Tag Archives: Action

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

September 16, 2025

Posted under

Uncategorized

Comments

Leave a comment

Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (2003/2004) Robert Rodriguez Presents Paramount Summer Classic Film Series

When it was announced over twenty years ago, that “Kill Bill” would be split into two parts, it was a disappointment to me. I was perfectly fine with a four plus hour epic from Quentin Tarantino. Fortunately, sounder heads were in charge of marketing in the early 2000s and the choice to divide the picture makes perfect sense. There is a clear demarcation point between the two films and audiences were not really as tolerant of long films as I might have been. Tarantino himself suggested that there were various ways that the film could be presented, but he was firm that it was all one big complete story. So to finish off the Paramount Summer Classic Film Series, our local hero Robert Rodriguez, collaborator and friend of Quentin Tarantino, presented the whole bloody saga for us, with a introduction to each film.

The house was packed with 1200 attendees and the crowd was raucous, maybe not “RRR” raucous, but still very lively.

The first volume of “Kill Bill” has the most stylized elements of the story. After the brutal fight in a suburban home, that ends with an invitation to a child to seek vengeance when she gets older, we get more context about why this bloody tale of revenge is being told. There is a significant anime sequence that gives us an origin story of O-Ren, the first on the target list but the second one we see in the movie. First we got the killing of Vernita Green, including a breakfast cereal gunfight. Then we get the Bride’s story of recovery and setting out on the path of revenge. There is a lot of grim humor in the story, which is characteristic of Tarantino, and all the people who insist that he has a foot fetish will find plenty of ammunition for that charge. As usual, Quentin is playing with his time line.

Audiences who had not been regular consumers of Eastern Martial Arts movies were about to get an extended lesson in how to do it. I reject to concept of cultural appropriation, I think everyone is entitled to use artistic styles that they are comfortable with. I am just surprised that there were not more charges of appropriation against Tarantino because he makes himself at home in a crime drama with samurai warriors that feels like it was created in Tokyo or Hong Kong. 

The Chapter labeled “Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves” is one of the most spectacular action sequences you will ever encounter. The colors are vivid, the music is a mix of pop and rock songs filtered through a nightclub vibe that is based in Japanese tropes. The overwhelming number of the “Crazy 88” that fall to the Bride’s sword is preposterous but somehow we can accept it because Uma Thurman sells determination and skill with an amazing physical performance. When she finally faces off against Lucy Liu in the snow covered courtyard, it is an amazing visual conception. 

This second introduction was full of information that I was not aware of before, and it was presented with the same cheerful demeanor that Rodriguez has always shown at these events. 

“Kill Bill Vol. 2” is more grounded than the first film. The stylized sets and musical segments are toned down in favor of a gritty environment. If the first fil was filled with the martial arts fantasies of the 1970s, the second film is set in the grimy styles of 70s grindhouse fare. Michael Madsen is not a glamourous killer looking at his art collection between assignments, he is a guilt ridden alcoholic working as a drone at the sleaziest and most disgusting strip bar imaginable, and living in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. Unlike the first film, there is not a lot of variety in the locations in which Beatrice Kiddo gets her revenge on Bud and Elle Driver. Daryl Hannah shows up in Bud’s dilapidated domicile, and the epic sword fight we might have expected gets truncated to a gruesome joke, a little aqueous humor, a nice visual punch.

Along the way we did get a montage of training under the tutelage of Pai Mei, a lesson in pimp business practices by Bill’s surrogate father, and a lecture on comic book personas from Bill himself, all of which are entertaining to some degree or other. 

If you listen to the second introduction, you will get a nice story about the two credit sequences, including a surprise about the song.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

July 11, 2025

Posted under

Uncategorized

Comments

Leave a comment

F1: The Movie (2025)

I have to admit something here that is a repeat of a prior realization. I really like sports movies about sports that I have no interest in otherwise. My favorite sports films over the years have been hockey films, but I have never been to a hockey game and I think I may only have watched a complete one, once on television. Auto racing will take a close second place. I have no desire to spend a day in the stands watching cars drive by at high speeds, but I am more than willing to spend a couple of hours in a movie theater doing the same thing. In the last decade I have seen, “Ford vs. Ferrari“, “Rush” and “Gran Turismo“, and enjoyed them far more than I would expect given my disinterest in motor sports. You can now add “F 1” to the list.

This movie is pretty conventional from a plot point of view. A talented driver, who missed a shot at the biggest prize in his field, gets a chance at redemption, but must compete with a younger version of himself to succeed. It helps that the star is charismatic and Brad Pitt fills the bill on all counts. He is incredibly watchable, even in a helmet that hides eighty percent of his face. I have seen this movie compared to “Days of Thunder”, largely because the plot points are not dissimilar and that film also relied on star power to give the audiences what they want.

The biggest success of this movie however is making the technology behind Formula One racing, feel accessible to outsiders and novices like me. I have known plenty of gearheads in my life, but I have never been one of them. You add a layer of mechanical engineering and physics to the mix, and suddenly the garage is more of a laboratory and a lot more interesting. Director Joseph Kosinski made “Top Gun Maverick” a couple of years ago, and it is clear he knows how to get the best out of action scenes in vehicles. The camera work and editing of the races is thrilling and envelops you with tension and excitement. This is one of the most entertaining films of the year.

It is not my intention to slight the other actors in the movie, they are fine. I think Damson Idris has a bright future in films, but Pitt is the show here and if you are not a fan, you could easily become one. This is a movie star, action driven, summer blockbuster that pushes all the right buttons and fives us the thrills tha we want for a couple of hours, without having to sit through a whole race. Like hockey films, these racing movies cut out all the stuff that non-fans don’t care about, and feeds us the dessert served with a little movie star sauce on the top. 

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

June 18, 2025

Posted under

Uncategorized

Comments

Leave a comment

Polite Society (2023) First Time Watch 2025

[Just a clip from the film, because the official Trailer gives away too much

I want to be careful not to classify this as an Indian film because I believe it comes from Pakistani filmmakers. Still it is set in London, so it is in English and takes place for the most part in a western environment. This movie caught me completely off guard, I really had no idea what it was about, I just know that Amanda and I had talked about seeing it a year or two ago  and we never got around to it. 

The fact that it was playing at the Paramount for the Summer Classic Movie Series was just serendipity. As it turns out the movie is largely a martial arts fantasy featuring two sisters of Pakistani heritage, struggling to find their place in the world, and not getting much assistance from anybody else. I was a little worried at first that I would not be able to distinguish the two actresses because they have similar appearances, but that thought disappeared after just a couple of minutes. Both actresses are young and quite lively and lovely.

Although it is a martial arts film it did remind me a little bit of “Bend It Like Beckham”, where a girl who is an outsider because of her heritage, struggles with friendships with her Western counterparts.” Polite Society” however goes over the top in creating what is almost a James Bond type of Adventure, based on some strange motivations that when they are revealed are quite hysterical. The performances at first are deliberately exaggerated, but the writers and the director clearly have an affinity for the characters, in particular our lead actress Priya Kansara. She plays Ria, a high school student who wants to be a stunt woman, that’s her goal in life and nobody seems to feel like she’s really thinking very practically. Ria does get reluctant support from her sister Lena played by Ritu Arya, but her sister has her own problems.

There’s a lot of cross-cultural humor, particularly in regard to the courtship of the older sister and a handsome biomedical researcher from a wealthy family. The passions of the younger sister can simply not be contained and they spill over in a lot of hilarious ways. Frequently her frustration is manifested by her attempts to engage in some of the acrobatic martial arts practice by her stunt woman idol. 

There’s plenty of music in the film, a mix of Rock and more traditional Eastern Tunes. There are needle drops for everybody. There’s also some clever camera work and the cinematography which does a nice job conveying different locations and moods. The music and cinematography are hilariously used to create a mood around the potential villain of the piece. If you see the film you’ll know what I’m talking about. It’s the filmmaking style that creates a caricature of the preening and domineering woman who may be a threat.

There’s also a dance number, that I know is not a Bollywood Style, but the mood that it sets is very similar to those that you might have seen in a movie Made in India, although the music and the dance are certainly not repetitive of those Indian styles.

The story takes a couple of interesting turns, and just when you’re set to believe that we’re looking at some woman’s fantasy and overreaction, her paranoia is revealed to be justified. The conflict between creating Trust with her family, after the way she has been behaving, creates a lot of the humor in the last part of the film. Ultimately however the movie is familial friendly.

I laughed on a regular basis, prizes that came with this creative variation of a romantic comedy mashed up with a James Bond Thriller. “The gods whispered to the warrior, ‘You will not withstand the fury.’ The warrior whispers back, ‘I am the fury!’  Have fun.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

June 7, 2025

Posted under

Uncategorized

Comments

Leave a comment

Fight or Flight (2025)

For more than a decade now people have been making films that attempt to just string together long action sequences to make a movie that is definitively 100% active. Usually there’s a brief set up followed by a long string of action set pieces, combat sequences, and a variety of gunplay. This formula works as long as the events make sense, and the actors are well cast. “Fight or Flight” does a pretty good job of these things and it makes the wise decision to cast Josh Hartnett in the lead role.

Harnett  was at one time the next big thing, but he never quite crossed over as a success in a big movie. He has had a good career, but he’s also had a bit of a Renaissance in the last couple of years. He was in last year’s “Trap”, and he’s had a couple of supporting roles in movies that have made good use of the screen presence that he offers. This movie fits him like a glove. It requires him to be a little bit older, appear on screen in a sort of a scuzzy form, and at the same time allow him to be a badass. It works.

There’s also something about planes in the air in the last couple of years. Earlier this year we had the Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg thriller” Flight Risk”. This took place in a small plane, whereas” Fight or Flight” takes place on a regular airliner. That means there is enough room to run around, occasionally hide out, and sometimes dispatch the bad guys in a bathroom or luggage compartment. Hartnett plays a former federal agent who is getting a chance to get back in the game and his controller, a former love interest, is manipulating him remotely. . 

Of course there is a plot twist and the original goal of the mission gets somewhat inverted. Hartnett’s character ends up with a couple of unusual allies, which allows for a lot more martial arts action, including some of the wild variety of acrobatics that people have come to expect in modern martial arts sequences. Does any of it make any sense? The answer is no, but you won’t care because you’ll have a good time watching all of the Mayhem. Look, we get a pleasant lead, and a couple of fun turns in the storyline, for an action picture that is usually sufficient.

Don’t stay home on Friday night to watch this on a streaming service, you should still go out and do something fun. However you’ll be happy to watch this on a night when you shouldn’t be compelled to socialize and you just want to veg in front of the TV.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

June 2, 2025

Posted under

Uncategorized

Comments

Leave a comment

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (2025)

Next week on the LAMBcast we’re going to have a Tom Cruise draft. This makes perfect sense because essentially Tom Cruise is the last of the movie stars. There’s not anybody close to Tom Cruise when it comes to opening a movie. He hasn’t been able to make everything he’s in a success, but his batting average is pretty damn High, and with the final Mission Impossible film on the schedule, Tom puts in his all as he usually does to give us some thrills.

Let me start out by saying that although I like this film quite well it does have a couple of significant problems. First of all it is almost 3 hours long and that seems excessive for what is mostly an action film. A second problem might be the thing that makes this feel long, the first hour of the film is filled with exposition narrative that is clunky and struggles to connect the events of the previous films into a single storyline. I’m all for fan service especially when it comes to the final film in a series, but only a couple of the things that they attempt, work very well.

The most logical extension that they have found for these films is suggesting that the MacGuffin from the third “Mission Impossible”, is in fact The Entity, the AI Boogeyman that arrived in episode 7 “Dead Reckoning”. In the earlier film it was referred to as the Rabbit’s Foot, and we never got to know what it was all about. The idea that it is some sort of blueprint for creating the AI that everybody is worried about here in the last film is a minor stretch, but one that works pretty well.

The connection between this film and its predecessor however is not as smooth. Many of the things that happened in the previous film are vaguely referred to, but none of it seems to be strongly connected to the events of this film. The exception being the location of the submarine that contains the original algorithm of The Entity. The way this problem was approached in the last film is completely different from the way it is approached in this film. That doesn’t mean that it couldn’t work, it just didn’t.

The stakes in the film are, as always, a little elevated. It seems that Ethan Hunt has to save the world repeatedly like some comic book superhero instead of dealing with a more manageable problem that could offer us some thrills with a believable set of consequences. To be honest it’s unlikely that any film of this ilk is going to have the audacity to let the world end. If that conclusion is off the table then given what has come before, “Mission Impossible Final Reckoning” feels like it is just a structure that exists, not to build suspense but to hang the set pieces on. At least those set pieces are really good.

I have no doubt that a number of other reviews will mention the two big sequences in the movie. I’m not clever enough or alert enough today to try to find something deeper so I will just repeat what should be obvious to anybody who’s heard of this movie, the submarine sequence with it’s underwater photography is ambitious, and,  come on  the bi- plane sequence terrific. Along the way we get to see Ethan Hunt run, get punched, do a lot of punching of his own and give us a couple of fakeouts. The plan is outlined in  its broadest sense. We usually  get a description of what’s supposed to happen, and then it happens .Of course there are always one or two complications along the way, but the complications that take place in this movie have less to do with the details of each individual problem and everything to do with just trying to move the pieces around on the board so we stay interested.

The IMF needs to be a little bit more engaged with Ethan to make us care about what’s going on. In this story they seem mostly reactive and taking their time just to be sure that Ethan will be able to do what he wants to do. The only one of the team that really gets the opportunity to feel like a part of the story is Luther, the character played by Ving Rhames. Even then, the resolution of his storyline feels a little manufactured.

I will mention that one of the things that was different about this movie is where we saw it. We had traveled to New York for the holiday weekend to catch several Broadway Productions. We got there early enough on Friday that we could fit in a movie, so we got a chance to use our AMC “A list” membership and see a film right in Manhattan. The theaters are built vertically rather than horizontally, which makes getting in and out of them feel a lot more like a puzzle. You have to go up a level or down a level to find an exit or the bathroom. So it was an experience as much as it was a Mission Impossible movie.

Cruise is great and I’m glad that he continues to do his own stunts and care about the way the movie looks. His partner Christopher McQuarrie, directed and co-wrote the screenplay, and he was a lot more effective managing the filmmaking then he was getting the story ideas right. The movie looks great but doesn’t always make a great deal of sense.

In the 30-year history of the franchise there have been some highs and lows. The first and third films are my favorite but both “Rogue Nation” and “Ghost Protocol” are excellent. I wish I could say the final films, which are direct sequels to each other, topped it off with the best, but they actually fit in the lower half of the eight films. At least they’re better than MI- 2.

Have we set our final farewell to Ethan Hunt? It’s hard to say. Tom Cruise is 62 years old, although he looks like he’s much younger than that, and it appears that he is quite capable of continuing the action beats necessary for a movie like this to work. I just get the impression that the story lines have gotten a little tired and that there’s a struggle to find something worthy to make as the subject of the film, and I’m not sure that’s what is really important. It seems to me that the characters and the incidents are the things that make these movies work.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

July 24, 2024

Posted under

Uncategorized

Comments

Leave a comment

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-First Blood

Sunday night was another presentation by Robert Rodriguez for the Paramount Summer Classic Film Series, this time the featured film was 1982’s “First Blood”. This Sylvester Stallone starring vehicle,  led to numerous sequels, and created a cultural touchstone that’s been with us for four decades now. Rodriguez has a friendship with Sylvester Stallone, and like most of those kids from 1982, he saw this movie and immediately fell in love with the character of John Rambo and wanted to be him.

The introduction Rodriguez provided was fine, but it was more fully supplemented this time with some video clips from his own director series that is available online. He did share some stories about Stallone that we’re not part of the video presentation, for instance the fact that Stallone didn’t care for an actor in the Rambo film that was set in Burma. That might be why the moment that he shoves him up against the side of the boat looks so real. Of course that’s a story for us, not one that he wants to put in the series which might make Stallone look petty.

I have seen all of the Rambo films, but I don’t think Amanda had. This one was new to her completely, and she enjoyed it quite well. David Caruso who appears as Mitch, one of the deputies in the small town that John Rambo encounters, was not even recognizable to her, in spite of the fact that she is watched all the episodes and all of the seasons of CSI Miami. He was so young when he did this part he looks like a baby. She also thought that Brian Dennehy aged substantially between this film and Silverado 3 years later. That’s not nearly as noticeable to me, but I’m an old guy who’s used to a few extra pounds here and there.

One of the things that Rodriguez pointed out was that Stallone made significant contributions to the screenplay of First Blood. Including taking John Rambo out of the role of villain and putting that label on the sheriff played by Dennehy. It’s a well-known story that Kirk Douglas walked away from the part that was ultimately played by Richard Crenna, because he thought that Rambo should die at the end of the movie. That appears to have been another Stallone modification.

This film was the start of a string of 1980s successes for Stallone in the action genre. Rodriguez also pointed out how Sylvester Stallone and his success created a competition with Arnold Schwarzenegger that would not start to even out until Stallone’s 1990s films started to flag, while Schwarzenegger became increasingly marketable. The character of John Rambo however, continued to be a vein that Stallone could tap into. At one point when Rodriguez pointed out to his friend that Stallone hadn’t directed a film for a dozen years, Sly was taken by aback. Just a couple of years later he picked up the character again for the brutal 2008 “Rambo”, once again establishing is bona fides as an action director as well as star.

The original “First Blood” continues to be the best in my mind because it is the least cliched and the one that is most tied into reality. Many of the complaints made by Rambo at the climax of the film when he has his breakdown we’re true. Veterans of the Vietnam War were disrespected, many of them suffered from exposure to dangerous chemicals during the war, and as exemplified by John Rambo himself, many of them suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Some of the flashback scenes in this movie give us a sense of why Rambo reacts the way he does to the abuse from the local fascists in the police department in this small Washington town.

What most people remember from the movie however, are the clever ways that Rambo gets the best of the local law enforcement agencies and National Guard. The training that he received as a behind enemy lines commando, certainly exceeds that of a local law enforcement agency. When Richard Crenna shows up and explains that he’s not there to save Rambo from them but rather to save them from Rambo, we know how badass this is going to be. John crawls through caves filled with rats, jumps into trees off of cliffs in order to escape being shot, and disguises himself in a half dozen different ways to get the better of his pursuers.

The fact that John Rambo doesn’t have an exit strategy for his temper tantrum is a little problematic to the story. But that’s why Colonel Troutman has shown up in the guise of Richard Crenna. We can have some exposition, and ultimately a peaceful resolution that makes some sense. Of course not before we’ve had enough explosions, bullets, and knife injuries to fill three other movies. That’s the kind of sugar Rambo likes.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

July 16, 2024

Posted under

Uncategorized

Comments

Leave a comment

Paramount Classic Film Series-Robert Rodriguez Presents Terminator 2

We are more than halfway through the Summer Classic Film Series at the Paramount Theater, and I have fallen behind in my posts on the films that I have seen there. Saturday last, I went to the screening of Terminator 2 presented by Robert Rodriguez. The local film maker and Austin hero, has picked several films for the Summer Series and is introducing them himself. He tries to choose films that he can give some personal insight to, often through his connection to the film makers that he has worked with or connected to. These week we got some James Cameron stories. 

I loved the story he told about meeting James Cameron. Back in 1994, he ran into his close friend film maker Guillermo del Toro, at the Virgin Megastore in Hollywood. Del Toro was meeting his own friend at the location and asker Robert if he would like to meet his buddy James. Of course, and when they were talking, Rodriguez mentioned that he was working with a new Steadicam and Cameron said he had one of those, but he wasn’t using it to make a film, he was taking it apart to re-engineer and improve it. He told a similar story about visiting Cameron at his home and finding an Avid editing complex, not just one device, set up in a giant screening room. I like thew fact that all three directors met at the Virgin Mega Store in Hollywood. It had the best Laserdisc Sales set up of any retailer and I visited there often. 

“Terminator 2” was the biggest movie of it’s year and the most expensive movie ever made up to that point. I have always preferred the original film over the sequel, not for any defect in “Judgement Day”, but because the tools used in making the first film are just more meaningful to me. The stop motion animation, the puppetry are all so cool. Terminator 2 ups the ante on effects, and although it uses some of the first really dynamic digital effects, there are still a plethora of  practical effects and make up in the film.

The brilliant twist was to turn the original model of a Terminator into an ally rather than just the antagonist. Kyle Reese still kicks ass but having your own terminator as a protector is just awesome and Cameron, Schwarzenegger and Edward Furlong have a great time playing with that concept in the movie. I mentioned practical effects a minute ago, maybe the greatest of these was the way co-star Linda Hamilton sculpted her body to become the bad ass no nonsense momma bear in the film. Also, when you see the doubles in the film, Hamilton at the end and the security guard at the mental hospital, Cameron used a really old school tool, twin siblings. 

I did not have my shirts in time for the screening, they arrived  Monday, so let’s just pretend I was at the club when a gunfight broke out and I was lucky to get out of TechNoir and make it over to the theater to see the movie. 

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

May 2, 2024

Posted under

Uncategorized

Comments

1 Comment

Monkey Man (2024)

This is a pretty standard Revenge film but done in the style of a movie from India. That makes sense because it is set in India, features actors who are from India, and calls on many Hindu Legends and Indian myths to fill out the story. The most unusual element of the film is that it was written and directed by the actor Dev Patel, who also stars in the film. Patel has been a frequent subject on this site, I really enjoyed the version of David Copperfield that he participated in back in 2020, and although The Green Knight was not my favorite film of its year he was quite good in it.

The film can roughly be divided into two parts, both of which are told in a nonlinear fashion. There are frequent flashbacks that slowly reveal the motivation for the Revenge plot, and the perpetrators that deserve to have vengeance rain down upon them. Patel’s character has a clever plan in the first part of the film, but of course the best laid plans often go awry. When this section of the film ends, there is a strange transition to the second part of the film, where his character is transformed through Supernatural means into an even stronger avenging angel, mimicking a character that was in a story told to him as a child by his mother. That by the way will probably give you some idea of why he is seeking Revenge.

The movie is full of martial arts flourishes that are so popular these days. There are rapid fight sequences against multiple opponents, and there is frequent use of materials in the scene as weapons. It all looks fairly standard for the kinds of films that we are used to at this point. In fact, the character of John Wick even gets name checked in the movie. While Patel’s character does engage in vigorous combat, there are some interesting ideas included in the story. For instance the main character that Patel is trying to kill is a corrupt police captain, who is lauded by a religious figure, who seems to have a strong influence in a political movement in India. Of course it turns out that the police officer is not the ultimate power, but rather that position is held by the duplicitous religious leader, who uses his influence to gain power and wealth for those in the Inner Circle. There are frequent references to the poverty that exists in the country, and that is juxtaposed with the lifestyle of the guru and the police captain.

As I said the film could be divided into two parts, and it is the second part that gave me the most trouble in providing a wholehearted endorsement of the movie. In trying to create a cultural Touchstone, Patel has included some characters that seem less believable and extremely unusual, at least in the American culture. Having read John Irving’s a son of the circus, I know that there is a tradition of transgenderism in the Indian subculture. What seems strange here is that there is a collective of these individuals who have their own Temple, and seem to understand how to draw on the forces of the Gods more effectively than anyone else. It just seems very odd, and when an army of transvestites shows up at just the right moment to assist in the climax of the film, it makes everything that happened in the first part of the film feel like it is from a completely different story 

In the long run I would recommend the movie, with some reservations. It is not as strictly action based as it might first appear, but there are some terrific action sequences, and when you get to the end it definitely fulfills our expectations of a Revenge film. There are characters that basically vanish from the story halfway through, who could probably have been useful in making the transition to the more fantasy-based power issues in the second part of the movie. For those not familiar, like me, some of the cultural references will feel alien and be difficult to understand. By the end of the movie it will make more sense, but that’s a long time to wait to completely comprehend what is going on in the movie that you’ve spent 2 hours watching.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

February 26, 2024

Posted under

Uncategorized

Comments

Leave a comment

Land of Bad

I’m getting to this almost a week after I saw the film, sorry. I’ve been under the weather for a few days and just not in the mood to think much about blogging. There’s nothing particularly special about this film, it’s also getting such a limited release that it will probably be out of theaters after the first week, which was when I saw it. That’s too bad, because this is a pretty successful action film for those who are looking for some combat activity to get them through an afternoon.

The setup for the film is pretty simple: a Commando team is being sent to a remote island in the Philippines, in order to retrieve a human asset for the CIA. The thing that makes this an intriguing film is the detail that is added by the use of high altitude drones that contain not only sophisticated Communications equipment, but also a substantial amount of weaponry. Most of the time the Drone in this particular scenario was being used to assist the team on the ground with surveillance of the site that they are about to engage in. There are however some dramatic uses of the weapon at appropriate times to create diversions or potentially rescue members of the team. The way the Drone communication is integrated into the mission is the thing that was new to me. An operator flying the Drone at a location in the States, is communicating information to the team on the ground about enemy activity and potential locations for the asset. It looks like it’s a pretty sophisticated set up and I don’t doubt that the film is reasonably accurate in presenting how the basics work. Of course for drama purposes, they’re always going to be complications and distractions and anybody who is dependent upon this technology would be frustrated with the behavior of some of the team at the Drone base.

Liam Hemsworth is the odd man out on the team, he is basically the Communications tech and not the warrior that the other people on the team are. He is of course a trained soldier so he has the basic ability to handle himself, but obviously the Special Operations group is used to having their own people there and that throws in a few wrinkles. Hemsworth is perfectly fine in the action hero mode, he performs admirably, makes some basic mistakes, and redeems himself a number of times on the mission. So it’s easy for us to have him as a rooting interest.

I’ll probably get in trouble with some people for the way I’m about to describe the next actor in this film, he’s the biggest movie star in the world, …by weight. Russell Crowe at one time was a lean mean fighting machine, but in the last several years his waist has expanded much like my own, so that now when he appears on screen, it’s much like Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, a little bit lumbering. The guy can still act his ass off, and he’s great as the Drone operator, although even sitting in a chair behind a console I would assume the Air Force has some physical fitness requirements that they are going to be imposing on their officers. Russell Crowe still has great screen charisma, and He commands the screen even if it doesn’t require him to do any tumbling, running, or hand to hand combat.

There are really no big themes or messages in the film. At one point the villain wants to suggest that hiding behind a drone is a cowardly way of engaging in combat, but when that comes from a guy who decapitates a helpless woman and wants to do the same for a child, he pretty much loses all credibility. Alan Rickman made a film,not too long before his death, that featured a more nuanced View of drone Warfare called “Eye in the Sky”, if you’re looking for a message, that would be the film to seek out. If you’re looking for shootouts, dramatic firefights, explosions, tense torture scenes, and a few people surviving a lot longer than you might expect, then this is a film that you should probably look for. Good guys taking out the bad guys in modern combat situations is what this whole thing is about. Of course it’s going to be a lot harder to find unless you have your own Drone to assist you.