Sunday 22 July 2018

Movie review: The Equalizer 2 (2018)



[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]

Nota bene: for other movie reviews, click for the dedicated page with movie reviews.


The Equalizer 2 (2018)

[IMDB; en.wikipedia]


Mixed feelings about it. A lot of mixed feelings :)

The story starts well, is consistent & coherent at first... but then loses steam, gets boring & straightforward & the fight becomes much too personal.
Ok, the most stupid "too personal plot" I can remember has been in Spectre (2015) [IMDB] - Oberhauser's father protects the young orphaned Bond, which turns Oberhauser into a criminal master mind, oh come on, really?

There are some unanswered questions in the end:
  1. Who has vandalised Fatima’s garden? Why? Will they return?
  2. Does the gang Miles attempts to join (and McCall rescues him from) retaliates at either Miles or McCall?
  3. Why is the Brussels family killed?
    • Well, the way I understand it is the man has infiltrated the agency (York says this at some point), so I speculate he has been investigating the wrongdoing of York and his team of bad assassins and Susan would have figured it all out eventually. Basically York has decided to go evil inside a good hearted agency :)
    • Wikipedia says McCall's former team turned into freelance assassins after his "death" and the Brussels job was a contract of theirs and Susan would have have figured it all out, so they killed her.

The action & special effects keep coming throughout the movie. All good with that. I wish to have watched a bit more action starring Denzel Washington, but maybe it’s just me who always demands more action with the actors they like :)

Although I don't remember at first hand what the story has been in the first Equalizer - ok, I read the summary and now I remember it :) - I can remember the feeling of watching something a bit different. Not the case anymore - The Equalizer 2 is ok, but ordinary enough to be in the same pack with other action movies.

Denzel Washington used to be different (and he still is), but now he resembles too much other less skilled (and lower quality) action heroes like Jason Statham (who I like) or Dwayne Johnson (who I like less) :)
Denzel and The Equalizer movie series have great potential, but somehow the current instalment misses it.


Conclusions


The movie is worth watching, but I just wish it would have achieved more than it actually does :)

Monday 16 July 2018

Movie review: Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)



[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]

Nota bene: for other movie reviews, click for the dedicated page with movie reviews.


Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)

[IMDB; en.wikipedia]


Well done, overall. Good job!

Coherent & Consistent storyline, displaying a couple of nice twists & turns.
The first third and the last third of the story - excellent.
The middle third - boring; the story drags by focusing on the teenage girl etc. Basically, either the writer lacked the inspiration, or some "well paid decision maker" butchered the script due to some marketing reasons, dunno. Either way, the middle third is kind of junk.

Good cinematography.

Good acting.
Benicio del Toro (as Alejandro Gillick) and Josh Brolin (as Matt Graver) do a good job. Unfortunately, they share little screen time together.
Although none of the actors really shines, they all complete each other...
Given (1) the screen time which is very well balanced among all characters/actors and (2) the very good directing and postprocessing, the overall acting/performance seem a lot better than the sum of all raw performances, just like in Den of Thieves (2018).

I totally loved the sound & soundtrack - simple, yet powerful; the bassline gets into you.


Conclusions


All in all, a good watch. Time well spent. I recommend it.