With a long weekend ahead, many might be looking for a good movie to watch.
Richard Roeper offers his take on some of the newest releases.
‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu’ (in theaters)
The first new “Star Wars” movie in seven years is essentially just a movie-length episode of the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.” It’s a well-crafted, occasionally rousing but ultimately middling adventure that doesn’t truly merit the big-screen treatment. If you’re a loyal fan of the series and a hardcore devotee of the seemingly boundless “Star Wars” universe, there are plenty of in-jokes and call-backs to keep you amused; if you’re a more casual observer, it still won’t be that difficult to track the story of Pedro Pascal’s bounty hunter “Mando” and his impossibly cute sidekick, Grogu, as they attempt to save Jabba the Hut’s son Rotta (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) from multiple enemies. Sigourney Weaver is wasted in an extended cameo as a generic colonel character in the Rebel Alliance, while Martin Scorsese provides some comic-relief as a fast-talking, nervous, four-armed alien. (Hey, it’s a “Star Wars” story.) Unless you’re a Grogu fanatic, you can wait for this one to arrive on digital platforms, most likely by late summer.
‘Jack Ryan: Ghost War’ (Prime Video)
Speaking of feature-length extensions of popular streaming series: “Jack Ryan: Ghost War” is set a few years after the TV show’s finale episode. John Krasinski’s Ryan is retired from the CIA and working on Wall Street, when his old friend and boss Greer (Wendell Pierce) calls on him for a simple favor–which, of course, turns out to be anything but simple. Soon we’re plunged into a convoluted plot involving exotic international locales, plot twists you we can see coming a mile away, implausible shootouts in broad daylight, and one military thriller cliché after another. Even the score sounds like it was lifted from a Generic Thriller Greatest Hits package. I’m a John Krasinski fan, but in the long line of actors who have played Jack Ryan, he just doesn’t have the gravitas of a Harrison Ford or an Alec Baldwin – or even later iterations played by Ben Affleck and Chris Pine. This is Jack Ryan Lite.
‘The Crash’ (Netflix)
Details the tragic story of the 2022 car crash in Strongsville, Ohio, in which two young men were killed and the driver, then 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla, was charged and convicted on two counts of murder. The case made international headlines and has been chronicled in previous TV episodes–but for the first time, Shirilla tells her side of the story, and let’s just say I found her excuse/alibi less than convincing.
The Netflix documentary “The Crash” wants viewers to question the conviction of MacKenzie Shirilla in the deaths of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan. It leans heavily into ambiguity and emotion, suggesting this may have been a tragic accident.
Watching documentaries like this sometimes gives me pause; is this a legitimate piece of journalism, or further exploitation of a tragedy? In this case, it’s probably a little bit of both, but I can’t deny that I found it to be compelling television.
The black box data showed Shirilla’s car accelerated to nearly 100 miles per hour before smashing into a brick wall. The accelerator was pinned to the floor in the seconds before impact. There was no braking. None. Investigators also found no mechanical failure and no medical event to explain the crash.
Prosecutors argued Shirilla knew the isolated industrial area where the crash occurred and had driven there before. The judge later described her actions as “controlled, methodical, deliberate, intentional and purposeful.”
Then there’s the relationship — volatile and deteriorating. One witness testified Shirilla had previously threatened during an argument: “I’m going to wreck this car right now.”
And prosecutors also pointed to bizarre Pig Latin-style conversations between Shirilla and her mother in the hospital, arguing they appeared to be coordinating explanations about what happened: the prior threat,
the secluded route, the speed, the fully depressed accelerator, the total absence of braking, and the suspicious post-crash behavior.
And in this case, the evidence overwhelmingly points to intent — not accident.
Richard Roeper has reviewed films and TV series for more than 25 years, most notably with the Chicago Sun-Times and on the nationally syndicated “Ebert & Roeper.” Roeper is an entertainment and culture contributor to NBC 5 Chicago. He is the host of the globally popular “The Movie of Your Life” podcast, and he writes reviews for RogerEbert.com.
