3 Things I Hate about Without Remorse (2021)

 

Is there possibility of the new John Clark meeting up with the new Jack Ryan?

There was a time when a trip to the mall wasn’t complete without me digging for Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series at a second hand book shop. I was able to collect many including the spin-off novel Without Remorse. For those not in the know John Clark was Jack Ryan’s top field man since Ryan was more into analysis and policy especially when the books made him the President of the United States.

Godzilla vs Kong (2021)

Evading Godzilla's blast from underwater. Why did Kong even survive this?

My impression of this universe of Godzilla and King Kong is that they are nature personified. The kaijus are the real lords of earth. Gods. 

3 Reasons Why I hated the movie Triple Frontier (2019)

Former Special Forces on the run and on mules

I give you three reasons why Triple Frontier sucks and there are spoilers.

Counterpart (Starz) (2017)

There is a fine line between dreams and reality, it's up to you to draw it. ~ B. Quilliam

Quotes like the above have always given the fiction writer reasons to create parallel universes. As any geek will know decisions are the catalysts in creating an alternate reality. Anyone not into fiction would see only a self-help advice. 

Counterpart is about 2 different earths living in a classic Cold War atmosphere. The doorway is even conveniently set in a German city – Berlin, considering the theme. A city that should have been one and the same but because of a decision somewhere, sometime, they’ve grown to be very different.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Spoilers

Finally an Avengers movie I enjoyed which is surprising amid subdued expectations.

The Punisher (Netflix) (2017)

The Punisher hit all the right notes typical of a ronin of the American military machine. It blends in. I did not get any comic book feels even with Karen Page and that Detective who owes his promotion to Daredevil were on hand.

Spider-man Homecoming (2017)

Spoilers

In honor of the 3 Spider-man movie versions in over 15 years, here are my 3 character related observations of the newest one Spider-man Homecoming.

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Spoilers.

The War for the Planet of the Apes suffers from wrong expectations.

Dunkirk (2017)

Dunkirk reminds me of 2001: A Space Odyssey – at least what little I remember of it – but with less classical music. Both are critical favorites but there is just an empty feeling when the characters barely talk. Well, empty is a strong word but more a feeling that something is missing.

The Fate of the Furious (Fast and Furious 8) (2017)

It seems I’ll be with the few thinking that the latest of the Fast and the Furious franchise has run out of steam and should call it a day. People are still buying it in droves. Furious 9 is now guaranteed and a Furious 10 will supposedly be the last of it all.

Spoiler warning.

Wonder Woman (2017)

Agreed. Wonder Woman is the best DC Extended Universe (DCEU) movie to date. Although I am not really sure being compared to Captain America: The First Avenger is a good thing. There are indeed comparisons but Wonder Woman is better. What does that even say; the best of DCEU is equal to whatever The First Avenger is to Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Before moving on, spoiler warnings. I am at a loss why readers would still need warning because any review is a potential spoiler however vague they try to be. Anyways.

Disney Copying Disney (Guardians and Pirates)

Here there be spoilers...

Max Steel (2016)

I don’t like Max McGrath or more accurately I don't like Ben Winchell. What works is the reluctant hero or the pompous one who’s been taken down a peg. To me Ben was neither. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

It’s a team of a-holes now instead of the individuals in Vol. 1.

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Kong: Skull Island started with the obsession of Bill Randa (John Goodman) but unfortunately got dominated by the obsession of Col. Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) to kill Kong all throughout. 

I haven’t been to a mission even remotely similar to the one in the movie but unless it’s a war I don’t see how Col. Packard, a Vietnam veteran, can hijack the mission and thereby the story.

xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017)

xXx, Return of Xander Cage, is trying to do a Fast and the Furious.

The Accountant (2016)

Like the famous artwork about dogs playing poker which lead protagonist Christian Wolff loves, the beauty of The Accountant is that it is also incongruous.

Accountants are perceived to be boring and special people that can make sense of a sheet of numbers.  The movie even exaggerated that point making Christian autistic – as if only a person born with narrow focus and social difficulties can understand a financial sheet.

Logan (2017)

The caption on my Instagram says, “Red everywhere…” 

When I took that shot it was still an empty brand new Gateway Cinema 5; I was amusing myself looking at the neat reddish design of the entire theater, waiting for Logan to be screened. After watching, red though this time refers to blood which by now is foremost on my mind.

Hidden Figures (2016)

It was funny at first, a woman in midsized heels running to another building just to pee. Then it became depressing as she still had to relieve herself in another building even under heavy rain. Eventually it was just idiotic because even in a great emergency Katherine Goble (Katherine Johnson when she married) would still be in the other building because she is black. 

via GIPHY

This is 1960s segregated America and even the National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) is no exemption, space race notwithstanding. 

Hell or High Water (2016)

I watched the movie without having seen the trailer so what I wrote I learned organically scene by scene.  Apparently the trailer contained what took half the movie to know which either speaks bad of the movie or of the trailer. You would have googled it anyway so I embedded the trailer in the end.

The opening was prototypical. 

A bank robbed by two men.  Cowboy hat and a large belt buckle worn by the manager meant it was Texas. Once the robberies became a spree it was cue in the Texas Rangers time. Bank robbery, cowboys, and Rangers in hot pursuit; if the movie had horses it might still have worked.  But even without horses, with the elements already available I can see an ending that would fit a Bon Jovi song.