When there is haze out there, everyone prefer to stay indoor. Now everyone is happy that the haze is no more due to the change in wind direction and frequent downpour in recent days. No more haze but comes the rain. Still not a good environment to hang out since the floors are all wet and traffic congestion are more serious during rain. So, whatever happening outside, I would still choose to stay indoor preferably. And my time in my home would be dedicated to movies as usual. This week, I watched two more movies, and they are both action films.
First is ‘Hitman: Agent 47’. It tells about an assassin who teams up with a woman to help her find her father. Her father is the only scientist successful on enhancing strength, intelligence and reflexes to human but with side effect; inability to feel emotions like pain, guilt, fear and love. Being wanted by a criminal organization to create more of these humans, the assassin named Agent 47 must help the woman to find her father first. The film starred Rupert Friend, Hannah Ware, Zachary Quinto, Ciaran Hinds, Thomas Kretschmann, Angelababy, etc. Yes…Hong Kong’s Angelababy is here for a minor role. Another attempt to simply put a Chinese celebrity into a Hollywood movie for the so-called objective of reaching out to Chinese audiences. Hmm…The film is also partly shot in Singapore.
The film is generally okay. It comes with extremely fast-paced action sequences which are good as expected. However, the film lacks something that I don’t know how to describe. I’m quite entertained with the actions and the performances by the cast, but that’s it. Nothing more. It still feels empty somewhere maybe due to non-surprising plot, insufficient characters’ development, and not much up and down going on possibly. Anyway, I still have fun watching it, but perhaps after a month or two, I would forget most parts of this movie. Nothing special, nothing extraordinary…just a typical fun action movie that is good to get over my Monday and Tuesday nights. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Hitman: Agent 47’ a total of 7.0.
Next up is another action movie, ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’. U.N.C.L.E. here means United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Well, this is not important as it is only revealed to us by the end of the movie. The film starred Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Hugh Grant, etc. Sets in the early 1960s, American agent Napoleon Solo and Russian agent Illya Kuryakin participate in a joint mission against a mysterious criminal organization, which is working to proliferate nuclear weapons. They worked with a woman whom her father is a scientist and is forced to create nuclear weapon for the criminal organization. Somehow, I find that this plot is a bit identical to ‘Hitman: Agent 47’ that I have finished writing about. It’s about working with the daughter of a scientist again. Same approach. Hollywood is running out of ideas again.
However, ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ stood out than the former because the way the scenes are presented is slightly more interesting. Eventhough this film comes with lesser action sequences compared to Hitman, but it delivered on a nicely developed story accompanied with some great hilarious moments which you wouldn’t expect from the combination of Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer, the two very bulky, strong and serious-looking men. How can you believe that they are good in delivering funny scenes too, not from awkward or exaggerated gestures, but from brilliant dialogues and tiny expressions between their interaction in this movie. The musical scores are also catchy and nicely done. This movie is a solid one that does not depend mostly on actions but rather on the way of presentation to get the audiences’ attention till the end of the story. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ a total of 7.4. If both of these two movies that I have watched this week have their sequel, then I would be more anticipated for ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’s sequel. That’s the difference.
(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)
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