Birds of Prey and the Rise of the Black Swan

Two action movies that go in completely different directions.

Birds of Prey

"and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn" is a really long winded way to get the Harley Quinn name into this title which actually takes place in between Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad. Told from Harley's point of view this takes place right after she gets dumped by the Joker which removes her "protection" from all the many people she has wronged. Margot Robbie does a great job again as Harley, but the intentional disjointed story telling at the start as well as her narrating the tale really does make it suffer a bit, along with the usual blind luck and idiot bad guys that seem to permeate superhero shows. There's also an obvious boys vs girls theme going on which should be expected.

That said it still is quite entertaining to watch if you can stick with it, and there are some really good fight scenes thrown in - especially one which lets Harley display her proficiency with a bat. If she wasn't crazy I'd say she should always be carrying one! Definitely one for Margot Robbie or Harley Quinn fans and one that should at least be on the radar for action fans. For kicks my wife also tried recreate the breakfast sandwich featured here and it was pretty good, so there's that too! Not the best superhero flick but not a terrible one either. I give it three diamonds out of five, and I'd only watch the bat fight scene again.

SAS: Rise of the Black Swan

Hunting season is open!

A band of train hijackers have a wrench thrown into their plans as SAS operative Tom Buckingham (Sam Heughan) happens to be onboard for a vacation. An excellent script, exciting action sequences and good acting all around make this a very enthralling movie with very few slow parts. Also, now I know about the Channel Train tunnel between England and France which is probably common knowledge to most people but that was a new one for me.

Yes the baddies do goof a bit, especially at the end, but that just makes for a more exiting tale. Highly recommended for action fans, Outlander fans, or simply fans of good movies as this "Die Hard on a train" will satisfy most viewers. I'd definitely watch it again and give it four train loos out of five.

Bloodshot

So... much... ANGER!

Ray Garrison (Vin Diesel) is a special soldier with a vendetta, but thanks to some outside help he realizes this is a lie propagated by his handlers and adjusts his target accordingly. While there's nothing too unpredictable here, especially if you've watched the trailers, it is still highly entertaining to watch as the action scenes and effects are superb.

Based on a comic book.

The acting is pretty decent all around too and people that watch Outlander might enjoy seeeing Sam Heughan in an antagonist role (his accent still slips through sometimes). One has to question why the police hadn't been called on the main villain though... anyway this is definitely one for people that like superhero flicks, because that's exactly what this is! Leave your disbelief at the door. I give it 3 wheat bags out of 5 and would definitely like to watch it again.