stevesky-15087

I usually hate films like this. You know the type. Low budget, feely, sensitive, girly type movies focussing on young, pretentious, dumb adults who think they know it all but know nothing... the girls are usually portrayed unrealistically and the guys as idiot jocks. So nothing to see here... BUT I was made to watch this and review it for my work and wow, I was really surprised. It's a simple story but one that anyone can relate to, especially if you are in the U. K. it doesn't labour on all the usual tropes of stereo types and race cards. It doesn't even make make much of the fact that the 'star' is Iranian and comes from an Iranian family. It just features a good mix of friends that isn't forced or come across as artificial. It just does what it has to and delivers in a way that will make you think, what if... and re-evaluate all that you do and have done with your life... because each of our clocks is only going one way and that is ticking down. The film isn't overly long too and just right at its 90 mins. It's not a movie to change the world and there's no great cinematography or stupendous acting in it. It's just a good watch all the way through. And there's nothing wrong with that.

So, this series is ok. At times it drags a bit and at some point Jack completely loses his analyst persona and he becomes yet another soldier with 'special super powers' lol.. in that I mean he starts of as a desk monkey but soon becomes some kind of special forces soldier like all the rest of them in series like this. It's enjoyable enough but it's not the kind of show you will want to binge. Each episode has one big thing that it works towards and that's how it's structured... but the thing that annoys me most about the whole thing is how they expect us to believe the Americans can just drift in and out of countries as they wish with their guns and weapons and just run around the streets of the Czech Republic, or Poland or where ever, guns blazing like some kind of international police. The boss black guy just turns up in Russia as he pleases, has a gun, completely unmonitored or checked. Next show he's in Poland, same deal... it's ridiculous. They drive around these cities in convoys or armoured cars and just do what they want. So far fetched. Anyway... by Series 3 ep 7 I was getting bored and the whole thing started to get very old when again we are expected to believe that the big fat black guy who looks like he's going to have a heart attack at any moment and can't walk downstairs without puffing, beats up a nimble knife wielding assassin. I'll watch the rest of these when there's nothing else on, but probably whilst I'm on my iPad doing something else. This isn't great people.

There's so much wrong with this it's hard to know where to start. But really it all boils down to Murphy/ you see, back in the day Murphy was a young, live wire, firecracker of a guy who was flying high. He was also a stand up who coukd think on his feet and ad-lib with the best. And that's how they made the original 2 movies. Eddie just cracking his jokes and doing his thing. What we have here is Murphy turning up to do someone else's script and take a pay check. There's no effort here. In the originals Murphy would have been firing lines and jokes all over the place. Here he just answers questions like a retired bank manager whereas before he would have moved the story along with a wisecrack. There's none of that here. It's as lazy as hell. They also spend far too much away from Foley, wasting it on 1 dimensional characters you couldn't care less about. The final nail in the coffin is turning Tagert into an asshole. But ultimately the whole thing boils down to Murphy's lack of performance and his inability to get involved in the script. In 1+2 there are countless Memorable scenes that have you grinning from ear to ear. Here he barely raises an eyebrow let alone hits us with some legendary wisecracks. Remember the scene in BHC where he goes to tge hotel and blags a room, saying he's a reporter for rolling stone etc? Well here he turns up at the same hotel and begins a legendary Luke and you think 'right, here we go. At last'... but then he just stops himself and says 'you know what, I can't be bothered, just give me the room at $900!' And thats it! That one scene sums up the entire movie... lazy lazy lazy. Eddie... I hope you enjoyed the pay cheque.