Thomas Kretschmann – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: So, are we looking for what the Rock is cooking?

Vampire Bat: No, we are not. We will just watch the movie and come back to the castle.

Vampire Owl: But I am hungry. As hungry as a werewolf on an indefinite hunger strike during a full moon night.

Vampire Bat: When he say so, it doesn’t really mean that.

Vampire Owl: So, he doesn’t cook?

Vampire Bat: Whether he cooks or not, we are not going to have that.

Vampire Owl: So, it is not available with the movie. You mean to say that there is no offer.

Vampire Bat: No, it is not. We have to buy our own food with money from our pockets.

Vampire Owl: And unfortunately, we have a cashless vampire economy.

Vampire Bat: But we have the food here.

[Gets three cups of masala tea with tapioca chips].

What is the movie about? :: At a big event, the school’s most popular student and star athlete Calvin Joyner (Kevin Hart) is being honored by the students and teachers. At the same time, a bully, Trevor Olson (Jason Bateman) and his arrogant friends grab the overweight student Robbie Wierdicht (Dwayne Johnson) from the gym shower and throw him into the centre of the event to humiliate him. With only Calvin and his girlfriend, Maggie Johnson (Danielle Nicolet) showing some sympathy to him, Robbie disappears from the school never to be heard about again for a long time. Many years later, Calvin is married to Robbie and is working as a forensic accountant. With both of them working, and spending almost no good time together, they feel that their marriage is in trouble, and Calvin is also disappointed with his work itself, finding it dull and boring.

So, what happens next? :: While spending his boring time at work and being highly displeased that people who are not that good as him are getting promotions and raise, Calvin receives a friend request on Facebook from a man named Bob Stone – even if he can’t figure out who this man is, he just accepts the request. The man on the other side reveals that he is the old schoolmate Robbie who had disappeared long ago, and asks for a meeting. As they meet, the two are surprised to see that the situation has gone upside down with the man who was supposed to be a big success is caught in a job he doesn’t like, and the one who was humiliated and considered to be good for nothing is now a muscular man with a lot of confidence and happiness – plus he is more than that. Calvin will know more about it when a group of CIA agents led by Pamela Harris (Amy Ryan) arrive at his house – it is the time to save the world, can it be done?

The defence of Central Intelligence :: There is fun guaranteed with Central Intelligence as the two of the leading actors and situations continue to bring the laughter to us, and the action is also stylish from The Rock. There is one thing that we can be thankful about more than anything else, and it is that this one doesn’t go on to be like that terrible, third-rate movie called Kingsman: Secret Service which was the worst comedy movie which we had the chance to watch in such a long time – so many people have pretended to like it just because critics have felt something in the vulgar and violent presence in the movie, but nobody here is falling for that. Here in this movie, we have the fun that we can relate to, and with The Rock punching not just through the walls, but also through our need for comedy, there is the strength of Central Intelligence that gets magnified with its cast. It is the same reason why the movie holds things together even when it is going through a lazy path in between.

The claws of flaw :: One has to feel that with more situations added, Central Intelligence could have been a lot more fun, and might have even become the funniest movie in a long time. The plot also doesn’t hold on strong enough, with a climax that doesn’t go on to create that much of big effect with its twists or the comedy – the big twist could have been done better, but this one refuses to do the same. We do feel this idea is done too many times before, and this one needed the special ingredient within. There are jokes that are rather repetitive, and some of them are not really funny for the common man or the thoughtful ones – the presence of such jokes could have been avoided to fill up with those more quality ones. We remember the movie The Rundown which was also called Welcome to the Jungle – with The Rock himself teaming up with Seann William Scott, that was actually more fun.

Performers of the soul :: The Rock stays at the centre of this one too, bringing all fun right to us – Dwayne Johnson plays this role bringing so much entertainment to us. Always the entertainer, whether it is the WWE where he is one of my all-time favourite wrestlers with the Undertaker and Triple H, or even in the movies like Hercules or the Fast and Furious series, there is no exception on his part here. He scores not just with the comedy, but also with those action sequences. Kevin Hart becomes the right partner for him with all the fun around. Their combination is so much fun that, they provide almost everything that this movie needs – it is only until the two meet that you have to wait, and everything begins right there, as you would expect. Aaron Paul who is a lot remembered for Need For Speed, once again has a nice role to do which seemed to be so simple for him. Amy Ryan nicely fits in as the agent too.

How it finishes :: Along with the entertainment, there is a strong message against bullying in Central Intelligence. It shows how someone who was bullied and considered to be among the worst students in all ways, having the least chance to succeed, get to be the person that nobody expected him to be. The same works the other way too, with the big success story of schools and colleges being not meeting the expectations. Well, you gain nothing by underestimating or overestimating people, as none of them are the same. One day or the other, each of us have to face the world in our own ways, and with what we want being different in each case, the judgment that people pass on us won’t be the right one. Everyone is different, and all of us have our own success stories. It is up-to the so called society to accept us as what we are.

Release date: 17th June 2016
Running time: 107 minutes
Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Starring: Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), Kevin Hart, Amy Ryan, Aaron Paul, Danielle Nicolet, Jason Bateman, Dilan Boyack, Timothy John Smith, Megan Park, Ryan Hansen, Thomas Kretschmann, Phil Reeves, Kumail Nanjiani, Slaine, Melissa McCarthy (cameo)

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Vampire Owl: It has been a long time since I last played this game. I am having heavy Hitman nostalgia.

Vampire Bat: It is not just about this game, but a lot more. Our gaming life has been dead for very long.

Vampire Owl: I will just consider this as a video game then. May be it is actually so, and it could be the reason why there are so many negative reviews on this movie.

Vampire Bat: It is not really surprising. Some people will give very high ratings to violent movies when it is directed a particular person, for absolutely no reason. The content is not important for them there. But we will see Hitman: Agent 47 as it is really supposed to be watched. We owe that much to our gaming past.

[Gets the tickets].

✠ This was recently posted by me at Kiagia.com: http://kiagia.com/index.php/current-film-releases-movie/1078-hitman-movie-review.html

Hitman is a name which is heard a lot among the gaming circles, and the love for this assassin goes back to the year 2000 when Hitman: Codename 47, the first game of the Hitman video game franchise, from IO Interactive released. Among the PC games, this had a special status, and one can proudly accept that this is something which changed the future of stealth-based action games. The sequels including Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money were all much talked about titles in the gaming world, and with more in the shops and a new title coming up for the gamers, another movie based on the video game was inevitable.

Dr. Peter Litvenko (Ciarán Hinds) is the man behind a secret laboratory experiment which involved the creation of perfect assassins who never felt any remorse, fear or love, and had highly exaggerated speed, stamina, strength and intelligence which made them the perfect killing machines. But realizing the fact that he was doing something wrong, he abandons the idea and idea and disappears, leaving very powerful people on his trail. His daughter Katia (Hannah Ware) is also on the run, hiding somewhere in Berlin according to the last information. Many organizations have tried to recreate the idea and couldn’t succeed; one of them called Syndicate International decides to find the girl and get to the father at any cost.

As ICA (International Contracts Agency) decides to stop the Syndicate from getting its hands on the program, Agent 47 is contacted by his contact Diana (Angela Baby) and is provided with two names to terminate. Katia who has some strange visions and special sensory skills is searching for her father while she is approached by a man called John Smith (Zachary Quinto) who offers her protection against people who are trying to kill her. Meanwhile, Agent 47 finds and approaches her, but gets into a gunfight with John while Katia runs away. But there will be more to it than what meets the eye as the people of the Syndicate won’t rest until they get what they want.

The success of this movie will depend on what each viewer expects from a flick like this – if it is a cent percent adaptation of the game which is expected, they are going to be disappointed. There is not much of a stealth mode for this protagonist as in the game. But when we look at this from another side, isn’t a lot of action also possible in the Hitman games? The second game of the franchise actually had a lot of situations where one could just go through the enemies and the character shoots people without trying that much of stealth. Our protagonist has those special skills for big action too, and he has used them very well here – it is just that things are done rather straight for a change.

This seems to have a series of incidents which follow the great assassinations of Agent 47, as one the villains do say that he is a big fan of the protagonist’s work. So, the man has already had his shares of silent assassinations, and so if we are looking for a stealth mode, we should rather ask for a prequel rather than keep saying that Agent 47 works in shadows and doesn’t come out as an action hero. Here, Hitman is immersed in full action, and what the viewers need to do is to enjoy the wonderful sequences rather than keep complaining about it. About the story, it is surely working well, and has a number of similarities to the first game of the franchise.

Even though there is not much from the rest, Rupert Friend and Hannah Ware do leave a nice impact in this movie. Hitman: Agent 47 uses the action sequences to some great advantage, and sets up well for both the prequel and the sequel, even though one still has to doubt the possibility for the same. There is a lot of style in the way in which the action sequences are taken, and the blood and gore also maintains that quality. What one has to wonder about here is if people only care about gore when some directors use it? Stylish violence is not something that is particularly booked for a few people. Hitman: Agent 47 uses it here, and you have to admit that it is worthy.

Hitman: Agent 47 might be in no way that much interesting for everyone. But what it provides the gamers is an opportunity to see one of the most loved game characters on the big screen, despite the liberties which the movie has taken while doing full justice to the action side. This is not the movie which you need to think about a lot and compare with other titles and the games themselves, but enjoy it as the action-adventure that it has brought to the viewers. You might not remember the story for a long time, but the way of recreating the video game is worth it; there is something about a different take on the same subject, right?

Release date: 4th September 2015 (India); 21st August 2015 (USA)
Running time: 96 minutes
Directed by: Aleksander Bach
Starring: Rupert Friend, Hannah Ware, Zachary Quinto, Ciarán Hinds, Thomas Kretschmann, Angela Baby, Dan Bakkedahl, Emilio Rivera, Rolf Kanies, Jerry Hoffmann