Extraction (Movie Review)

We're officially in the summer movie season. But with movie theaters still on lockdown, film fans are forced to look elsewhere for their blockbuster fix. And by elsewhere, I am of course referring to the offerings on video-on-demand and streaming giants like Netflix. Which is where Extraction comes in, their latest ultra-violent action thriller that owes a lot to B-movies of days past and the stellar stunts of more modern action movies like John Wick.

Written by Joe Russo and serving as the directorial debut of frequent collaborator and stunt coordinator, Sam Hargrave, the film stars Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake, a black market mercenary who is hired to extract the son of a powerful drug baron, after the boy, Ovi, is kidnapped by members of a rival gang. But of course, things don't go according to plan, and what follows are a series of double crosses and increasingly-audacious action set-pieces.

And speaking of action, Extraction has some of the most impressive stunt work I have seen since The Raid. There was this one scene in its first half in particular, which had everything from tightly-choreographed hand-to-hand combat to some truly insane camera work and editing. But incredible action and a slick presentation does not a great movie make, which is kinda where Extraction falters as a whole.

The movie can't quite shake off that "been there, done that" feeling it gives you, right from its opening shot which has Chris Hemsworth making a last stand on a bridge strewn with smouldering cars. And while he does what he can with the material he is given, none of that helps to hide what is effectively a film that relies a little too much on style over substance.

There appears to be this gulf between Netflix Originals. On the one hand, they've produced high-caliber awards movies like The Irishman, Marriage Story and The Two Popes. On the other hand, we have low-brow action movies like Bright and 6 Underground. Extraction clearly belongs in the latter category, but considering just how slim the pickings are right now, I'll say it is still definitely worth the watch.

Celebrating milestones and the little things

A little over eight years ago, I had decided I wanted to start a blog. This very one you are reading right now as a matter of fact. It was right around the time I had just started to take my writing seriously, and I saw a blog as a way to not only hone my skills, but also create some exposure for some of my work.

Over the years, the blog has evolved to become more of an outlet for sharing my thoughts. But one thing I had always neglected to do was to celebrate the little milestones I'd reached along the way. I'll give you an example. Just a few weeks ago, I had written my 100th movie review. I'd meant to put up a post to mark the milestone, but life got in the way and that never happened.

Well, as it turns out, I am just about to cross another milestone. In fact, by the time you read this post, I would have already crossed it. And that milestone, my friends and casual surfer of the interwebs alike, is 2,000,000 pageviews across my posts.

Let me just wrap my head around that figure for a second. This is a number that seemed impossibly far away when I started this blog in 2011, back when my daily pageviews were barely in the double digits. My 2011 self would probably never had imagined that my words would have been read (or at least crawled by search bots) that many times, but here we are today.

I know there are other bloggers out there that do 2,000,000 pageviews monthly (or even daily), but considering where I started from, and how long it has taken to get here, I think it is worth taking a moment to savor the achievement, for what its worth.

So how exactly am I celebrating this milestone? By continuing to write the kind of content that led to hitting the milestone of course. So watch this space, and here's to another eight years of blogging about movies and celebrating the little things.

Trolls World Tour (Movie Review)

With most of the world's theaters still on lockdown due to the coronavirus, more movie studios are looking to streaming services for distribution of their movies. The latest one to be given that treatment is Trolls World Tour, the sequel to the 2016 animated musical, Trolls. The movie lands on video-on-demand platforms today, although this is coming after Universal had already tested the waters by releasing both The Invisible Man and The Hunt, after their truncated theatrical runs. But unlike those movies, this one is receiving what it is calling a day-and-date release with theaters.

The new movie finds Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick reprising their voice over roles as Branch and Queen Poppy respectively, two trolls that share a love for pop music and have grown to become best of friends. But as it turns out, Branch is seeking to be more than friends with Poppy, but can't seem to find the right words or time to express his feelings. All of that is put on the backburner though after they receive an unexpected letter from a neighboring troll kingdom.

As it turns out, the trolls once lived under the harmony of a six-stringed harp. But over time, they started to fight amongst themselves over what type of music should be played with those strings. This eventually led to the harp being destroyed and its six strings being used to form six troll kingdoms, each based on a different style of music: Classical, Country, Funk, Rock, Techno and Pop. Now, Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom) of the Rock Kingdom is seeking to aggressively reunite all six troll kingdoms as "one nation under rock," and it is up to Branch and Poppy to stop her.

I was never really a big fan of the first Trolls movie and I had quite frankly forgotten it existed until Universal had announced its sequel would be going straight to VOD. The one thing I remembered enjoying from the first movie though was its music, which included the Academy Award nominated song by Justin Timberlake, "Cant Stop the Feeling." The new movie might not have the benefit of any such instant standouts, but it does benefit from incorporating so many different musical styles into its song catalogue.

The story itself is fairly predictable, but heartwarming nonetheless. It is a story about embracing our differences as individuals, and one that I found particularly poignant in this day and age of social distancing we find ourselves in. Perhaps this is why Universal had pushed to have it released on VOD rather than delay it till theaters reopened, because of the timeliness of its message.

The theater owners were not too pleased by their decision to forgo a theatrical release though, and have in fact promised not to forget this particular incident, although it remains to be seen what form their retaliation might take.

Trolls World Tour is definitely worth the watch while you're at home and in need of something to entertain yourself or the entire family. It is filled with so many sing-along tunes that you'll be hard pressed to sit still as you resist the temptation to join in or dance. I really hope it recoups a good portion of its production budget on VOD and streaming, so that we can continue to get more movies dropped directly on those platforms while everyone is stuck at home.

The Gentlemen (Movie Review)

Guy Ritchie is one of those directors whose work is instantly recognizable, with his dark humor, scattershot dialogue, fast cuts and frenetic pacing all serving to define his signature style. These were all on show in his Sherlock Holmes movies, as well as the two classic crime comedy films with which he rose to fame, Lock,Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. The Gentlemen has more in common with those earlier films, and as such serves as a return to form.

In the film, a private investigator named Fletcher (Hugh Grant) attempts to blackmail Raymond Smith (Charlie Hunnam), the right hand man of a drug baron, Mickey (Matthew McConaughey). He does this through an elaborate screenplay he has written about his findings about the drug baron's activities, information for which he is demanding £20 million. Much of the movie finds the pair going over the events of that screenplay, with Fletcher proving to be an unreliable narrator, and the viewer left to separate fact from fiction.

Mickey apparently wants to get out of the drug business, and in order to do so, he is seeking to sell his hard-won cannabis empire to American billionaire, Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong), for the sum total of $400 million. But word soon gets out that he is trying to leave the business, which prompts interest from Dry Eye (Henry Golding), a rival buyer from a Chinese gang. Except both men fail to come to an agreement. What ensues after is a series of misunderstandings and unfortunate events, as Mickey tries to prevent the sale of his empire from falling through, while trying to prevent a full-blown turf war at the same time.

The Gentlemen is a Guy Ritchie movie through and through, and I was indeed hooked from the very first frame of its stylish opening sequence. Everything from its pacing, to its profanity-laden dialogue, and its soundtrack, just works. The film is driven by awesome performances across the board, with Charlie Hunnam proving to be a more than capable lead, and Collin Farrel all but stealing the show. I don't believe I've laughed as hard as I did here since watching Snatch all those years ago.

To think that I had been robbed of the opportunity to see this gem of a movie on the big screen. Shame on our local movie exhibitors for failing to show this in our theaters during its global theatrical run. Regardless of how I had eventually watched it, the movie itself is still a bloody brilliant piece of fine entertainment and it easily earns its place as one of my favorite movies of 2020.

Bloodshot (Movie Review)

Once upon a time, my favorite Hollywood actor was none other than Vin Diesel. Yep. The bouncer turned action movie star had endeared me back in the early aughts to his brand of cheesy oneliners and over-the-top action with films like Pitch Black, The Fast and the Furious, XXX and The Chronicles of Riddick. Over the years, I have since come to appreciate such movies for what they really are, guilty pleasures.

And of course, I am a big advocate for the occasional guilty pleasure here and there. I mean, every film can't hit the highest levels of pure escapism, or be the next Citizen Kane. So yeah, I was willing to give Bloodshot a shot (no pun intended). Heck, I was even prepared to brave going to the cinema (which have now all been shutdown by the way), before I'd learnt it was due out on VOD.

So I figured I'd wait for that instead, and boy am I glad I did.

The film stars Vin Diesel, who plays Ray Garrison, a U.S. marine who is killed and brought back to life as a nearly-indestructible super solider. This was done by a Dr. Emil Harting (Guy Pearce), whose company was able to bring him back by replacing his blood with nanobots. Waking up with no memory of his life before death, Ray is introduced to his new team, which consists of ex-soldiers that have been enhanced with various cybernetic augmentations.

But while spending time over drinks with one of his teammates (Eiza González), Ray starts to have flashes of his past life, discovering that he had been murdered along with his wife, as well as the name and face of the man responsible for the act. Consumed by a need to exact his vengeance, he sets off to kill that man, except what he finds at the end of the trail is a conspiracy that runs deeper than he could've imagined.

Bloodshot feels like a sort of throwback to a bygone era of action films, where CGI body doubles and stylized slow-motion action scenes were all the rage. I can totally see my teenage self grinning from ear to ear watching this. Except the movie didn't come out in 2003, and without the rose-colored lenses of nostalgia to garner it any favors, it quickly becomes apparent for what it is: a sub-par, B-grade action film. Worthy of serving as a mild distraction, both not worth much else.

That said, the movie does offer Vin Diesel fans precisely what they want, namely Vin Diesel playing what is effectively the same role he has spent his entire career playing now. Not that we are complaining, but still. So if you are a fan, then it is definitely worth checking out.

The Hunt (Movie Review)

One of the silver linings of movie theaters shutting down in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak is the early availability of their current slate of movies on video-on-demand services. This includes recent releases like Onward, The Invisible Man and Birds of Prey, with others like The Gentleman, The Way Back and Bloodshot set to debut next week. While it sucks that these movies won't be getting full theatrical runs, at least the studios are able to cut their losses and capitalize on all the people at home looking for something new to watch.

This is the reason why I ended up watching The Hunt, a movie that hadn't even been on my radar and didn't look like it would be getting a theatrical release over here in Nigeria. And while it is not A Quiet Place Part II (which had been slated to come out this weekend before the coronavirus situation threw a wrench in those plans), I am glad that it is here to help tide us over until things go back to normal.

The film itself is a political satire presented as a horror/thriller/action/comedy hybrid, in which a group of 12 strangers wake up gagged in a deserted countryside known only as Manor House, where they are subsequently hunted for sport by some wealthy elites. It is eventually revealed that each one of them had been chosen as punishment for views they had expressed online via social media. But things take a turn when one of the hunted (Betty Gilpin) takes matters into her own hands and starts to fight back.

The Hunt works more as an action-comedy than as a political satire. It is excellently paced and driven by some solid performances, the key standouts being Betty Gilpin and Hilary Swank, the latter of which plays Athena, the villainous leader of the liberal elites. It is also genuinely funny, bordering on the very edge of slapstick, which I wasn't expecting but liked all the same.

I also appreciated the fact that the film takes shots at both liberals and conservatives, and basically every other group out there on the Twitterverse voicing their political and non-political views. Keep in mind that I don't actively follow American politics, so I don't have a side in those heated debates, which probably explains why I prefer this more well-rounded approach the filmmakers have taken.

While its over-the-top gore and violence might not be for everyone, The Hunt is a movie I can easily recommend to anyone looking for a good laugh and some cheap thrills, so check it out now if you didn't get a chance to catch it at the cinemas.

We need to talk about the coronavirus

So I usually don't talk about world events here on this blog, at least not outside of my Year in Review series of posts that go up at the end of every year. But when those events start to affect the things I primarily discuss here, namely movies and video games, then I think it is high time they get addressed.

I am of course referring to the ongoing spread of the coronavirus and all the measures being put in place to curb that spread. It has become common news over the last couple of days to hear that yet another event or public gathering has been postponed or canceled. Everything from sporting events, to awards ceremonies and video game conventions are currently affected, with some countries even placing their borders on full lockdown, all in a bid to slow down a disease that doesn't seem to know any.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bummed out by all of this. I mean, some of my favorite and most anticipated things for the year are being affected right now. I'd been looking forward to E3 2020, The 40th Golden Raspberry Awards, A Quiet Place Part II, Mulan, No Time to Die and The New Mutants, just to name a few, all of which have either been canceled or postponed indefinitely. But to assume that is all that is at stake here would not only be selfish of me, but very much shortsighted as well.

This is why it is important for us as fans (of films, sports, video games, music or whatever other entertainment medium you happen to follow) to not lose sight of the big picture. Actual lives are being lost here, with countless more to follow if the situation is not brought under control. And right now, one of the few things we can do to help out, aside from ensuring that we take extra precautions to stay clean and avoid large gatherings, is to respect the decisions of the various bodies to postpone or cancel these events, many of whom are losing sizeable amounts of money either way.

This doesn't mean we should all give in to hysteria and start to panic either of course. If there's anything that post-apocalyptic movies like Zombieland have taught me over the years, it is that keeping a level head in the midst of uncertainty can go a very long way in seeing you through it.

So how is all of this actually going to affect the discussions (read: reviews) I'll be having here on this blog going forward? To be honest, I'm not exactly certain. For now, cinemas remain open here in Nigeria. But with most of the forthcoming tentpoles having been postponed, I can only imagine how they would keep moviegoers coming back over the next couple of weeks. I mean, we can only watch Bad Boys 4 Life so many times before we declare enough is enough.

I was going to skip out on Bloodshot, which is currently scheduled to release over here later this week. But seeing as this might very well be the last major tentpole release we'd be getting for the foreseeable future, I just might have to brave the virus-infested halls of the nearest cinema, with hand sanitizer in tow of course, for one final hurrah before we all hunker down with our streaming service of choice and attempt to make our way through our backlogs of unseen movies and TV shows. So there's at least that to look forward to.

The Invisible Man (Movie Review)

Horror films haven't exactly been having a swell 2020, with releases like The Grudge and The Turning all managing to fall short of critical and financial expectations. So it is something of a relief that the genre has scored its first bona fide hit this year in the shape of The Invisible Man, a modern retelling of the classic H.G. Wells novel. Originally planned as part of the short-lived Universal Monsters connected universe, those plans were put on hold following the lukewarm receptions of both Dracula Untold and the 2017 reboot of The Mummy.

Directed by Leigh Wharnell, the film puts a spin on its source material by choosing not to focus on the titular villain, but one of his victims instead. Her name is Cecillia Cass (Elizabeth Moss), and right from the opening scene of the movie, it is clear that she is terrified as she executes her escape from what is clearly an abusive relationship. Two weeks after her escape, she is given the news that her ex-boyfriend and abuser (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) has committed suicide. But instead of giving her the closure she needed to rebuild her life, she still feels haunted by all the trauma she'd had to endure.

But things begin to take a decidedly darker turn when she discovers that he is haunting more than just her thoughts, and she becomes convinced that he had faked his own death and somehow found the ability to turn invisible, just so that he could continue to torment her after her escape. Now she must struggle to convince the people dearest to her that she is not going insane, even as the titular villain's tactics become increasingly violent and impossible to ignore.

It is a good thing The Invisible Man was approached as a standalone movie, because it works beautifully in its current iteration. The movie starts off strong from its very first scene, and despite a relatively slow-burn opening act, it manages to keep that tension going right through to the end. There is a constant push and pull between what is real and what might merely be misconstrued as real, and Elizabeth Moss does a fantastic job of bringing that gradual descent into perceived insanity to life.

The movie is also genuinely scary, in spite of the fact that it takes a more sci-fi-inspired approach than your typical horror film. Most of that works largely because of the movie's smart cinematography and score, both of which work together to make the invisible man's presence felt in every scene he is in, despite not being visible to the naked eye. These are elements that seemed to have been carried over from Leigh Wharnell's previous effort, Upgrade, and they work just as effectively here as they had there.

The Invisible Man should stand as an example of what can be achieved with a smartly written script and a unique take on an existing property. The fact that it was made with a shoe-string budget of $7 million is an accomplishment in its own right. It is a film I would easily recommend to horror fans, and it should be more than enough to tide them over until A Quiet Place Part II releases later this month.

Onward (Movie Review)

I am a sucker for advance screenings, so when I'd learnt that Disney and Pixar had elected to host advance screenings for their latest film, Onward, a full weekend before release, I was instantly sold. The film itself had been on my radar since trailers dropped for it last year, and Pixar being what it is, my expectations were indeed very high. So I'm pleased to say that the movie lived up to those expectations, even though it doesn't quite reach the heights of the greater films in its stable, not that it needed to.

The film takes place in an urban fantasy setting where mythical creatures had lost all knowledge of magic in favor of the conveniences of modern technology. It is the story of two elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightbody (voiced by MCU alums Tom Holland and Chris Pratt), both of whom receive a gift from their late father on the former's 16th birthday. It comes in the form of a magical staff and spell that would bring back their father, but only for 24 hours.

Ian, who had never met their father before he'd died, performs the spell, except it doesn't go according to plan and it only brings back their father's bottom half. Now the two brothers must embark on a quest, along with their father's legs (as crazy as that sounds), to find a means to bring back their father's remaining half, before their 24 hours are up and Ian loses his chance to meet him forever.

Onward is both a coming-of-age film and road movie rolled into one, but one that is filled with so much charm and heart that you'd be left choked up by the end of it. Leave it to the writers at Pixar to hit you right in the feels. It might not hit you quite as hard as the likes of Up or Toy Story 3, but there was something deeply relatable in this particular film that elevated it to similar levels for me.

The animation in the movie is of course topnotch, so the fact does not need to be stressed. It's Pixar were talking about here, it comes with the territory. A Best Animated Feature nomination at next year's Oscars is pretty much a given already, but whether or not it would secure said nomination or ultimately win depends on how great or otherwise their next movie, Soul, turns out to be. Good thing we don't have to wait much longer than its June 19th release date to find out.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Movie Review)

Video games rarely ever translate very well onto the big screen. This is why we've been left with duds like Super Mario Bros. and Alone in the Dark over the years. Even the more successful adaptations like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider are severely lacking in their story departments, relegating such movies to nothing more than mindless popcorn fare. So of course, my expectations were very much lowered going into Sonic the Hedgehog, which probably explains why I'd come out of it pleasantly surprised.

Based on the Sega video game series, the movie tells the story of the titular speedster (voiced by Ben Schwartz), who as it turns out is actually an alien that was forced off his homeworld and now lives in isolation in the sleepy town of Green Hills, Montana. Tired of living in loneliness, the blue hedgehog unknowingly lets off an energy signal while running laps in frustration at a baseball field. This prompts the US government to send in one of their top scientists, the nefarious Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey), to trace the source of the anomaly. Now Sonic must seek the help of the town Sheriff (James Marsden) in order to escape capture.

If you by any chance happen to follow movie news, then you must've heard about the backlash received by Paramount Studios following their reveal of the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog. The public outcry was so bad that the studio was forced to delay the film's release from its November 2019 release date to February 14th. This was to allow its animators enough time to completely redesign the title character, which looked nothing like the video game mascot its fans had grown up loving.

Well, it turns out that was a great move on the studio's part, because not only is Sonic the Hedgehog the current highest opening video game adaptation, it is also a pretty okay movie. Emphasis on the okay, since the film itself is geared towards kids and fans of the game, and doesn't try to do much to subvert or elevate itself from its source material. Not that it has to, since no one should be going into the movie expecting some high drama or a thought-provoking storyline. The main highlight in my opinion is Jim Carrey's take on the Sonic villian, Dr. Robotnik, a performance that harkens to his Ace Ventura days. The story is also quite serviceable and surprisingly heartfelt, which is more than we can say about the typical video game adaptation.

In case you haven't guessed it already, there is quite a bit of enjoyment to be had with Sonic the Hedgehog. It was fun and had a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments, and the theater full of kids I saw it with seemed to have enjoyed it quite a lot. It might not be one of the best films out there at the moment, but as far as video game adaptations go, the movie can be considered a somewhat decent one.