Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the action film “Afwaah” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: An advertising professional becomes unwittingly involved in deadly political corruption when he agrees to help a political socialite go into hiding.
Culture Audience: “Afwaah” will appeal primarily to people who like watching action-oriented movies about dangerous political feuds and how social media gossip can easily spread to mainstream media.
Sumit Kaul and Sumeet Vyas in “Afwaah” (Photo courtesy of Reliance Entertainment)
“Afwaah” is a flawed political thriller that has enough suspenseful and well-acted moments that outweigh the movie’s shortcomings. The movie has pointed observations about how social media can be used as a way to manipulate mainstream news media. “Afwaah” (which means “rumor” in Hindi) is less skilled at showing realism in this story about two people hiding out from kidnappers and assassins.
Directed by Sudhir Mishra (who co-wrote the “Afwaah” screenplay with Nisarg Mehta and Shiva Bajpai), “Afwaah” is also a story about how two people from different worlds can become unlikely allies under certain circumstances. The two people whose worlds collide in “Afwaah” (which takes place in India) are advertising professional Rahab Ahmed (played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and political socialite Nivedita “Nivi” Singh (played by Bhumi Pednekar), who end up going into hiding together.
Rahab, who is Muslim, is a well-respected expert in his profession. He often gives motivational and charismatic speeches to large audiences. Rahab comes from a working-class background (his father was a carpenter) and has been able to elevate his social status from his parents, by getting a college education and earning a high ranking in the advertising profession.
Nivi, who is Hindu, grew up in wealth and privilege. Her father is Chandan Singh (played by Sharib Hashmi), who is the leader of a political party. Nivi works with her father and is expected to spend her life in politics. She is engaged to an ambitious politician named Vicky (played by Sumeet Vyas), who is likely to be named the deputy of the political party because he will be the future son-in-law of Chandan.
But as is always the case in politics, there are power struggles. Some backstabbing plans have been set in motion by police inspector Sandeep Tomar (played by Sumit Kaul) and Vicky, who are is secretly plotting to have Chandan assassinated. Sandeep tells Vicky that Chandan has to die because Chandan has “grown a conscience.”
The assassination plot comes soon after Vicky and three of his cronies were caught on video beating up some political protestors. The video goes viral. Nivi is alarmed and starts to doubt that Vicky has the type of ethics and character that she wants in a husband. Vicky brushes off her concerns and tries to convince her that the viral video is not work making a fuss over, and people will eventually forget about the video.
The relationship between Vicky and Nivi begins to deteriorate. Knowing that Nivi can influence what Chandan thinks, Vicky secretly wants Chandan out of the way so that Vicky will take over the political party. And then, Nivi finds out that she’s in danger too.
One night, Nivi is out by herself in an open marketplace area. A man suddenly starts to harass her. And then, more men show up and surround Nivi, who is no pushover. It’s a kidnapping attempt, and Nivi fights back with kicks and punches.
Rahab happens to be driving his car though this area the same time, and he witnesses this attack. A frantic Nivi runs up to Rahab’s car, opens the door, and tells him to drive away. The kidnappers chase after them on motorbikes, but Rahab is able to lose them by driving down in an alley. Unfortunately, the car crashes.
The rest of “Afwaah” is a tension-filled journey, as Rahab and Nivi go into hiding. Soon after they meet under these stressful circumstances, Nivi tells Rahab who she is and that she doesn’t want to marry Vicky. “He’s lost his mind since the new alliance,” says Nivi. “He’s become nothing but a power-hungry bigot.”
When Vicky finds out that the kidnapping attempt failed and some people on the street took videos of the incident, Vicky takes the advice of a computer hacker named Bobby (played by Appurv Gupta) to twist the story into making Rahab the villain. Vicky plants a story on social media that Rahab was the real mastermind behind the kidnapping. Vicky’s cronies, who were the actual kidnappers, are praised as “heroes” who tried to save Nivi from Rahab.
This lie spreads on social media and is quickly reported as the truth by mainstream media. The lie gets even more warped with the untruth that Rahab (who is married) and Nivi ran off together to elope in a bigamy situation. The lie seems to have credibility because Nivi is still missing. Rahab then becomes the chief suspect in her disappearance.
Why doesn’t Nivi come forward and tell the truth? She’s afraid that people will believe Vicky over her. She knows that Vicky has a lot of allies in law enforcement, and she doesn’t know who to trust. Nivi and Rahab are also aware that too many people believe the lie because the media coverage has been reporting the lie as the truth.
“Afwaah” is at its best in the scenes of Nivi and Rahab together, since they have the best dialogue in the movie. All the “villains” in “Afwaah” tend to be caricatures. There’s also a somewhat unnecessary subplot involving a murder on Vicky’s property. And the movie goes into soap opera territory with a subplot about corrupt police inspector Rahab (who is married) having a secret affair with a female cop colleague named Riya Rathod (played by T.J. Bhanu), who might or might not find out how he’s involved in an assassination plot.
“Afwaah” also doesn’t do a very good job of showing certain aspects of the “fugitive” part of Nivi and Rahab going into hiding. The scenes involving Rahab’s wife Nandita (played by Eisha Chopra) have melodrama that lowers the quality of the movie. However, the performances of Siddiqui and Pednekar enliven “Afwaah” and bring credible emotional gravitas when needed.
There are plenty of movies about ruthless people trying to gain political power. What’s more interesting about “Afwaah” is how accurately it portrays media manipulation. It’s an insightful commentary on how much social media can play a role in shaping news coverage in mainstream media. If you don’t believe it, look at many mainstream news stories cite anonymous and unverified people on social media as “sources,” when that type of sourcing would not have met journalistic standards at a lot of the same media outlets in previous years. “Afwaah” is a fictional movie, but it’s also a cautionary tale of what can go on in the real world when it comes to media, politics and public images.
Reliance Entertainment released “Afwaah” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on May 5, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place in 1944 in Finland, the action film “Sisu” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class during World War II.
Culture Clash: A Finnish former military commander, who has become a gold miner and a rogue vigilante, fights Nazi soldiers during World War II.
Culture Audience: “Sisu” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in war movies with “hero vigilantes” and exaggerated action that’s meant to be partially amusing.
Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan and Onni Tommila in “Sisu” (Photo by Antti Rastivo/Lionsgate)
“Sisu” knows what it is and doesn’t try to pretend to be anything else: an adrenaline-packed, violent action film served up with plenty of self-aware campiness. Jorma Tommila’s portrayal of Aatami Korpi, the hero who fights Nazis, is a crowd-pleasing blitz. “Sisu” had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
Written and directed by Jalmari Helander, “Sisu” (which takes place in 1944 in Finland) has a very simple plot: a loner vigilante/gold miner named Aatami Korpi (played by Jorma Tommila) gets deadly revenge on Nazis who want to steal his gold. The Nazis underestimate Aatami because he’s much older than their usual opponents. Atami is a lot tougher and more ruthless than he looks.
It’s explained in the very beginning of the movie that the word “sisu” doesn’t have a specific meaning in Finnish, but it roughly translates to a white-knuckled form of courage in desperate moments. There are many of those moments in “Sisu,” which has a lot of over-the-top violence showing one man pitted against an army of several people. Because he’s outnumbered, Aatami has to figure out ways to outsmart his enemies.
At one point in the movie, it’s revealed that Aatami used to be a commander in the Finnish Army, but he went rogue after Nazis killed his entire family during the war. After the massacre of his family, Aatmi became a vengeful person whom no one could control. Even with Aatami having military training, there are are still deliberately cartoonish depictions of how Aatami is able to defeat many of the soldiers he comes up against.
Aatami’s violent exploits have given him a somewhat mystical legendary reputation, because he has been able to avoid death in situations that could easily kill most people. Some people who know about Aatami say that Aatami might be immortal. Whether or not his immortality is true, Aatami still needs to sustain himself with money and food.
The beginning of “Sisu” shows Aatami searching for gold in a remote area. Aatami’s only companions are his Bedlington Terrier and his horse. Aatami finds a huge slab of gold and can’t believe his luck. He takes his ice pick and chops the gold into large chunks. And he plans to bring the gold to the nearest financial bank, which is 563 miles away.
While he’s making the long trek to the bank, Aatami is stopped and harassed by Nazi soldiers, who soon find out how much gold Aatami has and plan to steal it from him. Aatami makes it clear that he’s not going to let the Nazis do what they want without a gifht from him. The rest of the movie is a fierce battle of wits and brutality between Aatami and the Nazis.
There isn’t much dialogue in “Sisu,” but when there is, it is delivered with a winking tone of loud and violent action movies that don’t take themselves too seriously. Most of the Nazi villains are generic, but the standouts are the troop leader Obersturmführer Bruno Helldorf (played by Aksel Hennie); his main sidekick Wolf (played by Jack Doolan), who loyally follows commands; and a soldier named Schütze (played by Onni Tommila, Jorma Tommilla’s real-life son), who easily gets into precarious situations.
The Nazis have captured five women as prisoners of war. As already shown in the trailer for “Sisu,” these women end up escaping and become allies to Aatami. The most defiant woman in the group is Aino (played by Mimosa Willamo), who does most of the talking.
The trailer for “Sisu” reveals a lot of the movie’s most memorable action scenes, lines of dialogue and plot developments. What you see in the trailer is really what you get in the movie. If you’re intrigued by what’s in the “Sisu” trailer, and you’re in the mood for a semi-comedic World War II action movie that’s pure escapism and not meant to be realistic, then “Sisu” delivers exactly what you might expect.
Lionsgate and Stage 6 Films released “Sisu” in U.S. cinemas on April 28, 2023. The movie was released on digital and VOD on May 16, 2023. “Sisu” was released in Finland on January 27, 2023.
Pictured clockwise, from left: Michelle Rodriguez, Sung Kang, Nathalie Emmanuel, Vin Diesel, Leo Abelo Perry, Rita Moreno, Jordana Brewster Chris “Ludacris” Bridges (back to camera) and Tyrese Gibson (back to camera) in “Fast X” (Photo by Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures)
Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, and Antarctica, the action flick “Fast X” features a racially diverse cast of characters (black, white, Latino and Asian) representing the middle-class and wealthy in law enforcement and the criminal underground.
Culture Clash: A daredevil team tries to save the world from a group of criminals led by a sadistic killer who’s avenging the death of his father.
Culture Audience: Besides appealing to fans of the “Fast and the Furious” movie franchise, “Fast X” (the 10th movie in the series) will appeal primarily to people who want to a predictable action flick with high-budget stunts and low-quality screenwriting.
Jason Momoa in “Fast X” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)
“Fast X” is the cinematic equivalent of a multi-car crash pileup. It’s a huge downgrade for the franchise, which is a bloated mishmash of Oscar-winning stars and less-talented cast members saying a lot of awful dialogue while dodging guns and explosions. It’s bad enough that this franchise expects people to believe that the “heroes” don’t get wounded or killed in the way they should in these far-fetched action scenes. Now, this franchise expects viewers to believe that some of these characters can come back from the dead.
Directed by Louis Leterrier, “Fast X” (the 10th film in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise) has given up on having coherent plots and interesting characters. Everyone is just a caricature at this point. Justin Lin (who was the original director of “Fast X” but he quit due to behind-the-scenes turmoil) and Dan Mazeau wrote the atrocious screenplay for “Fast X,” which ends with a scene that will either have viewers cheering or rolling their eyes at the ludicrous “resurrection” that viewers are expected to believe.
“Fast X” has a less complicated plot than 2021’s “F9: The Fast Saga” (the ninth movie in the “Fast” series), but that just means the plot’s inanity is even more obvious. In a nutshell: “Fast X” is about the daredevil “heroes” of the franchise being framed as terrorists by a wisecracking villain named Dante (played by Jason Momoa), who likes to spead out his arms a lot, as if he’s a criminal messiah. Dante is the son of Brazilian drug lord Hernan Reyes (played by Joaquim de Almeida), who was killed during his defeat by the “Fast” heroes in 2011’s “Fast Five.” Dante acts like an unhinged and untalented stand-up comedian when he commits his mayhem, such as when he threatens to blow up the Vatican in Rome, and he smirks that he’s “going to hell,” just for making this threat.
The “Fast” hero characters are:
Dominic “Dom” Toretto (played by Vin Diesel) is the leader of the daredevil crew that started out as outlaw drag racers and now have vague duties a security/spy team hired to help out government officials and elite business people who are targets of villains who want to take over the world. Vinnie Bennett portrays a young Dom in the movie’s several flashbacks to when Dom was in his late teens.
Letty Ortiz (played by Michelle Rodriguez) is Dom’s on-again, off-again girlfriend. In “F9,” Dom and Letty are happily living together with Dom’s son Brian (played by Leo Abelo Perry), who’s about 6 or 7 years old in this movie. Brian’s mother Elena Neves (played by Elsa Pataky) was a Diplomatic Security Service agent who died in 2017’s “The Fate of the Furious.”
Mia Toretto (played by Jordana Brewster) is Dom’s loyal younger sister who goes along with whatever Dom wants. Mia is the love partner of Dom’s best friend Brian O’Conner (played by Paul Walker), who is the father of their son Jack. Walker died in real life in 2013, but Brian is supposed to be happily retired.
Roman Pearce (played by Tyrese Gibson) is a nervous and talkative member of Dom’s team. The running joke with Roman is that he’s always anxious about getting into dangerous situations. Expect Roman to scream at least twice in every “Fast” movie.
Tej Parker (played by Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) is Roman’s level-headed best friend who has skills as a mechanic and a computer technician.
Ramsey (played by Nathalie Emmanuel) is a British computer hacker who has essentially taken over from Tej as being the “computer whiz” on Dom’s team.
Han Lue (played by Sung Kang) supposedly died in 2013’s “Fast & Furious 6,” but he came back from the dead in “F9: The Fast Saga” because he “faked” his own death.
Also in the movie are Deckard Shaw (played by Jason Statham), who is a longtime nemesis of Dom’s team. Jakob Toretto (played by John Cena), Dom’s formerly estranged younger brother who was introduced in “F9: The Fast Saga,” also shows up in a way that is entirely predictable and unimaginative. Government agent Little Nobody (played by Scott Eastwood) makes a return. A generic bureaucrat named Aimes (played by Alan Richtson), has replaced Mr. Nobody as the leader of the secret Agency that works with Dom and his team. And there’s also a Brazilian street racer named Isabela (played by Daniela Melchior), who makes a brief appearance in a drag race scene that objectifies women’s bodies.
The “Fast” franchise keeps adding Oscar winners to its cast, in what seems to be a desperate attempt to bring artistic credibility to this movie series. It’s just like having master chefs serve up low-quality junk food. The food is still junk, no matter who’s serving it. The Oscar winners who are new to “Fast X” are Rita Moreno, as Dom’s unnamed grandmother (she’s called “abuelita,” a Spanish-language term of endearment for “grandmother”), and Brie Larson as Tess, a “rogue representative” who’s also the daughter of Mr. Nobody. They join Oscar winners Helen Mirren as Queenie Shaw (the mother of Deckard Shaw) and Charlize Theron as frenemy Cipher, who both make return cameos in “Fast X.”
A mid-credits scene in “Fast X” shows the return of a major “Fast” franchise character, who wasn’t killed in the series. It’s yet another attempt for the “Fast” franchise to look more interesting by adding and bringing back stars to the “Fast” movie series. At this point in the “Fast” franchise, it doesn’t matter who lives or dies, because the creative innovation in this movie series is dead.
Universal Pictures will release “Fast X” in U.S. cinemas on May 19, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Austin, Texas, the sci-fi action flick “Hypnotic” features a white and Latino cast of characters (with some African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A police detective, who is searching for his missing 10-year-old daughter, encounters dangerous “hypnotics”: people with the ability to control other people’s minds through hypnotism.
Culture Audience: “Hypnotic” will appeal primarily to fans of star Ben Affleck, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and convoluted sci-movies that are weak imitations of other sci-fi movies about alternate realities.
William Fitchner in “Hypnotic” (Photo courtesy of Hypnotic Film Holdings LLC/Ketchup Entertainment)
No amount of hypnotism can convince viewers with basic quality standards that “Hypnotic” is a good movie. Ben Affleck’s robotic acting makes this dull and witless sci-fi mystery even worse. One of the most irritating things about this misfire of a movie is how it contradicts and undermines the story’s world building many times with avoidable plot holes—just for the sake of adding illogical plot twists.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez (who co-wrote the abysmal “Hypnotic” screenplay with Max Borenstein), “Hypnotic” was filmed on location in Austin, Texas. The movie begins with a scene of Austin police detective Danny Rourke (played by Affleck) in a psychological therapy session in his therapist’s office. Danny is remembering a very painful experience in his life: the day his daughter Minnie disappeared while he was with her in a park.
His unnamed therapist (played by Nikki Dixon) says to Danny: “Park? That’s what you drift to, isn’t it? That park. That day. Take me back there.” A flashback to three years earlier shows 7-year-old Minnie (played by Ionie Nieves) and Danny in the park. Minnie asks Donnie to re-braid her pigtails, which have become slightly loosened. Danny tells Minnie as he touches her hair: “This is not a braid. This is a maze only your mother can solve.” Get used to this cringeworthy dialogue, because “Hypnotic” is full of it.
The flashback shows that Danny was watching Minnie play in the park when he took his eyes off of her for only a few seconds. And then she was gone. Before she disappeared, Danny remembered seeing a suspicious-looking young man lurking nearby. This suspect is 18-year-old Lyle Terry (played by Evan Vines), who was arrested on suspicion of abduction, even though there’s no evidence to tie him to the crime. Lyle has proclaimed his innocence.
Back in the therapist’s office in the present day, the therapist asks Danny if Danny thinks he needs to take a leave of absence from his job. Danny replies that work is “the only thing keeping me sane.” And where is Minnie’s mother? That information is revealed later in the movie. Minnie is now 10 years old (played by Hala Finley) and remains missing.
After leaving the therapist’s office, Danny is given a car ride by his cop partner Randy Nicks (payed by JD Pardo), who prefers to be called Nicks. Danny finds out from Nicks that two Bank of Boston branches in Texas (one bank in the city of Houston, and the other bank in Amarillo) experienced “inside job” armed robberies. The thieves didn’t steal any cash but took just one safe deposit box from each bank. As Danny and Nicks drive in their patrol car, Nicks plays a voice mail recording of a woman calling in an anonymous tip that a bank robbery is in progress at a bank in Austin. The tipster says that robbers plan to take the bank’s safe deposit box number 23.
Danny and Nicks are next seen with some colleagues outside the bank and doing a stakeout from a surveillance van. This van apparently has the surrounding area “bugged” with recording devices, because everyone in the van can hear many people’s conversations outside. On a bench outside, a man wearing a business suit sits down next to an unnamed woman (played by Bonnie Discepolo, also known as Bonnie Kathleen Ryan), who is also in a business suit.
The man, whose name is later identified as Lev Dellrayne (played by William Fitchner), looks intensely at the woman and tells her that it’s a very hot day. The woman then gets up and walks around as if she’s in a trance. She repeats out loud that the weather is so hot. And then she takes off her jacket and blouse, all while looking dazed and wandering out in the street where there’s traffic. Her wandering causes multiple car accidents.
Meanwhile, Dellrayne has gone into the bank, because this mystery man is up to no good and is about to be involved in robbing the bank. Danny leaps into action and goes into the bank too, even though his co-workers don’t want Danny to do that because they think it will disrupt their sting operation. Inside the bank, Dellryane has used hypnotic mind control of a bank teller (played by Natalie Garcia), by telling her that it’s the bank’s closing time in the late afternoon. It should come as no surprise that this bank teller is about to be an unwitting accomplice to this bank robbery.
Danny quickly convinces an unsuspecting bank manager (played by Lawrence Varnado) that Danny wants to open a safe deposit box at this branch. While in the safe deposit room, Danny manages to pickpocket the safe deposit keys from the manager without the manager knowing. The manager leaves the room to look for the keys, giving Danny enough time to open safe deposit box number 23. Inside the box, he finds a photo of Minnie, with these words written on the front of the photo: “Find Lev Dellrayne.”
The rest of “Hypnotic” shows action scenes and plot pivots that get more ridiculous as the story drones on in a stiff and awkward manner. The movie’s visual effects are nothing special. During his investigation, Danny encounters a psychic named Diana Cruz (played by Alice Braga); a technology expert/conspiracy theorist named River (played by Dayo Okeniyi); and an acquaintance of Diana’s named Jeremiah (played by Jackie Earle Haley), whose performance in the movie is a quick cameo that gets less than five minutes of screen time. And there are two people from Danny’s past named Carl (played by Jeff Fahey) and Thelma (played by Sandy Avila), who suddenly show up in one of the movie’s poorly conceived plot twists.
Affleck’s subpar acting looks like he’s bored and disinterested for most of the movie. If the lead actor looks like he doesn’t really care about giving a good performance, why should viewers care about the movie? Braga is the only principal cast member who makes a consistent effort to show some emotional range for her “Hypnotic” character. Finley is adequate but is not in the movie long enough for viewers to get to know her Minnie character. Everyone else in the cast has a role as a hollow character with no personal backstory.
“Hypnotic” could have been a mind-blowing sci-fi thriller, but instead it looks like an inferior ripoff of filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s 2010 classic “Inception.” One of the few highlights of “Hypnotic” is the gripping musical score by Rebel Rodriguez, who is one of the sons of “Hypnotic” filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. The movie is just too enamored with its bad ideas, including a mid-credits scene that’s another contradictory plot hole. This mid-credits scene hints that the “Hypnotic” filmmakers want to make a sequel, which is unlikely to happen for this muddled and misguided flop.
Ketchup Entertainment released “Hypnotic” in U.S. cinemas on May 12, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in Pakistan, the action comedy film “Money Back Guarantee” features a predominantly Pakistani cast (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Six financially desperate people conspire to commit a bank robbery, but their plans run into unexpected problems, including a power struggle between two bankers.
Culture Audience: “Money Back Guarantee” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching an action comedy with a jumbled storyline and bad acting.
Mani and Shaniera Akram in “Money Back Guarantee” (Photo courtesy of Zashko Films)
“Money Back Guarantee” tries so hard to cram in several plot detours and wacky antics, it all adds up to a tangled heap of sloppy filmmaking. It’s a bizarre bank robbery caper that fumbles the comedy and the action. The story is witless, the performances are irritating, and the film editing is terrible. The movie’s mediocre Donald Trump impersonator quickly becomes a tired gimmick.
Written and directed by Faisal Qureshi, “Money Back Guarantee” (which takes place in an unnamed city in Pakistan) has a not-very-original concept of bungling amateur criminals in their quest to rob a bank. Instead of crafting a suspenseful and/or funny story, the movie gets caught up in trying to make things look weird and incoherent. Many viewers will feel completely disconnected from the story because the characters in the movie don’t act like how real human beings would act.
Six friends/acquaintances, who are having money problems and feel like they have been mistreated by society, decide to join forces and rob a powerful financial institution called Pak Bank. These would-be criminals are Munda Punjabi (played by Marhoom Bilal), Nawaz Sindhi (played by Mirza Gohar), Ilyas Kashmir (played by Shayan Khan), Sanam Baloch (played by Kiran Malik), Christian Bail (played by Jan Rambo) and Irfan Pathan (played by Mikaal Zulfiqar). They come up with various schemes to rob the bank—none of which would work in the real world.
For example, the six robbers decide to “disguise” themselves as “exterminators” and try to walk right into a bank vault together. But they don’t look like exterminators. They’re dressed entirely in black combat gear and are openly carrying guns. They look more like a tactical S.W.A.T. team. But these idiots think that because they have gas masks, they can fool people into thinking that they’re exterminators. This is what’s supposed to pass as “comedy” in this mindless movie.
Meanwhile, this robbery is being planned in the midst of a ruthless power struggle between Pak Bank president Akram (played by Wasim Akram) and a bank manager named Bux (played by Fawad Khan), who are in a campaign election against each other. Other characters in the movie include Akram’s arrogant right-hand man G.A. Muhajir (played by Mani), a somewhat ditzy reporter named Bella (played by Shaniera Akram) and Trump (played by Syed Shafaat Ali), a character who is a demanding, greedy and incompetent egomaniac in his business dealings with Pak Bank.
The movie has a lot of shouting and running around that don’t amount to anything but just dragging out the story and going off on distracting tangents. “Money Back Guarantee” also has too many stupid and over-used gags, such as characters getting lost or mistaken identities. The Trump character wears an ill-fitting blond wig and spouts a lot of corny and not-very-funny lines of dialogue.
“Money Back Guarantee” was originally supposed to be released in 2020, when Trump was president of the United States. Released in 2023, “Money Back Guarantee” just looks outdated with the Trump jokes, which don’t have as much impact in the movie, since Trump is no longer the U.S. president. The bank robbery antics and the bank executive feuding just get increasingly vapid and annoying. The entire movie is a poorly conceived mess and will test the patience of anyone who has tolerance for intentionally silly action comedies. “Money Back Guarantee” is an apt description of what viewers should get if they have the misfortune of wasting money to watch this failed attempt to be an entertaining heist movie.
Zashko Films released “Money Back Guarantee” in select U.S. cinemas and in Pakistan on April 21, 2023.
Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), Zoë Saldaña, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), Karen Gillan and Pom Klementieff in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” (Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios)
Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the universe, the sci-fi/fantasy/action film “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (based on Marvel Comics characters) features a cast of characters as humans and other creatures.
Culture Clash: Superhero crimefighters Guardians of the Galaxy fight to save a seriously wounder member, as they also battle against a villain who wants to create perfect beings in a perfect society.
Culture Audience: Besides appealing to the obvious target audience of Marvel movie fans, “Guardians of the Galaxy” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and superhero movies that are the equivalent of having attention-deficit disorder.
Miriam Shor, Chukwudi Iwuji and Nico Santos in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Photo by Jessica Miglio/Marvel Studios)
People who watch Marvel Studios’ “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” might need a neck brace from all the tonal whiplash and messy editing that viewers will get from this mixed bag of a superhero film. It clumsily tries to blend mean-spiritedness with sentimentality. The new characters in this saga are hollow and horribly written. Most of the returning hero characters are often smug and irritating, losing much of the charm that they had in the first two “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies: 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” and 2017’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.” These two previous films are necessary to watch, in order to understand a lot of what’s going on in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.”
No matter what anyone says, when the chief filmmaker is also working for the competition, that conflict of interest had to affect filmmaking choices that were made for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” It shows in how the movie has a “got to fulfill the contract obligations before I leave” tone to it. And that’s not just with the writing and directing. Some of the cast members look a little tired of playing these characters, because they don’t have as much spark or enthusiasm as they had in the previous “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies.
Pity anyone who hasn’t seen the first two “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, because “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” barely gives any crucial background information to viewers who don’t know what happened in those first two movies. But that’s not the main problem of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” With the exception of one standout fight scene (shown in slow-motion), the rest of the action scenes are scatter-brained and unimpressive. They’re staged with the idea that a lot of gun shooting and explosives are enough to make an action scene.
And speaking of scenes shown in slow-motion, how many times do we need to see the “heroes” walking together in slow-motion, as if they own the universe? Apparently, once is not enough in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” because this type of cliché is used at least four times in the movie. It’s also so tiresome and unimaginative.
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” also requires that people know what happened in 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” because Guardians of the Galaxy leader Peter Quill/Star-Lord (played by Chris Pratt), who is originally from Earth, uses it as a reason to get drunk, be obnoxious, and generally have an angry attitude problem. The fun-loving Peter from the first two “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie is mostly gone. He’s now a bitter whiner who’s often on a rampage. (Peter does some cursing and rage-filled violent acts that might surprise some viewers expecting this movie to be more “family-friendly.”)
Peter has changed for the worse because he’s grieving over the loss of his true love/soul mate Gamora (played by Zoë Saldaña), who (mild spoiler alert) died in “Avengers: Infinity War.” But because “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is a Marvel movie, multiverses can have different versions of the same character. And so, for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” an alternate version of Gamora (also played by Saldaña) has been “found” by her adoptive sister Nebula (played by Karen Gillan), who has had a love/hate relationship with Gamora for years. In “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” this “alternate” Gamora is a Ravager (a space pirate), but she helps the Guardians of the Galaxy when they go on a mission to stop an evil villain and to save the life of a fellow Guardian.
The other members of the Guardians of the Galaxy are hulking oaf Drax (played by Dave Bautista), whose brawn power far exceeds his brain power; raccoon mutant Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a sarcastic daredevil pilot, who can move like a human; compassionate empath Mantis (played by Pom Klementieff), who has the power to control minds; and shapeshifting tree creature Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), who only says these three words when he talks: “I am Groot.” In the first two “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies, the chemistry between all of these characters was believable. In “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” the chemistry between these characters is disjointed and undermined by awkward jokes.
The beginning of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” shows Peter in a drunken stupor. He’s so drunk, he’s passed out, and Nebula has to carry him. Peter snaps out of his self-pitying alcohol abuse when something terrible happens: A golden-hued stranger from outer space named Adam Warlock (played by Will Poulter) has barreled into the Guardians’ territory by literally crashing through a window into Rocket. Adam, who has the power to quickly heal from any wounds, has come to attack. The rest of the Guardians rush to Rocket’s defense.
A big fight ensues that results in Adam retreating back to his world, but Rocket is critically injured from Adam’s stab to Rocket’s chest. During the frantic attempts to save Rocket’s life, the Guardians find out that Rocket has an internal kill switch that is set to take Rocket’s life in a little more than 40 hours. It’s surprising information to Rocket’s Guardians of the Galaxy friends, because Rocket has told them very little about his past.
The best part of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is the deep dive into Rocket’s past, shown as several flashbacks in the movie. He was captured as a baby and forced to live in a cage in a dark and dingy room at a scientific lab. Rocket’s name back then was Subject 89P13, often called P13 for short. As he grew up, he became friends with three other mutant creatures who were also imprisoned in this lab: Lylla (voiced by Linda Cardellini), an intelligent otter with mechanical arms; Teefs (voiced by Asim Chaudhry), a wheelchair-using walrus; and Floor (voiced by Mikaela Hoover), a mild-mannered and somewhat goofy rabbit who wears a metal muzzle.
The chief villain in the movie is the High Evolutionary (played by Chukwudi Iwuji), a stereotypical “mad scientist,” who wants power over how the universe works. In the movie, he says he has a “simple quest: create the perfect species and the perfect society.” Of course, this quest isn’t so “simple,” because the High Evolutionary has been sending his minions across the universe to find beings to capture and use for experiments. You don’t need to have highly evolved intelligence to figure out why Adam attacked Rocket.
The Guardians are now in a race against time to save Rocket’s life. They zip around on their new ship called the Bowie and get into various battles. The High Evolutionary does a lot of sneering and smirking, but he’s not in the upper echelon of Marvel’s most fearsome villains. The High Evolutionary has two main sniveling sidekicks: Recorder Vim (played by Miriam Shor) and Recorder Theel (played by Nico Santos), who follow the High Evolutionary’s orders out of fear, even though this villain isn’t all that scary. Recorder Vim is smart and outspoken, unlike Recorder Theel who doesn’t seem capable of processing an independent thought in his head.
Many of the fight scenes are nonsensical and look too fake. For example, there’s a scene where one of the Guardians sets off a huge bomb in a room with villains and other Guardians in the same room when the bomb goes off. It looks incredibly stupid to set off a bomb when you and your allies could be maimed or killed too. Bombers who know what they’re doing always make sure they’re far away from the bomb when it’s detonated, unless they’re suicide bombers. You don’t have to be a bomber to know that. It’s just common sense.
And there are too many fight scenes where the Guardians unrealistically don’t get the types of serious injuries that would happen if these fight scenes had more authenticity. Unlike other superhero groups, the Guardians of the Galaxy don’t have any phenomenal powers except above-average strength, Mantis’ mind-control abilities, and Groot’s ability to shapeshift. In the case of Peter, the only human in the Guardians of the Galaxy, all he has are his abilities to use weapons and any fight skills using his body.
The Guardians end up on an alternative version of Earth called Counter-Earth. It’s a missed opportunity to show a very fascinating world. Instead, Counter-Earth is just another place where the Guardians do some not-very-funny slapstick comedy, many of it involving children. The people of Counter-Earth have creature heads that look like less-gruesome versions of what writer/director Gunn used to work with during the years he was affiliated with the low-budget horror studio Troma.
Adam’s presence in the movie is erratic. He’s not seen for a long stretch of the movie, and then he comes back again toward the end for a big brawl. The movie can’t make up its mind if it wants Adam to be a muscle-bound menace or a sympathetic sap who’s the victim of the High Evolutionary. Adam’s mother Ayesha is portrayed by Elizabeth Debicki, a very talented actress whose role in this movie is shamefully shallow, thereby squandering her talent and the chance for Ayesha to be a fascinating character. Viewers will have a hard time remembering any lines of dialogue that Ayesha says in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” but she sure scowls a lot.
Other characters flit in and out of the movie, like insects that buzz around and have no real purpose. Maria Bakalova is the voice of a Russian astronaut dog character named Cosmo, which is a cute but not essential character. The running gag for Cosmo is she feels misunderstood and insecure because she keeps getting told she’s a “bad dog,” when she’s really a good dog.
Sylvester Stallone is in the film for a total about five minutes in two scenes in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” as Ravager captain Stakar Ogord. It’s another non-essential role that looks like a “contract obligation” cameo. The Stakar character was much more interesting in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.” Sean Gunn (James Gunn’s younger brother) reprises his role as Kraglin, an ally of the Guardians. Kraglin has a big moment in the movie that looks like a decision made from pure nepotism, because any other director probably wouldn’t have given Kraglin this type of scene.
Rocket is the only Guardians of the Galaxy member who has character development in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” Everyone else just seems to be going through the motions. And don’t expect there to be any sizzling romance in this movie. A lovelorn Peter tells “alternate” Gamora that they used to be a hot couple in love, but she coldly cuts him off and says that the Gamora he was with was “an alternate, future version of me.”
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” tries to cram in a lot of sentimentality and nostalgia in the last 15 minutes of the film. A few characters who died in previous Marvel films are briefly seen as visions or flashbacks. Toward the end of the film, Peter also does something that is blatantly intended to get viewers to cry.
It all seems very manipulative and forced though, considering some of the crude and unfunny things that this 150-minute movie wasted time shoving in viewers’ faces. And some of these scenes get monotonous, especially in the middle of the film. The mid-credits scene is unremarkable, while the end-credits scene assures viewers that a “legendary” character in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series will continue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a major way.
One area where “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” does not disappoint is in the movie’s soundtrack song choices. Songs such as Rainbow’s “Since You Been Gone,” Radiohead’s “Creep,” Spacehog’s “In the Meantime,” Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep Till Brooklyn,” Faith No More’s “We Care a Lot” and Florence + the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over” (which is in the movie’s biggest emotion-tugging scene) are all well-placed and used to maximum effect. However, some of the action scenes resemble music videos dropped into a movie. The visual effects in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” are not going to win any major awards.
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” seems to want to convince viewers that throwing in some bickering and wisecracking in between jumbled action sequences should automatically deserve praise, just because it’s a Marvel movie. All of this recycled flash might be enough for some viewers who just want a noisy and messy superhero movie. But for “Guardians of the Galaxy” fans who want a more thrilling and insightful journey with new and returning characters, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is like being presented with an attractive-looking cake, only to have that cake deliberately dumped on the floor.
Marvel Studios will release “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” in U.S. cinemas on May 5, 2023, with a sneak preview in select U.S. cinemas on April 28, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the action film “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan” (a remake of the 2014 film “Veeram”) features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A marriage-phobic vigilante teams up with his three foster brothers to fight crime, including trying to stop a murder plot against the family of his love interest.
Culture Audience: “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of “Veeram,” the movie’s headliners, and mindless action movies that are aggressively stupid.
Siddharth Nigam, Pooja Hegde, Raghav Juyal and Jassie Gill in “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)
Get ready for your hearing and your brain cells to be assaulted when watching the loud, bombastic and idiotic “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan.” Note to filmmakers who make this type of trash: Stop the madness. Cast people who can act. It’s the same junk: a ‘hero’ in fake action scenes, a pretty love interest, revenge plots, murders. No one respects overly long, boring, and unoriginal garbage.
Directed by Farhad Samji (who co-wrote the mindless screenplay with Sparsh Khetarpal and Tasha Bhambra), “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaa” is yet another unnecessary remake that is inferior to the original movie. “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaa” (which means “someone’s brother, someone’s lover” in Hindi) is a remake of the 2014 Tamil-language film “Veeram.” There’s so much bad acting in “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaa,” you have to wonder if the filmmakers made these choices as a way to torture viewers, who will already have their endurance tested by the movie’s 144-minute total running time and the excessively loud sound design throughout the entire film.
In “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaa,” the dimwit protagonist with a lot of muscles but very little charm is Bhaijaan, nicknamed Bhai (played by Salman Khan), a never-married bachelor who doesn’t seem to be doing anything with his life but being a violent vigilante who fights crime in his home city of Delhi. As shown later in the movie, Bhai has this to say about men who cry tears when expressing emotions: “Crying is for losers.” Bhai has three sidekicks in his crime-fighting efforts: Ishq (played by Raghav Juyal), Moh (played by Jassie Gill) and Love (played by Siddharth Nigam), who all call themselves brothers of Bhai.
These four men are actually not biologically related to each other. It’s revealed in a flashback shown early on in the movie that Ishq, Moh and Love were orphans. Bhai rescued Ishq, Moh and Love from an orphanage fire when Ishq, Moh and Love were about 6 or 7 years old, and Bhai was about 16 or 17. Bhai raised Ishq, Moh and Love as if they were his brothers.
In the flashback, Bhai only looks about 10 years older than Ishq, Moh and Love. In the present day, Bhai looks about 20 to 25 years older than his “brothers.” It’s one of many examples of how the movie is sloppily made. Salman Khan’s mother Salma Khan is the main producer of “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaa,” which is obviously a family vanity project. It’s a lot easier to get cast in the starring role of movie, no matter how terrible your acting is, if you have a parent who’s paying for the movie to get made.
The brotherly bond between these four men is so tight, it’s affected all of their love lives. Bhai is commitment-phobic when it comes to love and romance. He has said he never wants to get married. Ishq, Moh and Love crave Bhai’s approval, so they say the same things. However, Ishq, Moh and Love secretly have girlfriends, who are growing frustrated that they can’t be open about their respective relationships with Ishq, Moh and Love.
Ishq’s girlfriend is Sukoon (played by Shehnaaz Gill), Moh’s girlfriend is Muskaan (played by Palak Tiwari), and Love’s girlfriend is Chahat (played by Vinali Bhatnagar). Sukoon, Muskaan and Chahat don’t have a lot of screen time. But when they do appear, it’s only to whine about their love lives.
In fact, “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaa” cares so little about women, the only women characters with significant speaking roles in the movie mainly exist for the purpose of being love interests for the men. It’s all very backwards and unimaginative filmmaking, just like many other aspects of this very outdated-looking movie.
Ishq, Moh and Love want to go public with their girlfriends, so they hatch a plot to find a girlfriend for Bhai. The idea is that if Bhai falls in love, he will ease up on his rigid view that these four “brothers” cannot have serious love relationships. Ishq, Moh and Love know that Bhai had a serious romance when he was younger with a woman named Bhagyalakshmi, nicknamed Bhagya.
Ishq, Moh and Love heard that Bhagya currently lives in Mumbai. And so, these three “Brothers” decide to find her and play matchmaker. But these three dolts don’t do what most people in modern society would do: an Internet search to find out first what Bhagya’s relationship status is. When they get to Mumbai, they find out that Bhagya is happily married with a child. Once again, it’s outdated filmmaking and stupidity on display.
This matchmaking farce just wastes time in this already bloated movie. The next unrealistic thing that Ishq, Moh and Love do is try to find a woman named Bhagyalakshmi, nicknamed Bhagya, who is attractive enough to date Bhai. That’s how Bhai meets Bhagyalakshm “Bhagya” Gundamaneni (played by Pooja Hegde), who works as an “antiques researcher.” Bhagya, who also calls herself “Bhaggy,” lives in Andhra Pradesh, India.
Bhai and Bhagya have their “meet cute” moment when she bumps into him at an outdoor market in Hyderabad, and she drops an antique vase that goes crashing on the ground. Bhai is immediately smitten with the new Bhagya in his life, but she predictably plays hard-to-get. Bhagya is probably one of the most annoying characters in the movie because she’s a stereotype of a helpless and ditzy “damsel in distress” who’s waiting to be rescued by a male love interest. It doesn’t help that Hegde’s terrible acting is hard to watch.
Bhagya tells Bhai up front that any man she dates has to get the approval of her brother Balakrishna Gundamaneni (played by Venkatesh), who is domineering and overprotective. Balakrishna, who is married with a young daughter, also hates violence. And since Bhai leads a very violent life, much of the movie is about his trying to hide the truth from Bhagya and her family.
Every action movie at least one villain. And in “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaa,” there are two villains: First, there is Mahavir (played by Vijender Singh), who is the type of villain who wears a lot of business suits. Mahavir hates how Bhai and his sidekicks are ruining his criminal enterprises, so he wants to kill all four of these vigilantes.
The other villain is Kodati Nageshwar (played by Jagapathi Babu), a thug who wants to kill Balakrishna and all of the members of Balakrishna’s immediate family. This revenge killing was already planned before Bhai and Bhagya started dating each other. The reason for this murder plot is so obvious, because the movie has no subtlety in showing and repeating how fanatical Balakrishna is about being against violence.
“Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaa” has some standard musical numbers which further drag out an already vapid story. The songs in these musical scenes are forgettable and trite. Salman Khan is not a skilled dancer, so it’s somewhat amusing to see him try to keep up with the backup dancers in these musical scenes. That amusement is slight though, and it will just give way to more irritation as “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan” keeps piling on scenes that are idiotic and don’t really go anywhere, including some scenes that have obnoxiously blatant product-placement shilling of Pepsi.
Filmmakers will continue to churn out dreck like “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan” if they think it will make them any money. That doesn’t mean that people who like movies automatically have to watch this type of relentless insult to viewers’ intelligence. Avoid “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan” at all costs. Your brain cells will thank you.
Zee Studios released “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on April 21, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Oklahoma, the action film “One Day as a Lion” features a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans and Latinos) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A bungling assassin, who wants enough money to get his son out of juvenile detention, kidnaps a waitress while getting caught up in a debt-collection feud between his crime-boss employer and a stubborn rancher.
Culture Audience: “One Day as a Lion” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and don’t mind watching meaningless and moronic action flicks.
J.K. Simmons and Frank Grillo in “One Day as a Lion” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)
“One Day as a Lion” has the whimper of a weak and rambling vanity project rather than the roar of a great action flick. Scott Caan, who wrote and co-stars in “One Day as a Lion,” just wants to show off doing fight scenes in his underwear. J.K. Simmons is slumming it in this garbage film. Simmons is a very talented Oscar-winning actor, but “One Day as a Lion” looks like a low-quality movie he was talked into doing out of pity or because he owes someone a favor. Simmons certainly acts like he doesn’t want to be there.
Directed by John Swab, “One Day as a Lion” (which takes place in Oklahoma) looks like a sloppy version of a screenplay that was already unfocused. Viewers can expect to see a lot of terrible acting in this idiotic story about an assassin who goes from place to place, in scatter-brained efforts to find enough money to get his son out of juvenile detention. Along the way, he encounters characters that are either boring or stupid.
A press release for “One Day as a Lion” describes this train-wreck movie as a “witty homage to [Quentin] Tarantino and the Coen brothers.” An accurate description is a “failed and irritating attempt to be a witty homage to [Quentin] Tarantino and the Coen brothers.” It’s the type of bad movie that doesn’t have any redeeming qualities. It just gets worse and worse, with no self-awareness of how horrible it is.
The assassin at the center of this nonsense is Jackie Powers (played by Caan), a dimwitted, good-for-nothing loser. Jackie botches a job to collect a debt from a stubborn and mean-spirited rancher named Walter Boggs (played by Simmons), who is supposed to be murdered by Jackie if the debt isn’t paid. Jackie has been hired by a thug named Pauly Russo (played by Frank Grillo, doing yet another “tough guy” role in his long list of “tough guy” roles), who is running out of patience.
Pauly is described as some kind of powerful crime boss, but he’s not very smart if he hired a buffoon like Jackie. The beginning of the movie shows Jackie following Walter into a diner and trying to convince Walter to pay the money. Walter is having none of it, and a shootout happens between Walter and Jackie.
In the mayhem, the diner’s cook/manager Bob (played by Bruce Davis) is shot and left possibly dead on the floor. Jackie kidnaps a waitress named Lola Brisky (played by Marianne Rendón), a witness to the entire shootout. Meanwhile, Walter gets away on horseback. Yes, it’s that kind of movie.
Jackie confronts Walter again, this time at Walter’s ranch. Pauly has ordered Jackie to tell Walter that Walter has one week to pay back the money that Walter owes Pauly. Walter snarls at Jackie, “Don’t fucking tell me what I will or will not do.” This is the type of amateurish and unimaginative dialogue that pollutes “One Day as a Lion.”
Jackie eventually finds out Lola comes from a rich family, but she’s estranged from her widowed mother Valerie Brisky (played by Virginia Madsen), who is currently in a hospital and dying of cancer. In this small, unnamed Oklahoma community, Valerie has the unflattering nickname The Black Widow, because all four of her wealthy husbands died within a year of each marriage. The movie has a very tedious section about Lola reluctantly visiting Valerie to ask Valerie for money, while Lola pretends that Lola and Frankie are engaged to be married. There’s a very unfunny running gag that Valerie has a craving to eat crab legs.
Meanwhile, Frankie has his own real-life relationship woes, since he’s still having conflicts with his nasty-tempered and foul-mouthed ex-wife Taylor Love (played by Taryn Manning) over how their son Billy Powers (played by Dash Melrose) is being raised. Jackie and Taylor blame each other for Billy ending up in juvenile detention. Billy was arrested for a crime that he says he didn’t commit. The people who are supposed to be family members in “One Day as a Lion” are not convincing at all as relatives.
None of the acting in “One Day as a Lion” is any good. Rendón’s drab performance as Lola is the worst and can best be described as “dead weight.” It looks like another miscast role that was cast because someone owed someone else a favor. Rendón has zero chemistry with Caan, even though Lola and Jackie predictably are supposed to be each other’s love interest.
“One Day as a Lion” has a very flimsy backstory for Lola. She grew up in Oklahoma, but moved away from her hometown a few years ago, because her hometown reminded her of “failure” and “trauma.” She relocated to Costa Rica, where she started an acting school. And when that failed, she moved back to Oklahoma. The only purpose for this information is so the movie can show Lola using her “acting skills” to help Jackie get out of tricky situations. Lola, like Rendón, has cringeworthy acting.
Caan seems to have written this movie so he could have multiple scenes of him showing off his body instead of doing any real acting. There’s a ridiculous-looking scene of Jackie getting ambushed in a motel room while he’s wearing nothing but tight underwear briefs. All of the fights in this movie look very phony, by the way.
And if you want to continue to punish yourself by watching “One Day as a Lion” until the end credits, then you’ll see a useless end-credits scene of Caan as Jackie wearing nothing but the same underwear while getting into another fight with another man in the same motel. Both scenes have homoerotic undertones, although a “trying too hard to be macho” dolt like Jackie would probably deny it. The end-credits scene, just like this entire junkpile movie, adds up to nothing but meaningless drivel from people who just waste time embarrassing themselves in this rotten film.
Lionsgate released “One Day as a Lion” in select U.S. cinemas on April 4, 2023. The movie was released on digital and VOD on April 7, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2018, in Afghanistan and in the United States, the action film “Guy Ritche’s The Covenant” features a cast of white and Middle Eastern characters (with a few African American, Latinos and East Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class and who are connected in some way to the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
Culture Clash: U.S. Army master sergeant John Kinley, who has his life saved by an Afghan interpreter, goes on a mission to rescue the interpreter and the interpreter’s family from war-torn Afghanistan and to keep the U.S. government’s promise to give U.S. visas to the family.
Culture Audience: “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker Guy Ritchie, the movie’s headliners, and stories about noble rescue missions during a war.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Antony Starr in “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” (Photo by Christopher Raphael/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures)
“Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” offers an overly simplistic portrayal of an American rescue mission in Afghanistan. However, this action flick has solid performances and capably shows the importance of interpreters during war. The movie is a mixed bag of questionable scenarios that look very fabricated for a movie and realistic depictions of the emotions and motivations for these actions.
Guy Ritchie tends to write and direct action movies that have a lot of wisecracking banter among the characters. Compared to those other films, “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” is a departure for him, since it’s a deadly serious film that is inspired by harrowing situations from the 2001 to 2021 war that the U.S. waged in Afghanistan. (The movie, which takes place in 2018, was actually filmed in Spain.) In addition to directing “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” and being one of the movie’s producers, Ritchie co-wrote the screenplay with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies.
The rescue mission part of the story doesn’t happen until the last third of the movie. Until then, viewers get to know the two central characters when the movie shows how these two men bonded during the horrors of war. John Kinley (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), who is American, is a master sergeant for the U.S. Army. Ahmed Abdullah (played by Dar Salim), who is Afghan, currently works as an interpreter for the U.S. military. Other things about Ahmed’s background are eventually revealed and cause people to trust or mistrust Ahmed. John and Ahmed are both in their 40s and happily married to loyal wives.
The beginning of “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” takes place in Afghanistan, where John is leading a squad of staff sergeants who are tasked with finding explosives from the Taliban. It’s a tight-knit unit that has overall good camaraderie. The members of this specialist unit under John’s leadership are Joshua “JJ” Jung (played by Jason Wong); Tom “Tom Cat” Hancock (played by Rhys Yates); Eduardo “Chow Chow” Lopez (played by Christian Ochoa); Charlie “Jizzy” Crow (played by Sean Sagar); and Jack “Jack Jack” Jackson (played by James Nelson Joyce); and Steve Kersher (played by Bobby Schofield), the youngest sergeant in the group.
Because this is a brutal war, not everyone will make it out alive. The unit has an interpreter named Kalan (played by Walid Shahalami), who is killed by a hidden bomb. John chooses Ahmed from a group of local interpreters to replace Kalan. John hired Ahmed without knowing much about him, except that Ahmed can speak four langauges, and Ahmed needs the money for this interpreter job. Ahmed also has a brother named Ali (played by Damon Zolfaghari), who has a pivotal role in the story.
There are the predictable clashes between Ahmed (who has a tendency to defy John’s orders) and John (who has a tendency to not trust Ahmed’s information over the U.S. military’s intel), but Ahmed and John eventually learn to trust each other. Later, it’s revealed that Ahmed decided to help the U.S. government out of revenge for the Taliban killing his son years earlier, and because the interpreter job comes with the promise that Ahmed and his wife Basira (played by Fariba Sheikhan) can get U.S. visa for themselves and their unborn child. Basira is pregnant at the beginning of the story. The Taliban considers Ahmed to be a traitor, so he’s also a target for murder by the Taliban.
Through a series of events, John and Ahmed are separated from the rest of the unit. Ahmed saves John’s life on multiple occasions. After John gets serious injuries, Ahmed carries a barely conscious John in a cart on a dangerous trek through the mountains. This trip results in John being rescued and sent back to the U.S., but Ahmed is left behind in Afghanistan. Ahmed gets put on the Taliban’s “most wanted” list, so he and his family go into hiding. John is also put on the Taliban’s “most wanted” list.
The fact that John makes it home alive because of Ahmed’s help is not spoiler information, because these details are already revealed in the trailer for “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant.” The middle of the movie is about John recovering at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he lives with his wife Caroline (played by Emily Beecham) and their two underage children: son Lil Chris (played by Kieran Fort) and daughter Jess (played Savannah Fort). It’s mentioned at one point in the story that Caroline (who does administrative work for the U.S military) and John have been together for 12 years.
John is overwhelmed by guilt, post-traumatic stress disorder, and a driving motivation to make good on the promise that Ahmed and his family will get U.S. visas. Not surprisingly, John gets stymied by a tangled web of bureaucracy in the U.S. government. Expect to see montages where John makes phone calls to uncaring bureaucrats, and he gets increasingly frustrated to the point where he has screaming meltdowns over the phone with people who are of no help.
John’s commanding officer Colonel Vokes (played by Jonny Lee Miller) is empathetic, but he tells John that John has to go through the proper channels to get help for Ahmed. John’s U.S. Army sergeant Declan O’Brady (played by Alexander Ludwig), who served in combat alongside John and has a lot of admiration for John, decides to give more pro-active assistance that can bypass the U.S. government. Declan refers John to military contractor Eddie Parker (played by Antony Starr), who can help John for a hefty price.
“Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” certainly has a lot of action-packed suspense and American patriotic moments. And it’s admirable that, unlike many other war movies, it does not portray one side as all “good” and the other side as all “evil.” However, “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” stumbles with some very corny dialogue that prevents this movie from becoming a classic war film. During one of his angst-filled moments, John says to Caroline after she says she’s grateful that John came home alive: “You think they blessed you. Well, they cursed me. I am a man who gets no rest.”
“Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” is different in tone from most of Ritche’s other movies, but this very male-dominated film still continues Ritchie’s pattern of having women in his action flicks only as tokens. In the case of “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant,” Basira and Caroline get very limited screen time and just have roles where they are “the worrried wives at home.” Caroline has one short monologue, where she gives a “stand by your man” pep talk to John before he decides to go back to Afghanistan and rescue Ahmed and Ahmed’s family.
Although it’s a very noble deed for John to go back and rescue Ahmed and Ahmed’s family, the movie makes it unrealistically look like John is some kind of super-soldier. John recovers so quickly from his injuries and is operates on such a high level of extraordinary skills, he can lead a combat mission and be a top-notch international spy (he goes back to Afghanistan under an alias), all without the U.S. government knowing about it. Parker’s team helps, of course, but John uses an alias with Parker too. It’s very hard to believe that a special ops expert like Parker would be this easily fooled.
A movie like “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” isn’t too concerned about making everything look accurate and believable. The film’s main purpose is to make viewers root for the “heroes” of the story. In that respect, these flawed heroes are compelling to watch, even if they always act like movie characters. The meaningful friendship that develops between John and Ahmed is the heart of the story, which gives this movie enough life for it to be worth watching.
Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures released “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” in U.S. cinemas on April 21, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Hyderabad, India, the action film “Ravanasura” features a predominantly Indian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A defense attorney agrees to a wealthy woman’s request to represent her father who has been accused of murder, but all is not what it seems to be in this twist-filled story.
Culture Audience: “Ravanasura” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Ravi Teja and don’t mind watching idiotic action films that drag on for far too long.
Jayaram and Pujita Ponnada in “Ravanasura” (Photo courtesy of Abhishek Pictures)
In a world filled with terrible movies, “Ravanasura” has some of the most moronic plot twists you could ever see. The acting performances are horrendous. And this 140-minute action flick is too long for a movie this vapid. Perhaps the only real creative thought that was put into “Ravanasura” was for the choreography and staging of the occasional musical numbers, but the song lyrics in these musical scenes are utterly witless and generic.
Directed by Sudheer Varma (who co-wrote the atrocious screenplay with Srikanth Vissa), “Ravanasura” has a major plot twist that’s revealed about halfway through the movie and changes the entire trajectory of the story. It’s enough to say that this plot twist is so stupid, it wants viewers to forget that DNA testing exists. The plot twist also doesn’t take into account that certain characters have different body sizes and different heights. Other plot twists in the movie are much more predictable, but the big “shocker” in “Ravanasura” will just have viewers rolling their eyes in disgust at how bad this idea is.
In the beginning of “Ravanasura” (which takes place in Hyderabad, India), criminal defense attorney Ravindra, nicknamed Ravi (played by Ravi Teja), works as a junior lawyer with his ex-girlfriend Kanaka Mahalakshmi (played by Faria Abdullah), who is Ravi’s boss at the small law firm owned by Kanaka. Ravi and Kanaka briefly dated when they were college students, but she never had strong romantic feelings for him. Kanaka is now happily married to a man named Sekhar Mahalakshmi (played by Sriram, aslo known as Srikanth), who is openly affectionate with her, much to Ravi’s disdain.
Ravi keeps half-jokingly telling Kanaka that she is eventually going to marry Ravi, who constantly asks her out on dates that she firmly rejects. Ravi says insulting things about Kanaka’s marriage and about Sekhar. Ravi also makes other inappropriate, sexist comments to Kanaka while they’re on the job. It’s blatant sexual harassment.
And to make matters worse, Ravi isn’t very good at his job, since he does things such as show up late for courtroom appearances. An early scene in the movie shows that Ravi ruined a case by showing up too late with a crucial witness for a courtroom trial. The case was then dismissed by the trial judge.
All of this nonsense is shown early enough in the movie that viewers will immediately be wondering why Kanaka (who obviously dislikes Ravi) hasn’t fired Ravi already. Because “Ravanasura” is such a cesspool of idiocy, there is no explanation. The marriage of Kanaka and Sekhar is used for one of the movie’s many poorly conceived subplots and twists.
Ravi gives the impression that he’s a socially awkward jokester who can be very irresponsible, but he has some heartache in his life: His father lives in a hospital and appears to have dementia. The only thing that his father seems capable of saying is the name of a woman named Shanti. Ravi tells people that Shanti is the name of a nurse who used to take care of his father, and he grew very attached to this nurse.
Ravi has a goofy sidekick friend/attorney co-worker named Babji (played by Hyper Aadi), whose only purpose in the movie is going along with whatever Ravi says. One day, Ravi and Babji are at a library when they are approached by an attractive young woman named Harika Talwar (played by Megha Akash), who asks Ravi to be her father’s attorney. Harika’s father is a wealthy pharmaceutical mogul named Vijay Talwar (played by Sampath Raj), who has been accused of brutal murdering a man.
This murder, which took place in a restaurant, is shown as the opening scene of “Ravanasura.” The murder happened in front of several witnesses, who all identified Vijay as the killer. However, Vijay insists he’s been wrongfully accused and he wasn’t even near the restaurant when the murder happened. The problem for Vijay is that his alibi can’t be verified. Harika works as the head of research and development for her father’s company, which is called Syncox Pharma.
Kanaka doesn’t want her law firm to take the case, but Ravi uses blackmail to force the firm to take the case and to let Ravi be Vijay’s attorney. What Ravi does for the blackmail is to catch Kanaka off-guard by asking to take a selfie photo with her, and right when the picture is taken, he planted a romantic kiss on her cheek. Ravi tells Kanaka that he will show the photo to Kanaka’s husband Sekhar and tell him that Kanaka and Ravi are having an affair, unless she agrees to let Ravi be Vijay’s attorney. Yes, the movie really is this ridiculous.
The police officers who are the most involved in investigating the case are a deputy inspector general of police named Narasimha Murthy (played by Murli Sharma); an assistant commissioner of police named Hanumanth Rao (played by Jayaram), who takes the lead in the investigation and is very persistent; and police inspector named Ruhana (played by Pujita Ponnada), who Hunmanth’s subordinate and is often more perceptive than Hunmanth. And somewhere along the way, a home minister named Mudi Reddy (played by Rao Ramesh) is revealed to have a connection to this case. Other characters who have pivotal roles in the story include a makeup artist named Saketh (played by Sushanth); Saketh’s girlfriend Jaanu (played by Daksha Nagarkar); and a woman named Keerthana (played by Anu Emmanuel), who has a romantic interest in Ravi.
The last half of “Ravanasura” gets more and more tangled up in ludicrous revelations, until nothing in this movie is believable at all. It’s just a brainless story, bombastically told to make the action a not-very-convincing distraction from all the bad filmmaking on display. Most of the cast members over-act in the worst ways. Scenes that are supposed to be comedic look too forced and fake.
“Ravanasura” star Teja is one of the movie’s producers, so he’s partly to blame for how horrendous this movie is. However, “Ravanasura” director/co-writer Varma ultimately made a lot of the dreadful decisions that resulted in this movie being such a garbage dump. “Ravanasura” could have been a brain-teasing thriller. But instead, this noisy, overly long and aggressively foolish abomination is more likely to give viewers a headache.
Abhishek Pictures released “Ravanasura” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on April 7, 2023.
