Movie Review - John Wick

John Wick

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, Dean Winters, Adrianne Palicki, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, Daniel Bernhardt, Omer Barnea, Toby Leonard Moore, Bridget Moynahan, and more.

Directed by: David Leitch and Chad Stahelski Screenplay by: Derek Kolstad Cinematography by: Jonathan Sela Music by: Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard

Premise: John lost his wife to a disease, and though they'd know the end would come eventually, he's still not prepared for it when it comes. His wife, knowing he would need an emotional anchor, ordered a beagle puppy to delivered after her funeral. Trying to deal with this new wrinkle, he's approached by a man at a gas station who wants to buy his car. He tells him 'no' and they part ways. But that night, they assault him in his home, kill his new dog, and steal his car. But there's something they don't know about John Wick - John is a retired assassin. And for their disrespect, someone will pay. (Rated R)

Review:

1)  Acting - Total Thumbs Up: Keanu as John Wick was an excellent choice - from wounded husband to avenging angel, you never doubt what's on his mind. Michael Nyqvist as Viggo Tarasov was another marvellous choice - a man who knows the choices he makes may very will be the end of everything, but does them anyway.

A master stroke was getting Adrianne Palicki to play Ms. Perkins - she was all sorts of delicious goodness in the film. (Supernatural fans - meet a new and deadly Jess. She's also been making waves in this season's Agents of Shield! Scrumptious!) Aldie Allen does what he does best as the mob boss's son Iosef. Lance Reddick was fab as the Hotel Manager! Best straight face in the business!

And one who would not normally get credit - the beagle puppy, Daisy. Most adorable thing EVER!

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: As the previews imply, there is a boat load of gun play and destruction. People shot in all manner of ways with minor splatters of blood all over the place. Great work all around.

3) Plot/Story - Total Thumbs Up: The premise for the film is simple and could have easily been glossed over and just used as an excuse for the mayhem. Films of this type normally go in that direction, not really bothering to get the audience invested. But not this one. These guys sell you into it. They let you see John's pain and grief and the glimmer of possible hope brought to him by his dead wife in the form of a puppy. And they were smart enough to get the most evilly adorable creature imaginable. So the audience is right there with him when things take an unexpected turn and you want them to pay for what they've done as bad as John. Super kudos on how they played this!

If that wasn't enough to amaze, they used the right reason to support why these mobsters didn't hand the offender over on a silver platter, the idiot is the boss's son. His only son. Half the fun of this thing is watching each rung of men realize who it is that the idiot Iosef picked on and how he may have just signed a death warrant on them all. Heh heh.

Lots of small reveals about John and who it is he's coming after and how this is one giant cosmic joke or a case of karmic vengeance. And John Wick is wickedly efficient. He very much believes in the 'double tap' principle. Totally awesome. And they had to reload! Yes! They even had a competent head of security to slow John down - the guy was awesome.

And then they give you more. John goes back into a world known to only to a select few. A world with rules and stringent codes of conduct. Things you do and things you don't. It added another fabulous layer to the entire enterprise. And Ms. Perkins - so loved the character of Ms. Perkins. lol.

Also, after you've seen the film, think about John's reputation, and then who it was that helped him. I got the definite impression this was not the first time this game was played. Priceless.

4) Stunts - Total Thumbs Up: The stunts were phenomenal. Tons of hand to hand combat, close range shooting, speed driving, all the fun stuff of which action movies are made. And they did it phenomenally - several scenes almost seeming like a ballet at times due to the awesome timing and smoothness of the choreography of those involved.

5) Locations/Cinematography - Total Thumbs Up: Great locations for all sorts of mood setting spots: the Red Circle with the club within a club, the hotel combining old and new and its own unique clientele. And the cinematography showed every one of them in lovely detail. Then showed them as chaos came to rule. Visually stimulating.

Conclusion: "John Wick" was an action packed paradise with a solid story raising it that much higher above the fold. Definitely a fun ride all around. Subject matter might be a little too strong for younger kids.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price to See Again)  

Movie Review - G.I. Joe: Retaliation

G.I.Joe Retaliation

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jonathan Pryce, Adrianne Palicki, Byung-hun Lee, Ray Stevenson, Ray Park, Channing Tatum, Elodie Yung, DJ Cotrona, Walton Goggins, Luke Bracey, Arnold Vosloo,  Bruce Willis, and more.

Directed by: Jon M Chu Written by: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick Cinematography by: Stephen F Windon Original Music by: Henry Jackman

Premise: After finishing a huge op to recover nukes from Pakistan after its President is assassinated, the Joe's get ambushed and almost wiped out when sneak attacked in the desert. Roadblock, Lady Jaye, and Flint let the world think they died with the rest of their friends as they seek to find out what happened. Soon, they realize Cobra is involved. And they're going to make them pay. (Rated PG-13)

Review:

1) Acting - Total Thumbs Up: Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson show great rapport with each other as Duke and Roadblock - wish they'd kept on with that. Adrianne Palicki manages to look both tough and sexy as Lady Jaye. Ray Park once more brings his considerable skills in playing Snake Eyes (And while this suit was better than the one used in 2009, the look is sadly not quite there yet.) and imparting moods or opinions with body language. Jonathan Pryce got the double fun of playing the President and his own evil replacement. Walton Goggins dazzled as Warden Nigel James, being both saucy and fan boyish about his important prisoners.

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: With the Joes and Cobra one expects toys, explosions, fire fights, and general chaos. We get plenty of that! I especially loved Firefly and his little bugs as well as his multi-rocket bomb motorcycle.

The Tibetan like monastery in the mountains looked awesome. The fights with masked ninjas and the rope hopping along the sheer cliffs, as Snake Eyes and Jinx try to make their escape, were totally fun.

3) Story - Neutral: Sadly, a lot of the enjoyment of the film was sucked away by the pockets of ignored reality in the plot. My husband, who is totally a fan of explosions and gunfights, was so brought down by the lack of explanations on how certain things were achieved (Like replacing a large portion of the secret service without anyone being the wiser) that it really dropped his final rating. Explanations that would have taken only a moment to impart could have corrected this, but without them the plot seemed heavily contrived just to make certain events occur. (Don't get him or me started on the destruct button on Cobra Commander's briefcase for the satellites. That made no sense whatsoever - he had the world in his grip.)

Protocols at the holding facility were rather poor and not followed. If they'd capped the open container back instead of shooting it, problem solved. It was amazing at the number of thick doors not used in several different places to keep the people out, but rather were left open with guards moving outside, leaving them pretty much accessible, when they wouldn't have been otherwise.

Another sad point was the lack of prominence by certain characters. If they were used in the first film, they almost had no place or were not even present for the second. We saw more of Storm Shadow than Snake Eyes. And Cobra Commander pretty much just walked in and out of places without doing much. Even the plan being activated during the film didn't come from him. It was in full swing when he got there.

So despite the great work from all the other departments, the bad plot pretty much sunk the whole ship.

4) Stunts - Total Thumbs Up: Tons and tons of great fight scenes. They did get a little too close when filming them on them on occasion and shook them a bit more than necessary, but overall were quite good. I especially enjoyed the fist and gun fight between Roadblock and Firefly towards the end. The ninjas on ropes combat was quite entertaining as well. And watching the Joes in action in the two sections at the beginning was quite satisfying.

5) Locations/Cinematography - Total Thumbs Up: Great shots of places like Tokyo, Washington DC, the monastery in the mountains, and more. The interiors of these same places matched the exteriors therefore keeping the symmetry of the locations, which worked well.

6) Costuming/Makeup - Total Thumbs Up: The Joes sweated, got hurt, got dirty, and Lady Jaye never looked like she'd just walked out of a Salon except on the mission where she was supposed to, so kudos for that.

Conclusion: Fun action scenes, cool fights, and fun weaponry! But these are sadly spoiled by the contrived and thin plot. If you go in knowing the story itself needs help and ignore most of it, you're liable to better enjoy all the good stuff that's definitely there.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Better For Matinee)

P.S. You can get all the GI Joe Collectibles you might ever want at the G.I. Joe Collectionary.

Movie Review - Red Dawn

Red Dawn

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Connor Cruise, Edwin Hodge, Brett Cullen, Alyssa Diaz, Julian Alcaraz, Will Yun Lee, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and more.

Directed by: Dan Bradley Screenplay by: Carl Ellsworth and Jeremy Passmore Based on the 1984 film "Red Dawn" Original Music by: Ramin Djawadi Cinematography by: Mitchell Amudsen

Premise: While home on leave, Jed Eckert witnesses the crippling of his hometown by a massive blackout. The next morning, he wakes to find it being invaded by North Koreans. Banding together an unlikely set of fighters, Jed decides the invaders will not be taking over his home without a fight. (Rated PG-13)

Review:

1) Acting - Thumbs Up: Chris Hemsworth and Josh Peck did a good job showing the audience their family's strained relations without ever actually talking much about it. Josh Hutcherson showed his usual flare.  Connor Cruise had several poignant moments and he carried them off beautifully.

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: Bullets flew everywhere and there were explosions galore. The scene when Jed and Matt look up into the sky and see the invaders dropping down was quite affecting and well done. Sadly, some of the efforts of the special effects department were diluted or downright sabotaged by the use of shaky cam on several of the scenes.

3) Plot/Story - Neutral: I'll be honest, I didn't pick to see "Red Dawn" because I expected it to have depth or a convoluted plot. And it was a good thing I didn't. This film is best watched without thinking too hard. As difficult as the premise was to believe in 1984, it is ten times more so in 2012. With the amount of technology now at our disposal, a campaign of this magnitude could not have been arranged without word getting out. A secret pulse weapon is mentioned purely to set up the premise and nothing more is learned about it at all.

I saw the original back in the day, but don't remember much. My husband said the remake followed most of the main points of the original. The brothers are at odds due to the death of a loved one years before, and their issues clash during different parts of the film, but eventually they reach some resolution.

Sadly one of the more satisfying moments in the film was marred by the fact the item and location hadn't been shown previously, so ended up being a point of bad story telling. Still, they did try to give some quick filler to substantiate their survival, so some things were well thought out. Killing didn't come naturally to all of them and the hard decisions some had to make were hard, and the audience was able to see that.

4) Stunts - Thumbs Up: With bullets and explosions, we always get stunts. The gags were solid and worked well, except those that were made blurry by shaky cam. Still, enough flying bodies and some hand-to-hand fights were present to fulfill our action quota.

5) Locations/Cinematography - Thumbs Up: There were many nice sweeping shots of the different locations and they gave the audience a good feel of the town and the thick woods our heroes hide in. The fall colors in the forests made for a nice backdrop. It also helped create a starker contrast after Captain Cho's attempt to destroy their hiding place changes the terrain.

Conclusion: "Red Dawn" was fast paced and fun. A nice diversion as long as you don't look at it too closely. Hubby felt the original film was better.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Better For Matinee)