Tag: Channing Tatum

“Fly Me To The Moon” Is An Enjoyable Rom-Com Romp

On July 12, 2024

In Local, Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews, Uncategorized

In the spirit of this blog’s name (Weekly Wilson) I have a stream-of-consciousness review of tonight’s film, “Fly Me to the Moon,” which opened tonight at the newly-revamped VIP14 theater (previously Regal 8) in Moline, Illinois. It’s 6 days since my last post.

Readers will remember that I was mourning the loss of the only theater on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities and memorializing the closing of the Icon Theater in the South Loop of Chicago.

Fly me to the Moon

Scarlett Johansson’s executive-produced outing as the P.R. woman tasked with filming a “fake” moon launch is an Apple project, which was filmed on locations in Georgia and Savannah, as well as in Florida at Cape Canaveral. The production was actually able to capture a real launch when filming at the Kennedy Space Center.

THE GOOD

VIP14 in Moline, Illinois.

Director Greg Berlanti, working from a script by Rose Gilroy (and Keenan Flynn and Bill Kirstein), has concocted a rom-com with comedic elements. Jim Rash, portraying the fictional director Lance Vespertine, is terrific. Woody Harrelson is the White House operative who enlists Johansson to make the Apollo 11 mission to the moon popular, Moe Berkus. Ray Romano portrays Henry Smalls, who is working with Channing Tatum portraying Launch Director Cole Davis.

Moe Berkus lays out the task to Scarlett Johansson’s character of Kelly Jones (who later says her real name is Winnie): she must film a fake landing on the moon, which will be broadcast as the real deal. When she shows up at NASA, she tells Channing Tatum’s character of Cole Davis: “Americans are long over their expensive love affair with space and I’m here to remind them why they fell in love in the first place.” We are reminded that during its first 29 missions, NASA had only a 48% success rate. The efforts to convince key Senators to support the space program financially is well portrayed, since the battle for funding is never-ending.

Channing Tatum, who portrays Cole Davis, is not happy about lying to the American public. Woody shuts him down quickly, saying, “She’s made you (NASA) the Belle of the Ball. Just slip on your tutu and do some dancing.” The film recaps some of the clever ways that public relations tie-ins are utilized, such as the use of Omega watches or Tang tie-ins. As is the case right now with our upcoming presidential race, “This isn’t just a race for the moon. It’s a race to see which ideology governs.”

THE BAD

VIP14 in Moline, Illinois.

As another critic has expressed, he became less interested in the actual moon launch and more interested in the budding romance between the main characters.

The other flaw, which may not matter if you’re streaming it at home, is that, at 2 hours and 12 minutes (plus previews) this seemed like an overly long movie. At the point where we are landing on the moon, I was ready to be done. It was opening night for this theater’s new management and I did not pace my pop-drinking as I would have done for “Barbie” or “Oppenheimer.” (My bad).

This one should be a hit when it streams. It was fun to see Johansson’s real-life husband, Colin Jost (of SNL), portraying Senator Cook of South Carolina, articulating the line about a Killer Lunar Laser Eliminator.

“Dog” Marks Channing Tatum’s Directorial Debut

By Connie Wilson

On February 21, 2022

In Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

Channing Tatum stars in and co-directed the film “Dog,” out now in theaters. His co-director on the project was fellow first-time director Reid Carolin, who also co-wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Brett Rodriguez. The movie clocks in at an hour and 41 minutes and follows the adventures of a Belgian Malinois service dog named Lulu who is being transported to her handler’s funeral in Arizona by Channing Tatum.

Lulu’s previous handler in Afghanistan, Riley Rodriguez, committed suicide-by-car-accident back home in Arizona; the grieving family would like the dog transported to the cemetery, so Channing Tatum, as Jackson Briggs, is elected to drive the dog to the funeral. Briggs hopes to get a pass to deploy for battle once again, but his many tours of duty have left him with some heavy-duty head problems.

In other words, the owner of the dog obviously suffered from PTSD after serving in a combat zone and had a death wish. It would appear that Jackson Briggs (Tatum’s character) shares that death wish, as he is eager to return to a war that will probably kill him. The Ranger brass are reluctant to authorize another deployment. If Briggs will undertake this picaresque journey to Camposanto Cemetery, Briggs might get his wish, foolish though it seems.

Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin do a nice job of keeping the focus on Briggs and the dog (Lulu, as portrayed by three different dogs, named Zuza, Bula and Lana 5). Since his co-star has a non-speaking part, Channing Tatum must suck it up and handle the interaction with his non-human co-star; he has a nice and easy rapport with the animal.

While driving the Pacific highway to their destination, Briggs feels they should also try to have some fun. The clips we see where Briggs pretends he is blind to get a free suite at a posh hotel provide one such detour. Another happens when Lulu gets free and Briggs has to chase the dog through rugged mountain terrain. He stumbles upon an undercover pot operation run by someone even larger and more muscled than himself, which is something. That character (Gus) is played by the heavily tattooed Kevin Nash, and his hippie soul mate in the boonies is the recognizable character actress Jane Adams, portraying Tamara.

There is an attempt by Channing Tatum to find a willing sexual partner for the night in a bar, which fizzles. A decision is made to revisit Lulu’s litter mate brother, who is being trained to re-enter polite society by a former Ranger buddy. There is also a detour during a frightful storm, where Briggs and the dog take shelter in a barn to wait it out.

Finally, as it must, the film gets us to the church on time. Or, in this case, to the cemetery just in time.

Anyone who stays through five minutes of the movie can predict that the ex-Ranger who seemed to be nursing a death wish before meeting the dog now has a reason to live, and, if it isn’t spelled out clearly enough for you in scene after scene, we have the line, “Thanks for saving my life,” with beautiful cinematography by Newton Thomas Segel, coupled with great song selections from Season Kent (music supervisor), with old Kenny Rogers lyrics like “Know When to Hold ‘Em.” The original music by Thomas Newman is also quite good.

So, mission accomplished for both Channing Tatum, Reid Carolin and the audience.

The movie was enjoyable and heart-warming and the dog(s) do a great job of ingratiating themselves to the audience, (as cute canines will.) Since this dog is also a hero, we like Lulu very much. It was one of two new films released on February 18^th (the other was the Mark Wahlberg/Tom Holland opus “Uncharted”) and we selected it over the carefully scripted adventure yarn of buried treasure (Haven’t we had enough of buried treasure ?).

SPOILER REMARK:

One comment regarding a slight reservation about the film. We learn that Jackson Briggs has a three-year-old daughter. He visits her house and mother and is in and out of that house in under five minutes with no dialogue. He spends no time talking about his daughter, nor does he seem particularly intent on seeing her again. Yet, by the film’s end, we know that Jackson Briggs is such a caring individual that he will adopt the combat dog in order to save its life.

So, does this mean that our hero would choose mentoring and adopting a dog over taking care of his own flesh and blood? If so, it does diminish somewhat the likeability and appeal and charisma of our lead character. I’m wondering if this entire sub-plot of the almost non-existent and clearly forgotten daughter would have been better left on the cutting room floor? It did not make me like Briggs more, While applauding his dedication to the lead dog of the story (Lulu), totally ignoring his daughter for a period of years did not come off as admirable or understandable.