Movie review - Fast#9 - "F9" (2019) ***

 Slick, fast, Justin Ling directed. This is the one where they go into outerspace. That's sort of tossed away - it's very easy. Lucas Black is back, briefly. Er... yay? I do like the continuity.

The key plot has Vin Diesel clashing with brother John Cena. This does give it some emotional undercurrent. They do try to give Jordana Breswter something to do. They do try.

Big and loud. Feels tired. Han coming back is... um, yeah, yay? Natalie Emmanuel is given stuff to do but isn't much. Michelle Rodriguez and Charlize Theron needed to be given more to do. Helen Mirren is fun.

Look, there's a lot going on. 

Movie review - Fast#10 -"Fast X" (2023) ***

 So... now Charlize Theron is good (or at least an ally), John Cena is good, Vin Diesel looks out of shape and bored, Michelle Rodgriguez looks bored, Ludacris and Tyrese look old, as does Sung Kang, Nathalie Emmanuel is... there, Jordana Brewster pops in. They have a return from Helen Mirren and Brie Larson comes along in as a bad ass female. Oh Scott Eastwood is in it briefly. Oh and Daniela Melchor is hot girl racer.

Film is saved and stolen by Jason Mamoa in a fabulously over the top, campy villain performance. It starts off slowly with too much Vin Diesel but gets better as it goes along. The film has a Mad Mad Mad Mad World quality about it with its sprawling cast, some funny lines and clever choreography. Total lack of realism.

It loses points fot being the first of a two parter. I think that hurt word of mouth.

Movie review - "Operation Fortune" (2023) **

 Guy Ritchie action flick has a lot of nice things about it - Jason Statham doing his stuff, Hugh Grant again having a wonderful time as a villain, and most of al Aubrey Plaza as the perfect femme in the Richie world, sexy, smart, cool, etc etc.

It is a sluggish film though. Starts well but after a while it sinks in that the elements aren't exactly fresh - agents chasing after a Thing, the Thing changes hands, villain obsessed with a movie star, self referential jokes with a movie star playing a movie star (Josh Harnett in a role I wish Hugh Grant had played - or someone more lively).

It's all so easy for Statham and co. Like really easy. 

Turkish setting a little different.

Movie review - "Wild Card" (2015) ** (re-watching)

 Better cast. Jason Statham isn't as good an actor as Burt Reynolds but he's fine. It was shot in New Orleans, apparently - that can't help. Shoots the original script. Still lacks flavour. Christmas decorations are in the script but it seems to lack the point of setting it at Christmas. Excellent support cast. Cyrus plot doesn't work.

Movie review - "Wraith of God" (2021) **1/2

 Had no idea what to expect going in, except Jason Statham kicked arse. The action scenes are well done, I enjoyed the jumping around in time. It's very blokey and masculine. Very strong cast - Scott Eastwood gets to show a bit more flair. A lot of characters, most of whom wind up dead - I mean the toll is really high. A solid film though.

Movie review - Fast#6 -"Fast and the Furious 6" (2011) *** (warning: spoilers)

 Not as good as the 5th...  But some wonderful moments like a fight with a tank. Vin Diesel has a fake girlfriend Elsa Pataky who seems very understanding when he drops her like a tonne of bricks to chase after Michelle Rodriguez who has hooked up with Luke Evans. Jordana Brewster's kidnapping seems like an afterthought as does Gal Gadot's death... I think that should've happened earlier. Dwayne Johnson's character gave up his principles very easily! Gina Carano could've done more.

Terrific teaser epilogue.

Movie review - Fast#7 -"Furious 7" (2015) ***1/2

 The one where Paul Walker died.

Big, loud, fun cartoon which goes there - cars jump out of planes and jump from skyscraper to skyscraper. It's like a movie brainstormed by 12 year old boys with some butts thrown in to appeal to 14 year old elder brothers. Those things are harder to do than they look though - in particular there are so many characters to service.

Paul Walker kind of gets overlooked... that may have been because of his death but Vin Diesel pulls focus, as do Michelle Rodriguez (amnesiac drama), Tyrese Gibson (comic relief I), and Ludicrous (comic relief II).

There's pleasing acknowledgement of the series continuity with appearances by Lucas Black (the forgotten lead of the third film, who gets one scene), Jordana Brewster.

People like Rhonda Rousey and Djimon Hounsou pop up and Kurt Russell has a decent sized role. And there's Nathalie Emmanuele and Elsa Pataky... oh and Dwayne Johnson has a small part and Jason Statham is a villain. Oh and there's an Iggy Azalea cameo.

 Something for everyone, really.

Sometimes the action is too cartoony to be effective... a scene with Paul Walker on a bus hanging off a cliff felt better because it seemed vaguely real.

The death of Paul Walker is very well handled at the end.

Movie review - "The Expendables" (2010) ***

 Loud, fun, expert. Expert ish. Just so much fun seeing all these hams together. Stallon gives a lot of time and space to Jason Staham. Jet Li's role isn't much but he has a fun character. Dolph Lundgren has the best part. I forgot Terry Crews was in the movie. Eric Roberts is ideal.

I had a good time watching it.

Movie review - "Hobbs and Shaw" (2019) **1/2

Big, loud and silly, but with two likeable stars, several enjoyable cameos that you wish were longer (Kevin Hart, Ryan Reynolds, Helen Mirren), an exciting new star (Vanessa Kirby), a decent villain (Idris Elba) and some excellent action scenes.

It's never as fun as I wanted it to be - they waste Kirby in particular, she's an excellent actor, but she has no character to play. Her "romance" with Dwayne Johnson is underwhelming especially as he only has eyes for Jason Statham.

It looks handsome, I love the third act going to Samoa, and there's some memorable OTT moments like Johnson pulling a helicopter with a chain, and a motorbike rider going under a truck. The Honest Trailers on this totally nailed it, by the way - it's like a Marvel movie.

Movie review - "The Meg" (2018) **

Silly fun but too silly to be a good movie and not silly enough to be crap-tacular. It feels very Chinese not just with its positive Chinese characters and settings but also family schmaltz and cute kidness. Which is fine. I just wish they'd done more with the concept of a prehistoric shark.

I mean, there's no scientific stuff, no paleontologist, nothing really other than the creature running amok. It also feels very Australian-New Zealand with the cast including Jess MacNamee, Ruby Rose, Cliff Curtis.

It passed the time and I hope they make another one because the potential is there for this to be quite good.

Movie review - "Ghosts from Mars" (2001) ***1/2 (re-watching)

Rewatched it, still really like it. In particular:
* the chemistry between Natasha Henstridge and Ice Cube
* Ice Cube channelling Snake Plissken
* the exotic support cast including Pam Grier and Jason Statham and Robert Carradine
* the wacky narration
* the fact the villains are genuinely scary and hard to beat
* the look of the film
* the twists and turns in the fight sequences.
I still didn't like the fact that Hestridge makes such a dumb mistake at the end in going back to the town.

Movie review - "Wild Card" (2015) **

One of the things I like about Jason Statham is he's always trying to push himself - taking a small part in Collateral, for instance, so he can work with Michael Mann; attempting comedy in Spy; trying to revive Westlake's "Parker" series. Here he has turned producer and optioned an old William Goldman script, based on his novel Edged Weapons, also known as Heat - the title under which it was filmed in 1986. The movie wasn't particularly good, with a troublesome shoot, and I always thought it was a shame a novel I enjoyed a lot didn't get better treatment.

But you know something? After watching this faithful adaptation - which from my (brief) research seems to have loyally shot Goldman's old 1980s script, with a few tweaks - I'm not sure it was that great, at least not as directed by Simon West. It's a character piece with action films, and really needed to set up Las Vegas as this major character in the piece. West's handling feels far too glossy and schmick - it's like a TV commercial Vegas. I think the really ideal director would've been someone like Robert Altman, who can really get the gambling atmosphere (and who incidentally was originally attached to the 1986 Heat).

Maybe it also needed, say, some voice over to get into the lead character's head more. Great sequences in the book - Nick taking on some hoods (a second by second description) and Nick's gambling run, aren't as effective- on film. The action scenes are very well done but tend to be over the top - there are only three of them, but they involve being Stathan so super heroic that it doesn't quite mix with the more down to earth aspects of the rest of the film.

So the piece doesn't quite work - not enough character to be a drama, not enough action to be a bang bang pic. There are some great cameos: Stanley Tucci, Hope Davis, Anne Heche. Statham isn't bad. I wish he'd gone the whole hog and gotten a drama director to do it.

Movie review - "Spy" (2015) ****1/2

Brilliantly constructed star vehicle for Melissa McCarthy which has a strong, high concept that is superbly executed. It's basically Miss Moneypenny becomes a spy after her James Bond (Jude Law) is killed with Alison Janney as M, Jason Statham as the fellow agent, Rose Byrne as the femme fetale and Tommy Cannavale as Goldfinger plus Miranda Hart as McCarthy's sidekick.

On a plain old spy movie level this is is pretty good anyway - something crucial for a spoof movie, it should work as drama even without the gags (eg Flying High vs Top Secret). There's good stakes, strong villains and a healthy amount of double crosses, plus some very well shot action sequences. At times this is genuinely exciting and moving as well as funny.

Expectations are subverted - McCarthy has a violent streak, Statham is a moron meat head, Byrne isn't as smart as she thinks her is. I loved the modern office touches to the CIA - Janney rebuking Statham for his language, the cake delivered at work when McCarthy is trying to help Law through a fight, the whingeing about secret identities assigned to agents. It's a superb comedy.

Movie review - "Crank: High Voltage" (2009) ***

I saw this after it hearing about it on How Did This Get Made? It's the sort of the movie that either you go with or you don't, and if you go with it you get sick of it or you don't. I went with it but got sick of it after a while - too relentless, too much "here's another crazy sequence we can throw in there" without much development... which I know was the point, but still...

Jason Statham provides a surprisingly strong center to the mayhem - I actually don't know why I say "surprising" this guy obviously is the real deal by now - and Amy Smart is likeable as the love interest, but the movie is stolen by Bai Ling as a crazy prostitute. Fun cameos from people like Ron Jeremy and Gerri Halliwell. It looks terrific and there's plenty of imagination and flair on display.

Movie review – “The Bank Job” (2008) ***

Enjoyable British caper film, reminiscent in spirit to The Italian Job – indeed, it would have made a perfect vehicle for Michael Caine. Come to think of it, Caine at 70-odd would have made a more lively star than Jason Statham, the bald tough-talking former competitive diver who has nonetheless carved out an impressive career for himself as an action hero.

Statham’s alright, I suppose – he does at least look like a crim, and I have nothing but respect with how he’s managed his career (anyone not above playing a small role in Collateral just to work with Michael Mann is alright by me) – you just can’t help wishing for a more engaging lead, especially when the female star is the pretty-especially-in-the-early-70s-fashions-but-not-very-good-actor Saffrom Burrows.

But the period detail is enjoyable, especially that whole early 70s Britain-in-decline-lords-as-MPs-sex-clubs-porn-barons-black-power stuff. It was a time when the country was up the spout but when there was still enough concern about the royal family to stop the cops prosecuting villains and to have the intelligence services arrange an entire bank robbery in order to nab some incriminating photos. Good, solid script that really demonstrates the power of narrative (lots of story). Could have done with a bit more humour – I think it’s in the script but Roger Donaldson’s never been a light director (though he's an excellent one - just not Mr Comedy).

Movie review - "Collateral" (2004) ****

No one directs LA at night like Michael Mann - all shimmering neon lights and empty roads. Tom Cruise is actually quite convincing as a killer - more so, perhaps, than Jamie Foxx. 

 

It's the support roles here which are stronger - Mark Ruffalo as a pony tailed cop and that fat black dude as a victim. 

 

Solid, intelligent script - though at the ending it can't help itself and turns Jamie Foxx into an all-conquering superhero. Also it's too much of a coincidence to have Jada Pinkett Smith being in Foxx's cab then turn out to be a key player in the drama.

Movie review - "John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars" (2001) ***1/2

I'm the only person in the world I know who loves this movie. Don't know what it is about it - probably that first third with a bunch of cops arriving at the deserted mining station wondering what is going on, with all that funny non-linear editing. Creepy atmosphere, genuinely scary - though the creatures are more effective from a distance than close up. Didn't like the rock music (why didn't Carpenter just keep his thumping musical rhythms?).

Some bright tough talking dialogue, enjoyed Ice Cube, loved Pam Grier as a big lesbian officer (things haven't changed much from the 70s - just less nudity) and didn't mind Natasha Hestridge - until I found out her role was meant to be played by Courtney Love, who would have been perfect, and ever since then I've thought Natasha's performance was really bad... well maybe not bad, it's just she isn't a star, and the role needed one. It's a fantastic role: she's a real kick arse heroine, with a drug habit and nice line in sass, plus a neat buddy relationship with Ice Cube. Hestridge tries her hearts out, is cute and all that... but it needed someone with real bad-ass-ness.

The story is this wonderfully weird compendium of things - part siege, part journey, ghost zombies who seem to be semi inspired by The Thing and Indians from old Westerns. They are baddies you shouldn't kill really because their ghost spirit then runs riot... but the goodies still try to kill them. People say "let's get out of here" an awful lot.

Jason Statham's character is a bit of a lech, but he has presence; Clea duVall's idiotic lesbian rookie has a decent journey from fool to tough gal; Robert Carradine pops up as a train driver, and Joanna Cassidy adds gravitas as a scientist.

Most annoying thing about the movie is the ending - the lead characters have been so smart, then they decide to blow up the whole plant without knowing that it's going to do any good, in fact they have reason to know it's going to make things worse, an endangering everyone's life - this is extremely irritating, and I wish they'd not put it in the film. Also it's annoying that our heroes figure out they shouldn't kill the creatures but still do - and how to repel the spirit (by taking drugs and throwing it up) but never repeat it.

Actually the more I think about this film the more obvious are its flaws - but I can't help it, I love it still. Just got a great feel. And I love the idea of Hestridge and Ice Cube going off into the sunset together as part of a never-ending battle against the ghost creatures.