Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Safe movie review








Well it has to be said, that the action genre has not been up to standards lately, and it seems like the action era has ended by the end of the 90s, until Statham showed up !!

this movie is one of the better entertaining action movies in recent years, I really enjoyed every part of it and it took me back to the Die Hard and 90s years when action films were on top.

Don't get me wrong, its not a perfect film or an Oscar nominated movie, but it truly does deliver pure entertainment and an enjoyable movie experience.

the movie is somewhat similar to 1998 Mercury Rising starring the one and only Bruce Willis, only Safe was more brutal and much more action packed !! sorry Bruce

it revolves around a broken and fallen ex-cop Luke Wright " Statham " who lost almost everything in his life and who hit rock bottom, but once his path is crossed by the young and helpless Chinese girl Mei who is being hunted by every scum bag and corrupt cop in NYC because of her possession of a safe code, the inner fighter in Luke wakes up and now he has a new goal in life, protect Mei and bring down the bad guys !! the plot sounds like something that Jackie Chan would usually do, thankfully, the role fell to Statham who really made the difference here !!

I like Jackie Chan, but come on, he is not brutal enough !




A very well written script for a simple plot, very fast paced and not to mention action packed, Statham really stretches his muscles here, lots of well choreographed fighting sequences, some fantastic shoot out scenes one of which takes place in a night club that was adrenaline pumping, the action was brutal.

I also liked how they gathered around some very good actors playing the villains or bad guys, characters ranging from Russian mobsters to Chinese gangsters and even corrupt Cops.

I strongly believe that Jason Statham has emerged as the new action star of the new millennium, he is what Van Damme, Scwharezzenger and Stallone were in the 90s, he has all what it takes to be the ultimate action star and his acting is pretty good too. I can't deny the efforts of Stallone to bring the action genre back with his newest movies like the Expendables 2, but for now, Statham is on top.




so in short, out of all those B grade action films out there, its nice to see a very well crafted action packed movie that is pure entertainment, thank you Statham !!

9 out of 10

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Freelancers movie review








So this movie is not perfect by any means, not the best movie out there, but also not as half bad as people are saying in their reviews, and that it is a copycat of Training day.

first, it has nothing to do with Training Day, and actually they are two different movies with very very minor similarities. this movie is actually more like Street Kings starring Keanu Reeves which deals with bad cops and one particular cop " 50 Cent " who starts to develop some conscious and digs into the mystery of who killed his father who was also a cop a long time ago.

he is taken under the wing of big time cop who was also his father's partner, played by Robert Deniro, who is also a bad cop and a drug dealer, aided by his right hand played by Forest Whitakar.












the acting from those giants was excellent as usual, and really lifted this movie up for me, it is such a joy to watch Deniro acting. Now 50 Cents acting is average at best, but his acting sort of served his character's role in this film, he seemed cold and devoid of emotions which was quite a reflection of his character in the film, so it worked out well for him, but there is no denying his below average acting.

the story definitely has several weak points, and as one reviewer already mentioned, characters shift suddenly in their behaviors, nevertheless, i wasn't expecting a well crafted master piece of a film, but rather a nice little drama with big names and wonderful performances with a story that held my attention enough.

I might be biased here, because I'm a big fan of the police Drama genre like Cop land, Street Kings and this movie, but for what its worth, i thought this movie was better than Son of no one, which is also a police drama starring another legend Al Pacino and Channing Tatum.






Freelancers gets a 7 out of 10