King Richard

2021 Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated: PG-13

Length: 2 hr 24min

Biography ~ Drama ~ Sports ~ True Story

Starring: Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis, Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton, Tony Goldwyn, and Jon Bernthal.

Venus, Serena and a plan for greatness.

King Richard tells the inspiring true story of Richard Williams (Will Smith), a determined father living in Compton, California, who dreams of making his daughters Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena Williams (Demi Singleton) tennis superstars. Richard has a detailed 78-page plan for their success he wrote before they were born. He and his wife Brandy (Aunjanue Ellis), who works as a nurse, coach the girls tirelessly while juggling their full-time jobs. Richard works hard to find a professional coach for them, facing numerous rejections from the tennis community skeptical of the family’s background and financial situation.

Eventually, Richard finds coach Paul Cohen (Tony Goldwyn), who agrees to train Venus but not Serena due to costs. As Venus begins to compete and succeed in junior tournaments, Serena secretly enters as well and also impresses. The family faces racism and exclusion in the predominantly white, upper-class sport. When offers from agents come in, Richard fears exploitation and pulls the girls out of the junior circuit, leading to tension with the coach and others who see this as risking their chances of turning pro.

Coach Rick Macci (Jon Bernthal) later takes the family under his wing, leading them to move to Florida for better training opportunities. Richard insists the girls focus on school and training, avoiding early exposure to the pressures of junior competition. Venus expresses her desire to turn pro, causing some family conflict, but Richard eventually supports her. Despite initial struggles, Venus achieves wins in pro matches and attracts attention from major sponsors, with Serena following close behind.

Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena Williams (Demi Singleton) revolutionized women’s tennis and had an enormous impact on the sports world at large. Their achievements include a combined 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, three Olympic golds together, and a legacy as one of tennis’s most dominant sibling duos. Venus reached No. 1 in the WTA rankings in 2002, becoming the first Black player to do so, while Serena has held the No. 1 spot for a record 319 weeks, one of the longest reigns in history.

Serena boasts 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most in the Open Era, and Venus has won seven Grand Slam singles crowns, including five Wimbledons. Their fierce rivalry and partnership broke racial and gender barriers, inspiring countless athletes and transforming the visibility and commercial appeal of women’s tennis globally. Their success symbolizes empowerment, resilience, and excellence, forever altering perceptions of Black women in sport and elevating women’s sports to new heights of public attention and respect.

This is truly an amazing story and movie well acted by Will Smith and the rest of the cast. I have to say that I have had the opportunity to watch this in the past but bypassed it because of the infamous Oscar Slap. I was on my own little Will Smith boycott even though this movie came out before the infamous Oscar affair. When I saw it had just come back to Netflix I decided to give it a watch because of the True Story and Underdog aspect. Those are two of my favorites, the True Stories and The Underdogs who, seemingly against all odds, emerge victorious and come out on top.

Richard had a 78 page plan he wrote out for his two daughters before they were born, detailing every aspect of their lives. How they were going to achieve greatness as tennis players, how they were going to conduct themselves as human beings and he never let doubt or their seemingly insurmountable obstacles of environment, race and gender sway their belief for a second. Even when he battled the violence of the local gangs that threatened his life. Even when everybody told him it couldn’t be done.

Richard Williams, through sheer perseverance, unwavering belief and steadfast determination, raised his daughters to be successful sports prodigies that succeeded beyond anybody’s wildest imaginations, (But Richard’s) and changed the course of Women’s Sports and the world of Tennis forever. It is a testament to the Human spirit and a Prime example of believing in your dreams and willing them into fruition. This is a good one and you should watch it even if, like me, you were on your own Will Smith Boycott.

I saw a video where he was promoting this movie and talked about how he doesn’t make movies anymore to make money. His only objective is to make movies that help and inspire other human beings in some way, it was the reason he made this movie. I personally feel like that is such a wonderful and admirable way of giving back after all his success. After watching this movie and learning that about Will Smith, I have decided to put aside my temporary boycott due to the Oscars fiasco. We all have our moments that we are not proud of, where life forced us to be shown at our worst. Time to let go, live and let live.

Do yourself an inspirational favor and watch this movie, and remember the Will Smith who makes movies like these to inspire and lift us all up………..

Wind River

2017 The Weinstein Company

Rated : R

Length: 1 hr 47min

Crime ~ Drama ~ Mystery ~ Neo-Western ~ Thriller

Directed by: Taylor Sheridan

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, and Graham Greene.

Nothing Is Harder To Track Than The Truth

Wind River is set in the frozen expanses of Wyoming’s Wind River Indian Reservation, where a local U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker named Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) discovers the body of a young Native American woman in the snow. Cory instantly recognizes the girl as his best friend Martin Hanson’s (Gil Birmingham) daughter Natalie (Kelsey Asbille). She had run barefoot in the snow for quite a distance as there is nothing around for miles. The cold air finally froze her lungs and she collapsed where Cory found her. The scene sparks a federal investigation led by Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen), a rookie FBI agent flown in from Las Vegas, who was the closest available agent. Far from her comfort zone being originally from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida she is completely out of her element. Sensing Cory’s familiarity with the case and the terrain, she asks him to help her with her investigation. He agrees and the two start looking for the truth about what happened to Natalie.

Natalie had apparently been raped and they order the medical examiner to order a rape kit for testing. Signs of foul play and trauma quickly turn their attention to the young victim’s relationships. They search out her brother Chip who tells them, after a shootout with a drug addict in the drug filled mobile home, that Natalie had been hanging around a security guard named Matt Rayburn (Jon Bernthal) at a remote oil drilling camp. Outside the mobile home Cory notices a snowmobile trail leading up into the mountain. Cory and Jane head up on a snowmobile to investigate and discover the murdered, mutilated body of Natalie’s boyfriend. Cory and Jane recruit the local Tribe police led by Officer Ben Shoyo (Graham Greene) to accompany them out to the remote oil drilling camp to investigate. And it is there that things take a more sinister turn and we see flashbacks of what happened to Natalie and her boyfriend Matt.

Wind River was written and directed by Taylor Sheridan who also wrote Hell Or High Water and Sicario. All three are excellent movies and three of my favorites. Wind River was inspired by the thousands of stories of American Indian women raped, murdered or missing that he discovered in doing research for the story. Although it isn’t based on one specific story, it is the true story of all the missing women from the reservation. I have seen this movie a number of times and when I saw it was on Netflix last night, I had to watch it again. I love everything about this movie. Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen are fantastic in this as well as Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, and Graham Greene. A couple of stand out scenes for me are outside the mobile home at the remote oil drilling camp where all hell breaks loose, Cory and Pete at the top of the mountain when he tells Pete that he is going to give him the same chances he gave Natalie, and when Cory goes to see Martin at the end and Martin is sitting out back with his “Death Face” on.

You could feel the heartfelt connection these two old friends have for each other, having each other’s backs in life. We all need friends like that. It is an adrenaline filled snowmobile ride chasing down the truth, filled with unexpected dangers and freezing temps, as Cory and Jane search for the truth, battle the elements, bad actors and the general culture of “looking the other way” on the reservation. As I said, I have seen this numerous times and still enjoy watching it. It is one of my favorites……hmmm, maybe I need a top ten favorite movie list. I’ll have to work on that. So, if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. It is a great movie, you should watch it.

Make some popcorn,

Grab a beverage

and Stream this Movie!

Currently on Netflix

The Accountant 2

2025 Amazon MGM Studios

Rated: R

Length: 2 hr 12min

Action ~ Crime ~ Drama ~ Thriller

Directed by: Gavin O’Connor

Starring: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, J. K. Simmons and Daniella Pineda.

DO YOU LIKE PUZZLES?

The Accountant 2 picks up eight years after the events of The Accountant. Ex Treasury Director Raymond King (J. K. Simmons) has been doing Private Detective work since his retirement from the Treasury Department. He meets with an assasin in a nightclub and is found dead with “Find The Accountant” and current treasury Director Marybeth Medina’s phone number written on his arm. She is informed and proceeds to find The Accountant and whoever is responsible for her Mentor’s death. Christian hears about her quest for him and approaches her first. Upon learning of Raymond’s death, Christian decides to help Medina and find out who is responsible.

He decides he must enlist the help of his once again estranged brother, and together they follow the leads to those responsible. They also uncover a larger conspiracy and go into combat mode to set things right. Which leads to a thrilling action packed chase to hunt down those responsible, and when they find out there are children involved, specifically an autistic child it gets personal and all hell breaks out. The Director Gavin O’Connor had stated that he wanted the sequel to focus more on the brothers relationship and The Accountant 2 does just that. There is a lot of bonding between the two of them as we get a better understanding of their tumultuous relationship.

It is a bit lighter in tone than the first movie, but has way more action than the first one. We also see Christian start to come out of his autistic shell as he gets closer and more intimate with people. There is a scene where a cowgirl asks him to join her in a line dance and despite his objections she convinces him and he starts to have a really good time. He even gets her phone number. We didn’t get to see Dana (Anna Kendrick) and Christian get together in the first movie, but we see Christian opening up to the idea of a romance and relationship in this one. And apparently, according to Gavin O’Connor, we will see Christian develop more in that area in the third installment of the trilogy.

We shall have to wait and see on that one. There is a third installment in development as we speak. I liked this one, makes me anxious for the rest of the story. It did go in a little different direction than I thought and after eight years we see that Christian has changed. He has grown out of his autistic shell to some extent and is trying to grow and expand as person. Which includes being a better brother and getting closer to his brother.

I liked it, give it a go, and bring on the third one!

The Accountant

The Accountant 2 And 3

The Accountant

2016 Warner Brothers Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 2 hr 8min

Action ~ Crime ~ Drama ~ Thriller

Directed by: Gavin O’Connor

Starring: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J. K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Jeffrey Tambor, and John Lithgow.

CALCULATE YOUR CHOICES

Ben Affleck stars as Christian Wolff, an Autistic Accountant with hidden talents. He operates a small accounting office in Plainfield, Illinois, that serves as a front for his money laundering enterprise. He assists a farmer and his wife with their tax problems, and is seen living a regimented life in a suburban property. His criminal clients contact him via an unnamed woman, who also organizes his business, identities and life. Christian is hired to audit the firm Living Robotics after the company’s CEO, Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow), and his sister Rita learn of accounting irregularities. They assign in-house accountant Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick), who discovered the issue, to assist Christian.

Meanwhile, Treasury Director Ray King (J. K. Simmons) meets with data analyst Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), who has a criminal record as a juvenile but failed to disclose this on her federal employment application. He warns her she faces prison if he chooses to reveal the information and assigns her the task of finding a shadowy figure known as ‘The Accountant’ before King retires in a few months. Medina realizes that Christian is using a series of aliases, chiefly names of great mathematicians. She tracks the Wolff identity to the accounting office and adjacent businesses in Plainfield, realizing he is using them to launder money, most of which is then donated to Harbor Neuroscience.

Which is the key to uncovering who The Accountant is, his ties to The Harbor Neuroscience center. The race is on as Christian gets to the bottom of the cooked books and the missing money, The Treasury Department tracks down who, what and where he is, and the bad guys led by Christian’s estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) try to put a lid on the cooked books and the missing money. Along the way we find there is more to the Autistic Christian as he has special skills instilled in him by his Military father as a way to prepare his autistic child for a cold harsh and cruel world.

This is one of my favorites, I have seen it countless times. I went back and re-watched it last night before I watch the sequel The Accountant 2 tonight. Ben Affleck at his best along with Anna Kendrick, Jon Bernthal and J.K. Simmons. Big fans of all of them, I did want to see more of a relationship between Christian and Anna’s character Dana, felt like that would have been a good road to go down storywise but it wasn’t in the script apparently as she is not in the sequel. So if you haven’t seen it you are missing a good one, give it a go. I hope the sequel measures up, we’ll see tonight.

The Accountant 2 And 3

The Accountant 2 Coming To Amazon Prime Thursday June 5, 2025

The Accountant 2 Coming To Amazon Prime Thursday June 5, 2025

Amazon MGM Studios just announced they are releasing The Accountant 2 on Prime Thursday June 5, 2025 after a successful box office run. They have also released an Amazon Prime Official Trailer (See Below) and an Amazon Prime Official Movie Poster.

Synopsis:

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) has a talent for solving complex problems. When an old acquaintance is murdered, leaving behind a cryptic message to “find the accountant,” Wolff is compelled to solve the case. Realizing more extreme measures are necessary, Wolff recruits his estranged and highly lethal brother, Brax (Jon Bernthal), to help. In partnership with U.S. Treasury Deputy Director Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), they uncover a deadly conspiracy, becoming targets of a ruthless network of killers who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.