Inside Man: Mystery Suspense

Movie Review: Inside Man (2006) on Netflix 👏

In this suspenseful bank-heist movie, Inside Man pits Denzel Washington as a skilled police detective against Clive Owen as a well-planned bank robber and Jodie Foster as a highly motivated negotiator for Christopher Plummer, the man with something to hide. Call it a high-stakes game of chess for everyone. (See the movie trailer below.)

    It seems like an ordinary day at this mid-city bank, when a van load of "painters" arrives. But all hell breaks loose when they exchange paint cans for machine guns and start yelling commands and firing shots. Everything goes into lockdown as bank employees and customers are ordered to strip down to their underwear and put on matching painter outfits, caps, and masks. They become hostages, herded into small groups and sequestered on the floor in separate rooms. Anyone who doesn't follow orders is slapped around, beaten, and threatened within an inch of their lives. 

    Police get a hint there's a problem and arrive. Communications is set up with the robbers, but nothing is quite as it seems. It's up to police to figure out who the robbers are, what they want, and how to shut down the steal. But the robbers aren't playing by the usual rules.

    The founder of the bank steps in to offer police any help, but he's shoved aside. He contacts a high-power broker he's used before to speak with the robbers. There's a certain box in the bank he doesn't want anyone to see, which otherwise could be ruinous to his business. She must see to its security at all costs. A high-dollar payoff to the thieves is considered.

    Things seem to be going just as the thieves planned, but the police detective just can't let it go. Does it matter? The movie title matters. You'll have to watch it to get it—but careful, it's not what you think.

    Inside Man movie trailer via YouTube:

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: Sci-Fi Superhero

Movie Review: Anti-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) on Disney + 👍

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is one of the campier superhero movies of the Marvel Universe, and it's played with honest, fun humor by Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man and a stellar supporting cast. This includes Evangaline Lilly as the Wasp, Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne. Kathryn Newton plays Ant-Man's daughter, Cassie. They all get sucked by a vortex into the Quantum Realm in this latest episode of this, for my money, silly tale. (See the movie trailer below.)

    The story represents a revisit to the realm for Janet, who re-tangles with old adversaries. Solving old rivalries and their searches for vengeance is the key to everyone returning home. This episode features lots of squirmy quantum-size creatures brought to life size for our heroes to battle and tight squeezes to work their way out of. Naturally, Ant-Man and the Wasp, with the help of Cassie, must save the day. 

    It's impossible not to enjoy Ant-Man for his likeable, self-deprecating style and whimsical humor. Everyone gels as characters in this story, and maybe this is what makes the campiness work so well. If nothing else, you'll enjoy watching everyone work awkwardly wholesomely good relationships to save the day. 

    My wife loves everything superhero, and she loved it. My daughter is so-so on superhero stories and she loved it, too. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania seems good for just about any audience. Give it a try!

    Here is the Ant-Man and the Wasp trailer through YouTube:

Extraction 2: Pure Action

Movie Review: Extraction 2 (2023) on Netflix👌

Here's a great movie for escaping the summer heat: Extraction 2. It pits Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake, an Aussie special forces specialist extraordinaire, against Tornike Gorgrichiani as Zurab Rudiani, an operative of the Georgian military underworld. This film is full of action and extreme stunts and special effects with the intensity of a John Wick flick. (See movie trailer below.)

    Extraction 2 picks up where the original Extraction leaves off. He's put back together and left to recover in a remote site then invited by Idris Elba to do a mission only he can accomplish: Rescue the sister and her family of Rake's estranged wife, who is the wife of Rudiani's brother. Rudiani lives in a maximum security prison in the country of Georgia, under the protection of the Ngazi, a paramilitary group. His family lives with him in this bleak, heavily defended facility.

    To break in, to escape, to getaway and live, it's one long, massive fight and gun battle scene in the prison, on a train trip through desolate mountains, on a helicopter trip to Geneva, in a tall skyscraper in Geneva, and on and on. Guns blazing, grenades popping, bombs exploding, glass shattering, furniture disintegrating, pipes maiming, hatchets chopping, knives stabbing, mayhem chasing--you name it, you'll see it.  And to top it off, the wife's husband (Rudiani's brother) has been killed and her teen son wants revenge, in addition to Rudiani. It's a long, hard-fought battle to the end. Boom! You won't even notice the heat anymore.

    Extraction 2 movie trailer from YouTube:

 

12 Mighty Orphans: Historical Sports Drama

Movie Review: 12 Mighty Orphans (2021) on Starz 😥

There are lots of feel-good movies about beleaguered sports teams with the guts and will to win amazing seasons. None are as thrilling as 12 Mighty Orphans. (See movie trailer below.)

    That said...

    Bittersweet is the film 12 Mighty Orphans, a true story of 12 orphans in pre-Great Depression Texas who play heroic, sport-changing high school football. They beat all but one team till the championship game at the end. Then they hold that team to one goal. With seconds to go... 

    Orphans also have one goal but no extra point, and they have the ball within scoring range as the clock ticks down to zero. It's a dramatic finish. No spoiler here, you have to see the film to learn the result. I will say my jaw dropped about a foot when I saw it. That's all I'll say.

    It was a great film. It had a lot of heart. It was well told. The characters were wonderful—even the really, really, really bad guy, Frank Wynn (played by perennial character actor Wayne Knight) was a delight to watch be full-out evil. Luke Wilson is tremendous as the head coach, Rusty Russell. Martin Sheen is a memorable defensive coach and team doctor, Doc Hall. Good stuff!

    What those kids had to put up with in real life was despicable. Rusty Russel, Doc Hall, and their fans lifted their lives. And those kids went on to do great things. All the elements of this true story make this a very watchable film, a remarkable story, a resoundingly great feel-good story. Till the end. Maybe you'll find a reason to like the end better than I did. Maybe it will be the wrap-up titles at the end telling what happens to many of the characters in their later lives.

    Give it a try.

Here's the movie trailer via YouTube:

Compartment Number 6: Romantic Road Movie

Movie Review: Compartment Number 6 (2021) on Apple TV or Prime 👎

Compartment Number 6 is a "road movie" that actually takes place on a Russian compartment train. It follows the travel of two strangers--a student (Laura, a Finn played by Seidi Haarla) and a miner (Ljoha, a Russian played by Yuriy Borisov) traveling to the Arctic Circle. (See official movie trailer below, released after it was Grand Award Winner at Cannes in 2021.)

Laura wants to study petroglyphs for her archeology studies. Ljoha wants to get to work, he says to earn money to build a business. They share the small compartment with only a language in common between them. At first Ljoha is brash and clumsy with Laura and she attempts to leave the train at the first stop. But with few resources to help her get along on her own, she returns. He softens his approach to her and they become closer. 

As they learn more about each other, learn to trust each other, learn to like each other, a relationship develops. They become companions, united by their common ground rather than divided by what is different. They help each other. The train stops overnight in a small town and Ljoha takes Laura to meet his mother. It's time to move and when they arrive in Murmansk and her long mission to see the petroglyphs falls apart, she goes to the mine to see him. He comes to her aid.  

This isn't your typical romance film, but it has those overtones by the end and it loses its claustrophobic feel once Laura is free to be herself in Ljoha's presence and even more so when they become physically and emotionally closer as a couple. 

The ending is ambiguous. That's where the film faults and you're left feeling unfulfilled. That's why I gave it a thumbs down. It could have been so much more. You're left to wonder at too many unspoken, unexplained and undeveloped questions. This film could have been so much more. They raised the story to a climax and then let it drop.

Here is the movie trailer via YouTube:

Broken: Crime Fiction

Book Review: Broken by Don Winslow (2020) 👍

Don Winslow is a best-selling storyteller. I found out how much while reading his six-story collection in Broken. Winslow's beat here is crime fiction, not usually my forte, but this is so well written I couldn't take my eyes off it. About 40 or so pages a story. So easy to get involved in the characters and their stories.

The feast before my eyes is six short stories, each an entirely separate, unique story, though they share some characters and some settings. It's not necessary to know that because they stories aren't connected. Each has its unique twist on crime with its own viewpoint and its own narrative thread. 

"Broken" takes place in New Orleans. It's a gritty, heart-pounding crime tale about one brother seeking vengeance for the heartless murder of his kid-brother cop. "Crime 101" isn't about one place but about a string of places: the Pacific Coast Highway, and tracking down a thief about to hit a jewelry store--which one and by whom? "The San Diego Zoo" starts off hilarious, but soon melds into something more serious--how did a chimp get a gun? And there is the whodunit tale. "Sunset", "Paradise", and "The Last Ride" are equally different stories of crime and the pursuit of justice by well-defined characters you just have to know more about and you just have to stick with till the end of their story. And Winslow is such a good storyteller you're glad you're there to hear his story. "The Last Ride" has a very different kind of ending, an unsettling ending for sure. It was unexpected. 

Winslow is such a good writer I'm eager to begin a reading journey in another of his books, Force. Let's see if it's as good as Broken. I'll bet it is.