David Ayer lost a lot of credibility with Suicide Squad, let’s see if he can make it up with follow-up Bright. Oh, written by Max Landis? That’s a no then.
Jack and Harrison discuss the numerous ways in which Bright tries and fails to build a fantasy realm with real world implications.
The Executioners is a septic turd of a movie, devoid of any redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Conceptually, it is indistinct from every other home invasion film in existence, save for the fact that it has a leering obsession with sexual violence and a gang rape scene that seems to go on indefinitely. So if that pitch gets your motor running, then you’ll likely have a whale of a time. Otherwise, it’s probably best that you stay away and go watch literally anything else.
Alternating between two settings; ”Crushingly Dull” and ”Relentlessly Unpleasant”, The Executioners manages to be pull of the unenviable trick of being consistently off-putting. When it’s not boring, it’s sordid. When it’s not generic, it’s just stupid. And when it is is not tiresome and uneventful, that’s only because it is showing us a woman being forced into fellatio.
Not only that, but director Giorgio Serafini has precisely zero new ideas. Even his last minute plot ”inversion” is a predictable staple of the genre. Without giving too much away, a variation of this reveal is used in almost every home invasion flick (see the infinitely superior You’re Next or Better Watch Out for further reference), so somehow the twists and turns here are also by-the-numbers!
Worse still, there is a pervasive attitude of seediness that clings to the film throughout, specifically in relation to the (exclusively-female) victims. The camera is constantly ogling them, even when they are in a states of severe emotional distress/ physical peril, and they take their clothes off at seemingly random intervals, as if they’re trying to meet a quota or something.
Honestly, it’s telling that this gawking continues after the aforementioned assault, because the sleaziness of this film truly knows no bounds. How anyone could derive titillation from the sight of naked flesh AFTER already giving us a rape scene is truly beyond me, but apparently Serafini thought he’d give it the old college try.
Speaking of that churlish, needless rape sequence, boy is it a doozy! Overlong, uncomfortable and shamelessly exploitative, its only purpose in the film is to aggravate and disturb, which is pretty shitty when you think about it. It has no narrative justification for existing, other than to be used as a base shock-tactic. The heroines could have just as easily been under threat by armed killers or burglars and it wouldn’t have made an iota of difference. The only reason the filmmakers opted to go with rape is because that’s more ”extreme” and attention-grabbing.
Did I mention that the whole ordeal is presented as a montage too? Just to make it more untenable and crass.
Anyone who knows me personally will testify that I am not easily offended or upset and that I have seen FAR worse things than The Executioners before. So it’s not that I’m overly fragile or sensitive, nor do I automatically have a problem with rape appearing in films.
I just think it should have a reason for being there. Which is what I found so objectionable about this film. It went nowhere with its nastiness, there was nothing else to it besides endless misery. It was like having someone poking at you with a stick, repeatedly asking ”Are you shocked yet? Are you shocked yet?”
Also aren’t these rape-revenge narratives supposed to focus on the eventual retribution and payback? You know, the part of the story that’s actually cathartic and exciting for the audience? Take I Spit on Your Grave for example. That film dedicates significantly more time to showing the villains getting their, arguably even more brutal, comeuppance. By contrast, The Executioners kind of just shies away from all that stuff and is curiously hesitant to show us the perpetrators getting what they deserve. Why unflinchingly depict the suffering of the women like that, but then go so easy on the bad guys? It doesn’t make any sense!
There’s truly nothing positive that I can say about this film. The closest I can get to a compliment is that it successfully elicited a visceral reaction from me, but even then, that response was one of vitriol twinned with boredom.
Whilst it is indeed true that talented filmmakers like David Fincher and Martin Scorsese have made a name for themselves by producing provocative and twisted work, there was crucially always some substance to back up their edge. It takes real skill to do what they do, to keep people watching in-spite of the grime. Alas, Giorgio Serafini does not have that skill, so he comes across less like a dangerous maverick and more like a desperate try-hard with nothing to say.
From book to film Ernest Cline’s multiverseal video game The Oasis has made it to the big screen – but sadly the flaws that held it back originally may have been improved upon, but are still very much present.
This doesn’t feel like Spielberg. I’m not even sure some sequences actually are.
Where is the master of visual story telling? He wasn’t in the first ten minutes of the film, which feel so entirely dominated by a voice-over that I pity whoever has to devise the audio-description. Where is the director that manages to get some of the best child performances of all time? There’s only three lines spoken by a child and it’s still the worst performance of the film. No, scratch that, second worst. Because where is the director that knows the brilliance of a well-timed joke? He’s certainly not here, he wouldn’t of let TJ Miller treat every scene like he was still ad-libbing in Deadpool.
This isn’t a film for people that like Spielberg, this is a film for people that like the idea of Spielberg.
There are sequences in the film that very literally resurrect the dead and once the shine of understanding the reference fades away you’re just left with a faint discomfort, as what you’re watching is fun, but it just doesn’t feel right.
Granted there were vast improvements over its original in terms of story structure, but it failed to target the true issue which was always it’s characters, all of which are just as two dimensional as video game protagonists.
Understand that the reason I am so harsh about this film is not because it’s awful – it’s because somewhere in that monster there’s a spark of life. It’s the reason I sought out the book in the first place, it’s the reason why I went to see the film despite the book, and it’s the reason I don’t feel angry, just disappointed.
There is still a conceptual greatness in Ready Player One, I really truly believe that, but this film didn’t manage it.
Jack and Harrison talk to Karin Konoval, known for playing the Orangutan Maurice in the Apes remake trilogy. We go in-depth on the development of the character across the films, and how the technology effects the performance.
At the receiving end of much fanfare back in 2014, the first John Wick heralded the arrival of a promising new hope for the action genre, in the form of stunt coordinator-turned-director Chad Stahelski.Whilst the film hardly went about reinventing the wheel, it took a very standard revenge-oriented premise, and spiced things up with some impressive gun-fu choreography and more-than efficient direction.
It was certainly a solid film on its own terms, but as far as I was concerned, its primary effect was simply to hype me up for Stahelski’s future projects. As a result, when its inevitable sequel was eventually announced, I’ll confess that I wasn’t too thrilled about it. John Wick was an entertaining action flick because of its impressive execution, but in terms of story, character and even general concept, there was very little potential for expansion or development. The whole point of the first film was that it took a very straight-forward narrative, populated it with some stock characters, and then used those basic elements as a framework to build some inventive set-pieces around.
All of which was completely fine for a standalone film of course, but it meant that a sequel wouldn’t have too much to work with. It felt like it was more-or-less destined to become a derivative copy-and-paste job, effectively rehashing the original, only with a bigger budget. Truth be told, it made me apprehensive that we had another generic action franchise on our hands, one that would soon become stale and quickly outstay its welcome.
Well based on the evidence of John Wick: Chapter 2, I can happily report that I was dead wrong. This second instalment makes the smart decision to take the intriguing mythology that was vaguely hinted at in the first film, and then build upon it further, to the point where it becomes the cornerstone of the entire plot. In doing this, the film is able to give the world of John Wick its own distinct identity, which in turn helps to separate it from the crowd. In short, whilst the original managed to stand out in spite of its mediocre premise, this excellent sequel takes significant measures to elevate the quality of both the storytelling and the world-building, creating something rather special in the process.
This time around, Wick (Keanu Reeves) finds himself in the inconvenient position of having to honour a promise that he made years ago in exchange for a favour. As you can expect, said promise necessitates that he will, at some point, have to take a life. More specifically, the client (an Italian gangster named Santino D’Antonio) wants his own sister taken care of, so that he then can usurp her position in the criminal underworld. Given that he has a vague (some might say half-hearted) commitment to retiring, John graciously refuses this job. Unfortunately Santino won’t take no for an answer, and destroys Wick’s home in order to spur him into action.
Being the vengeful sort, John makes it his mission to seek retribution for this attack. However, it transpires that The Continental (the weird assassin society from the first film) has a strict policy about honouring deals. You see, if John fails to uphold his bargain with Santino, then it turns out that The Continental will not recognise his grounds for revenge. In fact, the society (and by extension, all of the world’s top assassins) would be expressly against him. Wick therefore has no choice but to travel to Rome and complete Santino’s job. Of course, there is nothing stopping him from killing Santino, AFTER the deal has been honoured.
Right from the bat, it’s a much stronger narrative than the first film’s, one that gives us a welcome look into the inner workings of The Continental. From the society’s seemingly arbitrary rules, to its internal hierarchy, and even its admin, everything is fully fleshed out. Along with this, the stronger focus on The Continental also means that several new and memorable personalities are introduced, all of whom help to give proceedings much more vibrancy and colour. From Lawrence Fishburne’s verbose crime lord, to a smattering of gimicky assassins, there’s a lot more… well…character, to the characters here. In particular, Peter Serafinowicz has a fantastic scene as a Sommelier, who sells firearms with an unparalleled sense of etiquette and class.
As a by-product of these new additions, there’s also a stronger emphasis on black comedy. It’s important to stress however, that there aren’t too many ‘jokes’ here. Instead, the majority of the humour comes from knowingly outlandish character motivations (which is apt, considering that Wick previously killed 80+ people over a dog) and comically restrained interactions between enemies. In other words, the comedy actually derives from narrative events, instead of interrupting them to make way for an avalanche of one-liners. John Wick: Chapter 2 never makes the transition into full on action-comedy, but the few instances of levity that are here do help to inject some colour into the film, especially when they work their way into the set-pieces.
And speaking of those set-pieces, it goes without saying that they are masterfully done. Wisely forgoing the use of disorienting shaky cam and obnoxious edits, Stahelski allows us to fully absorb the film’s gorgeously balletic choreography and marvel at the frankly staggering violence on display. If there’s any film that truly substantiates the link between staging a dance and staging a fight, then it’s this one.
Accompanying the stellar stunt-work, is a perceptible jump in terms of production value. With an increased budget, Stahelski is able to play around with much more dynamic locations (There are some really impressive exterior sequences in Rome) and also gets to indulge in some larger scale brawls. Thankfully, this increase in scope is mirrored by a proportional increase in quality as well. That’s right, these fights are even better than in the original!
To be perfectly honest, the only negatives here are fairly minor. Some might even call them nitpicks. For example, Tyler Bate’s score is a little on the bland side, and a sequence set in the catacombs is far too dimly lit, impeding your enjoyment of what is presumably a very cool gunfight. Still, as aforementioned, these are just small kinks in what is otherwise a very satisfying package.
Overall, John Wick: Chapter 2 builds upon all of its predecessor’s strengths and goes quite some way towards remedying its flaws. As far as action sequels go, this can confidently stand alongside the likes of The Raid 2 and (dare I say it?) T2 as an exemplar of the genre.
Oh, and to top it all off, it also manages to set up a tantalising sequel hook, in a way that feels earned and like a natural progression of the story. In fact- and I can’t believe I’m saying this- I seriously can’t wait for this franchise to continue.
Six years after the events of Resident Evil 2, former Raccoon City police officer Leon S. Kennedy is sent on a mission to rescue Ashley Graham, the U.S. President’s daughter, who has been kidnapped by a mysterious cult.
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