What was the last movie you saw...? Part IV

[Charger]

Indeed I always thought that was an interesting angle...although I suppose he was "just" the brother of the dead sheriff.

[Charger]

THE PINK PANTHER


A Master theif known as the Phantom sets his sights on a massive diamond owned by a middle eastern princess in an italian ski resort and is hunted by a determined but somewhat clumsy french detective whose wife is living a double life as the secret lover of the Phantom.

A true timeless crime comedy classic. Has some insane laugh out loud moments and both David Niven as the Phantom and Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau are incredible in their roles...also the incredibly beautiful Claudia Cardinale as Princess Dala shines on screen...my god you have to love the 60s style!

The comedic timing is perfected by director Blake Edwards and you can expect the unexpected.  And ofcourse the playful Panther intro got a life of it's own later on and the theme music by Henry Mancini is nothing short of suberb.


*  *  *  *  ½

[Vyn]

Excellent movie! I've seen The Pink Panther countless times and look forward to seeing it countless more. I had a childhood crush on Ms. Cardinale - had no idea what we'd do if she ever dropped by my house, but I sure enjoyed looking at her! I just looked her up on the Googler, and it seems she's still extant. Probably the only one from that movie by this point.

[Charger]

Robert Wagner is still alive as well and will turn 95 this month. Wagner's last bigger role was on NCIS playing DiNozzo's father...which he last appeared in 2019.

[Vyn]

Dang, go Robert!

[Thelemech]

Watched the original theatrical release of Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back
My favorite science fiction movie and watching it as the way it appeared originally is fun

[Charger]

THE HOBBIT TRILOGY

Just like the LOTR I'm gonna review this as one.

THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

We meet Bilbo Baggins when he gets some unwanted visitors in form of 13 Dwarfs and one Wizard who are on a quest to reclaim their homeland Ereborn from a vicious Dragon Smaug. The events take place some 60 years before Lord Of The Rings.

Unlike the Fellowship Of The Ring this drags on a bit and the pacing is bit off. Also it lacks in action and frankly the characters aren't that interesting. Most of the Dwarfs don't really make much of an impression with the execption of Richard Armitage's Thorin. We meet some familiar faces from the original trilogy but they too don't really stand out and seem kind of like just there for the reason of being there.

Where in LOTR the first part was the best one, in this it is clearly the weakest one.

DESOLATION OF SMAUG

The Dwarfs, Gandalf and Bilbo venture on ever closer to The Lonely Mountain and on their way meet up with Forest Elves and another familiar face pops up and eventually they arrive at Ereborn and are forced to confront the massive dragon Smaug. Elsewhere Gandalf gets into trouble while searching the origin of an Orc army and is in need of help from old allies.

Now things improve quite a bit. There's a lot of action and some really cool camera runs and some interesting character development and you actually get to know the Dwarfs a bit.

In the original trilogy the middle part was the worst here it's the best one for sure!

THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES

After Smaug brings desolation to a town and is killed (quite easily and underwhelmingly I might add) Thorin succumbs to the greed of the Dwarf treasure and armies being to merge at the gates of Ereborn...but the biggest threat comes from outside as a group of Orcs working for an ancient evil want the treasures of Ereborn.

Battle that ensues is a massive one but it is maybe bit less that it should be...and in comparison to the one at The Return Of The King it's kind of bland and frankly the effects look cheaper. But it's an entertaining one non the less and does not suffer from the insanely long and pointless ending that LOTR had. I guess Jackson learned his lesson.


All in all a very entertaining adventure once again. But frankly it again didn't need to be this long. One single book split into three movies was bit much and it worked against itself especially on the first part which could have been an hour shorter easily. As a two parter this would have been better.

The cast is okay but part from the suberb Richard Armitage and Ian McKellen no one really stands out...maybe Aidan Turner as the Dwarf kili and bit surprisngly Evangeline Lilly as the elf Tauriel...Martin Freeman is good but he is pushed aside maybe bit too much for being the name lead character.

Not as good as the original Trilogy but still enjoyable.

*  *  *  ½

[Vyn]

Excellent review Charger! I have not seen that set of movies. I watched his LotR series, though. I think I've read the books so many times that when I watched LotR all I could do was think about how it was different here or there, and would probably do the same with the Hobbit.

I watched The Blair Witch Project last night. First time for me. Although the camera shaking got old, I thought t was a good psychological spook show, especially towards the end.

[Thelemech]

I've only watched the first of the Hobbit trilogy movies and I did like it for the most part.  Obviously not the perfection that is the first trilogy but still enjoyable.
I might just watch the second one today 🤔

Thanks for reviewing them Charger

[Charger]

Well thank you guys.

I can recommend watching them all.

[Charger]

Olympos Has Fallen


A group of North Korean militants attack the White House with the help of a former Secret Service Agent and take the President hostage. A lone Secret Service agent has to take on the entire group of terrorists and try to find a way to save the President and stop the Koreans plans to destroy the nuclear missiles of the US.

Bit of an amped up version of the classic Die Hard story...one man against a group of terrorists. Gerald Butler does a very good job as Agent Mike Banning and the rest of the cast including Morgan Freeman, Angela Basset, Aaron Eckhart and Dylan McDermott all do great job as well but Rick Yune shines as the ruthless main villain.

The main thing about a movie with extremely ruthless badguys is that the good guy needs to be equally ruthless and Banning delivers the goods. He doesn't hesitate using proper force against these terrorists.

Director Antoine Fugua ofcourse is no stranger to ruthless and somewhat brutal action and he knows how to deliver...sadly this unlike his later Equalizer movies relies bit too much on CGI blood which does show quite negatively. But the action is well paced and Gerald Butler has good charisma. But one thing he does not have is humor...which is okay but a few comic throws could have been added here and there to lighten up the action a bit.

All in all a very entertaning movie that carried it's 2 hour length very well!


*  *  *  *

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
Yes, OHF was a pretty good effort, the follow-up London Has Fallen was pants though, but Angel has Fallen was a return to form.

If you wanted the film to have more humour, you might want to check out the similarly themed White House Down with Jamie Foxx as the president and Channing Tatum as his saviour. It came out the same year as Olympus... and suffered at the box office as a result. I  think it's a marginally better film.

[Charger]

I have seen White House Down...and I think it doesn't match up at all....although it has been quite a few years since I've seen it...Yes it had humor but I think the action here was far superior.

I am planning to watch the entire trilogy before I go back to work next week.

[Charger]

LONDON HAS FALLEN


After the death of the British prime minister most of the world leaders come to the funeral only to find themselves in the crosshairs of a madman armsdealer and his crew of brutal mercenaries and terrorists that turn the entire London into a warzone.

When most world leaders meet their untimely end Mike Banning manages to get President Asher to safety of the Marine One only to soon find out the Terrorists have ways to deal with them as well. A cat and mouse chase across London begins.

There are actually surprisingly many plot similarities here with the Call Of Duty Modern Warfare series...accedental or not it's hard to ignore. Also the ending shootout is even filmed like it could be from the game. Very immersive experience actually and is without a doubt the finest sequence in the movie.

This suffers bit more from plausability issues than the first movie did, and an unknown director Babak Najafi is no Fuqua that's for sure. But the more condensed length means the movie is well paced and the action (and Banning) is respectably brutal. Again when the bad guys are this brutal so must the hero be.

Butler and Eckhart play well together and with the most of the main cast from the first movie returning (although in a much smaller roles) you know the acting is good. However Alon Abutbul and Waleed Zuaiter aren't nearly as menancing bad guys here.

Still a very entertaning action flick with a strong Modern Warfare feel....(Not 2 inch too short stupid metrosexual pseudofashionable pants that I expected from KDC's comment, felt more like standard jeans to me)


*   *   *

[Charger]

ANGEL HAS FALLEN


In the final installement of the "Fallen" Trilogy Agent Mike Banning gets framed for the assassination attempt of President Trumbull and has to go on the run to clear his name and find out who really is responsible.


Quite a weak (and overused) plot compared to the previous movies and they've also toned down the action and the ammount of it.

Only Morgan Freeman joins Gerald Butler from the previous movies which is a shame but it is nice to see Lance Reddick as the head of the Secret Service. He's always a joy but his role was rather small...Jada Pinkett Smith tries to channel Tommy Lee Jones' iconic Sam Gerard and fails miserably, surely they could have found a better more convincing actress for that role. Also Danny Huston's bad guy is nothing compared to the previous movies.

All in all this fell flat on almost every front in comparison to the previous ones...the only positive thing was the surprise appearance of the actor legend Nick Nolte as Banning's dad. He also added a bit of humor. But even he couldn't save this one..


*  *