Movie Nation

A great wrong — Ok, a minor wrong — is righted with the belated theatrical release of “47 Meters Down,” a trapped-in-a-shark-cage thriller whose production values suggest it deserves better than a direct-to-video fate.

The film’s star, Mandy Moore, has experienced a career re-boot, thanks to TV’s hit weeper, “This is Us.” Claire Holt (“Pretty Little Liars,” “H2): Just Add Water”) has always looked great in a swimsuit.

And the murky blue void that co-writer/director Johannes Roberts and underwater camera specialist Mark Silk present has menace enough without the not-noticeably-digital sharks that menace our protagonists.

What’s summer without an “Open Water” or “The Shallows”? Sharks are still scary, even if Asia is devouring them like the potato chips of the sea.

So never mind the blips of logic in the script, the fact that it requires Mandy Moore to shriek into her mask — “We’re gonna DIE down here!” — too many times, to narrate everything she (and um, we) see her do.

“Get the spear gun!”

Moore and Holt plays sisters vacationing in sunny Mexico, where the drinks have umbrellas and the rules for dive charters are, we’re told, pretty lax.

Lisa (Moore) is just getting over a breakup. Sister Kate (Holt) is her replacement companion on this holiday, somebody to help her shake the funk that being dull and predictable has gotten Lisa into.

Why not an impulse trip into the Gulf on a low-rent shark experience charter with two local hunks they’ve just met?

Nothing to worry about. The boat may look like it’s seen better days, and the actual shark cage they’ll sit in when they’re lowered five meters down appears to be held together by rust. But the corners-cutting captain (Matthew Modine) is American, the actual gear is top drawer — full-face masks with radio links.

Lisa’s never dived in her life, but they don’t need to know that. “Is this even safe?” is replaced with “Think of the (social media) pictures!” Her ex will have to rethink his whole “boring Lisa” complaint.

Then, the crane breaks and they’re dropped to the bottom, out of radio range. They’re running out of air, and will get the bends if they ascend too quickly.

And the fact that the boat crew has filled the water with crimson chum, luring Great White Sharks — actually quite rare in the too-warm/too BP-polluted waters of the Gulf? That’s just another, grislier way to die.

The plot presents the sisters with some awful dilemmas and the viewer with plenty of “Oh come on” moments.

But any thriller set in the blue-grey isolation of the domain of sharks is fraught with possibilities for frights. And Roberts, a horror vet (“The Other Side of the Door”) knows the when, where and how to place his shocks.

Silly as it sounds, “47 Meters Down” is downright intense. And it manages the odd surprise twist, too.

It still has a hint of “Just Wait for Netflix” about it, but that denies you the fun of sitting in the dark, laughing and muttering at the characters on the screen, with a hundred other fans of cheap thrills and summer cinema shark cheese.

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense peril, bloody images, and brief strong language
Cast: Mandy Moore, Claire Holt, Matthew Modine
Credits: Directed by Johannes Roberts, script by Johannes Roberts and Ernest Riera. An Entertainment Studios release.
Running time: 1:29

Brett Haley has described “The Hero” as “a love letter” not only to Sam Elliott, but to a particular breed of Hollywood icon.

Elliott plays an aging Western hero, getting by on voice-over work in commercials, facing mortality and hoping for that one last big role before heading for that last roundup.

I’d suggest it’s a movie about the sort of icon the throwback Elliott never quite got to become in a Hollywood that rarely makes Westerns.

Lovely movie, and I’m talking with Haley, who grew up in the Florida Keys, about it today.

And as always, I’m looking for suggested questions. Got anything in mind? Post it as a comment below, and thanks for the input.

The Holocaust has been so exhaustively covered as a movie subject as to become a Hollywood punch-line.

But the Israeli drama “Past Life” finds a new angle, a new corner of collective guilt. Avi Nesher’s “What Dad did during the Holocaust” mystery may not have the most satisfying resolution, but that’s part of the point.

Sephi (Joy Rieger, introspective and demure) is a star soprano with her college choir, an aspiring composer willing — even in 1977 — to go to West Berlin to perform — if it can further her career.

Meeting the famous choral composer Thomas Zielinski (Rafael Stachowiak) could pay dividends, too. But Zielinski’s aunt has come with him to the concert. And she recognizes Sephi’s last name, and her face. That leads to a “Marathon Man” moment. The old woman has to be dragged, shrieking (in German), “Murderer! Daughter of a murderer!”

Yes, she knew Sephi’s father. And since Sephi’s sister, Nana (Nelly Tagar), a feisty Tel Aviv magazine writer who argues about Israel’s faults and “the Holocaust excuse” Israelis have historically made for any territorial grabs or “re-settlement” schemes, Sephi has someone willing and eager to unravel this mystery.

Dad (Doron Tavory) is a respected Jerusalem gynecologist, humorless, touchy. But in flashbacks, we get a hint about why his two daughters think this guy could be a murderer. He never talks about how he, a Polish Jew, survived when millions didn’t. And he used to slap the girls around, and worse, growing up.

“You can’t understand the world ‘back there,'” he explains. Not so fast, Dad, they decide.

Nesher doesn’t do a great job of hiding her cards when it comes to the mystery in this “inspired by a true story.” We know what’s up, more or less, from the first moment father Bruno hears that his girls have talked to people who knew him “back there.” His wife (Evgenia Dodina) gets a stress-induced nosebleed.

“Here we go again,” she mutters, in Hebrew with English subtitles.

The story takes on melodramatic children-suffer for the sins-of-their-parents tones, or as on old kibbutz-dweller puts it, “Parents ate sour grapes, and now their children have rotten teeth.”

But the larger idea, that in order for people, the world, Israel and Israelis to live on, there has to be an emotional statute of limitations on what people did in the distant past  — to survive, following orders, etc. — has weight.

Nesher’s re-creation of the Israel and Europe of the Cold War ’70s is vivid and biting. Sephi suffers under a sexist, bunker-mentality culture at home, and feels the burden of a some-crimes-cannot-be-forgiven or forgotten mentality abroad.

“Past Life” is best appreciated as an attempt to finally give permission, at the source of the grievance (Israel), not to forget, but to at least forgive.  Not every horror was committed by gentiles, not every sin was mortal, Catholic or Protestant in nature.

At some point, the past is passed.

MPAA Rating: Unrated, with nudity, smoking.
Cast: Joy Rieger, Nelly Tagar, Doron Tavory, Rafael Stachowiak
Credits: Written and directed by Avi Nesher. A Samuel Goldwyn release.
Running time: 1:48

As Mandy Moore grew up in Orlando, learned her acting and musical chops here, and since her mom used to work at the newspaper where I used to work, I have interviewed her many times over the years.

She always saw her future, the post teen-pop starlet/child star years, as being rebooted by Broadway. She can sing, she can act, it seemed like a natural transition. She did “Nobody Loves You” off-Broadway a few years back.

But it was TV and “This is Us” that gave her a career second wind. And that’s why she’s got a movie coming out. A little deep sea horror, anyone? “47 Meters Down” pairs up a couple of divers and traps them in a shark cage.

Talk about claustrophobic. I don’t think Disney’s “Rapunzel” will be doing any singing, at that depth.

One thing you notice, going out this weekend, is the feminine tenor (soprano?) of the chatter at your neighborhood multiplex.

That’s because “Wonder Woman” is playing. That’s because women don’t need no stinking “Women only” screenings to show up the comic book blockbuster. Art D’Allesandro at Deadline.com breaks down some of the box office stats for the film, which has dropped omly 45% from its opening weekend blowout, leading to a $57-58 million take by midnight tonight (Sunday). Groups of women showing up to watch and revel in the movie in which Princess Buttercup teaches an ex-Israeli soldier and model with some fairly jingoistic attitudes her native land and how it treats non-Jews to fight.

An “honorary UN ambassador” (another controversy) and “not American enough” (per Fox News), “Wonder Woman is ginning up the controversy only a hit movie can create.

Meanwhile, there’s little to no controversy over “It Comes at Night.” Great reviews (I thought it was good, downbeat and just cryptic enough — but nothing to stand in line for). But it’s only managing $5.7 million. Why? “Bad word of mouth,” Deadline reports, citing poor audience exit polling (Cinema Score). So, not giving people hope or uplift or a happy ending is killing it.

“The Mummy” is tracking steady, an underwhelming $32 million opening seems just beyond reach. Will this end the whole “Dark Universe” dream? Maybe. The idea of tying a string of horror franchises together seems dubious. “Mummy” leaves the door open to sequels, but bad reviews had to tamp down turn out. That, and a bigger chunk of the public has bailed on Tom Cruise than it has Russell Crowe. And they’re both in the same movie.

Of all the named causes of California’s ongoing water shortages, and the water wars of the state’s agricultural heartland, the Central Valley — here’s one you never thought of. It’s all the fault of naive environmentalists who apparently hate farmers.

It’s got nothing to do with rain patterns shifting as the planet warms, thanks to burning fossil fuels. Let’s not talk about runaway development that fills the state with new residents, new homes for those residents and lawns and golf courses that help make Californians twice as thirsty as any other state in the U.S. And the farmers can’t be to blame for the allegedly wasteful sweetheart deals made decades ago that give them so much water to that they can grow broccoli in a damned desert.

No, environmentalists and their love of endangered species and their apparently unscrupulous funders have created this “fake” crisis.

That’s the utter horse-hockey premise of the drama “Pray for Rain,” a laughably ludicrous bit of right wing Big Oil agitprop from oil billionaire Forrest Lucas’s production company.

It’s about Emma, a New York fashion journalist (Annabelle Stephens) who comes home to the Central Valley after her farmer dad (John Heard, glimpsed in a farewell video) dies. She’s stuck dealing with her estranged mother (Jane Seymour), never without a drink in her hand and all too happy to ditch this farm and finally live somewhere fun, and perhaps not so dry.

“I’ve forgiven you,” Emma says through gritted teeth.’

“You’ve forgiven ME?” Mom growls back.

But the water wars in the county have brought in Hispanic gangsters, muscling farmers into selling out. Emma’s old high school buddy sheriff (Nicholas Gonzalez) seems helpless, even though his almond orchard owning dad (Paul Rodriguez) is one of those being threatened.

And there’s something fishy about Emma’s dad’s death. So she’ll blow off her fashion magazine boss (Missy Pyle, oh honey, why?) and root around to get to the bottom of this.

And at every point, as Emma sneaks up on covert meetings, flees from bad guys on her old dirt bike and wonders if the reason she hates her mother (she cheated) connects with all this, the fingers are pointed at those snooty, elite, environmental activists.

Director Alex Ranarivelo gives us about half as much action as it would take to hide the way the script (by actress turned writer Christina Moore and Gloria Musca) doesn’t massage or hide its mystery. This aspires to late night Hallmark Channel production values and entertainment level.

Because entertainment value isn’t what Ranarivelo is about. He makes movies with a message. He’s filmmaking’s Marco Rubio, a feckless puppet who lives off the largess of his puppet master, right wing billionaire Forrest Lucas, of Lucas Oil.

Their first film together, as financier and filmmaker, was “The Dog Lover,” an expose of animal rights activism geared towards defending Lucas’s love of puppy mills.

Just so we know what we’re dealing with.

The caricatured environmentalists here are backed by a clueless little old lady, and are given to callously telling the failing farmers, “Challenge leads to opportunity.”

Government officials are lazy nap-taking do-nothings.

Hell, where’s the heroic oil man to offer to save the farmers through the miracle of fracking? Yeah, it’s that ridiculous, and all concerned — especially the Summer’s Eve who wrote the checks — should be embarrassed.

Seymour gives the most interesting performance, and even it comes off like a pulled-punch.

No doubt most of those involved are praying for this to disappear as fast as Lucas’s movie money cash. That’s one thing Hollywood folks are good at — taking money from suckers with agendas.

MPAA Rating:PG-13 for thematic elements and some violence

Cast: Annabelle Stephens, Jane Seymour, Nicholas Gonzalez, Paul Rodriguez, John Heard

Credits:Directed by Alex Ranarivelo , script by Christina Moore, Gloria Musca. An ESX release release.

Running time 1:35

Add another $54 million to Warner Brothers’ coffers for “gambling” on putting the DC Universe’s future in the hands of an Israeli actress playing “Wonder Woman.”

This is turning into the blockbuster WB/DC have craved since Bale & Co. finished off Batman. So good on them. It’s not just fanboys, and not just girls and women turning out, but a $202 million combination of both.

“The Mummy” steps up Universal’s “Dark Universe” approach to their historic horror franchises. It got pounded by the aggregated critics (on Rotten Tomatoes, anyway), and still managed to do, based on Thursday night/Friday numbers, enough to guarantee a $31 million or so weekend. That’s not nearly enough.

I found it perfectly entertaining, in a popcorny way. 

Will Universal spend the big bucks on big names (Russell Crowe’s recurring character in “Mummy,” for instance) to interconnect Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein and oh, Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde movies? The jury’s out.

But as the critically adored “It Comes at Night” proves, horror has a ceiling — generally in the $12 million range, $18-22 million for a proven franchise — on opening weekend. Universal just shattered it. “It Comes” won’t even hit $7, but it should stick around, and as it cost maybe $5, it’s money in the bank for A24.

The Bleeker St. tear-jerker/flag waver “Megan Leavey” isn’t doing at all well, despite getting very good reviews and having that military mid-America appeal. What, Fox News isn’t beating the drum over the hero-soldier fighting-to-keep-her-war-dog story?

Oh. Right. Chuck Schumer plays a positive role in the story. And it’s about a woman in the military. Murdoch’s minions can’t be seen endorsing that.

Then there’s the old fashioned mystery-romance “My Cousin Rachel,” in limited release but not quite cracking the top ten.

Cute little framing bit, with Martin Freeman chatting up Gollom/Andy Serkis. And an elaborate origin world for the superhero is here.

The rest? Standard issue hero-in-tights comic book stuff, with a dollop of humor. Marvel mass production values. Enjoy.

Bruce Willis makes his getaway, by skateboard and buck naked, when he’s caught in bed with a young client in an early moment in “Once Upon a Time in Venice.”

Which is pretty much all you need to know about this action/comedy. Well, that and it’s not about Venice, Italy, but Venice Beach, where filmmakers can attract a long line of solid B-listers to pop into their movie, if only for a name-for-the-credits for the foreign markets.

So David Arquette swoops through a shot, whooping about “getting the Band back together,” and Kal Penn can play his first and last Indian-American convenience store owner.

And Bruce? At 62, he’s still fit enough to not make you strain your eyes to ensure that yes, that’s a stunt double streaking through downtown Venice, in the dark and in the buff, crawling out of windows, etc. That sprint through a crowded bar, still starkers? Yeah, that’s Bruce, only in the trailers he’s wearing gym shorts. So some digital stripping or alternative take business is going on somewhere.

Willis plays Steve, elder statesman of Venice, the only private eye in the town, given to hectoring lectures of the 10 year-old sk8Rboyz about “weed, hookers and blow.”

Then he and the film’s narrator, his “partner” (Thomas Middleditch of “Silicon Valley,” a poor man’s Simon Helberg) land a case. They’re to catch whoever is spraying obscene graffiti on an apartment building owned by “Lou the Jew” (Adam Goldberg, of course).

Then there’s the favor, retrieving a lowrider ’60s Chevy Impala for the pizza guy (Adrian Martinez). That runs Steve afoul of Spyder, the drug dealer (Jason Momoa). And Spyder is the guy who ends up with Steve’s “Parson” Jack Russell terrier, beloved by his niece (Emily Robinson) and sister (Famke Janssen), who are going through a rough time now. Steve is damned sure going to get that dog back.

“Venice” is the sort of random, rambling thriller where everybody the private eye meets — from drug dealer to real estate hustler, loan shark to surf shop pal (John Goodman) going through a divorce, says, “Tell you what I’m gonna do,” followed by “do this for me” or “get that for me” and “I’ll help you out.”

The messy tangle of the plot, which involves Steve-Bruce getting knocked out, more than once, does little more than throw a whole lot of potentially silly stuff against the screen — some of it landing laughs.

Willis naked on a skateboard, Momoa’s chill but grudge-toting drug dealer, Middleditch’s efforts to tail a subject into her sex addict’s anonymous meeting and “fit it,” and oh one of other epic moment — Willis, in a dress, wig and makeup, chased by a cohort of Venice’s transvestite hookers — those are kind of funny.

Given a bigger budget, this could have gotten the script doctoring it needed to pack in more laughs. I counted maybe five. And they’d have had the money to use “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” as a gag, or “real” surf music by Dick Dale, or “real” Beach Boys tunes — instead of the nakedly obvious rip-offs of these tunes tucked into the score.

The 50ish Cullen Brothers produced the Willis/Kevin Smith debacle “Cop Out,” so it’s not like they’re novices. This is as good as they’re going to get.

And Willis? He’s a young 62, but this is kind of where his career has gone — tepid, limited-release action comedies without the hot property script, the big paycheck or budget to quite come off.

MPAA Rating: unrated, with violence, nudity, profanity

Cast: Bruce Willis, John Goodman, Jason Mamoa, Famke Janssen, Thomas Middleditch, Adam Goldberg, Wood Harris

Credits:Written and directed by Marc and Robb Cullen . A Voltage release.

Running time: 1:34

The flaws of the Rotten Tomatoes “tomatometer” — an all-or-nothing review aggregation system, are the same as the infamous “thumbs up” opinions of Siskel & Ebert, back in the day.

And that’s never more obvious than when summer cinema season rolls around.

You look at the tomatometer, and “Hey, it’s the WORST Tom Cruise movie ever!” No, it isn’t, not even by the tomatometer (“Cocktail” and “Oblivion,” among others, tracked lower on that scale). It sits at 20% positive reviews, at this writing.

Go over to the more measured, nuanced metacritic, and it’s earned a 35. A few outright enraged pans — Cruise haters die hard — a lot of “meh” and just above “meh” reviews — like mine.

A lot of people write-off Cruise for reasons that have nothing to do with the work on the screen. It’s personal. I don’t much care about the years-long rumors that he’s living a lie with his sexuality, even if producers seem to be giving up on casting him as a romantic lead. The only real “love” affair in “The Mummy” is between Nick, his character, and his faithful, bickering, needs-to-be-saved-from-zombiedom sidekick, Vale, played by Jake Johnson. Nick will do whatever it takes to save Jake.

Is Cruise propping up a bullying, dying pyramid scheme of a religion? Whatever. That doesn’t mean he’s still not doing good film work, and even with that, he’s not — oh — Woody Allen/Roman Polanski.

Similarly, reviews for “Wonder Woman” last week and “It Comes at Night” this week have grossly inflated “ratings” on RTomatoes. Go to Metacritic and you realize, no reviewers (well, no serious ones) are treating either of these formulaic genre pictures as the new “Psycho” or “Citizen Kane.” Good, for what they are — decent reviews, pleasant popcorn pictures, very few swoons among them.

“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Last” (I hope?). Total pans, according to RT, “Better than expected, even if it isn’t great” at Metacritic. “Alien: Covenant” — raves, according to RT, much more ho hum over at Metacritic. And so on…

Most everybody agrees that whatever it gets wrong, “Megan Leavey” tells a different sort of Iraq War story, and making it about a soldier’s love of her war dog gets to us all.

“The Hero” lets Sam Elliott rise above middling material one more time.

“My Cousin Rachel” is a fall or early spring movie — a little counter-programming to summer popcorn picture season. Good to great reviews for this one, opening wider this weekend.