dennisforbes

Approximately 85% of this movie are characters make silent facial expressions and gestures to each other, often seemingly for comedic effect. It is so laughably, grotesquely overused it reaches the point where it truly seems more like parody than intentional artistic choice.

Cruise looks at his costar and makes a quizzical look, followed by a "oops" look, then a "oh well" look. His costar makes a "huh" look, followed by a "darn you" look. And so on. This happens again, and again, and again, and again. It's literally the narrative foundation of this disaster.

The story itself is nonsensical and doesn't endure any scrutiny at all.

Add that lady's man Cruise is portrayed as such a heroic character that every female in the story somehow becomes his love interest and he needs to protect his flock of women. This leads to an *absurd* situation where he has to "choose" between his women, where one is a character he quite literally just met. Doesn't matter, she's now his central love interest and he needs to push her under his wings.

Bizarre. Who is writing this nonsense? What a sad collapse for the end of this outing.

The introductory setup and the resulting action was well orchestrated and occasionally even novel. It was beyond absurd, but such is often the case with Ritchie creations so I put my cynicism aside and just was happy with what it was, having high hopes for the rest of the movie.

Boy was I let down. Absolutely terrible, bottom-tier, utterly nonsensical writing. The laziest, most phoned in creation ever.

The same could be said about the job done by many of the actors. Krasinski does some weird whispering thing for all of his deliveries -- the audio in the movie often sounds overdubbed and bizarre -- and his sedated acting is so low effort it seems to be nothing but a payday. The same is true of pretty much everyone else who made an appearance in this.

The thing that got me the most is that a few days after watching this, I completely forgot what happened in it, and couldn't recall any of the meaningless, irrelevant events that happened in it. I had to re-read a plot summary to remind me. I suspect this experience will be common, and this is the sort of tosser, forgettable film that will leave absolutely no legacy at all.

Apple seems to be commissioning a lot of these forgettable efforts, seemingly having more money than judgment.

While it subverts your expectations and doesn't have the normal revenge plotline that people expect if not demand, it sells the alternative path it presents in such a way that you get it and buy into the premise. The execution -- acting, sound, cinematography, pacing -- is absolutely excellent throughout, both technically and artistically. Cage brings his best, and this might be the pinnacle of his career.

Some parts of the movie are a bit....ridiculous, notably the "Fight Club" situation that almost seems like visions in a fevered dream. The rest of the movie papers over it but I really wish that wasn't included.