BEFORE: Ryan Reynolds carries over again from "Red Notice" and I'm inching closer to that Nicolas Cage chain, postponed from January - that should start in a couple of days, and then Mr. Cage will get me to the end of the month, and, what the hell, April Fool's Day as well. One of those Nic Cage films (probably, more than one) seems very appropriate for April 1, but we'll see. I had taken "Bangkok Dangerous" off the list because it was no longer available on HBO Max, but it's popped up again on Pluto TV, which is free, so maybe it's back in, as long as I can still make it to my Easter film on time.
Speaking of on time, just four days until the Oscars, so there's no more time to catch up on the nominated films - anyway, I'm going out of town tomorrow morning for a few days, but while I'm visiting my parents I'll still have access to Netflix and Hulu, and that was carefully planned, this weekend was not chosen by accident for a visit. I'll be back home in time to watch the Oscars ceremony on Sunday night, though.
Here's the line-up for TCM's "31 Days of Oscar", for Thursday, March 24, featuring winners from the 1960's:
6:30 am "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (1966)
8:30 am "Exodus" (1960)
12:30 pm "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1963)
3:30 pm "The Time Machine" (1960)
5:30 pm "2001" (1968)
8:00 pm "The Producers" (1967)
9:45 pm "Tom Jones" (1963)
12:00 am "Splendor in the Grass" (1961)
2:15 am "Planet of the Apes" (1968)
4:15 am "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962)
Well, I told you this would be my day - a little bit sci-fi, a little bit comedy, a little bit classic lit and ending with a psychological thriller, it looks right up my alley. This would be the kind of chain I'd put together, only without the actor links. I've seen a whopping nine out of these ten, every one of them except for "Exodus". This should improve my stats - I'm moving up to 111 seen out of 267, or 41.5%. Seven days left, and I still may have a chance of finishing above 40% overall.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "The Hitman's Bodyguard" (Movie #3,063)
THE PLOT: The bodyguard Michael Bryce continues his friendship with assassin Darius Kincaid as they try to save Darius' wife Sonia.
AFTER: First of all, what happened to the "THE" in the title? This is a sequel to "THE Hitman's Bodyguard", but the "THE" is absent from the sequel's title. This is a reverse of what happened to the "Suicide Squad" franchise, right? The second film was "THE Suicide Squad", and the first film was without the "THE". Did they need the "THE" for the title of "THE Batman"? I guess maybe there was a shortage? Or would the title look wonky on the poster if they added one more word to it? It's not as bad as leaving the word "X-Men" out of the title of the "Dark Phoenix" movie, but it's still going to bother me.
Yesterday I was calling out for a sequel to "Red Notice", but if they're going to get lazy and half-ass it like today's film did, then they probably shouldn't bother. This was very confusing and ultimately hard to follow, I think I fell asleep halfway through and then when I woke up it was hard to get back into it. Sure, maybe I was stressed out because I had a show to work tonight, and then I've got to pack for a trip, etc. - but that's a poor excuse, a film should still be able to hold my attention and keep me from falling asleep. With "Red Notice", the characters had clear objectives at all times, even if the alliances kept changing - they had to obtain the eggs, steal them from the people who had them, find the last one and deliver them all to the client. With this film, I had very little clue what the objectives were most of the time. Umm, stop the bad man, defeat the evil power, save the, umm, electrical grid?
There are sanctions against Greece (ooh, so close, we were looking for Russia. Russia...) and a terrorist madman wants to destroy the European power grid to...umm, protest those sanctions? And naturally Interpol can't stop him themselves, they for some reason need the services of the unlikely trio, a hitman, a bodyguard and the hitman's wife. Sure, because there are no Interpol agents available to do whatever it is he needs them to do? They have to pick up a briefcase for the villain and deliver it back to Interpol, instead of where it's supposed to go, only they can't do that because they can't maintain their cover. People keep recognizing the bodyguard and the hitman's wife can't stay in character, she's very high-strung and hot-tempered. OK, so new plan, then?
While on the run, they end up seeking help from Bryce's step-father, who lives in Tuscany and is also an expert bodyguard - it turns out there's a union, they have their own code of conduct and maybe even an awards show every year - or was that a joke? I couldn't tell. Anyway Bryce Sr. offers them aid and transport, but that code of conduct cuts both ways, and it's not just the lingering daddy issues that bring Bryce into conflict with his step-father. I don't know, it feels a bit like the screenwriter has confused "bodyguard" with something else here, I just doubt that this profession is so well organized around the globe and has such rigid rules in place. Who would even check on how closely the "rules" of the profession are being followed - or is that another joke that went over my head?
Damn, and I was on a roll this week with "Free Guy" and "Red Notice", now this one's brought my enjoyment inertia to a screeching halt. There's just too much emphasis here on physical comedy, it's not really slapstick if people are getting hit by cars, stabbed, shot, drowned, etc., but it's kind of in the ball-park, and there's honestly just too much of it.
Also starring Samuel L. Jackson (last seen in "Freedomland"), Salma Hayek (last seen in "Some Kind of Beautiful"), Frank Grillo (last seen in "Reprisal"), Antonio Banderas (last seen in Haywire"), Morgan Freeman (last seen in "Feast of Love"), Richard E. Grant (last seen in "Their Finest"), Tom Hopper (last seen in "Terminator: Dark Fate"), Kristofer Kamiyasu, Caroline Goodall (last seen in "The Cold Light of Day"), Alice McMillan, Gabriella Wright, Dragan Micanovic (last seen in "Papillon" (2017)), Rebecca Front (last seen in "The Aeronauts"), Blake Ritson (last seen in "RocknRolla"), Miltos Yerolemou (last seen in "Tulip Fever"), Gary Oldman (last seen in "The Space Between Us"), Ivor Bagaric, Tsuwayuki Saotome (last seen in "The Hitman's Bodyguard"), Barry Atsma (ditto), Tine Joustra (ditto), Michael Gor (last seen in "Hunter Killer"), Brian Caspe (last seen in "Unlocked"), Anna-Maria Everett, Michael Aston, Jonny James, Venice Smith,
RATING: 4 out of 10 tranquilizer darts
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