I've watched so many different kinds of movies that last few weeks, from Oscar-bait to functionally children's and over-the-hill Adam Sandler, so why talk about this and none of those?
My first thought about this movie was that I appreciated how it kept things moving. Everything you've seen is certainly some trope or scene from literally dozens of movies, but it doesn't linger as though it's trying to disingenuously emulate more than be its own story. The bad guys are bad enough without feeling caricatured. The heroes get away with an "appropriate" amount of murder with their plot armor. It just glides along and you're not meant to feel that deeply about any character in particular.
Sometimes you want to get angry at "simple" movies like this. They seem somehow bored and joyously exploitative of the genre simultaneously. You're not really asking yourself to forgive the liberties taken. It feels like a genuine fan of the genre with the experience to do it well enough did so. It asks nothing of you, nothing new, nor to be apologized for. You're not thrown by particularly awkward dialogue or wincing at kitschy learning-how-to-act-acting.
Am I ever going to watch it again? Of course not. Did I watch it at 2x speed? Yes, also of course. Does it leave me feeling empty, angry, or wanting "more?" No. And in a media landscape littered with endless content, maybe it's incredibly sad, but that registers as a win. On a scale of ridiculous that goes from 1 to Fast and Furious this is a 3 or 4 anchored by a stable well-paced plot and believable characters. It's the same director as Assault on Precinct 13 which I watched when it came out in 2005. I recall it being equally "in its lane" and perfectly forgettable too.
Review by dogg724VIP 3BlockedParent2023-12-28T17:50:30Z
I've watched so many different kinds of movies that last few weeks, from Oscar-bait to functionally children's and over-the-hill Adam Sandler, so why talk about this and none of those?
My first thought about this movie was that I appreciated how it kept things moving. Everything you've seen is certainly some trope or scene from literally dozens of movies, but it doesn't linger as though it's trying to disingenuously emulate more than be its own story. The bad guys are bad enough without feeling caricatured. The heroes get away with an "appropriate" amount of murder with their plot armor. It just glides along and you're not meant to feel that deeply about any character in particular.
Sometimes you want to get angry at "simple" movies like this. They seem somehow bored and joyously exploitative of the genre simultaneously. You're not really asking yourself to forgive the liberties taken. It feels like a genuine fan of the genre with the experience to do it well enough did so. It asks nothing of you, nothing new, nor to be apologized for. You're not thrown by particularly awkward dialogue or wincing at kitschy learning-how-to-act-acting.
Am I ever going to watch it again? Of course not. Did I watch it at 2x speed? Yes, also of course. Does it leave me feeling empty, angry, or wanting "more?" No. And in a media landscape littered with endless content, maybe it's incredibly sad, but that registers as a win. On a scale of ridiculous that goes from 1 to Fast and Furious this is a 3 or 4 anchored by a stable well-paced plot and believable characters. It's the same director as Assault on Precinct 13 which I watched when it came out in 2005. I recall it being equally "in its lane" and perfectly forgettable too.