Out of his five previous films, I have seen three of them. Kill List scared me for life, I loved the ridiculousness of Sightseers and the I appreciated A Field In England whilst being pretty puzzled by it.
Now with his latest release, it is most certainly his most star-studded. But to be honest, the fantastic trailer would have got me hooked more than anything else. It looked funny, exciting and it could be a good time at the pictures.
What I got from it was something that all of that, and more. It felt like a real throw back to those grounded 70's and 80's action flicks that were snappy, gave its message over and got out at the right time. This is pure fun, with extremely well choreographed action.
With a stellar cast and no real leads, there is plenty of opportunities for someone to shine. For me, Sharlto Copley is the clear winner. He always seems to play an outrageous character. I'm not sure if he's good at playing that sort of role, or he's like that all the time. Whatever it is, he does it so well.
Armie Hammer definitely did his best performance to date. I loved his characters arrogance and cockiness and his banter with Copley's character was a real treat.
Sam Riley continues to show his raw talent and competed well for screen time. As did Jack Reynor and Michael Smiley.
Brie Larson did a good job in a film that definitely is out of her comfort zone. For me, Cillian Murphy seemed a bit left out. With the tone being a comedic one, I think Murphy struggled to make his character memorable. There was nothing wrong with his performance. But if I had to rank each character, Murphy would be low down.
There is lots to like from the technical side. It's shot really well, the costume design really shows the cool and outrageous side of the 1970's and even the sound design is noticeable. I would definitely recommend seeing this on a device that has surround sound, as the sound seems purpose made for that system.
With that all praise, I think its greatest achievement is the script. It's sharpness and at times wittiness keeps this film moving. Some of the gags and insults throughout this film was nothing but hilarious. I was chuckling pretty constantly, the crowd around me were having a ball and it just elevates the levels of fun that is over-flowing within this story.
I had a total blast with this one. It's fun, exciting, hilarious and the duration is a snappy 90 minutes.
For a concept that you think would lose pace, it still manages to keep me suck in. I think that is mainly thanks to the sharp script.
This reminded me a lot of Smokin' Aces, which I love. When a concept similar to this does well, I seem to get on board with.
If you like your action with some integral comedy, then I cannot recommend this enough.
Rating: 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment