their grasp, but leave you scratching your head in the end. I like espionage but I think Nolan may have been too enthralled with his own cleverness to add the human dimensions his characters need for audiences to cheer them on. “Tenet” is not one of Nolan’s better films but it’s still a very interesting concept and it’s hard not to go with it and hope it takes you someplace. Who can turn away from the creative output of a clever mind? [HBO Max streaming.]

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[2020. 150 min. Written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kenneth Branagh.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/tenet-movie-review-2020

Tom Clancy's Without Remorse

— Nothing special here, but perfectly adequate entertainment. It appears the budget went toward action sequences instead of a story better suited to Michael B. Jordan’s talents. In the end, it’s a little dull, perhaps because it’s hard not to compare it to earlier adaptations of Clancy’s novels. [Amazon Prime streaming.]

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[2021. 109 min. Directed by Stefano Sollima. Starring Michael B. Jordan, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jamie Bell, and Guy Pearce.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/tom-clancys-without-remorse-film-review-2021