Film Round-Up: Freelance, Killers of the Flower Moon and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
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Freelance
John Cena is bored with his lawyer life, so is lured back to action to protect a journalist set for a career saving interview with a South American dictator. Was the blu-ray for Romancing the Stone on sale in Hollywood recently? Because there’s been a lot of films trying to be it recently. And this one is the worst. Despite having two very charismatic leads in Cena and Alison Brie, the film fails to establish any chemistry between the two, probably aided by a barebones script which doesn’t really give them anything to work with either, despite the fact this sort of film relies upon this. So as well as the two leads just not working well together, you have really bland forgettable action and a weird plot which asks us to be on the side of a dictator and agree it’s odd to not like him very much. Weird movie, but not in a fun way. Stick to Michael Douglas.
Killers of the Flower Moon
The Native American tribe the Osage have the rights to the oil on their land, and after Ernest Burkhart marries into a family in the tribe, he ends up involved in a conspiracy to knock them off so he ends up with the rights. Welcome to the latest Martin Scorsese epic! And like so many of his recent films, it’s incredibly long. As in, this film lasts three and a half hours. And I’m not exactly sure why, because this film definitely drags at times and it feels like you could take a chainsaw to it in the editing room and come out with a leaner and better film. That’s because there’s definitely a lot of good ingredients in the film, including great performances from Leonardo Di Caprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro. I love the score as well, though the runtime forces it to be used almost to the point of parody. There’s enough to say this is a good film, but it’s length is just overbearing to the point of collapse.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
Ginger and Rocky are raising their daughter Molly with the rest of their flock on an island away from the humans. Molly becomes curious about life off the island and ends up in a farm, leading to Ginger having to lead a rescue attempt. I certainly did not expect a sequel to one of my childhood favourites 20 years on from it’s release. I am disappointed in the recasting though, I understand you can’t have Mel Gibson anymore but why was Julia Sawalha given the boot? That takes some adjustment, but overall you get a fairly fun kids film when you get over it. Sure, it’s not a patch on the original. Without the trappings of being a Great Escape parody, the film doesn’t have the same impact as the first, and feels a bit more unnecessary. It’s still fun and definitely a good excuse to get the kids to watch the original as well.