Shandon sky, Edinburgh.
Spider-Man 2 (2004) revisited.
I didn’t think much of this upon a first viewing. Time, or the slew of shit since – mostly of the multiverse variety and endless remakes and reboots – has been kind to the exceptional Spider-Man 2 (2004).
Gripping action scenes with three-dimensional characters in the mix, an almost total lack of the usual highly irritating in-jokes that feel out of place, scenes with actual emotional heft, and comic strip transitions that work.
Alfred Molina should have been in more stuff after this, the next go-to über-villain.
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
John McTiernan has evidently experienced quite the few legal … issues in recent years, but for a brief period he was King of the Hollywood Blockbuster, and The Hunt for Red October (1990) his last action heroics (see what I did there?).
Alec Baldwin is the nominal protagonist but he’s more of a link between Sean Connery and Scott Glenn, the two submarine commanders spending most of the movie in a gripping cat-and-mouse underwater showdown. It does what these movies are meant to do – the claustrophobia and tension, the crew in-fighting, but it also has a geopolitical dimension which now doesn’t appear to be merely of its time.
Not bad at all.
Nobody (2021). AWESOME.
Loved this. Think John Wick/The Equalizer/Death Wish rolled into a can and Saul Goodman peeking in for a whirl. It’s frankly ludicrous in bits but just so entertaining. This is action done right – it stems from the real-life scenarios we see daily in the tabloids and hope such things never happen to us (sometimes they do).
I recall the Travis Bickle’s tragic line, “Here is a man who would not take it anymore.”
But talk about fight scenes. This film demonstrates what it’s like to be punched in the face. It really hurts. Personally, I’ve always preferred a whack in the chin than the nose; with the former, you’re done. The latter, you bleed and show the wounds of battle.
This movie is hilarious and believable at the same time. It’s a 5/5. Well done, Bob Odenkirk. Top lad.
Get it seen!
Pitch Black (2000).
Another first viewing – I’m on a quest to get my money’s worth from Netflix.
I wasn’t expecting anything from this but I was quite disturbingly surprised by how much I liked it. I’ve never had much time for Vin Diesel, his silly fast car flicks and muscle flaunting, the daft yarns with their terrible scripts. But here I found an interesting, thoroughly likeable and complex character I wished to share the journey with. It’s a glimpse at a career that never was, and I won’t watch another film he’s in because the lad can’t possibly top Riddick.
The movie was as generic as it comes and I won’t revisit it, but the 90 mins were killed and I chuckled a wee bit.
It’s an intriguing accidental portrait of an actor at a crossroads.
Wanderings and ... wonderings. 