Tag: Halle Berry

Moonfall

Rated: MMoonfall

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Screenplay Written by: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, Spenser Cohen

Produced by: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser

Starring: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, Donald Sutherland, Michael Peña.

‘We’re not prepared for this.’

Part disaster movie, part sci-fi, comedy and drama, Moonfall begins its journey in space.  Where an anomaly throws a routine repair mission into a tragedy.

Jocinda (Halle Berry), AKA space wife loses her memory.  And space hero Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) loses everything.

After the tragedy is chalked up to human error, back on earth, Harper is now a fallen hero.

Fast forward ten years and something’s not right.

The moon is out of orbit and the first one to realise is megastructure conspiracist, K. C. Houseman (John Bradley).

But no one will listen.

‘Make them listen,’ says his mum.

So he does.

Being a Roland Emmerich film (think, Independence Day (1996), The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and 2012 (2012)), I expected a big budget disaster movie, and as already introduced, Moonfall is part disaster, part everything else.

Some notes hit, like the chuckles evoked from conspiracist, I-lost-two-mops, Houseman (you’ll recognise John Bradley as Sam in, Game of Thrones).  And some notes didn’t with the suspense lost in the drama of Jocinda and her ex, military man, Doug Davidson (Eme Ikwuakor) and bad-boy son, Sonny (Charlie Plummer).  And what I think was supposed to be an exchange student (?) Michelle (Kelly Yu).

I got a little lost down some rabbit holes.

But there’s a good foundation with a strong performance from Patrick Wilson and the movie’s saving grace, John Bradley.

And the effects on the big screen managed to distract from the sometimes forced, ‘I work for the American people and you’re keeping them in the dark,’ sentiment that made up about an eighth of the movie.

What was lacking in the emotional subtleties was glossed over with exploding cosmic rocks like fireworks and a looming, disintegrating moon pulling the ocean up and over high rise buildings.

Entertaining on the big screen and one of the better disaster movies with some attempt to dive into some interesting concepts.

What I enjoyed the most was the comedy.

So, a bit of an all-rounder.

I didn’t love it; didn’t hate it.

I had a giggle, liked the effects, made me wonder while some of the drama made me cringe.

John Wick 3 – Parabellum

Rated: MA15+John Wick 3 - Parabellum

Directed by: Chad Stahelski

Screenplay by: Derek Kolstad and Shay Hatten and Chris Collins & Marc Abrams

Story by: Derek Kolstad

Based on: Characters Created by Derek Kolstad

Produced by: Basil Iwanyk, p.g.a., Erica Lee, p.g.a.

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Laurence Fishburne, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Lance Reddick, Saïd Taghmaoui, Jerome Flynn, Jason Mantzoukas, Tobias Segal, Borban Marjanovic, with Anjelica Huston and Ian McShane.

Time is a running theme in this third instalment of John Wick, building the pressure after Winston (Ian McShane), Manager of The Continental, New York makes John excommunicado (re-cap: The Continental being a hotel that’s a safe haven for assassins seeking sanctuary under the rule of the powerful organisation and international assassin’s guild, The High Table).

John has broken the one rule that cannot be broken: killing another assassin under the protection of The Continental.

Winston has given John one hour before the end of his protection leaving him exposed to an open contract sent to every assassin in the world; the bounty: 14 million dollars.

This is the consequence of John’s revenge.

All he wanted was peace.  But for John to find peace, first he must make war.

I found myself immensely satisfied in the continuity of seeing John Wick in action, 10 minutes after the hanging end of John Wick 2.

The bones of the series continues here, with the same operators taking the same calls for the same organisation.  But take that continuing thread and pull tighter.

The action here is phenomenal – I’d go as far as saying more entertaining and fiercer than the two before. I’m talking knives, hatchets and ninja moves.

Like the familiar Continental concierge, Cheron (Lance Reddick) says, ‘This is serious business’

It’s like watching the fight scenes live, Keanu going into four months of intensive training before shooting so he could fight the scenes himself.  And he outdoes himself, again and again while retaining that incredibly likeable dry sense of humour.

Just when I felt myself start to loose focus, John Wick starts slapping a guy, another assassin appears out of the shadows, the dogs start attacking.  And it’s all played-out in settings of old world charm filled with red velvet and ballerinas to the vibrant burnt orange sands of Morocco to the steaming streets of New York and artefacts set in glass creating a maze so the slash of samurai or the jab of a dagger splinters the glass or John just gets thrown through it.

Aside from the returning favourite characters (can’t forget Laurence Fishburne as reigning Bowery King) there’s new characters to build another dimension and give context to the man, John Wick: The Director (Anjelica Huston) who runs a school for assassins, hinting at John’s Romani past and Sofia (Halle Berry) from John’s origins, a fellow assassin (and the best role I’ve seen Halle Berry in years).

I’m such a fan of Asia Kate Dillon in the TV series, Billions, I was chuffed to see her cast here as The Adjudicator played with cold calculation as she deals out The High Table’s demands with predatory eyes.

So the action is ramped-up with gritty realism, and we get an expansion of the John Wick universe.

Look, some of the story gets a bit thin in places, but it’s so entertaining and the character John Wick is so likeable I was happy to let some of the dubious motivations slide.

I’m still reeling from those fight scenes that somehow managed to tap into that fight response fueling the experience with adrenaline.  It’s just relentless, the hit after hit, I could feel the force as I laughed and cringed and grinned through all the blood and violence because it’s so hardcore it’s funny.  On purpose.

Instant action-thriller classic.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

MA15+Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Directed by: Matthew Vaughn

Written by: Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn

Produced by: Adam Bohling, David Reid, Matthew Vaughn

Starring: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Halle Berry, Elton John, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges, Edward Holdcroft, Michael Gambon and Poppy Delevingne.

I like to think I have a dark, somewhat, twisted sense of humour, but about 15 minutes into, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, it stopped being funny and became ridiculous.

As with the first, Kingsman (Kingsman: The Secret Service), there is the intentional push into the bizarre with sociopathic villains sporting robotic attachments – akin to a Bond film, yet modernised.

Which led to the huge success of the first Kingsman: entertaining action with a spot of difference that refreshed the British Secret Service while retaining all the charm.

The attempt to modernised the spy genre here, however, was a script filled with the cliché and the just plain stupid.

The inclusion of the Glastonbury Festival and the aged-before-her-years bimbo and terrible dialogue with pick-up lines such as, ‘My crow is looking for a place to nest’, led to confusion with a blurred line between the film making fun of itself and being silly, or not, and therefore coming across as stupid, try-hard and gross.Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Funnily enough (ha, ha, there’s my lazy pun for the day), the apparent obsession with the sh#tter was some of the most amusing parts.

Following on from Clara (Poppy Delevingne), the Swedish Princess getting it Greek style at the end of, The Secret Service, we now have Eggsy (Taron Egerton) swimming in a sh#t filled sewer, an old man having the best sh#t in two weeks, and Elton John offering a backstage pass if Eggsy once again, saves the world.

So, you can tell the style of humour… And those were the funny bits…

The storyline had holes (ha, ha, just can’t stop those puns) as well.

Enter Eggsy, battling Kingsman-rejected, Charlie (Edward Holdcroft) leading to the Kingsmen being hacked by drug lord, Poppy (Julianne Moore) – a woman stuck in the 1950s, living her days in the jungle in a replica of the setting of, Happy Days, but with robotic killer dogs and a drive to serve-up minced human flesh as prime hamburger meat.

This is a super-successful business lady who’s getting no cred.

So, Poppy decides she wants illicit drugs legalised and therefore taxed to get credit for being a successful business woman?  And to give the government control of the drug trade?  The elaborate plot Poppy, the drug lord, devices is not going to give Poppy more money or a prize for, Business Woman of the Year.  It doesn’t make sense.Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Add the American branch of independent secret service, resplendent with cowboy hats, code names like, Whisky, and the sound track of Country Road that seems to be following Channing Tatum around after, Logan Lucky, you’ve got the original idea of Kingsman, a modern James Bond, to modernised B.S. (the sh#t included).

What I did like was the amazing camera work with the audience being spun around and skidding and kicking and Kung Fu fighting right along-side Eggsy.  And the character, Eggsy, was still likeable here.

But instead of the class of the iconic British gentleman, it felt like the entire cast was given a touch of the idiot.

Even Colin Firth as Harry Hart played a doe-eyed, brain-damaged, butterfly enthusiast for most of the film.

So, yes, there’s explosive, huge-budget action, but riding on a patchy plot, filled with the ridiculous.

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