Glen Powell shines in Hitman, Hard Miles a familiar but positive journey, Summer Camp dull and predictable (2024)

Powell shines in clever Hitman

Directed by Richard Linklater, Hitman is aninspired-by-fact dark comedy that gives Glen Powell the opportunity to show hisrange and make the case he’s worthy of the great expectations surrounding him.Employing a wry tone from the start, we see meek professor Gary Johnson(Powell) thrown into a dangerous situation. Moonlighting as a surveillancetechnician for the New Orleans Police Department, a stake-out goes awry andsuddenly he’s called upon to go undercover. Posing as a hitman, he meets upwith a variety of people looking for a hired killer, their desires recorded bya hidden microphone, charges brought against them soon after.

What proves most intriguing is the duality of Johnson’scharacter. In his college classes, he teaches Freud’s concepts of the id, ego and superego as well as other theories regarding identity. He espouses hisstudents to question the mystery of human consciousness and challenges them toexplore other aspects of their personality. Before you can say, “Physician,heal thyself,” Johnson is experimenting with a wide variety of personae whenmeeting his marks. He uses wigs, makeup and contact lenses to alter hisappearance while employing a variety of accents, running the gamut from suaveEuropean assassin to good-ole-boy bayou killer.

It’s obvious Powell is having great fun assuming thesevarious guises, approaching each with an arch sense of humor. The cast ofcharacters he brings to life is incredibly diverse, each representing adifferent aspect of Johnson’s personality, a surprisingly smart approach. Inthe end, he picks and chooses various aspects from his many identities, all ofthem coalescing in Ron, Johnson’s id come to life. Confident and cool, he’sable to handle every situation with a slick assurance that’s beguiling,especially to Madison (Adria Arjona), who hunts our hero up as she has a husbandshe wants to get rid of.

Familiar Miles yields fruitful journey

For over 20 years, Greg Townsend has been taking a uniqueapproach to his job. Instead of employing group therapy sessions orwork-release programs to help those at the Ridgeview Youth Detention Center, hetakes them on cross-country biking trips, a journey he uses to open their eyes,not just to the beautiful environment they travel through, but to the strengthand perseverance many of them don’t realize they possess.

Townsend’s story is the inspiration for R.J. Daniel Hanna’s HardMiles, a predictable but effective “sports-is-life” exercise that winds upbeing far more effective than it has any right to be. The charter for thecenter where Townsend (Matthew Modine) works is under review and in danger ofnot being renewed. Its director, Skip Bowman (Leslie David Baker), needs afeel-good story to help convince the powers that be that what they are doing isworthwhile. Having already planned to ride 762 miles through three states, thefinal destination being the Grand Canyon, Townsend suggests he take four ofRidgeview’s more troubled boys along with him, reasoning, “If they see a biggerworld, they may want to be a part of it.”

At first glance, the quartet in question seems to be takenfrom central casting. Having been abused and neglected, Atencio’s (Damien Diaz)anger over the hand he’s been dealt is so great, it’s libel to consume him.Smink (Jackson Kelly) suffers from an eating disorder and a compulsion tosabotage himself, while Rice ‘s (Zachary T. Robbins) impulsivity and immaturityhas landed him in more trouble than he bargained for. However, Woolbright(Jahking Guillory) is the hardest case of all, disillusioned by too many brokenpromises, his tattered self-esteem is likely to lead him to ruin.

As these five cycle through the American Southwest, trailedin a van by Haddie (Cynthia Kaye McWilliams), a counselor from the center, theyrealize they have much in common, come to prize loyalty, discover the power ofworking as a team and find they have great reserves of strength. No surpriseshere, but the four young actors are very genuine, finding a way to channel adegree of sympathy and humanity through the stereotypes they’ve been saddledwith.

The script contains one to many crises and Townsend’sbackstory concerning his relationship with his abusive father is neverdeveloped fully, coming off forced and clumsy. Yet, it’s hard not to be takenin by the grandeur of the movie’s scenery or its message. To be sure, Miles goes down a well-traveled narrative road, but Hanna and Sander prove that afamiliar journey can still have a positive effect on those who take it. Availablethrough Video-On-Demand.

Camp a dismal stay

Making a film is difficult. I’m trying to keep that in mindwhile reviewing Castille Landon’s Summer Camp, a movie that,unfortunately, was able to clear all the hurdles in its way and somehow gain atheatrical release. Lazy, unoriginal and dull, this is an exercise in tediumthat ranks up there with watching grass grow. Doctors treating sleep disorderswould do well to prescribe a viewing of this to any of their insomnia patients.Believe me, they’d be cured in 15 minutes.Camp Pinnacle is the location where Sassafras Cabin resides,the quarters where three outcasts, Ginny, Nora and Mary were ensconced onesummer 45 years ago. A bond is formed between the three girls that lasts alifetime and now that it’s time for a reunion, the trio return to reminisce andcomplain. Ginny (Kathy Bates) has become a self-help guru, Nora (Diane Keaton)is a workaholic scientist and Mary (Alfre Woodard) has gone into nursing.Regrets? Between them, they have more than a few, many of them relating to menor work, none of them remotely new or interesting. However, the presence ofStevie (Eugene Levy) and Tommy (Dennis Haysbert) rekindles some hope in Noraand Mary, neither having learned that a man won’t solve your problems.

The comedy, such as it is, is forced and predictable. Awhitewater raft ride includes, you guessed it, Nora going overboard, just oneof many moments of awkward slapstick comedy Landon resorts to. Did I need tosee a bunch of seniors involved in a food fight? Or witness another take anarrow in the behind when an archery lesson goes awry? This is the type ofcutting-edge humor that’s at play here.

As for the veterans in the cast, they do what they can, butthere’s no salvaging this debacle. It depresses me to think this is the onlykind of material available to actors of this caliber. Movies like this oftentake place in a tropical location – see the recent stinker Mother of theBride – so at the very least, the cast can while away their time inparadise. For Camp, it looks as though they had to be on the lookout forticks and Lyme disease. Hopefully, while doing so, they all considered findingdifferent agents. In theaters.