Tag: action

Review: ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,’ starring Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Angela Bassett, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Winston Duke and Martin Freeman

November 8, 2022

by Carla Hay

Letitia Wright in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios)

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

Directed by Ryan Coogler

Some language in French and Yucatec with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of Earth, the superhero action film “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” features a racially diverse cast of characters (black, Latino and white) representing the working-class, middle-class and royalty.

Culture Clash: After the death of King T’Challa, the fictional African nation of Wakanda becomes under siege from various factions, including the secret underwater kingdom of Talokan, that want Wakanda’s help in obtaining the precious metal vibranium. 

Culture Audience: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “Black Panther” franchise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and superhero movies that include multiculturalism issues.

Tenoch Huerta Mejía in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios)

In more ways than one, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” shows how healing from a tragedy can turn into a triumph. This top-notch sequel to 2018’s “Black Panther” is an epic story of grief, loyalty, greed and the resilience of the human spirit. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” should more than satisfy fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and will inspire repeat viewings. Do people need to see “Black Panther” before seeing “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”? No, but it certainly helps, especially in understanding the backgrounds of the characters who have the most poignant moments in this sequel.

Directed by Ryan Coogler (who co-wrote the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” screenplay with Joe Robert Cole), “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” puts the women of the fictional African nation of Wakanda in the front and center of a story that also pays respectful tribute to Wakanda’s deceased King T’Challa, played by Chadwick Boseman in 2018’s “Black Panther.” Coogler directed and co-wrote (with Cole) the first “Black Panther” movie, which helps in keeping a consistent tone for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

The beginning of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” shows King T’Challa’s younger sister Princess Shuri (played by Letitia Wright) frantically trying to find a medical solution to save T’Challa, who is dying from an unnamed illness. (Boseman tragically died of colon cancer in 2020. He was 43.) All of Shuri’s efforts don’t work, and T’Challa passes away.

The people of Wakanda have an elaborate funeral for T’Challa that includes mourning his death and celebrating his life. Everyone is dressed in white for this event. At the end of the funeral, T’Challa’s casket floats up into the sky. As explained in the first “Black Panther” movie and in Marvel’s “Black Panther” comic books, Wakanda is a self-sufficient nation that is somewhat of a utopia and where supernatural things can occur. Wakanda is protected by an all-female army called the Dora Milaje.

One year after T’Challa’s death, Shuri and her mother Queen Ramonda (played by Angela Bassett) are grieving, but Shuri has had a more diffcult time trying to move on with her life. Shuri is a genius scientist who blames herself for not being able to find a medical cure that could have saved T’Challa. Much of Shuri’s storyline in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” has to do with Shuri’s grief and other traumatic things she experiences in the movie.

Meanwhile, Queen Ramonda has to contend with pressure from different entities that want Wakanda’s help in finding vibranium, a rare metal that has the power to harness kinetic energy. An early scene in the movie shows a regal and confident Ramonda at a United Nations meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, one year after T’Challa’s death. During this meeting with world leaders, Ramonda is told that the United States is disappointed that Wakanda has not shared resources in the quest to find vibranium.

However, Wakanda (a self-sufficient nation that is somewhat of a utopia) has a policy not to get involved in other nations’ politics, and Ramonda reiterates that fact. She also has members of Dora Milaje bring in some captives: several men who tried to invade one of Wakanda’s member facilities that handles vibranium. A flashback shows how members of the Dora Milaje captured these invaders. Ramonda’s sternly tells the assembled officials that she knows that a member state of the United Nations was probably behind this attack, and this capture serves as an “olive branch” warning for this attack not to happen on Wakanda again.

Meanwhile, a U.S. ship in the Atlantic Ocean has been looking for vibranium underwater. The ship then experiences something unexpected and bizarre. Crew members of the ship seem to go into a daze and start jumping off of the ship to their death. And then, a group of blue-skinned people rise out of the ocean and attack the ship. The attackers’ leader is dressed like a Mayan king and has wings on his feet that allow him to fly. Viewers later find out that his name is Namor (played Tenoch Huerta Mejía), and he’s the ruler of Talokan, a hidden nation under the sea.

One evening, back in Wakanda, Ramonda and Shuri have a heart-to-heart talk on a beach. Ramonda is concerned about Shuri’s emotional well-being because Shuri seems to be deeply depressed. Shuri tries to brush off her mother’s concerns. Ramonda says she has a secret about T’Challa that she wants to tell Shuri. But just as she’s about to tell Shuri, Namor appears out of the water.

Namor is not there to pay a friendly visit. He essentially tells Ramonda and Shuri that Talokan needs Wakanda’s help to defend themselves from extinction and to get vibranium. If Wakanda refuses to help, Talokan will declare war on the world, and Wakanda will be Talokan’s first target. A stunned Ramonda tells Namor that Wakanda does not get involved in other people’s wars and refuses to give in to his demand. Namor leaves and ominously says that he will return in one week.

Meanwhile, CIA operative Everett K. Ross (played by Martin Freeman) reprises his role from 2018’s “Black Panther.” Everett is an ally to Wakanda but he gets into conflicts about it with higher-ranking agent Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who is pressuring Wakanda to cooperate with the U.S. government to find vibranium. Valentina (who communicates with a brittle, sarcastic tone) has another, more personal connection to Everett that is revealed in the movie.

Also reprising their roles from “Blank Panther” are Okoye (played by Danai Gurira), the courageous leader of the Dora Milaje; Ayo (played by Florence Kasumba), a powerful enforcer of the Dora Milaje; M’Baku (played by Winston Duke), the leader of Jabariland, Wakanda’s isolated region known for its snow and mountains; and Nakia (played by Lupita Nyong’o), who is the best spy in Wakanda’s history and T’Challa’s former love partner. New to the Dora Milaje team is Aneka (played by Michaela Coel), a high-ranking member.

During the course of the story, Shuri and Okoye travel to Haiti, where viewers find out that Nakia has been living for the past six years. In Haiti, Nakia has been working as a teacher of children in elementary school. Shuri and Okoye have to plead with Nakia to come back to Wakanda to help them, but Nakia is very reluctant to go back. Why did Nakia leave Wakanda? And why is Nakia reluctant to go back? Those questions are answered in the movie.

Wakanda also has another ally, who finds herself involved in this brewing war through no choice of her own. Her name is Riri Williams (played by Dominique Thorne), a brilliant 19-year-old MIT student and aspiring scientist. Riri and Shuri are thrown together in circumstances where they have to learn to work together. Riri is sometimes overwhelmed by the danger that comes her way, but she can be counted on to come up with helpful ideas. She has a sassy personality that is the comic relief in the movie.

Meanwhile, Namor has been assembling his own troops to prepare for war. His two main sidekicks are Talokan’s strongest warrior Attuma (played by Alex Livinalli) and Talokan’s most fearless warrior Namora (played by Mabel Cadena), who have unwavering loyalty to Talokan and their leader, Namor. At one point in the movie, viewers find out more about Talokan and Namor’s backstory to explain why he is on such a brutal revenge mission.

“Black Panther” won Academy Awards for its production design (led by Hannah Beachler) and its costume design (led by Ruth E. Carter), with Beachler and Carter both leading the same teams for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” The production design for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is even more elaborate and awe-inspiring, particularly in how Talokan was designed. (It looks like an underwater Mayan paradise inspired by Atlantis.) The costume design for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is also Oscar-worthy, although many of the Dora Milaje costumes are understandably the same or similar to as they were in “Black Panther.”

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” has better visual effects than “Black Panther.” The cinematography is also an improvement over the first “Black Panther” movie, particularly when it comes to the scenes in Talokan and some of the camera angles during the fight scenes. Every action sequence looks believable, given the characters’ superpowers. But all of these dazzling components to the film would be wasted if the story wasn’t compelling and the acting performances weren’t up to par.

Shuri becomes the heart and soul of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” as she comes to terms with T’Challa’s death; faces doubts and moral dilemmas about where he should put her loyalties; and sometimes clashes with her strong-willed mother Ramonda on decision to make about Wakanda’s future. Wright gives a standout performance in having to convey a wide myriad of emotions of someone who is the heir to the throne but has inner and exterior conflicts about her leadership, while living in the shadow of T’Challa and his legacy.

Bassett is also noteworthy in her performance as Romanda, who has to find a way to reconcile her pain with a possible new direction for Wakanda. Huerta Mejía a gives solid performance as the movie’s villain, who is alternately stoic and filled with rage. Namor isn’t the most fearsome villain of the MCU, but his backstory will make viewers see that underneath his anger is a lot of personal pain and pride for his people.

Because of the real-life death of Boseman, there are expected tearjerking moments when the movie shows flashbacks of T’Challa. There’s also the brief return of another major character from the first “Black Panther” movie, with the character appearing to Shuri in a vision. A mid-credits scene (there is no end-credits scene) in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” shines a bright light of hope for the future of Wakanda, but it’s with a bittersweet tone that T’Challa is immensely beloved and will always be missed.

Marvel Studios will release “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” in U.S. cinemas on November 11, 2022.

Review: ‘A Hundred Billion Key,’ starring Kiều Minh Tuấn, Thu Trang, Anh Tú and Jun Vũ

November 4, 2022

by Carla Hay

Thu Trang and Kiều Minh Tuấn in “A Hundred Billion Key” (Photo courtesy of 3388 Films)

“A Hundred Billion Key”

Directed by Võ Thanh Hòa

Vietnamese with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in Vietnam, the action film “A Hundred Billion Key” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class, wealthy and the criminal underground.

Culture Clash: An aspiring actor steals the identity of a wealthy man with amnesia, but then finds out that the man whose identity he stole has a secret life as an assassin.

Culture Audience: “A Hundred Billion Key” will appeal primarily to fans who don’t mind action movies with plots that get ridiculous and have ill-placed comedy.

Anh Tú and Jun Vũ in “A Hundred Billion Key” (Photo courtesy of 3388 Films)

“A Hundred Billion Key” is an action flick that starts out promising but then turns into a heaping, nonsensical mess that mostly fumbles its attempts at comedy. This hyperactive movie about assassins and fake identities crams in too many surprises that become increasingly far-fetched. The film’s very absurd last 20 minutes look like the filmmakers couldn’t think of any believable ideas on how to end the movie.

Directed by Võ Thanh Hòa, “A Hundred Billion Key” is a Vietnamese remake of the 2012 Japanese film “Key of Life,” which was directed by Kenji Uchida. “Key of Life” was also remade into the 2016 South Korean film “Leokki (Luck-Key),” directed by Lee Gae-byok. “A Hundred Billion Key” is the least appealing of the three movies because of how it bungles this intriguing story that is supposed to have some intentional comedy.

The opening scene of “A Hundred Billion Key” (which takes place in an unnamed city in Vietnam) shows an assassin in his 30s named Phan Thach (played Kiều Minh Tuấn) disguised as a hotel waiter delivering room service to a man who’s a hotel guest. The cinematography in this scene is quite artistic, as the camera remains focused on the table being wheeled into the room without showing the assassin right away. As soon as Thach is in the room, he kills his target.

The murder victim put up a fight, which caused a big commotion. Hotel security is alerted to the disturbance in the room, the body is found, and the hunt is on in the hotel for the murderer. However, Thach escapes by shedding his waiter outfit and pretending to be a sanitation worker at the hotel and then slipping away into the night.

The movie than shows a 24-year-old man whose life will soon intertwine with Thach’s life. Cao Chí Dũng (played by Anh Tú) is an aspiring actor who hasn’t had much luck finding work. Dũng’s father immensely disapproves of Dũng’s chosen profession and pesters Dũng to get a “real job.” Dũng lives in an apartment and is five months behind on his rent.

When his landlady shows up with three men to demand the payment, Dũng is about to hang himself with a noose. This attempted suicide scene is played for laughs, in one of the movie’s many comedic scenes that are poorly done or in very bad taste. When the landlady and her three cohorts break down the door, Dũng changes his mind about killing himself and escapes out of a back window.

“One Billion Key” then abruptly cuts to a scene showing assassin Thach in the shower at a public bath house. He accidentally slips on some soap, falls down, and hits his head so hard, he becomes unconscious. Dũng happens to be nearby in the shower, and he sees that this stranger has accidentally dropped a key, but no one else notices. Dũng takes the key, while other people nearby rush to help this unconscious stranger.

A rideshare service is called to take Thach to the nearest hospital. The rideshare driver who shows up is a woman in her 30s named Mai Mai (played by Thu Trang), who is understandably stressed-out over this situation, since she’s the only person accompanying this stranger to the hospital. Viewers have to suspend disbelief that an ambulance wasn’t called in this emergency medical situation.

Mai doesn’t want to stay at the hospital, but she’s forced to do so because she’s the only person at the hospital who can tell the medical professionals what she saw when Thach was put in her car. Thach left all of his identification and his clothing at the bath house. And his wallet, clothing and ID have been stolen by Dũng, who has quickly figured out that Thach is wealthy, based on Thach’s designer clothes, credit cards and home address. Dũng leaves his own clothing and ID behind, in the hope that people will think Thach is Dũng, even though the two men aren’t close in age and don’t look alike.

Dũng uses the key to gain entry to Thach’s house and sees that Thach lives alone. Dũng figures that he can get away with this identity theft as long as Thach is in the hospital. And so, Dũng goes on a spending spree that includes a lot of partying and buying of luxury items. He also uses some of Thach’s money to pay the rent that he owes his landlady. Dũng’s identity theft lasts longer than expected when he finds out that Thach has amnesia, and people have told him that Thach’s name is Cao Chí Dũng.

This flimsy concept is the shaky basis for “A Hundred Billion Key,” which wants viewers to believe that this identity switch is plausible. A huge plot hole that’s never addressed is how two men who don’t look alike, who are years apart in age, and who had photo IDs before this identity switch could be mistaken for each other. The movie’s not-very-believable explanation is that Thach is a loner assassin who is a master of disguises, so his clients don’t ever really know what he looks like. It’s even less believable that Dũng can hide his true identity, in order to steal Thach’s identity.

As soon as Dũng finds out that Thach has taken on Dũng’s identity and is about to be discharged from the hospital, Dũng rushes to his apartment building and tells the landlady that someone else will be living in his apartment unit for a while. Dũng tells the landlady not to bother this new tenant. Back at Thach’s home, Dũng finds a secret room filled with surveillance equipment, walkie talkies and disguises. Dũng incorrectly assumes that Thach is an undercover police officer.

Dũng also finds out from the surveillance cameras that Thach has been spying on a pretty young woman named Hồ Phuong (played by Jun Vũ), who lives nearby. The more that Dũng observes Phuong, the more he’s attracted to her. Eventually, Dũng comes up with a plan to meet Phuong, and he charms her into going on a date with him. You know where this is going, of course, because Dũng can’t keep up his charade forever.

Meanwhile, Mai takes it upon herself to help Thach, who thinks he’s Dũng, in order to get his life back on track. They find out that Dũng is an aspiring actor who has been called to audition for a small role in an action TV show. Guess who’s going to the audition instead of the real Dũng?

This part of the movie is just one of a minefield of plot holes in “A Hundred Billion Key.” This movie takes place at a time when Internet searches can easily be done, so it makes no sense that Mai and people at the hospital don’t try to find out what Dũng looks like before putting his identity on this amnesiac stranger who looks nothing like Dũng. There’s also no explanation for how Dũng’s identity as an actor could be replaced by someone who doesn’t look like him.

Mai has another job besides being a rideshare driver. She works at a fast-food restaurant owned by her meddling mother (played by Kim Xuan), who is upset that Mai is in her 30s and still not married. Mai has a younger sister (played by Puka), who also looks down on Mai for being a spinster of a certain age. Expect to see a lot of stereotypical family bickering between these three women.

Mai helps Thach/the fake Dũng get a job at the restaurant. A running gag in the movie is that this cold-blooded and confident killer is now an insecure fast-food server who is an aspiring actor. It should come as no surprise that Mai, who helps Thach/the fake Dũng build his confidence as an actor, starts to become attracted to him. And the feeling is mutual.

The real Dũng’s only family is his widowed father, who is currently estranged from him, so Dũng’s father doesn’t know about the switched identities. But what about any of Dũng’s friends, neighbors or previous work colleagues who could easily identify him? They are all non-existent. Meanwhile, (dumb plot development alert) Thach, as the fake Dũng, becomes a TV star.

Things get complicated for the real Dũng when he finds out that the man whose identity he stole is really a high-paid assassin. And guess who’s supposed to be his next target? Hint: It’s the only person in the movie who didn’t know Dũng’s real identity before meeting him. It’s all so obvious and lacking in any real suspense, although “A Hundred Billion Key” throws in ludicrous plot developments on top of ludicrous plot developments in a feeble attempt to distract viewers from all the movie’s plot holes.

The rest of the movie involves people on the run from crime bosses, a computer flash drive that contains information that will access a fortune, and a series of cliché-ridden fight scenes. The cast members’ adequate performances aren’t the movie’s biggest problems. “A Hundred Billion Key” fails at being creative because of the insipid storytelling, erratic tone (its attempts at being a wacky comedy look very awkward) and all-around bad dialogue. Action movies aren’t supposed to be intellectual, and many action movies aren’t realistic, but there’s just too much stupidity in “A Hundred Billion Key” that drains the movie of even having the entertainment value of being a guilty pleasure.

3388 Films released “A Hundred Billion Key” in select U.S. cinemas on October 28, 2022. The movie was released in Vietnam on February 1, 2022.

Review: ‘Home Coming’ (2022), starring Zhang Yi, Wang Junkai and Yin Tao

November 4, 2022

by Carla Hay

Zhang Yi in “Home Coming” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“Home Coming” (2022)

Directed by Rao Xiaozhi

Mandarin and Arabic with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place from February to March 2015, in China and the fictional Middle Eastern country of Numia, the action film “Home Coming” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A Chinese diplomat and his colleagues desperately try to save about 125 Chinese citizens who are trapped in war-torn Numia.

Culture Audience: “Home Coming” will appeal primarily to fans of war movies that tell compelling stories where humanity is not lost amid all the brutal action.

Wang Junkai in “Home Coming” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“Home Coming” piles on some plot twists that look overly manufactured for a movie. However, this action thriller succeeds in delivering heartfelt performances and gripping suspense from beginning to end. Some viewers might automatically dislike the movie if they think it’s nothing more than patriotic propaganda. However, there really isn’t any political preaching in the movie, which has a story that could apply to any nation with the resources and privileges to have diplomats who go on rescue missions.

Directed by Rao Xiaozhi, “Home Coming,” which takes place from February to March 2015, is essentially the story about how a group of Chinese diplomats try to rescue about 125 Chinese citizens who are trapped in a fictional, war-torn Middle Eastern country named Numia. Qin Haiyan, Shi Ce, Lei Zhilong and Bu Jingwei co-wrote the “Home Coming” screenplay. “Home Coming” is being marketed as “based on a true story,” although “Home Coming” doesn’t name any specific real-life people whose story is the basis of this movie. Certainly, the intent of the movie is to make viewers think about all the real-life innocent people who’ve been caught in the middle of warfare.

In the beginning of “Home Coming,” it’s the Chinese New Year in February 2015. Numia is in the midst of a civil war, with rebels fighting to take over the established government, which is led by a president that the rebels think is a dictator. The Chinese government has ordered all Chinese citizens to evacuate Numia. However, the plane flight carrying these evacuees is full. As a result, a group of Chinese diplomats had to stay behind in the Numia capital city of Laptis.

Chaos is everywhere in Numia, where deadly violence (such as bombs, arsons, shootings and stabbings) can happen to anyone at any time. In a car on its way to the Chinese embassy in Laptis are four Chinese diplomats who work for the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Consulate Protection Center. All four diplomats are among those who were left behind because of the full plane flight that carried other Chinese citizens out of Numia.

Zong Dawei (played by Zhang Yi), who is in his 40s and driving the car, is the hardest-working of these four diplomats. He has a stoic demeanor that gets tested as the situation becomes increasingly tense and dangerous. Dawei lives in Shanghai, where his wife Chen Yue (played by Wan Qian), also known as Yueer, is due to give birth in a few weeks. The baby will be the couple’s first child together.

Cheng Lang (played by Wang Junkai) is a 25-year-old “rookie” diplomat, who is the youngest of the four stranded diplomats. Lang is eager to impress his colleagues, but Dawei later questions Lang’s abilities to be a skilled negotiator in Numia because Lang doesn’t know how to speak Arabic. “Home Coming” has a somewhat predictable storyline with Lang and Dawei: The younger and less-experienced colleague tries to earn the respect of the older, jaded colleague.

Yan Xingzhou (played by Taishen Cheng) is an attorney who is in his 50s and is the oldest of the four men. Xingzhou is authoritative but he can be very impatient. In the car, he doesn’t like that it’s taking so long to get to the embassy, because of all the checkpoints, and he says he would rather just rent a car and drive to the destination himself. It’s a rather illogical plan because it would take too long to find a rental car in this chaos, and having a rental car doesn’t magically make the checkpoints disappear.

Zhang Ning (played by Zixian Zhang) is a secretary of state who is the fourth diplomat in this quartet of diplomats. Ning, who is in his late 30s or early 40s, is calm and even-tempered. He doesn’t get involved in the conflicts between Lang and Dawei. Ning has very mixed feelings about leaving Numia, because he has a daughter named Fatima (played by Elain Ahmed Lotf Rageh Algahefi), who’s about 5 or 6 years old. Fatima was born in Numia, which is also the birthplace of Fatima’s mother.

Before Numia’s civil war, Ning assumed that Fatima would be raised in Numia. And now, he’s frantically trying to find Fatima, who has disappeared. Fatima’s mother has also gone missing. However, because Fatima is a citizen of Numia, not China, there’s a big question over whether or not she will be eligible to go with the Chinese evacuees.

Dawai, Lang and Ning have a harrowing experience on the way to the Chinese embassy in Lapsis: In the car, Lang was using a video camera to record some of the rebel soldier activity outside. However, some soldier see that they are being filmed, so they stop the car, confiscate Lang’s videocamera, and detain the diplomats, who are told they won’t be released until they pay a hefty fine.

But more hell breaks loose when the building where they’re being detained is explodes from a bomb. The three diplomats escape in a daze, as they see death and destruction around them. Somehow, they make it to the Chinese embassy, where they have an emergency meeting to plan what to do next. The embassy building has been locked down, but that doesn’t mean that the building is completely safe and secure.

Dawai, Lang and Ning find out that about 1,000 Chinese citizens have been detained at the border of Numia and Talisia, a fictional country that can provide temporary asylum to these refugees. Most of these detainees don’t have their passports, which were lost or left behind in the chaos of their emergency evacuations. The rest of “Home Coming” involves the efforts to save a specific group of 125 Chinese evacuees who have been hiding in an abandoned open-air marketplace. And, of course, not everyone makes it out alive.

Some of the people who are part of this harrowing experience include two friendly Numian drivers who help the Chinese diplomats: Hassan (played by Yves Finkel) and his trusted right-hand man Kamal (played by Ahmed Mohammed Jaber Alkalthoom). The diplomats are also helped by a local Numian named Vadir, an elderly man who says he’s politically neutral. The leader of the Chinese evacuees hidden in the marketing place is a no-nonsense woman named Bai Hua (played by Yin Tao), who has a compassionate female sidekick named Zhong Ranran (played by Amy Haoyu Chen), a Red Cross volunteer.

Although “Home Coming” is mostly about what happens in Numia, the movie reveals some of the personal problems that are part of Dawai’s and Lang’s lives in China. Dawai has spent nearly all of his career as a diplomat in war-torn countries. But now that he’s about to become a father, his wife Yue has been pressuring him to take a less-dangerous job. It’s caused tension in their marriage because Dawai doesn’t want to quit his job.

Meanwhile, Ranran and Lang, who are about the same age, become closer and seem to have a mutual attraction to each other. During one of their conversations, Lang opens up about have a strict father in the army “who cares more about medals than he cares about me.” Lang having “daddy issues” partially explains why he is insecure and almost desperate to get the approval of his older male colleagues, especially Dawai.

“Home Coming” gets very graphic in depicting the horrors of war. There are scenes of dismembered bodies strewn out on the street, people burning up in flames from bomb fires, children being separated from their families, and people being hunted down and shot like animals. The military leader of the rebels is a ruthless sadist named Muftah (played by Ivan Ponomarenko), who isn’t just brutally violent. Muftah also likes to play cruel mind games with his captives.

In a movie like “Home Coming,” it’s only a matter of time before there’s a showdown between the “heroes” and the “villains.” The movie has a few moments where it looks like a situation has been resolved, but then more terror happens. “Home Coming” definitely keeps viewers on edge, to immerse audiences in the feeling that being in a war-torn country often means living in a constant state of fear and dread.

The movie’s cinematography, production design and visual effects are well-done, with all of it looking realistic but also taking on surreal qualities to depict the shock that innocent people caught in this war zone must feel. “Home Coming” also succeeds in making viewers care about the film’s main and supporting characters, who are depicted in authentic-looking ways by the talented cast members. This is not a war movie that looks like a soulless video game.

However, sensitive viewers should be warned: “Home Coming” can get very violent and disturbing in showing some of the worst things that can happen in a war-torn country. The violence isn’t gratutitous but is meant to show in realistic ways that oftenimes, no amount of diplomatic work or political neutrality can protect people who are trapped in a war-torn country. The movie specifically portrays to what the Chinese government is capable of doing to evacuate its citizens in these situations, but “Home Coming” never lets audiences forget that not everyone trapped in a war zone will have diplomats working to save them.

CMC Pictures released “Home Coming” in select U.S. cinemas on October 21, 2022. The movie was released in China on September 30, 2022.

Review: ‘Ram Setu,’ starring Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt Bharuccha and Satya Dev

October 25, 2022

by Carla Hay

Akshay Kumar in “Ram Setu” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)

“Ram Setu”

Directed by Abhishek Sharma

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the action film “Ram Setu” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An archaeologist gets caught in the middle of protests over a developer’s plans to demolish Ram Setu, a chain of limestone shoals connecting India and Sri Lanka,and the archaeologist is ordered to provide evidence that Ram Setu is a natural formation, not a man-made structure.

Culture Audience: “Ram Setu” will appeal primarily to fans of star Akshay Kumar and archeaological adventure stories with religious overtones, but the movie’s flimsy and dull plot will be a turn-off to viewers who are expecting a more interesting film.

Akshay Kumar in “Ram Setu” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)

“Ram Setu” is an example of a movie that thinks it can coast by on some eye-catching cinematography without having a good story. The tedious plot developments are poorly conceived, the performances are mediocre, and the action scenes look very fake. This very disappointing adventure movie throws in some religious preaching, which the filmmakers know could be problematic, because a disclaimer toward the end of the movie reminds viewers that “Ram Setu” is a work of fiction.

Written and directed by Abhishek Sharma, “Ram Setu” aims to rewrite history or make people think differently about the history of the real-life Ram Setu, a chain of limestone shoals connecting India and Sri Lanka. In the beginning of the film, archaeologist Dr. Aryan Kulshrestha (played by Akshay Kumar), who is from India, is leading a desert expedition in Pakistan, where he and his colleagues uncover a buried trunk of precious coins. As soon as these coins discovered, several Jeeps carrying Taliban soldiers swoop in and attack the archaeologist group to steal the coins. Did the Taliban have hidden cameras in the desert for these soldiers to know the exact moment that these coins were found?

After shootouts and explosions, Aryan and his trusty sidekick Anjani Putra, also known as AP (played by Satya Dev, whose real name is Satyadev Kancharana), run away with the trunk of coins and fall down a shaft that leads them to a hidden cave. (It’s one of the movie’s many phony-looking action scenes.) Inside the cave, Aryan and AP find a giant statue of a reclining Buddha. The statue is an extremely rare archaeological treasure.

The first major sign that “Ram Setu” is a sloppily edited film is after Aryan and AP find this statue, the movie never shows how they managed to get out of the cave and elude the Taliban attackers. The next scene cuts to a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, where Aryan is getting praised for discovering this statue. A reporter at the press conference asks Aryan if Aryan thinks that because the statue represents Buddhism, the statue should be returned to India instead of staying in a Muslim-majority country such as Pakistan. Aryan makes a diplomatic answer by saying that he doesn’t get involved in government politics of which country should own archaeological findings.

Whether he likes it or not, Aryan is about to get involved in some divisive issues regarding politics, business and religion. Soon after his major discovery of the Buddhist statue, Aryan returns to India, where he is promoted to lord-general of the Archaelogical Society of India. Aryan thinks his life is going smoothly until he gets caught in the middle of a big controversy that is dividing India’s people.

The Indian government’s Sethusamudram Project wants to demolish Ram Setu, in order to make way for a man-made shipping route. It’s this movie’s reference to the real-life Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, which involves the creation of a long deep-water channel linking the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar, for a length of about 51.7 miles or 83.2 kilometers. In real life, the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project was approved by the Indian government in 2005, under a plan that would not destroy Ram Setu.

In the “Ram Setu” movie, the project has not yet been approved. People have been protesting the project because they believe that Hindu deity Lord Shri Rama built Ram Setu, and therefore Ram Setu should not be demolished. In other words, the protesters believe destroying Ram Setu is a sacrilegious act.

Aryan is happily married to a fellow scientist named Professor Gayatri Kulshrestha (played by Nushrratt Bharuccha), who isn’t afraid to disagree with him. Aryan privately comments to Gayatri about the Ram Setu controversy, by saying that he thinks this matter is a land dispute. Gayatri sassily responds that it’s a matter of faith and says, “Your job is to dig up graves, not questioning the faith of people.”

Aryan’s refusal to take the side of the protesters makes him very unpopular with many members of the public who want to label Aryan as immoral, so he gets suspended from the Archaeology Society of India. (It’s a very unrealistic aspect of the plot.) His reputation takes a nosedive to the point where his career could be permanently damaged.

Aryan also gets roughed up by unidentified men outside of a hotel where Aryan had a speaking engagement. The face makeup depicting Ayan’s facial injuries is absolutely horrible and amateur-looking. Instead of bruises, it looks like black shoe polish was smeared on his face. The film’s continuity is also sloppy because the facial injuries look very different in scenes that are only supposed to take place a few hours apart.

Aryan’s unpopularity has a negative effect on Kabir Kulshreshtha (played by Anngad Raaj), the son of Aryan and Gayatri. Kabir, who’s about 8 or 9 years old, gets verbally taunted at school by another boy, who insults Kabir about Aryan. This conflict leads to Kabir getting into a physical fight with the boy. An emergency meeting in held with school officials, the boys and their parents. Kabir is told by the school principal that if he gets into this type of trouble again, he will be expelled.

The dispute over Ram Setu eventually reaches India’s judicial system. In a courthouse scene, a judge declares that the government must provide proof that Ram Setu is a natural formation, not a man-made structure, in order for the Sethusamudram Project to be approved by the court. Shortly after this ruling, Aryan is contacted by a wealthy mogul named Indrakant Varma (played by Nassar), who is the leader of Pushpak Shipping, a company that stands to benefit if Ram Setu is demolished by the Sethusamudram Project. Indrakant wants to hire Aryan to prove that Ram Setu is a natural structure, but Aryan declines the offer.

But Aryan get is coerced into working for Indrakant anyway on a sea station called the Pushpak Alpha Floating Lab. It’s a futuristic operation headed by project manager named Mr. Bali (played by Pravesh Rana), who introduces Aryan to the rest of the crew. Aryan’s new colleagues include Dr. Chandra (played by Ramakant Dayma), Dr. Sandra Rebello (played by Jacqueline Fernandez), Professor Andrew (played by Zachary Coffin) and Dr. Gabrielle (played by Jeniffer Piccinato).

Aryan gets a hi-tech underwater suit called Makar, which has robot hands that look like leftovers from the robot in the original “Lost in Space” series. Mr. Bali says to Aryan about putting on the Makar suit: “You’ll be flying underwater like Iron Man.” To its credit, “Ram Setu” has some underwater scenes that look visually appealing.

However, people with basic knowledge of deep sea diving will be cringing at how the movie portrays these explorers being in a ship underwater without wearing underwater suits or oxygen tanks and with no realistic references to underwater pressure that increases the deeper someone goes underwater. Haven’t these people heard of getting decompression sickness? And when Aryan goes diving in the Makar suit, his head looks like a computer-generated visual effect that was inserted, not a real person in the suit. In other words, the science fiction in “Ram Setu” is unconvincing.

The scientists at the Pushpak Alpha Floating Lab quickly determine that if they can prove that Ram Setu is more than 7,000 years old (before Lord Rama existed), then it would prove that Lord Rama did not create Ram Setu. The movie has a bunch of nonsense about a yellow rock that is supposed to be proof of Ram Setu’s age. AP eventually comes along for the ride. And people with various agendas end up chasing this group of Pushpak explorers.

“Ram Setu” has some references to British colonialism’s erasure of Indian history and has some obvious messages about Indians needing to reclaim Indian history from a Eurocentric point of view. (Ram Setu is also known as Adam’s Bridge.) But all this messaging about Indian historical pride is cheapened when the movie is so badly constructed, it insults viewers’ intelligence.

Some of the chase scenes have tension, but what happens in between this action is often dreadfully dull. The acting performances from all of the cast members are unremarkable or forgettable. “Ram Setu” makes a sharp detour toward the end that is supposed to have a deep religious meaning. But this “reveal” in the movie’s last scene is ultimately just like the rest of “Ram Setu”—a lot of ideas thrown together in disjointed ways and resulting in an unimpressive story.

Zee Studios released “Ram Setu” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on October 25, 2022.

Review: ‘Code Name: Tiranga,’ starring Parineeti Chopra and Harrdy Sandhu

October 24, 2022

by Carla Hay

Parineeti Chopra in “Code Name: Tiranga” (Photo courtesy of T-Series Films/Reliance Entertainment)

“Code Name: Tiranga”

Directed by Ribhu Dasgupta

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, Turkey, Jordan and Afghanistan, the action film “Code Name: Tiranga” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A spy has to choose between loyalty to the man she’s fallen in love with and loyalty to the Indian government, which has sent her on a mission to capture an international terrorist.

Culture Audience: “Code Name: Tiranga” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching unrealistic action movies with silly storylines.

Parineeti Chopra and Harrdy Sandhu in “Code Name: Tiranga” (Photo courtesy of T-Series Films/Reliance Entertainment)

“Code Name: Tiranga” should have been titled “Code Name: Terrible.” That’s the best way to describe this insipid action movie that’s filled with unrealistic fight scenes, subpar acting and grossly moronic plot developments. This is the type of action flick that can make some basic video games look like masterpieces in comparison. And it’s yet another sexist movie about a female spy who’s written as someone who needs to sexually seduce at least one man in order to accomplish her goals.

Written and directed by Ribhu Dasgupta, “Code Name: Tiranga” takes places in various countries, as the protagonist Durga Devi Singh (played by Parineeti Chopra), a special ops spy for the Indian government, scurries around like a spy with no coherent plan, except to go from location to location and shoot a bunch of people. In some of these shootouts, Durga is the only person who’s up against at least 12 other armed opponents in the same location. But somehow, unbelievably, she’s able to take all of them down. Does she get wounded? Yes, occasionally. But when she does get shot, she makes a quick recovery that’s so unrealistic, even a child can see how phony everything is.

In the beginning of “Code Name: Tiranga” Durga goes undercover as a journalist named Ismat, to meet and seduce Dr. Mirza Ali (played by Harrdy Sandhu), a medical doctor of Indian heritage who is currently a Turkish citizen working for the United Nations. Mirza is visiting India but will be returning to Turkey soon. Soon after Mirza meets Durga/Ismat, they begin dating, and he tells her that he dreams of opening his own clinic to help refugees.

Why is Durga targeting Mirza for her seduction scheme? She’s been told by her superiors that Mirza has been invited to a wedding that is expected to be attended by their main target: a ruthless international terrorist named Khalid Omar (played by Sharad Kelkar), who has eluded capture for years. (Yes, this part of the movie’s plot is as stupid as it sounds.) Durga’s immediate supervisor is Ajay Bakshi (played by Dibyendu Bhattacharya), who doesn’t do much but show up unexpectedly in certain places and tell Durga what to do.

Mirza, who only knows Durga as Ismat, falls in love with her. And the feeling is mutual with Durga/Ismat, who feels guilty that she has lied to Mirza about her true identity. That doesn’t stop her from marrying Mirza two months after they started dating. This whirlwind courtship is presented in a very superficial way in “Code Name: Tiranga.” The movie never shows the wedding of Mirza and Durga/Ismat. It’s briefly explained that they eloped.

Of course, a spy who is expected to go on deadly missions on short notice can’t keep up this charade forever of being a journalist wife of a doctor. “Code Name: Tiranga” is so inept, the movie never really explains why Durga had to get married to Mirza under her fake identity, in order to be invited to a wedding where she was supposed to capture a terrorist. It just makes Durga look like an idiot, and it makes her betrayal of Mirza even worse than it could have been.

“Code Name: Tiranga” then turns into a turgid soap opera about Durga’s inner conflict of whether or not she should be loyal to Mirza or loyal to the Indian government. The movie’s shootouts and other fight scenes are mind-numbingly stupid, while the visual effects are tacky and cheap-looking. It should come as no surprise that Mirza is eventually put in harm’s way. And there’s another betrayal that’s revealed toward the end of the movie that’s very easy to predict.

“Code Name: Tiranga” tries desperately to look like it’s a female empowerment film because the protagonist is a woman spy. But it’s not female empowerment just because you put a gun in a woman’s hand, and you show her being able to win a fight against several men. Female empowerment for a woman protagonist also has to do with her intelligence and how she moves in a world where women are frequently not treated as equals to men.

In that regard, “Code Name: Tiranga” comes up very short, because it uses the tired old movie concept that a woman spy can’t possibly accomplish anything meaningful without having sex with one of her targets and/or with a work colleague. Male spies in movies almost never have their accomplishments dependent on who their sex partners are. And even the way that the “romance” is handled in “Code Name: Tiranga” ensures that Durga will be the one who’s punished for her decisions. “Code Name: Tiranga” is pretending to be pro-female, but it’s just a witless, boring and misogynistic film that does not deserve anyone’s time or money.

T-Series Films and Reliance Entertainment released “Code Name: Tiranga” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on October 14, 2022.

Review: ‘Black Adam,’ starring Dwayne Johnson, Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Mohammed Amer and Bodhi Sabongui

October 19, 2022

by Carla Hay

Dwayne Johnson in “Black Adam” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

“Black Adam”

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional nation of Kahndaq and briefly in Louisiana, the superhero action film “Black Adam” features a racially diverse cast of characters (white, Asian and African American) portraying superheroes and regular human beings.

Culture Clash: Reluctant superhero Teth Adam, later known as Black Adam, finds it difficult to change his vengeful and troublemaking ways, and he does battle against the Justice Society and a group of land pillagers called Intergang. 

Culture Audience: “Black Adam” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Dwayne Johnson and movies based on DC Comics, but the movie is a disappointing and unimaginative cinematic origin story for Black Adam.

Sarah Shahi and Pierce Brosnan in “Black Adam” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

“Black Adam” is nothing more than a mishmash of big-budget superhero clichés with empty dialogue, atrocious editing, a forgettable villain and a lackluster story. You know it’s bad when the mid-credits scene is what people will talk about the most. “Black Adam” (which is based on DC Comics characters and stories) is the type of misguided mess that tries to do too much and ends up not making much of impact at all. It’s one of the weakest movies in the DC Extended Universe.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, “Black Adam” could have been a thoroughly entertaining, epic superhero movie, based on the fact that charismatic Dwayne Johnson has the title role, and the movie has several talented cast members. (Johnson is also one of the movie’s producers.) But the “Black Adam” screenplay (written by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani) is a complete dud, with mindless conversations and stale jokes that look too forced.

It’s fair to say that people don’t watch superhero movies for super-intelligent dialogue, but even the action sequences in “Black Adam” are substandard. The visual effects are hit-and-miss and aren’t particularly impressive. And the choppy editing looks like something you might see in a beginner, low-budget film, not a movie that with experienced filmmakers and a bloated nine-figure production budget.

“Black Adam” begins in the year 2600 B.C. in the fictional kingdom of Kahndaq, which is supposed to be somewhere in the Middle East. The most valuable resource in Kahndaq is Eternium, which gives special magical powers to anyone in possession of Eternium. Needless to say, wars and crimes have been committed in the competition to get Eternium.

A mystical warrior named Teth Adam (played by Johnson), who has superpowers in strength and speed, is someone who experienced a tragedy as a result of this greed for Eternium. As a result, he went on vengeful crime sprees but was eventually imprisoned in the Rock of Eternity (which is a resource hub for magic), where he was entombed for 5,000 years. The legend of Teth Adam was passed on for generations.

In the present day, Kahndaq is now an economically struggling country that has been invaded by white Europeans looking to mine the land for Eternium. A villainous group called Intergang wreaks the most havoc in this quest for Eternium. Meanwhile, a group of rebel freedom fighters aiming to defeat Intergang will be hunted by members of Intergang.

What does this have to do with Black Adam? One of the leaders of the freedom fighters is named Adrianna Tomaz (played by Sarah Shahi), who ends up being captured with her brother Karim (played by Mo Amer), who is also a freedom fighter, while they are trying to get a magical crown. Their friend and colleague Ishmael (played by Marwan Kenzari) is also involved in tryng to get this crown.

While being held captive in a cave that ends up being where the Rock of Eternity is, Adrianna yells, “Shazam!” It’s the magical word that awakens Teth Adam, who breaks out of captivity from the tomb. Adrianna and Karim escape, but for a good deal of the movie, they are being chased by Intergang thugs. Will formerly imprisoned Adam help them?

Adrianna is a widowed mother of an adolsecent son named Amon Tomaz (played by Bodhi Sabongui), who’s about 13 or 14 years old. Without going into too many details, it’s enough to say that Teth Adam eventually meets Amon, Adrianna and Karim. Amon immediately is in awe of Adam, but Adam is less impressed with this family and doesn’t really want to get involved with the family’s Intergang problems, until certain circumstances lead Adam to be on the family’s side.

That entire storyline would be enough for one movie, but “Black Adam” crams in another storyline where Adam is at odds with a group of superheroes called Justice Society, which has reunited when it becomes known that Teth Adam is on the loose and causing damage again. Viola Davis has a cameo near the beginning of “Black Adam” to reprise her “Suicide Squad” character Amanda Waller, who makes a command that sets the Justice Society back in motion. There’s nothing special about any of the cast members’ acting, a lot of which looks “phoned in,” with no uniquely memorable flair.

The members of the Justice Society in the “Black Adam” movie are:

  • Carter Hall/Hawkman (played by by Aldis Hodge), a loyal and earnest warrior who has lived for thousands of years and has the flying skills of a hawk.
  • Kent Nelson/Doctor Fate (played by Pierce Brosnan), a kind-hearted and grandfatherly archeologist who has the powers of a sorcerer.
  • Al Rothstein/Atom Smasher (played by Noah Centineo), a clumsy and goofy 20-year-old who can grow to the size of a skyscraper.
  • Maxine Hunkel/Cyclone (played by Quintessa Swindell), a playful and courageous 19-year-old who has the power to use her mind to create cyclone-like gusts of wind.

Unfortunately, all of these Justice Society characters are written to have very generic personalities and extremely bland chemistry with each other. Maxine Hunkel/Cyclone in particular is very under-used and is more like a placeholder than an impactful, developed character. And some of the lines of dialogue they have to say are downright cringeworthy. More than once, Hawkman says to Doctor Fate: “A bad plan is better than no plan at all.” That sounds like the same attitude that the “Black Adam” filmmakers had in making this shoddy superhero movie.

Expect to see a lot of formulaic chase scenes, shootouts, explosions and all the usual stereotypes of superhero action flicks. “Black Adam” has some half-hearted preachiness about white colonialism in countries where most of the residents aren’t white, but this attempt to bring a “social consciousness” to “Black Adam” looks as phony as some of the movie’s often-unconvincing visual effects. Everything in the story is jumbled up and scatterbrained, as if the filmmakers couldn’t decide how to juggle the storylines of Adam being at odds with the Justice Society and Intergang. (The 2021 action flick “Jungle Cruise,” also directed by Collet-Serra and starring Johnson, had the same overstuffed story problem.)

Meanwhile, Teth Adam/Black Adam scowls and smashes his way throughout the movie like a bulldozer on autopilot. The teenage character of Amon is hyper and talkative to the point of annoyance. Amon’s uncle Karim is supposed to be the comic relief of the movie, but just ends up looking mostly like a buffoon. Adrianna is the voice of reason for the group of freedom fighters, but nothing stands out about this character’s personality. And when one of the movie’s heroes has an underage child, you know what that means when the villains want revenge.

And about those villains. One of the biggest failings of “Black Adam” is that none of these villains is particularly memorable. The “chief villain” battle at the end looks more like a video game than a cinematic experience. The best superhero movies have villains who make the type of scene-stealing impact that audiences talk about for years. “Black Adam” comes up very short on every level when it comes to unforgettable villainous characters.

What happens in the mid-credits scene of “Black Adam” has already been widely reported, but it won’t be detailed in this review. It’s enough to say that it involves another DC Comics superhero and how that superhero might interact with Black Adam. It’s never a good sign when a movie’s main character and story are so underwhelming, it’s upstaged by the sudden appearance of another character in a mid-credits scene that foreshadows the anticipated plot of an obvious sequel.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “Black Adam” in U.S. cinemas on October 21, 2022.

Review: ‘Prem Geet 3,’ starring Pradeep Khadka and Kristina Gurung

September 27, 2022

by Carla Hay

Kristina Gurung and Pradeep Khadka in “Prem Geet 3” (Photo courtesy of Madhu Entertainment & Media)

“Prem Geet 3”

Directed by Chhetan Gurung and Santosh Sen

Nepali and Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the ancient Khazakh Kingdom in the Beyul region of the Himalayan Mountains, the action film “Prem Geet 3” features an all-Nepali cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and royalty.

Culture Clash:  A noble young prince, who is set to inherit the Khazakh Kingdom, falls in love with a woman in a romance that both families disapprove of, and he could be disowned, while his jealous younger brother plots to become the next king. 

Culture Audience: “Prem Geet 3” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching very predictable action flicks with no imagination and mediocre-to-bad acting.

Manish Raut and Pradeep Khadka in “Prem Geet 3” (Photo courtesy of Madhu Entertainment & Media)

The action flick “Prem Geet 3” is an overload of dull fairy-tale stereotypes and shallow characters. The movie’s ending is a silly cop-out to keep the possibility open to have more sequels. Any number of modern video games can offer better entertainment than “Prem Geet 3.”

Directed by Chhetan Gurung and Santosh Sen, “Prem Geet 3” is the first movie to be released worldwide simultaneously in Nepali and Hindi. Unfortunately, there’s nothing extraordinary about “Prem Geet 3,” which is just a boring rehash of many other plots in many other action-adventure films, with a love story thrown into the mix. Gurung and Mandip Gautam co-wrote the terrible “Prem Geet 3” screenplay.

The movie is the third in the “Prem Geet” series that features a different romantic story about two lovers named Prem and Geet.” The first “Prem Geet” movie (released in 2016) is a romantic drama. 2017’s “Prem Geet 2″ is a musical romantic comedy/drama.” Unlike the previous two films, which are set in the 21st century, “Prem Geet 3” is set in an unspecified ancient time. Pradeep Khadka has the role of Prem in all three movies, while a different actress has portrayed Geet in each movie.

“Prem Geet 3: has a simplistic plot that audiences have seen many times before: There’s the handsome hero, who’s a prince set to inherit his father’s kingdom. The prince has a jealous younger brother who wants to be the next heir in line for the throne. (They are the only two children of the king.) There’s the forbidden romance that pits two tribes of people against each other. You all know where this is going and how the movie is going to end.

Set in the fictional Khazakh Kingdom in the Beyul region of the Himalayan Mountains, “Prem Geet 3” shows Prem, who is the prince and future king, falling in love at first sight with Geet (played by Kristina Gurung, no relation to filmmaker Chhetan Gurung), who comes from a humbler background than Prem’s royal heritage. Not long after Prem and Geet begin dating (with some sappy musical numbers to chronicle their courtship), Prem finds out that Geet comes from a village that Prem’s Dargah people had invaded and plundered.

Needless to say, Prem’s father (played by Shiva Shrestha) and Geet’s father (played by Sunil Thapa) disapprove of this romance. Prem’s father thinks that Prem should marry a woman of a higher social class. Geet’s father thinks that Prem’s courtship of Geet is some kind of trap to invade their village again.

It turns out that Geet and Prem met each other before, when they were children of about 7 or 8 years old. During this childhood meeting, Geet gave Prem two special gold bangles (which are large and gaudy) that he kept for all of these years. Prem gives the bangles back to Geet as a loving gesture and for another reason explained in the movie.

Prem refuses his father’s demands for Prem to end his relationship with Geet. In fact, Prem makes it clear to everyone that he wants to marry Geet. Does this mean Prem will be disowned?

Meanwhile, Prem’s younger brother Aman (played by Manish Raut) has had a long-simmering jealousy of first-born Prem, because Aman wants to be king. Prem has saved Aman’s life on at least one occasion, as shown in the movie. Prem and Aman were in the woods when Prem thwarted an axe that was thrown by an unknown assassin in attempt to kill one or both brothers.

Just because Prem saved Aman’s life doesn’t meant that Aman will feel forever grateful and loyal to Prem. As soon as Prem and his father become estranged, Aman sees it as an opportunity to become next in line for the throne. It leads to a very predictable “brother versus brother” war.

Everything about “Prem Geet 3” looks like a movie that spent most of its money on production design and costume design and didn’t put enough thought into crafting a good story. The action is formulaic and often stale. The music in “Prem Geet 3” is forgettable. The dialogue is atrocious. The hairstyling (with cheap-looking, fake wigs, especially for the Aman character) is almost laughable. “Prem Geet 3” also has than one “fake death scene,” where someone is presented as dead by a murder that’s shown in the movie, but then surprise! This person isn’t really dead, after all.

The “Prem Geet 3” cast members’ performances range from very bland to downright horrible. And because so much of “Prem Geet 3” has been done so many times already in other movies, there’s no suspense. For an action movie, the pacing actually becomes tedious, especially during the very hokey musical numbers, which look like a parody of Bollywood musical numbers. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how many languages “Prem Geet 3” can be released in simultaneously, because it is still a very uninspired and vapid movie.

Madhu Entertainment & Media released “Prem Geet 3” in select U.S. cinemas on September 23, 2022, the same date that the movie was released worldwide.

Review: ‘The Woman King,’ starring Viola Davis

September 10, 2022

by Carla Hay

Cast members of “The Woman King.” Pictured in front row, from left to right: Lashana Lynch, Viola Davis and Sheila Atim. Pictured in second row, from left to right: Sisipho Mbopa, Lone Motsomi and Chioma Umeala (Photo by Ilze Kitshoff/TriStar Pictures)

“The Woman King” (2022)

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood

Culture Representation: Taking place in the mid-1800s in West Africa, the action film “The Woman King” features a predominantly black cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class, wealthy and royalty.

Culture Clash: General Nanisca leads an all-female group of warriors in the African kingdom of Dahomey, as they battle against the slave trade and the rival Oyo Empire. 

Culture Audience: “The Woman King” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Viola Davis and military action movies that are told from a female perspective.

Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu in “The Woman King” (Photo courtesy of TriStar Pictures)

“The Woman King” is sometimes cluttered and uneven, but the movie’s compelling performances, gripping action and inspiring personal stories can keep most viewers interested. Viola Davis is the movie’s title character and should have been in more scenes. Instead, at least half of the movie is about a rookie military recruit, who starts out as an underestimated newcomer and overcomes challenges, on and off the battlefield. “The Woman King” had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and written by Dana Stevens, “The Woman King” is inspired by true events that happened in West Africa in the mid-1800s. Davis (who is one of the producers of “The Woman King”) portrays General Nanisca, the leader of the Agojie, an all-female group of warriors protecting the African kingdom of Dahomey.

These women have a fearsome and bold reputation that is so widespread, when they arrive as visitors in a village, people are afraid look at them. Some of these warrior women’s exploits are exaggerated in stories told among villagers, while other exploits are not exaggerated, including the warriors’ participation in vicious killings. For example, the movie shows how the women specifically train themselves on how to murder people by chopping off their heads.

King Ghezo (played by John Boyega), the reigning leader of Dahomey, is part of the kingdom’s dwindling male population. Dahomey has been in a longtime feud with the Oyo Empire, which is also in West Africa. The on-again-/off-again warfare between Dahomey and Oyo has resulted in Dahomey being forced to give up male residents to Oyo, which has been selling these men in the growing slave trade.

Needless to say, the slave traders (the African traitors and the white male buyers) are the story’s biggest villains. Leading the group of white slave traders is Santo Ferreira (played by Hero Fiennes Tiffin), a Brazilian aristocrat who tries to convince King Ghezo to start profiting from the slave trade by selling slaves directly to Santo and his colleagues. King Ghezo needs the money, and the movie ultimately shows whether or not he makes the decision to sell out his own people. Someone who does sell his own people with no hesitation is Oba Ade (played by Jimmy Odukoya) from the Oya Empire.

Meanwhile, in Dahomey, a 19-year-old woman named Nawi (played by Thuso Mbedu) defiantly refuses to marry an older, wealthy man whom her father has chosen for her. This would-be husband immediately shows that he’s abusive when he punches Nawi for not being submissive to him. Nawi defends herself by pushing this abuser down to the ground. He’s shocked that she won’t let him get away with abusing her.

Nawi tells her father that she doesn’t want to have a husband and that she wants to be a soldier. And so, Nawi’s father decides he’s going “punish” her by making her enlist in the toughest military unit around: the Agojie army. Nawi arrives as very physically unprepared and insecure new recruit. She tries to hide her insecurity by acting like she knows more than she really does.

Nanisca gives the responsibility of training Nawi to Nanisca’s right-hand woman Izogie (played by Lashana Lynch), who is as fearless as Nanisca and very loyal to her. Another member of this military unit is Amenza (played by Sheila Atim), who has known Nanisca the longest and is Nanisca’s closest confidante. Amenza is compassionate as well as tough. Lynch and Atim are entirely believable in these supporting roles.

Nawi doesn’t make a good impression on the Agojie leaders because she often acts like an entitled brat. In one of the first conversations that Nawi and Nanisca have with each other, Nanisca comments that Nawi looks a lot younger than 19. Nawi says to Nanisca, “You look like an old woman to me.”

The movie has the expected scenes of inexperienced recruit Nawi making mistakes and failing in some physical challenges during the training process. She’s laughed at and taunted by some of the other trainees, but she doesn’t experience any extreme military hazing. It should come as no surprise that Nawi eventually improves (in her attitude and physical skills) and then excels. Mbedu is quite good in depicting Nawi’s metamorphosis.

Izogie ends up relating to Nawi because they both came from dysfunctional families. Izogie, who knows about Nawi’s abusive father, confides in Nawi one day by saying that Izogie experienced the pain of having an abusive mother. Izogie comments to Nawi about the Agojie warriors: “You have a new family now.”

Meanwhile, Brazilian slave trader Santo has a servant named Malik (played by Jordan Bulger), whose biracial identity often tests his loyalty. (Malik’s mother was an enslaved black woman, and his father was white.) Malik often has to choose between his white employer and the black people with whom Malik identifies with more. Malik and Santo are about the same age, and they grew up together, with Malik always having the role of Santo’s servant.

Malik and Nawi become attracted to each other, but their possible romance is hindered by Nawi’s doubts about how involved Malik is in the slave trade. Malik repeatedly tells Nawi that he’s not a slave trader, but she questions his honesty, considering that he works for a slave trader. To bring some playfull sexiness into the movie, there’s a scene where Nawi takes away Malik’s clothes as a prank when he’s skinny dipping by himself near a waterfall.

Wait a minute. Isn’t this movie called “The Woman King,” not “The Woman Rookie”? One of the frustrating aspects of “The Woman King” is that the Nanisca isn’t in the movie as much as she should be. Nanisca is not exactly sidelined, because Davis is such a powerhouse performer, she makes the most of her screen time, even with her facial expressions. However, a huge part of the story is about Nawi’s personal dramas.

The movie becomes a little bit of a soap opera when something from Nanisca’s past comes back to haunt her. It’s a secret that Nawi finds out about in a way that shakes Nawi to her inner core. Very few people know about this secret. And, at first, Nawi doesn’t quite believe this secret until she sees proof.

“The Woman King” can be commended for showing some of the realistic ups and downs that military groups have with each other and with the governments that they serve. Nanisca has some tension with King Ghezo’s opinionated wife (played by Jayme Lawson), who thinks that Nanisca is too radical. It irritates King Ghezo’s wife when he takes Nanisca’s advice.

The power struggle between Nanisca and King Ghezo’s wife doesn’t become a major showdown though, because the king always treats his spouse as more or less a trophy wife. It’s very obvious from the beginning of the movie that King Ghezo has more respect for Nanisca than his wife, when it comes to leadership skills and camaraderie. Doesn’t the title of this movie say it all?

“The Woman King” has some intense battle scenes and depictions of enslavement that might be too hard to watch for very sensitive viewers. The battle scenes show how even though many of these women might be physically smaller than their male opponents, the female warriors have trained to outwit their opponents with strategic fight moves. The movie also makes a point of how the women pay respect to their fallen comrades using their African religious traditions.

Although “The Woman King” has a well-developed story arc for Nawi, the development of the Nanisca character sometimes fall short of what many viewers might expect. Nanisca gives a little bit of background information about herself, including her secret that affects Nawi. Even with this big secret revealed, Nanisca still remains stoic and somewhat mysterious by the end of the movie.

Viewers never really find out what Nanisca’s interests are outside of this army of female warriors and the army’s duties to protect Dahomey, but that could be the point: Nanisca’s life revolves around this group. It’s testament to Davis’ immense talent that she conveys enough of a personality with Nanisca to show that this extraordinary warrior is not a hollow character but has lived a life of pain and hard-fought survival that she doesn’t easily reveal to others.

TriStar Pictures will release “The Woman King” in U.S. cinemas on September 16, 2022.

Review: ‘The Witch 2: The Other One,’ starring Shin Si-ah, Park Eun-bin, Jin Goo, Seo Eun-soo and Sung Yoo-bin

September 4, 2022

by Carla Hay

Shin Si-ah in “The Witch 2: The Other One” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“The Witch 2: The Other One”

Directed by Park Hoon-jung

Korean with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in South Korea and briefly in Shanghai, China, the sci-fi action film “The Witch 2: The Other One” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with one white South African) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A mysterious teenager is hunted by various people while she is being protected by a woman, her brother and their cohorts with their own agenda.

Culture Audience: “The Witch 2: The Other One” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the 2018 film “The Witch: Subversion” and sci-fi action movies that place more importance on violent chases than in creating interesting stories.

Seo Eun-soo and Justin John Harvey in “The Witch 2: The Other One” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

People don’t have to see 2018’s “The Witch: Subversion” before watching 2022’s “The Witch 2: The Other One,” because this sci-fi action sequel is so incoherent, it won’t make a difference. It’s just an idiotic, violent chase movie with no suspense. “The Witch 2: The Other One” is not a horror movie, as the title suggests, and is not scary at all. The only real horror that viewers might experience is finding out that this bloated movie is too long (137 minutes), considering how little entertainment value it has to offer.

Written and directed by Park Hoon-jung, “The Witch 2: The Other One” (which takes place in unnamed cities in South Korea) is yet another sci-fi movie about an individual who is being hunted by sinister forces that want to use the hunted individual in scientific experiments. In these types of predictable stories, the individual is one-of-a-kind or very rare. And the hunt to find this individual usually involves secretive government operations and/or a gang of criminals.

That’s the basic plot of “The Witch 2: The Other One,” which has a teenager who is just named Girl (played by Shin Si-ah) as the target of this hunt. The movie opens with Girl (who looks like she’s about 15 or 16 years old) on a school bus filled with 36 people, according to a TV news report shown later in the movie. She and the other students are from a school called Sanwol Fashion.

The bus is carjacked by about five men, who fill the bus with tear gas. About five to eight other men wearing hazmat suits then arrive and enter the bus. The next thing viewers see is Girl waking up in a scientific lab, where a TV news report says that the bus rolled off of a cliff, and everyone in the bus died. Everyone, that is, except for Girl.

At the lab, Girl sees a pregnant woman and asks her about the pregnancy. The woman replies, “It’s a girl. She will have a sister and become a twin. And those twins will have even more siblings.” In other words, Girl is being kept in a lab that is producing clones under a secret program called The Witch program. This isn’t spoiler information because the only real spoiler information is revealing where Girl came from, her true identity, and what happens to her at the end of the movie.

People who know about “The Witch: Subversion” know that there’s an evil scientist named Dr. Baek (played by Jo Min-su), who is in charge of this cloning. At the end of “The Witch Subversion” (spoiler alert) Dr. Baek is killed. But she has an identical twin, who’s also named Dr. Baek (also played by Jo Min-su) and who is the chief villain in “The Witch 2: The Other One.”

“The Witch 2: The Other One” so badly edited, the next time that viewers see Girl, it’s during a snowy winter, and she has woken up and sees her body has sustained bloody injuries. Girl doesn’t know or doesn’t remember how these injuries happened. She’s in a science lab in Shanghai, China, where several people have been massacred.

Meanwhile, Dr. Baek, who is in South Korea and now in a wheelchair, is having a conversation a young colleague named Jang (played by Lee Jong-Suk), who tells her that their secret cloning building Ark Main in Shanghai has been totally exposed. Jang adds, “Those fuckers busted the Shanghai lab and evaporated it … The Girl is unaccounted for … She walked out on her own … We’re fucked.” Viewers later find out that Girl has been given the name Ark 1 Datum Point at this Ark Main lab.

And the next thing you know, Girl is kidnapped again. This time, it’s when she’s walking all alone in a wooded area when she’s abducted by five men and one woman in a van. The woman, whose name is Kyung-hee (played by Park Eun-bin), is the fearless and tough leader of this group.

Kyung-hee’s full agenda is later revealed in the movie. But for now, all Girl knows is that Kyung-hee is protecting Girl from the people who want to send Girl back to the Ark Main lab. Some other people become involved during this chase movie that becomes very repetitive and tedious. Kyung-hee’s younger brother Dae-gil (played by Sung Yoo-bin) eventually comes into the picture in a pivotal role. There’s also a crime boss named Yong-doo (played by Jin Goo), who is an enemy of Kyung-hee and Dae-gil.

A female official named Jo-hyeon (played by Seo Eun-soo) has been tasked with finding Girl. Jo-hyeon’s right-hand man is an arrogant and dimwitted white South African (played by Justin John Harvey) who doesn’t have a name in the movie. He often argues with Jo-hyeon about strategy decisions.

Gun shootouts, hand-to-hand-combat, and explosions ensue. “The Witch 2: The Other One” is a just a noisy mess that ultimately has no originality whatsoever. All of the characters are barely two-dimensional, with the cast members giving unremarkable performances. If anyone has the patience to sit through this entire garbage dump of a movie, there’s an end credits scene with a “surprise” that basically announces that “The Witch 2: The Other One” is expected to have a sequel. You’ve been warned.

Well Go USA released “The Witch 2: The Other One” in select U.S. cinemas on June 17, 2022. The movie was released in South Korea on June 15, 2022. “The Witch 2: The Other One” is set for release on Blu-ray and DVD on November 8, 2022.

Review: ‘Bullet Train’ (2022), starring Brad Pitt

August 2, 2022

by Carla Hay

Brad Pitt and Benito A Martínez Ocasio (also known as Bad Bunny) in “Bullet Train” (Photo by Scott Garfield/Columbia Pictures)

“Bullet Train” (2022)

Directed by David Leitch

Some language in Japanese, Spanish and Russian with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in Japan, the action film “Bullet Train” features a racially diverse cast of characters (white, black, Asian and Latino) representing the working-class, middle-class, wealthy and the criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A down-on-his luck American assassin has conflicts with international criminals during a ride on a fast-moving train traveling through Japan. 

Culture Audience: “Bullet Train” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Brad Pitt; the novel on which the movie is based; and movies that give more importance to loud violence instead of an interesting and innovative story.

Brian Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in “Bullet Train” (Photo by Scott Garfield/Columbia Pictures)

The jumbled and repetitive “Bullet Train” is just a fast-moving train wreck. The movie has plenty of famous co-stars but ultimately has little substance or imagination as an action comedy. “Bullet Train” over-relies on too many similar gags until it all becomes very dull and obnoxious. After a while, the action starts to look stale and formulaic. With few exceptions, the movie’s characters are no better than soulless, computer-generated characters in a video game.

Directed by David Leitch and written by Zak Olkewicz, “Bullet Train” is based on Kōtarō Isaka’s 2010 Japanese novel “MariaBeetle,” which was translated in English and renamed “Bullet Train” in 2021. In the book, all the characters are Japanese. The “Bullet Train” movie has a cast of international characters, with characters from the United States and the United Kingdom getting most of the screen time. Characters from Japan, Russia and Mexico are secondary characters. “Bullet Train” takes place primarily in Japan but the movie was filmed at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California.

Prior to directing “Bullet Train,” Leitch directed the action feature films “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” (released in 2019) “Deadpool 2” (released in 2018) and “Atomic Blonde,” released in 2017. What all of these movies have in common is that they bit off more than they can chew. They’re very energetic when it comes to action scenes, but they’re very cluttered with sloppily edited characters and plot tangents that don’t necessarily serve the story very well. “Bullet Train” follows that same pattern. A better director would bring more finesse and charm to these movies instead of trying to make audiences think that violent action scenes are enough to make a good action flick.

People don’t really need to read the “Bullet Train”/”MariaBeetle” novel before seeing the “Bullet Train” movie. In fact, people who don’t know anything about the novel might be less disappointed in the “Bullet Train” movie, which dumbs down a lot of things about the novel. The “Bullet Train” movie removes a lot of the intrigue and personality that can be found in the novel, and substitutes it with an emphasis on staging scenes that are supposed to be outrageously violent.

In the “Bullet Train” movie, seven people on board the Nippon Speedline train going from Tokyo to Kyoto find their lives colliding and interwined because of various criminal activities:

  • Ladybug (played by Brad Pitt) is a cynical and unlucky American assassin, whose current mission is to steal a briefcase full of ransom money.
  • Tangerine (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a smooth-talking British assassin who likes to wear suits and gold jewelry but sometimes loses his seemingly suave cool with his hair-trigger temper.
  • Lemon (played by Brian Tyree Henry) is Tangerine’s more even-tempered adoptive bother/partner in crime, who takes a more philosophical view of their assassin work and who is fixated on the children’s book/cartoon character Thomas the Tank Engine.
  • The Prince (played by Joey King) is a sociopathic killer who disguises her evil by looking like an innocent teenage schoolgirl. (The character of the Prince was male in the “Bullet Train” novel.)
  • Kimura (played by Andrew Koji) is a quiet, low-level criminal from Japan who’s out for revenge against the Prince for a heinous act committed against Kimura’s son.
  • The Hornet (played by Zazie Beetz) is a sneaky assassin who usually goes undercover in disguise.
  • The Wolf (played by Benito A Martínez Ocasio, also known as Bad Bunny) is a ruthless assassin/gang leader from Mexico.

Ladybug is in constant communication through earpieces with his no-nonsense boss/handler Maria (played by Sandra Bullock), who inexplicably seems to know and see everything on the train. (And no, Ladybug isn’t wearing a secret hidden camera.) Maria is ultimately a character that doesn’t add much to the story except to make Ladybug look even more bungling and foolish than he needed to be.

But in some ways, this odd-couple pairing of Maria and Ladybug would have made a better movie if focused on these two characters, because Bullock (in the limited time that she has in “Bullet Train”) brings a certain charisma to the role that “Bullet Train” lacks overall. Unfortunately, only Maria’s voice is heard for most of “Bullet Train,” which lessens the impact of Bullock’s talent for physical comedy (facial expressions and other body language) that would have benefited “Bullet Train.” It isn’t until toward the end of the movie that Maria appears on screen.

The only interesting trivia note about “Bullet Train” is that cast members Pitt, Bullock and Channing Tatum (who has a useless cameo in “Bullet Train”) were co-stars in another 2022 movie: the romantic comedy “The Lost City.” Neither movie is award-worthy, but at least the comedy in “The Lost City” was depicted in a more skillful way. “Bullet Train” has some sporadic moments where the jokes land as intended, but the rest of the comedy falls very flat. Tatum and “Deadpool” movie franchise star Ryan Reynolds have “Bullet Train” cameos that are quick and underwhelming.

The messy plot of “Bullet Train” involves the kidnapped, unnamed son (played by Logan Lerman) of a Russian mob boss called the White Death (played by Michael Shannon), with Tangerine and Lemon having the responsibility of guarding the son on the train and carrying a briefcase full of ransom money. Ladybug’s job is to steal the money. A running gag in the movie is that Ladybug has encountered some of these criminals before in assassin assignments that he botched, but he has forgotten about these experiences until he’s reminded of them.

Lots of shootouts, explosions, and bloody fights ensue. There’s also a recurring plot device involving snake poison and a Taiwanese Blue Beauty snake. Masi Oka (as the Conductor) and Karen Fukuhara (as Kayda Izumi Concession Girl) have utterly thankless and forgettable roles in this schlockfest.

Except for the wisecracking Ladybug and Kimura’s humble florist father The Elder (played by Hiroyuki Sanada), the characters in “Bullet Train” come across as very hollow, and viewers will have a hard time connecting with most of these characters. There’s no clever mystery in this story that will keep viewers guessing. “Bullet Train” certainly delivers if people want lackluster jokes and cartoonish violence, but it just adds up to a lot of mindless hot air.

Columbia Pictures will release “Bullet Train” in U.S. cinemas on August 5, 2022.

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