Showing posts with label Sean Penn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sean Penn. Show all posts

Sunday, 15 November 2015

Movie Hardmen - Riddick, The Gunman and Run All Night

In a bit of a movie update, first the belated and imaginatively titled third instalment of the Riddick series.

Our eponymous hero, having grown slipshod in his security arrangements as leader of the Necromongers, finds himself stranded on a hostile planet, pursued by two groups of bounty hunters.


Other than money, it's difficult to see why this film was made, as it's just a rehash of the first film, with bits of the second thrown in for good measure. Mr. Diesel looks like he had fun, and it's all workman-like, just... why bother?

Much better is Sean Penn's attempt at the tough-guy genre with The Gunman. Jim Terrier (Penn), a mercenary working for an NGO in Africa, searches for who sent a hit squad after him.


With a good plot, if a bit slow, and a decent supporting cast including Javier Bardem, Ray Winstone and Mark Rylance, Penn's able to hold down the hard-man role pretty well, and there's plenty of bangs and crashes. It's different enough to be an above average pizza movie.

Lastly, the latest Liam Neeson vehicle. Burn-out gangster and estranged father, Jimmy Conlon, is given a chance at redemption when his son Mike (Joel Kinneman) witnesses a murder.


Neeson seems to be picking better films to do between Taken sequels at the moment, and this is no exception. It's plot keeps a decent pace, if a little predictable, and there's a great supporting cast with Ed Harris as the former friend turned Nemesis. And just in time for Christmas.

Friday, 13 December 2013

Gangster Squad

As part of my LoveFilm subscription, I watched this merry little cops-and-gangsters tale centred around Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) is tasked by L.A. Police chief Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) to take down Cohen and his gang.


What might otherwise have been a run-of-the-mill, and more violent, Untouchables clone is enhanced by a half-decent plot and good supporting cast. It's Penn and Brolin's movie, though, and you can feel every punch in the final showdown as they take each other apart. A decent, if undemanding, pizza movie.

Mob City, a series just started in the U.S., covers much the same story, but seems to have a more ambiguous tone:


A few years ago, I read (or tried to read: it's fairly heavy going) City of Quartz, a social, political and cultural history of Los Angeles by Mike Davis.


Despite it's style, it's a fascinating book on a fascinating subject.

P99:L8:W11 P241:L35:W1 P225:L18:W6
P163:L11:W13 P60:L26:W9 P130:L2:W2