SYNOPSIS: In “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” a new horror film based on the popular videogame and now playing in theatres, eleven-year-old Abby (Piper Rubio) sneaks away from her protective brother Mike (Josh Hutcherson) to reunite with her pals, four Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza animatronic mascots who are possessed by the spirits of the children who disappeared during Fazbear’s glory days.
CAST: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, and Matthew Lillard, Skeet Ulrich, Wayne Knight, Mckenna Grace, and Teo Briones. Directed by Emma Tammi.
REVIEW: To begin, let’s start at the end. ”Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” wraps up with an obvious set-up for another film. No spoilers here, but it explains why the movie feels like a means to an end, literally. By that I mean the entire convoluted story feels like a trailer for the franchise’s next movie.
It’s a shame the film delivers little more than jump scares because it kicks off with an interesting premise.
The animatronic action begins in 1982 at a birthday party at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place. As young Charlotte (Audrey Lynn-Marie) patiently waits for her favorite character to appear, she spots a little boy being dragged out of the party by yellow animatronic rabbit Spring Bonnie (Matthew Lillard). She prevents the kidnapping, but winds up a victim of The Marionette, a terrifying puppet with a white mask, a wide grin and painted on rosy, red cheeks.
Cut to 2002. It’s a year after Fazbear security guard Mike (Josh Hutcherson) discovered the pizza joint’s animatronic mascots, Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, are possessed by the spirits of the children who disappeared during Fazbear’s glory days and had their eyes on a new victim, Mike’s innocent sister Abby (Piper Rubio).
With the help of Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), a police officer (and daughter of serial killer William Afton, played by Matthew Lillard), Abby was spared, but now Abby feels a connection to the animatronic meanies and wants to reconnect. “She misses her friends,” says Mike. Trouble is, that makes her a target for The Marionette.
After a strong start, and the addition of the creepy Marionette, it’s a shame the rest of the movie relies on jump scares and toothless violence instead of the inventive horror of the first fifteen minutes.
The character design by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop is top notch, hitting the right balance between kid friendly animatronics and threatening evil robots. They’re a blast. Take for instance Chica (Megan Fox), a large animatronic chicken with “Let’s Party” emblazoned on her t-shirt, who gleefully squeezes Wayne Knight’s head with the words, “Let’s see what’s going on inside your head. Just what I thought! Nothing in there at all!” It’s the kind of fun PG-13 horror that offers relief from the movie’s reliance on jump scares.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s” devotees will find loads of fan service and Easter eggs, but audiences hoping for real horror will find the movie to be as stale as a decade old slice from Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.
Inspired by true events, “Twelve Mighty Orphans,” new historical sports drama starring Luke Wilson, and now playing in theatres, reunites Martin Sheen with his “Apocalypse Now” co-star Robert Duvall.
Set during the Great Depression, the story revolves around WWI hero and up-standing citizen Rusty Russell (Wilson), a math and science teacher, tasked with teaching orphans at the Masonic Home in Fort Worth, Texas. The students are exploited, forced to work manual labor and beaten when they step out of line, and even when they don’t. In an effort to build char acter and foster a feeling of self-worth in the boys, Russell forms a football team, even though they don’t have a football or shoes.
“We have two seasons,” says Doc Hall (Sheen). “One without shoes and one with shoes. This is the season without shoes.”
A montage or two later, Russell seems to be making progress with the team of underdogs but not everyone is happy about it. “Every second they’re on the field, we’re losing money. says Frank Wynn (Wayne Knight), the taskmaster who mistreats the boys.
According to Doc, their early practices look more “like an Arthur Murray dance class” than an organized sport but soon the team comes together. Named the Mighty Mites, they use new, innovative strategies that set them up for success and, ultimately, to be an inspiration to a nation in need of heroes. “You have to adapt if you want to be competitive,” Russell says. “We don’t have the size, so we have to utilize what we do have.”
“Twelve Mighty Orphans” is a feel-good film light on surprises but heavy on inspiration. It’s predictable and old-fashioned, but it undeniably has its heart in the right place: right on its sleeve. Fine performances from Wilson, Sheen (who appears to be having the most fun of anyone on set) and Duvall, as the team’s financier, help ground the film’s high strung emotional tone.
You’ll root for the team, and the movie too, even when you can barely see through the clichés.
“Blindspotting,” the debut film from director Carlos Lopez Estrada, filters an essay on privilege, gentrification and violence through the lens of one relationship. Colin (Daveed Diggs) and Miles (Rafael Casal) have been friends since childhood but still have much to learn from one another.
Set in Oakland, California the bulk of the action takes place over the course of Colin’s last three days of probation on an assault and battery charge. Living in a halfway house, Colin works as a mover, with best friend Miles, for his ex-girlfriend Val (Janina Gavankar) and has a strict curfew of 11 pm. He’s trying desperately to stay out of trouble but Miles, a loudmouth who carries a gun, is a loose cannon, always on the edge of blowing up the situation. When Colin witnesses a cop shoot an unarmed African-American man in the back he’s plagued by nightmares and an increasing sense of trauma and dread. A situation at a party that escalates out of control forces Colin to assess his place in the world, or at least, his place in a rapidly gentrifying Oakland.
“Blindspotting” is a happily undisciplined a movie. Raw and brimming with ideas, it’s an exciting look at contemporary life that kicks preconceive notions of storytelling to the curb. Co-writers and co-stars Diggs and Casal weave a story that bristles with provactive ideas. Funny one moment, tragic the next, it confronts the viewers ideas not only on the narrative form of the storytelling but the stereotypes so often used to portray people of colour in movies.
Director Estrada builds tension all the way through leading up to a surreal showdown that brings the story into sharp focus.
Despite many stylish flourishes “Blindspotting” feels authentic. Perhaps it’s because of the warm camaraderie between Diggs and Casal or perhaps it’s because of the sense of nuance given to large scale issues of race, loyalty and class.
