skepticskeptical

Fake covers a fascinating topic: art fraud and forgery. There are quite a few good films on this never more interesting phenomenon in the age of corporatized art, when many artists have been driven to become con artists in order to survive. My issue with this particular film is that it feels like the director just learned about the topic and so is excited to share information about it and spends a lot of the dialogue on info-dumping.

To make matters worse, the ending of the film is completely implausible and feels like yet another attempt to surprise viewers with an unexpected twist which is surprising only because it is absurd. No, this would not have happened. Ever.

I like Shooter because, although it involves a very complicated conspiracy theory, in the reality of the film, the theory is in fact true. Think JFK, the Jason Bourne film series, and other too-scary-to-believe stories, and you can throw this one in that category as well. It involves government corruption of an almost unfathomable nature, and yet we know that, as in the case of House of Cards, at least some of what is being depicted is based upon the very frightening real world in which we now live.

There is a lot of action here, and I am not a fan of action kill fests, but, as in the Bourne films, there is also a lot to ponder. Overall, a worthwhile effort. There are some implausibilities, but it's still worth watching.

In this film, In the Land of Saints & Sinners, I'd be hardpressed to identify who the saints are supposed to be. I also believe that the blurb for this production is inaccurate, because the reasons for the hitman returning to his "calling" have nothing to do with politics whatsoever.

Essentially, what we have here is something in the aging hitman genre but with a twist. A new, and bold thesis is defended, asserting not only the so-oft floated idea that hitmen are really not all bad, but also that they are much, much better than IRA militants in Ireland.

You may have noticed that Ireland finally split into two parts: Ireland and North Ireland, the former of which is a part of the EU, and the latter of which is still in the UK. But no matter what the long history of factional struggle wrought on that island during the twentieth century, here we learn that, in fact, as bad as hitmen may be, IRA fanatics are worse.