Movies

The Belko Experiment

The trailer for the Belko Experiment pretty much lays out the plot. Office workers get locked in their building and have to jump through murdery hoops to “win”. A lot like Battle Royale except it does not start out as a free-for-all. The man behind the intercom wants them to start out slow and kill a couple of people.

We are briefly introduced to a lot of the 80 office workers. You can kind of guess who are important to the story based on the time spent each character’s introduction. It is one poor woman’s first day of work, too.

I enjoyed this violent romp through cubicles.

Starring: John Gallagher Jr., Tony Goldwyn, Adria Arjona, John C. McGinley, Melonie Diaz, Owain Yeoman, Sean Gunn, Brent Sexton, Josh Brener, David Dastmalchian, David Del Rio, Gregg Henry, Michael Rooker, Rusty Schwimmer, Gail Bean, James Earl, Abraham Benrubi

Vía Letterboxd – AngryTownsman

Life

Life is an entertaining scifi thriller set in the very near future. We have an international crew aboard the ISS awaiting an unmanned capsule with samples from Mars. The movie sets its feet firmly in reality with interviews to the crew from reporters on earth to a naming ceremony for the lifeform discovered. We get to see the early days of the examination of the lifeform before the inevitable incident that lets it loose.

Life feels very much like the original Alien in places. Minus the murdery android.

I did kind of see the ending coming. But it was still an interesting ride with a small cast in a central location.

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Olga Dihovichnaya, Ariyon Bakare

Vía Letterboxd – AngryTownsman

Logan

I caught Logan and it gave a nice cap to the Fox X-Men series and High Jackman’s run as Wolverine.

Logan definitely earns its R rating. Plenty of violence and foul language (some from an unexpected source) with brief nudity. I would not recommend bringing young children to see this movie.

We are introduced to a world 29 years removed from the events of the first X-Men movie. A world seemingly without mutants and a Wolverine showing the effects of aging and a slowed down healing factor. We get introduced to Laura (X-23) at the same time Logan does.

At first Laura seems like a normal if mute little girl. Until she is not. She turns into a little Tasmanian Devil , Whirling Dervish of destruction. Easily more violent and vicious than we have seen Logan before. Then, we get the road trip from Hell with Logan, Laura and Professor X.

This movie leaves the door open for more future films in this series, but also leaves it at a good finishing point. Barring the Deadpool franchise, I would love to see a reboot of the X-Men movies with different people at the helm.

FYI, There are no mid-credit or post-credit scenes.

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, Richard E. Grant, Jason Genao

Vía Letterboxd – AngryTownsman

John Wick: Chapter Two

John Wick 2 opens with John putting a pin on the Russian mob vendetta he began in the first movie.

This movie gets going when an old acquaintance calls in a favor John owes him. Things do not go quite as smooth as everyone hoped on their end. This leaves John with a larger vendetta than the first one.

The movie definitely sets up the final chapter in this trilogy.

I did enjoy this movie a good bit. I still think the first John Wick movie is better. But it had the good luck to introduce this world to me.

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane, Ruby Rose, Common, Claudia Gerini, Laurence Fishburne

Vía Letterboxd – AngryTownsman

Passengers

Passengers hit a lot of right notes for me, but it was more straight forward than I thought. I think maybe I have become a bit jaded, but I was constantly on the lookout for the “twist”. Was this really happening to our characters? Was this perhaps an elaborate simulation? Aliens? A bad trip at Re-Call? I am glad it did not meet my expectations.

Is this the Martian? Nope. But it is at parts a relationship movie and a survival movie. In Space.

Chris Pratt plays Jim, a mechanic, who is going to colonize Homestead 2. The trip from Earth will take 120 years so the crew and passengers go into hibernation or cold sleep for the journey. But Jim’s pod opens 90 years early. As Jim explores the ship, we are introduced to the environment and the technology of this universe. After a year, Jennifer Lawrence’s character Aurora, an author, wakes up. They both frequent a bar run by an android played by Michael Sheen. This android is the only other humanoid they come into contact with.

Throughout the time we see Jim and then Aurora awaken, we see small glitches on the ship. Eventually those glitches get bigger and bigger. They culminate in a failure that threatens the entire ship and everyone sleeping and awake in it.

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Andy Garcia, Vince Foster, Julee Cerda, Aurora Perrineau

Vía Letterboxd – AngryTownsman