Skiptrace (2016)

Skiptrace (2016)

6/10

Starring

Jackie Chan

Fan Bingbing

Johnny Knoxville

Directed by Renny Harlin

Skiptrace has been tagged by critics as ignorable, and you can’t blame them because the movie plot is full of holes, and everything it’s based on isn’t worth making a movie about at all. The secret ingredient that made me like this movie is the comedy.
After dealing with the boring introduction of all the characters involved, I found myself laughing all the way through. Jackie Chan was in top form with his comedy, and so was Johnny Knoxville.

That said, the movie lacked enough of the Jackie Chan magic stunts you’d expect, and by the end of the movie, we see how much of his life has been placed on the line for our entertainment.
I guess his age may be a factor in the reduction of stunts and daring scenes. His career of wowing us on screen has spanned over 40 years. The last movie I saw him in before this one was CZ12 (2012), where he pulled off enough stunts to earn a Guinness World Record for most stunts by a living actor.

The pairing of Jackie Chan and Knoxville gives you mixed feelings. There were times they didn’t fit as a comic duo, and then there were times when both had you engrossed in their antics.
I haven’t seen much of Knoxville’s movies, except Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013), so seeing him here piqued my interest in how he’d handle himself alongside the veteran actor. Knoxville held his own, but many times you can feel the gap in professionalism between him and Jackie Chan.

The movie starts with an introduction to Chan’s partner, who has a bomb strapped to him and jumps into a river to blow up and die, leaving Jackie to raise his daughter.
On the other side of the world, Knoxville’s character, Connor Watts, is getting himself into all sorts of trouble—from escaping a Russian mob boss to fleeing a murder scene he witnessed.

Chan’s goddaughter, Samantha, is working in the casino where Watts saw the murder. She’s undercover, trying to get dirt on the man she and Chan believe is responsible for her father’s death. Samantha and Watts’ paths cross, and after the murder incident, she contacts Chan to help track down Watts.
The fun in the movie is their journey back and the many ways Watts gets on Chan’s nerves.

I enjoyed this movie, and I believe you will too—if you suspend your reasoning and focus on laughing.

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

7/10

Starring

Mary Elizabeth Winstead

John Goodman

John Gallagher Jr.

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg

When a movie is well done, you can’t help but admire the creativity and production that went into making it a fun piece to watch. The acting of the leads was phenomenal, and the directing was totally awesome, deserving of applause for its delivery. The movie is directed by first-time director Dan Trachtenberg.

The packaging of this second film in the Cloverfield franchise is one to make your mouth water. The movie’s suspense and intensity grab your attention and make you concentrate, leaving you wondering:

• Will things turn out sexually odd for Michelle, who’s locked in a bunker with two men?
• Is there really something out there killing people, or is it biological warfare?
• If the air is toxic, what are those sounds we keep hearing outside?
• And why is Howard so shifty?

With all this running through your mind, just when things start to look like they’re adding up, something else happens that sends you down another path of wondering.

The movie features three main cast members, all locked in a bunker out of fear that the world outside is too toxic to live in. The only other person in this movie is a woman whose presence lasts about two minutes.

For me, it’s easy to make a movie with many people involved, but this movie only had three people (in a cast of four) delivering all the lines and building all the suspense to make you ache for more of the Cloverfield franchise.

Do note: Although this movie is produced by Bad Robot and is part of the Cloverfield franchise, it is not a direct sequel to the 2008 found-footage-style movie Cloverfield. The reason it was inducted as a franchise continuation is because of its theme, suspense, and fear intensity, which led the producers to dub it a “spiritual successor” to the first, but not a continuation. The entire movie’s content and story are totally different from its 2008 predecessor.

As mentioned above, the movie is about three people locked in a bunker out of fear that the world outside has been left toxic after an attack by an unknown enemy.
The survivors—Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Howard (John Goodman), and Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.)—are locked in a bunker owned by Howard and built by Emmett. Michelle is told she was found by Howard after an accident, a story she doubts to be true.
That’s not the only thing Howard tells Michelle that she questions, because the longer she’s with him, the more obvious it becomes that Howard isn’t being straightforward with his two other roommates.

Here’s a movie I can guarantee you’ll enjoy and appreciate having seen.

Jason Bourne (2016)

Jason Bourne (2016)

6/10

 

Starring

Matt Damon

Tommy Lee Jones

Julia Stiles

Directed by Paul Greengrass

Jason Bourne is a badass—we got that when we went through the first trilogy in the Bourne franchise. Now, he’s back for revenge after learning there’s more to his identity as Bourne than he knew. While watching, I recalled that we already covered this revenge story in the last movie of the trilogy.
This was a totally unnecessary sequel, and it ruined the idea that Bourne had dropped off the grid completely. Add that to the plot, which wasn’t much of a continuation of the third movie in the trilogy, and I found myself sitting through this movie asking, “Why did they decide to wreck this franchise with such a lame plot?”

The movie plot is based on Bourne trying to get closure for his father’s death—something one would think he had already achieved.

The new Jason Bourne movie is the fifth in the franchise and the fourth to star Matt Damon as the titular character, Jason Bourne. It’s based on the character created by writer Robert Ludlum in his Bourne book series.

Now, if you enjoyed the first three Bourne movies—which were great—get ready for more of the same. The movie wasn’t dull, I must say, but after watching the trilogy, I already knew how badass Bourne is. His ability to get out of sticky situations is already stamped in my mind, so seeing him do it numerous times in this movie wasn’t a surprise.
The fight scenes were overshadowed by the high-speed chases and the endless backstabbing within the CIA, ensuring that the only way to stay excited during this movie is if you’re already pumped with sugar before sitting down in the cinema.

In this movie, we see Bourne taking part in illegal fighting rings to make a living.

Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) hacks into the CIA's mainframe server to expose more of the agency's black ops programs. She stumbles upon information about Bourne's recruitment into the Treadstone program and discovers that Bourne's father had a major role in it.

She travels to Greece to inform Bourne of what she found (it’s odd that Bourne, who’s supposed to be off the grid, was easily located by her. The strange part isn’t that maybe he told her where he’d be—if that were the case, she would have met him at his apartment).

Parsons’ hack doesn’t go unnoticed by the CIA, who set up a task force to bring her in. When they discover Bourne is involved, the task force isn’t just charged with bringing him in—someone else in the task force is bent on killing him.

I hope this is the last we see of Bourne on screen. If not, I hope his return is based on a better story than the one we were served here.