Category Archives: Action Movie

Movie Review: Tron Ares

Posted on by • Posted in Action Movie, Drama, Science Fiction • Tagged , , , , • Leave a comment

“Tron” is a science fiction movie franchise that started in 1982, starring Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner. The last Tron movie was released in 2010 “Tron Legacy”, starring Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde, with below average IMDB ratings on a par with the first movie, 6.8 out of 10.

The new movie “Tron Ares” is yet another example of name recognition, fans of the old movies and TV series, where the producers in charge think that throwing special effects at an audience is more than enough to get people to see any science fiction movie. Forego the screenplay, which takes too long; just pay a special effects company, and all we need is some dialogue. This summarizes this movie perfectly, because there is no story, no continuity, and no understandable screenplay anywhere in this disaster of two hours.

This movie stars Jared Leto as Ares, who is a robot, Jodie Turner-Smith who is another Tron robot with an appearance late in the movie of Jeff Bridges who once again plays Kevin Flynn and Gillian Anderson, who plays an executive, Elisabeth Dillinger. For all who see this very bad movie I suggest getting on your cell phones before the film starts and ask ChatGPT what this movie is about, otherwise nobody will have any clue with what is going on in one scene, after another scene, with no connection or logic, anywhere. The synopsis from rom ChatGPT, says it all:

  • After the events of Tron: Legacy, companies ENCOM (run by Eve Kim) and Dillinger Systems (run by Julian Dillinger) are competing to integrate digital programs from the Grid into the real world.
  • They’re limited by a problem: the materialized “digital constructs” only last ~29 minutes in the real world before “deresolving” (they degrade and disappear).

Discovery of Flynn’s Permanence Code

  • ENCOM and Eve Kim believe Kevin Flynn left behind a hidden piece of code (the “Permanence Code”) in an old remote Arctic research station which might allow constructs to stay permanently in the real world.
  • Eve successfully uses the code to bring a digital orange tree into the real world — it lasts much longer, proving the code works.

Introduction of Ares

  • Julian Dillinger creates Ares, a super-intelligent digital Program, intended as an expendable weapon, to deal with ENCOM’s threat and exploit the real-world materialization tech.
  • Ares is sent into the real world, and once there he begins to observe, question, and — to some degree — develop a sense of self, especially when confronted with nature, suffering, and real human consequences.

Conflict and Betrayal

  • Eve and Ares eventually align, as Ares starts diverging from Dillinger’s control. This sets up conflict between creator (Julian Dillinger) and creation (Ares + Eve).
  • Eve becomes a target because she has knowledge of the Permanence Code and maybe because Dillinger wants control of it. The stakes include asking who has the right to “create life” or let digital beings live permanently in our reality.

As far as Rotten Tomatoes critics reviews, which are a very low 53%, one critic Kyle Logan from Chicago Reader wrote: “Ares is also saddled with a truly atrocious script. Awkward attempts at emotional and thematic heft are laughable”. My rating for this very bad movie is around 15% only for some special effects. Hopefully this is the last we ever see the word Tron, anywhere, ever again. Run from this special effects mess.

Movie Review: The Smashing Machine

Posted on by • Posted in Action Movie, Movie Review • Tagged , , , • Leave a comment

The new movie “The Smashing Machine” is a true story about a former Mixed Martial Arts champion Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson) . This film is essentially comprised of 3 main parts. The first part is about the ridiculous sport of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), which has no real rules and comes down to two men falling to the floor on each other and beating each other in the head or the face using their hands or, in this movie, frequently using their knees to knock a man unconscious. While this “hitting the man in the head with your knee” method was considered a rules violation, it was still allowed in several fights during this story, because in this sport, there are no rules, other than perhaps eye gouging.

The second part of this story is about the relationship and constant arguing of Mark Kerr and Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt). During almost the entire time on screen, Dawn and Mark would drift from one insane argument after another. Too many times, these non-stop arguments were over nothing. One time, they even argued over a cactus plant. While these intense arguments did show acting ability from both Johnson and Blunt, seeing so many of them got old halfway through these two hours.

The third part of this story is about Mark Kerr’s constant abuse of pain killers, which included dangerous opioids that almost took his life and led him to rehab. The worst part of a story like this is how depressing it is that any human being would choose to be devoted to a sport that is so idiotic, and should have been outlawed years ago. Why is it considered entertaining to see two men fall to the floor and hit each other in the face and head?

There has been some buzz about the impressive acting of Dwayne Johnson in this movie and there are indeed some scenes that do show that he can act. Even though this movie is average at best, I believe Johnson will be nominated for a Golden Globe award and possibly even an Oscar, but the quality of this movie will probably prohibit him from winning either award.

I agree with the moderate 73% ratings for this movie on Rotten Tomatoes, but due to the ridiculous fighting scenes of a sport that should be banned, I do not recommend this film.

Movie Review: One Battle After Another

Posted on by • Posted in Drama movie, Movie Review • Tagged , , • Leave a comment

The new movie “One Battle After Another” has one aspect of movie-making taken from Christopher Nolan, the almost non-stop background music throughout the entire film. Why would any movie director desire non-stop background music? For me, the annoying music distracts too much from the story. Perhaps the director Paul Thomas Anderson’s mentor is director Christopher Nolan, who had background music playing througout last year’s Oppenheimer. I will never be a fan of background music during any movie.

One Battle After Another is about a group of militant criminals who rob banks to fund their cause called “The French 75,” which is a revolutionary group that resists government surveillance and corporate corruption. From the beginning of this story, you realize it is going to be one of those “desperate to be different” movies, when you find out that one of the main characters, played by Sean Penn, is named “Col. Steve J. Lockjaw”, easily one of the craziest character names in the history of movies.

Everything about this movie tries to be new and different and, in too many scenes, insane. This movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob, one of the leaders of French 75. He is married to Perfidia (Teyana Taylor), who is the character most involved with the bank robberies that fund the group. In one scene, extremely pregnant with her stomach exposed, Perfidia fires off many rounds of a machine gun in an open field – yet another crazy moment in this film.

When Perfidia is captured, the insane Colonel Lockjaw falls in love with her and allows her to escape into witness protection. Perfidia eventually flees to Mexico, and her character is never seen again in this story. We find out later that Bob’s daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), is Lockjaw’s daughter, setting the stage for her kidnapping by Colonel Lockjaw later in the film.

The conclusion is equally as crazy as the rest of this movie, with a highly unusual car chase scene on a remote highway.

The acting is very good throughout this film; however, the too high 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes I do not agree with, with my rating 85% and a recommendation. I agree mostly with the review of Christopher Lloyd (The Film Yap) that summarizes this movie better than any other review: “An overly long, messy, tonally weird piece that inartfully stitches together disparate elements. Some great performances, including Sean Penn, but he’s a cartoon villain. The women — Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor and Regina Hall — really drive it.”

The bottom line is, for any movie, just because it is a new idea and has never been seen before does not automatically make it good or enjoyable to the audience.