Back from the brink of death, commando Tyler Rake embarks on a dangerous mission to save a ruthless gangster’s imprisoned family.
I never thought Netflix’s first great film of 2023 would be Extraction 2, especially considering that the first movie did not work for me at all. But here we are I guess.
While Extraction 2 doesn’t really introduce anything new, what it does do is massively improve on what the first movie did wrong. Heck even with some of the positives from the first movie Extraction 2 improves on those as well. The action scenes went from being just okay to actually quite well done, especially with more graphic kills as well that are quite effective.
Chris Hemsworth is of course quite great here and works well with the rest of the cast who are also quite strong. The story is still a bit of a mess and the writing is very uneven at times. However it’s mostly the surprising amount of entertainment that Extraction 2 has that makes it work.
There’s so many fun stunts and action scenes that really combine well together that truly create something genuinely exciting and pretty large in scale as well, speaking of which the atmosphere and scale in this film is miles better than the first. Extraction for some reason did not have a lot of atmosphere outside of a handful of moments, Extraction 2 however keeps it’s atmosphere throughout the film and really nails down it’s scale as well.
While Extraction 2 doesn’t do anything new and the similarities between it and it’s predecessor are undeniable, I always appreciate when filmmakers (in this case Sam Hargrave) take the criticisms they were given and improve on them with a follow up. So i definitely have to give credit where credit is due, I say check this one out.
The past comes back to haunt Bert Kreischer when a murderous mobster tries to kidnap him to atone for his crimes. With help from his estranged father, Bert must retrace the steps of his younger self as a sociopathic crime family goes to war.
The Machine is based on Bert Kreischer’s true story stand up routine which was turned into a feature film, the whole idea is that the whole true Russian mobsters story is back to haunt Kreischer 23 years later. Which sounds like a good idea on paper but in execution really misses the mark quite a lot.
Bert Kreischer plays a fictionalized version of himself and at times he can be entertaining as well as Mark Hamill who gets to play a different type of role which is nice. Hamill and Kreischer are by far the best parts about the movie and actually work well together, the action is at least serviceable with a few surprisingly fun scenes that I’m actually quite shocked the movie used.
The problems come in with the writing and a majority of the humor, there’s only so many times I can say that a movie isn’t funny. But that really applies here which is unfortunate because the set up is decent, the execution however is completely lacking. Heck when the movie is focused more on the action it has so much more style and is far more interesting than when it tries to be funny.
Worlds collide when the Flash uses his superpowers to travel back in time to change the events of the past. However, when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, he becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod has returned, threatening annihilation. With no other superheroes to turn to, the Flash looks to coax a very different Batman out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian — albeit not the one he’s looking for.
The Flash is the fifth superhero film that has come out this year, the genre has definitely had it’s ups and downs. With Guardians Of The Galaxy VOL. 3 and Across The Spider-Verse being fantastic films. While Shazam: Fury Of The Gods and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania being terrible. The Flash is yet another example of being a complete and total mess.
I’ll start with the positives because surprisingly enough there’s a decent amount that was actually pretty solid, the first half of The Flash I have to say was quite great, while there was terrible dialogue which I’ll get to in a bit. There was at least some level of attempt to try and tell an interesting story about Barry Allen (played by Ezra Miller) and his mother Nora Allen (played by Maribel Verdú), it truly felt like the movie was going to have meaningful character development. There were even touching moments that actually were genuinely filled with heart.
There were a few performances that were pretty solid which are Michael Keaton as Batman and Sasha Calle, it’s great Keaton returning as Batman (even if it’s clearly nostalgia bait) he does the best he can with a very lacking script, it’s mostly his talent as an actor that pushes the performance to the finish line. I will say that the ideas they did with Batman in the film were genuinely interesting they were just not given a whole lot of time despite the movie being 2 hours and 24 minutes. Sasha Calle did not get a whole lot of time but she absolutely made what she could with it. She shows a very different angle to Supergirl we haven’t really seen in a film before, she’s genuinely interesting and she gives quite a strong performance. It’s intimidating and really makes the viewer quickly engaged into her character. Sasha Calle absolutely deserved a far better film and I truly do hope going forward that they consider bringing her back in the future.
Now we get into everything else that really just felt like a complete mess of ideas rolled into a ball and thrown at the nearest wall, the whole multiverse stuff is just not interesting here at all, there’s been talk online about the cameos. Without going on a full rant about them since many people have already said pretty much everything that needs to be said about the topic, I’ll just say this…it’s garbage and the CGI is atrocious (that goes for the big battle scene featuring Zod) how anyone looked at this and gave it the okay is beyond me. Anyway the multiverse stuff includes Zod which leads into one of the main problems with the movie, the Zod stuff is uninteresting and really serves as nothing more then for the movie to say “hey remember this guy well he’s back!!”
This pretty much goes for the last half of the movie as well, which is a shame because there are some genuinely touching moments towards the end that you really wish the movie actually had centered around rather than nostalgia bait and a messy multiverse story. Ezra Miller’s performance is just not anything noteworthy at all outside of the fact Miller plays different variations of Barry Allen. While Miller does make some of the emotional moments work, everything else falls flat unfortunately.
Overall while The Flash isn’t as bad as I expected, it’s most certainly not good either. It’s a complete and total mess that has way too many flaws that take away from the positives.
Optimus Prime and the Autobots take on their biggest challenge yet. When a new threat capable of destroying the entire planet emerges, they must team up with a powerful faction of Transformers known as the Maximals to save Earth.
Transformers: Rise Of The Beast is directed by Steven Caple Jr. (Director of Creed II) and is the seventh installment in the Transformers live action films series this one is a sequel to Bumblebee (2018) and a prequel to Transformers (2007). After Bumblebee released in 2018 I was quite excited to see what the series would do next, Bumblebee is by far my favorite of the series and was quite honestly a very strong film.
Rise Of The Beasts is definitely a huge step down from Bumblebee but that doesn’t mean it‘s bad, there is a huge amount to really like here. Starting with the voice performances all of which are quite well done particularly Peter Cullen who once again absolutely nails it as Optimus Prime and shows that he completely owns the live action version of Optimus Prime. Peter Dinklage plays Scourge who gives an intimidating as well as fun performance as the villain, Michelle Yeoh as Airazor is quite great and Pete Davidson as Mirage is surprisingly a whole lot of fun and brings a lot of heart to the film.
Unfortunately Anthony Ramos and Dominque Fishback aren’t particularly great, they do the best they can with what they are given. But Fishback really isn’t given a whole lot to do other than just to move the plot forward and read symbols, while I do like what they were trying to do with Ramos’s character it just doesn’t get a whole lot of development to really matter in the end.
The action scenes are quiet great and get the job done, they are always entertaining with some atmosphere thrown in with a lot of admittedly very neat moments that do help the movie shine through, the Maximals outside of Airazor and Optimus Primal are largely given a backseat here, it’s a bit of a shame since I loved the Beast Wars cartoon growing up, but at the very least they were actually there and joined in the final battle. Speaking of taking a backseat Colman Domingo as Unicron is a bit wasted, while he was great in his performance he is really not in the movie all that much. I understand why they took the route they did with Unicron, but that doesn’t make it exactly great either.
The final act kind of falls into the typical blockbuster beats with one moment in particular that is incredibly stupid (having to do with Anthony Ramos’s character) and the ending is just flat out bad I won’t spoil it here but it comes right out of nowhere and I truly can’t help but feel like this was a last minute studio decision.
Overall Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts is quite enjoyable, it’s heavily flawed but it’s entertaining enough to give a pass. If you can ignore some writing flaws and such you will have a decent time with this one.
Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts is playing in theaters.
At the bitter end of World War II, a German deserter and a young woman are drawn into bloody battle with a group of Nazis hunting for hidden gold.
I’ve said it before but Netflix has been having a very rough year when it comes to original movies, Blood & Gold is at the very least a decent one there’s just honestly not whole lot to comment on here.
The movie serves as a nice little love letter to the Italo western and World War II exploitation movies from the 60s and 70s, if you are a fan of those types of movies you are going to get that here. The movie also does have a similar atmosphere that Sisu had although I would say Sisu is definitely the better movie.
The acting is overall not bad, the filming is actually quite nice to look at and there’s a lot of action scenes that are quite thrilling and atmospheric. Blood & Gold is overall not bad at all just nothing really that special.
Dom Toretto and his family are targeted by the vengeful son of drug kingpin Hernan Reyes.
Fast X is the first of the three part finale of the Fast & Furious series, the last few installments in the series particularly Fate Of The Furious and F9 were not good. Luckily Fast X is a huge improvement over the two and is just what the series needed to get back on track (no pun intended).
Performance wise Jason Momoa is easily the standout, while everyone else does a pretty solid job (some far better than others) Momoa takes his performance as the villain and goes full on looney tunes with it. It’s incredibly entertaining and surprisingly never gets old, each time he appears on screen he’s always doing something different or has something entertaining to say. He also comes off as threatening to the other characters in a darkly funny way that works quite well, it’s definitely what the series needed.
Daniela Melchior, Brie Larson, John Cena and Charlize Theron are also pretty solid as well, they have limited amount of screentime (outside of John Cena who gets a decent amount) but they are pretty solid. The action scenes are quite a lot of fun, this is definitely some of the best there’s ever been for the series in a very long time, some action scenes do tend to go on for a bit longer than they should but that’s to be expected at this point.
Honestly the main issue mainly comes from the movie falling apart towards the end mainly due to juggling so many different plot lines, which while yes Fast X is the first part of a three part finale It still has some plot lines that aren’t particularly interesting or have very little going on. It’s nice that the movie gave each of the characters at least something to do, whether those things are interesting is very debatable. The ending is definitely abrupt which again is expected and honestly fits the energy of this franchise quite well.
Honestly there really isn’t much else to say Fast X is the very definition of a Fast & Furious film, if you are a fan of the franchise you will absolutely love this one. It does everything an installment of the series should do and for the most part accomplishes it. However if you are someone who is getting sick of the franchise this one won’t win you over, it is definitely a huge step up from the last few movies but anyone who wishes for the quality of Furious 7, Fast Five or Fast & Furious 6 isn’t going to get that here.
A martial artist-in-training believes she must save her older sister from her impending marriage. After enlisting the help of her friends, she tries to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood.
Polite Society is a wild ride and it’s definitely a very interesting one that I’ve been quite curious about.
The acting in particular is very strong here Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya have excellent chemistry between one another, director Nida Manzoor does a beautiful job of capturing this sister bond the two have with one another. Manzoor also manages to make it surprisingly raw and touching in a lot of areas, I say surprising because on the surface the movie seem like just a highly energized action comedy film. But there is so much more than that in fact that doesn’t even begin to describe how much character is in the film.
The film does a fantastic job of mixing the coming of age story genre and the action genre with some comedy thrown in as well, action and coming of age are two genres that you don’t often see mix in film but Manzoor combines them in such an interesting way. She gives these characters so much determination take for example the main character Rita Khan (played by Priya Kansara) she wants to be a stuntwoman, so Manzoor works the action genre into that idea and creates some beautifully done action scenes.
The action scenes are electrifying and really grab the viewer’s attention quickly, there’s a lot of character to them and are overall very entertaining to watch. The film does get a bit more bizarre as it goes on and even then Nida Manzoor still holds on to the film and introduces these bizarre scenes sparingly.
Lastly Polite Society has a ton of heart that really does get the viewer to feel for these characters, it’s a very fast paced journey that you honestly don’t want to stop at all. Be sure to check this one out!
Serial killers Johnny and Clyde are madly in love and on an endless crime spree. They set their sights on robbing crime boss Alana’s casino, which is under the guard of her demonic warrior.
Johnny & Clyde is what happens when you take everything that made Natural Born Killers so disturbing, looney and interesting then proceeded to replace it with the most dull elements possible.
Outside of Megan Fox (who needs to fire her agent immediately) there is absolutely nothing here that many Bonnie and Clyde clones haven’t already done, this goes for a more Natural Born Killers approach where they try to capture the performances of Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis.
But the movie almost immediately falls flat on it’s face due to the writing being truly terrible in every single way you could imagine, I’m sure Avan Jogia and Ajani Russell are both fine actors they are just given material that I don’t think any actor could have really made it work. A lot of it reads as early 2000s bad fanfiction that wants to be edgy. One of the lines is literally “We could be the darkest fairy tale of all time”
There’s so many plot holes as well even to the point where they start to throw ideas at a wall and somehow come up with a demon, it makes very little sense but the rest of the movie doesn’t make sense so why bother right?
I’m not exactly sure what the overall goal of Johnny & Clyde was but if it was to make you want to watch Natural Born Killers instead then it accomplishes it’s goal quite well.
While fleeing from dangerous assailants, an assassin comes out of hiding to protect her daughter she left earlier in life.
The Mother is yet another Netflix original movie that sadly suffers from being way too forgettable.
There’s moments where Nikki Caro does a decent job in the director’s chair particularly when The Mother (played by Jennifer Lopez) and Zoe (played by Lucy Paez) have this mother and daughter chemistry that is quite strong and really highlights the performances from Jennifer Lopez and Lucy Paez. There’s a few action scenes (towards the end) that are decently done but they are admittedly nothing to write home about.
That’s where the movie really ends with it’s positives, the editing in most of the actions scenes before the third act are awful, they really don’t really tell us much about Jennifer Lopez’s characters. We are told that she’s a ruthless assassin but we barely get to see any of that due to how messy the editing really is.
When the third act rolls around the movie does actually pick up quite a bit surprisingly enough, but at that point it’s a bit too late the time to tell a proper backstory is long gone. Jennifer Lopez and Lucy Paez really do carry the third act and really do the most they can with it plus try to give the movie a proper ending.
Overall The Mother has a decent third act, great performances from Jennifer Lopez and Lucy Paez but not much else. It’s yet another forgettable Netflix original action thriller movie that has nothing new to offer.
Still reeling from the loss of Gamora, Peter Quill must rally his team to defend the universe and protect one of their own. If the mission is not completely successful, it could possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is the latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the final film of the Guardians Of The Galaxy trilogy. The discussion about superhero fatigue or the superhero genre itself putting mediocrity or flat out terrible movies is still a very relevant. Especially given with what we got so far this year, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania outside of a few performances was a horrible start to phase five and Shazam: Fury Of The Gods suffered very identical problems that Quantumania did and just sort of came and went.
However Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is what happens when you focus on far more than just building a cinematic universe, random cameos and actually have very interesting themes with strong writing. The Guardians Of The Galaxy films I consider to be the best of the MCU and a lot of it has to do with how beautifully well written the characters are and James Gunn’s direction which are both very present here.
For starters the character’s are once again incredibly well written here, the film completes a lot of the arcs the characters have went through from the last several years, Chris Pratt once again kills it as Peter Quill, while he doesn’t get as much development here as he did in the previous movies he really doesn’t need to. The last film really wrapped up a lot of his story and in this one it tied up some loose ends which does lead to a very emotional touching end for his journey, it’s one that’s been hinted at for awhile and to see him accomplish it is truly satisfying.
Bradley Cooper is at his absolute best here as Rocket as the trailers and information about the film has said, the film takes a look at Rocket’s backstory which is quite dark, that’s one thing I should mention Vol. 3 is the darkest of the trilogy (heck this might be the darkest film of the MCU if we are going to be honest.) the backstory really does a fantastic job of building Rocket’s character, there’s so many emotions and really makes Rocket one of the most interesting characters of the MCU. There’s so much pain and sadness in the many flashbacks that truly do make you cry, Rocket’s backstory is among some of the best the MCU has ever done and it’s truly beautiful to see his arc be completed.
Dave Bautista as Drax actually goes through quite a lot of development here, he’s shown in the previous films that he really cares about the team, but here you can absolutely see the result of that. It helps that Bautista gives a phenomenal performance and really puts so much heart into the role, it always did seem like he was having a blast playing Drax whenever he was on screen and that shows here.
Karen Gillan as Nebula is yet another highlight performance of the film, while yes Gillan has always killed as Nebula but I would argue she takes the performance to a different level in this one. Not only does her arc complete in this film but it’s such a beautiful end to it as well, especially during one particularly moment at the end that has everyone together, Nebula is by far one of the most developed characters of the MCU and truly one of the most interesting as well.
Chukwudi Iwuji plays the villain High Evolutionary and it’s quite refreshing to see a villain who isn’t sympathetic at all, one of the problems a lot of people have had with some recent MCU villains is they are always either given a sympathetic backstory or make arguments where someone can say “they are right” while yes that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but when you constantly do it film after film (or show) it starts to become very old. High Evolutionary is straight up evil, he wants to commit genocide and torture creatures he sees as “not perfect” Iwuji’s performance is so unhinged that it’s to the point where it’s quite brilliant. Iwuji says that some inspirations for his performance was William Shakespeare and that really shows, he balances a lot of absolutely unhinged moments with some calm and collected moments.
James Gunn’s direction much like the previous two films is absolutely brilliant, there’s a beautiful blend of comedy and dramatic moments that help the film move along at very steady pace. It tells a beautiful story while making some very hilarious jokes, the music is once against fantastic as well. One scene in particular towards the end uses “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence + The Machine and it’s truly a brilliant use of it, the scene really puts a nice closing on an incredible journey we have had with these characters.
Lastly there’s the film itself and it’s everything that the end of a trilogy should be, it completes the many character arcs while introducing a few new elements that add to the overall themes and characters.
I know it may look like I went on a lot about the characters, but that’s honestly the main source of power in the Guardians Of The Galaxy Trilogy…the characters, since 2014 we have been on a journey with these characters that are quite unique when it comes to the writing style, the team is arguably the characters who went through the most development out of all the characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I believe the reason why these characters and films are so fantastic is mainly development, the characters loving each other like a family and the overall charm.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is the perfect closer to the trilogy and is among one of the very best films so far this year!
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is playing in theaters.
Jerome Reviews... 