Thriller – Page 2 – We Are Movie Geeks

BLINK TWICE – Review

Naomi Ackie stars as Frida in director Zoë Kravitz’s BLINK TWICE, an Amazon MGM Studios film.
Photo credit: Carlos Somonte. Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. © 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut BLINK TWICE starts out with a great deal of promise but ultimately fails to live up to its promise. The target Kravitz appears to be aiming for is a GET OUT-style smart horror thriller, with a set-up the recalls both KNIVES OUT and THE MENU, where a select group of beautiful people on a private island with wealthy types, an island where things go very wrong. In this case, the island is owned by tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), who invites a pair of waitresses who have dressed up to crash his posh cocktail party, Frida (Naomie Ackie) and Jess (Alia Shawkat), to join him and his friends for a couple of days on his private island. It’s a dream come true for Frida, the reason she had dressed up to crash the party to catch the billionaire’s eye.

What starts out like a Disney-ish meet-cute romantic fantasy, with Frida and Jess whisked away on a private jet, plied with champagne, and then ensconced in little bungalows filled with clothes and luxurious supplies, has some creepy foreshadowing. There is some scandal around Slater King, dealing with something that happened at parties with a #MeToo vibe followed by a unconvincing public apology. Nonetheless Frida is enamored with the handsome billionaire, although when Frida is introduced at the cocktail party to King’s therapist, played by Kyle MacLachlan, she jokingly says “blink twice if I’m in danger” and the therapist pauses before he smiles. On the island, they are expected to give up their phones, and Jess jokes about whether the human sacrifice is before or after dinner.

Despite all that, the women quickly settle into a pattern of lounging around the pool, night spent dinning on fine cuisine and never-ending champagne, as host Slater King asks “Are you having a good time?” to which they invariably reply “I’m having a great time.”

And that’s where the film bogs down, going through iterations of that party scene a few too many times without any thing much happening. It works less to build suspense than to dissipate the little threat that had been created. When the horror/thriller finally gets underway, the events that unfurl are far-fetched and it really doesn’t make sense, or even hold one’s interest. Yes, horrible things happen but we see them coming from far off, which dispels any suspense, and the explanations really don’t hold up, sometimes in eye-rolling inducing fashion.

Naomie Ackie plays the central character, Frida, and on screen most of the time but the character is surprisingly underwritten, with little if any backstory and a romantic innocence that seems more fitting for a teenager. Ackie works hard to make the most of this thin material, while Alia Shawkat as Jess provides comic commentary, as well as an every-present yellow lighter whose true purpose is eventually revealed, to balance Frida’s romantic view, a view that circumstances upend. Channing Tatum is charmingly oily as the tech billionaire hosting this sinister party.

The film features a good supporting cast that includes standout Geena Davis as Slater King’s sister and assistant Stacy, his high-strung assistant, who combines a hyper-competency with a tendency to drop things as she runs around handling all the practical matters of having an island full of guests and more. Christian Slater plays Slater King’s right-hand man Vic, while Haley Joel Osment plays Tom, a bitter, washed-up star and gourmet meals are prepared by chef-guest Cody (Simon Rex). On the female side of the guests, another standout is Adria Arjona as Sarah, a “Survivor” winner who is a beauty with a special set of skills, while Trew Mullen plays stoner-girl Heather, always up for smoking fat blunts. Liz Caribel plays Heather’s pal and Levon Hawke plays handsome Lucas.

Adam Newport-Berra provides stylish cinematography heavy on quick cuts, visuals supplemented by heavy-handed sound design.

Zoe Kravitz deserves credit for aiming high, for a stylish, high-concept thriller with a have and have-not commentary, blended with a feminist one. The film is certainly stylish to look at, with great costumes and sets. While the cast is good, the script, co-written by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum, just doesn’t achieve its ambitions.

BLINK TWICE opens Friday, Aug. 23, in theaters.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

NEW LIFE – Review

NEW LIFE is a drama that opens with a young woman, Jessie (Hayley Erin), running through the woods, head bleeding (her head, not the woods’). She’s obviously escaping from someone or something, but we won’t find out why she’s in this pickle until about halfway through the film. What we next learn is that she’s trying to flee to safety in Canada. Meanwhile, some unidentified entity with extensive resources hires a first-rate tracker (Sonya Walger) to catch her before she can get to the border. Walger doesn’t learn who she’s actually working for or why they are so hell-bent on catching her until well into the film when we do.

Jessie seems like a nice young woman to viewers and to all she meets in her northward journey through rural areas. There’s suspense in who will help or harm her, since she’s alone and vulnerable. And, even more than Blanche DuBois, dependent on the kindness of strangers. Those strangers observing her ordeal on a screen will be pulling for her.

I can’t give more details without spoilers. If you decide to watch, the less you know, the more interesting it will be, just letting the answers unfold for you when they do for the principals. I chose this one because the talented Ms. Walger is one of the leads, and she did not disappoint. Either she’s not getting as much work as she deserves, or I’m missing whatever she’s been doing. This role is quite a stretch from what I’ve seen her do before, and she nails the complexities of her character.

Writer/director John Rosman is a first-timer in wearing either of those hats. To his credit, the finished product is far superior to what most rookies can deliver. There’s suspense, a satisfying array of characters and performances, mostly mild action, and some yucky bits. That being said, the screenplay leaves considerable room for head-scratching. Rosman manages to have events develop in ways that simultaneously make more and less sense. You’ll know what I mean from your thoughts in the quiet moments – particularly in the latter half.

NEW LIFE is far from groundbreaking but it’s a reasonably engaging piece of speculative fiction, with fine performances from the two leading actresses, and a series of locations presumably chosen to add a sense of realism, in an efficient 85 minutes.

NEW LIFE opens Tuesday, Apr. 30, in select theaters and on-demand on May 3.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

POLAR RESCUE – Review

I’ve been a big Donnie Yen fan for years. This martial artist/actor has been a mainstay of Chinese action movies – comedic and dramatic – for decades. For Western audiences, he may be best known for his appearances in several films about China’s legendary real-life hero Ip Man. Besides Yen’s fighting skills, he invariably projects the calm integrity of a Gary Cooper. His latest high-profile role on our screens was the blind, yet super-lethal, and highly-principled assassin co-star in JOHN WICK 4.

Donnie is now over 60. So, like Jackie Chan, his time as a credible action hero may be waning. Preparing for the next phase of his career is the only reason I can imagine for his producing and starring in this rather uninspired family drama, POLAR RESCUE (a/k/a COME BACK HOME).

In POLAR RESCUE, Donnie Yen plays a dad on vacation with his wife and two young kids in the snow-covered mountains. Their bratty son petulantly insists they go to a lake with a “monster” he wants to see. Despite the weather being so bad that the main road to it is closed, dad dutifully tries another route. At a rest stop, the boy wanders off and winds up lost in the sparsely populated region during this harsh winter. Most of the running time covers the search.

Every trope is pulled out of the proverbial hat, from remorse to panic to anger to suspicions, plus media frenzy and various clashes among the principals to prolong the suspense of whether, and in what condition, they’ll find the little jerk… uh, I mean, the missing lad. Yen is sufficiently convincing as a father who variably feels guilty, frustrated and zealously determined to find the boy. Cecilia Han, who has won a handful of awards, is limited to typically marginal poses for a worried mother, alternating between hand-wringing and anger, apart from a few flashbacks to happier times.

The cinematography is excellent, with particularly fine set designs and enhancements of the exterior locations. The problem is the script. Characters and story arcs are too familiar for anyone who’s seen even a few such adventures to feel the desired level of tension. In the brief time before he disappears, the kid was so annoying that I found myself thinking the family might be much happier without him – almost a non-comic RANSOM OF RED CHIEF analog. In that classic tale, the kidnapped boy was such a pain in the ass that the guys who snatched him wound up paying the parents to take him back! That was certainly not the writers’ intent here but they still elicited that reaction in this viewer’s emotional mix.

Yen’s career will surely resume its accustomed quality, regardless of genre. This one unfortunately won’t make his highlight reel.

POLAR RESCUE, in Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles, debuts on Blu-ray and on digital from Well Go USA on Tuesday, Mar. 26.

RATING: 1.5 out of 4 stars

AIR FORCE ONE DOWN – Review

How many times have you seen this plot: terrorists take over a big (fill in the blank); they easily overcome the personnel there to protect it, yet one brave soul manages to kill or overcome them all and foil their plans. Fill the blank with a battleship or train and you get UNDER SIEGE 1 & 2, from when Steven Seagal was still watchable. Make it a high rise or airport? You get DIE HARD 1 & 2. A hockey rink during the NHL finals? SUDDEN DEATH, with a young Jean Claude Van Damme. Commercial airliner? Wesley Snipes in PASSENGER 57. AIR FORCE ONE? “President” Harrison Ford.

These films have two things in common: among even more similarly themed movies, these are just the titles that came to mind while I was watching. Secondly, they’re all better than this new rehash, AIR FORCE ONE DOWN.

New U.S. President Edwards (Ian Bohen) negotiated an oil contract with a made-up Eastern European-ish country. It’s vigorously opposed by factions of both nations for an assortment of vaguely-defined reasons. He’s flying there to seal the deal in person when Air Force 1 is taken over by the minions of a self-styled general (Rade Serbedzija) from the other country, to force our Prez to renounce the agreement. No explanation for why he didn’t target their own close-at-hand leader, who would certainly have been easier to abduct.

Before takeoff, we meet new Secret Service Agent Miles (Katherine McNamara) whose uncle (Anthony Michael Hall) happens to be the head of White House security. When one of the guys assigned to this flight calls in sick, she joins Unk for the journey. Guess who’s gonna wind up having to save the day against overwhelming odds? Too easy? Guess who will win. Too easy? Guess the body count along the way.

Enjoying this requires suspending far more disbelief than needed for the aforementioned combined. There’s no accounting for how so many armed thugs could possibly get on board with their weapons. The extent to which the general can remotely control every aspect of the flight, including misdirection that keeps the rest of the world from detecting the plane’s forced change of course, makes even less sense. Throughout the ordeal, characters on both sides do a bunch of things to seem more inept or illogical than they’re supposed to be. And don’t get me started on the cliched personae and tedious dialog.

On the plus side, McNamara is a pleasure to watch, especially during her fight sequences. The dancing part of her early career adapts well to the ass-kicking part of her role. The stunt team, set designers and cinematographer are the real stars in this otherwise miss-able retread.

AIR FORCE ONE DOWN opens in theaters on Friday, Feb.9, and becomes available on digital formats on Feb. 13.

RATING: 1 out of 4 stars

RANSOMED – Review

South Korea has exported a slew of first-rate action flicks in the past few years, and RANSOMED counts as another. Most have been based on cops vs. bad guys within the country. This one, supposedly based on real events, takes us to Lebanon in the 1980s. It also plies the waters of plot complexities and suspense more, without sacrificing the action component.

As factional wars rage within Lebanon, one group kidnaps a Korean diplomat, holding him for over a year before finally demanding a $5 million ransom. A foreign-service colleague, Min-joon (Ha Jung-woo), volunteers for the risky task of delivering the cash and returning with the hostage, even though he’s been a desk jockey without any military that would prepare him for the likely difficulties in achieving the rescue. Corrupt police are swarming the airport, waiting to grab him and seize the dough. He barely escapes, leaving him too little time to locate his contact. Fortunately (or possibly not) he finds a fellow Korean, Pan-su (Ju Ji-hoon) in the line of taxis. They speed away from the cops, setting up the first of several chase scenes to come. His supposedly covert arrival quickly proves to rank among the worst-kept secrets since Liberace came out of his lavishly-sequined closet.

Pan-su, who is quite a hustler, and understandably averse to being shot at, reluctantly agrees to take him to the exchange point, after being offered a lot more money than metered cab fare would be. They have to sneak through a checkpoint of a second faction, and continue avoiding the militarized cops. Meanwhile, another well-armed terrorist group also knows he’s coming and snatches the hostage from the original kidnappers before he reaches the exchange point. The rest of the movie is Min-joon dashing about in unfamiliar territory, variably assisted, undermined or menaced by the aforementioned players, as he frantically tries to complete his mission.

No one is all good. Not all the opposing interests are all bad. Even our hero is less than noble. He took the gig partly as a matter of patriotism but mainly because it seemed his only path to a coveted promotion that was on the verge of being given to another member of the staff. The Korean honchos who had to approve and fund the effort are driven largely by concerns about politics, public relations and cost, rather than devotion to their colleague’s survival. Beyond that venality, there is very little judgment, or even mention, of any faction’s political position. Everyone competing in Lebanon is chasing the big payday, with the other groups merely rivals for the cash. It’s like a game show with a high body count among the gun-totin’ contestants. Suspense is the main element, with some bits of comic relief – mostly coming from Pan-su.

The chases, shootouts and explosions are superbly executed by director Kim Seong-hun and the stunt team. Kim’s resume at the helm isn’t long but it’s mostly action fare on TV and big screens. That experience shows. The film was shot in Morocco on locations that emphasize the extent of destruction from the larger conflicts, and ramp up the excitement level of the action sequences. The pace makes it seem shorter than its 132-minute running time. Perhaps most admirably, they don’t turn this white-collar star into a Rambo. He’s highly dependent on the kindness of strangers – even some who aren’t particularly trustworthy.

RANSOMED, in English, Korean and Arabic with English subtitles, debuts streaming on Well Go USA Entertainment in digital exclusively, on Friday, Feb. 2.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

“Queens: Season 1” – TV Series Review

*The cast of the Israeli TV series “Queens,” Season 1, on MHz Choice*

The extent to which you may enjoy the Israeli TV series “Queens: Season 1″ depends on expectations from its Mafia-esque premise. All the men in one of the country’s crime families are killed at the beginning, except for one overlooked child, who may or may not have seen the shooter(s). The wives and daughters find themselves on the brink of losing all the wealth and power their husbands oversaw when rival families swoop in claiming debts to be honored and businesses to snatch from them. The women decide to defend their turf and family honor by trying to do what their men had done in running their illegal businesses.

For American audiences, the first analog that comes to mind is “The Sopranos,” with infighting among competing families and ambitious underlings. The closer comparison might be with “Queen of the South,” which some strong, determined women struggle to become drug cartel bosses against a variety of male obstacles. To get into this one, forget about those. The tone is significantly tamer.

First of all, “Queens” is considerably less violent and sexy than either of those domestic counterparts. There’s plenty of menace and moments of brutality but well short of the others’ body counts or displays of carnage. The other is that these women are truly feckless at succeeding their husbands, sons and brothers, resulting in their taking far more punishment than they dish out. For about half of the 11 hour-long episodes, they’re getting pummeled and losing territory, without getting their act together. There’s suspense in learning who was behind the mass execution of their men, and whether that surviving child will be another target or the key to ID-ing the perp(s). Suspects abound. Fortunately, the women’s lot shows more signs of hope emerging in the second half of the season.

Among the protagonists we meet a diverse group of characters contributing fine performances, and a handful of particularly dastardly villains to create the requisite tensions. The matriarchal widow, Dori (Rita – the Israeli actress goes by that one name, like Cher), is rather strident and overbearing in her desperation to assert control and normalize their situation. Her daughter, Lizi (Dana Igvy), seems like the only one tough and focused enough to get them back to an acceptable position among their underworld colleagues and rivals. Others also have interesting story arcs, including a few surprises that maintain viewers’ interest.

So once you gear down for less adrenaline boosting than our series mentioned above, you wind up with an action and character drama that works pretty well. The bad news is that Season 1 ends on several cliffhanger plot points of unanswered questions and unresolved issues. The good news is that Season 2 already has aired in Israel, and will be released for streaming here within the next few months.

“Queens: Season 1,” mostly in Hebrew with English subtitles, streams on MHz Choice starting on Sept. 19.

RATING: 1.5 out of 4 stars

Israeli TV series “Queens” on MHz Choice

KILL SHOT – Review

There have been forests full of “thrillers” in which one or more people go for a woodsy getaway only to find that they’re pursued by one or more bad guys, just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. KILL SHOT is another, and it’s nowhere near the top of that heap. It’s not even the best among several previous films bearing the same title.

Two ex-models, Rachel Cook (not Rachel Leigh Cook) and Rib (not a typo) Hillis star respectively as a woman who wants to hunt moose and spread her father’s ashes in the rough terrain of Montana as a tribute to him. Hillis plays her guide. She’s beautiful; he’s ruggedly handsome and his wife just dumped him for spending too much time in the boonies, rather than with her. Apparently, her nature didn’t measure up to Mother Nature’s nature. That sets up a possibility for romance to blossom in the wild.

Coincidentally, a gang of mercenaries had stolen a fortune in Afghanistan but lost it when one had to bail out of his plane with the loot somewhere in that area. They’re armed to the teeth and scouring the woods for the briefcase filled with their booty (the cash type, not the recreational). Our eye-candy couple just happens to stumble upon it first. Most of the running time is spent running, as a seemingly inexhaustible supply of hench-persons pursues the two. In fact, there are far more baddies gunning for our protagonists than what appeared to be the size of the crew that snatched the dough at the beginning of the flick.

Though ridiculously outgunned and outnumbered, they fare pretty well, managing to knock off most of their unanticipated foes along the way. The scenery (mountains and rivers and woods, oh my!) is lovely but the chase requires suspending more of that pesky disbelief than the norm. Trained ex-soldiers fire a hell of a lot of rounds without hitting anyone, even when their targets are traversing open ground. Admittedly, a couple of plot twists partly atone for the rest but not all surprises are assets.

The two stars give decent performances, and there’s plenty of action for one’s adrenaline fix. Just don’t expect the story to be a treat.

KILL SHOT debuts Tuesday, Aug. 15, on DVD, Blu-Ray and digital formats from Well Go USA Entertainment.

RATING: 1 out of 4 stars

THE LESSON – Review

They say never meet your heroes, and the literary thriller THE LESSON offers a case in point, where a young would-be writer gets what he thinks is a dream assignment, tutoring the son of his literary idol for the boy’s Oxford entry exams. An Oxford grad himself, the tutor and aspiring author, Liam Sommers (Daryl McCormack, GOOD LUCK TO YOU, is ambitious and brings along his own unfinished first novel in hopes of some mentoring from the literary giant he so admires, renowned novelist J.M. Sinclair (Richard E. Grant). Julie Delpy plays the famous writer’s wife Helene, an artist and art curator. The family lives on a large, isolated British estate, surrounded by unruly gardens and a rustic pond, with just a whiff of Shirley Jackson Gothic thriller in the air.

Director Alice Troughton does an excellent job of creating a tense, mysterious mood for THE LESSON. Troughton and scriptwriter Alex MacKeith keep a lightly wry touch to the proceedings, as the changeable Sinclairs keep us always a bit off balance. Although on the surface, the tutor and teen are the central concern, much more is going on beneath the surface.

The film actually opens not on the family estate but with a flash forward, of Liam being interviewed about his hit first novel on an artsy talk show. But we then transition back in time, to Liam’s idol, J.M. Sinclair, being interviewed by the same host on the same TV program. As the lauded Sinclair speaks, the author repeats that oft-heard literary line, “Good writers borrow from others. Great writers steal.” Exuding enormous charm, Sinclair delivers his signature line, with a twinkle in his eye and a winning smile.

We see that smile throughout the film but sometimes there is an emotional chill behind it. Scratch that, often there is that chill. Liam arrives at the great man’s estate, eager and excited, for what looks like either a last interview for the job or a trial run of his teaching skills. He is greeted by the butler, but rather than being given entry to the house, he is shown to a guest house. He meets the boy he is to tutor, shy and resentful Bertie (Stephen McMillan), then the boy’s mother Helene (Delpy), who seems to be the one making the decisions. Eventually, Liam does meet his idol, but only after the friendly, warm young tutor has been very thoroughly been put in his place by Helene and even the butler.

While the tense atmosphere works to unnerve Liam, he is also determined to make a good impression, hopeful of more of a chance to interact with his hero. But the new tutor is not the only one on edge. In fact both the son and the wife send out feelings of tension, even fear, and tread carefully around the great author. There are flashes of temper on the famous writer’s part but the electric tension that fills the air suggest something more than moody temperament is at play, and we also soon learn the Sinclairs are still recovering from a tragic loss

McComack’s Liam is charming and handsome but his appearance, accent and egalitarian manner all suggest he was not born to aristocracy or money despite his Oxford education. Liam is clearly ambitious as well as charming, and likely used to navigating around British aristocrats to get what he wants. In this house, he needs all the wiles he can muster.

THE LESSON’s drama unspools in tense mystery mode, offering us hints about secrets and the complex relationships. The landscape around their rambling home looks idyllic but hides unexpected dangers. For Liam, those dangers include the couple who are employing him.

Repeatedly, the film uses beavers busy in and around the property’s lake as a not-too-subtle hint that everyone on this property is also busily at work on something, and that there is much going on unseen beneath the surface. The film is divided into three parts, which reflect the structure of the novel that the great man has been working on for some time. Meanwhile, Liam has brought along his own novel, which he writes in long-hand as he goes about his tutoring work. The young Bertie discovers something special about Liam, beyond his natural charm and good looks, which is an impressive memory.

The trio at the center of this mystery drama, Daryl McCormack, Richard E. Grant and Julie Delpy, are splendid, together and separate. Nothing is quite what it seems, as hidden details and buried secrets emerge. Grant terrorizes everyone as the great man, while Delpy pulls back from his blasts, but then works calmly around him. McCormack’s Liam, taken aback by Grant’s Sinclair’s temper and imperiousness, recalculates and starts again. To Sinclair, he presents a smooth, deferential face but we see a more complex mix, including anger and resentment, away from the great man’s gaze. Another smoldering fire comes from Delpy and Grant, as the couple dance around each other, as well as around Liam, around their son and around some tough facts. The interplay among them, the twists and maneuvers, all work to keep us engrossed.

THE LESSON’s last act isn’t quite as strong as the first 2 parts but overall, the film delivers well. The film’s use of a framing devise, the younger man being interviewed at the beginning and again at the end, raises questions about whether the story we see is something real, or whether it might be just storytelling. It gives one a little chill, given what does happen, and also adds a touch of dark humor as well. What is real and what is fiction, what is true and what is story, heightens the mystery of THE LESSON. Some lessons are learned and some are taught a lesson, in this clever, well-written mystery-drama, so well played by the gifted cast.

THE LESSON opens in theaters on Friday, July 7.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

MAN FROM ROME – Review

*Richard Armitage as Father Quart, in THE MAN FROM ROME. Courtesy of Screen Media*

If you’re craving a DA VINCI CODE sort of movie but don’t want to concentrate quite that hard, THE MAN FROM ROME may be your answer. The plot, penned by Adrian Bol, Beth Bollinger and Gretchen Cowan, is very Dan Brownian but shorter and with fewer moving pieces and locations. Hunky Richard Armitage stars as a Vatican troubleshooting priest who we quickly understand to be the Church’s go-to guy for dangerous missions. Not so much for gruesome cleanups like Harvey Keitel’s memorable Mr. Wolf, in PULP FICTION but where there’s a problem, Armitage’s Father Quart is reliable for a solution. The film opens with his being bummed about someone he was unable to protect on a recent job. Not his fault but guilt lingers, regardless.

Switch to the Vatican’s computer center. The Pope’s (Franco Nero) computer is being hacked by an unknown tech whiz who can breeze through a lot of firewalls. The goal is to get his attention and ask him to prevent a beautiful old church in Seville, Spain, from being demolished to make room for a massive new real estate development. The driving force behind the construction is a sleazy banker (Rodolfo Sancho) who has compromised other interested parties with a panoply of dirty tactics. His almost ex-wife (the gorgeous Amaia Salamanca) is the hereditary owner of the land and his most ardent opponent, dedicated to maintaining their legacy.

Sancho’s methods of pushing the deal include blackmail, bribery and possibly a murder or two. Armitage is sent there to protect the image of the Church, which already has more than enough scandals, and to check out the deaths, and then advise on whether keeping the lovely old church is worth more than the whopping payday the sale would yield.

There’s considerable suspense in to what lengths the developers will go to, and how Armitage will handle them, including several physical exchanges. The bad guys have moles within the local police and Vatican inner circle, leaving our hero with few allies he can trust in the face of danger. The greed and corruption story plays out efficiently under the direction of Sergio Dow in a relatively low budget version of Tom Hanks’ similar sojourns based on Brown’s novels. The institution isn’t painted as evil but that’s not the same as finding some of its leaders more human than humane, and much less holy.

Though unrated at the time of this review, expect a film that would fall somewhere between a hard PG-13 and a soft R. A fair portion of the audience will be glad that Armitage has shirtless moments; a comparable number will be bummed that Salamanca doesn’t. There’s not nearly enough mayhem to call this a guy flick but there’s a sufficient amount of action to keep the adrenaline flowing as events unfold.

MAN FROM ROME, in English and Italian with English subtitles, opens in theaters and streaming on demand on Friday, June 30.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

“Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” Season 4 – TV Series Review

*John Krasinski as Jack Ryan, in “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” TV series, Season 4. Courtesy of Amazon*

“Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” Season 4 brings another batch of challenges for the eponymous CIA super-agent who headlined a series of novels by Tom Clancy before starring in successful films, and, since 2018, three season of streaming adventures. This next season draws the TV series to a close with this fourth and (for now, at least) final season-long, globe-trotting thriller. Fans of any or all of the preceding Jack Ryan iterations will not be disappointed with John Krasinski’s continuing portrayal of their hero, or the six-episode plot-line he navigates.

As usual, there’s a huge conspiracy afoot threatening the world we know, with the action alternating among far-flung arenas of action, and plenty of questions as to who (other than Ryan) is on which side of the crisis. The series opens by showing Jack being subjected to “enhanced interrogation,” then jumping back three weeks as it progresses to and beyond that point. Several characters from the first three seasons return for this new challenge. One newcomer, veteran character actor Michael Pena, turns in what may rank among his best performances.

No more about the plot. What you need to know is that if you haven’t watched the first three seasons (still streaming on Prime), you won’t fully appreciate the characters and their motivations, even though this is a stand-alone story. No expense was spared on locations, sets or effects in this top-quality production. The first three episodes are longer on talk than action but that ratio reverses in the second half of the season.

Finally, since the initial release is only the first two episodes with the rest coming in pairs over the following two weeks, you might keep everything straight more easily by waiting until they’re all in hand for one big ol’ binge. If your memory and concentration are better than mine – very likely common among Clancy buffs – you may do fine piecemeal. For me, the chance to stream them all in a one-day spy-fest splurge helped considerably in keeping track of who’s who and what’s what in this complex web of plotting, counter-measures, facades and shifting loyalties. All in all, the popular series bows out on a high note, with no one likely to think they stayed too long at the party.

“Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” Season 4 starts streaming on Amazon Prime on Friday, June 30, with the first two episodes, followed by two more on July 7 and 14.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars

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