2.5 Razors

6 Underground

/ / Home Video
  • Title: 6 Underground
  • IMDb: link

6 Underground movie reviewEven for a Michael Bay film, 6 Underground is a dumb action flick which isn’t much more than problematic story used to tie together a series of impressive action sequences. Despite these limitations, the film offers some basic dumb fun largely due to a cast better than its source material and several lengthy stunts including parkour, magnets, car chases, guns, explosions, and lots of dead bodies.

Our heroes are a no-name team brought together by billionaire turned would-be savior (Ryan Reynolds) who operates a private group hoping to do good in the world by performing coup d’etat (apparently under the nose of every intelligence organization on the planet). His team includes a spy (Mélanie Laurent), hitman (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), acrobatic thief (Ben Hardy), doctor (Adria Arjona), driver (Dave Franco), and sniper (Corey Hawkins).

The group’s mission, what we’re told is the first of many, after a botched opening mission that left one of them dead, involves taking down a foreign head of state (Lior Raz) and replacing the dictator with his more moderate brother (Payman Maadi).

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The Witcher – The End’s Beginning / Four Marks

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Witcher – The End’s Beginning / Four Marks
  • wiki: link
  • wiki: link

The Witcher - The End's Beginning / Four Marks television review

As one who never read the fantasy series on which the series is based or played the various video games inspired by the novels, I found the first episode of The Witcher perplexing. “The End’s Beginning” offers two disconnected tales. The first involves the introduction of the title character, a wandering nomad and monster killer Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) who is a Witcher. Just what a Witcher is the episode doesn’t take much effort to explain. The other story involves a princess named Ciri (Freya Allan) and the fall of her kingdom. Both characters are touched by magic, the Witcher being stronger and faster than mortal men and Ciri holding a hidden power only glimpsed at as she flees the burning remains of her home. While touching on both these tales, the second episode introduces an entirely separate thread involving a woman with a twisted spine but hidden gifts for magic as well who is purchased for a meager sum by a witch (MyAnna Buring) with plans for Yennefer (Anya Chalotra).

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Snake Eyes: Deadgame #1

/ / Comics

Snake Eyes: Deadgame #1 comic reviewWritten and drawn by Rob Liefeld, Snake Eyes: Deadgame #1 is an odd comic that brings an unexpected mysticism into the G.I. JOE world. The story begins with Snake Eyes, Roadblock, and Tripwire sent to investigate the unexplained use of an old Joe code where they find a captured Joe Colton and a reborn legendary warrior known as Kirigun, an Arashikage boogeyman who lives up to the legend fighting Snake Eyes to a draw before departing.

Liefeld is an obvious fan of the character and takes quite a bit of pleasure in drawing him in various poses as the Joe’s silent ninja is able to cut through minimal resistance before running into Kirigun. From what little we get, Kirigun and “Deadgame” has ties to Arashikage and Snake Eyes’ murky past, but with most of the comic spent focusing on how to draw Snake Eyes in various cool poses there’s not a lot of story here.

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Sonic the Hedgehog

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Sonic the Hedgehog
  • IMDb: link

Sonic the Hedgehog 4K reviewSonic the Hedgehog is a borderline kid’s film likely too juvenile for those who grew up with the SEGA games and relying a bit too much on nostalgia to connect with younger viewers who may not know who Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) is. James Marsden stars in a role not dissimilar to the human he played in 2011’s Hop who befriends, and has his life turned upside down by, an animated character. After fleeing his home dimension, Sonic has been hiding in the woods outside of the small town where Tom (Marsden) works as sheriff while dreaming of being a big city lawman.

We’re told Sonic has managed to stay hidden for years (incredibly unlikely from what we see here). A power burst by the hedgehog brings in Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to hunt down Sonic who the mad scientist believes can power his various machines. Carey is completely over-the-top here and the script offers him plenty of opportunities to gorge himself on as much scenery as his appetite allows.

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Guilty Pleasure – American Outlaws

/ / Home Video
  • Title: American Outlaws
  • IMDb: link

American Outlaws Blu-ray reviewBy any objective standard, you can’t call 2001’s American Outlaws a good movie. The western is historically inaccurate in countess ways, features over-the-top performances from a number of actors, feels far too modern in tone and style, is punctuated with juvenile humor, and ignores almost any context for its characters’ actions and place in history. What you can say about American Outlaws is it’s dumb fun in the style of Young Guns (which obviously inspired it). Heavy on dumb, yes, but still fun.

Opening at the end of the Civil War, which involves some heroic foolishness by our leading man almost single-handedly winning the group’s final battle, the film stars Colin Farrell as Jesse James, Gabriel Macht as his brother Frank, and Scott Caan and Will McCormack as Cole and Bob Younger. The weary soldiers return home from war only to find railroad baron Thaddeus Rains (Harris Yulin) pushing families off their farms in the name of progress through bribes, theft, arson, threats, and murder.

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