Category Archives: action

King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword – Guy Ritchie (2017)

This way-too-Hollywood spectacle is very loosely based on the legends of King Arthur. The creators made a story in which the “mages” are in war with humans resulting in a CGI-explosion in the opening scenes. This makes a thin bridge towards Arthur who is a commoner raised in a brothel.

The bad guy in the story is Vortigern (a very nice part of Jude Law) who tries to dominate the world. There is an alternative take on how the sword got stuck in the stone and of course Arthur is the one to get it out in order to thwart Vortigern’s plans.

Like I said, way-too-Hollywood with obligatory and unsuccessful drama, tons of over-the-top action, made-up elements and a fairly thin story.

The film may not be boring, but it has little to do with the Arthurian legends and all the extra elements did not really make an interesting story either.

The 6th Day – Roger Spottiswoode (2000)

In the near future pets are cloned commercially. When you pet dies, you can get your “repet”. Even though it is forbidden, the company behind “repet” also clones humans and thus one day Adam Gibson (Arnold Schwarzenegger) comes home finding that he already is home.

For a large part of the film Schwarzenegger has to play the family man and he is not a good enough actor for such a part. When the cloning company sets out to kill either the clone or the original, the film evolves towards a genre that Schwarzenegger is more familiar with: action.

“The 6th Day” gives a few things to think about, but it is nothing more than a standard Hollywood action film.

Chappie – Neill Blomkamp (2015)

The description for “rebel robot” is more interesting than the film. In a crime-filled future Johannesburg the police uses police robots to fight the gangs that try to control the city. One of the creators of these robots uses one of them to experiment with artificial intelligence and hence “Chappie” is ‘born’.

What I thought would be an amusing action film is a bit of a childish film with cheap drama and a bit of action. The film raises a few questions about AI, but it is all too thin for my liking.

Mortal Engines – Christian Rivers (2018)

The film has a nicely weird story. On a scorched future earth cities have been made mobile. The travelling city of London drives around the globe to literally eat up smaller cities in order to use their resources. In this film London symbolises the West with its greed and destruction. The face of this is Thaddeus Valentine, well played by Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith in The Matrix).

There are also people who do not live in these mobile cities, but they are hunted by all kinds of rogue towns. One such person is Hester Shaw who has plans for Valentine. Together with Tom she drops off London and falls into the hands of a rebel group who the two are going to help to prevent London (the West) to break through the wall guarding the East.

The weird cities themselves, but especially the weird machines bring memories of films such “Mad Max“. “Mad Max” is much rawer though. Especially the obligatory romance and jokes of “Mortal Engines” make it a too typical Hollywood film.

The only thing that is somewhat uncommon is that the West is bad and the East actually wins. Oops, I gave away the end.

“Mortal Engines” is an amusing dystopian sci-fi spectacle, but not a terribly good one.

What Happened To Monday – Tommy Wirkola (2017)

I got this film with the title “Seven Sisters”. I do not really understand the need for different titles in the same language.

Anyway, in an overcrowded future there is a one-child policy. One man has a ‘seven-twins’ and names them after the days of the week, so there you have both titles explained.

The man hides his daughters in his massive apartment and thinks of an elaborate plan to give his daughters a wee bit of freedom: they get to get out on the weekday they are named after. Of course this cannot go well for eternity.

The sisters are played by Noomi “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” Rapace. Inside their apartment the girls have their own style and personality, outside they are all the same person. Once the authorities find out about them, the film turns into an alright sci-fi action thriller. Too bad that the film ends with rather boring drama and what is even weirder: the governments policies have a logic, but the overcoming of them is presented as a victory.

“What Happened To Monday” is descent thriller with a bad end.

Leather And Iron – James Archer (2002)

I had some hope that “Screaming Metal”, as the film is called on my box, would be ‘so bad it’s good’. Actually it is just corny. According to the box the film is for people who like motorcycles and beautiful women. A little better acting would have done some good…

Some motorcycle gangs run the local drug distribution and a strip club. When one of them steals something from a wholly other type of criminal group and two people get caught in the middle, a cat-and-mouse game unfolds in which everybody is after “the package”.

Like I said, the acting is unconvincing, especially fighting scenes. The story is not too bad after all, but mostly seems like an umbrella for lengthy motorcycle parades and strip club scenes. In the first part mostly, because after a while the story needs to be told.

Nope, a not too good film and not fun enough to be ‘so bad it’s good’.

Spartan – David Mamet (2004)

Here we have a fairly standard, but descent, action thriller. The opening is a bit confusing. Is Scott (Val Kilmer) some elite soldier, does he work for a secret service or both? We find him (helping) recruiting people and immediately after he is recruited himself for a job in which the daughter of a candidate for presidency is kidnapped.

From then on, “Spartan” is more straightforward. Scott and his team set out to investigate the kidnapping. It soon appears that some women’s trafficking group took a blonde not knowing who she is and the circle for investigation becomes wider and wider and people’s purposes become vaguer (or not).

The film has nicely built up tension, descent action, a good parts of Ed O’Neill and William H. Macy (both I know for very different roles).

Not a must-see, but not a waste of time either.

American Made – Doug Liman (2017)

Since the “Narcos” series, everything around Pablo Escobar and the drug trafficking between South and North America seems to appeal to the people. The director did find an amusing story in that corner though.

“American Made” is another cooperation between Doug Liman and Tom Cruise. Cruise plays Barry Seal, an airline pilot who is hired by the CIA for some covert activities. Soon these activities become even more covert and then Seal is even hired by the other side. Pretty soon he runs a business in which money is coming in like crazy.

Liman turned Seal into an underground pop-star, who initially tries to get out of all his missions alive, but who later got gripped by the gathering of money. He also shows the weird ways of corrupt government agencies and their relations to foreign politics and its legal and illegal allies.

“American Made” is an amusing film about a strange part of recent history and probably a welcome addition to the ‘Escobar franchise’.

Hero – Yimou Zhang (2002)

An epic, Chinese martial arts spectacle. The film does not really look as if it was adopted for a Western audience. There are many dialogues and some silly aspects in the fighting scenes. I guess that makes the film a little more interesting though.

The film is based on a legend in which some people want a king dead and we follow one such person. After ten years of practice, he became the best fighter and has built an elaborate plan to murder the king. We find him explaining his plan to the king and with flashbacks we get the story, or actually stories, since as the king understands that what is presented are not facts, the story changes.

The viewer is presented with massive fighting scenes and of course a lot of one-on-one sword fights with flying people and strange weapons. The film has some cultural and somewhat spiritual elements as well.

Sucker Punch – Zack Snyder (2011)

Catching up with this older Snyder. The title and the cover make me think this film is not for me, but I have to be able to prove myself wrong every now and then do I now? Well, I was right… What a terrible film!

Droopy face Emily Browning kills her father in the opening scene and is transferred to a mental asylum. This asylum then suddenly is a house for troubled girls that is also a brothel and when the girls dance for their customers, they are suddenly in some sort of violent shout-out game hunting monsters. It all becomes a dull mishmash of teeny drama and silly, hip fighting scenes with something that I suppose has to be psychological thriller elements.

The entire film I had the idea that the target audience has to be 15-minus. The dialogues, the drama, the action, it is all awfully boring. I guess the only reason that I finished the film is that I was doing something else while watching it. Because I finished it, I will not give it only one star, so I come at….: