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.

The Mummy (2017)

One very confused movie.

Nick (Tom Cruise) is a greedy soldier who values wealth over all things and when he uncovers a sarcophagus of a cursed ancient Egyptian things get very bad, and very strange.

This is one reboot that definitely doesn't work for me with characters being stupid, scary things being funny, plot points not making sense, and surprisingly a lack of acting skill for some people. Tom Cruise is good, but his character is basically unlikable.

Just kill me know sand storm. Kill me now.

Adding Russel Crowe's character and organization is also just ... wrong. I suspect even he knew how absurd it was based on some of his scenes. Despite some comedy bits working well and decent enough effects this isn't one I'd watch again, and only give it out 1.5 camel spiders of 5.

The Water Diviner

Dehydration is no threat to him!?

A man with a knack for finding things (Russel Crowe) decides to go looking for his missing ANZAC sons, four years after they went to war at Gallipoli (and never returned). Most of the film takes place in Turkey which is a pretty nice setting and Crowe has believable acting chops for his part. While the first section of the movie is mostly drama which works well, following how Crowe gets past a lot of red tape, towards the end they tried to infuse more action into it which sort of dilutes the whole thing.

Now where'd I put my keys...

Cinematography wise it's a very nice picture to watch. It's also nice to see a guy totally out of his element and what life over there is like, as well as seeing the people on both sides who can't let go of the bloodshed. Yilmaz Erdogan is fantastic in his role here too, perhaps doing even better than Crowe. The flashback war scenes are also nice, but clearly not as much budget was pushed in that direction as the rest of the movie which is fine since it only plays a little part in the over all tale.

All up, it's not a bad flick to watch and I give it three holes out of five. I don't think it's one that warrants a second watching though.

Noah (2014)

Really not like the version you'd probably know.

During the time when the children of Cain were plenty and doing naughty stuff, a man named Noah was chosen by "the creator" to save the innocent while everything else perished with a cleansing flood. While this movie certainly has the tale of Noah's Ark in it, a lot of liberties were added too such as fallen angels (who turned out to be pretty cool) and Noah being a violent and somewhat cold hearted vegetarian who has no problem in -directly- killing people (much like Bale's Moses).

One angry man with an axe.

I didn't really mind that part, since he was going to drown them anyway and was the grandson of a man who once slew an entire army single handedly. Other things I quite liked were the silhouette scenes and how they portrayed the passage of time. Speaking of, apparently Jennifer Connelly's character is the only one immune to aging. That's nothing compared to the other problems though. Like wouldn't the combined animal poop make the ship explode with that many torches? Just kidding.

Ham, the middle son. WTF was going through his head? He remains unsure of everything all the way to the end. I also found it funny that Noah gets an instant-magic forest, but an ark? Oh you'll need to work for that. Lastly the third act was... unpleasant? After the awesome climax of "act 2", making Noah into a villain was... different. I'll give it that, but trying to then redeem him in what seemed to be ten minutes? Nope. Bad script right there. BAD! Have some conviction writers. After what you did to him, it would have been more satisfying had he been executed at that point. Executed slowly.

Much like the animals that boarded his ark in pairs, I give Noah two fiery swords out of five.