Old Guard, New Tricks.
124 Mins. Starring: Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Van Veronica Ngo & Chiwetel Ejiofor. Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood.
Atomic 'Bombshell' Charlize Theron is furious (well no pun intended. She's more no hard feelings, "heartbroken"). A forthcoming prequel to the 'Mad Max: Fury Road' she show stole from Tom Hardy is seeing a younger actress cast as the fury of her iconic Furiosa. It's a good job the forever young actor has more 'Furious' action franchises under her utility belt than there are 'Fast and Furious' movies. You can see the 'Monster' Academy Award winning actress of 'Tully'-who should have got an Oscar for her terrific transformation into Fox News Trump beating anchor Megyn Kelly-as the hacker villain Cypher in Vin Diesel's next Universal vehicle that never seems to run out of road like it doesn't airport runways, even if it is Corona postponed right now like 'No Time To Die' (put that beer on ice Dom). As a matter of fact the thorough Theron, double-threat of action heroism and dramatic smart coin flipping (and let's not forget the 'Long Shot' into Seth Rogen hilarious comedy for the American/South African actress who has had a better run than anyone in Hollywood right now and for the last couple of calendars) has even more action franchises than fellow forever young, 50 year old Keanu Reeves (you remember those renaissance paintings of a young lookalike Keanu? Well there's a 'Wonder Woman' like one of a Civil War era Charlize here), and he has 'The Matrix 4' and 'John Wick 4' post COVID-19 schedule pending coming out on the same day next year. Now her Furiosa has run out of road though (give her at the very least a cameo), Charlize Theron says she'll be game for a crossover chapter with John Wick when it comes to the parabellum of her 80's era 'Atomic Blonde'. But whilst we can't wait for that like spitting out a one shot tooth let's take it back even further to the days were you'd toss a coin to 'The Witcher' for Netflix's latest action 'Extraction' during cinematic quarantine.
Locking it down after Spike Lee's 'Da 5 Bloods' best and Will Ferrell's 'Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga' big hit due with the song 'Notebook' of Rachel McAdams. Wielding a circular axe think of this comic book adaptation of Greg Rucka's graphic novel as 'The Losers' (remember the umpteenth cult superhero saga for Chris Evans ("that's right bitches, I got a crossbow"), Idris Elba, Zoe Saldana and Jeffrey Dean Morgan?) gone medieval. These R rated superheroes minus the capes like the 'Aeon Flux' actress in 'Hancock' with Will Smith, stand on all that bulls### as they have to do more than punch their way out of this one a la, Captain America. You see cursed like 'The Green Mile' on the same day Hollywood war hero Tom Hanks turns a submerged submarine in quarantine into a 'Greyhound' run for Apple TV like 'Captain Phillips', these hero's for hire and rehire can't die like Mr. Jinx forever playing with that spool like last Hollywood action hero Tom Cruise doing his own stunts, Spider-Man crawling up and then sprinting down the Burj Khalifa in Dubai for the never ending fuse of Mission Impossible's 'Ghost Protocol'. It's 'Groundhog Day' all over again for three bullet time agents who don't have to dodge this or that like a 'Happy Death Day' or this weeks 'Palm Springs' rip off, or even a Bill Murray in a Jeep Superbowl commercial homage. But it's Theron that scores a touchdown here. Bringing even more athleticism to the gun-fu genre and another round to her action clip. And just you wait until she gets her hand on an axe to grind. Lumberjack-fu anyone? Bringing even more hearts and smarts to the bullets, blood and bruises. With all due respect to the great Gal Gadot and super Scarlett Johansson, we're beginning to think both DC and Marvel missed a trick with their direction of 'Wonder Woman' (they should have looked to 1984 like Orwell) and 'Black Widow' as this heroine leaves another villain in a cast like sign here for this autograph.
Guarding all that's tried and tested, even old guns need new ammo however and the hoop dreams of legendary 'Love and Basketball' (a movie this Lakers fanatic that has seen a roster worthy of hardwood Hollywood movies still hasn't "court" yet...I know) director Gina Prince-Bythewood goes 'Beyond The Lights' for this Friday film from a picture perfect postcard of action artillery shots from Morocco to London. But its going to take a team to capture it all on camera. From mesmerising 'If Beale Street Could Talk' breakout star KiKi Layne coming of age before she's 'Coming 2 America' with Eddie Murphy for the long awaited sequel. To Matthias (haven't we seen him before? Oh yes he was in 'The Drop', 'The Danish Girl' and 'Red Sparrow' star) Schoenaerts (and is that the bloody Dursley kid off 'Harry Potter' too?!), slicked back and cool as f###. But it's the loving relationship and partnership of 'The Mummy', 'Murder On The Orient Express' and 'Aladdin's' live action Jafar (we still can't get over his 'Austin Powers' orange sherbet like snake staff charming hypnotism) rising star Marwan Kenzari and 'Martin Eden' Venice Film Festival award winner Luca Marinelli that is the real soul of this sobering superhero movie that looks at the dark side of the injustice of God's among us like a Harvey like dent in Thor's hammer. Plus there seems to be so much more under the surface of '12 Years A Slave' and 'Doctor Strange' post-credits villain Chiwetel Ejiofor's seemingly underused character. And how about 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' catalyst character and 'Da 5 Bloods', "be safe" war report actress of the moment Van Veronica Ngo? It's clear from the newspaper clipping credits here that this first film is as much franchise building as it is character creating for an N Film latest like "is that Chris Hemsworth at the side of a pool? I thought he just took a bloody tumble into the river." Here just outside Tokyo streaming the world's leading entertainment service (especially so during COVID-19) on the same day as the new anime series 'Japan Sinks 2020', Prince-Bythewood hits nothing but net here like,"KOBE"! Wishing this year could be better is the understatement of the calendar, but at least movies like this bring new life to the end of our long weeks in. Day after day living, dying and repeating like the 'All You Need Is Kill' groundhog, 'Edge Of Tomorrow' with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. "Do I have something on my face?" I got you babe. Welcome to the changing of the 'Old Guard'. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Atomic Blonde', 'Extraction', 'The Witcher'.
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