Film Review - Black Widow (2021)

 Black Widow is the first Marvel Studios movie in cinemas since Spiderman: Far From Home in July of 2019 having been delayed 15 months due to the pandemic and Scarlett Johansson finally gets a solo movie as the Black Widow character which takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War as Natasha goes on the run and finds her sister Yelena (Florence Pugh) and her parents (Rachel Weisz and David Harbour) as whispers emerge of more Black Widow spies around the world as well as the dangerous Taskmaster who has been ordered to find and kill Natasha and her family.

 

Black Widow was a film I had mixed hopes for mainly due to the character’s death in Avengers: Endgame and also a sense that this film was way too late as I felt it should’ve been made in Phase 2 of the MCU which was everything from Iron Man 3 to the first Ant Man film but here we are 15 months after its initial April 2020 release date and was it worth the wait.

 

Well yes and no, the first two thirds of this movie I thought were quite good, it felt a lot like a Jason Bourne film with its grounded action, European locations and spy thriller plot that while I had my guard up for the most part it did win me over and I did enjoy myself and that really comes down to the chemistry between Johansson and Pugh who work really well together and Pugh is a born movie star and it’s a real pity that she couldn’t have had that year of 2020 to really build on her rise in 2019 but that’s a pandemic for you.

 

As for Rachel Weisz she is okay in her role but she doesn’t really have any kind of meaningful story arc in the film but the show stealer for me was David Harbour as the Red Guardian who was said to be Russia’s answer to Captain America and he is clearly having a great time in this role and he reminded me a lot of John Goodman and the little action figure we see of the character in the film I really loved as well.

 

But as good as the first two thirds of this movie are the third act is not and it feels like you go from this very grounded spy movie to a traditional Marvel Studios movie where there’s big things and lame villains AGAIN! Yes sadly it seems Marvel Studios has not learnt from how successful Thanos was in the last 2 Avengers movies and reverted back to type with giving us lame villains, Taskmaster was said to be studying all of the Avengers and how they fight yet we barely see that in the film and there were golden opportunities to show that off particularly when he fights the Red Guardian in the climax he could’ve channelled the Hulk and given us an awesome battle but instead nothing and Taskmaster as a character as well as his master just feel like their there for a third act plot twist.

 

And it is not GOOD ENOUGH ANYMORE!!!!! I’m sorry but Marvel Studios is the number one movie franchise in show business right now, they have rewritten the rule book and it has been a big reason a magnificent movie studio in 20^th Century Fox which had wonderfully rich and in depth library of films was allowed to burn to the ground because of the supposed crime of having Marvel characters in their library and STILL they cannot do the bare minimum and give us a great villain and I know I have gone on about this a lot but a great villain makes these movies more than the action, the heroes and the humour be something you go back to again and again.

 

And If Zack Snyder of all people a man whose DC vision left a sour taste in a lot of fans mouths can see that mistake and fix it with his take on Steppenwolf in his cut of Justice League surely it is not beyond the top franchise in movies to do the exact same thing going forward after this film because I am sick to death of it and I’m over it.

 

And so that was Black Widow which has a great first two thirds and a weak third act and weak villains once again, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021)

 The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is the sequel to the 2017 film The Hitman’s Bodyguard and Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson return for this sequel which sees them team up with Kincaid’s wife (Salma Hayek) to take on a ruthless businessman (Antonio Banderas) who wants to burn down Europe as revenge for imposing sanctions on Greece but the hitman, his bodyguard and the Hitman’s Wife will fight him with guns blazing.

 

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard delivers pretty much what I expected the film to do, be a fun action comedy with lots of violence, swearing and crazy plots not unlike the Fast and Furious films have recently been doing in terms of using technology to wreak havoc on the world and I had fun with all of those elements.

 

And that is really down to the cast, Ryan Reynolds (the good Canadian kid) and Samuel L Jackson have good chemistry and they play off each other very well as the guns and quips go off either around them or because of them, Antonio Banderas is good fun as the villain though I was a little disappointed he didn’t kill anyone with a sword in this movie given his work in the Mask of Zorro (a very underrated film.)

 

But the show stealer here is Salma Hayek who is completely unhinged the entire time she is on screen and turns full psychopath in her action scenes and it’s great though at times she gets a little too loud when she is yelling at the rest of the cast though I must also say the waste of Richard E Grant in this movie is something I cannot comprehend, when I saw his name in the credits I thought “Great” as I have loved his movie Jack and Sarah recently plus he was the one person who seemed to enjoy themselves in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019 but he has one scene and that’s it and it felt like for me a big waste.

 

And so that was the Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard and it’s fine for what it is, a fun action comedy with a good villain, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - In the Heights (2021)

In the Heights is a new musical based off of the stage show by Lin Manuel-Miranda who also contributes the songs for this movie and has a small role as a street vendor, the tale is of Washington Heights a suburb of Manhattan and Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) who pines for the beautiful Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) who yearns to be a fashion designer meanwhile Benny (Corey Hawkins) yearns for Nina (Leslie Grace) who is coming home from Stanford and to her father (Jimmy Smits) and many songs will be sung of these Heights.

 

In the Heights is a very enjoyable musical that is absolutely worth seeing on the big screen with a great sound system and first off, the opening number is terrific, so lush and catchy and does a great job introducing the cast and their goals and hopes and dreams in the film and to see some of the young kids enjoying the musical numbers in the cinema made me smile in a big way.

 

Some of the other musical numbers are pretty good as well, one near the end of the film where 2 of the characters are dancing on a building like the Lionel Ritchie music clip Dancing on the Ceiling and another in a local pool are great on a big wide screen and loud sound (this would’ve been a great experience in one of those Dolby Atmos sessions.)

 

As for the performances they are for the most part very good, Hawkins builds on the good work he did in Straight Outta Compton (an underrated film from 2015) while Ramos is very good as the central lead who runs the corner store and dreams of going back to the Dominican Republic and Jimmy Smits is a lot of fun here, I mainly remember him for more serious roles as well as Bail Organa from the Star Wars prequels.

 

My favorite person in the cast however was Melissa Barrera as Vanessa, whenever she was on screen I kept thinking “She should’ve been Princess Jasmine in that live action Aladdin film” as she looked like how I felt a live action Jasmine should look like she was beautiful and she could sing (I like Naomi Scott as an actress but I didn’t care for her Jasmine) and she had that Middle Eastern look about her as well, I really hope I get to see more of her in future movies as she’s a great screen presence.

 

And so that was In the Heights and if you can get to it on the big screen do it, it’s a great little musical that deserves to be seen in the cinema with a great sound system, watching it at home will not be the same at all, 4 out of 5.