20170830: Fantasy Review--Gods of Egypt

Name: Gods of Egypt (2016)
IMDb: Gods of Egypt page

Genres: Fantasy.   Country of origin: USA, Australia.

Cast:
Nikolaj Coster-Walder as Horus.  In a sense, there are no other actors in the film.  The movie is about Horus.

Gerald Butler as Set, Geoffrey Rush as Ra, Elodie Yung as Hathor, Bryan Brown as Osirus, Brenton Thwaites as Bek, Courtney Eaton as Zaya, Chadwick Boseman as Thoth, Goran Kleut as Anubis, Rufus Sewell as Urshu, Emma Booth as Nephthys, Ya Ya Deng as Astarte, Abby Lee as Anat.

Directed by: Alex Proyas.  Written by: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless.

Hathor, Horus, Set, Zaya, Bek

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Egypt holds a great celebration for the passing of rule from Osiris, son of Ra, to his son Horus.

Delineation of conflicts:
Horus is the designated heir of Osiris.  Horus' uncle Set does not see it that way.  On the day of succession, Set stages a coup. Osiris is killed, Horus is defeated, blinded, and exiled in short order.

The large majority of the film is about Horus regaining his sight, his strength, his relationship with his grandfather Ra, and rule of Egypt.  Set did not make this easier.

By and large, opposition by other gods is put down.

Resolution: The film begins and ends with epic fights between Set and Horus.

One line summary: War of succession in ancient Egypt.

Anat and Astarte with mounts

Statistics:

Cinematography/SFX: 10/10 Visually striking. Set design was just lovely. The depictions of the afterlife, of Ra's endless fight with Apophis, of the fights of the gods (Ra vs Apophis, Set vs Horus, Set vs Osiris), and the impressive architecture--all were fabulous.

Sound: 9/10 I could understand the dialog, which is a large plus for me.  The atmospheric backgroud music was well recorded.

Acting: 6/10 Gerard Butler, Nikolaj Coster-Walder, Geoffrey Rush, Rufus Sewell, Goran Kleut, and
Chadwick Boseman were excellent, 10/10

On the other hand, Brenton Thwaites and Courtney Eaton were beyond bad.

Screenplay: 8/10 The film held my attention, which most films that contain magic do not.  Much of this was the writing, the rest was the fine acting by the principal actors, which overshadowed the failures of the children.

Final rating: 8/10

20170115: Action Review--Jason Bourne

Name: Jason Bourne (2016)
IMDb: link to Jason Bourne (2016) page

Genres: Action.   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, Tommy Lee Jones as CIA Director Robert Dewey, Alicia Vikander as Heather Lee, Vincent Cassel as Asset, Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons, Riz Ahmed as Kalloor.

Directed by: Paul Greengrass.  Written by: Paul Greengrass, Christopher Rouse.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
1. Ho-hum.  Another Bourne film, unfortunately with Matt Damon, again.  I liked Jeremy Renner's film, which was alive, and thoughtful, and had something to say.  Jason Bourne, though, was just another damned rehash.

2. Jason is clearly lost.  He makes money by bare knuckles fist-fighting.  The CIA is not aware of him.  Of course, the film defeats that 'happy' steady state.  It's just as well: Jason is subject to frequent hallucinations and fits of depression.  He's clearly getting older, slower, and more subject to his own death wishes.

3. The CIA's dumb shit moves early on in the film galvanize Jason, and end up damaging the CIA more than could be expected.  All of this is unnecessary.  Jason should have been left alone, in which case he would have left the CIA alone.

Delineation of conflicts:
The CIA wants Jason dead.  Jason wishes they would leave him alone.  There is nothing new in this third horrible retread of the rather fine first film.  Nicky hopes to get Jason to oppose horrible processes undertaken by the CIA, but Jason is not all that interested, at first.

Resolution: There is none.  In terms of business logic, Damon and co seem to think that more blood can be drawn from this long-dead corpse in yet another sequel to come.  Bringing back Aaron Cross as played by Jeremy Renner would be a breath of fresh air.  More of Damon would just be more swamp gas.

One line summary: Worthless sequel wanted by nobody.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 0/10 Horrible.  Take your fracking shaky vomit cam and shove it back up where it came from.  Bad focusing, bad framing, bad lighting, indifferent ability to focus on subjects.

Sound: 6/10 I can hear the dialog, which is good.  The incidental music is moderately effective in heightening suspense and the sense of threat.

Acting: 0/10 Matt Damon seems to have dropped into 'phone in the performance' mode, like Bruce Willis and Robert De Niro.  After The Martian I expected something better or at least competent.  I don't like Alicia Vikander, I have never liked Alicia Vikander, and never will like Alicia Vikander in any role.

In general I like the performances of Julia Stiles and Tommy Lee Jones, but this boring repeat would defeat the good efforts of any actor.

Screenplay: 0/10 I hate motorcycle chases.  I hate the endless rebirth of Treadstone under different names.  I hate seeing Nicky in jeopardy for no good reason.  I hate this avalanche of cliches and retread ideas.

Final rating: 0/10

20161118: Action Review--Painkillers

Name: Painkillers (2015)
IMDb: link to Painkillers page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Tahmoh Penikett as Major John Cafferty, Erica Durance as Trudy, Leslie-Anne Brandt as Guts, Colm Feore as Dr Troutman, Julia Voth as Masters, Riza Santos as Madeline, Roger Leblanc as Talbott, Travis Friesen as Carlyle.

Directed by: Peter Winther.  Written by: Peter Winther, Kirk Roth, Jason Grace.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
A small group of mercenaries goes on a tough mission.  They wake up in a medical facility, or so it seems.  They remember bits and snatches.  The staff members are supposed to help them recall.

Delineation of conflicts:
Majestic Global Dynamics (the ones impersonating a medical staff) wants an alien power source. The  mercenaries were sent to obtain it. They failed, supposedly, and the search object messed with their memories.  Majestic tries to get them to remember their mission.  Sure.

Resolution: The motives of all involved were questionable.  The betrayals seem endless, but the motivations were largely absent.

One line summary: Shabby amnesia story.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 5/10 There is so much poor CGI to go with the cheap sets.

Sound: 5/10 The dialog recorded fine, but the music seemed mostly discordant with the plot direction.

Acting: 3/10 Pretty poor, except perhaps for Colm Feore.

Screenplay: 1/10 This is a 15 minute story expanded out to 103 minutes.  The 15 minutes was not that good.

Final Rating: 2/10 What was the point of this film?

20161115: Thriller Review--Executive Decision

Name: Executive Decision (1996)
IMDb: link to Executive Decision page

Genres: Thriller   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Kurt Russell as Dr David Grant, Steven Seagal as Lt Colonel Austin Travis, Halle Berry as Jean, John Leguizamo as Captain Rat,  Oliver Platt as Dennis Cahill, Joe Morton as Sgt 'Cappy' Metheny, BD Wong as Sgt Louie, Whip Hubley as Sgt Baker, Len Cariou as Sec Defense Charles White, JT Walsh as Senator Mavros, Marla Maples as Nancy, Richard Riehle as Air Marshall George Edwards.

David Suchet as Nagi Hassan, Andreas Katsulas as El Sayed Jaffa, Robert Apisa as Jean-Paul Demou.

Directed by: Stuart Baird.  Written by: Jim Thomas, John Thomas (screenplay).

Cahill and wounded Cappy with bomb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Col Travis and his team lead a mission to recover a large quantity of DZ-5, a neural poison.  The mission fails.  Travis is nonplussed plus.

David Grant takes the flying lesson before his first solo flight.  He's hesitant, but his instructor talks him through it.

El Jaffa is kidnapped by agents friendly to the US.  Nagi Hassan and Jean Paul Menou execute a plot to force the West to release Jaffa.  With a half dozen or so other terrorists, they skyjack a 747 with Senator Mavros aboard.

Delineation of conflicts:
The terrorists announce their demands.  Intelligence analyst Dr Grant gets the call while at a black tie affair.  Soon he's in a situation room led by the Secretary of Defense.

The terrorists want Jaffa released.  SecDef and his experts devise a plan to use a stealth plane to insert commandos on the skyjacked 747.  Col Travis and his team volunteer as the commandos.  Dennis Cahill readies the stealth plane and the unique boarding tube.  Dr Grant gets dragooned into going with the commandos to identify Hassan.

Just to make things more interesting, the DZ-5 that Col Travis' team did not extricate is on the airliner attached to a sophisticated bomb.

Just when the plan looks like it will succeed with high likelihood, some unexpected harsh conditions break the boarding tube.  Col Travis and the stealth plane are lost.  With the smaller team, with Col Travis lost, with bomb expert Cappy severely injured, Captain Rat takes tactical command, and Dr. Grant drives the effort to learn what they need to learn to find the leader and accomplish the mission.

Flight attendant Jean is assigned by Nagi to keep the passengers as calm as possible.  The commandos made contact with her to get more information.  She manages to help the commandos and to keep the identity of the air marshall secret.

Senator Mavros thinks he can negotiate with the terrorists.  Will that work out?  The president springs El Jaffa, who asks Nagi to call off blowing up the nerve gas.  Does that go as planned?  Well, no.  The bomb with the nerve gas payload is more complicated than first expected.  Can Cappy get the bomb defused using Cahill's hands?

Resolution: Just about everything that could go wrong, does go wrong.  The decimated commando team, however, has more skill and luck than anyone might hope for.

One line summary: Well-crafted skyjacking thriller.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 Nicely shot.

Sound: 8/10 The dialog was clear, and the incidental sound was fine.  Music was not a big plus.

Acting: 10/10 I liked the big cast that had quite a number of good performances.  David Suchet was chilling as the lead villain.  Steven Seagal was just right for his unexpectedly short role.  Kurt Russell gave one of his best performances as a man who was hesitant and scared, but also intelligent, expert, and inventive.

John Leguizamo and BD Wong were excellent as the commandos determined to finish the mission despite the adversity.

Oliver Platt was great as a man delivering beyond his usual skill set and level of courage.  Len Cariou, JT Walsh, Halle Berry, and Joe Morton were solid in smaller roles.

Screenplay: 8/10 The film was 133 minutes in runtime, but did not drag.  The plot moved right along, and had no moments where writing stupidity broke through suspension of disbelief.

Final Rating: 9/10

20161027: Comics Review--Mad Max Fury Road

Name: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
IMDb: link to Mad Max: Fury Road page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: AU, US

Cast:
Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe, John Howard as The People Eater, Richard Carter as The Bullet Farmer, Nicholas Hoult as Nux.

Directed by: George Miller.  Written by: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nick Lathouris (screenplay).

Max, Furiosa

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Max gets caught by a colony (the Citadel) which exists in a desert of heat and nothing.  The colony has water, and produces edible food.  It trades with the Bullet Farm, which has lead and gun technology, and Gas Town, which has petrol and the like.

Imperator Furiosa decides to take a new direction.  She leads a run to Gas Town and the Bullet Farm, but takes five young women capable of breeding with her instead of produce.  She gets off the usual routes.  Her home colony sends warriors against her, and gets reinforcements from the Bullet Farm and Gas Town.

There is a long fight.

Delineation of conflicts:
Furiosa wants the young women to be free and not breeding slaves.  Everyone else disagrees. There is a large scale fight in which perhaps 20% of all the resources of the three towns is destroyed.  Brilliant.  No one cares about that; winning is everything, even if it means cutting your own carotid artery.

Max starts as a portable supply of untainted O-negative blood.  Max would like to free himself of his nightmares; he did not save his wife and child from all this badness.  Max eventually joins Furiosa as a badly treated slave.  He would like to be free.

Furiosa heads into a giant sandstorm and more or less escapes for a while.  The pursuit is far from over.  What will end this nonsensical behaviour?

Resolution: There is change in leadership after many deaths, the loss of much water, petrol, food, and mechanisms that still work.

One line summary: Visually engaging, logically stupid.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 2/10 Ugly, garish, ridiculous.  Absurd camera filters, vile makeup, stupid closeups.  Some of the 3D effects were just plain terrible as well as terribly stupid.

Sound: 2/10 Ugly, garish, pointless, irritating, jarring.  It sucked.  Electric guitars on a road trip?  These stupid sods don't have enough resources for such extended displays of conspicuous waste.

Acting: 2/10 Were there actors?  I read somewhere that Charlize Theron was in this, but she reputedly is a better actor than any of the women I saw in this POS.

Screenplay: 2/10 Pointless absurd dystopian crap.  Much of the fight choreography was too embarrassing to be performed by the Keystone Kops.

The opening is in voiceover with irrelevant inter-titles.  That is always a bad sign.

This whole abomination is set against strong politics of scarcity: water, food, oil, petrol, steel replacement parts for vehicles clearly too old and decrepit to run at all, and medicine, and so on.  Despite this, everywhere the leads go, the local people have enough food, water, gasoline, bullets, and, when needed, brand new motorcycles with just the right equipment. But of course, they do not.  The entire film is infeasible, even though it's not supposed to be a fantasy.

There is practically no dialog in this steaming pile of dung.  What dialog there is entirely stupid.

Final Rating: 2/10 I would recommend this film to no one, unless I wanted their IQ to drop.  I felt disgusted by the director's hatred of reason and of viewers.

Of course, if one is just looking for a popcorn movie, this one is fine.  Many people die.  Huge amounts of precious scarce resources are lost without any goal being achieved.  Brand new hardware shows up out of nowhere (around 15 brand new motorbikes in perfect condition in just one scene).  It's like a sort-of realistic Transformers movie.  That is, it is complete and utter bullshit.

20161016: Action Review--Bourne Identity

Name: Bourne Identity (2002)
IMDb: link to Bourne Identity page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, Franka Potente as Marie Helena Kreutz, Chris Cooper as Alexander Conklin, Brian Cox as Ward Abbott, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Wombasi, Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons, Clive Owen as The Professor, Gabriel Mann as Danny Zorn.

Directed by: Doug Limon.  Written by: Tony Gilroy, W. Blake Herron (screenplay),  Robert Ludlum (book).

Outside Embassy

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
On a rainy night after a card game, Italian fishermen spot a man's body floating in the Mediterranean Sea. They reel him in, attend to his medical needs, and take him to Marseilles.  He has amnesia.  He also has clues: two bullet holes in his back, and an implant that tells him he has an account at a bank in Switzerland.

His safe deposit box proves helpful.  He has passports from various countries under a host of names, lots of currency of different countries, a modern pistol and other odds and ends.

His opening the safe deposit box triggers all sorts of reactions.  His going to the US Embassy does not help, since the Marines and the CIA are now after him, as well as the local police.

Delineation of conflicts:
The CIA wants Jason Bourne (at first just a name on one of his passports) to be dead, or to come in peacefully to their deadly embrace.  The CIA wants him silenced and covered up quickly and completely.

Jason needs to figure out who he is.  Marie is drawn into helping him after he pays her handsomely just to give him a ride to Paris, where one of his aliases lived.

The CIA, lead by Conklin, Jason's former boss, continues to hunt Jason.  Jason continues to unravel his past and evade capture.  Jason wants to know much more.

Resolution: The CIA manages to bury much of the project that Jason was involved in.  Jason figures out why he got shot and why he was floating in the Mediterranean.

One line summary: Best of the Matt Damon versions of Bourne.

Jason and Marie

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Mostly well done, but with some shades of shaky cam.

Sound: 7/10 I could hear the dialog.  Music was a minor asset; the best part was the music over the end credits.

Acting: 7/10 I liked the performances of Franka Potente, Clive Owen, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Julia Stiles.  Matt Damon was a mixed bag, which is much better than usual.

Screenplay: 7/10 Amnesia has been done to death, but this was a well-written take on it.  Bourne discovers all sorts of things about himself due to external situations triggering muscle memories, which was a well used but nice touch.  The scenes where Bourne confronts the people he trusted, the people who tortured him, the people who bamboozled him were discouragingly bad.  This would continue into the next two films unfortunately.  The good parts of the film, which seemed fresh and interesting in 2002, were just copied over in 2004 and 2007.  Those parts (fighting choreography, chase scenes, evasion) were a bit stale in 2004 and off the cliff bad in 2007.  The writing about Bourne's dealings with those who screwed him over were bad at the start (film 1, 2002) and got worse.

Final Rating: 7/10 I watched it again this past week and still liked it.

20161026: Action Review--Bourne Supremacy

Name: Bourne Supremacy (2004)
IMDb: link to Bourne Supremacy page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, Franka Potente as Marie, Joan Allen as Pamela Landy, Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons, Karl Urban as Kirill, Karel Roden as Gretkov, Brian Cox as Ward Abbott, Oksana Akinshina as Irena Nevski, Gabriel Mann as Danny Zorn, Chris Cooper as Conklin.

Directed by: Paul Greengrass.  Written by: Robert Ludlum (novel), Tony Gilroy (screenplay).

Matt Damon

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Pamela Landy is closing in on a mole in Berlin, Germany.  She hopes to identify and capture the mole, and possibly recover some 20 million USD in CIA funds from a past misadventure.  The operation goes awry in a big way, and Pam has some explaining to do.  Fake evidence is left that implicates Jason Bourne.

In Goa, India, Jason Bourne and Marie enjoy a simple life together.  Jason has headaches and nightmares about his Treadstone days.  Marie helps him make some slow progress on making sense of this.  Crashing this idyllic scene is the hitman Kirill, who kills Marie early on.

Delineation of conflicts:
Various CIA elements want to kill Jason to finally close out Treadstone, to get the person responsible for the Berlin mess, and to cover for the CIA official responsible for the lost CIA funds.  Pamela Landy keeps point on the expanded operation.  Nicky Parsons is re-engaged in the matter.

Jason would like to know what is going on.  He would like to find Kirill and dispose of him.  He would like to straighten out his memory of his first (unofficial) assignment in Berlin some years back, involving the botched assassination of the Russian Nevski.

Resolution: The need for secrecy, which seems to justify anything, wins out in several cases.  The need for the exposure of truth gets a couple of victories.

One line summary: Not as good as the first film.

Dream Diary

Statistics:

Cinematography: 6/10 This was a mixed bag.  Much of the film was a treat for the eye.  The claustrophobic rats' nests that were the CIA operations centers were dingy and ugly and off-putting as one might expect.  The film is a chase film, with moments of discovery regularly mixed in.  Sadly, the chase parts were weakened significantly by the shaky cam method.  Screw that misuse of resources.

Sound: 7/10 I could hear the dialog.  The music was occasionally (like the closing credits) engaging.

Acting: 5/10 I enjoyed the performances of Joan Allen, Karl Urban, Brian Cox, Franka Potente, and several of the actors with smaller roles.

Unfortunately, Matt Damon was in the film, and his character was its center.  The fight scenes were well done, but were nothing new over the first film.  As with many of Damon's performances, his wooden lack of affect was not interesting.  Rather, it forcefully demonstrates his inability to show any inner life in his character, Jason Bourne.

Screenplay: 8/10 This was a great story.  However, the film is badly weakened by the choice of lead actor and by the shaky cam trash footage.

Final Rating: 6/10 Although I liked the screenplay, I thought the divergence from the books was a serious mistake.

20161026: Action Review--Bourne Ultimatum

Name: Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
IMDb: link to Bourne Ultimatum page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, Joan Allen as Pamela Landy, Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons, David Strathairn as Noah Vosen, Scott Glenn as Ezra Kramer, Paddy Considine as Simon Ross, Edgar Ramirez as Paz, Albert Finney as Dr Albert Hirsch, Joey Ansah as Desh Bouksani, Colin Stinton as Neal Daniels.

Directed by: Paul Greengrass.  Written by: Tony Gilroy, Scott Z Burns, George Nolfi (screenplay), from the books by Robert Ludlum.

Jason Bourne, Nicky Parsons

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
In London, UK, reporter Simon Ross hopes to expose Operation Blackbriar, considered an upgrade to Project Treadstone.  Unfortunately for Ross, both the CIA and Jason Bourne catch wind of this.

Bourne tries to protect Ross, but the CIA murders Ross.  The CIA sets about to find Bourne and Ross' source.  The CIA brings in Pamela Landy and Nicky Parsons, who have previous experience with Bourne.

Delineation of conflicts:
People with weapons are chasing Bourne.  He wants to get away.  They want to catch him or kill him.

Resolution: Can Jason find something that will get the bastards off his tail?

One line summary: Worst of the Bourne films.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 0/10 Endless shit.  The shaky cam never ended, and the editing was extremely choppy.

Sound: 4/10 I could hear the dialog.  The music over the end credits was good, but mostly useless during the film.

Acting: 4/10 I liked the performances of Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, and Scott Glenn.

However, Matt Damon was in the film, which was a huge downside force.  His action sequences were believable about half the time.  His mind swamp of angst was a bad cross of irritating and boring.  His transformation from fighting superman to quivering spineless whipping boy for the likes of Dr Hirsch was just nauseating, and seemed to have little or nothing to do with the rest of the film.  So who cares?

Screenplay: 2/10 It's a chase film.  Again, who cares?  The delineation of conflicts section above was the shortest I've ever written.  What did it add beyond the second film?  Answer: ridiculous chase footage, fight scenes we've already watched, more angst nonsense, and some terrible film work.

Final Rating: 3/10 Unneeded pile of nonsense.

20161026: Action Review--Bourne Legacy

Name: Bourne Legacy (2012)
IMDb: link to the Bourne Legacy page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross (Outcome #5), Rachel Weisz as Dr Marta Shearing, Scott Glenn as Ezra Kramer, Stacy Keach as Adm Mark Turso, Edward Norton as Eric Byer, Michael Chernus as Arthur Ingram, Corey Stoll as Zev Vendel, Donna Murphy as Dita Mandy, Dennis Boutsikaris as Terrence Ward.

Oscar Isaac as Outcome #3, Albert Finney as Dr Albert Hirsch, Louis Ozawa Changchien as LARX #3, Joan Allen as Pamela Landy, and David Strathairn as Noah Vosen.

Directed by: Tony Gilroy.  Written by: Tony Gilroy, Dan Gilroy (screenplay),  inspired by Robert Ludlum (books).

Dr Shearing, Aaron Cross

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Aaron Cross walks through rough northern Alaskan landscape to a safe house.  He gets to know his fellow member of the Outcome program, #3, before he treks off to his next destination.  Aaron has been out in the cold for so long that he is short of the medical supplies that the Outcome program uses to keep him in fine fighting shape.

About the same time, large structural breakage has occurred because of the information made public by Jason Bourne and Pamela Landy.  The powers that be decide to shut down the programs Treadstone, Blackbriar, and Outcome programs for creating superb warrior agents.  To complete the job, these powers authorize the murders of all the agents.

Those murders include Outcome agents, in particular #3 and #5 (Aaron).  Beyond that, many of the scientists who do research and monitor agents end up dead.  This almost includes Dr Shearing, but not quite.

Delineation of conflicts:
Aaron escapes the first murder attempt.  He regroups, knowing that his bosses are no longer his allies. He needs to find a new source for the chemicals that keep him whole.

Rachel would like to stay alive; the powers that be think she knows too much to live.  Aaron connects with Rachel and presses her to help him find his chemical boost.  Aaron and Rachel attempt to free Aaron from his chemical dependency, and attempt to get clear of the murderous pursuit.

The powers that be press hard to kill any and all who know too much or disgrace those with public personas, such as Pamela Landy.

Resolution: Both sides get partial success.

One line summary: Best installment of the Bourne series.

Three of the murdering bastards.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 Often spectacular, occasionally grainy.

Sound: 8/10 I could hear the dialog.  The music over the closing credits was excellent.  For most of the film, the background music was useless.

Acting: 7/10 I liked the performances of Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Scott Glenn, Oscar Isaac, Dennis Boutsikaris, and Stacy Keach. However, the presence of the always disappointing Edward Norton and ever useless Corey Stoll almost ruined that for me.

Screenplay: 8/10 Rather good, better than the first three Bourne films.  The story moved right along, and motivations were mostly clear.  Normally I would rate this as 9 or 10, but the repulsive acting of Norton and Stoll blunted the clarity of the narrative.

Final Rating: 8/10

20161004: Action Review--Skinwalkers

Name: Skinwalkers (2006)
IMDb: link to Skinwalkers page

Genres: Action, Fantasy, thriller   Country of origin: Canada.

Cast:
Jason Behr as Varek/Caleb Talbot, Elias Koteas as Jonas Talbot, Rhona Mitra as Rachel Talbot, Natassia Malthe as Sonja, Kim Coates as Zo, Sarah Carter as Katherine, Matthew Knight as Timothy Talbot, Barbara Gordon as Nana, Tom Jackson as Will.

Directed by: James Isaac.  Written by: James DeMonaco, Todd Harthan.

Rhona Mitra

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Young Tim starts a walk through town with his tall, alert Nana.  In parallel, some biker thugs ride toward town.  Two or so minutes later, everyone in the town and all the invaders are in full-on deadly combat.

The invading murderers claim loudly, "We just want the boy."  Everyone in town would like to live, but each of them is willing to die to protect Tim, especially if they can kill the damned bikers first.

Delineation of conflicts:
The bullet-ridden dialectic reaches an impasse which enables a bit of narration.  The local werewolf (skinwalker) population has been present for quite some time, but it has become divided and polarized. There is a prophecy that a hybrid (Tim) will be born.  There will be three nights in which the blood moon will shine near the thirteenth birthday of the boy.  On the midnight of the third such night, the power of the hybrid will be manifest.

That power is the ability to end the curse that werewolves suffer.

Some of the werewolves embrace the power and bloodlust that the curse brings.  They want the boy dead.  The other faction cherishes their humanity, and wishes the hybrid to survive, to flourish, and to completely fulfill his destiny.

Resolution: Much of the prophecy is fulfilled while each of the two factions quite effectively reduce the numbers of the opposite side.  As the witching hour draws nigh, secrets are revealed and the plot moves forward from one last minute fight to the next.

One line summary: Not your typical werewolf elimination derby.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 7/10 This is a good-looking film, especially the daylight shots.  The dark inside and night time shooting was better than most in this genre.  The skinwalker masks were pretty poor, though, and there was a lot of werewolf footage.

Sound: 8/10 No particular problems.

Acting: 8/10 Rhona Mitra, Tom Jackson, Elias Koteas, and Barbara Gordon gave fine performances. I never expect much from child actors, but Matthew Knight was pretty good.  Jason Behr was better than I thought he would be.

Screenplay: 7/10 Daybreakers (2009) owes the current film for some of its concepts.  Daybreakers had a bigger budget, a more highly regarded cast, and a more detailed script.  Daybreakers was more on the science side of fantasy, while Skinwalkers was more in the traditional fantasy horror side.

In any case, I liked the film's energy, its nice combination of plot elements, and its ending.  Right up until the finish, I thought this was one of the usual bloody 'kill them all' movie.

Final Rating: 7/10

20160905: Thriller Review--Silver Streak

Name: Silver Streak (1976)
IMDb: link to Silver Streak page

Genres: Action, Thriller, Crime  Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Gene Wilder as George Caldwell, Richard Pryor as Grover Muldoon, Jill Clayburgh as Hildegard ('Hilly') Burns, Scatman Crothers as Ralston, Ned Beatty as Bob Sweet, Ray Walston as Mr Whiney, Patrick McGoohan as Roger Devereaux, Clifton James as Sheriff Chauncey, Richard Kiel as Reace.

Directed by: Arthur Hiller.  Written by: Colin Higgins.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
George Caldwell (publishing) and Hilly Burns (secretary to an art historian) meet on a train trip from Los Angeles to Chicago aboard the train called the Silver Streak.  They get along swimmingly. Unfortunately, through their cabin window, George sees a dead body dropped off the train.

Delineation of conflicts:
The body was that of Hilly's boss.  When George inquires about the boss, he gets thrown off the train while it's still moving.  By luck, he catches up with the Silver Streak, and gets back on.  The rest of the film is about George trying to stay alive, to find out just what happened, and to set things right if he can.

Hilly seems to be involved.  Bob Sweet tells George about Roger Devereaux, whose 'chauffeur' Reace threw George off the train.  When George confronts Hilly and Roger about the matter, Roger has a feasible explanation.  Even better, the art professor himself shows up.  Or does he?

George gets a bit tipsy, and tells Bob Sweet about the matter.  George is confused and needs someone to talk to, after all.  So, will George be able to pass off the dead body sighting as just a drunken misperception, or will the truth win out?

Resolution: Just about the time you think you've got the film figured out, Richard Pryor's character shows up and changes everything.  The film moves to a satisfying conclusion.

One line summary: Murder mystery with Wilder & Pryor.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 Among other things, this is a travel film.  The shots of the countryside from LA to Chicago are pretty nice.  The interiors are clear, well-lit, and well-focused.

Sound: 8/10 The dialog was easy to follow.  The music was typical 1970s fare.  Some of it was a bit too florid and orchestral for my taste.  Other parts were made with those old style synthesizers which sound primitive these days.

Acting: 9/10 Gene Wilder carries the show for the first 60% or so, and did a good job as the lead.  Jill Clayburgh was good in a limited role as the secretary who knew just a bit too much.  Ned Beatty's short stint was good.  Patrick McGoohan delivered urbane menace quite well, and Ray Walston was a good grumpy henchman.  When Richard Pryor entered the fray, the afterburners kicked in.

Screenplay: 9/10 The film was engaging from beginning to end, with a few laughs thrown in.

Final Rating: 9/10 Excellent.  Nice script, good execution by the cast.

20160831: Action Review--The Gunman

Name: The Gunman (2015)
IMDb: link to The Gunman page

Genres: Action, mystery, thriller, crime.   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Sean Penn as Jim Terrier, Idris Elba as Barnes, Jasmine Trinca as Annie, Javier Bardem as Felix, Ray Winstone as Stanley, Mark Rylance as Cox.

Directed by: Pierre Morel.  Written by: Jean-Patrick Manchette (novel), Don MacPherson (screenplay).

Image courtesy of TMDb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Terrier worked in the Congo in 2006 during their civil war as a mercenary.   His speciality is assassination, and he kills the minister of mines.  Minister of mines is a key position, due to the Congo's mineral wealth.  Terrier's being tasked with this shows his level of trust with whomever is paying him.  Jim is having an affair with Annie, who is a doctor who does humanitarian work.  Felix is in love with Annie, which she does not reciprocate at the time.

Delineation of conflicts:
Eight years later, Jim is back in the Congo, again working in parallel with a humanitarian agency, but not as an assassin.  However, someone holds a grudge, and makes an attempt on his life.  Their agents are charged with providing proof of death.  Terrier intends to keep living.  In order to do that, he needs to know the motivations of whoever wants to kill him. His adversary has no intention of that happening, so the mystery/thriller action ensues.

Terrier leaves Congo for London to confer with his former colleague Cox.  He asks about the complete list of those who knew about the assassination.  This is the springboard for the rest of the film's plot: find the true players and ask them what's what.

Just to make things more interesting, Jim's past war injuries have had a cumulative effect.  He has memory loss and passes out now and them.  Can he keep it together long enough to sort this out?

Jim's first stop is Barcelona, the last known of Felix, his first real target.  However, Felix just might have his own agenda here.

Resolution: Jim finds out some of what he needs to know, but will he find out enough?

One line summary: Sean Penn as an action hero.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 7/10 Not all that good.

Sound: 8/10 Dialog is clear.  Music is subdued but appropriate.

Acting: 7/10 Mark Rylance was fine as I expected.  Ray Winstone was an asset. Sean Penn was in good form.  Javier Bardem disappointed as usual.  The overused Idris Elba was better than I expected in a small role.  Jasmine Trinca was OK for what the script gave her to work with.

Screenplay: 6/10 Violence and threat moves the plot along, so the 115 minutes runtime does not drag. The romantic angle was bleak and sad, but did resolve somewhat well.  I'm glad I saw the film, but would not watch it again.  Checking against Box Office Mojo and IMDb, it took in 11 million domestically, against 40 million production costs, so the chances for a sequel are slim.

At the end of the film, I felt that I should have been happier for the protagonist, but just could not be.  I felt this to be a major failing of the film.

Final Rating: 7/10 I liked it better than most people did, but I would be hard pressed to say, 'you must see this one.'

20160812: SciFi Review--Sharknado 4

Name: Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens (2016)
IMDb: link to Sharknado 4 page

Genres: Action, SciFi   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Ian Ziering as Fin Shepard, Tara Reid as April Wexler, David Hasselhoff as Colonel Gilbert Shepard, Masiela Lusha as Gemini, Cody Linley as Matt Shepard, Imani Hakim as Gabrielle, Ryan Newman as Claudia Shepard, Tommy Davidson as Aston Reynolds, Gary Busey as Wilford Wexler, Al Roker as himself, plus many others.

Directed by: Anthony C. Ferrante.  Written by: Thunder Levin.

Image courtesy of TMDb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Aston Reynolds has made a fortune building installations that prevent the formation of sharknados. Five years have gone by since Sharknado 3, and a new series of variations on sharknado form.  Fin's father, the Colonel, has been rescued from the Moon, and Fin's wife, April, has been revived and rebuilt as a cyborg.

Delineation of conflicts:
The sharks are hungry and are coming in several shapes and forms in several locations about the connected United States.  The majority of humans have no defense whatsoever against this.  Fin and his family attempt to fend off the sharks and help Aston stop the sharknado formation.

Resolution: Seriously?  If they can bring back April, they can do whatever they want for future Sharknado films.  The precedent has been set.  Nothing is ever finished here.

One line summary: Fin Shepard and family fight sharknados again.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 4/10 Natural photography without shaky cams: rather nice.  SFX: beyond cheesy, beyond rotten, just terrible, and there was a lot of it.

Sound: 5/10 OK, but nothing to brag about.

Acting: (-2)/10 There was no acting, except perhaps by Al Roker.  Gary Busey looked like he needed life support for this one.

Screenplay: (-1)/10 Hacksaws were the artistic motif.  Illogic reigned over everything.  This was one continuous downpour of bullshit.

Final Rating: 0/10 The Asylum at its worst, perhaps redefining the limits of bad.

20160812: Action Review--Atomic Shark

Name: Atomic Shark (2016)
IMDb: link to Atomic Shark page

Genres: Action, SciFi   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Rachele Brooke Smith as Gina, Jeff Fahey as Rottger, David Faustino as Fletcher, and so on.

Directed by: A. B. Stone.  Written by: Scott Foy, Griff Furst.

Image courtesy of TMDb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
At a Southern California beach, Rottger rents out his speed boat for water skiers.  While doing this, the skier is eaten by a red glowing shark.  Rottger reports this to the beach patrol, but is ignored.

On the beach, there are lifeguards (led by a total jackass), the environmentalists, the voyeurs, plus the normal folk.   Gina is Rottger's daughter, one of the lifeguards, and a so-so student of the environment.  She draws her boss' disapproval by insisting that there is a shark problem.

Delineation of conflicts:
The sharks would like to kill and eat the humans.  The environmental group would like the radioactive waste in a sunken submarine to be cleaned up.

As the incidents mount, the drone flyer, the environmentalists, Rottger, and Gina band together to take the issue to the source of the mutated sharks.  The sharks do not take it lying down.

The millennials want selfies every so many minutes, so there is the war with the WiFi.

Resolution: Depends on whether the WiFi works out at sea to coordinate the attack using tablets.

One line summary: Radioactive mutant sharks vs environmental students in SoCal.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 6/10 Bright, well-focused, reasonably framed for natural, outdoor, daytime shooting.  The CGI was frequently unconvincing.

Sound: 7/10 No particular problems.

Acting: 4/10 Jeff Fahey was about as good as he could get given the rotten screenplay.  Other than Jeff, the other actors were between mighty poor and abysmal.

Screenplay: 1/10 Gods of all stars, save me from this crap! The script was just terrible.  This is one of the worst efforts I've seen through Syfy, which is saying a lot.  There were shark movie cliches, beach cliches, stupid boss cliches, radioactivity cliches, and father-daughter cliches.  Add in stereotypical views of millennials, the necessity of WiFi, and the 'ability' of sharks to do just about anything.

Final Rating: 3/10

20160811: Action Review--Ice Sharks

Name: Ice Sharks (2016)
IMDb: link to Ice Sharks page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Edward DeRuiter as David, Jenna Parker as Tracy, Kaiwi Lyman Mersereau as Michael, Clarissa Thibeaux as Alex, Travis Lincoln Cox as Sammy, Mia Danielle as Val.

Written and directed by: Emile Edwin Smith.

image courtesy of TMDb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
A group of young (25-35-ish) scientists study warming patterns in the Arctic icepack.  A nearby Norwegian camp has been losing hunters in the last month or so.  Some of the underwater warming patterns seem alarming, so Sammy is sent out to check the sensors.

Delineation of conflicts:
The sharks would like to kill and eat the humans.  The humans would like to survive.  The sharks show behavior similar to teamwork.  For instance, the sharks manage to sink the station since the ice underneath it is so much thinner than it has been historically. The humans exhibit cleverness and bravery in countering the effects of the shark attacks on the station.  They seal out the sharks and get a new oxygen source while underwater.  Will they hold off the sharks long enough for help to arrive?

Resolution: The results were sad, but not as bleak as in most elimination derbies.

One line summary: Sharks vs environmental scientists in the Arctic.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 5/10 Where it was not shaky cam, it was good.  However, much of the SFX were truly, deeply, POS bad.  For instance, the model of the station was shabbily obvious for all too many minutes, rather like bad 1950s creature features.

Sound: 8/10 No particular problems.

Acting: 7/10 Some of it was a bit wooden.  On the other hand, the team showed courage and intelligence in the face of adversity.  The usual acting in such a film is to scream a lot, then do something extremely stupid.  This group was definitely better than that, which takes more acting skill.

Screenplay: 7/10 Unlike in a typical teen elimination derby, the somewhat older group in this film cooperated and had several small victories.  This did not compensate entirely against the depredations of the sharks, but it made for a better film.  There were adults present, and the adults wisely called mayday early on, which was a partially saving grace for the group.

Final Rating: 7/10 Yes, I must be in a generous mood, but this is the best Asylum film I've seen so far.

20160808: Action Review--IP Man

Name: IP Man (2008)
IMDb: link to IP Man page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: Hong Kong.

Cast:
Donnie Yen as Ip Man, Simon Yam as Quan, Lynn Hung as Cheung, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi as (Japanese) General Miura, Ka Tung Lam as Li, Sui-Wong Fan as Jin, Xing Yu as Lin, Tenma Shibuya as Colonel Sato (Miura's aide).

Directed by: Wilson Yip.  Written by: Edmond Wong, Siu-Wong Fan.

image courtesy of TMDb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
The town of Foshan, China in 1935 hosts many martial arts schools.  IP Man is a master of Wing Chun style.  He has a wide reputation which attracts challengers.  He is a man of significant wealth and reputation with a wife and young son.

In 1937, however, the Japanese invasion extended to the region where IP Man lives, including in particular Foshan.  The Japanese military commandeered IP Man's house and ejected him.  Now he is broke.  The Japanese destroyed much of the local manufacturing base, rendering the whole area poor.

Delineation of conflicts:
The local Chinese would like the Japanese to leave; the Japanese clearly intend to stay. The occupying force recruits Chinese masters to fight for rice.  General Miura is quite the expert, and likes to beat the hell out of the locals, three at a time.

IP Man will not participate at first, but a number of deaths draw him out.  He makes a few statements in Miura's tournaments, but what can he do about the situation as a whole?

Quan, a want-to-be rival of IP Man before the war, becomes the boss of a robber gang after the war begins.  IP Man helps defend workers against their extortion by training and personal protection.  Will IP Man be able to help the workers sufficiently to defend themselves?

Will the IP Man confront General Miura directly?

Resolution: We find out.

One line summary: Locals vs Japanese in late 1930s China.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Uniformly well-done though not spectacular.

Sound: 8/10 I used the subtitles, but the voices were clear enough for the dialog.  The music was easy enough to hear, well executed, but a bit understated and florid at times.

Acting: 7/10 Donnie Yen was fine as IP Man, as was Hiroyuki Ikeuchi as General Miura, Ka Tung Lam as Li (the poor bastard who chose to interface with Miura), and Simon Yam as Quan.

Screenplay: 8/10  The story moves along, and the motivations are clear enough.  The build up to the final fight between Miura and IP Man was rather good, and the fight was spectacular.

Final Rating: 8/10

20160720: Action Review--The Good The Bad The Weird

Name: The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008)
IMDb: link to The Good The Bad The Weird page

image courtesy of The Movie Database (TMDb)

Genres: Action, Crime, Comedy   Country of origin: South Korea

Cast:
Jung Woo-Sung as Park Do-won (the Good), Lee Byung-hun as Park Chang-yi (the Bad), Kang-ho Song as Yoon Tae-goo (the Weird).

Directed by: Kim Jee-woon.  Written by: Kim Jee-woon, Min-suk Kim.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
This motion picture is set in 1930s Manchuria, traditionally part of China, but occupied by Japanese armed forces at the time.  The three protagonists are Koreans who have some connection to Korean independence, however weak this connection might be.  The Good is a bounty hunter of considerable skill and experience.  The Bad is a gang leader capable of endless (and often fortuitous) violence.  The Weird appears to be a bumbling bandit who succeeds only by serendipity.

Like a typical James Bond film, the opening is a manic short in its own right, followed by a calmer, longer, deeper depiction of the issues hinted at in the short.  In this case, the film opens at the home of a rich Chinese man, who has an obligation to a man in the Japanese power structure.  The map is sent to even things up.  However, the Chinese fellow hires The Bad to steal the map back.  We jump forward in time to a speeding train.

The Weird decides to rob the train, and starts his robbery slightly ahead of The Bad.  By accident, he finds the train car with the Japanese delegation who have the map, plus various other valuables.  While rifling through luggage, the Weird barely gets to the map when The Bad's gang engages the train with its full attack.

Just about every train robbery cliche follows, as does the arrival of The Good.  The Weird gets away from The Good and The Bad, which sets up the rest of the film.

Delineation of conflicts:
The film is about the map.  It begins with the map, and ends with the map.  Everything in between is about the pursuit and acquisition of the map, plus finding the map's destination.  There is some value attached to the map, since the Japanese army wants it, as do monied interests in China and Japan, as well as bandit gangs and freelance thieves.

The Good and The Bad follow The Weird.  Alliances come and go.  Betrayals arise and damage is taken.

Resolution: The dialectic of conflicts ends late in the film.

The end sequence runs like the Keystone Kops set in the desert, only with one thousand times better production values.  The three protagonists outrun, outgun, or evade other gangs, Japanese army elements, and each other until only the three are left.  They find their target in the map, then they deal with each other.

One line summary: Fine western film set in 1930s Manchuria.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent camera work, whether it be vast expanses of desert, tight shots of fights in cityscapes, horses versus motorcycles, moving trains, or quiet interviews in a wealthy man's opulent house.

Sound: 6/10 Dialog was in Korean, Mandarin, and Japanese.  I relied on the sub-titles.  Musical accompaniment was appropriate, but not quite the asset it might have been.

Acting: 9/10 The three lead actors were quite engaging.  They (or their doubles) show considerable athletic skill, plus fine weapons expertise.  Several segments were done at breakneck speeds, and everyone seemed up to the task.  Quiet interpersonal scenes were done well.

Screenplay: 8/10 This could be considered an alternate take on the iconic film The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966).  There were parallels, but this is a very Asian film.  At 130 minutes, the film is a bit long, but the humour and the action make the minutes melt away.

Final Rating: 8/10