Kevin Boers

Yeah this film is what it is and is no more. If you are really desperate to go to the movies (and we were in Australia, lol, there is simply very little on here at the moment with the cinemas showing a lot of old movies) then go see it but I would tend to leave this one until it appears on your favourite streaming service. The plot of the film is thus: Jim Hanson comes across two Mexicans, a mother and her son (Rosa and Miguel), who are attempting to escape the Mexican cartel, and who are entering the US illegally. Jim reports it to Customs and Border Patrol (who are too busy at that time to attend fortunately for the movie). During this time members of the cartel see them and a small shoot out transpires during which the mother is shot and one of the cartel is killed who just happens to be the brother of the main cartel member in this movie. And revenge must be sought! As she is dying Rosa gives Jim an address in Chicago to take Miguel to and a bag full of cash taken from the cartel by Rosa's brother (which is why the cartel are chasing Rosa and Miguel) as the price (reward) of Jim taking Miguel to Chicago. Jim, whose property is about to be foreclosed on, agrees to take Miguel to Chicago for the cash and the film is about the trials and tribulations as they venture onwards to Chicago. Jim, apparently, does not own a mobile phone or a phone of any sort, as he does not want to be contacted and, instead of using the cash in the bag to purchase things on the way, uses his credit card (which, apparently, is OK by him and despite Jim being, apparently, in desperate financial circumstances appears to have an unlimited credit limit (I am surprised he even has a credit card)) to make those purchases and is, thus, traceable by those purchases and the cartel is able to follow Jim. Miguel, also fortunately for the film as Jim later finally cottons onto the fact that the cartel are tracing his credit card purchases, drops a map that Jim purchased earlier where Chicago is clearly marked that the cartel find and the cartel is now aware of their ultimate destination. It is an action adventure and, like I said, it does not pretend to be anything else and is 90 minutes or so of escapism of sorts. There are really no surprises or plot twists to keep you engaged, you will have to rely on the action. The cartel members freely kill for no necessary reason on their way to Chicago. I guess the writers did that to make the audience "hate" the notional bad guys. However, it is difficult to become emotionally engaged in the film and the film suffers as a result. I read through some of the reviews earlier and I am really surprised by the good reviews that this film has gotten. It really ain't that good.

This is a show worth seeing but has a huge hole and a number of other smaller plots holes in it that the audience is asked to ignore but is still worth watching all the same. The show opens with the lead character, Nasir Khan, who is Pakistani, taking his father's taxi to go to a party (he could have gone a the party in a number of different ways but let's leave that aside for the moment). During his travels he picks up Andrea Cornish, a 22 year old female, who gives him a drug and then takes him back to her place where she gives him more drugs, alcohol and has sex with him. Nasir becomes unconscious and ends up asleep at the kitchen table and does not know how he got there. When he wakes up he goes up to the bedroom (where they had sex) to get his clothes and sees Andrea dead stabbed 22 times. He then panics, gets his clothes (forgetting his jacket and keys) and runs out of the house. Realising that he has forgotten his keys, he breaks back into the house (presumably forgetting to close the front door but remembering to close the glass door) by breaking some glass, cuts himself on that glass, gets back into the house, gets his jacket and keys and gets in the taxi. He does not call police or 911. Driving around (presumably back home) he is picked up by police for making an illegal left turn. Police smell alcohol on him and detain him and intend to breath test him. However, Nasir breaking back into Andrea's residence was witnessed and that person calls 911. The officers who picked up Nasir get the call and put him in the car and attend the call. During this time it is realised that Nasir maybe a suspect and is eventually charged with the crime. However, he is not breath tested at any point. Whilst Nasir is held in prison, Jack Stone, an attorney who deals with mainly small crimes, sees Nasir in jail and seems to feel sorry for him. Asking around Jack believes that Nasir is in jail for a relatively minor crime and agrees to represent Nasir and only finds out later that he is suspected of murder. The series follows Nasir's trial and stay at Riker's Island. It is a brutal and frank view of what it is like in prison. It also deals with the race issue particularly as it relates to 9/11. It also deals with the costs of justice, that good legal representation is really only affordable by the rich, and the issue of retaining a possession (the taxi) until after the trail (and, in any case, maybe retained by the state) and the inability of the Nasir's father to earn a living as a result. And I think that this series has a sugary ending as these series tend to do but I will not give it away as it might spoil it. This is a very well written series and I enjoyed it immensely. But, as I said, it does have one huge hole in it which the audience is asked to ignore as it is not mentioned at all during the series. That hole is that you can not stab someone 22 times and not have all sorts of blood on your person and clothes. And no one bothers to mention this or enquire into it. I guess the explanation might be that he cleaned both the clothes and his person (how he did that whilst unconscious would be difficult to explain). So the series does not even attempt to explain this away given that I think it is unexplainable and hopes, desperately, that you do not see it. Having said that I do recommend watching it.

This film, as I am sure you have read elsewhere, is about a former Los Angeles detective who nows works in some hick Sheriff's office played by Denzel. During his time as a detective he investigated a serial killer but did not catch him and, due to that and another event which I will not mention so as to not spoil the plot, suffered a divorce and a heart attack and "retired" to the aforementioned Sheriff's office. Events lead him back to Los Angeles where the investigation of the serial killer has been taken over by another detective played by Rami Malek and, unbelievably, Rami lets Denzel assist him with the investigation. The film follows that investigation. Unfortunately this is a particularly poor written piece with plot holes a mile long (not the least of which is that Rami's character is not protective of the investigation, despite it being in the news, and allows Denzel to assist him). The film has elements of Seven in it but not the pathos, the great acting nor the engagement necessary for such filmes. For this film to work you have to understand all of the characters' view points and you just don't have any sympathy for the detectives. Only Jared Leto as the serial killer gets anywhere near a decent performance. I have seen it described as film noir but it isn't. This project must have looked good on paper but its execution is poor. I like Denzel, he is usually reliable and the films he does very watchable. I like Rami as well who did a good job with Mr Robot and Bohemian Rhapsody but he is poor in this one as well but they are not given much to work with. I would give this one is a big miss and let it arrive on your favourite streaming service.

When I saw this film come up on Netflix I was in two minds. One, I was not going to watch it because it had Adam Sandler in it and the only film I liked of his is Wedding Singer (and that maybe partly because Drew Barrymore is also in the film). The other thought was that it had a 92% Rotten Tomatoes rating and, maybe, this film might be his "Matthew McConaughey" (he was terrific in True Detective, it was when I could start taking Matthew as a serious actor) moment. I should have gone with the first thought, this was simply awful. Adam plays a gambling addict who is also a serial philander and the movie is, essentially, about the trials and tribulations of Adam juggling his various gambling debts. Also part of the plot Adam imports some opals from Ethiopia which he believes is worth in excess of a million dollars but is worth $200k at most. A famous basketball player, Kevin Garnett (played by Kevin who out acts Adam), sees it and holds on to the opals for a few days and he plays very well during those days. Naturally Kevin thinks that his is the result of the opals and he wants to buy it. This movie requires you to have a connection with Adam's character for it to work and Adam simply is unable to achieve that connection. Adam spends most of the movie constantly yelling, causing the other actors working with him to also yell and it is a continual yelling fest. Also he uses this fake voice (at least I think it is fake) that he seems to use a lot in his movies and it is hard to listen to. I couldn't feel any connection to the character and, in the end, couldn't care less what happens to him. And Adam's character shows little regard for those around him and the damage that he inflicts on them. There is a surreal moment in the movie where Kevin questions how Adam got the opals in the first place but then proceeds to buy them anyway! Don't waste your time with this one.