Tag Archives: Drama

G20 – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Much like the action films of the 1990s, which were a clear inspiration, G20 may hit just about every cliché in its runtime, yet it still gets to be a fun blast.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There are mid-credit scenes.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.

All the world leaders standing together for the group G20 photo.

G20 Review –

My background is in International Relations, and one of the many facets it explores is the strength and use of international organisations. These tend to be contextually quite dull from a Hollywood story perspective, but every now and again, my two worlds collide. Sometimes, these are pretty fascinating choices, like in The Hitman’s Bodyguard, and other times, they can be a confusing mess, like with Rumours. However, today, we are upgrading from the G7 to the G20, and calamity is afoot.  

So, to set the scene, something is very wrong in Washington DC. It is so bad that they must wake Madam President Danielle Sutton (Viola Davis) in the middle of the night. Because her daughter Serena (Marsai Martin) found a new way to get around the Secret Service and escaped the White House to go to a party. Now on her first international trip, President Sutton is on the backfoot domestically and internationally as she arrives in Cape Town, South Africa, to sell the G20 on her plan for a digital currency for farmers. The hotel was meant to be a fortress, but a fortress only protects from external threats. One surgical strike later, and the security becomes terrorists, and now twenty world leaders are hostages.     

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Dead Sea (Flycatcher) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Today, we look at a film that may have foundered at the start and end. It also found itself in the centre when it truly shined.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

A trawler on the ocean.

Dead Sea Review –

Today, we are looking at slightly odd film because usually, when films fall about, it is in the middle. But today’s outing is where the movie shines. This is such an odd juxtaposition, yet it also led to a compelling outing at times.  

So, to set the scene, Kaya Adams (Isabel Gravitt) lives in the Florida Keys, and she has to spend a lot of time looking after her family after her mother passes away. Afraid that Kaya is becoming a recluse, her best friend Tessa Miles (Genneya Walton) sets her up on a double date with Xander (Koa Tom) & Julian (Garrett Wareing) jet skiing all the way to the Bahamas. It was a delightful day until tragedy struck, and Kaya and Tessa were left alone in the ocean with a badly injured Xander. The sea is deep and full of predators, and all help is lost until they see a boat on the horizon. But little did they know that they may have been safer in the water.  

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Locked – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It was a good scenario, but it never felt like they had a good handle on what they wanted to talk about.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

A phone call appears on a car tablet.

Locked Review –

Most films need a hook to get you into the cinemas and part with your hard-earned cash. For me, sometimes that hook is a premise so interesting that you must see how they play it out. Well, Anthony Hopkins traumatising a Skarsgård locked in his car is absolutely one I had to see.  

So, to set the scene, Eddie (Bill Skarsgård) is a crook who is trying to turn his life around for his daughter Sarah (Ashley Cartwright). But the universe is not making it easy for him, and as a deadline looms, he looks to more nefarious ways to make a quick buck. Well, if someone leaves their car unlocked, well they are asking someone to come in and rummage around, and so Eddie does. The only problem is that when he tries to get out, he finds that the car is locked, his mobile can’t get a signal, and suddenly the in-car phone is ringing.

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The Alto Knights – Movie Review

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TL;DR – An interesting experiment that looks back on America’s past, anchored by Robert De Niro’s dual performances. Compelling right up to the point it starts meandering everywhere.    

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Robert De Niro playing two different mobsters.

The Alto Knights Review –

When it comes to mobster films set in and around New York, there are few names as crucial as Robert De Niro. So, when you hear that he is taking not just one lead in a new mob film but pulling double duty as both of the main antagonists, based on a real event, well, that is a scenario that calls for attention.   

So, to set the scene, it is 1957 on the streets of New York City where professional gambler Frank Costello (Robert De Niro) has just arrived home after a charity dinner and is waiting for the lift up to his penthouse apartment when he hears his name called out from behind, and Vincent Gigante (Cosmo Jarvis) promptly shoots him in the head. Frank survives, but he is the boss of bosses, who would put a hit out on him. Well, a rival did not just betray him but the one person he once called a friend, Vito Genovese (Robert De Niro).   

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Black Bag – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Sexy, intriguing, delightful, and also a bit tense. In other words, it is an almost perfect spy film.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

A handgun on a wooden table.

Black Bag Review –

It has been a long time since I have seen a spy film perfectly capture that intrigue, where you, the audience, do not quite know what is going on, yet you are profoundly compelled to find out as the machinations of the story unfolds in front of you. Narratively, that is hard to pull off, especially in the modern era where we have seen most of the story tricks you would use in other films. However, in today’s entry, we find a movie that nails that with class.

So, to set the scene, George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett) look like your normal highly successful power couple, bar one thing: they both work for one of Great Britain’s security services. Kathryn is a renowned field agent, and George is a security specialist whose polygraphs are legendary. They work well together because they know where all the professional boundaries lie. However, this is thrown asunder when a key analyst, Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgård), discovers there are only five people who could have stolen a highly classified weapons program, and one of them is Kathryn. What is George to do? Well, maybe invite every suspect to his house for dinner.   

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Silent Zone – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A serviceable if somewhat frustrating zombie flick that does at least land the moments that count.  

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

Bandits surround our heroes.

Silent Zone Review –

Well, the zombie film is back in vogue, and I am always interested to see how these concepts get translated across the world. Today’s film makes the most of its location work to explore a world that has fallen apart and the people trying to survive it.  

So, to set the scene, at the start of a zombie outbreak, Abby had the misfortune of watching her family get killed and try to turn on her. She would have joined the dead if it was not for a police officer, Cassius (Matt Devere), who killed her reanimated family. Ten years later, society has completely collapsed, and few survivors exist to live out a life of shrinking resources and constant threats of ferals. Abigal (Luca Papp) and Cassius live in the woods, two weeks away from an island of security. But when a scout from a herd finds them, they know time is not on their side.

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Inside Man (Gemini Lounge) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is an interesting character study, but I struggled to connect with any part of the film.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

The perp board.

Inside Man Review –

Today, we are looking at a film that is steeped in tradition even before the ‘based on a true story’ moniker pops up on the screen. In the deep of the 1980s, New York who was full of mobsters, murders, and illicit substances. It has been a fodder for many films, including the one we are looking at today.   

So, to set the scene, we are in Brooklyn, New York, back in 1983 when Bobby Belucci (Emile Hirsch) was a cop at the crossroads. After finding another man with his wife and introducing that man to his fists, he was demoted to the backend of the department and stuck behind a desk. But one drunken night, Bobby gets the chance to change his fate when he saves the mobster Chris Rosenberg (Jake Cannavale), one of Roy Demeo’ (Danny Abeckaser) guys, from a stabbing.

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The Last Journey (Den Sista Resan) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It was a fascinating and emotional film, but I did walk away with a number of questions that did not quite sit right with me.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

An orange car.

The Last Journey Review –

There are some films that you don’t know what you are getting yourself into before you sit down. Today, the fact that this film is called The Last Journey gave me a little guide on where we were going to drive. However, this is one of those films that no matter how prepared you are walking in, you will still be an emotional mess by the end [or in the first five minutes if you are me].

So, to set the scene, back in 2008, Lars Hammar retired from teaching to enter his glorious third age. However, instead of freeing himself to explore the world, Lars has retreated into his lovely armchair from Belgium and seems content to stay there until he passes. Well, his son Filip has decided that it is time to get his father out of whatever funk he has found himself in by taking him on the same journey to the south of France that they used to do every year when they were children. Show him the world from the back of a small orange vintage car and hope that they restart that spark in him. Well, that is the plan. The question is, can they even get out of Sweden?

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Captain America: Brave New World – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is a perfectly serviceable film saved by a strong rapport between the cast and perfectly fine action sequences, but it was aiming for a level it did not have the strength to reach.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is an end-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Celestial Island.

Captain America: Brave New World Review –

There are some films where you walk in with a healthy amount of trepidation, and for me, this was one of them. The Captain America films were always one of the highlights of the MCU for me, with Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier & Captain America: Civil War all scoring high on my best of MCU lists. I even enjoyed The Falcon and The Winter Soldier series, even if it was a bit uneven. But something about the production just felt off, and the need to drop the Red Hand into every trailer made it feel like they didn’t have much else to go with. Having watched it now, I think this was both a fair and, luckily, unfair suggestion.  

So, to set the scene, it has been several years since Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) took over the mantle of Captain America, and while things have been going well, they are about to be tested with the election of Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford) to United States President. We open in as Cap flies a mission in Mexico, recapturing a container captured by mercenaries led by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito). The mission was a success, and Sam, Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) and Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) were invited to the White House to see the Celestial Island Treaty be signed. It was a perfect night right up until Isaiah stood up and tried to kill the president. Chaos erupts, and suddenly, the world is on the brink of war.

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Conclave – Movie Review

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TL;DR – An exquisitely acted and produced film that takes you into a world rarely seen with the weight of a drama but with all the fascination of a political intrigue.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Red Cardinals against white marble columns.

Conclave Review –

It is tough to see honest explorations of faith and religion in modern cinema. When films exploring faith come out of Hollywood, they usually feel like hollow vessels divorced from reality. But then you watch movies that come out of the faith-based industry, and more often than not, you are watching trumped-up emotional blackmail hiding under the frame of faith. So, call me surprised when I sat down to watch Conclave and discovered something different.   

So, to set the scene, the Pope is dead, long live the Pope. If there is ever an organisation that has embraced the pomp and circumstance, it is the Catholic Church, and this happens in death just as much or even more than life. Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), who is Dean of the College of Cardinals, has to convene a conclave to pick the next Pope even though he feels unworthy of the task. However, as cardinals fly in from across the globe, it is clear that there is tension regarding how the Church will move forward. Will it embrace tradition or modernity? Or maybe somewhere in between.

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