Category Archives: Action

Avengers: Endgame

Leave a reply

Avengers: Endgame                        4 stars

Avengers: Endgame picks up where Avengers: Infinity War left off with the defeat of the Avengers at the hands of supervillain Thanos (Josh Brolin) leaving many of the heroes turned to dust along with half of all living creatures. Earth has been left a shell of its former self with many of the remaining Avengers: Tony Stark/Ironman (Robert Downey, Jr.); Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo); Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans); Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson); Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) struggling to adapt to bleak prospects without so many of their companions and family. Then five years later Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) suddenly reappears from the past giving the heroes the idea of time traveling to the past, collecting the six Infinity Stones from before the tragedy and bringing everybody back to life. Any story involving time travel and superpowers is going to be mind bending, but the overall premise seems to work in this culmination of the Avengers story that was started back in 2008 with Ironman. The movie is certainly bloated with too many characters and an over long at a three-hour running time. But it has plenty to offer with memorable scenes (like Tony Stark meeting his long gone father), comic relief (especially from fat, alcoholic Thor and Smart Hulk) and of course all that action with our heroes battling the evil Thanos and his army of bizarre creatures. With so many characters it is inevitable that many of the cast are reduced to just cameo appearances displaying brief acts of heroism. (There’s Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olson) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to name a few.) I hope it is not a spoiler to suggest that events in the movie would tend to rule out additional Avengers movies, but we shall see. Even though I have not seen anything close to all of the movies of the series, I think the latest film should be satisfying to the devoted fans of the franchise.

Shadow in the Cloud

Leave a reply

Shadow in the Cloud                       4 stars

In this year’s Shadow in the Cloud we follow a young female pilot, Maude (Chloe Grace Moretz) on a secret mission on a World War II B-17 bomber out of New Zealand. This is without a doubt the best B-movie of the year so far. You can tell it’s a B-movie at the outset by the seventies style rock music so you know you are in for a treat. Maude is a last minute passenger on the mission and the all male crew is not at all happy about it, as they berate her with sexist language and force her to ride in the Sperry turret in the belly of the plane, the only place where there is room. We soon see that she can handle herself well in the aircraft as she maneuvers the turret, and fires the machine gun at approaching enemy aircraft. Then there is the matter of an actual gremlin on the outside of the plane who is determined to rip it apart and kill everyone inside. For much of the movie we only see Maude in the turret as she must content with the abusive crew, enemy planes and the destructive creature. After we see the premise of the movie, things only get more intense as Maude performs incredible stunts with determination to stay alive and defeat both monster and Jap fighters with actions that only get more and more preposterous. Like any good B-movie the audience must take it all in stride and just go along for the action. Moretz is very convincing in the role making us believe she is a 40’s star who can dish it out better than she gets. Shadow in the Cloud is the best B-movie I’ve seen since 2018’s Revenge, also a movie where the female lead must take command of life-threatening situations with implausible results. The movie is available on Hulu and is recommended for all action movie lovers!

Mulan

Mulan                4 stars

Disney gives its live treatment to another of their classic animated films in Mulan, with director Niko Caro of Whale Rider and The Zookeeper’s Wife, bringing us the story of Mulan, the young Chinese girl (played by Yifei Liu) who feels called to join the emperor’s army as a man to help fight off an invader determined to kill the emperor (a royal looking Jet Li). The story, based on a Chinese legend, is much the same as the 1998 animated movie but there are no musical numbers nor is there the small comical dragon, Mushu to provide comic relief. But we do get very colorful scenes showing Mulan’s village, the emperor’s palace and the natural expanse of China. There are plenty of action sequences featuring Mulan, the soldiers and the battles with the enemy and Bori Khan, the rebel leader (Jason Scott Lee). Khan is aided by a shape shifting sorceress (Gong Li) who can transform into an animal or impersonate another human with dire consequences. Since the movie is done with live actors it asks a lot of the viewer to believe that Mulan looks like a boy to the other characters, unlike the animated version. The strength of the movie is the story and the action sequences that are almost but not quite at the level of a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Liu’s acting also aids the personal moments of her character, though that is not the main focus of the movie. The violent battle scenes may make it not so suitable for very young viewers, but it is mostly bloodless battles that do leave quite a few casualties. Some of the soldiers of Mulan’s unit provide the comedic moments of the movie. I definitely liked the movie better than most of the audience reviewers seemed to. Some people must have wanted the musical animated version again. Mulan earned Academy Award nominations in Visual Effects and Costume Design. It was released during the height of the pandemic so it never got a theatrical release and could only be seen on streaming services. I recommend it for action fans and for fans of artistic movies.

Jungle Cruise

Jungle Cruise      2 ½ stars

It’s back to the world of Disney once again, this time with Disney’s latest movie based on a Disney theme park ride. Jungle Cruise takes us on an adventure in the Brazilian jungle with Dwayne Johnson as a wisecracking scallywag named Frank who operates a river boat ride on the Amazon for rich tourists. Johnson is his usual charming self that we have grown so accustomed to in his roles. Like many Disney adventure movies there is a lot of background involving old legends and villains that this time brings a wealthy adventurous woman, Lily Houghton (a very self-assured Emily Blunt) and her brother, MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) from 1916 England to the Amazon in search of the petals of a legendary Tree of Life that is reputed to have mysterious healing powers. She of course hires Frank to take the pair deep into the jungle in search of famed flowers, but they are pursued by a reanimated 400 year old Spanish Conquistador? as well as an evil German Saxon Prince (Jesse Plemons) and his U-boat who are all interested in the same tree for their own reasons. This is all we need for two hours plus of action and conflicts between the various factions interspersed with Frank’s corny one-liners that will have you begging him to stop! There is danger to be had from vicious animals and fish and a primitive jungle tribe just like in the Disney ride. Then there is the ongoing joke of Frank referring to Lily as “Pants” since she insists on wearing trousers, something unheard of in 1916. The movie is reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean with an equal amount of action and supernatural beings that are always returning for more. By the time the movie was over I thought I had seen multiple endings as the villains seemed to have been dispatched several times. I am sure that the kids will love this one, but at times it got a bit tiresome. Expect the ending to leave you feeling that a sequel is in the works just like the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Venom: Let There Be Carnage    4 stars

I went to see Venom: Let There Be Carnage without having seen the original Venom, thus not knowing what to expect. This movie out of the Marvel universe can be described as a buddy B-movie with plenty of humor about a codependent relationship between a man and his alien symbiote. The premise had been set up in the original with failed journalist, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) having formed a bond with a bodyless alien intelligent being called Venom. Venom helps Eddie out with his writing, crime solving career and in return Venom, gets to eat the heads of bad guys. The charm of the movie comes with the comic banter between the two with Venom using an inner voice in conversations with Eddie. And there is a tremendous amount of energy involved in Venom’s antics with his tentacles in the small apartment they share with a pair of chickens. The relatively short movie (for a Marvel movie) does have something of a plot involving a serial killer on death row named Cletus (a fiendish Woody Harrelson) who grants an interview to Eddie with dire consequences. It takes about half the movie before the real villain appears in the form of another alien symbiote who calls himself Carnage and the inevitable battle ensues. (Just the name of this movie gives you a good clue about the level of violence you are about to see.) Director Andy Serkis uses Hardy’s acting skills well in the funny codependent conversations in which Hardy voices both Eddie and Venom. I occasionally like to try out a good B-movie and this one was just the ticket.

Love and Monsters

Love and Monsters         4 ½ stars

It’s almost Christmas so what better time to see a movie about the end of the world? In the action comedy Love and Monsters we follow the exploits of Joel, a young twenty something man on a journey to be reunited with his high school sweetheart. The only thing is that most of the human population has been wiped out by giant mutant creatures that have infested the planet after multiple rockets were fired into space to destroy a comet that was on a collision course with earth. But the pollution from the rockets resulted in said mutant creatures. Does this sound completely implausible? Yes, but don’t worry about it. Joel leaves his underground colony of fellow citizens on an 85 mile journey across hostile terrain to find his love, Aimee, who he has not seen in seven years. Along the way he is accompanied by a dog named Boy who aids him as he battles some giant carnivorous creatures. So far this sounds like a very tame variation on A Boy and His Dog. (If you haven’t seen the movie from the seventies you should check it out.) This movie, though is very family friendly due to the personality of the star, Dylan O’Brien as Joel. Like any family oriented movie it has a positive message like learning to gain self confidence and to appreciate those we love. It deserves some special recognition for some impressive effects that bring the monsters to life. I didn’t know what to expect when I started the movie, but found it enjoyable. It seemed odd though that there was a near lack of firearms with the humans relying mostly on crossbows, spears and swords for defense. Along with an occasional hand grenade.

Leonor Will Never Die

Leonor Will Never Die    3 ½ suns

Leonor Will Never Die received the World Cinema Dramatic Innovative Spirit Special Jury Award. The movie fits in well with the name of the award as the premise was especially creative. Set in the Philippines, elderly Leonor Reyes was once a major screenwriter for Filipino action movies. But now she mainly stays at home and can’t pay all her bills to the frustration of her son. One day she takes renewed interest in one of her old movie scripts after reading that the studios are looking for new scripts, but then she ends up in the hospital in a coma after being struck in the head by a falling television. It is then that the film takes us into uncharted territory as Leonor goes about creating an action movie in her mind concerning an action hero names Ronwaldo. She appears in her own movie, manipulating events to her own liking, occasionally reworking scenes that didn’t work out right. The imagined movie then sometimes blends with real life to somewhat resemble ideas out of The Matrix. The film is something of an homage to seventies action movies from the Philippines which was quite an industry in those times. It is especially violent and heavy on heroic scenes for its action stars. I certainly did not know what to expect with this one.

Drive-Away Dolls

Drive-Away Dolls              3 stars

If you are going to see a Coen brothers movie you know you are going to get some violent scenes often with inept crooks, some dark humor and some rather odd characters. Just think of The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading or Fargo. With this year’s Drive-Away Dolls we only have Ethan Coen directing, joined by Tricia Cooke’s writing, but we do get most of the usual elements. What we also get is a road buddy movie with a pair of lesbians on a mission to get laid, combined with plenty of dick gags. We start out in 1999 with a “Collector” (Pedro Pascal from The Last of Us and The Mandalorian) receiving a package in a briefcase but is quickly robbed and murdered by a pair of goons (Joey Slotnick and C. J. Wilson). We cut to our two heroes, Jamie (Margaret Qualley of The Nice Guys and Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan of Bad Education and Cat Person), who are both lesbians and best friends. Jamie is the adventurous one always looking for her next sexual exploit and Marian is the high strung, but intellectual one. They have a plan to do a drive away from New England to Tallahassee, Florida. This is a cheap way to travel by driving a car that the car’s owner needs delivered to another city. Hence, the title: Drive-Away Dolls. Only Jamie also plans to find all the lesbian hangouts along the way so that the repressed Marian can get laid. In Coen fashion the plan gets complicated when by accident the girls pick up a car that was intended for the pair of goons identified earlier and happens also to contain two special “packages” in the trunk. The boss of the criminal enterprise, (Colman Domingo) is none too pleased by the turn of events and tasks the goons to track the girls down and retrieve the packages. What follows then are the sexual adventures of the two women that happens to include an interlude with an all-lesbian soccer team, combined with the total ineptitude of our two goons trying to find them. (They get a little help from another lesbian friend of Jamie’s called Sukie (Beanie Feldstein of Booksmart) who also happens to be a cop. But this meeting doesn’t go well for the goons.) I must not neglect to mention that there is one additional character that appears briefly but is very pivotal to the story. And he is played by Matt Damon. (Also, this character’s penis figures prominently into the plot.) So, anyone who is a Matt Damon fan should not miss it. Overall, the movie has its moments, but it seems like a mixture of two films that don’t mesh very well. It’s good for a few laughs.

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front  4 ½ stars

This time I went from the horrors of narcissistic billionaires to an even greater horror, the viscousness of all-out war, by viewing the 2022 film, All Quiet on the Western Front. This is the German language film based on the well-known novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque. The book was made into the Academy Award winning film in 1930, and now we have the latest version, made with all the special effects of the present day. The film, by director Edward Berger, holds nothing back in presenting how horrible and devastating war can be. (I also happened to take a guided tour of World War I battlefield sites in France around this time so got a first-hand view of some authentic locations where The Great War was fought.) The opening scenes focus on a World War I battle between the Germans and the French showing us what trench warfare was like, with the soldiers seeing their comrades killed in an instant. But then we see the aftermath, with the bodies being gathered for burial as well as the gathering of the uniforms of the dead. The film then follows the path of the uniforms showing how they are cleaned and then mended so they can be reused by the next group of soldiers, giving us the feeling of a never-ending cycle of death. Like the book we follow teenage recruit Paul and his friends who are very enthusiastic about joining the army and the glory that awaits them. They are assured that the war will be over soon, and they will return to their homes as heroes. Of course, this is not to be as we are treated to one scene of horror after another showing the effects of modern weapons of war. Often the assaults result in scenes of hand-to-hand combat between the adversaries but based on my tour and readings, actual hand to hand combat was a rarity in World War I. More common were the artillery bombardments resulting in large casualties followed up with infantry attacks causing the enemy to retreat from their trenches. In this respect the movie and book are not accurate. We are also treated to scenes of comradery among Paul and his fellow soldiers during the quieter times in the trenches and the surrounding countryside. Against these scenes are those showing what life is like for the higher brass who issue the commands sending thousands of men to their deaths. These well-fed men with their large mustaches feast on their wine and cheese seemingly without a thought of concern for what the men are going through. They are only concerned about their own glory by achieving the victory in battle that forever eludes them. The frightening scenes of battle are backed up by an unsettling score and some of the best cinematography I have seen. The movie was the recipient of four Academy Awards which are well deserved. If you are at all interested in anti-war films, All Quiet on the Western Front must be on your list.

The Harder They Fall

The Harder They Fall       4 stars

Jeymes Samuel has created a fantasy western based on real people that existed in the Old West. This is a violence filled movie with heroes and villains much in the tradition of the old Hollywood westerns only with an all Black cast. It seems to be set in the Oklahoma territory where freedmen settled after the Civil War, featuring all Black towns but with white folks nearby. The film is all about style at the expense of historical accuracy, that is to say it is a crowd pleaser. The actual story is not that important, but it is about an outlaw, Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) seeking revenge against a ruthless gang leader, Rufus Buck (Idris Elba) who murdered Love’s parents. Love is picking off Buck’s gang one by one until things change when Buck is freed from prison by his gang that includes badass Trudy Love (a wonderfully cast Regina King). There is plenty of tough talk, faceoffs and shootouts accompanied by a Reggae style soundtrack that will keep the audience engaged through the two and a quarter hour runtime. The dialogue is sometimes not true to the era drifting into more modern lingo, but accuracy is not the point of the film. The ending is a seemingly never ending showdown reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino’s westerns, stretching the limits of credibility. The all star cast is rounded out with Zazie Beetz as Stagecoach Mary, Delroy Lindo, LaKeith Stanfield, Daniel Deadwyler as Cuffee, Damon Wayans Jr. and Deon Cole. If you are looking for a great action movie with some over the top violence, then you should not miss The Harder They Fall, available on Netflix.