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Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about his latest series of fives: Firstly, Big George Foreman, which was “pretty decent,” rather like Sweetwater, where the story itself is strong enough to carry the film forward, regardless of whatever lunacies — or, with your typical biopics, redundancies— a viewer encounters along the way. Khris Davis does a convincing job portraying Foreman, the oldest boxer to ever win the heavyweight championship, across two decades. As for the all-important Grill, director George Tillman Jr skipped a golden opportunity to anthropomorphize Foreman’s invention and make his biography into a buddy pic. Y’think Tillman will lament this shot not taken? What with a $4 million return (so far) on a $32 million budget? Secondly, Kelly Fremon Craig’s adaptation of Judy Blume’s 1970 classic YA novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret., which has been a long time coming, mostly, Schulz contends, because of the whole menstruation kerfuffle. What might have present-day audiences and fans of the book biting down hard on their complimentary sanitary napkins, though, would be how much Craig veers away from the novel’s set-up: She dispenses with Margaret Simon’s first-person narration and invents a whole subplot involving the matriarch Barbara (Rachel McAdams), whose WASP-y family had cut her off for marrying the Jewish Herb (Benny Safdie). Despite himself, Schulz was pleased that Craig chose to put more attention upon the adults, as he’s unable anymore to relate to sixth-grade concerns; but the “kid stuff” is also fantastic, so audiences who were reared on the novel can rest easy knowing that Blume’s vision wasn’t sacrificed upon the altar of Mammon. Unfortunately, such bravery hasn’t translated into box-office success, given the $8.8 million return — so far — on a $30 million budget. Alas. Thirdly, Polite Society, directed by Nida Manzoor, a British-Pakistani action comedy-drama (or dramedy), as a “martial arts, Quentin Tarantino, James Bond slapstick comedy. . . absolutely insane. . . a mess of fun; really fun [and] really violent for a PG-13 movie especially. . .” Be sure to catch it when it hits streaming. Fourthly, Jalmari Helander’s Sisu was really disappointing, given how on-board Schulz was with the concept of killing Nazis for ninety minutes going in. Coming out, however, Schulz resents how the film kept getting grosser and grosser as it went along, but didn’t get any more entertaining after the first ten minutes — a real “be careful what you wish for”-type deal. “Relentlessly unpleasant” was Schulz’s takeaway — probably much like the milieu it portrays, come to think of it (the Lapland War of late 1944, when the Finns and the Nazis had it out). Fifthly, talk of massacring Nazis must inevitably turn back to Judy Blume, who was the focus of Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok’s documentary on Prime Video. Blume, now 85, spends the majority of the run-time being interviewed about her life and career, and since she’s a great conversationalist, Blume makes up for the lack of face-kicks and disembowelments they might otherwise enjoy/endure. She has a lot to say about the recent book-burning controversy, which seems like it’s becoming a generational blight (the burning of so-called “objectionable” books, to be clear), since she and her husband own an independent bookstore in Florida. Concerning films that are opening this weekend, we have Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, which Schulz fears is heading in the direction of most recent Marvel films (“so portentous, so serious-minded”). One of the Deez confesses legitimate fears of not knowing what’ll be going on, since he hasn’t seen any of the last five Marvel movies. There’s also Love Again, which isn’t a Marvel film, but since it involves Celene Dion as herself, might as well be. Love Again is an English-language remake of the 2016 German film SMS für Dich, directed by Karoline Herfurth, from the 2009 novel of the same name by Sofie Cramer — neither of which involve Celene Dion, it must be said. Also also, coming to Moline for twice-a-day showings is What’s Love Got to Do with It, which has nothing to do with the 1993 Tina Turner biopic, but sounds like Polite Society without the blunt-force trauma. Happy weekend!