Film: Terminator Genisys

Back To The Future

Film: Terminator Genisys
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Jai Courtney, Emilia Clarke
Directed by: Alan Taylor
Duration: 2 hrs 5 mins
Rating:  *  *  *

“I am old, not obsolete” says Arnold Schwarzenegger more than once in Terminator Genisys, reprising that iconic role that made him famous all over the globe. That was when director James Cameron made The Terminator in 1984 (followed by Judgment Day in ’91) giving us two of the most memorable sci-fi action movies. There were couple of films later but the Terminator was not the same without Cameron. Terminator Genisys (the fifth film in the franchise) is more of a throwback on the first and second part with a lot of references.  And among all the films, this involves the most time travel, you have to keep a close eye on who is coming and who is going.

It opens with a little boy Kyle (Jai Courtney) being rescued by a man who turns out to be John O’Connor (Jason Clarke) who is leading the human resistance against the machines led by the program that has gone rogue, Skynet who sends a machine back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Emilia ‘Game of Thrones’ Clarke) while Kyle who has become John’s trusted lieutenant volunteers to go and save her. She doesn’t need a great deal of help because the Guardian (Arnold Schwarzenegger) whom she fondly calls Pops, is still around. But Kyle has to team up with Sarah for other reasons.
When Kyle rewinds back to 1984, a deadly android (playing Korean superstar Byung hun Lee) is already waiting for him – that’s not all, we are also treated to a good Arnold vs bad Arnold duel. You have to be familiar with the first two Terminator films to know what exactly is going on - Not just to understand the plot but also the characters. Besides, there are several other references some obvious ones which are actually quite enjoyable. In fact it is the humor and the self references that keep the film going.

The science gets a little more complex with references like parallel timelines but everything else that could have been explored involving Sarah, John, T1000 and Skynet has been done before. On the surface you might get the gist of it but to get to the minutiae, you will have to scratch your head to figure out the exact sequence of events.

True, Terminator may be old but it is not obsolete, and as the post credits reveal, there is more to come. 

Published in The Navhind Times, Goa on 5th July 2015

www.twitter.com/sachinchatte

Film Review - The Expendables 3

Retirement Plans 

Film: The Expendables 3

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Mel Gibson, Antonio Banderas

Directed by: Patrick Hughes

Duration: 2 hrs 9 mins

Rating: * *

The Expendables 2 was decent fun because it didn’t take itself too seriously unlike the first installment and part 3 also suffers from the same problem. Laborious and too long, there isn’t much excitement in this enterprise either even though it has got more than handful action heroes on the scene. 

When you don’t have much of a story to tell, a film like this has to be snappy, instead, this drags its feet for over two hours. In the opening action scene, Doc (Wesley Snipes) a former Expendable is rescued from a high security prison. In one of the genuinely funny scenes, when asked why he was in jail, he replies “tax evasion” referring to his real life ordeal. 

After taking a break from his old team (Statham, Lundgreen et al) Barney (Stallone) discovers that his old friend Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) has become an  arms dealers and turned into an enemy.  His new team includes a lady (Ronda Rousey, a martial arts expert and Olympic medalist) but since the story has to tie up together, the old timers have to make an appearance to save the day.

Barring the character of a bumbling Antonio Banderas who is desperate to join the team, the rest don’t have much of a spark. Harrison Ford plays a CIA agent while the likes of Schwarznegger and Statham reprise their roles.  Mel Gibson as the villain adds some zing in this otherwise routine enterprise.  The action, especially the climax in a deserted building is over the top. While cross cutting is usually used to show action at two different places, here it alternates between three places along with ultra fast cutting.

If at all the Expendables come back, I hope they have a better outing next time. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 24th Aug 2014

www.twitter.com/sachinchatte

Film Review - Sabotage

Crime Patrol

Film: Sabotage

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Terence Howard

Directed by: David Ayer

Duration: 1 hr 48 mins

Rating: * * 1 / 2

While both are thrillers, this Schwarzenegger starrer has nothing to do with the Hitchcock film of 1936 which was based on the Joseph Conrad novel. Directed by David Ayer Sabotage turns out to be one of those average action thrillers with a premise that had the potential to become a gripping film. Instead, the pedestrian screenplay and the not-so-inspiring direction makes it a passable flick.

Schwarzenegger plays John ‘Breacher’ the leader of an elite Drug Enforcement Agency task force who is carrying some emotional baggage from the past. He along with his other team members are able and ruthless professionals who are investigated after $10 million dollars go missing after a raid. One of his colleagues gets killed by a ramming train and that starts the chain of deaths among those who were involved in the raid.

Sam Worthington (of Avatar fame) is James ‘Monster’ Murray, a tonsured angry young man who is married to Lizzy (Mireille Enos), both are close friends of the leader of the pack. One by one, they start getting killed in the goriest fashion and when the ‘suspense’ is revealed, it doesn’t come as a big surprise.

The way some of the scenes are shot, especially the handheld ones, there is an attempt in vain to make it look intense when actually it is not. At times, you get the sense the film makers were trying to be too clever, like the shot where the camera is rigged on the gun.

There is plenty of violence to boot and it is not as if the script demands it. Some of the action scenes in the finale are well executed but pray what is our censor board upto? I’ve never seen a film that has an A certificate and yet so many swear words are beeped out. At times, there are long passages of silence in the middle of a sentence.

Schwarzenegger as the cigar chomping boss gives a gutsy performance but otherwise Sabotage has little going for it.