Movie Review: Suicide Squad (2016)

by Tony Dayoub


The highly anticipated Suicide Squad proves to be a not entirely unsurprising fizzle. It's the second in DC's expansion of its extended film universe (it's really not fair to count the far classier Man of Steel, which was never really meant to start this particular ball rolling, as part of the series). On paper, Suicide Squad looks like the most daring of the upcoming DC films. It features a deep stable of super-villains instead of the predictably stolid heroes. It is directed by David Ayer (End of Watch), a throwback to Walter Hill and the closest we've seen to a true auteur shaping this kind of film since Guillermo del Toro helmed Blade II. But save for a couple of lunatic performances by Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Jared Leto as Harley's boyfriend, the Joker, plus some lustrous cinematography by Roman Vasyanov, Suicide Squad is perhaps even more disappointing than its dark predecessor, Batman v. Superman.

Movie Review: Thor: The Dark World (2013)

by Tony Dayoub

The superhero fan in me often gets excited about sequels because they aren't restricted by the initial film's overrated need to spell out their characters' origins. Though the first Thor took a bit of a drubbing by critics for this, director Kenneth Branagh actually did a really nice job of weaving in the dense Norse mythology and Marvel Comics lore into the god of thunder's introduction. It was the actual story on Earth and the romance between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and scientist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) which was tedious. But considering the copious amount of world-building the sequel still has to do, Thor: The Dark World should really be called Thor: The Exposition Continues. In fact, The Dark World almost feels like a reintroduction, a Thor 1.5 rather than a Thor 2.

Bullet to the Head

by Tony Dayoub

Conceptually, the idea of director Walter Hill's return to cinema with a movie starring Sylvester Stallone is an appealing one, especially for this fan. Before serving an undeserved, decade-long sentence in movie jail, Hill was best known for re-inventing the action film with the prototypical buddy flick 48 Hours (1982). Though based on the graphic novel Du plomb dans la tête, Hill's newest, Bullet to the Head, might as well be a twisted spiritual sequel to the Eddie Murphy/Nick Nolte cop thriller. The mismatched duo here are New Orleans hitman Jimmy "Bobo" Bonomo (Stallone) and D.C. cop Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang). The two team up to find out who hired Bobo to execute Kwon's ex-partner (Holt McCallany), before double-crossing the button man himself and killing his fellow assassin (Jon Seda).