BEFORE: Jude Law carries over from "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore". He's also in a new film, "Peter Pan and Wendy", playing Captain Hook, but I don't think I can squeeze that one in right now - I just got finished filling up all the spaces until Memorial Day, and I've only got ONE extra space between now and Father's Day, which I think I just filled up when I realized that "Shazam: Fury of the Gods" is already playing on HBO, or MAX or whatever they're calling it now. So I just can't, anyway if it comes down to another version of the same old "Peter Pan" story or a new DC superhero movie, well, my choice is pretty clear there - I'm going with the superhero film.
Now the tough linking work begins, because I need to find a path to July 4, and then I really need to take a look at all the horror movies on my list and try to find a path through them that's maybe 20 or 25 films long - I think I can use some Marvel movies to make the connections, so I can't really watch "Ant-Man 3" or "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" now if they're going to be crucial to my linking plans - but figuring all that out is the tough part. Then I just have to find a path from July 4 to October 1, while also leaving a month of blank space somewhere, that's the OTHER tough part. But once I have all that, wrapping up Movie Year 15 should be easy. Yes, that's right, I haven't even hit the halfway mark for movies this year, and I'm already thinking about how to end it. But first I need to figure out where the October horror chain needs to start, and that's going to take some work. I'm always afraid I'm going to watch a film NOW that I'm going to need THEN, so I'd better figure out a workable chain ASAP.
THE PLOT: After spending 12 years in prison for keeping his mouth shut, notorious safe-cracker Dom Hemingway is back on the streets of London looking to collect what he is owed.
AFTER: Well, this film keeps the trends alive that I've seen in the last couple of weeks - lately it's all been about self-sabotaging people, and fathers - absent or inept fathers in particular ("The Land of Steady Habits", "Annette", "Eighth Grade", even Albus Dumbledore's brother last night...). The lead character here is a safe-cracker, but he self-sabotages his business (crime) relationships, and because he's been in prison for 12 years, he qualifies as an absent father. His first priority is to get the money he's owed for doing the time, and second priority is to re-connect with his now-adult daughter. He missed most of her growing up, and he also missed his ex-wife's funeral. Well, as they say, don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
But this is the character - he's bound to find a way to muck it all up, and his drinking sure doesn't help. He gets really drunk and tells the crime boss he worked for that in addition to the money, he's owed a present, and the present he has in mind is being able to have sex with the boss's girlfriend. Umm, yeah, not smart. He and his old sidekick "Dickie" (aka "Lefty") are guests in the boss's French villa, and really, Dom should just take the money offered and leave, only it seems he doesn't have that in him. After the payoff, they all can't help but celebrate, and that means more drinking, some cocaine, and a drunken high-speed drive through the woods. (What could POSSIBLY go wrong?). When all is said and done, Dom doesn't have his money OR his next job lined up.
OK, plan B, back to London to re-connect with his daughter. That's not likely to go well, either. Evelyn's got a boyfriend from Senegal and Dom's got a grandson, but his daughter wants nothing to do with him. (Just like the daughter in "Stillwater", but for different reasons...).
OK, plan C, Dom tracks down Lestor Jr., the son of the crime boss he used to work for, and he offers his safecracking services - and the proposed arrangement might have worked if Dom hadn't killed Lestor's cat years ago. But against Lestor's better judgment, he puts Dom to the test, if he can open an electronic safe in Lestor's office in ten minutes or under, he gets a job. If he can't, Lestor loses his favorite part of his body, guess which one that is. Only problem is, Dom's an old-school safecracker, and this is an electronic safe, which he's never tried to crack before. And he spent the night before the test drinking in the pub. And Lestor maybe wasn't even serious about the job thing, the whole thing might be a set-up, because Lestor really did love that cat.
Well, as they say, there's always plan D - and Dom believes that a man who's completely out of options actually has the world at his feet. All of the possible future paths are open to him, which is a rather optimistic way of looking at being out of work. I should probably try to remember this philosophy, as it may end up describing my late summer plans. And just as Bill in "Stillwater" spotted the one person at a soccer game that could turn his whole miserable life around, Dom ends up spotting the one person who could change HIS fortunes going into a restaurant. I guess the moral of both films is that you've got to seize the rarest of opportunities when you see them, whether you're a London safecracker or an Oklahoma construction worker in France.
Also starring Richard E. Grant (last seen in "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms"), Demian Bichir (last seen in "The Midnight Sky"), Emilia Clarke (last seen in "Last Christmas"), Kerry Condon (last seen in "This Must Be the Place"), Jumayn Hunter (last seen in "How to Talk to Girls at Parties"), Madalina Ghenea (last seen in "House of Gucci"), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (last seen in "Candyman"), Jordan A. Nash (last seen in "Aladdin" (2019)), Hayley-Marie Coppin, Grant Russell.
RATING: 6 out of 10 old grudges
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