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Sharker – Patrick Chamberlain (2024)

I ran into this “independent film” on Amazon Prime. Well, in the time you had “B-movies” (perhaps still), but “Sharker” would be more of a “C-movie”. Bad acting, hardly a story, cheap special effects, an attempt to shock by use of sex, drugs and violence. “Sharkers” looks like a group of people having a laugh making a movie.

And so we follow Harry, who gets replaced by his girlfriend for the colleague he invited for a threesome. Snorting his pain away in a club, he meets a drug dealing couple and goes to their house. From then all everything goes wrong and Harry finds the whole drug scene after him.

The film goes from corny humour, drug abuse and violence to splatter horror. Add some psychedelic drug infused scenes and you have got an idea of “Sharkers”.

Not a particular good film, more of a fun-watch so to say.

Borderlands – Eli Roth (2024)

Cate Blanchett plays bad-ass bounty hunter Lillith. Lillith is hired to find a kid on the dumpsite homeplanet that she fled. She grudgingly accepts. Once there, she meets a robot with humour and meets a whole range of bad people.

“Borderlands” is an action comedy with a bit screwball humour and a very annoying little kid. The robot is quite funny though. There are some amusing scenes and there is a bit of a Mad Max dystopian atmosphere.

No ‘need to see’, but an amusing film when you have nothing else to watch.

Fast Charlie – Phillip Noyce (2023)

Pierce Brosnan is Charlie Swift, a contract killer with over three decades of experience. His equally aged boss is slowly becoming senile and Charlie takes care of him. Then a young and ambitious member of the organisation tries to take things over by force and Charlie cannot let that happen.

Rather than an action comedy, “Fast Charlie” is more of an action romance. Early in the film Charlie meets the ex of his victim, Marcie, played by the beautiful Morena Baccarin. In spite of the age difference, the two grow towards each other.

Besides that, you will get the usual black humour, violence of a hip action film.

They Cloned Tyrone – Juel Taylor (2023)

Like “Dolomite Is My Name” (2019), this is (basically) a modern day “blaxploitation”. All actors are black, except an occasional bad guy (Kiefer Sutherland), the film plays in a black, American community, addressing the problems of that community (also being critical towards itself). The characters are stereotypical and there is a lot of humor.

A drugdealer, a prostitute and her employer investigate the death of the drug dealer. No, I did not make a typo there. The three run into a massive and shady conspiracy, created to keep the black community in check.

The film is not as funny as the info has it, but “They Cloned Tyrone” is an amusing ‘thriller comedy’.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Gavin Hood (2009)

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As for the other character of the summer 2024 movie hit, the Wolverine appears to be a personage from the X-Men films that forms another part of the Marvel franchise than the ‘cinematic universe’?

Anyway, two boys become werewolves, they keep on fighting wars along the centuries and in the end are picked up by a man named “Stryker” who has an army of other “mutants”. Logan does not like that job and leaves, only to be hunted down by his brother many years later. He is mutated even more and turns against his former employer, by then going by the name of “Wolverine”.

What is a bit odd is that Ryan Reynolds is also in the film and he is also a fast-talking guy. He is turned into a Frankenstein type mutant killer named “Deadpool”, but this is quite a different Deadpool than the one from the 2016 movie, or is it?

Anyway, another Marvel revenge action film.

Expend4bles – Scott Waugh (2023)

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The last of the old guys action series. For now.

Most of what I write would be a spoiler, but -as usual- we follow a group who calls themselves “the expendables” and who do the dirty work for anybody who hires them, even the government.

There are some bad guys with bad plans for the world and the Expendables set out to prevent that from happening. This is accompanied by a lot of shooting, big explosion and motor cycle stunts.

I can’t say number four differs much from the previous (perhaps in one element), so you probably know what to expect by now.

Deadpool – Tim Miller (2016)

Because I knew neither character from the new Marvel blockbuster “Deadpool & Wolverine” I decided to watch the first “Deadpool”.

The movie is on the screwball side filled with boring (usually sex) jokes. It does not help that I am not particularly fond of Ryan Reynolds. A good point is that his girl is the beautiful Morena Baccarin whom we know from “Gotham“.

Deadpool is an antihero. He is an annoying murderer for hire, but when he gets cancer, he is transformed into a superhero. The side effects of the procedure turn this into a revenge movie though.

So we have an invincible, smart talking guy, going after the people who wrecked his life. Nothing very interesting or even enjoying.

Eternals – Chloé Zhao (2021)

Marvel introduced yet another new troupe into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The eternals are a party of extraterrestrial super heroes, a team of which has been sent to earth to protect humanity against a type of alien super monsters. Also the eternals help humanity evolve.

The story is made a bit too ‘grand’. These eternals are -of course- ‘gods’. They are even called Gilgamesh, Ikarus, etc. They have been around for 7000 years and can’t really interfere in human affairs.

The monsters have supposedly been long whiped out, but they return and a new battle ensues. The eternals have tried to live relatively normal lives and now have to get the team together again to fight the improved version of the monsters.

Besides a few joking references to other Marvel characters, there is no connection to the ‘Cinematic Universe’.

The film is not the most interesting in the Marvel franchise.

The Expendables 3 – Patrick Hughes (2014)

Yeah, I’m working towards the recently released fourth film. Not because I really want to see it, simply because there is not all that much interesting to watch and I figured I would better watch the earlier films first.

You know the concept. Some old-time action movie actors team up for a patriotic action spectacle. This time Stalone added some drama, but the thin story is basically to allow explosions and shoot outs.

The bad guy this time is a great Mel Gibson and also introduced is an amusing Antonio Banderas. There are some younger expendables but they do not really have a part.

A shooting has to be revenged, so the troupe flies around the world blowing things up.

Twisters – Lee Isaac Chung (2024)

Presented as a ‘good old distaster movie’ and that is exactly what it is. A very American one too.

A young student has a theory on how she can make a tornado disappear. Her final test goes horribly wrong and she moves from the action of being a storm chaser, to a meteorologist office job. When an old school mate comes to talk her into a new project in the middle of the action, Kate returns to the state of her birth.

Javi (the school mate) now has a big company collecting tornado data. Out in the field Kate learns that storm chasing became a hip pastime with the popular YouTuber Tyler.

In a very predictable story Kate’s allegiances change and a patriotic romance unfolds. The film does show both the excitement and spectacle of storm chasing and the devastating results. Also you get a bit of a peek into how communities living in tornado active areas deal with the constant threat. I have no idea of all the ‘smart talk’ in the film is correct, but there is also quite a bit of that.