[ By DAN DEMING ]
[ ENTERTAINMENT CONTRIBUTOR ]
This weekend there's only one new movie in Hutchinson: "The Turning."It's the movie version of a well read novel called ,"Turning of the Screw." No big names are in this film which is about a young governess hired by a man to look over his nephew and niece. The mystery, drama, thriller is rated PG-13.
"Dolittle" did little at the box office last weekend and was a big financial disappointment for a $175 million budget staring Robert Downey Jr. as Dr. Dolittle along with Emma Thompson and Selena Gomez. It's a reboot of two previous Dolittle films about an eccentric doctor who becomes a hermit seven years after his wife's death, talking mostly to his exotic animals and living in the English backwoods.
Doing surprisingly well was "Bad Boys For Life," coming 17 years after the original "Bad Boys" movie and staring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence repeating their lead roles. The story takes place in Miami and involves both a drug cartel and Miami Vice.
Still in Hutchinson at B&B Theaters is one of the Academy's best picture nominees: the World War I movie, "1917." Golden Globes has already named it as one of the tops for 2019. Especially from a technical filming standpoint, using continuous camera footage that makes it appear the audience is alongside observing the action. This is a highly commendable movie.
But frankly, after watching it for more than two hours it was a exhausting experience. I counted 13 dramatic depictions of death and trauma with the two principal characters before the film reaches its climax. That's a lot of WWI's trench warfare to ensure. Director Sam Mendes, a Brit, gets well deserved accolades for his writing and directing while the near all British actors and setting is well done and often stunning. But a warning, British accents sometimes make the dialogue hard to understand in "1917." Adding captions for American audiences might have made sense.
The basic plot is about two soldiers crossing miles of German lines to warn 2,600 comrades, including one messengers' brother. Their comrades are about to be slaughtered if they don't call off a planned attack. The film, however, is not a true story. It is instead a composite of what was told to Mendes by his grandfather who was in that war. The two featured characters did not actually exist. If it sounds like "Saving Private Ryan," without Tom Hanks, it is, but not as appealing.
āMovie news you can useā is a weekly feature submitted by Dan Deming. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of Hutch Post or its affiliates.