Nope, didn’t do Star Wars 😀
Both our movies this week have stellar casts, so we’ll start with Phil’s Retro Thursday movie which stars John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Sam Shepherd, Halle Berry, and Don Cheadle, and was directed by Dominic Sena. Swordfish (2001) is a crime thriller, and we were rewinding to see the opening sequence again within 5 minutes of the start! An explosion in slow-motion with the camera sweeping around so you get to see people, cars and bits of building flying in great detail. For all that this isn’t really a shoot’em up action movie, and there is very little blood and guts in it. The plot revolves around Jackman’s character, Stanley Jobson, a paroled computer/cyber hacker who isn’t allowed to use the internet, and also has a restraining order put on him by his wife, preventing him from seeing his little girl. The fabulously named Andrea Donna De Matteo plays the wife, Melissa with seedy relish as she is an alcoholic part-time porn star. Halle Berry as Ginger Knowles recruits Stanley to work for Gabriel Shear (Travolta) and produce a computer virus, ‘hydra’, to hack into a government slush fund and steal $9 1/2 billion out of which Jackman will be paid $10 million which will sort his problems out and enable him to afford a lawyer to help get his daughter back. Don Cheadle is an FBI agent who is on to Stanley but uses him to get to Gabriel, who turns out to be an operative for Senator Reisman, (Shepherd) who oversees Black Cell, a clandestine organisation set up by J.Edgar Hoover to eliminate terrorists who threaten the USA. As always, no spoilers so I’ll leave it there. Well, we enjoyed it, even after 20 years the explosion scenes were well done, and the plot had a few twists in it but was easy to follow. The actors were not stretched here, but Jackman and Berry were nice to look at, apparently Berry got a $500,000 sweetener on top of her $2 million salary for getting her tits oot for the lads in a completely gratuitous scene, a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do I suppose. Travolta deservedly won a Golden Raspberry award for worst actor 🤣 but it didn’t matter. The critics panned it, but it still did well at the box office. Best bits- the opening explosion, and the TVR car chase.
My Saturday Night Fun movie was Run All Night (2015), on Netflix now, which I wouldn’t have chosen if I hadn’t read Keith’s review of it. Again the cast held promise, Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, and Joel Kinnaman are the main stars and it was directed by Jaume Collet-Sera, who is making a habit of directing Neeson in action movies. And Run All Night is definitely a full on action movie. Taking place in New York over one night, the plot revolves around Neeson’s character Jimmy Conlon having to save his son Mike (Kinnaman) from being killed by the mob headed up by Shawn Maguire (Harris). You could be forgiven now for thinking ‘oh no another ‘Taken” ‘ but you’d be wrong, as Jimmy is a down and out ex-mob assassin, who once worked for Maguire, and his nickname ‘The Gravedigger’ indicates his success in that sphere. Mike has disowned him after a turbulent childhood and became a chauffeur and retired professional boxer who mentors at-risk kids at the local gym. Maguire’s son Danny (Boyd Holbrook) is an upstart entrepreneur in the underworld and murders an Albanian drug dealer and his bodyguards, whomst Mike had taken to Danny’s place. Mike witnesses Danny killing one of the henchmen who had escaped and was on his way back to Mike’s limo. Unfortunately Danny knows Mike saw him, and in spite of his Dad’s instructions to the contrary, goes off to get rid of Mike. That’s the stoppage point for spoilers. For all that it is an action movie, the director intersperses the action with emotional scenes between Jimmy and Mike, and both Neeson and Kinnaman do these really well, so that you care about the outcome for both of them. Because Maguire and Jimmy have a long history together, there is a lot involved in their relationship as well and that too is addressed, Ed Harris spot on as the steely eyed vengeful Maguire. Vincent D’Onofrio plays a non-corrupt cop (there are a few corrupt ones working for Maguire) who wants to put Jimmy behind bars from the homicides he’s got away with. So, much more to this than the ‘action’ genre it’s labelled with. The soundtrack is cool, and Collett-Sera directs his stars between action and acting with a smooth touch.
Fraggle's Otherverse 
Woo Hoo! Glad you enjoyed Run All Night. It’s a good Neeson action-thriller and like you said, what a cast! I love Ed Harris.
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He is so watchable!
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‘Swordfish’ has that amazing sequence you mention. That made me forgive everything else bad about it, and I bought it on DVD too! It might surprise you to hear that I loved it! I haven’t heard of the Neeson one, but would definitely watch it on telly.
Cheers, Pete.
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Glad you liked Swordfish too, Phil has the DVD of it as well. Run All Night definitely worth a watch, if you still have Netflix it’s on there.
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Still got it, but often forget to watch it. 🙂 Not been looking at the telly so much lately, as Julie has been watching ghost hunters and medical programmes on a loop! But I have watched Killing Eve of course, and even the new version of Van der Valk. 🙂 Plus the last ever episode of ‘Homeland’ was fantastic!
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We watched that last night, so sad it won’t be on anymore, but a cracking last episode, it didn’t disappoint!
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One of the best things on TV in years. I love how they literally predicted real events that actually happened not long after. Choosing to leave Carrie in Russia as Sol’s new spy was a genius twist too.
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Sadly films seem to be out of reach at the moment, unless i watch them in two parts, which is a far from perfect viweing experiance.
You and Pete have got me excited to watch Homeland now 🙂 I have season 1 in my library and I have just finished Britannia (I think you recommended that one? Very good) I can just about manage an hour of viewing with a sleeping child in my arms 🙂
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I didn’t care for Brittania so not recommended by me, glad you enjoyed it though! Homeland was the best thing on TV.
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It took some getting into, but past the excessive gore it became quite funny, something that they exploited more in season 2.
As for Homeland, I watched episode 1 last night and it so nearly turned into al all nighter! I’m hooked already, hoping the kids go to sleep early tonight 🙂
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We are bereft without it so going to do the last 4 seasons again 😊 (it gets really good from then!)
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I just looked, 8 seasons, I’m good till xmas 🙂
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Sorted! 😊
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Two more films I’m never going to watch, although I do like Ed Harris and Hugh Jackman.
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Atleast you’ll have a comprehensive list of which films to avoid! Cheers April 🙂 (Hugh Jackman looked very nice:) )
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I have to confess that it’s his looks that appeal rather than his acting ability :-). It’s the other way round with Ed Harris.
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I’m not a John Travolta fan, but I did see Swordfish and thought it was pretty good except for him. And after reading your review of Run All Night, I really want to see it, but it’s not on U.S. Netflix.😩
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Aw, bummer! I wish our Netflixes wewre the same!! It’s relly annoying when the US version has something we don’t and vice versa!
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Ha! That was exactly my thought when I read the title, Fraggle. I think the “Fourth” (and the Force too) was with you anyway. 😀 I haven’t seen either of these. Action movies used to be my favorite. But as a sensitivity to noise, and then anxiety took over, I look for things that are quiet, but still interesting — I gravitate to “procedurals.” Swordfish sounds more interesting than I thought when it was released. The opening sounds like terrific cinematography. I always loved Liam Neeson… sigh…
Have a wonderful weekend. Hugs on the wing!
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Cheers Teagan!
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Saw Swordfish a while back but not the Neeson pic so I’ll take a look. Just cos they’re panned doesn’t mean they’re not fun. I’ve heard that John Malkovich hates his role in Con Air but Cyrus the Virus is his best work!
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True, a good many movies I’ve liked have been panned!
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