The Movie Guru: ‘A Minecraft Movie’ pure silliness, while ‘A Working Man’ needs more action
Warner Bros./Courtesy photo
A Minecraft Movie (in theaters)
“A Minecraft Movie” makes a lot more sense once you realize it’s by the same director as “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Nacho Libre.”
While an initial look at the trailers made me think that the movie was going to be phoned-in corporate nonsense, Jared Hess’s involvement means the silliness is entirely on purpose. The feel of the movie is practically slapstick at times, but there’s also a surprisingly decent heart beating underneath it all. Fans of the game will appreciate all the in-universe references, and fans of Hess will appreciate the nods to “Napoleon Dynamite.” Young kids will just appreciate the absurdity.
The plot of movies like this doesn’t really matter, but it follows the key checkpoints for a lot of kids’ adventure movies. A group of unlikely heroes accidentally stumble into a strange land, then have to locate a special artifact to get home again. Along the way, they end up saving the strange land from evil. The only difference is that this time, everything is square.
Jack Black is enthusiastically Jack Black throughout the movie, taking every opportunity possible to burst into song. Jason Momoa has clearly yearned for the opportunity to be silly, taking full advantage of it here. Everyone else is brave or emotionally supportive as necessary.
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And, of course, everything ends with a dance number.
Grade: Two stars
A Working Man (in theaters)
Jason Statham is meant to be punching and/or kicking bad guys, which means every moment he isn’t is something of a disappointment.
His latest movie, “A Working Man,” stumbles when it forgets this very important fact. It’s release is clearly based on the massive success of last year’s “The Beekeeper,” where Statham wreaked havoc on a group of predatory phone scammers. His enemies in this new movie are even more villainous, but explaining them and following their kidnapee takes too much time that should be going to Statham. The actor also has a separate angsty subplot in his half of the movie, which isn’t terrible but feels unnecessary. It also, sadly, cuts into the fighting time.
The fighting that does happen is quite satisfying, though. Statham continues to be an excellent action lead, delivering excellent bone-crunching violence with just the right amount of attitude. The camera wisely doesn’t get too complicated, letting Statham provide all the adrenaline the scenes need. He’s not a bad actor, but he’s a much better fighter.
Statham plays a former soldier who left his Special Forces past behind after a tragedy at home. He now works construction and fights for custody of his daughter, but when his boss’s daughter gets kidnapped he digs into his old skills to find her. Through investigation he finds out that both a biker gang and the Russian mob are involved, which gives him plenty of people to beat up as the need arises.
If only it happened more often.
Grade: Two and a half stars
Jenniffer Wardell is an award-winning movie critic and member of the Denver Film Critics Society. Drop her a line at themovieguruslc@gmail.com.
