Tag: Patrick Heusinger

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

When Jack Reacher came out, I was able to avoid the controversy involving casting choices, because I of course never read the books and didn’t care. I just wanted a good action thriller.

And Jack Reacher was a good action thriller. I enjoyed how small and personal it felt. It felt unique. It had an amazing opening.

I was totally pumped for a Jack Reacher sequel. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is a dumb title, but hey, if it was anything like the first one, fuck it, who cares.

Stare
This one promises to feature at one visually appealing location.

This film starts off already way less exciting than the first film. Just Jack (Tom Cruise) helping catch a human trafficking cop, without much detail on how he did it or why it was done in any special way. Then we get to see him calling Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), someone he has worked with. But he talks to her a lot, he probably has the hots for her.

Anyway, according to some Colonel (Holt McCallany), Turner has been arrested for espionage. And also she maybe killed two people in Afghanistan. People she wasn’t supposed to kill. That is odd. Also, Jack might have a daughter (Danika Yarosh) that he has no knowledge of, from a prostitute. Look at all these shenanigans!

Somehow all of this gets connected. Jack gets framed for the murder of his lawyer, everyone gets in the same jail so they can break out and figure out all this shit.

Also featuring Aldis Hodge and Patrick Heusinger.

Run
And after all of this, I fucking ran away from the movie.

You might be really interested in why the low rating? That is because I did the unthinkable during this movie. No, I didn’t sleep through it. But sleeping usually gives an automatic 0 as well. I turned the piece of shit off.

I realized my time was far too valuable instead of wasting it on another hour of the shit in front of me. This is not the Jack Reacher I remember from just a few years prior. This is some global conspiracy military film, without a strong focus. This is a complete mess.

Technically, from the first scene it was worse, but the first scene of Jack Reacher was legendary. This felt like a sequel that was made from a different cheaper studio, like a lot of the Disney straight-to-video sequels. Whatever was on the screen couldn’t have possibly been done by the same people. It just seemed so goddamn different.

I obviously don’t have a lot of unique things to say, seeing just under half of the movie. And hey, maybe the ending made it a bit better. But whatever it is I watched just felt so wrong, so non-Jack Reacher, that I figured I had already seen enough. This is not a worthy successor. They should have Never Gone Back to this franchise, apparently.

Do better in your next film Cruise. I trust you.

0 out of 4.

Frances Ha

I almost saw Frances Ha two months ago. For real. I was going to drive an hour to see it and do some other things in the capital city.

It was the only movie at the indie theater that I hadn’t already seen, or knew I was going to see shortly after. It was all going according to plan.

Then I ran out of money and said nope. Also, the prospect of watching the movie didn’t appeal to me. I knew it had Greta Gerwig, who is in like, every indie movie now. But it was also in black and white. Ehhh, black and white…

Heyyy
Frances Hi!

Frances (Gerwig) is a 27 year old woman living life in the NYC! Yah! She lives with her best friend, Sophie (Mickey Sumner). They are basically the same person in different bodies and hair colors. Good times are had by them all. Until Frances has to leave her boyfriend and also can no longer live with Sophie.

Shit.

This movie takes place roughly over a year. It is her trying to survive in NYC, without her confidant, as they drift farther, and closer, and farther apart. No one likes losing a friend. But she is getting less work at the dance company, and times are tough.

She ends up finding a room with two men, Lev (Adam Driver), who tried to sleep with her and every other woman, and Benji (Michael Zegen), who would describe Frances as undate-able. She lives temporarily with a fellow dancer Rachel (Grace Gummer, currently on season 2 of The Newsroom). She also will have to move back to California, live in another country, and live in the woods and her old university before she gets back on her always dancing feet. Maybe.

At the same time, Sophie is getting very serious with her boyfriend Patch (Patrick Heusinger) who may be a good guy. Not really sure. We see everything from Frances’ point of view.

Lesbo
Frances Ho?

Fun fact. Greta Gerwig cast her parents as her parents! Ahh! What fun!

Description for the movie was hard. A woman in NYC. But the plot moved really fucking fast. The movie itself is under 90 minutes, so it has a short time frame, but it feels even shorter than that. It flies by so fucking fast.

Why is it fast? The way the movie was cut. Many short scenes, all spliced together to show a passing of time. That’s right. It is basically a shit ton of montages. Without the sports. Whether it be awkward dates, or awkward dinners, everything is quickly paced, and still conveys the appropriate emotions to the viewer.

You will feel awkward, uncomfortable, and sad. Which is great.

It didn’t end up being super artsy. The art direction and black and white was some sort of love song to Woody Allen probably. More importantly, I think that most people who watch this will find their time well spent.

3 out of 4.