Netflix Binge Continues... But the Quality is Dropping.
First up, the Jennifer Lopez action thriller
The Mother where Jennifer Lopez plays an army veteran who is hunted by two different international arms dealers whom she used to be romantically involved with and one of whom impregnated her. The film starts off with a pretty shocking moment where a visibly pregnant protagonist almost gets assassinated and really got me thinking if this movie might be something. But overall, ultimately, the movie wasn't all that good.
The film shifts to twelve years later where the protagonist was forced to give up her daughter but eventually has to rescue her from assassins sent by the aforementioned arms dealers. The film is best in the non-action scenes. Especially in scenes where the protagonist is hanging out with her estranged twelve year old daughter and the two of them are hiding out and the Mother is teaching her daughter survival and wilderness skills which you just know will come into use later.
But the rest of the film is just so cliche and formulaic, and the action scenes are mid at best. Very unoriginal and too slick. There is a lot of cringe moments as well, like when they go out hunting, or engaging in dialogue about certain things like guns and the like. Also lots of people doing stupid things to further the plot. Overall... a very average but yes entertaining film.
6 Underground is next. More entertaining but that's likely due to the strength of the cast led by Ryan Reynolds who portrays some highly skilled rich person who forms a team of elite eccentric mercenaries that do noble things like robbing mob bosses and overthrowing dictators. The action was great, and the movie was fun to watch, but I feel like it's all been done before, especially by Ryan Reynolds who has done a lot of action comedies. Still the fact the movie didn't take itself too seriously meant it was more entertaining, even if it was pretty by the numbers. Most of the film was pretty uninteresting beyond the "fun" tone however and I couldn't really tell you much in relation to plot details, but the final action piece taking place on a Super Yacht was pretty neat as was the opening car chase scene. Everything in between I guess was just filler.
Primal. It's a film about Nicholas Cage as an Exotic Animal Dealer who brings a rare albino jaguar on board when a notorious ex-CIA/NSA Assassin/Special Forces killer escapes the custody of the US Marshals who are transporting him on the same cargo ship as his animal cargo. Hilarity ensues. I don't even think the film was all that good to be honest. Nicholas Cage is Nicholas Cage. There's a scene where a pack of CGI Baboons maul someone to death. The US Marshals are lol-incompetent. Ehhh... watchable. Mildly entertaining.
Force of Nature. A group of well armed criminals raid an apartment building in Puerto Rico in the midst of a Hurricane. Also left behind are a pair of Puerto Rican cops, a retired Cop portrayed by Mel Gibson and his Nurse daughter, some other residents and... Oh right... another exotic animal owner and his big CGI cat. This movie is more serious than the Nicholas Cage one. It has more interesting characters, with decent action scenes. Mel Gibson is fun. Well acted for the most part. Some clever moments. Decent enough low budget action movie.
And finally, in the gayest movie of the year that I watched,
The Power of the Dog. I didn't realize this was a movie I had talked about before in
another thread involving actor Sam Eliot's opinion of the film. I am generally in agreement with him, the film is very, very gay. I will say the film did hold my interest early on, I liked the setting of 1920's Montana and the budding interactions and relationships between the characters who were all really well acted in their performances, but as the film delved deeper into the material, and the gayer it got and I began to realize how unsubtly Queer this film was, the less interesting the film became until by the ending scenes I was really disinterested by all of the repressed homoeroticism that was going on. Even worse, was how all of the characters became just more and more loathsome and unlikable, not just gay.
I won't say its a bad film, it was very well made and the first half of it as it explored the 1920's ranch life more earnestly and with less forced repressed homoerotic messaging was pretty good. But subtlety was not this films strong suit. The drama part of this film was DRAMA in all caps and that was this films failing.