(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) - John Wick 3 - Parabellum

Chapter 3. Where this, now trilogy, should close the story of John Wick and his quest for vengeance leaving him to live a life as a retired hitman in the tranquillity he sees fit.  It’s like, after every movie, you reminisce back to how we got here.  How did it all start? His dog was murdered, he avenged it.  His car was stolen, he retrieved it.  The only thing John has a problem getting back, is his retirement, as finding his was back into the underworld of, well…let’s call it, The Hitman Society has proved to cause more harm than good.  Well, more dead bodies by The Babayagga, but we won’t get into that just yet.

In case I haven’t explained why I love these movies properly, I’ll break it down. John Wick is just like an 80’s or 90’s film where, titular hero, John Rambo? John McClane? John Matrix, even? Take on hordes of enemies who are trying to kill him and he survives.  It’s about suspending disbelief where some elements of the movie may seem unrealistic, but you enjoy the ride anyway.  The story might not be Oscar worthy, but you enjoy the ride anyway.  In most recent years, there hasn’t been much movies, if any that recapture the glory decades of such films.  Some over the top violence, one liners and such, other than the ones that are trying too hard.  Some may argue that the Fast and Furious franchise is among them, but that’s family *he says in his best Vin Diesel voice* and his name isn’t John, it’ Dominic.

The John Wick franchise is the 80’s and 90’s action movies, compressed into an up-to-date, stylish romp with lots of imagination trying to be as realistic as possible.  If you can watch a superhero movie which is largely based off of the comics, bar a handful, then you can watch Mr. Wick escape certain death, repeatedly.  I mean, John McClane wouldn’t Die Hard…well, until they ruined the last one in 2012.  Let’s see what the latest instalment will do, if they ever get to it…I hope not, with that Year One premise.

Anyway, back to the movie…

John Wick is now excommunicado losing all access and privileges of the Hitman Society with a huge 14 million bounty on his head after the events of the last movie.  He is literally a dead man walking.  The continental is off limits as well as any friends or allies he once worked with as they are all included in the worldwide broadcast and may want to collect the reward themselves.  John must stay on the run, avoiding death, literally at every corner to seek a meeting with The Elder, the person at the head of the High Table to negotiate some sort of deal.

This movie does not disappoint from the previous movies and if you have made it this far watching the previous two, you are already enjoying the ride.  I feel as though the movies just get better and better as they give you nothing but fight scene after fight scene after fight scene after brutal kills after fight scene after more brutal kills after even more brutal kills, book fight, horse fight, bike fight and if not, ALL kills ending with a headshot or two at the continental, of all places!  The action.  The Visuals.  The comedy.  There are places to nit-pick, if you must, but it doesn’t take away from the film as a whole, because the film’s pacing does not slow down.  Well, apart from the desert scene, but other than that, nearly every scene is soo masterfully done, you may want to frame certain shots.  I didn’t even mention the dog fight, di I?

if you were a fan of the previous movies, I don’t see you coming away from this movie with negative thoughts as they simply expand on what came before and take it that much more further.  The director Chad Stahelski, has only made 3 movies and the previous two were John Wick movies, so he is definitely on a roll.  I’d say that, due to the movie being a ‘Chapter 3’, is an absolute MUST that you see the first two previous movies as they continue from one another and you might just be confused otherwise, because the film expects you to have experienced the previous movies and not even try to hold your hand with any narrative or exposition at all!

Go watch it if you are a John Wick fan! If not, watch it after you see the first 2 at least.

(film review) - X-Men: Days Of Future Past

For me, Bryan Singer destroyed X-Men from the very beginning. From when Wolverine was made center of attention, for me, the X-Men film/franchise was just nonsense. I mean EVERYBODY knows Cyclops IS the leader of the X-Men and although this didn't change in the film, having everything center around Wolverine just didn't sit well with me. This is not to say I didn't enjoy the X-Men films, X-Men and X2, but I made do with what Bryan Singer did with the franchise. With that said, X-Men: The Last Stand could not have been any more of a useless mass of mess and Brett Ratner needs to redeem himself with the new Hercules film with Dwayne Johnson. With X-Men: First Class directed by Matthew Vaughn sliding into the X-Men franchise and somewhat saving it, Bryan Singer had a lot to clear up from the mess he started with (although we dealt with it and accepted it), the diabolical nonsense Brett Ratner did and also tidy up a little of First Class. And just before I start the review, I would like to conclude and reassure you with great news. Bryan Singer DID THE JOB.

Although the characters are all over the place, lets just roll with it.

We are currently in a dystopian future where Sentinel's are targeting and killing Mutants (what they are designed to do) but are also targeting humans. With both humans and mutants being imprisoned if not killed, there are only a few mutants in the world left who are trying to build up a resistance. Professor Xavier (Sir Patrick Stewart) & Magneto (Sir Ian Mckellen) have finally joined forces and work together to try and bring an end to the onslaught of sentinels to try and save mankind.
Accompanied with Storm (Halle Berry) & Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) they come across a bunch of X-Men, Bobby Drake aka Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Peter Rasputin aka Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Warparth, Sunspot, Bishop, Blink & Kitty Pryde who then devise a plan to send Wolverine back to the past to try and stop the creator of the Sentinels, Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), from ever creating to Sentinels in the first place so they can rewrite history and save their future.

As for storylines, nothing out of the ordinary. As for the direction and execution of the film, brilliant. With something being as flawed but acceptable as it was, then to have other people dabble in the franchise and basically mess it up, Bryan Singer did a very good job with trying to tie ALL the loose ends within the franchise and his best at bringing together a story that made actual sense.

When the film was announced with all these Mutants, people along with myself were thinking, "There are too many characters, they won't have enough screen time. Bryan Singer is going to mess this one up too" And rightfully so, we should feel like this, but to add that their were 4 villains in this film and yet, the charcaters served the story well and these characters were used effectively, you'd complete miss the fact that not only Bolivar Trask and the Sentinels are the bad guys here, you'd miss the other two bad guys.

As seen in the trailer, there are some totally great moments. If you had seen the opening battle, with Blink, Colossus, Iceman and 'em, this plays out MUCH better when you watch the film. Brilliantly crafted and excellently executed. Teamwork in tandem. If you have seen the Quicksilver picture of him running on the wall, an excellent if not the actual best scene within the movie. It's like watching the beginning of X2. Bryan Singer DID THE JOB.

If you are used to the sentinels in the comics and cartoons and was put off with the sentinels in this film, trust me, it all makes sense when you watch the film.

Funny in places, serious at times and tension building up as the film climaxes and during certain moments of the film, I can only say, this film is brilliant. If you stay to after the credits at the very end, there is an EXCELLENT clue to the following film's story plot, but with such a neatly crafted and interweaving storyline and very well acted scenes from McAvoy and Fassbender, this film is a definate MUST SEE.

If you ever felt like an X-Men film just didn't cut it or the last couple of X-Men films weren't great and the Wolverine films were also a little sub-parr, than you will definitely enjoy this film. Try not to scrutinise this film too much as there are still a bunch of holes in the script and with a few of the characters, but to still arrive out on top with a very good viewing, you can only congratulate Bryan on his work and hopefully, in the next film X-Men: Apolocypse (so it has been called), hopefully he will do things right this time around...or at least try to and clear up some of the other nonsense plot holes. Maybe, just maybe he could bring in cloning into the storyline. But if that is the case, he would need to bring in Mr. Sinister. How great would that be?