I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with guest anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about new movies in theatres including the thriller “Drop,” the gritty “Warfare,” the Rami Malek revenge drama “The Amateur” and Prime Video’s “G20.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 15:00)
I sit in with CKTB morning show guest host Karl Dockstader to have a look at movies in theatres including the thriller “Drop,” the gritty “Warfare,” the Rami Malek revenge drama “The Amateur” and Prime Video’s “G20.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the thriller “Drop,” the gritty “Warfare,” the Rami Malek revenge drama “The Amateur” and Prime Video’s “G20.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “G20,” a new action thriller starring Oscar and Emmy winner Viola Davis, and now streaming on Prime Video, terrorists take over the G20 Summit in Cape Town, South Africa. American President Danielle Sutton evades capture and uses her military training to defend the captured world leaders and her family. “If you want to survive,” she says, “you’ll follow me.”
CAST: Viola Davis, Anthony Anderson, Marsai Martin, Ramón Rodríguez, Antony Starr, Douglas Hodge, Elizabeth Marvel, Sabrina Impacciatore, and Clark Gregg. Directed by Patricia Riggen.
REVIEW: It comes as no surprise that Artificial Intelligence is the weapon of choice for the “G20” baddies. Their evil plan to use AI to create Deep Fake videos of world leaders plays on Hollywood’s fear of the disruptive technology, which is odd because the movie, with its clichés and throwbacks to movies like “Air Force One,” feels like it could have been written by AI. It wasn’t, there are four “screenplay by” credits (Caitlin Parrish, Erica Weiss, Noah Miller and Logan Miller), but it certainly feels like the script originated with a prompt on ChatGPT.
Take the snarling bad guys for instance.
Little more than a list of modern grievances come to “life” they are bonded by a belief in a litany of fringe conspiracy theories and tote high caliber guns which they don’t know how to use (more on that later). Led by Rutledge (Antony Starr), they’re standard issue new world order villains straight out of central casting who use violence and AI to stage a global coup and spout meme-worthy sayings about “rebelling against world leaders who strip away the rights of their citizens.”
As President Danielle Sutton, Viola Davis delivers a standard issue action movie heroine. She can throw fists and, like so many action stars before her, is able to run through a hail of bullets unharmed. For some reason, the evildoers in movies like this shoot like their gun barrels are bent at a ninety-degree angle while her aim is true. Her character is all pluck, equally comfortable using her wits as she is pressing a hulking bad guy’s face on a hot grill.
Amid the chaos are her precocious teen kids, Serena and Demetrius (Marsai Martin and Christopher Farrar) who watch their mom kill the bad guys and joke, “Did you know she could do that all the time? Lucky we only got grounded.”
“G20” is a parade of cliches that leads up at an unlikely twist and a logic defying climax that only plays out in the way that it does to provide another opportunity for some showy action theatrics. By the time the end credits roll it’s clear that AI isn’t the only threat facing Hollywood. Unoriginality is.
