Tag Archives: Netflix

The Adam Project

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Viewed – 24 March 2022 Netflix

Ryan Reynolds continues to be one of my favourite movie stars of late and his brand of motor-mouth humour always proves fun. This latest, a time travel action comedy has him as a ‘Adam Reed’, a guy who travels back in time from 2050 to prevent the creation of time travel technology to stop a megalomaniac former colleague from wrecking havoc.

This was an interesting experience. I’ve always enjoyed these sorts of movies even if here, the time-bending elements are a bit weak. There’s still a lot to enjoy as Reed finds himself teaming up with his twelve year old self through much of the movie. Although a fun idea – the fact the movie forces Reed to interact with his younger self for the sake of the movie’s unique selling point rather than being necessary plot-wise – kind of makes it a bit unnecessary. However with decent support from Zoe Saldana and Mark Ruffalo and some heart-tugging scenes, I still enjoyed this.

Catherine Keener was rather bland and not that interesting as the villain, and with some dodgy de-ageing effects for her younger self, I couldn’t help feel the concept with being held back by either a limited budget or just poor effects. This carries over to some of the action which at times looks great, and other times looks like green-screen hell. Overall an entertaining movie with big ideas that doesn’t quite reach it’s potential.

Verdict: Good

Don’t Look Up

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Viewed – 19 January 2022 Netflix

You got to give it to streaming giant Netflix… they certainly can get the big names to star in their movies. So naturally it was only a matter of time before Leonardo DiCaprio appeared. This end of the world satire has the acclaimed actor alongside such stars as Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchet and Jonah Hill.

When two scientists (DiCaprio & Lawrence) discover a huge comet heading straight for earth – they race to warn the powers that be (including Meryl Streep’s President). However in a world obsessed with public image, social media etc they are met with a resounding lack of interest. This movie asks the question: what if an apocalyptic threat to the world happened today in our disassociated, materialistic culture? Granted some of the ways the people in charge treat the threat is exaggerated, but when you consider the likes of Donald Trump can be a world leader and an oddball like Mark Zuckerberg can become one of the wealthiest people on the planet – much of the satire here is at times unnervingly believable.

DiCaprio is decent once again even if that freaking out act is becoming a bit too much his ‘thing’. Lawrence is also very good. The movie does get a little side tracked in a subplot involving DiCaprio & Blanchett, and it feels a bit long at 2hrs 11 minutes. Overall though, this was well done, entertained and made me think about just what sort of world we’re living in.

Verdict: Good

Update

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So I’ve had a break for a couple of weeks. To be honest I haven’t been that in the mood to watch movies and have mostly been focusing of playing games and watch TV shows. Over Christmas I purchased Resident Evil Village which I’m loving and is proving a worthy, atmospheric follow up to RE7. I also put in quite a bit of play on Halo Infinite both single player and multiplayer and consider it a return to form for a franchise which had seemed to lose its footing since developer 343 Industries took over from Bungie. I also finally finished A Plague Tale Innocence – a challenging game with a great premise and a genuinely powerful story. Oh, and I got the platinum on Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart but getting all 47 trophies! A first for me I might add.

Resident Evil Village

As for TV, I have mostly been watching Netflix and Disney+. I am nearly at the end of Hawkeye which is great, and I’m a bit addicted to The Big Bang Theory, which passed me by during its initial run. Desperate Housewives is also a guilty pleasure I’d say, and away from these services I’ve also been trying to finish the final season of Wentworth.

Hawkeye

That’s not to say I’ve not watched any movies. Over Christmas I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, an undisputed classic which was part of a 4K Blu-ray box set I got as a present. Image quality was very good with lots of detail and overall it was fun to revisit the movie. Maybe I’ll check out the other movies in the set at some stage. For my birthday in November I received a Blu-ray box set of the Dirty Harry movies and am slowing watching all but for the first (which I’m overly familiar with) with my Dad who’s quite a fan of Clint Eastwood. So far Magnum Force was quite good, whilst The Enforcer was a bit rubbish.

I have a number of movies I want to check out and will be posting reviews as usual. So normal service should resume soon!

Craig.

The Guilty

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Viewed – 26 October 2021 Netflix

Jake Gyllenhaal is probably my favourite actor at the moment, so anything he stars in will grab my attention. This latest has him as a troubled LAPD cop doing a night shift at a 911 call centre. When he receives a call from a frightened sounding woman giving the impression she’s been abducted, he decides to make it his mission to save her.

Your call is important to us…

This is one of those single location movies, and I have often felt despite the limitations of the concept, these can be more engrossing that you might expect. The same can be said here, with a focused, intense script cleverly putting the viewer into various situations where they have to picture a scene or characters only going by a voice or how Gyllenhaal’s character interacts with them. It’s very effective and I’m guessing will be different for each viewer, with them having different ideas of what certain characters look like etc. It’s a way of telling a story that lives or dies based on how much attention you pay and how you picture events you don’t get to see. Thankfully, Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) squeezes every ounce of tension and drama out of the idea, so that the your efforts are worth it.

Jake Gyllenhaal is very convincing, delivering a character with more than a few problems of his own. I certainly sympathised with him even if some of his actions were occasionally questionable. So I came away from this rather impressed … and quite emotionally exhausted. Check it out.

Verdict: Recommended

Kate

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Viewed – 14 September 2021 Netflix

I admit it, Mary Elizabeth Winstead just does it for me. She always plays cool characters, is a capable actor and exudes a subtle sexiness that’s very appealing. This latest vehicle, playing a character not too dissimilar to one she played in Birds of Prey has her as Kate, a professional assassin who following a hit that goes wrong, discovers she’s been infected with a deadly poison. With about a day to live she races against time to find out the culprit and eliminate them.

Co-starring Woody Harrelson as her mentor, this is very much the female take on John Wick and yes, Winstead is a badass. Set in Tokyo, of course this is stylish, full of neon, fast cars and plenty of gun-fu. Shame then that unlike that Keanu Reeves franchise, the direction here isn’t as slick, and action can occasionally feel stilted, with some uninspired camera work and sloppy editing – add to this an over reliance on (poor) CGI. The plot is still effective if simple, serving up some good twists, and the subplot of a teenage girl who Kate has to reluctantly team up with, proved interesting.

If you like your action fast and colourful, this is still the movie for you. Winstead is great, portraying her pending death well, but much of the plot was quite predictable. Harrelson also is also just ok, clearly capable of delivering this kind of character in his sleep. So no, not quite an action classic, but worth seeing regardless.

Verdict: Good