NoWo's Reviews
under-used Phillip K. Dick
Cage acts predictably weird, Biel is fascinatingly gorgeous and yet mostly devoid of presence, Moore's stiff as a board (guess she needed the money).
The script is simplified yet satisfyingly creative. I just enjoyed this one.
Created: 06-30-2025
Better than Fast & Furious
and that's sayin' somethin'.
The movie does go full Dukes of Hazzard near the end. Jumps the shark and all.
Also, what with the colour grading? Everything's some tint of orange. You know when you've been tangoed, I guess.
Apart from that, a vehicular action heist movie, with a solid ensemble cast that's almost never on screen (Cage is).
Fast-paced, predictable, rather uninspired.
If possible, I would rate it 50%, it being the most aggressively middle-of-the-road (pun intended) movie I've seen for some time.
Created: 06-30-2025
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.
Created: 06-23-2025
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.
Created: 06-23-2025
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.
Created: 06-23-2025
Sophomore slump
Script is a mess, extends in 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.
Created: 06-22-2025
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.
Created: 06-22-2025
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.
Created: 06-22-2025
The Wakanda of the chess world ...
They don't have heroes, so they invent them.
Steal them, actually.
The main character is, in my opinion, Bobby Fischer, with small boobs and a tight little arse. Also, strangely, less insane.
But basically stealing the life story of a straight white male, and reskinning it as a strong independent female. Lesbian, obviously. In the '60s. Which still happened more often than a woman dominating chess. For those not familiar: same feeling as those 90 pounds waifs beating up 250 pounds commandos.
It's a touchy subject with me, considering how 'they' have successfully erased (Pierre) Curie from history, and are trying cancel Watson & Crick to push (Rosalind) Franklin instead.
The show is well made. Very much so. Taylor-Joy is good, undoubtedly.
But it crosses its Is and dots its Ts. Every white male a combination of stupid, crass and 'oppressive'. Every female perfect, because of course.
It's a sad thing that, being late to the party (the Party?), I give this only a 3/5 woke score simply because no character spontaneously breaks into a song about the joy of socialism.
Well, I haven't watched to the end ...
Created: 06-20-2025
Adkins falls short once more
As much as I like him, I have to admit Adkins will probably never star in a good movie.
Even the Undisputed flicks were all style and awkward substance.
Again, he proves he falls short as an actor. Not bad, just not good.
The actions scenes are competent albeit very artificial, as in 80s level of bad guys waiting for their turn to get punched in the face.
See the Terminator-like scene in the bar for an egregious example. The whole character is ludicrous, really. El Corvo. The Crow. Because why not.
The script itself is another throwback to the 80s. Crochet. More holes than matter. There are probably better written pornos out there. The filler between the money shots.
At least, the director of photography is having a blast, and it shows. The movie is probably a low budget endeavour (produced by Adkins and Zaror themselves), but it's simply gorgeous in a quite few scenes, and assuredly adequate the rest of the time.
As for wokeness, well, there's no message in here, political or otherwise. I suspect Adkins himself is quite left of center, but he keeps it under wraps. Male feminist ally, I would say. Disgraceful.
Still, he believes in equal opportunity face bashing: females get their noses kicked in the same way males do, quite similarly to Chinese movies of, well, the 80s. Actually, more so: the movie features several violent, close up female deaths, which must have Hollywood's collective pants in a bunch of knots.
Not advocating anything here, but at least it's realistic. Mindless killer is gonna mindlessly kill. Everyone. Not just white (mostly Hispanic here) males, as per usual American fare.
All-in-all a forgettable but somewhat enjoyable popcorn film. Could have been somewhat good for the paltry price of one decent screenwriter ...
Created: 06-20-2025
