By Bernie ‘The Movie Guy’ Ment
Contributing Writer
Suicide Squad
I have never been a fan of DC comics, although some of the movies have actually impressed me. The three Batman reboots starring Christian Bale rank among my favorite superhero movies of all time. The villains never appealed to me, though. As diabolical as they were, they always seemed so one-dimensional that I could never invest any understanding or appeal towards them.
In “Suicide Squad,” a group of supervillains take center stage when a covert government operative decides that they have something to offer humanity after all. The only really recognizable characters that are introduced here, though, are The Joker (Jared Leto) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). The others seem rather dredged from the bottom of the stockpile.
There’s a lot of false pathos generated throughout, designed to make the villains a sympathetic bunch, but really, you can drop the first syllable since all it makes the story and characters is merely pathetic. Even Will Smith, who is the supposed star of this story, is practically wasted. Known primarily for is disarming wit, Smith barely evokes so much as a titter from the audience, while co-stars Leto and Robbie pretty much steal away his thunder.
Ben Affleck makes a cameo appearance as the Caped Crusader and sets the stage for the next confrontation with the Suicide Squad, but I suspect that death is too good for them. We’ll almost certainly see more of these clowns since audiences even love bad superhero movies.
I give “Suicide Squad” 2 out of 5 stars.
* * *
Anthropoid
Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy are not household names, which makes them aptly cast for this movie since the story underlying it isn’t exactly common conversation around the dinner table in most American homes.
The story focuses on an assassination attempt on the third highest ranking Nazi during World War II under Adolf Hitler. Reinhard Heydrich was an exceptionally cruel man who was assigned to oversee Czechoslovakia when the country was ceded to the Germans at the start of the overrun of Europe in the 1930s.
Murphy and Dornan play a pair of parachutists who were trained in Britain for this mission. Their adventure begins dubiously when one of the pair is injured upon arrival in their native country. The rest of the movie is a by-the-numbers forensic retelling of the assassination attempt and the subsequent manhunt for the killers. Throw in a love story as part of the background and you have a big screen production that would have been better served with a fall release where it may have gotten more attention.
There wasn’t nearly enough back story or character exposition included to make this film more interesting and the some of the scenes seem almost contrived even by Hollywood standards. This could have been a compelling movie with plenty of shelf life. Instead, it will more than likely never achieve the recognition the story really deserves.
This movie is certainly worth seeing if you have the opportunity to do and I do recommend it. With another director and bigger stars, this might have been memorable. Instead, I will have to give “Anthropoid” 3-1/2 out of five stars. Where’s Steven Spielberg when you need him?
