Friday 30 December 2016

The Thin White Dude's Reviews (Three Films) In A Nutshell, Vol. 2



Despite tanking at the box-office and being a fairly straightforward, predictable affair, Blood Father is a fun and entertaining genre flick. It's well-directed by Jean-Francois Richet, is technically sound and boasts a great performance from Mel Gibson, who has good chemistry with his onscreen daughter, played by Erin Moriarty. It's nothing we haven't seen before, but it's a solid romp and with an eighty-eight minute running time does everything it says on the tin without overstaying it's welcome.

The Thin White Dude's Prognosis - 6.8/10





To my surprise, the second film in Adam Sandler's four-picture deal with Netflix has turned out to be one of the two good films he has made since 2010. Sandler and co-star David Spade have great chemistry, and there are some moments in the dialogue, gags and scenes that had me genuinely laughing. It isn't chopped liver, and it is in fact a bit messy, but the fact is I enjoyed the film and I think it's a good buddy comedy.

The Thin White Dude's Prognosis - 6.3/10





There are some strong sequences evoking the hazy, drug-induced atmosphere they are trying to get at, and for that the camera crews, editing department and composers of the score should be applauded. However, despite this and the strength of the central concept, the movie is a botch job, with a plot direction that is all over the place and terribly two-dimensional characters. Urge, with all it's initial promise, reaches it's conclusion (and no amount of Ashley Greene in leather can convince me otherwise), not with a bang, but with a half-hearted whimper of a non-ending. 

The Thin White Dude's Prognosis - 4.3/10



Well, there you have it, in a nutshell. Sorry, had to slip that one in there. No, wait, I'm not sorry, I just felt like rambling on incoherently so as to bring this to some sort of conclusion. Anywho, if I was to recommend one film out of these three I'd say go watch Blood Father, not just because of everything I said about it, but because it's one of the few times recently I've seen a successful throwback to the eighties action movies of old, when not everything had to be made for over $100 million and two-and-a-half hours long. It's a modestly-budgeted case of wham-bam thank you, Mam!


Speaking of which, here's a clip of Arnold Schwarzenegger throwing a phone booth with a guy stuck inside it in Commando: Commando Phone Booth Attack Scene

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