Safe (2012)

I didn't have much time for movies this week. Actually, since a while I'm pretty much stuck with TWD and "sleeping pills" made in Hong Kong, where I didn't catch anything to worth an entry. The most recent seen title outside these categories would be "Safe", a leftover in an old "to watch" list, 7 years already from its release date... Time flies by.

The synopsis could directly reference "Mercury Rising", but in a more action packed version I guess. I'm not remembering anything else from "Mercury Rising" besides that Bruce Willis had to protect a gifted boy tracked by some bad guys from NSA for breaking some code, and also that the movie was pretty bad. In "Safe", Jason Statham has to protect a gifted girl tracked by some bad guys from the Russian mafia, the Chinese triads, and from NYPD for being the only one who knows some very long number - also a code in the end, and the movie was so & so. "The hero" here is some former mysterious agent in the US security structures, who became a cop, who became a MMA fighter, who became homeless, who (almost) became suicidal in a metro station, where he has a sudden revelation that all this career chain ends better with a bodyguard position.

Unfortunately the kid character in "Safe" is very under-used in the story, not having almost any effective involvement in the action in respect to the capacity she possesses, even though this is the main reason why everybody fights for her. On the other hand, although you might think that "Safe" is just another 1h30m of mindless action, it's not really like that - indeed, we have a quite a bunch of bullets fired, and Jason Statham displays all his kung-fu skills, but besides that we do have a story where new elements are dropped with a reasonable frequency to keep you from getting bored. Overall, it works well for a light summer movie...

Rating: 3 out of 5

Overlord (2018)

"Wolfenstein" meets... honestly, I don't know what it meets, and I didn't actually play any "Wolfenstein", but "Overlord" seems to be very close in genre. A paratroopers platoon is sent somewhere in Normandy, a bit before D-Day, with a precise mission to bomb a relay installed by Germans on top of a church, in order to make room for the Allied invasion. Barely making it, after surviving the plane getting on fire, the bullets on the ground and the mines, three privates and a corporal make it to the village near the mission target with the help of a local girl. Obviously the place is filled with enemy troops. While the new platoon leader plans the attack, one of the other soldiers sent to scout the area finds that the location hosts much more than a radio relay. It's a secret lab for producing nazi zombies (bingo! we can add "Dead Snow" after meets). Overpowered nazi zombies more precise, which to be even more accurate they aren't necessarily zombies (so, well... not exactly "Dead Snow"). That's pretty much the subject of the movie - a sort of light action horror. It's not actually bad, but I've seen better (e.g., "Dead Snow"), or much better (e.g., "Dead Snow 2" :P).

Rating: 3 out of 5

Searching (2018)

Sorry, I'm not in the mood for writing. But out of respect for the only "drug" that helped me through the time to "move on", I decided to try marking a movie recommendation for this week too. The only option that comes to mind right now is "Searching", watched about 3 weeks ago. A single father, loses his 16 years old daughter, who is gone missing after an evening with a study group. And so the searching starts, with a dedicated support from the police. But the police doesn't seem to keep up with the parent's detective abilities. The most original part of the movie is that is almost entirely shot via a computer screen. Besides that, we have an ending twist that's a bit forced, but the story is catchy enough to keep you watching. That's all for today.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

I should've written this entry when this was still "fresh" for me = around two weeks ago = what I was afraid of - that my memory will start failing me - it's happening... and still "Bad Times at the El Royale" it's not a movie to forget. You can love it, or hate it, but completely forgettable.. not really.

El Royale - a motel with a firm that's more pretentious than the looks of it - it's an almost deserted establishment on the border of the states of California and Nevada. Literally. The California rooms are slightly more expensive at one extra dollar. The Nevada rooms, however, seem more attractive, but for other reasons than the price. Or at least that's what could conclude the only active employee, Miles Miller, the reception boy, when he suddenly finds 4 guests in the lobby. A catholic priest, a soul/jazz singer, a traveling salesman, and a hippie girl. With one exception, all seem to have a hidden agenda that brought them to the same place, and coincidentally at the same time. Obviously, I won't spoil the exception ;) ... Just that the movie begins with a short sequence, when years ago, an overly stressed guy gets a room, and buries a bag under the wooden floor, but he doesn't live long afterwards... Anyway, that's just one trigger for what comes after ;) There are more.

You might hate this, as I was saying. It's a long movie at its 2.5 hours, in which we also see a consistent part of the intro repeated from the perspective of the different characters. Stuff that might bore you. It wasn't my case. You might also love this, if you have enough patience and you're in the right mood. The subject escalates bit by bit. You don't get it all at once, and this was my catchy factor. It might seem similar in style with Tarantino. I liked it more, however, than "The Hateful Eight", which is probably the first example that might cross your mind given the isolated place and the small bunch that seem to look forward for each others demise. Talking about comparisons, I only found out after watching that's written and directed by Drew Goddard, and I can say in retrospect that you could feel some common elements maybe also with "Cabin in the Woods", starting with the fact that we find out pretty quick that all the rooms in the motel are under surveillance. But let's not overrate it - "Cabin in the Woods" it's still a bit above what we have here :) although, given the "surprise character" revealed towards the end, these to movies are getting closer ;)

Rating: 4 out of 5

Summer-Fall 2019 Movie Preview (the brief version) - Part 2

Let's not lose time with another intro, and see what the Fall brings. In September we have "Spies in Disguise", an animation where Will Smith gets wings as a secret agent. Probably the lack of presence in the latest "Men in Black" had to be compensated with something...

...And also probably an animation is not enough for that, so we have, again, Will Smith in "Gemini Man" in October. In a more serious note, this looks much more promising with Ang Lee directing, and a large team of writers among who we find Andrew Niccol ("In Time", "Lord of War", "Gattaca") and David Benioff (yes, I know that last GoT season sucked, but still...)

I enjoyed each of the 5 Terminator instances until now, despite the bashing the last two of them got from the critics. It's not very clear to me though how they can turn the story around for the 6th installment: "Terminator: Dark Fate", to be released in November, but I'm waiting to see that.

That's it. The good news is that in this previews break I had the luck to get across a couple of movies which were quite ok, so I have something to write next time ;) (in theory, if I don't forget about it...)