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Sarah (7798 KP) rated Charlie's Angels (2019) in Movies
Jul 31, 2020
A poor reboot
I had little hopes for this film when it was released at the cinema as the trailer looked awful, and I'm afraid to say the trailer was an accurate representation of the film itself.
The great thing about this film was the cast. This really does have a stellar cast, however the problem is that they're criminally underutilised and let down by an awful screenplay. The only ones who come out of this relatively unscathed are Kristen Stewart (she gets the "fun" role) and Naomi Scott (who still suffers from the cliched new recruit character role). Even the great Patrick Stewart couldn't save this. The action itself is pretty second rate and rather dull, and whilst it fortunately doesn't go OTT on the CGI, the fighting is still a little clunky. And the plot is as ridiculous as you'd expect from a spy film like this, and as predictable.
I also have a bit of an issue with how they're trying to promote gender equality in this. I'm all for girl power, but it's being rammed down your throat here and it's a bit much. Every male character is portrayed to be a complete slime ball and is this really fair? I don't think so. It's a bit old fashioned to have every bloke as a bad guy and I think there are better ways to promote powerful women and equality.
Overall this was an entirely unnecessary reboot of this franchise. Whilst the previous reincarnations with Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu weren't great, they were at least better than this.
The great thing about this film was the cast. This really does have a stellar cast, however the problem is that they're criminally underutilised and let down by an awful screenplay. The only ones who come out of this relatively unscathed are Kristen Stewart (she gets the "fun" role) and Naomi Scott (who still suffers from the cliched new recruit character role). Even the great Patrick Stewart couldn't save this. The action itself is pretty second rate and rather dull, and whilst it fortunately doesn't go OTT on the CGI, the fighting is still a little clunky. And the plot is as ridiculous as you'd expect from a spy film like this, and as predictable.
I also have a bit of an issue with how they're trying to promote gender equality in this. I'm all for girl power, but it's being rammed down your throat here and it's a bit much. Every male character is portrayed to be a complete slime ball and is this really fair? I don't think so. It's a bit old fashioned to have every bloke as a bad guy and I think there are better ways to promote powerful women and equality.
Overall this was an entirely unnecessary reboot of this franchise. Whilst the previous reincarnations with Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu weren't great, they were at least better than this.
Baxter Dury recommended Loaded by The Velvet Underground in Music (curated)
Gareth von Kallenbach (971 KP) rated Green Room (2015) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
After a fruitless tour, a punk group, The Ain’t Rights, find themselves out of money and stealing gas to get back home. When a recommendation from a fan looking for an interview leads them to play one more show out in the backwoods of Oregon to a crowd of white supremacists, they become witnesses to a murder and barricade themselves in the green room. With no clear escape, they enter into a deadly battle of wills with the owner of the club, and his band of skinheads, and quickly discover that they have no intention of letting them leave alive.
It’s to the point now where if the A24 logo is at the front of a flick, chances are I’m handing over my hard-earned cash. Enemy, Locke, A Most Violent Year, Ex Machina, Slow West – they’ve been distributing some of my favorite films from the last few years and are fast becoming a powerhouse for indie movies, not unlike Focus Features a little more than a decade ago. Unfortunately, this means I set my expectations a little too high on my way into Green Room, which was not hard to do when you combine A24’s track record with the emerging talent of writer/director Jeremy Saulnier. Blue Ruin, his second feature, was the surprise indie hit of 2013. Expertly crafted and deliberately paced, it harkened back to 70’s-style bleak and gritty filmmaking. Green Room also features some of the DNA that made Blue Ruin great, those quite moments of high-tension leading into heart-stopping explosions of extreme violence are present and accounted for, but a thinner plot and characters who are severely underdeveloped show that this story, to its detriment, was in much more of a rush to get where it was going than its predecessor was.
Green Room’s major selling point is of course, Patrick Stewart. Adding one part Cameron Alexander (Stacy Keach’s character from American History X) to one part Walter White/Heisenberg, his performance will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest departures of our time. Having said that, and believe me when I say I’m loathe to fly in the face of what an exceptional casting choice this was, he is frustratingly underutilized. It does speak to what an unrivaled talent he is when he can build most of his menace from the other side of a locked door, but regardless of how solid the performance is, his presence is merely a set-piece. A role with this little screen time rivals Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (they both had what probably amounted to about 15 minutes of screen time, or less), but I’m certain Stewart’s won’t leave as lasting an impression. To be blunt, if you’re queuing up just for him, you may come away disappointed.
The flip side to this comes about through Imogen Poots as Amber, friend to the murder victim and unfortunate enough to get trapped backstage with the band. Much of the best dialogue, along with some incredible moments of jaw-dropping spontaneity, comes her way and it’s her deadpan delivery that steals the show. Though we are supposed to root for the band, it was her cynical “inside man” that drew me further into their nightmare situation and kept me hoping that she might be the one to survive and give the skinheads the brutal justice they deserved.
For now, I’m sticking to my guns and giving Green Room just half marks, but I look forward to a second viewing at home in a few months, where I’m certain my opinion of it will improve, due to my expectations being more aligned and the foreknowledge that this is simple and standard survival horror fare…that just happens to feature Picard as a neo-Nazi.
It’s to the point now where if the A24 logo is at the front of a flick, chances are I’m handing over my hard-earned cash. Enemy, Locke, A Most Violent Year, Ex Machina, Slow West – they’ve been distributing some of my favorite films from the last few years and are fast becoming a powerhouse for indie movies, not unlike Focus Features a little more than a decade ago. Unfortunately, this means I set my expectations a little too high on my way into Green Room, which was not hard to do when you combine A24’s track record with the emerging talent of writer/director Jeremy Saulnier. Blue Ruin, his second feature, was the surprise indie hit of 2013. Expertly crafted and deliberately paced, it harkened back to 70’s-style bleak and gritty filmmaking. Green Room also features some of the DNA that made Blue Ruin great, those quite moments of high-tension leading into heart-stopping explosions of extreme violence are present and accounted for, but a thinner plot and characters who are severely underdeveloped show that this story, to its detriment, was in much more of a rush to get where it was going than its predecessor was.
Green Room’s major selling point is of course, Patrick Stewart. Adding one part Cameron Alexander (Stacy Keach’s character from American History X) to one part Walter White/Heisenberg, his performance will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest departures of our time. Having said that, and believe me when I say I’m loathe to fly in the face of what an exceptional casting choice this was, he is frustratingly underutilized. It does speak to what an unrivaled talent he is when he can build most of his menace from the other side of a locked door, but regardless of how solid the performance is, his presence is merely a set-piece. A role with this little screen time rivals Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (they both had what probably amounted to about 15 minutes of screen time, or less), but I’m certain Stewart’s won’t leave as lasting an impression. To be blunt, if you’re queuing up just for him, you may come away disappointed.
The flip side to this comes about through Imogen Poots as Amber, friend to the murder victim and unfortunate enough to get trapped backstage with the band. Much of the best dialogue, along with some incredible moments of jaw-dropping spontaneity, comes her way and it’s her deadpan delivery that steals the show. Though we are supposed to root for the band, it was her cynical “inside man” that drew me further into their nightmare situation and kept me hoping that she might be the one to survive and give the skinheads the brutal justice they deserved.
For now, I’m sticking to my guns and giving Green Room just half marks, but I look forward to a second viewing at home in a few months, where I’m certain my opinion of it will improve, due to my expectations being more aligned and the foreknowledge that this is simple and standard survival horror fare…that just happens to feature Picard as a neo-Nazi.