A killer shark/serial killer movie, as well as the excellent “Life of Chuck,” tops our recommendations of what to watch this weekend. As for Wes Anderson’s latest? Skip it.
Here is our roundup.
“Dangerous Animals”: It doesn’t sound like it should work, a horror film that is both a serial-killer thriller and a killer-shark movie. Credit an airtight screenplay from up-and-coming scribe Nick Lepard along with taut direction from Sean Byrne and a go-for-broke performance from Jai Courtney for making “Dangerous Animals” swim upstream and beat the odds.
Courtney is a devilish delight as nutso Aussie fisherman and tourist guide Tucker. He makes a living, and killings, by taking unsuspecting tourists out on his boat so they can see sharks up close in underwater cages. His intentions are deadlier than that. When the resourceful, street-smart surfer Zephyr (Hassie Harrison, imbuing her final girl status with depth) enters Tucker’s lair, it’s only a matter of time till she’ll be swimming with the fishes or becoming chum for a shark. Zephyr’s sudden disappearance seems awfully suspicious to her one-night hottie beau Moses (Josh Heuston) and he starts investigating her whereabouts.
Byrne’s efficient genre mashup doesn’t fuss around in telling its story, giving us enough wedges of character development so that we care about the two lovers while giving us good reason to want to spit at their predator, a seemingly unstoppable killing machine who fancies himself the human equivalent of a shark. Details: 3 stars out of 4; opens June 6 in theaters.
“The Phoenician Scheme”: Wes Anderson loves to frolic and revel in the creative worlds he creates, which is why he walks a tightrope with each film he makes. Sometimes he gets too carried away with all that whimsy he’s known for and forsakes his story, damaging a promising film by making it too twee and precious. His latest confection suffers from that fate even if it does have modest charms, good laughs here and there and two fine lead performances. Too often, though, “Phoenician Scheme” doesn’t know when to reign in its affectations or simply axe a bad screenplay idea. Those moments are like an annoying cutesy intruder that stops Andersons’ latest effort dead in its tracks. And it doesn’t help that the flighty tale he and Roman Coppola concoct goes on a repetitive journey and tosses in numerous top-name stars who fleetingly appear and then disappear (Scarlett Johansson, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks and Jeffrey Wright are among the wasted actors, and these are actors who should never be wasted.)
Anderson’s 13th feature is indeed a step back for a talent who’s given us gems such as “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Moonrise Kingdom” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” The 1950s-set story concerns the misadventures of targeted-for-death tycoon Anatole “Zsa-zsa” Korda (Benicio del Toro) and his nun daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), the unlikely heir to his empire, and his extra-able trainee. They fly to key destinations to buttress a saggy bottom line of daddy’s corrupt business dealings. In between, they fend off assassins and meet with Zsa-zsa’s sometimes backstabbing partners and relatives. When the finer points of Zsa-zsa’s grandiose, costly project — the cumbersomely titled Korda Land and Sea Phoenician Infrastructure Scheme — gets introduced in the form of a collection of shoeboxes (how very twee that is), the film gets stuck in a rut, having the duo drop in for visit after visit to various “sites,” making the whimsy seem a bit stale.
Per the norm of Anderson films, the production details are glorious to behold and savor and do keep us occupied whenever our attention wanders, which happens more often than it should. What peps up “The Phoenician Scheme” are some of its performances, specifically del Toro’s. He is the kind of rugged handsome actor who’s suited so well for his brusque character.
Threapleton is his perfect foil but also stands on her own. Her Liesl proves she has a sharper mind than her pop. The biggest laugh comes from Michael Cera’s quirky performance as a personal tutor who travels with Zsa-zsa and Liesl. He lands the best surprise in the film, the one that makes us realize “The Phoenician Scheme” could have been so much better if it bothered more with its plot and less with star-studded cast. Details: 2 stars; opens June 6 in theaters.
“I Don’t Understand You”: Painfully affluent Los Angeles couple Dom (Nick Kroll) and Cole (Andrew Rannells) are poised to finally realize their ultimate dream and become parents. While the two self-absorbed gay men await earning the green light from an expectant mother (Amanda Seyfried), they jet over to Italy to toast their anniversary so they can take their designer-influenced minds off their singular obsession. What they get is a crass ticket to flaunt their ugly American side, not only by mangling the language but miscommunicating and misidentifying the intentions of one eccentric, warm-hearted family living in a small, remote village. When Italian momma Zia (Nunzia Schiano) makes the guys a special and intimate dinner, directors/screenwriters Brian Crano and David Joseph Craig’s black comedy shoots off into unexpected directions. Things get a bit choppy and the ending lacks punch, but the performances from Kroll and Rannells are priceless and save the film from itself. Details: 2½ stars; in theaters June 6.
“The Ritual”: The once golden exorcism movie has all but fallen from the good graces of audiences and critics alike. A trail of box-office duds prove it. Russell Crowe donned the cloth to chase away the demons inside in 2024’s “The Exorcism” and 2023’s “The Pope’s Exorcist” while a reboot of the classic “The Exorcist” — 2023’s unholy disaster “The Exorcist: Believer” — tanked as well. So how does director/screenwriter David Midell’s “based-on-a-true story” possession thriller stack up? It’s not as awful as “Believer,” but it’s barely more than a middling cinematic dance with the devil. That’s despite the full commitment of Dan Stevens as real-life priest Joseph Steiger. He keeps us invested as hunky Father Steiger, leader of a small flock at St. Joseph’s in Earling, Iowa. In 1928 after his brother’s death, he becomes the official note taker for exorcist Theophilus Riesinger (Al Pacino) at the ritualistic exorcism of 46-year-old Emma Schmidt (Abigail Cowen) at a convent nearby.
The two men clash but then go on to respect each other after Emma takes a chunk of a scalp from a nun, upchucks some weird-looking goo and then taunts/terrorizes those around her. For anyone who has seen at least one exorcist film, these proceedings hew to the approved genre textbook. While the framework of “The Ritual” does make sense — carrying us from A to Z on the exorcism rites — the structure doesn’t encourage much emotional investment or provide more background info on each character, making what happens feel far less impactful than when audiences saw what poor Reagan and her momma endured in William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist.” Pacino keeps himself in check until the final act when it’s appropriate to overact and speaks with a weird German accent and has such wild hair that you want to make an appointment for him at Supercuts. In the end, “The Ritual” made me want to seek out more info so I could fill in the blanks about what’s called the most documented American exorcism. I guess you could even say the devil is indeed in the details that this film puts on the back burner. Details: 2 stars; opens June 6 in theaters.
“Predator: Killer of Killers”: One horror franchise that received a terrific reboot is the bloodthirsty primordial alien series “Predator.” Director Dan Trachtenberg reinvigorated the popular series (including comics and videogames) with 2022’s indigenous-themed “Prey.” This animated series shuffles spans centuries for a triptych of inter-connected tales in which the scaly critter appears and then makes his deadly presence well-known. The first — “The Shield” — is set in 841 AD and finds a fierce Viking warrior mother hoping to pass on her overwhelming obsession for revenge to her son. The second — “The Sword” — is set in 1609 feudal Japan and concerns a rivalry between two Samurai brothers and a face off with the predator. (It’s my favorite). And the final one — “The Bullet” (it’s the plane) — starts in 1941 Florida and gives us a young World War II pilot who gets involved in a spectacular air fight that would make even Tom Cruise envious. Trachtenberg and co-director Josh Wassung (from the animation company The Third Floor) keep the action, animation and attention humming along throughout while the screenplay from Micho Robert Rutare intriguingly weaves these three tales together for a killer final act. It certainly whets the appetite for the Nov. 7 theatrical release of the live-action “Predator: Badlands.” Details: 3 stars; available on Hulu.
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.