G20 (2025) R

 G20 (2025) R

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When war hero president Danielle Sutton (Viola Davis, Lila & Eve) travels to South Africa for a global financial summit, a terrorist siege makes it necessary to defend other world leaders, her family, and her life.

Not going to lie, I went into this with medium expectations, and the first half hour made it look cookie cutter and formulaic.  The president and her rebellious daughter Serena (Marsai Martin, Sure Looks Good), was a predictable plot point that's been in every movie or television show with a president with kids.

However Davis makes an amazing action hero that outshines the mediocre script.  Add in the sleazy mercenary bad guy Rutledge (Antony Starr, The Boys) and Vice President Harold Mosley (Brad Gregg, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) and you've got a cast worth watching.

At moments it had a very "Under Siege" feel, especially with the scuffle in the kitchen.  Trying to protect civilians, the Italian Minister, the British Prime minister, and the Korean Minister's spouse was both harrowing and amusing.  This was not the time to be wearing fancy Italian shoes or complaining that the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car, but she handled it with grace.

There were predictable moments such as when the daughter used her rebellious skills to thwart the bad guys, but there were a few surprises to be had that offset that nicely.  I doubt there are any other presidents seen sparring with a secret service agent on the lawn of the white house.  And while practical in theory, it was a little dismaying to see the president lose more and more of her gown as the evening went on, ending up with a dress of Tina Turner proportions at the end.  You know the one I'm talking about.

 The ending carried on a bit long.  It should have ended in the conference room, and left the helipad scene out entirely.  Otherwise the ending was satisfying, and the mini scenes during the credits gave you the emotional closure you needed nicely.  I just wish the crypto tech was a little less cringe.

A couple of Oh Shit moments, and three laugh out loud moments.  I will admit that the Italian ambassador throwing her shoes away made me laugh a little too long.  I hate heels.

Overall, a good action flick that can grab your attention instead of being background noise.  Four out of five, and I'd pair it with The Bodyguard or similar for a double feature. 

Battledogs (2012) R

 Battledogs (2012) R

 

 

The island of Manhattan is quarantined when a mysterious virus sweeps through an airport  turning innocent civilians into ravenous wolf-men. Nothing short of a nuclear blast can stop the monstrous virus... unless someone finds a cure.

Maj. Brian Hoffman (Craig Sheffer,  Night Breed) a military infectious disease specialist is called in to consult.  He meets patient zero Donna Voorhees (Ariana Richards, Jurassic Park) and Dr. Ellen Gordon (Kate Vernon, Battlestar Galactica ('04)) who are working towards a cure.  Unfortunately Lt. Gen. Monning (Dennis Haysbert, Undercover) has plans to turn the virus into a military weapon and tries to sabotage all attempts at finding the cure.

This movie was SO close to being an amazing film, but writing choices seemed to always get in the way.  Stellar cast, decent acting, and interesting filming, but certain lines were awkward and abrupt solutions to plot problems.  It feels like a much longer film was edited, with skimpy one-liners filling in the gaps.

I also had a difficult time seeing Monning as threatening when I realized he was from the Allstate commercials, but that's my issue.

A couple of "oh shit" moments, mostly jump-scare attacks.  One eye-roll moment when Hoffman conveniently found an overturned car full of weapons as he was driving past.  It was not a military vehicle, and there was no way to see the weapons as he was driving.  And the way he screeched to a halt, backed up *maybe* two feet, then ran thirty feet to the wreck was slightly ridiculous. 

The wolf transformation CGI was not good enough for the closeups it received.

If you like grade C horror and just want something to throw popcorn at the screen, this is for you.  If you appreciate good storytelling, I'd give it a pass.

 

Nosferatu (2025) R

 Nosferatu (2025) R

 

 

Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp, Yoga Hosers), a new bride in Germany, has had a long psychic attachment to beastly vampire nobleman Count Orlock (Bill Skarsgård, IT) since childhood.  When her husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult, Renfield)  is tasked with traveling to him in the Carpathian Alps to facilitate the sale of an old estate, she fears for his safety.

There is no denying that this is a beautifully atmospheric period-piece film.  The story is classic, and more than a little bit of a ripoff of the original novel Bram Stoker's Dracula published in 1897. However the length is daunting, and your attention may flag in the middle.  Honestly there was very little in the middle hour that caught my attention after it drifted.

Mild spoilers follow.

How Ellen's connection to Count Orlock started is never made clear.  During her teenage years she is somehow contacted by the Count telepathically, where she wanders out into the garden in a daze and has a terrifying sexual encounter.  The film then cuts to the end of her honeymoon, where her husband is leaving for a job interview.  She psychically knows that he not only has the position, they will be sending him on a journey. 

The middle of the movie is both an outline of Orlock's plot to separate her from her husband, and a muddled mess of how Victorian medicine was used to subjugate women who were outspoken.  The count then gives Ellen an ultimatum, to submit to him freely or he will ravage everyone she loves.  He incites a plague.  He is the monster under the bed that the children can hear breathing.

The end is a tale of succumbing to an addiction, and sacrifice.  Everything, even death, is framed in a picturesque way, but it is not a storybook ending.

It's a movie worth watching, but I honestly think they could have cut a lot of the middle.  Willem DeFoe's character honestly felt like it was unnecessary.  His basic function was to get the other males in her life to leave her alone, validating her "visions" and explaining her behavior/illness.  Herr Knock disappearing and reappearing seemed unnecessary as well.  His part in Orlock's conspiracy could have been a lot simpler, and cut some of the sagging middle.

 It's slow and atmospheric in true gothic fashion.  I'd give it three and a half out of five.  I've seen worse.