MOVIE REVIEW: GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE

 

To protect an 8-year-old girl, a dangerous assassin reunites with her mother and her lethal associates to take down a ruthless crime syndicate and its army of henchmen.

Director: Navot Papushado

Cast: Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, Chloe Coleman, Ralph Ineson, Adam Nagaitis, Michael Smiley, Paul Giamatti

Release Date: July 14, 2021

Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller

Rated R for strong bloody violence throughout and language

Runtime: 1h 54min

Review:

Gunpowder Milkshake is a fizzy neon lit sugar rush of violence and faux female empowerment.  The latter is mainly due to a lazy script that waste an opportunity to deliver something more meaningful and fresh.  Director Navot Papushado does manage to keep the film engaging with some fun visuals and incredibly fun fight choreography.  Papushado manages the action sequences with a deft hand, delivering some inventive sequences which are as ridiculous as they are fun.  The smaller character moments though don't hit the way they should, so you never have any real emotional connection to the characters.  Its no fault of the cast which is all in from the opening frame.  Karen Gillian, using her Nebula voice, is intense killing machine who has abandonment issues.  She's not asked to do much with the character but she still manages to make her engaging. Lena Headey, Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh and Carla Gugino are fun in supporting roles with each being able to shine during kinetic action sequences.  Sadly, the script doesn't take full advantage of the assembled talent outside of asking them to make quips while looking cool.  The barebones story is borrows heavily from the John Wick film's so there are few surprises in story on that end, it does leave the door open for a sequel as well.  Gunpowder Milkshake is a strangely engaging film that works in spite of itself.  

B-

300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE

Greek general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) assembles his troops to fend off an invading Persian army led by the immortal Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and the vindictive Persian navy commander Artemisia (Eva Green) in this sequel to 300 based on the graphic novel Xerses by Frank Miller. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: Noam Murro

Cast: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, Rodrigo Santoro, David Wenham

Release Date: Mar 07, 2014

RealD 3D

Rated: R for strong sustained sequences of stylized bloody violence throughout, a sex scene, nudity and some language

Runtime: 1 hr. 43 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Review:

Whether you loved it or hated it, 300 was a landmark film of sorts.  Its visual style set off a series of imitators all trying to achieve that level of visual glory.  I personally loved 300 even if its story was a bit hollow, the visual fest on display was more than enough to make up for it.   8 years later with a new director at the helm we finally get a sort of sequel.  It’s a prequel and sequel all rolled up in one with event happening before, concurrently and after the events of 300.  It covers a lot of ground and surprisingly it’s incredibly engaging powered by a beefier story behind it.  Sullivan Stapleton is a fine lead even if he doesn’t have the bravado or magnetism of Gerard Butler’s Leonidas.  Eva Green though is the real star of the film.  She vamps up the screen with a maniacal glee which is sure to leave a lasting impression all while wearing an assortment of dominatrix meets gladiator fetish garb.  Each of their roles has a nice bit of depth giving them more heft than expected, it’s a shame there very little characterization for the supporting characters though.  As a result pretty much all the supporting players are just fodder for the beautifully choreographed battles.  Blood splatters everywhere, typically followed by limbs or heads, in a dizzying display of blood soaked madness all on the high seas!  The film ends with a nice opening for the final chapter; hopefully it won’t take another 8 years.    

B+

Cindy Prascik’s Reviews of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones / The World's End

Dearest Blog, this weekend's cinema offerings were a hodge-podge of dread and great anticipation, respectively, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and The World's End.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.

First up was another in Hollywood's seemingly-endless stream of teen supernatural thrillers, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

When her mother goes missing, a young girl discovers she has the blood of a Shadowhunter, that is a secret league of demon-hunting warriors.

Oh, Aidan Turner, the things I do for you. Not the things I would do for you--which are many, varied, and profane--but the things I do do for you, such as paying good money to watch this.

It is my understanding that the Mortal Instruments series was initially based on Harry Potter fanfiction, as the inexplicably popular 50 Shades of Gray series is based on Twilight fanfic. Note to Hollywood: please stop making movies based on fanfiction. You're embarrassing yourself.

City of Bones is derivative and shallow, but the bigger problem is the same one that has plagued recent seasons of True Blood and Once Upon a Time, that is, it introduces such a jumble of characters that often the story it really wants to tell is nowhere in sight. These secret Shadowhunters and their demon enemies, while far from original, could have been interesting enough, but by the time you mix in vampires and werewolves and time travel and a little daddy-angst to boot, what you're left with is a pretty big mess. Much of the dialogue is cringe-worthy, and parts of the film were so awful I threw my hands over my face in dismay. The flip side of that is, other than being far too long, the movie honestly isn't boring, and there are some bits that are really pretty good. Most stabs at humor hit the mark, although there were also several times my cinema was cracking up over stuff that clearly was not meant to be funny.

Lily Collins and her mighty eyebrows do a passable job in the lead. Her male counterparts, Jamie Campbell Bower and Robert Sheehan, are the movie's highlights, both quite engaging. As is the norm these days, all my favorites are relegated to "somebody's mom"- and "somebody's dad"-type roles. The fetching Mr. Turner has less to do than I'd have liked, but more to do than I expected, so we'll call it a draw. Playing the otherworldly is old hat to Turner by now, so of course he does a fine job of it. It's nice to see Lena Heady, Jared Harris, Kevin Durand, and CCH Pounder in smaller roles, but the real scene-stealer is Jonathan Rhys Myers in his usual over-the-top fashion.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones runs 130 minutes and is rated PG13 for "intense sequences of fantasy violence and action, and some suggestive content."

The good news is it's not as bad as I expected. The bad news is it's still pretty bad.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones gets four and a half.

Next up was the genius Edgar Wright's latest offering, The World's End.

A group of once-inseparable friends reunites to complete a legendary pub crawl. When they return to their hometown, they discover things are not quite as they remember.

Dear Blog, it is well known that I worship at the altar of Wright/Pegg/Frost. It would be fair to say, along with The Hobbit, The World's End is my most-anticipated film of the year. I am pleased to report my enthusiasm has been well placed.

This story of five friends, who have drifted apart in the two decades since they left school, is sincere and likely feels familiar to most adults on my side of 40. Sympathetic performances from Nick Frost and Eddie Marsan are the dramatic highlights, while Simon Pegg gets to be the funnyman this time around. Favorites Paddy Considine and Martin Freeman are also terrific. On the sci-fi side, the idea isn't necessarily anything new, but it's well executed with some pretty cool effects. Both sides of the plot--the situation among these five friends, and the fantastic happenings in their old hometown--are interesting from start to finish; the story never misses a step. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg deserve full marks for writing a film that goes in so many directions, yet never feels like it's lost its way. All the pieces fit perfectly.

The World's End clocks in at a perfectly-paced 109 minutes and is rated R for "pervasive language, including sexual references."

The World's End defies categorization. It's comedy, it's sci-fi, and it's genuinely moving drama, all at the same time.

It is also (*trumpet fanfare*) the first film of 2013 to earn a perfect nine of a possible nine Weasleys. And, damn, This Corrosion sounds fine in surround sound!!

Until next time...




Admit it, he could make you do worse things than sit through a lousy movie...

[Trailer] 300: Rise of an Empire

300 was a stylish mix of high tech visuals and pseudo historical fantasy. It was much stronger on the visual side than it was on the story side but it was enjoyable.

The trailer for the upcoming sequel offers up similarly striking visuals with scant details about the story. We do get a glance at Eva Green’s villainess and some impressive looking sea set battles. We'll have to wait till March 2014 to see if it comes together as a film.

MOVIE REVIEW: THE PURGE

A family living in a gated community fight to defend their home against vicious attackers during the one night each year when all crime is legal in this high-concept thriller from writer/director James DeMonaco (Staten Island). In the not-too-distant future, rampant crime and prison overcrowding have inspired the U.S. government to implement a unique solution to restore the peace: Each year, for a 12-hour period, any and all crime becomes permissible as police put their jobs on hold, and hospitals close their doors. It's called the Purge, and remarkably, the annual event leads to drastically reduced crime and record-low unemployment levels throughout the rest of the year. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: James DeMonaco

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane

Release Date: Jun 07, 2013

Rated R for strong disturbing violence and some language

Runtime: 1 hr. 25 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure, Suspense/Thriller

Review:

The Purge is a bit of a throwback to those 70’s sci-fi dystopian future set films, think Charlton Heston, which were high concept delivered in schlock packages. Writer/Director James DeMonaco’s film has a lot on its mind and there’s nothing subtle about it. Ignoring some of the more obvious logical holes, yearly destruction of infrastructure hardly seems productive, you can appreciate the ideas being thrown out about class warfare and humanity’s perchance for violence. DeMonaco throws these ideas out but never fleshes them out, missing a massive opportunity. Instead he opts for more blasé home invasion story which works well for what it is. The cast turns in workman performances with Ethan Hawke seemingly yearning to flesh out his home security sales man with greater depth. Lena Headey gives one of her better performances, showing a tad more range than she usually does. They all provide the audience proxies to root for as the tension grows especially during a minor twist near the end. DeMonaco moves his film at a brisk pace, before you can think about anything too much it’s over. It leaves plenty of questions unanswered some of which could be addressed in a sequel (early box office numbers nearly guarantee one).

B-

MOVIE REVIEW: DREDD

A feared urban cop takes on a vicious city drug dealer in a futuristic metropolis as director Pete Travis (Vantage Point) and screenwriter Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine) team to bring iconic 2000A.D. lawman Judge Dredd to the big screen. In the future, much of North America has been poisoned by radiation. The sprawling urban jungle Mega City One stretches from Boston to Washington D.C., and in order to keep the growing criminal element in check, police enforcers called "Judges" have been given the power of judge, jury, and executioner. Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is the most feared of them all, delivering death sentences with impunity as he fights to rid the streets of "Slo-Mo" -- a powerful new drug that alters its user's perception of time. In the process of training psychic rookie Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), Dredd receives a report of an incident in a sprawling criminal stronghold ruled by fearsome drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), and ventures in to investigate. Upon learning that one of her top men has been captured by Dredd shortly thereafter, an enraged Ma-Ma seizes control of her massive 200-story complex, launching an all-out war against the Judges as Dredd and Cassandra find themselves trapped in the belly of the beast. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: Pete Travis

Cast: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey, Wood Harris, Langley Kirkwood

Release Date: Sep 21, 2012

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language, drug use and some sexual content

Runtime: 1 hr. 36 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Review:

Taking another shot at a character that’s best remembered for a laughably bad Sylvester Stallone film takes some guts. Dredd isn’t necessarily a film that anybody asked for or wanted and the fact that it was mostly ignored by the movie going audience kind of rams that point home. It’s a bit of a shame because Pete Travis’s version is actually a solid piece of R rated action fun. He fully embraces the splatter factor delivering a series of visual punches in the face. Along the way he delivers some of the best looking use of slow mo to visually represent the effects of the drug in question. The plot is incredibly thin and you could probably watch it while doing something else and you’d miss absolutely nothing and still enjoy the gory spectacle. Character development is sparse and we don’t know much about the titular Dredd. Karl Urban, helmet on for the duration, gives a gravelly chin driven performance that’s impressive but your left wondering what’d he done if he’d been given a little more meat. Olivia Thirlby is equally one note with a slightly more fleshed out character. Lena Headley, as the lead baddie, isn’t asked to do much outside of having constant bitch face; thankfully she was born with that talent. While it sounds like the film is flimsy, which it is, it’s also a lot of fun for all the action thrown at you.

B-

TV SHOW REVIEW: GAME OF THRONES SEASON 1

Synopsis: Kings, queens, knights and renegades use schemes and swords to battle for the The Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms.

Cast: Lena Headey, Jack Gleeson, Sean Bean, Michelle Fairley, Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Mark Addy, Jason Momoa

I’ve never been much of a fantasy fan so it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that I’d never heard of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” fantasy book series. In all honesty I came to Game of Thrones, the HBO series, as green as you could possibly come. I was aware of it simply because I’d heard other people talking about but never quite knew what it was actually about. I watched the first episode and I was still fairly confused as to what it was all about, not to mention being bombarded with family names, locations and story mythology. If you come to this series as green as I did then don’t be surprised if you feel like you are already trying to catch up with what’s going on right from the start. That being said, once you get a better handle of story’s dynamics, 2 to 3 episodes in for me, Game of Thrones just drags you into it’s gritty devilishly delicious story of intrigue and backstabbing. It’s the type of series that wonderfully produced, acted and executed. The plot contains enough twist and turns to leave you in knots after major events; this is especially true in the final episodes of season 1. The cast is filled with top notch actors and actress working off strong scripts that really pack some punch. Multiple intertwined storyline create an epic scope that’s incredibly engrossing. As I mentioned earlier the cast is top notch, so much so that attempting to explain how each actor impresses would read like some sort of shipping manifest. Sean Bean stars and he’s more than capable as the honor bound Ned Stark. Other truly impressive performances are turned in by Emilia Clarke, Maisie Williams, Aidan Gillen and Mark Addy. Peter Dinklage truly shines as Tyrion “The Imp” Lannister, he’s simply magnetic anytime he’s on screen. As a whole, the first season is a perfect hook and one that’s sure to leave you wanting more after you watch the open ended season finale.

A