6 UNDERGROUND
Directed by: Michael Bay
Release date: December 13, 2019
Genre: Comedy, Action/Adventure, and Thriller
Distributor: Netflix
MPAA Rating: R
In a film by Michael Bay, a filmmaker known for big-budget, high concept action films characterized by fast cutting, stylistic visuals and extensive use of special effects, including frequent depictions of explosives, comes another such genre movie.
From Bay's early years with Bad Boys (1995), Armageddon (1998) to Transformers:The Last Knight (2017) and Bumblebee (2018), and everything in between, has been electric "eye candy" cinematography. 6 Underground stays true to Bay's form with an added attraction of Ryan Reynolds and his satirical comedy. Much like the formulaic movies such as, The A Team and the original TV and film series Mission Impossible, this film could be a mirror.
This is a film whereas its plot is about six highly controversial individuals faking their own deaths to form a vigilante squad, in order to take down high image and notorious criminals. All of them were brought to the team by its leader Ryan Reynolds portraying ONE, aka The Billionaire for their unique skills and desire to erase their past and change the future.
The crew includes Melanie Laurent as TWO/ Camille "The Doctor", Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as THREE/Javier aka "The Hitman", Ben Hardy as FOUR/Billy aka "The Skywalker", Adria Arjona as FIVE/Amelia aka "The CIA Spook", Dave Franco as SIX aka "The Driver", and Cory Hawkins as SEVEN/Blaine "The Shooter". All characterized and engaged as energized participants in ultra-heightened thrilling missions. Their action-thriller parts include and promote intense excitement, suspense, high level anticipation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension, along with romantic comedy. This is all set with high energy, big-budget physical stunts and chases, with rescues, battles, fights, escapes, destructive crises (explosions, fires, etc.), non-stop motion, spectacular rhythm and crisp pacing, and adventurous, with two-dimensional 'good guys/gals heroes battling 'bad guys/gals - all designed for pure audience escapism.
The subplots of comedy mainly supplied by the always funny Ryan Reynolds is timely, but leaves room for the other members of the cast. The humor provokes laughter with one-liners, by exaggerating the situation, action, relationships, and characters. Yet, the combination of crime-caper thriller, action-thriller, and even romantic-thriller is stimulating, because 6 Underground all wind up as a wild and hilarious ride of absurdity.
This is film that will saturate the audience with layers of rich action sequences, but must be reminded that is a simplistic plot line involving the heroes'struggle against arch-nemesis and super-villains (usually interested in world domination and the wreaking of vengeance). Michael Bay delivers just that - and only that. Don't expect anything else.
FILM RATING (B-)
Gerald Wright
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Sunday, December 08, 2019
HUSTLERS
Directed by: Lorene Scafaria
Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes
Release date: September 13, 2019
Genre: Drama, Crime, Comedy, and Adaptation
Distribution: STX films
MPAA Rating: R
Based on New York magazine's 2015 article "The Hustlers at Scores" by Jessica Pressler, comes an adaptation directed and written by Lorene Scafaria about a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to the tables on their Wall Street clients just prior to the 2008 U.S. economic crash that hit Wall Street hard.
This film can be considered an ensemble character production, but the Hustlers actually follows Destiny (Constance Wu, Rich Crazy Asians), who embraces her role as a young sensitive and vulnerable single mom woman struggling to make ends meet. She takes on a job as a stripper at a local New York City Strip Club. She enjoys the money from stripping, but is it more for the camaraderie than she is for the cash. Destiny's mother abandoned her when she was very young, so she has trust issues and hasn't let a lot of people in. The lack of meaningful relationships with women in her family life makes her longing for female friendship so much greater. This leads to her immediate friendship with dancer colleague Ramona (Jennifer Lopez).
Ramona, the club's top money earner, who's always in control, has the clientele figured out, and really knows her way around the pole. Yet, Ramona is endearing, complicated, and damaged, and her ambition threatens to cloud her sense of morality and connection to Destiny and the rest of the women dancers. Jennifer Lopez captures this image o screen as a slippery slope and seduces people to her own agenda. She is known as the mama bear who is always reaching for more than who she really is.
Annabelle (Lili Reinhart) takes on a character that is a combination of innocence and allure. Innocently provocative and a little clueless on life. She is in a especially vulnerable place living without her family, which has rejected her because of her profession, and trying to get by the best way she can. She responds to Ramona's motherly care and immediately bonds with her.
Mercedes (Keke Palmer is fearless and always says what's on her mind, but is also cool and put-together, even when trying to make ends meet. She has a sense of humor about almost everything. She thinks of Ramona, Destiny, and Annabelle as her sisters.
Liz (Lizzo) is the strong sassy ebullient stripper. She is confident and a gifted performer who struts into the spotlight. She also is a woman who speaks her mind, censors nothing, and delivers an enviable level of honesty and pure passion.
Diamond (Cardi B) is a tough woman from the Bronx who has worked at the strip club for a year. She is a little more hardcore and acerbic than the other dancers and she doesn't take heart from anyone - but thanks to Ramona, she eventually connects with Destiny and joins the ladies in celebrating their new bonds.
While setting up the character development of these women, the film gives the atmospheric tone of the seedy and gritty life in this profession. The sequences are of a lot of 'shake your booty' scenes as sleezy men admire. The meat of this film emerges when a reporter, Elizabeth (Julia Stiles), chronicles the story of these women through interviews with Destiny and Ramona. It is a story of how these women concoct a plan to drug, manipulate, and extract the wealthy Wall Street clientele's funds via credit cards.
However, this film should have been constructed better. The emphasis should have given more to the actual scams and personal temperaments of the women, opposed to the three quarters of running time of a 'shake you booty movie' imagery. The montages are weak, and the controversial performances lack realism. This is a film that has a lot do with nothing relevant. I felt little and no engagement to any of the characters or scenes - none for theft by the strippers and none for the idiot wealthy male victims. What a waste of cinematic time.
FILM RATING (C)
Gerald Wright
Directed by: Lorene Scafaria
Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes
Release date: September 13, 2019
Genre: Drama, Crime, Comedy, and Adaptation
Distribution: STX films
MPAA Rating: R
Based on New York magazine's 2015 article "The Hustlers at Scores" by Jessica Pressler, comes an adaptation directed and written by Lorene Scafaria about a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to the tables on their Wall Street clients just prior to the 2008 U.S. economic crash that hit Wall Street hard.
This film can be considered an ensemble character production, but the Hustlers actually follows Destiny (Constance Wu, Rich Crazy Asians), who embraces her role as a young sensitive and vulnerable single mom woman struggling to make ends meet. She takes on a job as a stripper at a local New York City Strip Club. She enjoys the money from stripping, but is it more for the camaraderie than she is for the cash. Destiny's mother abandoned her when she was very young, so she has trust issues and hasn't let a lot of people in. The lack of meaningful relationships with women in her family life makes her longing for female friendship so much greater. This leads to her immediate friendship with dancer colleague Ramona (Jennifer Lopez).
Ramona, the club's top money earner, who's always in control, has the clientele figured out, and really knows her way around the pole. Yet, Ramona is endearing, complicated, and damaged, and her ambition threatens to cloud her sense of morality and connection to Destiny and the rest of the women dancers. Jennifer Lopez captures this image o screen as a slippery slope and seduces people to her own agenda. She is known as the mama bear who is always reaching for more than who she really is.
Annabelle (Lili Reinhart) takes on a character that is a combination of innocence and allure. Innocently provocative and a little clueless on life. She is in a especially vulnerable place living without her family, which has rejected her because of her profession, and trying to get by the best way she can. She responds to Ramona's motherly care and immediately bonds with her.
Mercedes (Keke Palmer is fearless and always says what's on her mind, but is also cool and put-together, even when trying to make ends meet. She has a sense of humor about almost everything. She thinks of Ramona, Destiny, and Annabelle as her sisters.
Liz (Lizzo) is the strong sassy ebullient stripper. She is confident and a gifted performer who struts into the spotlight. She also is a woman who speaks her mind, censors nothing, and delivers an enviable level of honesty and pure passion.
Diamond (Cardi B) is a tough woman from the Bronx who has worked at the strip club for a year. She is a little more hardcore and acerbic than the other dancers and she doesn't take heart from anyone - but thanks to Ramona, she eventually connects with Destiny and joins the ladies in celebrating their new bonds.
While setting up the character development of these women, the film gives the atmospheric tone of the seedy and gritty life in this profession. The sequences are of a lot of 'shake your booty' scenes as sleezy men admire. The meat of this film emerges when a reporter, Elizabeth (Julia Stiles), chronicles the story of these women through interviews with Destiny and Ramona. It is a story of how these women concoct a plan to drug, manipulate, and extract the wealthy Wall Street clientele's funds via credit cards.
However, this film should have been constructed better. The emphasis should have given more to the actual scams and personal temperaments of the women, opposed to the three quarters of running time of a 'shake you booty movie' imagery. The montages are weak, and the controversial performances lack realism. This is a film that has a lot do with nothing relevant. I felt little and no engagement to any of the characters or scenes - none for theft by the strippers and none for the idiot wealthy male victims. What a waste of cinematic time.
FILM RATING (C)
Gerald Wright
MIDWAY
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Running time: 2 hours 18 minutes
Release date: November 8, 2019
Genre: Drama, Action, and History
Distributor: Summit Entertainment/Lionsgate
MPAA Rating: PG-13
In an all-star cast of Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckart, Nick Jonas, Etsushi Toyokawa, Tadanobu Asano, Luke Kleintank, Jun Kunimura, Darren Criss, Keean Johnson, Alexander Ludwig, with Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid and Woody Harrelson, Midway centers on the Battle of Midway. A clash between the American fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy which marked a pivotal turning point in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
The film, based on the real-life events of this heroic feat, tells the story of the leaders and military who used their instincts, fortitude and bravery to overcome the odds. The historical facts are portrayed in an impressive reenactment that took place between 4 and 7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea.
The U.S. Navy under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (Woody Harrelson) defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanes Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto (Etsushi Toyokawa), Chuichi Nagumo (JunKunimura), and Tamon Yamaguchi (Tadanobu Asano) near Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that proved irreparable.
With the keen eye of cinematographer Robby Baumgartner, the visuals are brilliant capturing strategic battles in the Pacific. This epic period piece covers a large expanse of time set against a vast, panoramic backdrop. It also, shares elements of elaborate adventure sequences, and adds an extravagant setting, accompanied everything with grandeur and spectacle, dramatic scope, and high production values. Yet, it is a serious plot-driven presentation, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction.
This is a brilliant memorial.
FILM RATING (A)
Gerald Wright
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Running time: 2 hours 18 minutes
Release date: November 8, 2019
Genre: Drama, Action, and History
Distributor: Summit Entertainment/Lionsgate
MPAA Rating: PG-13
In an all-star cast of Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckart, Nick Jonas, Etsushi Toyokawa, Tadanobu Asano, Luke Kleintank, Jun Kunimura, Darren Criss, Keean Johnson, Alexander Ludwig, with Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid and Woody Harrelson, Midway centers on the Battle of Midway. A clash between the American fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy which marked a pivotal turning point in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
The film, based on the real-life events of this heroic feat, tells the story of the leaders and military who used their instincts, fortitude and bravery to overcome the odds. The historical facts are portrayed in an impressive reenactment that took place between 4 and 7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea.
The U.S. Navy under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (Woody Harrelson) defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanes Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto (Etsushi Toyokawa), Chuichi Nagumo (JunKunimura), and Tamon Yamaguchi (Tadanobu Asano) near Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that proved irreparable.
With the keen eye of cinematographer Robby Baumgartner, the visuals are brilliant capturing strategic battles in the Pacific. This epic period piece covers a large expanse of time set against a vast, panoramic backdrop. It also, shares elements of elaborate adventure sequences, and adds an extravagant setting, accompanied everything with grandeur and spectacle, dramatic scope, and high production values. Yet, it is a serious plot-driven presentation, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction.
This is a brilliant memorial.
FILM RATING (A)
Gerald Wright
DARK WATERS
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Running time: 2 hours 6 minutes
Release date: November 22, 2019
Genre: Drama, History, and Biopic
Distributor: Focus Features
MPAA Rating: PG-13
In a historical "David vs. Goliath" drama, shown in a not so larger than life situation, the truth of how environmental contamination has caused horrific results in the United States of America for several decades. This film also shows how one man's pursuit for truth brings down the corporate world.
A corporate defense attorney turned public advocate Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), takes on an environmental lawsuit against a chemical company that exposes a lengthy history of waste dumping and pollution.
Dark Waters gives light to Robert Billot, an American attorney who has spent more than twenty years litigating hazardous dumping of chemicals Perflourooctanoic acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). Mark Ruffalo gives a very good personal background of Billot, an offspring of an U.S. Air Force veteran, whose childhood was lived on several military installations. Whose aggressive insight in life and law garnered him a law degree in 1990.
When a case was brought to him, as a partner with Taft Stettinius & Hollister, he undertook an investigation dating back to 1947 when 3M (then Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) began producing PFOA. This then known as Teflon, was then in 1951 purchased by DuPont and label the chemical as C8. A study of workers living near a DuPont Teflon plant found an association between PFOA exposure and two kinds of cancer as well as four other diseases. This included 110,000 files consisting of confidential studies and reports conducted by DuPont scientists over decades. By 1993, DuPont understood that PFOA caused cancer in lab animals. However, this was an integral part of DuPont's earning and they refused to cancel the manufacturing. Billot had learned that both 3M and DuPont had been conducting secret medical studies for more than four decades.
In a classic legal drama setting, a class-action lawsuit atmosphere is depicted on screen. The film uses steady pacing and rhythm as it examines the case and life of an important personage from the past to the present era. With the excellent supporting cast of Anne Hathaway as wife Sarah Billot, William Jackson Harper and Bill Camp as victims James Ross and Wilbur Tennant, Tim Robbins, Bill Pullman, and Mare Winningham the production's performances are highly effective and powerfully displayed.
FILM RATING (B+)
Gerald Wright
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Running time: 2 hours 6 minutes
Release date: November 22, 2019
Genre: Drama, History, and Biopic
Distributor: Focus Features
MPAA Rating: PG-13
In a historical "David vs. Goliath" drama, shown in a not so larger than life situation, the truth of how environmental contamination has caused horrific results in the United States of America for several decades. This film also shows how one man's pursuit for truth brings down the corporate world.
A corporate defense attorney turned public advocate Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), takes on an environmental lawsuit against a chemical company that exposes a lengthy history of waste dumping and pollution.
Dark Waters gives light to Robert Billot, an American attorney who has spent more than twenty years litigating hazardous dumping of chemicals Perflourooctanoic acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). Mark Ruffalo gives a very good personal background of Billot, an offspring of an U.S. Air Force veteran, whose childhood was lived on several military installations. Whose aggressive insight in life and law garnered him a law degree in 1990.
When a case was brought to him, as a partner with Taft Stettinius & Hollister, he undertook an investigation dating back to 1947 when 3M (then Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) began producing PFOA. This then known as Teflon, was then in 1951 purchased by DuPont and label the chemical as C8. A study of workers living near a DuPont Teflon plant found an association between PFOA exposure and two kinds of cancer as well as four other diseases. This included 110,000 files consisting of confidential studies and reports conducted by DuPont scientists over decades. By 1993, DuPont understood that PFOA caused cancer in lab animals. However, this was an integral part of DuPont's earning and they refused to cancel the manufacturing. Billot had learned that both 3M and DuPont had been conducting secret medical studies for more than four decades.
In a classic legal drama setting, a class-action lawsuit atmosphere is depicted on screen. The film uses steady pacing and rhythm as it examines the case and life of an important personage from the past to the present era. With the excellent supporting cast of Anne Hathaway as wife Sarah Billot, William Jackson Harper and Bill Camp as victims James Ross and Wilbur Tennant, Tim Robbins, Bill Pullman, and Mare Winningham the production's performances are highly effective and powerfully displayed.
FILM RATING (B+)
Gerald Wright
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)