Fast Five (2011)

Tags

Action, Thriller

Once you get behind the wheel,
Of monsters made of speed and steel
And get a taste
Of wild haste
And scruple-free
Velocity,
You’ll crave the rubber-burning pace
It takes to win an even race,
To redirect the losers’ sting
And revel in the conquering.

And sometimes you will use those skills
In shady ways to pay the bills.
Don’t think that I am insincere.
This movie’s moral’s very clear.
________________________

MPA rating: PG-13

And we’re back to the Fast and Furious franchise! Is anyone really excited about that? Oh, well, I’ve started this marathon and will finish it. After hearing that the fifth film in this series is where it finally started rising out of mediocrity into blockbuster gold, I had some high hopes for it. Honestly, it’s still not “my kind of movie,” but I see why it’s viewed as the start of an upward trend.

Despite sharing the same director as the previous two installments, Fast Five just feels… different from the other four before it. Set largely in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, it’s filmed in more of a gritty action movie mode instead of the sleek hot rod preening of its predecessors. Heck, the street racing aspect has been almost completely replaced with car chases, fist fights, and shoot-‘em-ups; at one point, they cut away right before a race to show how easy it was to win, I suppose. There’s still at least one race and some of the sexism and fan service the previous films reveled in, but it does feel like the franchise is in transition.

Part of that difference is how the storyline has transformed from undercover cops to a full-on heist plot, with newly on-the-run fugitives Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) gathering their past allies from other movies to steal all the money of a Brazilian crime boss (Joaquim de Almeida). It’s almost like this is the car-themed counterpart to The Avengers, bringing together characters you didn’t expect to see side-by-side, from Tokyo Drift’s Han (Sung Kang) to 2 Fast 2 Furious’s Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson). And of course, the biggest addition is the introduction of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Luke Hobbs, the shiny, intimidating DSS agent tracking down Dom and his team and doing his best to match Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive as Mr. No-Nonsense Manhunter.

Fast Five is overly long, but I must admit that it’s very good at hiding how thin its plot is by just propelling itself forward with explosions and star charisma. The story pretty much only makes sense because the writers wanted it to. Both the U.S. government and an all-powerful crime lord are trying to take down Dom and his crew, yet they’re able to stay off the radar, prepare for the heist, freely drive and walk around in the city, and only be found when the plot is ready for it to happen. Plus, the streets of Rio are conveniently empty at times, and an extended training montage in the middle is basically rendered moot when those preparations are never used in the actual heist. Not to mention character changes, such as a sudden change of heart for Hobbs that goes further than the law would allow and the fact that Tej Parker (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) is suddenly a high-tech mastermind when he was little more than a garage owner with connections in the second film.

Someone needs a hug.

Despite all this, Fast Five lives up to its thrill ride expectations. The whole final action sequence requires complete suspension of disbelief, ignoring both physics and the human collateral from all the carnage, but it’s the first time this franchise has left me breathless with its high-octane antics. There are spurts of decent character development as well, with Brian learning he will soon be a father, which will hopefully make him rethink his recent life of crime. I don’t typically like heist films since they basically say stealing is okay if you’re stealing from a bad guy, but Fast Five is definitely the best installment in the franchise so far. I can’t wait to see how and if it will keep getting better.

Best line: (Roman) “You know, I think I make a better special agent than you ever did.”   (Brian) “I guess that depends on how you define ‘special’.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2020 S.G. Liput
701 Followers and Counting!

Fast & Furious (2009)

Tags

Action, Thriller

You can drive like a demon
And be like the he-men
Who populate movies with muscles and stunts.
You can live on life’s edges
And leap off of ledges
And live for the thrill, even if only once.

After such escapades,
When adrenaline fades,
The life that remains will be yours in the end.
When you have to face
What is after the race,
I hope you’ll be left with at least one real friend.
______________________

MPA rating:  PG-13

After yet another series of delays, let’s return now to the Fast and Furious marathon, specifically the one with the worst name. Seriously, they couldn’t have added a 4 to indicate where this movie fell in the timeline? Just Fast & Furious, same as the first movie, but it must be so fast that it outran the Thes in the original’s title. Anyway, I was eager to get through this fourth film. It marked both the franchise’s lowest score on Rotten Tomatoes but also a shift from small-scale street racing culture toward international espionage and action that I can only assume will get more pronounced in the following films.

The very first heist sequence sort of proves there’s a difference, as Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his hijacking crew attempt to steal an oil shipment from a moving truck, a chase reminiscent of Mad Max that culminates in the franchise’s first truly logic-defying effects-laden stunt. After Dom is forced to leave behind his accomplice/sweetheart Lettie (Michelle Rodriguez), the news that she has been killed brings him back to the U.S. in search of revenge, even as his old frenemy-turned-FBI agent Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) works in parallel to track down the drug lord behind Lettie’s murder.

I’m not really sure what to say about these movies anymore. The cars are fast, the characters are occasionally furious, and the whole thing is low- brow but entertaining. While the plot tries for a couple twists, it’s largely predictable as Dom and Brian end up on the same team over time; when one scene has them racing through tunnels past a bunch of explosives, it was such an obvious Chekhov’s gun that I knew they’d revisit it. (I was not disappointed.)

Yet there are flashes of improvement as well. For one thing, this is the first sequel to bring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker back together and actually feel like a sequel rather than a spin-off. Plus, I was not familiar with Gal Gadot before her breakout role in Wonder Woman, but I guess she had already “broken out” off my radar in this franchise, being introduced here as Gisele, who works for a drug dealer but is sympathetic to Dom. Unfortunately, the film’s final moments are much like the first film’s, ending on a weird note of good guys breaking the law which I guess is a cliffhanger but doesn’t promise much for the next film. Regardless, Fast & Furious is decent but unremarkable. At least the franchise should only get better from here.

Best line: (Dom) “I’m a boy who appreciates a good body, regardless of the make.”

Rank:  Honorable Mention

© 2020 S.G. Liput
700 Followers and Counting!

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Tags

Action, Sports, Thriller

They say it’s not bragging if it’s proven true,
So if I said I could drive faster than you,
It’s not arrogance or a source of disgust
If I can then leave you chagrined in my dust.

I’ll eat my own words if my pomp is disproved,
But I’ve yet to leave an opponent unmoved.
So what do you say? Let our wheels choose between
A legitimate boast or a punk who can preen.
___________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13

On to the second film in the nitro-powered franchise, cleverly utilizing its sequel number in its own title. That’s right, 2 Fast 2 Furious. Considering how synonymous Vin Diesel/Dom Toretto is with this series, I was surprised that he wasn’t in the sequel, which instead featured Paul Walker as the star, in buddy cop mode opposite Tyrese Gibson. Better in several ways than its predecessor, it’s a film confident in its own undemanding entertainment value.

The film starts very much like the first, with Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner being called in for a four-way street race, but this time the cars have such bright neon colors that you can’t tell what’s real and what’s CGI, which isn’t a positive in this case. After letting Toretto go in the previous film, O’Conner is on the run, but he’s given a chance at redemption when law enforcement recruits him to infiltrate the organization of a Miami drug lord who needs fast drivers. To do that, he seeks out an old friend named Roman Pearce (Gibson) who, despite harboring resentment against Brian’s police past, joins him as a lean, mean street-racing duo.

2 Fast 2 Furious is summer movie entertainment, full of vehicular stunts that remain just believable enough to make viewers think they could jump a moveable bridge too. (Please don’t.) Without the constant parallels to Point Break, this one feels more sure of itself than its predecessor did, and Walker and Gibson have great tough guy chemistry that grows with time. The dialogue about their past friendship even sheds a little light on O’Conner’s actions at the end of the first movie, which make a little more sense now. Even so, it’s too bad Diesel was too busy filming The Chronicles of Riddick to reprise his role, but his Pitch Black costar Cole Hauser makes an unpredictably ruthless bad guy as the Argentinian drug lord drunk on power.

With high-speed thrills and more downshifting than you can shake a stick shift at, I’d consider 2 Fast 2 Furious a better film than the first, and the lower your expectations are, the better it seems. It’s a good action movie but, amidst that overcrowded genre, there’s nothing remarkable that would warrant a multi-film franchise. Yet if this movie can improve on its predecessor, I’m still curious to see what the films that follow can bring to the table.

Best line: (Brian) “You ready for this?”   (Roman) “Come on, man. Guns, murderers and crooked cops? I was made for this, bro.”

 

Rank:  List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
697 Followers and Counting

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

Tags

Action, Sports, Thriller

The Fast and the Furious,
If you were curious,
Knows what it is, and at that, it is good:
Cars going fast
And a masculine cast.
I’m curious what else is under the hood.
____________________

MPA rating: PG-13

Periodically, I like to delve into a series that I’ve unconsciously avoided until now, and I’ve largely enjoyed past explorations of franchises like Mission: Impossible or the Riddick trilogy. So then it’s finally time to investigate the Fast and Furious movies, a series that has surprisingly risen from “that little series about car racing” to a huge blockbuster phenomenon. I’m wondering what the hubbub is about, so I’ll be watching all nine films in the franchise to see just what has made it so wildly popular.

So what of the very first movie from 2001, the one with the “the”s in its title? Is it the kind of innovative kickoff film that promised big things ahead? Um, no, I would not go that far. The Fast and the Furious is a right decent action movie, in which undercover cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) infiltrates LA’s illegal street racing scene and the crew of racer Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), who might be behind a rash of recent high-speed robberies. I can’t fault Walker and Diesel, the former full of cautious self-confidence and the latter boasting an intense glare to match his skills behind the wheel.

The problem is that The Fast and the Furious follows the exact formula of Point Break, just substituting driving for surfing and comes up short in most respects. And by the open-ended conclusion, the attempts at character development just don’t quite justify Brian’s sympathy for Toretto, making the cop’s actions a bit puzzling. Plus, I just have very little interest in cars that go vroom, so I’m sure I’m not the target audience for this kind of movie. Even so, do feminists not have a problem with how women are portrayed here? It was nice to see Michelle Rodriguez (Lost alert!) as Dom’s girlfriend Letty, who gets a few moments to be cool, but women here are mostly little more than trophies and hood ornaments for the swaggering male drivers, which was a turnoff for me and my VC (my Viewing Companion, who happens to be female), though it plays into the comparison to exploitation films that other reviews have made.

The high-speed chases are entertaining and I’ll keep watching, but right now, it’s hard to imagine a decades-spanning franchise based on this film alone. I understand that the scope of the series changes around the fifth movie, so I’m curious to see what that looks like. Stay tuned.

Best line: (Dom) “Ask any racer. Any real racer. It don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning’s winning.”

 

Rank:  Honorable Mention

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
697 Followers and Counting

Knives Out (2019)

Tags

Drama, Mystery, Thriller

I don’t quite believe that the truth is subjective,
A trite protocol
That changes and varies
‘Twixt contemporaries,
From person to person.
Such thoughts only worsen
The idea that truth isn’t out there at all.

No, no, there is truth, even-handed, objective,
But often concealed
In worry and caring,
Fake news and red herring.
It leads us on chases
To unpleasant places.
The few who keep up get to see it revealed.
__________________________

MPA rating: PG-13 (a bit heavy on language, as much as they could fit in while retaining its rating)

I still have Blindspots to catch up on, but it seemed past time to watch a movie that I’ve been wanting to see since it came out last year (until a certain virus kept me from the second-run theater I was planning to visit). The murder mystery genre has fallen by the wayside in recent years, but if any film can revitalize it, Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is the one to do it. Being a fan of Johnson’s contentious The Last Jedi, I was eager to see what he’d do next, and Knives Out did not disappoint.

Named after the Radiohead song of the same name, the film doesn’t waste time getting to the murder, as the first scene involves the morning discovery of mystery writer Harlan Thrombey’s body (Christopher Plummer) after he apparently cut his throat in his study sometime during the night. Like so many other classic mysteries, the large ensemble cast is full of splashy characters, most of whom have a potential motive for the Thrombey patriarch’s death. At first, there doesn’t seem to be a main character as detectives (Lakeith Stanfield, Noah Segan) interview Harlan’s discordant family: his arrogant daughter (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her husband (Don Johnson), his insecure son (Michael Shannon), and his self-absorbed daughter-in-law (Toni Collette), among others. Gradually, though, famed Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig, handily covering his British accent with a Southern drawl) takes the stage, as does Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas), Harlan’s personal nurse who physically cannot tell a lie.

Replete with flashbacks to the night of Thrombey’s death, Knives Out is artfully organized to show only what Rian Johnson wants to show, which is often more than you’d expect. In fact, the story seems to show its cards much earlier than you’d expect from a film over two hours long, seeming to go from a mystery to a cover-up, but it still has plenty of twists to trigger second-guessing and culminates in true murder mystery form with some climactic revelations. And through it all, the story’s convolutions and colorful characters played by actors in peak form (including Chris Evans) make for prime entertainment.

Craig is likably hammy as his Benoit Blanc doesn’t always seem as self-aware as a master sleuth should, though he proves his deductive abilities by the end; and Ana de Armas is a special stand-out in what is likely a star-making role, considering she was singled out for a Golden Globe nomination, as was Craig. Considering the overwhelmingly positive reception Knives Out has received, including being named one of AFI’s Top Ten Films of the Year, I’m actually a bit surprised it didn’t get more attention at the Oscars beyond a Best Original Screenplay nod; with all the flashbacks in the Thrombey mansion, I would think it deserved some attention for editing or production design.

The murder mystery genre has been so oversaturated over the years, from cozy Hallmark mysteries to decades of primetime series, that it’s a noteworthy exception when one can warrant this kind of all-star cast and big-screen appeal, subverting and embracing clichés in equal measure. Boasting a sly political subtext that paints both sides negatively and lauding compassion over selfishness, Knives Out proves that, in the right hands, any genre can be resurrected. Rian Johnson hit gold here, and I can’t wait to see if he can hit it again with the inevitable sequels to which Benoit Blanc lends himself.

Best line: (Blanc) “The complexity and the gray lie not in the truth but what you do with the truth once you have it.”

 

Ranking: List-Worthy

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
695 Followers and Counting

2020 Blindspot Pick #2: Double Indemnity (1944)

Tags

Classics, Drama, Romance, Thriller

A murderer for money never thinks that he or she
Will be found out like all the rest who murdered foolishly.
“Those others never thought it through; they never planned it out;
They just weren’t careful to remove the slightest shred of doubt.
They acted on an impulse, failed to hide the fatal flaw,
But we would know exactly how to circumvent the law.
We’re smarter, right? More clever, right? When one of us commits,
No justice could contend in this, the coldest war of wits.”

Deep down within the killer’s mind, unconsciously or not,
They soothe themselves with thoughts like these to justify their plot.
And always they delude themselves, for justice, soon or late,
Will find out every criminal and lead them to their fate.
________________________

Rating: Passed/Approved (an easy PG)

Darn, I did not expect to post only one review in the whole month of May, but college is as college does. Nevertheless, I’m back to continue my long-delayed Blindspot series. (Now I’m only four behind this year!) I’ve heard of Double Indemnity for years, noticing its high placement on lists by AFI and other film organizations, yet I never really knew what the name even meant, not being versed in insurance terminology. As it turns out, I’ve seen versions of this plot plenty of times on true crime shows, but this influential film noir treatment brought it to a national audience way back in 1944.

Based on a James M. Cain novella, the script for Double Indemnity was the result of a tenuous collaboration between director Billy Wilder and famed detective novelist Raymond Chandler. As such, it utilizes a clever tool for narration; right from the beginning, insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred McMurray) admits into a dictaphone his role in the death of a man named Dietrichson, beginning an extended flashback of his plot. After meeting the man’s alluring wife Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), Neff allows her to talk him into a murder conspiracy to get rid of her distant husband and collect on some ill-gotten life insurance, with Neff using his insurance experience to sweeten the pot with a double indemnity clause (which doubles the payment in the case of certain unlikely causes of death, such as a train accident). Yet, their “perfect crime” slowly unravels as Neff’s boss (Edward G. Robinson) becomes more and more suspicious during the investigation.

I haven’t seen many films of the film noir genre, but Double Indemnity certainly fits the bill with its shadowy angles and conspiratorial tension and indeed predates the widespread use of the term by a couple years. Plus, Barbara Stanwyck is a quintessential femme fatale figure, manipulating McMurray’s everyman character into taking charge of the plot she initiates. The film was apparently controversial for its portrayal of murder, which is tame by today’s standards, but the characters’ growing anxiety after the deed is done translates well to the audience. As Neff is forced to “assist” Robinson’s skeptical insurance man in following a trail that leads back to him, I happened to think of other similar plots that must have taken some inspiration from this one, such as 1987’s No Way Out.

Double Indemnity is a Grade-A film noir, but I can’t say it’s a new favorite since film noir is far from my favorite genre. Neff and Stanwyck do a fine job as the conspirators, but their cynically flowery dialogue, sometimes clever, is also sometimes a bit much, carrying on metaphors in ways people just don’t talk, though that’s mainly at the beginning. Robinson, though, is in top form here, stealing his scenes with a vocal panache that can’t be taught. I don’t always have to love a film to recognize it as a classic, and Double Indemnity is, another cinematic testament to the lesson “crime does not pay.”

Best line: (Neff) “Do I laugh now, or wait till it gets funny?”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
689 Followers and Counting

The Aeronauts (2019)

Tags

Drama, History, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to review something not usually reviewed, so I decided to provide some thoughts on gravity – the force, not the movie.)

Dear readers, I had overheard the stories about gravity
Long before I put myself at risk to feel it fully.
I didn’t think it quite deserved the talk of its depravity,
But now I can confirm that it’s a mean and selfish bully.

Of all four fundamental forces, gravity’s the only type
That visibly affects mankind and all that it attracts.
It strikes with every trip and fall and when the fruits of trees are ripe,
And tortures people on the scales with inconvenient facts.

It’s true it keeps us on the ground instead of floating into space,
But never has it once allowed a flexible exception.
It’s so obsessed with physics’ laws that when we climb above our place,
It tugs and tells the ground to give a less-than-soft reception.

Though gravity will have its way, its power is not absolute;
A bit of caution and respect can keep its pull at bay.
Few acts of nature are as quick to prophesy and persecute,
But gravity’s control will fade the more we disobey.
____________________

MPA rating: PG-13

I love a good historical adventure drama, and The Aeronauts on Amazon Prime had my attention right from its first trailer. Eddie Redmayne plays James Glaisher, a scientist intent on proving his hypothesis that studying the atmosphere can allow the weather to be predicted, but as with so many 19^th-century visionaries in film, his theories are ridiculed by the Royal Society of London. (Seriously, Hollywood apparently thinks the Royal Society was so narrow-minded, it’s a wonder that anything was discovered at all. I’m sure such disbelief did happen, but I’m noticing it so frequently in these kinds of movies that the villainizing for villainizing’s sake is starting to annoy me.) To prove his ideas, he enlists the aid of the only aeronaut willing to risk such a venture high into the atmosphere, a woman named Amelia (Felicity Jones), whose balloon takes them on a dangerous upward journey.

There’s a lot to like about The Aeronauts, not least of which are the visual wonders the pair encounter, from swarms of butterflies fluttering along air currents to the rainbows backed by mountainous clouds. As they get higher, the danger sets in as Glaisher especially struggles with the rarefied air and extreme cold. The high-altitude thrills keep the adventure from boredom, and regular flashbacks provide steady doses of character development along the way. Both actors do a fine job as well, reuniting without the romance five years after their pairing in The Theory of Everything, and it was nice to see Himesh Patel from Yesterday as a scientist friend of James’.

Yet for all its quality, The Aeronauts feels somehow lacking. Perhaps it’s because of its tenuous claim to being based off a true story. James Glaisher indeed made a historic balloon flight, but it was with a man named Henry Coxwell, making Amelia a composite character of other female balloonists who, while a laudable figure, feels shoehorned into the story. Certain elements do strain believability and historical accuracy, but The Aeronauts still does its best to build a grand scientific adventure on its half-fabricated foundation. It entertains doing just that, which is good enough for me.

Best line: (Amelia Wren) “You don’t change the world simply by looking at it, you change it through the way you choose to live in it.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
684 Followers and Counting

What Happened to Monday (2017)

Tags

Action, Drama, Mystery, Netflix, Sci-fi, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write a poem about a letter of the alphabet, so I went through the week and compiled couplets for each day.)

The M in Monday dips and dives
And puts a strain on all our lives.

The T is Tuesday’s cruciform,
The closest shelter from the storm.

The W is Wednesday’s smile,
As crooked as a crocodile.

The T in Thursday spreads each arm
In peace, surrender, and alarm.

The F in Friday has buck teeth
That shield a smile underneath.

The S is Saturday’s great treble,
Quite the sinner, saint, and rebel.

The S in Sunday tries to swerve,
But hits Monday and hits a nerve.
__________________________

MPA rating: TV-MA (strong R)

Netflix films can be hit-or-miss, but when a good one comes along, its relegation to a single TV streaming service makes it feel perhaps more underrated than if it had received a theatrical release. Released to theaters in Europe and Asia but to Netflix elsewhere, What Happened to Monday falls somewhere between hit and miss, but it still feels underrated for the things it does well. The dystopian thriller takes a familiar dystopian threat like overpopulation and runs with it in a way not seen before.

Actors seem to enjoy the test of inhabiting multiple characters and playing off themselves, but Noomi Rapace snagged a special challenge here, playing seven identical sisters raised in secret to protect them from the government’s rigidly enforced one-child policy. Although siblings are simply put into cryostasis, the septet’s grandfather (Willem Dafoe) kept them off the books entirely and fashioned a singular identity of Karen Settman; each girl is named after a day of the week and takes turns going out as Karen Settman on the day of their name: Sunday on Sunday, Monday on Monday, etc. However, when Monday doesn’t return at the end of her day, the other sisters find themselves in danger and must figure out what happened to her and her ties to the politician who first advocated the one-child policy (Glenn Close).

It’s no secret that I love science fiction, and What Happened to Monday is the kind of unique genre tale I enjoy, usually more than the critics do. The plot zips along without a moment of boredom, and Rapace does wonders with a script that doesn’t quite manage to make each of the Settman sisters stand out. Some are easy to pick out (Saturday has blonde hair, Friday is mousy and wears a knit cap), while others don’t really distinguish themselves much (Tuesday and Wednesday). Nevertheless, Rapace breathes personality into the ones that matter most, and the effects allowing her to interact with her doubles are top-notch.

Many films on Netflix don’t seem to bother holding back on their TV-MA ratings, and sadly the same is true for What Happened to Monday, marred by several bloody deaths and a gratuitous sex scene. It’s really a shame because the film otherwise warrants repeat viewings. Some twists are hardly surprising to anyone familiar with the dystopian genre, but it still holds plenty of mystery and thrills to overcome the occasionally thin characterization. It even ends up with a surprisingly pro-life sentiment by the end. It’s far better than its mixed reviews indicate, and if you can overcome the R-rated content, it’s one more what-if example of why I love sci-fi.

Best line: (Sunday, quoting their father) “Seven minds are better than one.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
684 Followers and Counting

Riddick (2013)

Tags

Action, Sci-fi, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write a poem phonetically similar to a poem in another language, which was harder than it sounded. I chose the first four stanzas of the Welsh “Stone Poem” by Menna Elfyn. I tried to get it to make sense, but that might depend on the reader’s interpretation.)

Caring draws in foolishness,
While lacking love is power.

Men are gargoyles founded
On cruelty’s fear of cowards.
‘Tis rare, but some have sounded

Warnings, dim and heaved,
Pleading, “These rascals are not ours,”
But they’re demeaned and unbelieved.

The docile manners man the laws,
Which mold the many to the hour.
But men are sure to linger in man’s hardest flaws.
______________________

MPA rating: R

Last year, I ventured into the cutthroat world of Richard B. Riddick, Vin Diesel’s iconic anti-hero from Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. Considering the latter’s less than favorable reception from critics (I rather liked it myself), it feels like a small miracle that creator David Twohy was able to gain enough traction for a third film nine years later, and indeed he manages to round out the trilogy with possibly its strongest installment.

The Chronicles of Riddick was both enhanced and muddled by a huge surge of world-building: invading death cult armies, ethereal air people, and the like. Riddick turns its back on all that right from the beginning, and, aside from a cameo from Karl Urban, it might as well have never happened once Riddick is again stranded on an inhospitable alien world. In that sense, it’s practically an alternate version of Pitch Black, except with two shipfuls of disposable bounty hunters (including Matt Nable and Dave Bautista) after Riddick instead of just one man. Oh, and the swarms of killer aliens come out when it rains rather than when night falls.

In some ways, Riddick feels like the franchise treading water, but in others, it’s exactly what made it cool to begin with. Diesel gets to add plenty of badassery to his resumé, from clever survivalist skills to inventive killing methods, and the story lends itself to his laconic character’s show-don’t-tell approach. I also liked how it built upon what happened in Pitch Black and chose an ideal ending, not giving in to the previous films’ tendency of no one but Riddick having a chance at ultimate survival.

Returning to its franchise’s roots, Riddick is an entertaining, frequently brutal improvement, though I’m disappointed the second film’s PG-13 rating had to be bumped up to an R for this one. There are still rumblings of a fourth film called Furya and a TV series called Merc City in the works, so time will tell what’s left of Riddick’s story. The harsh universe he inhabits certainly seems to have more stories to tell.

Best line: (Consort) “So what is the best way to a man’s heart?” (Riddick) “Between the fourth and fifth rib. That’s where I usually go. I’ll put a twist at the end if I wanna make sure.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
680 Followers and Counting

The Wandering Earth (2019)

Tags

Action, Drama, Foreign, Netflix, Sci-fi, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write about items gathered during a walk. In my house, I latched onto a nearby globe and decided to write about the planet at large, even though the film is more about disaster than discovery.)

What ancient cartographer could have imagined
A world as small as this?
Back then, the maps ended without a true edge
In blurry oblivion. One would allege
A brand new discovery, and they would wedge
The new land upon the abyss.

And now we know everything, satellite-view;
No land is left to miss.
But now we look upward and see a frontier,
More blurry oblivion. Scorning the fear,
We still must endeavor to find what’s not here.
We just can’t abide an abyss.
___________________________

MPA rating: TV-MA (it’s a PG-13-level movie, but the English subtitles have more F words than the original Chinese for some reason)

When you think of Chinese films, science fiction isn’t a genre that immediately comes to mind, but The Wandering Earth might change that. Based on a 2000 novella and released through Netflix outside of China, this big-budget blockbuster is like Asia’s answer to Michael Bay, a solar-system-spanning disaster flick that is just over-the-top enough to work.

Anyone remember the Spongebob episode with the Alaskan bull worm threatening the town, where Patrick says they should just take Bikini Bottom and push it someplace else? Well, that’s the brilliant idea the future world leaders in this film came up with to escape an expanding sun. Studding the earth’s surface with enormous rocket engines, they push the planet out of its orbit toward a safer system while most of the population retreats underground to escape the freezing surface. Years into the journey, the roaming planet gets caught in Jupiter’s gravity, forcing young adult Liu Qi (Chuxiao Qu), his sister, and their accomplices to fix one of the failing engines and save the world, while his father (Jing Wu) on a space station tries to do the same.

With tiny people causing planet-level effects, everything in The Wandering Earth is on such a humongous scale that even its semi-plausible elements seem utterly ridiculous, yet the earnestness of the characters and coolness of the visuals make the suspension of disbelief possible. In creating China’s first big sci-fi movie, the filmmakers certainly went all out with their emulation of similar Hollywood blockbusters: collapsing ice towers, a single-minded AI to fight, huge explosions, questions about saving the many vs. the few, last-minute heroics and touching sacrifices.

There’s a reason it made $700 million, making it the third highest-grossing non-English film ever. (Netflix has an English dub, but I’d only watch it if you absolutely can’t stand subtitles or want fewer obscenities.) I don’t know how the current pandemic will affect China’s film industry, but The Wandering Earth is proof that it can compete with Hollywood on special-effects extravaganzas. I wouldn’t say it’s better than films like Armageddon or Sunshine, but it’s certainly bigger.

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

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