I had forgotten that I had seen the movie, Kid Who Would Be King with youngest son two weeks ago. We had decided just to put in on Crave. This was in between catching The Outsider. Now how had I missed this when it includes Rebecca Ferguson, of Mission Impossible fame and The White Queen, I just won’t know. A silly oversight, although if you watch this movie for her you will wish for more screen time. The story is a young man (played by Louis Ashbourne Serkis – and yes, related to Andy Serkis from LOTR, King Kong, Planet of the Apes etc). He is good. He is a general outcast in school. He stumbles upon a sword which happens to be excalibur. He manages to free the sword in modern times. What do you do now? The question is answered quickly as the dormant Morgana is looking to return to earth and dominate once again. This heads down a relatively predictable path. I have to say that I enjoyed this more than I had expected. The age-old discussion about expectations can be inserted here. Would I have enjoyed it less if I expected a snap bang, rousing King Arthur story? Likely so. Instead I got what I felt would be young teen mush, and was pleasantly surprised. The young cast does a decent job, the effects are okay.
As for The Outsider, I will state up front that I haven’t finished Season 1 yet. The early trailers for this season was for the Jason Bateman fans who liked Ozark. Here he is on a baseball field as a coach and accused of murdering a young elementary aged child. It has some twists and turns and becomes more a story about the police who are trying to figure out the killer. There are logical steps that don’t compute, but the cast plays it straight as they must. Ben Mendolsohn, known by me for generally being a bad guy in movies like Rogue One or Ready Player One. He and his wife are struggling as are many of the various characters in this tale. Things happen and there is a left turn which kind of lost me, I have to admit, but a feeling that is echoed by some of the characters. Still, as we get to focus more on the Private Investigator, played by Cynthia Erivo, it is more compelling. I can see a series with her in the possible future. But we will see if that happens. I will finish this, but for me, much like the book Tommyknockers, Stephen King can lose me when he takes these left turns (some of which you see coming at you like a car with high beams in the opposite lane on a flat backroad). I’ll let you decide if the end is worth the journey as I watch along too. Oh, and in looking it up, Cynthia Erivo got an Oscar nomination for Harriet this past year, and she was also in Widows. No wonder why I am liking her. I haven’t seen Harriet but I will need to check it out.
Mondays With Robbie 