Red Sparrow is a 2018 spy-thriller film directed by Francis Lawrence who worked with Jennifer Lawrence (the star here) on a couple of the Hunger Games movies, but this is a very different beast. Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova (in, it has to be said, a not entirely convincing Russian accent), and Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenarts and Charlotte Rampling star as the film's secondary characters. This one is a pretty big departure from what Lawrence has done in the past, although it has to be said that she's making some pretty bold career choices. I'm not the first one to say that, and for a good reason: it's true. After last year's Mother! it appeared as if she was trying purposefully trying to appear in more "mature" films, and believe me, it doesn't get much more mature than Red Sparrow. The film plays out like one of those schlocky exploitation from the seventies, in that there's sexual violence, sex, violence, torture, and all manner o
Geostorm is a 2017 American disaster movie co-written, produced and directed by Dean Devlin. It stars Gerard Butler as an incredibly intelligent scientist who, when the world begins to be threatened by a series of environmental disasters, creates a machine that prevents the earth from being destroyed. However, when the machine is hacked by a mysterious person, Gerard Butler's character has to head into space to fix the machine with the help of a group of scientists.
Well, I've given the film its due. But all I can say about Geostorm is that it's not good. I've already mentioned the first flaw: Gerard Butler. As a scientist. Whoever the casting director was for this film should look for another line of work, because I didn't believe for one second that Gerard Butler was a scientist. This is a film with practically no redeemable features. The story makes no sense, the dialogue is laughably bad. Honestly, I was pretty in awe at just how terrible it is.
Imagine all of the ridiculous, campy action films you've ever seen. Now imagine the most ridiculous and campy of the lot and combine it with The Day After Tomorrow and Gravity - that's exactly what Geostorm is. It's noting but a mix of predictable plot points and big, dumb set pieces.
But that's the thing with Geostorm. Some films are terrible and tedious, but this isn't one of them. For a while, I was resisting the fact that I knew the filmmakers were trying to entertain me, but eventually I gave up. The low chuckles I was doing turned into full-blown belly laughs. I can't deny that I had fun watching it.
There's absolutely nothing original about the film. It's Gerard Butler doing what he does, then stopping every so often to reel off some jargon about computers or hackers or science, and then starting to do what he does again. All of that stuff is broken up by people in various parts of the world being turned into ice, or set on fire, or drowned.
Honestly, I don't know what else to say. Geostorm is a terrible film, but it's the best kind of terrible film. It starts off pretty dull, but by the end it's so brain-meltingly stupid you'll find yourself laughing at all of the inexplicable things that happen and the cheesy dialogue. I wouldn't go and see this in the cinema if I was you, but if you enjoy watching big dumb films with your friends and a couple of beers this film is perfect for that. It almost makes me want to create a new review score designed specifically for films that somehow transcend the possibility for reviewing.
Comments
Post a Comment