G.I. JOE: RETALIATION
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, DJ Cotrona, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Stevenson, Ray Park, Jonathan Pryce, Bruce Willis
Director: Jon M. Chu
Running time: 110 mins
With COBRA agent Zartan
now posing as the US president (Jonathan Pryce) the G.I Joes are ambushed and
mostly wiped out. The survivors of the attack, Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson) Flint
(D.J Cotrona) and Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki) are joined by the rogue Snake
Eyes (Ray Park) his apprentice Jinx (Elodie Young) a retired Joe (Bruce Willis)
in a quest to avenge their fallen comrades. Director: Jon M. Chu
Running time: 110 mins
Considering the disastrous reception “Rise of the Cobra” received, it was assumed no follow-up would ever see the light of day, and certainly most of the original GIJ crew have gone in this sequel. However despite some similarities to the original “Retaliation”, this shows new director Chu has a different take on proceedings, as he attempts (but fails) to tone down the camp essence of the previous film in favour of a full-blown action outing.
This really is a mess from start to finish, and accomplished actor Jonathan Pryce really should be hanging his integrity head in shame, having indulged himself in this puerile nonsense. The GI Joes don't make a huge impression. D.J. Cotrona fares even worse, playing Flint and proving to be a non-entity throughout, existing only to occasionally shoot someone or make a wisecrack. As for king of the lop-side smirk Bruce Willis, he has little more than a glorified cameo and adds nothing of note to the proceedings. Luckily, Snake-Eyes and Storm-Shadow liven things up somewhat with some fizzling ninja action, with their mountain-side sword-fight ends up being the film's only section of real note. All in all, the villains are an extremely insubstantial bunch with Cobra Commander only getting a few minutes here and there to make his presence felt.
If you intend going along to see this, it is essential that you leave your brain disengaged, as the dialogue is so appalling and the entire film is never anything less than ludicrous. This is the kind of cinema outing where entire countries can be destroyed at the click of a button, with millions of lives lost, and nobody really seems to care as long as the good old USA is pressing the button.
DARK SKIES
Cast: Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo, J.K. Simmons, Kadan Rockett
Director: Scott Stewart
Running time: 95 mins
Director: Scott Stewart
Running time: 95 mins
“Dark Skies” couldn’t be termed original
in any real sense as it is nothing more than a compilation of sections and
ideas blatantly nicked from other supernatural thrillers.
It begins as a “Poltergeist”-type tension flick then transforms into an alien-abduction tale with echoes of “Paranormal Activity”, and along the way drops in a few pseudo-Hitchcock scary sections, as the director even chucks in a section from “The Birds”! Even the title is a mid-70s US tv series rip-off.
The suffering family which endures these endless traumatic experiences features Dad Daniel (Josh Hamilton) who is a financially struggling architect, Mum is Lacy (Keri Russell) who is having trouble working as an estate agent. Their two offspring are Jesse (Dakota Goyo) and younger brother Sam (Kadan Rockett), who both engage in horror stories to one another late at night by walkie-talkie.
The cast is actually pretty good however under such trying conditions and an improvement in most of these types of celluloid frightener. Russell takes the material seriously and does well with some serious application to the role, and Simmons is also convincing with a world-weary interpretation.
Sadly though, Stewart is fairly clueless when directing the children and technically the whole thing clearly displays its obviously meagre budget at every turn, from the tedious cinematography of David Boyd to the innocuous score by Joseph Bishara.
It begins as a “Poltergeist”-type tension flick then transforms into an alien-abduction tale with echoes of “Paranormal Activity”, and along the way drops in a few pseudo-Hitchcock scary sections, as the director even chucks in a section from “The Birds”! Even the title is a mid-70s US tv series rip-off.
The suffering family which endures these endless traumatic experiences features Dad Daniel (Josh Hamilton) who is a financially struggling architect, Mum is Lacy (Keri Russell) who is having trouble working as an estate agent. Their two offspring are Jesse (Dakota Goyo) and younger brother Sam (Kadan Rockett), who both engage in horror stories to one another late at night by walkie-talkie.
The cast is actually pretty good however under such trying conditions and an improvement in most of these types of celluloid frightener. Russell takes the material seriously and does well with some serious application to the role, and Simmons is also convincing with a world-weary interpretation.
Sadly though, Stewart is fairly clueless when directing the children and technically the whole thing clearly displays its obviously meagre budget at every turn, from the tedious cinematography of David Boyd to the innocuous score by Joseph Bishara.
