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 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!
French director and journalist Gilles de Maistre specializes in making family films like “The Wolf and the Lion” and “Mia and the White Lion,” that raise awareness about the protection of animals and the environment. His latest, “Autumn and the Black Jaguar,” about the bond between a young girl and her childhood friend, the jaguar of the title, is a sweetly saccharine story with some mild action-adventure woven around its messages regarding illegal wildlife trafficking.
Lumi Pollack spent ten months imprinting with two jaguars in the jungles of Mexico to prepare for the role of Autumn, a precocious fourteen-year-old who grew up in the Amazon rainforest. As her animal rights activist parents work fighting against poachers, she forms a bond and helps raise jaguar cub Hope. When Autumn’s mother is killed by poachers, her father (Paul Green) relocates them to the urban jungle of New York City.
The jaguar is always on Autumn’s mind, and when she learns her childhood village is under attack by poachers, she goes rogue, and returns, with her socially anxious biology teacher (Emily Bett Rickards) along for the ride, to find Hope before the poachers do.
“Autumn and the Black Jaguar” is a wholesome film, fit for the whole family, with oversized performances, stereotype characters and predictable story beats. But, as an issue forward filmmaker, de Maistre shapes the movie’s events to suit the messages, not the other way round. The result is a movie that works mostly as a conveyance for environmental lessons about wildlife trafficking than a convincing action-adventure film.
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.”
