All User Reviews

Falling Down, down under

Or Leaving Las Vegas for Australia.

One could argue this movie finds inspiration in Camus' The Stranger too. The book, not the Visconti movie.

Cage descends into madness in over-saturated hues. So, most of his career, with new colours.

Photography is excellent, Cage does what he does best, but the movie is a bit of a drag. That, or the themes treatment was too subtle for me. Or too heavy-handed, really.

This movie will probably be polarizing. I'm not sold.

Sadly, the last of its still-born franchise

The plot twists are all completely predictable, which makes the over-experienced, over-competent main character look like an utter fool for not seeing coming. Because, seriously, it never occured to you?

The world-building is somewhat inconsistent, mostly because everything revolves around only one character, but it is definitely interesting, both visually and creatively.

Diesel with hair does look quite a bit like a chubby Hanks from the 90s, methinks. As an actor, he always gives me an over-compensating short man general feeling. He postures a lot. He's not bad, though. Better than mediocre, not all the way to brilliant.
Wood is excellent as expected, and Caine, is, well, deservedly a legend of British acting.
Leslie is cute as a button but this movie is a 1-seater, a Diesel-only vehicle, with two older, more experienced actors already making space for themselves.

This one really needed a sequel; it's the prototypical awkward first movie in a franchise that could find its stride.

Also, no bullshit.

Lots of streets, lack of fire

Basically, the director of The Warriors trying to make lightning strike twice.

The script is fit for a 90s videogame. The 2D, side-scrolling, beat-em-all kind. Although the violence is more of the Hill/Spencer, A-Team slapstick kind. Bozo Duo rather than Double Dragon. Except for the end.

Setting is full-on 50s, with a sprinkle of Western long coats and lever actions. Also, suspenders. Lots of suspenders.
Visuals are mostly music video fare (before music videos really were a thing), but possibly a bit too dark, or not enough. Absolute Beginners and Highlander simply did it better as lighter and darker, with far superior scores. So did the Blues Brothers.
Not saying the music isn't good here, though, boasting the likes of Ry Cooder, Tom Petty or Stevie Nicks.
And this movie probably was pretty innovating in '84. It aged faster, though.

The cast is less stellar. Paré never happened, I never was a fan of Lane, and Dafoe plays his usual character; Dafoe, not Dafriend. Well, he was young then, so maybe before it became his only role.
It doesn't help that the characters are one-dimensional, and rather badly written. They simply lack charisma, which is a cardinal sin for this type of movie.
Nice to see Moranis in an unexpected role, though.

No overt wokeness that I saw, but I had lost interest by the two-third mark.

Could have been a nice movie with better acting, I guess.

During the first interaction (especially) and the last interaction with Harley the princess acts a little bit weird/shy🤨. And in their last interaction Harley calls her "Fio" (short for "Fiona) just as a friendly gesture for letting the squad eat after their fight. But the princess gets weirdly shy (blushing red face) when she called her "FIon".
Also, even though the "Undead King" has a female body, they keep calling her "King"😑.

Definitely woke

Don't use the word progressive. It's a framing of language to put normal people on the defensive. There's no good progress about an authoritarian fascist all powerful corporate state like Democrats dream about. What are we progressing towards... 1930s Germany? That out of the way, this show is all about the Democrat platform of sexual deviance, DEI racism, woman=strong and smart man=weak and dumb. It's so tiring. Some of the jokes were funny and a few of the episodes were entertaining, but that ultra libtard creator can't get out of his own way, always inserting bullshit.

Sophomore slump

Script is a mess, extends on all directions and doesn't find its way.

Brolin and Del Toro reprise their characters, but with arguable success this time around.

This opus tries to imitate the style of its predecessor, but mostly pales in comparison.

Watch the first one. Skip this. No point.

I found myself liking this

Watched this on several friends' recommendations.

Starting with the negative, it's a pretty cookie-cutter story about black ops on Mexican narcos, with out-of-the-box, ready-to-wear characters.

Then again, the actors manage to salvage their paper-thin alter egos. Del Toro and Brolin are excellent as usual, in their favourite register, as usual.
Blunt always brings commitment to her work (from what I've seen), and sells her Clarice Starling rather convincingly. And she's easy to look at. Not the most sugary of eye candies, but she does it for me. Probably not being objective here.

The script is unsurprising, but tightly focused and well paced. I have reservations regarding Villeneuve, but he does know how to tell a story.

What really surprised me, though, was the insane visual quality. Until I checked, and identified the director of photography as Sir Roger Deakins, Knight Bachelor of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Check him out, the bloke's got legit bragging rights.


As for wokeness, well, bad is bad, morals are grey for they who stare into the abyss, and the boss babe trope is completely avoided: Blunt's character gets manhandled by the bigger fellows around her, as expected given her small frame, and her character's lack of sheer malevolence.


All in all, not a fantastic movie, but a smashing watch.

The communists who made this crap, which includes the nepo baby director, refused to add a scene when the astronauts planted the American flag, which caused controversy and some backlash, which led to a poorer showing at the box office...

Only communists could screw up something like a Neil Armstrong film...The communists who made this crap refused to add a scene when the astronauts planted the American flag, which caused controversy and some backlash, which led to a poorer showing at the box office...

The film is rubbish, they should have made this in the 80s or 90s...

Feminist nonsense...

As real as it gets on the big screen

This movie depicts an engagement far from my time or place. Full disclosure, I never was with the US Marines or SEALs.

Still, most of the details ring true to me. Especially non-operational. What the blokes think, how they deal with the escalating situation, most of it.
Regarding tactics and procedure, well, it's still a movie. Proper distancing sometimes makes for poor cinematography, I guess. But it's mostly good, as far as I can tell. Which is not very far.
Square pins, UK sockets in Iraqi apartment, though, not so sure.


This movie does not have much a plot, beyond the pitch. In this case, it's a feature, not a bug. The plan is always the first victim of contact with the enemy.
Making good plans is a desirable quality. Making them fast is better. By the way, the movie feels real time. The vehicles ETA sure are.

I've seen criticism arguing the movie depicts the US military as incompetent. I'd argue to the opposite. The situation management depicted here is solid, at all levels. The men get showered in shite, and they push through. Might not be glorious, might not look good, but any combat you walk off from on your feet has a seed of victory.


The cast is solid, and have good, natural interactions. Natural in the context.
Jarvis from the Shogun series makes a comeback in this. Still excellent, but so are all the others, in admittedly not overly demanding roles, ie: ensemble cast and military operation context.
As an aside, one of the young actor is a D'Pharaoh McKay Woon-A-Tai. I'm not usually into taking the piss, but that is one hell of an unlikely name there. Could be a story behind it. Anyway, the guy is pretty good too.



This movie tells its story at the tactical level. It's about losing men, not troops. Time and place may have changed, but war remained the same for the muddies. Infantry's harsh.

Another piece of garbage from the Farrakhan of Hollywood, racist Jordan Peele...

Grrl power...