Tag: Connie Nielsen

Nobody

Rated: MA15+Nobody

Directed by: Ilya Naishuller

Written by: Derek Kolstad

Produced by: Kelly McCormick, David Leitch, Braden Aftergood, Bob Odenkirk, Marc Provissiero

Executive Producers: Derek Kolstad, Marc S. Fisher, Annie Marter, Tobey Maguire

Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, RZA, Aleksey Serebryakov and Christopher Lloyd.

Bloody, handcuffed and lighting a cigarette, to then reach into his pocket to open a can of tuna?  Kinda sums up the character that is Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk).

He’s a veteran.  But known only to be The Auditor.  A seemingly benign role that more likely means the last person you’ll ever meet.

But now, Hutch is a family man with a wife, Becca (Connie Niesen) and two kids.

The family moments are captured well, without overdramatising the sentiment – how is it kids know just the right thing to say to make you feel better?

Although, I was confused about the extent of Becca’s involvement or knowledge of Hutches previous life.

But the gist of the changed man was there; the family life where every day seems the same: ‘I may have overcorrected,’ is one aside from Hutch.

Until a pair of robbers break into his house.

Nobody has that classic formula of bad guy turned good until he’s wronged.  He’ll take punishment even though he knows he can retaliate.  He’ll take it until he’s pushed too far.

And if you think that sounds a little familiar the script is from Derek Kolstad (John Wick franchise).

The getting pushed was a little weak here.  But the retaliation was awesome.

Bloody and vicious with broken-bat-wiped-across-chest, and hit over the head with boiling tea kettle action (classic) included.

There’s a character in the credits named, ‘Big Brute,’ which aptly sums up the enemies Hutch has to take down.

And Odenkirk as Hutch is good fun with his asides and ever suffering demeanour – but he’s not too layered.  More, a need to break out of his self-made prison and to bloody his fists to feel alive again.

Christopher Lloyd as grandpa is a cracker.

But the story felt a little thin to me – maybe there’s a sequel coming with backstory?  AKA the John Wick series?  That would be a treat.

So without too high an expectation, well, I did go in with really high expectations being such a fan of Odenkirk, I was a little disappointed but overall still had a lot of fun.  Great ride.

Wonder Woman

Rated: MWonder Woman

Directed by: Patty Jenkins

Screenplay by: Allan Heinberg

Story: Zack Snyder, Allan Heinberg and Jason Fuchs

Produced by:  Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder and Richard Suckle

Executive Producers: Stephen Jones, Geoff Johns, Jon Berg, Wesley Coller and Rebecca Steel Roven

Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Connie Nielsen, Elena Anaya, Ewen Bremner, Lucy Davis, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Eugene Brave Rock and Said Taghmaoui.

With the couple ahead in line, kissing.  Just a quick smooch, but often.  Making that, kissy-kissy, sucky-wet sound, constantly.  Perhaps out of nerves or because they’d just found each other and were terrified the other would disappear if they didn’t lock lips and suck the air out of each other’s mouths every 30 seconds…

You can probably tell I wasn’t in the mood for a romance.

And unfortunately Wonder Woman wasn’t all Amazons and action, there was romance here with love interest, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), an American World War I fighter pilot who finds himself in the Amazonian magical world of Themyscira while being chased by the Germans.

Which brings me to the classic Wonder Woman guitar rift.  You’ll recognise it when you hear it and it does add to that cringe.

But that’s all I have to complain about.

Overall, Wonder Woman was a well-thought and executed film.

The story of Diana (Gal Gadot), growing up in Themyscira allowed a beautiful setting of crystal clear blue waters and souring cliffs, and women warriors fighting from pure white horses with long braids falling down their backs.  This magical place allowed the story of the gods to be shown like a moving painting brought to life to then shift to WWI and all the shock and tragedy of death.

After hearing of the violence, Diana vows to fight in the war to bring peace, as she was trained to do.  All very dramatic.

But the addition of humour made the film for me, particularly Charlie (Ewan Bremner), the Scottish marksman suffering from shell shock and Etta Candy (Lucy Davis) the ever reliable, can-do secretary.  I was constantly tickled by Etta Candy’s humour and the writing here is to be commended.  As is the story of the film.

There’s a slow build.  And yes, it felt like a lengthy movie, understandably at 2 hours and 21 minutes.  But the time spent on building the momentum was worth it.  There’s plenty of action and funny bits so as the story developed, the further I was pulled in.

So even with a bit of cheese and romance, I found the character, Steve Trevor better than expected, and more down-to-Earth (just can’t resist a pun) then James T. Kirk played by Chris Pine in the recent Star Trek films (but hey, I liked those films too), and that comes down to the fantastic script.

There was a tug and pull of the lasso for some depth into human nature.  But like the above statement, it was somewhat half-hearted.  Wonder Woman is more about how Diana evolves into a superhero.

By playing with the time sequences and using clever camera work and images (like the moving painting montage), the film is given a bit of spice.  It’s always good to see something different as it keeps the attention.  Because wow, there have just been so many superhero movies that the trickery of the director becomes the point of difference; Patty Jenkins succeeding here with help from director of photography Matthew Jensen.

I wasn’t blown away but this is a quality film with the resurrection of a fantastic character who we’re left in no doubt will return in the very near future.

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