Bert and Bertie's TROOP ZERO (2019)

It's Bad News Bears but minus the Bizet

With "Birdie Scouts" instead of baseball boys 

And where belongeth Tatum, rather, they

Have Charlie Shotwell. While there's much less noise

And cursing, there is cuteness here to spare.

The misfit kids are excellent and then 

Viola Davis plays for Matthau. Care

To guess how all this ends? Go 'head and spend

Some time with these wee charmers and you'll find

It spent amused enough. One extra, though, 

It's set back in the '70s. You'll find

The art direction nearly steals the show. 

It's got more edge than we expect from fluff, 

But in the end, no challenge. Just fun stuff. 

Greta Gerwig's LITTLE WOMEN (2019)

The novel is in many ways the star

Itself in this new adaptation. We

Start off with Jo a-publishing (we are

In awe that hand-penned manuscripts could be 

Considered, once) and time is split into

The "past" we know, the "present" near the end

Of Alcott's book. It works! I mean, if you

Consider Jo the heroine, my friend. 

The cast is great, and Massachusetts shows 

To best advantage. Chalamet, though, seems

Attenuated somehow. Heaven knows

Who thought he couldn't stand up to the schemes

Of these March girls at his more nat'ral height.

I hope Jo's Boys someday might see the light. 

Alan Rickman's A LITTLE CHAOS (2014)

The master of the micro-moue... I ne'er

Should be surprised that subtlety was brought

By Alan Rickman, film director. There 

Should be more like this. Ev'ry careful shot

Had grace and taste as surely would befit

The Sun King in his prime as were designed 

The gardens at Versailles. While not one whit

Of script is true, who cares? I didn't mind. 

And Winslet's fine, while Stanley Tucci steals

His scenes e'en as the scenery he chews

(But with refinement), though he gave me feels

In his one scene with Rickman. I would choose 

More films like this, had I the pow'r. Alas!

Nobody else wants tact, or style, or class?

Geoff Davis' WILLIAM KELLY'S WAR (2014)

Long ere Bruce Wayne went bats, one Billy K

His brother and his cousin, duty-bound,

Signed up to fight the Great War far away.

Meanwhile in Oz, bad guys were all around

The fam'ly spread, and Billy's sis was cute!

So many genres in one movie! There's 

War stuff and hot revenge -- watch Billy shoot

Unerringly wherever Billy fares!

His mother speechifies, his sister shrinks

From nothing, and his brother's Batman, too!

The script is tight, the music's fine, the links

'Twixt shell-shock and rough justice, they feel true. 

The Brothers Davis, though, are writers first. 

I can't quite call their acting, though, the worst.