Review of Fast and Furious 8

For a fan of Vin Diesel, there is little better than another instalment of a franchise closely associated with him. The pace of the movie was quite consistent and even if you could see certain plot twists coming from way off, it's still entertaining.

What worked:
The humour and the stunts. While the Statham and Johnson matchup was entertaining, two supporting actors stole the show in terms of humour : Helen Mirren's matriarch of the Shaw family and the baby.

What didn't work:
Theron's villain was an extreme left (?) leaning sociopath who seemed too caught up in the complexity of her plots. The occasional intensity radiating from her just classes with the overall easy feel. It was the stranger counterpart to Eastwood's earnest rookie. Yet the latter managed to make the connection that Theron didn't. Also, though most audiences aren't watching such action franchises for the plot, the disposal of Elena was too convenient a move. Consider this: any potential angst and character conflict that may have arisen in the Elena-Letty-Dom triangle with the baby at the centre of the tensionmight have meant difficulty for Dom but bumping her off so the baby naturally becomes part of the legit Lettie-Dom marriage is a little too conveniently chauvinist a move, even for this movie.

The Unexpected:
The reintroduction of the Shaws as good guys was just a tad disconcerting. And while Statham with the baby was quite funny and entertaining, for this fan, it kinda/sorta smacked a little of borrowing from an early Vin Diesel vehicle, The Nanny.

Conclusion:
An easy film to watch and like for the majority of us Philistines (yours truly being an unabashed card carrying member of the club). Everyone else, there are other choices, non-action ones mostly but hey, to each their own.

https://youtu.be/2DMpqplvADQ

An Unintended Lesson:
The plot of FF8 surprisingly teaches audiences an unintended lesson. I'd be surprised if Tesla or, indeed, any of the motor companies in the driverless camp would sponsor the FF8 because a key scene and message is basically a question everyone of these companies are hardly eager to answer: what happens if some group of hackers hacks your car(s)? The answer is captured in Cipher's line: Let it rain.

So imagine what if you're living in a world where there's nothing but the internet of things??

Movie Review: Train to Busan

This is a break from normal programming for a review of a movie that has proven both popular and touching. While I'm not proficient in the Korean language, I'm comfortable watching subtitles alongside the acting. Having been in Asia for a number of years, I'm sure it comes as no surprise to many that I'm slightly more familiar with K-pop culture and some of their stars.

I was pleasantly surprised to see some familiar actors appearing in the film. Having heard about the movie and seen the trailers, I was fully expecting a horror zombie flick. Which it partly was. Yet it was also so much more. The interaction between the two elderly sisters reminds the audience of the human background against which this horror fest is taking place. That is reinforced by the incongruous sight of a brusque blue collar worker who is full of bluster to everyone else but really is a caring husband who is sweet to his pregnant wife. Think bear with caramel centre LOL

The audience is prepared from the first to be cynical about the main character, Seok Woo, who is a cold fund manager dealing with life almost as an automaton. He flounders dealing with work, hierarchy(an important element both in understanding more subtle aspects of the movie as well as Korean society itself) and family. For an Asian society apparently built on notions of prioritising collective good above that of the individual and whose values are based on respect for the elderly, the slice of Korean society that is on display in the film speaks of cynicism, selfishness and a disintegration of values when survival is at stake. It also speaks of the dire consequences of that which is at stake when the ugliness of humans emerges: basic human decency.

Where the main character seems to advocate everyone for themselves initially, his character undergoes transformation, a positive one where he cooperates with the blue collar worker and a high school student in battling entire train cars of zombies to reach and rescue their loved ones. There's poignant humour and straight sentimentalism in many of the scenes between battling zombies and these are the scenes which remind the audience that this is more than a cringe-and-scream fest. The redemptive process that Seok Woo's character undergoes is set up as a parallel to what other characters, especially the CEO of Stallion Express who is a clear douchebag from the moment the zombie infection spreads, undergo. Their human veneer betrays a callousness that is inhuman, leaving them on par with the infected zombies. The act of the grieving elderly woman who is disgusted by the selfishness of her fellow passengers and stunned by her sister's sacrifice is final condemnation of the extremes to which selfish humans, practising a perverse version of the collective good principle in expelling suspected infected members from a safe community, go when survival is threatened.

That the CEO's actions virtually end in infecting everyone else apart from the pregnant lady and the child speaks volumes of how the social elite behave when individualism and selfish self-preservation trump the last dregs of humanity. Fortunately, that cynical bitterness is counteracted by the blooming of Seok Woo's humanism and act of self sacrifice at the very edge of his zombie transformation.

Is it trite? Yes. Is it sentimental? Yes. Is it good for a scare? Yes. Yet, for all the fluff, this movie still moves on levels unexpected.

Rating: 4 stars - go watch, what are you waiting for?