Adamant(ium) with Japan

Here is a prequel that is unabashedly made for Japanese audiences. With a few skirmishes with Yakuza gangsters and atop bullet trains thrown in for effect in the balance this prequel feels more like a Japanese sitcom with the occasional technological gizmo, or odd ninja, thrown in. Using just about every stereotypical element that one can imagine in a movie that is wholly set in Japan, The Wolverine is unmitigatedly directionless and needs to trail off with the promise of the return of the X-Men for any impact at all

10.5/20

House Down Part Deux

What were the odds of two near-adjacent posts on this blog, both based on movies about the White House going down? This time it is the disgruntled weapons lobby, led by the US President Sawyer’s (Jamie Foxx) former head of security detail – Martin Walker (James Woods) – and a team of mercenaries – that take over the White House over a series of bombings, gunfights, and hostage-takings. Once again it is up to an underdog – out-of-favour Cale (Channing Tatum), out on an ostensibly harmless White House tour with daughter Emily (Joey King), to save the White House and by implication the world. White House Down is a tad more believable than Olympus Has Fallen, with a lot more detail, and never a dull moment

13/20

Pacific Threats

Gigantic sea creatures called the Kaiju come through the Breach – a portal at the bottom of the Pacific – and start devastating cities along the Pacific Rim. Manking designs the Jaeger (robot) program to take on the Kaiju – and succeeds. Till the Jaeger program finds itself questioned, and competing with the Wall, and failures of the Jaegers to take on the particularly larger and more difficult of the Kaiju. However, when the Wall shows the proverbial cracks, and it is again the Jaegers that hold back the Kaiju in Sydney, it is back to the remnants of the Jaeger Program, led by a marginalized Pentecost (Idris Elba), and a notable robot – Gipsy Danger – driven by Becket (Charlie Hunnam) and Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), to save the day and the world. In the words of Del Toro himself, this is no "super-brooding, super-dark, cynical summer movie", and the focus is purely on "big, beautiful, sophisticated visuals". In that he succeeds, but one cannot help feeling that the execution could have been just a little bit better with a little more development of the human characters, especially given the backdrop of shared adversity

13.5/20

Suited to Kill

Suits (TV Series) is the story of the eponymous New York city law firm Pearson Hardman, centered around precocious kid Mike Ross (Patrick J Adams) and mentor and fast riser Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht). With the support of Jessica Pearson (Gina Torres), and a few allies including rookie Rachel (Meghan Markle) and spunky secretary Donna (Sarah Rafferty), the duo take on unusual client cases, and the likes of disgruntled partner Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman). Suits is a fun watch, perhaps with a weaker cast than say Boston Legal, and weaker cases too – but then Suits makes do… by and large

13.5/20

Another Falling

Out-of-favour Presidential security guard Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) finds himself pitted against a veritable army from North Korea, that somehow manages to mobilize an inconceivably large quantity of people, arms and ammunition, and lays siege to the White House. Full of as many inexplicable moments as there are gun battles (President's son rescued, yet President Asher (Aaron Eckhart) meekly hands over the Cereberus code; the Cereberus code and their failsafes are located in the same physical location - and would  instantly set off the entire US nuclear arsenal when called upon (!!!); the strange and incongruous motivation of Forbes to side with... er... North Koreans), and with a more than decent cast and screenplay trying to rescue an impossible-to-justify storyline, Olympus has Fallen singularly fails to make sense, let alone impress

10.5/20