BARE BONES: AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (2022)

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (2022)

Sequel is basically the same story as the first flick. The earth forces return with a vengeance and are on the hunt for Scully (Sam Worthington) who is forced to flee with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and their family. They find reluctant sanctuary with the coastal Metkayina clan, who becomes the earth forces’ next target.

 

Flick is directed by James Cameron from his script along with Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa. It’s a lazy and sometimes badly written script that is basically a rehash of the first flick with the addition of a group of annoying teenagers, who constantly need to be rescued. We even have the same villain, as Col. Miles Quaritch’s (Stephen Lang) personality and memories have been downloaded into a recombinant. It’s way too long at three hours and twelve minutes and drags quite a bit. Cameron is a master director on a technical level and the film has some amazing SPFX and is visually spectacular, but it’s ultimately hollow and has some borderline awful dialogue. If Cameron and his cowriters couldn’t come up with anything imaginative story wise for his first sequel, it’s hard to believe they are planning three more movies.

-MonsterZero NJ

BARE BONES: LONE SURVIVOR and SABOTAGE

LONE SURVIVOR (2013)

Writer /director Peter Berg hits all the marks with this incredibly intense and moving action/drama based on true events in Afghanistan. The film’s story sends a four man SEAL team (Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsh and Ben Foster) behind enemy lines to track a Taliban leader for capture. When an unfortunate encounter with a local family alerts the enemy to their presence, the four SEALS must now fight for their very lives, surrounded and outgunned. Berg delivers drama and action that is equally riveting and even manages to slip in a message that not all perceived ‘enemies’ are bad people. An incredibly well-made, well-acted and nail-bitingly intense thriller that also contains a nice homage and tribute to the real men from the actual mission it honors/portrays. Also stars Eric Bana and is based on a book by author Patrick Robinson and ex-Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell who is the real life soldier Mark Wahlberg’s character is based on and was on the mission the story is taken from. Highly recommended!

SABOTAGE (2014)

Arnie’s newest film is sadly a crude, vulgar and worst of all dull crime thriller that fails on pretty much every level except for a few intense action scenes. The blood-soaked story has Schwarzenegger playing John ‘Breacher’ Wharton, who is head of an undercover DEA unit accused of stealing $10 Million in drug money during a raid. But, now his team are being offed in gruesome fashion and Breacher and FBI investigator Caroline Brentwood (Olivia Williams) must find out if it’s cartel revenge or something else. Director and co-writer (with Skip Woods) David Ayer tries way too hard to make this a gritty, hard nose thriller and thus turns it into a gory, foul-mouthed mess that can’t decide if it’s a cop thriller or slasher movie. The acting is terrible on most fronts, the characters are borderline comic book level and the plot edges close to being a train wreck. I understand Arnold wanting to play a character that wasn’t necessarily a clean cut good guy for once and I liked that aspect of it but, it’s such a bad movie in terms of the script and the ‘trying too hard to be hip’ direction that it sinks the Austrian Oak’s attempt to do something new. Also stars Sam Worthington and current ‘man-babe’ Joe Manganiello. Terrible.