Movie Review: Honest Thief

Posted on October 16, 2020 by jjcwn • Posted in Action Movie, Bank Robber, liam neeson, Uncategorized • Tagged Action Movie, Bank Robbery • Leave a comment

The word from the movie industry (much like Broadway) is that any thoughts of a realized rebound in 2020 are out the window. The promised release of all 2020 blockbuster movies coming out this year now have all been pushed into 2021. This is why Regal Cinemas has decided to close down all of its US locations for a second time this year. The final straw happening with the new James Bond movie being pushed to April 2021.

The other large movie chain AMC has recently announced that they are running out of money and could be out of business by year end.

Many in the financial world are predicting the total collapse of the movie industry as it existed in 2019 and unfortunately because of Covid-19, they could all be right. Nobody would have imagined 1 year ago all that has happened in 2020; a year far worse than any year anyone alive can remember.

As far as the new movie “Honest Thief”, starring Liam Neeson and Kate Walsh many critics will say that we have seen most or all of the scenes in similar movies in the past and Liam Neeson is still capitalizing on his great 2008 performance in “Taken”. This is all true, but overall I thought that the story and the message make this one worth a visit.

This story is about a former bank robber, played by Neeson who wants to come clean and give back the 9 million dollars he stole years earlier in exchange for getting a much lighter sentence so he can be with his new girlfriend, played by Walsh. Unfortunately due to human greed and the amount money involved this idea goes very south quickly and what follows is a believable story and some good action. The very low 37% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes for this one are way off – once again proving that the critics are wrong too much of the time. To give a good movie like this one only 37% makes no sense. More in line with reality is the 71% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes that I agree with. I do recommend this movie.

Netflix Series Review: Away

Posted on October 10, 2020 by jjcwn • Posted in movie reviews, Space Travel, Uncategorized • Tagged Netflix Series, Space Travel • 1 Comment

The new 10 part Netflix series “Away” is about a real life trip to Mars and for the most part is about the reality of space travel of this magnitude and so many things that can go wrong. This series stars Hilary Swank as the commander of the spaceship that takes off from the moon and travel to Mars. During the trip to Mars, commander Emma Green, played by Swank and her crew encounter and then solve numerous problems life threatening problems. Some of them are solved by Green’s husband Matt Logon played by Josh Charles from Earth. I thought all of these problems were believable and the drama of finding solutions to each obstacle is one of the best parts of this 10 part series.

Many would argue that no woman who was married with a child would ever consider taking a trip to Mars that would take her away from her daughter and husband for years – one of the main areas of drama during this entire series. Over the last number of years, there have been people who have volunteered for trips to Mars, even under the condition where they would never be able to return. I have always wondered how long someone who made a decision like this, would have a huge change of heart after months and years in the middle of nowhere with no chance to ever return to earth. Before the United States or any other country can travel to Mars, thousands of problems and scenarios will have to be solved, starting with the human problems that will be the most challenging.

I thought both the science and the drama in this series was very well produced and acted and I am surprised at the relatively low 60% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, go figure. My rating for this series is a very solid 80% and I do recommend it.

Movie Review: Ava

Posted on September 26, 2020 by jjcwn • Posted in Uncategorized • Leave a comment

The trend right now in movie theaters, especially after the release of the horrendous Tenet is that for a significant period of time, low rated movies will be released because the vast majority of the movie-going public is still not going to movie theaters. The thinking here is, why risk releasing a huge and very expensive movie before we know if anyone is going to risk going to see it? All of this makes sense, and we all wonder when the movie industry will ever get back to normal again assuming this can ever happen, considering this world wide Pandemic.

As far as the new movie “Ava” starring Jessica Chastain, John Malkovich, Common, Geena Davis and Colin Farrell, I wondered how such an impressive list of A rated actors would all agree to make a movie like “Ava” – at best a below average production. This film reminded me of last years bad movie “Anna”, where a woman who is working in some kind of a high level spy agency (never fully defined or explained) is fighting and killing everybody she faces, despite being outnumbered and injured during so many of her encounters. All movies like this are both unrealistic and in most cases ridiculous because there is just no way that any one person can overcome so many attackers at the same time. The movie Die Hard 1,2 and 3 are examples of “realistic action” where the person is fighting off one person at at time, and sometimes does not actually win the battle. Hopefully one day we can do away with unrealistic action movies like Ava, in favor of physical conflict that not only makes sense, but is realistic.

The other problem with Ava is that the reason for Ava, played by Jessica Chastain is never really explained. She is assigned to kill people, but why? What is the purpose of this spy agency Ava works for and who are these people she is killing? This is all skipped over in favor of mostly inane Karate action. The third problem with this movie is the side story, involving the actor Common who was Ava’s previous boyfriend who is now about to marry her sister. He has a gambling problem and his issues with gambling and a late night dance and gambling club has no connection to the main story, that is never fully understandable on its own.

The Rotten Tomatoes ranking for Ava are a very low 20% and I agree with this ranking and wonder once again, why any named actor would take the role after reading the screenplay. I have seen worse movies that are like this one, but Ava is not worth wasting your time.