Tag Archives: Chris Hemsworth

Movie Review: Crime 101

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The new movie “Crime 101” that stars many known actors: Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Monica Barbaro, Nick Nolte and Halle Berry, tells the story of a worn-down police officer, Ruffalo, a jewel theif, Helsworth and an unhappy employee of a high-end insurance company. This story is not told sequentially like most movies, but within a series of parallel events where about 6 different stories are told simultaneously, and at the conclusion, several of these stories intersect in a climactic scene. This kind of storytelling is innovative, but most of the scenes are about jewel heists, chase scenes, and gunfights that we have all seen before.

By far the best part of this movie is the story about Helle Berry, who plays Sharon, an 11-year employee of a large, upscale insurance company that caters to the super-rich. Now at age 53, Sharon has been lied to for years and promised a promotion to a partner of the firm she works for, and has been strung along for years, with lies including “we will see in January”, “just hold tight”, “we are putting a pin in this for now”, “it is right around the corner”. Sharon’s frustrations about years of being lied to, understandably, turn into overwhelming anger, leading her to make a huge mistake – becoming involved with a criminal named Davis, played by Hemsworth. The one scene with Sharon confronting the lowlife CEO of the insurance company when he tries to groom a much younger employee to take Sharon’s place is extremely well written and well-acted. This one scene makes it worth seeing this movie, for all of us who have worked for companies and have been lied to, and treated with injustice and disrespect.

As far as the ending, I thought it was very close to not being believable, considering the circumstances and the decisions of the long-suffering police officer, Lou, played by Ruffalo, that in the real world he would very likely never make.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for Crime 101 is a too high 86%, with my rating around 80% and a moderate recommendation.

Movie Review: Furiosa A Mad Max Saga

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For the latest Mad Max movie “Furiosa A Mad Max Saga” the most impressive parts of this film have nothing to do with the screenplay or the acting. This movie is all about sand dunes, old beat-up cars, dune buggies, tractor trailers, and insane special effects. This movie was shot in the deserts and barren locations of Austrailia in the hot sun, where filming had to be a day by day nightmare, of cars breaking down and sand getting into the engines and transmissions of all the vehicles that were driven hard and destroyed within this story. The heat for the actors during so many hours of filming had to be extremely difficult to work in, reminding all of us who are movie fans that movie making is very often not the easy road many think it is most of the time.

This movie stars Anya Taylor-Joy as the lead character Furiosa, who starts as a young girl who loses her mother to a group of criminals and animals. She then grows up to be a great fighter who battles insane gangs in a world that is rapidly coming to an end. Her nemesis is an insane evil character Dr. Dementus, played by Chris Hemsworth. Unfortunately, the story is boring in too many areas and once again, this movie is way too long at 2 hours and 28 minutes.

This is yet another example of special effects and action scenes over a great screenplay – which is always the hardest thing to accomplish within any effort to produce and direct a new movie. The “Mad Max” name recognition is the reason why the producers think “who cares about the story, lets create explosions and car crashes in a huge desert, nobody cares about the story”.

I have never been fan of any of the Mad Max movies, often wondering why anyone likes a movie like this, with characters who are dirty and disgusting and barely alive in a world that is barely worth living in.

The Rotten Tomatoes high ratings of 89% – once again – make no sense, with my rating of 60% and a big pass for this film.

Netflix Movie Review: Extraction 2

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The new Netflix release, “Extraction 2”, is one of the few action movies where a bare minimum story is actually better because the action scenes and special effects are so spectacular.

Over 20 years ago Netflix started as a movie DVD company with no late fees. It is amazing to see how far this company has come, with the movies they produce that in many cases are as expensive and impressive as any mainstream movie. Netflix released the action movie Extraction in April 2020, also starring actor Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake, a black market mercenary. In Extraction 2, Rake’s new assignment is to extract a ruthless gangster prisoner and his entire family from a prison.

Most impressive about this action movie are the intense and well-shot fight scenes, which are not only long but seem extremely dangerous for the actors to shoot without being seriously injured. It’s one thing to be a bankable actor making impressive movies, it is quite another thing to realize the physical work involved along with the potential danger when practicing and choreographing dangerous hand-to-hand fighting scenes.

Along with Hemsworth are actors Golshifteh Farahani and Adam Bessa who play Nik Khan and her brother Yaz Khan who are equally impressive in their dangerous fight scenes throughout this film.

The scenes involving a moving train and attacking helicopters are as impressive action sequences that I have ever seen. I often wondered how the director pulled off some of the spectacular explosions and gunfire many times while watching this very good movie. There are other scenes where people are dangling from a high-rise building and falling through glass after hanging on trying not to fall, all the while shooting some of the most dangerous action fight sequences ever filmed.

Extraction 2 is much better and has many more spectacular action sequences than the first installment. The acting is also very well done and believable.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Extraction 2 are too low 76% with my rating of 90% and a strong recommendation.