ABC Film Challenge Non-Review Selection
I won’t be doing reviews for everything letter, so here are my pick for today.
ABC Film Challenge
Crime
Q
Qil
Why I’ve Picked this choice – This is a Netflix suggestion, it is a Bollywood film, one that could be used to talk about crime, if you have seen it, let me know what you think about it.
Head over to Movie Rob’s site for more reviews
“Do not prioritize money over having a heartbeat.” – Mr. Edmington
Number of Times Seen – 1 (3 Jul 2019)
Brief Synopsis – After being suspended for excessive force, two police detectives decide to steal of fortune of gold bullion from a group of very dangerous and violent criminals.
My Take on it – This is a film that I have been interested in seeing for the past few months solely due to the fact that it stars Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn, but its run time of over 2 and a half hours has deterred me time and again.
Unfortunately, the film is terrible and takes too much time to even get to its point and then dragged things along (across concrete???) to torture us even more.
The story is overly long and has too many plot holes that it looks like a sieve.
It moves along painfully at a really slow pace and is a real chore to get through.
Both Vaughn and Gibson gives less than spectacular performances here which is a shame since they both have it in them to give us great performances.
The story is filled with lots of holes that make it all seem very chaotic and unorganized because it moves from extreme to extreme without real continuity along the way.
The dialogue is atrocious and makes the viewer laugh because it makes so little sense and is quite often extremely silly.
Bottom Line – Terrible film that drags on for much too long and actually makes the viewer feel as if they are truly being dragged across concrete the entire time. Vaughn and Gibson both give very lackluster performances here and this feels more like a grab for a quick salary than a way to tell an engaging and interesting story. The story is filled with far too many plot holes that make this thing feel like it is riddled with holes just like Swiss cheese. The dialogue is quite humorous because it comes across as being too silly the whole time and makes so little sense along the way.
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Vince Vaughn, while working with Mel Gibson on Hacksaw Ridge, showed Gibson the screenplay for this film, and talked-up writer/director S. Craig Zahler and his vision. Gibson was responsive to the material and agreed to star immediately. (From IMDB)
Rating – Razzie Worthy (3/10)
Head over to Movie Rob’s website for more reviews
“You’re gonna knock over a bank with a Magic Marker? What are you gonna do, write on ’em? ” – Terry
Number of Times Seen – Twice (6 Feb 2002 and 2 Jul 2019)
Brief Synopsis – Two escaped convicts start a bank robbery spree where they kidnap the bank managers the night before and then spend the night at their house before traveling to the bank to steal the money in the morning.
My Take on it – This is a film that I saw not long after it came out and didn’t recall much about it besides the fact that it starred Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett.
It’s actually quite a mediocre heist film since it tries much too hard to make this feel as if it’s story is one that could be “ripped from the headlines” and also feel pertinent to Reality TV, which was in its infancy at the time.
The chemistry between the characters is quite weak and the fact that Willis and Thornton don’t feel as if they are on level ground also hurts things since the characters are meant to be equal.
Blanchett’s character is quite annoying the whole way through and it’s pretty difficult to believe that she is able to have a romance with one of these men, and they want us to believe that she has one with both of them.
This love triangle just doesn’t work on any level.
The story itself is quite repetitive and they rehash things much too often instead of trying to break new ground along the way.
This film should have been much shorter and that might have been better if edited together.
The movie fails to decide whether it wants to be seen as a comedy or as a crime thriller and in the end it feels as if it is neither especially when there are too many scenes that play off as being overly melodramatic for their own good.
Bottom Line – Very mediocre heist film that tries too hard to feel as if it is “ripped from the headlines” during the beginning of the days of Reality TV. Willis and Thornton don’t work very well together because they never seem to feel as if their characters are on equal levels. Blanchett’s character is quite annoying throughout and its very hard to believe the love triangle that comes about. The story itself feels too repetitive and things could have been shortened a lot because they try to reestablish things that they previously established. The plot gets a bit too melodramatic for its own good and fails to make the decision of whether they want this to be seen as a comedy or as a crime thriller and in the end, it seems like neither.
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Billy Bob Thornton has a phobia of antique furniture in real life, and the producers wrote it in as part of his character. (From IMDB)
Rating – Razzie Worthy (4/10)
Head over the Movie Rob’s site to read more reviews from him.
“A truce is merely the seed for an even bigger battle, nothing is worse! ” – Sanjuro
Number of Times Seen – 1 (21 Jun 2019)
Brief Synopsis – A Japanese warrior arrives in a town being run by two different warring gangs and decides to try and put a stop to the fighting.
My Take on it – This is a film that I heard about years ago, but due to my dislike for foreign language films, I stayed far away from it until now.
I have seen numerous adaptations of this film including A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and Last Man Standing (1996), but was still curious to see how Akira Kurosawa’s original stands up against the remakes.
This is an excellent film and is quite gripping throughout.
It’s amazing to think about the fact that this film started a whole genre of films that became so part of the mainstream of movies in the nearly 60 years since this was made.
Kurosawa does an amazing job with this film’s story and it’s breathtaking to watch how the character is able to seamlessly move back and forth between the warring sides without either side getting too suspicious of him.
The fact that this film largely deals with sword fighting, its great seeing the close quarter combat between the various characters throughout.
The brilliance of this film is the way that things move along so swiftly since the protagonist is able to use his talent, cunning and experience as a warrior to slowly deplete the numbers on both sides.
As great as this film is, Leone’s version with Clint Eastwood will always be the best version of the story largely due to the language barrier issue.
Nevertheless, the essence of this film remains wholly intact throughout and even if one is familiar with the various adaptations that have been made over the years, the story here still feels very unique in the methods that it utilizes throughout.
Bottom Line – Excellent film that started the idea of this kind of genre. Kurosawa does a wonderful job with this story as we get to see how the character seamlessly moves from side to side without either of the warring sides to get too suspicious of him The brilliance of this film is in the way that things move along so swiftly and we get to constantly see how talented, cunning and experienced this warrior is as he slowly lowers the number of adversaries one by one. Leone’s version of this film will always be slightly better in my eyes due to the language barrier, but the essence of this film still remains intact even if one is familiar with the various adaptations that have been filmed over the years. Highly Recommended!
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Sergio Leone was inspired by this film and made the famous “spaghetti western” A Fistful of Dollars (1964) with a similar plot. However, because Leone did not officially get permission to remake this film, which was copyrighted, Akira Kurosawa sued him. Leone paid him a sum plus 15% of the profits. (From IMDB)
Rating – Oscar Worthy (9/10)
ABC Film Challenge Non-Review Selection
I won’t be doing reviews for everything letter, so here are my pick for today.
ABC Film Challenge
World Cinema
Q
Qarib Qarib Singlle
