ginocox-206-336968
Joined Jan 2015
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ginocox-206-336968's rating
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ginocox-206-336968's rating
Gladiator II (2024) offers a visually impressive spectacle with epic battle scenes and extravagantly polished production values, yet seems disappointing for several reasons.
1. The story is contrived with too many coincidences and contrivances.
2. It is sprinkled with incongruous political allusions. The Romans are colonists. Lucius seems averse to using weapons. At one point, Lucius advocates a sort of Marxist open-borders philosophy, saying Rome should be "A city for the many and a refuge for those in need." A possibly accidental killing by a praetorian guard leads to riots.
3. The cast is diverse to a fault, but none of the eighteen top-billed actors on IMDB is Italian, making it difficult to suspend disbelief.
4. It lacks sexiness. We see corruption, opulence, and panem et circenses. There are allusions to bisexual behavior and one character seems to be dying of syphilis, but the film seems determined to be conspicuously and obstinately at the opposite end of the spectrum from Caligula (1979) regarding sex, but with more graphic violence than most slasher films.
5. The film presents a dramatic conundrum. Gladiator ends with the death of both Commodus and Maximus, leading to the promise that Rome will emerge in a period of peace and prosperity. But for a sequel to feature Lucius doing pretty much the same things as Maximus, that promise must be completely trashed. In only sixteen years, Rome has devolved into tyranny at the hands of corrupt and capricious rulers. But if Maximus's success and sacrifices were all in vain, what hope is there for Lucius to succeed by doing pretty much the same things?
The film is expertly crafted and visually impressive, yet not cathartic, and efforts to draw parallels with contemporary political issues detract.
1. The story is contrived with too many coincidences and contrivances.
2. It is sprinkled with incongruous political allusions. The Romans are colonists. Lucius seems averse to using weapons. At one point, Lucius advocates a sort of Marxist open-borders philosophy, saying Rome should be "A city for the many and a refuge for those in need." A possibly accidental killing by a praetorian guard leads to riots.
3. The cast is diverse to a fault, but none of the eighteen top-billed actors on IMDB is Italian, making it difficult to suspend disbelief.
4. It lacks sexiness. We see corruption, opulence, and panem et circenses. There are allusions to bisexual behavior and one character seems to be dying of syphilis, but the film seems determined to be conspicuously and obstinately at the opposite end of the spectrum from Caligula (1979) regarding sex, but with more graphic violence than most slasher films.
5. The film presents a dramatic conundrum. Gladiator ends with the death of both Commodus and Maximus, leading to the promise that Rome will emerge in a period of peace and prosperity. But for a sequel to feature Lucius doing pretty much the same things as Maximus, that promise must be completely trashed. In only sixteen years, Rome has devolved into tyranny at the hands of corrupt and capricious rulers. But if Maximus's success and sacrifices were all in vain, what hope is there for Lucius to succeed by doing pretty much the same things?
The film is expertly crafted and visually impressive, yet not cathartic, and efforts to draw parallels with contemporary political issues detract.
The Killer's Game (2024), starring Dave Bautista as a world-class assassin who is diagnosed with an untreatable terminal illness, is a better than average action film with excellent fight choreography, some imaginative editing, exotic locations, and strong talent in supporting roles, including Sir Ben Kingsley, Terry Crews, and Scott Adkins.
The screenplay suffers from a lack of originality. The terminally ill assassin re-evaluating his life is a familiar trope that has been explored in such films as Michael Keaton's Knox Goes Away, but somehow TKG evoked expectations of a resolution along the lines of Dabney Coleman's Short Time. The elite global agency of assassins is also a familiar trope, with the common variant of multiple assassins dispatched to target a single individual, as in Smokin' Aces and the John Wick films.
The romance angle is a major part of the story, but is poorly handled. As with many contemporary action films, filmmakers seem obliged to replace the gorgeous statuesque Bond girls of years gone with strong independent age-appropriate soccer mom types. Bautista plays a muscular six-foot-four globe-hopping multi-millionaire who is incredibly unattached and a bit bashful around women, ninety-five percent of whom are eager to find a muscular six-foot-four globe-hopping multi-millionaire. Suffice to say, the romance doesn't seem credible.
The screenplay suffers from a lack of originality. The terminally ill assassin re-evaluating his life is a familiar trope that has been explored in such films as Michael Keaton's Knox Goes Away, but somehow TKG evoked expectations of a resolution along the lines of Dabney Coleman's Short Time. The elite global agency of assassins is also a familiar trope, with the common variant of multiple assassins dispatched to target a single individual, as in Smokin' Aces and the John Wick films.
The romance angle is a major part of the story, but is poorly handled. As with many contemporary action films, filmmakers seem obliged to replace the gorgeous statuesque Bond girls of years gone with strong independent age-appropriate soccer mom types. Bautista plays a muscular six-foot-four globe-hopping multi-millionaire who is incredibly unattached and a bit bashful around women, ninety-five percent of whom are eager to find a muscular six-foot-four globe-hopping multi-millionaire. Suffice to say, the romance doesn't seem credible.
Carry-On (2024) offers a seemingly authentic glimpse into behind-the-scenes TSA operations, but seems hampered by overreliance on familiar tropes. Taron Egerton (Eggsy from the Kingsman films) plays Kopek, a TSA agent with unrealized potential and big dreams he lacks the discipline to achieve. Jason Bateman plays a sort of comic-book villain: remorseless, relentless, dispassionate, conscienceless, with nearly deity-like omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience; a terrorist with no political or theological agenda, driven only by avarice - like a twisted personification of a sophomoric liberal's perception of capitalists.
The MacGuffin is an incredibly potent neurological toxin. A black-mamba bite delivers about 100 mg of highly toxic venom which, if untreated, is fatal to an adult human in five hours or so, depending on the location of the bite, but can't be absorbed through the skin. By comparison, any contact with this neurotoxin is dramatically fatal in about forty-five seconds.
While TSA operational procedures seem authentic and credible, the plot doesn't seem the least bit credible. The villains know too much, operate with impunity, and manage to be everywhere at once. Where do they recruit these psychopaths who are willing to commit mass murder without remorse?
At one point, an assassin operates a five-foot-long .50 caliber rifle, hand-held, inside a six-foot-wide space. Another scene involving a cup of coffee only works if the guy doesn't sip any of the coffee, and still makes no sense.
The film lacks passion. Kopek and his girlfriend behave more like a middle-aged couple than young lovers. Bateman's character is so dispassionate as to make Dirty Harry seem like a drama queen by comparison.
The MacGuffin is an incredibly potent neurological toxin. A black-mamba bite delivers about 100 mg of highly toxic venom which, if untreated, is fatal to an adult human in five hours or so, depending on the location of the bite, but can't be absorbed through the skin. By comparison, any contact with this neurotoxin is dramatically fatal in about forty-five seconds.
While TSA operational procedures seem authentic and credible, the plot doesn't seem the least bit credible. The villains know too much, operate with impunity, and manage to be everywhere at once. Where do they recruit these psychopaths who are willing to commit mass murder without remorse?
At one point, an assassin operates a five-foot-long .50 caliber rifle, hand-held, inside a six-foot-wide space. Another scene involving a cup of coffee only works if the guy doesn't sip any of the coffee, and still makes no sense.
The film lacks passion. Kopek and his girlfriend behave more like a middle-aged couple than young lovers. Bateman's character is so dispassionate as to make Dirty Harry seem like a drama queen by comparison.