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IVAN REITMAN (1946 - 2022)Posted on 14 Feb 2022 |
Genre: Comedy/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Director: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jenny Slate, James Hong, Harry Shum Jr.
Runtime: 2 hrs 20 mins
Rating: M18 (Some Homosexual Content and Sexual References)
Released By: mm2 Entertainment
Official Website:
Opening Day: 24 March 2022
Synopsis: Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once is a hilarious and big-hearted sci-fi action adventure about an exhausted Chinese American woman (Michelle Yeoh) who can't seem to finish her taxes.
Movie Review:
Thanks to Marvel, the idea of the multiverse has taken on a life of its own in modern popular culture. Not everyone is understandably enamored by it, even as Marvel is betting some of its most prominent franchises in Phase 4.0 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on it. And yet, as proof that there is plenty of creative license within that idea alone, along comes ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’, an expectedly messy but undeniably exuberant and even poignant science-fiction action comedy from a pair of filmmakers whose big-screen debut had Daniel Radcliffe play a flatulent corpse.
That same disregard of the laws of probability, plausibility and just plain coherence is in ample display here in the sophomore film by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schinert – otherwise known as ‘Daniels’. Structured in three parts, namely ‘Everything’, ‘Everywhere’ and ‘All at Once’, the dizzying film finds its centre in the middle-aged Chinese immigrant Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), who is not only responsible for the threat ricocheting across all the various universes at the same time, but will also single-handedly save them all from a mysterious villain known as Jobu Tupaki.
Understanding both these circumstances requires a good grasp of Evelyn’s life as it stands. Her marriage to the amiable but dull husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) is on the rocks, the latter having filed for a divorce and is simply waiting for the time to hand her the papers. She’s busy planning a birthday party for her overbearing dad (James Hong), from whom she’s hiding the fact that her teenage daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) is a lesbian. And to top it all off, she is under scrutiny by probably the most exacting auditor Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis) at the Internal Revenue Service, who is questioning why a karaoke machine is considered a business expense at her laundromat shop.
Things start to get weird when Evelyn is visited just before she meets Deirdre by a Waymond from another universe, who hands her a set of three instructions to perform her first ‘verse-jump’ and when she does, warns her that she is in imminent danger from Jobu. To save herself as well as the fate of the multi-verse, Evelyn must train herself to jump between universes to absorb the special powers of her many, many fellow Evelyns; that includes, among others, Evelyn the Peking Opera singer, Evelyn the Hong Kong movie star, Evelyn the woman with hot dogs for fingers, and last but not least, Evelyn the teppanyaki chef.
True to its title, Daniels throws everything, everywhere, all at once at his audience. How else do we describe why the leaps from universe to universe consist of such crazy acts like inflicting paper cuts on oneself, making photocopies of one’s nether-regions, and using trophies as butt plugs? Or how the universes consist of one where Evelyn the movie star has an evocative scene with a dashing Waymond not unlike Wong Kar-wai’s ‘In the Mood For Love’, another where Evelyn the chef has a fellow colleague with a raccoon on his head, and yet another where Evelyn and Joy are pinatas at a child’s birthday party?
Even as it zips through these alternate universes, much of the action takes place within the corridors and cubicles of the I.R.S. office, where Daniels lets the imagination of Andy and Brian Le run wild in their choreography. Among the highlights are a jaw-dropping early sequence where Waymond wields his fanny pack like nanchucks against four I.R.S. security guards, another where Evelyn takes on a pant-less guard wearing a butt plug, and yet another where Evelyn has to fend off a frequent laundromat customer she nicknames Big Nose (Jenny Slate) who uses her leashed Pomeranian like a savage sidekick. It is outrageous all right, and as inventive as the inter-dimensional portal-hopping may be, there is also no denying that it can get pretty hectic and even exhausting over the course of nearly two-and-a-half hours.
Thankfully, the last act reveals that there is method to the madness, or to be more precise, purpose to the pandemonium. Without giving too much away, let’s just say that the relationship between Evelyn and Joy is both the cause and the cure, and putting aside their misunderstandings in order that mother and daughter rediscover their love for each other is ultimately how the rift both physically and metaphysically can be healed. There is genuine emotional heft here, but besides sentimentality, the revelation allows the whole enterprise to take on a deeper meaning about centering on the things that matter amidst the hyper-activity of our sensory overloaded world.
Holding it all together is Yeoh, who almost missed out on the role until Daniels decided to reconceive the lead originally intended for Jackie Chan for her. Yeoh is absolutely magnificent here, mixing action, comedy and drama with a radiant and powerful charisma to match the dazzling opportunity of a showcase that she has been given. The supporting cast is equally excellent, including Quan as the tender heart of the film, Hsu with the right balance of angst and sadness, and Curtis topping it off with just the right demented comic edge as Evelyn’s nemesis.
Truth be told, we weren’t quite fans of the multiverse before this, and we still aren’t crazy about it. Like we said, there is no doubt this chaotic, funny, frenzied, sometimes exhilarating and often exasperating movie has its unique charms, but likewise it is also wildly over-the-top, excessive and absolutely unapologetic about it. It will quite surely go down as a cult classic, and even though we cannot quite say we loved it, we appreciate how it gave Yeoh a rare leading role to shine like the A-list star she deserves to be. We’d just warn you to get ready for a relentless assault on the senses, for it is ultimately as faithful to its title as it can be.
Movie Rating:
(It comes at you with everything, from everywhere, all at once, but this messy sci-fi action comedy has an irrepressible exuberance and unexpected poignancy, as well as a peerless lead performance by Michelle Yeoh)
Review by Gabriel Chong
SYNOPSIS: After a software glitch causes an advanced AI program to fall in love with a young woman, it escapes into the body of a man and tries to win her heart.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Mario Maurer (Pee Mak) and Pimchanok Luevisadpaibul (The Con-Heartist) pairs up once again after their successful Crazy Little Thing Called Love which was liked a decade ago. Maybe certain things in this world should be left as it is especially after watching their latest collaboration, AI Love You.
Thai-French actor and filmmaker David Asavanond and visual effect artist Stephan Zlotescu co-directs this sci-fi drama which tries hard to blend technology and romance to tell a modern love story set in a near futuristic Bangkok.
In a world where buildings and apartments are run by artificial intelligence robots, an AI dubbed Dob has fallen in love with a product designer Lana (Pimchanok). Lana who happens to be prone to bad dates is baffled by Dob who confessed “he” is in love with her. You know AI are not supposed to have feelings or a physical entity.
In comes Bob (Mario), one of Lana’s bad dates who also happened to be a software engineer from Dob’s AI company. When Bob threatens to delete all of Lana’s files from Dob, the AI downloads itself to Bob’s body essentially taking over his physicality and predictability proceeds to win Lana’s heart with the encouragement of his fellow AIs.
While Spike Jonze’s Her delivers a beautiful relationship between a human and a robot with more realistic human emotion, AI Love You is somewhat sluggish when it comes to making an impact about the connection and mind-bending romance between the impossible.
There’s also a weak attempt in conjuring some cute humour when Dob first realised it’s trapped in Bob’s body. Like a fish out of water, Dob attempts to live life as a normal human being and learning how to go after Lana’s heart liked pretending to be an art lover and a caring figure. The entire second act is all about Dob and Lana getting lovey-dovey until the jarring finale in which the director himself, David Asavanond appears as a hunter of rogue AIs to generate some need be animosity.
The whole technology part doesn’t make much of a sense considering that AI’s are a much more superb form of computer programming but most of the communication here are entirely nonsensical. The main theme of the movie is frankly rather interesting and thought-provoking however, the story pretty much decamp to romance territory given the presence of one of Thai’s best onscreen couple, Mario Maurer and Pimchanok Luevisadpaibul.
Even for a rom-com, this is a boring disaster that fails in both comedy and drama. Mario Maurer and Pimchanok Luevisadpaibul certainly has been in much better works than AI Love You. This is unfortunately a major mishap for both of them.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: CG Animation
Director: Pierre Perifel
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Lilly Singh, Alex Borstein
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: UIP
Official Website:
Opening Day: 17 March 2022
Synopsis: Nobody has ever failed so hard at trying to be good as The Bad Guys. In the new action comedy from DreamWorks Animation, based on the New York Times best-selling book series, a crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws are about to attempt their most challenging con yet — becoming model citizens. Never have there been five friends as infamous as The Bad Guys — dashing pickpocket Mr. Wolf ( Academy Award ® winner Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ), seen-it-all safecracker Mr. Snake (Marc Maron, GLOW), chill master-of-disguise Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson, Hot Tub Time Machine franchise), short-fused “muscle” Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos, In the Heights) and sharp-tongued expert hacker Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina, Crazy Rich Asians), aka “Webs.” But when, after years of countless heists and being the world’s most-wanted villains, the gang is finally caught, Mr. Wolf brokers a deal (that he has no intention of keeping) to save them all from prison: The Bad Guys will go good. Under the tutelage of their mentor Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade, Paddington 2), an arrogant (but adorable!) guinea pig, The Bad Guys set out to fool the world that they’ve been transformed. Along the way, though, Mr. Wolf begins to suspect that doing good for real may give him what he ’s always secretly longed for: acceptance. So when a new villain threatens the city, can Mr. Wolf persuade the rest of the gang to become ... The Good Guys?
Movie Review:
They are the stuff of fairytales… except they’re on the wrong side of it. From the big bad wolf to the hungry shark, each of the characters in The Bad Guys is exactly that - the villain of every story they’ve been in. So the question begs, is this nature or nurture?
Pierre Perifel doesn’t reinvent the wheel here. He directs the animated adaptation of Aaron Blabey’s children books (of the same name) with a pleasing but predictable plot, with enough moments to keep viewers satisfied. It’s not exactly the refreshing take it was made out to be in their early proposals, but it does have a few imaginative executions, like its mix of animation styles.
There’s spots of classic 2D illustrative elements mixed in with lush 3D material renders, and the colourful world is nicely realised with some character, even if bits of it seems rehashed from earlier productions. I’ll make no bones about it and say it is stylistically mediocre, but there’s enough cohesion and frills here to escape into, with a humour that mostly sits better with a younger crowd.
Our anthropomorphic troop is made up of Mr. Wolf, his right-hand reptile Mr. Snake, Mr. Shark, Mr. Piranha, and Ms. Tarantula. They’re pegged as expert criminals - each with their own niche - and conduct heist after heist to keep the good citizens and the police in the town busy. And while they take pride in their work, there’s also the case that that’s all they’ve ever known.
When governor Diane Foxington profiles them as a deadbeat group, Wolf takes on the challenge of stealing the Golden Dolphin as a trophy heist. One thing leads to another, and the next thing you know, the model citizen that is guinea pig, Professor Marmalade, persuades the town to give the outlaws a chance to become good. Needless to say, this is not a straightforward affair.
There’s twists in there that won’t exactly drop jaws, but also some sequences that provide joy to the revelations, and this balance is appreciated from feature first-timer Perifel. More grit would have been good for this writer, because the message of trying to do good is a worthy one, nicely handled in some of the conversations between Diane and Wolf. And even though the characters get nudged into this consideration, the development feels far too contrived for a matter this deep.
The audience will enjoy the voice acting from the likes of Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron and Zazie Beetz, but will most noticeably recognise that of Awkwafina’s, who has the role of the spider. Their portrayal is as good as it gets, if only hampered by the formulaic writing and some old jokes.
This band of criminals finding their conscience is enjoyable enough but could have been so much more if the writers focused more on the transition and motivations, rather than on small slapstick sequences. But thanks to an even hand and pleasant visuals, The Bad Guys should make for a good school holiday film for the family to enjoy.
Movie Rating:
(Breezy animated effort that could benefit from a richer investigation into what makes for a good or bad person)
Review by Morgan Awyong
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin
Cast: Channing Tatum, Zuza, Britta and Lana (as Lulu), Luke Forbes, Ethan Suplee, Kevin Nash, Jane Adams, Q’orianka Kilcher, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Nicole LaLiberte, Junes Zahdi
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language and Sexual References)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 17 March 2022
Synopsis: DOG is a buddy comedy that follows the misadventures of two former Army Rangers paired against their will on the road trip of a lifetime. Army Ranger Briggs (Channing Tatum) and Lulu (a Belgian Malinois dog) buckle into a 1984 Ford Bronco and race down the Pacific Coast in hopes of making it to a fellow soldier's funeral on time. Along the way, they’ll drive each other completely crazy, break a small handful of laws, narrowly evade death, and learn to let down their guards in order to have a fighting chance of finding happiness.
Movie Review:
And why shouldn’t Channing Tatum portray a US Army veteran who has been wounded (physically and psychologically) by the war? After playing countless macho characters in the Magic Mike, GI Joe and 21/22 Jump Street movies, the 41 year old actor is the perfect candidate for the role.
In this drama comedy which Tatum co directed with Reid Carolin, he takes on the character of Jackson Briggs, a retired Army Ranger who is feeling down and is dying for a piece of action – you can’t blame the guy for reminiscing about his glorious past after taking up a seemingly boring job at a sandwich parlour. To score points to get back into the service, he accepts the mission to transport a fellow soldier's K-9 military working dog to her late handler’s funeral across the country. It’s a road trip for Briggs and the Belgian Malinois named Lulu. You can bet this is going to be a fun road trip.
Do we need another movie about dogs? Many other titles come to mind. Japanese drama Hachiko Monogatari (1987) and its American remake Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) can make grown men cry. Turner & Hooch (1989) is a great buddy cop comedy, while All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989) is an animated classic.
This movie starring Tatum actually feels different from the abovementioned films. Instead of playing up the sentimental storyline (which can be really convenient because Lulu is meant to be put down after the funeral), there are actually many fun elements throughout the 104 runtime, and it is likely due to the Tatum’s effortless on screen presence. He is like the buddy every guy wants to have, and the rugged fella every lady wishes to date. The scenes of him interacting with Lulu are fun to watch, and you’ll believe that the two actually formed a bond on set. The filmmakers did not waste the opportunity to show off Tatum’s well built bod. You can expect shirtless scenes, and in one particularly gratuitous sequence, be in awe as Tatum’s t-shirt clings to his body while he walks in the rain.
Guilty pleasure aside, the movie does offer an interesting look at how two wounded individuals come together to heal each other. One’s a human who is coming to terms that the army doesn’t need him (he also has a permanent impairment that isn’t doing his health any good), while the other is a canine who has been traumatised by war (the dog doesn’t know that she is going to be euthanised at a military base after attending its former handler’s funeral). Right up to the scene where Lulu is about to face her eventual fate, you will have a foreboding that things may end on a sad note. But trust the filmmakers to ensure a happy ending so that viewers can walk out of the theatre on a positive note, albeit the turn of events does feel a bit rushed.
There are also some unexpected episodes in the story. One involves a potential threesome that gets interrupted, while another sees Briggs and Lulu checking into a luxurious hotel under hilarious circumstances. These moments are fun enough for you to be engaged from beginning to end.
Movie Rating:
(Channing Tatum works his charm in this enjoyable and entertaining movie)
Review by John Li
Genre: Animation/Documentary
Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Runtime: 1 hr 29 mins
Rating: M18 (Mature Content)
Released By: Lighthouse Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 10 March 2022 (Exclusively at The Projector)
Synopsis: FLEE tells the story of Amin Nawabi as he grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, one that threatens to derail the life he has built for himself and his soon to be husband. Recounted mostly through animation to director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, he tells for the first time the story of his extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan.
Movie Review:
The world isn’t quite the place it used to be. In the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the release of this Danish animated docudrama film in Singapore couldn’t be timelier.
Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, the film has received international acclaim after its world premiere at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary section. At the upcoming 94th Academy Awards, the film garnered nominations in the Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature and Best Animated Feature categories, a rare feat because this is the first title to be nominated in all three major categories simultaneously.
And it is not difficult to see why. Rasmussen adopted an interesting approach to use animation and documentary filmmaking to tell a true story, a tale that needs to be told amidst whatever is happening around the world. It is the encounter of someone Rasmussen met in his rural Danish village when he was 15 years old. The someone is Amin (a pseudonym), an Afghan refugee who had supposedly fled his country after his entire family was killed. Over the decades, the two became friends and Amin finally decides to tell Rasmussen what really happened.
Then came Rasmussen’s decision to animate his friend’s story, so that Amin can keep his anonymity. The result is a heartfelt film that is essentially about a man’s tale of survival in a world that seems to be getting increasingly messed up.
Kudos to animation director Kenneth Ladekjaer , whose use of animation to tell Amin’s tale is a clever move, because it allows the filmmakers to animate flashback sequences. In a normal documentary, visualising past events would have been a challenge. But the visuals are secondary, as what’s more poignant is Amin’s voice which is the main driving force of the story. You can hear the different emotions as the film progresses. When he is sharing fond recollections, there is joy in his voice. And then you can sense fear in his voice as he narrates harrowing events from the past. Composer Uno Helmersson’s string based score moves the story along.
From the beginning of the film where you will see how Amin’s childhood in Afghanistan was bookmarked by happy memories of listening to Norwegian pop band A Ha’s “Take on Me”, to a series of traumatising events involving war and human trafficking that would eventually tear his family apart, every scene on screen is captivating and warrants your fullest attention. Real life events of the Mujahideen seizing power in Kabuland the opening of the first McDonald’s restaurant in Russiaare interspersed in Amin’s story. There also live action archival footage to lend relevancy to the documentary.
The film also deals with Amin’s struggle with own identity, when he first reacts to a movie poster featuring a buff Jean Claude Van Damme when he was a child. This aspect of the story is told with a mature and delicate touch, as you finally see how Amin is planning to marry his partner and live an open life as a gay man. Thankfully, the filmmakers did not jump at the opportunity to play up or exploit these portions of the film. Instead, they are weaved nicely into the entire narrative.
The 89 minute film does not feel overlong. It creates maximum impact with the agreeable runtime. Most importantly, it is not an unabashed political propaganda piece that hooks viewers with melodrama. At its heart is a human story that you’ll care about deeply, and will leave you thinking about the concept of what it means to have a home.
Movie Rating:
(A powerful and moving human drama that is also essential and therapeutic)
Review by John Li
Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Tarik Saleh
Cast: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Gillian Jacobs, Eddie Marsan, Florian Munteanu, Kiefer Sutherland
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: NC16 (Coarse Language and Violence)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 10 March 2022
Synopsis: After being involuntarily discharged from the U.S. Special Forces, James Harper (Pine) decides to support his family by joining a private contracting organization alongside his best friend (Foster) and under the command of a fellow veteran (Sutherland). Overseas on a covert mission, Harper must evade those trying to kill him while making his way back home.
Movie Review:
Lest we forget, it was just about two decades ago that the United States had gone to war with Iraq, after falsely claiming that the Saddam Hussein government had weapons of mass destruction. While the government counted the cost of the war in terms of billions, its army and citizens did so in terms of lives lost and irreversibly damaged.
Though pitched as an action thriller involving such individuals who joined private contracting firms after struggling to re-adapt to civilian life, it is ultimately better as a character study of the personal challenges each of these persons would no doubt have had to go through, as well as the morass of ethically questionable jobs that the government had contracted out to these private firms to get done off the radar.
Indeed, ‘The Contractor’ is deliberately paced to outline the post-army life of former Special Forces sergeant James Harper (Chris Pine), who is dishonourably discharged by a new commanding regime under the excuse of abusing drugs for his left knee which he had shattered in combat.
Without pension or health care, James finds himself at a loss how to take care of his wife (Gillian Jacobs) and young son. He is also still haunted by the disappearance of his Ranger father, and unsettled by the death of fellow war veterans who could not re-adjust after being similarly discharged.
It is a sobering reality, and both Swedish director Tarik Saleh and writer J.P. Davis take care in the first act to illustrate James’ sense of anxiety, disillusionment and even helplessness before the action takes over.
Out of sheer desperation, James asks his best friend Mike (Ben Foster) for an introduction to the fellow veteran (Kiefer Sutherland) whose outfit he works for. James’ first mission sees him being sent to Berlin to assassinate a scientist with purported links to Al Qaeda, though as you can probably guess, things are not quite what they seem to be.
Unfortunately for James and Mike, the mission goes awry, leaving the rest of their team killed by German police and the need to cover their tracks. We shan’t spoil the surprise for what comes next, but suffice to say that James will eventually learn what research the scientist was working on and eventually return to the United States to settle the score with his employers.
Those who like their stories with intrigue will be disappointed that there is little of that here, not least because there is never any doubt who the bad guys really were or does the narrative throw in any twists along the way.
Despite the by-the-numbers plotting, you’ll find yourself invested in James’ fate, thanks to the character-driven first act we described earlier, as well as Pine’s utterly committed performance. Coming off supporting roles in the ‘Wonder Woman’ movies, Pine shows his leading man chops here, playing the role of a damaged former soldier with utter conviction. Pine is also front and centre in the hand-to-hand action scenes, going mano-a-mano with tough military types in mostly tight confines.
It is however true too that the rest of the supporting cast is sadly wasted. As James’ wife and mother to his kid, Jacobs tries her best to project the unease of a woman worried both about her husband and their family’s future, but is given short shrift in the last two acts. The friendship between James and Mark is never fully explored, such that we also never get to see the character acting Foster is capable of. But perhaps the most criminally underused is Sutherland, who is in only two scenes of the final cut of the movie and is particularly let down by the climax.
You’d do well therefore not to regard ‘The Contractor’ as an action thriller, for it is at best serviceable and at worst uninspiring. Yet we suspect both director Saleh and our leading man Pine were drawn to the material because of its potential as a character study of former military men who were let down by the service and had no choice but to turn to shady private jobs to earn a living. And in that regard, it presents an earnest portrait of one such individual that you can relate and sympathise with.
Movie Rating:
(Better as a character study than as an action thriller, 'The Contractor' is bolstered by an utterly committed leading performance from Chris Pine)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Action/Drama
Director: Henry Alex Rubin
Cast: Jai Courtney, Nat Wolff, Finn Wittrock, Beau Knapp, Arturo Castro, Leighton Meester
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: M18 (Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 3 March 2022
Synopsis: Cal (Jai Courtney), is a by-the-book police officer who makes ends meet as a reservist in Marine Corps along with his rowdy and inseparable group of childhood friends. When Cal’s younger, reckless half-brother Oyster (Nat Wolff) accidentally kills a guy in a barfight and tries to flee, Cal is torn between his family and his job.
Movie Review:
Why this misguided film about brotherhood should receive a theatrical release two years after it was dropped day and date in cinemas and on streaming in the United States is baffling. Not only is it devoid of any critical merit, it also offers little gratification for the casual viewer, so consider that fair warning for anyone who might feel curious enough to wander into this deeply unfulfilling action thriller.
Otherwise known as ‘Brothers in Arms’, it is both a story about two brothers as it is one about a band of brothers. The former refers to Cal (Jai Courtney) and Oyster (Nat Wolff), a pair of half-brothers who are regularly at odds with each other due to the latter’s emotionally volatile nature, which has resulted in multiple run-ins with the law over the past couple of years, so much so that Oyster is just one charge away from prison. Should it be any surprise that Cal is a police officer, thus exacerbating the tension between brothers whenever the former suspects that the latter is up to no good?
The other brotherhood depicted here is that of Cal, Oyster and three other Marine reservists, who out of duty to nation at the height of the US-led war in 2005, have signed up to be shipped out to Iraq. These other ‘brothers’ are Jaeger (Finn Wittrock), Snowball (Arturo Castro) and Milk (Beau Knapp), whose loyalty to one another will not only be tested during a particularly traumatic tour that sees one of them lose a leg, but also when Cal decides to disregard his oath to uphold the law in order to break Oyster out of prison after being personally responsible for his arrest for manslaughter.
It isn’t hard to see why director Henry Alex-Rubin, who co-wrote the story with former U.S. Army officer Sean Mullin, decided to fuse the two expressions of brotherhood. On one hand, it would not be the first time that the physical and psychological impact of the Iraqi war was the subject of a film; on the other, it would be the perfect excuse to justify why a bunch of generally law-abiding individuals would do something so foolish and reckless, notwithstanding that it is to rescue a fellow brother from a depraved prison system he should not have to suffer in the hands of.
And yet, Rubin’s perfunctory storytelling ultimately dooms his method. Besides plenty of tough-talk, there is little else to convince us of the camaraderie that these men share, not even when they go from the streets of the small upstate New York town of Bridgewater to the danger-prone alleys of Iraq, where they are betrayed by no less than the Iraqi police. Nor for that matter are we persuaded by why the prison guards would take a dislike towards Oyster, so much so that they would purposely rough him up and plant evidence in his jail in order to send him to solitary. Without these, the final act just becomes a standard-issue prison break, which in itself strains credibility by how utterly lax the security detail of prison transport would be.
For these reasons and several more, ‘Semper Fi’ never becomes anything we can emotionally invest in. The performances here too rarely rise above the material, with Courtney, Wolff and Wittrock struggling to find ways to lend their respective characters pathos. But the fault here lies not with the actors but with the underdeveloped script, which tries to stick a war drama and a prison break thriller into one and ultimately fails at either. So in spite of its title, there is nothing to hold faith with this movie on, and little reason to care about its curious appearance on our screens two years after it was likewise ignored back where it was first released.
Movie Rating:
(Neither a compelling war drama or a convincing prison-break thriller, there is hardly anything in 'Semper Fi' that one can keep faith with)
Review by Gabriel Chong
SYNOPSIS: In “No Exit,” Havana Rose Liu (“Mayday”) makes her feature film leading role debut as Darby, a young woman en route to a family emergency who is stranded by a blizzard and forced to find shelter at a highway rest area with a group of strangers. When she stumbles across an abducted girl in a van in the parking lot, it sets her on a terrifying life-or-death struggle to discover who among them is the kidnapper.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Despite efforts from reputable filmmakers liked Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg to retain the cinematic magic, streaming is going to be huge if not bigger as the years go. And it’s not just during the pandemic we are talking about. In fact, streaming is the go-to place for movies liked No Exit, a perfunctory mid-budget or low-budget thriller that works perfectly on the small screen.
No Exit which is actually based on a novel by Taylor Adams opens with a recovering drug addict named Darby (Havana Rose Liu) who escaped from a rehab center to visit her terminally ill mother in Salt Lake City. But when the interstates are closed due to an upcoming blizzard, Darby needs to seek shelter at a nearby visitors center where she chanced upon a young girl (whom we learnt is named Jay later on) being kidnapped and tied up in a van.
Darby obviously is not the only person trapped at the visitors center. There’s an interracial married couple, Sandi (Dale Dickey) and Ed (Dennis Haysbert), a strange loner, Lars (David Rysdahl) and a charmer, Ash (Danny Ramirez). Time however is running out for Darby as Jay is suffering from Addison’s disease and she needs her medicine to survive. Will Darby manage to get Jay out in the end or risk getting killed by one of the suspects huddling at the center?
Instead of revealing the killer and motive towards the end liked say, Death on the Nile (2022) or Identity (2003), much of everything you need to know is unravel by the second act. Pathetically, there’s minimal buildup of suspense or thrills to be precise, making it more of a missed opportunity than a worthy whodunit. The occasional violent outburst is unabashedly used probably for shock values. Ultimately, the final screenplay is so simple that we wonder how much details are omitted as compared to the book version.
While the plotting deserves better, newcomer Havana Rose Liu puts in more than decent performance as Darby although the complexity of her character is hardly a wholly original setup. The other commendable factor is the one-location premise which serves as a competent set for the cat-and-mouse game which in turn reminds one of Vacancy (2007), a trashy thriller set in a rundown motel.
Rather than forking out money on an expensive movie ticket plus a tub of overpriced popcorn and considering No Exit is an original release on Disney+, the fast-moving thriller is an easy watch on a weekday’s night at home. Just bear in mind that while it lacks in originality, it wins when it all boils down to economical and efficiency.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
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ZEUS & HERA: DIRECTOR'S CUTPosted on 01 Mar 2022 |
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