The Killer

A John Woo remake of his original 1989 film of the same name. This version is set in France where a contract killer (known in street lore as Queen of the Dead) makes a decision not to kill a young singer in a nightclub who she sees as collateral damage during a hit. This decision drives the entire rest of the plot, bringing conflict with her own ethic, her boss and interactions with the police (played by Omar Sy whom I loved in Lupin). This is largely a formulaic assassin movie with great fight scenes and shoot outs, but not much novel (I mean, it is a remake). Probably need to add the original to my watch list just for fun. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Unthinkable

A highly disturbing (on many levels) war thriller. The story features a radicalized U.S. Muslim man who has built and planted nuclear bombs in 3 U.S. cities. He is captured and the entirety of the film is the interrogation drama that unfolds to find where he has hidden the bombs. Seems like it is basically a window into "enhanced interrogation techniques" (i.e. torture) and the effect on all the people involved. Truly horrible from all points of view. You leave this wondering one thing: how are humans capable of being so in-human? Or is our aspirational ideal of "humanity" just naïveté and the real surprise is those who move away from in-humanity? I don't recommend this movie.

2 stars (out of 5)

The Recruit (serial)

Recruited straight out of law school to work for the CIA, Owen is trying to understand what it means to work at a place where everything is secret or suspicious. He stumbles on a case of a former asset wanting to get out of jail in return for not exposing CIA operatives. A nice 8-episode series that has Owen traveling all over the world, and back and forth between DC and Phoenix quite a bit, while he learns who he can trust and how to do the job of lawyering. Effectively he is a combo lawyer/action hero - with only a bit of bumbling. I experienced the script to be pretty tight, not stringing me along just to get another episode in. I definitely binged this one. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Mission: Cross

A husband and wife have secrets. This Korean action film tells the story of the wife, who is an ace special detective in the police, and the husband, who is the perfect stay-at-home husband. Until trouble comes their way and husbands past life as a military special forces operative comes back to life. The two work together to take down a threat to the country. Pretty basic storyline, but well written and streamlined. We get enough to know the characters without massive dialogue backstory, etc. 

4 stars (out of 5)

The Union

Berry and Wahlberg join forces as a professional spy and regular guy out to save the world. The story device uses "the union" as the novel take on an independent, extra-governmental spy agency that saves the world from bad guys. Union because the recruits are regular people with blue collar jobs. Genres of buddy cop, rom com, spy action thriller all fused into one. Somehow it mostly works. Not a work of art, but entertaining and engaging in all of its trope-y-ness. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Jack Reacher (2012) and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

Rewatched the Tom Cruise Reachers (late night summer, what can I say) from 2012 and 2016. All I can say here is that since the release of the Alan Ritchson seasons, he is such a more believable Reacher from the physical characterization. So watching all the fight scenes, etc. I imagine Ritchson. But Cruise did do a pretty good job and walking the balance of when to emote and when to avoid. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Deadpool & Wolverine

The critics panned it for being exactly what Deadpool has always been - a self promoting send up full of crude inside jokes. In this version, we get more of the same, with a different plot line. Deadpool's timeline is going to deteriorate since Logan died. Deadpool jumps the multiverse in search of a Logan he can bring back to his timeline to save it. No discussion about what it will do to the timeline for the stolen Logan, but this is just another example of the egocentric nature of the movie. Don't get me wrong, this is a great example of one liners and self promotion (both for Reynolds and Jackman and for Marvel) and while it is exactly inline with the franchise, it is no longer fresh (like the original in 2016 was). If Marvel were only producing Deadpool clones, then it would get old very fast. But as an alternate saturday afternoon entertainment where no MCU timeline consistency is required, nice job. 

3 stars (out of 5)