Bright

So I'm back. Yeah, yeah. I've been gone and missed Halloween movie reviews. So with all the police complaints throughout the cities of this country, I thought I would get a film from the long back when 2017 (yeah my nephew loves that so long ago comment to watch me twitch). A view of the LAPD, magic and meta beings. With copious amounts of car chases, gun fights worthy of a John Woo film and snappy patter, I feel this film is sorely underrated. This is Bright. 

 

What do you mean you didn't like Fresh Prince?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through the lens of writer/director David Ayer (U-571 The Fast and the Furious, Training Day, Dark Blue, S.W.A.T., End of Watch, Fury, Suicide Squad and Training Day TV series) shows a world looking like a modern day Middle Earth with Orcs, Elves, Fairies and every other fairy tale creature in between. Imagine exotic elves dominating Malibu, Orcs drinking 40s in South Central and humans of every color and class crammed in this expanded desert city. 

 With a long road to recovery, Officer Daryl Ward (Will Smith of Independence Day, Bad Boys, Men in Black, Wild Wild West, Ali, I, Robot, Shark Tale and I Am Legend) is fit for duty and to get back to the streets.   His partner, an Ork named Nick Jakoby (Joel Edgerton of The Hard Word, The Secret Life of Us,Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones, King Arthur, Kinky Boots, Smokin' Aces, Whisper and Dirt Game) failed to catch Ward's shooter and it has caused some tension between the two. Vowing to start a new day and not getting old hard feelings back, the boys roll into the station, load the shop and back out into town.   Dealing with routine pick ups, cruising the neighborhood, Ward is told by IA (Internal Affairs) they don't trust Jakoby's account of the shootout that landed Ward in the hospital. They want to can him but they can't just open end fire him without huge blow back. Ward agrees to record Jakoby's confession and get IA off his ass.

 

Ugh, I can smell talking monkeys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Towards the end of shift, the boys roll down to South Central to a possible gunfight. As they investigate a building with a mass amount of dead assailants, our cops run into Tikka (Lucy Fry of Lightning Point, Reef Doctors, Mako Mermaids, Vampire Academy, Now Add Honey, Mr. Church, Wolf Creek, The Darkness and She's Missing) a young elf girl running scared with a terrifying weapon, a magic wand. With an explosion and a substantial gun fight, the Barrio hoods heard about the wand and now the crap storm is moving into an tsunami. 

 Subplot 2 indicates The FBI's Magic Division are trailing a wand user. She's a renegade elf name of Leilah (Noomi Rapace of Daisy Diamond, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Millennium, Beyond, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Prometheus). It would appear she and her minions...hmm lackeys? Lick spittles? Yay! Lick spittles! Anyway she and her lick spittles are trying to resurrect a being known as The Dark Lord and bring about an era of darkness the world hasn't seen in 5,000 years. 

 

Please sir, more gruel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Subplot 3 gives us Leilah and her lackeys hot in pursuit after Ward, Jakoby and Tikka to reclaim the wand and go about the ending of the world. With corrupt cops, L.A. Gangbangers, FBI not knowing who is the good guys and renegade elves, Ward and Jakoby are in the soup and brother that soup is scalding. Trying to think, catch their collective breaths and not kill one another; the boys have to protect Tikka and the wand from all this crazy that only L.A.can produce. 

Where to even begin with this flick? The racist and class issues tone is perfect. The ignorance of races and hatred of the haves and have nots holds true to these misconceptions we all have a tendency to cling to. Realizing all the elves are in Malibu makes me wonder how many spray tanned, bleach teethed white folk got tossed out of the neighborhood for "lowering the tone'. Just made me laugh is all. 

 

 

Ward and Jakoby both are openly mocked by their own. As members of minorities, folk that have been brutalized by cops of the generations, it seems obscene that either of these men would be cops in many eyes. This would be the second film both Will Smith and Jay Hernadez was in with David Ayer. The first being Suicide Squad. Yet another underrated film of David Ayer. It's violent, it's graphic and yes fellas; there's a bit of titty in it. Trust me, you will stay in for the story as well. More gun play than a Lethal Weapon flick. Hell the shots look like an homage to John Woo's A Better Tomorrow. 

 Can you let the kids watch it? Well...I'm not a parent but overall it's not that big a deal violence, language and nudity wise but again; I am not a parent. It's ultimately the parents' call. For the parents however, yeah you will get a serious gut laugh in some of these scenes. I own this and it gets slipped into the regular watching. Have a good one and sorry for the hiatus.

 

A malefic, murderous, Maybeline model?

 

Comic Flicks of 2016: Suicide Squad

Howdy folks and we are back for Day 2 of the Comic Films of 2016. This next flick got mixed reviews, constant nitpicking on theme, standing and casting. For me, it followed a group of loners that do not trust easy, world in jeopardy and we all come together to overcome the odds formula of which this particular collection of tropes can fall back as far as The Dirty Dozen but hey, I still had fun with it regardless. To combat the popularity of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, DC Comics really had to step up their game and brother they did their level best. The rest is up to the viewers. This is Suicide Squad.

We good for the poster?

Superman, the Earth's mightiest hero has fallen saving his town. Who will be there for the next Doomsday (Dead Zod!) to occur? What champions can we call upon to save us in our darkest hour? No we are not bothering Optimus Prime dammit! Amanda Waller (Viola Davis of City of Angels, The Shrink Is In, Solaris, Jesse Stone: Stone Cold, Jesse Stone: Night Passage, World Trade Center, Doubt, Madea Goes to Jail, It's Kind of Funny Story, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and Get on Up) U.S. Intelligence officer, former CIA and string of alphabets and black ops has a plan. To create a team made up of the most deadly and dangerous talented normals and metahuman villains for government disposal. A team that can be officially denied if they screw up, so expendable assets (No not Stallone's team!).

My shorties are riding up D.S. so hurry up and wack these guys.

With the green light, Waller has been moving these villains all to the off-site location maximum penitentiary Belle Reve consisting of Floyd Lawton a.k.a. Deadshot (Will Smith of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Independence Day, Bad Boys, Men in Black, Enemy of the State, The Legend of Bagger Vance, I, Robot, Hitch, I Am Legend, Hancock, Focus and Concussion) a man with perfect aim, high kill count, love for his daughter Zoe and one of the best hitmen on the planet. Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie of Vigilante, Neighbours, About Time, The Wolf of Wall Street, Focus, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot and The Legend of Tarzan) a former psychologist turned lunatic partner and femme fatale alongside the Joker. George "Digger" Harkness a.k.a. Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney of Stoned Bros, Spartacus: War of the Damned, Jack Reacher, A Good Day to Die Hard, Felony, Terminator Genisys and Man Down) bank robber, thief and expert marksman with a barrage of deadly boomerangs.

Beer me!

The reptile man Killer Croc (Adewale Aknnuoye Agabaje of Oz, The Mummy Returns, The Bourne Identity, Preaching to the Choir, Lost, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Best Laid Plans, Bullet to the Head, Thor: The Dark World, Trumbo and Concussion) the hellfire imbued king of the barrio Diablo (Jay Henandez of Crazy/Beautiful, Hostel, Quarantine, Takers, Gimme Shelter, Gang Related and The Night Is Young) master thief and infiltrator Slipknot (Adam Beach of Song of Hiawatha, Smoke Signals, Mystery, Alaska, Joe Dirt, Windtalkers, The Big Empty, Turok: Son of Stone, A Warrior's Heart and Cowboys and Aliens). All assigned to one Special Forces Army Ranger Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman of Storm, Vinnarskallar, In Your Veins, Johan Falk: National Target, Easy Money, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Safe House, Easy Money II: Hard to Kill, Robocop, The Killing and Run All Night) the squad is called in to deal with a catastrophic issue but uninformed that one of the team a former archeologist/possessed succubus sorceress Enchantress (fashion model/actress Cara Delevinge of The Face of an Angel, Paper Towns, Pan, Kids in Love and Suicide Squad) may be the direct cause of the current mission. Attached to this mission is samurai sword master or mistress Katana (Karen Fukuhara of Suicide Squad and Stray) aiding Flag whenever needed.

With explosions, charcoal ridden minions of a big bad incubus and mass chaos now is an appropriate time of the clown prince of crime to make waves as well. Joker (Jared Leto of My So-Called Life, Switchback, Basil, Urban Legend, The Thin Red Line, Fight Club, American Psycho, Sunset Strip, Panic Room, Lord of War, Dallas Buyers Club and Suicide Squad) and cronies are out and about to scoop Harley back for the master of chuckles' Netflix and chill time.

Will the squad survive its first mission? Will Deadshot ever see his little girl again? Will anyone explain to me the need for a pink unicorn at the behest of Captain Boomerang?

Few comments now. I covered most of this in my Rotten Ramblin' On podcast with my co-host on this flick but the following things are thus. Since the Brave and the Bold title in 1964, The Suicide Squad has had a revolving door of baddies ranging from Flash, Batman and even some Aquaman villains being used as cannon fodder for missions. This particular title has seen many a retcon but the jist has always been bad guys doing bad things for their country.

Many view this as the Margo and Will show and okay yeah, it did center around them. Guess what? The film still worked, all the actors managed their parts very well and my only complaint is there was no smackdown with Batsy and the Croc sending him to jail. Would have loved to see a sewer fight with Affleck using his brains and skill to drop Croc but oh well. We have not seen Will play a bad guy let alone bad ass to the same standing he got in Independence Day so yeah well deserved Will. You rocked the role. Again. Is this the best comic book movie? That is open to discussion. Is this the better faithful movie to the comic? I would have to agree.

Look it's either this or we rely on the Teen Titans.

With a budget of 175 million it managed to kick back over 325 million so they made a frickin' profit folks. To be objective, the formula for this film is nothing new but I enjoyed the hell out of it. Like Guardians of the Galaxy, the fans of the comic probably went in droves and had a blast watching it. I feel bad for it not making even more money because the comic is a bit obscure. Overall, I could watch it again and again. Make your own decision but a bit of mindless violence, decent one liners and bad ass action gives it a thumbs up from this guy.