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Locked In (2023)
Deceit and conspiracy
Lina (Rose Williams, Sanditon) wants to be free from the shackles of Katherine (Famke Jansen, Goldeneye and Taken), her mother in-law. Her marriage with Jamie (Finn Cole, F9) is slowly falling apart due to his seizure-related sickness. Meanwhile Katherine assigned a private doctor, Lawrence (Alex Hassell, Violent Night), to take of Jamie every day. But things started to unravel after Lawrence has a crush with Lina, and they end up making love in the rain. Over the next few days things are getting worse after Jamie was drowned intentionally and Lawrence tries to flirt and seduce with Katherine. No wonder Lina was pissed and tried to get away, but was cut short after Lawrence ran Katherine over. Few weeks later the film cuts to the moment where Katherine was awake but Lawrence and Lina released her. It's revealed that Lawrence attempted to overdose Katherine before Lina gets in his way to kill Lawrence.
Overall it's a waste of good suspense by not trying to cut Katherine's oxygen hose and run Katherine over to pieces. Lawrence has no intention to kill Lina by the time she wanted to save her mother-in-law. The plot thickens towards the end but it's poorly executed. Famke Jansen is still one of my favourites despite her character is neutral (not being good or bad person) and Rose Williams' beauty is enough to cover her average performance.
Parental advisory: intense sex scene, profanity and some violence involving melee weapons and intentional drowning.
The Stranger in Our Bed (2022)
Poundland Before I Go To Sleep
I've seen Before I Go To Sleep so many times and I just realized that the plot is quite familiar despite having a slightly different setting, backgrounds and motives (the aforementioned film is based on the novel as well). An unhappy married couple, a woman wants to get away with it and uninspiring way to end her misery. That's basically Before I Go To Sleep with wealthy backgrounds, mother in-law intervention and witnessing a crime scene. No big names who starred in this film bar the mother in-law who was Miss Moneypenny in Brosnan-era Bond film. Finding out that the leads are actually married in real life while being abusive and manipulative in this film feels so surreal.
The Killer (2023)
Assassin Club with aesthetics?
Turns out audiences are very critical about the film despite it's directed by David Fincher and starring Michael Fassbender. As far as i know the film feels like another lame attempt to make a third Hitman movie with similar techniques like disguise, silent execution and trusting no one.
Traveling back and forth knowing that the main character might be in danger won't make the film exciting and thrilling. There are few action-packed scenes because it's classified as a thriller.
Despite it's classified as a thriller, the similarities to Assassin Club are quite obvious to some extent. An assassin gets targeted, travelling back and forth to find the people who wanted to kill him, proceeds to kill them and ended up saving the final target for unknown reasons.
Sheroes (2023)
Men sucks: the movie
A man-directed film but women takes the wheel. 2019 Charlie's Angels but far more average than people expected. The film tells a story about four best friends whose one of them was captured only because she wanted to get high. Their rescue mission is so cliched with some references to action franchises like Taken, Mission: Impossible, Rambo and James Bond. Story is so flawed that i already expected what will happen to them and the bad Thai guys. The male actors in this film are so awful (except for Thai ones who might be grateful to work with some second tier actors).
Sasha Luss, who hit a jackpot after starring a film with Cillian Murphy (one of the most talked actors of 2023 by the way) few years ago, suffered a massive downgrade after she managed to sleep with random-ass NPC who secretly has an allies in enforcement agency. It's a bit like trading your Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge with a Dacia Sandero 😔.
Fast X (2023)
The faith and the family
One of the biggest movie franchises in the 21st century returns this summer. This time with the man from the past has a son who wants revenge after the family took everything (precisely $100.000.000) from him.
Audiences are expecting Dom and his family to go crazy but this time, Dante Reyes stole the show and managed to outperform the family in different occasions. The action pieces are as ridiculous as the previous films but it's more entertaining (and thrilling) than F9. The addition of new characters made the film wasted most of the potential like short screen time and poorly written characterization. Overall, keeping the ridiculous formula from the previous films is better than adding forced agendas to the long-running franchise.
Assassin Club (2023)
It is what it is. Don't expect too much
Henry Golding should rethink about his projects after Snake Eyes was a box office disappointment and starring in this B-grade action film. His performance isn't on par with skilled action stars such as Gerard Butler, the late Paul Walker and even Iko Uwais as he lacks any pressure while wielding heavy weapons and racing against the clock. Meanwhile Noomi Rapace had a better and calmer performance due to her experience in B-grade action/thriller movies such as The Drop, Unlocked, Close and The Secrets We Keep. Sam Neill is seemingly cannot be arsed in this film and I feel bad for Daniela Melchior as this film is actually her second English-language feature film appearance after The Suicide Squad.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)
Cliched, twistless and familiar
2023 starts (at least in my country) with a uninspiring action with a bit of comedy Ruse de Guerre. A globetrotting action flick in the pandemic and post war-torn Ukraine era. Orson Fortune is an (as expected) agent who has to save the world from the bad guys who wanted to manipulate the world economy by making gold as the only legitimate payment method. He forms a team which involves a skilled woman, a movie star, a tech/weapons expert and (in the end), an orphanage philanthropist who gets involved in a shady arms deal.
This is Guy Ritchie's weakest project in ages and it feels like it's directed by someone else as the film lacks his no-nonsense comedic tone and tries too hard to be an intense action film. The plot is already used so many times and there are no interesting twist throughout the film.
Plane (2023)
Straightforward action, nothing else
The promising and big year of 2023 starts with old school style action flick called Plane. The film tells a story of the crew and passengers who were lost in an island full of separatists with no escape, no backup and no law enforcement. All the plane manifests should co-operate in order to survive while expecting for a backup. The main protagonist, Brodie, is a pilot without suspicious background such as former soldier, ex-con, ex-TSA guy etc. Thankfully Brodie has a special survival trick by co-operating with Gaspare, a convicted murderer and former military guy.
The film is basically old school straightforward action (despite the action didn't start until an hour before the film ends) without unnecessary material such as sex scenes, drug trade and forced propaganda.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
An in-depth sci-fi, but far from Oscar material
E2A2O is a film about struggling Chinese-American laundromat owner who needs to pay taxes in order to avoid confiscation from the IRS. That's the plot if you want to ignore multiversal references throughout the film. A simple plot about laundromat owner facing the ruthless people from IRS can be resolved without getting involved in a series of weird events such as sucking bagels, rock universe and sausage fingers. Speaking about multiverses, the film gives a proper detailed material about how multiverse works even the concept lacks originality as I already watched films with similar premise like The Matrix, Jumper and Lucy. The performance is a strong point where Michelle Yeoh finally reached her potential after years of easily ignored roles and Ke Huy Quan shines in his return to acting as Waymond. Unfortunately, the film is far from best picture contender due to unsettling elements such as too many quick cuts during the action scenes and forced LGBT references which involves Joy is in relationship with a girl.
Glass Onion (2022)
Convoluted
The if it ain't broke don't fix it scenario doesn't work this time. I intentionally skipped the first film because i already knew the whole family are to blame but this one, it's down to one person.
Rian turned simpler old school plot from the first film into a woke pandemic era message about who shouldn't be trusted because there's no way the whole group are responsible for someone's death. "Diverse" characters from a megalomaniac, corrupt female politician, greed fashion designer and andrew tate-esque social media influencer are conspiring behind the innovator's death just because they wanted her out from the company and the main megalomaniac wanted to steal her ideas.
The characters and the production design carried the whole film but the writing is so messed up. Don't get me started at the twists and the ending. The major supporting characters are most likely won't return in the third installment as well.
The Menu (2022)
Riveting thriller comedy
The menu might be one of the surprise package of 2022. A black comedy (even it feels like survival thriller) comprising drama actors such as Ralph Fiennes, AT-J and Nicholas Hoult. Behind the beautiful atmosphere of the secluded island comes an untold secret about the truth of the world of gastronomy. The invited guests are the chosen ones who will face the biggest dinner of their lifetime. Ralph Fiennes delivers his calm (and menacing) persona really well as the head chef with dark and unpleasant backstory, Nicholas Hoult delivers a straightforward performance as an intellectual person but lacks actual skills and ATJ, despite being an a hole throughout the film, delivers an out of the box performance in which she actually speaks out the most about the shady truth about the infamous restaurant. The Menu delivers a steadily paced well-written story over the four different phases with suspenseful moments and dark comedic moments such as the representation of every guests and the untold truth about the head chef's portfolio.
Parental advisory: contains some unsettling scenes.
White Noise (2022)
What's the fuss of being so awful?
Okay, I get it. This is different compared to any recent end of the world flicks like Greenland, Warning and Don't Look Up. The film is marketed as a comedy drama rather than disaster sci-fi but the film deals with some difficult to fathom scientific and drug references like airborne toxic thing and side effects of homemade medications. This film is a major departure compared to Noah's previous work (Marriage Story) and unsurprisingly, it failed to recapture the intensity and the chemistry between the main characters. Having his real life partner (Greta Gerwig) paired with one of the biggest actors recently (Adam Driver) might be awkward but their dialogues between them are the turning point of the film even the parents' chemistry between their children is a bit underwhelming. Overall, Don't Look Up and Greenland have a better portrayal of disaster events and fear of death and lack of faith subplot ultimately on par with Warning.
Shattered (2022)
Shattered mess & red flags everywhere
Half of the cast are definitely too good for these awful low budget pandemic era flick (including b list actress Sasha Luss whose her only major appearance was anna). Based on the trailer, it's debut appearance for Lily Krug. In fact, she already had a minor roles in forgettable low budget dramas like every breath you take and heart of champions.
Story starts in walking red flag where a somewhat divorced man who lives in Montana (in reality, his wife still has an open door to reconcile) met a teen stranger stranded in the rain. He picks her up, invited to his mansion and easily convinced her to have an one night stand (do not try this). One day, one asian thug broke one of his leg and she takes care of him until the reason why she took care of him is because she wants to steal his lavish life.
The story progressed in a worst way possible as the psycho teen actually lives with her stepfather and they (I'm not joking, the age gap is extremely uncomfortable at this rate) penetrated with each other while the divorced man already suffered enough. After the stepfather cut the divorced man's thumb to gain access for taking over his money, it is revealed that his money was moved into his wife's safe and she put a letter on his vault. The chaos later ensues and ended horribly after the psycho teen was shot dead by (I'M NOT JOKING, AGAIN) the divorced man's daughter.
Frank Grillo, Cameron Monaghan and John Malkovich should be ashamed of themselves as they're definitely too good for this low budget project and i hope Cameron Monaghan can redeem himself with some of his capable roles in the future. As for Lily Krug, she's so beautiful but she needs to take her acting seriously than ever.
Causeway (2022)
On par performance but forgettable plot
This is Jennifer Lawrence's second outing after she took a break for a few years. Lynsey (Lawrence) is an off duty soldier due to her brain injury (not to be confused with amnesia) and she took a part time job as a pool cleaner while waiting for the right time and the right call to report for duty again. She befriends with James (Henry), a skilled mechanic who lost one of his legs. The friendship slowly turning into a botched relationship but they have a good friendship between them while sharing their past lives, including James' car accident in the past and Lynsey's near-death experience in Afghanistan. The chemistry between Lawrence and Henry and their performances are great, but the main plot is so boring (heavily carried by the friendship between Lynsey and James) and made the ending didn't paid off at all.
Poker Face (2022)
Good cinematography and luxury cars. Nothing else
Russell Crowe stars and directs this indie film about pro gambler who decided to reunite his best friends after so many years. A well spent poker game turned suspicious as his truth serum revealed his best friends' secret. One of them involving adultery. After they revealed their secrets, it turned from bad to worse as the gambler's mansion was invaded by the art thief who wants some of his art collection. It turned from worse to worst as his wife and daughter are coming to the mansion as well. And in the end, the invasion can be avoided after his best friends found a perfect spot to trap one of the home invaders, eventually killing him.
The cinematography and the usage of ultra luxury cars are the only good thing about the film. The rest is so mediocre (not awful) and it's a film to forget for two big Aussie actors like Russell Crowe and Liam Hemsworth.
9 Bullets (2022)
Sam Worthington is so lucky...
My review title says it all. Before he stars in a long-awaited big-budget Avatar sequel, he starred in an awful dross like these as Jack, the crime boss who wants everything after they ordered his men to kill the whole family of the man who stole his money. His actions are only to please his men, trophy missus and his ex (who "reconciled for a night" to finish the deal), not to bring back his money for upcoming so called elections. Meanwhile Lena Headey (300 and Game of Thrones) stars as a single mother and near-invincible woman who managed to save the son of the man who owed him money. The film rips off Gloria and most recently, The Marksman (as it involves a person who saved a son whose parents are killed by the henchmen of the ruthless crime boss). In short, 9 Bullets is somehow worse than The Marksman and the film is enough to put into another long list of awful post-Avatar filmography of the Australian actor.
Blonde (2022)
Exploitative (Semi)Biopic
Blonde is a "not for everyone movie", as people said before it's released. In fact, it's definitely not for everyone as the depiction of Ms. Jane in this movie is so exploitative, over the top, overly sexualised and not realistic at all. I mean there's no way that Ms. Jane in real life is so sad, depressed and exploited with everyone. She never felt happy all the time, even after she's married twice and she ended up being washed and humiliated before she died beside her doggo in the end. The portrayal of male characters such as Charlie Chaplin Jr, Joe DiMaggio, Arthur Miller (the only good guy) and President John Fitzgerald Kennedy is (borderline) okay even the depiction of Chaplin Jr. Is too sexualised as one of Ms. Jane's boyfriends and JFK acted like Bill Clinton 35 years after the events of the film. I know Ana De Armas' acting is great and can portray Ms. Jane really well but in the end, her hard work doesn't paid off due to her overly miserable and sexualised portrayal of Ms. Jane.
Bullet Train (2022)
Without bloody action violence, it's basically bigger budget SAS: Red Notice
World's most renowned assassins are on the same bullet train. What could possibly go wrong? With multiple motives based on the dark past, it's obvious that vengeance is not always the best solution. Only Ladybug (Brad Pitt) and the twins are the only passengers without the dark past because they used to work together on a mission. The way that the main story unfolds (The storyline is surprisingly weak) might be enough to put the audiences to sleep because it revolves around multiple assassins with the same plot to bring them down altogether. The violence is so bloody like John Wick and Deadpool movies recently even it's ruined by quick shots and typical shaky cameras. The supporting casts did a great job even The Prince (Joey King) and The Tangerine (Aaron Johnson) have an annoying trope (narcissistic and stereotypical) which was enough to piss the audiences off. Ladybug talking to his handler (Sandra Bullock) on the phone is basically ripping off Liam Neeson and Vera Farmiga in The Commuter. Overall, it's a decent but not that exciting film carried by the bloody violence.
Memory (2022)
Formulaic, in a decent way
For starters, it's nothing special. Same director from The Protégé which was released 9 months before this one, same old direction despite the story is obviously different compared to The Protégé. Liam Neeson is basically replicating his amnesiac skills from Unknown but this time, he has a serious Alzheimer due to his age and his issues are getting personal as he had to deal with the untrustworthy bureau agents, human trafficking exposure that went wrong and the abuse of power from the powers that be (protected people with corrupted morals). Guy Pearce sets the film apart a bit with his role is enough to cover the film's slow and weak plot development even I can't stand his accent and his trying-to-be-a-Mexican looks. Monica Bellucci however, is quite disappointing as she's not powerful enough to portray a woman with multiple backing to protect her from law enforcement.
Overall the film's action was quite stronger than The Protégé despite the story was weaker than ever and if you want a film about exposing a hard to swallow truth, watch The Foreigner instead.
Black Site (2022)
Not a great "Sequel" to Terminator Genisys
I'm sorry but Michelle Monaghan IS NOT SUITABLE as a MAIN PROTAGONIST in an ACTION FLICK. Just because she's in the last Mission: Impossible film doesn't mean the casting director chose her as the main protagonist. No wonder she's basically an expert analyst but an inept fighter who let the whole site destroyed WITH NO SURVIVORS.
Jason Clarke is a great pick as the main villain but his character felt overpowered compared to his previous villain outings in Lawless, White House Down, Terminator Genisys, and The Devil All The Time. His body count is ridiculously similar to John Wick. Despite his actions, his motives was justifiable even the CIA false flag plot doesn't make any sense (basically the major plot hole summed up how the so-called black site has no power to handle the most wanted terrorist).
Jai Courtney was likeable until 45 minutes where he started to go insane and trying to turn back on the agency (just like in Honest Thief) and he sealed his fate where Clarke finally gets his revenge after he's killed in Genisys.
The editing and CGI explosions are awful just like recent low budget action movies, the direction was below par but expect for an inexperienced female director, and the film has a major geographical error where Istanbul was located in Saudi Arabia.
Interceptor (2022)
subpar at best
As expected, this is a woke action flick with the emphasis of women empowerment and the view of modern day United States (there are so many references of the old US looks like). The main plot is basically a rip off from White House Down (private army of American rebels having a hostile takeover and threatening the White House to react for their demands) and Don't Look Up (plans to obliterate the whole nation with political view, albeit the meteors are replaced with missiles). The story line is predictable women good (even there are one bad woman) men bad bs complete with me too-esque backstory as the main subplot. Elsa Pataky was decent (far from great sorry) as she's chosen for the main role not only the film was backed with her hubby, she's unfairly killed off in The Fate of The Furious. No wonder she unleashed her skills to kill the private army. Luke Bracey was mediocre, as he has a strong motives for a private army thanks to his intelligence but he's so weak as a villain in general. The saving graces on this woke action flick are when the main character's dad was alive in the end and Chris Hemsworth's comic relief uncredited cameo as TV Salesman.
Rogue Agent (2022)
semi-biopic
The film is using one of the victims' point of view, not his point of view. Would've been better if it revolves around his first two victims, not after he's into affluent woman to be one of his victims. Gemma's acting was so much better than in the king's man though and James' acting was great, has a potential even he's not shady enough to portray a twisted conman. Sadly the film wasn't as dark as the actual story even the ending was kind of dark and might be unsettling as his final victim's life was already ruined by the time he's finally arrested. The fact that Freegard only served 5 years and still roaming around in France are so scary that any innocent person can fall into his spy-related trap again.
Orphan (2009)
Only 7/10, sorry
Peter saarsgard's character as john coleman is a bit of letdown as he lacks chemistry unlike two female leads (leena/esther and kate). Patrick wilson would be better john coleman than peter saarsgard.
Orphan: First Kill (2022)
decent prequel
Wow they chucked away the suspense and thrills from the 2009 one and we can't hide isabelle's age in a film where she supposed to be a much younger version of esther as the film was set a year before she moved to new england.
The Rhythm Section (2020)
dull revenge drama
If you want to watch a movie about a person seeking revenge after the plane crash, go watch Aftermath (2017) instead. Blake and Jude were simply too good for a movie with bad script and inexperienced direction.