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Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)



Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)



6/10



Starring the voice of
Kevin Conroy
Mark Hamill


Directed by Sam Liu



Sticking to source material of a classic is very keen when you want to keep fans coming in for seconds, that is one thing writers of The Killing Joke movie adaptation missed. They decided to spend the first half of the animation building us up for the second half.
Now if you have read the 1988 classic The Killing Joke by Alan Moore, you will find the second half of this movie true to the plot and wish the first half was never included.

In Warner Bros. attempt to extend the movie to a full length feature film, they added an intro.
The intro is based on the role of Batgirl as Batman’s sidekick. We see her struggle to finding her feet working with the already matured hero.
The Killing Joke comic was a very controversial issue due to many intents/events not thoroughly explained. So When watching the R-rated animation about the origin of Joker, it seemed to have been marred by an attempt to give another character a good back story.

The hurt the movie tried to make us feel for Batgirl when Joker shut her in the stomach which had her bed ridden went over my head with the long wait I had to endure to see the story begin.

The movie graphics are not half bad and the voice acting had both icons Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise their role as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Joker respectively. If for the lack of anything having them both back to voice the main characters was reliving.

The movie starts with Batgirl narrating her ordeal with being Batman’s sidekick. The distance he keeps her from getting close to him or getting close to harm or harming others. This infuriated Batgirl constantly as she feels she always have to prove to Batman that she can handle herself. Her attempt to prove, got her almost killed and kidnapped, to add the final nail to the coffin she crossed the line with Bats and that ended their relationship as partners.



Time passed and Batman is trying to reach out to the Joker by visiting him at the asylum, to get them both to back off being on each other’s tail as he fears death is in the air if they continue, but Joker had escaped and has plans of his own. He shuts Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) and kidnaps her father Commissioner James Gordon. He then ventures in torturing James in an attempt to drive him crazy.

Well the movie does have the final scene from the comic, where both characters stand before each other and Joker tells Batman the below joke and they laugh together. For me the wait was annoying, but I did enjoy when the movie got back on track.

Two inmates in a lunatic asylum who try to escape. One inmate jumps across a narrow gap between the asylum and the adjoining building, but the other is afraid he'll fall. The first inmate offers to shine his flashlight across the gap so the other can walk across it, but the second inmate replies, "What do you think I am, crazy? You'd just turn it off when I'm halfway across!"

War Dogs (2016)



War Dogs (2016)



6/10



Starring
Jonah Hill
Miles Teller


Directed by Todd Philips


War Dogs had me captivated at the way the events unfold, as we see two arms dealers try to score big. The movie tells a good story and keeps you curious on how events will turnout.
The down side of this movie is we have seen such onscreen pair before and while watching you have this striking feeling that the more outspoken carefree character will mess up everything for the partners, so there is no element of surprise when it finally happened.

Everyone is always aiming for that one big score, but sometimes the price to pay for that score can eventually make the score a useless endeavour. That was what this movie had to deliver as we watch two childhood friends form a company AEY, which deals specifically in arms deals with the U.S. Pentagon.

The movie has one of the best performances I have seen Jonah Hill pull off, he was a master of character shifts in this movie playing a greedy and intelligent Efraim Diveroli.
Jonah Hill deserves all the praise he is getting for his performance and even more, as his presence takes the movie which could have been done better into what is enjoyable.

War Dogs is a biographical crime drama directed by Todd Phillips. The movie plot is based on a story published in Guy Lawson's 2015 book Arms and the Dudes. Although the movie is biographical many of the elements and happenings were fictions, just wound together to make a more compelling story.

What these two 20 something friends did rocked the U.S. Army and caused it to review its procurement dealers and measures.

The movie is narrated by David (Miles Teller) who is a licenced massage therapist. David is tired of giving massages to old people for a living, and tried his hand on selling bedsheets to old people’s home, but the business failed and David was to lose all his savings.
When his old time childhood friend and bad influence Efraim shows up at a burial of a mutual acquaintance, the two hooked up and tried igniting their past fun days. After hearing about David’s predicament and his unborn child on her way Efraim asked David to come join him as an arms dealer.
Their work together made them enough money to buy houses and live a good life, but they always wanted more and decided to go for a big score worth $ 300 million.

The problem is, they had to fool the U.S. Army to get away with it.

A good enough movie to see even if it is just to appreciate the performance of Jonah Hill.

Blood Father (2016)



Blood Father (2016)



7/10



Starring
Mel Gibson
Erin Moriarty


Directed by Jean-Francois Richet


Mel Gibson has not been starring in major blockbuster hits lately, with his last attempt on a large screen is with ensemble cast in Expendables 3 (2014). Here in this under the table movie, which I can bet many would not have heard of is Blood Father, based on a book of the same name by Peter Craig.
The movie has many elements which reminds you of Taken (2008), and some which reminds you of Gibson himself in Lethal Weapon.

The Taken (2008) aspect of this movie has Gibson’s character Link (an ex-convict tattoo artist) willing to do anything he can based on his skills as a biker gang member and links in prison to protect his daughter. The Lethal Weapon part in this movie has Gibson’s character pull out crazy stunts and do crazy things, putting his life in danger.

Not dripping down with much of a cast, the movie makes the best of the cast it has, and Gibson’s weird beard and weird view of the world were an awesome side attraction when he and his daughter were not trying to get out of the way of flying bullets to get to safety.

The movie plot isn’t solid, but the directing by Jean-Francois Richet (who was the man behind the camera in the action thriller Assault of Precinct 13 (2005)) was well done and captured my interest as the movie glides gently, to a climatic end.

The movie starts with a girl, Lydia buying bullets. She gives the bullets to her boyfriend who leads a crew of men to a house in an attempt to kill the inhabitants. Lydia was asked to prove her loyalty by killing a lady who lived in the house in a panic frenzy she shoots her boyfriend unintentionally and ran away while being chased by his crew.

Link was an ex-con now tattoo artist, who has been looking everywhere for his daughter Lydia. She finally contacts him and ask for help to get away from the men trying to kill her.

Link gets to her before the men does and tries to help her by keeping her away from the men who she claims are her friends. When the crew storms Link’s place and a shoot-out begins which only ended because Link’s neighbours came to save his ass, Link and his daughter are now on the run from the goons after them.

With Link contacting his own crew to be able to bring this chase to an end without involving the cops.

This is a movie I will advise you get the time to see and enjoy.