Breaking In and all the images you see in this review are owned by Universal Pictures
Directed by James McTeigue
I mean if nothing else, this can’t be a worse Mother’s Day film than Mother’s Day. Well that’s a bit unfair as I DID like what I saw in the trailers which involved Gabriel Union kicking the crap out of a bunch of home invaders, and a basic premise like that is almost foolproof in how easy it is to at least make a COMPETENT thriller with it. Does this latest entry in the genre prove to be a breath of fresh air and something wholly original, or is this yet another run of the mill action film that doesn’t live up to its marketing campaign? Let’s find out!!
Shaun Russell (Gabrielle Union) is a mother of two (Seth Carr and Ajiona Alexus) whose father (Damien Leake) had recently died and she’s in charge with handling the estate. She drives out with her kids to the dude’s summer home which is a giant fortress of a place with an extremely elaborate security system and a whole lot of bad memories if Shaun’s reactions are anything to go by. Sadly the unpleasant memories are the least of her problems as she soon finds out that three criminals (Billy Burke, Levi Meaden, and Richard Cabal) were already there searching for the old man’s secret stash of cash. Now that Shaun and her kids are there though, they have to readjust their plans and start taking hostages. The good news is that they manage to get the kids. The bad news? Shaun slips right out of their hands and is now SUPER pissed! Can Shaun save her family before the bad guys get desperate? What secrets were her father hiding in the house, and are they worth killing for? Will Shaun tap into her inner Liam Neeson and teach these bastards a lesson in who NOT to fuck with!?
“If you let my children go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not pursue you, but if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.” “Oh crap! She saw that movie too!!”
Pacific Rim Uprising and all the images you see in this review are owned by Universal Pictures
Directed by Steven S DeKnight
Hey, remember when Pacific Rim was a thing? Yeah, it REALLY feels like a long time ago at this point, doesn’t it? I mean, it DID come out five years ago, but with The Shape of Water showing us what Guillermo del Toro is really capable of when he puts everything he’s got into a movie (and not just special effects),Pacific Rim is feeling more and more like an afterthought in his career. That being said, it WAS a really well made movie with a great turn by Charlie Day as a befuddled super science, and it led to him and his co-star Burn Gorman teaming up again for one of the best episodes of It’s Always Sunny; Flowers for Charlie! Now we’ve got a sequel that doesn’t have del Toro in the director’s chair and looks to be more of a big budgeted Transformers competitor instead of the more methodical and intense vibe of the first film which certainly isn’t a BAD direction to take the series in, but will they be able to pull it off? Let’s find out!!
The movie takes place ten years after the events of the first film where Jake (John Boyega) who is the son of Idris Elba’s General Stacker Pentecost is NOT living up to his father’s legacy and is instead bumming around one of the many cities that were more or less abandoned after being hit by a Kaiju attack. Jake doesn’t like to play by the rules and would rather spending his time ripping parts out of retired giant robots known as Jaegers than to join the Pan Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC) and continue his father’s legacy while also preparing for the next inevitable Kaiju attack. Too bad for Jake though because he runs into a fellow street hustler named Amara (Cailee Spaeny) who’s made her own mini-Jaeger but is soon busted along with Jake for having an illegal robot which is a thing now I guess. Anyway, Jake is faced with some serious jail time if he the cops throw the book at him, but his sister Mako (Rinko Kikuchi) who is a General in the PPDC offers him one more chance to set his life straight. Join back up with the PPDC and train some new recruits which will include Amara whose impressive robot making skills has caught the PPDC’s attention. So that’s it, right? It’s basically Top Gun but with robots! Well… not quite. While this is going on, we ALSO have to worry about the PPDC losing their favor with the rest of the world as a tech company led up by Liwen Shao (Jing Tian) has developed Jaeger drones that can be piloted by ONE person instead of two, and can do so remotely which will pilots from having to climb into the robots themselves. Seems like a good idea, but if you know ANYTHING about sci-fi movies, there’s always some unforeseen consequences to overly mechanizing jobs that humans are also doing; ESPECIALLY jobs which involve deadly weapons! Not only that, but while this squabble is taking place, there are hints here and there that the Kaiju may be returning sooner than they all think! Can the PPDC and the Shao Corporation come to an understanding before even bigger threats will tear them both apart? Will Jake be able to finally stop running from his TORTURED BACKSTORY PAST (mostly involving Daddy Issues) in order to succeed in the one place where he truly belongs? Any chance we can just forget about that Power Rangers movie and just let the filmmakers behind this make one that’s ACTUALLY good?
“IT’S MORPHING TIME!!” “The heck it is! No way I’m wearing spandex in this thing!”
The Reviewers Unite 