Wednesday, June 9, 2021

The Cave of Cool Recommends

In this past week I have watched two films which dealt with the robbery of billions of dollars from a secure facility. One has zombies and the other has Jason Statham so you know each is going to be a winner no matter what.


First up, Army of the Dead


Dave Batista heads up a cast of unknowns in this film by Zach Snyder. This has all you want in a zombie movie - a team of highly trained individuals entering a zombie filled Las Vegas to steal 200 million dollars from a vault underneath a casino. The trailer tells you all you need to know.


 


YES, that is an actual ZOMBIE TIGER who is worth the price of admission alone. Watching him in action was a nice little bit of movie magic. The zombies are also different. Instead of mindless hordes, some are almost human with the ability to feel human emotions like love and rage even if it is at the most basic level. They had also organized themselves into a society with goals and plans for their future. It's interesting the think of a time when these super smart zombies could face off against us humans. With their numbers and new ability to strategize they would easily overwhelm any force sent against them, even a heavily armed one


Dave Batista is great in a part tailor made for him. I love everything he's in so watching this one was a no brainer for me. The rest of the cast is solid and the script finds time to develop it's characters so we start to care about them and their survival. It also moves fast while still hitting all the plot points you need to hit to have a successful genre film.


I enjoyed it very much.



The second film this week is Wrath of Man with Jason Statham who is solid in everything. This is the kind of revenge fantasy movie that he can do in his sleep and this film is solid entertainment. Again the trailer tells you all you need to know.


I liked the twists and turns the story took though they are not reinventing the wheel here. Solid entertainment if this is the kind of movie that appeals to you. Guy Richie is the director so the film has many of his touches and quality.


4 comments:

Rob R said...

This sucks! I must’ve developed into an actual adult that has to dislike everything... I loathed ARMY OF THE DEAD. It felt longer than his JUSTICE LEAGUE. The zombie tiger was its one saving grace.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

I never knew that he directed it until after and I DID like it a little bit less.

Rob R said...

I was actually hopeful to see ARMY because DAWN OF THE DEAD is my favorite movie by him; I thought zombie flicks might be his wheelhouse (and a heist film inside a zombie movie actually sounded fun!). This one, for me, was mostly annoying... [SPOILER WARNING] First, why would a flesh eating zombie snap someone's neck? Then, the villain with the hidden agenda trope was obvious (though he did have a solid death scene). Finally, the hero's daughter with a hidden agenda leads to everyone else's death (including her dad AND the mother she initially set out to save!). I could keep going with these kind of complaints, but why bother (if you check your brain out before watching, it's probably more fun)? The one thing mentioned that I actually wanted to see never happened... could you imagine if there was a water break near the outer Vegas wall and the zombie sludge awoke? That would have been something to see! Overall, I feel Zach Snyder is this generation's Tim Burton: good with visuals & "meh" with storytelling.
Look forward to checking out WRATH OF MAN at some point though!

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

you just reminded me of all that should have bothered me about that film.