"Suicide Squad" Review by Tim Hellman

'SUICIDE SQUAD': Five Stars (Out of Five)

The highly anticipated superhero flick, based on the DC comics antihero team (of the same name). It's also the third movie in the DC Extended Universe film franchise (following 'MAN OF STEEL' and 'BATMAN V SUPERMAN'), and Ben Affleck even reprises his role as Batman in it. The film stars Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Jared Leto, Viola Davis, Jay Hernandez, Jai Courtney, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Karen Fukuhara, Cara Delevingne, Ike Barinholtz and Scott Eastwood. It was written and directed by David Ayer. The story revolves around an unlikely team of formerly imprisoned supervillains, that are recruited by a secret government agency; to go on a special black ops mission to save the world. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics, but (most) fans of the comic book insist it's a masterpiece. I absolutely loved it!

The story focuses around a government program, conceived and executed by U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller (Davis), in which imprisoned dangerous criminals are selected to be a part of a special black ops team. They're promised a reward of clemency, if they succeed; and threatened with immediate execution, if they try to escape. They're mission is to stop a powerful mystic force, and it's lethal army. The 'bad guys' that make up the team, surprisingly bond in the process.

The movie is undeniably fun! It's dark, violent, and sometimes quite disturbing (much like 'BATMAN V SUPERMAN'); but it's also hilarious, and highly entertaining. There's some really interesting character development (throughout), and the performances are outstanding (especially Robbie and Leto). The action scenes are kind of by-the-numbers, but they're also involving (because the characters are so likable). My only real compliant with the film, is that's it's too quickly edited; probably due to studio demands (to make the movie shorter and faster-paced). I'm sure an extended director's cut would make it nearly perfect (like the extended cut of 'BATMAN V SUPERMAN')!

"Concussion" Review by Tim Hellman

'CONCUSSION': Four Stars (Out of Five)

A medical/sports-drama biopic, based on the true story of the Nigerian forensic pathologist, named Dr. Bennet Omalu, who took on the NFL; in trying to expose the dangers of brain damage (in the extremely violent sport). The movie stars Will Smith, as Omalu, and it costars Albert Brooks, Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and David Morse. It was written and directed by Peter Landesman; and based on the GQ article 'Game Brain', by Jeanne Marie Laskas. The film is well acted, written and directed; it's definitely pretty powerful stuff (but maybe a little too systematically constructed, in the tradition of big budget Hollywood).

The film begins in 2002, when Mike Webster (Morris), a former Pittsburgh Steelers center, suffered from severe brain damage, and died; homeless in his pickup truck. A gifted forensic pathologist (from Nigeria), named Dr. Bennet Omalu (Smith), was assigned to perform his autopsy. Omalu discovered that Webster's death was caused by brain trauma, he later named CTE, and he linked the 'cause of death' to multiple other professional football players. The National Football League, of course, used all their money, and power, to cover-up his findings.

The movie is informative, and very involving; for the majority of the film. Smith is fantastic in the lead, and the supporting cast all does adequate jobs. This is a movie that tackles the 'very inspiring subject', of the little guy, taking on a big powerful corporation. Landesman dealt with the same subject matter, in the last film he wrote: 'KILL THE MESSENGER' (except in that movie, the US government was the 'big powerful corporation'). This film reminded me a lot of 'KILL THE MESSENGER', and that was before I even knew it was the same screenwriter. I hope Landesman continues to do movies like this; and maybe next time, without such a big powerful corporation (backing the film). His next movie is (very fittingly) about the Watergate scandal; I just learned!

"Focus" Review - Written by Jim Herling

You can say what you want about Will Smith, but if you look at his track record, you have to admit to two things: the man makes good movies, and his hits far outnumber his misses. And Focus (written and directed by both Glenn Ficarra and John Requa) is another check in Smith's hit column.

Focus is a return to the confidant, charismatic, smooth-talking type of character Smith has played before in movies like Hitch, and it's a role he plays well. He's instantly likeable and believable, important qualities to get across considering he's playing a professional con man named Nicky Spurgeon. But if the old adage about a leading man being only as good as his costars holds any weight, well, Smith is doing just fine. Opposite him is his leading lady, the gorgeous Margot Robbie. She plays Jess Barrett, an amateur grifter dying to go pro who Nicky takes under his wing after she and a partner try to con him and bungle it horribly. Robbie is fairly engaging in her own right, and her and Smith have great chemistry as they play off each other through the film's twists and turns. They have a decent supporting cast around them as well, the most notable being Gerald McRaney (yes, Major Dad), who comes in halfway through the movie, gets the best dialogue of the entire script, and steals every scene he's in.

The plot is a straightforward one, very well written and capably directed: boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy loses girl, boy goes through hell trying to get her back. But because it's a movie about a bunch of con men, it's full of twists and turns, and the question "who's conning who?" is never far from the mind. The film's title is very on the nose as you need to focus, and if you do you might just catch the great end twist coming right before it hits. One of the most interesting aspects of the movie was seeing the mechanics of how they pull off the various cons; if any of them are things that actually happen (including putting a false front over an ATM to facilitate credit card theft), then in addition to being a really good drama, this is quite a scary movie as well.

As I mentioned above, Focus is a very smartly written, well directed movie that features a talented, charismatic cast working well together. All in all, I give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars.