#F. Gary Gray

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Lift (2024)

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"The Fast and the Furious" (2001) Directed by Rob Cohen (Action/Crime/Thriller) . . "2 Fast 2 Furious" (2003) Directed by John Singleton (Action/Crime/Thriller) . . "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" (2006) Directed by Justin Lin (Action/Crime/Thriller) . . "Fast & Furious" (2009) Directed by Justin Lin (Action/Thriller) . . "Fast Five" (2011) Directed by Justin Lin (Action/Adventure/Crime) . . "Fast & Furious 6" (2013) Directed by Justin Lin (Action/Adventure/Thriller) . . "Furious 7" (2015) Directed by James Wan (Action/Adventure/Thriller) . . "The Fate of the Furious" (2017) Directed by F. Gary Gray (Action/Adventure/Crime) . . "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" (2019) Directed by David Leitch (Action/Adventure/Thriller) . . "F9" (2021) Directed by Justin Lin (Action/Adventure/Crime)

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Friday (1995) // Dir. F. Gary Gray

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Friday (1995)

Director: F. Gary Gary Cinematography: Gerry Lively Production Design: Bruce Bellamy

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Law Abiding Citizen (F. Gary Gray, 2009).

[adamwatchesmovies]

Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

It would be difficult to find a revenge action film more preposterous than Law Abiding Citizen. This picture has a grudge against common sense and intelligent thought. As such, you often have difficulty predicting where it will go next. It isn’t that it’s clever or full of unexpected twists; it’s that the directions it chooses are so obvious you think “There’s no way this is where it’s going”. That mindset will cause your brain to start connecting dots that were never meant to be connected. To its credit, the story - as ridiculous as it may be - is engaging as it plays out but you would never be able to defend this film as "good".

During a home invasion, Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is forced to watch as his wife and daughter are violently murdered. Afterward, Clyde is outraged when prosecuting attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) informs him that Clarence Darby (Christian Stolte) is about to receive a reduced sentence for testifying against his less violent accomplice, Rupert Ames (Josh Stewart). Embittered by this betrayal of justice, Clyde spends the next ten years plotting his revenge against the men who took his family away, and the system that didn’t punish them adequately.

The vigilante Death Wish genre is taken to an extreme with Law Abiding Citizen. Though the film isn’t as gory as anything we might see in any of the “Saw” films, the horror franchise’s influence is unmissable. Clyde is a galaxy brain genius, the kind that’s playing 4D chess while you’re playing checkers. He’s got robots rigged to assassinate his targets, can somehow coordinate a half-dozen operations from within a prison cell and uses a voice synthesizer to lure his prey into torture dungeons. He's amassed a fortune and the mechanical know-how that ensures the police are powerless to do anything but play by his rules.

It’s difficult to tell who we're supposed to cheer for. The home invasion - which happens about 15 seconds after we’re introduced to Clyde’s wife and daughter - is the kind of crime paranoid delusionals would have nightmares about but could never happen in real life. There isn’t an ounce of humanity in Clarence Darby because we’re supposed to cheer as he gets tortured to death. Nick clearly doesn’t care about anything but his conviction record (which should be easy in this case, one look at Clarence and any jury would sentence him to the gas chamber) so you won't shed any tears if he gets turned into chunky salsa either. Yet at some point, the film decides Clyde is “going too far”. He turns into the villain and we're suddenly supposed to be on Nick's team. You think it’s a deliberate reversal, or maybe all part of Clyde’s bigger plan. Maybe he knows what he's doing is wrong so he’s setting himself up to die to complete his masterpiece Seven-style. It’ll all be worth it because he’s building “a better system” through Nick or something. No, that’s just you being smarter than the movie and thinking you see patterns where there are none.

The film's broad and ridiculous characters perfectly match the absurdity of Clyde’s intricate revenge plot. When the movie lays all of its cards on the table and tells you how he managed everything… it doesn’t make any more sense than before. Even if he could keep track of every lawyer, judge and police officer in Philadelphia (which can’t be that big of a city if we’re to believe this film) the amount of things that could’ve gone wrong, that go wrong but shouldn’t, that don’t go wrong but should will have you picking chunks of your brain from the ceiling.

Despite (or maybe because of) the unconvincing performances (people underreact to what’s going on constantly) and sloppy writing, Law Abiding Citizen maintains an energy that prevents it from ever being boring. At one point, we’re told that Philadelphia is paralyzed by fear. Parents are scared to bring their kids to school, everyone’s paranoid about who’s going to be next, etc. Why? Clyde might be a madman but everyone should know EXACTLY who he’s going to go after next. He’s only after people he feels wronged him ten years ago. Unless you were the judge, the attorneys present, part of the law firm or one of the officers who botched the evidence retrieval (don’t they always in these kinds of movies?) he wouldn’t lay a finger on you.

Wacky morals, combined with a sloppy story make Law Abiding Citizen into a film that has the potential to be “so bad it’s good” if you’re in the right mood. I got some chuckles but nothing to write home about, so I’ll just call it bad. (December 3, 2021)

[cinefilo-pigro]

The italian Job

Un remake di successo che trasporta il classico nella modernità con stile e azione mozzafiato. Da non perdere! 💥🎬 #TheItalianJob #Remake #cinema

The Italian Job – Un colpo all’italiana fuori dall’Italia Il compito di realizzare un remake è sempre una sfida ardua, soprattutto quando si tratta di “The Italian Job”, un film che ha guadagnato un posto speciale nei cuori degli appassionati nel corso degli anni, pur non essendo un capolavoro indiscusso. Dal 1969 al 2003, la trama si sposta dall’Italia all’America, mantenendo intatto il tono…

[watchingalotofmovies]

Lift

Lift    [trailer]

Follows a master thief and his Interpol Agent ex-girlfriend who team up to steal $500 million in gold bullion being transported on an A380 passenger flight.

Feels derivative and implausible. While not unsual that movies like this include ridiculous story elements. They usually at least make an effort so that the viewer can somewhat suspend his disbelief.

At no point do you get the feeling there's an emotional connection between Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Kevin Hart.

The maybe funniest thing is giving Jean Reon's character the name Lars Jorgensen. And I enjoyed the Venice sightseeing at the beginning.

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Men in Black: International, 2019.

Dir. F. Gary Gray | Writ. Art Marcum and Matt Holloway | DOP Stuart Dryburgh

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Ice Cube - It Was A Good Day

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Look you in the eye? For what? Lookit, why don't you just tell it to the judge, alright? We're finished.

Terence Niebaum - The Negotiator (1998)

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Women of Friday

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On June 30, 1995 Friday debuted in the United Kingdom.

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Chris Tucker in F. Gary Gary's Friday (1995)