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Gina Carano

7.08 Behind the Mask of THE MANDALORIAN

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When the Star Wars universe made the transition to the small screen, no one could have predicted the cultural impact that The Mandalorian would have. Featuring a sympathetic hero in Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), a wild-west atmosphere and, of course, Baby Yod… er… the Child, Mando has become a pop culture phenomenon, reviving a flagging franchise and rebuilding trust with its fans. This week, we welcome back pastor Jedi Greg Banik and ScreenFish padawan Gary Blaze to talk about the magic of the series and identifying with the man behind the mask.

(NOTE: This episode features spoilers up to episode 5 of Season 2.)

You can stream the episode on podomatic, Alexa (via Stitcher), Spotify or Amazon Podcasts! Or, you can download the ep on Apple Podcasts!

Want to continue to conversation at home?  Click the link below to download ‘Fishing for More’ — some small group questions for you to bring to those in your area.

7.08 The MandalorianDownload

Extraction: Die Hard with a Vengeance Part Deux?

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Twenty years after his mother was murdered by terrorists, Harry Turner (Kellan Lutz) must go on a frantic rescue mission (of sorts) to save his father, legendary CIA operative Leonard Turner (Bruce Willis). When his ex-girlfriend and current operative Victoria (Gina Carano) is sent to stop him, the two join forces in an attempt to save the elder Turner, stop terrorist forces, and uncover the bigger plot. You can stop me if you’ve heard the formula before.

While Steven C. Miller throws himself fully into the action, there are significant problems with the formulaic delivery that occurs. It’s certainly not Lutz’s worse movie (Legend of Hercules, anyone?) or Carano’s worst acting job (see: Heist), but it’s just not very good.

Someone wants Lutz to be a movie star, very badly. In what amounts to a lower budgeted Die Hard with a Vengeance, Willis is rolled out to prop up Lutz as the “Next Guy We Should Pay Attention To” in the way they tried to transition us to believing that Jai Courtney was just as cool as McClane Jr. Sadly, this one never really sucks us in, either thanks to terrible dialogue or mailed-in acting.

“You’re being too hard on it, I’m sure!” someone will argue.

extractionCase in point: Willis’ Leonard stabs a man’s carotid artery with a pencil, screams, “Never talk about my family again!” and shoots the man to death. Seriously? As if the pencil (the sharp end) wasn’t vicious enough, he had to tell the man breathing blood not to speak of Turner’s family in the split second before he shot him.

Later, when the baddies run off with Victoria, Harry shouts “where’s your car?” at a temporary accomplice and they race off, fishtailing for several blocks – in a straight line pursuit of the villains, because, you know, moving side to side makes you go faster?

Honestly, there were some enjoyable moments in the film – if you view it as a spoof. Charlie Sheen made some amusingly funny films (the Hot Shots series) a few decades ago. Take them seriously, and you’ll struggle; imagine that the star is breaking the fourth wall and laughing with you, and you just might enjoy it.

Heist: The Art of Misdirection

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Robert De Niro. Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Kate Bosworth. Morris Chestnut. Gina Carano. Dave Bautista.

The cast list reads like a who’s who of good-but-not-great films that have littered the landscape of early spring and late summer. All of them have been in something spectacular, but bringing them all together echoes with the late-breaking career of Morgan Freeman as the set-up man. Heist (or Bus 657) is that kind of film about a blackjack dealing-father who needs the perfect heist to pay for his daughter’s expensive, non-insurance-covered operation.

Luke Vaughn (Morgan) knows he shouldn’t steal from “The Pope” (De Niro) but when heavy Cox (Bautista, sans makeup) lures him into robbing Pope’s casino and righthand man Derrick Prince (Chestnut), he is all in. Their robbery goes south (duh!) and they end up careening around on a bus driven by Bernie (D.B. Sweeney) with a setup straight out of Speed. However, local officer Kris Bajos (Carano) is in hot pursuit, and is soon joined by a suave Marconi (Mark-Paul Gosselaar). Vaughn and Cox (obviously) disagree on how to proceed, and the plot thickens aboard the bus.

All of this is pretty much what you would expect, like a Speedy Ocean’s Eleven without the humor. We’re warned several times that things are not what they seem but unfortunately, they seem so obvious that the ‘sleight of hand’ was telegraphed well before the big reveal. I don’t know if this is the result of a poor script, or poor direction, but the crew deserved better.

And then there’s the human interest level, as if the kid in the hospital bed motif wasn’t enough: we’re supposed to believe that The Pope really, really badly wishes he had made better life decisions and he wants to go straight. Or at least he wants a shot at conning his completely empathetic daughter (Kate Bosworth) into believing he can go straight, which changes the whole dynamic of the film. I am all for redemptive story arcs, and Bosworth nails the paltry five minutes that she’s given here, but the transition is so jarring that I thought I must’ve missed something. (I had not.)

Fortunately, each piece by each actor is pretty solid. Bautista has my attention after Guardians of the Galaxy and Spectre; I’m already a fan of Bosworth and Morgan. But the real misdirection seems to be in thinking that there was going to be an emotional payoff for the audience that just wasn’t there. I’m disappointed, really.

The trailer had me fooled.