A Quiet Place Part II (2020)

Day 1

Lee Abbot (John Krasinski) drives down the street and walks into a local market in his small town.  The owner is staring at the TV, watching something smoking.  When Lee asks about it, the man says there was an explosion.  Continuing about his day, Lee grabs some fruit and then makes his way to a baseball field where his son, Marcus, is playing.  Among the spectators is Emmett (Cillian Murphy) with his son.  There is also Evelyn Abbot (Emily Blunt), Regan Abbot (Millicent Simmonds), and Beau Abbot.  During the game, a fireball is seen coming down from the sky in the distance.  The game breaks up and everyone leaves.  And then the first monster descends on the town.

Day 474

With her newborn in her arms, Emily gets Regan and Marcus to collect what they can from the farm before setting out.  Regan uses her father's map to find another survivor.  Perhaps they can find shelter with someone else.  To their surprise, they find Emmett.  He is alone, his wife and son both having died.  He'd rather Emily move on but circumstances are dire.  Regan is determined to make use of the newly-discovered feedback sound that practically disables the monsters.

The movie is an amazingly good prequel/sequel.  The story is tight and well-told.  Events are setup so that the audience can enjoy the eventual payoff.  The tension is kept high.  Very impressive.  If you liked the first one, you will definitely like this one.

My big qualm about this movie and its predecessor is the fact that these things were able win so easily.  I'll accept that their hide is thick and might protect against shotguns or small arms but a .50 caliber gun would cut them in half.  And now it turns out they can't swim.  The Navy should be sitting just off the coast making a racket to attract them and wipe them out.

Dunkirk

Dunkirk is four stories that are loosely tied together, all providing a glimpse of the evacuation that allowed the British to save its army and ignominious defeat.

First, there is Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), a young soldier who is wandering the streets of Dunkirk with a handful of other soldiers when they are suddenly fired upon.  He is the only one who escapes and finds himself with thousands of soldiers milling on the beach, waiting for evacuation.  But Tommy is not prepared to wait his turn.  He has the misfortune of being aboard two separate ships that sink.  Tommy is not a laudable character but we get to see a lot of him.

Second, there is the officers in charge of the evacuation, namely Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branaugh) and Colonel Winnant (James D'Arcy).  Mostly, they stand on the end of the pier and explain the dire situation, serving as de facto narrators.  Though important for the narrative, they are static characters of little interest.

Third, there are the Spitfire pilots, Farrier (Tom Hardy) and Collins (Jack Lowden).  This storyline is the most exciting, providing the majority of the action as the two pilots must keep track of their fuel consumption, watch out for enemy fighters, and protect ships from German bombers.  Hardy shines as an unflappable fighter pilot.

Finally, there is the Moonstone, a private boat piloted by Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) and crewed by his son Peter and young George Miller.  This is the best story of the bunch, showing a civilian craft taking part in the rescue of the British military.  During the trip to Dunkirk, they pickup a soldier (Cillian Murphy) from a sunken ship, rescue Collins from his ditched Spitfire, and fish a couple dozen more soldiers from a sunken destroyer.  Also, they recover Tommy.  Like Hardy's fighter pilot, Rylance is insouciant in the face of danger, a stark contrast to some of the soldiers he rescued.

 

The movie tries to strike a balance between the big picture and the individual characters.  In so doing, it felt like it missed both.  There are too many characters and this is the story of too many people.  The holding action that protected the beach for the evacuation is entirely absent.  It is a war movie with surprisingly little fighting.  All too often, the characters are just sitting ducks for German dive bombers or unseen snipers.

 

Not a bad film but clearly Nolan's weakest film.  Hardy and Rylance were great but I could have done without the rest of it.  This is material for a documentary, not an entertaining movie.  It is tough to adapt a catastrophic retreat to the big screen and Nolan did about as well as can be expected.  I am reminded of Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

Brave Sir Robin ran away.
Bravely ran away away.
When danger reared it's ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Swiftly taking to his feet,
He beat a very brave retreat.
Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin!

 

It is hard to make a heroic film out of Dunkirk, especially when as much attention is paid to those fleeing as those rescuing.

Free Fire

Boston, 1978.  Stevo and Bernie are driving an RV, heading toward a gun buy.  Bernie asks about Stevo's black eye and Stevo says the guy who gave it to him is dead should they ever meet again.  Meanwhile, Chris (Cillian Murphy) flirts with Justine (Brie Larson) while Frank (Michael Smiley) curses about Stevo and Bernie being late.  When Stevo and Bernie arrive, Ord (Armie Hammer) emerges from the darkness and searches all present for wires.  Satisfied, he leads them into an abandoned warehouse to meet Vernon the Gun Dealer (Sharlto Copley) and his 'associate,' Martin (Babou Ceesay).  There are minor hiccups but the deal looks to go smoothly until Harry and Gordon bring in the rest of the guns.  Harry is the one who gave Stevo the black eye!  The confrontation soon escalates to gunfire.

 

The setup is just an excuse to launch the gunfight.  Everyone gets shot, usually multiple times.  There is so much shooting that one wonders how much ammunition all of these characters had in their pockets.  It is also surprising how badly these people shoot.  Most characters are wounded badly enough that they can only drag themselves along the floor but not so badly that they bleed to death.  It amounts to a bunch of incompetent gunmen who are too stupid to runaway and too unskilled to win the fight.  Added to this, everyone is a bad guy.  Some are charming bad guys or funny bad guys but they are all bad guys and deserve their fates.

 

Sharlto Copley was the most entertaining character with lots of great lines.  He shows pride is his blue suit only to have it ruined bit by bit.  He's a bumpkin of an arms dealer and one wonders if this is perhaps his first gun deal.  Armie Hammer is clearly the most competent person and spends a great deal of time shaking his head at the incompetence of those around him.  His easy-going manner and snarky wit make him a fun character.

 

Mediocre.