Mobland and This City is Ours

First season TV shows about protagonists who are crime family adjacent.

Mobland

Harry (played by Tom Hardy) is a fixer for the Harrigan crime family who has his work cut out for him as he needs to clean up messes created by the entitled youngsters and/or crazy elders of the family while attempting to keep the peace with their rivals and trying to keep his wife happy. It's nice how he's portrayed as a really soft spoken, calm bloke regardless of the situation but can "shift gear to six" when things need to happen but you'll also be face palming at all the idiotics everyone else gets up to. Worth a watch. 

This City is Ours

Michael (played by James Nelson-Joyce) is the right hand man to the Phelans crime family patriarch but when things go awry (what with the patriarch played by the walking spoiler Sean Bean :P) he soon finds himself on the outside of the family circle despite actually owning half the business. You'd think that what follows would just be a tale of guns blazing but no... the story makes it a bit more complicated than that. It's not bad, but it does feel that all the characters are lacking the cajones to actually see things through personally. Hopefully they get more drive in season two or this is just going to go nowhere. 

Warm Bodies and Venom: The Last Dance

A pair of corny movies.

Warm Bodies

This zombie comedy romance flick stars Nicholas Hoult as the protagonist zombie who falls for a very much alive girl.  This alternate view point is pretty original as its quirky nonsensical power of love plot. Might be a good pick for those of you who like the three C's in movies: cheesy, campy and corny but otherwise stay away.

Venom: The Last Dance

Closing out Tom Hardy's trilogy of Venom movies, this one has him on the run from both law enforcement and new alien scum sent by a bad guy who loves narration. It  certainly feels that they just wanted to get this over and done with many ridiculous scenes that should have ended up on the cutting room floor but I guess they really just wanted one last crazy ride with the anti-hero symbiote, so much so that they just whacked in a whole bunch of them in here to give them possibly their last chance of screen time. Definitely turn your brains off if watching this one. Not recommended.

Mad Max (1 2 3 and Fury Road)

Driving in the wasteland!

Mad Max (1979)

It's a grim future in the Australian outback, but hey at least there are still police around right? One said copper is Mad Max (Mel Gibson) who is decent at driving and gets at odds with a drugged out of their brains criminal bike gang. The story isn't great and its obviously dated badly. There are even shots where characters walk farther away and start to have to yell because there is no mic following them away! Really its just the physical stunt work that this has going for it as after watching it I was amazed that anyone would have green lit a sequel! Not recommended.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

The future from the first film just got a lot darker with a great war really screwing up the world. This time Mad Max (still Mel Gibson) is just looking for some fuel and instead comes across a convoy being harrassed by bandits. With a welcome guest star of scene stealer Bruce Spence, this is a huge step up from the first movie as not only do the amazing stunts persist here but the story is actually a very decent one. It's the best of Mel Gibson's Mad Max movies for a reason! Recommended!

Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome (1985)

After getting robbed Mad Max (Mel Gibson again) needs to trade his skills for gear in the huddled trading post of Bartertown where things just go from bad to worse. Not just for Mad Max, but for the audience too! The story seems to go off the rails and into Peter Pan land with a focus on child actors who are neither endearing or useful, especially when they intentionally speak "broken Australian"? At least there's an interesting finale and Tina Turner gets to flex her acting chops (she should have been in it more) but unfortunately, its not enough for me to recommend this to anyone.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

This film continues the trend of Mad Max (this time played by Tom Hardy) getting a shitty start, being enslaved by the War Boys as a blood bag before fate manages to get him behind the wheel of his own life again. A good (albeit simple) story backed with awesome stunts and an increased level of violence make this a very entertaining spectacle to behold. Easily the best of these four movies which should be no surprise given the amount of technological advancements film wise since the previous one. Recommended!

Venom - Let there be Carnage and No Time to Die

Two poorly written films.

Venom - Let there be Carnage

Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is back to being a downtrodden journalist who must also put up with his brain hungry symbiote, the titular Venom, who is both cool and funny. An incident while interviewing death row inmate Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) inadvertently creates the antagonist for the film but also creates a lot of questions that are never answered.

Why is it red? Bigger? Shoots stuff? Explain please.

With a plot that's not that great and CGI where it might as well be Spiderman vs Doc Ock, there aren't many redeeming qualities here to anyone but fans of the franchise. For me this was much worse than Venom's original outing, and I give it two chickens out of five. You won't miss anything if you skip this one.

No Time to Die

A retired James Bond (Daniel Craig) is lured back to saving the world against another crazy terrorist with another weapon of mass destruction. Hmm, other than Bond being retired now isn't that the plot in every other James Bond film? Anyway, there is some nice eye candy, mandatory chase sequences and some OK action sequences which Bond has less of a part in.

Does that sound super "Ho hum" to you? Because that's exactly what it is. There are no really memorable scenes save the very start and maybe the very end and it suffers from numerous scenes that could have been shortened or cut out but more importantly suffers from weak story telling, especially the "quest hook" segment of it. Not recommended.

Venom

So, why does he look like evil Spiderman?

The search for truth knows no boundaries for reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), which lands him into hot water when he sticks his nose where it shouldn't be. Coincidentally this happens to be a research lab involving some very hungry extraterrestrial parasites. Any Spiderman fan will know how what happens next, but the plot is still quite engaging regardless.

Something looks off about his feet...

Having Venom "speak" also makes for quite humorous scenes when he's not decapitating or eating people. The special effects are great, acting is good, and there's not really any slow part to the show which admittedly was much better than I initially imagined. Definitely one I'll recommend, and one I will happily watch again. I give it 4 meals out of 5.

The Revenant

Never get in between a mama bear and her cubs.

Due to a string of unfortunate and painful events, Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) finds himself struggling to survive the wilds and to return to civilization. Now while I had some trouble understanding Tom Hardy's character, acting was great across the board and it had to be.

There are many shots that just keep going and don't cut (or cut obviously), which is something I really enjoy in film and TV. This means everyone has to do their bit perfectly or the whole take is ruined! Having fantastic cinematography and locations to shoot also helps as does the decent plot.

A bear springs from hiding!

My only negative is that it doesn't end as strongly as it starts, but it still gets my recommendation to watch. I'd certainly watch it again, though maybe not so soon, and give it 3.5 maulings out of 5.