{"id":1505,"date":"2024-04-13T10:07:31","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T10:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/?p=1505"},"modified":"2024-04-13T10:11:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T10:11:39","slug":"cineworld-action-season-part-1-predator-speed-the-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/?p=1505","title":{"rendered":"Cineworld Action Season Part 1: Predator, Speed, The Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yep, what it says on the tin. I\u2019d seen Speed<\/em> a couple of times outside of the cinema, but I\u2019d never seen the other two before. Read on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019m the kind of person who, when watching a film, feels the need to make mildly irritating comments like: \u2018Hey, it\u2019s [insert actor name] from [insert film\/TV series]!\u2019 I mean, not in as extroverted a tone as that, but you know. I like to flex my cine knowledge a bit, however frustrating that might be. So I\u2019ll get that shiz out of the way at the beginning of each review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Predator<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Hey! It\u2019s the nasty boss dude from that black market episode of Battlestar Galactica<\/em> (the reimagined series)!\u2019 (Bill Duke, Battlestar Galactica Season 2, Episode 14, \u2018Black Market\u2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wow, that opening scene. It\u2019s got the whole works. Lots of guys, lots of helicopters, lots of cigars, lots of homoerotic imagery of ripped guys in vests with big guns. There\u2019s a sexist joke, and there\u2019s even a homophobic jibe in there for good measure. Nice. JUST GUYS BEING DUDES, as that meme man says. Start as you mean to go on. Yep, it\u2019s that hyper macho masculinity that\u2019s pretty prominent in the 80s action flick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s little to no context for the mission itself, and we don\u2019t really get why Arnie\u2019s employed and what his motivation is. Not in the interesting silent hero, Man With No Name kind of way, just a bit dumb. I guess I could praise the diversity in the cast, as it features a diverse range of non-Caucasian actors, but a lot of these guys have non-speaking parts and get shot by Arnie\u2019s team for undisclosed reasons. I checked Wikipedia and apparently Arnie\u2019s playing a Vietnam Vet, but I didn\u2019t get any of that vibe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s plenty of space for lazy stereotypes, like the \u2018mystic Indian\u2019 figure and the damsel in distress. I guess I can give praise for not really showing the monster itself until the final act, because withholding the villain can be a powerful affective technique, like in Nosferatu<\/em>. I\u2019m not comparing this somewhat underwhelming film to a revered darling of German Expressionist cinema, mind you, I\u2019m just saying that the less is more technique can be effective. An enjoyably silly film, but not so great on the whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speed (Rewatch)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Hey! It\u2019s Cameron from Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off<\/em>!\u2019 He (Alan Ruck) plays a bit of a douche in this film, but hey, at least he\u2019s not as much of a douche as…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Hey! It\u2019s the \u201cSometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion\u201d woman from Donnie Darko<\/em>!\u2019 She provided some strong Karen energy in that film, and she\u2019s similarly annoying in this film too. Props to Beth Grant for playing two very annoying characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s great to finally see Speed <\/em>(or, as Homer Simpson christens it, The Bus That Couldn\u2019t Slow Down<\/em>) at the cinema instead of the small screen. It was also great to watch this, go home and then rewatch \u2018Speed 3\u2019, the genius Father Ted<\/em> parody. I\u2019m still not sure about how great an actor Keanu Reeves is, but he\u2019s good at what he does, and he\u2019s got that rizz, so it\u2019s cool. The basic concept of the film \u2013 drive that bus under 50 miles an hour and you\u2019re a goner \u2013 is undeniably goofy, but it makes for some fun scenes, particularly that bit where they apparently manage to make it over that unfinished bit of freeway. Dennis Hopper is having a great time as an OTT villain with an axe (bomb?) to grind, and it\u2019s near impossible not to think of that film without \u2018Pop Quiz, hotshot!\u2019 blasting into my head. Sure, Jeff Daniels says the line first, but Hopper makes it iconic. Genius popcorn fare that\u2019s fully worthy of repeat viewings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rock<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Hey! It\u2019s Tuco Salamanca from Breaking Bad<\/em>!\u2019 Nice to see the dude (Raymond Cruz) getting started in a mini bad guy role before graduating to the big leagues in HBO\u2019s masterful prestige series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Hey! It\u2019s the dude from Minority Report<\/em> (Steve Harris) who has Tom Cruise\u2019s back when he\u2019s framed from murder!\u2019 You know, the guy who sits at the desk and assists him when he\u2019s looking through footage with some crazy future tech. Nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Hey! It\u2019s the evil doctor guy from Twelve Monkeys<\/em>!\u2019 He wasn\u2019t nice in that film (trying to eliminate the human race isn\u2019t a particularly nice thing tbh), and he\u2019s not so nice in this one either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Hey! It\u2019s Dr Cox from Scrubs<\/em>!\u2019 Admittedly, I\u2019ve seen this guy in a few other things like Point Break<\/em>, but I\u2019ll never be able to see him outside his comedic role in that TV series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Phew, that was a lot of people I recognised right there. Anyway, onwards)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went into this one with an open mind, having done little to no research on it. Which was probably good, because I likely wouldn\u2019t have seen it after realising it\u2019s directed by Michael Bay, who I definitely have a bit of bias against. Bayhem seems to be a recognised term in the cinematic lexicon, so maybe I can say that I have a Bayas, and perhaps that term might make its way into the film world lingo. Probably not. Moving on. While I was mostly expecting the whole film to be based around a couple of guys breaking into a prison, a lot of unnecessary plot stuff happens in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d also forgot that Nicolas Cage features in this one, and it\u2019s no surprise that he exudes typical Cage energy (Cagergy? Gosling has Kenergy, so maybe Cage can have Cagergy sometimes. Who knows?), ranging from waxing lyrical about his love of The Beatles to playing a guitar half naked while jovially discussing defeating terrorists to his girlfriend. Odd behaviour by the standards of most actors, but pretty standard for Cage, who is not most actors. As for Sean Connery, his first appearance looked like a gangster version of Billy Connelly, but he looks alright once his locks are shaved by a grossly stereotyped gay hairdresser. So that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The car chase scene epitomises what I despise about Bay\u2019s work with all the frequent cuts and dumb unnecessary quick close-ups, but it mostly just gave me flashbacks to watching a particularly shite episode of Inspector Morse<\/em> with my parents when they had forgot how shite that series was and were trying to convince me otherwise. Basically, there\u2019s a mild-mannered scene between Morse and another person as they\u2019re drinking tea, and as they\u2019re conversing, the camera decides to do an extreme close up on the cup of tea. Dude, I\u2019m no master cinematographer or anything, but don\u2019t do silly unnecessary shit like that. Yikes. The dialogue leaves a lot to be desired and the moral message is pretty dubious, not to mention the excessive use of explosions and loud noises. Like Anchorman<\/em>\u2019s Brick Tamland, I\u2019m not a fan of loud noises. Or at least not when there\u2019s no reason to justify their presence in the wider narrative. It\u2019s an action film, and there\u2019s room for suspending belief, but the editing needs work. A lot of work. Cage is funny though, so if you\u2019re a Cage fan, it\u2019s worth a watch. Otherwise, maybe not so much. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yep, what it says on the tin. I\u2019d seen Speed a couple of times outside of the cinema, but I\u2019d never seen the other two before. Read on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1505"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1507,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505\/revisions\/1507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}