Blu-ray thumbs

[Johann]

47 METERS DOWN (2017)



This was a good horror film by Johannes Roberts.
Lisa and Kate are on vacation in Mexico, and they decide to go on a scuba trip where you watch sharks in a cage. The boat owner is Matthew Modine, lending some weight to this B-movie.
They are lowered into the water, and you can guess what happens. The cage winch and pully system breaks, plunging the girls to the bottom.
Precious time gets frittered away, at the surface and in the cage. The girls don't have enough air in their tanks to survive down there for long- they keep leaving the cage, trying to get a comms signal with the boat, and looking for divers who said they'd winch them up. Huge sharks are ever present too, ready to snack. A couple devastating twists will keep you on your toes. There are tons of cheapo shark films out there; this one is better than most.

[Johann]

THE ASSIGNMENT (2017)



Bizarre B-movie from Walter Hill.
Avatar alumni Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver really went left-field here, with Michelle playing a hired killer who has gender re-assignment surgery performed on him by Weaver.
They are both involved in some heavy duty against-the-grain behavior, and Weaver tells her side of the story in custody in a straightjacket.
I recognized the lower East side of Vancouver, where the whole film was shot.
The film draws you in, but it's scuzzy all the way.
With violence, nudity and very mature themes.

[Chris Knipp]

I like Sigourney. i don't know if that would keep me glued to the scren though.

[Johann]

She definitely lowered her standards for this one.
John has given me a slew of B-movies this time around.
I’ve never seen them, so I’ll watch them.
THE ASSIGNMENT is a one-time watch.

[Johann]

MECHANIC: RESURRECTION (2016)



Directed by Dennis Gansel, this sequel to THE MECHANIC is apparently way better.
Jason Statham is great as "BISHOP", a jack-of-all-trades mercenary who's enlisted to perform 3 seperate assassinations. Statham proves he can carry a movie by himself. I loved this flick- it was "a bite-sized Bond", with a large body count and tons of action.
It also stars Michelle Yeoh, Jessica Alba and Tommy Lee Jones- A-list backup players.
The killings that Bishop is tasked with are implausible, nearly impossible to pull off.
Yet he does, and he barely breaks a sweat.
While Hummingbird disappointed me, this renewed my faith in Statham as an action icon.
From the producers of The Expendables.

[Chris Knipp]

It got very bad reviews, but the excellent critic Owen Gleiberman spoke favorably of it in Variety, and said this about Jason Statham which fits in with what you say:

For a while now, Jason Statham has been the thinking man’s smart/dumb B-movie action star. His films, or at least a lot of them, swim around in the grindhouse muck of bloodsport and revenge, a genre that has spawned such brooding blocks of wood as Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris. But Statham, unlike most action-pulp icons, is a genuine actor, with a darting intelligence and finesse. He has often been much better than the movies he’s in, and he has flirted with the A-list as well. It’s seriously doubtful that an action star pushing 50 would be considered for the role of James Bond, but it would be fascinating to see what Statham could do with it.

Makes one think how a good critic can make us rethink an actor.

[Johann]

Indeed. Gleiberman has got the right attitude about Statham.
He IS better than the movies he's in, and while watching Mechanic: Resurrection I kept thinking he could play James Bond. He's super-lethal and more cunning than MacGyver, a new kind of Rambo.
He just needs those great scripts, those great movies. He's up to the challenge. I don't call him an actor. I call him an Icon. And he did it his way.