REVIEW: THE SUICIDE SQUAD (2021)

THE SUICIDE SQUAD (2021)

Sequel/reboot finds Task Force X being sent to the small South American island of Corto Maltese to destroy the ominous Project Starfish. Col. Flag (Joel Kinnamen) leads the charge, with the returning Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and a host of other freakish, reluctant heroes. They take heavy loses and some are captured, as we soon find out they were a distraction for the real squad, Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) and King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone). Now this new squad must make a few rescues along the way to accomplishing their mission.

Flick is written and directed by James Gunn and is basically a very simple plot dragged out over 132 minutes. It’s over two hours of juvenile humor, excessive gore—simply for the sake of being gory—and random action sequences, till we get to our last act confrontation with a giant alien starfish. It gets tedious quick as the colorful cast of characters meanders around for two hours before finally reaching their objective. There is a lot of blood and bullets along the way and that would be fine if it didn’t feel so made up as it goes along and rambles more than tells a story. A lot of the humor falls flat, the overblown CGI gore gets tiresome and the only thing that holds our interest somewhat is that Gunn has at least given some fairly ridiculous characters a little weight and depth. Even the climactic battle with the giant, alien starfish Starro feels like it could have used a bit more of the WOW factor. Iffy CGI blood aside, this foul-mouthed super hero flick—which wouldn’t be a bad thing if there was more wit to the vulgarity—has some top notch SPFX, some decent action scenes and a cast that is far better than the disappointing material. And speaking of that cast…

Once again Margot Robbie is the perfectly cast Harley Quinn in a sadly underwhelming movie. Harley is sidelined for a portion of the film in a silly and thankfully brief romance with a South American dictator sub-plot and once she does rejoin the squad, she is more of a second banana and seems to be written more dim-witted than her usual sarcastic cleverness. When will this actress get the flick she and her portrayal deserve? Elba is good as Bloodsport, who is basically a re-written Deadshot, as Will Smith wisely had had enough. Jai Courtney is fun as Boomerang, in a far too small part. John Cena is fun as the patriotic to the point of insane Peacemaker and one wishes he had some better dialogue and moments. KInnamen is fine as Flag and Davis is solid as a returning Amanda Waller. Real standouts amongst the new cast members are Stallone hilariously voicing the simpleton brute that is King Shark, David Dastmalchian is fun as the dour and sympathetic Polka-Dot Man and Daniela Melchior gives some nice heart to Ratcatcher 2. There are also a host of familiar faces in small supporting roles, such as Michael Rooker as Savant, Nathan Fillion as TDK and Alice Braga as rebel leader Sol Soria. A really good cast in a sadly underwhelming movie.

Overall, James Gunn writes and directs this flick like a giddy 13 year-old and, for the most part, not in a good way. He chooses vulgarity over wit, crudeness instead of cleverness and wastes a really good cast with a meandering mess of a superhero flick. As the Deadpool movies prove, R-rated superhero flicks can be a blast, but this one takes a real simple, basic story and stretches it out over two and a quarter hours. It’s tedious and rambles most of the time, with only a few standout sequences, such as Harley Quinn’s acrobatic and violent escape from captivity and Polka-Dot Man’s brief but triumphant moment in the last act. It’s a slight improvement over David Ayer’s awful original, but not by much and Gunn has shown he certainly can do better with his witty and fun Guardians of the Galaxy flicks and his gory, nostalgic Slither. Very disappointing.

-MonsterZero NJ

Rated 2 (out of 4) underused Harley Quinns

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BARE BONES: THE NEW MUTANTS (2020)

THE NEW MUTANTS (2020)

The New Mutants takes place in the X-Men film universe with a young Native American girl, Dani Moonstar (Blu Hunt), being admitted to a clinic for young mutants. She’s there with four other youths, Illyana (Anya Taylor-Joy), Rahne (Maisie Williams), Sam (Charlie Heaton) and Roberto (Henry Zaga), under the “treatment” of Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga). They initially think they are being taught to control their mutant abilities to become X-Men, but when their fears and inner pains begin to manifest against them, they unite under the belief that there is a more sinister purpose in store for them.

Flick is directed by Josh Boone from his script with Knate Lee. Initial shooting supposedly ended in 2017 and then the film spent three years in post production hell with a lot of tinkering and reshoots. As such, the result is basically A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, meets The X-Men and not nearly as fun or interesting as that sounds. It’s not really a bad film, though it’s not an overly good one either. We’ve seen the X-Men elements done better in those movies and if you’ve seen ANOES 3, there really isn’t much new here on that front either. The characters are a bit cliché, but the cast is good, with Blu Hunt making a likable lead and heroine as Dani, and Braga making a suitable villain as Dr. Reyes. The FX are well done, the hospital location atmospheric and there is some effective action and violence. After a somewhat more grounded first half, the climax does get a little bloated and overloaded and comes quite close to getting silly. The flick tries to be a bit more of a horror movie than a comic book movie, but it is still a PG-13 one, once all is said and done. All in all, it’s an entertaining enough 94 minutes, if there is nothing else to watch, but nothing memorable or impactful. A lackluster end to the 20th Century Fox film series, as now Disney and Marvel have the rights to the X-Men, and they’ll be joining the MCU at some point.

-MonsterZero NJ

BARE BONES: PREDATORS (2010)

PREDATORS (2010)

Second direct Predator sequel finds an assorted group of mercenaries, gangsters and killers (Adrian Brody, Danny Trejo and Alice Braga to name a few) kidnapped from Earth and dropped on a remote planet. There the group are hunted for sport by a group of familiar looking alien creatures.

Directed by Nimród Antal from a script by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch, flick gets a lot right, far more than those AVP movies, but also falters in a few places that keep it from being the great movie Predator fans were hoping for. Returning to the jungle is fine, as is sending in another collection of badasses to challenge the hunting skills of the title creatures. The first half of the film is good, as is the cast and characters. It’s the middle of the film where the trouble begins, when the film slows down for the scenes with Laurence Fishburn. These sequences serve only for exposition and really aren’t needed. It stops the film dead. The flick starts to pick up speed again, but only to deliver a climax far too derivative of the original and far too open ended to really satisfy. It works fine enough to an extent, but we’ve seen it all before. So far, Predators is the best of the sequels, up to this point and a step in the right direction for those who haven’t tired of this series. There is a lot of action and an interesting plot element that there is more than one type of Predator and they don’t all get along. Entertaining if you don’t expect something that measures up too close to the Arnie original.

-MonsterZero NJ

BARE BONES: 24 EXPOSURES, KILL ME THREE TIMES and THE INTRUDERS

24 EXPOSURES (2013)

Odd and unsatisfying thriller has a troubled police detective (Simon Barrett) investigating a series of murders and questioning a fetish photographer (Adam Wingard who directed The Guest) who worked with a couple of the victims. The two form an odd bond as the investigation continues. Yea…that’s kinda it. I found this thriller rather pointless and dull. Writer/director Joe Swanberg seems more interested in giving his fellow director buddy Wingard opportunities to make-out with and enact sex scenes with multiple women than he is in actually telling a story. Ironically, when Barett’s cop character tries to sell his experiences as a book, he’s told that the characters and story aren’t compelling enough and there are too many loose ends…kinda like this movie. Also, instead of patting each other on the back by giving each other acting roles, this pack of filmmaker buddies should keep egos in check and hire real actors…just a suggestion.

KILL ME THREE TIMES (2014)

Another Tarantino wannabe thriller that has a hip soundtrack, spurts of graphic violence and a story told out of sequence with dark humor. This time the wannabes are writer James McFarland and Aussie director Kriv Stenders. They deliver the story of hired killer Charlie Wolf (Simon Pegg) who is being payed by a ruthless husband (Callan Mulvey) to murder his cheating wife, Alice (Alice Braga). Unknown to Charlie, a conniving couple (Theresa Palmer and Sullivan Stapleton) are planning to kill her, too, in an insurance fraud plot…but Alice has other ideas. Add in a dirty cop (Bryan Brown) and a lovesick mechanic (Luke Hemsworth) and things get complicated and bloody fast. Flick isn’t terrible, it’s just that it’s style is so familiar at this point and a good deal of it is predictable because so many have already tried to be the next Quentin Tarantino and we know what to expect. Pegg seems to be having fun in more of a tough guy role, but the proceedings in flicks like this have just become so passé and it never reaches the cleverness or the manic energy of the filmmaker whose work is being emulated. OK at best.

THE INTRUDERS (2015)

The Intruders is a completely derivative and familiar story of a emotionally troubled girl named Rose (Miranda Cosgrove) who moves into an apparently haunted house that wants something from her. Obviously her recently widowed father (Donal Logue) thinks it’s all in her troubled head and no one believes her that something may be in the house with them. So, she begins to investigate. Add in alleged disappearances and suspicious neighbors and you know where this is going. Thriller isn’t badly directed, as by Adam Massey, it’s just that Jason Juravic’s script is loaded with been-there-done-that. The only thing that elevated this for me out of the incredibly familiar and mundane material was that Cosgrove is actually quite good, despite being surrounded by clichés. In a much better film, the former Disney Channel actress could be quite an impressive final girl. Also stars Tom Sizemore as the suspicious neighbor and Austin Butler as the stereotypical nice guy hunk with a soft spot for pretty, damaged girls. Up to you.

 -MonsterZero NJ

REVIEW: ELYSIUM (2013)

ELYSIUM (2013)

As a huge fan of writer/ director Neil Blomkamp’s District 9, I couldn’t wait to see what he came up with next. Now after a 4 year wait, his sophomore flick Elysium has arrived. I liked Elysium. I was certainly entertained but, it does have some problems that keep it from reaching the standard set by District 9 such as, a bit of an overloaded story and some surprising overacting by a few principles. Elysium tells the story of the future Earth of 2154. The planet is overpopulated and ravaged and the rich and powerful have moved off planet to the enormous space station of Elysium where they have every convenience and luxury, while the rest are left to labor and wallow in the mess. Enter ex-con Max, (Matt Damon) a man trying to work hard and stay out of trouble and prison, while dreaming of reconnecting with childhood sweetheart, Frey (Alice Braga). An accident at work leaves Max fatally poisoned with radiation and with 5 days left to live, Max needs to get to the only place where he can be cured, Elysium… which is off limits to the poor inhabitants of Earth. Max turns to crime-lord and hacker, Spider (Wagner Moura). Spider will get Max on Elysium if he helps steal the information about all it’s access codes stored in the brain of one, John Carlyle (William Fichtner) who, unknown to Max and Spider, is working with Elysium Secretary Of Defense, Delacourt (a surprisingly miscast Jodie Foster) to overthrow Elysium’s president (Faran Tahir). Still with me? Needless to say Max now has information that Delacourt will kill to get and is being hunted by her henchman, Kruger (Sharlto Copley) all the while trying to find his way to Elysium to heal himself. Throw in strength enhancing exo-skeletons, Frey’s sick daughter and we have a Sci-Fi action soup with a lot of ingredients. Elysium does have a bit of an overcomplicated story and while it is not hard to follow, it just has a lot of elements to it as, once again, Blomkamp tackles the theme of  ‘the haves and the have-nots, as he did in District 9. We get the contrast of the over populated slum Earth has become to the spotless and perfect living conditions the wealthy enjoy in Elysium which, floats above in Earth’s orbit as a constant reminder of how little we all are to them and how they are so above us. The message is not subtle but, Blomkamp skillfully keeps it from overwhelming things with so much else going on. There is a lot of fast paced action and with a complex story as we have, the director keeps things moving very quickly. The excess of plot doesn’t slow things down though one feels it might have served the film if things were streamlined a little bit and there weren’t quite so many players in the game. And as for the players, Damon and Braga are strong though Braga’s Frey really doesn’t get that much screen time till the last act so we don’t identify with her as much even though we do get treated to flashbacks of she and Max as kids in an orphanage. Damon proves once again he can be an action star yet with some nice depth, giving Max some layers that enhances his character much like his surgically attached exo-skeleton enhances his strength and agility. Sadly it’s veteran actress Foster who seems to be miscast here. She never quite strays into camp but, plays Delacourt like one half stereotypical bureaucratic douche and the other half Roger Moore era Bond villain complete with unidentifiable accent. It sticks out awkwardly in what is a serious Sci-Fi flick as does District 9 star Sharlto Copley, who is completely over the top as Kruger. Which is disappointing consider how good he was in D9. A calmer demeanor would have made him more threatening. Neither characterization seems to fit in with the more grounded performances of the leads and more serious tone of the film. Joining them is Wagner Moura who is just weak and tries to compensate by over doing it as Spider. An actor with a bit stronger presence who doesn’t need to try as hard would have worked better. But, there is still plenty to like about this film. It’s story may be complicated but, there is a lot of action to move it along and some delightfully gruesome moments splattered here and there as this future’s weapons do make a mess. The last act especially is quite thrilling and has a nice emotional impact to go with all the explosions, gunfire and mechanically enhanced hand to hand combat. The SPFX are flawless, the design is breathtaking and the film could easily take place in District 9’s world. The score by Ryan Amon suits the film well, though reminded me of Dark Knight Rises a bit, but, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. So, all in all I liked Elysium and recommend it especially if you enjoyed District 9. It’s a bit meatier then most summer fair so, those who are tired of moody superheroes might like being given a bit more to chew on. Just be prepared that there is a complex story to digest along with the action and that a few of the veteran cast members just don’t seem right for their roles. Entertaining despite it’s flaws and another strong role from the versatile Damon.

A solid 3 mechanically enhanced Matt Damons