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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The movie is about a cop, Andre Davis (played by Chadwick Boseman), a successful NYPD cop who is known to be good at hunting and killing "cop killers". He swears he kills them in self defense and does not want to be known as the "Trigger".
During one of the nights in New York City, two characters managed to steal some 50 kilograms of cocaine from an place masquerading as a wine shop. Being ex military, these two were able to kill a number of cops in their escape and meet up with their cocaine buyer.
Meanwhile, Andre Davis was called into the scene to investigate while Frankie Burns (played by Sienna Miller) was given to him as his partner. Andre Davis was spot on when he analyzed the crime scene and to stave off the FBI itching in, he requests to close down Manhattan via its 21 bridges. He promises to finish off the case by then.
Eventually our cop killers got their money and was ready to continue to escape when Davis finally caught up with them at a fixer's home. Ray Jackson (played by Taylor Kitsch) one of the cop killers were gunned down by Davis, while his partner in crime Michael Trujillo (played by Stephan James) was able to escape. He was able to run away with his money and two pen drives from the fixer, detailing the pay outs made to some corrupt cops in the 85th precinct.
Being good at investigations he was able to catch up with Trujillo in a subway train and was able to convince him to lay down his weapon and surrender. This was time when Burns was able to catch up and ultimately shot Trujillo. Just before dying, he gave the pen drives to Davis for which the latter hid it from Burns. Finally the case was closed with the death of Trujillo and the whole police force was happy.
Everybody then went home and Captain McKenna (played by JK Simmons) was surprised to see Davis at his home. It turned out that Davis had opened the pen drives and found out the truth within them. It stored information on cops, with their badge numbers, of whom received bribes in the precinct. It showed pay outs to Captain McKenna and all the other cops who killed our two cop killers, and it included Frankie Burns. To silence Davis, McKenna tried to have Davis killed by having all those in the 85th come to his house. Being the "Trigger", Davis was able to kill the cops who tried to kill him.
Who he didn't kill or try to kill was Burns, and he laid down his gun and persuades Burns to give up. She had the pen drives and Davis mentioned to her he made copies and sent it out already. It was just a matter of time that she too will be arrested. Davis mentioned that he doesn't want Burn's daughter to live without a mother should she be given a life sentence for shooting him. In the end, Burns gives up and lets Davis arrest her.
Wow what a story line this movie has. All the trailers for this movie points to a robbery movie but then again everything went sideways. We were taken for a ride there and it was only sometime midway when we were given a hint by the character of Davis, that everything wasn't right. We weren't told by the movie that those who killed the suspects along the way were of the same precinct and they all knew each other. There was a conspiracy somehow and we suspected Burn to be a part when she shot Trujillo without reason.
Chadwick Boseman did a splendid performance here as Andre Davis, he was a true blue goody cop here. Even if his character racked up a number of self defense killings, we can see through him his values as a cop. A straight and morally good cop, which was very hard to find in this time of ours. He pulled off a great job here and we liked him here over his character with the Avengers. I can go on and on with his performance but we had to make this review short and sweet. Watch this film for Chadwick alone and its truly worth it.
Sienna Miller as Frankie Burns was great but somehow her script wasn't as rich with great dialogues as with Boseman. Her character was hot and cold for us. Maybe we associated female cops as emotional and she pictured us to be meek and feeble as she asked Davis to protect her, she being a mother of course. Only to find that she's addicted to violence somehow and wishes all the perpetrators dead. From being weak then asking Davis to shoot Trujillo even with a gun on her head. What? Why would she suggest that? We thought she was a mother? The script didn't place much emphasis on her character that much so we thought of ignoring her for the first parts of the film. We only started having interest with her when Davis thinks there was a conspiracy so we watched everybody's moves thereafter.
Our dynamic perpetrator duo are no push overs as well, we love Taylor Kitsch but he died in the film. He is such a great actor on screen and he shines here but it wasn't much of him in 21 bridges. It was more focused on his partner, Stephan James who had a rich dialogues attributed to him. He had the story with him all along and not with Kitsch. In fairness he didn't disappoint and was able to match up with Kitsch making us love the bad guys in this film.
Another actor worth mentioning here is Jonah Jameson of Spiderman, JK Simmons. He is a seasoned actor and it showed in the film. Although he still looked like his character in Spiderman, gladly he didn't have a cigar with him here. As a corrupt cop, exposed in the end, he delivered his lines as to how the dirty money was being spent. A last ditch effort of justifying their actions and hoping Davis would understand. Nevertheless, JK Simmons is another actor good to watch in this movie.
Overall, the movie was a surprise hit for us. A thin story line we expected but then we finished it finding that it had an underlying tones in it. Worth watching and we highly suggest you do so if you can find a copy already. Its a cop against all the other cops kind of movie really do sit well with us.
This starts off with Ovi Mahajan (played by Rudhrasksh Jaiswal), the son of a jailed Indian drug lord sneaking out to have fun at a local club, only to be kidnapped on his way home by his dad's rival. He's not willing to pay the ransom but instead asks Saju (played by Randeep Hooda), his henchman to retrieve Ovi.
Meanwhile, Tyler Rake (played by Chris Helmsworth) a mercenary was hired by Ovi's dad to rescue him. Tyler was able to rescue Ovi and kill most of his kidnappers and their payment did not materialize. Instead Saju killed Tyler's extraction team hoping to retrieve Ovi for himself and that they will not have to pay Tyler and his group.
After learning of Ovi's rescue, the rival drug lord immediately ordered a lockdown of the city. Tyler's partner Nik Khan (played by Golshfiteh Farahani) arranges for a helicopter exfil ordering him to leave Ovi since they were not paid. Tyler would not abandon Ovi so an action packed journey begins with him and Ovi evading his kidnappers and the corrupt policemen who also was chasing them.
Tyler knows that for Ovi to survive, he needs help from Saju and they joined together for this purpose. A helicopter was arranged by Nik to extract all three of them should they cross a bridge however Saju fell from a sniper's bullet. Tyler instructs Ovi to go to the other side of the bridge and meet with Nik and the helicopter while he covers for him. As Tyler followed Ovi, he was shot and hit in the neck by a teenage gangster. He watches Ovi escaped with Nik as the team escapes to Mumbai then Tyler falls into the river. Months later, Nik kills off the rival drug lord and on the last scene, Ovi surfaces from the swimming pool, he finds a man watching him.
Now our take on this film. Its jampacked with well executed action scenes. That's what you get when you have a stunt coordinator trying for the first time to be behind the camera as its director. What we get are fluid and believable stunt work that's the best we have seen since Jason Bourne. Its so good that this movie can be used as a reference for stunt work in future movies to come.
Chris Helmworth is a charming on screen and his charisma shows off pretty much in all the scenes here since this is story about him and the rescued Indian boy. He does most of the stunts here so we love him for this. We have seen him as a soldier in 12 Strong so we know he can dish out the role of a merc in this movie. All the rest of the actors were Indian (except for David Harbour) and they held their ground in the acting department. Don't expect much of acting in the film as this is mostly a slam bang action packed movie so the other characters can surely coast along its story lines.
With mostly Indians in the movie, we were expecting some dancing in the end, but since this wasn't a Bollywood film, gladly there were none of it. We then remembered, this was produced by the Russo brothers and company, written by Joe Russo, Directed by Sam Hargrave. Mostly made up of the Avengers production team so dancing is not a requirement.
Pacing wise, we like how it was executed, mostly it was fast paced with all the running and shooting, then you hit a brick wall when both Helmsworth and Ovi took refuge in Gaspar's home (played by David Harbour). After that wall, it was all run and gun again.
We can't say much about the plot since it was sooooo thin. A merc with a past rescues a boy whom he can relate with his childhood trauma and promises to bring him to safety eventhough its almost impossible to do so (and we pause and breathe) encounters hardships and betrayals along the way.
Character development for Chris' character was adequate, with some flashbacks from his past, we can already deduce that he had those trauma, enough to relate himself with Ovi. As far as Ovi is concerned, he was just kidnapped and running along side Chris. Wish they should have made more flashbacks or character development for him, maybe a reason why he wanted to stay alive, or maybe he wanted to die or maybe just maybe a reason why his character endears himself to his rescuer. Maybe that's a cliffhanger of sorts for the sequel.
We haven't seen Tyler die, he just fell off the bridge, and he might be the guy Ovi saw when he surfaced from the pool, who knows right?
So if you bored out of your wits, and wanted to be entertained with less brainy and more of visual artistry, then this movie is for you. The stunts alone and the close quarter battles are enough to keep your adrenaline pumping if you are into this genre. Also the smile from Chris is also enough for you to watch movie in Netflix. Thanks to Joe Russo also for making the lines simple and believable owing us to be entertained by it and not be bored during non-action scenes.
After Marvel established the MCU decades earlier, now DC Comics ramps up their offerings to solidify the DC Universe. After the success of Wonder Woman, Deadpool and Aquaman, they released another super hero in Shazam.
Movie starts off with a youthful Thaddeus Sivana in a car with his dad and brother when suddenly he gets transported to the Rock of Eternity. The ancient Shazam was searching for a new champion so he was thinking Thaddeus was someone with a pure heart but he failed when he was tested and he was returned to the car right away. Thaddeus return resulted to a car accident where his dad was injured and became a cripple.
Fast forward to the present times, another teenager Billy Batson (played by Asher Angel) comes into view. A troubled teenager, he is a regular in and out of foster homes as he tries to search for her birth mother. After a few families, he is now fostered in the home of Victor and Rosa Vasquez (played by Cooper Andrews and Marta Milans respectively) who has 5 other foster children. Even with the Vasquez love, Billy continued to be alone and would not want to have anything to do with the Vasquez home.
During this time, an adult Thaddeus Sivana (now played by Mark Strong) finally made his way back to the Rock of Eternity and was able to get the Eye of Sin. He won over the ancient wizard and used this power to kill his dad and his brother along with the board of directors of Sivana Industies.
After a few scenes in school and at home, we find him running away from bullies and hides away in the subway when it was now his time to be transported to the Rock of Eternity. Finally the ancient wizard found his champion in Billy and he transferred his powers to him via Billy shouting the name "Shazam" while holding the magic staff. The ancient wizard turned to dust and Billy now Shazam, went back home as Shazam and sought the help of his foster brother, Freddy Freeman (played by Jack Dylan Grazer) who knows about superhero stuff. The latter helps him discover his powers until Thaddeus confronts him Shazam. A fight ensued and Shazam being inexperienced, he barely escaped Thaddeus' wrath, but the latter was able to guess his true identity. Thaddeus then kidnaps the other foster children hoping that Billy would rescue them which he did.
When Billy came as Shazam, he knew he can't fight all the seven sins, and remembering the last words of the ancient wizard, he shares the power to his foster brother and sisters. Now that he has levelled the playing field, he was able to confront Thaddeus alone while his brothers and sisters took care of the other sins. In the end, Shazam was able to outwit the seven sins and got the Eye of Sin from Thaddeus.
The movie for us was quirky and funny as they intended it to be. We thought they followed the formula for Deadpool complete with funny antics and lines except for the R-18 jokes and graphic representations. Consider this as mellowed down or GP rated Deadpool aimed for the younger crowd. We like Zachary Levi as Shazam and boy he is funny. He really was a good pick to play the title role while the foster parents were a perfect fit. The other foster kids gave decent performances in the minimal screen times they were given.
Storywise, as an origin story, it wasn't boring and slow. They told the story in such a simple and fast pace that we didn't miss or skipped a beat as to how he became Shazam. There might be more to the story which was "skipped" but we didn't mind it all, as long as we know where he was coming from, its okay with us. The origin and character development of the anti hero Thaddeus Sivana was similar with that of Billy Batson but we find him being resentful and wants to return to the Rock of Eternity enough motivation to be bad.
The pacing of the story was nice and it we liked the roller coaster type of story telling where you find some parts slow and then picks up the pace again. What diminish our interest is the build up of some scenes. Comedy situations were fine, but sometimes we are confused when the scenes turn to drama of sorts. We were expecting a scene to be funny then it becomes serious and then vice versa. These scenes we mentioned are just subtle so if you are not much into this film, you will never notice them. You will still be entertained by this movie. Shazam is a good super hero movie and kudos to the DCU for striking a home run with this. We just hope they can mirror this success along with that of Wonder Woman, Deadpool and Aquaman to their Batman, Superman and Justice League franchises.
Since this is still new, you can buy the DVD or Blue-ray to watch this.
Why do we find a messy and choppy film is a good film? When it's intentional. The movie surprisingly entertained us and here we go.
Mike Howell (played by Jesse Eisenberg) is addicted to pot who has a stoner girl friend in Phoebe Larson (played by Kristen Stewart). The lived in a secluded town of Liman, West Virginia. He works as a store clerk and he was activated by Victoria Lasseter (played by Connie Britton). Unknown to him, Mike is part of a sleeper CIA spy program Wiseman Ultra. She delivered a code to him but it had a delayed effect on him. He only realized that he had hidden talents when he confronted two men from the Toughguys program sent to kill him. He was able to kill them using a spoon. He freaks out and call Phoebe explaining he doesn't understand how he was able to do what he just did. Eventually the Sheriff arrives and whisks them to the station for questioning when two more Toughguys arrived and killed the entire police force. Using his new found skills, both Mike and Phoebe was able to survive the attack. They run and hide most of the time until Mike learns that Phoebe is also a CIA operative assigned to be his handler. Broken hearted, he tried to stay away from Phoebe but she was kidnapped by the Toughgys. Mike then arranges for his surrender in exchange for Phoebe but as usual, he prevailed and was able to rescue Phoebe. There were a lot of things happening in the movie that we felt was a bit over top and that was not relevant the story thus we deemed this as a messy movie. But if the mess was done with intent and nicely done, its entertaining and we love this film. Jesse Eisenberg can be quirky and this trait suits his role as Mike Howell here. A paranoid stoner with lots of things in his mind he really did pull this one off. Honestly we pictured Kristen Stewart as a vampire but that changed with her portrayal as Phoebe here. We were surprised that she can act, really, her character in the Twilight was not endearing to us. We thought she could not measure up with Jesse here that we might as well focus on him more. But lo and behold, she did a fine job here and we can say, she can stand high in this movie in the acting department. Jesse and her really brought the film to fruition and they did entertain us. Quirky, witty, action well done with romance on the side, this movie is a big hit for us.
543 years in the future, we have our film Alita: Battle Angel. It presents Earth in a futuristic present surviving 300 years after a huge war call "The Fall". Movie starts off with Dr. Dyson Ido (played by Christoph Waltz) finding a disembodied cyborg and proceeds to resurrect it in his workshop. He attaches his find to a complete body and she was "born". The cyborg wakes up with no idea of her past, and learns basic things in using her new body, like walking and eating. She was then called Alita by Dr. Ido.
Being a naive girl, the world is new to Alita and is excited to learn new things. During her exploration she friends up with Hugo (played by Keean Johnson), a young man who dreams to be part of Zalem, the only remaining sky city after The Fall. Hugo in his desire to achieve his dream, is secretly robbing cyborg parts for Vector (played by Mahershala Ali), the owner of the Motorball tournament in Iron City.
It seemed that Hugo is not the only one with secrets as Dr. Ido himself has one. Alita was curious as to why Dr. Ido was going out late at nights so she followed him. In following him, they got ambushed by a group of cyborgs led by Grewishka (played by Jackie Earle Haley).
It turns out that Dr. Ido, in financing his workshop and help poor cyborgs, he was also earning as a hunter warrior. As they were outnumbered by the gang, Dr. Ido tried to protect Alita but surprisingly, Alita turned out to be skilled in combat. She subdued the ambushing gang except for Grewishka (who escaped with an injury). During the ensuing fight, Alita had bits of her memory coming back. She felt that if she keeps this up, her memory would come back. She wants to be a hunter warrior so that she can do so. Dr. Ido advises her not to be one. In another scene, Alita then was led by Hugo and friends to a spaceship wreck and there she finds an advanced cyborg body and asked Dr. Ido to transfer her to it. He would not do such a thing much to Alita's disappointment. Eventually Alita becomes a hunter warrior and finds Grewishka back for a rematch and she lost and damages her cyborg body. Left with no choice Dr. Ido proceeds to use the found cyborg body on Alita. By this time Alita is in love with Hugo and intends to join the motorball so that the prize money can send Hugo to Zalem or Sky City. Upon seeing her love for him, Hugo decides to change his ways. In end, Hugo tries to go to Zalem via one of its cargo tubes but was cut down by one of its defenses. Alita continued her motorball tournament and is a rising superstar. She promises to avenge Hugo's death by pointing her sword towards Zalem. Usually we are wary of watching movies that are based on Manga as sometimes the adaptation is far from it. Although we are not privy to the manga, we love this film super to the max!!! The CGI was top notch and they painted Alita's world to a perfect T. We can relate to it to the year 2563 and all the characters was woven nicely to it. With an impressive cast, how can this film go wrong? We have Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly and Mahershala Ali here so this film is not short on the performance part. Rosa Salazar glady levelled up and meet the standards set by her peers and she gave an also am impressive performance as the lead heroine. Pacing of the story was great. There were times it was necessary to go slow and it goes well with the story telling. Credit this to Robert Rodriguez style of directing. We love his earlier works and he is that no nonsense and very good with action shabang style. Fight scenes that are over the top action and entertaining, that's Rodriguez for you. All in all, the movie is great, it has more good reviews than bad last time we checked. We thought the ending was a cliffhanger of sorts. We might have a sequel to this.
We admire Gong Yoo in his portrayals in The Goblin and Coffee Prince in the Korean dramas that we like to see him in a movie setting. Here we find him playing seconds to Kim Sun-a (who plays that police detective Chun Jae-in) who works undercover always as a highschooler.
In most parts in the film, Jae-in infiltrates a school to befriend a daughter of a notorious gangster. As the gangster is in hiding from his gangster enemies, Jae-in tries to protect the daughter Cha Seung Hee (played by Nam Sang-mi) and possibly extract more information about the father's activities. This wasn't as simple as she thought it would be as Seung Hee has a reclusive type personality. She knows her father's activities and she disapproves of it. So much so that she is a recluse, never wants to make friends in school, making Jae-in's mission a bit difficult. At the same time with Jae-in's arrival comes Kang No-young (played by Gong Yoo). Nothing much was shown with No-young's intentions in the early parts of the movie except that he also is interested in Seung Hee and both of them live across Seung Hee's residence. Eventually Seung Hee's warms up to Jae-in and they are best of friends. Meanwhile other characters pop in to create a stir in the story. Another agent cop swoops in as a teacher and a motorcycle riding character zips in to protect Seung Hee's father. The latter wears a helmet always so you can't discern who it was. Later on Jae-in suspects No-young is that motorcycling individual. Like in most story plots, all must come in the end. Seung Hee was kidnapped to bring in his father where a duel with the rival boss was inevitable. Also Jae-in teams up with No-young who was revealed as a gang member protecting Seung Hee's father. The team was able to subdue the whole gang and both Seung Hee and her father was rescued. No-young being a gangster, he escaped just in time the police arrived, must to the dismay of Jae-in whom she had started to have feelings for. Although she was wary of that kind of relationship since she is already mature compared to No-young. Several months later in another of Jae-in's assignments, she pretends to be a nun to capture a criminal. In the ensuing chase, No-young shows up and helps her catch the criminal. A kiss was forthcoming but Jae-in had to be sure, that No-young was just a youthful looking man. The whole film is a feel good movie and the storyline is so thin if you ask me. Although not original in concept, it was still refreshing to see this with both Gong Yoo and Kim Sun-a. The latter was a bit over the top during the first few minutes of the film, but somehow she mellowed down and came back to earth and then we loved her. Gong Yoo came much in the middle and his presence is always overshadowed with that of Sun-a. But just a smile from Gong Yoo will bring him back on screen again. Both by the way looked good together but a romantic relationship only started to be felt past midway. Not much situations were given to offer that cute moments between the two as the story line calls for the protection of that gangster's daughter. A lovely film if you ask us, just a little thin but its not bad either. For an asian film made in 2005, this is already watchable. We are wary of early asian films but this one will not disappoint. Currently showing on YouTube, of course not High Definition, but best of all its free.
Otherwise known as X3 during our time, this is the third installment of the X-Men franchise and supposedly the last (?) if sequels were talked about. Franchises then always "end" on the third movie and we thought this was it for the X-Men then.
Movie starts off with Professor Charles Xavier (played by Patrick Stewart) and Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto (played by Ian McKellen) meeting the young Jean Grey hoping to invite her to join the school Charles established. She joins them and the scene shifts to a boy with wings, who's the son to a rich tycoon. Then it stops there, the boy with the wings, we get back to him later.
Fast forward to the present, that rich tycoon who owns Worthington Labs finally announces that they have developed a vaccine or drug that suppresses the mutant gene. It inhibits the mutant abilities and thereby they become normal, a "cure" they call it for those mutants who wish to be normal again. The so called cure is harnessed from a genome of another mutant who suppresses other mutant's powers when they are near him. But the cure has its critics and Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants is against it, as they feel they don't have a disease thus the need for that cure. As of then, the cure is administered among mutants who volunteers, but the Brotherhood feels otherwise. The so called cure will be used to eradicate the mutant race by forcing it on them.
To combat this threat, Magneto rescues Mystique (played by Rebecca Romjin) from prison and they attacked the mobile prison where she was being kept. In their escape, Mystique was shot with an dart gun containing the "cure" and she transformed to being a normal person, Magneto had to choice but to leave her behind.
During this time, Scott Summers aka Cyclops (played by James Marsden) still grieving over the loss of Jean Grey (played by Famke Jannsen) at Alkali Lake then finds Jean Grey alive and well there. As they hug and kiss, Jean kills him. Professor X senses danger in Alkali Lake, sends Logan aka Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman) and Storm (played by Halle Berry) to investigate. They found Jean Grey at the lake unconscious. The brought her back to the X Mansion to be checked.
During her recovery, Professor X explains to Logan and Storm that in Jean's efforts to save them in X2, she somehow released the "phoenix", a powerful alternate personality that Professor X tried to contain. Indeed the phoenix has taken over and she went to her childhood home where Professor X pursued her. Magneto was also there but with another purpose, he wanted Jean to join him in the Brotherhood. In the process of talking to Jean, the Phoenix kills the professor and she leaves with Magneto thereafter.
With Jean at his side, Magneto proceeds to attack Worthington Labs to kill and eradicate the cure. The rest of the X-Men then tries to stop the advancing Brotherhood. In the melee, Magneto was injected with the "cure" and he lost all his powers. It was now up to Jean Grey to finish what Magneto started and now its up to Logan to stop her.
With his speedy recuperating powers, Logan was able to withstand all the phoenix's attacks on him until he was able to kill Jean Grey. Logan mourns for her death.
What happened next is the opening of Professor Xavier's school with Storm as its head and Hank McCoy (played by Kelsey Grammer) was appointed as ambassador to the United Nations. Magneto was relegated to being human again however he was able to slightly move a metal chess piece, suggesting that the cure was just temporary. The last scene shows a comatose patient wakes up and greets with Professor Xavier's voice.
Now that's the movie. We love the X-Men and X2, then we get this. Well, it wasn't a good sequel as we hoped it would be. The first half was full of drama and story complete with witty dialogues then comes the other half that full of action and we see a little bit of the story. What was frustrating for us was the fact that the latter half for us negates all the memories and stories we had from the first two films.
Magneto issues one liners, there's a jealous Rogue which we felt was overboard as we know already Rogue was frustrated already that she can't hold or touch his boyfriend, we saw a very different Jean Grey, it's because of the phoenix, and the whole action thing in the end was too long for our taste. And the new mutants Magneto hired? We didn't like them. End of that story.
It's still watchable though thanks to the superb acting of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. We love Hugh Jackman and Famke Jannsen here. In fact a lot of them performed well but the story line is a bit sketchy for us. The 25th Century Fox rendition of the Marvel characters we kinda agree has been confusing at best when continuity is in focus. It all started here and then the succeeding films didn't help at all.
To its credit, we liked this one better than the X-Men Dark Phoenix so rest assured this is watchable. Catch this movie on Netflix (as of this writing).
We love the early X-Men films and somehow our appreciation to it goes down every time we watch the newer movies (except for Logan) and this one took us to the lowest of the lows.
Even with a superb cast thrown herein, they couldn't have possibly resurrect the story. Caught between the merging of the Disney owned MCU and 20th Century Fox, this movie somehow lost it's way. We all know that the split in the characters has been with us with Marvel selling some its characters to 20th Century Fox. Without the MCU, we were happy seeing the X-Men and Spiderman movies only to find it as rubbish when MCU came along and introduced the very first Iron Man. There is a whole new world of story telling and 20th Century Fox was left in the dust. Everything went downhill from hereon.
Going back to this movie, the first scene was set in 1975 with the young Jean Grey was travelling with her parents and got into a car accident leaving her as an orphan. It was during this time that Professor Xavier brought her to his school. Fast forward to 1992, the X-Men were asked to rescue the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor. In the process of the rescue, Jean Grey was struck by a solar flare like energy, which she absorbs. This energy multiplied her powers and unsuspectingly unlocks the memories which were repressed by Professor Xavier. The professor blocked the memories for her to be shielded from the childhood trauma of losing her parents. With this memory unleashed, all those trauma flooded right all in, filling her with all that anger and pain. With her new powers she found out that her father was alive and well. She went to her hometown and confronted her father, who gave her up fearing for her powers. She also learned that she was responsible for her mother's death. The X-Men arrived to bring her back to her home but she ended up injuring Quicksilver and killing Mystique before fleeing again.
She went to seek help from Magneto but with what she did to the US Military tasked to arrest her, he denied her request and he asked her to leave instead. She then meets with Vuk, the leader of aliens who landed on earth, who explained to her that the energy that she absorbed was the same cosmic force that wiped out Vuk's home planet long ago. The energy was focusing on Jean Grey's power all along Vuk said.
Hank McCoy now allied with Magneto, comes after Jean Grey. They succumb to her powers until Professor Xavier convinced her to read his memories, allowing her true self to take over. Feeling guilty she asked Vuk to take the power from her, but by doing so would kill her. Before Vuk could absorb all this power, Professor Xavier prevented this and all of them were captured by the US government troops. They were then under power inhibiting collars and placed on a train headed to a containment facility.
En-route, the train was attacked by Vuk and her cohorts with Jean Grey as their mission. Seeing that the US government troops were no match to this shape shifting aliens, they released the X-Men to even the odds. With Professor Xavier's help, Jean Grey was able to control her new found powers and saves everyone against Vuk. Jean Grey finally retakes the powers she gave to Vuk and she killed Vuk in the end. Jean Grey then vanished in an energy explosion in the form of a phoenix.
Events thereafter, Xavier's School was renamed after Jean Grey and Hank became its first dean. Professor Xavier is retired now and settled in Paris with Magneto, and while starting to play a game a chess, a flaming phoenix appears in the sky.
Admittedly it was difficult for us to review this film. We can't help to relate this one with the third X-men film, the Last Stand. There we find Jean Grey unleashing the Phoenix from within her. We wonder if this Phoenix was the same Phoenix from this movie. As we don't have that answer for you, we proceed to explain it by what 20th Century Fox did with X-Men: Days of future's past. This time travel movie turned the already confusing X-Men timeline into a fritz. We can't understand the X-men movies after that flick.
Are we in a parallel time line as a result? What happened to the story line of the movies prior? Is it still there or they are not there anymore? Do we have to accept this movie as it is or simply drop it and wait for how the MCU would handle the reboot? Will the story line be rewritten again so that they will be introduced to the MCU Phase 4? We felt that his movie, along with that of Fanstastic Four suffered a let's just do a movie and don't care how will MCU handle it thereafter. Both movies are dismal failures in story line in our books and we suggest don't go through them like we did. Stay away from this movies and simply wait for the MCU certified movies about them instead.
For a change we will be having a heroine today in Joan Wilder (played by Kathleen Turner), a romance novel writer based in New York City. She stays indoors always until she books a flight for Colombia. Her sister Elaine (played by Mary Ellen Trainor) was kidnapped by smugglers Ira (played by Zack Norman) and Ralph (played by Danny De Vito) and they ransomed her for a map that Elaine sent to Joan.
En route to the meet up point, Joan was misdirected by Colonel Zolo (played by Manuel Ojeda) hoping to get the map from her. He tricked her in boarding the wrong bus to Cartagena, the meeting point. Ralph saw her board the wrong bus and pursued her into the jungles of Colombia. While going through the jungle, the bus crashed into a parked car and was wrecked. Joan was stranded and Colonel Zolo made his move against Joan, who then was saved just in time by Jack Colton (played by Michael Douglas), an exotic bird smuggler.
Joan then requests Jack to help her reach Cartagena but the latter demanded to be paid. Agreeing at USD375, the two went on through the jungle to Cartagena while Colonel Zolo is still in hot pursuit. The duo reached a small village and met with the local drug lord Juan (played by Alfonso Arau), a huge fan of Joan Wilder's novels. He helped them escape Colonel Zolo when they were almost apprehended in the village. While they were in the nearby town, they decided to decipher the map and look for the treasure before they hand it over to Ira and Ralph.
They eventually found the treasure, an emerald called the "Corazon" or heart, Ralph takes the stone at gunpoint, but when Zolo's troops appeared, it gave Jack the chance to get the emerald back. In their escape from Ralph and Zolo's men, Joan and Jack were separated on separate sides of a river, Joan has the map and Jack has the stone. Jack tells Joan how to reach Cartagena and promises he will meet her there.
In Cartagena, Joan gives the map to Ira and true to his word, he releases her sister Elaine. Zolo then arrives with his captives, Jack and Ralph. Looking for the emerald, Zolo tries to torture Joan but the emerald was found to be with Jack all along. Jack tried to heave the stone to a crocodile pool but was caught by Zolo. Being close to the pool, a wayward crocodile bit off Zolo's hand that held the emerald, maiming him and the crocodile swallows the hand along with the stone. Jack follows the crocodile and tries to prevent it from escaping but he has to let go of it to save Joan against Zolo.
Zolo eventually falls into the crocodile pool and dies, Ira escaped when the police arrived, leaving behind Ralph. Jack dove off the pier to try to go after the crocodile with Joan and Elaine left at the pier to be with the authorities.
Joan and her sister went back to New York and Joan has written a new book about her latest adventure in Colombia and her editor loved it so much. Another best seller she says. On her way home, she finds a huge yacht on a trailer on the streets of New York and wondered why it was there in the first place. It turned out that Jack owns this yacht and he tells Joan that the crocodile with the emerald had a fatal case of indigestion.
We love the onscreen chemistry between Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas here and with this, the two put up a great show for us. Both were great actors and they didn't disappoint even with a very cheesy script. A love story with a little bit of hate, joy and love is cheesy in our books. Yet the two played with it with gusto and finesse that we forgot its a cheesy movie in the onset.
Pacing was nice and there was not a boring moment for us. We didn't even have to push that forward button if there were boring moments. Action was great and we like the Little Mule, you better watch it so you'll know what we are writing about here.
If you are a fan of both actors and the comedy romance genre, make sure to add this to your playlist. This is not on Netflix, but most likely it would be on Amazon Prime (we don't have an account with them anymore).
This movie was a continuation of their first after a decade in their timeline. They have since then managed to stay alive by knowing the type of zombies and how to handle each one. They have also set up a home in the White House and Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg) proposed to Wichita (played by Emma Stone) while Tallahassee (played by Woody Harrelson) acts as if he is their surrogate father (which he denies).
Apocalypse have a different effect on people and it is where this movie starts off with. Wichita's younger sister, Little Rock (played by Abigail Breslin) is beginning to look for young people her age. She feels she can't relate anymore with the group and would like to move on. Wichita likewise feels too much attached to Columbus that she needed a break somehow. These feelings grew on them that they finally left Columbus and Tallahassee. This left Columbus heartbroken.
A month after being left behind, Columbus was moping with Tallahassee when he found another survivor, Madison (played by Zoey Deutch). Tallahassee immediately dislikes Madison but somehow Columbus invited her back to the White House. Deprived of sex for too long, Madison had one with Columbus. That same night, Columbus and Tallahassee found Wichita replenishing guns and ammo in the garage. She told them that Little Rock also left her for another survivor, Berkeley (played by Avan Jogia) going to Graceland.
This revelation set off a road trip by the group with Madison in tow. They almost caught up with her in a motel owned by Nevada (played by Rosario Dawson) when they saw two cooky characters in Albaqurque (played by Luke Wilson) and Flagstaff (played by Thomas Middleditch). This duo mirrors our lead tandem of Tallahassee and Columbus which made it creepy as per Wichita.
Eventually that new duo died just a few minutes of their introduction and the group (except for Nevada) sets forth to find Little Rock who went to Babylon. A place where its safe from them zombies yet they don't use violence. It was just said to be a place of high walls thus the zombies can't reach them.
Eventually the group caught up with Little Rock but she wasn't thrilled seeing them. In Babylon she's happy to mingle with people of same age as her. Columbus and Wichita decided to stay with Little Rock in Babylon and Tallahassee went on his way. As he was leaving, he met the new type of zombies on their way to Babylon.
He soon found out why these were going to Babylon, in the skies above Babylon, fireworks were exploding. Tallahassee went back to Babylon to warn its residents only to find out that there were no more guns there. Left with their wits, they fought the zombies and eventually they were able to defend Babylon.
Simply that place is not for them so they left for another adventure. Tallahassee with Nevada, Columbus and Wichita, and Little Rock did a road trip at the end of the movie.
The whole movie has a thin story if you take it as a zombie movie, which in fact it wasn't. Its a story of finding love amidst all the chaos or uncertainty. Columbus' desire of marriage was not the same with Wichita thus a long story can be found here. Little Rock also desired to find love among her peers, she took a journey that took her to Babylon, where she thought she could find it. Even Tallahassee who was skeptical about love finally found one in the end. So in the end, its a love story all the way, just with zombies running around and getting killed.
We really appreciated how the group blended well together in their first movie thus we find them again with the same chemistry here in Double Tap. Although the movie is dragging in most parts, its livened up by adding new characters with Madison (a horny dumb blonde), Berkeley (a pacifist and wannabee song writer), Nevada (Tallahassee's love interest here), Albuquerque (a mirror of Tallahassee) and Flagstaff (a mirror of Columbus). Although most of the new characters either died off or simply left in Babylon, we were disappointed that we won't see them in the next sequel if there was one. These characters have a certain quirks that endeared us to them. We hope that new colorful characters would pop up in the next one.
We also like the script and dialogues as they were nicely written. Pacing was sadly a bit slow like the homer zombies in the film but its forgivable when the scenes slightly pick up speed. We are not keen on zombie movies, but seldom there are those which we like and this is one of them.
Currently this is being shown on Netflix so queue this one up on one of your quarantine nights.
If you're a fan of Natalie Portman, then you'll be happy to find out that she's here and she was in her pre-teens on this one. A very iconic role for her and her acting prowess already shined herein. She plays Mathilda, a 12 year who lives in New York and is a neighbor of Leon Montana (played by Jean Reno).
Movie starts with Mathilda meeting Leon along the halls of their apartment building, where the latter wants to be left alone. Leon is a cleaner or a hitman so like likes solitary living, he doesn't want any attention to himself. Mathilda's father is a keeper of drugs for a group of bad cops in New York. This relationship with the cops turned sour when Mathilda's father skimmed some dope that resulted to the whole family being killed. Mathilda was able to survive the brutality of that cop Norman Stansfield (played by Gary Oldman). Mathilda was shopping when it all happened so when she saw them all dead in their apartment.
Quick thinking on her part, she went passed the killing and went to her neighbor, Leon for her safety, who sheltered her. Being inside his apartment she immediately learns what Leon does for a living. She wants him to teach her how to a hitman, begging him in exchange for her doing his errands, shopping, and cleaning his apartment. Reluctantly he accepts and proceeds to train her with the art of killing. A bond was established between the two and Mathilda starts to feel love for Leon who did not reciprocate.
While Leon was out on assignment, Mathilda finds Leon's stash of guns, she "borrowed" some and went after Norman at the police station. Being a newbie at the hitman game, she was apprehended by Norman himself. Leon rescued her at the station and Norman discovered that Mathilda and Leon are together. Norman then was able to locate the two and went to their apartment with everything the police had.
Leon was able to subdue all who tried to "arrest" him and he helped Mathilda escape first from their apartment. He made his own escape after however he was detected by Norman and was subsequently shot in the back. Norman went over to check on Leon, and the latter gave him a pin. A pin from a grenade that he pulled from his vest, creating a huge explosion, killing both Leon and Norman. He did this to protect Mathilda from Norma.
Mathilda then realizes that Leon is no longer coming, she went to Tony (played by Danny Aiello, Leon's handler), and tried to convince him to hire her as a cleaner. Tony seeing how young she still was, refuses to hire and instead gives her some money and sends her back to school.
Leon: The Professional is a great hitman film, if not the best in our film collection. Great direction coming from Luc Besson, this film is so basic yet its so endearing. Wonderfully written script, dealing in some risque topics of graphic violence and a love story between a 12 year old apprentice and an adult hitman. Risque as it was, the script handled it well without making it obscene or over the top and very much well mannered adding to the greatness of this movie.
Another notable point to watch his movie is Jean Reno was great as Leon, and Luc Besson in an interview admitted that this character was really for Reno. When Reno did an earlier film by Besson, La Femme Nikita, he immediately made a spin off film using the character of Victor (played by Reno) and made Reno a star of it. Natalie Portman was surprisingly wonderful as that 12 year old Mathilda. Besson auditioned a lot of actors for the part of Mathilda and he really wanted Portman to do it. Eventually this was a breakout film for Natalie Portman. A film with Gary Oldman in it is a good sign already saying "watch me please" plus we have Danny Aiello here as well. These 4 actors alone is well worth that money spent on your blue ray or DVD.
Story line wasn't that new, but it was given a fresh lease on life with a love angle and using graphic violence to push some form of entertainment. We said the script was great and the story telling was wonderful as well. Resulting in a great roller coaster ride of emotions that we loved this movie so much. Other viewers think so too thus it gained a cult following in some of its fans.
If you see this movie in the blue ray or dvd shelves, this is a great buy to add to your movie collection. A great movie for a marathon and we can't stop suggesting it to you.
