action Archives – Page 3 of 25

Review: ‘Love Hurts’ (2025), starring Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose

February 11, 2025

by Carla Hay

Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose in “Love Hurts” (Photo by Allen Fraser/Universal Pictures)

“Love Hurts” (2025)

Directed by Jonathan Eusebio

Culture Representation: Taking place in Milwaukee, the action comedy film “Love Hurts” features a racially diverse cast of characters (Asian, African American and white) representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A seemingly mild-mannered real-estate agent has a criminal past that catches up to him when his female former partner in crime and his crime boss brother both seek revenge on him.

Culture Audience: “Love Hurts” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and action flicks that care more about stunts than having a good story.

Lio Tipton, Ke Huy Quan and Mustafa Shakir in “Love Hurts” (Photo by Allen Fraser/Universal Pictures)

The only real pain in “Love Hurts” is watching Oscar winners Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose stuck in this cinematic junk. This mindless action comedy about double-crossing crooks is plagued with horrible dialogue and repetitive fighting that looks too fake. It’s an insult to movie fans that “Love Hurts” was released in theaters because it’s not worth the price of movie ticket and isn’t even worth people’s time to watch it elsewhere.

Directed by Jonathan Eusebio, “Love Hurts” was written by Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard and Luke Passmore. All that means is it took three people instead of one or two to come up with this garbage screenplay. “Love Hurts” is the feature-film directorial debut of Eusebio, who has a background in stunt coordination. It’s probably why the movie is so enamored with its fight scenes and doesn’t care that the screenplay is recycled trash.

“Love Hurts” takes place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but was actually filmed in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It’s a simple-minded plot that gets dragged out by fight scenes that become so mind-numbing, they actually make the movie very boring. Most of the cast members don’t even try to make the stupid dialogue sound convincing. “Love Hurts” is so lazy, all of the story’s ideas have been done before in other movies, but much better in most of these other films.

In “Love Hurts,” Marvin Gable (played by Quan, the Oscar-winning actor from 2022’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once”) is a mild-mannered, dorky real-estate agent who is a bachelor with no children. Marvin, who travels by bicycle, works for a company named Frontier Realty, which has ads with his photo in various places, such as bus stop benches. Marvin’s biggest rival is Jeff Zaks (played by Drew Scott of “Property Brothers” reality TV fame), who has a macho image in his ads.

Most of “Love Hurts” takes place close to Valentine’s Day. Marvin is the type of real-estate agent who will give Valentine’s Day cookies to prospective clients when he shows them houses. During the movie, he gets a Regional Realtor of the Year plaque award from his boss/mentor Cliff Cussick (played by Sean Astin), in a role that reunites former “Goonies” stars Quan and Astin. Marvin’s assistant is a mopey bachelorette named Ashley (played by Lio Tipton), who is pessimistic about finding true love.

In the beginning of the movie, Marvin notices that someone has been defacing his real-estate ads by drawing a Hitler moustache on his face. At first, Marvin immediately suspects that his competitor Jeff is behind this insulting graffiti. But then, Marvin gets an ominous note in the mail indicating there’s someone else who has a grudge against him. The note says, “I’m Back!”

The movie then has very sloppy editing by showing Marvin getting knocked unconscious by someone who was in his office. Marvin wakes up to find that a knife has been plunged into his left hand. A thug named the Raven (played by Mustafa Shakir) is holding him hostage behind the closed office door because the Raven wants Marvin to tell the Raven where someone named Rose Carlisle (played by DeBose) is located. Marvin knows who Rose is but she says he doesn’t know where she is.

As already revealed in the “Love Hurts” trailer, it turns out that Rose was the one who sent that mysterious note to Marvin. She’s out for revenge because Marvin had a previous life as an assassin, Rose was his partner in crime, and he betrayed her on a job that they did together and left her for dead. Marvin then started a new life as a realtor. Marvin says early on in the movie that he’s in love with Rose.

The Raven works for Marvin’s crime boss brother Alvin “Knuckles” Gable (played by Daniel Wu), who wants to find Rose and who is also estranged from Marvin. Knuckles has also dispatched a goon named Renny Merlo (played by Cam Gigandet) to find Rose and tells Renny that Rose has to be brought back alive to Knuckles. Marvin is also on Knuckles’ target list because Knuckles hates that Marvin has rejected Knuckles and a life of crime.

Meanwhile, two dimwitted hoodlums named King (played by Marshawn “Beastmode” Lynch) and Otis (played by André Eriksen) do a home invasion on Marvin and beat him up because they’re looking for Rose too, and they think Marvin has the answer. Rose does some roughing up of her own when she captures a criminal associate named Kippy Betts (played by Rhys Darby), who is tied up and forced to make a confession. It should come as no surprise when secrets are revealed about who betrayed whom in this silly jumble of unlawful schemes and trickery.

All of these criminal characters are shallow, with nothing interesting revealed about them—unless you think it’s interesting that Otis tells King that Otis’ wife recently left Otis because she thinks Otis is “emotionally constipated,” which is an accurate way to describe this time-wasting movie. All of the performances are mediocre at best or unwatchable at worst. And none of the characters can be considered “compelling” or “impressive.”

When Rose inevitably shows up and sees Marvin again, it’s when they are both at a bar. Marvin asks her, “Why couldn’t you just stay dead?” Rose answers, “Because it’s humiliating.” Although it surely couldn’t be as humiliating as being an Oscar winner going from winning many awards for a Steven Spielberg movie (DeBose won an Academy Award for Spielberg’s 2021 remake of “West Side Story”) to the tacky depths of “Love Hurts,” which looks like it belongs on a low-tier, free streaming service.

“Love Hurts” shows people getting beaten, shot, kicked, stabbed or punched every 10 minutes, with moronic dialogue in between. After a while, it becomes tiresome to watch. Somehow, the Raven and Ashley end up spending time together in a subplot that is transparent about its intentions.

The “romance” between Marvin and Rose never looks convincing. And that’s not just because there’s an age gap that perpetuates the sexist stereotype of a middle-aged male star of an action film having a love interest who’s about 10 to 20 years younger. Quan (who was 53 when this movie was released) and DeBose (who was 34) have no real chemistry with each other.

Quan is very likable in other movies, but his “Love Hurts” performance is an awkward mix of portraying a cheerful nerd and a hardened fighter. The movie (which has obvious stunt doubles for the cast members) can never give a clear sense of who Marvin really is. “Love Hurts” depicts Marvin and everyone else as underdeveloped characters that you won’t care about by the end of this dreadful movie. And when “Love Hurts” tries to tack on sappy sentimentality at the end, after showing so much over-the-top violence, it’s about as satisfying as an empty box of Valentine’s Day candy.

Universal Pictures released “Love Hurts” in U.S. cinemas on February 7, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on February 25, 2025.

Review: ‘Sky Force’ (2025), starring Akshay Kumar, Veer Pahariya, Sara Ali Khan and Nimrat Kaur

February 9, 2025

by Carla Hay

Veer Pahariya and Akshay Kumar in “Sky Force” (Photo by PVR Inox Pictures)

“Sky Force” (2025)

Directed by Sandeep Kewlani and Abhishek Anil Kapur

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1965 to 1991, in India and in Pakistan, the action film “Sky Force” (based on a true story) features an Indian and Pakistani cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A wing commander in the Indian Air Force is haunted by the disappearance of his close friend/protégé, who went missing during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965.

Culture Audience: “Sky Force” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and formulaic war movies.

Akshay Kumar in “Sky Force” (Photo by PVR Inox Pictures)

“Sky Force” has noble intentions to celebrate Indian Air Force heroes of the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965. However, this action flick (based on real events) is too routine and too bloated for a story that deserves a better movie. The acting and visual effects are very mediocre, considering the large budget for this film.

Directed by Sandeep Kewlani and Abhishek Anil Kapur, “Sky Force” (which takes place in India and Pakistan) was written by Kewlani, Aamil Keeyan Khan, Carl Austin and Niren Bhatt. The movie’s time period ranges from 1965 to 1991. “Sky Force” is based on the true story of Indian Air Force members Om Prakash Taneja and Ajjamada Boppayya Devayya.

In “Sky Force,” Wing Commander Kumar Om “K.O.” Ahuja (played by Akshay Kumar), who is this movie’s version of Taneja, is a respected leader in the Indian Air Force. K.O. is a mentor to T. Krishna Vijaya (played by Veer Pahariya), a rebellious younger pilot who reminds K.O. of Kumar’s deceased younger brother Monu. Krishna’s Air Force nickname is Tabby, which is the name he prefers to be called in his everyday life. Tabby is this movie’s version of Devayya.

K.O. and Tabby are both stationed at Adampur Air Force Station, where group captain David Lawrence (played by Manish Choudhary) is their supervisor. (David will later be promoted Air Commodore in the 1970s.) K.O.’s Air Force nickname is Tiger, which is also the name of the squad that he leads. David is strong-willed and considers himself to be ethical when it comes to war rules of engagement. Unfortunately, “Sky Force” makes the other Indian Air Force colleagues utterly generic.

The other members of the Tiger Squad of Air Force pilots (who all have animal nicknames) are Debashish “Cockroach” Chatterjee (played by Soham Majmudar), Prakash “Panther” Rajput (played by Ritik Ghanshani), Duck (played by Fayaz Khan), Goat (played by Karan Chaudhary), Rhino (played by Ramakrishna Dixit), Owl (played by Ankit Kaushik), Scorpio (played by Sagar Rana), Shark (played by Vishal Jinwal), Spider (played by Lakshay Chawla) and Fox (played by Abhishek Mahendra). Viewers won’t remember much about these supporting characters because they don’t have personalities that stand out from each other.

In the Indo-Pakistani air war of 1965, Pakistan attacks India in nighttime battles on Adampur Air Force Station and other Indian Air Force stations on September 6. It’s considered an unfair fight because Pakistan knew that India had outdated planes that were ill-equipped to do combat at night. Pakistan also had an advantage because the United States had recently gifted Pakistan with 12 Star Striker fighter planes.

K.O. had warned David that Pakistan would use this strategy, but David did not take K.O.’s advice to have India attack first. “We are a peace-loving country,” David tells K.O. when explaining that India will only attack in self-defense.

K.O. is put in charge of a mission for the self-defense attack on Sargodha, the most powerful military air base in Pakistan. The mission—set to take place on September 7, 1965—is called Sky Force. There’s some drama between Tabby and K.O. because Tabby objects to being put on standby for the Sky Force mission because Tabby is considered too much of an unpredictable loose cannon. It was David’s decision to put Tabby on standby, but K.O. refuses to tell Tabby who made the decision when Tabby asks K.O.

Tabby is eventually allowed to participate in air combat, but he goes missing during combat. K.O. feels tremendous guilt about it, and he vows to find out what happened to Tabby. Tabby’s wife Geeta Vijaya (played by Sara Ali Khan), who is pregnant with their daughter, bitterly blames K.O. for Tabby’s disappearance. Geeta decides to end her friendship with K.O. and K.O.’s wife Preeti Ahuja (played by Nimrat Kaur) and remains estranged from them for years.

Years later, in 1971, a Pakistani military plot named Ahmed Hussain (played by Sharad Kelkar) is captured by the Indian military. (Ahmed is this movie’s version of Amjad Hussain.) K.O. interrogates Ahmed and finds out that Ahmed was given an award for killing an Indian officer during the 1965 war. Ahmed has a story to tell that might have clues to the mystery of what happened to Tabby.

“Sky Force” lumbers along with typical combat scenes, which often don’t look believable because of the questionable visual effects. These action scenes also have numerous slow-motion shots that look very hokey. Highlights of the action are the aerial views, which are breathtaking but fleeting. The movie’s dialogue is average at best and silly at worst. And because the story is told in non-chronological order, some of the movie’s timeline is messy.

Worst of all, this 125-minute movie (which could have been at least 30 minutes shorter) wastes a lot of time on unnecessary scenes and then rushes through the storyline about what happened to Tabby. “Sky Force” isn’t overly jingoistic, but the main characters don’t have much depth beyond predictable stereotypes. “Sky Force” ultimately comes across like a big-budget video game instead of a meaningful cinematic event about Indian war history.

PVR Inox Pictures released “Sky Force” in U.S. cinemas and in India on January 24, 2025.

Review: ‘Alarum’ (2025), starring Scott Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Willa Fitzgerald, Mike Colter, Isis Valverde and Joel Cohen

February 1, 2025

by Carla Hay

Scott Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone in “Alarum” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“Alarum” (2024)

Directed by Michael Polish

Culture Representation: Taking place in Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, the action film “Alarum” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Two married assassin spies, who used to be opponents, are targeted by an intelligence network of criminal anarchists, who want to gain possession of a valuable flash drive.

Culture Audience: “Alarum” will appeal mainly to fans of the movie’s headliners and people who don’t mind watching bottom-of-the-barrel action flicks.

Mike Colter in “Alarum” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

Creatively bankrupt on every level, “Alarum” is a mindless mess of an action film that goes through the motions until its very lazy and abrupt ending. The performances are never believable in this moronic story about spies fighting over a flash drive. That’s essentially the entire limp plot of “Alarum,” which is time-wasting junk, even though some well-known actors are in the movie’s cast.

Directed by Michael Polish and written by Alexander Vesha, “Alarum” takes place mostly in Gdańsk, Poland, and briefly in Prague, Czech Republic, and in Prešov, Slovakia. The movie was actually filmed in Oxford, Ohio. “Alarum” has characters that you won’t care about because they are so hollow, and most of the acting in the film is terrible.

The protagonists of “Alarum” are two American spouses who are assassin spies: Joe Travers (played by Scott Eastwood) and Lara Travers (played by Willa Fitzgerald), whose maiden name was Larissa Moss. As shown in the movie’s opening scene, Joe and Lara met in Prague, in 2019, when she was assigned to kill him when he worked for the CIA. They crashed out of a high-rise hotel window during this life-or-death fight.

The movie then fast-forwards to 2024 in Gdańsk. Joe and Lara are now married. (Their courtship is never shown in the movie.) It’s soon revealed that Joe (whose code name was Archibald) went rogue and abandoned the CIA in 2019, which is why Joe and Lara have gone into hiding. It’s implied that Joe and Lara make money by being low-level con artists.

Joe and Lara are in a hotel room as they get ready for a dinner double date with a married couple named Roland Rousseau (played by Joel Cohen, who is one of the producers of “Alarum”) and Bridgette Rousseau (played by Isis Valverde), who don’t know that Joe and Lara are spies. Before going to this dinner at a restaurant, Joe and Lara are in their hotel room and have a petty disagreement over what lies they will tell the Rousseaus.

Joe wants Lara to pretend that she has obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), while Lara wants Joe to be the one to pretend he has OCD. Lara agrees to be the one to pretend to have OCD, but then Lara blurts out during the dinner that Joe has OCD. Back in their hotel room, Joe tells Lara that he’s irritated that Lara didn’t go along with the original plan. It’s one of several pointless sequences in “Alarum.”

Not long after this awkward dinner, Joe and Bridgette are part of a tourist group that witnesses the crash of a small plane, which was shot down from behind by snipers in another plane. At the crash site, Joe sees that this plane (which has no survivors) is from the Drug Enforcement Agency. The only two people on the plane were the pilot and a co-worker passenger.

Joe somehow knows that he needs to get a flash drive (which he calls a “flight pill”) from the dead pilot’s stomach. Joe retrieves this flash drive in a gruesome manner. And somehow, there’s a secret surveillance device on the plane that picks up the sound of Joe talking and transmits this audio surveillance to the CIA. That’s how the CIA finds out that Joe is in Poland.

It’s later revealed that this flash drive has something to do with Alarum, a secretive group that “wants to tear down the tyranny” of the government intelligence network. Now that Joe has the flash drive, he and Lara are targets of people who want to kill Joe and Lara and get the flash drive. Various chase scenes and violent fights ensue. All of them look phony and badly choreographed, with tacky visual effects.

Other characters in this cinematic garbage dump are a corrupt operative named Orlin (played by Mike Colter, an American actor doing a terrible African accent), whose African nationality is vague and who has a team of henchman; CIA deputy director Roland Burbridge (played by D.W. Moffett), who just talks on a phone while he’s sitting at a desk; CIA agent Kirby (played Mark Polish), a generic subordinate who’s eager to impress Roland; and a rebellious mercenary named Chester (played by Sylvester Stallone), who is hired by the CIA to find and kill Joe because Roland thinks Joe has joined Alarum. Everything about “Alarum” is so mind-numbingly horrible, it’s an embarrassment for anyone involved in this junkpile film.

Lionsgate released “Alarum” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and on VOD on January 17, 2025.

Review: ‘The Last Front’ (2024), starring Iain Glen, Sasha Luss, Joe Anderson, Koen De Bouw, David Calder, James Downie and Emma Dupont

January 21, 2025

by Carla Hay

Iain Glenn in “The Last Front” (Photo courtesy of Enigma Releasing)

“The Last Front” (2024)

Directed by Julien Hayet-Kerknawi

Culture Representation: Taking place in Belgium during World War I, the action film “The Last Front” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A Belgian farmer leads a group of villagers in his community in resisting an invasion by German soldiers.

Culture Audience: “The Last Front” will appeal mainly to people who don’t mind watching generic war movies.

Sasha Luss in “The Last Front” (Photo courtesy of Enigma Releasing)

Filled with generic dialogue and bad acting, the action drama “The Last Front” re-uses the same formulas in many other movies about an underdog hero. In this case, it’s about a Belgian farmer leading a resistance against German invaders during World War I. Almost everything in this unimaginative movie can be predicted.

Directed by Julien Hayet-Kerknawi (who co-wrote “The Last Front” screenplay with Kate Wood), “The Last Front”(which was filmed on location in Belgium) has an overly simplistic story that is stretched out by tepid battle scenes. Leonard Lambert (played by Iain Glen) is a widower farmer who is dealing with the fact that his adult son Adrien (played by James Downie) is having a “forbidden” romance with Louise (played by Sasha Luss), the daughter of the prominent Dr. Janssen (played by Koen De Bouw), who doesn’t approve of the relationship.

Here’s an example of the boring and clunky dialogue in the movie: Leonard comments to Adrien about Louise: “She’s not the right woman.” Adrien replies, “But we’re in love.” Leonard says, “Your mother and I were in love. It wasn’t enough.” Adrien responds, “You don’t know Louise.” Leonard says, “I know what living on a farm does to a woman … If you love her, you’ll let her go.”

German soldiers, including the cartoonish villain Laurentz (played by Joe Anderson), invade the village where the Lambert family lives. Laurentz’s father Maximilian Von Rauch (played by Philippe Brenninkmeyer), who is in command of the soldiers, have conflicts with each other because Maximilian thinks that Laurentz’s ruthlessness is out of control. This family turmoil is treated in a very superficial manner with more dull dialogue.

Maximilian asks Laurentz: “When did you become such a monster?” Laurentz replies, “I am not a monster. I am a soldier.” Maximilian wants Laurentz to resign instead of being court martialed and says to Laurentz: “You shame our country. You shame our family.” Laurentz calls Maximilian a “sentimental old fool” at one point during their bickering.

Leonard, Louise, Leonard’s adult daughter Johanna (played by Emma Dupont), a farmhand named Fergal (played by Kevin Murphy) and a priest named Father Michael (played by David Calder) are among those fighting to stay alive during the German invasion. All of these characters have utterly bland personalities and are depicted with unimpressive acting. The resistance to the invasion plays out in the most stereotypical way that might entertain people who can’t get enough of cliché-ridden war movies where one person leads a ragtag group of underdogs to a predictable outcome.

Enigma Releasing released “The Last Front” in select U.S. cinemas on August 9, 2024.

Review: ‘Octopus With Broken Arms,’ starring Xiao Yang, Tong Liya, Duan Yihong and Cya Liu

January 18, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Octopus With Broken Arms”

Directed by Jacky Gan

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in China, the action film “Octopus With Broken Arms” features an all-Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A billionaire widowed businessman fights mysterious enemies after his 8-year-old daughter is kidnapped.

Culture Audience: “Octopus With Broken Arms” will appeal mainly to people who don’t mind watching action crime thrillers that are convoluted, just for the sake of having “shocking” twists.

A scene from “Octopus With Broken Arms” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“Octopus With Broken Arms” has plenty of suspenseful action, but it has too many far-fetched plot twists. The melodramatic overacting looks too fake and does a disservice to the film’s serious subject of children who are kidnapped and enslaved. “Octopus With Broken Arms” takes this subject and puts in a very manipulative story that constantly insults viewers’ intelligence

Directed by Jacky Gan and written by Li Peng, “Octopus With Broken Arms” (formerly titled “Sheep Without a Shepherd 3”) takes place in unnamed cities in China. The movie begins by showing billionaire widower Zheng Bingrui (played by Xiao Yang) proudly watching his 8-year-old daughter Tingting (played by Chloe Ye) performing on stage for a school play. Tingting’s teacher Li Huiping (played by Tong Liya) seems to have a good relationship with her, which is why Bingrui invites Huiping to Tingting’s upcoming birthday party.

Bingrui is the chairman of Ruiting Group, a company that he owns. It’s briefly mentioned in a news report that Ruiting Group makes facial masks. Because of his wealth, Bingrui is famous throughout China. The movie is named “Octopus With Broken Arms” because Tingting, Bingrui and Huiping having matching octopus stamps on their hands.

At the birthday party, things seem to be going well until Tingting disappears. Not long after the disappearance, Bingrui gets a call demanding a $100 million ransom (which is about ¥732,500 RMB) for the return of Tingting. Bingrui is willing to pay the money, but he understandably wants law enforcement to catch the kidnapper or kidnappers.

Bingrui immediately names two possible suspects: Shi Fu’an (played by Feng Bing) is someone who is Bingrui’s enemy, for reasons that are revealed later in the movie. The other suspect is a mute gardener named Lu (played by Bokeh Kosang), who was seen on a surveillance video appearing to driving Tingting to Fu’an’s home. Lu goes through an intense and brutal interrogation by police.

However, early on in the movie, it’s shown that someone else has been making the ransom calls, using a device that disguises the caller’s voice. This person wears a hooded jacket and is in a room that has several video monitors that can watch every move made by Bingrui, even when Bingrui and Huiping zip around on a boat in a lake to deliver the ransom money. This “everywhere all at once” video surveillance is when the movie starts to fall apart and spirals into nonsense.

Meanwhile, another child named Daymond Pankong (played by Chayanon Akradamrongdet) is kidnapped and used as bait for Bingrui to find Tingting. Pangkong is named after his father (played by Jack Kao), who is the director of China’s National Security Agencyu. There’s also a woman named Yayin (played by Cya Liu), who has a big role in the story because of something that happened in her past.

The police leader in the child kidnapping investigation is police captain Zhang Jingxian (played by Duan Yihong), who is somewhat helpful, but “Octopus With Broken Arms” is really about making Bingrui the vigilante action hero of the story. Liang Su’e (played by Sandrine Pinna) is a police officer who assists in the case. The violence in “Octopus With Broken Arms” can be quite gruesome, such as a scene depicting a child’s finger being cut off by a kidnapper. There are also shootouts, chase scenes, fist fights, explosions and other action movie clichés.

A tragedy that happened in 2017 is the catalyst for some of the characters’ motives. As explained in the movie, in June 2017, a ship was headed to the border of China, when a gas leak caused the ship to explode. All 619 people on board were killed, including 23 children. The people on the ship were refugees trying to cross the border illegally.

The relationship between Bingrui and Huiping is never adequately explained. Why is this schoolteacher running around with Bingrui and getting herself into dangerous situations like a superhero sidekick? It’s because she’s in a preposterous movie.

Unfortunately, “Octopus With Broken Arms” tries to cram in too many ideas without much cohesive thought. The movie jumps from one plot twist to the next—and almost none of them are believable. The choppy editing often makes “Octopus With Broken Arms” look incoherent. And by the time secrets are revealed (along with the movie’s many plot holes), none of it makes enough sense for the movie’s ending to have its intended impact.

CMC Pictures released “Octopus With Broken Arms” in select U.S. cinemas on January 10, 2025. The movie was released in China on December 28, 2024.

Review: ‘Game Changer’ (2025), starring Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S. J. Suryah, Srikanth and Sunil

January 17, 2025

by Carla Hay

Ram Charan in “Game Changer” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)

“Game Changer” (2025)

Directed by S. Shankar

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Andhra Pradesh, India, the action film “Game Changer” features a predominantly Indian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A district magistrate becomes a politician in his fight against corruption.

Culture Audience: “Game Changer” will appeal mainly to people who don’t mind watching mindless action movies that are too long.

Ram Charan and Kiara Advani in “Game Changer” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)

It’s ironic that the title of this movie is “Game Changer,” because everything about this bloated film uses the same formulas as the worst action movies about a hero fighting corruption: It’s loud, obnoxious, idiotic, and too long. The musical numbers in this 165-minute cinematic abomination are tacky and awkwardly placed. And the acting performances are utterly generic.

Directed by S. Shankar and written by Vivek Velmurugan, “Game Changer” takes place in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. That’s where district magistrate Ram Nandan (played by Ram Charan)—a former police officer who is based in the city of Visakhapatnam—acts like a one-man army against criminals. He uncovers a drug smuggling operation and other criminal activities.

“Game Changer” is overloaded with scenes of people shouting at each other and fighting each other. There’s a subplot about a rivalry between the unscrupulous sons of Andhra Pradesh’s chief minister Bobbili Sathyamoorthy (played by Srikanth), who is shallow cliché of a corrupt patriarch in power. Elder son Bobbili Munimanikyam (played by Jayaram) is the home minister of Andhra Pradesh. Younger son Bobbili Mopidevi (played by S. J. Suryah) is the minister of Andhra Pradesh.

At one point, Ram decides to run for political office at the urging of people in the community. It leads to a long-winded and annoying part of the movie where over-the-top things happen, such as a one of Ram’s enemies using a bulldozer to destroy an election building. All the violence in the movie looks unrealistic, including the fake-looking visual effects.

Ram is a bachelor whose family has been pressuring him to get married. Strangely, Charan also plays the role of Ram’s father Appanna, who is the founder of the Abhyudayam Party. Appana’s wife/Ram’s mother Parvathy (played by Anjali) has a one-note role in the movie: nagging Ram to find a wife.

Ram’s love interest is Deepika (played by Kiara Advani), a medical doctor who is seen dancing more than doing actual work as a doctor. Charan and Advani do not have believable romantic chemistry as Ram and Deepika, so the love affair in “Game Changer” just falls flat. Ram also has a close friend named “Side” Satyam (played by Sunil), who is a fairly forgettable character.

The sound mixing in “Game Changer” is horrendous, with too many scenes that blare music and sound effects at extremely irritating levels. It’s an overly long movie that has choppy film editing in scenes that abruptly end and then incoherently go to the next scene. No amount of editing could erase all the garbage filmmaking that’s in “Game Changer,” which is a complete waste of time for anyone who watches this rotten spectacle.

Zee Studios released “Game Changer” in U.S. cinemas and in India on January 10, 2025.

Review: ‘Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,’ starring Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr.

January 11, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Den of Thieves 2: Pantera”

Directed by Christian Gudegast

Some language in French and Sicilian with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in France, Belgium, Italy, Sardinia, and the United States, the action film “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” (a sequel to 2018’s “Den of Thieves”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An American police detective tracks down an American fugitive thief in Europe, and they assemble a team to rob a World Diamond Center in Belgium.

Culture Audience: “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and derivative action movies that don’t do anything imaginative.

O’Shea Jackson Jr. in “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” (Photo by Rico Torres/Lionsgate)

Struggling for a reason to exist, “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” fails to be an exciting thriller about a diamond heist. This dreadful action sequel gets bogged down by dull pacing, wooden acting and terrible dialogue. There wasn’t a huge demand for this sequel in the first place. And if you have the patience to watch all of this sloppy and boring movie, it’s easy to see why this middling franchise has overstayed its welcome and should have ended with the first “Den of Thieves” movie.

Christian Gudegast wrote and directed 2018’s “Den of Thieves” and 2025’s “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.” The first “Den of Thieves” movie was by no means great, but it at least had characters with somewhat entertaining personalities. In “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” all of the characters have the personalities of cardboard cutouts. The action in the first “Den of Thieves” also had an adequate level of suspense. In “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” the characters do a lot of talking for the first 40 minutes of this 144-minute movie before there’s finally a big action scene.

Even though “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” was released seven years after the original movie, the story picks up less than a year after the events of the first “Den of Thieves” movie. Nicholas “Big Nick” O’Brien (played by Gerard Butler), a detective in the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department detective, is angry that he was duped by former confidential informant Donnie Wilson (played by O’Shea Jackson Jr.), who has disappeared with millions of dollars in stolen cash

Mild spoiler alert if you don’t know what happened at the end of “Den of Thieves”: Donnie turned out to be the mastermind of a massive cash theft from the U.S. Federal Reserve. While his colleagues were killed or captured, Donnie hid the stolen loot in an offshore Panama account and fled to London. The ending of “Den of Thieves” implied that Donnie’s next big theft would be a diamond heist.

Unfortunately, “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” assumes that viewers already know what happened in “Den of Thieves,” which is an annoying thing for a sequel to do. In “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” Donnie does indeed get involved in stealing diamonds. He has teamed up with a group of Balkan outlaws called the Panthers to rob an airplane flight carrying diamonds from Johannesburg, South Africa. “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” (which was filmed mostly in Sardinia) never credibly explains why this group of Balkan thieves would allow an American outsider (and potential double crosser) to join their gang.

The plane is hijacked in Brussels, Belgium, because the Panthers have disguised themselves in Police Federale SWAT outfits. The Panthers’ jewelry haul, including a rare pink diamond, is worth tens of millions of U.S. dollars. The person who owns this pink diamond is Sardinian mafia boss Matteo “The Octopus” Venzolasca (played by Adriano Chiaramida), which predictably means that he and his thugs will be looking for the Panthers too.

An early scene in “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” shows that back in the United States, Nick’s wife has divorced him and taken custody of their kids. His law enforcement reputation has gone downhill because Donnie escaped. And now, Nick wants revenge by tracking down Donnie.

So what does Nick do? He has sex with a stripper named Holly (played by Meadow Williams), who has connections to Donnie’s former gang of thieves, so that Nick can get information from Holly about where Donnie is and what he did with the stolen Federal Reserve money. After Nick has sex with Holly, he handcuffs her, interrogates her, and says he won’t release her until she tells him the information he wants to know.

However, Holly reveals to Nick that she secretly videorecorded their sexual encounter. She blackmails Nick by saying that she’ll tell him what he wants to know, but she wants a cut of the stolen money in return—or else she’ll release the sex video to Nick’s supervisors. Nick reluctantly agrees to this illegal deal. Holly tells Nick that Donnie hid the money in Panama.

In the scene with Holly and Nick, he mentions some nonsense that he can go anywhere in the world to find Donnie because he was given special U.S. Marshal authority that extends to international territories. He flashes a U.S. Marshal badge to prove it. It’s all just so ludicrous. And it’s really just an excuse for Nick to do a lot of globetrotting, but “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” is more of a slog than an adventure.

After the plane hijacking, Donnie has been hiding out in Paris, where he is using the alias Jean-Jacques Dyallo. Donnie is pretending to be a gem dealer from the Ivory Coast but is completely unconvincing because Jackson does a terrible job of trying to sound like an African who can speak French. Half of the time, he sounds like an American with a fake accent. The fake accents in “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” are unintentionally funny parts of the movie.

Donnie goes to the Nice Financial Diamont Bank to do a shady business transaction. The bank’s corrupt head of security is Chava Falcon (played by Nazmiye Oral), who works with the Panthers. In one of the movie’s most idiotic scenes, Donnie (posing as Jean-Jacques) and Chava go to the World Diamond Center to try and sell these stolen diamonds—even though in real life, these stolen diamonds would surely be on the radar of a place like the World Diamond Center, which gets alerts about high-profile diamond thefts. Chava has a colleague named Olivier (played by Stéphane Coulon), who works as the bank’s concierge.

Nick gets a tip that Donnie is in Paris. Nick goes to Paris and meets up with police chief Hugo Kaman (played Yasen Zates Atour), who leads a task force named Pantera, which has been trying to apprehend the Panthers. Nick tells Hugo about Donnie because Nick suspects Donnie is involved with the Panthers. Nick and Hugo look at surveillance video of Donnie at the Nice Financial Diamont Bank, but Nick pretends that the man in the video isn’t Donnie.

That’s because Nick has his own agenda for wanting to find Donnie. After Nick knows for sure that Donnie is in the Paris area, the next thing you know, Nick suddenly shows up at the same outdoor cafe where Donnie is eating by himself. Instead of taking Donnie into custody, Nick tells Donnie that Nick is financially broke and wants to be part of Donnie’s next heist. Donnie agrees and introduces Nick to the Panthers.

As for the Panthers, they are hollow people who are tedious to watch. Panthers leader Jovanna (played by Evin Ahmad), nicknamed Cleopatra, is supposed to be both a seductive femme fatale and a ruthless mastermind. Ahmad, who stiffly performs in her scenes, is very unconvincing in this role. Jovanna comes across as a starlet who’s more skilled at posting photos of herself on Instagram than leading international jewelry heists.

Jovanna inexplicably lets Donnie take charge of planning the Panthers’ next heist: robbing the World Diamond Center in Belgium. It’s a laughable part of the movie because Donnie can barely speak with a French accent and is an obvious con artist. In real life, professional thieves on this level wouldn’t want to have someone in charge who stands out like an obvious suspect.

The other Panthers are equally boring and superficial. Dragan (played by Orli Shuka) is Jovanna’s “intellectual” right-hand man, who doesn’t really do anything to show he’s as smart as the movie wants us to think Dragan is. Dragan’s specialty is picking locks and other security issues. Dragan doesn’t really trust Donnie, but that’s not an indication of above-average intelligence. It’s just common sense. The Panther “goons” are handsome Marko (played by Dino Kelly) and average guy Slavko (played by Salvatore Esposito), who are the Panthers members who are most likely to be able to handle themselves in fist fights.

“Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” awkwardly veers into soap opera territory in a moronic scene at a nightclub, where Nick, Donnie and the Panthers get high from smoking hashish. Nick starts dancing seductively with Jovanna. Slavko discreetly tells Nick to stop dancing with Jovanna because she’s Marko’s ex-lover, and Marko is getting upset that Jovanna is dancing with Nick. And predictably, a fist fight breaks out between Nick and Marko.

The reunion of Nick and Donnie should have brought a lot of interesting tension to the story. Instead, Nick and Donnie act like petulant teenagers who do things like argue over who’s a better swimmer. It’s all just so embarrassing to see grown men act this way. Butler (who is one of the movie’s producers) looks bored in his portrayal of jaded and world-weary Nick. Jackson’s performance as Donnie is not interesting enough to elevate this misguided film.

There’s a scene that attempts to give Nick and Donnie some emotional depth, when they open up to each other about why they chose their career paths. Donnie, a California native, says his interest in becoming a thief began when he was a teenager from a working-class/poor household and had to walk to school from his hometown of Hawthorne to Torrance as part of his school’s racial integration program.

During these walks through upscale neighborhoods, Donnie says he learned to case the houses and find out residents’ routines, such was when they weren’t home during the day. It was only a matter of time before he broke into a house. Because “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” has no imagination, Donnie is a negative racial stereotype of an African-American man who was raised by an underprivileged single mother and who turned to a life of crime. Donnie mentions that when he was a child, he witnessed his father getting killed.

Nick has his own childhood sob story, which he tells to Donnie in this conversation. His father was shot and was left with a permanent limp. The shooter was never caught. Nick says this incident motivated Nick to go into law enforcement. The entire shaky premise of “Den of Thieves: Pantera” is that Nick has decided to become a secret criminal, but it’s never believable that the Panthers would let Nick become part of their group so easily.

In a separate scene that’s meant to show Nick’s “vulnerable” side, Nick inexplicably shows up at Hugo’s church when divorced father Hugo is there attending a service with his son and daughter, who are about 4 to 7 years old. This scene is poorly written and shows Nick acting like a stalker, as he sits behind Hugo and the children, and then follows them outside after the church service ends. The main purpose of this scene is so Nick can tell Hugo that he’s a divorced father too.

“Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” wastes a lot of time on monotonous conversations and underwhelming action scenes. The first “Den of Thieves” movie had a compelling chief villain who got a lot of screen time. But “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” doesn’t have a clear-cut chief villain, which is sorely needed to maintain viewer interest in a crime movie.

On a technical level, “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” has a lot of dark and drab cinematography that makes many of the scenes look too murky and unappealing. The musical score is competently generic. Tighter film editing might have benefited this rambling and incoherent film, although the movie’s weakest link is still the awful screenplay.

The scenes showing heists and getaways do nothing clever and are just inferior ripoffs of better movies about jewelry heists. The “twist” ending of “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” makes it clear that another sequel is planned. But there isn’t enough in “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” for most viewers to care about the continuation of this disappointing story.

Lionsgate released “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” in U.S. cinemas on January 10, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on January 28, 2025.

Review: ‘Carry-On,’ starring Taron Egerton, Sofia Carson, Danielle Deadwyler and Jason Bateman

December 25, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Carry-On”

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

Culture Representation: Taking place in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve, the action film “Carry-On” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent is forced to participate in a terrorist plot, where he has been told that he has to let a certain carry-on suitcase past the X-ray machine that he is monitoring and onto a certain plane, or else his pregnant girlfriend will be murdered.

Culture Audience: “Carry-On” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and action movies that are predictable but enjoyable.

Jason Bateman in “Carry-On” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“Carry-On” is a preposterous but entertaining thrill ride about an airport security agent caught up in a deadly terrorist plot involving a smuggled carry-on suitcase. The movie doesn’t take itself seriously and has well-cast heroes and villains. This is the type of movie made for escapism for viewers—not to make any meaningful statements or to provoke deep thoughts.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by T.J. Fixman, “Carry-On” takes place in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. The movie was actually filmed in New Orleans, mainly at the decommissioned terminal at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. “Carry-On” begins by showing two Russian thugs named Olek (played by Jeff Pope) and Yuri (played by Raymond Rehage) at a large greenhouse somewhere in Los Angeles. The movie’s chief villain (played by Jason Bateman)—an assassin whose name is never revealed—enters the greenhouse, shoots Olek and Yuri, and then sets the greenhouse on fire.

The next scene in “Carry-On” shows live-in couple—30-year-old Ethan Kopek (played by Taron Egerton) and 27-year-old Nora Parisi (played by Sofia Carson)—waking up to get ready to go to work. Ethan and Nora, who have been dating each other for three years, both work at Los Angeles International Airport, also known as LAX. Ethan is a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent. Nora is an operations manager at North Wind Airlines, a company that was fabricated for this movie.

Nora is pregnant with her and Ethan’s first child, but the movie never says how far along she is in her pregnancy. Based on her physical appearance and conversations about the pregnancy, Nora is probably two or three months pregnant. Ethan and Nora are a happy couple looking forward to the birth of the child, but Ethan has some lingering insecurities that are affecting the relationship.

It’s eventually revealed in conversations that Ethan, who is originally from New Jersey, isn’t satisfied with the way his career is going. He moved to Los Angeles to be with Nora after she was hired by North Wind, which requires her to live in the Los Angeles area. Ethan only became a TSA agent at LAX so he and Nora could work in the same building.

What Ethan really wants to do with his life is be a police officer. He applied to enroll at a police academy once and was rejected. He was so hurt by this rejection that he hasn’t bothered to apply again, even though Nora keeps encouraging Ethan to re-apply. Nora candidly tells Ethan that when he applied to a police academy, it was the last time she saw him truly excited about his life.

A little later in the movie, it’s revealed there are other reasons for Ethan’s insecurity and disillusionment about becoming a police officer: His father (who’s never seen in the movie) also wanted to be a police officer and applied to a police academy several times but was always rejected. Ethan’s father is now an Uber driver. You don’t have to be a psychiatrist to know that Ethan is afraid he’s going to end up just like his father—doing a job he doesn’t really like because he couldn’t get his dream job.

It’s under these circumstances that Ethan arrives for work late (which apparently isn’t the first time), where he has a reputation for being likable but not particularly reliable. It’s why Ethan has been assigned the job of a metal-detector agent instead of the more challenging job of being an X-ray agent responsible for operating the equipment that scans carry-on items. It’s also why Ethan hasn’t been promoted in the three years that he’s had this job.

Ethan’s closest friend at his job is a mild-mannered co-worker named Jason Noble (played by Sinqua Walls), a married father who is a TSA agent who operates X-ray machines. Jason advises Ethan to try to get a promotion to have this type of job because Ethan is going to need more money to raise a child. Their boss Phil Sarkowski (played by Dean Norris) bluntly tells Ethan that he hasn’t given Ethan a promotion because Ethan acts like he doesn’t want to be at this TSA job. Ethan promises that he will be more responsible and wants to prove that he’s worthy of getting a promotion.

Jason tells a skeptical Phil that Jason will switch job responsibilities with Ethan on that day so Ethan can get a chance to show that he has the ability to do the X-ray job. Phil reluctantly agrees. It’s the first of many things that don’t ring true in “Carry-On” because there’s nothing to show that Ethan was trained for this X-ray job before being suddenly thrust into it.

Of course, this unlikely but still possible twist of fate is why Ethan is in the proverbial “hot seat” that makes him the distressed hero of the story. He becomes a target when terrorists force him to allow a certain passenger and the passenger’s carry-on suitcase through the X-ray machine and onto the plane. The terrorists refuse to say what’s in the suitcase, but Ethan finds out that the plan is to kill all of the approximately 250 people on the plane after the plane is in flight. (This review won’t reveal what’s in the suitcase, except to say it’s not an obvious weapon, such as a bomb.)

It isn’t long before Ethan is contacted by the person who forces Ethan to participate in this deadly terrorist plot. This person (the same killer from the movie’s opening scene) becomes Ethan’s chief adversary. Even though this assassin’s name is never revealed in “Carry-On,” in the movie’s end credits, he is listed only as Traveler. This elusive killer is able to avoid detection because he looks like a regular middle-aged guy who’s able to blend in easily.

Traveler has an unnamed accomplice, identified as Watcher (played by Theo Rossi), who is stationed in a repair van in an airport parking lot. Somehow, this van has surveillance equipment that can track several areas inside the airport. One of the repeated scenarios is that Watcher and Traveler are constantly tracking Ethan in the airport through surveillance, which makes it harder for Ethan to get help when he finds himself embroiled in this terrorist plot. It’s a very far-fetched scenario. Ethan is able to find a few “blind spots” in the airport that the terrorists can’t see.

Watcher and Traveler are able to quickly find out a lot of personal information about the TSA agents. These two criminals had originally planned to force Jason into their terrorist plan by holding Jason’s wife and daughter hostage. But when Watcher and Traveler see that Ethan is working at the X-ray station where Jason normally works, they decided to target Ethan under the threat of killing pregnant Nora.

Traveler tells Watcher about this sudden change of plans: “Let’s pivot. Fill in some blanks. No matter what, this gets done today.” Traveler is able to get a cell phone placed on the conveyer belt that Ethan is operating. Just as Ethan sees that no airline passenger has claimed this phone, he sees text messages appear on the phone telling Ethan to wear an ear bud that is placed nearby.

It’s the first time that Ethan hears from Traveler, who communicates with Ethan through this ear bud. Traveler tells Ethan about the plan and describes in detail what the passenger and briefcase look like. Ethan later finds out that the passenger carrying the briefcase is named Mateo Flores (played by Tonatiuh), who is wearing a red baseball cap. At first Ethan thinks it’s all an elaborate prank. But when Traveler tells Ethan how many personal details he knows about Ethan’s life, Ethan is convinced this is no prank.

Traveler not only threatens Ethan by saying Nora will be killed if Ethan doesn’t follow Traveler’s orders but Traveler also threatens to kill other people inside the airport if Ethan tries to get help or report this terrorist plot. Traveler says that if Ethan does something such as removing the ear bud to cut off contact with Traveler, that could get someone killed too. At one point, Traveler asks Ethan if he would rather have 250 people die on an airplane or thousands of people die in an airport.

When Ethan asks Traveler if he’s a terrorist, Travel replies: “I consider myself a freelance facilitator.” It’s implied throughout the movie that Traveler and Watcher are “middle men” hired by a larger entity, which is never named in the movie. Traveler is often cold and detached, but he also has a tendency to rant and ramble about things that irritate him. During some of his rants, he reveals his contempt for millennials and Gen Z people, whom he thinks are wimpy and over-reliant on technology. Traveler also thinks he’s the smartest person in the room who’s skilled at psychoanalysis as a way to predict and manipulate people’s actions.

“Carry-On” has a few supporting characters who are pivotal to the story. Los Angeles police detective Elena Cole (played by Danielle Deadwyler) is the first law enforcement officer to suspect that there might be a terrorist plan put into motion at LAX. She’s later joined by Agent Alcott (played by Logan Marshall-Green) from the FBI. Ethan also has a TSA co-worker named Eddie (played by Gil Perez-Abraham), an aspiring rapper who shamelessly peddles his music to his co-workers and other people at the airport. Eddie is the movie’s “comic relief” character.

“Carry-On” has some other intentionally comedic moments, including a montage of angry and difficult passengers who feel that they’re being inconvenienced in some way by the TSA screening process. Traveler also has some wry comments that are meant to show that he’s deeply cynical about how society works and he’s just a hired gun who doesn’t care about taking sides in politics when it comes to the work he’s hired to do. Detective Cole also has some one-liner jokes that are a bit corny but are intended to bring some laughs.

“Carry-On” is an effective thriller not just because of the adrenaline-packed actions scenes but also because of the performances from the movie’s talented cast members. A movie like this is often appealing because of the chief hero and the chief villain. Egerton is able to be a vulnerable “everyman” who’s easy to root for when it’s time for Ethan to show he’s a lot braver and smarter than most people think he might be. Bateman is also quite convincing as a mysterious but menacing terrorist. “Carry-On” doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a crowd-pleasing movie that has a few twists to its formulaic plot but ends up right where most viewers expect.

Netflix premiered “Carry-On” on December 13, 2024.

Review: ‘Kraven the Hunter,’ starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott and Russell Crowe

December 11, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Kraven the Hunter”

Directed by J.C. Chandor

Culture Representation: Taking place in Europe, the United States and Africa, the superhero action film “Kraven the Hunter” (based on Marvel Comic characters) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: The estranged son of a Russian crime boss becomes a superhero with lion-like abilities, and he is called on to rescue his kidnapped younger brother.

Culture Audience: “Kraven the Hunter” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of movies based on comic books, the movie’s headliners and action movies that are empty spectacles.

Alessandro Nivola and Christopher Abbott in “Kraven the Hunter” (Photo by Jay Maidment/Columbia Pictures)

The misfire “Kraven the Hunter” has a lion-inspired superhero and wildlife protection themes, so it’s ironic that this mind-numbing film acts like a drugged lion trapped in a cage. It stumbles repeatedly and is barely coherent. “Kraven the Hunter” is yet another example of a comic book adaptation that had a big budget but a small imagination. Adding to this fiasco is the fact that the principal cast members are very talented, but even they seem bored and/or unconvincing when they utter their awful dialogue in the movie.

Directed by J.C. Chandor, “Kraven the Hunter” is based on Marvel Comics characters. Richard Wenk, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway co-wrote the dismally dull screenplay. “Kraven the Hunter” takes all the worst clichés of superhero origin movies and crams them into a soulless movie where the characters have about as much personality as cardboard cutouts. What’s even more embarrassing for “Kraven the Hunter” is the fact that two Oscar winners are among the principal cast members of this atrocious movie.

“Kraven the Hunter”—which clocks in at 127 minutes, but this monotonous movie feels longer than that—is another superhero movie where the superhero has “daddy issues,” either because his father is dead or emotionally distant. The movie takes entirely too long (more than 20 minutes) showing a repetitive childhood backstory about how Sergei Kravinoff (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who renames himself Kraven the Hunter, becomes estranged from his father Nikolai Kravinoff (played by Russell Crowe, the Oscar-winning actor of 2000’s “Gladiator”), who is a wealthy and ruthless crime lord in Russia.

Flashbacks show teenage Sergei (played by Levi Miller) was considered the “brave” son, compared to Sergei’s more sensitive younger brother Dmitri (played by Billy Barratt), who was considered the “cowardly” son by their father Nikolai. The mother of Sergei and Dmitri committed suicide when the boys were teenagers. A scene in the movie shows Nikolai abruptly taking Dmitri and Sergei to Africa for a hunting trip so he can teach them predatory skills.

During this hunting trip, a lion attacks Sergei, who freezes when he had a chance to shoot the lion. Nikolai doesn’t hesitate to shoot the lion but he’s not able to kill it right away. The lion runs away and carries a severely wounded Sergei in its mouth. A drop of the lion’s blood enters one of Sergei’s wounds. (And you know what that means in a superhero movie.)

The lion leaves Sergei to die in a grassy area. But lo and behlod, here comes a teenager named Calypso Ezili (played by Diaana Babnicova), whose tarot-reading sorceress grandmother (played by Susan Aderin) just happened to have given her a magical potion that can heal severe wounds. Calypso applies the potion to Sergei, who ends up in a hospital, where he is told he was dead for three minutes but made a miraculous recovery. Calypso left behind the tarot card for Strength, which Sergei keeps with him for years.

Teenage Sergei soon finds out that he has the same physical abilities as a lion. Expect to see multiple scenes of Sergei climbing trees like a big cat, having acute vision, and extraordinary skills at maiming. As a young adult, Sergei gets fed up with living with Nikolai, so he leaves home and says a sad goodbye to Dmitri (played by Fred Hechinger), who loves Sergei but is somewhat resentful of him because Dmitri knows that Nikolai prefers Sergei.

Dmitri has an exceptional talent of mimicking people and things. He works as a singer/pianist at a nightclub, where the movie has a comically bizarre scene of Dmitri singing Black Sabbath’s 1972 ballad “Changes.” And if you know enough about the Kraven stories Marvel Comics, then you can easily guess why Dmitri has these uncanny mimicry skills.

Sergei, now known as Kraven, makes a home for himself in the forests of Russia. He has reunited with an adult Calypso (played by Ariana DeBose, the Oscar-winning actress of the 2021 remake of “West Side Story”), who works as an attorney and occasionally pilots a helicopter whenever Kraven needs help getting out of a bad situation. Kraven gets pulled back into his estranged family’s orbit when Dmitri is kidnapped.

The two main villains in the movie are Aleksei Sytsevich, also known as the Rhino (played by Alessandro Nivola) and a mysterious operative named the Foreigner (played by Christopher Abbott), who forms an alliance with the Rhino. Nikolai could be considered another villain. Greedy poachers are other villains in the movie. The Rhino is someone who wants revenge on Nikolai because Nikolai humiliated and rejected him to become part of Nikolai’s inner crime circle. The villains in this movie aren’t very menacing and are almost like cartoon characters.

“Kraven the Hunter” also falls short of having thrilling action scenes, which all seem utterly generic. There is much more bloody violence in “Kraven the Hunter” than in the average superhero movie, but that doesn’t give the film any interesting edginess. The acting performances in the movie are quite stiff and often awkward. And the visual effects are mediocre and often look took fake. “Kraven the Hunter” won’t be considered the worst superhero movie ever, but this disappointing dud proves that this Kraven origin story does not deserve a franchise of several movies in a series.

Columbia Pictures will release “Kraven the Hunter” in U.S. cinemas on December 13, 2024.

Review: ‘Elevation’ (2024), starring Anthony Mackie, Morena Baccarin and Maddie Hasson

November 30, 2024

by Carla Hay

Morena Baccarin, Maddie Hasson and Anthony Mackie in “Elevation” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

“Elevation” (2024)

Directed by George Nolfi

Culture Representation: Taking place in Colorado, the sci-fi action film “Elevation” features a cast of African American and white characters, who are survivors of a creature-invasion apocalypse on Earth.

Culture Clash: A man and two women race against time to get medical supplies for the man’s 8-year-old son, while the adults battle the creatures, which cannot live above 8,000 feet.

Culture Audience: “Elevation” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of stars Anthony Mackie and Morena Baccarin and don’t mind watching sci-fi movies that have derivative and sloppy storytelling.

Anthony Mackie and Danny Boyd Jr. in “Elevation” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

“Elevation” is a misleading title for a movie with below-average storytelling. This sci-fi action flick, which takes place during an Earth apocalypse caused by giant creatures, has competent acting but is substandard in everything else. “Elevation” introduces multiple concepts but leaves many different questions unanswered by the end of the film.

Directed by George Nolfi, “Elevation” was written by John Glenn, Jacob Roman and Kenny Ryan, who filled the screenplay with a lot of dimwitted scenarios, boring dialogue and exposition dumps. The movie was filmed on location in Colorado, where “Elevation” is supposed to take place somewhere in the Rocky Mountains area. The story begins three years after an apocalypse where mysterious giant creatures (which look like a combination of lizards and scorpions) rose up from the underground and killed 95% of Earth’s population in just one month. The apocalypse has left the survivors with no electricity or modern communication.

This worldwide massacre is not seen in any flashbacks. All that is seen in “Elevation” are how survivors in this part of Colorado are living and trying not to get killed by the creatures, which the survivors are calling “reapers.” The reapers have one big physical limitation: They cannot survive in any space that’s at least 8,000 feet above the ground. Anything below 8,000 feet on Earth is called “below The Line,” where the reapers live. People who venture below The Line are at great risk of being killed by a reaper or reapers.

The Lost Gulf Refuge, which has a population of 193 people, is 8,460 feet above the ground. Among the Lost Gulf Refuge residents are a brave widower named Will (played by Anthony Mackie); Will’s 8-year-old son Hunter (played by Danny Boyd Jr.); a hard-drinking and cranky physicist named Nina Richmond (played by Morena Baccarin); and Will’s good-natured close friend Katie (played by Maddie Hasson), who was the best friend of Will’s deceased wife Tara (played by Rachel Nicks). Tara is seen in some flashback scenes in the movie.

“Elevation” begins by showing that Hunter has gone 260 feet below The Line in the wooded area, even though he knows it’s strictly forbidden for him to be there. And you know what that means: Hunter gets chased by a reaper. He narrowly escapes death by throwing himself into an area on the ground that is surrounded by a circle of white rocks.

In another part of the movie, certain characters also are able to survive a chase from reapers in the woods by going to an area that is surrounded by a circle of white rocks. “Elevation” is so terribly written, the movie never explains why these areas surrounded by circles of white rocks give special protection from the reapers. And there’s no explanation for who put those rocks there and why the people being chased just happened to know that these rock circles give special protection.

When Hunter goes back home after escaping from being killed by a reaper, he gets scolded by Will for making the life-risking choice to go below The Line. “I just wanted to see other people,” Hunter explains. Katie is sympathetic to Hunter and says to Will: “We may be safe up here, but this mountaintop is like a prison to him.” Will says he knows the real reason why Hunter went back to a specific area in the woods below The Line is because it was the last place where Hunter saw his mother Tara.

Concerned father Will soon has something bigger to worry about than this act of rebellion from Hunter. Hunter uses an oxygen tank at night, and their household is almost out of filters for the tank. These filters are necessary for Hunter to survive. Will knows that he can probably find unused filters at an abandoned hospital in the city of Boulder. However, Boulder is about 2,000 feet below The Line.

It’s explained early on in the movie that Nina is the only known human who has been able to kill a reaper. She’s been obsessed with trying to find a scientific way to kill these creatures and sharing that knowledge with people so she can be credited with literally saving the world. Nina is an abrasive loner who abuses alcohol, so she hasn’t been making much progress with her research.

Still, when it comes time for Will to make his dangerous trek to Boulder, he asks Nina go with him. Will persuades her by saying, “All you can think about is killing one of these things, and you need something from down there to do it. You owe me this much, for Tara.”

Will and Nina have a tense relationship because he blames her for Tara’s death, for reasons that are explained in the movie. Maddie also dislikes rude and arrogant Nina. At one point, the two women get into a physical fight.

Nina makes an insulting remark by saying to Maddie: “You want to fuck your best friend’s husband.” Maddie responds by punching Nina. Maddie also accuses Nina of only wanting the kill the reapers so that Nina can be famous. This is the type of cattiness that looks like it belongs on a tacky reality show, not a sci-fi movie that’s supposed to be suspenseful.

Will, Nina and Maddie arm themselves with military-styled rifles that they get from a guy named Tim (played by Tyler Grey), who hands them the weapons from a back room in his store, with no questions asked and no signs of a transaction being made. It all looks so phony. Even though it’s made clear in the movie that the reapers can’t be killed (only wounded) by the ammunition in these guns, these are the best weapons available to Will, Nina and Maddie at the time.

On the way to Boulder, there is more bickering between Will, Nina and Maddie. And then, the inevitable happens: The reapers appear. There are encounters with the reapers that involve trying to escape on ski lifts, inside a mine shaft, and in a truck.

One of the biggest problems with “Elevation” is that many of the action scenes look fake—not just with the visual effects but also with how everything is staged. At the mine shaft, helmets with flashlights are conveniently there for Will, Nina and Maddie to wear. The ski lifts are conveniently not rusty.

When they go in the mine shaft, Will has a vague idea that there will be a tunnel leading to the hospital. But why would they go in a mine shaft when they know these creatures have a tendency to live and thrive underground? None of it really makes any sense because the entire movie is just a poorly conceived story that rips off some aspects of 2018’s “A Quiet Place,” another apocalypse movie with giant creatures that have a big physical liability.

The production design for “Elevation” is off-kilter. Most of the buildings looks desolate and shabby, as they should during a massive disaster such as an apocalypse that started three years ago. But during the trek to Boulder, there are scenes where the travelers stay overnight in a lodge that looks pristine and picture-perfect, with a cozy library full of books in the lounge area and beautifully lit candles everywhere. (There are no lodge employees in sight.) You’d never know there’s an apocalypse going on, with shortages of food and other resources, just by looking at how clean and well-stocked this lodge is.

In reality, this lodge would have been looted or destroyed a long time ago, based on how an earlier scene makes a big deal out of showing that something as simple as a box of macaroni (which Will gets from a store to make mac and cheese for Hunter’s birthday) is scarce in this post-apocalyptic world. And speaking of food, during this trip to Boulder, which takes place over at least two days, the travelers are never seen worried about how they’re going to get their next meal in this world that has food shortages. It’s as if the “Elevation” filmmakers wanted to erase any need for the characters to have these basic life necessities because the movie becomes so focused on the not-very-convincing action scenes.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the plot in “Elevation” is a surprise reveal that comes toward the end of the movie. It’s supposed to be shocking information, but the information is dropped like a bomb and never addressed again. And the movie has a laughably bad way of presenting a certain solution to the reaper problem. “Elevation” has a talented cast that deserves much better than this low-quality dreck that most viewers will forget quicker than it takes for a reaper to kill someone in the movie.

Vertical released “Elevation” in U.S. cinemas on November 8, 2024. The movie was released on digital and VOD on November 26, 2024.