What films have you watched recently?

Philly_Q

Offset said:

Philly_Q said:

Memory (Netflix)

Liam Neeson plays a hitman with early onset Alzheimer's who refuses to kill a young girl and gets involved in... something.  A lot of British actors do bad American accents.  A lot of Bulgarian actors pretend to be Americans.  I felt like I had dementia trying to follow the plot of this shit.

God.  Mrs O watched this last night and persuaded me to watch it with her.  I hadn't a fucking clue what was going on for most of the time and quite frankly, I didn't care.  Neeson stammered his way dementedly through the second half of the movie to little effect and we both agreed it was shite.

Neeson looks really feeble as well, doesn't he?  I know he's playing an ill man, and his elderly-tough-guy screen persona strains credibility at the best of times, but maybe he needs to hang up his "special skills".  Thinking about it afterwards, the hitman-with-Alzheimer's story adds very little to the film.  Guy Pearce's FBI agent character has far more reason to hold a grudge against the bad guys.  With a bit of re-writing the two characters could have been combined into one.

Offset

Little Dixie (2023), Netflix

Our second film for last night.  I was fervently hoping it would improve on the dire 'Memory'.

I wanted to dislike this film.  The synopsis suggested it was going to be utter tosh - ex-enforcer's daughter is kidnapper by a depraved cartel member, and the price of her safe return is not an easy ask.  It's a hackneyed plotline with an easily anticipated paint-by-numbers ending.  However...

Frank Grillo as 'Doc' makes quite a likeable antihero.  He's as hard as fuck of course and rather adept with a firearm in his hand, of which he has an Terminator-esque array.  Beau Knapp makes an extremely good psychotic, amoral baddie without resorting to chewing the scenery.  I also thought Sofia Bryant was good as Grillo's daughter.  So against all expectations, I actually enjoyed this.  I woudn't describe it as a 'good film'; it isn't.  But that doesn't mean you can't be entertained.

A rather surprising 5.5/10.