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JohnC

By JohnC,
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JohnC

JohnC

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A Netflix Film. Jamie Foxx used to be a vampire hunter, but is out of the Union after too many incidents. But with his family threatening to move away, he needs money and wants back in, so goes back to the Union boss, played by Snoop. Gets teamed up with a rookie partner played by Dave Franco. Coming 12 August.

 

R-rated trailer

 

 

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Hamus

Hamus

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13 hours ago, JohnC said:

A Netflix Film. Jamie Foxx used to be a vampire hunter, but is out of the Union after too many incidents. But with his family threatening to move away, he needs money and wants back in, so goes back to the Union boss, played by Snoop. Gets teamed up with a rookie partner played by James Franco. Coming 12 August.

 

R-rated trailer

 

 

 

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Pelekophoros

Pelekophoros

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13 hours ago, Hamus said:

James Franco is basically middle aged. How is he a Rookie.

 

He's never hunted a vampire before? You do realise you can be a rookie in a chosen field at any age right?

 

In a film about the unionised hunting of widespread vampires who know martial arts, I'm not sure someone having a career change is the most unbelievable part of the pitch. 

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  • 5 weeks later...
jonamok

jonamok

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I watched the opening sequence with the first kills, which was okay. And a bit of Peter Stormare playing himself. Then some weaksauce family stuff. Interest waning. Then Dave Franco appeared and within seconds my desire to continue had evaporated. I suppose I might go back to it.

 

Edit: Reader, I did. Some nice fights, the rest was shite. Zero story.

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Monkeyboy

Monkeyboy

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Well, I found this easier to stick with than The Gray Man, which I gave up on. It definitely gets weaker as it goes along.

 

Spoiler

They seemed to be setting the main villain up with a bigger overall plan, but then it nosedived and became a smaller movie.


3 out of 5

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Strafe

Strafe

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I think you could sensibly argue that it’s not a good film but I really enjoyed this, real early 90’s action film spirit. You could argue that lots of early 90’s action films are bad, too.

 

Also, I’d definitely watch a spin off featuring the Nazarian bro brothers.

 

Not a high bar but the best thing Foxx and Netflix Films have done in a long time.

 

 

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David Kenny

David Kenny

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The difference between films in the early 90s (or ever actually) and this sort of thing, was that films used to provide compelling reasons for characters to do things. When two characters who previously disliked and distrusted each other became friends there would have been specific things that prompted such a change, some change in the perception of the characters that was communicated to the viewer through the medium of film. You know, this story telling thing that we are watching. In this though the development of the characters seemed to happen as if it was on a timer.

 

We are 40 minutes into this film, it is time for the older character to have a grudging respect for the younger character.  BAM! The older character now has grudging respect for the younger character. 

 

We are nearing the end of this film, it's time for the protagonist and his ex-wife to rekindle their feelings for one another despite their being no indication previously given that they even liked each other. BAM! They are in love again.

 

It's something I've noticed with a lot of contemporary films, particularly the stuff made for streaming services. They mimic the story beats of a particular genre's formula without understanding how those beats are constructed or why those formulas made sense in the first place, and what they gave to you in terms of narrative or character development. It's a perfect example of what Baudrillard talked about in Simulacra and Simulation, where the copy loses any link to the source. In this case a copy of a copy of a copy, that maintains superficial similarities but is completely devoid of any meaning.

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Vimster

Vimster

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21 minutes ago, David Kenny said:

The difference between films in the early 90s (or ever actually) and this sort of thing, was that films used to provide compelling reasons for characters to do things. When two characters who previously disliked and distrusted each other became friends there would have been specific things that prompted such a change, some change in the perception of the characters that was communicated to the viewer through the medium of film. You know, this story telling thing that we are watching. In this though the development of the characters seemed to happen as if it was on a timer.

 

We are 40 minutes into this film, it is time for the older character to have a grudging respect for the younger character.  BAM! The older character now has grudging respect for the younger character. 

 

We are nearing the end of this film, it's time for the protagonist and his ex-wife to rekindle their feelings for one another despite their being no indication previously given that they even liked each other. BAM! They are in love again.

 

It's something I've noticed with a lot of contemporary films, particularly the stuff made for streaming services. They mimic the story beats of a particular genre's formula without understanding how those beats are constructed or why those formulas made sense in the first place, and what they gave to you in terms of narrative or character development. It's a perfect example of what Baudrillard talked about in Simulacra and Simulation, where the copy loses any link to the source. In this case a copy of a copy of a copy, that maintains superficial similarities but is completely devoid of any meaning.

Bang on. I've watched a lot of straight-to-streaming action from the last decade (though not this one, yet), they appear to do what they think an action film should do, and they will sometimes incorporate technically-competent action, fighting, car chases and the like, at the right spots, but motivations are not fleshed out enough, the relationships are weak and obvious with, as you say, programmed-in jumps in character development. So you end up with a not-awful but generally bland experience that beyond a bit of action doesn't really get the viewer that involved, and maybe that's the point, it's the sort of thing to flop down on the sofa with and passively consume. 

 

The polar opposite for me would be a film like The Long Kiss Goodnight. Yes, you get lots of great action, but Gina Davis' character goes through a believable transition, the family bits feel relevant rather than the soapy breather in the films above, and her relationship with Samuel L Jackson's character is just so rich and watchable. So much attention to detail, but it doesn't weigh the film down. 

 

Okay I know it's not fair to compare a superb film that was in the cinema with modern streaming, if I wasn't at work I'd probably come up with a straight-to-video alternative. But the point still stands because even if you're not making a film as big in scope, they should strive for something beyond merely okay. 

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David Kenny

David Kenny

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Exactly. In my mind I was comparing it to something like DeNiro and Charles Grodin's relationship in the brilliant buddy comedy, Midnight Run. The transition from enemies to friends in that film is superbly done, and utterly believable, even though the film never slows down and they are always on the move, and the next plot development is always just around the corner. You don't have to sacrifice on screen action to make characters that seem human.

 

To be honest you don't even need to choose a good film for examples. I'll confess a soft spot for late 90s TV movie and Judge Reinhold vehicle, Runaway Car (vehicle... car... geddit?) By any measure it's a terrible film but the characters in the film are believable and their relationships develop in a way that makes sense given what they are going through. It's a minimum requirement when telling a story, even whoever wrote Runaway Car understood that. Of course I'll now google it and discover it was written by Anthony Burgess or something.

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Vimster

Vimster

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19 minutes ago, David Kenny said:

Exactly. In my mind I was comparing it to something like DeNiro and Charles Grodin's relationship in the brilliant buddy comedy, Midnight Run. The transition from enemies to friends in that film is superbly done, and utterly believable, even though the film never slows down and they are always on the move, and the next plot development is always just around the corner. You don't have to sacrifice on screen action to make characters that seem human.

 

To be honest you don't even need to choose a good film for examples. I'll confess a soft spot for late 90s TV movie and Judge Reinhold vehicle, Runaway Car (vehicle... car... geddit?) By any measure it's a terrible film but the characters in the film are believable and their relationships develop in a way that makes sense given what they are going through. It's a minimum requirement when telling a story, even whoever wrote Runaway Car understood that. Of course I'll now google it and discover it was written by Anthony Burgess or something.

That's probably a better example, although I really wan to watch Runaway Car now. I simply chose The Long Kiss Goodnight as it is action with character rather than the merely acceptable fare you get now. It doesn't even have to be big budget, as you say, just have a bit more thought put in beyond "this is what an action film does, right?"

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