Tag Archives: action

Sisu: Road to Revenge

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A few years back there was a film featuring a Finnish protagonist who had become a legend by his brutality and his survival. Dubbed the “Man who refuses to die,” Aatami Korpi stomped through Nazis, killing everyone in his path.

Aatami Korpi (played by Jorma Tommila) is back after the war and he returned to his home in Finland, which had been annexed by the Soviet Union in the peace treaty, to the home where his wife and two sons were murdered.

Korpi dismantled his house, taking the lumber from it to leave the now Soviet Union so he could rebuild the house again. Unfortunately, the man who killed his family, Yeagor Dragunov, played by Stephen Lang, was hired to go and kill the legend, once and for all.

The story was really simple, and Jorma Tommila does not have one line of dialogue, but he did a nice job with his body posture and his facial expressions (that is, when we could see the facial expressions through the crimson mask that covered his face at multiple times in the film) to express the pain and anguish he was going through.

Korpi is beat all the crap in the film, to the point where it is amazing that he could possibly still be functioning, much less alive.

I have to say that while I did enjoy a lot of the excessive violence that was going on in the film, it got to a point where it may have been too much. It was difficult to accept that he was still alive after so much without any sort of magical/mystical abilites.

Some of the things he does is also too cartoonish. Some of the things had me rolling my eyes or trying to decide exactly why he did that. There was one scene with a tank that truly showed this concept.

Because of the violence becoming too out there, I felt like the movie took a step back from the previous one. I do not remember the last Sisu movie being this over-the-top, Looney Tunes type violence and this just was more than I wanted.

It was still a fun revenge flick, but, interestingly enough, Korpi wasn’t in search of revenge. Had the Soviets not sent Dragunov after him, he would have just left the Soviet Union and built his new home. I am not even sure Korpi knew that Dragunov was the man who killed his family until he started bragging about it.

A solid revenge flick that does takes things too far for my tastes, Sisu: Road to Revenge is a decent afternoon watch, it is paced quickly and has some good humorous kills. Lots of blood too.

3.4 stars

Absolution

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June 30

We have arrived at the final day for the June Swoon 4: Two Day. The final movie for the 2024 films (“It’s Then, Now”) is a Liam Neeson film called Absolution that I watched on Hulu.

A lot of Liam Neeson films are similar over the last few years and they have titles that are anything but distinct. This movie had the same feel to it. The title “Absolution” seemed just as random as many of the other films. It i snot memorable.

However, Absolution does take some different steps in the story to set itself apart from “Retribution,” “The Ice Road,” “The Marksman,” “Cold Pursuit,” “The Commuter” and such.

According to IMDB, “An aging gangster attempts to reconnect with his children and rectify the mistakes in his past, but the criminal underworld won’t loosen their grip willingly.”

This summary from IMDB does not touch upon the seminal fact of the story that made this Liam Neeson performance different than all the others. Since it is not mentioned here, I will avoid spoiling it and say that this one fact really adds to the typical character that Neeson plays.

Neeson’s co-star was Yolanda Ross and she was excellent in her role. I thought the scenes with Neeson and Ross stood out from the rest of the movie and I wish there had been more of this.

I also liked the young actor Terrence Pulliam, who played Dre, Neeson’s estranged grandson. The two of them also had some good scenes that gave Neeson’s character more depth than it would have had. Pullian does not have a ton of dialogue, but he played the scenes well with his facial features and looks.

Some may think that this story was too slow, but I liked the pace of the film. It gave us a chance to get into the character Neeson was playing and connect with the choices he had made and the regrets that were swallowing him.

There was a series of weird scenes with Neeson and his father (Josh Drennan) that seemed to be in a different movie, but these scenes did not derail the film for me.

Absolution was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I did actually like a lot of what was there. It has a 55% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and a shockingly low 32% audience score. I think it is much better than that.

G20

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June 29

The second film of the penultimate day of the 2025 June Swoon was on Amazon Prime and it was an action/political thriller starring Viola Davis called G20.

The G20 is is an international forum of both developing and developed countries which seeks to find solutions to global economic and financial issues. (g20.org). It stands for Group of 20.

This movie has the leaders of the G20 facing a group of terrorists who take over the G20 summit. The leaders looked to President Danielle Sutton (Viola Davis) because she had extensive military service prior to her election. Sutton helped battle the terrorists through the halls of the fictional Grand Diamont Hotel in South Africa.

There is no way around it. This movie is stupid. It is stupid in the way that what Viola Davis does would NEVER be allowed for any sitting US President to do. She is shooting weaponry, fighting hand to hand and battling the forces opposing her. Absolutely NEVER would this happen. So it is as unrealistic as any film could be. It is not unprecedented for a movie president to take on terrorists (for example Harrison Ford in Air Force One), but President Sutton does a whole lot more here.

If you can get past that and just allow the stupidity to get by you, this is not the worst movie I have seen. Silly? Yes. I do like Viola Davis and she carried herself with a swagger in this movie that made you believe that she was the most powerful person on the planet. She does a great job as action hero #1.

Our lead villain was Rutledge, played by Antony Starr. Starr is a much better villain as Homelander in the Boys. Here he feels too much like a dime store Hans Gruber from Die Hard. He had a strange plan involving the world’s currency, making him just an “exceptional thief.”

There is a fun group of ensemble cast including Anthony Anderson, Ramon Rodriguez, Marsai Martin, Elizabeth Marvel, everyone’s favorite Phil Coulson- Clark Gregg, MeeWha Alana Lee, Douglas Hodge, John Hoogenakker, Joseph Steven Yang and Theo Bongani Ndyalvane.

If you can accept this as just a dumb action movie, you might get a kick out of it. If you think of it as a political thriller that features the US president, the flaws come out pretty easily. Viola Davis is a kick ass either way.

Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning

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I have been a big fan of the recent Mission: Impossible franchise, so I was looking forward to the final film, and, like everyone I wanted to see Tom Cruise running and doing a massive stunt. Well, he ran throughout the movie but his massive stunt did not come until late in the movie… and it was a long movie.

I do think the last hour or so of Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning was sensational. The problem was that the film was almost three hours long.

The first hour and a half of the movie was so packed with exposition and flashes to previous movies that I was getting a little bored, and that is something that a Mission: Impossible movie should never be.

Tom Cruise was great as Ethan Hunt. You can tell how comfortable he is with the character. His stunt work in the final confrontation of the movie is typically stunning. It was good to see the return of Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg as the team that has backed Ethan for so many missions. Hayley Atwell is back from the last film and she has decent chemistry with Cruise. Rolf Saxon and Lucy Tulugarjuk appear in the film as a couple of characters who become two of my favorites from the film.

Esai Morales is not my favorite character in the film. I do not think he worked as the villain of this movie. I think he was better in the previous film and his transfer over to this one was not great.

I did not love the final scene of the movie either. I wanted some more resolution for the characters than what was done. Perhaps that is in case this is not the final MI movie.

I do not think this was a fantastic finale of this franchise, but it was still a solid action movie. The last hour or so of the movie was really great and engaging. The first hour and a half spent way too much time explaining things and trying to set things up. Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning was a touch underwhelming, but that is probably because the franchise had been so sensational for the last five or six movies that you do not expect it to only be okay.

3.5 stars

2024 Year in Review: The Expendables Award for Acting Excellence

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It is once again time for the annual look at the best and the worst of films/TV etc. from the world of the cast of the Expendables. Yes, this might be a bit of a joke award, and a little too easy, but … whatever.

Best Movie with an Expendable: Hit Man. This was an excellent film starring Expendable 3 star Glen Powell. Powell has become a real star and he could dominate these Expendable Acting Awards moving forward if he continues to take these interesting roles.

Best Expendable Actor: Harrison Ford (Shrinking). It is the second year in a row for Harrison Ford winning this award for his work on the Apple TV + series, Shrinking. He is just perfect in that role, steals every scene he is in and absolutely rules. His comedic timing is so great and he has chemistry with every actor on the show. He has made the grumpy old man trope his own and his is brilliant on this show.

Worst Movie with an Expendable: Monster Summer. Starring Mel Gibson, this film was a weak 1980s type film that wanted to be like Monster Squad, Goonies, Hocus Pocus or Sandlot, but just lacked any of those films’ strengths or any of those films’ charms. Gibson was miscast in the role too.

Bruce Willis Quantity over Quality Award for Most Movies Made by an Expendable: Antonio Banderas. He had four films (five if you include the London release of Paddington in Peru). The four films were Cult Killer, The Clean-Up Crew, Babygirl and the short Mercedes-Benz: In Her Shoe. I expect to see Babygirl, but the others I missed.

Best Expendable Cameo: Wesley Snipes (Blade, Deadpool & Wolverine). One of the best cameos of the year came from Snipes, reprising his classic role of Blade for the new MCU film. Despite the rumors of a feud with Ryan Reynolds stemming from Blade 3, Snipes appeared in the love letter film to the MCU and was an absolute highlight.

Transformers One

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Whoever put together the first trailer for Transformers One should be fired.

The first trailer I saw for this animated movie, a return to the world of Cybertron and the Transformers, was one of the worst trailers I have ever seen. I hated it so much that I almost decided to skip this movie. The job of a trailer is to get a viewer more excited to see a movie and this one nearly stunted my viewership.

I have had some terrible Transformer movie experiences, with The Last Knight being one of the worst, so seeing this first trailer filled with some many unfunny moments nearly ended me. However, the second trailer which, I believe, came out of San Diego Comic Con this year was so much better, which confused me. Then, we started getting word of mouth from people who had seen it, some of which, were claiming that it was the best Transformers movie ever. I had a difficult time wrapping my head around that idea with that first trailer still front and center in my mind.

Well, they were 100% right. Transformers One is the best Transformers movie ever put on screen and should be considered as one of the best movies of 2024.

I know… who would have thunk it?

The film dives into the origin of Optimus Prime, called Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth), and Megatron, called D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), showing us how these friends became the iconic characters that we know of all these years.

Orion Pax and D-16 were minor bots, who could not transform and who were working mining Energon in the mines of Cybertron. Orion Pax had a vision to reach for more than what life had given him and he caught the eye of the one remaining Prime, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm).

There are so many great moments through the movie that I could not believe it. I was not sure that I wanted Optimus and Megatron to have been best friends only to become mortal enemies. That trope feels as if it has been used too much, but it works here way more than I ever thought it would. It helps to bring a real emotional kick the film and the story does a wonderful job of showing how these two characters went from friends to bitter rivals. You believe it. It was well earned.

Scarlett Johansson played Elita-1 and Keegan Michael Key played B-127 (who will become Bumblebee) and they both did a great job. All of the voice actors were exceptional in their roles, especially Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry who had the difficult task in stepping into famous and well-recognizable voices. Hemsworth in particular had to follow in the footsteps of Peter Cullen (EYG Hall of Famer) whose work as Optimus Prime has been iconic over the decades. Hemsworth seemed to be able to make the role his own. Perhaps that was because they started him off as Orion Pax and not in the mantel of Optimus Prime.

The film looked great and the action worked so well. The humor, which was so terrible in that first trailer, worked so much better in the context of the film that I was shocked. The film did not feel like a parody of the Transformers as that first trailer had seemed. Even the moments from that trailer that did not work, was so much more entertaining when they came in the film. They were dispersed beautifully and never felt like it was trying to take over the film. Did ever joke work? No, but how many films can say that every joke worked? Very few.

I loved the Transformers when I was younger and they were first on TV. As many others, I was scarred after the 1986 movie made me suffer through the death of Optimus Prime. I hated the Michael Bay movies, which seemed to get worse with every one. I was hopeful with the release of Bumblebee and the fairly likable Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and the comic from Image Comics, written and drawn by Daniel Warren Johnson is a great hit every month. I really thought Transformers One would send this franchise crashing back to the bottom, but I was wrong. It is one of my favorite movies of the year.

5 stars

Chernobyl S1 E1, E2

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Spoilers

“1:23:45”

“Please Remain Calm”

With the rewatches of Twin Peaks and Moonlighting finishing, the end of the Fallout first season, and the nearing of the completion of Man from Atlantis, I was ready for a new watch, whether it be a rewatch or a new show. I had made a list and one that jumped out at me was a five-episode mini-series that had aired on HBO in 2019 based on the story of the disaster that occurred at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union.

I had heard amazing things about this mini-series and so I wanted to get this into the rotation. I have to say, after watching the first two episodes, I had to really stress myself into not continuing and binging the entire series. It was that good.

About two-thirds of the way through the second episode, I was thinking that everyone that I saw in the first episode was now dead or in the process of dying, which was a dramatic thought.

Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgård we meet, mostly, in the second episode, and they bring some of the best acting I have seen in a long time. The realization of what their jobs will cost them is absolutely screaming beneath their performances.

This historical recreation (which does have its share of discrepancies) is extremely stressful and intense. It had me yelling at my screen for characters to get out of there, in reference to the power plant. How the radiation affected these men was an unbelievable example of the power of nuclear energy.

Kicking the series off with a scene of Valery Legasov, played by Jared Harris, hanging himself after recording memoirs of the events of Chernobyl really started things off with a desperation that the series maintained. Legasov had said to Skarsgård’s Boris Shcherbina in episode two that they would both be dead in five years. Perhaps this was his way of taking control of his life. Or maybe, he knew he would be killed for putting his words on tape. Either way, it made for quite an impact at the beginning of this show.

Monkey Man

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Dev Patel had his debut as a feature length director. He was also a writer on this project as well as the lead actor, so Dev had a huge presence across Monkey Man.

I would say that the best parts of this movie was Dev Patel. His performance was outstanding. He took this character and provided a ton of emotion for him.

According to IMDB, “Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.“

This was very violent and brutal in many moments, but the biggest problem I had with the movie was the use of shaky cam. So much of the fight scenes were difficult to see because of the shaky cam. There were some scenes where the camera was set and not shaking and they looked great.

There were several moments that the film felt kind of dull. It feels as if it were too long and could have used some editing.

Monkey Man has its flaws, but it is a good movie despite those. It was an impressive debut for Dev Patel behind the camera.

3.4 stars

Road House (2024)

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I just watched the original Road House on Hulu this morning. I wanted to have seen it before watching the remake on Amazon Prime tonight. I did not love the original. I did not hate it because I could see the appeal. The 2024 version of Road House I did not love, but I liked it more than the original.

Jake Gyllenhaal steps into the role of Dalton (who gets a first name in this movie, Elwood), this time a former UFC fighter whose career ended after a tragedy. Dalton’s name was enough to intimidate most people so Frankie (Jessica Williams), who owned a bar named Road House in Florida came to find Dalton and offer him a job to help clean up the bar.

Just like the original, Dalton discovered that the backwoods town had problems with certain individuals who want the Road House gone.

These people bring in Conor McGregor to try and kill Dalton.

I was actually more engaged with the character of Dalton immediately in this movie because of a scene with a train. I found him more interesting than the late Patrick Swayze version.

The villains were every bit as one dimensional as the original. Even McGregor was just the violent killer character.

This was just as violent as the original with Gyllenhaal being quicker to fight than it was with Swayze. The fight scenes were very brutal and displayed Dalton’s skills in mixed martial arts.

There were less involvement with the rest of the bar employees in the new film than the original, but they were there in the scenes.

Gyllenhaal is the star of the film and I thought he did a really solid job. The film is not brilliant, but I was entertained and I did find it better than the Road House I watched this morning.

3 stars

The Beekeeper

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In 2023, Jason Statham starred in two of the top three worst movies on my Worst Movie list. He is starting off 2024 better than that.

Adam Clay (Jason Statham) is a beekeeper who has rented some space from Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad) for his hives. When Eloise gets scammed out of all her money, including 2 million dollars from a charity that she ran, she kills herself. This set off Clay, who turned out to be a retired member of a special governmental group called the Beekeepers, and he went on a killing spree of everyone involved in the scam.

This was absolutely a poor-man’s John Wick. There is even the scene where the cocky young guy is told by a father-figure that he has messed up and is going to be killed and that there is nothing they can do about it. This felt right out of John Wick’s first film. 

The cocky young guy behind the scam scheme is Josh Hutcherson and he does a decent job of being slimy as could be. The ‘father-figure’ was a former CIA director played by Jeremy Irons. Both of these two did a great job as their characters, even if there is not much to them. This is a good example of good actors elevating parts that might not be very deep.

However, Hutcherson’s character’s eventual identity is very cringeworthy and is a big part of the finale of this movie that was so out there that it brought the film down.

The first part of the film was actually pretty decent and had a lot of fun, cheesy action with Jason Statham just killing fools. The film does go over the edge several times in the third act, stretching credibility to a thin. thin string.

There are two FBI agents that the film follows for some reason. Emma Raver-Lampman played Agent Veronica Parker, the daughter of Phylicia Rashad’s character but you could hardly guess that considering how detached she was most of the film. That plot point should have been eliminated or expanded upon instead of what was done. 

And as I have hinted at, the finale is just so improbably that, even in this type of a film, it makes you roll your eyes. This was very much like those crazy action movies of the 1990s. If that is what you are looking for, The Beekeeper is enough fun to get by, even if there are better movies that feature revenge killing. There were some decent kills in the first part of the film that were satisfying. There was one that was shown in the trailer that I wish would have been kept for the film because it would have been epic if I did not know it was coming.

Some of the dialogue of this movie was silly, with so many bee-puns that you just have to shake your head. 

The Beekeeper is dumb fun and a Jason Statham fan would enjoy this a lot. The dumb stuff never threatened to overwhelm the film and there was enough fun parts to make this watchable.

3.1 stars

What If…? S2 E5

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Spoilers

“What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?”

This is a sequel to the Captain Carter episode and the finale of season one and I was thoroughly entertained by it.

This episode was a combination of the Winter Soldier and Black Widow movies. There was an awesome pairing of Captain Carter and Black Widow, the characters. Hayley Atwell and Lake Bell have some great chemistry.

We have the Peggy Carter-Steve Rogers love story at the heart of this episode as well, just told in a different perspective. 

Since this is What If…?, I had some serious anxiety during the action scenes that one of these characters were going to die and I did not want that. It says something about the stakes of your episode when I was legitimately nervous that the characters were in danger.

The scenes in the Russian fake town were creepy as could be, and were filled with some of the best action sequences of the series so far. The choreography is exceptional. As it has all season so far, the animation is spectacular. 

Rachel Weisz returned to voice Melina is a cool thing too. 

The very ending of the episode messed with the mind as well as even the Watcher was surprised by what he saw. Peggy Carter fell through a portal and showed up in the Marvel 1602 universe with Scarlet Witch standing before her. That was a really exciting pre-credit tease.

Up to Date Running Order:

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E5  ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”

Blue Eye Samurai S1 E1

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Spoilers

“Hammerscale”

I decided last night to give the first episode of Blue Eye Samurai a chance on Netflix. I have heard a lot of positive word of mouth about this series and, after watching the first episode, I have to agree. This is a spectacular animated series.

Beautifully animated. Dramatically presented. Its share of animated violence and blood. Blue Eye Samurai is a classic revenge tale engulfing our main protagonist, who has a major secret to hide.

Not only is the samurai tainted by blue eyes, Blue Eye Samurai (aka Mizu) is in truth a woman masquerading as a man.

We see a good chunk of her back story, where she learned to fight and how she constructed her sword. Plus, there was a major series of sword fights, beautifully animated and constructed.

This is an adult animation as there are blood splatters, language and plenty of nudity and sexual encounters.

There are eight episodes of this show on Netflix and I cannot wait to continue seeing this show. I have heard that Netflix has approved a second season, so I am happy that I am jumping on Blue Eye Samurai when I am.

2023 Expendables Awards for Acting Excellence

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It is time once again for the Expendables Awards for Acting Excellence. The awards given out to members of the massive cast for their best and worst appearances. And this year we had a new Expendable movie so we’ll see how things go.

Best movie w/Expendable: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Harrison Ford is here and, while the movie is at best fine, it is one of the best of the group of films with these actors in it. 

Best Expendable Actor: Harrison Ford for Shrinking. The Apple TV show that saw Ford as a psychiatrist. His work was really great in this series.

Worst movie with Expendables: Expend4bles. Ironic that the worst of the films this year featuring this group of actors is Expend4bles, which is easily one of the worst movies of this entire year. Even in my review of the film, I said that it would be the worst movie of the year if it had not been for Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. This was truly a terrible movie. 

The Bruce Willis Quantity Over Quality Expendables Award for Most Movies Made: Jason Statham. This year, Statham made four movies and, they were all just terrible. Expend4bles and The Meg 2 are among those four and they have a chance to be in the top 5 worst films of the year.

Best Expendable Cameo: Antonio Banderas (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny). Banderas was one of the highlights of The Dial of Destiny and I really wish he had stayed around for more in the film. Banderas has actually won Expendable Awards every year for awhile.

Best Expendable with a Giant Shark: Jason Statham. This is an award that was given out the year of The Meg, and now it has returned for this time. 

Best Expendable in Blue Makeup (or CGI face): Kelsey Grammar (The Marvels). The cool cameo in The Marvels post credit scene of Beast from the X-Men FOX universe was mind blowing and hinted at some major mutant fun.