Mortal Kombat (2021)

Mortal Kombat (2021)

 6/10

 Starring

Lewis Tan

Jessica McNamee

Josh Lawson

Tadanobu Asano

Mehcad Brooks

 

Directed by Simon McQuoid

 

The story is not at all any good, anyone who is not a fan of the franchise will lose interest easy. The weak plot drops this to a form of B-movie setting, even though this is supposed to be top class. This movie is to set the ball rolling for potential sequels, I just hope the plots in those ones are better. Since I am a fan of the franchise and know of the plot, it was easy for me to follow – plus easy for me to like. The comedy is only for the fans who have played the game, which I felt should have been done to encompass everyone. But the movie kept he gory aspect of the game, with its brutality.

It failed to entertain in most of the hand-to-hand combats with some becoming boring because of the too much effects involved. The only fight that really caught my eye and had my attention is the fight between Sonya Blade and Kano. There Sonya fought with some form of urgency and smartness to stop a killer.

The movie is based on a fictional fighting game first released in 1992 and since then has had numerous releases, with the latest now being Mortal Kombat 11 done in 2019. The first film (Mortal Kombat) done based on this fighting game was released in 1995 and it was a hit. Since then, plans to make a three-film series had hit many obstacles. The main one was the follow up to the 1995 hit, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation which was a dud both critically and commercially. This movie is more of a reboot of the film franchise with the Mortal Kombat main plot still holding. You can of course except new subplots and twists in the old tales.

So, let us dive into the main plot, in this fictional universe there are numerous realms which are under the control of Elder Gods. These Gods are bound by the rule of Mortal Kombat not to interfere in the fight of realm domination by its occupants. This fight is between the chosen warriors of Earthrealm and that of the other realms for control. This movie shows us three realms, the Netherrealm, Earthrealm and Outworld.

The movie then sets one of the main rivalries of the game’s universe Sub Zero and Scorpion. We see Sub Zero kill Scorpion and his family and Scorpion vowing to return for revenge.

Shang Tsung one of the leaders of Outworld has decided that instead of waiting for Mortal Kombat to happen, he will send his warriors to kill all the chosen one of Earthrealm and seize control of it.

The warriors of Earthrealm, known by the mark of a dragon on their body. This mark can be transferred if you kill anyone bearing that mark. Jax and Sonya were searching for these people, as they have come to figure out what the mark meant, even though they don’t know much about Mortal Kombat. It was their search that led them to meet Cole, as Jax saved Cole from being killed by Sub Zero. Cole finds Sonya, who had in her custody Kano. Sonya knows that the answers to everything is in Raiden’s temple, a place only Kano knows. Kano leads them there and where we see, Kung Lao and Liu Kang, who leads them to Raiden. Raiden fills them in on everything about Mortal Kombat and the realms before asking Lao and Kang to train the four to be able to save Earth and stop Shang Tsung. But Shang Tsung was not willing to wait for them to be trained and pulled all he can to disrupt their training and to be able to kill them.

The movie is not one of those superb things that you can tell anyone to go watch. The movie is done for the fans who already know the characters and are willing to sit through and watch them step up.

Speaking of stepping up, the movie had one of the most stupid step up to your warrior status scenes I have seen. These characters have had their ass handed to them, then they all had something to lose and stepped up their game. The fights in the step up were not cool, except that of Sonya and Kano, now that is a fight I will not mind seeing again.

If the movie makes enough money and brings in enough new subscribers to HBO Max, there will be a sequel. Until then I guess we can only hope that if one is done a better script will be done with it.

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

 6/10

Starring

Matthew McConaughey

Marisa Tomei

Ryan Phillippe

Josh Lucas

John Leguizamo

 

Directed by Brad Furman

 

The movie is based on a 2005 novel of the same name by Michael Connelly.

The movie idea is the world is full of crazies and The Lincoln Lawyer is a movie about what happens when one of them has a hard on for you. The movie takes pride in letting you know from the start that there is something up. It drops hints about how things are not first adding up, then it drops the bombshell – Mickey’s (Matthew McConaughey) client Louis (Ryan Phillippe) is not innocent. Now reading this and seeing who Mickey was doesn’t change anything you will think. Mickey is a lawyer who does most of his work in his black Lincoln Town Car. His clientele covers everyone from the guilty to the innocent, you will feel this was in his alley. But the twist here is, Louis is not guilty of a crime like drugs, theft or things like that. Louis is guilty of attempted sexual assault, assault with a deadly weapon and beating a woman so bad the picture is scary.

Louis being guilty is not just the problem here, we find out that Louis picked Mickey to be his lawyer, for one reason only. Mickey unknowingly helped him get away with doing this same crime once before, by getting the person he defended to plead guilty to the crime. Louis is getting his kinks off watching the system twirl in his hands and playing the game just right so he can get off.

The movie is fantastic to watch, as we see how the knowledge of knowing he sent an innocent man to jail is eating at Mickey and he wanting to do right by that man by getting him out of jail. The problem is he is Louis’ lawyer and everything he knows is protected under the attorney-client privilege. He cannot disclose anything he knows even though he dug deeper to discover how guilty Louis really is. Things take a turn when we realise how far Louis is willing to go to get free and does not care who he hurts to get there.

McConaughey’s acting and in this movie leads the pack to the way this movie will forever be seen. The Lincoln Lawyer is a courtroom thriller with nothing much in the area of suspense. The movie bares it all in the beginning, but thrilling to see is how Mickey was going to find a way to twist himself out of the whole problem he finds himself.

Nobody (2021)

Nobody (2021)

8/10

Starring

Bob Odenkirk

Connie Nielsen

Aleksei Serebryakov

RZA

 

Directed by Ilya Naishuller

 

This movie decided from the start that it will not be predictable. Nobody doesn't try to do anything new, just to make us know that Bob Odenkirk can be a versatile actor. And even though he does not look it, he can be an action star.

Love is the word I will use to describe the way the movie started. It started by showing us the endless circle of working. It creates in you a numbness when all you do is go to work, come home eat sleep, to wake up and do it all again. This is the life of many. It happens daily all through the year, until they break the cycle and do something so you do not end up being numb for all your life. Then this numbness creates fear and sometimes that can be a problem. The fear our character Hutch had was not fear for his life after his house was burgled, but fear that he was not doing enough to protect the ones he loved.

The movie takes a dump on Hutch (Odenkirk) who decided not to take a swing at a burglar and was getting a lot of lip for it. From his son who had taking down one of the burglars and all Hutch had to do was hit the other with a golf club and that will be that. Lip from his brother-in-law, neighbor and he even feared his wife had looked at him different. We later on find out why Hutch had not taking a swing on the burglars, but still the fear of not doing enough was eating at him. He let it go, but his switch was flicked when he discovered that the burglars had taken his daughter’s cat bracelet.

Then using skills, he acquired when he served, he decided to hunt down the burglars. This is when the movie takes a Liam Neeson’s Taken feel. After he has gotten the satisfaction of getting the burglars. He was just about looking for someone to just mess with him and he so wanted to right the numerous wrongs of life. The movie takes a sharp action turn at just thirty minutes in, leaving you to wonder what will happen in the remaining hour. Hutch decided to take down five guys, muscular men who wanted to hurt a lady. He beat the five really badly, as in really badly and it so happens one of them is the brother of one bad ass Russian, and Hutch dropped his card during the fight (mistakenly), now the bad guys are after him now. Then the movie switched from Taken to John Wick in just fifteen minutes. When the bad guys decided to corner him, we find out that all Hutch’s family are bad asses and then the movie then switched to a Rambo: First Blood feel.

Enough said, this is a great movie to see. So please go and see it.