Rabbit Hole: Season Overview

Summary

Kiefer Sutherland finds his post 24 hit, in a paranoid thriller series all about narratives and optics.

I was taken by this show from the first episode, it is an immediate hook kind of show. The twists and turns are numerous and frequent and you never quite know what is going to happen next, the show pushes this further by playing around with the idea of unreliable narration and suggesting that we cannot trust what our eyes are showing us.

The themes and ideas of the series such as the ability to shape optics and media narratives and how the right line or even posture can greatly change the outcome of an event feel very timely within the current climate, and should give food for thought to us all.

I think the show wraps up quite nicely and doesn’t need to come back, though they do tease more in the final episode. In many senses if they left it here it would be a near perfect mini-series. My only issue with the show is the romance they force into between Kiefer and one of his associates which feels a little gross, as she is much younger than him, and also needless and unbelievable.

Overall, a good replacement for Homeland

4/5

Pros.

The tension

The twists

The timely nature of it

Sutherland

Cons.

The forced romance

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Yellowjackets Season 2 Overview

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Mysteries from the first season are tied up and new ones are born as the Yellowjackets sink further into the darkness.

This may be the first time I have written about Yellowjackets, I really got into the series last year and was eagerly awaiting this season, I was going to do an episode by episode series of reviews as I do with some shows but instead decided to do a broader season 2 retrospective as I don’t know how many of you would be interested in me doing weekly coverage. Do let me know if you are and I will do it for season 3.

For the most part I thought this second outing was more of the same, in the best way. It delivered on the character moments we had wanted to see since the first season, mostly noticeably getting together all the survivors, that we know off in the present day scenes. It also flushed out many of the mysteries from the first season in both the past and the present and it was nice to get those answers. Of course this is the kind of show wherein whenever they give you an answer hundreds more questions are posed.

The performances across the board were great throughout the season and that goes for both the flashback wilderness and present day scenes. If I had to pick a best for the season I would be split between Christina Ricci who does a lot more with Misty this season even getting a full on musical number, Elijah Wood who enters as a new character but by the end of the season immediately becomes a favourite or Sophie Nelisse who acts the hell out of her scenes this season.

My one complaint of this season would be that some of the storylines overstayed their welcome. Mainly I am talking about Shauna’s affair, and don’t get me wrong Shauna, played by Melanie Lynskey, is one of the best characters on the show and her storyline was interesting I just thought that they dragged it out for far too long. I think that it could have been condensed down and then the extra screen time could have been given to the other non-Misty Yellowjackets in the present day who needed a bit more attention.

Overall, one of the best show’s on TV, but a minor step back from the heights of the first season.

4/5

Pros.

The characters

The mystery

The style of the show

The ending

Cons.

Shauna’s present day storyline got a bit too much screen time

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The Mother: The Embarrassing State Of Netflix’s Action Output

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The Mother, played by Jennifer Lopez, formed a bond with a child she gave away years ago and now needs to save her.

This film was just embarrassing. It was embracing for Jennifer Lopez as try as she might she just doesn’t have the presence to be a believable action hero. I know that the straight to DVD action market is a lucrative thing, with the likes of Ruby Rose getting several nice but small paydays throughout the year for a few sleepwalked performances, but unlike Rose Lopez just isn’t believable in the role at all. They could have maybe helped her along by developing the character out into being unconventional in some way or maybe even having her as a hacker, though I question if Lopez would have fit that role either, but having her as an assassin is laughable.

It is embarrassing for Netflix that this is the quality of action film they are putting out, again very much like something that in the previous decade would have gone straight to DVD and sold at a rock bottom price. When you look at the quality of studio action films with the likes of John Wick then this film looks even more like no one cared enough to make it good or more importantly look good. Then when you further compare it to international action films like The Raid then this film looks appallingly bad.

Netflix as a studio, needs to find their niche of films and stick to it as action clearly isn’t for them, they are throwing away masses of money on films like this, The Grey Man, Extraction and so on and all of them can never get anywhere even remotely above average on their best days.

Overall, a waste of time.

1/5

Pros.

I’m struggling but it wasn’t offensive so I can’t give it less.

Cons.

Lopez is miscast

The action is awful

It is generic

It has pacing issues

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Inside: Is He Trapped Or Are You?

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Willem Dafoe goes crazy after being locked in an apartment during an art heist.

I will give the film praise for its premise, the idea of a man having to survive trapped in someone else’s apartment with minimal food and water and no way out is an interesting idea. Seeing Dafoe’s character have to try and find ways to stay alive was fascinating, at first.

In a way this film would have made for a great short film, it has a strong premise and a good performance by Dafoe to anchor it. However, by stretching to feature length this film quickly becomes tedious, the pacing is so egregiously slow that you begin to feel like you too are being held prisoner, but in this case by a film that just won’t end.

Moreover, in a effort to try and pad out the runtime the final act of the film tries to go deeper and branches out into some pretty abstract territory, which I suppose reflects Dafoe’s characters descent into madness but also feels like art house twaddle masquerading as plot.

Overall, an interesting idea but one that should never have been stretched to feature length.

2/5

Pros.

Dafoe

The premise

Cons.

The pacing is awful

The art house third act really doesn’t come together

It is frustrating to watch

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Furies: Taking Back The Night In Saigon

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

An abused young woman, played by Dong Anh Quynh, joins up with a female outfit dedicated to violently taking down the male dominated criminal underworld of Saigon.

In many senses I was expecting more from this film. I can’t speak to the film that this serves as a prequel to as I haven’t seen it, this was my first entry to the franchise. From the trailer I watched prior to viewing I was expecting beautifully choreographed brutal fight scenes, ala The Raid, but this was a million miles away from that. What surprised me the most in this regard is just how bloodless this film is, like you see people getting shot and stabbed but in terms of genre standards you don’t see much blood. Moreover, the action itself isn’t all that brutal as shots aren’t lingered on to their full effect, there are a lot of quick cuts to give off the illusion of rapid movement, but this isn’t in the films benefit.

Furthermore, the narrative of women getting their own back on evil men is nothing new. In a sense this film feels very similar to the rape revenge sub-genre but with a more action leaning. What’s more, there aren’t really any twists and turns to keep you guessing either, from a narrative lens everything is incredibly obvious and you are never in a position to be surprised. Even when you get the twist at the end you have already seen it coming.

Overall, a subpar action film that doesn’t deliver the goods.

2/5

Pros.

An introduction to Vietnamese cinema

A killer soundtrack

Cons.

The action is bloodless and often cut away from

The story is very pedestrian and familiar

It has pacing issues

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Missing: Pretty Good Product Placement For TaskRabbit

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A teen, played by Storm Reid, must try and find her mum, played by Nia Long, after she goes missing in Columbia.

I will admit this film was a lot better than I was expecting it to be. Based on the trailers I thought this film was going to be incredibly generic, and whilst that is partially true, I found myself caring about the character’s journey and invested in the twists and turns of the plot which was a nice surprise. There are some good edge of your seat moments here, mainly centred around a pretty genius bit of misdirection.

However, the film isn’t perfect and ultimately you will have seen many of these sorts of films before, it can’t escape its generic structure. Moreover, once you know the twist it is highly unlikely that this film will stand up to rewatches as it won’t be anywhere near as good. Widely I think the thing that harms this film is the fact that its format, screenlife as it has become known, films which all take place on someone’s computer or mobile devices, feels like a fad from the middle of the last decade which no longer holds the same novel nature it once did, it now feels tired.

Reid’s performance as well is nothing to write home about and actually comes across as fairly two dimensional at times. She is only a short into her career actor so I won’t be too hard but her emoting and dramatic delivery could really use some more.

Overall, better than it has any right to be, but still hamstrung by its format and overly familiar narrative.

3.5/5

Pros.

The twists and turns

Maintaining good tension

The pacing

It is certainly very watchable

Cons.

Reid

It is overly familiar

Screenlife really is a played out gimmick

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Left Behind: Cage Turns To Jesus

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Nicolas Cage makes a faith film.

So like many of the Pure Flix films, this isn’t one, that you might have seen this film spends an awful lot of time trying to instil in you the message that we as a species have become too sinful and by turning away from God he is going to smite us. So much, so repetitive, it is as though the Christian crowd doesn’t seem to realise you can’t scare people into believing.

In many senses you can guess where this film is going and it doesn’t deviate from that in anyway. It feels incredibly preachy and doesn’t have much fun with its end times scenario. Just once I would like to see an End Times film that is a comedy, someone needs to make that.

Usually I would say that Nicolas Cage can save any film he is in and whilst that is true, here he doesn’t do much. Which is a real shame. I would guess that this may be one of the films made during the time whilst Cage was badly in debt and in dire need of cash to keep the tax man off his back because surely he didn’t believe in this film or think that it would make for a good role, it is sickeningly over the top Christian propaganda.

Overall, one has to question is the Christian film market big enough to prop up all these terrible films?

1.5/5

Pros.

It is unintentionally hilarious

It makes for a fun drinking game

Cons.

Cage can’t save it

Pacing issues

It is incredibly preachy

It is predictable

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Black Sea: Life Below The Russian Navy

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A crew of recently fired sailors try and engage in some deep sea salvage to disastrous consequences.

I really ended up enjoying this film, though there are many action thriller films with similar premises I thought this film came together well. All parts of the film working together manage to lift it above mediocrity and straight into good.

I thought the threat and peril of the film felt very real. Once things start going south under the sea it becomes edge of your seat viewing. The claustrophobia of the submarine helps to amplify this and make every thing that goes wrong feel like it is adding to this sense of dread which makes the film hard to look away from.

Another major feather in the films cap is its cast which is absolutely stacked with good performances. Jude Law centres the piece masterfully, coming off originally as a very hard and stoic man but then growing more and more likeable as the film progresses and you begin to understand his motivations. Equally Ben Mendelsohn who plays a psychopathic diving expert also manages to give Law a run for his money in terms of performance. You really feel the detachment and the hostility that Mendelsohn’s character is giving off, and the film is wise to use him as a red herring villain, as it then masterfully misdirects whilst at the same time taking shots at classism within society.

Overall, a strong thriller film.

4/5

Pros.

Law

Mendelssohn

The tension

The ending

Cons.

The first act is painfully slow

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Knock At The Cabin: Would You Let The World Burn?

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A couple, played by Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge, and their daughter, played by Kristen Cui, must choose between sacrificing one of their own, or letting the world burn.

I think this coupled with Servant really does seem to suggest that M. Night Shyamalan is back on top form and hopefully this can last for at least a few more projects. Admittedly I did think a similar thing when Split came out and then he released Glass and Old so what do I know maybe another slump is just around the corner.

I thought the best thing about this film was the premise. For a lot of the film you don’t know if what the dooms day people are saying is true, but as the film progresses and we see that it is and that the magnitude of the destruction is massive, this then shifts the film into being a thought experiment in ethics. I really enjoyed the themes and ideas Shyamalan tried to explore here and I thought that unlike Old this film has some real depths to it.

Groff and Aldridge made for a very believable couple, and thanks to the well-used flashbacks you do end up caring about them as a couple as well. This is very important as the emotional core of the film comes down to whether you could lose the love of your life to save the planet and that needs to hit emotionally in the film, which I can safely say it does. I thought the supporting cast of the dooms day preventers were also good, if a little underdeveloped, Dave Bautista’s Lenard gets the most attention on that front and he does give a solid performance though I would say he isn’t given much to work with.

Overall, M. Night Shyamalan’s best film in years.

4.5/5

Pros.

The performances

The emotion

The premise and what they do with it

The ending

It is well paced and maintains its tension throughout

Cons.

The supporting cast are a little wasted as their characters are underdeveloped

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Plane: Plummeting To The Ground In More Than One Sense

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Gerard Butler is a pilot who must face off against violent insurgents after his plane goes down.

Meh.

I could really leave the review there as there isn’t much more to say. It is a perfectly serviceable action film but nothing more. For anyone hoping for a do-over of Olympus Has Fallen this is nowhere near that level, nor is it near the levels of awfulness that make something like God’s Of Egypt fun. It is exactly what you would expect it to be and that is why it is so disappointing.

Perhaps the only thing of note that is positive about this film is the fact that Butler gets to go fully Scottish and let his accent come out which is nice as his barely faux American accents were starting to get grating. In terms of his performance Butler is as he ever is here, if you have ever seen one of his films then you know what that entails. There is a scene in which one of Butlers character’s passengers gets killed and he throws himself around and looks emotional whilst in the arms of Mike Coulter’s character, that I suppose could count as Butler trying to do some acting here but even then it is still fairly thin.

In terms of Mike Coulter if he thought this was going to be his breakout action role, in a post Luke Cage sphere, then he was sorely mistaken. His character is really more of a prop, being there to service Butler’s character and the plot, being whatever it needs him to be. It is strange that the script never really addresses the crime his character was accused of doing beyond stating it once, they set up a whole narrative that never comes to anything at all. To his credit Coulter’s incredibly limited performance makes Butler look like he deserves an Oscar so if nothing else I am sure Butler is thanking him.

Overall, not campy enough to be fun and too formulaic and familiar to be interesting.

2.5/5

Pros.

It is watchable

Some of the CGI is hilariously bad

It is short

Cons.

The performances are awful

The script feels like it is copied and pasted from many other action films with barely anything unique to it

It never addresses Coulters character’s backstory

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