David R. Walker

Archive for October, 2023

57 Seconds

Director: Rusty Cundieff

Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Morgan Freeman, Greg Germann, Lovie Simone, Bevin Bru, Mark Jacobson

Running Time: 1 hour 39 minutes

Film Rating: 6 out of 10

It’s comforting to see a supporting actor Josh Hutcherson who rose to fame in the Hunger Games franchise and starred in such Oscar nominated films as The Kids are Alright, taking on the leading man role in the new sci-fi thriller 57 seconds starring as tech health writer Franklin Fox opposite Oscar winner Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) who is a bit bewildered in such a B grade film.

Josh Hutcherson has also got two new films coming out, the horror film Five Nights at Freddy’s and the Jason Statham action film The Beekeeper.

In 57 Seconds, director Rusty Cundieff sets up an alternative world in which humans and their health are dictated to by their technology and Hutcherson stars as an ambitious yet broke tech blogger Franklin Fox who discovers a ring which if worn could take a person back in time 57 seconds which is pretty neat considering how this opportunistic device can assist Franklin in getting a girlfriend, the gorgeous Jala played by Lovie Simone and in sorting out his finances or lack thereof.

After his car gets repossessed, Franklin hits the local casinos of this unnamed American city and starts using the ring to win big at roulette, in which he amasses a quick and vast fortune. Franklin’s instant wealth dissolves all doubts about his capability and he confidently sets in motion a disingenuous plan to take down a dodgy pharmaceutical CEO.

Soon Franklin sets his sights on the villain and Sackleresque pharmaceutical CEO Sig Thorenson badly played with loads of cliché by Greg Germann along with his side kick Renee played by Bevin Bru.

Despite the poor story line and questionable direction, 57 Seconds is a fun sci fi thriller which unfortunately could have been so much better with stronger casting choices and more effort by the director to make this film look slicker and more detailed.

Josh Hutcherson holds his own as the less than perfect Franklin Fox, an ambitious young man who eventually seeks justice for his dead sister from an opioid overdose from the big pharma company owned by Thorenson.

Despite all the appeal of pre-emptive health tech, Franklin and his fiancée Jala cast off the lure of working for the dubious Tech billionaire Anton Burell played by Morgan Freeman. The talents of Morgan Freeman are wasted on such a bad script.

57 Seconds is a mediocre contemporary thriller, enjoyable but just not that brilliant. Josh Hutcherson is the best in the film and let’s hope his next film choice is in a more substantial role because he is a talented young actor whose star needs to shine brighter with more talented directors.

Flashy and badly written, 57 Seconds gets a film rating of 6 out of 10, it’s enjoyable but the audience won’t really invest in the characters or what happens to them. This thriller is entertaining and light on details but the perfect way to spend just over 90 minutes. So basically watch it on a lazy Saturday afternoon like I did.

Killers of the Flower Moon

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert de Niro, Lily Gladstone, John Lithgow, Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, Cara Jade Myers, Jason Isbell, Scott Shepherd

Running Time: 3 hours and 25 minutes

Film Rating: 9 out of 10

Based upon the non-fiction book about the murders of the Osage native American Indians in Oklahoma in the 1920s written by David Grann, Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese constructs a masterful opera of a film on a grand scale in his new epic tale of oil, greed, infiltration and subjugation of the indigenous American people by the white population in the Midwest in the artfully constructed Killers of the Flower Moon.

Audiences before watching this film, read up about the history and check that you are comfortable sitting through a three and a half hour film.

At the devilish heart of Killers of the Flower Moon are three brilliant performances by Oscar winner Leonardo di Caprio (The Revenant) as the brutish and slightly dumb Ernest Buckhart who goes and works for his nasty uncle William Hale expertly played with just the right mixture of nuance and notoriety by Oscar winner Robert de Niro (Raging Bull, The Godfather Part II).

At the crux of the manipulative relationship between uncle and nephew, is Mollie Buckhart, a very wealthy Osage woman who along with her mother and sisters hold all the oil rights on their tribal land in central Oklahoma, a superb and stately performance by Lily Gladtsone who deserves a Best Actress Oscar for her sublime performance as she has to slowly realize that the husband she trusted is not what he seems.

Scorsese opens this epic with the Osage dancing and celebrating magnificently as oil pours lavishly out of the hardened soil of Oklahoma, making these tribal American Indians one of the wealthiest in America in the 1920’s but also causing them to become a magnet for infiltrators, con artists and low life criminals.

Through planned intermarrying on behalf of the white population, the Americans all conspire like wolves to take down the Osage and use their marital rights to acquire the oil rich lands of this magnificent and stately indigenous tribe, beautifully dressed, aloof and regal. Like the first descendants of a mysterious royalty, an ethnographic image of the other to be captured and subdued.

With authentic costumes by Jacqueline West who was Oscar nominated for costume design for Quills, The Revenant and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Killers of the Flower Moon is a fascinating tale about greed, crime and unrelenting corruption. It’s a beautiful ode to the Old American West as it was shedding its allure as an untamed land and becoming an environment for gentrification, embracing all the dangers which come with sudden affluence.

This is a very long film, but if you as a viewer invest in this film you will be the richer for it.

With crackling dialogue by Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, de Niro and Di Caprio do not disappoint nor do any of the vast supporting cast including Oscar winner Brendan Fraser (The Whale), Oscar nominee Jess Plemons (The Power of the Dog) and Oscar nominee John Lithgow (Terms of Endearment, The World According to Garp) as the prosecutor Peter Leeward who eventually seeks rightful justice for the Osage in a Federal Court.

Killers of the Flower Moon paints a vast and cruel, yet magnificent canvas – a film so rich in detail and information that as an epic it will be treasured as another great entry into Scorsese’s mind blowing filmography of auteur cinema which stretches from Raging Bull through Gangs of New York to The Wolf of Wall Street and beyond.

Killers of the Flower Moon gets a film rating of 9 out of 10 and is a treasured yet masterful cinematic epic. Recommended viewing for those that enjoy fascinating cinema.

Expendables 4

Director: Scott Waugh

Cast: Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Curtis Jackson (50cent), Megan Fox, Andy Garcia, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Randy Coutoure, Iko Uwais, Lucy Newman-Williams, Jacob Scipio

Running Time: 1 hour 43 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out 10

Need for Speed director Scott Waugh delivers another action packed sequel in the Expendables franchise, Expendables 4 reunites Oscar nominee Sylvester Stallone (Rocky, Creed) with action man Jason Statham from the Fast and the Furious franchise along with Curtis (50 cents) Jackson (Get Rich or Die Tryin), Dolph Lundgren (Aquaman, Masters of the Universe, Red Scorpion, A View to a Kill) and Andy Garcia (Kill The Messenger, The Godfather Part III, Internal Affairs) as the Expendables battle a merciless villain Rahmat superbly played by Indonesian actor Iko Uwais who feels no remorse about annihilating an entire Libyan army or blowing up a nuclear weapon off the coast of Russia.

As the action moves around the world from New Orleans to Libya, from Thailand to Vladivostok, The Expendables team headlined by Barney Ross played by Stallone teams up with Christmas and his gorgeous girlfriend Gina played by the fabulous Megan Fox (Transformers, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen) as the team of mercenaries try to prevent Rahmat from using these stolen nuclear detonators in a more nefarious way after his vicious gang steal them from an abandoned army base in post-Gaddafi Libya.

Naturally the screen chemistry between Jason Statham and Megan Fox is phenomenal and like all the other three films in this franchise, The Expendables is always about the tough guys and the action.

In this regard, the explosive action in The Expendables 4 does not disappoint from a motor bike chase aboard an aircraft carrier to the excellent martial arts scenes provided by Tony Jaa as Christmas’s Thai friend Decha who when all dressed up looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

Expendables 4 is a pure popcorn action film, complete unadulterated escapism which works because the cinema was absolutely full. So if anyone thinks cinema is dead, just come to an Expendables film.

All the cast is proficient in their roles most of whom have done this franchise before and know what the audience want: ballsy tough guy action with planes, boats, bikes and cars. The tough guys have to naturally defend themselves with guns, knives, knuckledusters and swords as they meter out merciless revenge to Rahmat and his gang of bandits.

Action director Scott Waugh delivers a decent sequel to the original trilogy and Expendables 4 gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10.

See this film for the action and not for the storyline, although there are some surprisingly fresh plot twists. This is recommended viewing for lovers of exciting action films because audiences will definitely not fall asleep in this adventure.

The Eight Mountains

Directors: Felix van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch

Cast: Luca Marinelli, Alessandro Borghi, Elisabetta Mazzullo, Filippo Timi  

Running Time: 2 hours and 27 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Language: Italian with English Subtitles

Festival: European Film Festival

Belgian directing duo Felix van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch present the slightly long winded friendship film The Eight Mountains about two young boys who become friends in August 1984 and this film tracks their friendship as they grow into teenagers and eventually into adults.

Both boys are the only child of a family, Pietro Guasti and Bruno Guglielmina become firm friends as they spend the idyllic summers together in the Italian Alps. Pietro is a city boy from Turin with a strict father, Giovanni played by Filippo Timi while Bruno is a child of nature and literally the last child in the village, a remote place in the alps filled with beautiful mountains and stunning scenery but sparsely populated.

As the years go by, Pietro struggles to find his own identity as a man and has a fall out with his aging father although all the time attempting to be a writer and describe his experiences from mountain climbing to studying literature. Bruno just wants to remain in the same area and starts isolating emotionally as he attaches himself more to the natural environment.

Both men follow different dreams although as friends they unite to build a chalet in memory of Pietro’s father. This arduous task completed during the summer months cements their long-time friendship although soon love and self-exploration changes their dynamic. Bruno meets a lovely woman Lara played by Elisabetta Mazzullo and they have a child together, while he dreams of opening his own cheese making farm.

Pietro stretches his wings and travels to Nepal to climb the Himalayas and gain a perspective on his Italian childhood and the lost years that he can’t get back with his late father.

The Eight Mountains is a fascinating if slow moving story of the progression of a male friendship from boyhood until adulthood, all the highs and lows, the family tragedy and the complex relationships. Unfortunately with two directors, this film while interesting does suffer from a lack uniformity regarding cinematic vision.

With spectacular scenery and some insightful philosophical approaches to the fickle nature of human relationships, The Eight Mountains is a story of two men whose trajectories start the same but their destinies are vastly different.

Fortunately both Luca Marinelli (The Great Beauty) and Alessandro Borghi are excellent as the lifelong friends Pietro and Bruno. If audiences enjoy a slow burning tale of platonic friendship, then they will enjoy The Eight Mountains, an interesting story which needed to be edited properly and have a far superior soundtrack. This film’s soundtrack was completely incongruous with the narrative.

While the scenery is gorgeous, The Eight Mountains gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and the storyline needed more conflict to make this friendship narrative more exciting and humorous.