HARDCORE HENRY

The best action movie of 2017! Never seen anything like it. 

Starts off slow but then zips along at breakneck pace. What's superb is the point of view action, I've never before seen action like this, and it does look all so real. 

It's like a hi-tech game and we see it from the point of view of the silent and violent protagonist as he goes about trying to save his wife from the super powerful villains. The story per se is nothing to write much about because it's all about the hardcore action. 

A warning here - it's violent and all so real. Another grudge, it's too fast, no time for the audience to catch up and get a hang of what's going on. No empathy for the protagonist. I didn't care much about anyone on screen, yet I enjoyed the action and thus forgave everything. 

This is a path breaking film made by Russians and I'm sure the director will be a big shot soon. Everything here was hardcore. What's more, it's not a big budget film! Now go figure that out if you can. Unbelievable stuff this.   

HARDCORE HENRY

DARK MATTER

This started off with a bang, right from the first page it zipped along at a brisk pace... But then around 20% into the novel, it started to lose momentum when the long descriptions started and the situations began repeating themselves. The protagonist takes more time to understand his predicament than the reader. I found myself saying, don't you understand where you are, and what's happening you simple, weak man? 

Frankly, the lead character was a bit of a sap, there are earthshattering events happening, different options, can lead to different outcomes. There is danger to many, maybe even to humanity itself, but the poor protagonist only wants to go to his home to his lovely wife and his kid. Boo hoo. In spite of everything, the only thing at stake here for him is his family life! Boo hoo. 

And then the story starts to go into bizarre territory as if the writer didn't know how to drag it along, he too had no idea what was happening. Remember Inception? 

The story had left the reader behind, and it didn't make sense at all. Quite frankly it was highly stupid if it didn't seem so highly scientific and intelligent. This is something that Hollywood does very well, it makes even the stupid seem intelligent by throwing a lot of science at you, and we the poor reader and audience feel, ohh boy, that scientific, then it's bound to be so clever that I can't understand it, so let me just accept it as a fact. But then they do go overboard, leaving logical readers like me way, way behind.

And in the end I didn't really care about it. Yawn. Well begun is half done, but that's just about it, it's just half done. Yet, it is an interesting read because of the concept and the broad storyline. Could have been much, much better.

DARK MATTER

NIGHT SCHOOL - JACK REACHER BY LEE CHILD

Not as good as other Jack Reacher books... It's about a Davy Crocket or some such small nuclear bomb thingy that is as powerful as the one dropped on Hiroshima but is small enough to be carried about... and ten of such bombs are missing and have fallen in the wrong hands... the world is in danger. That's some good premise... but then the ending isn't as exciting as the set up and the plot.

And I must say things are getting really easy for Jack Reacher to do. Fight ten men - done! Solve impossible like case - done! Catch the bad guy in a foreign land - done, done, done!

Others just aren't clever or strong enough when they cross paths with Jack Reacher. 

And another major grouse - why do all characters talk in the same manner, analysing-reanalysing everything? The language, manner of talking is the same for all characters.

Also the love making is too predictable, too expected. The moment a woman walks into the story and I say BAM, he's going to bang her in the next 100 pages or my name isn't what it is.

Jack Reacher needs to be in danger and shouldn't get laid so easily, some unpredictability needed... or else it's just getting too bloody easy, even if the plots are still unique.

Don't make Jack Reacher a combination of Superman and Sherlock combined... make him normal, I say... 

Other than that, I love the earlier Jack Reacher books, some more than others, but on the whole Jack Reacher is the best there is in today's world. Keep him that way. Don't be lazy. 

Unknown

There are a few more unknown movies named Unknown. A big, more known Unknown was Liam Neeson's 2011 movie which is I think is better known than this 2006 one. Liam Neeson's Unknown was good but in my opinion this one was more gripping, and slightly more believable and better and had a better twist in the end. Although both are a bit out there as far as the plot is concerned, this is more gripping. 

This Unknown is truly a locked room mystery. Limited location, budget and characters. 

It begins with 5 people waking up in a warehouse and not remembering anything about who they are or how they got there. All they know is they are trapped, there is no way to communicate with the outside world, except for a phone that rings occasionally with instructions for one of them, because there is a killer amongst them!

To remain alive they have to find out who they are, what they are doing there, and who amongst them is the criminal and who is victim.

So they begin to talk and work out things, and as they explore their surroundings and find out more about each other, they realize they are in terrible danger because someone is coming there for them. They have to work out who is bad and who is good and they don't have all the time in the world. 

Gripping stuff all of this, although it may require you to suspend disbelief a bit. Just go with what is happening and enjoy the ride as long as it lasts.

And by the way, there are a few twists in the end! Completely unexpected. It impressed some people in Bollywood so much that they totally ripped it off and made a terrible carbon copy of the film - Acid Factory. But if the copy is all messed up, blame the copier and not the original? Right? Because if it's being copied, then it must be good. And I believe it was. Check it out for yourself.   

Unknown

Traitor

The question one keeps on asking through the entire movie is - is the protagonist a traitor or not?

The movie starts with a US citizen Samir Horn (Don Cheadle) in the Middle East selling bomb detonators to Islamic radicals (Traitor!). He is arrested and thrown into prison where he befriends a dangerous man who escapes taking Don along him (Traitor, again!).

Don is taken into the belly of the terrorism beast, where he meets the big players and becomes an integral part of a massive attack on US (Traitor, yet again). 

But then we find out Don Cheadle is a former US soldier (Traitor or not?), but he is also a devout Muslim (hence the suspicion - how can a devout Muslim be a soldier loyal to US? Aren't those two the opposite ends of the spectrum? Traitor!). 

We also find out he is working deep undercover for an American agency (Not Traitor!), but he is also with the terrorists now and has taken part in a vicious terrorist attack (he has bombed an embassy and has killed some innocent people). He is a terrorist now! 100% pure, unadulterated, genuine, without a doubt Traitor!) 

And as the movie zips (and zags) along you will see that things keep on changing and he is not what he seems to be! Or is he exactly what he seems to be? Confused? Watch Traitor and find out for yourself.

  

As his own men start suspecting him one doesn't really know which side he is leaning towards - is he a terrorist or is he still a spy? Is he feeling betrayed and hunted by the own agency? And if he is still a spy how can he stop the massive attack the terrorists have planned now? 

Traitor is a taut thriller that grabs you from the get go. Quite like Eye In The Sky this is an edge of the seat stuff. A thriller, spy, drama that's quite remarkable and the ending is quite ingenious and unique. A must watch. 

Traitor