Action – Page 17 – Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare

“The Northman”

By Brett_G on April 24, 2022April 24, 2022

7.8

When strange things happen in your camp, blame the Christians. Because “their god is a corpse nailed to a tree,” so they can’t be trusted. Odin is the only deity to be trusted in these parts.

This was a wild two-and-a-half-hour ride. Somewhere between “Gladiator” and “The Witch,” this film combines gorgeous landscape shots with action portrayed in such complete darkness you’ll swear that you are watching “The Batman.”

Luckily, after our hero repeatedly gets his ass kicked, Ana Taylor-Joy is there with her magical healing powers to nurse him back to health. After the throat-singing prophet in the cave took some hallucinogens and foretold a great journey for him in the form of a riddle.

If you’re looking for a tale of revenge, I’d probably go for “John Wick,” seeing as it’s a tad shorter and more exciting. However, if you’re looking for a shining example of playing the long con this side of “Gladiator,” look no further. It doubles as motivation to do 300 sit-ups when you get home. This guy’s 8-pack is impressive. I’d suggest doing the sit-ups to the soundtrack. It’s non-stop hype music.

Action Netflix

“Gunpowder Milkshake”

By Brett_G on February 28, 2022February 20, 2022

7.4

It’s female “John Wick.” That’s all you really need to know.

Action Blockbuster Drama

“The Matrix: Resurrection”

By Brett_G on January 24, 2022January 18, 2022

6.8

If you liked the original, you’ll like this one.

I opted to catch this on HBO Max, and don’t feel like I missed much story-wise. Ideally, the spectacle would have been nice on an IMAX screen, but the overall impact would have been about the same. I felt like the runtime moved in bullet time, and the story was a fairly lazy rehash of the original, with updated special effects to distract you from this fact. Unfortunately for the movie, it doesn’t keep the narrative movement consistent enough to distract the viewer from this fact for very long. In a year full of rebooting franchises, this one seemed the least needed, and most lazily done I’ve seen in a long while.

Action Drama

“Logan Lucky”

By Brett_G on January 23, 2022January 18, 2022

7.7

This film left me as befuddled as the sheriff’s deputy pondering how to handcuff a one-armed man.

I can’t believe I’ve missed this one for this long. You can tell it’s the creative team behind the “Oceans” franchise. This film is fun from beginning to end. Interesting characters, great action, and classic misdirection and mystery. Excellent performances by all, but especially Daniel Craig and Adam Driver. They really don’t miss.

Action Blockbuster

“Eternals”

By Brett_G on January 22, 2022January 18, 2022

6.5

Let’s just say that I’m not heartbroken that I waited for this to come out on Disney+. That about sums it up.

The most by the numbers Marvel film I’ve seen in a long time. Add that to the insane runtime and too many characters to both introduce and keep track of, and it falls kind of flat. This had the hype factor for me of one of the Disney+ add-on shows when it comes to the MCU.