Week #5 of 2020 (1/30-2/2/2020) offers a woman tortured by the loss of her family turned into a spy hellbent on revenge and a film retelling a story of two children who encounter a woman in the woods that is not at all what she seems.
We saw both films on opening day, Thursday, and choosing the one that was more entertaining was fairly easy.
#1 is ….
The Rhythm Section ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Starring Blake Lively in a number of different wigs, hairstyles, hair colors, makeup and outfits and training to be a modern day spy.
This isn’t your average revenge spy flick. A fair amount of time and effort is spent training an every day regular woman into a spy killing machine. Some might think the transition is too fast, others might enjoy the effort and spotlight into explaining how and why this tortured woman could and would become a spy. We are in the latter camp.
From the creative team at Eon, behind the James Bond films and an adaptation of a novel series by Mark Burnell. The screenplay was written by the author. Haven’t read the book, so the review doesn’t evaluate the merits of the adaptation.
Some of the early critic and audience reviews are not as positive on this movie as both Kara and I in our review and rating. This is one of those “depends on what you genre you are expecting” movies that is best evaluated as a drama-thriller instead of a spy action movie. It’s not a very good action movie, but it’s a much better drama-thriller. You can tell Blake Lively is giving everything to this script. She gave so much to her performance that she had a serious hand injury that shut down and delayed filming for months. The video above details her daily grind for 8 months to make this film.
So, if you go to see this, try and think of it as a drama-thriller for the optimal viewing experience. Blake Lively is very good in this film, but since it was a dump month film, it will probably be forgotten as the year goes on. Too bad, it doesn’t deserve that sort of apathy.
Why was this made? I’m tempted to start a list of remakes/reboots/adaptations that should never have been made. Gretel and Hansel doesn’t deserve a feature film treatment, but could have been an awesome short in an anthology horror show.
Just too long. There is a good deal of effort put into establishing a dark, foreboding atmosphere which I appreciated, but it becomes painfully aware that the story is unnecessarily padded. This is one of those horror tales that works better as a quick and nasty bite, not some long, slow bloodletting.
Want to see what else we recommend NOW PLAYING at the theater?
Here are other movies we’ve seen at the theaters recently and liked (maybe they are available in your area still) that are recommended. Any movie rated at least 3-stars is recommended. You should read any 3-star review (click the title), because sometimes we do qualify those recommendations, meaning we were entertained, but it doesn’t mean that the film was that good.
4-star movies are highly recommended and films rated as 4 1/2 or 5 stars are must see.
- 1917 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
- Little Women ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Uncut Gems ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
- Frozen II ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Bad Boys For Life ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- The Last Full Measure ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Bombshell ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Like A Boss ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Doolittle ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Happy movie watching to you!
Movies, Movies, Movies 