BLACK PANTHER (Malaysia, 15 Feb 2018)

Genre: Action / Adventure

Running Length: 2:14

Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Sterling K. Brown, Andy Serkis, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker

Director: Ryan Coogler

Screenplay: Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole 

It's a good thing when days after I watched BLACK PANTHER, the things I remember most about this movie is not the usual superhero movie stuff but its characters and the film's political message.

What's the movie about?

T'Challa/Black Panther rises to the throne of Wakanda after his father's death. But his claim is challenged by a vengeful outsider.   

What I like about it?

• The villain. The protagonist is only as good as the antagonist. If it wasn't for Killmonger (played passionately by the intense Michael B. Jordan), our hero Black Panther would carry on leading Wakanda like how his father and his father's father would lead the nation. Killmonger's ambition forces our hero to make very difficult decisions which would break traditions and ultimately risk his country. 
• The hero's journey. It's great to see our hero questioning what he has always known and witness him struggling through it. 
• Its immersive-ness. The filmmakers really went to great lengths to create an immersive African movie; the language, the culture, the folklore,  the music and just the nuances. I didn't feel like a "tourist". It was just like the recent animated Coco which was steeped in Mexican tradition.    
• The cast.  The filmmakers have assembled a group of today’s best young black actors and actresses, with a few veteran black performers thrown in. The director (Coogler) has successfully drawn the best out of them in such an ambitious movie. The two white actors (Serkis and Freeman) were memorable too.
• Good balance of character building, action and a political message. Although it doesn't go deep, Killmonger's motive and brand of politics are thought-provoking. 

What I didn't?

• The CGI. It was terrible especially the final fight. Our hero pouncing around in the streets reminded me of the bad effects of Spider-Man swinging from building to building. It looks fake. 
• It took a while to warm-up. As much as I like the initiation ceremony and introduction to the Wakanda universe, I felt that the whole hunt down the bad white guy in the first half of the film took up too much time. I was waiting for Killmonger to show up again quickly after his brief charismatic introduction at the beginning. 

RATING: 8.5/10

GET OUT (2017)

Genre: Horror / Thriller
Running Length: 1:43
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener, Caleb Landry Jones, LilRel Howery
Director: Jordan Peele
Screenplay: Jordan Peele

Those expecting Jordan Peele's directorial debut to be a full blown Key & Peele goofy comedy will be sorely disappointed because GET OUT is one hell of a creepy movie. Yes, thankfully there are some comedic elements to balance out the scares.

Get Out is more a thriller than a horror which shares the same tonality as Scream and the strangeness of The Stepford Wives. Peele borrows elements from various horror classics but yet he's able to deliver a satisfying outcome without coming across as a copycat.

This movie tells the tale of a black man (Kaluuya, who is very good at playing sympathetic characters as seen in Sicario and that one episode in Black Mirror) who visits his white girlfriend’s (Williams) parents in the deep country for the first time. Of course, he senses something is off - something sinister - with her parents and their black helpers.

What's exceptional about this movie is how clever the filmmakers blend a social commentary within a horror genre. As a result, the insights of the post-racial America showcased here is authentic and sharp. But thankfully Peele doesn't venture too deeply into racism but instead uses the black/white phobia to mess with the audience's mind at the start, right to the crowd-pleasing gory finale.

Get Out is tight and funnier than expected. And it's one of those films that will make you go, "Oh! That's why she did that!" way after you have left the cinema hall. It just gets better the more you think about it. It's still too early in the year but this movie is a strong contender to emerge in my top 10 of 2017 because it's one of those rare movies that would appeal to both horror fans and those who avoid this genre.

RATING: 8.5/10

SICARIO (2015)

Genre: Action/Drama
Running Length: 2:01
Cast: Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Daniel Kaluuya, Jon Bernthal, Victor Garber
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Screenplay: Taylor Sheridan

SICARIO is an intense take on the drug cartel. It is gripping and tension-filled. The violence is shockingly realistic but not gratuitous. (In Spanish, "sicario" means "hitman")

This movie tells a story of an idealistic by-the-book FBI agent (Blunt) who is recruited by a shady government operative led by an equally shadowy character (Brolin). Their ambitious mission is to take down a drug lord in Mexico. Blunt's character is brought into the plan for reasons she's unclear of. The audience is kept in the dark too as the plot slowly unveils its grand plan leading to a violent and brutal conclusion.

From a technical standpoint, I'm always intrigued with movies which are able to drum up an atmosphere of dread from get go. In this case, it's because of the perfect synergy of Villeneuve's impeccable direction, tight editing, superb cinematography and the bass-heavy score. There is an action sequence 1/3 into the movie which was so intense the guy sitting next to me in the cinema hall pulled his legs towards his chest.

In terms of performance, as good as Blunt is, the show belongs to Del Toro. He crushes it as a middle-aged merciless gunman. He steals every scene he's in. The rest of the supporting cast is equally solid. 

Although it has the thrills of an action flick, the heart of this film is actually a drama which takes place in a world of grey, where our protagonist is faced with difficult decisions which would compromise her moral values. I was hoping it would focus more on the latter like what Villeneuve's did in his last film Prisoners, but somehow the end results didn't give me a satisfying emotional punch in the gut. Nevertheless, Sicario stands apart as one of the best action drama movies I've seen.

Rating: 8.5/10