Boy Kills World (2023)

 

Great title. Decent premise. The script is too manic for my taste. Would have preferred they play it more straight. Fewer hallucinations, video game sound fx, and jump edits. A lot of people die in the most heinous ways. Felt overkill, especially considering the twist ending. You are left with no one to root for. 

Rating: D+

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

 

Every installment that comes out in this series I’m told the same thing–that *this* one is special; the best one yet. And each time I’m greatly disappointed. It's all set design and staged fights. Very little substance or character development exists in the World of Wick, even after a nearly 3 hour runtime. 

The biggest annoyance is the apparent indestructibility of John Wick. Only he can land headshots, yet after millions of bullets shot at him, none can hit his. He never sleeps or gets tired during prolonged battles. He hits and gets hit by numerous vehicles, yet suffers no consequence from it. 

He falls through and out of buildings without so much as a sprained ankle. He doesn’t eat, use the restroom, or attend to any other human necessities. This might as well be another crapped out turd from the Marvel Universe. 

I wish they’d make a 5th film with John Wick in retirement, homesteading in Colorado, tending to his garden, fruit trees, and chickens for 90 minutes. Nobody dies. There’s one fight, but it’s between Wick and a sticky canning jar lid, and he loses. 

Rating: F

Villains (2019)

It was something to watch on a return trip from Colombia. A few bits of humor and suspense, but you’ll find better ways to kill 90 minutes.

Rating: C

Assassination Nation (2018)

I didn’t buy the premise at all. When we have a president who shamelessly screws porn stars and tweets out filth directly at people he doesn’t like, how are we supposed to believe that people would be so bothered by the airing of dirty laundry that they’d care enough to get up off the couch and do something, let alone go on a murdering spree?

This played out more like The Purge--where the premise is stupid, but the nihilistic thrill of watching everyday people try to kill one another is what keeps you watching. Unfortunately they didn’t even do that very well. The last 10 minutes were B-level dreck.

Rating: D

Deadpool 2 (2018)

Turns out you can’t just put all the superhero movies in a blender and produce a delicious smoothie. Very messy.

Rating: C-

IT (2017)

All the bullying in this movie brought back a lot of memories of elementary school. I wonder if kids are still huge dicks? Too unrealistic to be truly scary. Mostly consists of spook house gags and jump cuts. The kids had some funny lines. I bit presumptuous to end the movie with Chapter 1. I wouldn’t watch a sequel. 

Rating: C-

Atomic Blonde (2017)

Charlize is stunning and deadly, however the storytelling felt scattered. Soundtrack is a pleasure. Action sequences are intense. One thing I can’t understand. If they could have taken the Ambassador’s car smoothly across the entire time, why didn’t they just use it to get Spyglass across in the first place? That makes everything that transpired pointless!

Rating: C