BLACK BAG : Tuesday 18th March 2025

I saw the M Rated 'BLACK BAG' this week, and this American spy thriller film is Directed, photographed and Edited by Steven Soderbergh, whose prior feature film making credits take in his debut in 1989 with 'Sex, Lies, and Videotape' which he would follow up with numerous others, including 'Out of Sight' in 1998, 'Erin Brockovich' and 'Traffic' both in 2000, 'Ocean's Eleven', 'Ocean's Twelve' and 'Ocean's Thirteen' in 2001, 2004 and 2007 respectively, 'Contagion' in 2011, 'Magic Mike' in 2012, 'Side Effects' in 2013, 'Logan Lucky' in 2017, 'Unsane' in 2018, and 'Presence' most recently released earlier this year. This film was released in the US last week too, has generated universal critical acclaim, and has so far grossed US$15M from a production budget of about US$55M.

Here British intelligence officer George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) is given one week by his superior, Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgard), to investigate the leak of a top-secret software programme code-named Severus. One of five suspects is his wife, Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), also an intelligence officer. He invites the other four suspects, who are also fellow spies, over for dinner on Saturday evening. The four suspects are satellite imagery specialist Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), her boyfriend Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), agency psychiatrist Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris) and Zoe's boyfriend Col. James Stokes (Rege-Jean Page). At dinner, George drugs their food, but beforehand tells Kathryn not to eat a certain dish, to lower their inhibitions and reveals that Freddie has been cheating on Clarissa, who upon hearing this revelation promptly impales Freddie's hand with a steak knife to the table.  

The next evening while Meacham enjoys a peaceful Scotch on the balcony of his apartment, he suddenly grabs at his chest and keels over, dead from an apparent heart attack. George becomes suspicious of Kathryn after she denies having seen a certain film, although he found a cinema ticket stub in her bathroom garbage bin. The next day he covertly enters her office, logs into her computer diary and learns she will be traveling to Zurich later in the week, on a 'black bag' mission. He persuades Clarissa to redirect a spy satellite for three minutes and twenty seconds and watches Kathryn meet with a Russian operative in real time in a city square in Zurich, Switzerland. 

Meanwhile, James informs George that Kathryn has access to a Zurich bank account containing GB£7M in misdirected and unexplained funds. In a tense psychiatric session, Zoe asks if Kathryn prioritises her career or her husband. In a subsequent session, Zoe breaks up with James. Upon returning from Zurich late at night, Freddie waits for Kathryn outside their house and informs her that George suspects her. Kathryn says that she needs the night to consider her options and next steps. 

We learn that during the three+ minutes George redirected the satellite to watch Kathryn's meeting in Zurich, another Russian operative disappeared from a Liechtenstein safehouse with a copy of the Severus programme, and is now making his way to Eastern Europe to use it to cause a nuclear meltdown. Kathryn uses Clarissa to track the Russian. She suspects that their boss, Arthur Stieglitz (Pierce Brosnan), deliberately allowed Severus to leak in order to cause a nuclear meltdown in order to disrupt the government, even though it could potentially kill thousands of innocent lives.

She leaks the Russian's location to a CIA contact, resulting in a drone strike on a car in Poland, killing both Russians. George puts all suspects except his wife Kathryn through a polygraph test to determine when they first learned about Severus. In bed that night, the husband and wife compare notes and come to the realisation that they are being set up.

George and Kathryn invite the other four suspects to a second dinner party, at which no food or drink is served, but instead Kathryn places a gun on the table, while George says they will play a game. He reveals several secrets - that Freddie and Zoe had an affair, and that Zoe learned of the Severus programme from James but attempted to stop its dissemination due to her Catholic faith. George states that there were two plots - the first by Stieglitz and James to leak Severus and cause a nuclear meltdown, and the second by Zoe and Freddie to use Kathryn to stop it. James grabs the gun, confesses to plotting with Stieglitz and killing Meacham, and attempts to shoot George, but the gun was loaded with blanks. Kathryn pulls out another gun and shoots and kills James with a bullet to the head. The next day George dumps James' body in a pond, where he goes to fish in peace and quiet, while the others return to work. Kathryn informs Stieglitz that his plot failed and suggests he remove himself from the picture, as she has her eyes on his role. Later that night as Kathryn and George reaffirm their love for each other, they realise that the Zurich bank account containing the GB£7M remains untouched and could potentially still be theirs.

With 'Black Bag' Director Steven Soderbergh has crafted an intelligent, mature and engaging spy thriller that pays tribute to the spy classics of yesteryear. This film has both style and substance, and Writer David Koepp will keep you guessing right up until end, and with on point performances from Blanchett and Fasbender, as well as the other principle cast, this all adds up to a very well paced film that doesn't outstay its welcome at a brisk and concise 93 minute run time. 

'Black Bag' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS : HONOUR AMONG THIEVES - Tuesday 4th April 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'DUNGEONS & DRAGONS : HONOUR AMONG THIEVES' this week, and this American fantasy heist action comedy film is Directed and Co-Written by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, based on the tabletop role-playing game 'Dungeons & Dragons'. This film bears no connection to the original trilogy of films that launched with the feature film 'Dungeons & Dragons' in 2000, then the made for TV 'Dungeons & Dragons : Wrath of the Dragon God' in 2005 and the direct to video third film 'Dungeons & Dragons 3 : The Book of Vile Darkness' in 2012. The film was originally set to be released on 23rd July 2021 but due to scheduling conflicts, the COVID-19 pandemic, and various other studio delays a release date of two weeks ago in the US and last week in Australia was finally set upon, having seen its World Premier screening at SXSW earlier in March. It has garnered positive critical reviews, and cost US$150M to produce, and has so far grossed US$83M in Box Office receipts.

The film opens up in Revel's End arctic prison where Bard Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine) and his barbarian accomplice Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez) have been holed up for the past two years. Edgin stands before a panel of three judges explaining his back story and the reasons why he and Holga should be pardoned for their past crimes and released. Edgin spent years as a member of the Harpers, an order of peacekeepers, until a Red Wizard he had antagonised killed his wife. Accompanied by Holga, Edgin attempted to make a new life for himself and his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) by turning to theft, teaming with amateur sorcerer Simon Aumar (Justice Smith) and rogue Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant), along with the latter's mysterious acquaintance, Sofina (Daisy Head). While robbing a Harper stronghold, Edgin attempted to steal a 'Tablet of Reawakening' to bring his wife back to life, but he and Holga were captured, while their accomplices escaped with the Tablet.

We then come back to Edgin's plea for release, as he and Holga manage to escape from the prison by clinging onto a human sized bird, Chancellor Jarnathan (Clayton Grover), as he smashes through a window high up in the prison tower and glides the pair some distance away to safety as Chancellor Anderton (Nicholas Blane) cries after them that he had approved their release. And so the pair escape to Neverwinter and learn that Forge has become Lord there, after its prior Lord was stricken down by some mysterious illness. Forge has been taking care of Kira during the last two years, and has convinced her that Edgin's greed and selfishness led to his imprisonment. Sofina is revealed to be a Red Wizard, and she and Forge deliberately orchestrated the capture of Edgin and Holga.

Sofina tries, unsuccessfully, to dispense with Edgin and Holga, but they escape and decide to rob Forge's vault and bring Kira home with them during the upcoming High Sun Games at the stadium, needing the Tablet to prove their innocence. The gladiatorial games had previously been banned, but Forge resurrected them, promising the locals that the games would bring in tourists and money, and it's what the people want anyhow. Edgin and Holga track down Simon to help and he suggests also recruiting Doric (Sophia Lillis), a druid, whose forest community is battling against the forced logging handed down by Forge.

Doric gains access to Forge's castle by shapeshifting into various animal forms and finds the vault has magical defences which Simon says he lacks power to disable. Simon suggests that a magic relic, 'The Helm of Disjunction' could disable them. They travel to an old graveyard to ask Holga's ancestors where to find it. Simon resurrects the dead with a talisman long enough for them to answer five questions, with the corpses revealing they gave the Helm to Xenk Yandar (Rege-Jean Page), a paladin who fled his country, Thay, when Red Wizards turned his people into an army of the undead.

After getting to know each other Xenk, forces Edgin to swear to distribute any gained treasures to the people, leads the group through a vast subterranean network of tunnels and caverns known as the Underdark where the Helm has been secretly stashed away. With the help of a teleportation staff obtained from Holga's halfling ex-husband Marlamin (Bradley Cooper), they find the relic, but are attacked by Thayan assassins ordered by Sofina. Xenk fights off the assassins and helps the group escape from an overweight and less than agile red dragon, before exiting.

Simon is unable to master the Helm's power, so they decide to use the teleportation staff to enter the vault during the games. Simon and Holga are able to enter the magically-sealed door after Simon is able to master the Helm's power, but find the room behind it empty except for a magical trap. The whole group is captured and instead of death on the spot choose to participate in the games, but are able to escape after successfully negotiating several challenges and obstacles. Doric discovers that Forge has loaded the treasure onto a boat and is preparing to flee, so the group steals the boat for themselves and rescues Kira from Forge, who threatened Kira's life.

About a mile out to sea, the group realise that Sofina organised the games to draw a massive crowd and turn them into an army of the undead using the same curse that destroyed Thay. The group returns and transports Forge's stolen riches out of the boat with the teleportation staff and scatters them across the city, as Edgin had promised Xenk, so drawing the people out of the stadium before Sofina's spell can take effect.

Angered by her defeat, Sofina attacks the group, but Simon is able to master his magic and reverse Sofina's time-stop spell, allowing Kira to use an invisibility pendant Edgin and Holga had given her as a child to place an anti-magic bracelet on Sofina. Sofina is subsequently killed when attacked by Doric in her shapeshifting owlbear form and is then crushed by falling rubble from a building she was slammed into. However, Holga is fatally injured in the battle and dies in Kira's arms with Edgin looking on. Edgin uses the Tablet (which can only be used once) to bring her back to life, as he accepts that he wanted to bring back his wife only for his own sake while Holga had become a true part of their family. Now fully recovered from his mystery illness, the old Lord of Neverwinter declares the team heroes of the realm and Forge is sent to Revel's End, where he is seen one year into his sentence pleading with the Chancellor's for his early release, which they reject. 

'Dungeons & Dragons : Honour Among Thieves' is an OK movie, but that's as far as I would go with my praise for this fantasy action comedy offering. I didn't love it and I also didn't hate it either. It's a very simple story that unfolds well enough, but it's also quite silly in places and at times it meanders along at a snails pace before lurching into the next action set piece with barely any real impact on the storyline other than padding. Chris Pine is on good form here as the charming happy-go-lucky bard Edgin; as is Michelle Rodriquez as the type cast tough-as-nails ass-kicking heroine; with more than admirable turns from Justice Smith, Rege-Jean Page, Sophie Lillis and Hugh Grant to round out the principle cast and who all bring a not too serious light hearted tone to the picture, although I'm not sure I would rush out to see further instalments should this become a franchise.

'Dungeons & Dragons : Honour Among Thieves' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE GRAY MAN : Tuesday 19th July 2022

I saw 'THE GRAY MAN', Rated MA15+, at my local independent movie theatre this week, and this American action thriller film is Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo who have previously helmed four MCU films, being 'Captain America : The Winter Soldier' in 2014, 'Captain America : Civil War' in 2016, 'Avengers : Infinity War' in 2018 and 'Avengers : Endgame' in 2019, amongst other feature films and TV series. Based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Mark Greaney, the film went on limited release from last week before being released on Netflix from 22nd July. Costing US$200M to produce it is the most expensive film ever made by Netflix, and it hopes to start a series of films based on the eleven 'Gray Man' novels. It has garnered generally mixed or average Reviews so far. 

The film opens up in 2003 in a prison cell where Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling) is incarcerated until 2031 for the murder of his father. He is being interviewed, or rather recruited, by Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) who works for the CIA and recognises in Gentry the attributes necessary to turn him into a black ops mercenary, with the associated skills to take out all the bad guys on their hit list. Fitzroy tells Gentry that he can walk out of the prison in thirty minutes a free man, or he can serve out his sentence, and for what it's worth Fitzroy would have done the same thing as Gentry did that got him into the slammer in the first place. 

We then fast forward eighteen years to the present day. We are in Bangkok in a lavish hotel counting down the minutes to midnight on NYE. Gentry (now known as Sierra Six or simply Six) is ordered to take out a hit on a mark set to arrive shortly in time for the fireworks extravaganza. With the marks entourage in tow, and Six now poised to take the shot, he hesitates, so allowing the mark to walk outta there. But Six pursues his mark and what follows is a close quarter hand to hand fight on the ground floor amongst exploding tubes of fireworks. Six overcomes his mark, and as the mark lays bleeding out, he hands Six a medallion containing a USB drive, and says that he is Sierra Four, before he dies. Six gets the hell outta there, goes to an internet gaming joint and plugs in the USB, but it is heavily encrypted and without the necessary passcodes can't access what is contained therein. So, he is next seen posting it in a letterbox to an unknown recipient. 

Back in Langley, at CIA HQ, Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) another CIA Agent is being questioned by Denny Carmichael (Rege-Jean Page) her superior as to the role she played in the Bangkok hit, what if anything the mark gave to Six, and for her to very seriously consider her future career if he doesn't get the answers he wants. Miranda has an obvious dislike for Carmichael and gives nothing away. 

Meanwhile, Six hot wires a Tuk Tuk and calls Fitzroy asking for him to arrange for his extraction. Fitzroy has subsequently retired but still has connections and influence. His tells Six to get to Chiang Mai where an extraction team will be waiting with a cargo plane fuelled and ready for take off with a team of friendlies on board. 

In the meantime, Carmichael has recruited Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a psychotic and torture loving former colleague of Six who lasted just five months in the service of the CIA before venturing out on his own and operating a seemingly very successful mercenaries for hire business. Hansen has kidnapped the young daughter of Fitzroy, Claire (Julia Butters) and is threatening to do all manner of nasty things to her should he not get the answers from Fitzroy, whom he also now holds captive. Hansen coerces Fitzroy in telling the extraction team to dispense with Six. And so whilst cruising at 25,000 feet and while Six catches up on some much needed shut eye, the extraction team spring into action with the intention of killing Six. But, needless to say this doesn't go according to plan, and more close quarter hand to hand combat leads to a stray bullet blowing a gaping hole in the fuselage, various bad dudes getting thrown out of the plane, and the aircraft steadily disintegrating as Six jumps out of it without a parachute before it explodes in midair. He of course glides toward a bad dude with a parachute, they fight in free fall and Six lands shaken but not stirred somewhere in Turkey. 

Next up Six goes to Vienna to obtain a fake ID and passport, but alas the local who is organising the said documents in secretly in cahoots with Hansen. He successfully manages to capture Six in a deep pit through a bullet proof trap door in the floor just about where Six was standing to have his passport photo taken. Six, using his best MacGyver skills, manages to create a flood of water so elevating him up the pit and rigs an explosive charge to detonate just at the right time when Hansen and his goons arrive at the scene. In the ensuing mayhem, Six comes face to face and fist to fist with Hansen, but on the way out of the building Miranda shoots a tranquilizer dart in the arse of Hansen, and then into Six before loading him up in the boot of her car. 

When Six comes round a short time later, Miranda and Six talk over their predicament and what their next move should be. It turns out that Six posted the USB drive to Margaret Cahill (Alfre Woodard), the former head of CIA Special Op's, who has now also subsequently retired and living in Prague. So, the pair head off to Prague, as Cahill seems to be one of the only people they can trust, and who would have the encryption codes to allow them to access what is contained on that USB drive. Meanwhile, Hansen is back in Croatia in a very lavish and very old villa tracking Six's every move. Hansen also takes the opportunity to interrogate and torture Fitzroy to find out his whereabouts in Prague, and who it is there whom he would most trust.

Arriving in Prague Six and Miranda meet with Cahill who tells the pair that she has terminal cancer and has been given three months to live. But that doesn't stop her from opening up the USB drive and revealing that Carmichael and Hansen have been involved in some nefarious crimes around the world as their own very secretive and covert army of mercenaries taking out the Who's Who of people of influence. Needless to say, as Hansen watches on from Croatia he orders his assembled team of assassins to converge on Cahill's apartment and wreak havoc with all manner of firepower. As Cahill remains in the apartment holding onto a hand grenade, she allows Six and Miranda to escape via an underground tunnel leading out into the street, whilst providing the pair with her armour plated bullet proof glassed Audi car. What follows is a blood bath in down town Prague, as Miranda evades various other vehicles behind the wheel of Cahill's car, while Six is going head to head and toe to toe with numerous goons inside a tram. It doesn't end well for the numerous local Police killed in the conflagration, the assassins who also meet their swift demise courtesy of Six, and the tram which ultimately hurtles sideways and off track into the sandstone columns of a building causing much destruction, on top of the trail of mayhem left behind in the wake of Cahill's apartment being destroyed. 

Next up we find our intrepid rogue agents heading to Croatia to take out Hansen once and for all, rescue Fitzroy and his daughter, and regain the USB drive which has subsequently fallen into the hands of Avik San (Dhanush), and Indian assassin working for Team Hansen. Six and Miranda go in heavily armed to the villa under cover of darkness and while Miranda takes out all the external gun placements Six concentrates his efforts on the internal goons and getting to Fitzroy and Claire. Needless to say its all in a days work for the pair who successfully overcome their foes, leaving Miranda to battle it out with Avik San, and Six to guide the Fitzroy's to safety, although Fitzroy takes a bullet to the stomach and orders Six to take his Claire with him, leaving him with a single hand grenade which he pulls the pin on when Hansen and three of his goons are upon him. Of course the blast takes out the three goons, but Hansen scrambles to his feet and continues to give chase, culminating with Hansen holding Claire at gunpoint inside a maze within the grounds, while Six trails behind in search. The three come face to face around a fountain in the centre of the maze, and Six tells Hansen to let Claire go, which he does, leaving the pair to fight to the death. In the end it is Suzanne Brewer (Jessica Henwick), Carmichael's off sider, who plugs Hansen in the chest with a bullet and kills him dead. She also plugs Six with a non-life threatening bullet wound, just to add to his stabbings, slashings and beating he took from Hansen. 

We then fast forward two weeks to a heavily guarded private hospital in which Six has been non-responsive, and Claire is being held. Brewer and Carmichael plan on paying a visit to Six, with the latter questioning Brewer as to why she let Six live. Because he's a valuable asset and one of the most capable operatives they have she responds. As they exit the lift, the pair are confronted with the bodies of several guards and Six's now empty bed. He is next seen in silhouette passing along the windows of the room where Claire is being held taking out a number of goons. He then enters the room, rescues Claire and the two are seen speeding out of the hospital grounds in a SUV. 

'The Gray Man', which for the most part I enjoyed, is a mash up of Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt and John Wick with a little bit of James Bond thrown in there for good measure. It's an entertaining ride for sure with plenty of exotic locations, wide sweeping aerial drone shots, action set pieces, gunplay and close quarter combat, solid enough performances from the ensemble cast, and sarcastic quips aplenty to raise the occasional smile, but what it lacks is a fresh approach and sufficient intrigue to make this film stand above all the others in this increasingly overcrowded genre. Watch it from the comfort of your own sofa at home when it lands on Netflix this week, chow down on a big bowl of popcorn, leave your brain in the kitchen and strap in for a high octane super charged globe trotting journey that sees two Hollywood fav's go head to head. What's not to like?

'The Gray Man' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-