This time around we have 3 new releases and a few that came out earlier in the month. Up first is Special Ops: Lioness – Season One. I was instantly interested in this because it’s from Taylor Sheridan and I’ve yet to not like one of his shows. Add in a stacked cast including Zoe Saldana, Morgan Freeman, Nicole Kidman and more and you have my attention. This 8 episode season is about the Lioness program, where they take women and use them to infiltrate and get information. They get a young Marine without much baggage to befriend the daughter of a high value international target pushing the boundaries of what’s right and justified. It’s a political drama mixed with equal parts spy thriller and military program like SEAL Team or The Unit. The action is solid with a shootout in San Antonio that would rival Sicario. Kidman handles the political angles with Saldana the head of the Lioness program. The show covers a ton of ground from the Middle East to the homeland and everything in between. If you liked either of the two shows I mentioned and things like The Terminal List then you will like it. I’m curious to see where it goes in Season 2, if there’s new characters that will change from season to season. Yet another quality program from Sheridan.
Sticking with military action, Wolf Pack has solid action as well. This Chinese film definitely feels like a gung ho American flick from the 1980s. It’s about a special ops team that kidnaps a doctor for a mission who soon becomes part of the team. His father has a secret past and the doctor has special training of his own. They need to protect a woman to guarantee an energy deal goes through, but then they need to stick around to stop an explosion from happening at an oil field. It’s over the top action, but it does go on a bit too long. I thought it was ending at one point, but it still had a half hour left. But that’s my only real complaint because overall I enjoyed it. There’s plenty of shootouts and big action sequences. Sure it comes across as Chinese propaganda showing off how great their military fighting teams are, but we do that too. Max Zhang continues to impress me as well. I recommend this one too.
For a while I might have recommended Your Lucky Day, but then it takes a completely ridiculous turn. The late Angus Cloud plays a low level drug dealer who gets robbed. He finds himself in a convenience store where a man finds out he’s won over $100 million in the lottery. Cloud decides to rob the guy and a shootout breaks out when a cop leaves the bathroom. For a while it’s a thriller trying to make you decide what you would do in the situation. There’s 2 dead bodies, the store owner, Cloud and a man with his pregnant girlfriend. They decide they all want in on the lottery money and make a pact to get themselves out of the situation. Ok I get that, what would you do to survive and maybe better yourself. But then it decides it wants to talk about corrupt cops and the pregnant chick is badass and can take on SWAT members. You lost me there. I don’t know if they decided to go a different way when Cloud died in real life, but there’s a huge tonal change when it wants to get into social commentary and it loses steam because of it.
Suitable Flesh came out earlier in the month and stars Heather Graham and horror icon Barbara Crampton. Graham plays a therapist who has a guy show up at her door. She thinks he’s schizophrenic, but when he has a seizure starts wondering what the issue is. He thinks his father is possessed and will possess him if he doesn’t kill him. Graham is then fully involved and becomes part of the situation as well. I’m not a huge demon/possession horror guy, but this is watchable. Graham and Crampton are both good as is the actor playing the possessed guy. It’s not as ridiculous as Malignant, but fans of that film should like this.
Next we have a few anime releases. Tsurune the Movie is about an archery team competing with a new coach. The lead character had loved this version of archery since he was a kid, but had walked away after an accident. He rejoins the team that has different types of guys on it. I thought the friend character was in love with him as was a competing member, but maybe I put too much thought into it although it does come across as homo-erotic. I’m not the biggest anime guy so I have no idea if this is popular or not, but it was the most straight forward of these releases to me.
The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes is a pretty dark storyline with coloring to match. It’s beautiful in that it looks faded especially compared to today’s computer animation which is usually bright and vivid. It’s about a tunnel that can give you whatever your heart desires, but the more time you spend in the tunnel, the more years of your life you lose. It delves into changing your past when you should be living in the present and what one would do for love. Its biggest issue is its pacing. The story works and the coloring is fantastic, but the pacing was much too slow for me. I think there’s a great movie in there, but it drags at times. I have no issue with the open ending because the film is emotional and makes you think so the ending should be open to personal interpretation.
Last we have Love Flops Complete Collection. This is about a boy whose life is changed after a fortune teller’s predictions come true. Girls start declaring their love for him and his whole life is flipped upside down. There’s a twist to them, but I don’t know if that is known so I won’t spoil that part. I found the girls a little annoying and stereotypical so I didn’t like this one as much. You get all 12 episodes in one collection. I can see why people into anime might like this, but overall it didn’t do much for me. Not revealing the twist makes it hard to talk about and this definitely isn’t for younger kids.
The Nerds Templar 