In the library of action films, The Old Guard doesn’t really excite and it’s definitely not memorable, but consider it a good-enough entry into Netflix’s ever-expanding library of films you can simply put on the background, or skip to the parts that interest you.
Read MoreShot in Ontario and Newfoundland, Canada, the precise setting is left vague, though we intuit it could be on either side of the American/Canadian border. Other details about the premise are just as sparse: Chris Davis (Mark O’Brien) is smuggling bags of cash across the border.
Read MoreDespite a starry cast and a ripped-from-the-headlines story - which is only now receiving its first big-budget adaptation - the movie never coheres into anything beyond a string of loose sequences. Some of these beats work on their own, but Wasp Network never escapes the feeling that it’s missing huge chunks of material, or choking its main performances.
Read MoreBut it’s not the presence of middle-aged actors in the period combat scenes that smothers the tension in Da 5 Bloods. It’s a list of smaller choices, subtle details that might be chalked up to style but took me out of the experience. Several characters’ deaths seem to share Tropic Thunder’s taste for comedic violence, applied to moments that are pitched as drama. The soundtrack alternates between patriotic orchestral anthems and R&B, though the tracks often don’t match the expected tone of the scene.
Read MoreWhat keeps Trank coming back, however, is his ability to craft some really great scenes. Dark, moody and – at times – self-destructive, it feels like Capone’s material speaks to Trank’s personality and career in a personal way, but much like his other projects, it never quite comes together with an overarching big idea.
Read MoreWe’ve seen both Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon - or rather, the amplified versions of themselves that they play in this series - struggle with satisfaction in their careers, happiness in their romantic relationships, and bonds with their children. Now The Trip to Greece pits Coogan against one the toughest challenges a man of his age could face: the illness of an elderly parent.
Read MoreHowever, where Game Night featured a memorable network of supporting characters and some surprising kinks in the plot, everything (even the leads) in The Lovebirds is noticeably underwritten. Other than the onscreen presence of Nanjiani and Rae, the movie doesn’t give us much else to work with.
Read MoreHe’s powerless from the start, and it’s a dangerous fuel to Jahkor’s pride and short fuse, both of which end up consuming him. The film constantly reminds you about institutionalized racism; “they teach you how to survive, but they don’t teach you how to live” is a common refrain.
Read Moret’s a heavy-handed action film, with each cliché delivered to you hand over fist. When we meet Tyler, he casually jumps off a big cliff and into the water, where he stays submerged. He’s drowning himself with the heavy memories of a troubled past, which the film is all too eager to remind you any time there’s a quiet moment.
Read MoreMy internet research tells me Yang was born in California to parents who emigrated from Taiwan, so it’s not exactly clear if the film is biographical. If it is rooted in real-life experience, then the historical and cultural inconsistencies and inaccuracies are rather odd.
Read MoreLewis is not glimpsed in character for an asphyxiating amount of time. Tollman seems to want to save his reveal like Spielberg teased the shark from Jaws. In the meantime, instead of building a tense cat-and-mouse game between Bram (Platt) and the people protecting Ford, the characters stay in their own bubbles, never crossing paths or ever giving the sense that they’re doing anything to outmaneuver each other.
Read MoreUnlike Cats, we can now look at the main character without skin-crawling existential horror. But in making Sonic look more like he does in the games, it only brings the movie out of the depths of “so bad it’s good” and up to merely “meh”.
Read MoreI had all the ingredients for a brisk, 109-minute ride of joy – a wonderful pastel palette, funny characters, well-choreographed action – but I was also thrown into each and every one of its numerous directions at dizzying speeds, and by the end of it I felt like it was, for the most part, a hit.
Read MoreThe Oscars are once again in the rear-view mirror, so now that the real winners are confirmed, it’s time to take stock. Did the “right” people win? And did the telecast actually deliver a fun experience? We can think of no better antidote for bruised feelings than the second edition of the Kinetoscope Awards, or as we’ve taken to calling them: the Scopies!
Read MoreThere’s still a chance that the Film-Twitter ApprovedTM foreign-language nominee Parasite may act as a dark horse and make history in the Best Picture race, but I’m not putting a huge amount of faith in an Academy that only last year gave the award to Green Book, a (not terrible!) but thoroughly plain choice in a far more accomplished field. With less than one week to go, on to the picks!
Read More
