Action

Yakuza Princess

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Yakuza Princess
  • IMDb: link

Yakuza Princess is as dumb, although sadly not nearly as bonkers, as its title suggests. The straight-faced Brazilian martial arts film is a joyless experience that struggles with a heavy dramatic tone that simply doesn’t fit the B-Movie plot of a Yakuza leader’s daughter (MASUMI) and an amnesiac assassin (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) coming together to find their destiny.

The tone is completely wrong for a film that struggles to entertain for more than a few minutes at a time over its near two-hour running time. While there is some action to be had, it’s few and far between and nothing compared to the Japanese films Yakuza Princess hopes to emulate. Instead we’re left with a dour drama about destiny as not one but two characters previously oblivious to their connection to the Yakuza discover their path in the world as they get caught up in a war within the syndicate. 

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The 355

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The 355
  • IMDb: link

There’s a fun, if not bright, story in The 355 once things get going and the female operatives from various spy agencies around the globe decide to work together. I don’t know that the movie is going to do well enough to earn a sequel, but I would suspect a second film, without the need for such lengthy set-up, would be superior. The main takeaway from The 355 seems to be that a female-led action movie can be just as dumb as any with an all-male cast.

The plot, so to speak, involves a technological super-drive (the kind of device you only find in these types of movies) that can crack anything (planes, financial records, power plants, your Spotify account, etc.). Discovered by accident on a drug raid, an agent (Edgar Ramírez) in Columbia attempts to sell it only to see it fall into the hands of a black market auctioneer who plans to sell it to the highest bidder giving them the power to destabilize the world with the press of a few buttons.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Spider-Man: No Way Home
  • IMDb: link

Because there’s so little plot in Spider-Man: No Way Home it’s hard to discuss the film without revealing its many secrets. What writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers tee-up for fans is a loose structure that allows for the film to throw everything but the kitchen sink, with an almost overwhelming amount fan service (admittedly pretty good fan service), into a single film. While it doesn’t measure up to the film that obviously inspired it, Spider-Man: No Way Home turns out to be a pretty fun ride. 

Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is fucked, and his friends (Zendaya and Jacob Batalon) are paying for his mistakes. In classic Spider-Man fashion, Peter’s attempts to rectify that situation caused by Mysterio revealing his identity to the world only make it worse. After finding a wizard and loophole to set things right, Peter’s interruption of  Doctor Strange‘s (Benedict Cumberbatch) spell to prevent anyone in the world from remembering he is Spider-Man backfires opening up cracks to the Multiverse allowing anyone who knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man from any other reality to bleed through. Let the chaos begin.

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Supergirl – Kara

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Supergirl – Kara
  • wiki: link

After six seasons Supergirl comes to an end. “Kara” is a bit of an odd finale with three separate stories to tell. The first, taking up the first 20 minutes of the episodes, involves Kara and her friends rallying the people of and the world to help fight Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) and Nyxly (Peta Sergeant) and end their destruction in your basic big heroic speeches and action scenes the show has become known for. The middle section involves the wedding of Alex (Olivia Nikkanen) and Kelly (Azie Tesfai). And the last involves looking forward at the future of Kara post-Supergirl.

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Injustice

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Injustice
  • IMDb: link

Adapted from the 2013 video game and subsequent comic series, Injustice offers a look at a dark future where tragedy befalls Lois Lane (Laura Bailey) which changes the path of Superman (Justin Hartley) and the DCU. The game was far from the first to examine this idea.

Kingdom Come, in which the Joker (Kevin Pollak) is also responsible for Lois’ death, gives us a future where Superman retreats and a new generation of less-honorable heroes take his place. Justice League‘s “A Better World” gives us an alternate Earth where the League has become Lords of a dystopian future. Both are more effective versions of similar themes than what we are given here.

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