313, Mercy

Mercy is the most recent offering on Amazon Prime and couldn't be more simple if I wrote it myself. 

We open with a dissorientated Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) handcuffed into a futuristic chair, being read the equivalent of his rights and about to face trial for the alleged murder of his own wife earlier that day with 'A.I' Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson) acting as Judge, Jury and Excecutioner.  

He has 90 minutes in the chair to reduce his guilty 'percentage' to an acceptable level by accessing cloud information of photos, files, videos, camera footage, phone records and calls to convince Maddox of his innocence otherwise, face immediate excecution.

And that's it! Think Phone Booth 'meets' Minority Report and you're almost there.  The backstory is quite simnple - Raven is a Police Officer who in part, openly supports and backs the "Mercy" Judicial approach and now he finds himself as it's latest participant.  Awaking in the chair, he learns first hand of his wife's death - and sees bodycam footage of his arrest following some pretty awfull behaviour but swears his innocence to the murder even though at this time, all evidence points towards him.

Set in the not to distance in the future, with everything cloud accessible, Raven is able to to reference footage captured from anytime, anywhere - and speak to whoever he can to support his case and once the immediate grief of what has happened to his wife has sunk in, sets out on a fast paced investigation with a constant countdown in place to find the perpetrator - all while being strapped to a chair.

The action and outside support is fed into his digital courtroom via screen projections and body / phone cam footage with Maddox supporting in obtaining requested files, calling interested parties and accessing data and historical details to support Ravens hasty investigation.

This movie has a few plot twists throughout with early suspects in the frame but although potential dead ends - does throw light to other lines of investigation that do, in the end - lead to ensuring justice is served.

Pratt is great as Raven.  His character isn't quite the nice guy you'd hope, but that adds to the tension of 'did he / didn't he' with his anger and alcoholism issues front and centre but Pratt manages to convey all of that all while remaining seated throughout the movie, with the exception of the pre-crime footage of him being played out in video and real-time form.

Ferguson, as the dead-pan 'A.I' Judge remains a constant digital screen presence and Raven's daughter Britt, played by Kylie Rogers (Yellowstone's 'Young' Beth) is a fiesty teen who's torn between losing her Mum and wanting to belive her Dad's innocence but being swayed by Grandparents to her Dad's guilt were both great additions.

Other cast member include Raven's 'Cop' parter Jac (Kali Reis - True Detective), Friend and AA sponsor Rob (Chris Sullivan - Behemoth in Megamind / Jerry in American Dad!) and finally the poor murdered wife played by Annabelle Wallis (Grace from Peaky Blinders).

I think you need to stick with this one - the opening 15 minutes or so make you feel this is going to a bit of a slog - watching Chris Pratt strapped to a chair for 90 minutes trying to proive his innocence to a computer generated, non compassionate AI Judge - but things start hotting up when his colleagues - all of which do seemingly believe he's incapable of the crime he's accused of, rally round to follow his direction and try and solve the crime - all in under an hour (by the time he gets going).

In parts it's very fast and furious - the car chases are very 'digitally enhanced' (shall we say) with a lot of special effect that were't particularly necessary, but you would't get the destructon portratyed without it so you have to let that one go.  

It's a little thought provoking regarding the Mercy Justice system, the role AI is playing in our everyday lives and the impact this has, especially if it starts getiting things wrong but that's just topical conversation pieces we all deal with day to day as tech develops around us.

It you liked Phone Booth / Liberty Stands Still then this is that, but taken to a more 'digital' level - definately worth a watch.

(Images used in blog are sourced from IMDB, First Showing.net, Los angeles Times, Digital Spy & We are Movie Geeks)

312, One Battle After Another

I really don't undestand the Oscars sometimes.

I do understand they like to push the envelope and recognise aspects of movies that would normally just pass right over the regular casual viewer and I also know stories that highlight issues or are prominent in current society (either by luck or judgement) seem to do well, but I am still struggling to see the reasons behind this movie winning Best Film at this years Oscars.

Let's break this down - One Battle After Another is clearly defined by two main acts, seperated over a period of 16 years.

Act 1:  We meet a band of 'vigilante rebels' fighting for a cause (of which, to the outside world could easily be seen as terrorism) yet, we are sided with them as we see their plight of rescuing illegal immigrants from horrific compounds along the mexican border.  

Their approach however is violent and reckless - led by Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) and supported by love interest Bob (DiCaprio) as an explosives expert, the whole crew have no bones about rescuing illegals one minute and then commiting armed robbery the next.

Oddly - they aren't the main protagonists - that honour falls to Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) as the Military leader in charge of the immigrant compounds and after coming across Perfidia and her crew, develops a form of unhealthy, demasculated obsession with her as he then works tirelessely to hunt her down.

Perfidia then has a baby (assumingly belonging to Bob) at which point Bob realises their focus has to switch to responsible parenting - but is dismissed by a selfish Perfidia, who's sees the affection and love that Bob once showed her now focussed on their baby girl and basically leaves them both.  She ends up on the run, alone; until Lockjaw catches up with her and after being forced to turn rat on her crew, sees Bob, the baby daughter (Charlene) and other crew members go into hiding - which for most of them, is unsuccessfull.

Act 2 jumps forward 16yrs with a teenage Charlene (played by Chase Infiniti) living a very low-key lifestyle with Bob, now an anxious, paranoid addict and it all kicks off again when Lockjaw resurfaces - on the hunt for Charlene (reasons are made clear in the movie) and it's the new circle of support around Bob & Charlene, including Sensai Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio Del Toro) who has taken up the mantle of housing illegal immigrants, helped out by friends & family and managing to evade the authorities by any means necessary, who rally round a seemingly incapable Bob to get them both safe.

All sounds amazing right, what's not to like?  Well, from start to finish I just didn't get this movie.  I couldn't work out if it was designed to make heroes out of terrorists - or slander the military with their portrayal of Lockjaw and his processes and mannerism's.

From an actors perspective - DiCaprio was as always, the awesome professional - completely engaged in his character and playing a brilliant submissive to Taylors dominant Perfidia, who was as sexy as she was ruthless & selfish.  Del Toro was brilliant as well but it was the performace from Penn as the single minded, unhinged militant protagonist that appeared almost comedic initially, but soon turns to chilling & obsessive with a need for white supremicist validation and in the end, sheer blinded vengeance that for many, will steal the show.

Was he worthy of the Best Supporting Actor gong?  Well, that's down to the Academy - he certainly went all-in on the character but that said, DiCaprio losing out to Michael B. Jordan (for Sinners) is also one I didn't see coming.

The movie just didn't seem to have a point to it.  I didn't know who we were supposed to side with - the Rebellion was mean, vicious and reckless & the Military was overbearing and sadistic.  You want to side with Bob, but he was basically hopeless and you constantly wonder how he managed to bumble though 16yrs of hiding without getting caught so you are left with Charlene, who seems to be a vigilant, stand-up, dedicated and intelligent human being but as you'll find out at the end - the apple never falls far from the tree.

The most annoying thing for me in this movie was the soundtrack.  Don't get me wrong, some will say it's an atmospheric masterpeice and to take a quote from the internet;

"The piano music in One Battle After Another (2025), composed by Jonny Greenwood, is a deliberate, tense score using a "pedal tone" technique - repeating a single note over changing chords. This creates a constant, anxious and rhythmic backdrop designed to feel like a "metronome of suspense, " mirroring the ongoing, generational struggles of the characters"

So - that's nice and specific, but OMG it gets annoying and tedious after about an hour! For me, it ended up being all I could focus on! Like that annoying dripping tap or squeaky floorboard.  It dominated the whole movie and sadly as a result, after a while I'd checked out completely.  Sorry Jonny, I'm sure it's not your fault.

This should have been the type of film I'd rave about.  Regular readers will know from my 300+ blogs preceeding this one, I don't always need a captivating storyline or even a believable plot to fall in love with a film.  This movie is fast paced with tonnes of action, fights, great characters and strong, well-known actors playing them but it was all just too random, chaotic and the piano was so completely overwhelming that all the enjoyment of what it should have been was completely lost.

I have left out loads of plot lines and back-stories in this blog for good reason.  It's close to 3hrs long and I'll be brutally honest, I had to google the ending as after 2hrs 10mins, both me and my wife either lost complete intertest in what was going on - or were so confused by the whole thing we really didn't care what happened to any of the surviving characters.

I saw this at home, on Sky TV as one of the their 'Cinema Premiers' but I genuinly think had we have gone to the cinema - we wouldn't have made it all the way through either and sadly, that's coming from someone who sat though the entire 90 mins of "Movie 43" (Blog: 238)

One Battle After Another is a six time Oscar Winner and includes a a highly acclaimed cast that will probably have fans raving about it for generation to come, just not this one.

(Images used in blog are sourced from Golden Globes, NPR, Arts Knoxville, ScriptShadow, Deadline, Biff Bam Pop!, Fanfare & High on Films)