Falling Down (1993)

The premise of this movie daunted me by sounding gritty. That said, director Joel Schumacher isn't known for grit. If anything, people wish he were more serious. In spite of his low popularity, I generally like what I've seen of his work, not least for his ability to fill the screen. If this was off the beaten path for him, so much the better for broadening my perception.

Bill (Michael Douglas) starts in a familiar scenario: an L.A. traffic jam. His first act to make him stand out is to leave his car, telling the objector behind him that he's walking "home." Lest you think this a retelling of After Hours, know that it's actually his former home, where ex Beth (Barbara Hershey) doesn't welcome him at all, but he'd hate to miss their young daughter Adele's birthday. As the plot progresses, we see more and more signs of why Beth got a restraining order: Bill becomes a formidable enemy to pretty much everyone he meets along the way.

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

I didn't review the first Ant-Man, partly because I'd watched with jet lag and partly because I didn't think there was much to say. It has a few entertaining action sequences, but the inane premise of giving a power suit to a recidivist criminal for the sake of a "second chance" makes it possibly my least favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe movie (and I've seen all to date). I wouldn't mind so much if it were more comedic, as the casting of Paul Rudd suggested it would be. Nevertheless, critics have liked the latest entry better, so I wasted little time in going out to see it.

In the wake of his rebellious aid to Captain America, Scott Lang (Rudd) has been under house arrest for nearly two years -- presumably much better than prison, especially when bonding with his young daughter during her joint-custody visits, but he has to get creative to fight boredom. Then he has a suspiciously realistic "dream" involving Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), wife of inventor Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Janet had not been heard from since she used Pym nanotech to shrink down into "the Quantum Realm" decades ago. Scott leaves a message for Hank, whose adult daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) then arranges for his surreptitious break from house arrest, against his wishes, so that they can puzzle out a way to bring Janet back, hopefully before the feds come to check on Scott. The solution will, of course, involve Scott donning the Ant-Man suit again, this time joined by Hope in the Wasp suit.