Lightning Round: Holiday Displacement

One release too soon, another too late, the other just right for family gathering holidays.

“Overlord” is perhaps the single least pretentious film that I have had the pleasure of seeing in years.

I know that the usage of that word has been widely co-opted by the lowest common denominator of film audiences as an insult to anything that dares to have ambitions beyond satisfying the most basic of urges of the human attention span but if ever the calculated opposite of the word could be put to a visual, I could think of no better visual than this film and the thrill ride that it provides throughout its lean runtime just a little over an hour and a half.

Born from JJ Abrams’ production company Bad Robot, who seems to pride themselves on fun genre experiences that don’t get bombed by information overload in the internet age, “Overlord” is a refreshingly simple case of what you see is what you get.

Preceding the Allied invasion on D-Day during World War 2, a group of soldiers is tasked with taking out a Nazi radio jamming tower hidden within the church of a small town in order to kick start the series of conflicts that will ultimately end the war.

Unfortunately, they discover horrific human experimentations by Nazi scientists and find themselves in a struggle to not only demolish the tower for the good of the war effort but the compound housing the tower and its unholy abominations within for the safety of humanity in general.

“Overlord” really is as simple as that, a half war, half horror, action adventure flick, embracing the tropes of simple yet charming characterizations and brutally tense and atmospheric set-pieces while standing wholly proud and unapologetic about its clear status as a B-movie.

The first half of the film sets up the best of two eras of war filmmaking with an opening evoking the classic feel of a mid 20^th century serial before leaping into one of the most intense first acts of the genre since the opening of “Saving Private Ryan.”

Even as the movie begins to play its true hand however, director Julius Avery managed to guide his actors and the production with a consistent tone that always draws attention to the superb craftsmanship on display even of the film itself isn’t trying to reach for anything deeper.

The performances are top notch, even if the characterizations of the screenplay are as basic as it gets, the tight atmosphere well shot action consistently grip, and the special effects range from legitimately fantastic to carrying stylistically cheap charm that reminds me of how enjoyable B-movies can be when helmed by people actually trying to make something that’s entertaining to watch instead of just play out.

The only major mistake “Overlord” makes is the inexplicable decision to miss out on the October release window in which it could have become a new seasonal Halloween classic.

8 Nazi Zombies out of 10

“The Grinch” is a film so calculatedly inoffensive that the only two things that really did manage to offend me about it were its own lack of teeth in storytelling and the notion that Hollywood wishes to continue making Dr. Seuss roll over in his own grave by attaching his name to in name only adaptations of his work that is so obviously not suited to feature length production.

Illumination returns to the Dr. Seuss well by producing a movie just a hair over an hour and a half in length that somehow still feels almost a half hour too long.

I can honestly kvetch for ages about how this thing just meanders from gag set piece to gag set piece with the flimsiest plot excuses imaginable or about how it atmospherically fails to capture true or even manufactured Christmas spirit of a good 80 percent of its length to the point where I was wondering if it was even going to bother adapting the “stole Christmas” part of the famous story.

All of this would be a waste of time and investment spent elsewhere however because when you hone in on what made it into the actual film itself, “The Grinch” is fine; another passably unremarkable feature from a studio whose reputation is built upon passably unremarkable features.

For every joke that’s a dud, there’s one with a decent chuckle. The edges of the story may have been smoothed over for the worse but the visual design is possibly some of the best work Illumination has provided to date and while Cumberbatch is wasted as the titular character, he does have occasional moments hearkening back to the reformation of Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” that are actually fairly heartwarming, even if the reformation itself is poorly sold here because the character has been essentially neutered of his bite.

Kids will love it and parents won’t hate it, I’m just done giving Illumination the pass on skating by with bare minimums quietly.

I was hard critic on “Despicable Me” back when it released almost 8 years ago so I have never exactly been under any sort of illusion that Illumination was anything but a cash cow producer. I certainly never held their work to the standard of Disney or Pixar but after sitting through “Sing” and “The Secret Life of Pets,” as well as some of the funner, more “Looney Tunes-esque” set pieces of this feature, I’m sick of seeing them coast along the safe path when they are clearly capable of doing just a little bit more than celebrating the sort of blatant commercialism Dr. Seuss spoke against by using his features adapting his own arsenal of tools to be used against his message.

5 Smile Termites out of 10

Grappling with the legacy of their fathers upon the world of boxing, Adonis Creed and Viktor Drago fight for the honors of their lineage while struggling to find out what boxing means to them beyond the shadow of their father’s legacy.

It seems almost fitting that a sequel to 2015’s “Creed” with such dramatic exaggeration would derive itself from plot points from “Rocky IV,” perhaps one of the most exaggerated entries of the original series.

Where “Creed” however manages to continue distinguishing itself from the series that spawned it is in its commitment to the human drama rather than the pageantry behind the subject matter.

Michael B. Jordan continues to build his case for being one of the best leading men in Hollywood today by portraying a more experienced Donnie, unafraid to be a bit more egotistically flawed while seeming mildly adrift in his newfound fame, questioning if his fighting career is really everything that he wants out of life now that he’s sitting as a mighty champion of the craft.

The danger he puts himself in becomes far more real as his growing family life becomes a legitimate human stake in a fight he can’t bring himself to back down from, while Stallone continues his full circle evolution as mentor and trainer in the position of Rocky Balboa himself whose perhaps brought me the closest to tears in theaters than I can recall in quite some time.

The grade A character drama not only carries the film but enhances the action in the ring as some of these fights are some of the most brutal beat downs I’ve seen put to screen. The first fight between Drago and Creed in particular is a nightmare of anticipatory cringing that probably made me flinch more than the most graphic gore sequences of war movies, in turn making their final fight one of the most suspenseful and satisfying set pieces I’ve sat through all year.

“Creed II” is most definitely a formulaic movie as far as sports dramas surrounding boxing are concerned but the film leans into its formatting as a tool of engagement for prime storytelling in ways that lesser formulaic movies take for granted.

The most cartoonish the movie gets is perhaps the final training montage featuring a regimen so questionable it belongs in a “Rocky” parody more than an actual successor but even so the ebb and flow of things doesn’t feel so bad because its just so easy to invest in character that feel this real.

The only actual flaw to that format however is when you see the areas in which it could have improved, such as more explicit characterization for the Dragos and their tragic circumstances, routinely hinted at but never properly explored in favor of sticking to what’s tried and tested. That’s a real shame because it’s the only moment where the film’s sense of contentment seems to hold it back from a higher level of unexpected greatness.

Disappointing as it can be on a level of sheer plot mechanics however, “Creed II” is just far too compelling and satisfying on every other level to not warrant a viewing as its perhaps the best crowd pleaser in theaters at this moment.

8 Rounds out of 10