David R. Walker

Posts Tagged ‘Noma Dumezweni’

Retribution

Director: Nimrod Antal

Cast: Liam Neeson, Embeth Davidtz, Jack Champion, Lilly Aspell, Noma Dumezweni, Matthew Modine

Running Time: 1 hour 31 minutes

Film Rating: 5 out of 10

Machete director Nimrod Antal who is of Hungarian descent returns to the big screen with another Liam Neeson action thriller Retribution but unfortunately this 90 minute action film does not make the standard in terms of entertainment, pacing or a decent storyline. In fact director Nimrod Antal needs to go back to Film School and learn about pacing a cinematic narrative so that a story is in fact gripping and exciting and not one-dimensional.

Oscar nominee Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List) stars as shady corporate hedge fund dealer Matt Turner who is self-obsessed and arrogant until he regrettably decides to drop his two children off at school in Berlin. The kids, Emily and Zach are well played by rising stars Lily Aspell (Wonder Woman) and Jack Champion (Avatar: The Way of Water) and are naturally unhappy about being driven to school by an emotionally unavailable father.

Things go considerably pear-shaped when Matt receives a call from a Psycho on a Phone who tells him that unless he wires 208 Million Euros from a Dubai bank account he is going to blow up the Mercedes SUV that they are all travelling in.

Retribution takes place entirely in a Mercedes, but naturally the claustrophobic setting of a film, which fails to use the location of Germany’s capital city Berlin effectively becomes a monotonous film about a father dealing with a crazy person who feels nothing at killing innocent people including his two children.

Even Swaziland born star Noma Dumezweni (Mary Poppins Returns, Little Mermaid) who plays Europol chief Angela Brickmann fails to alleviate the monotony of this film with her bland confrontation with Matt Turner and his family.

Where the Taken franchise was so brilliant, with non-stop action and fighting, Retribution plods along with little diversion and Liam Neeson has one expression on his face: why did I do this movie?

Retribution is by far the worst film I have seen this year, with an impractical storyline with little background on each characters and a narrative which is implausible. Some of the actions scenes are good, but being released just after the incredible summer blockbuster season headlined by such fantastic films as Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning and Oppenheimer, Retribution comes across as dull, with an even worse ending slightly alleviated by a shocking twist which the screenwriter fails to capitalize on. Unfortunately the talents of Embeth Davidtz and Matthew Modine are equally wasted in this atrocious thriller.

This film is more bad than good, so the film rating is 5 out of 10, saved only by Zach Turner’s famous line: There is a Psycho on the Phone.

The Little Mermaid

Director: Rob Marshall

Cast: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Javier Bardem, Melissa McCarthy, Noma Dumezweni, Art Malik, Akwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Daveed Diggs

Running Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes

Oscar nominated director Rob Marshall (Chicago, Mary Poppins Returns, Memoirs of a Geisha) returns with another Disney classic live action musical The Little Mermaid  featuring the gorgeous and talented Halle Bailey as the mermaid that causes all the trouble.

Ariel lives down in the Ocean but is constantly fascinated by the humans above sea level collecting items off their ships that sink to the cavenous ocean’s floor. Banished by her overbearing father, King Triton, God of the seas, played by Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) from going to the land, Ariel willingly defies her father when she makes a dangerous deal with her aunt, the evil sea witch Ursula superbly played by Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Bridesmaids) to trade in her fins for legs so she can approach land.

Ariel is desperate to meet up with a handsome prince because this is Disney, and there is always a handsome prince lurking about! In this case Prince Eric is played by Jonah Hauer-King (Little Women) who defies his own mother, the Queen played by Noma Dumezweni (Dirty Pretty Things) and is keen to see the beautiful mermaid that saved him during a storm which shipwrecked his vessel.

Ariel is unaware that Ursula has cast a spell when she arrives on land and is generously taken in by Eric except she cannot talk and her only assistance are a crab voiced by Daveed Diggs, a fish could Flounder voiced by Jacob Tremblay and Scuttle voiced by Awkwafina.

The Little Mermaid is pure Disney fantasy assisted by some amazing songs and brilliant special effects particularly the underwater sequences of which there are many. If audiences suspend their disbelief then The Little Mermaid will be a delightful film to be enjoyed by the whole family.

Despite lavish sets and production design, Rob Marshall’s The Little Mermaid lacks pace in certain aspects of the storyline and the film could have been edited properly, shaving at least twenty minutes off the running time.

The real treat of the film is Melissa McCarthy as Ursula who is suitably villainous and camp as the evil witch complete with pearls and a dreadful hairdo. Javier Bardem’s acting talents are underutilized in a film which his character does not feature prominently. There are also some issues with questionable casting but if audiences focus on the fantasy narrative then they will find this film enjoyable.

Halle Bailey holds her own in the title role although Jonah Hauer-King could have been more masculine as the Prince. His performance comes off as boyish and naïve.

If audiences love a Disney musical, then go and watch The Little Mermaid, it will either infuriate or dazzle the viewers. Unfortunately not as brilliant as one expected, The Little Mermaid gets a film rating of 7 out of 10. It’s as light as a mermaid staring at an idyllic sunset.