Category Archives: Action

Action, Action Adventure, Crime, Crime Thriller, Drama, Movie Reviews, Movies, Thriller

“BLACKHAT” (2015) UNIVERSAL PICTURES

01/16/2015 Peggy Marie 7 Comments

Ahhh Michael Mann.. First off, I am a fan..have been for ages, so many good movies & fashion statements in your TV & film work ~ and “Blackhat” is not the massive fiasco that it could be but it’s hard to know where to begin analyzing it. First off there’s the screenplay by Morgan Davis Foehl, which alternates between dull, rushed and an utter disregard for reasonable logic at times.

But let’s not rush ahead of ourselves here with all that. Chris Hemsworth stars as “Nicholas Hathaway”, the world’s greatest computer hacker who also happens to look a lot like Thor (thankfully). Currently serving 15 years for cyber-crimes, he gets furloughed from jail at the behest of his old MIT roommate “Lien Chen” (Leehom Wang) who is now a big-time higher-up in the Chinese military. Chen is working with FBI agent “Carol Barrett” (Viola Davis) to track down a hacker who put the whammy on both an Asian nuclear reactor and the American commodities exchange using malware code created by Hathaway & Chen in their college days.

The pursuit of the villain takes our team — which includes Chen’s sister “Lien” (Wei Tang), who falls in love with Hathaway in one of the most random, chemistry-free onscreen romances in recent memory — to Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia, but in all this globe-trotting studio money can buy, it’s no substitute for things little things like oh..character development, suspense and motivation. Hathaway’s character concept is lacking, and he’s one of the film’s better-written roles, and it seems only Davis can make filet mignon out of the ground beef of this material, turning vague and clunky dialogue into gold with just one or two quick quips and a sardonic glance over her sunglasses.

The screenplay, mocks us at times, with the fact that we are not supposed to take notice the bad guys’ inability to hit with directly aimed bullets, key characters – aka “The Good Guys” -despite constant flutters of automatic weapons fire, or the fact that an FBI agent asks another a personal question based on a phone call to which he was not privy to, or one of my favourite aspects, the fact that blond, six-and-a-half-foot Hemsworth is supposed to blend in with the crowds in Asia like he’s not head & shoulders above them all..literally..and attracting no second glances whatsoever as he’s on the run in airports or sneaking into computer facilities or engaging in gun battles in the middle of crowded street festivals. Lastly, that a computer hack with huge mayhem & destruction imminently pending, within a matter of hours to be precise, but curiously so, the lead characters have time to fall completely in love and plan a future relationship and as cyber-hackers they just pick up guns that they immediately know how to use truly made me shake my head as in ‘okey dokey then’.

But to best describe what truly underscores the problems with some of the filming, which oddly enough looks at it’s worst whenever there’s some type of light source on screen, whether it be a lamp or a car headlight or just the sun; so where does the big finale happen? Well…amongst hundreds of people carrying torches, but of course (insert facetious sarcasm here). Because not only is it weird and completely off base, but that these guys are carrying huge automatic weapons and no one out of all these thousands of people notice it. NONE! Come on now.

Given Sony’s recent ‘issues’ with hacking, the timing couldn’t be better for a movie about the vulnerability of international computer networks, but “Blackhat” isn’t that movie..though I’m not going to say it couldn’t be plausible, because despite what you might think, the actors are believable enough as their characters, it’s what the plot makes them do at times that isn’t. I’m thinking that pretty much no matter how you slice it, this is one hack-ity hacker pic that just hasn’t really cracked it’s own code of how to make a movie about computer espionage that doesn’t come down to scene after scene of people sitting at keyboards and making clicky-clack noises with their fingers. To his credit, Michael Mann does try to jazz things up with cool tracking shots through microchips (it’s like the express lane to Tron’s house) or even putting the camera inside a thumb-drive slot or under a keyboard that’s being typed upon, and though it has it’s entertaining moments for sure, in the end it’s to little avail in saving the film from some of the other things that make it a no go.

Grade: C-
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1980's, Action, Crime, Drama, Movie Reviews, Movies

“A MOST VIOLENT YEAR” (2014) – REVIEW ~ Incl. Q & A w/Cast & Dir/Prod/Writer

12/16/2014 Peggy Marie 4 Comments

Truth be told ~ A Most Violent Year could come off sounding like the most boring movie ever about the most dry industry ever. Set in New York City in 1981, Oscar Isaac plays “Abel Morales“, the owner of a heating oil company in the early 80’s when people, instead of having to deal with the electric or gas company for heating, they negotiated heating oil prices with the providers directly. Odd but true. But life has been good for Morales. Being an immigrant, he’s risen through the ranks from driver to owner, married a beautiful, smart woman, “Anna” (Jessica Chastain) who has a rather wealthy & somewhat connected father herself, “Bill” (Peter Gerety) and he’s just about to close the biggest deal of his life.

But all is not well at Standard Oil. Abel is trying to negotiate a deal to expand their business and gain ground by getting “Josef” (Jerry Adler) and his devoutly Jewish, not completely on the up & up, family to agree to sell their highly-valued, much in demand property to him vs. the competition. And he has 30 days to make this happen. All the while, his company is under investigation for fraud, the bank has pulled out of their real estate deal, trucks of oil are being stolen left and right from Morales’ and to make matters worse, now his seemingly perfect home life is starting to show cracks. It’s definitely a ‘violent’ year for Morales but not in how you might imagine.

A Most Violent Year plays out like a gangster movie but not like one I’ve ever seen before as it’s done in a refreshingly understated, non-sensationalist gangster movie way as these are guys who don’t even carry guns, and are actually committed to trying to conduct their business in a non-violent manner which may or may not work out for them. This is really about as far from a Scorsese type gangster flick you can get. There’s no real flash in either the direction or the acting as everything is on a very different balance here though I will say, while it might be slow at times, it is never dull. It’s like ‘Casino’ but minus everything that makes it loud, brash or wild. What’s left is a quiet, almost pensive exploration of one man’s year long struggle to keep his business and his life on the path he’s chosen. And sure, there’s the occasional flash of violence but it rarely involves our lead character directly. In fact, the key players ~ Abel, Anna, “Lawrence” (David Oyelowo), “Walsh” (Albert Brooks) and O’Leary ~ are all locked in a power struggle that rarely resorts to violence though some of them really want to use it, Abel feels business can be conducted without it. Instead, the group handle their differences in heated discussions, occasional emotional blowouts and the always to be expected backroom deal.

When Anna emerges as not only the saviour of sorts, in a pivotal scene of shockingly good grit and Abel blows up at her, is where the film breaks some truly fascinating ground. Not only does Anna emerge as the badass gangster who’s playing the angles and saving the day, but you really start to question just how moral Abel is. It’s here that you see begin to see the layers of movie really begin to reveal themselves. In possibly one of the best on-foot chase scenes that I’ve ever seen in a movie with Morales in dress shoes no less, though the scene some might say comes a little late in the game, I couldn’t help but love every second of it.

The film cements itself together not only by excellent performances from Isaac, Chastain and the strong supporting cast, but by small things like the locations and a truly fantastic step back into this world with even a great wardrobe of the time making it all the more realistic. A Most Violent Year may not be my favourite film of the year, but it will definitely emerge as a contender during awards season.

Note: Following the film was a fantastic Q & A with Dir/Writer: J.C. Chandor, Actors: Jessica Chastain, Oscar Isaac, Producers: Neal Dodson, Anna Gerb; who really gave a wonderful detailed explanation of the idea & set, even his trenchcoat idea behind the film. Truly, if you haven’t seen a J.C. Chandor movie, you’re missing out. Like, seriously missing out. So don’t skip A Most Violent Year either, you should see it and then head back and check out the director’s previous work like the wonderfully brilliant, “All is Lost” & “Margin Call”

Grade: B-

**Seen on Monday, November 17th at a PGA screening at the Arclight Theaters (Hollywood) ~ A Most Violent Year opens December 31, 2014.
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Action, Action Adventure, Adventure, Movie Reviews, Movies, Sci Fi

Review: “INTERSTELLAR” (2014)

12/09/2014 Peggy Marie 3 Comments

So had a few extra hours on Thanksgiving and yes, I finally saw “Interstellar” and boy was it LOOOOONNGGG really really long. Which would be fine if the first two hours were something special moving at a pace faster than the tortoise and the hare race. Mind you I pretty much love all of Christopher Nolan’s movies starting with the 1st one I really remember, Memento, which I thought was just so damn brilliant. Love the Batman franchise, loved Inception and actually got it (well okay..kinda got it) 🙂 But this one raises a few questions for me..one of the most notable is why does he like Anne Hathaway aka Anne – don’t forget the ‘E’ aka Anne Hackaway, so much?? She was the worst Cat Woman ever, and does no favours in this movie either..so why? ok..well as I will most likely never have that question truly answered..let’s move on.

At the beginning we meet “Cooper” (Matthew McConaughey) who is a widowed farmer/ex-astronaut, his young daughter “Murph” (Mackenzie Foy) who believes her room is haunted by a ghost who is trying to communicate with her; his father-in-law, with whom they live, “Donald” (John Lithgow) and his son, who is almost as an after thought, “Tom” (Timothee Chalamet). I say afterthought because the story heavily focuses on Cooper’s relationship with his daughter throughout the entire movie as they even label it as a sort of ‘father/daughter’ story, and I almost felt bad for the son as he isn’t prominently featured at all. But I guess that’s neither here nor there as we move along through their story where there is a school reprimand involved, which leads into a school suspension whereas Cooper & Murph then have the time to be ‘discovering’ that the ghost is actually sending them coded messages that gives them the coordinates to find which takes them on the journey where they find the secret bunker so-to-speak of NASA. See the world is almost at an end and with crops blights left & right, taking away food this planet will never see again, time is running out to figure what to do next and possibly where to go.

In steps “Professor Brand” (Michael Caine) and his daughter “Amelia Brand” (Anne Hathaway). Prof. Brand explains to them that a wormhole apparently created by alien intelligence, has given what’s left of Earth’s inhabitants hope for survival and that NASA’s old ‘Lazarus’ missions have noted 3 different planets orbiting the Black Hole ‘Gargantua’ that are potentials for human habitation.

To cut a really long story as short as can be done because I will be honest, not only would it take pages to describe the entire film (as some reviews have done..ZZzzzzz), the first two hours of this movie did not wow me in the slightest and somewhat dragged on. As they mount a mission to find which planet is best. The mission named ‘Endurance’, is where Cooper joins Brand’s daughter, biologist Amelia; scientists “Romilly” (David Gyasi) and “Doyle” (Wes Bentley); and robots TARS (voiced by Bill Irwin) and CASE (voiced by Josh Stewart). The TARS & CASE robots were pretty much my favourite ‘characters’ of the movie btw.. so to sum it up..they enter the wormhole and head to Miller, but discover the planet is so close to Gargantua that it experiences severe gravitational time dilation: each hour on the surface is seven years on Earth. It’s inhospitable to humans as it is covered by a shallow ocean roiled by enormous tidal waves. As Amelia attempts to recover Miller’s data, a wave hits, killing Doyle and delaying the shuttle’s departure. When Cooper and Amelia return to Endurance, 23 years have passed.

On Earth, the now-adult “Murphy” (Jessica Chastain) now a NASA scientist assisting Brand who, on his deathbed, Brand admits he already solved the problem and determined the project is impossible and he covered up his findings and put his faith in a “Plan B” As Murphy tries to warn her also now adult aged brother Tom, (played by Casey Affleck), and his family that it’s almost at the end of time and they must move on she concludes that Brand’s equation could work with additional data from a black hole’s singularity. (yes I had to look up this last sentence :))
Low on fuel, Endurance can only visit one more planet before returning to Earth. After much argument the team votes for Mann’s planet, but they find it to be icy and inhospitable. “Mann” (Matt Damon) reveals that he knew Plan B was the mission’s goal all along, and faked data about his planet so Endurance would rescue him which of course goes awry, and Damon’s odd character turn here as a villianous bad guy fails and he’s gonzo!

As they are nearly out of fuel, and this is truly where I got the most frightened as there is a moment where you think that Hackaway’s character Amelia, is going to be the last person left to live. Frightening truly frightening thought for most of us, and yes I am being completely facetious here..or am I.. ha! It’s also where the movie FINALLY started to pick up some and get to the brilliant part as they emerge in an extra-dimensional “tesseract”, where time appears in different dimension with portals that show glimpses of Murphy’s childhood bedroom at various times. Cooper then realizes that the wormhole and tesseract were created by a future form of humanity transcending time and space, so he was the one and now again, that did and can communicate with Murphy as the “ghost” and try to save humanity. Using the gravitational waves they discovered early on a watch, Cooper transmits TARS’s data to the adult Murphy through Morse code, allowing her to solve Brand’s equation and evacuate Earth.
Years later, Cooper awakens aboard a NASA space habitat and reunites with the now elderly Murphy (Ellen Burstyn), who has led the exodus and Earth is to be saved. Lastly, Cooper does have to go out on one final mission, to find Amelia who is still out there on Edmunds planet. hmmm.. Do I see a sequel here?!! 😀

There are no stand-out performances here. McConaughey, coming off a fantastic 2013 with crazy good performances isn’t going to get any nominations for this role as it’s rather basic. Thankfully Chastain steps up to the plate to relieve us of the agony that is Anne Hathaway (Hackaway) and as the young Murph’s, Foy also does quite well. Visually, as expected, the film can be quite stunning, but mostly only once they get into space. I appreciated Interstellar’s grand ambition and the fact that Nolan took on astrophysics and a major studio gave him $200 million to do it. If anyone could try to tackle relativity and the space-time continuum in a narrative, it’s Nolan and his intellect as a director. But, alas it proved too much to take on and make sense of, even for him. It’s is however an interesting effort worth seeing just for its concept in general, though some may end up feeling merely puzzled, which, as my friend Leif noted, knowing Nolan’s oeurve is probably the whole point.

Grade: C+

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Action, Crime Thriller, Drama, Home Invasion, Movie Reviews, Movies, Thriller

Review x 2 ~ “NIGHTCRAWLER” & “THE EQUALIZER”

11/08/2014 Peggy Marie 8 Comments

Jake Gyllenhaal plays “Lou Bloom”, a man clearly desperate not only in his quest for work as a crime ‘journalist’ in this quite creepy, psychological mayhem of a film, but also as someone so desperate to become a star of his own making in this crime contingent world, that he resorts to just about anything and everything to do so as he’s basically just an unemployed thief and an all around just plain weird dude.

Set on the streets of Los Angeles itself, which can be fun as I recognized almost every location and remember even driving by a few of them as they were filming, we get a really crazy, scary glimpse into the world that happens pretty much every day here, and scarily enough, we don’t even notice it anymore. But what probably got me the most of all of it, I honestly believe that some of what happens with Gyllenhaal’s character Lou actually really does go on. Just take a real look at the news sometimes, or what the paparazzi do here just to get a shot of someone and you too will step back a second and think twice about this movie.

This movie is all about taking the best neighborhoods in Los Angeles and make them seem unsafe. Film a car chase (albeit a really good one at that) that gets your blood pumping and your heart rate up, and make the storytelling interesting, absorbing, creepy, disturbing, and even nervously funny. That’s what I think Director Dan Gilroy pulls off here as for 95% percent of movie and I will admit I was pretty freaked out through most if it, I laughed, I cringed, and I sat numb and transfixed. Only small undeveloped parts of this movie, like how they just accepted him in the inner circle of new commentators, a disregard for the L.A.P.D ever pulling over a excessively speeding motorist over and over again, how at one point in the middle the character did annoy me to the point of well..complete annoyance.. and an ending that might not have lived up to the movie as a whole, could keep me from calling this truly flawless. But those are minor points and some of them just my own feelings as that I know I wouldn’t let this person anywhere near the actual news casting people. ha! Would I endorse this film as completely realistic? Probably not. I do watch the news, though definitely not everyday and it doesn’t seem fathomable that dead bodies with grisly images would actually be shown all the time like this on television, but again, we have seen it. But no matter what, you can’t deny how fascinating or how original these proceedings are. Nightcrawler is one bitch of a ride. And sadly, I almost feel guilty for recommending it. But I will. 🙂

As the movie plays out you realize you really don’t know anything about Lou Bloom except for the fact that he becomes obsessed with filming crime scenes in order to pocket some cold hard cash. He uses a police monitor, finds out where crimes are committed, and captures the hideous crimes on video camera. He gets paid monster dollars for these trysts but eventually gets in over his head when finally at one scene, he gets there before the police. There’s an investigation on him, he almost gets charged for murder, but what Bloom might be seriously lacking in social skills, he is smarter than everyone. He starts to blackmail his newswoman, his co-workers, all the while he just slaps on his sunglasses, gives a steely face outward demeanor, and pretty much gives the middle finger to anyone who might get in his way. There is a weird Travis Bickle a la Taxi Driver feel to this character that Gyllenhaal really exudes well.

Now the rest of the cast of Nightcrawler is almost just as creepy and definitely as noteworthy. Their roles are equal parts nasty, mean-spirited, unethical, and cold. Bill Paxton as “Joe Loder” is as always, reliable playing a supporting role as a fellow rival to Bloom. He’s jealous, angry, and ultimately pays the price for being his crime scene, videotaping rival. Rene Russo “Nina Romina” (who happens to be married to the director in real life) looks great and is fantastic at playing the coy and somewhat frigid as she manages the news station where Bloom sells his videos. She wants ratings, wants respect, and doesn’t give a shit about what’s right and what’s wrong. Then we have Riz Ahmed as “Rick” Bloom’s sidekick/assistant and he’s startlingly effective. He may be poor and unwanted, but he still has a sense of decency and with a few un-choice words, while he goes down in a wave of flames.

All in all, this movie will stick with you for a while after as I saw it a week ago, and it most definitely has done so. Oh, and I haven’t watched the news since. ha! 😀

Grade: B-

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SECOND REVIEW – “THE EQUALIZER”

NOTE: As this movie has been out for awhile, but I was gone and not able to see it till just this week..I did a double header of this and “Nightcrawler” (oh my bum hurt after so long in the seat..trust me!! :D) But it was well worth it. Both movies had enough edge to them to keep me motivated to watch.

Firstly, I did not know nor would I have guessed that this movie was inspired by the classic TV series, The Equalizer as I don’t remember at all watching it as a kid, I was more a Dynasty child!!..ha! The film here stars Denzel Washington as “Robert McCall”, a mild-mannered some what of a “mystery man” who spends his days working at a hardware megastore and his nights as an insomniac drinking tea and reading the classics at a local diner When a young girl from the diner “Teri” (Chloe Grace Moretz) finds herself in over her head with the Russian mob, Robert can’t ignore it. Instead, he steps outside of his quiet, controlled world to help her. But what starts out as an attempt to help the troubled teen soon turns into a battle against a crazy vicious pimp and his crime syndicate.

Despite his normal job and his simple life, it soon becomes very clear that McCall isn’t just an ordinary guy taking on an extraordinary situation ~ nor is he just another determined cop. He has a very specific skill set as well as the training that enables him to walk unarmed into a room full of bad guys and kill every last one of them (in shockingly brutal ways) in 30 seconds or less, using a variety of makeshift weapons. And he manages to do it all in the coolest, smoothest way possible. But the character also has his share of quirks ~ from his strange obsession with his stopwatch to an almost superhuman ability to case a room with his almost MacGyver-like tactics. And though his occasionally over-the-top behavior can border on laughable, it also makes him different, like the kind of character that you’d expect to find in the latest flood of superhero type movies. But this isn’t your basic PG-13 movie. It’s dark and gritty and sometimes shockingly, graphically violent, though, at the same time, it’s also undeniably entertaining with a great villain in Marton Csokas as “Teddy”. You know I love my villains when they are played well..and he does a great job here.

Still, The Equalizer isn’t a fast-moving film. It builds slowly, a little to slowly at times, but taking its time to introduce the characters and to make sure that everyone in the audience knows what a good guy McCall is. It’s also much longer than it needs to be. But Washington carries it all in a way that seems effortless because there’s just something about him that makes even the film’s slow moments seem bearable.

Time and time again, Washington has proven himself to be tough but lovable & reliable if not also adaptable. And in The Equalizer, he gives his role both classic charm and ferocity, making it an extreme but enjoyable enough of a thriller.

Grade: C+

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Action, Crime Thriller, Movie Reviews, Movies, Thriller

REVIEW ~ “JOHN WICK” (2014) Lionsgate

11/03/2014 Peggy Marie 2 Comments

It’s been quite sometime since I sat at a movie and completely & totally rooted for a character so much so as I did John Wick. Even though you know he’s really not a ‘good guy’ per se’ you really truly can’t help doing so in this movie. But before you even head into this movie you know it’s going to be in-your-face non-stop, kick-ass, kill ’em, violent. And it is..I mean the trailer tells you this..what it doesn’t tell you is how much fun it’s all going to be. Not funny ha-ha..but just plain fun – entertaining -go for it – good time action packed movie. Betcha ya didn’t expect all that now did you?!! Because I didn’t, but I really enjoyed myself at this movie and coming from a someone like me who loves movies, but can be super picky..this film was a nice surprise for me.

First of all can we talk about Keanu Reeves for just a quick moment. No one ever said he’s the best actor, but damn this is his movie..no if’s, and’s or but’s..it’s all him and his wooden acting style fits this movie like a glove, as let’s face it, it’s always best when Keanu doesn’t have a lot of dialogue and the amount here is just perfect for him to carry out and boy does he do it well, in probably his best performance in a decade or so. He performs so well as the cool, calm demeanoured “John Wick” a retired assassin code named “The Bogeyman” and moves with such ease during this super fast-paced, heavy stunt-fest so smoothly, that you will never even realize that hey..Keanu is now FIFTY yrs. old, no way..not a chance.

So to set it up, in his hey-day the now retired, Wick/Bogeyman was the ‘go to’ guy if you…well..needed someone assassinated. And within minutes of the start of the film, the stage is set for what exactly John Wick can do, when the son “Iosef Tarasov” (Alfie Allen) of Russian mob boss “Viggo Tarasov” (Michael Nyquist), runs into Wick as he’s just randomly pumping gas in his badass Mustang and Iosef likes the Mustang, offers to buy the muscle car, which John politely refuses. Next thing you know, the Russian thugs break into his home to steal the car and take the one thing that he could share his grief with, a dog his wife “Helen” (Bridget Moynahan) gave him before she passed, AND then kick the crapola out of him to boot. Well that’s all it takes to reeaally piss Wick off as we ALL know..you don’t hurt an assassins dog for chrissakes, so off he goes to his basement with a sledge hammer and breaks up the floor and unearths a clearly long forgotten stash of weapons and some odd gold coins. Then things get ugly – for the mob that is.. Word gets back to his former boss, Viggo, from chop shop car owner “Aureilo” (John Leguizamo), who’s recognized his friend Wick’s Mustang. Viggo informs his son in no uncertain terms that he’s royally screwed up, then sends in in a dozen or so guys to meet the threat head on. But you’re gonna need a lot more than that against John Wick!! And that my friends is when the non-stop action and fun really start. This is pure high-energy, in your face, revenge flick and ladies and gentlemen, hold onto your hats as you’re in for a rollercoaster of a damn good time.

Along with Keanu’s great action spin, there are many fun supporting roles here and one of my favs is the hit-mans hotel of choice, Continental’s manager “Charon” (Lance Reddick) This is a ‘special’ hotel where you can check in only with those ‘special’ gold coins Wick had in that cache he dug up. You’re not supposed to do ‘business’ at this hotel but Viggo entices our one female hit’man’ “Ms. Perkins” (Adrianne Palicki) to do just that and go after Wick for an extra payday. There is also the wonderful Willem Dafoe as “Marcus” a former colleague who is taking names and kicking some ass for a short time here with Wick, the always fun Ian McShane as the Continental owner, “Winston”, Dean Winters as “Avi” the wimpy-ish inept sideman to Viggo who can’t understand a word of Russian and there entails a few funny moments with his lack of ‘understanding’, and Clarke Peters as “Harry” the old-school assassin. All of them add loads of flavour to this movie, but again, make no mistake..this is Keanu’s movie and he kills it..

This film rocks and this film rolls..all in the right ways and it’s truly loads of fun! Of course there are plot holes, like how is Wick even functioning after what he goes through, but it doesn’t matter, because you’re too busy cheering for John Wick!! There were times I wanted to just scream out a big WHOOOO HOOOO! And you will too. I take ’em as I see them and I had a great time watching this movie. Enjoy people..enjoy!!!

Grade: B-

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Grading Scale: A = Oscar-worthy; B = Above average – must see; C = Average – should see; D = Don’t waste time or money, VOD or cable at best; F = yeah, don’t see the movie under any circumstances (+ or – gives it an edge up or down)

Action, Crime Thriller, Dark Comedy, Drama, Dramady, Thriller

REVIEW ~ “GONE GIRL” (2014) 20th Century Fox

10/09/2014 Peggy Marie 6 Comments

Now that pretty much everyone and their mother has done a review of this movie..I present you with mine!! hahahaha As it’s been a week since I’ve seen it..Yes, I procrastinated big time on this review..oopsie!! So..here we goooooooo.. If you like a mix of the darkest of dark comedies, mixed with suspense and a good thrill..this is the movie for you. To start with, even as an avid reader, I didn’t read the book specifically because I wanted to see the movie and not be critical of it or know what was going to happen. I’m glad I didn’t as it keeps the many surprises of plot twists that even though it’s not super hard to figure them out, I was glad to see it all unravel on the big screen. The toughest part of a review of this movie is not revealing everything in a review..AKA SPOILERS.. and as I never do, and this is a film you especially want to just ‘experience’ all the twists and turns yourself..trust me.

On the day of his 5th wedding anniversary, “Nick Dunne” (Ben Affleck) day goes from starting off bad..to worse day ever! After spending some time gossiping with his sister “Margo” (Carrie Coon) over his troubled marriage at the ‘The Bar” that they own together, Nick returns home to discover what looks to be the scene of a crime. His wife “Amy Dunne” (Rosamund Pike) seems to be missing. Assigned to the case is “Detective Rhonda Boney” (Kim Dickens) and “Officer Jim Gilpin” (Patrick Fugit) whom suspect foul play, and almost immediately, the local community and the nation somewhat, goes on a search for Amy in part no thanks to the media firestorm that erupts as a result provides the movie’s most pointed satired character by far.. “Ellen Abbott” (Missi Pyle) who plays a news pundit whose look and manner is an unmistakable, spot-on takedown of a certain television personality that I’m sure you will not only figure out, but have a good laugh at.

Nick tells us one side of their marriage—a troubled one, yes, but one that has its reasons for being in that state. Amy’s parents “Rand & Marybeth Elliot”(David Clennon/Lisa Banes) are the authors of a series of children’s books aka the reason their daughter’s disappearance become national news, which are snidely based on what their expectations were for Amy while she was growing up which she didn’t always succeed at. In her diary, which cleverly is a big focal point of this movie so pay attention to it, Amy agrees with a lot of Nick says, but she also hints at a darker side to Nick that he doesn’t show.

That’s the gist of the plot, and again, I don’t want to spoil any of it for anyone as there’s so much more that gradually unravels here. Fincher has a good style and I always seem to like his films, as they have a good edge and pace to them which makes them pretty enjoyable to watch. Affleck for me is fits perfectly in this role with his boyish charm on full throttle, Rosamund Pike, who I must admit is not always my fav, in movies..but here she is superb & chilling in providing layer after layer to be stripped away until only the unexpected, terrifying truth remains. But my favourite acting here comes from Kim Dickens as the detective with a somewhat comical, sarcastic tone to everything she does. Yes, Neil Patrick Harris is here too as “Desi Collings” but his character is just to weak for me and yes, so is Tyler Perry, playing against his usual Madea type, as the lawyer “Tanner Bolt” and people seem to think this is such a breakout drama performance for him..uhhh NO..remember “Alex Cross” yeah, he’s not all that here either, sorry. This film is a mesmerizing a two hour rollercoaster ride…is it an award winning movie, for me no..but damn it’s entertaining and definitely worth the bang for the buck you will be paying for it. Go..enjoy..and be entertained!

And at the end..make sure you always remember the big question as I think we can always ask..”What have we done to each other”

Grade: B- (above average – MUST see)

(see grading scale)

#peggyatthemovies

Action, Home Invasion, Movie Reviews, Movies, Thriller

REVIEW: “NO GOOD DEED” (2014 ~ SONY PICTURES)

09/16/2014 Peggy Marie 2 Comments

Ohhhhh Idris Idris Idris… I knew walking in to this movie that I wasn’t going to get an Oscar winner..just in case you’re wondering, I was right. 😀 What you do get though, is a mildly entertaining, but pretty much feeling like straight out of a Telenovela, series of events. I’m a big fan of both Idris Elba & Taraji P. Henson and both do a decent job here in at least trying to make this plot believable. I mean let’s face it..what do you think of when you hear Idris Elba’s name ~ handsome, talented, gritty and a bit funny at times to name a few. The same could be said for Taraji. Here Elba is just flat out villainous & Taraji somewhat empowering.

Before I go on here ~ I want everyone who reads this review to know that everything I am about to describe takes place in the trailer, so is no way a spoiler as I hate big spoilers in reviews and try to NEVER do them!! (end note)

The film starts off introducing the audience to Elba’s character, “Colin Evans”, at his parole hearing. Colin is an extremely violent and dangerous felon, who is denied parole and escapes during his transfer back to prison. Taraji P. Henson’s character, “Terri”, is a former career women, a District Attorney turned stay-at-home mom with a toddler and a baby. Colin arrives at Terri’s home, while her husband “Jeffrey” (Henry Simmons) is of course, conveniently away on a golf weekend for his fathers birthday, and Colin runs his vehicle off the road in a big storm, and proceeds to ask to use her telephone. – This is of course when all the chaos begins.. While there are many many..and I mean MANY predictable moments including the ever so stereo-typed, single, ‘in heat’ best friend “Meg” (Leslie Bibb) coming over for a ‘girls night’ and coming on to Colin etc etc.. You really do see it all coming right at you and no offense to the actors, as they have the power to elevate this film and make do as best they can.

Elba handles Colin’s psychotic breakdowns in a unique manner. Most films just show a villainous character in their murderous rage, but “NO GOOD DEED” will take you through Colin’s mind for a few seconds before he snaps. Elba, being the talented man that he is, does an incredible job showing Colin’s ‘normality’ versus his more well… ‘psycho stage’.

For the most part, the screenplay, coming from Aimee Lagos, is completely predictable though probably not meant to be that way. There are very few twists and turns that you won’t see coming or that will have you on the edge of your seat, except for maybe one singular twist. And for me at least, laughing at scenes that maybe weren’t meant to be funny, I can’t help it, if something is bad, I tend to laugh, especially when it just seems like Idris takes a licking and keeps on ticking. I mean ouch! ouch! and ouch! but let’s hear it for #GirlPower here from Taraji!

My summation: Even though Colin is every person’s character to hate, Idris does him justice and yes, Idris Elba is still my choice to be the next James Bond 😀 I mean everyone gets a bad movie here and there right. Though there are more plot holes than a slice of swiss cheese..and yes, it’s also cheesy, lacks complete and total believability and though neither Elba nor Henson can save this mess of a film, as I noted before, it’s cheap thrills plot IS mildly entertaining. And it did sweep last weekend’s box office though I’m guessing that won’t last. Sadly ‘No Good Deed’ is just that..No good..and I’m probably giving it a much higher grade than it deserves just based on the fact that I adore Idris & Taraji. #sillyme oh and if “No Good Deed” teaches you anything..it’s the same old cliche, for crimeny sakes, don’t let strangers in your house on a stormy night when you’re home alone. *sigh*

Grade: C- (below average)

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Action, Movie Reviews, Movies, Spy Thriller, Thriller

REVIEW – “THE NOVEMBER MAN” (2014)

08/28/2014 Peggy Marie 7 Comments

Let me just preface this whole review by from the beginning.. I love Pierce Brosnan..yep..there I said. I don’t give a shit what people say..I loved him as James Bond, clearly a role he was meant to play.. And in so many more movies like ‘Evelyn’, ‘The Tailor of Panama’, ‘The Matador’ just to list a few. So you can clearly imagine how much I was looking forward to this movie ESPECIALLY after seeing him play the James Bond video game on Jimmy Fallon last week & seeing him pitch it.. My hope of all hope was to just see Brosnan back in some sort of spy, actiony-type thriller delivering the one-liners as only he could, with a dose of good action.

So a quick brief over of the plot – “Peter Devereaux” (Pierce Brosnan), a now-retired CIA agent is brought back into service by one of his closest friends “Hanley” (Bill Smitrovich) to help out with one last mission helping to protect someone they both know “Natalia Ulanova” (Mediha Musliovic) who happens to be Devereaux’s old flame and claims to have a information & a name that once given to them, will turn the pending Russian election for President upside down. Turns out, much to his surprise, he is going up against his old, younger protege’ “David Mason” (Luke Bracey) whom he considered a ‘drop’ after a mission gone very bad involving the death of innocent bystanders including a child. They are both looking for “Alice Fournier” (Olga Kurylenko) who unbeknownst to us is really a refugee named Mira from the Chechen War who has enough information to take down the man who is in line to be the next President (aka Dictator) of Russia “Arkady Federov” (Lazar Ristovski). In between all this is a Russian hitwoman “Alexa” (Amila Terzimehic) who as far as I could tell, is trying to basically kill everyone.

As with many others at this screening, I wanted to love this movie..I wanted it to be a great action flick with Pierce Brosnan just giving it all his witty, charming debonairness that he has.. sadly, this is not the return to super spy-ness I had hoped for. It’s more like a mediocre spin at a storyline we’ve seen way to many times done way better say 10 years ago with the Bourne series or Mission Impossible. It all seemed very dated with plot holes GALORE. Brosnan tries, and sometimes succeeds in making the best of this character with maybe a bit of a meaner edge that say James Bond would never be allowed to have While it has a few good moments when Devereaux is outwitting his protege’ Mason ~ for the most part it’s dull, uneven and lackluster…oh and did I mention the plot holes.. At one point, Devereaux threatens to harm Mason’s next door neighbor “Sarah” (Eliza Taylor) whom he has of course, just slept with..by cutting one of her arteries & making him choose to save her or go after him.. yet we never know what happens to her. The ending is one you can see coming at you a mile away and just as sappy as you know it’s going to be once you see, again a mile away, whom has backstabbed who.

I wish Brosnan’s performance here was something to write home about, and it’s okay..but not enough to make the movie pop. Luke Bracey is no where near suave enough to up against Brosnan as a spy and does his best just to keep up here. He doesn’t carry himself of have the oompha Brosnan has, which let’s face it, is what makes him so like-able in most of his roles. Adding even more James Bond-ness wanna be to this movie is well.. a former Bond girl, Olga Kurylenko who while she has some decent chemistry with Brosnan, you feel as though she might be suited a bit better to Bracey’s character considering you realize Brosnan’s character has a 12 yr old daughter whom she doesn’t look much older than. But while she has a few interesting moments she really just doesn’t cut it here as in one scene especially you just want to scream out “REALLY” as while being hunted by literally EVERYONE and they all want to kill her, she stops at the public airport internet service to write up her newspaper story like it’s all the norm. Now I know that’s the writing also, but at least try to make it seem believable..that’s what acting is after all.

Last request.. remember when Sean Connery came back for one last Bond after he’d been retired all those year..yeah..THAT is all I’m asking for.. give Pierce a chance!! #neversayneveragainpartdeux

Grade: C- (below average)

#peggyatthemovies

Grading scale: A = exceptional ~ Oscar worthy B = above average – must see C = Average D = don’t see F: just don’t (+ or – gives it an edge up or down)

Action, Campy, film noir, Movie Reviews, Movies, Uncategorized

REVIEW: “SIN CITY 2 ~ A DAME TO KILL FOR” (PREMIERE 2014)

08/22/2014 Peggy Marie 2 Comments

Ohhhh Robert Rodriguez..what happened to you since the days of “El Mariachi?” I loved that movie and the sheer basic-ness of it. Even “Desperado” though somewhat amped up with bigger stars and all, showed you still had spirit. “Spy Kids” was fun!! Then,..well somehow it became all green screen & well..’film noir’ if that’s what you would like to call it. “Sin City” a movie with so much art direction, enough decapitations to make the Roman’s say WOW! yet so very dull and uninvolving.

“Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” seeks to pay homage to the graphic novel by re-imagining it as a feature film; unfortunately, the big screen and the 3D merely call attention to the aspects of the book that either don’t work or don’t translate easily from one to another because I got lost & a bit bored somewhere in there. First of all, there’s the narration..ohhhhh so, so much narration, with so many monologues laid over soooo many scenes of people drinking, driving, grimacing or stripping without taking their bras off. (The latter being “Nancy” (Jessica Alba). Add to all this a ridiculously thick layer of sexism, with every woman in the film portrayed as a prostitute, stripper or man-trap. There’s a policeman’s wife who dares to be over the age of 40, and is well then of course cheated on because ya know..that’s what happens to all women at that age (yawn), a vengeance-driven dancer who has to mutilate herself to get a man to help her carry out her vendetta. Heaven forbid she do it on her own in a story like this. It seems to try to be a bit self-parody, but completely lacks the sense of humour required.

As with its the first “Sin City”, which was a whole (gasp!) 9 years ago, this sequel sees directors Frank Miller, who also wrote the novels, and previously mentioned Rodriguez shooting their actors on green-screen and surrounding them with so much animation, hyper-stylized lighting and art direction to make the movie look as much like a comic book as possible. It’s a clever gimmick for about 10 minutes, but then you start noticing how the actors have been directed not to move their faces much, so that they’ll look more characters on a page. The blank expressions (and again!! that crushing narration) merely point out the fact that lines like “She didn’t deserve a second thought — and I couldn’t get her out of my mind,” probably work much better on the page than they do when said out loud as they don’t work well.

The new hero is gambler “Johnny” (Joseph Gordon Levitt) beats corrupt politician “Senator Rourke” (Powers Boothe) in a big game at the poker table but comes to regret it. Rourke becomes a target for Nancy, because the senator killed her lover “Hartigan”(Bruce Willis) who appears periodically as a kinda passive-aggressive ghost, private eye “Dwight” (Josh Brolin) finds himself trapped by the over dramatic manipulation of his ex “Ava” (Eva Green), a femme fatale with a rich husband and a wicked soul. While I’ve still yet to figure out what makes some think Green is so wonderful all of a sudden in the acting world because I’ve only seen some very mediocre acting, I will give it that she is the only female in this movie who seems to see through this movie’s ludicrousness and dares to one-up it. Her and Brolin’s nudity feels like it should be and they show a lot more skin than any of the strippers (thank you Josh!!:)) and she turns Ava’s greed into one of the few tangible objects in this movie made up principally of special effects. “Marv” (Mickey Rourke) brings a bit of soul to his role, a bit tough-guy with a heart.

This being Rodriguez’s second sequel in a row now, Machete Kills being the first, in which he turns sex, violence and general exploitation into a rather dull movies at best with yes, stars galore in it. All either movie had to be was entertaining, but neither accomplished that task; so for a film loaded with decapitations and gun-toting ladies in bondage gear, Sin City 2 gets really tedious really quickly. But this genre definitely has it’s fans and they will probably love it whether it was good or bad. On a side note: Did anyone else notice or be a bit well..skeeved out by the fact that Rodriguez once cast 13-year-old Alexa PenaVega as a spunky little Spy Kid but now gives the 26-year-old actress roles as a stripper or a whore…hmmm..maybe that’s just weird to me and yes I know. we all grow up..but this..I dunno..was just weird for me. So as my friend Fisher said to me when I invited him to the premiere on Tuesday…”nah..the premiere party will be a blast with all those different people showing up, but the movie won’t be” and that my friends summed it up completely. Premiere party where I got to meet Demian Bichir who happened to be there and I am such a fan though he’s not even in the movie, was my most exciting moment, the movie…was not.

Grade: C-

#peggyatthemovies

Grading Scale: A = Oscar worthy; B = Above average – must see; C = Average D = Don’t waste time or money F = Just don’t see (+ or – gives it a edge up or down)

Action, Action Adventure, Campy, Horror, Movie Reviews, Movies, Uncategorized

REVIEW ~ “THE GUEST” – PREMIERE: SUNDANCE NEXT FESTIVAL

08/17/2014 Peggy Marie Leave a comment

Ever wonder what happens after you leave ‘Downton Abbey’ as one of it’s most popular characters of the show..’Matthew’?’ Well this movie might answer some of those questions for you. From the get go you wonder to yourself..’what happened to that pasty-white Brit who played as one of the Brit’s upperclassmen so very well.. cuz let me tell you..THIS Dan Stevens is definitely not that guy. THIS Dan Stevens looks amazing, someone clearly got a tan, worked out & came over to the dark side..hahahaha This character he plays here is such a far-fetch than what we are used to seeing him in, I wouldn’t think they are even one and the same person. Now did I love this movie..well…I will admit to being confused for a bit if they actually meant it as a serious movie, sorta like the pitch/trailer was, or what exactly it was meant to be. It starts off creepy, goes to serious, goes campy, goes silly, goes action-y, goes just plain stupid, goes horror. After a while you get the jist that it’s just supposed to be B or even D movie campy as anything..and if you can realize that from the beginning you will probably enjoy it more than I did the first hour because it will make much more sense.. It wasn’t till the Q & A afterwards with Director: Adam Wingard & Writer: Simon Barrett that I actually gleaned this important fact. ha! They wanted a ‘Terminator’ meets “Halloween’ type vibe..

Serious part of the plot starts off with “David” (Dan Stevens) showing up at the front door of the of family of his deceased Army buddy Caleb’s house and within the blink of an eye, he is invited to stay by the mom, “Laura” (Sheila Kelly) in her son’s old room no less. Well Dad “Spencer” (Leland Orser) comes home to find this all out and of course has a freak out moment, which quickly passes as they share some beers, cause you know..you can trust people after you’ve shared a few beers! ha! Luckily the daughter, “Anna” (Maika Monroe) figures out that all is probably not on the up and up with this guy, his behaviour, as she takes him to a party with her is really off..her friends start disappearing, the local gun dealer in a cameo from Ethan Embry & town dealer “Craig” (Joel David Moore) – whoosh! gone.. her dad’s boss, boyfriend “Zeke” (Chase Williamson) gives her trouble..have no fear he gets busted after being set up by David.. NO ONE is safe it seems. Her brother “Luke” (Brendan Meyer) thinks David is great after he kicks the school bullies asses for harassing him..so the only person who ‘gets it’ that David is a complete & utter psychopath is Anna.. After she calls the military admin to check on him and they send out basically, a hit squad led by “Carver” (Lance Reddick) after David. What ensues for the next 45min is just so over the top, though some of it was funny..but mostly it was just ridiculous as it turns out David aka “The Guest” is really part of some secret military operation so when he annihilates the whole team plus 1/2 the family in some of the most bizarro scenes of pure mayhem..I had to shake my head a few times as this was a major sub-plot that was pretty underdeveloped as it just gets sorta sprung on you..The following whole Halloween carnival scene where it Anna & Luke are fighting against David is probably the best and worst part of the movie, if that makes sense at all.. 🙂

As for Dan Stevens performance.. some are hailing it as really good..I mean I guess since we are so used to seeing him playing these completely different Brit period piece roles… so yeah..seeing him up on the screen looking so damn good, while it could be considered well..distracting to say the least..but of course in a good way, I didn’t think the performance was great..as he played it in a restrained kinda way..when it seemed as though it should be more over the top..following in the genre of the movie, but it’s definitely not a bad performance and shows he can make his mark doing some other fun stuff, hence the reasoning behind leaving Downton.

Lastly, the soundtrack was given kudos by some..I guess you really have to like and be familiar with speed/heavy metal, which I am not as there were times it almost overpowered the scenes for me. I like soundtracks to be part of and enhance the movie..not be the movie.. Thankfully also the Q & A afterwards cleared up many points about this movie for me at least. It was moderated by Nicolas Winding Refn of “Drive & Bronson” fame, who while he might think out of the box as a director at times, clearly thinks he is the cat’s pajamas..(sunglasses in a movie theatre..just stop) and while I liked Bronson..well.. let’s just say I like a fun, bantering Q & A, not one where the moderator actually seems rude and is putting down the Writer: Simon Barrett & Director: Adam Wingard while moderating. Not cool guy..not cool. Overall judgement of this movie.. I liked it, mostly because of the campy silliness, but I didn’t love it as for a supposed horror/action thriller as it was really neither and never lived up to full satisfaction of either..

Grade: C

#peggyatthemovies

Grading Scale: A = Oscar worthy; B = Above average – must see; C = Average; D = Don’t waste your time or money; F= Don’t see the movie (+ or – gives it an edge up or down)

Peggy at the Movies

Category Archives: Action

“BLACKHAT” (2015) UNIVERSAL PICTURES

“A MOST VIOLENT YEAR” (2014) – REVIEW ~ Incl. Q & A w/Cast & Dir/Prod/Writer

Review: “INTERSTELLAR” (2014)

Review x 2 ~ “NIGHTCRAWLER” & “THE EQUALIZER”

REVIEW ~ “JOHN WICK” (2014) Lionsgate

REVIEW ~ “GONE GIRL” (2014) 20th Century Fox

REVIEW: “NO GOOD DEED” (2014 ~ SONY PICTURES)

REVIEW – “THE NOVEMBER MAN” (2014)

REVIEW: “SIN CITY 2 ~ A DAME TO KILL FOR” (PREMIERE 2014)

REVIEW ~ “THE GUEST” – PREMIERE: SUNDANCE NEXT FESTIVAL

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