The Call of the Wild review

THE CALL OF THE WILD:

DISTRACTING CGI ANIMALS ASIDE, THIS CANINE ADVENTURE ISN’T HALF BAD!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

20^TH CENTURY STUDIOS

Harrison Ford and his new dog Buck in The Call of the Wild

            A dog embarks on the adventure of a lifetime in The Call of the Wild, based on the book of the same name by Jack London and the first film released under 20^th Century Studios after the acquisition of Fox by Disney as well as the first live-action movie directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods). Similar to A Star is Born and Little Women, the book has been adapted numerous times with the most well-known version being the 1935 film starring Clark Gable and Loretta Young which was the last film to be released by Twentieth Century Pictures before merging with Fox, and now history is repeating itself again with this version. 

            I’ll be honest, I’m not familiar with any of the other film adaptations of The Call of the Wild nor have I read the book, but I’ll always remember seeing the trailer for this movie and being completely unimpressed by it, even with the star power of Harrison Ford (Star Wars franchise, Indiana Jones franchise, Air Force One). It looked like your average man befriends dog and they go on an adventure type of movie, nothing really bad except for the CGI dogs and animals which look so artificial and lifeless that it took me out of the experience, Sonic the Hedgehog (Both designs) looked more realistic than this digital Scooby-Doo reject. 

            Nevertheless, I tried to keep an open mind on this movie (However, the more times I saw the trailer in theaters the harder it was to be open to it) until it was released which leads us to where we are now. So, is it possible to look past the unconvincing computer-animated dogs and get an engaging, heartfelt canine adventure movie or are the animated dogs too glaring to get any sense of enjoyment out of it? Sure. 

            While the CG animals are distracting and on par with the mountain lion from A Dog's Way Home, The Call of the Wild is a perfectly decent adventure film with some beautiful visuals (Animal animations aside), thrilling action sequences, and a sweet story about the friendship between a man and his dog. Although, I wouldn’t personally call it a movie to take your little ones to, this movie can get pretty intense at times and the marketing doesn’t really show it, it’s rated PG for a reason, parents! 

            The film is set during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush and follows a dog named Buck (motion-capture by Terry Notary-Avatar, Planet of the Apes (2011 trilogy), Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame), a large but playful St. Bernard/Scotch Collie hybrid that is suddenly kidnapped from his home at Santa Clara, California and shipped all the way to the Alaskan Yukon. Buck becomes the newest rookie on a mail delivery dog sled team and the new leader soon after, and also befriends a man named John Thornton (Ford) who accompanies Buck on the adventure of a lifetime as he finds his true place in the world and most important of all, becomes his own master. 

            The film also stars Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, Beauty and the Beast (2017), Legion (FX series)) as Hal, Omar Sy (The Intouchables, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Jurassic World) as Perrault, Karen Gillan (Doctor Who, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jumanji 2 and 3) as Mercedes, Bradley Whitford (Billy Madison, Get Out, Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)) as Judge Miller, Colin Woodell (Unsane, The Purge (TV series), Unfriended: Dark Web) as Charles, Cara Gee (Empire of Dirt, The Expanse, The Carmilla Movie) as Françoise, and Scott MacDonald (Star Trek: Enterprise, Jack Frost (1997 horror film), Dexter) as Dawson. 

            Overall, The Call of the Wild probably won’t sit well with the family-friendly audience, but it’s enjoyable enough for older kids and adults. It’s nothing groundbreaking or something that will change your perspective on animal-centered movies, it’s just a simple, heartwarming adventure with both a sense of wonder and some legitimate drama (Though the CG dog can get in the way of the dramatic moments at times). 

            There is something I need to address about this movie and its marketing, if you’ve seen the trailers and think it looks like a cutesy light-hearted adventure with dogs you got another thing coming. This movie gets dark and has a lot of subject matter and scenes that are pretty intense and not suitable for young children such as animal cruelty, you don’t see it happen nor is there any blood but there is a scene where a man hits the dog with a club and you see their shadows and a pretty intense fight between Buck and another dog. 

            As mentioned before the CG animated dogs do not mesh well with the live-action environments and human characters and the animators have clearly given the dogs too much emotion in the faces (Something The Lion King 2019 definitely needed more of), several times during this movie I thought to myself “I am not watching dogs, I am watching a cartoon”. With that said, there are moments where the CGI works particularly the scenes that only feature the dogs and especially the fight between Buck and Spitz at night in the snow with the moon out, I’m not sure if it was because it took place in the dark or that there were no humans around, but that was one of the moments where it started to look convincing, but this movie desperately needed a real dog onset with CGI only being used sparingly and whenever it’s necessary because for the most part the CG dogs are distracting and took me out of the film. 

            Harrison Ford on the other hand I have nothing but praise for his performance as John and it must have been strange to be acting alongside a guy wearing a green motion-capture suit, but his line delivery and mannerisms are very convincing and felt like he was interacting with a dog despite being CGI. It shows that a lot of progression has occurred since the days of Han Solo talking to a CGI Jabba the Hutt in the Star Wars: Special Edition from 1997. 

            The Call of the Wild may not be perfect, but it’s a thrilling canine adventure that’s worth checking out even if the dogs look fake. Much like Disney’s 1991 film adaptation of White Fang, another movie based on a Jack London story, The Call of the Wild shows that it is possible to retain the grittiness and heavy subject matter of its source material while also bringing a sense of wonder and excitement to the story, if this sounds like your type of movie then you’ll probably like it, but if you’re looking for a fun family outing, might I suggest taking the kids to Sonic instead? 

Sonic the Hedgehog review DX: Director's Cut

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: 

VIDEO GAME BASED MOVIE IS FORMULAIC BUT OFFERS PLENTY OF FAST-PACED FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY AS WELL AS LONGTIME FANS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND SEGA

The world’s fastest hedgehog hits the big screen in Sonic the Hedgehog

            The blue blur (or Blue Devil as the movie calls him) makes his big screen debut in Sonic the Hedgehog, based on the beloved Sega video game franchise of the same name. Believe it or not out of all the video game franchises, my favorite is and always will be Sonic the Hedgehog and have been a proud supporter of the hedgehog since childhood. 

            Granted, it wasn’t until after Sega became a third-party developer for consoles like PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo when I became a fan of the blue hedgehog, but ever since I got my hands on the Nintendo GameCube port of Sonic Adventure 2 as a kid, my Sonic fandom was pretty much instant. I’ve played many of the video games both old and new, watched all the cartoons, read the comic books published by Archie Comics at the time, and I owned several action figures, plushies, and other Sonic merchandise throughout my childhood…in fact I still have most of those even to this day. 

            I’ve been clamoring for a Sonic the Hedgehog theatrical movie for years despite video game film adaptations usually being critical and/or box-office poison. But given the popularity of Sonic especially during the 90s when he was rivaling Nintendo’s Mario franchise who already had a theatrical film released in 1993, I’d assume one would have been made back then or at the very least in the early-late 2000s when Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, and Sonic Heroes as well as the hit Saturday morning anime series, Sonic X were released, I was so eager for a Sonic movie that a couple of friends and I got together and made movies of our own when we were kids (They sucked BTW!). 

            After years of waiting and Sonic making a few big screen appearances prior in Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph movies and Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, the beloved hedgehog finally gets a movie of his own which leads us to today. The film is directed by newcomer Jeff Fowler in his directorial debut, produced by Neal H. Moritz (Fast & Furious franchise, XXX, 21/22 Jump Street), and executive produced by Tim Miller (Deadpool, Terminator: Dark Fate) and is a live-action/animated hybrid (Yep, just like Alvin and the Chipmunks and The Smurfs), which had me very worried when it was announced back in 2014 and was even more worried and disgusted when the first trailer came out last year which had an absolutely atrocious design for Sonic, fortunately they fixed it.  

            So, how does Sonic’s first movie hold up? Honestly, while I can’t call it the Sonic movie I wanted as a child, I had a fun time with it. It isn’t a perfect representation of its source material and the plot is pretty generic, but the charm of the film’s leads, humor, and subtle references to the games that inspired it are enough for me to overlook that flaw. 

            The film follows Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz-Parks and Recreation, The Other Guys, The Walk), a blue anthropomorphic talking hedgehog from another dimension with extraordinary speed who travels to Earth to escape from those who want to capture him and harness his power. However, when he accidentally causes a power outage while hiding out in the town of Green Hills (Get it?), Sonic is targeted by the government and the tyrannical mad scientist, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey-Ace Ventura 1 and 2, The Mask, The Truman Show) who plots to use Sonic’s power for world domination. 

            This forces Sonic to team up with Green Hills sheriff, Tom Wachowski (James Marsden-X-Men franchise, Enchanted, Westworld) who agrees to help Sonic on his adventure to find his missing bag of magical rings that have the power to get him home. Of course, while getting into all sorts of trouble along the way. 

            The film also stars Tika Sumpter (Ride Along 1 and 2, Get On Up, Southside with You) as Tom’s wife Maddie, Adam Pally (Happy Endings, The Mindy Project, Iron Man 3) as Wade Whipple, and Neal McDonough (Star Trek: First Contact, Band of Brothers, Justified) as Major Bennington. 

            Overall, Sonic the Hedgehog probably isn’t the movie longtime fans wanted, but it still manages to be an entertaining and fun adaptation in its own right. It’s easily one of the best films based on a video game alongside Pokémon: Detective Pikachu and The Angry Birds Movie 2 and shows that we’ve come a long way since the dark days of Uwe Boll’s directing career. 

            As mentioned before, the plot is nothing special and rehashed from other kids’ movies however what sets this apart from things like The Smurfs or Masters of the Universe is that Sonic and Tom do have a strong chemistry together. It’s amusing to see them interact with each other on their road trip, cracking jokes, getting into trouble, and over the course of the film they learn more about one another thus making you care more for them over ANY Smurf or Chipmunk. 

            While there are a few jokes that don’t quite stick the landing, the humor for the most part not only made me laugh but there were moments in this movie where I laughed hard. Whether the film was poking fun at the entire Sonicfranchise, a particular running sequence that’s obviously a reference to the Quicksilver scenes from the X-Men movies, or Sonic breaking the fourth wall similar to Deadpool, I was laughing while also admiring how clever some of these jokes are, and let’s not forget Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, but we’ll get to him momentarily. 

            The redesigned Sonic is a lot better than what we could have gotten, he doesn’t have those ugly small eyes, questionable muscular arms and legs, or the terrifying human teeth anymore. Now, his appearance is more faithful to the source material recreating the hedgehog’s cartoony nature but is different enough to stand out from the rest of the character’s previous designs and be its own unique creation, this is a really good design for Sonic and had the filmmakers went with their original version, this movie would have crashed and burned even harder than Sonic ’06. 

            Besides Sonic being more appealing to look at now, he’s also just as entertaining to listen to, Ben Schwartz while he’s far from being a replacement for Roger Craig Smith, Ryan Drummond, Jason Griffith, or even Jaleel White, does a solid job providing Sonic’s voice and captures the cocky, arrogant, but good-natured attitude Sonic is known for having. He actually almost sounds like Ryan Drummond’s Sonic voice without sounding like a cheap impersonation. 

            Moving on to Sonic’s new friend that doesn’t have two tails, James Marsden as Tom, his performance is decent even though he doesn’t quite make as big an impression as Ben Schwartz’ Sonic and especially Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik. With that said, he gets some funny lines once in a while and as mentioned before has good chemistry with Sonic, so yeah, believe it or not James Marsden was partnered up with another CG animated character and this time came out with his dignity unlike his performance in Hop. 

            Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik owns every scene that he’s in, he’s no Mike Pollock and is a radically different Robotnik than from the games, but Carrey’s energetic and wildly animated personality shines through and gives a million percent whenever the crazy evil genius is on-screen. He’s certainly a lot better than Dennis Hopper as Koopa from the Super Mario Bros. movie. 

            Hopefully, this movie will be a hit during its theatrical run because I’d love to see a sequel especially if it introduced other Sonic characters like Tails, Knuckles, or even Shadow. Don’t make this like the recent Power Rangers movie, I need my big screen version of those characters! 

            Whether a fan, newcomer, or just looking for something fun to take the kids to, Sonic the Hedgehog should make everyone happy. It’s not perfect but it has enough action, wit, and charm to make it worth checking out. You’ll be “Up, Over, and Gone” before you know it.

Sonic the Hedgehog review

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: 

VIDEO GAME BASED MOVIE IS FORMULAIC BUT OFFERS PLENTY OF FAST-PACED FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY AS WELL AS LONGTIME FANS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND SEGA

The world’s fastest hedgehog hits the big screen in Sonic the Hedgehog

            The blue blur (or Blue Devil as the movie calls him) makes his big screen debut in Sonic the Hedgehog, based on the beloved Sega video game franchise of the same name. Believe it or not out of all the video game franchises, my favorite is and always will be Sonic the Hedgehog and have been a proud supporter of the hedgehog since childhood. 

            After years of waiting and Sonic making a few big screen appearances prior in Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph movies and Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, the beloved hedgehog finally gets a movie of his own which leads us to today. The film is directed by newcomer Jeff Fowler in his directorial debut, produced by Neal H. Moritz (Fast & Furious franchise, XXX, 21/22 Jump Street), and executive produced by Tim Miller (Deadpool, Terminator: Dark Fate) and is a live-action/animated hybrid (Yep, just like Alvin and the Chipmunks and The Smurfs), which had me very worried when it was announced back in 2014 and was even more worried and disgusted when the first trailer came out last year which had an absolutely atrocious design for Sonic, fortunately they fixed it.

            So, how does Sonic’s first movie hold up? Honestly, while I can’t call it the Sonic movie I wanted as a child, I had a fun time with it. It isn’t a perfect representation of its source material and the plot is pretty generic, but the charm of the film’s leads, humor, and subtle references to the games that inspired it are enough for me to overlook that flaw. 

            The film follows Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz-Parks and Recreation, The Other Guys, The Walk), a blue anthropomorphic talking hedgehog from another dimension with extraordinary speed who travels to Earth to escape from those who want to capture him and harness his power. However, when he accidentally causes a power outage while hiding out in the town of Green Hills (Get it?), Sonic is targeted by the government and the tyrannical mad scientist, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey-Ace Ventura 1 and 2, The Mask, The Truman Show) who plots to use Sonic’s power for world domination. 

            This forces Sonic to team up with Green Hills sheriff, Tom Wachowski (James Marsden-X-Men franchise, Enchanted, Westworld) who agrees to help Sonic on his adventure to find his missing bag of magical rings that have the power to get him home. Of course, while getting into all sorts of trouble along the way. 

            The film also stars Tika Sumpter (Ride Along 1 and 2, Get On Up, Southside with You) as Tom’s wife Maddie, Adam Pally (Happy Endings, The Mindy Project, Iron Man 3) as Wade Whipple, and Neal McDonough (Star Trek: First Contact, Band of Brothers, Justified) as Major Bennington. 

            Overall, Sonic the Hedgehog probably isn’t the movie longtime fans wanted, but it still manages to be an entertaining and fun adaptation in its own right. It’s easily one of the best films based on a video game alongside Pokémon: Detective Pikachu and The Angry Birds Movie 2 and shows that we’ve come a long way since the dark days of Uwe Boll’s directing career. 

            As mentioned before, the plot is nothing special and rehashed from other kids’ movies however what sets this apart from things like The Smurfs or Masters of the Universe is that Sonic and Tom do have a strong chemistry together. It’s amusing to see them interact with each other on their road trip, cracking jokes, getting into trouble, and over the course of the film they learn more about one another thus making you care more for them over ANY Smurf or Chipmunk. 

            While there are a few jokes that don’t quite stick the landing, the humor for the most part not only made me laugh but there were moments in this movie where I laughed hard. Whether the film was poking fun at the entire Sonicfranchise, a particular running sequence that’s obviously a reference to the Quicksilver scenes from the X-Men movies, or Sonic breaking the fourth wall similar to Deadpool, I was laughing while also admiring how clever some of these jokes are, and let’s not forget Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, but we’ll get to him momentarily. 

            The redesigned Sonic is a lot better than what we could have gotten, he doesn’t have those ugly small eyes, questionable muscular arms and legs, or the terrifying human teeth anymore. Now, his appearance is more faithful to the source material recreating the hedgehog’s cartoony nature but is different enough to stand out from the rest of the character’s previous designs and be its own unique creation, this is a really good design for Sonic and had the filmmakers went with their original version, this movie would have crashed and burned even harder than Sonic ’06. 

            Besides Sonic being more appealing to look at now, he’s also just as entertaining to listen to, Ben Schwartz while he’s far from being a replacement for Roger Craig Smith, Ryan Drummond, Jason Griffith, or even Jaleel White, does a solid job providing Sonic’s voice and captures the cocky, arrogant, but good-natured attitude Sonic is known for having. He actually almost sounds like Ryan Drummond’s Sonic voice without sounding like a cheap impersonation. 

            Moving on to Sonic’s new friend that doesn’t have two tails, James Marsden as Tom, his performance is decent even though he doesn’t quite make as big an impression as Ben Schwartz’ Sonic and especially Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik. With that said, he gets some funny lines once in a while and as mentioned before has good chemistry with Sonic, so yeah, believe it or not James Marsden was partnered up with another CG animated character and this time came out with his dignity unlike his performance in Hop. 

            Jim Carrey owns every scene that he’s in, he’s no Mike Pollock and is a radically different Robotnik than from the games, but Carrey’s energetic and wildly animated personality shines through and gives a million percent whenever the crazy evil genius is on-screen. He’s certainly a lot better than Dennis Hopper as Koopa from the Super Mario Bros.movie. 

            Hopefully, this movie will be a hit during its theatrical run because I’d love to see a sequel especially if it introduced other Sonic characters like Tails, Knuckles, or even Shadow. Don’t make this like the recent Power Rangers movie, I need my big screen version of those characters! 

            Whether a fan, newcomer, or just looking for something fun to take the kids to, Sonic the Hedgehog should make everyone happy. It’s not perfect but it has enough action, wit, and charm to make it worth checking out. You’ll be “Up, Over, and Gone” before you know it.

Complete Review with Sonic History 

Birds of Prey review

BIRDS OF PREY: 

LATEST DC FILM IS AN OVER-THE-TOP FUN RIDE WITH MARGOT ROBBIE BEHIND THE WHEEL! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Margot Robbie is back as Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey

            A young girl is targeted by Gotham’s most nefarious crime lord and now an unlikely group of women are forced to work together to protect her in Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), the latest film in the DC Extended Universe and the first in the series to earn an R rating (Sorry folks, but Joker is not part of the DCEU as great as that movie was). The film is directed by Cathy Yan (Dead Pigs) and stars Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street, I, Tonya, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) as the Joker’s ex-girlfriend and partner-in-crime, Harley Quinn, whom she had previously portrayed in 2016’s Suicide Squad. 

            Since this film serves as a slight follow-up to Suicide Squad even though there’s a new movie in development directed by Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn, I should give my brief thoughts on Suicide Squad. Objectively no, it isn’t a good movie and has a lot of glaring inconsistencies and narrative issues not to mention the greatest failed Joker performance of all time by Jared Leto, but I did enjoy things about it like the style, most of the actors especially Margot Robbie and Will Smith, and some of the humor, it’s a mess but there are certain elements in there to admire. 

            Now, Margot Robbie gets another chance to shine as Harley Quinn with Birds of Prey, her second DCEUappearance and unlike her first DC outing, comes with a decent movie. It’s nothing spectacular or game-changing in the comic book movie genre, but it’s cheesy, over-the-top dumb fun with a colorful cast of characters, some exciting action sequences, and plenty of laughs, and sometimes that’s all you need.  

             The film follows Harley Quinn (Robbie), who had recently broken up with the Joker, trying to get back on her feet by remodeling her life, you know, like adopting a pet hyena and naming it after a certain hunky “Wayne” guy, blowing up the chemical plant that created her, and trying to start her own business. Things change when a young orphaned girl named Cassandra “Cass” Cain (Ella Jay Basco-Grey’s Anatomy, Veep, Teachers) is targeted by a ruthless crime lord known as Roman Sionis/Black Mask (Ewan McGregor-Star Wars prequel trilogy, Big Fish, Doctor Sleep) for pickpocketing one of his henchmen and stealing an extremely valuable diamond. 

            With a large bounty on Cass’ head and several armed goons out to get her, Harley is forced to team up with not just Cass but also a burlesque singer with a “Killer” voice, Dinah Lance/Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell-The Great Debaters, Friday Night Lights (TV series), True Blood), a mysterious vigilante out to avenge her murdered family by killing mobsters with a crossbow known as Helena Bertinelli/The Huntress “The Crossbow Killer” (Mary Elizabeth Winstead-Scott Pilgrim VS The World, The Spectacular Now, 10 Cloverfield Lane), and a Gotham City Police Detective who is building a case against Sionis (Oh, and loves 80s cops movies that’s important!), Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez-In Living Color, Fearless, The Dead Don’t Die) to bring Gotham’s crime underworld down. 

            The film also stars Chris Messina (Damages, The Mindy Project, Six Feet Under) as Victor Zsasz and Ali Wong (American Housewife, Always Be My Maybe, Onward) as Ellen Yee. 

            Overall, Birds of Prey, while not perfect is a goofy, over-the-top, fun time with Margot Robbie’s devilishly delightful performance as Harley Quinn as your guide. Unlike Suicide Squad where it felt like the filmmakers didn’t really know what kind of movie they wanted to make and being stuck in the PG-13 realms, Birds of Prey feels a lot more competent and has the freedom to not only exceed conventional comic book movie fare with the R rating but also explores things about the main characters that you’d probably wouldn’t expect it to, of course all while fitting snuggly into the DCEU. 

            Yes, even with the R rating and the more violent action sequences and tone best described as Snatch mixed with Deadpool, I still believed this movie took place in the same universe as the other DC films. It’s kind of like how Loganfits in the X-Men franchise despite having a completely different tone from its predecessors. 

            However, as fun as this movie is, there is a huge problem with Birds of Prey, and it’s the title. Despite the movie being called Birds of Prey, it really doesn’t have much to do with the Birds of Prey team, almost like secondary characters to Harley Quinn. 

            Yes, the film has a good lineup of actors portraying the Birds of Prey and each member does have their moments to shine and kick ass, but throughout most of the movie they’re off pursuing their own personal agendas that all coincidentally come together because of the girl with the diamond, Hell, they don’t even join forces and adopt the Birds of Prey name until the final battle with Black Mask. 

            The title is pretty misleading, Birds of Prey ironically doesn’t have much Birds of Prey and the focus of the story is mostly on Harley Quinn, granted this is coming from someone who is not familiar with the Birds of Preycomics. Honestly, a more accurate title for this movie would have been Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey, I’d still go see it if it was called that. 

            Even though Harley Quinn steals the spotlight, Margot Robbie’s performance is still great and was one of the redeeming qualities of Suicide Squad. She’s just as crazy and funny as she was before, but you see how she evolved as a character in this film acting as a parental figure for the orphaned girl, obviously the last person you would want to be a mother but over the course of the film and you see the two of them bond, watch cartoons while eating cereal, robbing a grocery store, and getting to know one other it is bizarrely touching and it shows that Harley cares for her and that she learns that just because she’s a villain that doesn’t mean she has to always be a terrible person, you kind of want her to cross a new path and put her life of crime behind her, but at the same time Harley Quinn’s crime sprees are just too much fun. 

             Ewan McGregor as Black Mask on the other hand can be best described as a live-action cartoon and is having a ball. You don’t usually see McGregor in a villain role, but he is an absolute joy to watch, he finds a perfect balance between funny, intimidating, and over-the-top silly and it looks like he’s enjoying chewing on the hammy dialogue written for him. 

            Birds of Prey doesn’t really do anything groundbreaking like other R-rated comic book movies in recent years, but as dumb popcorn entertainment with a bite goes, it’s a fun ride with a lot of over-the-top action and plenty of laughs. Harley F*cking Quinn for the win! 

The Rhythm Section review

THE RHYTHM SECTION: 

EVEN WITH STAR POWER LIKE BLAKE LIVELY AND JUDE LAW, THIS ACTION-THRILLER IS ONE UNDERWHELMING “RHYTHM”! 

By Nico Beland 

Movie Review: ** out of 4 

PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND GLOBAL ROAD ENTERTAINMENT

Blake Lively in The Rhythm Section

            A woman seeks to uncover the truth behind a mysterious plane crash that killed her family in The Rhythm Section, the new film directed by Reed Morano (Halt and Catch Fire, Billions, The Handmaid’s Tale) and based on the novel of the same name by Mark Burnell, who also wrote the film’s screenplay. Produced by Barbara Broccoli and her production company, Eon Productions, the same studio behind the James Bond film series, granted I’m not all that familiar with Eon’s non-007 movies nor have I read the book that The Rhythm Section is based on, so I really didn’t know what to expect with this film. 

            Despite knowing almost nothing about the story aside from what was shown in the trailer, I was interested in seeing the movie. It looked like your basic action-thriller, nothing fancy but still it seemed fun and badass, not to mention the casting of Blake Lively (Gossip Girl, The Shallows, A Simple Favor) whose career is pretty much on fire lately, this couldn’t possibly fail…right? 

            Okay, it doesn’t exactly fail as a complete trainwreck, but The Rhythm Section is so safe and indifferent from other, better films in its genre that it does fail to leave much of an impression. It’s just a generic run-of-the-mill revenge thriller that doesn’t really do anything interesting with its story or characters, almost like a somehow lazier and blander version of Red Sparrow, but at least there were a few interesting ideas explored in that film. 

            The film follows Stephanie Patrick (Lively), a woman trying to uncover the truth behind a plane crash that killed her family three years ago. However, when she discovers that the crash was not accidental, she embarks on a mission to track down the one’s responsible by assuming the identity of an assassin and being trained by an expert in assassination known as Iain Boyd (Jude Law-The Talented Mr. Ripley, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Captain Marvel). 

            The film also stars Sterling K. Brown (The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, Black Panther, Frozen II) as Marc Serra, Max Casella (The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Jak and Daxter (video game series)) as Leon Giler, Daniel Mays (Vera Drake, The Adventures of Tintin, 1917) as Dean West, Geoff Bell (Green Street, The Business, Kingsman: The Golden Circle) as Green, Richard Brake (Batman Begins, Game of Thrones, Mandy) as Lehmans, Raza Jaffrey (Spooks, Homeland, Code Black) as Keith Proctor, and Tawfeek Barhom (A Borrowed Identity, The Idol, Wounded Land) as Reza. 

            Overall, The Rhythm Section proves that Blake Lively and Jude Law work well together, unfortunately without an interesting story or compelling and well-written characters, their talents are wasted as they get lost in this slog of an “action-thriller”, I put that in quotes because it doesn’t really succeed at either. There aren’t enough thrilling action sequences with only a few that stand out nor is there anything unique or fascinating about the story to be engrossed in. 

            It’s all a bunch of formulaic and predictable action/revenge thriller tropes we’ve seen a million times before on top of really awkward editing and flat character development. Literally, there are no character motivations or reasons behind the choices made in this film as if they exist just to get the plot going and nothing more. 

The film never bothers to show what kind of person Stephanie was before the plane crash, her relationships with her family, what she did for work, etc. instead the movie begins with the plane crash and she’s already flashing back to memories with her family. And yeah, it sucks that her family died, but if that’s all she’s got then there isn’t much of a reason to care about her. 

Had the movie given her an interesting personality and explored her life prior to the plane crash, she would have been a far better character than what we ended up with. Blake Lively is clearly trying her hardest to be convincing in the role, but I’m sorry Stephanie Patrick is an action heroine I will forget about in a couple of days. 

Jude Law’s character is slightly better developed, and he does have some genuine badass and funny moments (Intentional or unintentional I’m not sure yet) as the mysterious mentor for Lively’s Stephanie with a shady past and a huge fixation on physical violence, imagine if Rocky’s coach could kick your ass harder than Balboa himself, that’s Jude Law in this movie in a nutshell. However, his segways into violent training with Stephanie can be so sudden and ridiculous, it’s borderline laughable and even near the end he tries to jump Stephanie like a mugger or one of the bad guys as a joke and it’s hard to tell whether or not they become friends at the end or if he’s eventually going to kick Stephanie’s teeth in for breaking into his house in the first place, but I digress. 

The action sequences are too few and far between but one that sticks out is a car chase all done in one shot and while it is exhilarating, I found it a little too shaky and difficult to make most of the sequence out. Not to mention, I had just seen the one camera shot shtick done a million times better in 1917 a few weeks ago. 

I can’t even be angry at The Rhythm Section it left so little an impression, it’s just a boring, safe action/revenge drama that has some good performances by Blake Lively and Jude Law, but they aren’t enough to save it from being a slog to get through. This movie is under two hours, but it felt like it was at least two-and-a-half hours of Blake Lively walking from destination to destination with boring exposition and the occasional action sequence to wake us the f*ck up. 

I’m not sure how faithful this movie is to the source material but if it is and you’re a fan of the book then by all means go watch the movie, perhaps you’ll have a better time with it than I have. However, as a standalone action film for people who aren’t familiar with the book then this dull “Rhythm” will probably put you to sleep, sorry Eon, better luck next time with Bond’s No Time to Die in a couple of months.