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Dean (6926 KP) rated Anna (2019) in Movies

Jul 5, 2019  
Anna (2019)
Anna (2019)
2019 | Action, Thriller
Wide of the mark
Luc Besson has done some very good action films so I hoped this would be a high adrenaline fueled action ride. Unfortunately it's quite average by the numbers stuff. Lots of double agents and double crosses but it's not as intelligent as it thinks it is. A lot of hopping back and forth in time which wasn't really necessary. It isn't as good as @Red Sparrow (2018) or @Atomic Blonde (2017) which both have a similar theme. Ok for a watch but fairly forgettable.
  
Unleashed (2005)
Unleashed (2005)
2005 | Action, Drama
Bonkers martial arts thriller off the Luc Besson action conveyor belt. Danny (Li) has been raised as a human attack dog by senior gangster Bart (Hoskins); one day he stumbles into freedom and is befriended by a blind piano tuner (Freeman) and his daughter. But will his past catch up with him? (All this supposedly takes place in a Glasgow almost exclusively populated by Asians, Americans, and Cockneys.)

The plot is barking mad (not inappropriately for a film with the alternative title of Danny the Dog) and impossible to take seriously, but that's hardly new for a Besson film, nor necessarily a disincentive to see it. This one is lifted by genuinely good performances from Hoskins and Freeman, and extended sequences of Li beating the living daylights out of everyone in sight (at one point there's a kung fu fight in a toilet cubicle, which is surely a first). Not to be taken remotely seriously, but still highly entertaining.
  
Léon: The Professional (1994)
Léon: The Professional (1994)
1994 | Action, Drama, Mystery
Cult thriller that gave the world Natalie Portman and briefly turned Luc Besson into someone with Hollywood clout; it's still almost certainly his best film. A troubled young girl (Portman) is orphaned by drug dealers and is taken under the wing of a supernaturally gifted hitman (Reno); he has issues of his own. Slowly the relationship between the two of them deepens, but the question of vengeance against the man who killed her family (Oldman) refuses to go away.

Stylish and witty, with great performances from the three leads; genuinely affecting in a way that most Besson movies simply are not. Surprisingly little action for what's supposedly a thriller but still very involving; the theatrical cut delicately skips around what's really going on in Leon and Mathilda's relationship. Knock a point off if you're watching the director's cut, which trades some of the subtlety for extra scenes which add a mixture of hokeyness and pure ick.
  
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
2017 | Sci-Fi
Valerian and the Unnecessarily Long Title, more like
Another lavishly imaginative and somewhat incoherently scripted sci-fi movie from Luc Besson, somewhat in the same vein as The Fifth Element. Plot mainly consists of running about in spectacular costumes in front of CGI backgrounds; exactly what is going on is frequently unclear.

The script is certainly baffling and doesn't feel like the work of a man credited as writer or co-writer of fifty other movies; the whole section with Rihanna and Ethan Hawke is just filler, in terms of the actual plot. Or is the plot itself only of secondary concern with this movie? It seems that way. DeHaan is arguably badly miscast as Valerian; however, Delevingne is something of a revelation in this movie (very good hair, too). And it definitely has its moments and always looks interesting. If only Besson could keep the script under control for his sci-fi films...
  
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Nickg24 (492 KP) rated Anna (2019) in Movies

Sep 15, 2019  
Anna (2019)
Anna (2019)
2019 | Action, Thriller
Sasha Luss (1 more)
Restaurant Fight Scene
Predictable in parts (0 more)
So so action movie
Contains spoilers, click to show
A very basic premise,anna is down on her luck but gets recruited into the KGB as an assassin.She completes various missions but the CIA are on to her and eventually catch her out.They make her work for them and so on and so on until she is eventually given her freedom.

This is the first decent Luc Besson film in years (he will never ever beat Leon).Sasha Luss impresses as anna,helen mirren is also good.I wasnt to impressed with the way the story switches backwards and forwards in time.

The restaurant fight scene was pretty impressive and very bloody.