Double Feature on my PC tonight:
Red Sparrow - I wanted to see it based on the trailers and feedback in here. I wasn't disappointed. More Jennifer Lawrence skin than I've gotten from other films
, decent spy film where you could wonder which side she is playing. American CIA dude was a bit of a less-than-expected, Sparrow's uncle was a dick and a half, and the 'mole' was a bit unexpected but I really liked how he and the uncle played out at the end. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see her come back in a sequel. The film was all about the characters and the storyline, how people manipulate and play situations. Which is to say, the cinematography, lighting, visuals, soundtrack, etc where not that notable (in a solid supporting or horribly distracting way). Violence was a little more than a 'spy movie' normally gets, but it fit the story. Side boobs were nice. 7/10
Overlord - Premise is D-Day some airborne troops are dropping into a French village to destroy a radio tower in order to help the air support coming with the invasion. They get shot to **** coming in and only a few survive, we follow one private as our protagonist. Our small band get thru the woods towards the target village and hook up with a local girl who helps out a bit. German troops in the village are total dicks, and we find they are experimenting on the villagers but aren't told how or why. Our lead private bumbles his way into the church turned fortress through a somewhat amusing series of unexpected events and ends up finding what the experiments are, sort of, and rescuing one of his mates that was caught during the air drop. Main villain is the head of the German troops, who gets captured by our small band and beat to hell for information by the lead American. Jump ahead a bit and he escapes, Americans make their sneak attack on the base, discover the truth of the experiments along the way, and save the day...with those who survive. As much as Red Sparrow was about the story and not about the filming...this was more filming over a comic book storyline. The imagery, lighting, sequences, and general enjoyment of the 'film' was great - pretty much how I always imagined such a time from my war comic books growing up. The story, as I say, is comic book level, but executed adequately as an alternate possible reality. While trailers give you a sense of a horror film, it wasn't that. There are some 'monsters' but the special effects are very well done and nothing gets hokey (except, perhaps, the dialogue of the closing scene, but c'mon..ya gotta end with something). Anyway, no cheap 'boo' moments, no cheesy villain monologues, all in all a pretty good semi-gore war film with a monster tone. 7.5/10
