May Movies - Week 5

Good Morning Ladies & Gentlemen,

Wrapping up May with a few movies we'd wanted to see for a while...

May 27 – Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)
 
FINALLY!!! We’d been waiting for the latest Guy Ritchie – Jason Statham collaboration for YEARS!!! “But Steve, it was in theatres” Yeah, so was Creed III & I haven’t seen that one yet either… same weekend… I currently have 17 movie credits to use at my local theatre (but more on that next week). Orson Fortune (Statham) is a special agent who teams up with a  bunch of operative, including a movie star (Josh Hartnett) to find a McGuffin that’s being sold by a billionaire gun runner (Hugh Grant) and hijinx ensue. Now, I love Guy Ritchie movies usually… and Jason Statham movies. However, this one didn’t really grip me. Why? Well… yes, there’s the witty English banter like any other Guy Ritchie movie… but that’s really all that’s in this movie… and it’s not even particularly fun or anything. There’s also no sense of danger whatsoever… like I NEVER for a second think that ANYBODY is in danger from terrorists, thousands of gun shots, baddies in general, because Fortune is an unstoppable force apparently… even when everybody knows who he is a la James Bond… but his cohorts are too… including the movie star who’s constantly on the billionaire’s junk. I don’t know… it was only okay when it should have been great, maybe?
 
Rating – 8/10 – Not worth the YEARS waiting but… it was alright
 
May 28 – Torque (2004)
 
Remember when they were trying to catch that extreme action movie wave in the early 2000s? Fast & Furious had come out… and then you got things like “Biker Boyz” & “XXX” and all those extreme sports & witty one-liner tossing action heroes? Well, this is one that we’ve been wanting to talk about on the podcast for a while because it was the most unabashedly blatant rip-off of Fast & Furious… including having the same producer… Vince was the bad guy in this movie… and they reference it like a dozen times in the 80 minutes runtime (including credits front & back). Basically motorcycle gangs, meth, Ice Cube is in it, FBI agent Adam Scott, throwing physics out the window before F&F even did… queue Nickelback… roll credits.
 
Rating – 7/10 – This one is rough but… it was great to talk about with the History of Bad Ideas Podcast… coming in July!!!
 
May 29 – Backcountry (2014)
 
A couple go into the woods on a backpacking trip… and hijinx ensue as they run into a weird Irish tour guide (Eric Balfour) & the boyfriend destroys anything resembling a map because… don’t worry about it… so then they’re lost in the woods… with a BEAR!!! Now, I thought this movie was done pretty well except there was definitely a lot of drama… but hey, maybe you want to personify with the drama in a movie & it pulls you into the conflict. Me? I’m good with it just being two people who are in the woods & there’s a hungry bear… that’s all the real story that I need. Izzy did NOT like this movie… but to find out why… check out the podcast Everything I Learned From movies in June!!!
 
Rating – 7/10 – Not bad… it’s a killer bear movie… what’s not to love?
 
May 30 – Evil Dead Rise (2023)
 
In this reboot/continuation (?) of the Evil Dead franchise… though really it’s just an exorcism movie about a demon taking over the family of two estranged sisters & the two kids of the eldest sister… oh and I guess the entire floor of the apartment building. Look, as a possession movie, this is pretty good. I’ve seen some good ones, I’ve seen some bad ones. This one is better than The Pope’s Exorcist really. However, it’s labeled as an Evil Dead movie… and it’s just a dark exorcist movie. There’s almost ZERO fun… and that’s the prime thing the franchise is known for. The gallons of blood too, which this movie has… but fun associated with it from director Sam Raimi & star Bruce Campbell, nowhere to be seen in this edition… so that affected my score.
 
Rating – 8/10 – A good possession movie… but not an Evil Dead movie as far as I know
 
May 31 – Scream VI (2023)
 
The sixth edition of the Ghostface series and this time… he’s going to Manhattan. Well, the two sisters are in Manhattan now… and yes, all the previous Ghostface killers have been killed… but now there’s a cult of blah blah blah. Look, it’s possible for a meta-movie to get so meta that it literally crawls up its own a-hole in some sort of infinite loop of who gives a crap. Unfortunately I think this movie is kind of the limit for me on it. Yes, there are some clever elements thrown in, some decent kills & moments that are memorable… but 80% stuff that I absolutely do not care about. The drama with the sisters? Pass. The admittedly convoluted reasoning for anyone being there? Sure, call it a Red Herring. The ending? Feh… but yeah, you know what you’re getting into with a 6th installment in a murder franchise… even if it took nearly 30 years.
 
Rating – 7/10 – It has moments but was kind of a slog…

June is gonna be busy with art festival season kicking off (and that being Izzy's bread & butter besides actual bread & butter) but we'll keep you posted.

​Steve