Tag: Samuel L.Jackson

Glass : MCU, M. Shyamalan’s Cinematic Universe.

I had gushed over Split a while back and was looking forward to Glass ever since M.Night Shyamalan, who would have been just another friendly neighborhood Manoj had his parents chosen not to cross the Pacific, dropped hints towards the end of Split that he was building his own superhero universe, minimalistic of course. Considering the fact that every other big studio is battling for box office supremacy in the genre these days, wouldn’t blame Shyamalan if he felt driven to explore his core competencies in that context too. He has but gone on record to state that he indeed had three films on his mind when he wrote Unbreakable all those years back. Though I cannot recall any indications of the sort right now from Unbreakable I’ll take his word for it. If the man’s debut feature is still not good enough for the Hollywood elites to acknowledge his genius, they atleast should  acknowledge his sheer confidencen given the fact that he has churned out a superhero movie universe franchise in no time with almost zero CGI. Well, at least not with the Marvel or DC kind of mind numbing CGI.

If Unbreakable was ultimately a  philolosphical take on comic books at large, Split was far removed and was more of a catalogue of everything James McAvoy was capable of, as an actor, apart from being Shyamalan‘s  magnificent return to his arena, that being the  psychological thriller. Shyamalan deflty combines the elements of both these movies, apart from the characters, obviously,  in Glass. What helps Glass the most is the pace at which the story progresses. In a stark departure from his signature style, no time is wasted building up the elements of suspense in Glass. Shyamalan’s sense of humor is intact too, which helps. While every other celebrated filmmaker out there has reinvented the most loved superheroes of our times with origin stories, Shyamalan has taken those superheroes, stripped them bare of their capes and tights and placed them on a couch in a shrink’s office, literally, rather than on a battlefield. If the Marvel and DC movies had a troubled soul, Glass would be it. In Unbreakable, he explored the dynamics of a superhero- supervillain relationship, so to speak. Here, in Glass it’s about the balance of power and order, utlimately.

James McAvoy is  back at what he does best and the Oscar snub hasn’t dampened his spirits it seems. This time around he has to share screen time between the other two Shyamalan favroites, Bruce Willis and Samuel.L.Jackson. Willis’s character is the most one-dimensional character of the three and this could be one reason why Spencer Treat Clarke makes a return here as a makeshit Alfred to Dunn’ Overseer avatar. Willis’s character inadvertently owes it to Samuel.L.Jackson’s Elijah ultimately for the discovery of his own abilities and is the reason why I felt he is one dimensional if not for the presence of his anti-hero counterpart, Mr.Glass. To borrow a borrowed line from another  pathbreaking superhero movie, all Glass is trying to say to Dunn is, “You complete me”. Glass is the most moving character in this film though he is supposedly the mastermind supervillain. Shyamalan who has made a return to reckoning after being lost in cinematic oblivion for a while, I feel has actually turned a nose up at the big studios who are busy dishing out superhero movies on hughe budgets, by making a couple of films in the same genre on a shoestring budget. Or maybe he’s just doing penance for The Last Airbender and After Earth.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard : The Review.

I don’t recall watching Samuel.L.Jackson kiss an actress on screen ever and when the end credits rolled for The Hitman’s Bodyguard, i think i realized why.He is not much of a kisser is simply why, though maybe its just lack of practice, on screen that is, or then again it could just be plain lack of chemistry between him and a jaded Salma Hayek.That was one of my only two takeaways from The Hitman’s Bodyguard which aspires to be an action comedy, but ends up with some success in the comedy department thanks to the lead pair and disappoints absolutely when it comes to the action scenes, which is where and why the movie let itself down, i think.

After escorting Denzel Washington to safety in 2012’s Safe House, Ryan Reynolds gets to play bodyguard to Samuel.L.Jackson’s hitman in this film which also has Gary Oldman playing an East European dictator sporting a look that, for some reason reminded me of his turn as Dracula in Coppola’s namesake 1992 movie.Was that a tribute by the director, considering Dracula’s east European origins?, I guess we’d never know.He doesn’t have much to do here though, apart from acting real mean like your average east European dictator is expected to .

Sam Jackson’s hitman is racing against a deadline and other hitmen with the Interpol looking on, to get to the ICJ in The Hague to depose as a witness against Oldman’s character and helping him out reluctantly is Reynolds, for the sake of nothing other than good old love.The only reason i could think of, for the makers to settle for this plot setting, brings me to my second takeaway.The Netherlands it seems, has a cash rebate and incentives programme for every movie shot on their soil and The Hitman’s Bodyguard benefited financially from this, the internet tells me. Interestingly,Dunkirk is one other movie which is said to have worked this incentive to its advantage.

The action sequences reminded me of Bollywood movies ranging from Kick to Shivaay, which were shot on location in east European countries with incentives and subsidies for filmmakers too.I couldn’t but help wondering if they used the same action crew as those Bollywood movies.Thats how mediocre the action was.Maybe the makers thought that they could save even more bucks and make up for it in the humor department.The film did draw a few laughs, thanks mostly to Samuel.L.Jackson but that keeps the movie afloat only barely.At the end of the day, its little more than another lost opportunity, considering the cast and the premise.