Tag: Jeremy Irons

Red Sparrow

“Red Sparrow” is a compilation of the following movies…””Black Swan”, “Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy”, “Atomic Blonde” and “Bridge of Spies”.

If you take something from each of those movies and put it all together, you get “Red Sparrow”.

Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) wears many hats, she takes care of her crippled mother, is the principal dancer in the Russian Ballet and a master seductress and manipulator. A terrible accident befalls Dominika during a ballet performance. This accident ends her ballet career. Dominika is forced to seek other ways to provide for her mother. Dominika is invited to join the Sparrow School, a new Intelligence service that trains exceptional young people like her to use their minds and bodies as weapons. The fun really begins after Dominika emerges from the insane training. The story unfolds from there…

“Red Sparrow” is not “Fresh”. There are parts of this movie that have been seen before in other movies. The movie is suspenseful and intriguing. The casting of Jennifer Lawrence was spot on, but unfortunately the movie is boring at times and it drags. The running time is advertised as 2 hours and nineteen minutes, but it felt like 3 hours and nineteen minutes.

If you are a fan of Jennifer Lawrence, “Red Sparrow” is worth a look. It’s definitely better than her last movie “Mother!”

This is a 3 Star Movie!

Assassin’s Creed in Real 3D

I never played any of the video arcade games of Assassin’s Creed, but judging from the movie, the game must be pretty serious.

I have been waiting for this movie for over 18 months. It’s better than I expected, but not as good as I hoped it would be.

The movie is dark, grey and a bit dreary. The action is awesome!! There are many cool fight scenes and sequences. Michael Fassbender looks “hot” without a shirt on. The 3D aspects are ok.

The bigger issues are that the movie is disorganized, the story and/or plot is disjointed. Nothing happens in a sequence that you can really follow. There are philosophical undertones to the movie, but even those are not fully developed and there is too much CGI.

I left the theater with a big question mark on my face because I didn’t really understand the story or lack there-of.

“Assassin’s Creed” may join the likes of “Silent Hill” and “Hitman 47” that is a video game to big screen adaptation that isn’t very successful.

If you played the game or are a video game fanatic, the fight scenes and sequences are pretty awesome to see.

This is a 2 ½ Star Movie!

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice in 3D

“Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice” would have been a great story had it not had so much confusion and sub-plots that were not complete.

A young Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) continues to be haunted by the death of his parents. He has continued nightmares even as an adult.

Superman (Henry Cavill) saves the metropolis from a space invader, but because there are some unforeseen casualties and injuries to some citizens, Superman is perceived by some as a bad super hero.

Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is forever chasing a story. She has to be saved by Superman from the middle-east when a village she is in is raided and most of its people are killed. This incident turns out to be staged, but it will be some time before this comes to light.

Lex Luther (Jesse Eisenberg) is an insane, crazy entrepreneur who will stop at nothing to take over the Metropolis. Lex tries to lobby with the Senator to get an export license to import an unknown substance into the Metropolis, but the Senator won’t bite. Lex Luther plots his revenge on the Senator and others including Superman and Batman. The story unfolds from there…
Overpowering mini stories destroy the bigger story in “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice”. It’s a scenario of “You can’t see the Forest for the Trees.” The movie is just plain incoherent, over the top and way to long for what was presented.

Ben Affleck makes a horrible Batman. Ben Affleck is brilliant BEHIND the camera and that is where he should stay. The villain (Lex Luther) in this story is not very convincing. Other aspects of the movie are passable, but a bad Batman and not convincing villain destroys the credibility of the movie.
The one and only bright spot in the movie is that you get a glimpse of the “Justice League” who will be appearing in their own story soon.

This movie should have never come to pass. Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy was the best and nothing can diminish that.

This is a 1 Star Movie!!

RACE

“Race” is about the incredible true life story of Olympic Gold Medalist Jesse Owens. Although the story is moving it only scratches the surface about the events leading up to the 1936 Summer Olympic Games where the legendary Jesse Owens won 4 Gold Medals.

By participating in the 1936 Olympic Games Jesse Owens displayed tremendous determination in facing off against Adolph Hitler’s vision of Aryan supremacy.

“Race” is a movie about courage, determination, tolerance and friendship.

What you see is very well execution, but I feel like the movie could have gone deeper into the story. The movie seems timid at times, but what’s there is definitely worth seeing.

This is a 3 1/2 Star Movie

The Words

Bradley Cooper plays Rory Jensen who perpetrates a writer. While on his honeymoon in Paris, his new bride (Zoe Saldana) purchases an old leather satchel for Rory as a gift. Hidden in one of the pockets of the satchel is an old manuscript.

Rory finds this manuscript and reworks the story a bit. It is then published and becomes a best seller. The original writer (Jeremy Irons) of the manuscript recognizes his tragedic story. He finds Rory and tells him the details of his story and Rory then realizes he made a HUGH mistake in publishing the manuscript as his own work. The story unfolds from there…

“The Words” is a very boring movie. There are a lot of heavy hitters in the movie, but none of them resconate on the big screen. The movie is disjointed and contains a lot of holes.

I found “The Words” to be a complete waste of money.