Drama

Becky (2020): The Most Interesting Kevin James Performance to Date

Posted on by Jack Drees

“Becky” is directed by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion, the team who also brought you the movie “Bushwick,” starring Dave Bautista. This film stars Lulu Wilson (Annabelle: Creation, The Haunting of Hill House), Joel McHale (Card Sharks, Community), and Kevin James (The King of Queens, Paul Blart: Mall Cop). This film follows its titular character, Becky, as she and her dad drive-up to a house by a lake. Her life has hit rock bottom between family matters and trying to keep herself together. Aside from that, she’s a rather typical teen girl. Suddenly, convicts break into the house, so we begin our tension-filled ride where it is a matter of life and death.

I bought this movie for one reason, and one reason only. This might shock some of you considering how I imagine this guy can sometimes be considered a punchline when it comes to modern movies. Kevin James. I grew up watching his work like “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” “The King of Queens,” “Here Comes the Boom,” “Grown Ups,” (which sucked), and so on. I even liked “Zookeeper!” How many people can say that?! Granted, I haven’t watched it in years, but it got plenty of laughs out of me through the times I have watched it. My fascination for his work has not died down in recent times, I went to his stand-up show, I follow his social media, and I checked out his YouTube channel, which has pretty cool concept behind it. Kevin James plays a sound guy on a film set, and I’ll show you an early video, where his character worked on “The Empire Strikes Back,” where one of the movie’s iconic scenes is about to go down.

I think the man is hilarious. Keep this in mind.

With that being said, I know a bit about one other lead, specifically Joel McHale. I’ve seen him in other movies, not to mention on ABC’s “Card Sharks,” which is coming back for season 2 very soon. Prior to this film, I didn’t really know much about Lulu Wilson, but I should also point out she’s mainly known for horror projects. When it comes to my knowledge about film, horror is one of my weak spots. So all in all, this was kind of my major introduction to Lulu Wilson.

Overall, “Becky” is a movie that I don’t think will be remembered for much buzz by the end of the year. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. I watched this movie at home, and I will always defend the theatrical experience, even during a pandemic, although I would never force anyone to go during such a time if they didn’t want to. With that in mind, this movie had my attention like some of the better theatrical experiences I’ve witnessed this year. Movies like “Tenet,” “Summerland,” and “Sonic the Hedgehog.” But part of why it had my attention is because of the movie’s simplicity. It all comes down to the basic want to survive. And I think “Becky” does a really good job at highlighting the potential stakes. What does this family do? Will Becky make it? I was rooting for them, and when the movie can get me to do that, there’s a sign it is doing something right.

I will say though, when it comes to Lulu Wilson as Becky, I think there are a couple snippets of her performance that are a bit inferior to the rest of said performance. Wilson has IMDb credits going back to 2012, so it is not like she’s starting, but having not seen much of her acting career, I don’t really have much to say except, she’s “alright.” Much of the second half of the film is where she truly gets to shine. I won’t go into much detail, but when the movie intensifies, so does Wilson. For all I know, maybe this is a directorial issue. The duo behind this movie, like Wilson, has some experience helming media, but they are not as experienced as other filmmakers. I’m not saying they didn’t have a vision for this film, but what I am saying is that I feel like there are certain scenes where they managed Lulu Wilson and her character better and others where they just didn’t do as swell of a job.

Speaking of mixed thoughts, I have mixed thoughts on this film’s score. I know this film does not have a big budget, so it’s not like I was expecting something of the likes of John Williams to show up, but it’s got a very techno feel, and I’m not sure if I dug it. This film’s score comes from Nima Fakhara, who has a lot of credits. Can’t say I’ve seen many of them, but I imagine he’s done better work in the past.

But what may be the best thing in this film, and I sort of talked about this already, but it is worth bringing up once more, is the casting. This film has a good fit for Becky (Lulu Wilson), her father (Joel McHale), but I feel like the antagonistic side in particular is what stands out the most. Robert Maillet, who has appeared in a few blockbusters including “300” and “Pacific Rim,” makes an appearance here as a villainous sidekick of sorts. He. Is. Perfect. Some roles in movies will be remembered based on how an actor performs his or her lines. This role however will be remembered just because Robert Maillet… exists. That’s the best way I can describe this. Just seeing him on screen is scary enough. Just his height and physical structure makes for an outright intimidating character! He looks like Lou Ferrigno if he were always pissed off by his kids! Angry, muscular, tall, and he’s often got a murderous look on his face!

But of course, I cannot leave this review without mentioning Kevin James. This is complete subversion of my expectations. Because I’ve always seen Kevin James as the big, goofy, pasty white dude that tries to go for a laugh. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But here, there’s none of that. Kevin James isn’t funny here, and if he was, it would honestly ruin the movie for me. Because in reality, he’d be playing someone I’m used to seeing, perhaps “himself” as some would say for certain actors. Kevin James gives dialogue in a rugged manner that I am not used to seeing from him, his physical stance throughout the movie is intimidating at times, and so are some of his lines due to solid writing. I have always classified James as the guy who is charismatic, lively, and upbeat in a comedic way. This is a guy who lead a sitcom for almost a decade where he jumps on a couch in the nude eating pizza.

Just for clarification…

This guy…

Is this guy.

This is not my favorite thing with Kevin James in it, but I cannot deny that this might be his best performance as an actor mainly because of how much of a diversion he’s taken with this. Gotta say though, after this movie, if they ever do an “Avengers” parody, I would not mind seeing James play Thanos. If it’s a full blown Marvel movie, that’s a no from me unless he changes his physical structure a little, but I would not mind seeing him in a parody.

In the end, “Becky” is a good movie, a thing we could all use in 2020. Although one thing I should mention, this movie’s not for everyone. If you don’t like blood and gore, you might want to stay away. My mother came into my room as I watching this film, I told her it has Kevin James in it, as she admires the actor. I’m starting to wonder if I’d recommend this film to her. It’s a good movie, but you probably have to have the right mindset and personality to fully enjoy it. I’m going to give “Becky” a 7/10.

Thanks for reading this review! TOMORROW, I’m going to be doing something fairly unusual, TALKING ABOUT TV! Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of what is arguably my favorite television episode of all time, “Family Guy’s” And Then There Were Fewer! I will be doing a spoiler-heavy dive into the episode, and talk about some of the reasons why I love it so much. As for movies, I’m not sure if I’ll see anything this weekend, but if I do, I will talk about it. Be sure to follow Scene Before either with an email or WordPress account so you can stay tuned for more great content! Also, check out my Facebook page! I want to know, did you see “Becky?” What did you think about it? Or, what is your favorite project with Kevin James in it? Let me know down below! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019): A Well-Adapted, Modern Take on a Dickens Story

Posted on by Jack Drees

“The Personal History of David Copperfield” is directed by Armando Iannucchi (The Death of Stalin, Veep) and stars Dev Petel (Slumdog Millionaire, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Anuerin Bernard (War & Peace, Dunkirk), Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who, Paddington), Morfydd Clark (The Man Who Invented Christmas, Crawl), Daisy May Cooper (This Country, Avenue 5), Rosalind Eleazer (Howards End, Death in Paradise), Hugh Laurie (Stuart Little, Tomorrowland), Tilda Swinton (Doctor Strange, We Need to Talk About Kevin), and Ben Whislaw (Skyfall, Paddington).

This film is based on the similarly titled book written by Charles Dickens and follows David Copperfield, an orphan who finds himself needing to get through a series of obstacles.

“The Personal History of David Copperfield” already released in several film festivals last year, which eventually led to the film being nominated for a Best Casting BAFTA. The movie has not hit the United States until this past March, specifically at a festival, and has gotten a full fledged release in August. In my view, that officially makes this a 2020 movie. IMDb says this is a 2019 film, but it has not had an official theatrical release until this year, so I rest my case for now. As of late August, “The Personal History of David Copperfield” has hit several theaters in the United States, and so far has earned over a million dollars. Now, that’s a great total if I went on NBC’s “The Wall,” but the film’s budget is $15.6 million. The collective total at the box office worldwide is $11.6 million. That’s not entirely pleasing so far, but given how movie theaters are coming back to life at this point, it should not be too surprising. Nevertheless, I used one of my A-List tickets to see this movie last Sunday, and having never once read the “David Copperfield” book, I did not really know what to expect. I will have you all know, when movie theaters were allowed to reopen in my state, the first screening I attended contained one trailer, which was for this exact movie. That’s all. I could tell you I really enjoyed the trailer, but the reality was that I was more focused on the notion that a movie theater was actually open.

Even so, this movie had an advantage, because it was *that first trailer* I’ve seen in a while, it stuck in my mind like a catchy tune. So was this movie worth my time when I finally saw it? I’d say so.

Going into “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” I did not entirely know what to expect. Keep in mind that this review is written by someone who never read the book. I walked out of the movie fairly delighted. There was a series of well-directed, marvelously written scenes. I could thank the writers for this film, but maybe I should thank Charles Dickens considering how he wrote the material. It also goes to show how timeless this movie feels, and how one can possibly connect to some guy living in the 19th century. All the factory scenes from this film are incredible. Not only are they atmospheric, but they allow for this movie’s writing to shine. I felt for Dev Patel’s character of David Copperfield several steps of the way.

This movie manages to maintain its own vision from beginning to end, and I was massively entertained by said vision. While “The Personal History of David Copperfield” is not my favorite movie of the year, I will not deny that this movie manages to maintain its own flair every step of the way. I do not feel like I will end up remembering every character’s name, although I do imagine if I read the book maybe I will. Speaking of which, this brings up another point.

A lot of people tend a read a book, watch a movie, compare the two side by side. Personally, I see books and movies as two separate entities and I don’t always think they should be compared just to be one thing since they are two different mediums. However, let’s reverse what I just brought up for a moment. I watch a ton more movies than I read books, but if I were to take this movie, “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” I would definitely read the book that inspired it because I enjoyed the end product of the film. I don’t know when I’ll dedicate time to it, but it is a thought that I am intrigued by.

In terms of performances, I think everyone across the board did a great job from Dev Patel to Hugh Laurie to Peter Capaldi and Benedict Wong. Their performances help provide a refreshing take on what must be a classic. One of my favorite performances in this movie however comes from Darren Boyd, who plays Mr. Murdstone, who marries Copperfield’s once widowed mother. In addition to that, Copperfield has to work for Murdstone in his factory, which as previously suggested, makes for some of the finest scenes in the movie. This movie is PG, so according to the MPAA, kids can watch this and feel fine. There are some notable scenes where that PG rating shows, but at the same time, as I watched those scenes, I got the feeling I was watching somebody who was pushing the barrier a little higher. They say a movie is only as good as its villain, and “The Personal History of David Copperfield” utilizes that saying to full potential.

There are few other antagonists from movies this year that I can think of that I will remember for years to come. Maybe Dr. Robotnik from “Sonic the Hedgehog,” perhaps Sator from “Tenet,” and this might shock you, Paula Abdul from “Impractical Jokers: The Movie.” Just being honest. Murdstone is up there with the greats for me. I really hope we get a couple more comic book movies this year, because I am curious to see Taskmaster in “Black Widow” and see how he ranks against the rest of the Marvel villain crew. IF “BLACK WIDOW” MOVES AGAIN OR GOES STRAIGHT TO DISNEY+ I MIGHT BE DONE WITH MOVIES. Nevertheless, Murdstone is one of my favorite characters in this movie and his attitude says a lot about who he is.

If I have anything else to say, I also enjoyed the score in this film. I don’t know if I’ll end up listening to it during free time later, but hearing it in the theater was most certainly atmospheric and occasionally gave a larger than life vibe. The score is done by Christopher Willis, who has also done work for a couple Disney television shows and HBO’s “Veep.”

In the end, “The Personal History of David Copperfield” is a fine adaptation of the well-known Charles Dickens novel. I have never read the book, but after seeing this movie, who knows? Maybe I’ll give it a shot. I imagine it is better than the movie, given how Dickens is a household name. Even so, I found myself delighted with “The Personal History of David Copperfield” and I am going to give it a 7/10.

Thanks for reading this review! My next review is going to be for “Becky,” which stars Lulu Wilson, Joel McHale, and Kevin James. I just got the Blu-ray recently, watched it, and I want to say some things about it. I’m not sure what my next review after that is going to be. I’m thinking either “Bill & Ted Face the Music” or there is also this one movie that has supposedly been out for a month called “Tesla.” I saw trailers for it at one theater, it never showed up, but it is also available On Demand for a cheap price. Maybe I’ll watch that. Although one of my local theaters, the Lexington Venue, just recently opened once more, so maybe I’ll check something out there if I have time. Be sure to follow Scene Before either with an email or WordPress account so you can stay tuned for more great content! Also, check out my Facebook page! I want to know, did you see “The Personal History of David Copperfield?” What did you think about it? Or, did you read the original “David Copperfield” book? Tell me your thoughts on that! Let me know down below! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

The Rhythm Section (2020): The Most Boring Record Breaker of All Time

Posted on by Jack Drees

“The Rhythm Section” is directed by Reed Morano (The Handmaid’s Tale, Divorce) and stars Blake Lively (The Shallows, The Town), Jude Law (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, The Grand Budapest Hotel), and Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) in a film… Zzzzzzzzz.

Sorry, what was that? I’m very sorry. This film is about a woman who seeks revenge after discovering the plane crash that killed her family was an act of terrorism.

This film is based on a book written by Mark Burnell. Interestingly, he also wrote the screenplay for this movie. I don’t know how the book is, I have personally never read it, but for all I know, it’s a masterpiece of a generation. Although I will say this movie took me back to my high school years when I was forced to read certain texts. I’m looking at you, “Pride & Prejudice!” You guys remember English class in high school? If you liked every single book, text, or piece of reading material you’ve gotten in high school, good for you. To me, this movie felt like a book I was forced to read in high school, ended up detesting from the first ten pages, and I would either drudge through it or leave it to the last minute.

Want to know something else? This movie is not that long. It’s not the shortest movie ever, but it has a total runtime of an hour and forty-nine minutes. I could totally see myself splitting some movie viewings into a couple of parts to take some things in. I did it with “Braveheart,” which is about 3 hours long. Heck, many movies have intermissions! I’ve even heard some countries apply intermissions to modern movies playing in theaters that don’t even come pre-packaged with them! A movie like “Braveheart,” even though was a little heavy at first, is exciting and exhilarating until the very end! “The Rhythm Section” is… BOORRRRING!

Now, it’s not “Gretel & Hansel” boring, it’s definitely not “Cats” boring, but “The Rhythm Section” is still pretty stinkin’ boring! The training scenes, which are… Okay, I guess, don’t feel like something I’ll remember two weeks from now. The action is fine, in fact there is a scene in this movie that is brilliantly shot, but that might be the best part of the movie even though it probably doesn’t say all that much, because it really doesn’t have anything to write home about.

Speaking of that awesome action scene, I do want to say something about it. I won’t go into much detail about the scene itself, partially to avoid spoilers, as usual, but much like some of those books I’ve read in high school, I’m forgetting about it as we speak. What did Virginia Woolf do again? I will say though, there is one action sequence where a car chase is going down, Blake Lively’s character is driving, and the camera is in the car pretty much the whole time. For like a minute or so, the frame doesn’t cut, break, or switch. It just stays put the entire time in the same shot. I’ve noticed a lot of movies have done something like this in recent years, or more specifically, they take a bunch of shots together and make it look like one shot. “Kingsman: The Secret Service” had an awesome throwdown scene in a church where Colin Firth beat, shot, and stabbed everyone to death. “Zombieland: Double Tap” had an insane scene like this go down in Elvis Presley’s house. “Atomic Blonde” had something like this too, where Charlize Theron spends eight minutes taking everyone down. While the first two examples feel fantastical, this shot felt more like something that had an “Atomic Blonde” vibe. Unfortunately, “Atomic Blonde” is a much better movie, a more engaging movie as well, but like these examples sort of relate to “The Rhythm Section” in terms of camerawork. There were some scenes, like that one cool action sequence, where the camera was well-utilized. Unfortunately, I can’t always say the same about the editing.

I rarely talk about edits in movies that I don’t like, although I still wonder why “Bohemian Rhapsody” won an Academy Award for it, so there is that. There was a scene in the beginning that caught my attention, everything is all quick cutty and fast. And I get it, people have slow attention spans, but this was honestly too fast for my liking. Speaking of which, remember that awesome action scene? Well forget about that for just a sec, because I remember a scene towards the end of the film that took place on a bus, and it reminded me of the typical jumpcutty bullcrap that’s been seen a lot in recent action flicks. One moment we’re here! One moment we’re there! One moment we’re flying everywhere! It’s like the world’s worst Dr. Seuss book!

And of course, I should not go without mentioning one other thing, this movie has the same curse some other films manage to have. It’s a January movie! Honestly, this crap feels like it belongs in that month, it is one of the few months that many general audiences are not focused on new movies, even though “Bad Boys for Life” grossed a ridiculous amount of money for a January flick this year, surpassing 2009’s “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” by over double its total worldwide. Note, “American Sniper” came out in January 2015 and earned more money than both movies, but it does not count, considering how the movie was screened in a limited run since December 2014. Speaking of box office achievements, “The Rhythm Section” has the *honor* of earning the worst weekend for a wide release movie playing on over 3,000 screens. In fact, in just a couple weeks, that screen count dropped to just double digits! The film also brought in just short of $6 million worldwide! When your film has a budget of $50 million, this is a definite failure. And I know 2020 sucks for everyone right now, unless you’re a higher-up at Amazon, you work for Charmin’, or if you are an introvert who likes staying home all day, but this sort of makes me wonder how Paramount’s 2020 has been going since the beginning.

Well, at least “Mission: Impossible 7” is back in production.

Nevertheless, this feels like it deserves a January spot on the calendar, not only in terms of quality, but in terms of content. A lot of it either feels cliche, cold, or something that could easily be tuned out. This may also not be the easiest movie to market either. I’m not sure how popular the book is, so I guess the easiest way to tell is to find out how many people in the world have read the source material.

The actors are alright in this movie, and I will say, whoever the makeup and hairstyling crew for this movie happens to be, they deserve a thumbs up because Blake Lively looks the part. She comes off as a woman who really has seen some s*it in her life, and her hairstyle projects that idea to me. Unfortunately, some halfway decent acting could not contribute to a halfway decent movie. I don’t feel like I’ll remember most of the characters, the happenings, the movie as a whole. It’ll probably be a blur at some point. Technically speaking, it’s very hit or miss. I don’t see myself watching this movie in the near future even as background noise.

I don’t want to end this review too harshly, after all, even though I’ve been bogging the screenplay, because it is admittedly boring and nowhere near satisfying, it is also Mark Burnell’s debut, so I’ll cut him some slack here. In fact, he’s got another project lined up, so maybe he’ll knock it out of the park next time, maybe even learn from some flaws here. Unfortunately it’s based on another one of his books so… We’ll see. Burnell, if you are reading this and want my recommendation, get another guy who is well versed in screenwriting to collaborate with you. Maybe you can still go with your vision, but I think a voice of experience would be helpful in a case like this. The movie’s still in pre-production… Maybe there’s time for another draft? I don’t know.

In the end, “The Rhythm Section” unfortunately did not make its money back at the box office, but nevertheless robbed me of $12.99 that I ended up paying for the Blu-ray. Granted, that’s a cheap price for a fairly new release, but nevertheless. This movie feels like alcohol. Only I didn’t drink it to forget something, instead the alcohol leaped off the screen and slowly poured itself down my throat. I do not feel like I’ll remember this movie that well. If you want a good revenge movie, just go watch “Taken,” go watch “John Wick,” they’re much more worth your time. Even the “John Wick” sequels are better than this! I’m going to give “The Rhythm Section” a 4/10.

Thanks for reading this review! If you want to see a review for a much better movie, be sure to check out my review for “Tenet!” Big movies are back, baby! This is what I’m talking about! I wanted to watch “Bill & Ted Face the Music” this past weekend, as it was playing in some theaters (although it was available on VOD too), but unfortunately I just couldn’t find time to do it. So, if I have the motivation for either format this upcoming weekend, I will probably check that movie out. What else am I gonna watch this weekend? “The Broken Hearts Gallery?” I like one of the actresses in it… But, what else does it have to offer? Maybe I’ll get a last minute A-List screening or something, I dunno. Be sure to follow Scene Before either with an email or WordPress account so you can stay tuned for more great content! Also, check out my Facebook page! I want to know, did you see “The Rhythm Section?” Or did you contribute to its unfortunate records? What did you think about the movie if you saw it? Or, what is your favorite movie with Blake Lively in it? Let me know down below! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!