Month: March 2021

Nobody

Rated: MA15+Nobody

Directed by: Ilya Naishuller

Written by: Derek Kolstad

Produced by: Kelly McCormick, David Leitch, Braden Aftergood, Bob Odenkirk, Marc Provissiero

Executive Producers: Derek Kolstad, Marc S. Fisher, Annie Marter, Tobey Maguire

Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, RZA, Aleksey Serebryakov and Christopher Lloyd.

Bloody, handcuffed and lighting a cigarette, to then reach into his pocket to open a can of tuna?  Kinda sums up the character that is Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk).

He’s a veteran.  But known only to be The Auditor.  A seemingly benign role that more likely means the last person you’ll ever meet.

But now, Hutch is a family man with a wife, Becca (Connie Niesen) and two kids.

The family moments are captured well, without overdramatising the sentiment – how is it kids know just the right thing to say to make you feel better?

Although, I was confused about the extent of Becca’s involvement or knowledge of Hutches previous life.

But the gist of the changed man was there; the family life where every day seems the same: ‘I may have overcorrected,’ is one aside from Hutch.

Until a pair of robbers break into his house.

Nobody has that classic formula of bad guy turned good until he’s wronged.  He’ll take punishment even though he knows he can retaliate.  He’ll take it until he’s pushed too far.

And if you think that sounds a little familiar the script is from Derek Kolstad (John Wick franchise).

The getting pushed was a little weak here.  But the retaliation was awesome.

Bloody and vicious with broken-bat-wiped-across-chest, and hit over the head with boiling tea kettle action (classic) included.

There’s a character in the credits named, ‘Big Brute,’ which aptly sums up the enemies Hutch has to take down.

And Odenkirk as Hutch is good fun with his asides and ever suffering demeanour – but he’s not too layered.  More, a need to break out of his self-made prison and to bloody his fists to feel alive again.

Christopher Lloyd as grandpa is a cracker.

But the story felt a little thin to me – maybe there’s a sequel coming with backstory?  AKA the John Wick series?  That would be a treat.

So without too high an expectation, well, I did go in with really high expectations being such a fan of Odenkirk, I was a little disappointed but overall still had a lot of fun.  Great ride.

Godzilla Vs Kong

Rated: MGodzilla Vs Kong

Directed by: Adam Wingard

Produced by: Thomas Tull, Jon Jasni, Brian Rogers, Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric McLeod

Screenplay by: Eric Pearson, Max Borenstein

Story by: Terry Rossio, Michael Dougherty, Zach Shields

Based on: Godzilla by Toho King Kong by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper

Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eiza González, Julian Dennison, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir and Kaylee Hottie.

Kong bows to no-one.

But it’s a fight until one submits when it comes to the Alpha Titans.

A sequel to, Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Kong: Skull Island, here the ancient enemies, Godzilla and Kong are kept apart – Kong detained back at Skull Island and Godzilla keeping his peace with humanity. Until he attacks Apex Cybernetics seemingly unprovoked.

But there’s more to Apex lurking beneath the surface, Godzilla instinctively sniffing out any challenge…

There’s always an expectation with the mega monster movies of some cheesy moments, Godzilla Vs Kong the fourth film in Legendary’s MonsterVerse – and there’s some borderline dialogue with cliché comments like Dr. Nathan Lind’s (Alexander Skarsgård), ‘I might have an idea, but it’s crazy.’

And, ‘No one keeps the reigns on Kong,’ from Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall).

But combined with Kong waking up, scratching his hairy butt before taking a morning wash under a waterfall, it all kinda blends into a light-hearted banter that keeps the film rolling in between explosive monster fighting action.

Godzilla Vs Kong is loud, colourful and at times I felt like I was on a roller coaster.

Going back into the history of the two ancient titans, with redacted documents flashing at the beginning of the film, I thought there’d be more to the story. But the backbone of the film is the fight to be the alpha titan: the fight not so much the why.

What was surprising was the effects as ships sped up to 600km through blue lights and exploding through a crack in the centre of the earth to break into the upside-down Hollow World that tilts back onto itself, filled with sparkling blue rocks and lush forests and bat-like vultures reaching out with strong legs to rip you apart.

I highly recommend viewing this film on the big screen.

Made for a younger audience with asides from returning character, Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown), along with, I’m-afraid-of-guns, Josh Valentine (Julian Dennison); there’s also the conspiracy theorist, Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), and, ‘That podcast is filling your head with rubbish,’ from Madison’s dad – I was still able to have a giggle at the antics of the characters, while silently cheering for both Kong and Godzilla. Hard not to be a fan of both.

And while there’s nothing new here with the story (or didn’t feel like it,anyway), I enjoyed the spectacle.

For me, better than, Godzilla: King of Monsters but not as good as, Kong: Skull Island (John C. Reilly as Marlow: pure gold).

Cosmic Sin

Rated: MCosmic Sin

Directed by: Edward Drake

Written by: Edward Drake and Corey Large

Produced by: Corey Large

Starring: Frank Grillo, Bruce Willis, Brandon Thomas Lee, Perrey Reeves, Corey Large, Lochlyn Munro.

A sci-fi action movie that lacked a good hook and in the end, missed the mark.

Cosmic sin: When a species makes a pre-emptive strike, to commit genocide and wipe out an entire race – to stop a war that hasn’t begun…

A task General James Ford (Bruce Willis) has already had practice, wiping out 70 million souls when a colonised planet wanted to separate from the Alliance.

Cosmic Sin is a sci-fi that leaps through the years from 2031, the first colonisation of Mars, through to 2524 when humans make First Contact with an alien species.

‘We may not be alone in the universe,’ says Lt Fiona Ardene (Adelaide Kane), one of the only believable characters in the film.

Ethnologist Dr. Lea Goss (Perry Reeves) wants to know if the contact was positive or negative?

First contact was not positive.

Hence General Eron Ryle (Frank Grillo) making the call, bringing in the Blood General, in case they need to drop another Q-Bomb, to not just stop a war but to save the human race.

The clock ticks as minutes pass since first contact while a rag-tag team is put together to follow radio-active tracing back to the alien’s home planet.

To fight to save humanity.

It gets a little dramatic shown in the conversations between the team members provoking a feeling of forced sentiment that didn’t go anywhere because it was all glossed over, the emotion relying on strings in the soundtrack and some knowing eye contact.

I guess what you’d expect from an action movie, but I wanted more meat with this storyline of making First Contact – not just an immediate: us versus them.

It felt contrived: the honking horns, machine guns, smoking cigarettes.

The dialogue missed the mark as well, with only a rare moment of light-hearted exchange, mostly from the Bruce Willis character, ‘I’m just thinking,’ says his side-kick Dash, (Corey Large), who both wants to fight and buy his general a drink.

To which Ford replies, ‘Did it hurt?’

The effects were OK, with space ship battles like red laser tag while the team shot past in armoured space-suits.

The film was shot using Sony Venice cameras at 6K with Zeiss Master Anamorphic lenses.  The look of the film made by, “‘baking in’ a high contrast photographic look into the raw files, thus allowing the colorists to dial in the films primary colors: black and magenta.”

But the story felt choppy, like another draft was needed. And the forced emotion, l have to say, made me cringe.

Black Box (Boîte Noire)

Rated: MBlack Box (Boîte Noire)

Directed and Written by: Yann Gozlan

Produced by: Wassim Béji, Thibault Gast, Mattias Weber

Starring: Pierre Niney, Lou de Laâge, André Dussollier, Sébastien Pouderoux, Oliver Rabourdin.

French with English Subtitles

“Make the CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder) talk”, says Renier, head of BEA (Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety) (André Dussollier) to investigator Mathieu (Pierre Niney) after an Atrian 800 passenger plane goes down for, ‘Reasons unknown.’

Just starting to write this review you can already see there’s a lot of tech-speak in this film.  Which I enjoyed.  The analytics conducted by main character Mathieu just added another dimension to this suspenseful investigation of what really caused a brand new aircraft to crash during it’s flight from Dubai to Paris.

Mathieu specialises in acoustics.  He’s precise.  He can hear changes in black box recordings other investigators can’t.   But the price of his skill is not being able to stop hearing.

He’s always questioning, always listening, even when his team leader, Pollack (Rabourdin) tells him to stop.  Even when his wife, Noémie (Lou de Laâge) becomes afraid he’s hearing things that aren’t there.

The film invites the audience to listen as carefully as Mathieu as he investigates, literally pulling me to the edge of my seat, following the twists of this mystery as the story goes deeper.

I really don’t want to go into detail about the storyline or give anything away.  But to say I was completely absorbed into the film, the scenes flowing from one moment to the next, the layering of one moment so the first viewing is given a whole new perspective when replayed again later as Mathieu visualises the moments before the crash, like piecing together a puzzle, so we see how his mind works.

He’s, ‘Very clear and precise.’

‘Don’t get Pollack’s (Oliver Rabourdin) back up’, says Noémie.  ‘There’s more to a job than skill’.

To which Mathieu replies, ‘So I say nothing?’

He’s fearless in his need to find the truth, yet doesn’t need to wave a flag about it.

This is a finely tuned and balanced suspense-thriller that had me hanging on every turn.

Release part of the 32nd AF French Film Festival 2021

 

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