2020

'Coffee and Kareem' (2020) Review: Weak Tea. I’ll be honest, I never really gave too much attention to Netflix films. It’s an old fashioned notion, but I could never shake the perception that they were released on streaming services because they weren’t good enough to be released in cinemas. That’s a flawed mentality. Sure there are plenty of mediocre films on Netflix, but there are plenty much worse that make it to the big screen. Take last year’s ‘Stuber’ for example, a movie I wanted desperately to walk out of after the first 15 minutes.I mention ‘Stuber’ because while watching ‘Coffee and Kareem’ I couldn’t help shake that Stuber feeling. It’s got much of that movie’s DNA, an unlikely pair that gets swept up in a high paced action adventure and shoots off bullets and raunchy jokes a mile a minute. When the credits rolled to reveal ‘Stuber’ director Michael Dowse as the director of ‘Coffee and Kareem’, everything came together. Except where ‘Stuber’ fails, ‘Coffee and Kareem’ succeeds.Played by Ed Helms detective Coffee is perhaps the most pathetic cop ever to be seen in a movie. He’s the definition of a buffoon, but he managed to get the interest of Taraji P. Henson’s Vanessa, a fact that doesn’t sit very well with Kareem, Vanessa’s son, played by Terrence Little Gardenhigh. Kareem is just a kid so naturally, he expresses his volatile emotions by acting out. He curses, he’s loud, and he…

'The Last Thing He Wanted' (2020) Review: The Long Letdown. As the cinemas continue to be closed and new movie releases remain retired, streaming platforms have had to fill the gap. This week, I caught up with one of the newer Netflix only releases that had everything going for it in terms of cinematic value. A star studded cast, in a political thriller based on a Joan Didion novel, and directed by Dee Rees, the mastermind behind the 2017 hit ‘Mudbound’. Yes you can’t go to the movies, but you can bring the movies to you!At least it seemed that way. Yet watching ‘The Last Thing He Wanted’ may be the last thing you’d want to do as you spend your time at home. As political as this political thriller may be, it’s not the most thrilling film in the world. Most of the film’s 2 hour runtime left me in a disoriented fog as I tried to make sense of the movie’s plot. You follow Anne Hathaway as Elena McMahon, a left wing reporter stuck covering the 1984 Raegan campaign, who has the drive for stories with more weight. When her father becomes too ill to complete a shady assignment to Central America, she fills in his shoes and ends up caught in the midst of the very story she’s dying to tell. Danger at every turn, she journeys on to uncover the details of the plot, despite having multiple opportunities to…

'Bloodshot' (2020) Review: Bloodshot: The Movie: The Video Game. An actor’s association with a part can be so severe, that they cease having a separate identity altogether. Robert Downey Jr may as well be billionaire superhero Tony Stark, and Vin Diesel has been Domonic Toretto for the last 2 decades. There have been other roles here and there, but the most impactful has been a tri-syllabic tree creature. Diesel’s face has no doubt been tied to his Fast and Furious role. So much so that to see him in ‘Bloodshot’ is initially disorienting. A state of mind that persists all throughout the 2 hours of sheer mayhem that is this movie.With its cybernetic soldiers and bullets that seemingly operate through magic, ‘Bloodshot’ may as well be a video game set on auto pilot. At no point is the action supposed to give you a visceral satisfaction. There’s no illusion that these are people in peril as the visual effects are pushed to the limit, delivering impossible sights that fail to resonate. Clearly, director Dave Wilson’s experience as a Visual Effects artist is highly influential. There are even moments the camera lingers to show the process of constructing the imagery in excruciating detail.Diesel is playing Ray Garrison aka Bloodshot, an unstoppable mercenary with nanobots coursing through his veins. He’s bulletproof, super strong, and the perfect soldier. The only thing he’s lacking is charisma. The film gives you a tragic backstory to assign to…