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Angel Has Fallen (And Can’t Get Up)

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Angel Has Fallen
  • IMDB: link

Angel Has Fallen movie reviewGerard Butler returns as Secret Service Agent Mike Banning who was introduced in the dumb, and not really that much fun, Olympus Has Fallen. Things haven’t changed much. The sequel frames the decorated agent as the mastermind behind the assassination attempt of the President (Morgan Freeman). Armed with circumstantial evidence, and ignoring the agent saving the President’s life and his service record, a dimwitted FBI Agent (Jada Pinkett Smith) fingers Banning for the bad guy while his friends at the Secret Service do nothing to help. Luckily for our hero, the real villain is just stupid enough to not only fail to kill his patsy but also arrange for his escape allowing Banning to go on the run and attempt to clear his name.

Since it isn’t much of a list, let’s look at what works in the film. I’m always happy to see Piper Perabo who offers the film’s best performance as Banning’s wife, angry at him for keeping secrets about his health but not enough to believe her husband has become a terrorist. And second, there’s Nick Nolte who is the only one having fun in this dog of a movie that takes the ridiculous events far too seriously.

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Batman: Hush

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Batman: Hush
  • IMDb: link

Batman: Hush Blu-ray reviewThe latest DC Comics animated feature is an adaptation of the hugely popular twelve-part mini-series by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee. The film takes quite a few liberties with the source material, even going so far as to change the identity of the villain named Hush who the arc introduced as a mastermind attacking both Batman (Jason O’Mara) and Bruce Wayne from multiple angles prior to revealing himself. Although some cutting may be necessary to fit within the structure of the movie, the script still oddly keeps an excessive amount of the (mostly unnecessary) thread involving Superman (Jerry O’Connell) and Poison Ivy (Peyton List).

Fitting into the existing storyline of the Son of Batman movies, with only a cameo from Damian, the script does take steps to push Batman into more of a classic costume for most of the film to more closely resemble the look of the comic (if only the those in charge of the project had done the same with the plot).

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Hobbs & Shaw

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
  • IMDb: link

Hobbs & Shaw movie reviewThe Fast & Furious franchise has produced a series of films over the past two decades that range from fairly okay (Fast Five and Tokyo Drift) to largely forgettable (see everything else). Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw may not have a lot going for it but it does have Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham who take their bickering to the next level when forced to work together on a joint CIA and MI6 assignment (despite neither one working for either agency).

The plot steals more than a little from M:I-2 when an agent (Vanessa Kirby) injects a deadly virus into herself rather than let it fall into the hands of terrorists. Hobbs is tapped to find the agent, who our suped-up super-villain (Idris Elba) and his super-secret villainous organization have framed for the theft and deaths of her team. Ryan Reynolds gets a fun, if largely unnecessary, cameo to bring the hero onboard. Shaw‘s motivations are far more personal.

The film offers plenty of chase sequences but far less muscle cars and heists than the usual Fast & Furious flick. In fact, other the the forced family theme shoved down the audience’s throat at every turn, Hobbs & Shaw feels like a rather purposeful departure from the franchise which spawned it.

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Spider-Man: Far From Home

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • IMDb: link

Spider-Man: Far From Home movie review

Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, a movie you will definitely want to see before sitting down for this one, Spider-Man: Far From Home centers around Peter Parker (Tom Holland) struggling to fill the void left by Earth’s mightiest heroes while also trying to enjoy his high school class trip to Europe.

There’s quite a bit screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (both who also helped write Spider-Man: Homecoming) get right. One of the oldest Spidey tropes is Peter Parker being crushed by the responsibility thrust upon him at such a young age. The loss of Iron Man, and expectations for him to grow into “the next Iron Man,” are overwhelming for the teenage super-hero just wanting to protect the neighborhood and find time to admit his feelings to the girl he likes (Zendaya).

The script offers a new threat in elemental monsters from a parallel Earth and Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), a hero who has tracked them here. When Peter’s summer trip is hijacked by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) he has no choice but to help Mysterio fight the threat as he struggles with his destiny.

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Samurai Jack – Episode XV: Jack Tales

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Samurai Jack – Episode XV: Jack Tales
  • wiki: link

Samurai Jack - Episode XV: Jack Tales television review

Throwback Tuesday takes us back to the adventures of the time-displaced samurai and his quest to make his way home. Rather than offer a single adventure, “Episode XV” gives fans three separate tales. The first and third each showcase a failed attempt by Jack (Phil LaMarr) to get back to the past while the middle story (“The Metal Eaters”) is an odd interlude where Jack meets a bizarre family of cannibal robots focused on devouring his sword. Although Jack is defeated in both of the other tales, here he takes a step back allowing the robots to attack each other once the family realized each member is made out of the metal they hunger.

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