BEFORE: The snow has ended, which means everyone on my block now goes completely insane, trying to clear all of the snow from their property. It's a LOT of unnecessary work, I mean I guess I understand they all want to dig their cars out, but who the hell drives to work any more, doesn't everyone (except me) work from home now? I guess I have a different perspective, I just walk or take the subway or bus everywhere, I haven't driven a car in over ten years. So what we do is just leave the car buried in snow, we don't feel the need to dig out the driveway or make a path to the street for the car, that's half the battle won right there, just by giving up. All I want to do is clear our front steps, half of the walk and all of the sidewalk in front of our house. That's it, all I'm legally obliged to do, and considering my age, that's enough of a workout. My wife paid some guy last night to do most of the work, normally I wouldn't shovel until the snow has STOPPED coming down, but this guy who rang our doorbell got most of the job done.
So today I just had to scrape the sidewalk path and spread the last of our ice melt - it's not even going to be warm enough to melt for a while, but let me do what I can today and hope the sun comes out to assist. Then I shoveled half of our new neighbors' steps, because they haven't moved in yet so they're not even here to do it. Then I came inside, while my other neighbors are digging, scraping, piling and none of them have any idea how to do it properly, they're all like blind people stumbling around in a dark room. I even saw one woman using water from a garden hose to melt the snow, which is ridiculous and hazardous. All that water's going to re-freeze and make a coating of ice on her sidewalk, so I hope she likes slipping and falling, because she's going to be doing a lot of that. Other people are shoveling their snow back into the street, so cars can run it over and melt it, but that's stupid because the plow just finished getting that snow OUT of the street, and now they're working against common decency by putting it back. First rule of snow maintenance, keep the roads clear.
I know, you all want to DO something to try and fix this "problem", but sometimes the best thing to do is nothing, as hard as that is. Doing nothing is actually better than doing the WRONG, thing, if you follow me. And why spend three hours moving snow around to worse places, when you can just clear your walk in an hour and go back inside, have a coffee and relax? I just never understand other people sometimes, especially when they get snow crazy. Take a damn break, already.
Sean Bean carries over again from "Deep Cover".
THE PLOT: A British secret service agent is faced with the task of pursuing and eliminating a British-born suicide bomber and his terrorist cell.
AFTER: Back on spy stuff tonight, there's been a lot of spy movies already this year - also a lot of political films, like I think I've seen three films that riffed on G7 or NATO meetings, also three films with plane crashes so far. Well, sometimes weird things are trending around here, that's all I can say. January's a free, non-themed month, I can just let the chain take me wherever it wants to, there can be an animated film about a dog getting neutered or a movie about apes running the planet or a man doing crazy promotions at baseball games, it's all part of the plan somehow. There are only five films left in free-play January, though, I have to set things up now for the romance and relationship-themed February, sure that category can also be somewhat all-inclusive, but of course I've hand-picked about 45 films with a bit more of a focus.
The path THERE goes through today's film about terrorist bombers in the UK and the Secret Service agents trying to stop them. It's another case, however, where the story just wouldn't work as a straight narrative, with all the scenes in the proper order, because the film needs to go back into the formative years of the terrorist, to explain how he got to this point, where he's willing to strap on an explosive vest and go in to a public place just to take out a few Parliament members having lunch together. BUT, if you flashback to the past and explain the motivations of the suicide bomber, that's a little too close to justifying his actions. And if you don't, then he comes across as a madman or a lunatic. Perhaps it's best not to go into it at all, just saying.
Before that, we get into the story of how the explosive got into the terrorist's hands in the first place, which unfortunately doesn't make much sense. SIS Agent Ewan is functioning as a bodyguard for Harry, an arms dealer, who we first see in bed with a hooker. The hooker casually removes the clip from Harry's gun (this could be important later) and then is escorted out after Harry pays her (almost) what he owes her. Ewan escorts Harry to the bank, transporting a briefcase of Semtex, wait, WTF? Who brings a case of explosives to a BANK, unless they're going to blow up the bank? Was he going to put that case in his safe deposit box or something? I'm pretty sure that's against the bank's policy - and how did he get it past security? Anyway, the terrorists attack at the bank, killing Harry and shooting Ewan and making off with the explosives. Thankfully there's no way that could come back and bite somebody in the ass...
Once he recovers, Ewan tracks down that hooker that took the bullets out of the arms dealer's gun, and it turns out Paul, another one of her clients paid her to do that, and so the next time she sees that client, Ewan and Mark, a rookie agent, are waiting for him. Paul kills the hooker, but Ewan kills Paul, so great, another dead end. Ewan's mission to find the explosives, which is totally off the books, continues, under the supervision of his SIS superiors, who are not only trying to stop more suicide bombings but also cover their own asses for losing track of the briefcase of explosives in the first place. Again, come on, what idiot brought that to the BANK?
After another round of terrorist origin flashbacks, Ewan and Mark are sent to an abandoned building, which they are told is the hiding place of a terrorist. Ewan confronts the man they find there, interrogate him and burn him to death. Again, I just hope there are no repercussions from that, like what could POSSIBLY go wrong there? Ewan takes the man's jacket for no logical reason (but this could also be important later) and then after another failed attempt to catch the suicide bomber on foot, they're instructed to go hide out at a hotel under false names. While catching a nap there, Mark tries to kill Ewan, so exactly what the heck is going on here? Ewan resolves to take the terror cell down before another bombing, or before other SIS agents take him down, which they've apparently been tasked with doing. OK, good luck with that, let me know how it goes.
And then once he's dealt with the Muslim terrorists, one way or the other, then he's got to try to figure out exactly who that guy he burned alive really was, and why his own agency is apparently trying to kill him - geez, it just never ends, does it? Why, it's almost like somebody in the government is working WITH the terrorists, or at least benefiting from the anti-Muslim sentiment that's being generated as a result of the bombings. Say, you don't suppose...how far up does this conspiracy go?
Directed by: Hadi Hajaig
Also starring Charlotte Rampling (last seen in "Boogie Woogie"), Silas Carson (ditto), Abhin Galeya (last seen in "Wimbledon"), Tom Burke (last seen in "Black Bag"), Tuppence Middleton (last seen in "Mank"), Peter Polycarpou (last seen in "The Brutalist"), James Fox (last seen in "Effie Gray"), Michelle Ryan (last seen in "Cockneys vs Zombies"), Sam Douglas (last seen in "The Boys in the Boat"), Glenn Wrage (ditto), Tariq Jordan, Chris Ryman (last seen in "Morbius"), Mens-Saga Tamakloe (last seen in "Damsel"), Shivaani Ghai (last seen in "London Has Fallen"), Shane Zaza, Chris Geere (last seen in "After Earth"), Simon Wright, Sid Mitchell, Rebecca Egan, Robin Hellier, Martin Muncaster, Jeetandra Lathigra, Natalie Jones, Tanya Edworthy,
with the voices of Marc Eccleston, Stephen Bray and archive footage of Rowan Atkinson (last seen in "Wonka").
RATING: 4 out of 10 wedding guests
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