I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the whale of a tale “Whalefall,” the pulpy and pious “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,” the documentary “You Can See Everything” and the rock ‘em, sock ‘em action “Street Fighter.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV Atlantic’s Bruce Frisko to talk about the whale of a tale “Whalefall,” the pulpy and pious “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” and the rock ‘em, sock ‘em action “Street Fighter.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to wind your watch. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the whale of a tale “Whalefall,” the pulpy and pious “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” and the rock ‘em, sock ‘em action “Street Fighter.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Street Fighter,” a new martial arts film based on the iconic Capcom video game of the same name, a battle between estranged fighters Ryu and Ken uncovers a wide-ranging conspiracy. “This tournament isn’t what you think it is,” says Chun-Li (Callina Liang). “If you want to save your brother, then you must fight.”
CAST: Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Eric André, Andrew Schulz, Vidyut Jammwal, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jason Momoa. Directed by Kitao Sakurai.
REVIEW: The “Street Fighter” franchise returns to the big screen for the first time since the 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raúl Juliá (in his final role) and Kylie Minogue team up earned a 20% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Set in 1993, the new movie sees estranged friends and martial artists Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) brought together by Chun-Li (Callina Liang), an envoy of power mad dictator Lord M.Bison (David Dastmalchian), to battle in the second World Warrior Tournament. “The fiercest, strongest, deadliest fighters on Earth. This is Street Fighter!”
Fists fly, but when Ryu and Ken learn of a deadly conspiracy to siphon the fighter’s “Psycho Power” to energize Bison, a Hurricane Kick to the face or a Buffalo Headbutt will be the least of their problems.
There’s more, but the story doesn’t matter much. It’s mostly a framework to showcase the fights, which are plentiful and should please fans who want their kung fu action unencumbered by a coherent plot. Highlights are a 2D anime-inspired flashback to the Ryu vs. Sagat fight, a showdown between Jason Momoa’s big green fighting machine Blanka and Ryu and a slapstick infused hotel room fight between Ryu and Ken. The fight choreography takes its lead from the games, and provides the rock ‘em, sock ‘em action fans expect.
Apart from the visceral fight fun, there isn’t much here for those unfamiliar with the games.
Noah Centineo, Cody Rhodes, who plays the elaborately coiffed fighter Guile, and ring announcer Eric Andre understand the assignment, fully embracing the silly, ‘90s throwback vibe.
“Street Fighter” is pure fan service. It’s more faithful to its source material than the 1994 version and comes with plenty of spectacle but the slack pace and disregard for story will likely test the patience of non-fans.
A new film tells us Los Angeles is the bank robbery capital of the world. “Den of Thieves,” a new crime drama starring Gerard Butler, shows us an elaborate heist, the bad guys who steal and the even badder guys who try to stop them.
Butler is Nick Flanagan, major case squad cop and wild card. We know he’s a tough guy because he keeps telling us—“You’re not the bad guys,” he growls at a suspect, “we are.”—and because he smokes indoors. When he arrives, hungover, at a crime scene where several police officers have been shot and an armoured truck stolen, he and his team begin tracking the most sophisticated robbers in LA, the Merriman Gang. Named for its leader (Pablo Schreiber), the gang, Bas (Max Holloway), Bosco (Evan Jones), Levi Enson (50 Cent) and getaway driver Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), will stop at nothing when it comes to relieving banks of their cash. With Flanagan on their trail they plan their most audacious robbery yet, a $30 million takedown of the bank of banks, the Los Angeles Bank of the Federal Reserve.
“Den of Thieves” is more concerned with its own mythology and troubled cop clichés than the story. Butler is a walking, talking cliché, a cop with a bad marriage and even worse attitude. Over the course of a too-long 2 hour and sixteen minute running time he reaffirms his badass bone fides again and again, whether it is eating a donut from a blood spattered box at a crime scene, throwing back the booze or threatening a prisoner. “Do we look like the types who will arrest you? Put you in handcuffs and drag you to the station? No will just shoot you. Less paperwork.” He’s the “original gangsta cop,” and we’ve seen that all before and we’ve seen it better.
“Den of Thieves” attempts to get mileage from the old chestnut that good and evil—in this case Flanagan and Merriman—are mirror images of one another. It’s a classic push-and-pull but isn’t given much new life here apart from some flashy editing that visually ties the character together.
The been-there-done-that feel to “Den of Thieves” wouldn’t matter as much if director Christian Gudegast had kept the pace up. Instead he draws scenes out, pads an already overlong movie with family drama subplots that go nowhere—the only female characters are kids, wives and hookers who make brief appearances—and stages what must be one of the longest and most reckless shoot outs in cinema history. It’s one thing for the bad guys to shoot one another, but when cops place dozens of innocent people in the middle of an automatic gun battle it feels gratuitous even for a movie like this.
