Don’t Breathe(2016)

Director: Fede Alvarez

Cast:

Stephen Lang – Blind Man

Jane Levy – Rocky

Dylan Minnette – Alex

Daniel Zovatto – Money

Verdict:

“Don’t Breathe” is directed by Fede Alvarez and stars Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette and

Stephen Lang. Levy and Minnette play a couple of house burgling friends who find out that

this lonely blind man has $300k in his house. Little do they know that this blind man is a

real threat to them and we get locked into a 90 minute home-invasion thriller. Stephen

Lang was remarkable as the blind man as he has very little dialogue, but he still manages

to conceive a terrifying character. Jane Levy was good as you know why she is doing this.

Dylan Minnette was also good as he is conflicted in doing this but does so because of

Levy’s character. When the two of them and Levy’s boyfriend are breaking in I was getting

chills as if I was pulling this heist off with them. Another thing I really liked was the one-

shot camera panning through the house. A negative I have is after the boyfriend gets dealt

with, the movie started to slow down for me, and then picks up once again when the two

of them discover something. Another negative was a scene showing the demise of a

character and I thought to myself good, until it didn’t actually happen. A big surprise to

me was how brutal and relentless this film was. “Don’t Breathe” is a brutal home-

invasion thriller with a tremendous performance from Stephen Lang.

Grade: A-

War Dogs(2016)

Director: Todd Phillips

Cast:

Miles Teller – David Packouz

Jonah Hill – Efraim Diveroli

Ana de Armas – Iz

Bradley Cooper – Henry Girard

Verdict:

“War Dogs” is directed by Todd Phillips and stars Miles Teller and Jonah Hill as two gun

runners in this true story. The film also stars Ana de Armas and Bradley Cooper. The film

centers around David Packouz (Teller) who is a massage therapist and when he runs into

his old pal Efraim Diveroli (Hill), he invites him on to partake in his gun running job. The

movies first half was very intriguing and it got me hooked on the characters. I found Miles

Teller to be the strongest and most endearing character as you experience everything

through him. Jonah Hill was also excellent and there was one scene involving him that was

just amazing. Bradley Cooper was great in the few scenes he was in. My biggest issue with

the film was that it had a flat second half with no real feeling of resolution. I found similar

things between this movie and “Lord of War.” “Lord of War” had a good plot that ended in

disaster acting and “War Dogs” is a flip of that, meaning its cast is excellent but the story

itself is schlocky. “War Dogs” shows off an excellent cast with great performances but

falls flat in its second half.

Grade: B-

Suicide Squad(2016)

Director: David Ayer

Cast:

Will Smith – Deadshot

Jared Leto – The Joker

Margot Robbie – Harley Quinn

Joel Kinnaman – Rick Flagg

Viola Davis – Amanda Waller

Verdict:

“Suicide Squad” is directed by David Ayer and stars Will Smith, Jared Leto and Margot

Robbie among many others. In this film, due to the events of “Batman v. Superman”

Amanda Waller (Davis) wants to assemble a team of villains to take on suicidal missions.

So the team becomes assembled to go take on a villain that is very mysterious. This team

is of a very unique stereotype, they are all of a different race and these members are both

human and meta. Also, the Joker is involved with one of the members. All of this mashes

into one exciting comic book movie. Will Smith as Deadshot was phenomenal as he kicked

a lot of butt and his character is very fleshed out and you care about him. Harley Quinn and

the Joker were also good and when paired in a scene, it was the best part of the film. They

had the most psychotic relationship and you love the on-screen performances. Also, the

backstories in the beginning of the film presented the characters in a great way and there

is a relationship between the suicide squad’s handler Rick Flagg (Kinnaman) and

Enchantress (Delevigne). The problems I have are, the villain is pretty weak and the

CGI on those characters is awful. Last thing, I thought the cameo was controversial.

“Suicide Squad” was a fun as hell, entertaining comic book movie that delivered on

everything promised.

Grade: A-