"ROGUE HOSTAGE" (2021)

Rogue Hostage (2021)
Directed by John Keeyes
Written by Mickey Solis
Starring Tyrese Gibson, John Malkovich, Michael Jai White, Holly Taylor
Running time 87 minutes
Not Yet Rated (contains mixed messages about violence and maybe some gently adult language?)

By Hunter Bush

Rogue Hostage is a Redbox movie through and through: designed to grab you with a couple of recognizable actors, a vaguely exciting title and its sheer newness (remember after NBC branded their Thursday night lineup as Must See TV, when they went into reruns over the summer, their entire advertising perspective switched to "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you"?). Like a less popular kid approaching the playground where Netflix (and so many others) are playing a game, Redbox proudly proclaims "We can make original movies too!"

I won't belabor the point: Rogue Hostage isn't going to blow your mind. Nobody here is giving a career high performance but in fairness, no one is asking them to. That doesn't mean you can't have a good time with it. I love (and I say this with no disrespect) crap. A fun, junk food movie that isn't really asking too much of me mentally that I can toss on after a long day and unwind. Or maybe put on with some friends over and crack some beers to. Rogue Hostage is that kinda flick. It's anchored by Tyrese Gibson (lately of the Fast & Furious franchise) playing Kyle, an archetypal Tough But Sensitive Man Of Action With A Tragic Past. Kyle loves his daughter Angel (Zani Jones Mbayise) - who he's raising on his own - and has a difficult relationship with his stepfather Sam Nelson (John Malkovich) - a local chain department store founder and aspiring politician - and is good at his Child Protective Services job despite the fact that he's quietly falling apart due to PTSD from his time in the military.

That's all you need to know about Kyle. The movie itself gets almost all of that set up and out of the way within the first 15-20 minutes. The movie really wants to get all the players lined up ASAP so we can spend as much time as possible in the meat of the movie: a small group of local militia types, lead by a man called Eagan (Christopher Backus), invade a Nelson's department store while Sam Nelson is there to give some televised political speech. Claiming that they are prepared to die for their cause, and that the building is wired to explode should anyone try anything, the militia take everyone hostage and force Sam to read a prepared statement alluding to some questionably factual crimes in his past. But are they truly out for some kind of justice or are they after something more ...tangible?

Once the militia let half the hostages leave and Kyle sneaks back in to become the titular "Rogue Hostage" (though, surprisingly no one drops the titular line), the film becomes a Die Hard-alike with Kyle sneaking around intending to rescue everyone. Despite being outmanned and outgunned, the biggest obstacle for Kyle is his PTSD: how can he disable the three militia members - plus hilariously, one employee turncoat - if he can't bring himself to fire a gun? That becomes Kyle's big sticking point: as he manages to murder one dead-meat bad guy after another without actually resorting to firing a gun, it becomes clearer and clearer that he's gonna have to eventually.

What's wild to me is that Kyle only *kind of* has an issue with stabbing a man in the throat with a BBQ fork and even less of an issue lighting one guy on fire with a Molotov cocktail; each arguably a more brutal death!

Oh, also he sees a ghost! Sam Nelson's bodyguard Sparks (Michael Jai White) pulls his pistol early on in the siege and attempts to put Eagan down, only to be informed that Eagan is wearing a suicide vest & holding a dead man's switch so if literally anything happens to him, the entire building is coming down on all their heads. Sparks is then shot. A lot. And he dies, as you'd expect (but not before putting kind of a lot on Kyle's shoulders when his last words are "It's up to you now". The fuck, dude?). Later however, while Kyle is suffering an Act 3 crisis of confidence, he turns a corner and finds a much less bloody Sparks propped up, acting more tired than bullet-riddled and dead. Sparks talks him down, peppers in a few jokes ("You've only got one bullet left. They sell ammo here? Do you get a family discount?") and Kyle thanks him for the pep-talk and leaves with only one backward glance showing Sparks FULLY DEAD AGAIN! WHAT?

That's not the craziest thing for me personally however. For me, a thing which I spent entirely too much time thinking about was this: when Kyle, his CPS partner Clove (Brandi Bravo) and their new charge Manny (Carlos S. Sanchez) stop at the Nelson's store to grab some food, Manny is browsing through the movies department and we hear Kyle say the words "Serial Killers" then "Pirate Radio" and finally "Halloween." before another character says they saw that movie and it wasn't suitable for kids. BUT. Kyle is only holding one DVD. So either:

• It's a multi-film disc/pack containing two notably REAL movies (Halloween and Pirate Radio) and one generic nothing title (Serial Killers). How would that work? What's the connective tissue there?
  
  - OR -
  
  
• It's one amazing movie called Serial Killers' Pirate Radio Halloween which sounds like a Hanna-Barbera holiday special that I wish I grew up watching! Imagine little cartoon killers (probably spelled "Cereal") goofin' around with a haunted radio on Halloween night! And then maybe an actual pirate comes out of it!
  

I cannot guarantee that you'll have a similarly intellectually stimulating viewing experience with Rogue Hostage as I had. It's actually kind of stodgy, with too many characters, some inconsistent characterization and ultimately lacks a meaningful or impressive villain. In an attempt to give all the characters their own Moments, sequences tend to drag on a bit too long to allow for everyone to do A Thing or deliver A Line, etc., but at just about 90 minutes, Rogue Hostage isn't asking for a huge investment from you and it might be just enough of a movie to have some fun with.

Rogue Hostage is playing in select theaters and available on demand June 11th.

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This piece was written for Moviejawn where you can find tons of other excellent movie-centric writings, a shop where you can subscribe to the quarterly physical zine and also listen to me on the  Hate Watch / Great Watch  podcast!

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EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN - Vol. 28

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN
Vol. 28 - June 2021

By Hunter Bush


Howdy friends. Welcome to another installment of Everything Old Is New Again! The column where I peer into my crystal ball (which has Google) and see what films are coming to screens in the next month, and then specifically whittle them down by only addressing the ones based on some previously existing intellectual property. If it used to be a book, a TV show, a toy line or was inspired by an older movie, it's EOINA material!

So, when can we start talking about the lockdown, the pandemic, all the misery and uncertainty of the past year plus in the past tense? I eagerly look forward to the day when this is all firmly in the past. But that day is not today, not as long as there are still covid-19 alerts in place when you google theatrical release dates. But we're close! We're actually genuinely close to some semblance of normalcy.

So if you're planning on visiting a theater, please be safe. Now let's look at what's coming in June:


PREMIERS

These are new releases coming to screens great and small alike in the coming month.

4th

Sweet Tooth (series)
Where: Netflix

Based on the comic books series by author & illustrator Jeff Lemire about a young half-deer half-boy named Gus living in a post-apocalyptic world where such animal-human hybrids exist, this looks incredible! When "The Last Men" (survivors of the time before the hybrids) come looking to exterminate Gus (Christian Convery) he is rescued by a man (Nonso Anozie) who agrees to help him get to Colorado where Gus believes he can be safe. I've read some of Lemire's other work, but hadn't gotten around to Sweet Tooth just yet, so I had no idea what to expect from this trailer and it just ticked so many boxes for me. The design work shown in the costumes and the effects on the hybrids, the cast (if Will Forte is in it, I will be there), the balance of the slightly heightened visual style with the almost fable-like backstory & narration - it all worked for me. Even the cover of Duran Duran's "Ordinary World" works because it has bombast and motion to it (as opposed to the largely audibly static breathy covers popular in recent trailers). I'm all in on this one, gang. 

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (dir. Michael Chaves)
Where: HBO Max / Theaters

This 3rd direct installment of the franchise begun in 2013 - which has also spawned 4 spin-off films (3 starring the haunted doll Annabelle, and one starring a scary nun) - looks fun despite, y'know, all the murder and terror and whatnot. Set in 1981, the Warrens (played by Patrick Wilson & Vera Farmiga, doing a lot of heavy lifting in rehabilitating the legacy of the actual Warrens who were hucksters) are brought in as consultants/investigators on a murder case where the accused (Ruairi O'Connor) claims, as the title states: that he is not responsible for a murder he apparently committed. We don;t see the murder in the trailer (I don't think) instead focusing on a lot of creepy waterbed shenanigans and the Warrens' investigation. I'm a sucker for horror movies and generally like more of the Conjuring extended universe than not (I maintain that Annabelle Creation whips absolute ass) so I'll be more than happy to check this one out. Especially because it features an appearance from John Noble!

5th


Rams (dir. Jeremy Sims)
Where: Hulu

Based on a 2015 film of the same name by Icelandic writer/director Grímur Hákonarson, this English-language-friendly remake stars Sam Neill and Michael Caton as brothers who each raise award-contender sheep in a small town. They haven't spoken in 40 years but when some kind of disease begins spreading through the sheep in town, they might have to learn to reconcile if either of them want to keep their livelihoods safe from the government agents sent to exterminate the animals. If any of you haven't seen Cathy Yan's truly excellent Dead Pigs, a similar event lends that film its title, though in that instance it's relegated to a subplot. (Also, if you haven't: see Dead Pigs!) Overall this looks cute in a way that gives me very strong late '90s indie comedy vibes - not a bad thing necessarily - and the cast, which also features Miranda Richardson, doesn't hurt. This is a strong maybe from me. I'll have to be in the right mood for this one.

9th


Loki (series)
Where: Disney+

Picking up where that last Avengers film left things, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is now in trouble with one of Marvel Comics' least appreciated bureaucratic groups: the Time Variance Authority. Y'see, since comic books have a lot of timey-wimey nonsense happen pretty much on the reg, there exists an organization whose entire job is to make sure that all the time-hopping, retconning, revenging, prevenging and whatnot doesn't Swiss cheese their reality so badly that the whole thing collapses and everybody dies so bad they never even existed. And it seems that after snagging the Cosmic Cube, Loki went Spring Break levels of crazy, dipping in and out of the time stream, causing numerous divergent branches, so he's gotten caught and, as a sort of community service (continuity service?) been drafted by Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) into correcting these variances. So this series looks like it could have a LOT of fun with familiar characters presented in new ways (or by new actors as a result of Loki's time-fuckery). I'm here for it, of course. I've never shied away from the MCU flicks/series, and I am loving some of the Easter Eggs & eye candy in the trailer - my favorite is a neon sign reading "ROXXCART" which seems like the Roxxon Corp. (one of Marvel's routinely nefarious big organizations) mashed up with Amazon (one of real life's most nefarious ones).

NOTE: This is the drop date for the 1st episode, as Dis+ will be continuing the weekly drop schedule with this one.

11th


In the Heights (dir. Jon M. Chu)
Where: HBO

Based on the stage musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda & Quiara Alegría Hudes, In the Heights is centered around a number of characters living and interacting around a specific block of the Washington Heights neighborhood in Manhattan. The trailer is narrated by Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) who runs a small bodega, but he's got family, friends, and etc. and they've all got their own interconnected stories, desires, and conflicts. The musical takes place over the hottest weekend of the year and involves a winning lottery ticket and all the changes taking place. There are a lot of really stellar visuals in the trailer (the flick is directed by Jon M. Chu, recently of Crazy Rich Asians) like people dancing up the side of a building and a strobing, neon-lit tunnel! I'm a sucker for musicals, so I'm all in for this one, plus I've been a fan of LMM since he showed up for an episode of House M.D. to freestyle with Hugh Laurie. So, yeah, I'm in.

24th


Godzilla Singular Point (series)
Where: Netflix

Based on everybody's favorite gargantuan prehistoric monster lizard / tangible metaphor for man's complete disregard for nature and tendency to poison all he touches created in 1954 (who looks great for 67!) this animated series looks pretty spectacular! It's got kind of everything you could want in a new Godzilla series: tons of kaiju (obvs), great music (!), and a big honkin' robot (Jet Jaguar, baybee!). Plus the plot seems completely insane, but seems to have something to do with predicting the future? And it looking bad? And stopping it? Seriously, the dialogue in just one 2-minute trailer contains phrases like: "A magic lamp that enables the impossible", "So it would be like if the universe never existed", and "Bones with a secret will". I am confident I have no idea what is happening, but it looks fun! It's also gorgeously animated, with plenty of movement, color and fun character designs. I'm pretty excited for this.


SPOTLIGHT

These are older EOINA-friendly releases that I personally recommend.

1st


Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (dir. Tim Burton)
Where: Hulu

Based on the musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, this is yet another Burton/Depp/Bonham Carter joint that hit me right before I began to find those to be really tedious and just has a special place in my esteem. I love musicals and genuinely enjoy this one which, like the best musicals, leans into the sort of silly, heightened unreality inherent in their nature. When I first moved to South Philly this was one of the handful of DVDs I had with me. It's got fantastic musical numbers and a great cast including the late great Alan Rickman. This is just a fun, splattery horror-adjacent flick with catchy tunes, over-the-top characters and a plot that doesn't really matter beyond tying all the characters together. And while I'll admit that most of my appreciation for this may be a sort of Stockholm Syndrome effect from having been without a lot of options that first summer in South Philly, I still think it's an enjoyable time.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (dir. Kevin Reynolds)
Where: HBO

Based on the Robin Hood stories, this one is just a big dumb joy to watch. Sure, Kevin Costner's accent is famously wishy-washy. Sure, there's some troubling characterizations and actions. Sure, Will Scarlett is just straight up Christian Slater at all times (also: his accent). But it kind of doesn't matter? Watching this feels like when the Looney Tunes would reappropriate a public domain story and imbue it with their particularly chaotic brand of energy while ostensibly existing in a different time or place. Plus, again: Alan Rickman! And the rest of the cast (Morgan Freeman! Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio! Michael McShane! Brian Blessed! Michael Wincott!) ain't half bad either. Above all though, it’s just really versatile: the action pops, the romance is sweeping, it dips its toe into horror with Mortianna (Geraldine McEwan) and the bit with the scar on the statue of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Rickman) is so funny that for years I thought it was from Men in Tights! A solid popcorn movie, and perfect for summer.


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There you have it, June 2021's EOINA. I hope you spotted something up there that you might not have been aware of or, dare I dream aloud, that my writing might have swayed you one direction or another. Either way, drop a comment below, or on social media and let's start a dialogue. Let's be friends through movies!

If you're looking for a podcast to listen to, might I suggest mine: Hate Watch/Great Watch, which I co host with Allison Yakulis, can be found right here on the MovieJawn Podcast Network. Right around the time you're reading this, our episode on the 1999 Shakespearian RomCom adaptation 10 Things I Hate About You should be available. I'd never actually seen it before, believe it or not, so give a listen to find out what I thought!

Until next time, Long Live the Movies!