Poor editing mars comedic Thor film; Nope falls short

(August 14, 2022) — The character of Thor sure has changed a lot since his first film.

In the first two movies, Thor is often dour – with comedic moments few and far between. The reverse is true by the fourth film in the series, “Thor: Love & Thunder.”

There have been six movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Thor’s last appearance in “Avengers: Endgame.” When we first see him in “Love & Thunder,” it is clear he has rediscovered himself by getting in shape and becoming an honest member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

His banter with the Guardians works well but is sadly short-lived. Thor soon learns of a malevolent being killing other gods throughout the universe. Angry at the gods for allowing his daughter to die, Gorr (Christian Bale) believes they all deserve to suffer. Bale is great, but the character does not get nearly enough screentime.

Natalie Portman reprises her role as Jane Foster, Thor’s former love interest. After discovering she has stage 4 cancer, Foster decides to seek out the pieces of Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir.

Editing begins to fail the movie at this point because the next time we see her, she has become a female version of Thor. A transformation as monumental as this should be shown onscreen. The rumor is that Disney demanded that director Taika Waititi keep the film under 120 minutes, so many scenes had to be cut or omitted entirely. I did not want a 165-minute film, but “Love & Thunder” needed more heft.

Chris Hemsworth is jovially fantastic as Thor. He truly has found a perfect groove with the character.

While “Love & Thunder” is better than the first two Thor films, it is certainly no “Thor: Ragnarok.” B

Finding ‘Vengeance’

It is hard to watch B.J. Novak and not immediately think of his character Ryan from “The Office.” In “Vengeance,” which Novak both wrote and directed, he stars as Ben, a character not particularly different from Ryan.

Ben is a modern-day yuppie writing and podcasting in New York. In the opening scene, Ben and a friend (John Mayer) opine for about 10 minutes on their current place in the world with regard to women. This gives us a lot of insight into Ben’s character. Thus, when he gets a mysterious phone call about a dead girlfriend, it is not much of a shock that Ben cannot immediately remember the girl.

Boyd Holbrook is excellent as the girl’s brother, Ty. He convinces Ben to come to a deeply rural town in Texas for the funeral. When Ty suggests Ben is the perfect partner to get revenge on the murderer, Ben gets the idea to document it all for a new podcast titled “Dead White Girl.”

The film finds a lot of humor in Ben’s fish-out-water moments. He is clearly in way over his head, and everyone in Texas knows it. Many films might play the poor, hillbilly Texan family for laughs. Yet, Novak humanizes all of them; they are just trying to survive like the rest of us.

Ashton Kutcher does his finest acting job as a local record producer. Ben finds a kinship with him he did not expect.

Novak is also at his best as Ben. We identify with him to a point yet cringe at some of his heel-turns.

Although the ending is a little far-fetched, “Vengeance” is one of the better films of the year. A-

‘Nope,’ just nope

In the horror genre, director Jordan Peele has become a master of the setup. The characters and storytelling skillfully drive the narrative.

It is unfortunate then, that in his last two movies, the payoffs fall short.

The denouement of “Get Out,” Peele’s first directorial effort, is simple perfection. It is exactly what the character, and the audience, need. His next movie, “Us,” doubles down on the scares but falls flat at the end.

His latest film, “Nope,” not only stumbles at the finish but is unfortunately light on frights.

“Nope” functions best early on, when the characters and the audience are unaware what is really happening. Many horror movies lose their effect once the monster is revealed. The reveal in “Nope” is not necessarily bad, it just kind of feels like it has been done before. “War of the Worlds” (2005) immediately comes to mind.

Daniel Kaluuya plays OJ, a horse trainer for Hollywood. The business has been in his family for generations, however, lately he has had to sell several of his horses to Ricky Jupe (Steven Yeun), purveyor of a local Western reenactment village.

As a child TV star, Jupe witnessed a chimpanzee gone crazy on set. Jupe never feels like a main character; the large amount of screentime devoted to the chimpanzee chaos feels unnecessary. Jupe has capitalized on his narrow escape all his life. It makes sense he would try to exploit the appearance of something strange in the sky. OJ and his wild sister, Em, (Keke Palmer) spend the second half of the movie calculatedly trying to determine just what is up there.

As the comic relief, Brandon Perea plays a Fry’s security camera installer in over his head. Other humorous bits include anytime a character utters the movie’s title. The remarks are a tongue-in-cheek response to the stereotypical horror movie characters who die as a result of stupid choices.

“Nope” is Peele’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” an early movie in Steven Spielberg’s career – when he was also still finding his footing. I hope Peele’s next movie is not on par with “1941,” Spielberg’s dud of a follow-up. More likely, we can hope for the gems that came next: “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “E.T.” B-

Time travel with Beavis and Butthead

Beavis and Butthead are back. Not only do they have new episodes arriving this month on Paramount+, but their new movie “Beavis and Butthead do the Universe” is a brilliant return to form.

The boys are accidentally transported from 1998 to 2022. Hilarity ensues as they have to deal with the current state of the world. If you were a fan in the 1990s, you’ll enjoy their latest adventure. A-