Pure Entertainment #89- #81

Pure Entertainment-   These are films which are exactly what they want to be- and they don't really want to be anything more than just pure fun- whatever that may be- in their chosen genre.

89- Pompeii- The first hour of this is pretty preposterous- it is extremely hammy and over-the-top. And not just from Keifer Sutherland. Yet, once the titular volcano erupts, I mostly forgot about the rest of the film and enjoyed the destruction a lot. When you see a movie called Pompeii, you are not watching it for plot. Same as Titanic.

88- Expendables 3- Lots of actors. lots of action. Utterly ridiculous and stupid. But very entertaining. Is it because of nostalgia? Probably. But who cares? It is what it is- a third Expendables film!

87- Raze- an underground group kidnaps women and makes them fight to the death. There are a bunch of semi-recognizable actresses in the mix (Rachel Nichols and Tracie Thoms) but also some female stunt women (Zoe Bell) Very impressive film since you can tell that most of the actresses are doing their own stunts, but script-wise and character-wise, a chore to sit through.

86- Hercules- This is the one with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It bothers me that we had 2 Hercules films in one year and never told a version of the story with the 12 tests of Hercules. But, for what its worth, this was much better than the other one. The problem is that this still isnt very interesting but it had a couple of fun action sequences and everyone knew what kind of film they were in.

85-Step Up- All In- It's a movie about a bunch of dance "crews" facing off in Vegas for a starring role ina  Vegas show. That's most of the plot- except for various random characters having various random issues to create dramatic "tension". But, the dancing was a lot of fun and very good. The camera did not move too much and the editing was not overdone so that you could actually see what the dancers were doing. The dancing was good but everything else was as trite as could be. But, what else are you expecting? The carnival dance sequence was fun, but kind've came out of nowhere.

84- Into the Storm- A found footage storm movie in Dolby Atmos? Okay! The characters are never more than just thinly scripted cariactures but the storm scenes look very good for the massively low budget they had. I think it still creates a nice sense of tension, but it is not really a great film, but it delvers in the storm scenes.

83- 3 days to Kill- Kevin Costner plays a CIA hitman with terminal cancer who has an estranged wife and teenaged daughter who tries to retir but is brought back in to find a suspected terrorist and, for coming back is injected with a trial serum that may cure his cancer but incapacitates him at the worst moments. Did I mention hi young, blonde female handler? And the driver who Costner gets family advice from? or the immigrants who have moved into Costner's apartment for the winter and that Costner can't kick out because one of the daughters is pregnant? And that it takes place in Paris? There is almost 3 entire films crammed into this film and I almost can't believe this film exists- but it does. It is ridiculous and stupid but also a lot of fun- until the end sets up a lot of problems and only resolves a few of them.

82- Need for Speed- This film is almost literally 3 films in one! The first 40 minutes or so follows a street racer and his brother and another racer who build a superfast car. And for building the car, they get to race really expensive cars but the other racer accidentally creates an accident that kills the brother and leaves no trace of the accident and the other brother is put in prison. The next hour follows the brother, after getting out of prison, travelling across the country to go to a special race created by Michael Keaton a s aman who can see everything in some way. The last 30 minutes is the actual race. This film is waaaay too long, plot threads pop up and are quickly dismissed. Characters come and go. It is a wild, uneven mess. But I had a blast while watching it!

81- Lucy- Scarlett Johanssen becomes a computer! No, really! Because obviously that is what should happen when you are able to use all of your brain. It makes no sense! But this is a wild, fun ride directed by Luc Besson. I cannot in any way stand behind this film, which is interspersed with a ton of stock footage, but I really, really enjoyed this film and had a lot of fun!