I felt the same way. To me it seemed like they were play fighting. Nothing connected with any real oomph.
This so desperately wanted to be a Tarantino movie. Not even close.
It felt like a bigger budget Asylum mockbuster knockoff of Tarantino with maximum effort given to the slavish recreations of setpieces from better movies.
So you are saying it is more like Popgun Clubsoda?
More like Capgun Rola Cola I reckon…
I only got 2/3 of the way through because it is very much Tarantino wannabe to the point of getting in the way of the movie.
Did they ever explain the library at all?
That I attributed to them wanting there to be some John Wick-iness. No explanations, just a bunch of stuff that already exists so you can explore it in future installments! But it didn’t work.
Well, John Wick already used a hotel as a secret assassin hovel, so they had to go with the next best thing.
-Tom
EDIT: Ninja’ed by @menzo, who I shall now fight by having someone tape a gun to one hand and a scalpel to the other.
Writer: what would you say if I wrote a movie that combined John Wick, Kill Bill, and the Spice Girls?
Studio Exec: if you would have asked me five years ago I would have laughed you out of the room, but today we need girl movies so I say stop drilling, because you’ve hit oil! Let’s do this!
All that slowmo made me think they watched a lot of John Woo too.
The failure is particularly glaring when you can go watch Atomic Blonde, which is just a tour de force for Charlize Theron. I’m a fan of Lena Heady and know she can do physical work, and Karen Gillan is fine, but I felt like they were just phoning it in, along with everyone else.
The Jodie Foster movie Artemis had the hotel/hospital
This kind of felt like an action movie set in the Pushing Daisies cinematic universe.
During the laughing gas scene (which just irritated me because the dudes over-the-top laughing) I thought about Atomic Blonde and how much better the action was. Obviously, the tone of the two movies is a bit different and they were trying to do different things.
I was really looking forward to this and my 15 year old daughter and I watched it as soon as it came out. She liked it. I felt they didn’t quite walk the difficult line between action and comedy. It’s no simple task to pull it off and some of my issues could just be a “me” thing. It just was a bit flat, but I enjoyed it more in the second half.
I love Lena Heady as well and thought Gillian would be perfect. It just felt a bit underbaked overall. Maybe more time and money for more takes could have added the polish and delivery of lines that would have made it better.
Only applies if you’re talking about action films. Netflix has produced many dramas that are as good as any theatrical release. Roma remains one of my favorite films of the last decade. But also Buster Scruggs, Trial of the Chicago Seven, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Marriage Story, Mitchells vs. the Machine, and many others.
For me, the action seemed like it had to take too long for people to attack Sam one at a time. I don’t know whether to blame the choreographer or the editor. Also, I was excited to see some of the supporting cast Paul Giamatti, Michelle Yeoh, and Carla Gugino but they were wasted with too little screentime.
Fair enough. I haven’t really watched any of Netflix’s major dramas, except for Buster Scruggs, which I did not like (although that was more of a personal taste issue than any complaints about the filmmaking).
There definitely seemed like there was something limiting the amount and intensity of choreography they could do, but I have no idea what it was. If you told me that Karen Gillan had strained a disc in her back during training so they had to dial back the fight scenes I would totally believe you.
It kinda feels like we’re hitting a wall with the hyper-competent fight choreography in general. I think the current trend started with the Bourne movies, but those did a good job of having the characters being under equipped and having to improvise. John Wick kinda took it as far as it can go, and everything else aping that style just feels flat and at a loss to impress.