The Misfits

 Greetings, Readers of the Rotten. Today is a recent release because I needed a break from the typical stuff I view. A mixture of a heist movie worthy of Ocean's 11 and The Italian Job with the stunt work car chases of a Fast and Furious flick. Round that out with a decent cast along with the charm of Pierce Brosnan. This is The Misfits.

 

Vodka martini? Stop copying me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quick heads up for potential viewers of this movie. Nick Cannon does a lot of narration voice over in this film. You have been warned if you're not a fan of his voice. If this isn't a problem then disregard the warning.

A gentleman thief, Richard Pace (Pierce Brosnan of Remington Steele, Noble House, The Deceivers, The Lawnmower Man, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Thomas Crown Affair, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Laws of Attraction and Momma Mia) breaks out of a maximum security prison, his fourth one in fact and is off to acquire ill-gotten gains. With a bit of detail, he knows of a fat cat Kuwaitti prince with a collection of expensive time pieces, making him easy pickings. No sooner has he snatched up the watches, the local police, FBI and the creator of said private prison Shultz (Tim Roth of Resevoir Dogs, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Pulp Fiction, Rob Roy, Four Rooms, No Way Home, Planet of the Apes, The Musketeer, The Incredible Hulk, Lie to Me and Broken). Shultz may be a trifle miffed with Pace. There's the escaping his prisons and making him look professionally like an ass but Pace also plowed Shultz's wife soooo...yeah, that could be motive.

Yeah, I know Tarantino.

 

 

 

 

 

With watches in hand, the authorities hot on his heels, Pace accepts a lift from his mark, simply known as The Prince (producer/actor Rami Jaber of 2 Hours 2 Vegas, Fate, Tough Love, The Misfits, Last Man Standing, WarHunt and The Good Neighbor). A con man, fixer and wheeler and dealer of justice.

His crew, the Misfits deal justice to people cheating the system, swindlers, deadbeat dads and general scumbags. The Prince's face, Ringo (Producer/writer/actor Nick Cannon of All That, Shall We Dance, Roll Bounce, Even Money, Monster House, Weapons, Day of the Dead, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Berserk and The Misfits), hardass strong armViolet (Jamie Chung of Samurai Girl, Dragonball Evolution, Sorority Row, Sucker Punch, The Hangover Part II, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Gotham, 1985, The Gifted, Sherwood and Dangerous Lies) and explosives expert Wick (Mike Angelo of Full House, Surprise, Raak Boon 2, Wuxin: The Monster Killer, Kiss Me, My Little Princess and Mr. Swimmer). 

 

WHAT?! WE CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This crew brings Pace a chance to pull a major heist. In one of the prisons outside Dubai is devices set aside for terrorism campaigns. 35 million in gold bars. The thing is they want to steal the gold and do good with it. Pace has been looking out for himself since he started being a thief. It has costed him a marriage and a strained relationship with his daughter, Hope (Hermione Corfield of 50 Kisses, Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Fallen, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, The Halcyon, Bees Make Honey, Star Wars: Episode VIII- The Last Jedi, Rust Creek and Slaughterhouse Rulez), a UNICEF worker and may have learned a fair amount of skills from her father at an impressionable age. Bumping into Hope, the alarm bells go off in my head. An impressive caper, the random encounter with his daughter and Shultz hot on his heels?? C'mon Pace, there are no coincidences.

Hope still holds out...well hope that her father can be altruistic and do some good by removing this gold to avoid future terrorism. The crew is solid, the plan is feasible but there is a lot of planning and prep. Thankfully "The Prince" has deep, deep pockets. Think Tony Stark mixed with even more connections and contacts. Less armored suits of course.

Will Pace and crew pull this off? Will Shultz have them all in the slammer?

So overall, it is a pretty predictable story but I have seen enough heist flicks that the formulae is easy enough to create. The dialogue feels dummy down to appeal to a larger audience but it doesn't detract from the full staple in the film. Six individuals doing good and is loving every minute of it. It didn't blow me away but it was well-executed.

 Pierce and Jamie have a bit of sexual tension there and that felt like they just wanted the same effect of Grace Kelly and Cary Grant via To Catch a Thief with a mixture of The Italian Job car stunts and Ocean's Eleven worthy con jobs. As a whole, it was an enjoyable film and I could watch again. 

 

I miss teleporting.

 

The November Man

Greetings and salutations, Readers of Rotten. Yeah that still sounds iffy at best. Seriously, someone workshop a better fan base name. I am coming at you with NOT a horror movie. Shocked? I can only imagine. Instead I recently had the good fortune to sink my teeth (metaphorically) into a decent spy/thriller/action film starring that Pierce Brosnan fellow. Yeah you may have heard of him from time to time. A retired spy, a long standing conspiracy, war crimes and student versus the master. This is The November Man. 

 

These prices are outrageous!

 

 

 

 

 

Based on the novel, "There Are No Spies" by the late Bill Granger; our titled movie is actually the 7^th novel of 12 and yes this writer is telling anyone that loves a good spy game to go and pick those books up.

Our story follows veteran CIA handler/operative Peter Devereaux (Pierce Brosan of Remington Steele, Noble House, The Lawnmower Man, Live Wire, GoldenEye, Robinson Crusoe, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Thomas Crown Affair, The World Is Not Enough, The Tailor of Panama, After the Sunset, The Ghost Writer and I Don't Know How She Does It) grooming his protege, David Mason, sharpshooter, hand-to-hand and follows orders (Luke Bracey of Home and Away, Dance Academy, Monte Carlo, Amensia, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Westside, Point Break, Hacksaw Ridge and Lucky Day) until he jumps the literal gun and a civilian is caught in the line of fire. Devereaux retires five years later and is free of the CIA's black bag ops, running a small cafe off of Montenegro and living life. 

 

Die, squirrel die!

 

 

 

 

 

A visit from an old colleague, John Hanley (Bill Smitrovich of Miami Vice, Band of the Hand, Manhunter, Crime Story, Life Goes On, The Phantom, Ghosts of Mississippi. Batman Beyond, Nash Bridges, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, The Practice and The Event) drops Devereaux intel that former General soon-to-be President of Russia, Arkady Federov (Lazar Ristovski of Svetozar Markovic, Terasa, The Way Steel Was Tempered, Underground, Rage, Balkan Rules, Midwinter Night's Dream, The White Lions and On The Other Side) has serious dirt that the CIA wants and they are using an operative that Devereaux recruited. Hanley says that she will only come in if Devereaux is there for the extraction.

The op goes down, car chases ensue and bullets start flying. Yeesh sounds like a hybrid of Jason Bourne and James Bond happening in Belgrade!! The asset dies, Devereaux is pissed and Mason left with the smoking gun. This huge amount of casualties and property destruction all for one name. Mira. A girl that has been missing since 1999 at age fifteen. While FSB and the CIA are all scrambling around with girls on their brains and heads up their asses, the President elect sends a wet work assassin to find anyone with the whereabouts of Mira and remove her.

Devereaux uses his skill set and finds a case worker that deals with refugees, Alice Fournier (Olga Kurylenko of The Serpent, Hitman, Max Payne, Quantum of Solace, Tyranny, Erased, To the Wonder, Seven Psychopaths, Magic City, Vampire Academy and A Perfect Day) whose every day life of shuffling papers, placing displaced girls and giving them a better life just went rocky. With more chases, fist fights and a bit of John Woo inspired Gun Fu, Devereaux and Alice get out alive but for how long?

 

 

Popeye's packin' a rod!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Calling this a political SNAFU is similar to calling the meltdown of Chernobyl a minor inconvenience. Players on all sides are looking for this girl Alice now and the objectives are not clear if she is to be interrogated, tortured, murdered or in general; have an unpleasant weekend.

The clock is ticking and Devereaux is not the young man he was but by God he is going to make retirement rather interesting.

Will the Russians get the girl? Will the CIA give her asylum? With either put a bullet through her?

 

 

Let me go on the record of saying that Devereaux is a fairly dark character. If you were expecting shaken martinis, glib lines and gentleman's rule of fisticuffs. WRONG MOVIE. Yes, we do have a former Bond but Brosnan is so far removed from that bit of double o, you start to fear for the girl's safety in even his hands.

Director Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, Cocktail, Dante's Peak, Species, The Recruit, Thirteen Days, and The Bank Job) wanted an older Bond for this role, give him a near sinister way of doing things. Daniel Craig was originally cast but prior commitments made him bow out. Donaldson opted for Sir Sean Connery, who flat out said, "I'm too old to be running around with a gun." and then remembered the rapport he already had with Pierce courtesy of Dante's Peak.

This is moody, rough and tumble. Gun play and yes fellas, there's some titty scenes. No ladies, I don't even wait for them to message me any more. Anytime I get hyped up about a compelling story or clever character arc; the almost automatic response is, "Uh yeah. So there's titty, right?" Apologies for my gender's behavior once again, ladies.

The overall vibe of this flick? Gritty, badass fights, good story and a really bang on cast for this spy thriller. Hell, I can easily watch this again.

 

Like my Ghost in the Shell cosplay?

 

007 Week: Goldeneye

A fine welcome to you fans of MI-6 and their main protagonist to Day 4 of 007 Week.  So far we have gone over 3 Bonds so why not a fourth?  Like the Doctor in Doctor Who, each Bond brings something different to the table.  Better dress, succinct quips and more gadgets that are forever lost to Q branch due to one mishap or another.  Perhaps he is stockpiling toys in the unlikely event he may need them down the road.  Today we move from a gentleman that missed his Bond opportunity clear back in 1987 because of supposed 7 year contract but his show was cancelled after 6 episodes of its fifth season.  The man I rattle on about would be Pierce Brosnan.  This is Goldeneye.

EXTREEEEEEEEEEEEEMMMMMEEEEE!!!!!

Xenia Onatopp: You don't need the gun, Commander.
James Bond: Well, that depends on your definition of safe spoiler.






In 1986, two 00s were assigned to infiltrate and detonate an illegal Soviet biochemical weapons plant.  007- James Bond (Pierce Brosnan of Nomads, Remington Steele, Taffin, Live Wire, Mars Attacks, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Tailor of Panama and The Matador) and 006- Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean of Patriot Games, Airborne, Ronin, Extremely Dangerous, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Troy and National Treasure).  Separated and mining the facility, Trevelyan is captured by the Soviets and shot in the head.  Bond narrowly escapes with assault rifle blazing, a chase to his plane and a massive explosion leveling the facility.

Yes, that was rather foolhardy of him.

Nine years later, Bond receives his evaluation of performance and is assigned to look into a crime syndicate known only as Janus.   Monte Carlo hosting an event showing off a new prototype combat helicopter able to withstand EMPs  Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen of Lord of Illusions, Dead Girl, City of Industry, The Gingerbread Man, House on Haunted Hill, X-Men, Nip/Tuck and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters) and now General Ourumov (Gottfried John of Mata Hari, Of Pure Blood, A Case for Two and Space Rangers) claiming a Cold War weapon known as Goldeneye capable emitting an EMP that was destroy a country's electronic records, vehicles, batteries and early warning weapon systems.
Will Bond be able to stop the mastermind's organization, end the world of Goldeneye and get the girl in the end?

And now the fact finding portion of the movie's review.
Inspired by the career of Director-General of MI6, the first woman to ever head up the organization is what the M role was based on for Dame Judi Dench (A Study in Terror, Theatre 625, A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Fine Romance, Henry V, As Time Goes By, Casino Royale and J. Edgar).  Lois Maxwell made famous playing Moneypenny suggested a female M as far back as 1985.  Ten years later, it came to fruition.

Famke Janssen stated in an interview with Jay Leno that she did some of the driving stunts and broke a rib during the sauna fight.  47 men were killed in this movie making it one of the highest kill count for James Bond has had in a single Bond movie.   This was also the first completely original  James Bond movie without reference material from any Ian Fleming novel or even short story.

It was said that The Rolling Stones were offer the chance to sing the title song but they took a pass and it fell to Tina Turner.   Definitely could have done worse for herself.

Dalton?  Poor fellow got the boot.