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    Movie review

    Disney's Little Mermaid remake goes swimmingly despite new so-so songs

    Alex Bentley
    May 26, 2023 | 12:43 pm

    The biggest problem with the majority of the live-action updates to classic Disney animated films is that they haven’t been updates at all, choosing to merely regurgitate the moments audiences know and love from the original in a slightly repackaged form. That’s great for nostalgia, but if that’s all viewers wanted, they’d just go back and watch the original.

    The Little Mermaid falls into much the same trap, although the filmmakers get at least a little credit for trying to offer something new. The story, of course, remains the same, as Ariel (Halle Bailey) has a fascination with everything above the surface of the ocean. Her rebellious nature, at odds with strict King Triton (Javier Bardem), leads her to spy on a ship with Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) and his crew, putting her in position to save Eric when the ship crashes into rocks.

    Now totally enamored of Eric, Ariel is convinced by the sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) to give up her voice for a chance to live on land and make Eric fall in love with her. Trouble is, despite the help of Sebastian the crab (Daveed Diggs), Flounder the fish (Jacob Tremblay), and Scuttle the seabird (Awkwafina), Ursula has no plans to let Ariel succeed fair and square.

    Directed by Rob Marshall and written by David Magee, the film clocks in at nearly one hour longer than the original, going from 83 minutes to 135. They accomplish this feat with the addition of several songs, including ones “sung” by Ariel while she is without voice, a relatively clever way to get into her thoughts during that long stretch. There are also additional scenes that give Prince Eric more of a backstory, making him more than just a pretty face on which to hang all of Ariel’s hopes and dreams.

    The new songs are hit-and-miss; Ariel’s “For the First Time” is a fanciful number that fits in nicely, but “Wild Uncharted Waters,” a solo song for Prince Eric, feels unnecessary, and the less said about “The Scuttlebutt,” a rap performed by Scuttle and written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the better. What most people want to see are how the original songs are done, and they come off well for the most part. The actors’ voices are uniformly good and the staging is engaging.

    Other changes seem half-hearted, at best. A vague environmental theme broached at the beginning is quickly dropped. The cast is very multicultural, but haphazardly so. The film is obviously set on and around a Caribbean island, making it natural for The Queen (Noma Dumezweni), Eric’s adopted mother, and other islanders to be Black. But giving Ariel “sisters from the seven seas,” allowing for mermaids of several different races and ethnicities, feels odd and forced, and a little creepy given that King Triton is supposed to be the father of all of them.

    The fact that Bailey herself is Black, while great for representation, is neither here nor there in the context of the film. Bailey has a voice that is equal to everything she is asked to sing, and her silent acting is excellent in the middle portion of the film. McCarthy makes for a great Ursula, bringing both humor and pathos to the role. Hauer-King, who bears a similarity to Ryan Gosling, plays Eric in a more well-rounded manner.

    The live-action version of The Little Mermaid, like almost all of the Disney remakes, never truly establishes itself as its own unique thing. Still, it’s a thoroughly pleasant watch with some nice performances, which clears the bar for success for this era of Disney history.

    ---

    The Little Mermaid opens in theaters on May 26.

    Halle Bailey and Jonah Hauer-King in The Little Mermaid
      

    Photo by Giles Keyte

    Halle Bailey and Jonah Hauer-King in The Little Mermaid.

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    Movie Review

    Ben Affleck cooks the books in chaotic sequel The Accountant 2

    Alex Bentley
    Apr 24, 2025 | 2:30 pm
    Jon Bernthal and Ben Affleck in The Accountant 2
    Photo by Warrick Page/Prime
    Jon Bernthal and Ben Affleck in The Accountant 2.

    In this Hollywood era of franchises, finding one to call their own is a priority for many movie stars. Over 30 years into his career, Ben Affleck had yet to find one; he did star as Batman in multiple movies, but that role has been interchangeable. He seemed to get a prime action hero role with 2016’s The Accountant, but somehow it’s taken nine years for The Accountant 2 to come out.

    Affleck’s character of Christian Wolff is a high-functioning autistic man whose abilities to comb through mounds of data quickly and efficiently are matched only by his fighting skills. When Ray King (J.K. Simmons), a former Treasury agent who had previously hunted Christian, is murdered, King’s replacement, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), calls on Christian to help figure out what happened and track down his killer.

    The search quickly finds multiple criminal conspiracies, including a hitman ring, a scheme to abduct migrants, and more. Naturally, Wolff claims to need help in the endeavor, so his mercenary brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) soon joins in on the quest. The two brothers work together to figure out the puzzle while also stopping to have some fun every now and then.

    Directed by Gavin O’Connor and written by Bill Dubuque (both returning from the original), the film feels like it is missing many connective scenes. It often starts down one road and seems to be making good progress when it suddenly veers into another storytelling lane with no explanation. This happens multiple times throughout the film, to the point that it becomes almost impossible to tell what the main story is supposed to be.

    In the first film, the oddity of having an autistic math genius also being a world-class marksman and fighter somehow made sense. This film leans much more into Christian’s physical skills, with the autistic side of things showing up in his (mostly) emotionless demeanor. While that works to a certain degree, the choppiness of the story undercuts the character traits that Affleck does his best to impart.

    The best examples of the messiness of the film come in the multiple scenes that serve as nothing more than comic relief, with not even an attempt at connecting them to the main plot, such as it is. Two of them involve Christian proving himself to be a ladies man despite his lack of conversational skills, both of which fall flat as they seem to be making fun of his autism rather than highlighting positive aspects of it. Each of the comic scenes is so disparate in tone from the rest of the film that they essentially bring the story to a screeching halt.

    Affleck is fine in the part, although he’s much better when Christian turns toward action hero mode than when he has to display the character’s autistic traits. Bernthal is great at being an over-the-top macho guy, and he gets to indulge that side of him throughout the film. Addai-Robinson is disserved by a role that doesn’t give her character any autonomy despite her high-powered position.

    Affleck’s career has been one of the most up-and-down ones of any supposed A-list actor, and The Accountant 2 marks another down moment for him. He may have finally gotten his first sequel for a film in which he’s the main character, but don’t expect there to be a third installment.

    ---

    The Accountant 2 opens in theaters on April 25.

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