A Sassy Hit Woman, Grizzled Cops, and a Franchise-Ender that is Fairly Satisfying

   
  As January begins to wind down, momentum at the box office is sure to heat up. This weekend marks the opening for the third and final chapter in the Maze Runner series, The Death Cure. I have not read this book series, so to speak to its loyalty to the source material will be out of my reach, but I have to say overall that this series has been quite entertaining. Going into The Death Cure, I'll admit, I had to strain myself to remember what happened in the last film. I don't know if that's a testament to the film's quality or simply the fact that it's been forever since I've seen it. As The Death Cure kicked into gear, I was slowly reacquainted with the characters, plot, and setting. I feel bad but I have to be honest. That being said, The Death Cure is an entertaining movie despite some glaring narrative issues.

    Plot wise, this movie takes place...some time after the last one? (LOL I really don't remember). The "Gladers" have teamed up with the resistance in order to establish a new life with those who are immune to the world-ending disease. However, one of their own has been kidnapped and the opening sequence to the movie is a daring train chase that attempts to rescue him. Glader leader Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) has established himself as the go-to guy when making decisions, and his bull-headedness leads him and his crew on a daring and somewhat fool-hardy quest to save their friend, which they (spoiler) failed to do at the beginning of the movie. The antagonistic corporation WCKD is still trying to harvest a cure from immune children, and has taken the Gladers' friend as bait to lure in Thomas and the gang. Thomas's venture leads him to the last standing city, which is surrounded by a huge wall to keep the zombie-esque virus victims at bay. It's a thrilling adventure with a satisfying ending, and dare I say one of the more satisfying endings to these YA film franchises. In other words, I'm so glad they didn't split this film into two (you hear that Harry Potter? Hunger Games?)

 
   I really enjoyed the first film of this franchise, mainly because I knew nothing about it and the premise was interesting. The acting was also really great, with O'Brien leading the pack of some really talented young actors. Full transparency here, prior to writing this review I went back and read through my review for the second film, The Scorch Trials, and apparently I loved it more than the first! Funny, since I couldn't remember a thing about it. Maybe it's because there was only a year between the first two and three between the last one and this new one. At any rate, I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here. The Death Cure was absolutely fine. I think the acting was about as good as the rest of the franchise. The story is interesting, but highly predictable. I will say that, for me, there is a particularly interesting character played by Walton Goggins that completely surprised me, and I wanted so much more of him than I got. In reality, the more Walton Goggins you can get, the better. But the narrative of Thomas seemed fairly predictable, which made this side character really interesting.

   Even though it was predictable, I still enjoyed myself with this film. The action is really intense and visually entertaining, and like I said earlier I found this movie to be completely satisfying as a point of culmination for the franchise. My biggest gripe with this film was the amount of "convenient,"deus ex machina moments that played out. I mean, there are a significant amount of moments where things happen that shouldn't have happened, but magically do. It was insane. I only gripe about that because one of the most riveting and effective tools in good storytelling are the stakes. If you have practically every dangerous situation get magically fixed by some insane plot device, there's no reason to ever worry about anyone. Normally I don't mind this. Movies use these plot devices all the time. One here or there is fine with me. I get sucked into this movies more easily than most people anyway, so I'm along for the ride regardless. But this was verging on the ridiculous side for me. When all is said and done though, The Death Cure was still entertaining. If you're a fan of the franchise I think you'll find this movie as enjoyable as the others. As franchises go, The Maze Runner is still one of the more fun ones to experience.  

 

    In the same action movie vein, I had a chance to catch Den of Thieves this week, and I found myself loving it more than I had expected to. Going in I figured it would be just your typical paint-by-numbers, serviceable cops and robbers action flick. What I got was practically a beat by beat homage to one of the greatest heist films of all time in Heat. I'm not saying Den of Thieves is a rip off or a copy cat--though there are a lot of similar beats and narrative points between the two--but it manages to stand on its own as a really intense story about skilled bank robbers, corrupt cops, and more flying bullets than you can handle. Den of Thieves is a gritty crime saga which follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's Dept., led by Gerard Butler, and the state's most successful bank robbery crew (Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson Jr., and 50 Cent) as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank. The movie is clever in its delivery, with great suspense, insane action, and a twist that will surely put a smile on your face. Gerard Butler has had a rough go lately starring in some box office stinkers, but I've always enjoyed the guy and he pulls off the gritty cop like it's no big deal. There is a dynamic about his character and the way he approaches police work that questions that moral line between what is right and what is wrong, and I dig that. I got more from this movie than originally anticipated, and I definitely recommend it, if this seems like something up your alley.

   

    Capping off my action-packed week, I went into the film Proud Mary thinking--once again--that it was going to be a specific type of movie, and what I got was not what I expected. Only in this case it wasn't a pleasant surprise. I'll be completely honest, I was a bit let down with this movie. From the trailers I was expecting this upbeat, kinetic action film, but what I got was a bland, soggy biscuit with a few moments of fun action. I love Taraji P. Henson, I think she's a fantastic actress. The idea of her as an action star was a refreshing approach to her work. However, there really isn't a lot to her performance that we haven't seen already, and there was barely any action in this movie. Most of it was in the trailer. A surefire bummer. The story follows Mary (Taraji P. Henson) who is a hit woman working for an organized crime family in Boston. Her life is completely turned around when she meets a young boy whose path she crosses when a professional hit goes bad. Despite holding nothing new, Henson's performance is still great, which only speaks to her overall talent. Danny Glover is in this movie and he was alright, I suppose. The story sort of slugs along, with a lot of time spent on dealing with this kid that Mary runs into. The pinnacle action set piece at the end, which sports the banner anthem "Proud Mary" from the trailers, comes completely out of nowhere tonally, which I think is the biggest issue with this movie. It shifts in tone so frequently that it's distracting, and when that kickin' track hits it immediately felt like a different film all together. No movie is perfect, and I'm sure many will and have found this movie as an entertaining watch. I like just about everything, and there were moments that were really good. A lot of the interactions between Mary and the kid are really great. So, if you like mediocre action movies, or are looking for a decent excuse for escapism, Proud Mary should do it for ya.