Birds of Prey

Birds of Prey

Dir: Cathy Yan

Cast: Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ewan McGregor, Jurnee Smollet Bell,

Rosie Perez, Ella Jay Basco

      After being dumped by the Joker, Harley Quinn (Robbie) is out on her own and must 

  fend for herself in the crime ridden slums of Gotham. Narrated by Quinn herself and

  told by in flashbacks, Quinn drowns out her sorrows in a night of drinking and getting

  drunk.
         Harley gets caught up in a frantic search for a lost mob treasure which is being 

   hunted by everyone in the city. Along the way, she makes some friends including

   Dinah Lance (Smollet Bell), a runaway teen (Basco), and a skilled assassin the 

   Huntress (Winstead). They all must work together to stop a mob kingpin Roman

   Sionis (McGregor). 

         This movie leans heavily anti male and quite cringe-worthy in dialogue. There

   are no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The action scenes were directed by John

   Wick's Chad Stahelski and Robbie take on the popular DC character was rather 

   good. This film should've not been made in the first place and hopefully the 

   forthcoming Wonder Woman movie should be better.

        Grade: D

Baby Driver

Baby Driver

Dir: Edgar Wright

Cast: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, Lily James

Jon Bernthal, Eiza Gonzalez, Flea

       When I first heard about this movie, I thought it was a sequel to Baby Boss but I was 

  half wrong. Baby Driver is the latest from acclaimed director Edgar Wright whose hits

  include Shaun of the Dead & Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

        It stars teen idol Ansel Elgort, as Baby, a young getaway driver who has hearing

   problems. To help him cope, he blares music on his Ipod while outrunning the police.
   When he's not driving around criminals, he meets Debora (James), a pretty, young
   waitress stuck in a dead end job whom he falls for. Together they dream of skipping
   town and ride off into the sunset.

       But before he can do that, he's coerced into pulling one last job for his boss 
   played by the devilishly Kevin Spacey. When things don't go as planned, the 
   doomed heist falls apart and must survive with the girl of his dreams.

   The Good: The music along with cinematography was stellar. The editing and pacing

   are buttery smooth for its runtime. Some of the scenes reminded me of the video game

   GTA where Baby constantly changes in and out of cars. 

   The Bad: The acting isn't all that great and became a little tedious to watch towards 

   the end. To keep the story moving, it leaned too heavily on its retro soundtrack.
   I had expected more out of it but was satisfied with how it turned out. There was
   one particular character that was introduced but never seen or heard from again. 

   Overall: Edgar Wright hits another home run in this heist movie that disguises itself

   as a coming of age story. If I want to sit and watch a movie with lots of car chases 

   this is the top of my list. The opening chase alone is worth the price of admission.

   Grade: C (7/10)

John Wick Chapter 2

John Wick: Chapter 2

Dir: Chad Stahleski

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Ruby Rose, Laurence Fishburne

     In John Wick 2, a mobster's priceless car gets totaled while chasing a bad guy 

  on a motorbike. Wick gets into a fist fight with an Asian gang. That's just the 
  first 5 minutes. 

     Keanu Reeves stars as the titular character, a hit-man who's brought out of retirement

 one last time to kill the sister of a powerful, underground mobster. He travels to Italy

 and is dressed in the finest clothing Italy has to offer. John is armed with an array of

 guns to take care of some business. Wick kills people left and right, all without
 breaking a single sweat in his expensive suit. 

     Like most movie sequels, this one pales in comparison to 2014's surprise hit
 of the year. The action sequences are few and far in between the slow exposition
 scenes that good films succumb to. Returning to direct is Chad Stahleski who also
 served as Keanu's stunt double in "The Matrix" trilogy. 

  The Good:

      The opening car chase scene and the absence of the shaky-cam during the fight
 scenes that is prevalent in today's action films. The fact that no dog was harmed
 or killed to motivate John Wick was a huge plus for me. 

  The Bad:

     I didn't really care for the paper thin characters or the slow pacing of the film.

 The expectations I had for this movie wasn't met and failed to deliver. I thought

 the dialogue was laughably bad as well as the story itself.

    Overall, John Wick Chapter 2 is not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination.

 It's a decent movie that requires little to no brainpower to enjoy. If you have nothing
 else better to do on the weekends, it's definitely worth the watch.

Grade: C+ (7.5/10)

Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad

Dir: David Ayer

Cast: Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Will Smith, Viola Davis, Cara Delevingne

        Borrowing a page from Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy". DC tries to do the 

same in this non stop action flick that follows immediately after "Dawn of Justice".

       Top secret government head Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) enlists Rick Flagg to 

lead a group of criminals known as Task Force X. Together, they must stop a young

woman June Moon (Cara Delivingne), possessed by an evil witch from taking over

the world.

      In exchange for reduced sentences, they must follow their mission or a bomb

attached to their necks detonates. Among the criminals Rick leads are Deadshot

(Will Smith), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), Katana (Karen Fukuhara) & wisecracking

Capt. Boomerang (Jai Courtney).

     The irresistible Margot Robbie nails the role of Harley Quinn, a shrink 

  turned bat wielding psycho girlfriend of the Joker (Jared Leto). Jared's 

  turn as the iconic character is downright scary. Scenes depicting the abusive

  nature of their relationship were cut from the film.

    The studio mandated reshoots to make it lighter, caused it the tone to be off

 along with the script, given just six weeks to write by director David Ayer.

 The music used during the flashy intros didn't fit the narrative. I blame mostly

 WB for the meddling they did and for the sloppy editing as well as pacing. DC

 fans deserved better.

   While there were cuts to get it to PG-13 rating, there were scenes in the trailers

 that didn't make it to the final cut. It would've made for a more cohesive film.

 WB can rectify this by caving into fan demand and release an extended cut.

   I went into this with high expectations, sadly it turned out to be a decent 

action flick if you don't follow the story. It did leave with much to be desired.

It more enjoyable than the dreary Dawn of Justice. With its funny quips and

non stop action, you can shut off your brain. Just don't go in expecting high

quality cinema.

   Grade: B- (7/10)