KRAVEN THE HUNTER. Everybody makes mistakes, right? More than half the voters in this country did but that’s a topic for another conversation (screed, ugly cry, whichever one prefers).
In this case, I made the optimistic error to set aside my widely disseminated opinions about Marvel movies (and yes, this is Marvel Studios, which is separate and Sony-controlled and blah, blah, blah) and believe that an R-rated adaptation of a series of comics with a main character I know even less about than the big hitters might be (oh, hope, so silly) as much as the sum of its parts might suggest. The trailer, after all, promises a globe-trotting eponymous hunter (read: killer) with shredded abs and a perhaps questionable accent going up against … well, that part remains a little nebulous, even having seen the thing.
Furthermore, the superhero in question is played by the ever-engaging Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who, in a moment of clouded memory I was reminded has ventured into the capes and mutants genre before (Kick-Ass, 2010; Kick-Ass 2, 2013), to mixed if occasionally greatly entertaining results. As a star who hasn’t (yet) been fully subsumed by the MCU machine, and one who seems to see his craft as a far-ranging exercise in self-challenge and exploration, Taylor-Johnson struck me (still does, though the light may have dimmed a little) as a person who might bring gravitas, humor and commitment to even this sort of silly material. And under the aegis of director JC Chandor, who, in a relatively brief career, has made a handful of truly artful, challenging, unique mainstream American movies of the 21st century, it seemed like something magical might happen.
Chandor, it’s worth noting, deviates here from directing his own written material for the first time. His debut, Margin Call (2011), apparently made on a relative shoestring on borrowed sets and with a murderer’s row of a cast, did as much to explicate and indict the actions that lead to the 2008 crash as Adam McKay’s The Big Short (2015), albeit with a tone more grounded in horror than satire. He followed that with All is Lost (2013), a one-hander that pitted Robert Redford against the ocean with tremendous effectiveness, and A Most Violent Year (2014), a distinctly American period piece about greed in the peak-capitalist era. All of these, in addition to the concision of their story-craft and impeccable casting, boast visual styles fully in service of their respective narratives. Triple Frontier (2019), which I like but do not love, does suggest an interest in large-scale action filmmaking. All of which lead me to believe that Kraven might do something different, for once. And it does, but ultimately not in any sort of a successful way, as the abysmal box office (contraindicative of quality as it may sometimes be) would seem to indicate.
So, Kraven (Taylor-Johnson), né Sergei Kravinoff (who’d a thunk?), elder son of a world-eating Russian baddie and avid big game hunter (played by Russell Crowe, clearly enjoying himself), has forsaken the criminal wealth that would be his birthright to live in remotest Siberia and assassinate evil-doers. He has super-mammalian powers, of course, thanks both to an accidental infusion of lion’s blood and a curative potion administered to him while near death by then-teenaged Calypso (played in adulthood by Ariana DeBose). He’s got a younger, more vulnerable brother named Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), who becomes the lynchpin in another shadowy operator’s plan to seize the assets and territory of his nemeses. In his portrayal of that character, Aleksei Sytsevich, Alessandro Nivola makes some fascinating, creepily gleeful choices but in the end is washed out in the usual bluster of a grandiose CGI climax. R. 127M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.
CARRY-ON. What I was perhaps looking for in Kraven I found here, in director Jaume Collet-Serra’s latest. Working from T.J. Fixman’s taut, economical script, Collet-Serra directs Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman as, respectively, a frustrated TSA agent with a baby on the way and a mysterious operator intent on getting a certain piece of luggage onto a certain flight out of LAX on Christmas Eve day. Both are against-type but archetypal performances.
More than perhaps any other Die Hard homage (I won’t call this one a rip-off, because it has moves of its own), Carry-On modernizes its premise, cleverly uses the presence and absence of communications and information technology as integral components in its suspense building. It certainly isn’t an awards movie or a best-of (maybe), but it is a concise, cleverly shot potboiler of an exceedingly enjoyable type, with as much verisimilitude and outlandishness, and a not-so subtle jab at the powers behind the powers that be.
In an era when even lowered expectations borne of repeated experience can still create disappointment, Carry-On is one of the humble prizes that can redeem a weekend toplined by louder — but lesser — entertainment. PG13. 119M. NETFLIX.
John J. Bennett (he/him) is a movie nerd who loves a good car chase.
NOW PLAYING
THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER. A town’s holiday tradition is hit with comical calamities. With Judy Greer and Pete Holmes. PG. 99M. BROADWAY.
FLOW. Latvian animation about a cat that joins a boatload of animals escaping a flood. PG. 85M. MINOR.
GLADIATOR II. Bread and circuses with Paul Mescal and Connie Nielson, and Roman zaddies Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal. R. 148M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.
LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRIM. Tolkien adventure at the center of the Venn diagram of anime fans, D&D nerds and horse girls. PG13. 134M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.
MOANA 2. A sequel for the seafaring animated heroine. PG. 100M. BROADWAY (3D), MILL CREEK (3D), MINOR.
THE ORDER. Jude Law tracks terrorist heists in the Pacific Northwest. R. 114M. BROADWAY.
RED ONE. Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans team up to rescue an equally ripped Santa, played by J.K. Simmons, in a holiday action comedy with Lucy Liu. PG13. 123M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.
WEREWOLVES. Frank Grillo spares no ammo in a world overrun by howling monsters. R. 94M. BROADWAY.
WICKED. Cynthia Erivo and Arianna Grande star as young witches in the musical Oz prequel. PG. 160M. BROADWAY (3D), MILL CREEK (3D), MINOR.
Y2K. Teens party like it’s 1999 until the machines go haywire in this comedy-sci-fi-horror. R. 93M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.
For showtimes call: Broadway Cinema (707) 443-3456; Mill Creek Cinema 839-3456; Minor Theatre (707) 822-3456.
This article appears in ‘A Big Heart’.