THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Fast X

Really insightful, thinkers movie. So much nuance and a proper brain food movie. You feel much smarter walking away from it.

65

Nowhere near as bad as we've been led to believe it is. I mean it's not great, but it's not the steaming pile of shit the critics would have you imagine it is.

The initial pitch must've been something…

"We have this brilliant idea. A spaceman crash lands on an unknown planet. We could get Adam Driver to play him. All moody and intense, no matter how absurd the action is. He'd be fantastic. The twist, that we'll keep to the end, it's earth, and it's 65 million years ago. In fact it's the day before the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs hits the aforementioned earth. What do you think of that then?"

"I like it. However, wouldn't it be better if we dispense with the twist and just tell the audience from the off that it's earth. I like the Adam Driver business, but he'll need a co-star. We're thinking a young girl, that way we can add both some unnecessary drama, and a cod father/daughter relationship where there's none required. We're also thinking that we could film it during lockdown. You see then we wouldn't need any other actors. Just Driver and the young girl. The dinosaurs wouldn't need to be factually correct for the time period, just fucking massive and scary as fuck. What do you think?"

"Well it's not what we'd like, but it's better than nothing we suppose".

That's more or less what happened. A fine premise ruined by unnecessary interference from the studio. What could've been an entertaining enough SciFi B-movie first of all fell into development hell, then Covid hit just as filming started, then pre-release reviews started coming in, all of which were bad. It went through 5 release dates, all of which were cancelled, before being let go a month ago to little fanfare.

It has to be said that the acting is poor. The opening scene with Driver saying goodbye to his family is some of the poorest I've ever seen. Driver isn't great, all he does is either stare or frown, that's when he's not shouting. The young actor who plays the girl, Ariana Greenblatt, does what a million young actors have done before. She's functional enough, but it's nothing we haven't seen before. It's also really dark in places, to the point where it was difficult to see what was going on. This is a movie trend that I could do without.

I'm off work at the moment, and it filled an hour and a half before I go up to the allotment, or down my studio.

Where did you watch this?

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny



On par with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In other words, a mediocre, half-baked effort that isn't a patch on the original trilogy.

Final act twist is too short lived, no final confrontation or big bad guy, all ends a bit abruptly. Indiana Jones goes out with a whimper.

4/10

The Taking Of Pelham 123 (2009)

Well what do you know, a remake that’s actually pretty good.

Originally filmed in 1974, and based on Morton Freedgood’s ‘73 novel, starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, the plot is pretty basic. A New York subway train is hijacked by a criminal gang who demand $1m dollars in ransom, or they’ll start executing the passengers.

This update is actually really watchable, mainly due to an outstanding John Travolta in the Shaw role as the leader of the gang, and the always reliable Denzel Washington who plays his role as a tribute to Matthau. This is Travolta in his post Pulp Fiction pomp. Spectacularly foulmouthed and quite frankly cool as fuck, he plays the ruthless hijacker with scene-chewing relish. And here's one for trivia fans. Talking of Tarantino, which we sort of were, the criminals in the original all had colour coded pseudonyms, Mr Blue, Mr Green, Mr Brown. Now we’ve heard that somewhere before haven’t we!

Anyway, back to the ‘09 remake. As already mentioned, Travolta plays a disgraced Wall Street broker who spent time in jail for some unstated financial shenanigans, which results in him bearing a grudge against the NY mayor, ably played by the late James Gandolfini, where (due to inflation) he demands $10m or he’ll start executing the passengers. Which he most certainly does with pretty graphic results. This time around, rather than being a police lieutenant, Washington is a disgraced subway executive under investigation for taking bribes who’s been demoted to a dispatcher, who has the misfortune to take Travolta’s call. The back and forth between them is pretty entertaining, I mean they’re both outstanding actors so what else could you expect!.

It is a decent watch, which has made me want to rewatch the original. Which I’m going to do as soon as I can find it online.

Harrison Ford is 97 years old.

Nobody (2021) available on Netflix

From the writer and producer of John Wick this enjoyable romp is very much in the Wick/Equaliser/Taken mould, I chanced upon it and gave it a go and didn't regret it. Especially enjoyed seeing Christopher Lloyd in action.

Park your brain at the door and enjoy a quality action film.