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Reviews
Anna (2019)
Don't bother
I'm glad I only rented this at a discount price, and now I can see why it was discounted. Besson has some good films in his cv, though I was never that much of a fan of Subway and the like. This one has yet another beautiful Russian assassin doing what such people do. Lots of twists because the story needs lots to persuade us of its worth. The lead is a model and not an actress, like a few others I can think of.
The Maiden Heist (2009)
A Nice Portrait Piece
I did not know this film at all when it screened one night on TV. I was a bit puzzled at not knowing it given the cast of Christopher Walken, Morgan Freeman and William H. Macy with Marcia Gay Harden adding to the mix. They are all great in this film which reminds me of Donald E. Westlake adaptations like The Hot Rock and The Bank Job. Like them it has great, if hapless, characters, some smart dialogue and clever plotting. Three art gallery guards are shocked to hear that their gallery's contents have basically been sold en masse to a Danish gallery.
Each guard has an obsession about a particular favourite piece of their own and they decide that 'their' favourites must be stolen rather than sent all the way to Denmark. It dies not go precisely to plan. Altogether a pleasure to come across a film like this one night on the TV.
Braven (2018)
Snowscapes
Bad guys are moving their 'snow' through snowy logging country and run foul of Joe Braven & family.
Set in beautiful winter Newfoundland coastal mountains, it doesn't seem an obvious drug route and an early decision by bad guys seems illogical- they walk 2 miles to hide drugs in the Braven cabin rather than just secrete it in the snow near their crashed vehicle. The bad guys are obviously meant to be ex-military and are ok. Momoa looks pretty limited as an actor. So I don't know that I'll go to see Momoa's films, but I'd certainly go to Newfoundland.
Five Golden Dragons (1967)
Not Golden
Robert Cummings was 57 when he made this, playing a role surely meant for someone about 25-30 years younger. I don't have a problem with actors playing younger/older characters, but this us pushing it. It is also more obvious because of his being surrounded by gorgeous girls a fraction of his age. The Hong Kong setting and attractive women are the only watchable elements if this film.
Sabaha (2019)
Complex and Interesting
First of all, I really liked the cinematography, lighting, all the things we take for granted in a well-made film that are so obviously missing in a poor film. One shot was like a Dutch Old Master painting, you may spot it. The plot is rather complicated in following the work of an academic debunker of cults and the charlatans who mean to profit, or worse, through manipulation of followers. There is a weird mix of Buddhist and Christian influences in Korean culture which might puzzle viewers in the West like me, but it is worth paying attention and sticking with the story.
Orders to Kill (1958)
Quiet yet impressive
I was actually pottering about doing housework when this came on the television. I was kind of half paying attention when it became apparent that this is a very interesting and serious film, handled very well, about the moral dilemmas into which ordinary, humane people are put by the demands of warfare. The protagonist, a much-decorated fighter-bomber pilot us chosen to assassinate a suspected traitor in Paris, but on becoming acquainted with the 'target's struggles with the concept of carrying out the killing, in cold-blood, of a man he finds harmless and likable. This film is the antithesis of so many modern films where assassins, 'hit-men', are presented as some kind of cool hero.