Manuel Garcia-Rulfo Archives | Deep Focus Review

Jurassic World Rebirth

Brian Eggert — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 23:28:48 +0000

Listen to the audio version of this review. Jurassic World Rebirth further proves that Steven Spielberg invented the visual language of modern blockbusters, and other filmmakers merely speak in it. Rather than create something new, director Gareth Edwards spends 134 minutes paying homage to Spielberg and his 1993 original, Jurassic Park. But more than just the masterful first film based on Michael Crichton’s book, or even its now-six sequels, Edwards also nods to Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) in a recapitulation of iconic Hollywood imagery. No slouch himself, Edwards—the helmer of Monsters (2010), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), and The Creator (2023)—devises almost nothing new here. What seems new stems from recycled ideas that never really worked in the first place, such as genetically altered mutant dinosaurs. Rather than take the time to stretch his talent, Edwards falls back on the same reverence for Spielberg that directors Colin Trevorrow and J.A. Bayona displayed in Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and Jurassic World Dominion (2022). And yet, even though Edwards’ visual nods to Spielberg and Rebirth‘s story autocannibalize the Jurassic series, it manages to be more purely entertaining than the last […]

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A Man Called Otto

Brian Eggert — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 02:15:17 +0000

For the most part, A Man Called Otto works despite itself. A Hollywood remake of Sweden’s 2015 hit A Man Called Ove, which writer-director Hannes Holm based on the 2012 novel by Fredrik Backman, the new version appeals to audiences with an aversion to subtitles and a penchant for uncovering a grumpy old bastard’s heart of gold. There’s no risk of pushing anyone’s boundaries here, especially not with Tom Hanks in the titular role. After all, most moviegoers are predisposed to love America’s Dad, and even a mediocre effort by Hanks becomes more palatable thanks to the actor’s affable screen presence. Indeed, A Man Called Otto belongs in the camp of the Hanks-directed Larry Crowne (2011): a flavorless dud except for Hanks, who remains mostly charming throughout. Fortunately, this movie is better, but not because of its leading man, who gives a predictable performance as the embittered and anal-retentive widower at the center. Hanks fills the lead role competently enough, but it’s the supporting cast that tugs at our heartstrings the most. Hewing closely to the original, screenwriter David Magee’s adaptation doesn’t have many surprises. Hanks stars as Otto Anderson, a recent retiree who lost his wife to cancer a […]

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Greyhound

Brian Eggert — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 18:35:36 +0000

The most human moment in Greyhound, about a convoy of naval warships headed through the North Atlantic, crossing a span of ocean teeming with German U-boats, arrives with a sneeze. An American sailor in charge of relaying sonar information to Tom Hanks’ Commander Ernest Krause asks to have a report repeated because he caught a sniffle the first time. It might be the only break in the film’s daunting, tiresome devotion to naval spectacle and process. Based on C. S. Forester’s 1955 novel The Good Shepherd, the film marks Hanks’ latest World War II project, after starring in Saving Private Ryan (1997) and executive producing both HBO’s Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010). Hanks’ company, Playtone, produced, while he adapted the material with a surprising bluntness and deficient humanity, his screenplay concerned more with naval strategy and a sense of immersion in what might’ve been a breathless battle at sea. Except, director Aaron Schneider, last seen directing 2009’s Get Low, turns Hanks’ script into a hollow object of digital dramatic reenactment. Set in February 1942, Greyhound follows the titular ship that leads a convoy of a few dozen ships through the “Black Pitt”—a stretch of the Atlantic too […]

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6 Undergound

Brian Eggert — Sun, 15 Dec 2019 16:10:01 +0000

Netflix has earned a reputation for reaching into their bottomless bag of credit to give auteur filmmakers whatever budgetary dollars they need to make a dream project. Last year, they financed Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma and the Coen brothers’ sweeping Western anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. This year, they gave Martin Scorsese a massive check for $150 million to make his sprawling, nuanced character piece The Irishman, but they also issued the same amount to Michael Bay for 6 Underground. Whereas the others mentioned represent a dying breed whose middle-budget productions rarely earn a profit, and therefore require the support of studios willing to gamble for the sake of their noncommercial artistry, Bay’s inclusion among them feels wrong. Bay’s megabudget movies rarely lose money; rather, they earn hundreds of millions of dollars. And so, it seems Netflix hopes to introduce his brand of spectacle to their streaming service, and therein draw viewers away from their main source of competition: the multiplexes. After all, Bay isn’t struggling to get his productions off the ground, but with Netflix, he once again taps into the mainstream pipeline. 6 Underground is Bay’s version of The A-Team or, if you prefer, The Losers. Several anonymous […]

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Cake

Brian Eggert — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 04:35:58 +0000

Cake is about one woman’s inability to find closure from trauma when her physical aftereffects are a constant reminder of her psychological scars. Although it might’ve been an unflinching portrait of a borderline alcoholic, drug-addicted, grief-stricken woman attempting to numb her emotional trauma and chronic pain, it plays more like an accessible dark comedy, complete with a plucky score and hopeful ending. Released in 2014, it’s meant as a deglamorized showpiece for Jennifer Aniston. She plays a pleasantly unpleasant pain sufferer who, irritable and sarcastic, takes her anguish and anger out on those around her. In Aniston’s serious role and the atmosphere of ruin, Cake wants to be edgy and genuine, to expose raw and visceral feelings. But it keeps from mining the most searing dramatic soil because, given the nature of the tragedy which it orbits, confronting them head-on may prove uncomfortable to audiences. Jennifer Aniston stars as Claire, a Los Angeles native who lives in the wake of a car accident some time ago, an event whose full consequence, a dead child, is hinted at in small doses as the story unfolds. In the first scene, Claire attends a support group for sufferers of chronic pain, one of whom, Nina (Anna Kendrick), has […]

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Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Brian Eggert — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 20:06:51 +0000

Director Denis Villeneuve’s thriller Sicario (2015), a film that requires additional viewings to grow, explored the ruthlessness of drug trafficking by exposing Emily Blunt’s green FBI agent to the blood-soaked reality of the Mexican cartels. Government spooks Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), complete with flip-flops and shorts, and the mysterious lawyer-turned-vengeful-assassin Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), exposed Blunt’s character to an underworld that chews her up and spits her out. For the curious sequel, Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Blunt is nowhere to be found, as the protagonist took a cue from the title (which means “hitman”) and shifted to Alejandro by the end of the first film. But returning is screenwriter Taylor Sheridan, who, in addition to writing the original, also penned Hell and High Water (2016) and made his directorial debut on Wind River last year. Sheridan brings his same measured, cold-blooded quality, tapping into relevant themes of immigration on the border between the U.S. and Mexico with a thorny moral ambivalence. Unfortunately, after Donald Trump enforced his “zero-tolerance” policy on anyone who enters the U.S. illegally, landing thousands in detention centers and “tender age” facilities for the young, Sicario: Day of the Soldado puts forth some distressing ideas. The […]

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The Magnificent Seven

Brian Eggert — Sat, 24 Sep 2016 00:00:24 +0000

Director Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven ends with a scene that almost single-handedly ruins the few worthwhile qualities about the two-hours-and-fifteen-minutes that came before. After exhausting Western shootouts and a rousing climactic sequence, Fuqua’s film tacks on a postscript, clearly added long after principal photography had wrapped and the tactile sets had been demolished. A computer-generated image of the dusty Western town appears before us, its artificiality a stark contrast to the practical setpieces and wilderness locations that occupy the rest of the picture. Then, the film’s only narration, spoken by Haley Bennett, praises the titular gunfighters as heroes: “They were… magnificent,” she says, in a moment that achieves a level of corniness that almost seems satirical, except it’s not. Then again, an embarrassingly bad ending isn’t all that’s wrong with The Magnificent Seven. There are also issues of questionable morality and half-hearted racial diversity to consider. Fuqua’s film was based on John Sturges’ serviceable 1960 release, which was not so much an original as a reformatting of Seven Samurai, Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 masterpiece-to-end-all-masterpieces. Still, Sturges’ picture had enough Hollywood production value and a stellar ensemble (Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, etc.) to […]

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