SYNOPSIS: “Queen of the Ring,” a new sports drama now playing on theatres, is the (mostly) true story of Mildred Burke, a female wrestler who defied skeptics to become a champion when all-girl wrestling was banned in most of America. “I can’t sing and I can’t dance,” she says, “but I can tell a story and beat some ass.”
CAST: Emily Bett Rickards, Josh Lucas, Tyler Posey, Francesca Eastwood, Marie Avgeropoulos, Deborah Ann Woll, Cara Buono, Adam Demos, Martin Kove, Kelli Berglund, Damaris Lewis, Gavin Casalegno, Walton Goggins, Mildred Burke. Directed by Ash Avildsen.
REVIEW: Mildred Burke (Canadian actor Emily Bett Rickards) is a pioneer in wrestling history. A three-time women’s world champion she was the queen of the ring and enjoyed a career that was anything but standard. It’s a shame then, that her biopic, “Queen of the Ring” is such a straightforward affair.
Director Ash Avildsen (son of “Rocky” director John G. Avildsen), working from his own script, never met an inspirational moment he couldn’t heighten. According to “Queen of the Ring” Burke’s every move, in and out of the ring, is worthy of a fist pump and some stirring music on the soundtrack. There are no peaks and valleys. Even when she faces hardship there’s just peaks, which blunts the effectiveness of the film as a hero’s story.
The result is a cartoonish portrait that doesn’t feel authentic.
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the wild ‘n wacky “A Minecraft Movie,” the doggie drama of “The Friend,” the rom com “A Nice Indian Boy” and the wrestling biopic “Queen of the Ring.”
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I review “The Queen of the Ring” and suggest some wrestling themed cocktails to enjoy while watching the story of the first female wrestling champion!
Shane and I talk about the career of the late, great Val Kilmer and talk aboiut Kermit the Frog’s commencement speech!
Click HERE for Booze & Reviews and my review of the wrestling movie “Queen of the Ring” and suggest the perfect drink to slam while watching the flick!
In “Escape Room,” the new psychological thriller starring “True Blood’s” Deborah Ann Woll, the young characters don’t have time to mull over the past. They’re too busy thinking of the future and whether or not they will survive long enough to actually have one.
The story centers around six good-looking people (Woll, along with Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Tyler Labine, Jay Ellis and Nik Dodani) trapped in a series of immersive escape rooms. The twist? Whoever leaves last is necessarily the winner.
Each have been lured to the game—and possibly their doom—by a mysterious puzzle box delivered in the mail. They’re invited to test out a new, immersive escape room and, if they keep their wits about them and find their way out, they’ll be rewarded with $10,000. “They’re basically like real life videogames,” enthuses Danny (Dodani), an escape room geek the others nickname Gamer Boy.
Seems like an easy payday until they realize the puzzles are terrifying manifestations of each and every one of their deepest fears or trauma. One room turns into an oven (“We gotta find a way out of this Easy Bake Oven!”), another is an upside down hellscape and if that wasn’t enough, there’s even a Victorian drawing room that gets a little too close for comfort. “I can’t figure this out!” shouts truck driver Mike (Labine). “Who would do this?”
Like the less Kafkaesque (and less gory) offspring of “Cube” and “Saw,” “Escape Room” also borrows from the “Final Destination” flickers. The thing it is missing is the sense of grim fun that seeped into those other films. The rooms themselves are elaborate and yet all pretty much all the same. Find a key, unlock a door. There is suspense along the way and the stakes rise as the number of survivors lowers but we never get to know enough about each character to be invested in them. Sketchy background details fill in some blanks but it’s not enough to make you mourn the loss of any of them. Even when they do start to fall away it is with a casualness that sucks some of the drama out of the scenario. It’s as if all the effort went into the planning of the methods of executions and not the killings themselves.
Add to that some psychoanalysis and morality à la “Saw” and you have a movie that is more psychological drama than horror and even then it’s psychology-lite. The sequel ready ending promises more of the same should they ever get around to making “Escape Room 2: Breakout Boogaloo.”
“Escape Room” won’t exactly make you want to escape the theatre but it doesn’t really give you a great reason to be there in the first place.
Richard Crouse interviews “Daredevil” star Deborah Ann Woll
On her Daredevil character Karen Page: “She starts out quite innocent, quite sweet and a little naïve and towards the end becomes a heroin addicted porn star. It is really quite dark and a little scary. Then she gets redeemed and then she dies. It’s a very tragic turnaround. I like characters that change and have that exploration but I also feel when you do it separately, when she is just the Madonna or just the whore, it’s less interesting. What I like is when a woman encompasses all sides. For my Karen I said, ‘Alright, she’s going to have moments when she’s innocent, sweet and fun to be around. And she’ll have moments where she’s dark and a little addicted to that adrenaline rush and danger, and I want both of those things to love in her at the same time.’ Luckily we didn’t start her as innocent. We started her with a bit of a past, which hopefully, if we get to do any more of Daredevil we’ll find out about. I like that she doesn’t start super innocent. There’s something dark about her already. We’ll see what comes.”
SYNOPSIS: “Queen of the Ring,” a new sports drama now playing on theatres, is the (mostly) true story of Mildred Burke, a female wrestler who defied skeptics to become a champion when all-girl wrestling was banned in most of America. “I can’t sing and I can’t dance,” she says, “but I can tell a story and beat some ass.”
