Kim J

This movie could have been a lot better. The premise was actually a good idea. Brad Pitt and George Clooney’s interaction was nowhere near what I was expecting given that they have been friendly for a long time. In their normal, non professional lives they seem to have a great banter and both of them are funny. So why didn’t that closeness show up on the screen? There were a few moments that were great but mostly it seemed Brad’s character mumbled a bit too much and some of the jokes weren’t that funny. The dialogue was not great and when the big reveal happens at the end it goes by so quickly that you’re left with questions along the lines of “what did he say” and, “how did they come up with that?”. Maybe a few more clues along the way could have helped. It had good action but one scene just dragged out way too long. It’s probably mostly the fault of the director and perhaps the editor and writer. Brad and George seem to do the best they can with the material provided. Also, these people who are bringing up politics are being dumb. It’s the world we live in now where people literally hate anyone who disagrees with their own personal political views and that’s just a shame. To judge a person on their opinions about politics will keep you from knowing some great folks and limit your friendships to people who don’t make you think. People complain and say a celebrity “used their platform” to make political statements. That’s ridiculous. Everybody has a right to their own opinions. We can voice them if we want even if we are a celebrity. I’ve never heard of a single person who said they were going to vote for someone because an actor or other celebrity was endorsing them. It’s not George Clooney’s fault that people listen to what he says. He’s famous; people pay attention to celebrities. Voicing your opinion is not the same as going out actively pushing people to vote how you want them to. If you ignore or hate people who are different than you, you will not be challenged in your life by others and will stop learning and growing and will stagnate.

It’s always fun to watch Jason Statham beat people up and he certainly beats up a lot of them in this movie including the ones we love to hate. He is basically the same guy he is in every other movie he’s in. Soft spoken and carries a big kick. Josh Hutcherson is very believable as a sleazy crook and Jeremy Irons is always good in whatever he does. Emmy Raver-Lampman does a semi decent job of portraying an FBI agent but the fact that they have her wearing fashion combat boots and culottes to the weekend beach mansion of the POTUS while on the job is just stupid. There are multiple situations where you have to be able to suspend your sense of disbelief for this movie to work however all the combat scenes are choreographed well and watching the bad guys get obliterated always makes us happy. I had to give it a 4 because there is no 3 1/2. One note: the people running the call centers who cheat everyone out of their hard earned cash are a blatant obvious rip off of Leo DiCaprio in Wolf of Wall Street. I don’t know if they were told to play it like that or they came up with the idea themselves while “creating” their characters but they were a poor substitute for DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort.