Arts

The Fabulous Four
Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse
Southpaw Entertainment
In Theaters: 07.26

November 8, 2017 – the day that Donald Trump was elected – was among the worst of my life, comparable to the deaths of my parents. The reason that I mention this is that, while Susan Sarandon used to be a favorite of mine, I put some degree of blame for that nightmare upon her and other extremists who strongly encouraged liberals to boycott the election. The only reason I mention any of this is to give full context to the statement that, for me, The Fabulous Four is still the most unforgivable thing that Sarandon has ever been involved in. 

The Fabulous Four is the story of a quartet of old friends reuniting for a wedding in Florida. Lou (Sarandon, Thelma and Louise, Dead Man Walking) is a successful heart surgeon who lives alone with her cats, having never married after the love of her life eloped with her best friend Marilyn (Bette Midler, Hocus Pocus, Beaches). After the death of Marilyn’s husband, she is lost and lonely, and quickly becomes engaged, planning a lavish ceremony in Key West. Alice (Megan Mullally, Will & Grace, Dicks: The Musical), a singer who once toured with the Rolling Stones, and Kitty (Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary, The Young Wife), a cannabis farmer who has a strained relationship with her hyper-religious daughter, are determined to get Lou to come to the wedding and finally bury the hatchet with Marilyn. To get Lou to come to Key West, they concoct an elaborate story about winning a raffle to become the owner of a polydactyl cat from Ernest Hemingway’s estate, and soon the women are reunited. While tension runs high between Lou and Marilyn, Kitty and Alice spend a lot of time getting drunk and high. Lou finally starts to loosen up when she meets a suave man named Ted (Bruce Greenwood, Thirteen Days, Star Trek), and things appear to be working out for a little while until further complications ensue.

Despite starring a group of highly talented performers, The Fabulous Four has a lot of elements working against it, chief among them the abysmal screenplay by Ann Marie Allison and Jenna Milly (You’re Dating a Narcissist!), which is a feeble collection of cardboard characters, stupid situations, and raunchy routines. The crazy contrivances include the aforementioned feline-oriented sub-plot, constant variations on the same marijuana joke, an attempted robbery foiled by using a Kegel ball as a projectile weapon, and a wild bachelorette party at strip club wherein one of these four women inevitably has a shocking discovery you can see coming from at least 20 miles away. The dialogue leaves a lot to be desired: when Kitty’s born again daughter, Leslie (Brandee Evans, Rolling Into Christmas, Unprisoned) wants to put her into a Christian retirement home called Heaven’s Gate, Kitty quips “Heaven’s Gate? More like hell on earth!” and constitutes one of the wittier moments in the film’s poorly conceived jokes about topics ranging from slavery to date rape make for some seriously cringe-inducing moments. 

Sarandon fairs best of the cast, and for all of the negativity I cast at her in the opening paragraph, this movie stands as proof that she’s incapable of giving a truly bad performance. This is more than can be said for the campy and constantly mugging Midler, who is only slightly less over the top than she is as the buck-toothed crone Winnifred Sanderson in Hocus Pocus. Ralph is almost as bad, transitioning poorly from the more presentational acting style of a broad sitcom to what should be a more grounded characterization in a feature film, and all that can be said for Mullally is that she’s only asked to portray three states of being: drunk, stoned, and horny, and she convinced me on at least two out of three. A cast of venerated stars giving such sloppy performances and so unable to find convincing chemistry has to be put at the foot of the director, and Jocelyn Moorhouse (Proof, How To Make an American Quilt, The Dressmaker) approaches the material with all of the subtlety and grace of an incontinent sheepdog, and it’s a bit of a surprise that a movie this amateur and slapdash comes from such an industry veteran.

The Fabulous Four is an utter misfire from beginning to end, and the only positive thing I can say about it is that, given the fact that it’s getting minimal publicity and opening opposite the most anticipated Marvel release in a couple of years, this film going to meet a mercifully quick demise at the box office before it goes on to punishing streaming viewers. By far the person who comes off looking best here is Diane Keaton, because her mediocre vehicles such as The Book Club and Summer Camp look quite solid in comparison. –Patrick Gibbs

Read more film reviews here:
Film Review: Deadpool and Wolverine
Film Review: Longlegs 

The Last Breath is the latest killer shark movie to swim into view, but can it do something fresh with one of cinema’s most tired sub-genres?

As someone with an unflinching interest in shark movies, I’m never sure what I find more frustrating. The godawful try-nothing movies that don’t put all that much cash into any one aspect of the production? Or is it the ones that get one point well and whiff the others so bad a shark wouldn’t eat it?

The Last Breath is in the latter camp. There’s a very commendable understanding of underwater cinematography at play here. But that focus seems to mean sense and logic have been largely drained from the narrative’s oxygen tank.

Before we get into that, the story: A group of college friends is increasingly distant seven years after their initial time together. Their latest reunion comes two whole years after the last. So that dynamic drives a certain desperation to have a moment together.

Noah (Jack Parr – The Limehouse Golem) is working with the seasoned ocean-farer and scuba tour owner Levi (Julian Sands in what is seemingly his last role before his tragic demise) to find a long-lost WWII battleship. They finally chance upon the wreck after storms unearth it from the sands of the deep. Financial strains are alluded to and then explicitly stated. That presents an opportunity when Noah’s rich prick pal Brett (Alexander Arnold) offers a princely sum to show his Instagram fans that he’s got first dibs on exploring a historic wreck. So, the reunion of the college pals is set to culminate in a landmark dive before the authorities get their hands on it.

The Last Breath trailer

Soon, the foursome find themselves trapped in the wreck. Running out of air, and hunted by some seriously tetchy Great White sharks.

The good stuff. The underwater scenes generally look great. Although using a different cinematographer this time, director Joachim Hedén showed that this is his realm with 2020’s Breaking Surface. At its best, it conveys a sense of claustrophobia and panic as things get hairer. If it had been more of a pocket disaster movie about them getting trapped down there without the shark stuff, it might have fared better. Because the underwater scenes instill a believability that the CG sharks do not help maintain.

There are also some decent gore effects with close-ups of ragged flesh and lacerations. Again though, they aren’t exactly delicately blended with digital effects all that well.

The other performances are nothing special in general. They’re downright awful in some instances. This will hardly go down in the annals of great Julian Sands performances, but it’s hard not to think of his recent passing when watching him in a new film for what is likely the last time. With that knowledge in mind, an emotional weight is attached to his sad old boat captain. Yet still, this film finds a way to undermine that with a frankly illogical and downright terrible last scene for his character.

Deep Sea Blues

And that leads us to the bad. The Last Breath has all this underwater expertise, but seems to be lacking elsewhere. Every character is a glib cliche stereotype largely performed with a gusto reserved for redwood trees. Decision-making is beyond idiotic. Especially considering how much knowledge there had to be about what does and doesn’t work underwater. Some really, really baffling choices that defy logic.

I think we should be at a point where if you’re going to do a killer shark you need to pick a lane. Are you a Deep Blue Sea where your sharks have superpowers that allow you to break conventions? Or are you going for something a bit more grounded? So many of these movies get stuck on the rocks between the two and become annoying. We know so much more about sharks now than we did when Jaws came out. Making things up about sharks is fine in the right narrative context, but do it with some consistency.

In The Last Breath, one minute, they’re using logical facts about what a shark can or cannot do; the next, they’re treating them like a fishy Ghostface capable of dramatic entrances and coordinated planning. Coupled with the wonky CGI, it makes it hard to have any fear of these toothy killers of the deep.

Inconsistency is the keyword for this film. At one point, a big deal is made about how little air one character has in their oxygen tank and how it would be nearly impossible to get to the surface. Later, a character free-dives for an absurd amount of time whilst being pursued by a shark. Again, with so much knowledge of underwater filming available, it seems at odds with that.

Then we have the ending, which doesn’t really give a proper payoff and then closes on a tone-deaf ending for characters that have been tough to care for in the preceding 90 minutes.

The Last Breath is a waste of some great potential. There are the bones for an intense shark survival thriller here that is sunk by so many poor decisions. There are many worse shark movies out there, but few are as frustratingly bad as this one.

Score: 3/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 3 equates to ”Bad”. Due to significant issues, this media feels like a chore to take in.

It was a big weekend for Marvel Studios.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige returned to San Diego Comic-Con’s hallowed Hall H on Saturday to hype the studio’s upcoming projects armed with exclusive footage, surprises and more. (Just a couple days earlier, the same hall in the Anaheim Convention Center was the site of revelry celebrating “Deadpool & Wolverine.”)

The presentation highlighted upcoming releases including “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts,” “Fantastic Four” and a couple of “Avengers” films.

Marvel’s biggest surprise was the reveal that Robert Downey Jr. will be making his return to the MCU as Doctor Doom in the next “Avengers” film. After helping kick off the franchise in 2008’s “Iron Man,” Downey portrayed the billionaire playboy Tony Stark, one of the leaders of the Avengers, in more than nine films over the course of his 11-year tenure. He last appeared in 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” in which Stark died to save the universe.

But “Avengers 5” marks not only the return of Downey — it also sees Anthony and Joe Russo back in the Marvel fold. The Russo Brothers have previously helmed four MCU films: “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014), “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019). It’s almost as if Marvel Studios is hitting a bit of a reset after a rocky few years.

Here are the biggest takeaways from Marvel’s presentation.

Marvel is forging its future by mining its past

By bringing Downey and the Russos back into the fold, Marvel Studios is signaling that it sees its path forward in the halcyon days of its past. The Russos helmed two of the MCU’s biggest box office hits — “Avengers: Endgame” has grossed more than $2.7 billion worldwide in its lifetime — and Downey was the face of the franchise for more than a decade.

It’s no secret that Marvel has struggled to find its footing since “Endgame.” Both Phases Four and Five have been lackluster, with some onlookers dubbing it Marvel’s “flop era” after a few underwhelming releases. To break out of the slump, the MCU is changing course.

The audience response to “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which opened to $205 million at the domestic box office and more than $438 million worldwide, signals that this could be a winning strategy, at least in the short term. “Deadpool & Wolverine,” like “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021) before it, wielded nostalgia as a superpower and was packed to the brim with cameos and callbacks to superhero comic book movies past.

Kang, dynasty no more

“Avengers 5,” previously known as “Avengers: Kang Dynasty,” has officially been renamed to “Avengers: Doomsday.” It is expected to hit theaters in 2026.

There had been questions about how the film would move forward after Marvel fired Jonathan Majors last year following his conviction on assault and harassment charges. Would the role be recast or the entire film (and MCU trajectory) be overhauled?

The new title indicates that the MCU is shifting its focus to a new big bad: Doctor Doom. In the comics, Victor von Doom is an evil genius best known for his clashes with the Fantastic Four, but he’s also faced off against the Avengers and the X-Men in his quests to take over the world.

The MCU is leaving Kang in its rearview mirror, at least for now.

Focus on the First Family

Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach were on hand in Hall H to tease their upcoming movie, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” slated for a 2025 release. The film, which officially begins production this week, will be set in 1960s New York, though its exact place in the Marvel multiverse remains unknown.

It was also confirmed that Marvel comics’ first ever superhero team will be seen in “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars,” meaning the MCU is going all in on the Fantastic Four now that they’ve regained the film rights to the characters. Considering the official Avengers roster for the upcoming films remains a mystery, building excitement around the team that will launch the MCU’s Phase Six makes sense.

Joseph Quinn, left, Vanessa Kirby and Pedro Pascal — stars of the upcoming “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” — onstage during the Marvel Studios’ Hall H presentation at SDCC 2024.

(Jesse Grant / Getty Images for Disney)

Silence speaks volumes?

One of the glaring omissions in Feige’s presentation was “Blade,” which was part of a big Marvel Studios surprise in a past Hall H presentation. The film, which will star Mahershala Ali as the eponymous daywalker, at one point was attached to a 2025 release date but has experienced some creative shake-ups since. Yann Demange, the second director attached to the project, departed the film last month.

Also absent in the presentation were Marvel’s upcoming television shows such as “Agatha All Along,” “Daredevil: Born Again” and “Iron Heart.” Perhaps Feige is saving some news for Disney’s own convention, D23 Expo, which will be held in August.