Love Hurts

First rom-com actionsploitation I've reviewed?

Could be! That's quite a few genres to juggle and the movie handles that...adequately. I pretty much knew the movie I was walking into, a fun albeit basic action comedy with our golden boy Ke Huy Quan and that's what I got! Following a realtor who has a shady past that sucker punches him out of the blue he quickly finds his life upturned, an old flame returns, and he has to square off with his brother to gain some semblance of normalcy back. It mostly succeeds in the action part, got a few laughs from me, and I will admit Ke and Ariana are cute at times but there would be tiny changes I would make. I mean the movie doesn't even clock in at 90 minutes with credits so I feel even a slightly longer runtime could make a big difference. I think the biggest detraction is the editing and even then it's sporadic, prime example: in the middle of a fight scene we get this POV shot from inside a microwave as the turntable does it's thing and I think oh wow, a shot I've never seen before in an action movie this is gr-and then they just fucking cut! Odd ass choices like that can have a negative effect. I will say however I somehow liked 90% of the characters and didn't want them to die, yes even the henchmen which is wild and they write them in such a unique way to where you strangely get invested. Like this assassin who writes poetry or this buddy duo where one of the guys tries to get back with his lady friend, it's very original! I very much liked that! It's definitely an action movie first and I will own up and say it actually is really rock solid choreography that even got a "Oooh shit!" moment out of me at one of the falls the stuntguys took, and they even do the thing where this dust cloud puffs up after a hit in true martial arts fashion, so props to them on that. The comedy is more unannounced I guess I could say, it doesn't build up to a punchline or anything it's more just hearing people talk humorously but it sorta works. I wasn't completely sold on the romance angle, a lot of the history between Marvin and Rose is kept off screen and the time they do spend together feels more like kindred partners in crime than romantic opposites but they do have small moments, and it's not really at the forefront so I can't be too harsh on it. Ke Huy Quan is a joy, shocker I know, able to pull off a simple man trying to make his way through the galaxy and asskicker extraordinaire seamlessly, and does not look half bad with a nice suit and a moustache either! Ariana DeBose is decent, she certainly has that off her rocker criminal edge down pretty good and though not really prevalent a lot gets the job done. Hell we see Lio Tipton as one of Marvin's office staff Ashley way more and man, I kept having to shake my head clear cause that woman is a little too similar to Emma Stone like it was fuggin' weird! Pretty fun though and was my second favorite performance of the film! Mustafa Shakir easily is the most well designed in costuming, and as the assassin who writes poetry Raven he gets some flowery dialogue as well as some good action so thumbs up from me. Daniel Wu as our main villain Knuckles is pretty standard (aside from a boba tea addiction) but pulls it off with ease. It's an okay movie, more on the average decent side than cult classic gem in the making, but it's entertaining enough for at least one viewing. 2 stars, 6.5/10, I'll do proper romance films next week for the holiday so see you then!

Tomb Raider (2018)

Well what do you know, a good video game movie!

Tomb Raider is very, very good. It is one of the rarest forms of media, a really good video game movie. I especially love that they adapted the story from the excellent reboot to the series and it is a really engaging and good story. Basically an origin story for Lara, played by Alicia Vikander who does a really dang good job potraying Lara as a young, no nonsense, adventurous woman who goes through some stuff to say the least and she was great. My only problem with her character was she falls in the trope of, although I come from a family of great wealth I'm gonna rebel and do things from scratch. It just bugged me. But anyway, Lara is on the hunt for her dad which leads her to a very Arrow-ish island, where a band of mercenaries led by Walton Goggins who is gloriously off his rocker like always is trying to break into the tomb of a former Lady Emperor claimed to be basically Death incarnate. Which of course Lara is all, "No way man, you're nuttier than a PayDay bar. I'm stopping you." and Walter Goggins is like, "Bring it baby girl, I'm leaving here either with a corpse or as a corpse." and thus we got ourselves a movie. Oh and they totally pulled a Last Crusade with that tomb, every test was almost exactly like the ones Indy had to do except in reverse. So the leap of faith first, the puzzle involving the floor second, and the giant bladed traps last. Caught you! But regardless, this is a good movie that is worth your time should you choose to see it, and it's great that Lara finally gets a sure fire hit in the movie department. A very good way to end the week, but next week we have a bit of unfinished buisness to attend to, a return to a good superhero movies, and another dive into the awesome weirdness that is Wes Anderson. See you then!