Jul 3 2021

Lethal Virus (2021) Movie Review

Lethal Virus – Typical Survival Horror

Director: Daniel Hernandez Torrado

Writer: Nerea Bermudez, Daniel Hernandez Torrado, Carlos Sisi, Diego de la Concepcion (Screenplay)

Starring: Loretta Hope, Tomas Paredes, Lee Partridge, Christian Stamm, Ramon Alvarez

Plot: In a broken world struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, a new super virus that escapes from melting permafrost threatens to destroy the remnants of mankind. The results are swift, chaotic, and deadly, throwing the world into further crisis. With the last hopes for a cure pinned on brilliant young scientist, Allyson, the military are given one final mission: to deliver Allyson to her laboratory at all costs. It is a duty undertaken without hesitation. Yet as the pandemic intensifies, and their progress, numbers, and optimism start to dwindle, the group find themselves struggling not only with the infected population, but with a sombre dilemma: does humanity truly deserve to be saved?

Runtime: 1 Hour 27 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Lethal Virus starts as a global pandemic sweeps through the world, created chaos with a new threat, zombie. Scientist Allyson (Hope) has been recreated to help the military deal with the crisis, believing she might well have the key to the cure. When Allyson finds herself alone in the woods after an ambush, a local survivalist Scott (Stamm) looks to help her survive the threats, human and zombie.

Thoughts on Lethal Virus

Characters & Performances – Allyson is the brilliant scientist that believes she has the cure the virus that has swept the world, she is being transported by military to create the anti-virus before finding herself stranded in the woods. She isn’t best with nature, which will see her needing to use her brain to get out of different situations that Scott can’t handle. Scott is the local survivalist that finds and helps Allyson on her mission, he doesn’t want to, but he knows it is the right thing to do, which could give him redemption for what happened in his previous life. We do have two military men tracking Allyson, always being a few steps behind her as a threat to her future. The performances in the film are strong enough for the film, even if we have seen the similar characters before in many other films.

Story – The story here follows a couple of survivors after a global pandemic that are looking to get to safety where they could use their knowledge to help save the world from further heartbreak, needing to battle against the undead and human enemies. This is a story that will show how the world can be destroyed by a virus, with the fears of what could happen with the undead coming back to life. It will give us the mission idea, which is the core movement in the film, while the grander story is about whether it would be right to help or not. The fact this story does try to sell itself on the Covid-19 pandemic is the weakest part of the film.

Themes – Lethal Virus is a survival horror thriller that will see two people needing survive the wilderness to make it to safety in a virus infected world. The film is mostly set in the woods, which will show how the enemies could be found anywhere.

Lethal Virus comes to VOD on the 27^{th of} July.

Final Thoughts – Lethal Virus is an interesting virus outbreak film that brings us everything we have seen before.

Jul 3 2021

The Tomorrow War (2021) Movie Review

The Tomorrow War – Great Action Adventure

Director: Chris McKay

Writer: Zach Dean (Screenplay)

Starring: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson, Jasmine Mathews, Edwin Hodge, Ryan Kiera Armstrong

Plot: A family man is drafted to fight in a future war where the fate of humanity relies on his ability to confront the past.

Runtime: 2 Hours 20 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: The Tomorrow War starts when on an everyday moment of life, a group of soldiers appear from nowhere claiming to be part of war in the future, one that the human race is losing, needing people to travel to the future to fight the war. The world has hit the position where they will have a worldwide draft, one the former solider turned schoolteacher Dan Forester (Pratt) gets selected to go on.

Dan meets fellow recruits Charlie (Richardson), Dorian (Hodge) and Norah (Rajskub) as they head to the future, placed into a world they don’t know, one where he must take control of if they are to make it out alive against an alien threat unlike anything they have seen before.

Thoughts on The Tomorrow War

Characters & Performances – Dan Forester is a former soldier that has become a biology teacher with his own family, when the war begins, he finds himself drafted, given two options, to run and hide forever with his family, or go into the future to fight, he choices to fight. He will find a familiar face in the future, as his military skills will become key to his survival in the fight. Chris Pratt does give us the typical action hero with a brain, giving his best leading man performance since his big break. Colonel Forester is running the operation in the future, the person Dan connect with, learning about what happened in his past, which will lead to him needing to fight to save humanity. Yvonne Strahovski does a great job in the military leader role. Charlie is the comic relief in the film, the member of the draft picks that shouldn’t be there, talks too much and steals the show. Sam Richardson is the one that is Charlie stealing the show, with great supporting performances from J.K. Simmons as the estranged father, while Betty Gilpin doesn’t do anything wrong, its just her role isn’t as big as it could have been.

Story – The story here follows a group of drafted soldiers who are sent to the future to help in the fight against an alien invader, one that is beating the human race, with one former solider looking to help in the fight. We have seen movies try to do this in the past, be it Terminator or Edge of Tomorrow, with the biggest original spin on this being how they select the recruits, people that would die before the event of the war, with the trainers being people who weren’t born, excluding the time travel paradox between the meeting a different era of themselves. The idea the world is going to lose a war does add an increased peril to what is going in, as we see just how Dan is thrown into different levels of peril.

Themes – The Tomorrow War is a sci-fi action film that will see human against a new alien threat, using time travel to help make the fight winnable for the human race. The alien creations look fantastic with what we see in combat or thinking with the male and female having different mentality when it comes to the fights, with the locations showing the destroyed locations the world would be fighting from.

Final Thoughts – The Tomorrow War is an enjoyable blast in the action world, with great creations and Pratt in his best role outside of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Jul 3 2021

ABC Film Challenge – Comedy – C – Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) Movie Review

Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Writer: Dan Fogelman (Screenplay)

Starring: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton, Jonah Bobo, Joey King, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon

Plot: A middle-aged husband’s life changes dramatically when his wife asks him for a divorce. He seeks to rediscover his manhood with the help of a newfound friend, Jacob, learning to pick up girls at bars.

Tagline – This Is Love

Runtime: 1 Hour 58 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Brilliant Look at Love

Story: Crazy, Stupid, Love starts when Cal (Carell) gets given a bombshell by his wife Emily (Moore) wanting a divorce after cheating on him. Cal finds himself down on his luck in a bar with his story dragging the atmosphere in the bar down until Jacob (Gosling) a confident womaniser who spends every night in the bar picking up woman, who offers to help Cal get back on his feet.

As Cal starts to learn from Jacob, he starts to reflect on his own life, looking to meet women including Kate (Tomei), as both Cal and Emily look back on their relationship on what could have happened, with Jacob setting his sights on young lawyer Hannah (Stone) who might finally be someone who can help him see life in a new view.

Thoughts on Crazy, Stupid, Love

Characters – Cal is the loving father and husband that gets the news of a divorce, seeing his old life shattered in front of his own eyes. He takes things badly spending his time in the bar moaning about his life, until Jacob shows him how to become more confident again, meeting women and starting again. Jacob is a womaniser who always looks for a different woman in his local bar where he has the routine down to an art form, he takes Cal under his wing to teach him how to get the best out of himself after his divorce, bringing out the confidence in him, while learning to understand how to get the most out of his life. Emily is the wife to Cal that cheats on him before asking for a divorce, it is her way of admitting things have become stale between the two, she does find herself regretting what is going on believing there could still be a chance for the two.

Performances – Steve Carell is great to watch in a comedy drama any day of the week, he can handle to comedy and serious side of the film with ease. Julianne Moore is great to see too, with Ryan Gosling being the confident guy being perfect for his role in the film. Emma stone is great too in the support role getting the laughs with her characters awkwardness in everything.

Story – The story here follows a serious of people who are having problems with love, be it the divorcing couple, the confident guy and the person who going to be missing out on true love because of schedule in life. We do get to see how love can make people do stupid things in life and just how it can make people change, where you need to change to understand just how important it truly is to you. We do seem to focus on the male side of love rather than the female side of everything, which can be misleading to how it shows that only men can do things wrong.

Comedy/Romance – The comedy in this film comes from seeing how Cal must learn a lot from Jacob, as well as seeing the subplots getting laughs with how things unfold. The romance in this film shows us just how love can unfold in mysterious way, it can make you do silly things, making mistakes and laugh along the way.

Settings – The film uses the everyday life settings, with the bar being key to showing the change in Cal, with the rest reflecting just how routine his life had become.

Scene of the Movie – The surprise dinner.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – It shows only the men needing to change.

Final Thoughts –This is an enjoyable comedy that will get plenty of laughs, along with the romance showing us just how complicated love can be.

Overall: Enjoyable.