The story behind the new movie "Power Ballad" is a good one. A struggling lead singer, named Rick Power (Paul Rudd), in a group touring in Ireland, shares the stage during a wedding with a famous and successful solo singer Danny Wilson, played by Nick Jonas. Later that evening, they drink and start exchanging ideas about writing music, eventually coming up with a very good song that Danny produces and releases and it becomes a huge hit.
Several months later, Rick hears his song in a shopping mall and sets the stage for a phone call to Danny's agent, trying to get credit and financial compensation for a new song that turned out to be a huge worldwide hit. Over the weeks and months of disagreements over who really wrote the song, there are times when Danny has guilt over stealing an idea from Rick, but Danny's manager Binzer (Rory Keenan) does everything he can to prevent Rick Power from ever receiving credit or any money from the song. Eventually, this reaches a violent conclusion with a fight in a hot tub during a party at Danny's Hollywood Hills home.
The best part of this film is the message about doing business with other people. It is always better to have friends to collaborate with many times in the future, rather than accumulate enemies by screwing over another human being. Unfortunately, this is not the path that way too many of the wrong people take, who never realize that making friends and long-term business partners when everybody wins, is always better than making enemies.
The conclusion of this good story was very believable and provided a satisfying ending.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 84% are correct, and I recommend this well-done film.
Movie Reviews From a Screenwriter's Perspective
Saturday, June 6, 2026
Saturday, May 30, 2026
Movie Review: Tuner
The new movie "Tuner" is unique because it is about a hearing disorder called Hyperacusis, which is a disorder that makes normal sounds extremely loud and even painful.
The main character Niki White (Leo Woodall), is a Piano tuner who works with this Grandfather, Harry Horowitz, played by Dustin Hoffman. Niki also has perfect pitch (the ability to recognize any note played), and there are some very impressive scenes in this story, one in particular where Niki can recite any Piano key(s) played, or any combination of keys, and instantly name the notes. Unfortunately, Niki's dreams of becoming a concert pianist were ruined by his hyperacusis, even though he was a prodigy at a very young age.
On a routine job to tune a piano, Niki meets Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), a concert pianist, and they fall in love very quickly. Niki's grandfather then has very expensive medical problems, and through a series of unlikely events, he becomes involved with a Russian criminal organization, and using his extremely precise hearing ability to help them crack safes. Nike uses the money he makes to help his grandfather. This quickly becomes a Shakespearean tragedy, and Niki gets into trouble, which causes huge problems with Ruthie. The conclusion was unpredictable and plausible enough to create a satisfying ending.
Rotten Tomatoes' very high ratings of 94% were too high in my opinion, with my rating 85% and a solid recommendation.
The main character Niki White (Leo Woodall), is a Piano tuner who works with this Grandfather, Harry Horowitz, played by Dustin Hoffman. Niki also has perfect pitch (the ability to recognize any note played), and there are some very impressive scenes in this story, one in particular where Niki can recite any Piano key(s) played, or any combination of keys, and instantly name the notes. Unfortunately, Niki's dreams of becoming a concert pianist were ruined by his hyperacusis, even though he was a prodigy at a very young age.
On a routine job to tune a piano, Niki meets Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), a concert pianist, and they fall in love very quickly. Niki's grandfather then has very expensive medical problems, and through a series of unlikely events, he becomes involved with a Russian criminal organization, and using his extremely precise hearing ability to help them crack safes. Nike uses the money he makes to help his grandfather. This quickly becomes a Shakespearean tragedy, and Niki gets into trouble, which causes huge problems with Ruthie. The conclusion was unpredictable and plausible enough to create a satisfying ending.
Rotten Tomatoes' very high ratings of 94% were too high in my opinion, with my rating 85% and a solid recommendation.
Friday, May 29, 2026
Movie Review: Pressure
World War II is the most written about and important event in human history. This war caused the deaths of 74-82 million people (military and civilian) and changed the direction of the world, focusing on preventing a tragedy like this from ever happening again.
Now, 81 years after the end of that horrendous war, a new World War II movie, "Pressure", has been released about the decisions regarding weather for the Normandy Invasion, which occurred on June 6, 1945. The Normandy Invasion is the largest military invasion in human history, including 326,000 troops, 5000 ships, and 13,000 aircraft. Without this invasion's success 81 years ago, the Allies would not have won the war, or it would have taken more years and many more lives.
General Dwight Eisenhower, played very well by Brendan Fraser, had the weight of the entire world on his shoulders when he was put in charge of a huge logistical nightmare of an enormous invasion in the hope of ending the worst war in history. One of the most important decisions was to decide when to invade, based on favorable weather conditions. Eisenhower hired Meteorologist James Stagg (Andrew Scott) to use the comparatively low-level science of the time, which included no satellites and computers, while using surface weather stations, weather balloons, radar, air mass (front) theory, and mathematical forecasting.
The current Meteorologist on Eisenhower's staff, Irving Krick, (Chris Messina), was using weather patterns from years or decades ago to try to predict weather that was going to happen in a few days, while Stagg believed in a much more scientific approach that was by far more accurate. The huge arguments between Krick and Stagg are some of the best parts of this movie. The story of this film made it amazing to realize that the success of the most important invasion in history and the lives of 326,000 men was the result of the scientific genius of James Stagg and his refusal to tell Eisenhower and his staff, "what they wanted to hear" about invading on June 5th. More importantly, there was the miracle last-minute discovery of a small window of time that made an invasion on June 6 possible, despite the arrival of two major storms. This discovery was only plausible because of the final agreement and collaboration between Stagg and Krick.
Much like the movie "Hidden Figures", released in 2016, this movie reveals to the world a person we all should have known about for decades. Without the genius of Katherine Johnson, NASA would have never made it into space, and without the genius of James Stagg, the world might have never been able to defeat Germany in World War II.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie of 85% is night high enough for such an important movie about World War II. My rating is 95%, and a very strong recommendation to see this outstanding film.
Now, 81 years after the end of that horrendous war, a new World War II movie, "Pressure", has been released about the decisions regarding weather for the Normandy Invasion, which occurred on June 6, 1945. The Normandy Invasion is the largest military invasion in human history, including 326,000 troops, 5000 ships, and 13,000 aircraft. Without this invasion's success 81 years ago, the Allies would not have won the war, or it would have taken more years and many more lives.
General Dwight Eisenhower, played very well by Brendan Fraser, had the weight of the entire world on his shoulders when he was put in charge of a huge logistical nightmare of an enormous invasion in the hope of ending the worst war in history. One of the most important decisions was to decide when to invade, based on favorable weather conditions. Eisenhower hired Meteorologist James Stagg (Andrew Scott) to use the comparatively low-level science of the time, which included no satellites and computers, while using surface weather stations, weather balloons, radar, air mass (front) theory, and mathematical forecasting.
The current Meteorologist on Eisenhower's staff, Irving Krick, (Chris Messina), was using weather patterns from years or decades ago to try to predict weather that was going to happen in a few days, while Stagg believed in a much more scientific approach that was by far more accurate. The huge arguments between Krick and Stagg are some of the best parts of this movie. The story of this film made it amazing to realize that the success of the most important invasion in history and the lives of 326,000 men was the result of the scientific genius of James Stagg and his refusal to tell Eisenhower and his staff, "what they wanted to hear" about invading on June 5th. More importantly, there was the miracle last-minute discovery of a small window of time that made an invasion on June 6 possible, despite the arrival of two major storms. This discovery was only plausible because of the final agreement and collaboration between Stagg and Krick.
Much like the movie "Hidden Figures", released in 2016, this movie reveals to the world a person we all should have known about for decades. Without the genius of Katherine Johnson, NASA would have never made it into space, and without the genius of James Stagg, the world might have never been able to defeat Germany in World War II.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie of 85% is night high enough for such an important movie about World War II. My rating is 95%, and a very strong recommendation to see this outstanding film.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)