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Showing posts with the label Idris Elba

The Harder They Fall | Average Guy Movie Review

Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) reassembles his old gang when the man that murdered his parents; Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), gets out of jail. Jeymes Samuel makes his directorial debut with The Harder They Fall , a story of revenge in the American West. And as directorial debuts go, this is a pretty good one. Falling somewhere between the stark, gritty reality of life way back when and the cool depiction of it seen in many westerns, Samuel doesn't exactly do anything new with the genre, but he does do it with style. With a cast like this it would be difficult to do it any other way! Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Regina King, Zazie Beatz, Delroy Lindo, LaKeith Stanfield, Edi Gathegi, RJ Cyler, Danielle Deadwyler, all of whom exude cool as they battle their way across the plains. Needless to say, all of the performances are spectacular. Even the nasty characters are in some way likeable, most of them anyway. Stanfield's 'Cherokee Bill' is a particular scene stealer as the man who&

The Suicide Squad | Average Guy Movie Review

A new batch of convicts - as well as a few originals - are under the thumb of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), who's once again offering years off their prison sentences in return for completing a few jobs for Uncle Sam. This time she's sending them to the island nation of Corto Maltese. There they must infiltrate the capital and destroy a top secret research facility. Sounds easy enough. Task Force X is back, and with James Gunn at the helm things are madder than ever! The Guardians of the Galaxy  director has taken what David Ayer started and blown the roof off of it. But he has done so in a way that is respectful of what has gone before. Fans of the original (of which there are apparently few) will have no trouble going from  Suicide Squad  to The Suicide Squad . And yet, the new movie stands quite happily on it's own two feet. Rather than making them drastically different, the returning characters simply feel like they have grown a bit. Well, maybe not grown, but adapted, t

Hobbs and Shaw | Average Guy Movie Review

When a deadly virus goes missing in London, the CIA recruit Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) to retrieve it. But they're not the only ones looking for it, a mysterious organisation has big plans for the virus and have dispatched Brixton Law (Idris Elba) - a cybernetically enhanced superhuman - to find the person who has it and steal it from them. That person is Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), a rogue MI-6 agent who just happens to be Deckard's sister. If these three want to keep the virus out of the wrong hands, they're going to have to learn to work together, that's if they don't kill each other first. When I first heard that a spin-off from Fast and Furious was in the works, my reaction was not positive. I am not a fan of this franchise, I was once but after the first three movies my interest died a very quick death. Then I heard David Leitch was directing - one half of the pair responsible for John Wick and the man behind Atomic Blonde

Molly's Game | Average Guy Movie Review

Much like 2010's The Social Network, Molly's Game takes us into a Sorkin-esque dramatisation of history. After a fall robs her of her goal of skiing in the Olympics, Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) goes in search of her new self, one that doesn't involve skis. A decision that more than displeases her father and coach (Kevin Costner). Molly's journey takes her to Los Angeles where she finds work as an assistant. Part of her job is to host her boss' private poker game. With the help of one of the players, an unidentified actor - played by Michael Cera - Molly is soon running one of the most exclusive poker games in Hollywood, living solely on the tips she receives from the players. Intertwined with the story of her incredible rise is that of her fall, her arrest by the FBI and trial for ties to organised crime. Idris Elba co-stars as Molly's lawyer, Charlie Jaffey. Aaron Sorkin, the writer known for engrossing stories, interesting characters and snappy

Finding Dory: Average Guy Movie Review

It seems that Pixar are looking to reclaim their title as the definitive name in 3D animation movies and with Finding Dory they might just do it. Thirteen years after Finding Nemo took the box office by storm and became one of Pixar's best loved movies, we return to the ocean with Finding Dory. Set a year after the first movie, Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) is living with Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence), in fact Marlin has essentially adopted her. Dory is still struggling with her memory but has random flashes of her past. When she remembers something about her parents the three of them set off on another fun filled journey across the ocean to find out where Dory came from. Along the way they meet old friends and make some new ones including Hank (Ed O'Neill), a seven tentacled octopus who just wants to be left alone, Destiny (Kaitlin Olson) a near sighted whale shark, Bailey (Ty Burrell) a supposedly echolocation challenged Beluga Whale and sea lions

Bastille Day: Average Guy Movie Review

Idris Elba stars in this mediocre action movie in which an American pick pocket is linked to a terrorist bombing in Paris. When CIA Agent Sean Briar (Elba) is able to identify our friendly neighbourhood pick pocket as Michael Mason (Richard Madden) a game of cat and mouse across Paris ensues on the eve of the Bastille Day celebrations. Bastille Day attempts to be like Bourne and Taken but doesn't quite make it. Elba's performance is like an overly cheesy combination of Jason Bourne, Brian Mills and Jack Bauer with really bad one liners included. Maybe he got tips from Gerard Butler on the set of London has Fallen. Briar's methods range from questionable to down right ridiculous. Mason is a low life pick pocket who's supposedly smart but comes across stupid at best and only cares for himself making it impossible to care what happens to him. It looks like the writers tried to emulate the relationship between Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson in Die Hard with a Ve

What if Daniel Craig is done with 007?

After ten years and four movies Daniel Craig is apparently done with 007. What will this mean for the franchise? Are we going to get another reboot or will the next actor pick up where Craig left off? I never thought I'd say this because I have been a fan of Bond for as long as I can remember, but if Craig doesn't return I think they should put the super spy to bed, at least for a few years. If you haven't seen Spectre there are spoilers ahead. Spectre was a disappointment, I hate to say it but it was. Skyfall would have made a much better exit for Craig but that's the wonder of 20-20 hindsight. That's not to say Spectre didn't have a lot going for it; great cast, Director and crew, even the new look Blofeld was a good idea, Christolph Waltz was excellent. The idea that Blofeld was behind everyone responsible for everything in all four Daniel Craig movies was a bit of a stretch, that and his Daddy issues. It worked with Quantum because