End of Watch (2012)

Los Angeles Police Officers Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Zavala (Michael Pena) were in hot pursuit.  Suddenly, the car they are chasing crashed into a fence.  The suspects jumped out and opened fire.  Taylor and Zavala shoot back, killing the suspects.  Back at the police station, Taylor filmed himself while getting ready for the day.  He was taking classes for law but chose filmmaking as an elective.  As such, he has a camcorder with him most of the time.  The two officers have only just returned to duty; it is SOP for officers involved in a shooting to be taken out of rotation while the incident is reviewed.  It is clear that Taylor and Zavala are the hotshots of the department.  The story follows them, much of it viewed from Taylor's camcorder or the bodycams on the officers.

This is like a long episode of Adam 12 with a lot more gunfire and profanity.  Beyond the comradery of the two cops, the story follows their relationships as well.  Taylor and his new girlfriend, Janet (Anna Kendrick), get the most attention.  There are also the ongoing clashes with a brutal and violent drug cartel that has expanded into L.A.  The movie is at sometimes light and fun but also has extremely dark and violent moments.

Good popcorn fun.  Recommended.

Stowaway (2021)

The crew of the MTS-42 are set for a two-year mission to Mars.  There is mission commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim), and medical researcher Zoe Leverson (Anna Kendrick).  They have hardly begun their Mars Transfer orbit when Barnett discovers blood on the floor.  After unscrewing a panel, a man falls on her, breaking her arm.  The man is unconscious.  However, he had a badge that identifies him as Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson), a launch support engineer.  Unfortunately, the carbon-dioxide scrubber was damaged beyond repair and the ship cannot support everyone all the way to Mars.  The one potential solution is deemed too risky.  While Barnett and Kim are resigned to tossing Adams out of an airlock, Zoe is determined to save him.  The risky solution would have them climb the tether to the counterbalance that provides the artificial gravity.  It may have unused liquid oxygen.  Zoe is determined to try.

The movie only has the four characters.  There are no scenes with ground control.  In fact, all the conversations with ground control are one-sided since you cannot hear what ground control is saying.  Very different from Apollo 13.  Zoe is the central character and Anna Kendrick does a good job in the role.

There were some things that were annoying.  How did Michael get sealed behind a panel?  One expects a story about him sneaking aboard and having a cohort seal him in.  Nope, he just accidentally got stuck behind a panel where the mission critical life support system was housed.  Okay.  Speaking of the mission critical life support system, why is there no backup?  They couldn't even jury rig a fix.  Why weren't they using some sort of tether when doing their spacewalk?  They have special equipment to climb the tether but nothing to attach them if they slip.  Gah!  Since the stowaway angle was hardly explored, the movie could just as easily have been the same system failure that required all the same steps.  The stowaway angle added little beyond knowing which person was likely to get spaced.  Finally, why did the man have to be pathetic?  During the launch, he vomits in a bag.  When transferring to the space station, Zoe carries his bag.  When climbing the tether, he's winded and clumsy.  And it wasn't just him.  Michael is too uncoordinated to help.  Save us, strong woman, save us!  Ugh!

There were too many inconvenient coincidences to make the story work.  It looks good and the ship is cool, but the plot is too much of a stretch.  The plot holes just grated.  Skip.

A Simple Favor

Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) is a super mom.  She volunteers for everything at her son's school and has a daily vlog where she offers recipes, tips, and various helpful advice for parents.  The other parents call themselves 'bad parents' by comparison.  Her son's best friend is Nicky and it just so happens that Nicky wants a play date.  Nicky's mom, Emily (Blake Lively) relents and invites Stephanie and her son to the house.  Emily is almost the polar opposite of Stephanie.  Initially shocked by Emily's demeanor, she is soon entranced and starts doing favors, mostly picking Nicky up from school.  Emily has a high-profile job with a fashion designer.  Her husband, Sean (Henry Golding) is a college professor and wrote a book that Stephanie loved.  In fact, Stephanie and Sean have instant chemistry.  After several weeks, Emily suddenly disappears.  Stephanie quickly discovers that she didn't know Emily as well as she thought she did.

 

Though frequently funny, A Simple Favor touches on many dark subjects: patricide, fratricide, incest, drug use, and alcoholism.  This is not the typical light-hearted silliness one expects from Paul Feig.  Of course, it is a dramatic improvement from his Ghostbusters reboot.  Anna Kendrick is terrific, as usual.  She pulls off a combination of awkward, sweet, hyper competent, and insightful.  If a sequel was made about her future sleuthing exploits, I would gladly see it.  By contrast, Blake Lively didn't bring her character to life nearly as well.  Emily is thoroughly unlikeable with no positive traits beyond her looks.  Pretty women can get away with a lot but with this personality, not for long.  Also, she inexplicably ruins her plans by foolishly goading her adversaries.  Henry Golding plays a hapless and clueless husband.  Like Lively, he didn't pull off the character.  By the end of the movie, it is hard to accept that this handsome, well-educated man was so obtuse and incurious as to be seduced by this unappealing shrew.

 

The movie drags on a bit too long.  There is a confrontation scene that looked like it might be the climax but then there was more movie.  It has a lot of great scenes and Kendrick carries the movie.  If you're a fan of hers, go see this movie.  If not, wait for Netflix.