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Reviews
Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
Weird, methodical, hardboiled Bronson with a sprinkle of Oz and a pinch of Darren Aronofsky
This movie can't really be categorized or described. It can only really be experienced. It certainly doesn't really leave you feeling giddy.
It's a nod to noir tones and the cast does a great job keeping everything simple and gritty. Nothing is pretty. On the contrary, the grey and brown colours that dominate the film make it rather un-pretty. This really drags you into the ugly world the characters are in. It helps with the almost unbelievable storyline because the prison environment feels so brutal and hopeless, pretty much any unbelievable thing becomes plausible as long as enough people are suffering and hurting from it. Because nobody in this entire movie is "good" but some are unlucky, some got charisma and everyone seems to have a death wish.
Vince Vaughn does solid work in a role that doesn't call for much but in that subtly talented way. He didn't overdo it. And that's what made it memorable. Don Johnson is everything a warden should be in this absurd yet mildly believable reality.
The film could just as easily be a play about how far a man will go when he has nothing left but only one thing left to do. Hope is an illegal currency in this world. All we have left is to watch and see what happens.
The pacing is reminiscent of The Wrestler and other simple, messy movies that like to drag you through the mud. Though the violence was usually brief and nothing fancy, there are moments where sensational gore and bloodshed just pop up like a whack-a-mole.
This is just one of those movies I'd recommend you see. Watching Vaughn turn into this monster that we pretty much knew was inside of him from the beginning is interesting and whacky in a way that scratches a strange itch that I can't quite place. But it feels good. Weird.
Skyscraper (2018)
Pleasantly surprised by this Die Hard meets San Andreas style film
I was pretty entertained. The Rock is a capable actor but he's always gonna impress more with his charisma than range. But this "dad" type role suited him well. And while he's still former military/police, he comes across more as capable than physically dominant like he often is in other films. This trait is enhanced by his disability set up in the beginning of the film.
The movie has a pretty unbelievable plot and storyline but the editing is fairly strong. The story is kept moving and events are explained quickly to keep things going and avoid getting caught up in any convoluted plot points trying to explain why anything is the way it is. I really think the pace was the strongest part of this film.
The climax is where the motivations get a little bogged down in a conveniently contrived backstory to explain why the villains are motivated.
All that said, it's a solid action flick with a bit of heart, a lot of explosions and some fun fights mixed in with a lot of high wire acrobatics by The Rock that will definitely make your palms sweat.
Personally, I'd say this is The Rock's best lead role since his early days in The Rundown and Walking Tall. I certainly enjoyed it far more than I anticipated. I think the beginning scene could've been just explained through backstory and the explanation about the villains before the climax was pretty cheesy, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film.
Actors were all mostly decent, I cheered for the main character and it's a family oriented action film so you know it has a happy ending. But it still did a decent job of making things suspenseful and enjoyable along the way.
Lukas (2018)
Nothing special but solid and gritty
Van Damme does well in these types of roles and even with the ease of a mostly French dialogue, he shines through when he's quiet and just painting a portrait of his character with the pain in his eyes and the tired look on his face.
Pretty straight forward plot. Van Damme, a club bouncer with a mysterious past, quickly finds himself unlucky and stuck between a rock and a hard place. All he really cares about is his daughter but the world just keeps getting in his way.
The action is unspectacular but in an artistic way. The fights are physical, gruelling and full of blunt force hits more than martial arts or fancy maneuvers.
If you're a JCVD fan you'll appreciate this film for what it is. And with a roughly 90min runtime, it's easy to get quickly invested and checked back into the world on a Saturday afternoon.
Decent pacing, simple story with a bit of action and a little bit of heart.
Den of Thieves (2018)
Pretty much a poor man's HEAT but good enough if you like the genre
If you're into this genre, you know the characters (cops and robbers), you know the storyline (a big heist), and what to expect (money and giant public shootouts). But with this movie, you can't tell where the intention is to honour the clichés, or if the movie is just so ripe with an overabundance of them that it's making a parody of itself.
It feels like the storyline pretty much just relies on the character archetypes to fuel the plot. The misfit hard edged cop with a rough family life. A crew of robbers with a of couple loose cannons and looser lips to play both sides of the law, lead by the "serious" guy in the group. It's all there. And if you're into the genre, you won't hate it but there's just nothing special about it. Nor original. As a matter of fact you'll just start to recognize patterns from good heist films like The Town, HEAT, etc.
The actors do a fair job with the script. Nothing great but no complaints. The plot has some twists and turns that are simple enough to follow, but probably could've been more enthralling with some better editing and plot development. You just never care too much about the stakes, nor any particular character's motivation. There are a few moments that insert themes of family and trust that feel a bit forced, but that's only because they were so brief. Had we gotten a bit more out of the robbers personal side of the story, we may have been more invested in the inevitable outcome for all of these characters when it came down to business.
Entertaining enough to watch and well paced but too much of it was wrapped up in an ending that was somewhat unsatisfying. Again, possibly could've been a better dit of this movie made. It will be a long ways down the list of epic heist movies. But you might still find it somewhere near the middle.
Jean-Claude Van Johnson (2016)
Fun, weird and enjoyable with good action to make you smile
This series is not realistic or emotionally enthralling. BUT it's got a bunch of dark humour, ridiculous scenarios and actors having fun making fun of acting.
If you're a JCVD fan this is a no brainer. And if you work in film you'll probably laugh, and sometimes cringe, at the exaggerated characters and scenarios of being on a film set. The prop sets and storylines feel like parodies of Van Damme's career catalogue. The humour of the intentionally horribly acted scenes plays brilliantly along with a director who's a pure stereotype, yet has original quirks and a personality of his own.
The show has heart, clearly doesn't take itself too seriously, and does a good enough job of convincing us this world exists where Van Damme doubles as an actor and a secret agent.
You could easily relax and watch an episode or just throw it on while you clean the house and enjoy some of the scenes time to time. And as mentioned in my headline, I found myself really smiling at times because some of the action scenes are just such absurd set pieces from the result of ridiculous plot lines that result in crazy choreography and stakes that have been raised high enough for our main character to wonder just how he's gonna get out of it. That giant run-on sentence pretty much sums up the show 😂
Storming Juno (2010)
High quality docu-drama with heart
I was pleasantly impressed! It's not the greatest war epic of all time or anything but make no mistake, for the semi-educational historical war docu-drama genre, this is Spielberg Saving Private Ryan level stuff.
There are some cheesy moments and the budget shows at times with the graphics and lack of background actors. But I was still thoroughly impressed by the overall production value and was never taken out of it wherever it was obvious the budget maxed out. The film really succeeds at giving you enough little endearing backstory moments to care a bit about the characters and what's going on. The actors are not gonna win any Oscars but again, for this budget and this genre, they did their job and engaged me as a viewer. They should certainly all be proud of the end product.
I'm guessing it was made for TV so it's not overly graphic but it nonetheless did a great job at capturing the horrific intensity, fear and chaos of storming the beaches with some great explosions and countless troops getting mowed down by turrets with good effects. The camera work is solid and really goes a long way to make what was probably just a couple dozen actors look like a true war on the beachfront.
If you're a fan of this kind of stuff or interested in Canada's role in WWII, this is a no brainer. And if you even just happen to catch it, it's worth watching and probably one of the highest quality things you'll see from any genre made for just a few million dollars. Glad I found it =)
Recon (2019)
WishApp version of 1917 that doesn't add up to much
What this movie suffers from is a lack of originality and lack of creativity. It very much took from the horror movie style of dragging out a scene and making the viewer think a jump scare is coming only to reward it like once in the entire film with a meaningful moment. The majority of the film creates a bunch of build up and somewhat artificial tension to try and make the audience feel the hopelessness and turmoil of the soldiers. But frankly, they just didn't go through enough in the film to justify their stress and internal mutiny.
The film was clearly trying to showcase the impact of war on these boys but didn't think how to make the audience really care about the characters going through it in the film. Hard to blame the actors because they had to keep raising the stakes with the somewhat mediocre material they were working with and everything just felt very forced. A lot of the typical ingredients of fear, hopelessness and internal fighting amongst the soldiers were present but again, forced. The main lead keeps getting flashbacks and reliving the trauma of seeing dead civilians amidst assignment. The whole thing is incredibly forced and overacted to a point that just takes you out of it. I'm sure it's just what he was directed to do but the whole thing is too much and really sums up the film unflatteringly. Seriously, the main character spends half the movie with his face in a scrunched, enraged and/or tearful manic episode and it just doesn't really work well for the guy who's gonna be taking up the most screen time. It's war, it's horrible and traumatizing, and we need those "moments" but we don't need to see the main character wearing it on his sleeve the entire movie. Imagine Tom Hanks singular crying moment in Saving Private Ryan but for pretty much half or more of the entire movie. Not gonna have the same impact is it? Somebody should've told this director.
If you're into the genre I think this is worth a watch because there are a couple of sequences where the suspense is drawn out engagingly and it's a great example of a pretty low budget, simple concept style film.
I wouldn't call this a terrible movie, it's just definitely not a good one and only worth your time when you're looking for something you haven't seen in the war film genre. If you enjoyed the more subdued pace of the classic Band Of Brothers, there might be a couple of gem moments in this film for you. But they're few, far between, and add up to nothing much.
I Am Legend (2007)
Should've been called "I Am Will Smith: Lost In New York"
This movie should not have been titled I Am Legend. I know, fans of the books are never satisfied with the film adaptations but if you read the book, you'd understand that this movie in no way even remotely resembles the legendary (pun intended) novella by Richard Matheson. If you saw this movie first, I recommend reading the book because the film literally didn't spoil a single thing for you and the book is great. The only things in common are the name of the main character, the post apocalyptic setting and the fact that there's a dog, at some point, in the book. There was literally no reason to title this I Am Legend when it very clearly is a film that can stand on its own two feet, features an Oscar nominated lead, and clearly has a different concept altogether.
Now with that said, this film certainly doesn't suck. Though elements of it do like the CGI whatever beings that inhabit the city Will Smith has intentionally trapped himself in. And the film falls pretty flat in the third act.
The first 2/3 of the movie however are interesting, eventful and intriguing as we watch our protagonist Will Smith cope with his day to day life of trying to keep some normalcy and routine amidst the foreboding reality that he is likely the last man on earth - or so he's convinced himself.
Will, as usual, gives a good and heartfelt performance but the reality is, this is a film trying to capitalize on a concept that it is clearly unwilling to truly dedicate itself to. It doesn't know if it wants to be a character study, a buddy story with Smith and his dog or the post-zombie apocalypse type film we are always eager to see.
I was tempted to give it a 6 due to my disappointment in how irresponsibly "adapted" this was from the book (both Omega Man and Vincent Price's The Last Man On Earth are far closer to the source material) but it gets a 7 because it by no means is a bad movie. It's just not a particularly good one. And that is in large part to the final 30 or so minutes kind of negating the concept of most of what you watched up to that point.
If you love Will Smith or if you love this genre, I don't think you'll be disappointed. And even for the casual viewer, the film has a handful of impactful moments that tug on your emotions. But if you're looking for even an in the same ballpark style adaptation of the book the movie is titled and based on, run the other direction because you won't simply be disappointed, but rather outright confused. Hopefully Matheson's masterpiece one day gets the true treatment it deserves. Until then, we shall have to settle for half-assed marketing ploys with good likeable actors like Smith keeping a lacklustre script and story entertaining and meaningful enough for us to watch until it starts to fade off.