Author Archives: jjcwn

Movie Review: Drop

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The new movie “Drop” succeeds in creating a different kind of story, definitely never seen before.

As this movie begins with a flashback, Violet, played by Meghann Fahy is lying on the floor, about to be shot by her ex-husband while her young son looks on. We find out later that Violet’s insane ex-husband is dead and now it is about 3 years later, and Violet is ready to start dating again and has a blind date at a highrise restaurant in downtown Chicago.

With Violet’s sister babysitting her son, Violet arrives at the restaurant and meets her blind date, Henry, played by Brandon Sklenar. At first, the blind date is going smoothly, until Violet starts getting insane and then threatening cell phone messages, followed by videos showing her sister and son in her house. A terrorist is trying to force Violet to kill her blind date, and the constant threats with Violet desperately trying to find help, dominate the rest of this film.

There is an unusual side story with the appearance of an extremely annoying waiter, who makes too many appearances in this film, which I thought was an unnecessary distraction that lessens the story’s overall effectiveness.

There is a surprise and trick ending that I thought was well done, but not really that much of a surprise, with a climax that mostly worked.

The Rotten Tomatoes for Drop are a mostly high 83% and I agree with this rating and do recommend this movie.

Movie Review: The Amateur

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The new movie “The Amateur” is a good example of a great idea for an action movie with bad execution.

A married couple Heller, played by Rami Malek and Sarah Rachel Brosnahan are separated when Sarah is on a business trip in London. Heller is a computer expert who works for the CIA. After Heller’s wife tragically is killed in a Terrorist attack, he decides to take matters into his own hands, even though he has no skills as a CIA field agent. Heller is trained privately by an x-agent Henderson, played by Laurence Fishburne, who determines that Heller does not have the physical strength, is not a killer and because of this, he should not continue on his quest for justice.

The problem with this film is that there are no connections between scenes, no buildup or explanation as to why something is happening, or why Heller is motivated to do what he is doing. Characters pop in and out of nowhere, and we all wonder how a screenplay this poorly written was greenlighted.

Other characters in this film include a CIA agent named “The Bear” played by Jon Bernthal, with a small and mostly unnecessary role, and Holt McCallany as CIA Director Moore. This film represents another very good opportunity lost because nobody realized that the screenplay needed about five more rewrites and moved into production too soon probably because of budget cuts.

This time around I 100% agree with the very low 61% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and do not recommend this movie.

Movie Review: Warfare

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When it comes to war movies, everything changed in July 1998 when “Saving Private Ryan” was released. Gone are the days with John Wayne glorifying the worst part of humanity. In recent years movie makers have given respect to millions of human beings by showing what war really is – human beings horribly killed, crippled, and maimed by being shot, blown up, and even burned by blow torches and explosions.

The new movie “Warfare”, is co-directed by Alex Garland and an x-Navy Seal, Ray Mendoza about a firsthand experience in 2006 during the Battle of Ramadi in Iraq. This film is all about the insanity and chaos of war, with ten men trapped inside a two-story stone house in the middle of Iraq, surrounded by an enemy who is trying to kill them with nonstop gunfire, throwing grenades, and firing an RPG.

This film is definitely not for children or for the faint of heart. There are scenes of a man being blown in half by an exploding RPG and two men with their legs almost blown off and then screaming in agony for close to 75% of this film, which is filmed almost entirely inside the two stories of one house.

The men try and communicate with forces in their division desperately trying to be rescued from their impossible position. There are several scenes of impressive satellite videos showing the precarious position these soldiers are in, which at times look like they will be overrun by the enemy and killed.

Warfare stars D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Aaron Mackenzie, and the son of the late James Gandolfini, Michael Gandolfini who plays Lt. Macdonald. With a highly unusual and simple war movie like this one, there is not much character development or story, but the acting is good enough along with the mandatory respect all war movies must give to far too many young people who have given their lives in war.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie are a very high 94% and I agree with this rating and recommend this well made film about the horrors of war.