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Film reviews

Heart of Stone Review

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Actress Gal Gadot is beautiful and she is always cute and adventurous in her roles. Of course, she played Wonder Woman, and she can tackle all kinds of suspenseful roles, whether they’re psychologically suspenseful, violently suspensefully, or mysteriously suspenseful. She also has an aptitude for spy thrillers. But I just wasn’t sold with her role in Heart of Stone, or the film as a whole. The title Heart of Stone and the film’s introduction are almost like a 007 experience—like Gal Gadot in Tom Cruise mode. That may seem like a good thing, but it just doesn’t work in Heart of Stone.

In Heart of Stone, Gadot is Rachel Stone, an intelligence operative for a peacekeeping agency that flies beneath the radar. A mission goes wrong, and there is hacker who is trying to steal a weapon that could threaten the world. Stone has a team of people ranging from Parker (played by Jamie Dornan), to Jack of Hearts (played by Matthias Schweighofer), and more. But choosing sides or figuring out who to trust in Heart of Stone is hard. The concept of the film is for the characters to trust no one, but the film just doesn’t pull it off.

Hacking and artificial intelligence are frequent topics in Heart of Stone. There are some invigorating plot points that revolve around those two elements, but the film doesn’t do justice to either topic. The importance of the hacking and AI is to remind audiences that the peacekeeping agency is discreet. But other than those two elements there is not much to say about the film’s technological components. And even those elements don’t really benefit the film or its plot. Frankly, the film is somewhat of a mess, with many elements that don’t seem to find meaning or connection to the plot.

To further elaborate on my boredom with this film, it is probably more because of how it keeps jumping to car chases, dangerous mountain scenarios, and all kinds of rollercoaster disasters. Those are fun in a blockbuster, but in a spy thriller I want more details and emphasis towards where the danger lies. Heart of Stone struggles to do that. The film just relies too much on explosions and anarchy.

I wish I could be more positive, but it’s not coming easy with this one. Although seeing Gadot in a film is always a positive, and her appearance and performance in Heart of Stone are what is most memorable about it. She didn’t come close to making up for the rest of the film.

This is simply one of the biggest disappointments of the summer for me. A poorly made thriller trying to seem like a 007 movie. More of a nuisance than a great experience. It had some brief, interesting moments in its plot, but the rest, to be blunt, is garbage. Just two out of four stars for Heart of Stone.

Film reviews

The Mother Review

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The role of overly protective mother suits Jennifer Lopez well. In 2002, she played a mother trying to protect herself and her child from her abusive husband in Enough. In 2015, she played a mother trying to protect herself from a psycho student in The Boy Next Door (2015). In The Mother, she plays the parent who has a past that impacts her own child. The name of Lopez’s character is simply Mother.

This film opens in a crime investigation and the situation has gotten ugly. She has spent much of her life on the run trying to escape from her past involvement with drug cartels and dangerous enemies. Mother keeps getting caught in situations where her troubles are linked to her past.  Mother can’t even see her daughter Zoey (played by Lucy Paez) due to having legal troubles which pose a risk to her own daughter.  Both Mother and Zoey are in harm’s way and the situations do not get any easier.

Mother has lost custody of Zoey. Despite Mother’s past, she will do all it takes to protect her daughter.  Because drug cartels keep impacting Mother’s life, she has adapted to being aware of her surroundings and fighting like her life depends on it. The film transitions to Mother’s harsh past and Lopez gives a stellar performance of teaching a child how to survive. However, the transition lacks focus, and The Mother begins to feature many catastrophes with lots of shooting action.

Unfortunately, the featured scenarios led to boredom in my opinion. As soon as Mother’s main objective was to ensure her daughter knows how to survive, I found that there was no meaningful clarification to how exactly this connects to Mother’s past.  In the beginning of the movie, there are backstories of Mother being a veteran and also involved in various crime scenarios. Then, she seems to be a criminal who is targeted by the worst enemies. The film’s algorithm which would allow it to find its redemption by having Mother and daughter survive is off base. I thought to myself that the role of Lopez was a bit like Liam Neeson’s role in Taken (2009). The Mother is similar to Taken in terms of fighting for the ones we love most. Disappointingly, the direction is lacking in quality that results in this story being a predictable setup with obvious outcomes.

On a positive note, The Mother is watchable because Lopez delivers a prestige performance. As she teaches her daughter to fight, she tells her to use her hate and frustration to help her live. The Mother fully explores that idea. The film also displays how the present is more important than the past. Mother’s previous issues are not worth going back to. In The Mother, Zoey is the priority of the story, but the film suffers due to the lack of structure and poor writing. Still, thanks to Lopez’s strong acting skills, it is not a complete failure. Two and a half stars for The Mother.

Film reviews

Luther: The Fallen Sun Review

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There are many detective thrillers that the world loves. Many of these movies involve politics, corrupt governments or businesses, and people who want “payback”—for those who betrayed them. There are some, however, who know how to plot their comebacks with an even more punishing effect. When there is someone like John Luther (played by Idris Elba), who many know from the series Luther, Luther can cause irreparable consequences when he is seeking redemption. There is a lot of redemption in Luther: The Fallen Sun.

In this film, Luther is in prison. Disgraced and disgruntled, his anger feeds the destruction that is to come when he makes it out of prison. With the detective’s anger built up inside, he does what he can to remain cool as he spends his days in prison. His tactics come into play sooner because there is a serial killer using all kinds of tactics to label his targets and continue a rapid killing spree. When a killer is using sextortion and blackmailing skills to get what he wants, this is the type of sadistic behavior that Luther is bound to put an end to. The killer is David Robey (played by Andy Serkis). As the strange and dangerous deaths spread through London, Luther breaks out of prison to track down Robey. Luther has assistance, including Odette Raine (played by Cynthia Erivo), Martin Schrenk (played by Dermot Crowley), and Corinne Aldrich (played by Hattie Morahan). The film is full of codes, twists, and suspects that are all good tracks for Luther to take down Robey, but it is deadly. Robey is smarter than Luther thinks, but is he as strong as Luther?

Technology is used in Luther: The Fallen Sun to step up its terror and suspense. Unfortunately, I still felt like the film was just an extended episode of the TV series. It was invigorating in some moments, but the twists seemed repetitive. To an extent, however, repetition is what keeps fans invigorated in both the series Luther and the movie. While the technological aspects are there, they don’t really heighten the experience of having this on the big screen. It felt almost like TV but just a little more suspenseful given a heavier trail of deadly situations.

The writing is almost like someone had overcome writer’s block, or just jumped back into writing after a hiatus. The film starting with Luther in jail and then jumping out to catch a killer is somewhat shallow. There isn’t much evidence to recap why the film takes this approach. Although the TV series came to an end back in 2019, I was surprised that the anticipation and excitement did not hold up in this movie. A recap for the audience would benefit this film. Especially given that some viewers may have watched the series, but others did not. There is no clear structure for this movie’s introduction. In short, the writing could have been stronger to give more emphasis and a more elaborate picture of all the events that happened before this film.

To recap, this thriller is visually stunning. The story flows for vengeance and violence. The story navigates towards trying to blockbuster, but it will not feel like one. The lighting and cinematography are too much like the series. While that is alright, there is no need to push for big picture distribution if the movie is not of that quality. I love British crime series, but Luther: The Fallen Sun struggled to speak to me. Enticing in some moments, but overall, a blur of many catastrophes. Two stars.