This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Hit Chick
Plot Overview
Anna (Maggie Q) the proprietress of a tony
London bookstore is expatriate Vietnamese, a cat person, and
easy. Her occasional book-buying junkets provide cover for her second
career as an off-the-books investigator (“We just find people
who can't be found”) sometimes involving—well
deserved—wet work (“I kill people for a living.”)
She's an apprentice of a seasoned assassin Moody (Samuel L. Jackson.)
Moody (78) lives 45 minutes outside of
London on a country estate complete with livestock. He is under
the personal care of an herbalist (“witch doctor”) for
a respiratory condition (from agent orange?) His singing days are
over but he can still play the guitar.
Even Moody will admit himself to be
“corrupt to the core and just don't give a damn,” so when
he decides to look for one of his collateral victims to make amends,
interested parties misconstrue his intentions and come after him and
his. Anna must return to Vietnam to put an end to it.
Ideology
Anna's intrigues put her
in opposition to a fixer Rembrandt (Michael Keaton) who might have
to kill her, or she him, but each holds off, finding the other sexually
“interesting.” They engage in heady hand-to-hand combat
that exudes sexual tension on the order of foreplay. We wonder
where this is all going, as is so often the case mysterious in couples.
It is remarked, (Prov. 30:18-19)
“There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea,
four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of
a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea;
and the way of a man with a maid.”
Three difficult to track motions are used as springboards to following the perplexing course of couples. “The Protégé” similarly gives us three vehicles hard to predict as a prelude to Anna & Rembrandt. Instead of “the way of an eagle in the air” we have the drones that pop up and buzz around. Instead of “the way of a serpent upon a rock” we have a motorbike playing chicken with a serpentine procession of gang hogs on the road. Instead of “the way of a ship in the midst of the sea” we have the song “Sea of Love” played over the scene of a captive girl who somehow turns the tables on her captives. “The way of a man with a maid” is similarly unpredictable.
Production Values
“” (2021) was directed by Martin Campbell and written by Richard Wenk. It stars Maggie Q, Michael Keaton, Robert Patrick, and Samuel L. Jackson. Maggie Q was a darling and Jackson's part a slam dunk. Michael Keaton can still act but at his age he looked more like someone's benign grandfather than a fearsome underworld enforcer.
The rest of the casting fared better.
Jackson playing a top grade assassin was introduced from the back,
dressed in poncho and conical rain hat, walking with the crowd in
Da Nang. Good disguise but he was too buff to blend in with the
smaller, Oriental crowd. His obvious swagger rubbing shoulders with
the sheeple didn't help either. And when we see his face on a job
in the West, well, a black man hanging out somewhere is likely
to raise suspicions. Still, he operated fine from a forest or a deserted
sidewalk. Anna didn't have Rembrandt's military training, but she was
cold as ice and could think on her feet. Her retiring deportment made her
easy to underestimate. The two complemented each other like Mutt &
Jeff enabling them to excel in their trade. Diversity in action.
They contracted one Benny a social media maven to do digital searches for them. He was better at finding people than covering his own tracks. He thought to improve his love life by growing a mustache to make himself dashing, but that wisp of hair couldn't compensate for his Negroid lips. He seemed to not have a real social life.
MPAA rated it R for strong and bloody violence, language, some sexual references and brief nudity. Cinematography, pacing, runtime and score were fair to middling. It was the action that was mesmerizing. Multiple stunt doubles were used to cover specialized tricks.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This is more a waste of time than a memorable cinematic moment. Still there are more boring things to do than watching a hard action flick with a mildly interesting plot. It's okay if you have nothing better to do.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Well done action flick. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Better than watching TV. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Three and a half stars out of five.
bibles.n7nz.org