revboose-781-838014 Reviews

The King's Man (2021)

Lacking Anchors

[5/10 · 25 February 2022]

One of the things that makes me *hate* a movie is when any character gets from here to there in an unbelievably brief time. It doesn't just unmoor the story from reality, it goes against logic and consistency within the universe itself.

"The King's Man" features this trope, but I was already irked by the time we got there. The whole point of the antagonist appeared to be to destroy England... by causing the First World War! His henchmen were involved for unclear reasons, despite all being historical figures. It was just... muddy!

I enjoyed the first "Kingsmen" movie, and accepted the second one as, "The first one made money!", but this one was flat to me. Despite excellent leads, good action, and some interesting writing, the payoff just didn't make any in-universe sense.

Without Remorse (II) (2021)

Does not mean what you think it means...

[3/10 · 4 May 2021]

What I saw in the trailer was not encouraging, but the other day, with little to do, I decided I would watch it, just to see if it was better than expected, as bad as expected, or at least stupid enough to be fun (I'm looking at you, Hunter/Killer!).

During the climactic action sequence, I found myself nodding off. It's that bad.

Michael B. Jordan does everything that's expected of him, but I found the directing to be ham-handed, the cinematography to be murky, and the story so totally *not* the original Tom Clancy story that I was taken right out of it.

The whole point of the original story is that Kelly is taking out the gang members and drug dealers who murdered his girlfriend, a young woman he had rescued from the street and was helping to live a better life, and he's doing it on his own, preying on them in a very Don-Pendleton-esque way (but with Clancy's attention to details). Kelly in this movie takes out one man lone-wolf style, but the rest is done in the context of working with his old SEAL team.

And it's just not WR without the "bang stick" scene (you know the one I'm talking about!).

This could have been so much more, so much closer to the original, but it became just a generic action thriller, right down to the betrayal by someone higher up.

Hotel Artemis (2018)

Jodie Foster is amazing as always!

[7/10 · 16 January 2021]

When Jodie Foster goes into an agoraphobic panic attack as nurse Jean Thomas at a point midway through Hotel Artemis, you really feel it, and you really feel for her. Foster continues to amaze by disappearing into roles and bringing an amazing gravitas to what could be an otherwise unwatchable concept movie.

Foster is the nurse in charge of the Hotel Artemis, an underground hospital that caters to members of the underworld; it is *literally* members-only, as you have to pay your dues and have a confirmation chip inserted in your arm to be able to get past the gate. She is aided by Dave Bautista as the aptly-named orderly Everest as she tries to heal the wounds of various clients who have shown up on this given night. However, when the founder of the hotel shows up needing service, her straightforward world gets dropped on its ear.

Most characters are paper-thin with no dimension whatsoever - they exist completely as they are, and the actors make passable work of their portrayals. But the gem is Foster, who continues to prove that she can become whatever a role demands of her. Nurse Thomas is about as far from the elegant sociopath in charge of Elysium as one can get, yet you accept her in both roles.

The movie is neatly done and comes in at a smart 90 minutes. Visual bubble gum, you might "try the flavour" again, but Foster makes it worth it.

7/10

Outside the Wire (2021)

Frankenstein for 2021

[7/10 · 16 January 2021]

Anthony Mackie gets to take a nice dig / callback at his upcoming run as the new Captain America when he gets to ask his young protege what a "super soldier" should look like - tall, ripped, blond hair, blue eyes (in other words, like Chris Evans!). He gets called "Cap" throughout the film by this sidekick, which is interesting because Mackie's character, as mechanical as he is, swears like a truck driver, an interesting counter to the holy-gee-whiz puritanical good-guy that Evans was throughout the MCU's last decade.

The story is serviceable - predictable on one hand, in that you see a lot of things you have seen before, but with enough twists to keep you guessing until near the end. Damson Idris, as hotshot drone pilot demoted to grunt Lt. Harp, needs a little more polish, and he's not really believable as a pilot-turned-commando as the story reaches its climax.

The story starts to come apart as we get into the third act, though, and as we start to confront the question first raised in the Frankenstein novel and repeated elsewhere countless times but most memorably in Jurassic Park, when Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) growls, "You were so fixated on the fact that you *could* do it that you never asked yourselves whether you *should* do it!" What I did appreciate was that this was not a movie where the director or scriptwriter suddenly said, "Oh, crap, I need an ending!" - the ending perfectly follows the stream of events set up from the moment Harp gets called before the Review Board. It's a movie that I've seen once, may watch again for nuances I may have missed, and then never have to watch again.

7/10

M*A*S*H: Morale Victory (1980) Season 8, Episode 19

Best episode of them all

[10/10 · 29 June 2020]

Of all the episodes of this show, the one I find most powerful (even more powerful than The Tonteen) is this one. The main plot, with Hawkeye and BJ being appointed Morale Officers of a very grumpy 4077th, is excellent, especially with the two of them dumping all their needs on Klinger, who then seemingly vanishes just before the party is supposed to begin. But the secondary, with Charles dealing with a concert pianist who has lost the fine motor dexterity in his hand, just blows me away. Charles' love of music comes out strong and clear, and how music is more than just sounding the notes - it's something that comes from deeper within. 10/10, and you'll never get me to change my mind.

The Musketeer (2001)

Far from "bad"

[6/10 · 7 April 2020]

This movie is worth watching for Tim Roth alone. It was made in a time when he was playing ruthless villains, and this one is so over-the-top it's hilarious - when he asks his superior, in all seriousness, "But what if I absolutely must kill someone...?", you just smile at the lunacy of it all.

As for the rest... they do what they can, and the wire-work is pretty good, so it's pretty acceptable for what it is. Don't expect too much, and you won't miss it when you don't get it!

Rogue Warfare (2019)

Geeez...

[2/10 · 4 April 2020]

So, we've got an action team without a leader, a sniper who isn't on overwatch, three Americans and one each from assorted other nations, varied weapons (so no clear logistical chain), and a three-star general in charge of nine people...

Why not also put them in unique uniforms so that we can tell them apart? If you're going to try to make G.I. Joe, then bloody well MAKE G.I. JOE!!

It's not the worst action movie I've ever seen (thank you, Terror Squad!), but it's bloody close!

The Courier (2019)

Every actor has that one film...

[4/10 · 21 January 2020]

In his memoir of the filming of the Lord of the Rings, Sean Astin wrote about how, to survive as an actor in the movie industry, you occasionally have to act in movies that are not very good, not high-concept, and have a small audience.

I put this on last night as background for some work I was doing. It's a low-concept, high-action, high-blood tale that has been done better and with greater scope many times over the years. Olga Kurylenko plays a motorbike courier with an cloudy past who is given a package to deliver to a specific apartment containing a witness to a high-profile crime boss's murder of an associate. Gary Oldman plays the crime boss, whose daughter is coordinating much of the murder plot against the witness - he does this role much better and with much more scene-chewing in The Hitman's Bodyguard. When it is realized that the package was part of the murder conspiracy against the witness, the courier takes it personally, opens a huge can of whoop-ass against the contract mercs who are the next line of killers to be faced, and swears she will get the witness out safely.

As I say, don't expect high-concept. DO expect lots of blood and gore. Do also expect convenient non-lethal wounds on the good guys, compared to convenient lethal ones on the bad guys. Kurylenko has a single flash of "sexiness" but is otherwise not playing (or played much) for her looks. One could argue that she's a "strong female character" in that there is zero love interest for her, but the truth is, she's a generic action hero who will win in the end. She and Oldman and all the rest are here for a paycheque, the director is getting some experience, and this will be one of those forgotten action movies before too long.

Gemini Man (2019)

Nothing New, Sadly Predictable, But Could Be Worse

[6/10 · 8 January 2020]

If you watch this movie with friends, try this game: first, read them the intro paragraph from a review, then give them a 5x5 grid, which they will then fill with action movie tropes, to be crossed off every time you see one on-screen. I guarantee there will be a few blackout cards by the end of the two hours, and everyone will have at least three bingos!

I like Will Smith, and MEW, and Benedict Wong is always good for a chuckle, and they do the best they have with the material that they're given, but somehow it just doesn't quite get to the level I've come to expect from them. And nothing's a surprise. We already know Smith's angst over being an assassin; we know his clone will go through an existential crisis; we know Clive Owen will be a hardass. The fun is supposed to be in the ride, and it's missing here.

The digital effects also suffer a bit, despite being done by WETA, the people who brought us The Lord of the Rings. Junior's face looks okay at some points, and at other points it's like watching a cutscene from a video game. There are other places where digital effects seem to be thrown in where a practical effect would have been much more meaningful.

And yet, I wanted to watch it to the end. Once I'd figured out all the steps, all the things I was going to see, I wanted to see *how* my predictions played out. Some were well done; others were throwaways; but it's not two hours I regret giving to it. Watch it and see for yourself.

Hunter Killer (2018)

Entertaining if you ignore the plot holes.

[7/10 · 27 November 2019]

Every time I watch this movie, I'm entertained, but I notice something else that bothers me slightly. Bullets killing people underwater. Non-active sonar giving 3-dimensional scans of what's outside. And the biggest one of all, transiting 2000 miles in a submarine in about 2 hours, with a rescue vehicle piggybacked on top!

Ignore those. They detract from the entertainment value.

Gerard Butler is a god at sea, consistently making the right calls because he doesn't have time to make wrong ones. Michael Nyquist, sick and near death, still presents himself as an expert submariner and, more, a commander of men. These are men being who they are because they have to be... so, yeah, everyone has but one dimension.

Everything is predictable, but you don't care. It looks good. It's made to sound good. It's all flash and dash and utterly unbelievable. But sometimes the point of watching something like this is not to be distracted by what is believable.

The point is to be entertained!

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

Yes, another drawn-out action scene...

[6/10 · 30 August 2019]

As a lifelong fan of action movies, and one who would give the original John Wick a 9, I was very disappointed by the end of John Wick 3: Parabellum. No, scratch that - I was tired. My wife actually fell asleep on my lap. I was as exhausted as John Wick himself was supposed to be, having fought no less than four massive groups of assassins in seven days, killed them all, and come out of it all with only relatively minor injuries.

I guess what it came down to was that everyone was trying hard, and they were actually trying TOO hard, imho. Powerhouse actors like Keanu and Laurence Fishburn and Angelica Huston put an awful lot into making their characters more than just two-dimensional, while Ian McShane didn't quite phone it in, he just wasn't given much to work with.

This is the transitional movie, though. Where the first movie can easily stand alone on its own two feet, this is part two in a trilogy and has to give you all the exposition, all the fleshing-out of the world, all the history and backstory that everyone is apparently craving. But when every fight scene is seven or more minutes strung together and the bad guys with guns have worse aim than stormtroopers, it gets exhausting, and not in a good way.

You could easily cut this down to 90 minutes and not lose an ounce of the story and let us prepare for the action that John Wick 4 will bring us. But when you have too many "climactic" fights in a story that we all know doesn't end here, it's too much.

Polar (I) (2019)

Better than critiqued

[7/10 · 29 January 2019]

I didn't expect much from this movie - quite frankly, it was at the top of the Netflix queue, it had Mads Mikkelsen, and I was in the mood for an action movie. I was tired and wanted something mindless.

I got... something mindless! Well done, but mindless all the same.

Well, wait, maybe that's the wrong word. The basic thrust of the film is perceivable to anyone who watches action movies at all. You'll see things coming from a long way off. There are some neat twists, and some, "Oh...? Oh, okay...!" moments (ones where you say, "Ah, so THAT is how we get to there!), and a lot of moments where you just smile and say "Guh-bye!" to someone. What I really liked, though, is how all the loops closed.

Forget what the critics say. I liked this movie. Over the top? Ridiculous? Sindy's got amazing tits? Yep, that and more! Watch it and judge for yourself. Mads Mikkelsen proves once again that he doesn't need two eyes to kick everybody's ass.

Red Tails (2012)

Nice to watch, hard to endure

[5/10 · 16 January 2018]

When I got my big-screen TV, the first thing I watched on it (to, you know, calibrate it) was Red Tails. The aerial combat scenes were amazing to watch...

And yet, there was so much garbage as well!

For one thing, the difference between .30-calibre (that is, 3/10ths of an inch) and 30mm (1.2 inches!) is utterly ignored - big bullets repeatedly do little damage, while little bullets do big damage! People die or don't die as the plot of the story demands, not according to logic.

And everyone's a type - no one is a full-fledged, fleshed-out character, but instead they are all a type filling a spot on the roster.

I'd still watch it again, if only to hear the head mechanic shout the line, "Did someone shoot a train at you?!" one more time. If you want the real story, The Tuskeegee Airmen is out there. If you want to take your brain out and put it in a box, try this one.

Bright (I) (2017)

A few gaps, but enjoyable

[7/10 · 3 January 2018]

Bright reminds me of the concept of Star Wars: A New Hope. George Lucas put out the part of the story that he figured audiences would be able to grasp most quickly, to see if they would want more; when they did, he *gave* them more, and look where we are now! Such is this movie, I think.

Bright drops us into a world where the Nine Races (Human, Elf, Orc, and I'm guessing, Fairy, Dragon, Troll, and whatever the others are) live in a tense attitude of peace, but where everyone has their place in the world. Orcs are muscle; humans are emotion and order; Elves are wealth and glamour, etc. Magic is real, but can only be used and controlled by a select few who are given the title of "Bright." Brights are born, but not necessarily easily identified as such. There are various tests, though, some of which may cost you your life if you're wrong.

If you've seen Alien Nation, you'll think "Oh, I know this movie!" Yes and no. It's a "buddy cop / alien cop / fish-out-of-water cop" movie on several levels, but takes some neat twists with the formula.

Bright II was green-lit before the release of this one, and I truly hope they make it, and make it GOOD! I enjoyed this story, but now I'm craving exposition and background and an understanding of this world that is a lot of the best elements of Shadowrun brought to life.

Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Beowulf on Horses

[7/10 · 25 June 2017]

Despite the rather sedate pace and relative lack of action, as others have said, the acting makes this movie really flow. The characters are not simply types - the director works hard to give them a hair of background and more than just a surface personality. While the female lead is very much the traditional "damsel in distress", she has a strength to her that is trusted by the townsfolk she serves.

Issue #1 - the dialogue between some characters seems very clipped and overly formal, the kind of language that works well in a novel but sounds forced on-screen. I have the same issue with True Grit (the more recent one). However, assuming this is intended as a close reflection of how people spoke in those days (rather than letting them simply speak like us, now), it is what it is.

Issue #2 - calling the story "original". Folks, it's Beowulf on horses. Yes, there are some interesting elements that I haven't seen used with this story before, but on the whole, if you've seen Beowulf or The 13th Warrior, you'll twig to a lot of plot elements fairly early.

This being said, the movie was worth a watch, even if only once. Kurt Russell is excellent, but Richard Jenkins absolutely steals the whole show. If you've only ever seen him as smarmy business-types, you need to watch him really stretch here (or lose his mind in Cabin In The Woods - just sayin'!)

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Big, Long, Mehhhhh...

[3/10 · 15 June 2017]

Saw that it was on Netflix, told myself I had to see how it was compared to the original.

Ugh.

Bill Pullman chews less scenery here than he did in the first one, but still includes too much ham in what is actually a meaningful, moving character... possibly the best part in the movie.

The aliens' ship is big. BIGbigbig big. So big that the laws of physics are altered and, while it tries hard, the science makes no sense. If you squint, look sideways, and put your disbelief in a jar under your seat, *maybe* it makes sense, but otherwise, no.

I think the biggest fail is just that everyone is taking their parts so damned seriously, and yet everyone is just a one-dimensional trope filling a slot. Too many good actors (and yes, I count William Fichtner, whatever you may say!) phoned it in on this one. I want to give it 4, but 3 is all I've got.

War Machine (2017)

Struggled to find the satire

[4/10 · 7 June 2017]

Having watched several movies calling themselves "satire" and others labelled "black comedy", I started watching War Machine expecting to find some. It wasn't easy. I'm still not sure I found any.

Consider that part of the satire of something like the Colbert Report was the over-the-top earnestness of the main character, believing in ludicrous things and having a sarcastic edge running through everything. Drowning Mona gets laughs and headshakes for, likewise, taking things to extremes. To keep it military, watch The Pentagon Wars as the Bradley Fighting Vehicle is procured. You laugh because things can't possibly be this stupid, and yet (to a point) they are.

War Machine has us watch Brad Pitt's General Glen McMahon nosedive from supreme confidence to confusion to anger to despair and, ultimately, sadness as he realizes that he's a warrior who has been given a war that he can't possibly win, no matter how many strings he pulls. He's a warrior, not a politician, not a diplomat, and not one who loses. And yet, loss is really all he has in his hands, right from the get-go. It's just. Not. Funny.

Pitt plays his caricature of a general very well, and he alone keeps the film moving. He rolls through the early parts of the film like a bestarred Popeye, wondering why people don't get what he feels should be instinctively understood. As we are told, he is a "true believer" whose understanding is that the reason others' attempts to do the same job has failed is because they weren't him. But with every roadblock, every question, and every gobbledeygook answer he has to give, that confidence cracks and breaks down. He lacks the ludicrousness of Colbert and the black nature of Drowning Mona, and never makes it over the top.

Pitt himself has said that the movie exposes the fallacy that "everyone wants what America has" and that American military efforts are really just aggressive exporting of American ideals. This may be true... but, again, it's not really that funny. For me, the biggest laugh is the final clip of the movie, when his successor is named and marches into frame, with the same eagerness and earnestness that Pitt's character has at the outset. "Here we go again" is unspoken, but understood.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016)

Very enjoyable!

[8/10 · 3 April 2016]

Having watched the DVD of the first movie several times, I was excited to take my wife to this one at the cinema, and we were *not* disappointed. Perhaps it is because Toula is a "fixer" and I've watched my wife and her mother try to take on the same role in their family - there is no peace in their lives because they are always trying to make sure everyone *else* is happy, and things fall apart anyway because the tighter you try to hold people close, the more they seem to slip away.

Don't expect anything original; expect another chapter in a well-told story that will make you laugh, swoon, cringe, and maybe even cry. Expect to see people hitting middle age who suddenly realize that they are there and that life is changing, no matter how much you want to stop it. It's not the heights of comedy, the lunacy of farce, or the depths of tragedy. It's just fun.

And when the whole theatre (and yourself) go "Awwwww...!" (you'll know when), you know everyone's following and enjoying.