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When one is trapped in one abusive domestic violent marriage, one will grab the first escape she's dealt with.  Such is the case with Anna Poliatova (played by Sasha Luss).  She accepts an offer with the KGB and trained hard for it.  As part of her deal, she worked under Olga (played by Helen Mirren) for five years.  She hopes that after those years she will be able to be free and can do whatever she wants.  Lo and behold this wasn't true. She was trapped already in a bad marriage, yet now she's trapped again with the KGB.  Her only way out of the KGB was death.

She continued to work with the KGB as an undercover playing a fashion model in Paris.  During her spare time she conducts mission orders given to her by her handler Olga.  She was good at it until she was discovered by the CIA wherein she was asked to be an undercover agent.  Agent Miller (played by Cillian Murphy) promised her freedom once they do a mission undermining the KGB.

In the end, she was able to maneuver herself from the clutches of the KGB and CIA.

Watching the film was like watching Leon the Professional.  A movie about an assassin in New York and this one was similar in its action scenes and feel.  It's no wonder they are the same, they have the same director in Luc Besson.  Him being one of our great directors of all time. 

We love the actors who are in this movie, who doesn't love Luke Evans, Cillian Murphy and Helen Mirren backing up Sasha Luss?  A powehouse cast like that won't make this film bad whatever angle you look at it.

Even being a real life model, Sasha Luss really pulled a big one here in Anna.  She's like a woman John Wick, great with a gun, with hand to hand combat.  We like her as Anna, from the action to the emotional scenes, we can't get enough of her being a great actress who can make us smile, cry and be amazed at the same time.

The supporting cast may not have a lot of screen time, the trio of Evans, Murphy and Mirren was noticeable enough that it gives credence to the movie in total.  They complete Anna's story in the movie and it was difficult to find fault in this entertaining movie.  Character development from start was great to establish Anna's beginnings, then the story weave of her being a spy turned double agent was likewise given a nice touch.  The only thing we can complain is the number of backstories we had to contend with.  It's something we didn't find in other Besson's films yet we find them a lot in Anna.

If you are like us who are fascinated with Korean dramas, then you will like the back stories.  Very not Besson if you ask us but we can forgive him if there were a few but here we found a lot and it sometimes leaves us with a notion that there might more.  Sadly the movie ended and were still left hanging if there would be. LOL.

Anyway, the movie is a great watch and lucky for you its now being aired on Netflix and its trending even after a month of release.







And then comes Anna (2019)

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Seldom we see Denzel Washington so it's a great thing to see him here with no less than Mark Wahlberg as his co star.  A simple story of undercover peeps with a lot of twists make up a good story telling of a movie here in 2 guns.

Just to keep the story short and simple, we get two undercover agents from two different government offices who kept their identities secret from each other.  So criminals Bobby (played by Washington) and Stig (played by Wahlberg) got a shock of their lives that after they pulled off a huge bank heist, they learned that they were on the same side after all.

No story won't be complete without evil men so we have them at all sides here.  We have the men from the Navy, the DEA and the cartel running after them after stealing away 43 million dollars.  That's a lot of stories right there.

Everything gets done when our two unlikely heroes would eventually team up and hoodwinked all those who are after them.  Making this movie fun and exciting to watch.  A must watch if you ask us so we didn't spill much of the story herein.

Denzel Washington is still in his cool self here, but somehow his acting here is similar to that in the movie Equalizer so still a great watch.  We love Mark Wahlberg's facial reactions when he's bewildered so when his forehead twitches, we know he's acting.  

Currently being shown on Netflix, so make sure this is in your playlist.



Blazing away with 2 Guns (2013)

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You want an action movie? Then this is the one that you're waiting for.  The Old Guard starring Charlize Theron as Andy.

She leads a group of immortal mercenaries for centuries.  Trying to keep their identities secret so they can course through time unnoticed until someone was keeping tabs of them.

A former CIA operative, Copley (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) was quietly tracking them down.  His wife died of an illness that he believes Andy's band of immortals may provide a cure for mankind.  He submits his findings to a pharmaceutical company headed by Steven Merrick (played by Harry Melling) who took an interest on their immortal qualities.

Unknown to the all, Andy was experiencing some changes in her healing powers.  What was supposed she has fast healing powers, she learns that she's not healing as fast as she used to be.  All this time, they experienced another immortal coming into being in Nile Freeman (played by Kiki Layne) a US Marine who was stationed in Afghanistan.

In their efforts to remain anonymous, Andy instructs his team to track down Copley while she in turn will meet up with Nile.  Hoping she can get to her and protect her from Copley.  Nile when she was awakened, she was confused why she was still alive and fortunate for her, Andy was there to fill her in.

When Andy and Nile finally met with the team, Copley was able to capture most of them.  Its just Andy, Booker and Nile was able to escape but Nile decided to leave them to be with her family.  Its now up to Andy and Booker (played by Matthias Schoenaerts) to catch up with Copley and save their team members.

Booker turned out to be a traitor as he was instrumental in the capture of the team, when he injures Andy in Copley's house.  Booker and Copley then learns that Andy already lost her healing powers.  This lead Copley to have second thoughts about the powers of immortality and how it would contribute to mankind the powers of eradicating illnesses.

Meanwhile Nile had a change in heart and went back to Copley's place only to find Copley alone.  He eventually helped Nile on a one woman mission to save the team from the testing being done by Merrick's staff.

In the end, Andy's team was saved and Booker was ostracized from the team for 100 years as punishment for his betrayal.  Copley then proceeds to keep their identities secret and persuades them to continue with their missions.  What seemingly the missions were mostly small for them, turned out that these had huge impacts in the course of history of mankind.

For us the movie was entertaining and fun to watch as we haven't read the comics.  As per our research after watching it, they changed a lot of things just to adapt this to the movie.  If we read it first, we will have a different review for this.  Luckily it was the other way around.  We loved the movie although we can't help see Theron's character in Aeon Flux here with the short hair and mesmerizing stunts she did herein.

The rest of the cast gave solid performances as well so kudos to them for making this an enjoyable film to watch.  The story line likewise was great and although we feel like we were watching a glorified pilot episode.  There were some scenes that we felt like we were being set up for a sequel.  When Andy was mentioning about his BFF in Quynh (played by Van Veronica Ngo), this was repeated and we were wondering if she was going to appear midway in the film.  It was almost nearing end and still she hasn't appeared, until when she appeared in the end then we really confirmed that there was a sequel.

The premise of the movie was of the Highlander, although they don't chop their heads off to kill one.  The action scenes were fast like Jason Bourne and Aeon Flux but a tad shy short of John Wick.  A great set up movie for a franchise and had a powerhouse cast, but the overall feeling again is its a great TV pilot.  This would have been a great Netflix Series as the story is rich and compelling and it had already had the cliffhanger in the end with Quynh acting as the nemesis to our heroine in Andy.

Showing currently in Netflix and we hope they follow this one up soon.



We are The Old Guard (2020)

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When you are into some quirky nice asian comedy movie, you've got to give it to these two. The movie is about two women who came from different government agencies to learned to work together to achieve a similar objective.

Movie revolves around a voice phishing syndicate that victimized one of the heads of a national security agency.  He was swindled of USD500,000 and he doesn't want his superiors to know about this.  Hoping to get it back, Deputy Department Head Park (played by Jo Jae-yoon), enlists Jang Young-shil (played by kang Ye-won), whom he fired earlier to infiltrate the phishing syndicate.  He enlists her outside of the agency thus she's not an authorized agent in the case nor the mission was authorized.

Young-shil thought she's undertaking in an sanctioned mission so she did so brilliantly.  Not only did she was hired by the phishing company, she excelled in it as well.  Making her very close to its Country Manager, Min-Seok (played by Namkoong Min).

During her mission, she encounters Na Jung-an (played by Hand Chae-ah) an undercover police agent who's mission is also to track down and gather evidence against the phishing syndicate headed by Min-Seok.

Young-shil is not a fully trained operative so she bungles all her approaches but when she was collaborating with Jung-an (a fully trained police undercover), they complement each other.  Their team gave much to progress of the mission and to the capture of the syndicate in the end.

The movie story is very light and its not that much cerebral.  One can sit down and plunk down in the movie straight forward.  Comedy is near slapstick and offers a lot of fish out of water scenes with surprise skills along the way.

Although not been shown in most popular streaming sites, its currently being shown in YouTube.  When you want to simply sit down and simply have that needed escape, then add this movie to your asian comedy marathon.



Things you do to be a Part Time Spy (2017)

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During the 90's Meg Ryan is a surefire hit for romantic comedies and here she tries her best alongside another great actor in Tim Robbins.

Tim here is Ed Walters, a small town mechanic who immediately falls in love with Catherine Boyd (played by Meg Ryan), who's an accomplished mathematician.  Although she's engaged, this didn't stop Ed from pursuing her.

In his attempt to woo her, Ed manages to make an introduction to her uncle, the great Albert Einstein (played by Walther Matthau).  Even at that brief first meeting, Ed impressed on Einstein that the latter believed that he is the better fit for his niece than Catherine's current boyfriend.  Albert then helps Ed in his quest for the love of Catherine.  At this juncture the comedy moments starts to roll.

Albert concocts a scheme to make Ed a "wunderkind", or a new found genius.  Albert and his genius friends tried their best to make his look like them, complete with nerdy attire.  This lie rolled bigger with more lies up to the point that Ed would publish his own paper (it was Einstein's old theory) and read it to the whole scientific community.

Catherine eventually falls with Ed but she saw through the lies.  She was able to read through Ed's paper (Einstein's actually) and proved it to be false.  She broke up reluctantly with Ed, but as fate would have it (actually it was Einstein's doing again), both found each other in a field where one can do stargazing and both fell in love again.

If you ask us, both actors were decent, but somehow both lacked the magic or sparkle that you find in "Sleepless in Seattle".  Tim Robbins is great here, but as a comedian, he is not.  But he does his best as Tim Robbins would do, do drama.  The comedy was neither delivered by Meg Ryan as she should have been serious as a mathematician but somehow there were some scenes that we see her character in "You've got Mail".  The only actor who stood out here was Albert Einstein err Walther Matthau.  He delivered the kicker here along with his cooky scientist friends who provided the comedy from start to finish.

Although classified as a romantic comedy, we can say it delivered more comedy than romance.  We love the story line and the although the plot may a bit used, it provided still a fresh take with some witty lines from Albert Einstein.

If you want to be E=MC2 then head off to Amazon Prime Video and shout Wahoo together with the great scientist.




We have a wahoo in this movie - IQ (1994)

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After returning to his wife, US Marine Ray Garrison (played by Vin Diesel) both went to Italy for that needed holiday.  A happy getaway turned into horror when they were kidnapped by a group of mercenaries.  His wife gets killed and Ray later on was awakened by a tech company Rising Spirit Tech.  A company who develops cybernetic prosthetics for former US military peeps.

Garrison then learns that he was or is the first successful candidate brought to life using special nanite technology.  He is then accepted into a team of enhanced former military personnel led by the Company's CEO Dr. Emil Harting (played by Guy Pearce).

High tech as he is, he is still human so he experiences some memory flashbacks of his dead wife.  Against the company policies, Garrison uses his new nanite technology to track down his wife's killers.  He was able to track him down to Budapest and proceeds to escape Dr. Harting's facilities.  He eventually was able to kill his wife's killers and was returned to the facility for his so called "recovery".

His recovery was a process of re programming and later it was found out that the flash backs were not true.  His wife was never killed and the killer in his flashbacks where Dr. Harting's rivals in the company.  Garrison was simply being used as a hired killer.  His false flashbacks were programmed by Dr. Harting so he will be enraged and will be an effective killer.

Eventually he learned that truth, that his wife is still alive and had moved on.  She thought he died so she had a life already without him.  Knowing the truth he eventually defeats the Company with the help of another programmer in Wiggans (played by Lamorne Morris) and another Rising Spirits Tech enhanced individual KT (played by Eiza Gonzales).

Overall, Vin Diesel, awesome as he is, we feel his acting is the same with his Fast and Furious franchise.  We simply can't see him as a US Marine or ex Marine for that matter.  You don't see him in most action scenes as well, he's there in the midst of things, but they are CGI of him and he looks goofy in them.  It's like watching Spiderman CGI all over again and it is kinda boring if you ask us.

Action scenes were not that exceptional and nothing excites us in the movie as well.  The trailer already is the story by in itself. We all knew the plot and where it was going so we had fun with our popcorn instead.

Now showing in Netflix, but please don't watch the trailer.  Its the entire movie already.




is this a great watch? - Bloodshot (2020)

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Mixed couples usually is still a touchy issue so when this movie takes a crack at it, they did take a crack at it via comedy.

When Theresa Jones (played by Zoe Saldana) brings home his man, Simon Green (played by Ashton Kutcher) to meet her parents, all hell breaks loose in the Jones' household.  Theresa failed to mention to his father Percy Jones (played by Bernie Mac) that Simon is a white dude.  Immediately Percy went into racist mode and tries to alienate Simon, while the latter tries his best to impress the former.  Here we have an adventure like no other as two great comedians take a hit from each other in different situations.

Bernie Mac is Bernie Mac and he can really deliver his comedic scenes to the hilt and we were not disappointed with Ashton Kutcher either.  The latter being a great comedian himself, so the witty and slapstick back and forth between the two was seamless if we may so.  The seriousness of Percy's wife and daughter provided for a contrast making the film an interesting watch.

Although racy jokes are in the mix here, we have no problem with some stereotypes that were given.  We felt it was all in jest and the objective here was to make us laugh.  In the end the movie is great way to relax and enjoy your friday night marathon.

Lucky for you this one is currently showing on Amazon Prime Video.



A pleasant surprise in Guess Who (2005)

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What do you get when you have two powerhouse stars in one movie?  You get a powerful movie with Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon Levitt giving you a pumped up action movie.  Lets dive in if it truly is a powerhouse movie as well.

In future New Orleans, a new drug called "Power" has been circling the public offering superpowers to anyone who takes it.  Power that supposed to be super is not unlimited so it only is effective for only five minutes.  For some the time is enough just to have that spurt.

The powers that it gives vary from person to person so its something of a surprise for us viewers how the drug would effect the user.

Movie moves around two characters, Art (Jamie Foxx) and Frank (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).  Art is a former "power" test subject who's daughter was the essential ingredient of it.  It seemed that she's got the power naturally.  So this organization was extracting something from her and turns these into the "power" drug.  Being so valuable, she's been kidnapped so that the production of this drug goes unabated.

So the story here goes Art is hard up in finding his daughter and hopes to saves her from the organization.  Frank meanwhile hopes to protect his confidential informant as he gets his "power" from her.

A lot of action later, both Art and Frank came into terms and decides to help each other out in end.

If you seem shocked to read how we jumped into the end, well, that's what the movie is all about.  Don't get us wrong, the premise is interesting for us.  Who wouldn't want to have super powers for even just five minutes?  How about a loving father who would anything to find and save his daughter?  How about a righteous cop who drugs himself so that he can be a good cop?

What happens in between was a downer for us.  Amid the stunning special effects and action scenes, the script was boring, the twists and turn was slow and that we only love the computer graphics for most of it.  The drug in itself is not consistent, and its effects varies from person to person.  So its exciting to wait how it affects the person who uses the drug.  But that's only thing that one will have to be excited about in this movie.

Our stars Foxx and Levitt gave stellar performances here but it was all Foxx in the movie from start to finish so it was great to see him here.  









When you got that Project Power (2020)

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A Chinese movie that's equal to a Hollywood in grandeur for us was this movie, Hero.  It was our first time to watch one as grand and very epic-ky with Jet Li in the lead.

Usually we write in a plot or a synopsis on the movies we watch and review but this time we won't.  We want you to watch this one, period.  This movie is uncharacteristic of a Chinese movie, maybe just the Kung-Fu stunts, but other than that we were blown away with the story telling.

Although it was just a narration between the Emperor and our Hero, the lines and discussion was essential to the story that we were glued to our seats watching this.  Aside from their conversation, the fight scenes were nicely done and choreographed.  With a huge budget allotted for this film, money was not spared in production design and costumes.

They also splurged on who's who in Chinese cinema particularly of the martial arts genre.  Aside from Jet Li, we have Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen and Zhang Ziyi.  Talk about a stellar casting this alone will make you want to watch this movie.

With a film like this, we really had an awakening on the Chinese movie industry.

We can place this movie alongside the other films we love like, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (the first movie) and the House of Flying Daggers.  So if you like an action movie with a neck deep story line, get hold a copy of this movie.



An awakening for us in Hero (2002)

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Movie is around Kathleen Kelly (played by Meg Ryan) who owns a children's bookstore in New York.  That aside from tending her store, she's excited to hear three words from her computer, when AOL rings "You've Got Mail".  Whenever she hears this, it means that she's got mail from her online friend named NY152 (her online persona is "Shopgirl").  Both are bonded through emails, even if they don't know each other in person, they feel a connection of their minds.

From emails, they moved on to online chats as Kathleen's bookstore is being threatened by a new bookstore partly owned by Joe.  As each do not know each others personal details, they didn't know that they are competitors in real life.  Finally they decide to meet but somehow Joe manages to discover who Shopgirl really is and he stood her up at their meeting.

Joe started to have feelings for Kathleen yet the latter would not have any for Joe.  In spite of their being competitors, Joe tried his best to win over Kathleen's favors.  With Joe's persistence, both managed to become friends, close friends even.  With a heightened friendship between them, Joe then confessed to Kathleen his true feeling for her.  She's now confused as he likes Joe now but still pines for her online friend NY152.  She left Joe on the streets while she prepares to meet with NY152.

While waiting for online friend in the park, in comes Joe.  Kathleen cried upon seeing him, only then she realized that NY152 is Joe.  She cried because in her heart, she wanted NY152 to be Joe.  She cried because she was happy.

This couple is great together especially in the romance comedy department.  We liked them in "Sleepless in Seattle" and now they are back together in this movie.  Although if we weigh in these two movies, we favor heavily on Sleepless over this but we don't get enough of them so we recommend this too.

Tom Hanks is in his usual self, a great actor and performer and he is so cool and relaxed when paired with Meg Ryan.  Meg is so cute and innocent looking here and our screen lights up when these two are together.  

Don't expect here the magic found din Sleepless as this film is a different animal altogether.  It feeds on our craving for affection found online, but in the end, what we need is physical love and affection.  Nothing compares to reality and this movie showed that Meg Ryan truly hopes Tom Hanks is NY152.  So after watching this movie, try to get out more and socialize physically.  Meeting people in real life is far more exciting than clicking like buttons on your friend's posts. :)

Currently showing in Netflix as of this writing.



Yes!!!! You've Got Mail (1998)

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