Monday, January 29, 2018

Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Year: 2018
Director: Wes Ball
Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Rosa Salazar, Will Poulter, Dexter Darden, Aiden Gillen, Giancarlo Esposito, Barry Pepper, Patricia Clarkson, Walton Goggins, Ki Hong Lee


Plot: Thomas and his friends attempt to break into WCKD's fortified stronghold to save Minho and the other kids, with the help of a deformed rebel leader, an unexpected ally and Thomas' former friend, Teresa.


Review: After star Dylan O'Brien was injured in an accident on set, causing a delay in filming, The Death Cure is finally finished, and the wait is well worth it.

Granted, YA adaptations have been a mixed bag in the last few years. Twilight was a success though critically panned, Divergent was a failure, and The Hunger Games was rather overrated in my book. But The Maze Runner series has been quite consistent, despite its flaws. Director Wes Ball has deftly merged action, sci-fi and a touch of horror in all three films, thus creating a very fascinating yet dangerous universe for Thomas and his friends.

The action sequences were well done, beginning with a train sequence, later followed by a tunnel sequence that seems slightly inspired by 28 Days Later. While the final 30 minutes is a long action sequence that feels a bit all over the place at times, it still manages to thrill and properly end the trilogy on a high note. Even the quieter moments of the film work well and never feel extraneous, thus making the 142 minute run time real easy to sit through.

The entire cast execute their roles well, even though the dialogue felt hammy every now and then, but it's surely no fault of theirs. The best of them would have to be Walton Goggins as Lawrence, whose gnarly makeup and low voice make him quite intimidating to watch. It's unfortunate that his appearance was too brief. Aiden Gillen scores as the bad guy here, who gets elevated to main villain status over Patricia Clarkson's Ava, which surprised me a bit. Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Kaya Scodelario and O'Brien all deliver as usual.

Other than the hammy dialogue, I was also a bit disappointed with the limited time given to Harriet, Aris and Sonya, who were introduced in The Scorch Trials, but barely allowed to make an impact here. The again, it's understandable since there are too many characters to focus on.

Overall, I enjoyed The Death Cure very much, which strongly ends the Maze Runner series, and is currently my favorite YA adaptation so far. (7.5/10) 

Saturday, January 20, 2018

12 Strong

Year: 2018
Director: Nicolai Fuglsig
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pena, Trevante Rhodes, Navid Negahban, William Fichtner


Plot: Based on the true story of Task Force Dagger, a team of twelve American soldiers sent to Afghanistan shortly after 9/11 to fight alongside an Afghan warlord against the Taliban.


Review: 12 Strong certainly treads familiar territory as far as US military true stories are concerned. It is reminiscent of films like Lone Survivor and Black Hawk Down, the latter also produced by 12 Strong producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Unfortunately, this movie isn't as compelling as those two. In fact, it's not even as interesting as Rambo III, which was mostly fiction, but was also set in Afghanistan.

The set up is interesting though. When the World Trade Center is attacked and destroyed on September 11th 2001, a group of soldiers led by inexperienced captain Mitch Nelson are deployed to Afghanistan. From the get go, the team faces many obstacles. Nelson has never been in actual combat before, despite being very motivated. There are language and cultural barriers to overcome. The team have no experience riding horses, which is the Afghan's primary mode of transportation. The Afghan warlord, General Dostum, isn't entirely convinced of the team's capability, and he has his own agenda as well. However, the team perseveres eventually, thanks to good teamwork, bravery and some help from the US air force dropping bombs on the Taliban.

Rookie director Nicolai Fuglsig films the battle scenes decently enough, though there are many instances where it's hard to tell who's firing at whom. The film also takes a considerable amount of time to get to its first action sequence, almost at the half mark. But really, the main problem with 12 Strong is being unable to fully engage the audience in its story or characters. 

Fuglsig and the screenwriters do make attempts to flesh out the men's personal lives, particularly the characters played by Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon and Michael Pena, but it's nothing we haven't seen in other similar movies. Out of the twelve men, only these three and Trevante Rhodes stand out; the rest are mostly interchangeable with each other. Navid Negahban fares better as General Dostum, and his interactions with Hemsworth are interesting at times, but it doesn't leave a lasting impression. In fact, the most compelling scene in the entire film is the execution of an Afghan woman by the Taliban for educating young girls.

Still, all is not lost. The battle sequences, particularly in the second half, look good. But in the end, 12 Strong is just an average telling of a true story. Fuglsig and Bruckheimer try their best to emulate the works of Peter Berg but fall a bit short. (6.5/10)  

Saturday, January 13, 2018

The Commuter

Year: 2018
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast: Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Sam Neill


Plot: A recently laid off insurance salesman is approached by a mysterious woman on a commuter train, who offers him $100000 to find a specific passenger. He soon finds himself caught in a dangerous game where the lives of his family and the passengers on the train are on the line.


Review: The Commuter marks Liam Neeson's fourth collaboration with director Jaume Collet-Serra, after Unknown, Non-Stop and Run All Night. For me, each film was better than the previous one, but The Commuter just slightly misses the bar set by Run All Night.

In this film, Neeson plays Michael, a former cop turned insurance salesman who has just been laid off. On his way home, a woman named Joanna approaches him and persuades him to help her locate a specific passenger, giving him very vague clues to the passenger's identity. In exchange, he gets $100000. He doesn't think she's serious, until he actually finds the money in the restroom, right where she said it would be. But taking the money means agreeing to participate, and now he's forced to find the passenger, or his family will die. Michael realizes that these people are serious when people start getting killed around him.

The premise certainly feels a lot like Non-Stop, but it also shares similarity with another film: Nick Of Time starring Johnny Depp, in the sense that the protagonist is forced to do something so that the bad guys don't have to get their hands dirty. But unlike Depp, who was very much an everyman in that film, Neeson is a former cop here, which gives him a slight advantage in this situation, and thus takes the edge off the suspense a little. But to Neeson and Collet-Serra's credit, The Commuter turns out to be quite a ride from start to finish. Just like Non-Stop, Neeson has to find a person among many, which is part of the fun as he walks the audience through the process of elimination. Along the way, Neeson gets to throw hands and take names, and I gotta say, I've never seen him take this much of a beating in a movie before. But I sure am not complaining, because it's Liam Neeson, you know?

Neeson pretty much commands nearly every scene he's in, the film was tailor made for an action hero like him. Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson and Sam Neill all provide nice support as Joanna, Neeson's ex-partner and police chief respectively, but this is Neeson's movie through and through. Credit also goes to the cast who play the colorful passengers on the train, some of whom are quite familiar in type: the over friendly guy, the rude stock broker, a nurse, a girl in trouble with her ex-boyfriend, and a handful of suspicious looking guys. They all make their roles believable enough.

The Commuter falters slightly in the final act when the plot twist is much too obvious, but up to that point, Collet-Serra serves up a very entertaining film which culminates in a spectacular CGI sequence. I can't reveal much about it, though you might know if you've seen the trailers.

Overall, The Commuter is a lot of fun to watch. Granted, it doesn't stray too far from the kind of movies Liam Neeson makes these days. But who cares? There are movies that we go watch because we want to have fun at the theater and this is that kind of movie. (7.5/10)

Sunday, January 07, 2018

Insidious: The Last Key

Year: 2018
Director: Adam Robitel
Cast: Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, Caitlin Gerard, Kirk Acevedo, Bruce Davison, Spencer Locke, Josh Stewart


Plot: Elise Rainier returns to the house she grew up in to battle the demon who killed her mother and is now threatening her niece.


Review: The Insidious movies have no new ways to scare horror audiences anymore, but Leigh Whannell and director Adam Robitel clearly still have stories to tell in regards to psychic Elise Rainier, who uses her gift to battle evil spirits.

In this sequel, which serves as another prequel to the first movie where she encounters the Lambert family, Elise returns home to the house she lived in as a child, which is adjacent to a prison. In a backstory, we learn that her gift caused her father to abuse her, and she inadvertently caused the death of her mother by releasing a powerful demon in her basement. Now that same demon is haunting the current owner of that house. She takes her humorous yet trusty sidekicks Tucker and Specs back home, but not only does she encounter the demon, she also runs into her estranged brother and his two daughters, who are now the demon's targets.

Robitel and Whannell use some nifty yet familiar tactics to scare the audience, some which work but others seem quite predictable. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it somewhat, though I am aware that other horror fans might be more picky. Truthfully, the real attraction of The Last Key is delving deeper into Elise's painful childhood and how she was on the receiving end of abuse by her father because of his ignorance. The young Elise is well acted in this opening sequence by Ava Kolker, who is very impressive despite her brief appearance.

Lin Shaye once again nails the role of Elise, who continues to battle evil forces even as we notice how it slowly but surely takes its toll on her. Shaye's magnetic presence holds the film together through all its faults. Whannell and Angus Sampson also return to provide the humor as Specs and Tucker respectively, though they were much funnier in the last film than here. Thankfully, the trio make the film work as much as possible, as the script feels somewhat corny and lazy at times.

In closing, I have to honestly say that The Last Key would probably appeal more to die hard Insidious fans than the more cynical horror fans. Personally I enjoyed it, especially after seeing how it ended. (7/10)

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