The Contractor and One Battle After Another

Two action films.

The Contractor 

James (played by Chris Pine) is a spec-op level operator who gets fired from the military and needs to do some contract work to keep his bank balance in the green. Things go sideways and adversaries who can't shoot straight or take cover properly arrive on the scene. I didn't mind the predictable story in this one and the pacing felt just right - but the action bits could sadly have used some work. The plot armor on the protagonist is almost visible in some of them! Still an OK movie to have running in the background while doing something else.

One Battle After Another

This movie is mostly about Bob (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), who joins a bunch of revolutionaries and then has to live with the consequences of this decision for many years after. There are some funny parts but very few decent action scenes. It's also a needlessly long movie, with the first 1/4th to 1/3rd being able to be cut altogether and had me rooting for the "villain" most of the time. There's a whole segment towards the end that can be cut as well but they decided to bring one character back to life just to kill them again later? This is a garbage flick and not recommended at all.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves and Secret Invasion

Mindflayers among us? Just kidding BG3 fans.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

After escaping from incarceration for theft, a bard (Chris Pine) and barbarian (Michelle Rodriguez) are out to reclaim what was stolen from them but face numerous and often hilarious complications along the way. While the story at its core is simple, this excellent cast of characters, effects and fight scenes makes it very enjoyable and a big step up from the previous films while adding all the little technical details and cameos D&D fans would enjoy. Highly recommended, even if you aren't into D&D! 

That's better than a club!

Secret Invasion (TV Series)

When shapeshifting aliens threaten the safety of the world, who else is there to turn to but the Avenge... I mean, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson)? Literally anyone else actually. This six episode series unintentionally depicts just how irrelevant he is, which is kinda bad given he's meant to be the main character. Guess what, if you remove him from the story entirely it can still play out just the same as there are characters already doing his role in almost every scene. The best thing this has going for it is the nice opening song. Not recommended.

Wonder Woman 1984

Wishes are bad. Guess someone wished for a sequel.

When a wish granting magical stone falls into the wrong hands it is up to super heroine Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to save the world. While it has funny moments, cool effects, and the beautiful Gal Gadot, there's something very tame about the whole thing. For starters, remember how she massacred Germans in the first film which was awesome? Yeah. Not so much this time around.

Bad guys lucky day.

There's also a problem in making Wonder Woman use new skills, which she uses exactly once. Indeed the highlight for me surprisingly turned out to be Chris Pine's sections. Not really recommended, I give it two geologists out of five. 

The King (2019), Outlaw King & Kingdom (Korean TV Series)

People with heavy heads.

The King (2019) (geez so many movies have this title, putting the year is mandatory!)

Prince Hal (Timothée Chalamet) has no desire to be king or to war with anyone, but despite his best intentions fate has other plans for the young prince. Especially since this is basically a war flick! That said, the story and acting is decent and the fighting scenes are cramped, dirty, messy "do what needs to be done" type which is probably more realistic than flashy displays of swordsmanship.

I'm also glad they didn't try force a love story in there for the sake of it, this way we can just focus on Hal's growth and all the people influencing it. Good movie and one I can recommend. I give it three and a half Dauphins out of five and would probably watch it again.

Outlaw King

The English have all but conquered Scotland as the remaining nobility including Robert the Bruce (Chris Pine) bend the knee to King Edward I. Anyone that knows history though can tell that Robert doesn't bend the knee for long and instigates a rebellion. While the action bits are good and the opening is one of the best I've seen in a while, later cuts are very strange but keep the film moving at a reasonably fast pace.

Not a great title nor promo pic, but an OK movie.

There's a fair bit of singing too as I suppose was the way back then, but there's actually enough to make mention of it. All up this film is better than what I thought it would be but could have been better still. Give it a watch and see if you like it - especially if you've watched Mel Gibson's Braveheart recently. I give it two and a half bogs out of five.

Kingdom (Seasons 1 & 2) & Kingdom: Ashin of the North

During the time of swords and funny hats in South Korea, the cure to "save" / revive their dying king quickly turns into a pandemic... of zombies! This one surprised me in that a) it is a period piece and b) they found a way to make their zombies unique. It also helps that the action scenes are very good and the secondary plot of succession helps move things along when the zombies don't. Definitely recommended for zombie fans to try out!

Ashin of the North is a prequel to the tale, and while it is decent there are more holes in the plot and much fewer zombies. If you enjoyed Kingdom then by all means you should broaden the world building by watching this. Otherwise you can probably skip this and not miss out on much, should a season three ever arrive.

Wonder Woman

Finally, DC puts out another good superhero movie!

Growing up on the isle of Themyscira, home of warrior women Amazons, Dianna (Gal Gadot) had always wanted to join their ranks - eventually undergoing training despite her mother, the Queen's, protests.

Out of love, vital information is with held from her and when an opportunity to leave the sheltered isle comes calling, in the form of Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), she goes to fulfill her mission of protecting the world from the God of War, in the middle of World War I. Those poor, poor Nazis.

I have to admit, this movie does have all the things I'm looking for in a superhero flick with good effects, nice camera work, explosions, nice eye candy (so much eye candy lol), a body count, good acting all around, a decent bad guy and most importantly a decent story!

Better than Batman V Superman!

There are nice funny bits, "war is hell" bits, and a good dose of "girl (em)power(ment)" all done without any viscera. I particularly like the artsy part near the beginning of the film. I can't really flaw this movie and while it doesn't beat my favorite (The Dark Knight, I'm a Batman fan), I also have no reason to not give it five god killers out of five. Highly recommend it and yes, I would definitely watch it again. :)

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.