I have come to the realization that I am terrible at deciding what movie is going to be the best of the weekend. I go to the movies at least two times a week, and usually when I have a really strong opinion between the two, I am wrong. My most memorable version of this came a couple of year ago, when Beau is Afraid came out the same weekend as Evil Dead Rise did, and I was so disappointed in Beau. I thought I was going to love it, and I thought Evil Dead Rise was going to be trash, but it was my favorite movie of that year. In this instance, I was choosing between The Watchers and Bad Boys: Ride or Die, after the third Bad Boys, I thought for sure that it was going to be the trash movie of the weekend, but I was so wrong! That is not to say that The Watchers was trash, it had some redeeming qualities, but it was not as good as I wanted it to be.
Ride or Die continues that story of Mike and Marcus, (Will Smith and Martin Lawerence) as cops in Miami solving high level crimes and leaving destruction in their wake. This time, their captain, who died in the last film is having his name besmirched by a cartel, and Mike and Marcus were not going to stand by as their office got smeared with bribery rumors, so they go out to clear their old boss’s name. This ended up requiring more work than they thought, and it put their families in danger, but they would not stop until the truth was out there!
There was so much to love about this movie. The one aspect that really stuck out to me was the creative camera work during the action scenes. It seemed like they did not shy away from using drones to do some wild shots during indoor fights, specifically in the creative arts warehouse, when giant lava lamps were explosing. There was also the final fight scene, and in this one, they used a camera angel several times, that had the perspective looking down the gun, and it was just like a shooter video game. They did not shy away from constantly shifting the camera and doing longer shots as well, and this all paid off. It looked great.
The other part of the movie that was key to its success was the chemistry between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Will Smith, whose image has been a little smudged since the Oscar’s incident, came off great in this film, and his pairing with Martin Lawerence is perfect, you cannot ask for much better chemistry between two stars in a buddy cop movie. Although Smith is by far the bigger star, Lawerence’s comedic timing is needed to make this as good as it is. They truly come off as a married couple that is constantly bickering with one another.
The weirdest skill that Will Smith has, that he has shown off in multiple movies, is his ability to make his face look like he is having a stroke. When he is in extreme distress in a scene, his eyes do this thing, where it just looks like he is in serious pain. He has done it in many movies, and every time it gets me. He looks so good the vast majority of the time, then he makes the face, and it is like who is this guy!? Will Smith is a legend; I do not care about him hitting Chris Rock.
The rest of my movie watching week was mostly monopolized by Shudder. For June, they gathered a bunch of horror movies that mostly take place in the woods either as hiking or people living in secluded places, and The Watchers hit theaters this week, and it fit in perfectly to hiker horror movie marathon.
The Watchers mainly follows Mina, Dakota Fanning, who is on a work trip to deliver an exotic bird, but her GPS takes her along a dirt road in the woods, and then her car craps out on her, so she gets out, because she sees a sign, and when she tries to go back to her car, she cannot even find the road. While wandering through the woods, she sees an older lady, and she follows her back to this shelter, that is kind of like a studio apartment, but one whole wall is a two way mirror, so the “watchers” on the outside can observe them, like a TV show. There are two other people in the box with Mina and the old lady as well. The three of them seemed relatively resigned to their fate, because they had been there so long, but Mina brought a new energy, and she wanted out. It took months to gather all the data that they needed, but eventually they were ready to attempt an escape.
The creature design in this was solid. They were these long black slender creatures that only come out at night. They creep around, but they are also deceptively fast, and will crawl around on all fours when in pursuit. During the day, the people are basically trapped in the woods, because it is so hard to navigate, because everything looks so similar. Also if they do not make it back by night, they are taken by the creatures, left to haunt the forest in perpetuity. The design of the safe house is cool. The giant mirror gives of a goldish reflection, and it creates a strong feeling of tension, because it is unknown what is beyond the glass in the darkness. The only problem is after the viewer experiences this a few times, it feels repetitive, and like we need to expand this now.
Sadly, once they finally make their escape, there is still like 20 minutes left. I could not believe it. They had a twist, which is fine, but it felt like everything had been wrapped up nicely, but then they took the hard right turn. It just felt like tonally it did not fit. This ultimately dropped it down from 3 stars to 2.5 stars. Overall, I did enjoy it, but there were a few aspects of it that needed a little beefing up, but this was Ishana Shyamalan’s first film, and I think she is only 24, so I would count this as an impressive debut, and I am excited to see what she comes out with in the future.
There were some decent hiking horror movies that I watched this week as well. The stand outs were Hunter Hunter and Valhalla Rising. Hunter Hunter was a slow burn about a “wolf” on a killing spree, but it finished with an incredible flair that will stick with you! Valhalla was also mostly slow, but when it wanted to be, it was vicious. There was some brutal violence being enacted in this one, but they also took the time to make it look beautiful. There is something about these bad nature horrors that I love. Nothing better than taking one of my favorite places and making it scary!
I would also be remiss if I did not mention Hit Man, which hit Netflix last Friday. It was such a fun watch. It is a mix of romance and crime, and it is blended so well. It is also stressful, because there are plenty of lies being thrown around, and at some point, you know the truth is going to come out. Glen Powell plays many different roles as an undercover cop, and he is a star, but it is funny, because the person who he was supposed to be was the one that I found least believable. His love interest, Adria Arjona, was also great. Their chemistry was off the charts, and it made for a very believable love story.
All in all, it was a decent movie weekend, there was nothing that blew my socks off, but I had a ton of fun watching all of these movies, and the people in the theater with me seemed to be having a great time too. The man behind me at Bad Boys was absolutely eating it up! He laughed at everything! I think having fun at the movies is typically the most important part, especially in the summer. In the fall/winter, it is okay to have deeper emotional films, but when it is summer, it is nice to relax and enjoy the time in the air conditioning.
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