Oh, Eurovision… If you are not familiar with this competition, know this – it used to be a pretty decent platform for bands from all around Europe to have some spotlight shine upon them, but lately, it turned into a bit of a strange show, where the more weirder your act is, the better…? At least that’s the impression I’ve gotten from couple of clips I’ve seen.

From that angle, it was only matter of time before somebody takes the concept, that within itself, is fairly bizarre and turns it into a comedy. The question was, will that comedy be actually funny without being mean? And this film actually does that, so yes, it could be done. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is a movie, that doesn’t mock the competition or the people who compete in it, it makes fun of everything else… and Americans.

We all know Will Ferrell is a funny man, who can make almost anything watchable, but some times he doesn’t work as well when comes to the actual story, if you can’t “ground” him. Luckily, this movie not only did that, but they hired somebody perfect to be his partner (and potentially sister, but probably not) Rachel McAdams. She’s the scene stealing queen of this movie, where her (always) positive attitude, combined with her believing in elves (who might or might not be real) just wins the entire movie for me. And this hasn’t happened for the first time, by the way.

Rachel McAdams has been sneaky great for much longer than you realise – she’s managed to be Oscar nominated actress for Spotlight (2015), was the highlight of another, even better comedy, Game Night (2018) and overall proven she can do pretty much anything. Just a side mini rant, but I really hope she will act a bit more, in leading roles, because she’s got what it takes to be funny/dramatic and have a movie made around her.

Back to Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga – even though I did enjoy the movie overall, I did feel like it would work better if it was slightly shorter. The movie is just over 2 hours long, which isn’t an issue if you have a story to tell, but for a comedy about a Eurovision, there seemed to have been moments, that were dragging on a bit too much. If they’ve managed to condense it into 100 minutes or so, I think the movie wouldn’t loose its magic and if anything, it would’ve improved on the flow of it, making it snappier.

I also need to mention the music, as this movie really understands what Eurovision is and what kind of music you could expect to hear on the stage, where at first, you think to yourself “typical Euro music”, but there is something about them, that makes them stuck in your head and you end up listening to those songs for a few more days. In here, it’d definitely be these two songs below:

What I like about these two songs is they both sum up what Eurovision is about – most of the time, you would find songs like the “Double Trouble”, but sometimes, you do find a surprisingly nice song like “My Home Town”, that gets stuck in your head in a different way, and you actually like that song without feeling “guilty” about it.

Overall, I have enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. Could it be 20 minutes shorter? Definitely. Have I laughed a lot? Yes. Do I wish more comedies had Rachel McAdams? 100%! Do I believe in elves now? Maybe…

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

First of all, I hope you’ll forgive me for that bad pun, but it was there, so I had to take it. Second of all, there is a reason behind that pun, as The Lovebirds works in a unison, where Kumail Nanjiani makes the movie funny, but Issa Rae is the main star, who makes this the surprise comedy of this year (so far) for me, and elevates it.

The Lovebirds starts as almost a drama about a couple, who we see fall in love, just to watch them couple of minutes later breaking up. I, as almost always, had no idea what this movie was about, so when the movie turned into a murder mystery, I was perplexed and slightly annoyed I have to say, as I was interested in their relationship and wouldn’t be opposed exploring it in a proper, heavy drama.

That obviously didn’t happen, as this movie is mainly a comedy, but along the way we do get to explore them and their relationship carefully and see, what’s happened between them, so my mild annoyance turned into me actually enjoying the ride. Plenty of jokes landed, the story might have been slightly over the top at times, sure, but I have found myself really entertained. I need to admit, until now, I wasn’t really familiar with Issa Rae at all. But after this, I definitely need to look into her filmography, as she’s the one who (at least for me) is the main star of the movie, and that’s difficult, as Kumail is great in this too! Not only he’s funny, but you understand his character really well and in some more dramatic scenes I thought he’s doing something, we don’t see from him as much. If he’s the heart of the movie, Issa would definitely be the soul of it, as if her character didn’t work, the movie would’ve turned into paint-by-numbers comedy, that wouldn’t stand out at all.

I honestly believe it’s mainly because of Issa, and the mix of charm, comedic talent and charisma she brings into this, the movie works and is memorable, as she’s a breath of a fresh air, something we don’t get to see (at least in a mainstream movie) every day. I do hope this will be her “coming out” party, as I understand she’s already famous, but I wish this movie will break her through to the mainstream audience, so the next time they will see her, they would know her name. I for one will remember that name, as I will be actively looking for it.

If you want to give this movie a chance, do it, but try to accept the movie on its own terms. The reason I am saying that is this movie currently sits on IMDb with 6.0/10, which is incredibly low. Either my standards are going down (which is totally possible) or people go into this expecting something else and have a problem with what’s actually on the screen. That’s something I’ll never understand, especially when comes to this movie, as it knows, what it is and it doesn’t pretend to be something else. It’s just a slightly crazy comedy, with some truths about relationships and one really insane night. Nothing more, nothing less. And that’s what I love about this film, it never feels out of place. On future viewings, my rating will probably be going even higher, as I have really enjoyed myself. Definitely a pleasant surprise.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

Let me start this review by answering the question from the title – no. Extraction is a decent action movie, where the one unbroken shot elevates it above others, so it doesn’t blend in with your typical “one man against city/army/bunch of camels” type of action movies. I just wish they had spent an equal amount of time on the script as they had on that unbroken shot.

I can’t help but feel that this movie is trying so hard to be “the next” John Wick or The Raid both of which are great action movies, full of stunts, focusing on hand combat, action pieces with long takes, where the story takes a back seat and you are there to enjoy the ride. And both of these movies had a successful sequels, which established and flashed-out their worlds even more (the reason I’m mentioning this is the obvious sequel bait ending, and it looks like it worked. Heads up, the article contains spoilers for this movie).

But where those two have succeeded and Extraction didn’t, is they weren’t relying on JUST one action piece, or one great sequence. Both John Wick and The Raid have several things that make them great, they are not remembered for “one really cool scene”. Whereas this movie will be remembered for that one, I don’t mind admitting, pretty kick ass scene. According to the IMDb trivia, it lasts 11 minutes and 30 seconds and trust me, you can feel it, in the best possible way as that’s THE part of the movie that tries to convince you, “hey, I am different, you better pay attention!” But everything around that is just… ok…?

Chris Hemsworth is still as buffed as he is charismatic, so he carries this movie on his massive shoulders with no issues, but I swear they wrote his character by opening the “Cliches and Whatnot, 101 Screenwriting Tips for YOU” book and took way too much from it, as he embodies almost every single cliche imaginable. Don’t believe me? Let me checklist it for you:

• Ex-soldier of kind? ✔
• Has a dead kid? ✔
• Is the only one crazy enough for this job? ✔
• Using pills for different injuries? ✔
• Doesn’t care about whether he lives or dies as he’s got nothing to live for? ✔
• Doesn’t blink when gun is pointed and shot into his face? ✔
• Grows attached to the person he’s hired to protect? ✔

And I could probably come up with a few more, but I think you get what I am trying to say. Extraction is a tale of three parts – the beginning left me hopeful, the single-take action sequence left me pumped up and wanting/expecting more, and everything else after that left me bored.

The next paragraph or two will contain SPOILERS!

What I did appreciate (except the single-take action sequence already mentioned) is that this movie wasn’t shy from getting dirty, where the kills are convincing and fights are usually not edited to pieces, so for the most of the movie you actually know where everything/everyone is, so that was a nice surprise. Did it have to be almost 2 hours? No. Would I rate it slightly higher, if the movie had the balls to give Chris “hero death” and not this open ended, sequel biting thing that happened? Yes.

And that’s the main difference between this movie and the other two great ones mentioned before – those were not planned as sequels, they stand on their own, and they had bit more meat on the bones, and that always helps, even if your movie is branded as “mindless entertainment”. More meat is nice, it gives the viewer something more to chew on, rather than the unpleasant experience of biting into a bone really quickly, realising the meal is not as appealing as it looks like.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke