(trailer review) - Crime 101

First of all, sometimes I hate seeing a bunch of familiar actors in a movie. Do not get me wrong, I do like a lot of these actors, but sometimes I wonder, why do you not have up-and-coming actors for movies that the audience do not know of, and not necessarily phase the already established actors out, but to at least bring new actors in, talented ones anyway. I know they do actually do this because how do you think Chris Hemsworth got her? With that said, I know Hollywood is about making money and having bankable talent, so when I saw the thumbnail initially, I wondered, who is in this? That looks like Mark Ruffalo and Halle Berry (as my eyes focused towards the middle of the picture), so I did not even notice Chris Hemsworth really or the actor on the far right. But then, as I was watching the trailer, I found it hella fun to say, "Oh look, it's Hemsworth!" Nice seeing him in something else that isn't Marvel and playing Thor (not like he only does that and is only known for that, I mean he is Captain James T. Kirk's father and he is in other movies such as Extraction for Netflix, and other), but then I saw Halle Berry and my mind instantly went to Swordfish, thinking Hemsworth was in that, ummm, no he wasn't. But then my brain went back to Marvel and was like "Haha, it's Thor, Storm and the Hulk all in one movie", then realised when I saw Barry Keoghan, "Oh and the guy from Saltburn and Eternals!" I couldn't remember his character's name in Marvel, but it was a Marvel "collection" in my head. But as the trailer went on, I thought, this actually might actually be decent.

So the trailer starts off with Chris's character standing around on the roadside and being approached by Halle, who guesses the type of car Chris is waiting for. Later on, she states she is good at reading people. But as the trailer goes on, where it looks like he might be trying to recruit her for heists by assessing high value targets within her business as an insurer, it looks like Mark Ruffalo, (straight off of Task - because he is an officer in that and that looks great, i must see also), is the police officer trying to track these robberies along the I101 freeway and link the robberies to Chris and its a game of cat and mouse where Chris leaves evidence/clues out of habit per job, and Mark is closing in. The exchange in the car near the end is immaculate and reminded me a little bit of the Vulture and Spider-Man conversation in Homecoming. At this point in the movie, does Mark know he has the thief driving him or was that an innocent conversation? I think Mark knows, and it is all very intense. Seeing Corey Hawkins and Nick Nolte is nice, and I hope they have decent roles. When the trailer ended, I was like "THIS, I MUST SEE! Plus, I love the play on words, Crime 101.

(film review) [STREAMING] - 6 Underground

I have a love/hate relationship with Director Michael Bay.  I mean he is the man behind the original Bad Boys movie, Pain & Gain and a very small handful of great movies and a handful of very successful movies that print money that has no real story or plot, but helps catapult Michael to a position where he can make films like this.

To be fair, this is not a TERRIBLE movie, per say, because of actors like Ryan Reynolds, Ben Hardy and Corey Hawkins who hold the film up with decent dialogue on a substandard script and plot.  So for the most part, from what you get in the poster is exactly what you get in the movie, but if you were hoping for something very entertaining, funny, with a good storyline, heart and thought provoking, well...2 out of 5 is only 40% which is, not even passable, but then, you came to the wrong place.  Let me explain.

One (Ryan Reynolds) is a millionaire tech guy who has made millions from his work, but is now declared dead and now operates as a ghost.  A Ghost is someone who can operate anywhere at any time throughout the world to carry out vigilante operations no other teams can.  One is the leader of his team effectively called number one and he has 5 other people who are also known as numbers.  However, when his latest assignment involves the taking down of a dictator, the mission turns out to be more problematic than first thought.

The storyline is waste, if I'm honest.  You just don't care for it. There is no tension.  Just a hollow as hell movie.  However, the action, nothing but action on top of action on top of action and for the most part and that was the only thing I was interested in as it was violent, a little graphic but with cheap gore, blood spilling everywhere and crazy deaths.  Some of the dialogue was great with possibly loads of improvisation from Reynolds as he is definitely the stand out. His character reminded me of the character from The Hitman's Bodyguard and Blade Trinity.

The movie is loud.  The movie is high-octane action.  The movie is very stunning with amazing shots and beautiful locations with very stylised action and cinematography and wardrobe.  It was practically Transformers but with actual humans and no robots as the vibrant colours seemed too bright for modern day life.  Like "who wears that going out?", but the ever so flamboyant Michael and his nonsensical decisions and outlandish slow-motion shots and 360 pans, almost upskirt angled shots.  For the most part, some of these, maybe one or two could be nice, but when it is relentlessly throughout a movie and then to add the unnecessary explosions to it, it just becomes...waste, really.  Like what is the point.  The Fast and Furious Franchise does Michael Bay better than, Michael Bay.  But if this is your thing, go for it.

I wouldn't go cinema for this, I'm glad it's on Netflix.

(trailer review) - 6 Underground

Ugh, Michael Bay.  As annoying as Michael Bay's directing can be at times, the super slow-mo, small bonsai trees spontaneously blowing up in huge explosions to eclipse mountains, the pan-around shot around a character and in some cases, just dead dialogue; upon hearing about this movie for Netflix on a Netflix Budget (new lingo - Netflix Budget), I immediately rolled my eyes because, well I didn't care for it at all.  I like Ryan Reynolds and I loved Pain & Gain and the first Transformers Movie which was good-ish, but the rest got borderline racist among other types of nonsense.  And although the Transformers franchise made money, they were for the most part, simply piss-poor.  A far cry from Bumblebee (not directed by him), Bad Boys & The Rock.  And now it looks like Bad Boys 3 will be in the same vain as Bad Boys 2 than 1 and that's likely because of him, so I hope this new set of directors surprise me.

This trailer though, I'm not going to lie, tickled my fancy.  And although THERE IS a SLOW- MOTION PAN AROUND A CHARACTER shot, I did actually like the trailer a little.  Just a little.  I mean, it looks stylish (as usual).  The scenery looks beautiful and there are some excellently breath-taking shots and we have Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Reynolds is a WIN!!!  Plus, a Special Ops team who are literally the walking dead.  So, I'm hoping for the best really.  In Michael Bay we don't trust, but we hope.

Directed by Michael Bay and Starring Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Peyman Maadi, Adria Arjona & Corey Hawkins,