When I left “Halloween Kills” a year ago, there was a newfound love for the Michael Myers-led series. After not caring much about writer/director David Gordon Green’s 2018 relaunch of … Continue reading The Film Buffa: Where did ‘Halloween Ends’ go wrong?
Most film franchises lose steam after 12 movies, but Michael Myers is something else. The “Halloween” film series, which started 44 years ago, is as unstoppable as its antagonist, slowly … Continue reading The Film Buffa reviews ‘Halloween Ends’: Does David Gordon Green’s finale deliver?
Stallone fought for Rocky, which went on to produce eight films and multiple Oscar nominations.
Jason Statham is the epitome of badass. The Fast and Furious film franchise is the epicenter of ridiculously thrilling action. It’s about time these unstoppable forces met.
In case you have been stuck in an art house film gallery for the past 13 years, The F&F films have taken Hollywood and its audience by storm, turning improbable stunts into a viciously kinetic artform. People try writing them off as childish, hollow and pointless, and they miss all the fun in the game. These are action showcases and if you don’t mind a little family values with your hot rod cars and testosterone packed punches, you may be “furious” enough for Dominic Toretto(Vin Diesel) and his adventures. Jason Statham walking into this pleasure town of chaos is icing on the cake and could make Furious 7 the best in the series.
The 47 year old action star made a blood thirsty cameo appearance at the tail end of Fast & Furious 6 as Deckard Shaw, the revenge seeking older bro of Luke Evans’ crippled baddie Owen Shaw. I don’t know about you but the moment Owen spouted off to Dom about “my brother said you live by a code”, I immediately thought of Statham and his Transporter films. That was the cookie crumble hint being dropped at your feet.
Statham’s cameo also tied the franchise together, placing the Tokyo events in their proper spot and lighting a match on the seventh edition, which takes matters back to Los Angeles before jumpstarting the engine to luxurious places like Abu Dhabi. Director James Wan,taking over for Justin Lin after four films, walked into a treasures chest of action heroes. A buffet of kickass lethal enough to challenge the Persian army(minus the skirts, add tank tops). Why Statham? Well, why the hell do you drink coffee every morning? A dose of Statham is perfect for this world.
Let’s look at the prerequisites to enter the Furious world:
*Bald.
*Badass.
*Muscle bound.
*Good in a fight.
*Cool voice full of one liners.
*Looks good in a suit and tank top
*Very Bald.
Statham passes all tests with flying colors and adds something else. An authentic action star. With no offense to the Rock and Diesel, Statham does this shit for a living and can throw a kick with a smile as fast as he hosts Saturday Night Live or growls for the fans. Statham is the guy who works out with stunt crews in an LA gym and has a framed bullseye in his kitchen. Statham is working out while you are thinking about working out. He is working out while you eat donuts and while you gobble up fast food. He is working on his martial arts when you are thinking about enrolling for a green belt at the local karate class. He lives, breathes and shits action hero bravado. His head is the shape of a bullet and his voice is charming yet sinister.
The juiciest part of his dive here into the fast cars zone is he has never played a villain before. His characters have been far from gracious good souls, but he’s always fought the good fight on film….until now. Statham steps into the action in a big way here. Judging from the eye watering trailers, he gets to tangle with Dwayne Johnson in an office and Diesel on a roof with steel car parts. He also gets to walk into a party in a high rise building and fire a gun into the air ala The Joker in The Dark Knight. Statham is a show stopping presence on film. When I left a Statham film last year and had to use the restroom, I ran into an older film fan as I washed my hands. I asked him about the action banger we just watched in the same auditorium and regarding the British actor, the man simply said “He is something else”. You’re damn right he is. Statham is a special member of the No Bueno Crew.
Furious 7 is special for many reasons, many of them surrounding the late star, Paul Walker. “Pablo”, as Diesel calls his deceased friend, has starred in all seven films. Losing him was the equivalent of a heart losing a fair amount of blood. The engines running dry without as much oil and the transmission failing a few times on a Nissan Skyline. Walker wasn’t the guy you left the movies talking about, but he was also something the films couldn’t live without. The innocent action hero at the center of chaos who also happened to be a great guy in the real world. This film will be a celebration of his work on the film and his life in general. It will also be a celebration of glorious action hero nostalgia, with Statham walking around kicking over trash cans of lighter fluid and lighting the streets with mayhem.
The specialty of the franchise is getting bigger with each film. This stunt crew goes big or stays home. The Fast Five entered Johnson’s hulking agent, Hobbs. Statham was teased in the following film and makes a grand entrance in Friday’s clash. When fanboys talk about wet dreams and cinematic collisions, Jason Statham and Fast/Furious franchise ranks near the top of the list. This is the thing that rolls off the tongue at 130 in the morning as you finish an order of tacos and blurt to your friend, “Bro, it would be mad sick if that Statham did one of these movies.” The Furious team is fearless and turns dreamy scenarios into realities.
Show some self respect and check out Furious 7 this week on Blu Ray or DVD. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t seen the previous six films. This about true action appreciation. If you want realism, turn on the Sundance Channel. If you want balls out visually wasted cinema, buy a ticket for this movie. This is a stand alone adventure and will be given the proper tasting when Toretto answers that phone on his porch and hears a familiar British voice.
“Dominic Toretto. You don’t know me..but you’re about to.”
Jason Statham has arrived, ladies and gentlemen. He was born fast and is furious when he sleeps. Jason Statham. Those two words alone should get your ass in a seat.
Plot-The legendary news team from San Diego reassembles in New York City for a new 24/7 news format yet find themselves battling the same old problems from before.
Expectations Going Into the Movie-Look the first film is a classic to me. I can recite line for line from the film and have watched it at least 45 times in full. Going into this film I wasn’t expecting anything near it as far as greatness, fresh appeal and comical sync. I simply wanted a funny movie. A movie that would make me laugh and urge others to go laugh this weekend. Expecting the same thing from a sequel that came with the original is lunacy. So what did I think of this movie….
Buffa’s Review-Anchorman 2 is an utter disappointment. This will come as sadness to a legion of Ron Burgundy fanatics. Walking into this movie, expecting something special and grand, I was left feeling like a customer who came to see a seasoned comedian and was given flat jokes instead.
You ever been to a comedy show expecting a good time only to hear crickets? Tonight’s film left me cold and isolated. People around me were laughing hysterically at this story line that beamed like a shiny new skyscraper in 2004. Burgundy and the gang were doing 24/7 news and what was shaped up to be a raucous affair didn’t feel right from the start.
The jokes felt forced, old, tired and hung low for seconds after being told. The story was an old fashioned news history lesson about doing it unconventionally. Ferrell squeezed as much as he could out of a script that he co-wrote with McKay that seemed to bring nothing fresh to the table. Rudd and Koechner went through the motions. Carell’s brain dead Brick became repetitive by the 45 minute mark and his relationship with Kristen Wiig’s similarly lost soul went nowhere. The film, right at two hours, felt like 3 hours of sound checks.
This is what happens to sequels sometimes. Any measure of expectations can leave a viewer feeling slighted. I was onboard for a sequel since the last one left theaters and after tonight I can tell you they should have left it alone. McKay, Ferrell and the gang are game as any comedy team in show business but they can’t save this thing from ridiculousland(sure that’s not really a place but I may invent it for sad eyed sequels).
The film will make money. People will pour out of it laughing. They will tell themselves all those black jokes, sexual references and dirty humor is good stuff. Here is the problem. Leave that film and a day later give me 2-3 quotes from it. I have nothing memorable to share with you here. At one point in this film, Ron Burgundy helps raise a baby shark. He has problems masturbating and the team gets into another guest star studded brawl. It all feels tired, old and flat.
In the latest Rolling Stone Magazine (with Ferrell on the cover), McKay is quoted as saying there was once a 5 hour version of the film. There are paragraphs about him and Ferrell doing hilarious improv sessions on set. Reading it and seeing some of the jokes in print form, they jump off the page and I couldn’t wait to hear them in the film. Guess what? They never made it in. Three or four solid one liners about ejaculation were never heard. A couple other potent lines about what men dream about also never saw the final cut. Apparently, there was enough footage for two movies. Well, let’s see the other footage.
McKay compared his roster of jokes to players on a team. If one didn’t work, another would be put in its place. I left the movie wondering if this film was one giant horrible editing job. Did we see the wrong movie? Was there a better edit in there somewhere? Sometimes film fans are left to wonder what could have been and if an editor simply made a bad call out of desperation of making a worthy sequel to a film that is probably quoted word for word by priests in private.
I need a glass of scotch myself tonight. I need something wicked to wash away the taste of this unworthy sequel that may be worth a rental to the millions of film fans that aren’t Anchorman fanatics. I was left disappointed.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues isn’t sheep’s wool. It isn’t as lovely as the lamp Brick coveted years ago. It isn’t as good as a brown bag lunch or a flute solo. It simply isn’t worth your hard earned time and money. As Luke Wilson’s news anchor said in the original, this is rigoddamndiculous!
For more reviews and film-addict prose, check out my official site, http://www.film-addict.com.
Find out what my film-addict colleague Landon Burris thought of the film right here, http://film-addict.com/news-and-reviews/a-dose-of-buffa/item/2292-anchorman-2-burris-take
Thanks for reading!
Dose of Buffa 