American Assassin is an action thriller film directed by Michael Cuesta. The trailers make it a must see but 3 quarters though the film you realized this could be considered fantasy. It’s saving grace is it’s the kind of fantasy you don’t mind. A subordinate that does his own thing and doesn’t pay the consequences for his actions — my kind of job. Given the way it started, you probably could forgive him for anything.
Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien) and his girlfriend are on vacation in Ibiza, Spain, he proposes to her, giving her his mother’s ring as he films her acceptance. Suddenly, radical Islamist jihadist cells land on the beach and begin to attack with assault rifles, wounding Mitch and killing his new fiance.
Eighteen months later, Mitch, now consumed by his desire for vengeance, frequents an internet message board where the terrorist responsible for his girlfriend’s murder quizzes Mitch on aspects of Islam and jihad. Having secured an invitation to meet him face to face, Mitch prepares to take his vengeance out on the terrorist responsible for his girlfriend’s death. Things don’t go as planned and Mitch ends up working for the U.S. Special Forces. Under CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan), Mitch joins black operations unit, codenamed Orion, headed up by Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton), a former U.S. Navy SEAL and a Cold War veteran who trains Mitch, as well as other potential recruits, in asymmetrical warfare.
Mitch goes through extensive training with Hurley, who thinks Mitch is too uncontrollable for the job. When an international incident causes the team to investigate, Hurley and Kennedy get to find out if Mitch is ready to comply or not. This film is exciting and adventurous but leaves you wondering if a special agent who is so head strong and set in his ways could actually get away with the kind of insubordination Mitch does. His actions and lack of discipline almost makes this a fantasy. I still enjoyed American Assassin because of the action and the suspense. I just didn’t quite believe in everything I was seeing. Of course there is much more to this plot and a couple of characters I didn’t mention really make it all come together but as usual, I’ve said enough. Check American Assassin out, you won’t regret it!
There’s not a whole lot to say about Spider-Man: Homecoming. I liked it and it was entertaining. I think I’ve outgrown the current format, as it no longer appeals to the child in me. Like Deadpool, I found the cheeky lines designed to draw attention like “look at me” and “I don’t think so” pretty corny and adolescent. I guess I’m more attuned to Tobey Maguire’s version of the super hero. This is not to say a younger audience would not find this version great plus this is how the comic book versions are written. I knew there was a reason I didn’t read comic books. Not my cup of tea.
I am rating Spotlight 8.5 because of the message it sends and because of the impact this story has had on society. Many people don’t want to accept the findings of this true story but the proof is there. When you have put your faith in a belief all your life only to learn that the messengers are corrupt, damaged or the opposite of what you believed they were, it’s damn hard to admit you’ve bought into a possible fraud or maybe that your whole world is possibly bogus because perhaps, you’ve chosen incorrectly. Chances are, you feel abandoned without any help from authorities to tell you want went wrong or how to fix the problem. Spotlight is the biographical story of pedophile priest in the Catholic church who’s crimes of molestation were sweep under the rug by church, city and state officials. The amount of victims and predators grew so rapidly out of control, exposure was inevitable. A small group of journalist who specialize in investigative reporting within the Boston Globe, called Spotlight, headed up by Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton) began working on this story when they thought there could be as many as nine priest involved. Before the story was published, they had a list of 90 priest and growing. It seemed everyone was in on the cover up, from the District Attorney to the Archbishop of Boston. As the team interviewed victims, it became clear that the damage done to these children went much deeper than a sex act. The impact on a lot of lives turned out adults that ended up in many walks of life. The team had many setbacks including the attitudes of parents who didn’t want to accuse the church of any wrong doing despite knowing the truth. The team, Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), Marty Baron, (Liev Schreiber) Ben Bradlee, Jr. (John Slattery) and Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James) worked diligently from 2001 to 2002 at getting these priest exposed and out of the mainstream. Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney brilliantly played by Stanley Tucci, was responsible for getting Spotlight their first interviewees. This is when we learned irreparable damage was done to many of the victims and a cap of $20,000 was paid to keep things quiet. Thanks to newly appointed editor, Marty Baron, who appointed the Spotlight team to take up the story in the first place, these priest were exposed sooner than later.
Birdman tells a powerful story about a has been, washed up actor who was renown as a super hero called The Birdman. Michael Keaton (The Birdman/Riggan Thomas) played the heck out of this role. Riggan, a father and divorcee is feeling the pain of age and abandonment of a once robust and exciting crowd, known as his world, and so decides to show the world that after 20 years, he’s not washed up but a big time Broadway theater director putting on a play of the short story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” that was written over 60 years ago. Everything was going south, mostly because he hadn’t cast a good enough actor in the lead role. In comes Ed Norton, who saves the day with his super talented acting abilities. Of course, extraordinary comes with a price. Between Riggen’s screw-up of a daughter (Sam) played by Emma Stone, the critic (Tabitha) played by Lindsay Duncan, who could render his play it’s doomsday exit on the very first day and Ed Norton’s shenanigans, Riggan has his hands full — perhaps more full than he can handle. Birdman is an extremely well acted movie with a touch of crazy that makes for an entertaining day at the cinema. Naomi Watts (Lesley) gave a brilliant performance as the love interest for Ed Norton and the lead actress in the play. I don’t want to reveal anything that would be considered a spoiler so I’ll just say the ending was my only pet peeve. Things were not clear enough for me but I loved that I could use my imagination. It’s possible that Birdman could get an Oscar nod. Since this movie has flown under the radar, it’ll be out on DVD soon. Pick it up and see what I’m talking about — it’s worth your time.
Having been around the block once or twice, I’ve seen the original RoboCop and all it’s sequels. Back then the concept was new and everyone was excited about seeing RoboCop. We all loved the way it bashed the corporations and effectively caught the bad guys. Of course, Hollywood went overboard and made one too many of these RoboCop sequels and it didn’t do too well at the box office. I looked up the original 3 on IMDB and found the 1st one earned a 7.5 rating while the second and third only earned 5.6 and 3.8, respectively. Now 27 years later, Hollywood has decided to try it again. With new technology available, how far can they go? Well I believe they made a perfect remake that toned down the family ousting of the old 1987 version and the corporation criminal element. In other words, Alex Murphy’s family wasn’t given the old heave ho and the corporation wasn’t kill thirsty. Don’t get me wrong, the corporation is still about making money at any cost but just not so invested in killing all who stands in their way. The hot wheel motorcycle Alex Murphy (RoboCop played by Joel Kinnaman) drove was truly hot. The technical material that made up Alex, was pretty much the same as the original. I loved that Gary Oldman, who usually plays the bad guy and Michael Keaton teamed up to represent the corporation. I won’t say more about the film because I don’t want to give anything away. It was exciting and entertaining and I recommend it on the big screen.
CAROL's WORLDS 