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Enemy Of The State – Tony Scott (1998)

The passing of an actor can be an occasion to pick a film that (s)he plays in. Apparently I have never been a big fan of Gene Hackman (1930-2025) it seems, because most films that I found I had not yet seen.

The main character in this film is Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith), a lawyer who accidentally becomes the enemy of the state. He has to flee from every imaginable government agency. During the proces he runs into Hackman’s character (“Brill”).

A descent action thriller with an alright story putting the finger of privacy problems due to technology. Scott does give the goverment agencies possibilities that I doubt are even at that level today, but perhaps that makes the film still relevant today.

Captain America: Brave New World – Julius Onah (2025)

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The speed with which new Marvel movies are put out is staggering. This time they did not introduce yet another new set of heroes, but we have a new episode in the series on the oldest of Marvel heroes: Captain America.

I am unsure if I already saw that it is no longer Buck Rogers who is Captain America, but Sam Wilson. In any case, Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) used to be the bad guy, now he is the president of the USA. He is actually trying be good and do something for the world.

A material even stronger than “Vibranium” has been found, Ross tries to prevent falling it into the hands of one country. Of course there is a bad guy with other plans and he elaborately plans the downfall of both Ross and Captain America.

But you know what? Captain America saves the world!

Canary Black – Pierre Morel (2024)

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So, some people wanted to make a ‘one girl army’ movie, but did not have a whole lot of inspiration for a story.

The film starts with Avery (Kate Beckingsale) who is some top notch CIA agent without her husband knowing. Then the husband is kidnapped by terrorists who blackmail Avery to get them some file in exchange for her husband’s life.

No need to tell you what comes after. Avery gets the entire world behind her, but her super skills make her perform her given task. Towards the end there is some drama and revenge.

The film is well produced, but the story is very, very weak.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith – Doug Liman (2005)

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I do not think I ever saw this film. It is quite entertaining though.

John (Brad Pitt) and Jane (Angelina Jolie) accidentally meet and soon get married. Both are guns for hire, but they hide that for the other half. After a storming start their relationship becomes a typical, ‘vanilla’ relationship of a couple that does not communicate and couple’s counceling.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. and Mrs. Smith get to be assigned to both sides of a job. Initially they try to kill each other after that job gone wrong, then they make up, but get their respective employers after them and as an invincible duo, they fight back.

No surprises, but amusing dialogues and allright action.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die – El Arbi & Fallah (2024)

Only picked because I felt like watching an action comedy. I do not think I even saw the previous “Bad Boys” (1995, 2003, 2020) films.

Smith and Lawrence make an amusing couple, a bit screwball hero cops. After an amusing opening scene, a fairly weak story unfolds in which the Bad Boys’ deceased boss is accused of working with the enemy. Mike and Marcus set out to prove everybody wrong.

So your usual car chases, action scenes, shootouts, evil bad guys, drama and of course witty dialogues. The results is a somewhat amusing film.

The Suicide Squad – James Gunn (2021)

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Just as in the first Suicide Squad Amanda Waller creates a team of villains in order to create a great evil. Only Harlequin Jones and Captian Boomerang return, the rest are new.

There are no Gotham references this time, just an action comedy which is basically in the style of the first film. Super-anti-heroes have to invade an island to prevent a massive weapon to fall into the wrong hands.

No surprises here. “The Suicide Squad” is another amusing action comedy.

Suicide Squad – David Ayer (2016)

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I never realised why I kept confusing “Suicide Squad” with “Birds of Prey“. The girl in both movies is actually the same comic character: Harley Quinn.

The first “Suicide Squad” was made 4 years before “Birds of Prey” and indeed, in “Suicide Squad” we learn how Quin became the girlfriend of The Joker.

Gotham is plagued by “metamen”, people with extra abilities. Superman stopped doing his job, so a government agency decides to put the worst “metahuman” villains, that are all behind bars, in a team to fight current and future “metamen” mayhem. So we have a group of anti-heroes and the main characters of “Suicide Squad”.

The result is an alright thin story action comedy with alright jokes and descent action scenes introducing enough new characters for another few spin offs.

Red One – Jake Kasdan (2024)

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An attempt to make the Christmas movie classic for the current generation?

Even though it plays in cinemas, it is also available from Prime Video and it is even included in your subscription. This is for the better, because the film is not that good.

In a bit of a superhero action comedy style, we follow master thief Jack and head of Santa’s security Callum Drift who have to find Santaclaus who has been kidnapped on Christmas Eve, the busiest evening of the year. Santa lives in a high tech village on the North pole, having elves, trolls and polar bears as personnel and high-tech transport, but also powerful enemies.

The film is full of Christmas time morality. Drift woes that nowadays half of the earth’s population is on “the naughty list”, Santa explains how he tries to appeal to the child in people, etc. There are also a few amusing details such as a Krampus, which may be a somewhat unknown element of the time of the year for many people.

So a chase that includes fighting snow men, magic, secret passage ways and all that. The film appears to be aimed at the whole family, which is perhaps why it is just another Hollywood production. Not boring, but nothing out of the ordinary.

The Northman – Robert Eggers (2022)

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I was so disappointed by The VVitch that I skipped “The Northman”? It does have a Viking theme, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicole Kidman as actors, plus, the not-so-bad Lighthouse and the upcoming Nosferatu are also of Eggers. Let us watch it anyway.

Eggers created another nicely looking gritty, dark movie. A bit overdone ‘dark’ are Amleth’s initiation and the Berzerkr scenes. These scenes are a bit sad in my eyes. There are other elements in which Eggers seems to have ‘bended history’ to make the film more interesting.

So, some local king returns from battle and realises that he has to confer authority to his young son in case he would die soon. Amleth is initiated and immediately his father is killed by his uncle. Amleth flees and we jump forward in time where we find Amleth as a fighter in a Berzerkr troupe.

He learns that his uncle now lives in Iceland, where he has himself transported to as a slave. On the ship he meets the Slavic Olga (Taylor-Joy). When Amleth is recruited by his uncle, he starts to terrorize the village.

The atmosphere is alright, the visuals are good, the story is thin.

Deadpool & Wolverine – Shawn Levy (2024)

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Probably in the last week of it showing on the big screen, I saw this year’s summer hit. Not that it was very high up on my list after having watched a Deadpool and a Wolverine film, but it was the least uninteresting film playing when I had some time to kill.

With the typical (and fairly boring) adolescent humour, we follow Deadpool, who needs to find the dead Wolverine in order to save his timeline.

The film contains many references to other movies, ‘Hollywood culture’, the competition and some of these jokes are actually somewhat amusing. Also, as the story goes on, we run into other Marvel characters. Not the Avengers that Deadpool wants to join, but characters like Blade or Elektra.

The film contains a lot of bloody fighting scenes and bad language. I guess this is Marvel trying to appeal to the growing-up audience. Judging the rating at IMDb.com (7.8) this seems to work, but I do not really get much further than: somewhat amusing, here and there an alright joke.