20s Movie Review - Carry-On

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Genre: Action/ Crime/ Thriller
Runtime: 119 minutes
Year: 2024
Starring: Taron Edgerton, Jason Bateman, Dean Norris, Theo Rossi, Sofia Carson, Logan Marshall-Green, Danielle Deadwyler

Description: A mysterious traveler (Jason Bateman) blackmails a young TSA agent (Taron Edgerton) into letting a dangerous package slip through security and onto a Christmas Eve flight.

Review: Director Jaume Collet-Serra does exactly what a good, fun action film should do: be engaging, exciting and entertaining. And that from the comfort of your own home, because it’s a Netflix-original.
The décor is an airport, where on Christmas Eve, young TSA agent Ethan has to deal with a mysterious traveler who demands that he let a suitcase pass through security without checking it. If not, his girlfriend Nora becomes a target.

This plot makes for a delightful, nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat exciting thriller. Full of twists (or credibility, but we’ll let that one pass), it’s the perfect film for a movie night. Just turn of your brain for two hours and enjoy this fun action thriller, because it’s one hell of a ride.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

10s Movie Review - Upgrade

Director: Leigh Whannell
Genre: Action/ Science Fiction/ Thriller
Runtime: 100 minutes
Year: 2018
Starring: Logan Marshall-Green, Melanie Vallejo, Steve Danielsen, Abby Craden, Harrison Gilbertson, Benedict Hardie, Richard Cawthorne, Christopher Kirby

Description: Set in the near-future, technology controls nearly all aspects of life. But then the world of Grey (Logan Marshall-Green), a self-labeled technophobe, is turned upside down, his only hope for revenge is an experimental chip implant.

Review: There are very few film in which there are shots that know how to amaze, especially these days. I never expected “Upgrade” to be as good as it was.
Grey Trace is an car mechanic who really wants nothing to do with computers. However, due to unfortunate circumstances, he becomes paralyzed and loses everything he holds dear. He wants revenge on those responsible for this and agrees to have a new implant fitted. The chip, Stem, can control his body and communicates with him. It helps him find the people he is looking for and slowly discovers what is going on.
For a film that, according to information I found on the internet, the film had a budget of 5 million dollars, which isn’t a lot in the fim world. But there is nothing that suggests tha, because this movie is visually stunning. Logan Marshall-Green is also very good in the film.
The film has excessive violence and contains the necessary humor and is a pleasure to watch. The way the fights are filmed give the film a unique dynamic. The plot revolving around revenge may not be original, but they way the film was executed is. When you put all those element together, it makes it feel fresh. I would chose this over yet another unoriginal remake anytime.

Rating: 4 / 5

10s Movie Review - The Invitation

Director: Karyn Kusama
Genre: Horror/ Thriller/ Drama
Runtime: 100 minutes
Year: 2015
Starring: Logan Marshall-Green, Aiden Lovekamp, Michelle Krusiec, Mike Doyle, Michiel Huisman, Jordy Vilasuso, Jay Larson, Marieh Delfino, Tammy Blanchard, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Lindsay Burdge, John Carroll Lynch, Toby Huss, Danielle Camastra, Trish Gates

Description: Will (Logan Marshall-Green) accepts an invitation to a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife (Tammy Blanchard), an unsettling affair that reopens old wounds and creates new tensions.

Review: Will and his girlfriend Kira have been invited to a party with his ex-wife Eden and her new partner David. The friends haven’t seen each other for a couple of years. After the death of Will and Eden’s son, the friends lost sight of each other and the two of them separated. The atmosphere during the party is charged. There are all kinds of old feelings between people, there are unknown people present and Eden and David behave rather strangely. Something is about to happen this evening. Or is it just something Will is imagining, because he hasn’t processed the demons from the past yet?
The synopsis of “The Invitation” may not be very original, the execution is. A certain tension is built, which only comes to and end in the last fifteen minutes of the film. Until that time you don’t know exactly what’s going on in that house. You start suspecting people and certain situations seem suspicious. The finale is great, the build-up to it is rather boring and long-winded.
For an hour and fifteen minutes before something exciting finally happens. By that time my attention had slackened quite a bit and I was ready to end it. Every time you think something is going to happen, it doesn’t. And I’m glad that the film ended with a bang, the finale of “The Invitation” is really good, surprising and creepy. But at that time it was already too late and it couldn’t safe the film.

Rating: 2,5 / 5

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 46: Brooklyn's Finest

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Genre: Drama/ Crime/ Thriller

Runtime: 132 minutes

Year: 2009

Starring: Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Vincent D’Onofrio, Lili Taylor, Will Patton, Ellen Barkin, Jesse Williams, Logan Marshall-Green

Description: Three unconnected Brooklyn cops wind up at the same deadly location after enduring vastly different career paths.

Review: Antoine Fuqua showed us the tough reality of cops and the street life in “Training Day”. Ethan Hawke, who was also in “Training Day”, stars in “Brooklyn’s Finest, together with Richard Gere and Don Cheadle. It’s a cop drama, but not standard: violent, without compromise and gritty as hell.

The effective intro sets the mood. The movie opens with criminal Carlo and cop Sal, in a parked car. The conversation isn’t important, but you can conclude that Sal needs money. He breaks the law for that. Then we meet cop Eddie, who wakes up and drinks a glass of whiskey right before he is about to start the last seven days of being a cop. Last we meet undercover cop Tango who, while driving a BMW, enters an apartment in the projects in Brooklyn with some gang members. It appears that a young dealer has just been shot by a cop.

This is the setup to the film and we shift between those three storylines. We follow them for a week and sometimes the stories intertwine. It gives you better insights in all the characters. For instance Sal, who needs to support his five children, and two on the way. Everyday there is the temptation of taking drug money that is found at the scene of the crime. Sal starts to take more risks. Ethan Hawke really impresses in his role. Eddie is set to pass on his experience to some new rookies. Richard Gere plays his role very subtle, he is a broken man. I liked seeing Gere in a role like this. Don Cheadle is undercover detective Tango and probably has the most interesting role. He managed to infiltrate and become friends with local drug lord Caz, played by Wesley Snipes. He is on the point of a break through and a promotion, so he can say goodbye to being an undercover agent. But his connection with Caz make the thin line between good and bad even thinner.

“Brooklyn’s Finest” is an above average cop drama, that doesn’t succeed because of its plot, but because of the strong cast and the anguished atmosphere. It’s an overlooked movie, that deserves more credit.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 147: Prometheus

Director: Ridley Scott

Genre: Actie/ Science Fiction/ Horror

Runtime: 126 minutes

Year: 2012

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Patrick Wilson

Description: A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

Review: Director Ridley Scott doesn’t make it easy for himself. He tried to tell a story, located in the universe of his own classic “Alien” from 1979, to answer one question: where do we come from? Man who wants to meet his maker. Scientists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway find a series of identical cave drawings in 2089. They think they know the answer to that question and billionaire Peter Weyland sets up an expedition. On spaceship Prometheus they are on a search for the truth.

The Prometheus arrives, with a crew of seventeen, on a planet similar to the one in “Alien”. The tension is built because you don’t know why each of the crew members are on the mission. The distant Meredith Vickers has to lead the crew and her help is android David.

Scott could have chosen to play out a cat and mouse game, but instead he focuses on David. His plans are revealed little by little, but it’s clear he’s the one with the most dangerous mission. Dangerous for mankind. The questions isn’t who is going to survive, but why David does what he does. There is no emotional impact whenever one of the crew member dies. And even though some scenes are pretty gruesome, they are never as anguished as in “Alien”.

The movie is visually stunning and detailed. This movie is beautiful in 3D. But beautiful pictures alone don’t make a good movie. Scott made this movie a bit too simplistic and the characters lack intelligence and depth. “Prometheus” is still a pretty good movie.

Rating: 3/ 5