orwellbecket Reviews

Road House (2024)

Black Comedy with Action.

[7/10 · 31 March 2024]

This isn't a review; only my reaction.

I found it respectful of the original, it brought in some new elements to the party (MMA). I liked the western mythology (Shane) and the Arnold bit (End of Days) on the train track. He only killed one person, his best friend (in the past) and he carried that guilt all the way through the film. It was a sub-text to everything he did. The mandatory romance was a dud, and looked like some scenes got cut at the Glass Book. The fighting was well handed.

Doug Liman invented the shaky-cam for Jason Bourne, but thankful be didn't use it (too much). If you saw the original "Road House", or heard Peter Griffin growl out "Road House", this is worth a Friday night with a beer and a blunt.

Unfortunately, the villains were cartoonish but Conor McGregor was eating up the scenery. He was the perfect foil for Jake because he was a capable foe, and on some level, they understood each other.

Watch it like a dry deadpan comedy, and the first time Jack gets stabbed. If you laugh, you'll get it.

The Vigilante (2023)

A gem of a revenge movie.

[7/10 · 22 September 2023]

Loved the leads. Casting throughout was great. Felt for the girls "very real" kidnaping and their subsequent sale. It would be awesome if they did a sequel with the two leads. Great chemistry.

Jet and Eric are both great. I would love to see them evolve to head up a network of vigilantes of parent that have been robbed of their children. Sometimes you need to break the law to enforce it.

The movie could have been tighter written. Not better, tighter --where everything has a reason for being and earlier scenes are paid off latter.

I didn't mind her fights. She takes on men twice her size, and doesn't always walk away unscathed, but all the fight scenes do a credible job of looking real. A little shaky cam, but tolerable.

For the money and talent involved, they did much better then some Marvel movies. At least it held my attention.

Halo (2022– )

The pilot is the only good episode --

[1/10 · 10 May 2022]

I stayed with for a while but it turned into a bait and switch. They're shoehorning another story about a kid trying to save her planet. WTF?

Those characters seem like they are from another show -- one that's not very interesting. They do not need this story. Episode seven was unwatchable.

Everyone wants to see Master Chief and his team fight the Covenant. What is so hard to understand about that?

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Why does this movie exist?

[3/10 · 26 December 2020]

WW84 (Wonder Woman 1984) It looks and feels like an old Superman movie. While there is nothing wrong with that, I didn't think that was a style of film making to emulate, as opposed to, grow from. This movie does nothing to push the WW mythology forward.

Gal Gadot is beautiful and can do no wrong. Chris Pine is still handsome, although visibly older. They still have chemistry, but there's no story -- and some of the action set-pieces don't make any sense, either logically or in a physics way. The story dictates the extent of her powers which makes her abilities inconsistent.

It's all kind of PG 13. I guess that's where they think their WW audience is. DC and WB can't seem to put together a cohesive marketing plan. They need a singular vision. This shotgun approach doesn't seem to cut it.