'JUST MERCY' is an M Rated American true story legal drama which I saw at my local multiplex earlier this week and is Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton in his fourth feature film after 2012's 'I Am Not a Hipster', 2013's 'Short Term 12' and 2017's 'The Glass Castle'. Following this outing Cretton is slated to Direct 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' for the MCU Phase 4 due for release in 2021 and currently in pre-production. The film saw its World Premier screening at TIFF in early September last year, went on limited release on Christmas Day in the US (to qualify for awards season recognition), has garnered generally favourable Reviews so far, and has taken US$38M at the Box Office before its much wider release from mid-January. 'Just Mercy' is based on the 2014 memoir of the same name, written by Bryan Stevenson.
After some initial scene setting and a quick back story, the main thrust of this film moves to 1989 when young Harvard law graduate Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) relocates himself to Alabama to help fight poor down trodden and often abused people who more often than not are unable to fund proper legal representation for themselves. Meeting up with Eva Ansley (Brie Larson) he forms the 'Equal Justice Initiative' in Montgomery, Alabama, initially operating out of Eva's home before moving into a more appropriate office environment.
Stevenson then travels to Holman State Prison in Atmore, Alabama to meet with a number of its death row inmates for whom the legal system has failed them. There he meets with inmates Herbert Richardson (Rob Morgan), Anthony Ray Hinton (O'Shea Jackson) and Walter 'Johnny D' McMillan (Jamie Foxx), amongst a few others. He offers to help all three, but McMillan's cause seems to be the most compelling as the case against him is full of holes.
McMillan on the face of it, appears to have been wrongfully imprisoned for the 1986 murder of eighteen year old Ronda Morrison in Monroeville, Alabama. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury, and in the 1988 trial, the judge imposed the death penalty, even though the jury imposed a sentence of life imprisonment. Stevenson examines the evidence and discovers that it hinges entirely on the testimony of convicted criminal Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson), who provided a highly self-contradictory testimony in exchange for a lighter sentence in his own upcoming trial at the time.
Stevenson's first move is to visit the local prosecutor Tommy Chapman (Rafe Spall) for assistance, but Chapman dismisses him without even looking at his notes, saying that as far as he is concerned justice has been served and it is his job to keep his towns people and his local community safe. Having drawn a blank with Chapman, Stevenson then drives out to the McMillan family homestead on the outskirts of town. There he meets with McMillan family friend Darnell Houston (Darrell Britt-Gibson) who says that he was working with Ralph Myers in an auto workshop the morning of the murder and as such there is no way that Myers could have witnessed the events that unfolded that fateful day. Furthermore, the whole of the McMillan family and extended family swear that Johnny D was in fact at a fish fry that same morning, but that too was not accounted for in his defence. Darnell's testimony plus previously undisclosed or obviously overlooked facts would cause the prosecution's case to fall apart. But when Stevenson submits Darnell's testimony, police quickly arrest him for perjury. However, while Stevenson is able to get the perjury charges dropped, Darnell is intimidated into refusing to testify in court for fear of further reprisals against him.
Stevenson then seeks to have the charges completely dismissed. He later visits Chapman at his home and tries to convince him to join him in his motion, but Chapman steadfastly refuses and angrily orders him off his property. On the day of the motion, Stevenson appeals to the judge. Chapman surprisingly, given the almost overwhelming evidence presented agrees to join him in his motion and the case is dismissed. With no prosecution, the judge declares that with immediate effect McMillan is free to go, and so after six years Johnny D is finally reunited with his family, a free man. 
In the closing credits, we learn that McMillan remained friends with Stevenson until his death in 2013. A follow-up investigation into Ronda Morrison's death confirmed McMillan's innocence and speculated that a white man was likely responsible, although to this day the case has never been solved. Furthermore, Sheriff Tate (Michael Harding) who at the time arrested McMillan just because he looked guilty and was ultimately responsible for either concealing or completely ignoring the evidence that would have conclusively proven that McMillan was innocent, was elected to the office of Sheriff a further six times. Meanwhile Stevenson successfully had Anthony Ray Hinton's case overturned and after 28 years on Alabam's death row was finally freed in 2015. Herbert Richardson, was not so lucky, and he was executed by electric chair on 18th August 1989, and was one of 66 people to have been executed in Alabama since the resumption of capital punishment, most of whom would not have been executed if they had received timely and effective legal aid and advice.
'Just Mercy' is an important real life story of racial prejudice, the rich and poor divide, and the inequalities inflicted upon man just because of the way he may look, or the colour of his skin. Lesson's that still ring true today, just as much as they did thirty years ago when this story started to unfold. Jordan gives a nuanced, understated and restrained performance as the considered, tenacious and patient Stevenson, and Foxx gives arguably one of his best performances in years. This is a slow burning film, that Director Cretton allows the story to speak for itself without diving into dramatic over the top poetic licence territory, and my research of the Equal Justice Initiative and Bryan Stevenson seems to indicate that this story is faithfully recreated keeping largely to the facts as they unfolded. This film has so far collected seven award wins and another eight nominations from around the festivals and awards circuit, and the importance of this film cannot be underestimated. Worth the price of your cinema ticket for sure.
Here we have the twenty-first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, 'CAPTAIN MARVEL', and the first film in the MCU to feature a female led Superhero. This much hyped eagerly anticipated film which I saw earlier this week, is said to be the second most keenly awaited blockbuster of 2019 behind 'Avengers : End Game' with advance ticket sales placing it in third place of any MCU film to date behind 'Avengers : Infinity War' and 'Black Panther'. Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck for US$152M, development of the film began in 2013 and was officially announced in late 2014, with Brie Larson publicised as Carol Danvers (aka Captain Marvel) at San Diego's Comic-Con in 2016. The film saw its Worldwide Premier in London on 27th February, its US Premier in Hollywood on 4th March and went on general release in Stateside on 8th March, two days after its Australian release. The film has so far grossed US$525M and has garnered generally favourable Reviews.
Set in 1995 on the Kree Empire (a scientifically and technologically advanced militaristic alien race resembling humans almost exactly) planet of Hala, Starforce (a crack team of super-powered individuals) member Vers (Brie Larson) has recurring visions of an older woman with whom she shares some sort of affinity. Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) is mentor and commander to Vers, and head of Starforce. He trains her to control her fighting abilities, while the Supreme Intelligence (Annette Benning) an artificial intelligence and ruler over the Kree prompts Vers to maintain her emotions in check.
Following a little pep talk with the Supreme Intelligence (whom Vers recognises as the same woman from her visions) she is granted her first mission with Starforce, accompanied by Korath (Djimon Hounsou), Minn-Erva (Gemma Chan), Att-Lass (Algenis Perez Soto), Bron-Char (Rune Temte) and of course Yon-Rogg. Together they venture to the planet Torfa to rescue a Kree scout named Soh-Larr who has infiltrated a group of Skrulls (alien shapeshifters who can transform themselves into exact replicas of other beings at will).
This leads to a Skrull ambush led by Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) which results in Vers being captured, separated from the rest of her group and taken aboard an Earth bound ship and subjected to a probe of her memory. After successfully thwarting her sworn enemy, Vers manages to escape in a pod which crash lands on Earth through the roof of a Blockbuster Video Store late at night.
Early the next morning this overnight activity has attracted the attention of desk jockey S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg, both of whom were de-aged by 25 years for the purposes of the 1995 setting), whose questioning of Vers is interrupted by an attack by several recently arrived Skrulls on the hunt for their escaped prisoner.
During the chase involving Vers hunting down the shapeshifting Skrulls both of whom are being hunted down by Fury and Coulson, Vers recovers a crystal containing her extracted memories dropped by a Skrull she tussled with aboard the subway train, while Fury kills a Skrull replicating Coulson. Talos meanwhile has assumed the identity of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Keller, and after performing an autopsy on the dead Skrull, orders Fury to work alone to learn more of this shapeshifting alien race, although of course he has ulterior motives for doing so.
Fury mentions to Keller that he has a lead on Vers and tracks her down to a remote bar, which she had seen before in her visions and which clearly holds some significance. There the pair sit around the table while they both fire questions at each other seeking some clarification of one anothers history, motivations and what next having made their acquaintances. Using his S.H.I.E.L.D. Security clearance he takes Vers to the classified Pegasus US Air Force Base that she has memories of from her visions. Once there, they forcibly break into the archives room and Vers learns from various retrieved files that she was an Air Force pilot presumed dead in 1989 after crashing a plane with an experimental engine designed by a Dr. Wendy Lawson (Annette Benning), whom she recognises as the woman from her visions.
Talos, disguised as Keller, arrives at the Pegasus Air Force Base with a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents who quickly hunt down Fury and Vers, but the pair successfully manage to evade capture and escape in a cargo jet together with Dr. Lawson's stowaway cat, Goose. They fly to Louisiana to meet with Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) a former fellow Air Force Pilot who flew with Vers, and who was the last person to see Vers and Lawson alive. Vers and Fury arrive at the Rambeau homestead to be greeted by Rambeau's eleven year old daughter Monica (Akira Akbar) who refers to her supposedly dead friend as Carol Danvers and sets about recounting her backstory to the long lost friend. Shortly afterwards Talos arrives at the Rambeau family home and reveals that he comes in peace and that the Skrulls are refugees searching for a new home and Lawson was a Kree renegade helping them.
Talos then leads the group, including Goose the cat, to Lawson's cloaked lab ship orbiting Earth, where numerous Skrulls are in hiding and protecting the Tesseract, the source of the energy-core. By now Yon-Rogg and his Starforce team are hot on the heels and infiltrate the lab ship capturing Danvers, where she is connected up remotely to the Supreme Intelligence to await her fate. During their conversation which is very one sided against the mere human Danvers taken in and nurtured by the Kree, Danvers is able to remove a Kree implant that was suppressing her powers giving her full access to her abilities. 
During the ensuing battle, Fury retrieves the Tesseract and Goose, who is revealed to be a Flerken, an alien creature resembling the common house cat, but which have a pocket dimension inside their mouths which can be used to consume and store almost anything. She swallows the Tesseract before scratching Fury's left eye and blinding him. Yon -Rogg orders the support of Kree official Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) who fires a series of intergalactic ballistic warheads towards Earth, which forces Danvers in her shiny new red and blue livery to defend against with all her might. This forces Ronan the Accuser to flee to another dimension stating that he will be back to finish the job he started on another day. 
I saw 'KONG : SKULL ISLAND' in the week. Wanting to catch a movie for which I could leave my brain at the door, I saw this offering in 3D because it was the only session that suited my timing. I wasn't disappointed by the first point, but I was for the second and maybe because 3D has been done to death now that it is no longer the novelty that it once was, and let me tell you 3D does little for this film beyond what you would expect. That said, the film does have other redeeming features.
In 84 years of film making history, 'King Kong' has featured countless times in live action and animated forms, in dramatic thrillers and cheesy send ups, on his own or battling some other equally menacing foe. 'King Kong' first mesmerised audiences back in 1933 by the remarkable stop-motion effects of Willis O'Brien, and a story that began on Skull Island, somewhere near Indonesia where as well as Kong, dinosaurs and giant insects also roamed the wild undiscovered landscape. In this origin story Kong is tracked down by filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) and falls for Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) culminating in the classic closing sequence atop the Empire State Building from which Kong eventually falls to his death. On the strength of this film, 'Son of Kong' was immediately put into production and released later on in 1933. 'Mighty Joe Young' followed in 1949 also featuring Robert Armstrong, and remade in 1998 starring Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron. Then courtesy of Japanese cinema, came 'King Kong vs. Godzilla' in 1962 and 'King Kong Escapes' in 1967. 1976 saw the Dino De Laurentiis produced remake 'King Kong' and that same year the Brits released the send up of all King Kong movies with 'Queen Kong'. 'King Kong Lives' was released in 1986 and Directed by John Guillermin who also Directed the 1976 film. Peter Jackson delivered us 'King Kong' in 2005 with all the modern day cutting edge technical wizardry he could throw at his three time Oscar winning film that brought in US$550M at the global Box Office. And so in 2017 we have another King Kong offering Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, made on a budget of US$185M and starring an ensemble cast and featuring a raft load of special effects and filmed in northern Vietnam, Hawaii and on Australia's Gold Coast. It has so far taken US$163M, and has garnered generally positive Reviews.
Set in the early '70's a secret organisation called 'Monarch' locate an island that is shrouded in mystery and is said to contain several new species. That island is named 'Skull Island' because from the air the island resembles the shape of a skull in profile. Enter Bill Randa (John Goodman) who works for Monarch who sets up the expedition to go boldly where no man has gone before. He and colleague Houston Brooks (Corey Hawkins) - a young geologist, Yale University graduate and well known for his ground breaking work on seismology seek the funding support from Senator Willis (Richard Jenkins) who reluctantly gives it. In turn Randa and Brooks recruit James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) a former British Air Services Captain who saw time in Vietnam and who has a particular set of tracking and survival skills. Also hired is Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) who leads the Sky Devils helicopter squadron who have to chopper in the expedition team. And then there's Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) a pacifist photojournalist who has an affinity with nature and the environment.
Pretty soon, the team are assembled and are en route via cargo ship to Skull Island and into the unknown. They get their briefing, military style, and as they approach, the order is given to man the helicopters and negotiate their way through the islands own weather system which sees the island shrouded in thick storm clouds. For Packard and his team of hardened Vietnam War vets, this is a walk in the park, and what could possibly go wrong with a few lightning strikes and a little wet weather? How wrong could they be?
After successfully negotiating the surrounding storm front the fleet of choppers emerge into sudden clear blue skies, sunshine and lush tropical islands below - a picture of paradise lost! Randa and Packard give the order to Brooks to release the seismic charges and they detonate in the verdant forests below shaking the ground with explosion after explosion. This draws the attention of a certain giant bipedal ape the like of which no man has ever witnessed before, and one by one 'Kong' plucks the helicopters out of the sky, swatting them like flies and sending them crashing down to the dense forest floor below. Many are destroyed resulting in those that survived being split into two groups.
Marlow tells the group that Kong is the island's guardian and is worshipped as a god by the natives for protecting them from 'Skullcrawlers'. These reptilian underground lizard monsters slaughtered Kong's parents and ancestors, leaving him as the last of his kind. Marlow also tells them that Kong only attacked the helicopters to prevent the bombs from awakening the largest Skullcrawler, and therefore protecting the locals from it. After being welcomed by the Iwi who take the group back to their heavily fortified village (for protection from the Skullcrawlers, not Kong), and learning more of their culture and beliefs, the group head out on a motor boat that Marlow spent six years building out of salvaged parts from his WWII downed plane. In the meantime, Conrad has an up close and personal encounter with some of the wildlife present on the island!
Needing to reunite with the second group and rendezvous at a designated time with a resupply team in the islands north, Conrad and his group disembark their boat upstream in search for Randa, Packard and his men. They reunite, but Packard is insistent that they continue to search for missing right hand man, Jack Chapman (Tony Kebbell). Little do they know that Chapman was eaten by a Skullcrawler earlier on. Conrad leads the team into the 'Forbidden Zone' - a former battleground and now graveyard containing the skeleton remains of Kong's ancestors.
The Skullcrawler that killed Chapman emerges and attacks, devouring Randa in a moment of lost concentration as he played with his camera. Many of Packards soldiers are massacred too, before Weaver kills it by setting off an explosion. Packard blames Kong for the deaths of his men and wants vengeance. He retrieves seismic explosives from one of his downed helicopters to lure Kong into a trap and kill him using napalm. Conrad in turn leads the non-military group back to the boat so they can rendezvous with the resupply team in time.
The groups now separated again, with Packard vowing to destroy the giant ape in a ball of fire, and Conrad working back to meet up with the boat. While out scouting the surrounding lie of the land to get their bearings from a high peak with which to look down, Conrad and Weaver come face to face with Kong. Sensing that Kong is not the bad guy here, they resolve to do what they can to save him, to which Marlow staunchly agrees. 
As Kong turns away from Conrad and Weaver his attention is grabbed by fires and explosions set by Packard to lure the ape out into the open, and engulf him in napalm flame. Packard is successful in bringing Kong down, but he's not out. Meanwhile a standoff ensues as Conrad and Weaver arrive at the scene just before Packard is about to butcher Kong once and for all, using more explosives. The group is attacked by the dominant Skullcrawler, giving Kong enough time to recover his senses and stand on his two feet. As Packard is set to detonate the explosives taking out Kong, so Kong stamps on him with his giant size 38 feet!
As Conrad, Weaver and Marlow seek their escape back to the boat and a waiting Brooks and Lin, they are pursued by the Skullcrawler. At which point Kong arrives to their aid, and an epic battle ensues between the two giant creatures. Kong prevails needless to say by ripping out the Skullcrawlers guts through its mouth at the end of its elongated forked tongue. The group make their getaway with Kong looking on, he then turns and walks away. 
In a post credits sequence, Conrad and Weaver are held in detention and interrogated by Monarch officials, and Skull Island expedition survivors Brooks and Lin in a bunker at some undisclosed location, watched from behind a one way window. Conrad and Weaver are told that Kong is not the only monster to roam the world, and are shown archive film of cave paintings depicting Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and Ghidorah. This sets up the already announced Legendary Pictures 'MonsterVerse' and their planned May 2020 release of the 'Godzilla vs. Kong' film.
