Eye in the Sky (2015)

I didn't check, but "Eye in the Sky" looks like based on a play written for theater ... despite taking place in 4 different locations simultaneously. It's a situation thriller - short development, confined medium, closed context, time limit. No, I'm not describing "Phone Booth" ... but if we take the overall look we're not that far. A unit surveying the terrorist activity in Kenya gets activated when there's a report on several wanted names planning to meet in a hous in the area. Among these a British woman and an American citizen apparently prepare a suicide bomb attack. This information is provided with help of latest tech = a remote controlled "bumblebee". That's squad 1 - team on location. Squad 2 controls an airborne drone - "the eye in the sky", via satellite, and is formed of two US based pilots. Team 3 is somewhere in UK in a military unit coordinating the operation and led by Hellen Mirren. Finally, the 4th group is the decision committee = a gathering of British government representatives watching the events and sending approvals (or not ...) via an army general for actions to be taken. Quite complicated setup, isn't it?

Well, the plan is simple - a Kenyan special forces squad waits for an order to proceed in capturing the target group, but until they get a confirmed id the group moves to a different house. In a hostile area, where the only solution seems to be a well-placed rocket ... but the rocket will bring collateral victims ... and among the victims "the eye in the sky" detects a child, a girl selling bread ... So, it's complicated again.

All the movie is a cat and mouse game in the above context. Lots of irony to the politic class for the incapacity of assuming responsibility. Lots of criticism to the army forces for possibly rushed decisions. Although the ending might seem clear, if you look at the action up to there I don't know if you can give a simple answer on "who is right" ... this seems to change a lot up to the end. And that's probably the most interesting part of the movie ...

Rating: 3 out of 5

In Order of Disappearance (2014)

... or "Kraftidioten" in the original version of the title, is another revenge thriller, as the last post, but this time in a different packaging having a consistent taint of dark comedy a la Coen brothers. I had before reviews for movies made in Norway, and unlike the more eastern neighbors these generally were too dry/cold to give a lasting impression. This time is one of the few exceptions ...

Nils Dickman is an immigrant from ... Sweden who made a career in ... driving a snow plow somewhere in Norway, reaching the level of winning the "man-of-the-year" title from the local community. This peaceful life is torn apart one day by a police call announcing his son's death following an overdose. And this brings a storm to Nils' life (no pun intended). Depressed and not getting how this happened since his son didn't do drugs Nils starts drinking, getting close to a suicide attempt. His wife blames him for ignoring their son's issues and leaves. But somehow in the end the truth is found ... (well, the movie actually starts with that) = the overdose was not a voluntary act but executed as an order of a local mobster involved in drug dealing. And from here, well ... "the revenge story" ...

It's not actually much of a story, but the movie is extremely well supported by the build-up of the characters and the acting. Nils slowly advances in the hierarchy of the local dealers up to the two groups controlling the area. And we have here a vegan sociopath obsessed by cleaning and terrorized by his former wife and an old Serb (played exceptionally by a Bruno Ganz mimicking Marlon Brando) who has the unfortunate idea to hire his youngest son as a mule. Basically all the dark humor comes from short interactions and from the weird situations placed in what seems to be a normal life context. It reminded me a bit of Martin McDonagh's "In Bruges" and "Seven Psychopats". That's pretty much what we have here too ...

Rating: 4 out of 5

Sushi Girl (2012)

"Sushi Girl" is a revenge thriller with a common story that brings however an exotic note, mostly present in the title. Less in the movie ...

A guy is freed from jail after spending there several years following a robbery. His welcome party organized by the former gang members, who escaped the police but without the stolen diamonds disappeared without trace, is not a nice one. The reunion is organized by the group leader in a context taken from the Yakuza customs (even though we don't have any Japanese present) = a dinner with sushi served on a nude woman, inert, whose presence is meant to be purely "decorative". It's somehow predictable that the person will get out of her role, and at some point it's sort of obvious why is she there. Which I actually said already when I've placed this in the "revenge thriller" genre...

It's clearly a B movie with a low budget. Unfortunately it tries to compensate that with some excessive violence. Well ... maybe I started to get old and my stress level rejects some scenes, but I really think that if we would have less blood spilled we won't lose anything. In any case, the movie has some good points. On one hand we have Tony Todd as the main villain, a role that he played so often that's even hard to not be a good performance. On the other hand we have "the sushi girl", or more exactly her complete absence until the end, despite the fact she's there. She's so absent that you forget her, which is really what seems to be her official role in the scenes. And that actually helps for building some surprise effect for what's supposed to be "the final twist". Unfortunately not one that's really credible ... but well, it's a movie :) ...

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Shallows (2016)

"The Shallows" is a "Jaws" reinvented for the 21st century, but made on a 19th century budget. Not meaning that's a bad move...

Nancy, a student in the medical school considering dropping her college degree, finds a hidden beach in a sunny day, somewhere on the coasts of Mexico. Main target: surfing. Unfortunately, if for getting in the water there's no problem, there's a great white shark who doesn't agree about getting out. And like this we have a movie, where Nancy gets stranded on an isolated rock a couple hundred meters away from shore. If she manages to swim that far or not ... well, that's what's the movie about.

Blake Lively does what I think to be her best part so far in a movie (and no matter what you might think :) that's an objective statement). She's basically carrying the movie onward from the beginning to the end .. well, the shark has some screen presence too. The cast is quite reduced, talking about the budget, and the action takes place over an area that doesn't span more than a couple hundred meters, plus the movie is quite short. The effects and the editing count a lot though, enough that you can't think that this is a cheap production. Yes, the story's simple and is pretty far fetched sometimes ... But what shark movies are totally believable? It's fun, is catch as any survival story, and has enough sun to compensate the rain outside ;) So, it's worth watching ...

Rating: 4 out of 5

Nerve (2016)

Fast movie, short entry: "Nerve" starts well, with an idea of an online game/social network where the users are split in two - players and watchers. The second category commands tasks to the first category and funds their accomplishment. As the trailer shows sometimes the players have to deal with extreme stuff. And as weirdest the task as better is the payment. Finally, after 24h the winner takes the the money. Or at least that's what the rules say ...

The story is catchy and seems believable up to some point. As main character we have Vee, a girl who gets more and more trapped within the game until things start complicating. The bad part is that: first, the ending seems a bit far fetched, and second: despite the clear main target that's somewhere in the range of 15-20, it still felt a bit too immature. Perhaps if I wouldn't have been working in IT I could get over the first part (= I'm subjective on that), but we can't get rid of the second ...

Rating: 3 out of 5