mancinibrown

Here Today starts with Charlie Burnz (Crystal) meeting Emma Payge (Haddish) at a lunch. The lunch was set up as a charity auction, as Burnz writes comedy for famous movies, plays and TV shows. Over the course of the movie we watch their relationship grow from strangers to very close friends. Burnz is hiding a secret from everybody that he is able to let Payge in on.

The first half of the movie feels very improvisational and suffers for it. I'm not generally a fan of Tiffany Haddish, I find her overly loud and obnoxious. That is exactly how the first half of the movie plays out and I was regretting having it on. There seems to be zero chemistry between the actors and they're going through the script.

Fortunately, the second half starts to redeem the movie as the main story starts coming through, and the drama starts playing out. Haddish dials it down more than I knew she could and is actually very convincing in the role. It helps draw the viewer into the movie.

The secondary actors of this movie are all over the place. The people Charlie works with at an SNL style show all carry their roles off with aplomb. Being with them at the show, the movie works. Unfortunately the two actors playing Burnz kids are not as good. The daughter specifically was cringey.

The music also grew grating by the end of the movie. Every time you could hear it, it just didn't work with the movie.

At almost 2 hrs, I'm not sure it's fully worth the time it asks of you.

The Man in the Hat is the story of.... I'm not quite sure. We open on the Man having a lovely outdoor dinner where he watches 5 people toss something into the river. He is then chased by these people across the country side. He also has strange encounters with people along the way.

From what I could tell, this was trying to be an homage to old silent movies. The actors don't speak (with the exception of a scene or two), and facial expressions are greatly exaggerated to convey thoughts. Some of these scenes are truly funny. Others not so much.

I don't want to be overly hard on this movie as there is something there. I just know it wasn't for me.

Every Breath You Take stars Casey Affleck as Dr. Clark, a psychiatrist who has a breakthrough with a patient, Daphne. Shortly into the movie Daphne commits suicide and her brother James (Sam Claflin) shows up with signs of grief. At the same time Dr. Clark's wife, Grace, is dealing with a failing marriage due to the tragic passing of their son. Their daughter, Lucy, has been expelled from boarding school and is dealing with teenage angst.

All this is meant to set up a tight thriller, but it all goes off the rails as soon as Claflin shows up. I don't know if it's the fault of the actor or the director, but he is far over the top here. I've seen him in other movies, and been impressed, but this performance is very poor. It allows for no nuance in a pivotal character in the story. Guessing where his character is going isn't very hard.

At the same time a bunch of moronic character decisions are made. As an example, about halfway through the movie Grace sleeps with James, which she immediately regrets. Yet, even after talking it over with her husband and making up for it, she still gets into James car in the very next scene, something nobody in their right mind would do. Overall the writing is some of the worst I've seen with some very talented actors.

In the end this is one to avoid, which is a shame due to the talented cast.