The Foreigner

First Hit: Entertaining and nice to see Jackie Chan back in action.

This film is in the same bucket as Liam Neeson’s Taken series of films. Here, Quan Ngoc Minh (Chan), runs a restaurant which supports him, his daughter Fan (Katie Leung), and Lam (Tao Liu) who runs the day-to-day of the restaurant.

Quan takes his daughter to select and buy her homecoming dress and while she’s in the store the “Authentic IRA” bombs a department store that kills Fan. Quan, a former special forces operator from Vietnam, is heartbroken and distraught because Fan was his last living relative. After grieving for a short period of time, we know he’s going to make someone pay.

We get a back story of his losing his wife and other daughter when they fled Vietnam and now all he has are a couple pictures and a lot of sadness.

The good part is that at 60+ years old Chan can still fight and he makes it all look good and appropriate for his age and skill set.

His protagonist is the Irish Deputy Minister Liam Hennessy (Pierce Bronson) who led the IRA for years and now curries favor from the British Government for keeping the peace between the IRA operatives and Britain. Holding this peaceful co-existence together means he has compromised his Irish independence values and, per some of his peers, he’s gone soft towards the British Government.

Quan presses Hennessy for the names of the bombers and adds that he will not stop his quest until he has their names. He plans to revenge his daughter’s loss and exercise his demons for the all the losses he’s had.

Hennessy is also trying to find out who bombed the store and then it gets worse when they bomb a bus loaded with people. The peace in Ireland and his cushy job are in jeopardy.

The film becomes a cat and mouse game and Quan holds his own while following through on his objective. Hennessy also follows through on his goal to clean everything up and his ruthlessness comes through. In one of the last scenes in the film he directs his nephew to tie up one last loose end.

Chan is strong in this role and uses his impressive skills appropriately. What didn’t quite work was the use of the same sad face as his primary go-to for dramatic effect. It was a look that was suppose to express his deep sadness for his losses in life and that he was about to explode like a volcano. Bronson was very good in this role. He created a right level of being settled into a bureaucratic job, but still having the fire of being an IRA patriot. Niall McNamee as Hennessy’s nephew Patrick O’Reilly, was excellent. Appropriately responsive to his powerful uncle’s requests. Liu was wonderful as Chan’s restaurant assistant and friend. Her honorable sweetness stood out. Dermot Crowley as former IRA leader Hugh McGrath was very good. I loved how his anger towards the state of the IRA peace pact with Britain was expressed. David Marconi did a great job of writing a script that worked for all the characters. Martin Campbell directed this film with a good eye towards using the skills and strengths of his actors in this story.

Overall: It was an entertaining film.

Blade Runner 2049

First Hit:  Although this film was well shot and interesting in its context, I ended up not caring about the characters.

The original 1982 ‘Blade Runner’, projected our life in 2019. It was bleak and focused on the creation, use, and abilities of replicants. It left us with questions as to whether replicants could re-create. Given that we are developing robots, self-driving autos and other interesting things, we are not what was projected back then.  Given this, it is my guess that we won't be what this film says about 2049. The only caveat would be, we could be worse off than what is projected.

The original wasn't popular (gross sales) when it came out, however it did organically grow a larger and wide-ranging audience because of its questions, pacing and the way it was shot. It became more of a cult film that aged really well. In other words, as time went by, its positive qualities came forth and lasted. In that film replicants went back to Earth to find their creator and Rick Dekard (Harrison Ford) was sent back to kill these renegade replicants and in doing so, he started having questions of his own.

In this new version, again the languid pacing is in its own world, and because we have a history of this, it's expected. This makes this better understood in the first viewing. We are placed into the year 2049 and Los Angeles is this bizarre sort of world of real humans and replicants. If replicants can reproduce, then what use are humans? The story then, is about a Blade Runner “K” (Ryan Gosling) who thinks he’s found the remains of previously pregnant replicant and is tasked by his boss Lt. Joshi (Robin Wright) to find out if this baby lived and destroy all evidence of its existence.

This is asked of him because there is a fear that there will be a war between humans and replicants. As he learns more about this person’s possible existence he learns more about his possible part of this evolution.

This film’s storyline isn’t easy to follow; however, one aspect is that K thinks he may have real memories, versus programed memories and he tries to validate this by official memory maker Dr. Ana Stelline (Carla Juri). He also speaks with the head of company that makes replicants Niander Wallace (Jered Leto).

Wallace is trying to program replicants to reproduce and in one scene, a fully grown and replicant reproduced woman drops onto a padded platform in the middle of an empty room. To make the point that this is a reproduced replicant, she arrives via a replica of an amniotic sac. Rather interesting and telling scene.

In search of his own beginnings, K then goes to San Diego which is a waste dumping ground, and speaks with Mister Cotton (Lennie James) who helps him put real context to a dream he has. Then he heads to a deserted and dust filled Las Vegas and finds Deckard (Harrison) hiding out with a rangy dog. At first Deckard doesn’t trust K that’s validated when all of a sudden others come to kill them both. Deckard is abducted by Luv (Syliva Hoeks) as a way to control the future.

However, K feels kindred to Decker and helps him escape. In the end, this film leaves the viewer with questions, as it's suppose to do, and makes one wonder if there will be one more film.

The music is a great part of this film. It enhances the sense, time, and etheric feeling of this film. The visual pacing is variable; however, the overall sense was, for me, too slow and pedantic. There were sections I wanted sped up or removed as the sense of the pace was already established and it was taking too long to develop and I was losing interest.

Gosling is strong is this type of role. His inner quiet and strength is what made him the right person for this part and he does it well. Juri is wonderful as the manufacturer of memories. Wright was good as K’s boss. Hoeks was strong as the steely person wanting to control what information gets out and what doesn’t. Leto is very good as the person creating the replicants. His otherworldly presence is felt. Ford was perfectly grumpy and irritated that his life was discovered and made more complicated by K. Ana de Armas as the hologram Joi was enticingly strong. James was excellent as the leader of the orphan kids in San Diego. The music by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch was a very strong part of this film. The mood, sets, and pacing by Denis Villeneuve was very strong under his direction. Hampton Fancher and Michael Green wrote the complex screen play that did a good job of moving the overall story forward.

Overall:  I struggled with the pacing, loved many of the sets, and thought the overall story was interesting enough to keep me engaged.

American Assassin

First Hit:  Mildly entertaining.

The story begins with Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien) and Katrina (Charlotte Vega) frolicking in the water in an undisclosed foreign location. They are in love and, with his phone, he’s videotaping their time together which concludes with him asking her for her hand in marriage. She accepts and he goes to the beach bar to get them drinks to celebrate when a group of terrorists start shooting everyone on the beach. Mitch gets hit with two slugs and Katrina is shot dead.

The film moves forward eighteen months and Mitch has recovered and he’s clearly aiming for revenge because he’s taking mixed martial arts lessons, shooting lessons and has mastered Arabic because he’s communicating with ISIS operatives. He’s trying to get close to the people who killed his fiancé so that he can kill them, specifically Adnan Al-Mansur (Shahid Ahmed). He plans to infiltrate their organization by pretending to be a new western recruit, get close and kill him and everyone in that cell.

His plan gets foiled because he’s being watched by the CIA who find him fascinating and possibly someone they want on their team. Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) recruits him to be taught by a black ops trainer Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton).

Typical issues arise as the young guy with guts and a clear personal mission tries to learn and be better than the grizzled veteran. Some of these scenes are rather good. As Hurley gets Rapp ready to become an operative, Kennedy learns that an old CIA operative, who goes by the name Ghost (Taylor Kitsch), has a stolen a small atomic device. This part of the story is not very well done, because the story wants the audience to believe that it is radical Iranian’s who are going to get the bomb, but there are too many hints to the contrary.

Because Ghost felt that Hurley left him to die, he wants to get back at Hurley by blowing up the sixth fleet.

Some of the bomb effects were interesting, as were some of the close fighting action that the agents get into. However, the film was predictable.

O’Brien was strong enough to make his character work. He used his intensity well. Lathan was very good as the CIA Deputy Director. Keaton was both strong and mediocre. I think the mediocre part was more of a scripting issue than Keaton’s fault. Keaton can be an excellent antagonist and more could have been done with this role. Shiva Negar as the in-country Iranian CIA agent Annika, was excellent. Kitsch was solid as the vengeful rogue agent. Stephen Schiff, Michael Finch, Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz all participated in creating the screenplay. This might have been the problem, too many cooks. Michael Cuesta directed this and the strengths were the fight scenes, which were well choreographed along with the interaction between Annika and Rapp were great.

Overall:  This could have been more exciting with more clarity in the story and it wasn’t.

Kidnap

First Hit:  This movie was well paced and kept me fully engaged.

I was somewhat skeptical walking into this film because I knew nothing about it. I quickly got up to speed because it doesn't waste much time jumping into the story. In just a few words it is about what a mother, Karla (Halle Berry), will do to locate and take back her kidnapped son Frankie (Sage Correa).

Karla is divorcing and her, soon to be, ex-husband sends her a legal notice stating he wants primary custody of their son mostly because he’s financially well-off and can give their boy the very best. Deeply hurt, Karla takes Frankie to a park to enjoy the day together. Getting a phone call, she steps away from her son to better hear the caller.

When she turns back towards her son, he is gone. Frantically searching the nearby area and parking lot, she sees Frankie being pulled and pushed into a car. She  screams and starts running towards the kidnapper's car. Along the way she drops her mobile phone which puts her at a disadvantage because she cannot call the police. Getting into her van, she begins to chase after the kidnapper's car.

Here is where the film gets intense. The car chase scene, which takes up about half the film, is intense, filled with suspense and makes you question, what would you do. There is no question about what Karla is going to do and as an audience member, I suggest that you sit back and enjoy the ride.

The film editing is wonderful. The choreography of the automobiles on the highways is engaging and clearly well thought-out.

Berry is really strong in this film. I fully bought her character and it is clear she's capable of carrying this entire film. She does this extremely well. Correa is good in his small role. Chris McGinn (as Margo) is sufficiently mean and perfect as the in-charge kidnapper. Lew Temple is good as Terry, the subservient kidnapper to Margo. Knate Lee wrote a strong action script. Luis Prieto did a wonderful job of making excitement last throughout this film.

Overall:  This film may not get the audience it deserves but the people who see it will be very entertained.

Atomic Blonde

First Hit:  Action filled with Charlize Theron showing strong fighting skills.

Although this film is done in a flashback mode, following the story is not hampered. Although, as the film unfolded and after the end, I wondered how it would have played out if it was done sequentially?

The film begin by showing agent Lorraine Broughton (Theron) being interviewed by her boss Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and CIA department head Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman) while Gray’s boss Chief ‘C’ (James Faulkner) watches this behind glass. Lorraine is badly bruised but being sure of her story, she begins telling it.

She starts the interview with talking how she was sent to Berlin to find and obtain “The List” which has been put on microfiche and stored inside a watch. The list has information about each agent in British Intelligence and possibly the CIA, where they are and their possible covers.

Immediately after getting to West Berlin she gets attacked by Russians who what to kill her because they are the ones who are trying to obtain "the list" at all costs. Her contact and co-agent is David Percival (James McAvoy), however, the audience sees that Percival is sabotaging Lorraine’s attempt to obtain the watch (list). The one who put this list together and stored it in a watch has a code name and it’s Spyglass (Eddie Marsan). He’s doing this because he wants to trade giving up the list for freedom to West Berlin.

As the story unfolds and until the end, the audience thinks David is on multiple sides but so is Lorraine, it is just that the audience doesn't know how many she’s on.

Lorraine gets involved in so much fighting, shooting and stabbing that I can only imagine that she was really sore after doing this film.

One of the things I loved about this film was the color mood used to present this film. Everything was muted down from a color perspective. This in honor of being in both West and East Berlin at the time the wall comes down between the two parts of the city.

Theron was amazing in how she used her body and gave the audience a perception that she fights for a living. I loved her character and at times I laughed out loud in the audacity of some of the scenes. McAvoy was strong and his smart-alecky version of the character worked for me. Jones was perfect as Lorraine’s boss. Marsan was very good as the meek Spyglass. Goodman was very good as the CIA connection. Kurt Johnstad wrote an wild and fun screenplay. David Leitch had a clear vision in mind and for me it clearly worked well.

Overall:  It was a fun film and Theron was a joy to watch.