Some may say
that Jason Statham is cut out for only one type of role that is probably immortalized
by his best performance to date i.e. Frank Martin (Transporter). I would tend to agree with them but having
said that, Statham hasn’t let the people who call him a stereotype come in the way
of what has been built into a brand of action with a solid fan following from
across the world. I am one of those
fans.
Showing posts with label Simon West. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simon West. Show all posts
Wednesday, 4 February 2015
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Stolen
2 movies from Simon West in about the same number of months and in both of them he comes kind of a cropper. Expendables 2 did not have anything worth writing home about at all. Stolen, again, doesn’t give too much to look forward to. I wonder when it will start turning around North for West (that was really corny wasn’t it? :-p).
Written by David Guggenheim (as if it matters to anyone – I just picked out the name because Guggenheim sounded exotic :-p. Geez this review is getting cornier by the sentence. Just like the movie), Stolen is Nicholas Cage’s answer to Liam Neeson. It is as if Cage has decided that if Neeson (who is 60) can search out his daughter in 72 hours in Paris then he can do better. As if that wasn’t bad enough for Cage (who is 48), Neeson does it again and this time faster.
So Cage says, lets make a movie where my daughter (in the movie) gets kidnapped by a friend who is also an ex-con like me. OK hang on. Lets spice things up a bit. Lets make Nicholas Cage the best bank robber in all of the US. Lets give him a name – Will Montogomery aka Gom. He is being sought by the FBI for multiple robberies in New Orleans. And is responsible for many a sleepless night for Tim Harlend (Danny Huston) who is the FBI lead on the case.
A tip-off to Harlend and Gom who has planned a heist with Vincent (Josh Lucas – what the hell is a gorgeous RomCom lead actor doing here?). 2 other people in the heist – The absolutely gorgeous Riley Jeffers (Malin Åkerman) & the utterly misbehaved and ugly Hoyt (M C Gainey). When Vincent decides to do away with an innocent bystander – a janitor – after the heist, Gom stops him and in the process, Vincent gets his leg blown off – figuratively of course.
The three stooges make away but Gom gets left behind. A chase sequence that reminds you, why Gone in 60 Seconds is one of the best car chase movies ever made, ensues. Gom gets captured but before that happens, he burns $10 million of hard cash. Yep. He burns it. So he doesn’t get 18 years. But gets away with 8 years in the slammer. But that’s when the party begins. On the day of his release, One-legged-Vince, now has kidnapped his daughter Alison (Sami Gayle). He wants $10 million.
While Stolen has its moments, overall, it is a yawn feast. Thankfully, it is only about an hour and a half short. And the fact that I am not a Nicholas Cage fan didn’t quite help much. Thank God for the brief period of time that Malin Åkerman comes onto the screen. Helps have some eye candy. Quite avoidable. And if you have seen Taken then immensely avoidable. 5 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3234440473/
Written by David Guggenheim (as if it matters to anyone – I just picked out the name because Guggenheim sounded exotic :-p. Geez this review is getting cornier by the sentence. Just like the movie), Stolen is Nicholas Cage’s answer to Liam Neeson. It is as if Cage has decided that if Neeson (who is 60) can search out his daughter in 72 hours in Paris then he can do better. As if that wasn’t bad enough for Cage (who is 48), Neeson does it again and this time faster.
So Cage says, lets make a movie where my daughter (in the movie) gets kidnapped by a friend who is also an ex-con like me. OK hang on. Lets spice things up a bit. Lets make Nicholas Cage the best bank robber in all of the US. Lets give him a name – Will Montogomery aka Gom. He is being sought by the FBI for multiple robberies in New Orleans. And is responsible for many a sleepless night for Tim Harlend (Danny Huston) who is the FBI lead on the case.
A tip-off to Harlend and Gom who has planned a heist with Vincent (Josh Lucas – what the hell is a gorgeous RomCom lead actor doing here?). 2 other people in the heist – The absolutely gorgeous Riley Jeffers (Malin Åkerman) & the utterly misbehaved and ugly Hoyt (M C Gainey). When Vincent decides to do away with an innocent bystander – a janitor – after the heist, Gom stops him and in the process, Vincent gets his leg blown off – figuratively of course.
The three stooges make away but Gom gets left behind. A chase sequence that reminds you, why Gone in 60 Seconds is one of the best car chase movies ever made, ensues. Gom gets captured but before that happens, he burns $10 million of hard cash. Yep. He burns it. So he doesn’t get 18 years. But gets away with 8 years in the slammer. But that’s when the party begins. On the day of his release, One-legged-Vince, now has kidnapped his daughter Alison (Sami Gayle). He wants $10 million.
While Stolen has its moments, overall, it is a yawn feast. Thankfully, it is only about an hour and a half short. And the fact that I am not a Nicholas Cage fan didn’t quite help much. Thank God for the brief period of time that Malin Åkerman comes onto the screen. Helps have some eye candy. Quite avoidable. And if you have seen Taken then immensely avoidable. 5 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3234440473/
Wednesday, 12 September 2012
Expendables 2
Barney Ross and his band of old but extremely well built (they can kick a lot of ass even today for certain) men are back. One would have thought that better sense would have prevailed on them with the not so successful previous attempt. But then Sly Stallone chooses to live by the maxim that he preached to his screen son as Rocky Balboa, “It is not about how hard you can hit but about how hard you can get hit and keep picking yourself up”. Only that would explain a 2nd installment of The Expendables.
Lets look at the list of dialogues that would qualify for the Razzies in screenplay
1. Bruce Willis to Arnold – “You’ve been back enough. Now I’ll be back” :S:S:S
2. Terry Crews when he is asked to hand over his weapon – “My big weapon is hanging exactly where it is” – Like what???
3. And then there is “Rest in pieces” and “I now pronounce you man and knife” – AAAARGH!!!!
4. Jason Statham – “That thing belongs to the museum”. In reply we have Stallone – “We all do”. Probably the only dialogue that made any sense.
5. Someone to Arnold or vice versa – “If I don’t get this back, your ass is terminated” – somebody please stop!!!
And I realized the reason for all of this. Guess who has written the screenplay – of course in an attempt to save a truck load of money – Sly Stallone himself.
If all of this doesn’t get to your nerves then you have a random Belarusian village where all the women can speak impeccable, grammatically correct English albeit in an attempted Belarusian accent. I think Sly uncle’s visit to the sets of Kambakht Ishq rubbed off on him in more ways than we could have imagined. Of course there is the absolutely unnecessary but not unwelcome return of Chuck Norris as Booker who always works alone.
All of this for making a movie that should not have been made in the first place. But for posterity, lets give you a glimpse into the story. Church (Willis) catches up with the old man’s team and asks him to complete an assignment to absolve the team of all pending cases against them. Barney (Stallone) accepts and finds himself somewhere in Eastern Europe to recover a digital map for a few tons of Plutonium. In the bargain he loses the youngest member of the squad – Bill the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) to the ruthless JCVD in his first villainous role. The chase begins.
The Expendables 2 is a vastly avoidable movie. Even if you are an absolute fan of action movies and the men who made Hollywood action a reality, I would request you to avoid it. Because it is those very men who are sinking deeper and deeper into an abyss that they may never return from. Quite a heart breaker in that sense of the word. I was extremely disappointed. 4 on 10. The past few weeks have been disappointing with a couple of exceptions I guess.
Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi839492121/
Lets look at the list of dialogues that would qualify for the Razzies in screenplay
1. Bruce Willis to Arnold – “You’ve been back enough. Now I’ll be back” :S:S:S
2. Terry Crews when he is asked to hand over his weapon – “My big weapon is hanging exactly where it is” – Like what???
3. And then there is “Rest in pieces” and “I now pronounce you man and knife” – AAAARGH!!!!
4. Jason Statham – “That thing belongs to the museum”. In reply we have Stallone – “We all do”. Probably the only dialogue that made any sense.
5. Someone to Arnold or vice versa – “If I don’t get this back, your ass is terminated” – somebody please stop!!!
And I realized the reason for all of this. Guess who has written the screenplay – of course in an attempt to save a truck load of money – Sly Stallone himself.
If all of this doesn’t get to your nerves then you have a random Belarusian village where all the women can speak impeccable, grammatically correct English albeit in an attempted Belarusian accent. I think Sly uncle’s visit to the sets of Kambakht Ishq rubbed off on him in more ways than we could have imagined. Of course there is the absolutely unnecessary but not unwelcome return of Chuck Norris as Booker who always works alone.
All of this for making a movie that should not have been made in the first place. But for posterity, lets give you a glimpse into the story. Church (Willis) catches up with the old man’s team and asks him to complete an assignment to absolve the team of all pending cases against them. Barney (Stallone) accepts and finds himself somewhere in Eastern Europe to recover a digital map for a few tons of Plutonium. In the bargain he loses the youngest member of the squad – Bill the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) to the ruthless JCVD in his first villainous role. The chase begins.
The Expendables 2 is a vastly avoidable movie. Even if you are an absolute fan of action movies and the men who made Hollywood action a reality, I would request you to avoid it. Because it is those very men who are sinking deeper and deeper into an abyss that they may never return from. Quite a heart breaker in that sense of the word. I was extremely disappointed. 4 on 10. The past few weeks have been disappointing with a couple of exceptions I guess.
Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi839492121/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)