‘Dumb Money,’ ‘Expend4bles’ & ‘The Exorcist: Believer’- Film Review Catch-Up

My next catch-up review will feature three new movies that came out in the fall. At the very least, one was the appropriate choice to be released in theaters, while the other brings a stain to their respective series with unappealing sequels. There was going to be one more with Blue Beetle, but I never finished writing one up, and all I can say is it could’ve been better. With that out of the way, here’s what I have to say about Dumb Money, Expend4bles, and The Exorcist: Believer.

‘Dumb Money’

No matter how often Hollywood portrays both sides of how the stocks work, there will never be a point in ever understanding the basics of economics and the financial roller coaster it has become for decades. Yet, it still comes as a lesson to hopefully get those who aren’t interested in economics something to think about, even if it might not fully affect us. That was a minor concern when I heard director Craig Gillespie would helm Dumb Money, the true story of the GameStop stock squeeze. That, and I was one of those people who was aware of that craziness but never cared to dig deeper into the details. However, I was surprised to see an interesting biopic that offers more insights into how it affects those not in the 1%.

What’s the Story: Based on Ben Mezrich’s book “The Antisocial Network,” the primary focus is on Keith Gill (Paul Dano), a financial analyst from Brockton, Massachusetts, who goes under his YouTube name Roaring Kitty, where he talks to his followers through his live streams in his basement about the latest shock trades to look out for. But he’s like most Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, where he’s having financial problems while providing for his wife Caroline (Shailene Woodley) and kid. Soon, everyone listens to what Keith says about going all in on the company GameStop since the people on Wall Street think its shares will fall. Why does Keith think they’re undervaluing it? “I like the stock.” Those average Janes and Joes who follow his Reddit thread r/WallStreetBets follow suit, including registered nurse Jennifer Campbell (America Ferrera) to an actual GameStop employee Marcos (Anthony Ramos), to beat against the system.

Everybody remembered how insane of a story this was back in early 2021, and it must’ve been an escape after the Capital riots around the same time. But it was the first time in forever the gaming store had any relevance. I last went inside in 2018 to buy a new PS4 controller. It was an event most people followed. My mind going into Dumb Money was thinking this wasn’t going to attempt being the next Big Short, which the comparisons are going to be plenty in a positive way. But it’s pleasant seeing this side with those affected by money troubles and feel the need for anybody making millions upon millions to never look down on the underdog. Gillespie knows how to get involved in biopics with some energy, as we saw with solid results in I, Tonya, or his involvement with Hulu’s Pam & Tommy.

Working with a screenplay from Lauren Schalter and Rebecca Angelo, we’ve seen, especially recently, films stricken it to the man and giving the riches a dose of reality. Dumb Money‘s offbeat and dramatized fascination with the chaos of Wall Street is nothing but engaging without resorting to being complicated to know how it led to those who invested changed their lives and how the others handled this sudden change into their own hands. I’ve never been one to invest, and I don’t think I could’ve seen myself taking part in what Keith thought. Seeing how these people trust a random guy online and hold off selling their stock, you might not know what it’ll be worth. But you sense the care of making this, leaving those to understand what those went through that’s paced quite well.

The attention grabber that will get people talking is this ensemble that quickly fueled my excitement for the project. Paul Dano is the character who has our attention the most, with his role as Keith Gill added perfectly to one of her finest actors who’s slowly becoming more popular than ever. Plus, fans will be in relief to know this isn’t one of those times where he’s playing a weirdo but a guy who loves cats and wears a red bandanna we’re rooting for because of his sympathetic nature and knowing he’s using his skills around the stock market to help others retailers through this unexpected movement. He’s a legend who went offline. Though this should’ve delved into his past more, Dano makes him a charming character to root for.

Fans of Pete Davidson, who plays Keith’s slacker brother Kevin, will get so much amusement from his performance that he will get the most laughs, especially when he’s on his DoorDash job (who believes he’s an essential worker). America Ferrera, in another standout role this year after Barbie, gives an excellent performance, and it’s great seeing Seth Rogen toning down his style to portray Gabe Plotkin, founder of Melvin Capital Management, not making him a goofy over-the-top villain. His character is the rich a-hole type that the film opens with him on the phone trying to demolish a house so he can build a tennis court next door. And I didn’t realize until the ride home this is the second time Dano and Rogen worked together (the last time being last year’s underrated The Fabelmans).

Since they use terms above my comprehension, I know I’m not the only one who will find it difficult to understand what they’re saying entirely and instead feel like a fool while watching. Sadly, there aren’t any times when the fourth wall is broken that they can explain to us. However, it didn’t completely lose me, though. When you have a film with so many characters at play from different perspectives, it’s always understandable most storylines might be less interesting than others. For instance, we have spent more time with Vincent D’ Onofrio as S.A.C. Capital Advisors boss/ New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, Sebastian Stan as Vlad Tenev, the co-founder of Robinhood, or Shailene Woodley. We’re also going back and forth on college students RiRi and Harmony (Myha’la Herrold and Talia Ryder, respectively) when they represent those facing massive college debt that might’ve been made up for the movie. And for the sake of time, this focuses on the GameStop stock rather than mentioning the rise of AMC and Blackberry around the same time.

It is a pretty straightforward way that doesn’t complicate what happened. That neatly balances the severe and comedic moments that don’t take the overall story hectic or play it too dumb for our sake for one of the more relevant events in recent memory. Those who had little interest in this will probably come out of Dumb Money wholly won over by how compelling that made this come to life, or if you’re already caught up in the past couple of years. Still, even when it’s not perfect nor as strong as I, Tonya, you have to appreciate a film like this to have this good feeling of being on the right side of things for once in our country. I don’t see this having any staying power over the awards season, but I wouldn’t hurt seeing it as a dark horse nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

For a biopic about the GameStop short squeeze, Dumb Money shouldn’t fly under the radar since it surprised me how equally funny a fascinating director like Craig Gillespie made this work. Even when the terminology takes some time to get used to, and a couple of storylines aren’t that important, it’s a classic David v. Goliath story that will have us rooting for those wanting the greedy hedge fund guys to get what’s coming.

Grade: B

Release Date: September 15, 2023

Runtime: 104 Minutes

Rated R for pervasive language, sexual material, and drug use

Distributions: Sony/ Columbia Pictures

‘Expend4bles’

Were we expecting Expend4bles to be the salvation of action movies in this never-ending environment of sequels? Obviously not. But it’s not like the franchise with the most prominent action actors from the ’80s and ’90s is the most refined to grace the screen. I saw the first three in theaters when it started 13 years ago, resulting in mixed reactions. The first installment from 2010, directed by Sylvester Stallone, wasted the concept by taking itself rather seriously. The 2012 sequel, directed by Simon West, was what everybody wanted it to be, and it served as a fun guilty pleasure. When the third movie, directed by Patrick Hughes, hit nearly ten years ago, it was less than memorable, mainly due to its questionable, water-downed PG-13 rating. We all thought the franchise was dead with nowhere else to go after each installment makes less after the other. I didn’t have big expectations for this, but I only wanted a silly action movie to boast about. And it’s stupid, leading to a very lackluster sequel that I have no complaints about, calling it the worst and most embarrassing film I’ve seen all year.

What’s the Story: Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on and the skills to use them, The Expendables are the world’s last line of defense and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. But new team members with new styles and tactics are going to give “new blood” a whole new meaning.

Expend4bles (enough with putting “4” in titles to be clever) has anyone who paid to see the last three know they’re meant for those who grew up watching these classic heroes back in the day and be fulfilled in a kick-ass throwback fashion. Where was that in here? Because what we got offered in those 103 minutes is constantly asking why this fourth movie lacked any inkling of excitement, which no person wanted. This still sticks to its concept but barely branches out when the team is involved in another predictable and unoriginal plot that doesn’t dare to take chances despite us never caring deeply about the story. But still, did it have to be this generic? And it wasn’t good, to begin with, yet it turns upside down on feeling that nostalgia. Even with people thinking it’s all good since it’s returning to the R-rating, that’s never good (A Good Day to Die Hard).

Thank goodness these movies continue to have Jason Statham back because you can tell he’s trying his hardest to make this material work as Lee Christmas. Seeing him be the saving grace in this and Meg 2: The Trench needs to see him firing his agent. There’s still that touch of charisma to make him watchable when surrounded by dullness, and the same (almost) applies to Iko Uwais. It’s a shame Hollywood does him dirty with being the standout in mediocre action movies. Though not as interesting of a villain as both Jean-Claude Van Damme and Mel Gibson, he’s there to kick ass, and his presence will please his fans. But the rest of the cast failed to make an impact that made the series popular to begin with. We still got Statham, Stallone (who’s barely in this), Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture returning with some new faces to the Expendables crew, making the chemistry between the old and new school nonexistent based on the lousy banter alone.

You know you’re in danger when two of your newest players are Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Easy Day with no energy to his performance and Megan Fox as Gina; the latter demonstrates how correct I was when I said she has done nothing for me as an actress based solely on her terrible line deliveries and lack of “romantic” chemistry with Statham. And it doesn’t take the brightest person in the room to figure out where Andy Garcia’s character is going. In terms of the others, Levy Tran is given nothing to do other than carry a long chain; Jacob Scipio is more annoying than Antonio Banderas in the third, and he plays his son; and Tony Jaa’s abrupt pivot from pacifist to killing bad guys five minutes later was nothing to go on.

Given that director Scott Waugh could not make Need for Speed enjoyable, my initial reaction upon seeing the trailer was, “$100 million budget, my ass.” Aside from a knife fight between Statham and Uwais, the action sequences looked cheap for a theatrical release, becoming unmemorable to bring nothing new, ranging from shooting heavy, loud guns to explosions. And it’s worse knowing there’s little care of who might bite the bullet. I couldn’t take it seriously when everyone cracked corny one-liners every ten minutes. Nothing even happens when the second half takes place on a ship. But it doesn’t compare to how distracting the CGI was throughout, from the apparent green screen that actually had me laughing from the explosions on the level of a Direct-to-DVD release, which was the vibe I was getting sitting through this.

While I occasionally enjoy a decent action film, this one falls short of Lionsgate’s much superior John Wick Chapter 4. It’s awful, and after spending money to watch it at home, I detested it for over a day. I would even be insulted if someone thought it was average. So, in contrast to the first three, did I choose not to see this in theaters? Yes, and it’s easy to understand why it didn’t meet expectations at the box office.

Expend4bles won’t please the hardcore action fans out there when the fourth installment in this dying franchise is lazy and contrived. Badass, this is not, as nothing works here, from a ridiculous plot and unconvincing, lackluster action with no effort put into them. No more of these, and the world will be good.

Grade: F

Release Date: September 22, 2023

Runtime: 103 Minutes

Rated R for strong/bloody violence throughout, language and sexual material

Distributions: Lionsgate

‘The Exorcist: Believer’

It’s quite a surprise this year has churned out some pretty good horror movies. So there was no way The Exorcist: Believer would come close to stacking up. Why? The original The Exorcist has been a genre staple for 50 years and is regarded as one of the best horror movies ever. It was one of the few times an acclaimed horror movie snuck its way to the Oscars, nominated for Best Picture, and won Best Adapted Screenplay. But with a great film that had become a cultural phenomenon, everything that followed never came close. Its 1977 sequel, Exorcist 2: The Heretic, has been called one of the worst movies ever because it’s more funny than scary.

When we heard director and co-writer David Gordon Green was re-teaming with Universal and Blumhouse to bring the franchise back, all we could say was, “Why?” I already set those low expectations after Green’s last two installments in the recent Halloween trilogy (Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends) left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, including me. This sequel wasn’t the worst film I’ve ever seen, as some reviews called it, but this is still a bad horror movie. Now I know how the late William Friedkin wasn’t a fan of how we got here.

What’s the Story: Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.) has raised their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett), on his own. But when Angela and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum) disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn).

Everything you thought was creepy from the original that gave everybody nightmares is nowhere to be found, at least from what I watched. But to give it credit, it started on a somewhat good note where these girls are missing for three days, and their parents are very concerned, as any parent should react. Nothing was scary, but they could’ve made a better drama from that first act. But much like Halloween Ends, it began strong only to lose its footing quickly. Green and company decided to make a possession movie, slapping the Exorcist name since it’s recognizable. The difference between the first, though? There are two girls with demons attached to them. How clever. Their attempt to replicate what came before came across as almost lazy, poorly written, and generic; that’s not even frightening except for cheap jump scares whenever it wants to revive the viewer’s attention. Worse of all, there’s no amount of stakes to care what will happen between these girls if it takes hold of them, falling in line to being boring.

On the bright side, you can come out of this thinking there are some solid performances. Leslie Odom Jr.’s involvement gave me hope to make this material work in his favor, and he ultimately does, providing a much-grounded performance as Victor, a parent desperate to find out what happened to his daughter. And it makes the step up with his kid feel natural early on. Lidya Jewett and newcomer Olivia O’Neill as Angela and Katherine were alright, though they were not as crucial as Regan. But besides Odem Jr. and maybe Ann Dowd’s Anne, the other characters are afterthoughts with very little development once they’re in the finale. What grabbed people’s attention was how this got Ellen Burstyn to return as Chris MacNeil because every requel needs a legacy character. It’s too bad it was a waste to bring her book that doesn’t feel necessary to be part of the story, only to get a sense of nostalgia when faced with the antagonist once again. It’s more of a cameo, probably shot in two days. That’s a good enough reason for fans to call it insulting.

That potential to comment on how The Exorcist: Believer shows how some can be skeptical and learning how we can work together to defeat evil no matter what we believe in religiously might be there. It helps with that supernatural element associated with the series. But it comes at a cost when there’s no style from Green’s direction and some pretty rough editing that wanted this to end quickly, resulting in a rushed third act with the anticipated exorcism. It lacked that tension and might have some unintentional laughs with it that it’s hard not to check out once we get there mentally. Even the callbacks didn’t warrant excitement. Everything was tamed compared to his Halloween movies, where it’s worth judging anyone who thought this was scary. What about it made me think it’s worth receiving two more sequels after it finished because what else can they do to milk this series? This wasn’t interested in understanding what made the first such a hit that left us wanting more. Unlike Imagine Dragons, this won’t make me believe in what comes next in two years.

Overall, The Exorcist: Believer desperately wants to bring the franchise back, but you’re far better off watching the original since this is a flat and forgettable sequel that really doesn’t justify its existence.