Just a bunch of stuff i've seen lately

[Mairosu]

MESSAGE FROM THE KING ... Netflix original about a South African taxi driver who goes to LA to find out what happened to his sister starts fairly interesting, but as it moves along it gradually sinks into your standard "standup guy cleanses a den of depravity" kind of story. Still, there's enough material here to keep your average genre fan busy. And hey, I interviewed the director for this site once upon a time. **1/2 / ****

[Mairosu]

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES ... so the word goes that the sequels of this second APES reboot, those being DAWN and WAR are superb films. Shame, then, this first part is a boring two hours of almost nothing until apes take charge and start fucking shit up. Sure, the CGI is great, but really hardly anything happens here until the last quarter and by that point, who cares. ** / ****

[Mairosu]

HITMAN'S BODYGUARD ... Samuel L. Jackson plays a notorious hitman who has to be escorted from England to The Hague to serve as a key witness to the prosecution in a war crimes trial against a ruthless Belarussian tyrant (Gary Oldman, icy as always). After conventional ways fail, it's up to the self-proclaimed "triple A protection agent" Ryan Reynolds to do the job. It's kind of an updated MIDNIGHT RUN - great lead chemistry, good jokes, and action is R rated, with lot of good set pieces. They used to make them like this long time ago - good to have this genre in revival. ***1/2 / ****

[Mairosu]

THE FOREIGNER ... this inauspicious title hides one of the best films I've seen recently. When an elderly proprietor of a London-based Chinese restaurant (Jackie Chan in a fantastic role) loses his daughter in a terrorist bombing, he goes all out to find out the perps and punish the vigilante style. Along the way, he engages into a battle of wits with Northern Irish deputy minister (Pierce Brosnan, also tremendous) who has a shady past of his own. Tense, well-shot, and more than anything crazy brutal film, it will keep you on the edge from start to finish. Essential. **** / ****

[shiki-jitsu]

STAR WARS : ROGUE ONE ... after the unmitigated disaster which was the episode VII I had nothing but low...well, even sub-zero hopes for this spinoff. As it happens, I was treated to possibly the best Star Wars film since ROTJ. To be honest with you - it's Star Wars in name only. Gareth Edwards essentially creates a pastiche of all great war films of old and gives it some Star Wars decor, but this is more, say, DIRTY DOZEN than ATTACK OF THE CLONES. The action is vintage, and the fact that there's very limited exposure to any of the jedi/force mumbo jumbo is actually fairly refreshing. No real cast standouts to report (although Donnie Yen is great with his Zatoichi riff), but meshed all together, it works, it's tightly paced, well staged, and God, it's goosebump-inducing at all the right times. I also loved the digital superimposing of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher. ***1/2 / ****

I will agree with a lot of this, as I just finally watched Rogue One a week ago. BUT, I thought the CG Cushing and Fisher were horrendous and completely took me out of the movie anytime on screen. Especially the Leia. That was just bad. But overall a fun movie that I am sad was the first SW film I chose to not see in the theater.

[Mairosu]

BABY DRIVER ... so imagine the horror on my face when this film, after a dynamite start, began unraveling. I really liked the first 20 minutes (Bellbotoms & Harlem Shuffle). Then I wanted to like Neat Neat Neat but then it started being...a bit too jazzy-funky for me. And then I figured it out - it's Jamie Foxx. His character is SO OBNOXIOUS that it screwed up the whole film for me at one point - also the musical cues are too out of my reach for the most scenes that he's in. But once Foxx is out of the picture and Hocus Pocus start, the film more than makes up for lost ground. I will confess - I'm more DRIVE than BABY DRIVER kind of guy, but when BABY DRIVER is ON (Bellbottoms, Hocus Pocus, Radar Love and Brighton Rock), it's really, really, really second to none in terms of sheer entertainment. Shame for Foxx. **** / **** for the parts without Jamie, ** / **** for ones with him.

[Mairosu]

BRIGHT ... I will take the liberty to suspect that the most of negative reviews on BRIGHT are the result of an advance smear campaign against Max Landis (who was revealed as one of those Hollywood touchers in the days that followed) - because, Bright really ain't that bad. Hell, it ain't bad after all - it might take you a bit to buy into this alternate reality Los Angeles with elves, orcs and whatnot, but as I noted, it's actually a very decent genre fare, and Joel Edgerton is a hoot in full makeup. The fact it's a Netflix production makes the portrayal of violence quite rough around the edges, which is just to my liking. Easily David Ayer's best film in years, and considering that the production booked a big box office success on the streaming platform, sequel is in plans, so critics be damned. *** / ****

[Mairosu]

VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS ... Valerian is this season's JOHN CARTER - a very, very, very entertaining SF actioner which, for the reasons unbeknownst to me, completely bombed on the BO (sans China where it pulled break even overall) and buried a potentially promising franchise. Valerian is a visual success on every level - Besson really pulled out all stops here, and the film looks beyond gorgeous. Dane Deehan actually succeeds in looking, acting and sounding like Keanu Reeves to the point I had to check if Reeves dubbed over his lines - he is offset by Cara Delevingne who delivers an excellent performance, and Rihanna's glorified cameo is a total treat. You can only trust Besson to deliver something this zany and yet quite engaging at the same time. ***1/2 / ****

[Mairosu]

STAR WARS : ROGUE ONE ... after the unmitigated disaster which was the episode VII I had nothing but low...well, even sub-zero hopes for this spinoff. As it happens, I was treated to possibly the best Star Wars film since ROTJ. To be honest with you - it's Star Wars in name only. Gareth Edwards essentially creates a pastiche of all great war films of old and gives it some Star Wars decor, but this is more, say, DIRTY DOZEN than ATTACK OF THE CLONES. The action is vintage, and the fact that there's very limited exposure to any of the jedi/force mumbo jumbo is actually fairly refreshing. No real cast standouts to report (although Donnie Yen is great with his Zatoichi riff), but meshed all together, it works, it's tightly paced, well staged, and God, it's goosebump-inducing at all the right times. I also loved the digital superimposing of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher. ***1/2 / ****

I will agree with a lot of this, as I just finally watched Rogue One a week ago. BUT, I thought the CG Cushing and Fisher were horrendous and completely took me out of the movie anytime on screen. Especially the Leia. That was just bad. But overall a fun movie that I am sad was the first SW film I chose to not see in the theater.

I am in a distinct minority here.

"Especially Leia"? Her image is just one final shot before the end credits no?

[shiki-jitsu]

"Especially Leia"? Her image is just one final shot before the end credits no?

Yes, but that made the cheesieness of it so much stronger imo.

[DJBenz]

THE FOREIGNER ... this inauspicious title hides one of the best films I've seen recently. When an elderly proprietor of a London-based Chinese restaurant (Jackie Chan in a fantastic role) loses his daughter in a terrorist bombing, he goes all out to find out the perps and punish the vigilante style. Along the way, he engages into a battle of wits with Northern Irish deputy minister (Pierce Brosnan, also tremendous) who has a shady past of his own. Tense, well-shot, and more than anything crazy brutal film, it will keep you on the edge from start to finish. Essential. **** / ****

Top film, and surprisingly deep performance from Jackie Chan (even if it mostly involves him moping about over the death of everyone he loves). Really surprised at how blatantly Pierce Brosnan's character is modelled on Gerry Adams in all but name. Somebody somewhere wanted to point the finger at him and shout "Terrorist!".

[Mairosu]

THE FOREIGNER ... this inauspicious title hides one of the best films I've seen recently. When an elderly proprietor of a London-based Chinese restaurant (Jackie Chan in a fantastic role) loses his daughter in a terrorist bombing, he goes all out to find out the perps and punish the vigilante style. Along the way, he engages into a battle of wits with Northern Irish deputy minister (Pierce Brosnan, also tremendous) who has a shady past of his own. Tense, well-shot, and more than anything crazy brutal film, it will keep you on the edge from start to finish. Essential. **** / ****

Top film, and surprisingly deep performance from Jackie Chan (even if it mostly involves him moping about over the death of everyone he loves). Really surprised at how blatantly Pierce Brosnan's character is modelled on Gerry Adams in all but name. Somebody somewhere wanted to point the finger at him and shout "Terrorist!".

Jackie had a few shots at drama before (most notably HEART OF THE DRAGON and NEW POLICE STORY) but those were half-baked in my opinion, esp. the NPS which was a disappointment.

Brosnan is SO OBVIOUSLY Gerry Adams it's ridiculous - I love the fact they changed the IRA name for the goshdarned film just to make it even more obvious. I also love it how it unflinchingly shows how British dealt with IRA terrorism. I hear the film was banned in NI as well.

[Neon Maniac]

"Especially Leia"? Her image is just one final shot before the end credits no?

Yes, but that made the cheesieness of it so much stronger imo.

Yep.

[Mairosu]

MAYHEM ... MAYHEM is the kind of movie we used to like back in the day. It's part DEMONI, part CRANK, with the added fact it's funnier and better scripted by CRANK. Where CRANK ultimately gets buried in its sheer incompetence despite the interesting premise, MAYHEM simply does not - the leads are likable, the film is crisply paced and never gets boring, and hey, it was shot in Belgrade and has tons of local crew and extras. I sincerely doubt anyone on this forum would dislike this picture. ***1/2 / ****

[Mairosu]

THE BABYSITTER ... see, I really dislike slashers. Especially teen slashers. And I don't like the phony Stranger Things 80s forced nostalgia either. And McG is a total hack. So it took me some time to get in the mood to watch this because, this is essentially a retro teen slasher, or so they market it. Boy, was I ever as wrong as I was here - THE BABYSITTER is a TON of fun. I could go on, but at only 85 minutes, you might just as well take me on my word. The fact that the lead role went to Samara Weaving aka my new crush who also co-stars in the abovementioned MAYHEM helped some, too. Extra half point for BILLY JACK footage and the geeky added graphics during the "big bad tag team" sequences. ***1/2 / ****