Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

 

6/10

 

Starring

Anya Taylor-Joy

Chris Hemsworth

Tom Burke

Alyla Browne

 

Directed by George Miller

 

There comes a point where you know a franchise has had its days in the sun and George Miller has milked this franchise. Mad Max has had its days in the sun, and I did not find this film as engaging as Mad Max: Fury Road. The film was draining, and the story danced around the fire for so long, that at times I stood up and stretched so that I could be awake to see it through to the end. The film had some no need for these scenes, and it was at times boring. The acting was good though from the leads, but the effects were poor in some scenes. Then the makeup done on Chris Hemsworth was not a good job. I could tell he had a fake nose.

The film is not bad as far as the action scene goes, the effects could have been better like what we saw in Mad Max: Fury Road.

My question remains, why do we have to sit for so long before the plot links the warlords to a point when they will decide to put an end to Dementus?

This film is a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, we get to see how Furiosa got to be in the Citadel with Immortan Joe, and why she hated the idea of him and all that he stands for.

It starts with Furiosa as a child when she was captured by Dementus’ men from where she was staying, a place green and nothing like the surrounding wasteland. Her mother came after her to save her (killing everyone, but one who was responsible for the capture of her child). The last one died thanks to Furiosa. Furiosa mother too was later captured by Dementus men. Furiosa watched her mother being killed in front of her, because they both refuse to tell Dementus where they came from, to protect their home from being raided and the people killed.

Dementus was an insane warlord who heads a gang called Biker Horde. He adopts the unwilling Furiosa hoping she will later reveal where she came from, but she remains quiet.

Later, Dementus decides to attack another settlement, the Citadel. This attack did not go well in his favour, he then captures a town which supplies the Citadel with gas, making Immortan Joe and him come to the table for peace talks. Here is where Furiosa was handed over to the Citadel.

How she lost her hand, how she escaped and became torn in the flesh for Dementus to get her revenge, well the film is over two hours long for you to watch and find out.

Inside Out 2 (2024)

Inside Out 2 (2024)

9/10

Starring

Amy Poehler

Maya Hawke

Kensington Tallman

Liza Lapira

Tony Hale

 

Directed by Kelsey Mann

 

Inside Out 2 is a nine-year gap release from the first animation, Inside Out (2015).

You get the feeling that Disney needed to hit a bad point, which they are in right now, before deciding to go back to basics. This animation is why we love Disney’s animations, and it was done by their Pixar studio team. It focused on storytelling and detailed world building rather than the Disney’s new animations before this, which had a problem of being plagued with trying to pass a message to appeal to some minority group. All those film in the end had bad stories and their characters were non-memorable. Their old ways of setting the playing field by building a new world while setting boundaries then breaking the character to pieces and putting everything back together again, is the formula they went back to in this animation. This animation for me is a turning point and I do hope future Disney animations follow suit of sticking to a good story and building memorable characters.

Inside Out 2 takes us back to the unity formed from the first animation of the various characters in Riley’s head. In the first animation, all of Riley emotions are individual characters controlling her actions from a control board in her head. We get to know from the first animation that each emotion has a place in her sense of self. Well, that was all thrown out the window the moment puberty hit. This animation hit home with how I remember puberty was for me. The way Riley acted was so on point, when she wanted to fit in. The anxiety of growing up and wanting nothing to do with your old self and wanting to be like the cool kids. The problem of walking away too quickly from all the things that made you who you are, and wanting to be someone else, an idea of what you have deemed as cool.

So, the moment puberty hit when Riley became thirteen new emotions (Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment) are released to the control centre of Riley’s head, and they shoved the old emotions (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust) out. Anxiety took control and tried to steer Riley right because of the fear of what is to come. This new behaviour caused Riley to ditch her old friends to which she went to the hockey camp with, to try and fit in with her new friends. She starts to pretend to like what they like, and lie about who she really is, so that she can fit in. Anxiety pushed Riley hard, making her do things that she normally would not do, and make Riley push her body beyond the limit to which it can take.

We see the old emotions trapped in the streams of consciousness, trying to get Riley’s sense of self from the back of her mind and bring it to the control centre. While Sadness is sent to the centre to try to save Riley, by recalling the old emotions so that Riley does not lose it all in the end.

This animation is doing well in the box-office, and I hope Disney learns from this and continue to give us classics.

Hit Man (2023)

Hit Man (2023)

 

6/10

Starring

Glen Powell

Adria Arjona

Austin Amelio

Retta

 

Directed by Richard Linklater

 

I have to be honest, this film has some nice twists I did not see coming. How the lead Gary (Glen Powell) got involved with one of his cases, and how the involvement led to an actual murder, is worth seeing. Then, how all these got twisted so much that you just wonder how the hell do these two think this is a healthy relationship is above me. The whole film is not bursting with so much financial budget, everything is kept as minimal as possible. The actors on the other hand stepped up to cover up this lapse.

The film is based off a book of the same name by Skip Hollandsworth. The story is about a professor who works with the police to help catch criminals who want to hire a hitman. The film builds on the fact that, there isn’t really anyone about ready to kill someone for money. What he does with the police is catch people who think they are hiring a hitman.

Gary is working with a team, when the undercover police officer hitman was suspended for his behaviour outside of work. From here, you start to have some nice respect for the screenplay crafted by both Glen Powell and Richard Linklater. When Gary was asked to fill in for the suspended officer, his acting nervous and trying to be a tough guy, can be felt by you, the viewer. He, a civilian, being asked to fill in for another office, I do not think is possible, as the ramification based on lawsuits will outweigh the conviction of a crime should anything go wrong. But this is a film, so anything goes.

In his face job undercover, he started nervous, then after a while he got into the role and was able to get the other person to pay for a hit to be done. Which was enough evidence to arrest the man.

Gary decided to make sure that, whatever he does, he will do it very well. He decided to dress up in his new temporary role. Trying to be the character that the person who just booked for a hitman wants. This made him get the gig permanently, as his rate of catching the bad guys was high.

Then he met someone who he was supposed to help incriminate, and their meeting placed him at ease, and he instead helped them from getting arrested and pointed them in the direction of getting a good life.

From here on, the film dived head first into deep romantic fantasy and refused to even come up for air until the very end.

Nice film to watch on Netflix, all you need to do is to suspend the idea of possibilities and enjoy the fantasy.