Sunday, August 26, 2018

Mile 22

Year: 2018
Director: Peter Berg
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais, John Malkovich, Ronda Rousey, Sam Medina


Plot: A covert team of highly trained operatives is assigned to transport an asset with important information from the US Embassy to an airplane 22 miles away. The team comes under heavy attack from locally hired agents, who seek to silence the asset before he talks.


Review: Mile 22 is at best, a frustrating film, at worst, clunky, as another reviewer put it. It's actually a pretty good action flick, but considering you have Peter Berg as director, Mark Wahlberg as the lead star and Iko Uwais, one of the top action stars on the planet doing what he does best in it, you'd expect it to be more than pretty good.

Berg is certainly no stranger to action movies. The Rundown and The Kingdom happen to be my favorite action vehicles from the man. Mile 22 leans closer to the latter than the former in tone, but it has none of the kinetic fun of the former or the compelling drama of the latter. The closest they get to being dramatic is Lauren Cohan's character dealing with some personal issues with her ex husband (Berg in a cameo). Cohan's character Alice is certainly one of the best things about the film as she is a perfect representation of how we would react if we were in her shoes doing her job.

Wahlberg on the other hand is basically replaying the same character he had in The Departed, where he gets to swear a lot and go on and on with his temper. There's this scene where he mouths off for about 3 minutes on a techie simply because she wanted more time to crack a code. This, added to a handful of other moments where he loses his temper and goes on a near endless tirade on other people make him damn near unlikable, and their explanation on him having some sort of condition doesn't quite help. The only time you'd actually respect him is when he actually shows concern for Alice, despite him making her one of his many targets of rage.

Then there's Uwais, who gets his big break in Hollywood (no, Star Wars doesn't count), and kicking ass more than once here. But the bad camerawork ruined what must have been superb fight choreography by Uwais and his team, which is a real shame.

So is there anything that's good? Quite a lot actually. Berg opted for a grittier style here, which works better when the team is engaged in a firefight, but not during the hand-to-hand fights. Ronda Rousey's acting has improved considerably since The Expendables 3, but she doesn't get to manhandle anyone here (not that I care). Cohan gets to speak some Indonesian and actually pulls it off well. Berg doesn't hold back on the violence thankfully, so all the action sequences have bloody results. The twist at the end was rather predictable, but I still liked it.

Berg had actually planned this to be a trilogy of sorts, and judging by how it ended, it certainly needs a follow up. But the somewhat poor execution of this film and the less than stellar box office takings so far might have torpedoed that plan. Mile 22 is a good movie and has lots of potential, but doesn't quite live up to it. Still kinda like it though. (7/10)

Monday, August 13, 2018

The Meg

Year: 2018
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Cast: Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, Page Kennedy, Robert Taylor


Plot: The crew of an ocean research station are terrorized by a prehistoric shark.


Review: I'm still wondering what everyone's problem was after they watched The Meg. I kept hearing it was a bad movie, or not as fun as they had hoped. Try telling that to the women sitting behind me in the cinema yesterday. They were screaming their heads off.

The Meg is a shark movie, like Jaws, The Shallows, 47 Meters Down and Deep Blue Sea before it. The difference is of course, the size of the shark, which is pretty humongous here. The CGI rendered megalodon is convincing enough and director Jon Turteltaub makes very good use of the shark in executing some thrilling action sequences here. While it does take some time before we actually get to see the shark, once it appears, there is no dull moment left as we get one nail biting sequence after another.

The Meg is not without flaws though. Some of its casting choices are not good. Jason Statham more or less succeeds as the reluctant hero here, but Li Bingbing looks quite awkward in her role, despite her acting having improved since her turn in Resident Evil 5. The rest of the cast fill the usual textbook roles well enough, but Rainn Wilson's overconfident billionaire who's financing the station could have been removed altogether as it feels very extraneous. The entire subplot featuring him trying to kill the shark all by himself didn't feel genuine at all.

On another note, some of the film's quieter moments don't really work. The Meg succeeds when it makes fun of itself but not when they try to make some of the deaths feel impactful. Thankfully, Turteltaub doesn't dwell on these too often and lets the shark do what it does best.

All in all, I enjoyed The Meg more than I thought I would. Is it a dumb shark movie? Yeah it is. But I liked it a lot, and that's what really counts. (7.5/10) 

Monday, August 06, 2018

The First Purge

Year: 2018
Director: Gerard McMurray
Cast: Y'lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Patch Darragh, Marisa Tomei, Rotimi Paul


Plot: The New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA), who have recently taken over the US government, carries out an experimental Purge night at Staten Island, New York, offering money to anyone who participates. Among those involved are a pair of siblings and a local crime lord.


Review: If you're a fan of the Purge movies and you always wanted to know how it all began, this prequel offers a backstory where Purge night was just an experimental exercise and confined to one place instead of the entire country.

Franchise director and creator James DeMonaco hands over directorial duties to relative newcomer Gerard McMurray while he only writes and produces this time around. As in the previous Purge films, the black community become the victims of the NFFA's attempt to reduce the population and save the economy. It's interesting to note that the doctor who comes up with the experiment (played by Marisa Tomei) isn't exactly on board with the NFFA's methods but realises this much too late, offering a different angle to the whole "white people are all bad" element.

McMurray deserves some credit for executing some well staged action sequences, the best being the final fight where crime lord Dmitri takes on the NFFA assassins sent to purge an apartment block, with hints of Rambo 3 style action. There are also plenty of shootouts, slashings, stabbings and explosions to boot. A particular sequence featuring explosive stuffed animals was particularly hilarious. Unfortunately, McMurray takes too much time in setting up the first act, so the first half of the movie can be a bit tedious to sit through.

The cast does well generally, but the film suffers from a lack of recognizable stars here, save for Tomei. Rotimi Paul deserves praise for his psychotic portrayal of Skeletor, a crazy drug addict with a penchant for violence, even though his character is a bit over the top at times to feel genuine.

In the end, The First Purge is a competent enough film, but offers little more than what we've already seen in other Purge movies. In comparison, Anarchy and Election Year were more compelling overall. (6.5/10) 

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