Tag: action

Jay’s Take: Escape Plan 3

twobuffdudes

We are in to uncharted territory here; something that Escape Plan 3 knows nothing about. I was disappointed with the new Lion King because the cold, realistic tone of live-action took away from the visual imagination of animation. There is no visual imagination in Escape Plan 3. Ninety-percent of the film takes place in a vile, puke colored prison (the same where Shawshank was filmed!) whose inhabitants notice the bloodied and crispy linens. In this high-security Latvian prison, Devon Sawa (the boy from the first Final Destination movie! That’s where I knew him from) has kidnapped the daughter of a wealthy Chinese tech mogul for some reason (the copy I watched had no English subtitles, but I can tell you it all felt terribly dramatic). THEN he goes and kidnaps the daughter of Sylvester Stallone’s security expert Ray Breslin – presumably to lure him out of hiding – which as we all know is a BIG MISTAKE. Breslin’s specialty is breaking out of prisons to test their weaknesses, but will this mission push him to his own breaking point? STAY TUNED.

Continue reading →
Posted on by wd 0

Jay’s Take: Men in Black 4

rbsh

Ah, the drive-in experience! Something I never got to do as a kid, something I never choose to do as an adult. We drive a 2016 Mazda CX-5 that has to be the biggest piece of shit on four wheels and completely unsuited to sitting idle for more then 20-minutes without whining that it hasn’t got enough attention (that and the brakes, and the transmission, and the suspension, and the mileage, and the warranty, etcetera etcetera). But when we do go, we only have one within 100 km or so of our house, since you know it’s old-fashioned enough to drive an hour to get there but not enough to not trend like crazy when something like Avengers comes out. Oh my god have you been to the drive-in lately? There’s still a drive-in? What’s a drive-in? Tonight there was no Avengers. There was, however, Men in Black 4 and Annabelle 3. Oh joy! All I could think about when sitting in the lot was how long it had left before the property became condos.

Continue reading →
Posted on by wd 0

Jay’s Take: Shaft 2019

ptroz

Shaft, the 1971 original, is a product of its time: a blaxploitation picture with a simple crime story driven by a cheeky lead hero. Shaft, the 2000 remake, is a product of its time: an attempt to shoehorn a diluted version of the brand-cough-character into a competent John Singleton urban crime thriller. Shaft, the 2019 reboot of the series, is a product of its time: shot and edited like a CBS primetime drama with a plot that would fit a 40-minute episode of Hawaii Five-O but stretched out to almost two hours. Thankfully, Shaft 19 (which is what Warner was hoping for, I’m sure) is probably the most successful of the three movies I’ve seen, in nailing the core character in an unoffensive plot that he served instead of domineering or underperforming in.

Continue reading →
Posted on by wd 0

Selected Scenes: Shaft 2000

vlcsnap-2019-06-23-21h09m10s483

shaft sr’s nephew john shaft is just as smooth talking and smooth striding as his uncle, walking down the middle of the wrong side of busy roads and cold cocking insolent young honkeys. but todays scene isnt about shaft himself, but a small time drug dealer in harlem named peoples. there isnt anything particularly interesting about peoples. hes an archetypical latin american who wears egyptian wool and likes to stab people with his wooden handled icepick. but when shaft kills his younger brother in a shoot out, a different side of him comes out. the side he would play up but that we hadnt seen till now. the side that would do anything for his peoples, especially his family. in a fury of emotion he begins walking towards shaft, brandishing his pick screaming “you might as well kill me too”. a look falls over shafts face. maybe one that has seen this before. one that is sick of the killing. maybe a look that says hes sorry, or that he understands.

Continue reading →
Posted on by wd 0

Selected Scenes: Shaft

vlcsnap-2019-06-19-08h15m51s692

private investigator john shaft is one bad mother, and everybody wants a piece of him: the white police of the nypd keep pressing him for leads; a prominent black gangster wants him to find his kidnapped daughter; and all the while every piece of tail on two legs wants a night with the man whos a sex machine to all the chicks. cop vic androzzi thinks hes got shafts number though: heres a guy who knows everyone on the street and how to get to them, with a reputation of getting the job done. even if his racist partner doesnt agree, androzzi thinks shaft and him can form a partnership. what he doesnt know is shaft is playing him right back, hustling him for information while giving up nothing in return. because shaft doesnt owe anything to the cops, and especially not to the white man trying to get him down! androzzi holds up a black pen to shafts face and tells him hes not so black after all. shaft holds a white coffee cup up to androzzi and tells him hes not so white, either. sometimes you cant win.

Continue reading →
Posted on by wd 0