Everyone expected them to suck......and we mean, suck to the moon and back.
Just the mere thought of the coming of these movies could induce nausea.......
'Midway' came courtesy of Roland Emmerich, that three-ring-circus purveyor of CGI cheese ("Independence Day", "The Day After Tomorrow", "2012".....
'Charlie's Angels' arrived as the latest blockbuster testimony to the new emerging cinematic Girl Power.......along the lines of the much ridiculed and derided all-female 'Ghostbusters'
Both these movies seemed pre-destined to show up dead on arrival. The idea of Emmerich, premier panderer to the butter popcorn gobblers, tacking a pivotal World War 2 battle was enough to make anyone's eyes roll.
And 'Charlie's Angels' toplined that Mistress of Mope, that Diva of Depression.....Kristen Stewart.......a massively overrated actress with low energy and even lower emotional range.
We dreaded sitting through either film.......until we did.
Surprise, surprise, surprise. Considering the potential for embarrassing disaster, they're not that bad. Entirely watchable, even. More often than not.......entertaining.
'Midway' is naturally top-heavy with CGI depicting astoundingly brave American pilots dive bombing Japanese battleships........(as opposed to the cheeseball Universal Studios' 1976 'Midway' which relied on grainy stock footage and clips from a Japanese war movie)
Director Emmerich, to our astonishment, avoids any of his usual corny silliness, keeping the movie on an semi-documentary, respectful course. He never adds any of his typical idiotic flourishes to make him or the movie come off as Hollywood Stupid. For him, that's 10 steps up.....
'Charlie's Angels', directed with exuberant girl-power enthusiasm by Elizabeth Banks offers a couple of revelations of its own.
Kristen Stewart ditches her perpetual ennui and delivers a fast 'n furiously funny performance. She's a stunning live wire in this one and more than provides all the lightning bolts of energy and fun that a movie like this desperately requires.
And Elizabeth Banks, also starring in the film, orchestrates action sequences as exciting and well-staged as anything you'd see in a Marvel superhero movie.
We even forgave the movie for shamelessly stealing one of Sean Connery's Bond quips from "Thunderball"........(must be a sign we're getting soft in our old age......)
So as the hot summer nights roll in (and since, the way things are going, we're all likely to end up self-quarantined again).....here's a couple of frosty cinematic coolers to pass the time with.
Maybe they should have used the 'NOT AS BAD YOU THINK' tagline on the posters.........3 stars (***) to each of them.
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