Heads of State and The Accountant 2

A pair of action flicks!

Heads of State

When arms dealing bad guys try to attack a NATO summit its up to the new(ish) POTUS (played by John Cena) and a grizzled UK PM (played by Idris Elba) to save the day. Luckily they are also both fit dudes because this show is definitely an action comedy one with some good hits of laughs as the two leaders don't really like each other. Big props to the very succinct flash back sequences used and to Priyanka Chopra who actually carries the harder action segments in this film wonderfully. Definitely a silly movie and one you don't want to turn your brain on for. If that sounds like your cup of tea then you will certainly enjoy this!  

The Accountant 2

The autistic accountant/hitman (again played by Ben Affleck) is back and roped into a tricky missings persons case which warrants the involvement of his also hitman/but not accountant brother (played by Jon Bernthal) in a pretty humorous and violent outing with decent action scenes and character growth. While there are still some plot holes I actually prefer this one to the first as the blend between nerdity and violence is much better from the get go. Thumbs up!

12 Strong and Changing Lanes (2002)

Movies of conflict - on the opposite ends of the scale! Wait... all movies have conflict...

12 Strong

After the 9/11 attacks, Captain Mitch Nelson (played by Chris Hemsworth) is eager to take on the Taliban on their home turf and is deployed covertly with a small squad (its in the name) to do just that. It does help that he has some significant air support though! Inspired by real events, most of this film is gun play - almost too much of it actually, because outside plenty war action bits there's not really much happening story wise (outside the, "we gotta go kill those guys"). Perfect if you just want to see people shooting each other and getting blown up though.    

Changing Lanes

Rushing to get to court a lawyer (played by Ben Affleck) has a minor collision with a recovering alcoholic (played by Samuel L. Jackson) which screws up both their respective cases: the alcoholic loses his custodial parenting rights while the lawyer loses an important document collected by the other man. So ensues a feud of escalation between the two parties which is the main focus for this film and while this two thirds of the movie is decently interesting, the first third where it just sets up the two characters is very slow. Watch it if there's nothing else on, but feel free to multi-task until that initial collision scene which is where the movie should have started.

The Accountant and The Misfits

A couple of odd flicks.

The Accountant

Christian (Ben Affleck) is an autistic yet brilliant accountant who usually works for criminal organizations (they can't really go to any standard ones) to balance their books. The first third of this is exactly this, a slow job involving writing a lot of numbers that isn't very interesting to watch. Fortunately he also doubles as a killer / hitman because why not? Many people die in the process and this action film picks up nicely, but there are a few too many questionable logic bridges to get to that point. It's ok, but I'd not recommend it. Crazy to put that first third in an "action" film too.

The Misfits

Sums it up nicely.

In this heist / comedy, a team of criminals hire break out artist / conman / thief Richard Pace (Pierce Brosnan) to help them steal gold from a prison. There are a few funny moments nowhere near enough to save this from being a good or even mediocre film. Having near constant narration is a bad sign, explosions leave no logical damage, and a ten minute barf sequence doesn't really equate to comedy. My recommendation: Stay far away from this one.

State of Play

Little violence but thrilling nonetheless.

I heart you too, bro.

When Congressman Steve (Ben Affleck) is put on the hot seat, its up to grizzled reporter Cal (Russell Crowe) to help him clear his name and his reputation. There's very little in the way of violence in this flick, but the tight script and good cast do make it an interesting watch. As is the case with most thrillers, I can't really say more without giving the story away so all I can say is if you want something that will keep your attention or are a fan or Mr. Crowe of Mr. Affleck then this is one to watch. Three misdirections out of five, and yes - I'd probably watch it one more time.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Where fanboys rejoice and then get mad! :P

Supes and Bats disagree with each other, and Lex capitalizes on this to do crazy stuff. That's the premise of the movie and one pretty much everyone expected from the trailer or even just the title. These are somewhat different versions of the characters we're used to though. Instead of being brilliant, all three are simply more stupid emotional.

Judging from this poster, they are both ashamed of being in this film.

Oh and Batman uses guns, doesn't really care if people survive encountering him (giving even more contrast to Superman), and trips balls often. OFTEN. It's awesome! Also worth pointing out that Ben Affleck does a great Batman, but an even better Bruce Wayne. I wasn't checking the clock but I believe there's more Bruce than Bat in the film which is actually pretty cool.

Despite having all these big superhero names most of the action is still reserved for the last act, which makes it all the better when you get to it. The film is clearly DC's platform for building the Justice League too, giving little glimpses of other characters in their universe.

Overall I can agree it's not the best DC movie ever (hard to compete with my fave "the Dark Knight"), but I still very much enjoyed it and would definitely watch it again. I give it three and a half beat downs out of five.

Gone Girl

Believe the TV. The TV is your god.

A woman goes missing and her husband soon becomes the prime suspect despite his adamant stance of innocence. This thriller is pretty good at keeping your attention with the interesting mystery, puzzle piece flashbacks, and is backed by good performances by all parties involved. It also shows how easy it is for media to manipulate the sheepish masses and possibly holds the most number of times Rosamund Pike says the F-word in a film. There's a fair bit of sex, nudity and a bit of blood too.

*Grin*

Unfortunately it's only towards the end when you realize just how stupid, spineless and flacid all the characters are with their choices, making almost all of them unlikable. Don't expect an ending with closure either. It's a pity since just a little alteration would have made it fantastic in my book.

Currently the option of "the cat kills them all" is better than what is actually there for me. Also I can't help taking a parting shot at yet another pointless opening credit sequence that could have easily been done in the opening scenes with Ben Affleck at the start. All up I give this film three out of five.

Would I watch it again? Nope. If you want a more spoilerific review have a look over at Pixel Thoughts take on it. :)

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

You've probably already seen a movie with Jack Ryan but didn't realize it.

The film opens with a pretty quick background on protagonist, Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) who is clearly a clever and driven guy. As with most things Tom Clancy, he is soon recruited into a secret organization and embedded undercover where he can put his intellect to work. Soon enough (*cough* after a time skip *cough*) he uncovers a potential terrorist plot and happens to become the pointman in stopping said attack which also puts a strain on his relationship with his scary face girl friend (Kiera Knightley). I normally find Kiera to be really pretty, not sure what happened to her here...

There are a number of funny bits and a few action sequences in the film, though nothing over the top though and I'm actually surprised with the rather low body count. I guess it's because he's not really meant to be field-ready? Anywho, he's in luck since the bad guys here are rather stupid. Two of them actually let him win / escape. Around 35% of it is also in Russian, but that's ok since it's pretty entertaining. I give Shadow Recruit two and a half out of five hidden files, but am not really keen on watching it again.

He's a man of many faces.
More interestingly, this Jack Ryan (albeit a rebooted version) is meant to be the same Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October (Alec Baldwin), Patriot Games (Harrison Ford), Clear and Present Danger (Harrison Ford) and The Sum of All Fears (Ben Affleck) - so he clearly has a lot of ground he can (re)cover if they decide to make a series with him. He'll need to up his combat game to make it interesting though.