They Have Become AFRAID

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to Bluray and Digital from writer/director Chris Weitz and Blumhouse and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the AI and being AFRAID.

Curtis (John Cho) is a computer engineer who enjoys a great relationship with his boss Marcus (Keith Carradine). He wants the company to design something A.I. realizing it is a growing industry. Curtis isn’t really happy about what is happening with the A.I. industry but holds his opinion when he meets Melody (Havana Rose Liu), Lighting (David Dastmalchian) and Sam (Ashley Romans). They have come to a meeting to show Curtis and Marcus their own idea with AIA.

Convincing Curtis to allow AIA into their home to wife Meredith (Katherine Waterston), daughter Iris (Lukita Maxwell) and sons Preston (Wyatt Lindner) and Cal (Isaac Bae), almost immediately Curtis sees unusual people around their home. AIA makes herself invaluable to Meredith and finds a way to ingratiate herself to teen daughter Iris but Curtis is not fooled. He decides to take matters into his own hands when Marcus informs him that the company has been sold and Curtis can become the new boss. Going to the headquarters is where Curtis makes a stand but AIA isn’t about to let him get away with anything.

At home, it all begins to become crazier and this time, he has the family behind him. Will it be enough to go against a strong AIA?

Cho as Curtis is a man who is happy with his family and his work. Of course, there are struggles with the kids and trying to make everyone happy but he does try. Bringing AIA home offers a bit of time with the wife and a connection for the kids. Surprised at first that the family finds their own place with AIA, it doesn’t take long before his return feelings about A.I. are validated.

Waterston as Meredith is a wife who begins to question being a Mom. AIA is there to listen but there comes a time when even she questions how the line blurs between a human beings’ true feelings and A.I.’s programed responses. Maxwell as Iris is a typical teenager who lets social media rule her life until AIA steps in. Bae as Cal is a youngster with an ipad and we all know how that can be. Preston as Lindner gets the chance to show he is just as brave, and a tad cleverer, than his dad. 

Shout out to Liu as Melody, Dastmalchian as Lightening and Romans as Sam for providing the creepiness needed for this to work. To be honest, had I ever met these three – I’d have run the opposite way so fast it would make my own head spin!

Other cast include Bennett Curran as Sawyer, Greg Hill as Henry, Riki Lindhome as Maud, Todd Waring as Papa and Ben Youcef as Ben.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment encompasses motion picture production for television, digital content and theater releases. The studios include Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Stage 6 Films and Sony Picture Classics. To see what is coming to theaters and to home entertainment please visit www.sonypictures.com.

MOVIES ANYWHERE gives viewers the ability to download the Movies Anywhere App. With that you can view films by downloading or streaming to your favorite device using a Digital Code. For more information on Movies Anywhere please visit www.MoviesAnywhere.com.

Extra features include Five Deleted & Extended Scenes Including Alternate Ending and Dark Side of AI.

AFRAID is a look at how quickly A.I. can permeate family life in a larger sense. We use computers, phones, social media, websites etc. but AIA shows that in a snap how it can be used in the worst way. Cho brings the naysaying to it all but finds himself a bit pulled in by it until it starts to make him suspicious.

AIA actually becomes a bit of a star in this film solving problems and becoming best friends with the wife solving her issues, bff to the daughter solving her teen issues yet with the sons, the A.I. takes on a different look and feel. The film falls into the “beware of A.I.” that seems to permeate films right now and truthfully, I’m a bit on their side. Although, I have to also say I do like having Alexa around when I have weird questions I’m too lazy to look up myself so there’s that.

That being said, watch the film and discover which side you are on.

In the end – be careful what you let in!

 

 

OPERATION FINALE is a Story of Justice

Jeri Jacquin

On Bluray/DVD and Digital from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and director Chris Weitz based on a true story tells us about the historic OPERATION FINALE.

Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac) is part of an Israeli secret agents who have one goal – to track down and arrest SS officer Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley). They want him as he is known as the mastermind of what is known as the ‘Final Solution’ and the Jewish people in concentration camps during World War II.

In Argentina, Sylvia Hermann (Haley Lu Richardson) is a young woman who begins dating a boy named Klaus Eichmann (Joe Alwyn). Klaus tells her family that he has been raised by his uncle Ricardo after his father died. It is Sylvia’s father who believes that he is onto something. When a photograph is relayed back to Israel of Uncle Ricardo, Malkin is brief on the operation to bring Eichmann back to Israel to stand trail for war crimes.

Along with Hanna Elian (Melanie Laurent), Isser Harel (Lior Raz), Rafi Eitan (Nick Kroll) and others, the group come to Buenos Aires, Argentina searching. They set up and prepare the best way to capture Eichmann and get him to an airplane covertly. Malkin has a lot to prove as they thought they were capturing the same man in Austria and it went wrong.

Capturing Eichmann is one thing, having him at a safe house until he can be extracted is another. Son Klaus and wife Vera (Greta Scacchi) are doing everything possible to find Eichmann. That means the clock is ticking to get a confession from Eichmann about who he really is.

Malkin finds himself talking with Eichmann when it is his turn to watch the prisoner. Everyone else in the safe house finds taking care of the former SS officer distasteful so Malkin takes their shifts as he wants to know why and believes he can convince Eichmann to sign the document.

Klaus has brought down every person to bear in order to find his father - even throwing both Sylvia and her father in jail. Torturing the young girl doesn’t seem to faze Klaus enough to stop it but what she tells him put them all on the hunt for the safe house. Every move is becoming ever more dangerous with lives at stake.

Time is running out and the race is on to get Eichmann to the plane and to stand trial for his war crimes.

Golden Globe winner Isaac as Malkin is a man with memories that make it difficult at times to do what needs doing. When an earlier mission to capture Eichmann turned chaotic, it is clear that Malkin wants to make sure the mission goes according to a well laid plan. When Eichmann is their prisoner at the safe house, Isaac’s character takes it upon himself to get to ‘know’ the man with the goal of a confession. That means telling Eichmann very personal things in the hope that the former SS officer will trust in him. There comes a moment of cat and mouse that I thought was going to go horribly wrong. Isaac is proving time and time again to be such a stellar actor and the roles he chooses are smart and poignant, OPERATION FINALE is one such role.

Academy Award winner Kingsley as Eichmann is absolutely stunning and I say that because I have been an admirer of this actor long before he was Sir Ben Kingsley. He has the unique ability to be any character he chooses, meaning good characters and not-so-nice characters yet I am riveted to see where he takes the story. This film is no exception to that rule as Kingsley starts out in character defiance but inevitably realizes the situation he is in portraying it masterfully.

Laurent as Hanna agrees to be the medic for the mission but refuses to give Eichmann an ounce of compassion. This is the second film dealing with Nazi’s as she was the French cinema owner Shoshana in INGLORIOUS BASTERDS in 2009. Kroll as Eitan is goal oriented to get the mission done swiftly and needs the confession to make that happen.

Other cast include Michael Aronov as Zvi Aharoni, Ohad Knoller as Ephraim Ilani, Greg Hill as Moshe Tabor, Torben Liebrecht as Yaakov Gat, Michael Hernandez as Dani Shalom, Pepe Rapazote as Carlos Fuldner, Haley Lu Richardson as Sylvia Hermann and Peter Strauss as Lothar Hermann.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us all to experience and re-experience in our own home theatres. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.

The Bonus Features on Bluray and DVD include Inside the Operations: Cast, filmmakers and crew discuss working together, filing in Buenos Aires, and their collective approach to telling such a historically significant story and Feature Commentary with Director Chris Weitz.

OPERATION FINALE is an intense thriller in a story that absolutely needed to be told. The film is stellar and what makes it so is the cast who take on their characters with depth and intensity. As the story unfolds it becomes clear that not only is there much to fear if they get caught but the fact that Eichmann wasn’t the only Nazi in Buenos Aires!

The scenes between Isaacs and Kingsley are pure brilliance in their exchanges and I couldn’t take my eyes of the screen. Both of these actors have brought so much to the screen through the years and OPERATION FINALE is going to be a film that sticks with me for a very long time.

In the end – after World War II the mission for justice began!