Daily Archives: May 21, 2021

May 21 2021

Drunk Bus (2020) Movie Review

Drunk Bus – Life Lesson 101

 

Director: John Carlucci, Brandon LaGanke

Writer: Chris Molinaro (Screenplay)

Starring: Charlie Tahan, Pineapple Tangaroa, Kara Hayward, Zach Cherry, Dave Hill, Sarah Mezzanotte

Plot: A directionless, young campus bus driver and a punk rock, Samoan security guard named Pineapple form an unlikely kinship as they navigate the unpredictable late shift shit show known as the “drunk bus.” Together, they break out of their endless loop and into a world of uncertainty, excitement and incredibly poor decision-making.

Runtime: 1 Hour 41 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Drunk Bus starts as we meet Michael (Tahan) a college student who is suffering after a breakup, who drives the ‘Drunk Bus’ around campus, giving him a string of wild adventures on the nights, sometimes we will see the friendly students like Justin (Tonatuih) and Kat (Hayward), other times he must deal with the more aggressive drunks.

After an incident on the bus, Michael is given a bodyguard on the bus, a Samoan man named Pineapple (Tangaroa) who starts to give him life lessons, pushing him to move on to the next stage of his own life and to stand up for himself.

Thoughts on Drunk Bus

Characters & Performances – Michael is a college student that has taken a job as a drunk bus driver around campus and has been through a breakup, leaving him feeling depressed about his future, showing little sign of direction in his life. When he has an incident on the bus, he gets a bodyguard, who will give him life lessons on how to put his own life back on track. Charlie Tahan does bring us a character that is filled with the pain of young life. Pineapple is a Samoan who is hired to be the bodyguard on the bus, he has seen more of the world, showing and pushing Michael to take more risks in his life. Pineapple Tangaroa is great to watch, he will give us all important positive look in life, while hiding his own problems in life, bought to light in this character. We do get to meet a host of characters that are on the campus, each will have a different connection to Michael, which will show us the different stages other people are in their lives, each role is played well through the film.

Story – The story here follows a young man that has been struggling with his life after a breakup and starting to feel like his life is going nowhere, until he ends up meeting a bodyguard will look to help him find his direction once again in life. This is a story that is important as it will highlight just how difficult changing in life can be, finding your feet again and inspiration could well come from an unusual person that enters your life. The needing to find your place in life side of the story is very interesting, but we do fall short at understand just what any of these characters are truly still doing in college, especially with Michael, that doesn’t seem to be studying anything anymore. This is a story that will get the connection to learning about life through very well as everything looks to unfold.

Themes – Drunk Bus is a comedy that will put the drama in showing us how Michael needs to figure out what is next in his life, with most of the comedy coming from the string of colourful characters he ends up meeting along the way, on his daily routine. With large amounts of the scenes remaining on the bus, showing how these people keep returning to his life.

Blue Finch Film Releasing presents Drunk Bus on Digital Download 24 May  

 

Drunk Bus is an entertaining life lesson based movie, that will shine a light on needing to change.

May 21 2021

ABC Film Challenge – World Cinema – U – Unstoppable (2018) Movie Review

Director: Kim Min-Ho

Writer: Kim Min-Ho (Screenplay)

Starring: Dong-seok Ma, Ji-Hyo Song, Seong-oh Kim, Min-Jae Kim, Ji-hwan Park

Plot: Dong-Chul and Ji-Soo are a happily married couple. One day, Dong-Chul comes home to find his house in disarray and his wife is missing.


Tagline – Don’t Mess With Me

Runtime: 1 Hour 56 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Brutal

Story: Unstoppable starts as we Dong-Chul (Ma) a fisherman that is always looking for a quick way to make money, which has seen him make mistakes before, his wife Ji-Soo (Song) has always supported him, while encouraging him to stop risking their future, only for his latest attempt sees him potentially leave them homeless.

After the married couple are involved in a minor car accident, Ki-Tae (Seong-oh Kim) a criminal, kidnaps Ji-Soo, offering Dong-Chul money to walk away, a trade for his wife, only he isn’t going to stop at anything to get his wife back, teaming up with his brother Chun-Sik (Park) and a private eye Kwon (Min-Jae Kim) to dive into the criminal underworld.

Thoughts on Unstoppable

Characters – Dong-Chul is a local fisherman, married, living a happy life, away from a previous life, which was more dangerous, he is always looking for a way to make money, which has often left him facing problems at home, when his wife is taken, he uses his connection to search for her, showing that his previous life will make him a man not to be messed with. Ji-Soo is the wife of Dong-Chul, she does try to keep him on the straight and narrow, knowing he can easily fall for draw of money making ideas, she will support him through mistakes, but after their latest argument, she gets kidnapped, with her disappearance being the reason why Dong-Chul love will shine through. Ki-Tae is the criminal that is running a ring where he kidnaps women to repay debts, he is ruthless with his own men and believes money can solve all of his problems. Private Eye Kwon helps Dong-Chul dive into the criminal underworld, where he helps locate the pawns in the bigger game and helps with the connection while coming to learn the truth.

Performances – Dong-seok Ma is brilliant in the leading role, he is an actor that can bring together an action scene in a matter of seconds without looking like someone who wants to fight. Ji-Hyo Song doesn’t just play the helpless victim, we see her shine in the acts of kindness in the opening and her fight for the right thing by the end. Seong0oh Kim shines in the villainous role, with his character being so drawn into himself, he believes he is always in control.

Story – The story here follows a now mild-mannered man that is drawn into becoming like his former self when it comes to searching for his wife that has been kidnapped by a criminal who is driven by money. This story does follow the trends of any action crime story, where an quiet man who knows how to deal with criminals is drawn into a world to try and save his wife from a group of criminals that have taken her, it doesn’t need to re-invent the style, just keep everything together to make the intense moments work. We do have the villain that isn’t as smooth as he believes he is, with nearly every scene with him showing a weakness, be it his own or the people he surrounds himself with, while Dong-Chul as the reluctant hero gets to show us just how important love will be to keep him going.

Crime/Mystery – The crime side of the film shows us just how Ki-Tae operates with, his plans and how he has been getting away with it for years, with Dong-Chul needing to enter this life that he knows more about than Ki-Tae believes.

Settings – The film uses the settings to show how secrets can be operating within the shadows of bigger cities and when we get to any fight scenes, we use the environment to help increase the hard hitting nature of the fights.


Scene of the Movie – Warehouse fight.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The money involved doesn’t seem to translate very well.

Final Thoughts – This is a brutally violent action crime mystery that brings us flushed out characters, strong performances and an intense story.

Overall: Must Watch Crime Thriller.

May 21 2021

Army of the Dead (2021) Netflix Movie Review

Army of the Dead – Excellent Action Horror

 

Director: Zack Snyder

Writer: Zack Snyder, Shay Hatten, Joby Harold (Screenplay)

Starring: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Mattias Schweighofer

Plot: Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.


Tagline – Survivors Take All

Runtime: 2 Hours 28 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Army of the Dead starts in the aftermath of a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, which will see the city walled off and the survivors living in refugee camp conditions around the city. With the city about to be nuked to finally clean out the remaining zombies, Scott Ward (Bautista) is approached by Bly Tanaka (Sanada) to break into the city and his vault to reclaim the money that will be lost.

Scott must put together a team, which includes Maria (Reguera) his right-hand woman, Vanderohe (Hardwick) who escaped with them, along with safe cracker Dieter (Schweighofer), pilot Marianne (Notaro), social media star Mikey Guzman (Castillo), head of security Martin (Dillahunt) and person everyone turns to, to get in, Lilly (Arnezeder) the Coyote.

Once inside the walls, the dangers they find are different than expected, as they look to race against time to get the job done.

Thoughts on Army of the Dead

Characters & Performances – Scott Ward was one of the men that escaped the city during the outbreak, needing to make the difficult decision with his wife, while saving his daughter. Now he is a chef in a diner, distant from his daughter. Scott gets a chance to make enough money to start a new life, which will see him take a job breaking back into the city to open a bank safe, where he will put together his connections to make this happen, showing his determination to make this happen. Dave Bautista continues to show he is one of the new modern great action stars out there, bringing a serious side to his performance and character. Kate is the daughter of Scott who has been volunteering in the refugee camps, looking to create the best for the people stranded there, she ends up joining the crew because one of her closest friends ends up going on a desperation mission. Vanderohe and Maria Cruz are the two closest friends to Scott, he turns to them for help in the mission, knowing he can trust them to get the job done. They both have their unique abilities in the battles they find themselves in. the rest of the team all add plenty to the film, with Dieter not being prepared for the fighting, Lilly ultra-cool figure, along with Marianne the sarcastic pilot who is filled with laughs along the way. The performances from the whole cast are great, with each one getting their moment to shine in the film.

Story – The story here follows a group of people that became soldiers in a zombie outbreak who are given one last mission to go back into a dead infected Las Vegas to break into a safe to give them enough money to make it through the rest of the world, before the nuclear bomb is dropped on the city. To breakdown this story, we have a heist movie which includes battle against the undead, it will follow the traditions of a heist needing to battle different problems along with the battle against the undead, which will see the traditions of each character have their own quirky to make their part in the fight very different than a simple idea. We do have plenty of side stories going on, only certain ones can find themselves not getting as much time as they could have had.

Themes – Army of the Dead is an all-out action horror that will give us an endless amounts of different undead to fight, which while entertaining to watch, it can be confusing, why some zombies are slow, some are fat and others are different again. The Vegas setting is always going to be a great addition, using the different hotels to create new ideas for each environment the characters find themselves in and add in the music, which adds to different scenes through the film.

 

Army of the Dead is an all-out action horror that is brilliant to watch, highly entertaining that just doesn’t stop.