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But, I also prefer the remake myself.
Yes, I love the robbery scenes in the remake. We don't really get to see that in the original, it's more of a quirky romantic comedy than a genuine crime thriller with a love story. Plus, I really dislike the "TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED" type twist ending of the original.
The original gives me vibes of On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
The remake gives me vibes of Ocean's Twelve.
The remake, on the other hand, got everything right from head to toe. From start to finish. And yes, it did have the Ocean's Eleven vibe, which Soderbergh, I read somewhere, admitted that the tone of the film influenced his work on the remake of the other heist film.
A drama about a war phographer (Colin Farrell). Not bad.
The Big Blue (1988)
A Luc Besson movie that felt like it just went on forever, somewhat aimlessly. Did Besson want to include everything they shot, just for the heck of it? Boring as hell. Filled with bloody awful music, too.
Das Boot (1981)
I literally said "wow!" aloud when the end credits started. I was told by a friend years ago that this is good, but I didn't take him seriously. I mean... yet another all-male movie, and seriously - a bunch of guys in a submarine for well over 3 hours, screw that. I've seen a few of Wolfgang Petersen's English language movies, so I wasn't expecting anything special. Well, all of those put together aren't anywhere near as good as this. (What happened to him? Hollywood?) So colour me surprised.
An excellent movie. The cast was great - I wasn't familiar with any of them, but that didn't matter one bit. The movie looked great both cinematography-wise and production design-wise. Great story-telling. I even liked the score. Despite its considerable length it never felt boring, meandering or over-long. Apparently the version I saw was the director's cut. And what, the theatrical version was almost an hour shorter??? What sort of butchering of drama, characters and atmosphere must have happened there, I don't even wanna know. Glad I saw this version.
I was slightly worried late in the movie about what sort of ending it would have. Those of you who have seen it know what I mean. Thank goodness it didn't have that ending, and instead had the one it did.
A top-drawer war film.
The movie is visually very stunning and striking, but sadly the story isn't all that exciting. It's just a big budget version of the original series episode "The Changeling." It's a tough sit and gets dull once they arrive at the V'ger cloud. Then the next hour is long slow shots of special effects and reactions to them. I don't hate this movie, but it just doesn't feel like Star Trek to me. The uniforms are pretty drab and colorless, not to mention ugly. A step down over the simple Gold, Blue and Red uniforms of TOS. It's just a meh film to me. I'm glad Wrath of Khan came around to recapture the feeling of TOS.
While the "Suicide Squad" has been around since the 1950s, the sexy and probably most successful version of Task Force X didn't come around until recently. The N52 incarnation in particular may have paved the way for the first theatrical appearance of DC's own Dirty Dozen. With tough guy David Ayer hired to write and direct and fan favorites Deathshot and Harley Quinn finally ready for their first live action cinematic duties, anticipation for SUICIDE SQUAD may have exploded at least as hard as the anticipation we had all built for DEADPOOL. In a day and age of many one-dimensional boyscout superheroes, nothing sells better than a bunch of the nastiest, cruelest, vilest and most dysfunctional antiheroes having to save the day. But did SUICIDE SQUAD deliver?
Cast
Nothing may be more pivotal to the success of a film like SUICIDE SQUAD than its cast, which is almost flawless. Will Smith, whose career has been in a troubled place lately because of his failure to laugh like he once did and because of accusations of the most despicable form of nepotism, mainly addressed to son Jaden and daughter Willow, may very well be one of the best casting choices of any film this year. The former Bad Boy left his charms in the fridge when he decided to do some Scientology hocus-pocus with M. Night Shayamalan, but seems to be working on some kind of comeback now. I truly enjoyed last year's FOCUS (with Margot Robbie) and I love what Smith does in SUICIDE SQUAD as Deathshot. Welcome back, Fresh Prince.
Of course the eyes of the world were never not on Margot Robbie, our beloved WOLF OF WALLSTREET sex puss who set every fanboy's heart on fire when it was announced that she would play Harley Quinn. Joker's on-and-off girlfriend, one of the surprise hits from BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES and Paul Dini's excellent story Mad Love, is perhaps every male Batman fan's most treasured wet dream. First, she ran around as a Jester and with a high pitched voice provided by the magnificent talents of Arleen Sorkin and Tara Strong. In later years she was suddenly sexed up in the extremely successful BATMAN: ARKHAM ... video games. She's now one of the most desirable women of Gotham next to Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Talia Al Ghul and Batgirl. But Harley's been spoken for and you don't want to mess with Joker's squeeze. Robbie delivers the body and the mannerisms. She's not really the "jester" Harley but more of that punk style video game Harley. The only thing she never really gets down is the voice. But hey, Paul Dini loves her and so do I. More of Harley - please! Puddin'?
Amanda Waller, the ruthless, unflappable commander in charge of Task Force X, could not have been more poorly written than when Angela Bassett had to play a toned down version of her in GREEN LANTERN. Viola Davis at least gets to be the scariest Amanda Waller we've seen in a long time. Davis and the script absolutely nail her.
Whoever in Hollywood is convinced that Jai Courtney is a good actor needs to be fired. This man was terrible in JACK REACHER, TERMINATOR GENYSIS and A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD, and in the latter two cases it takes some cojones to be even worse than the film itself. Courtney should probably just stick to doing some teenage crap films like DIVERGENT. He gets to be Captain Boomerang. Well, good for him. Bad for us. Always ruins a film for me and it's barely any different in SUICIDE SQUAD. Fortunately, there's not enough of Courtney in the film to make me walk away. But it came close, especially when they gave him a pink unicorn to blatantly rip off DEADPOOL.
Another pretty big deal for a lot of people was of course Joker. It should be said that the Clown Prince Of Crime is only a peripheral character in the movie. His part is far more substantial than Batman's cameo and Flash's blink-and-you-miss moment, but he's not the main focus of this film, which is good. As much as I love the character of the Joker, he would actually get in the way of the Suicide Squad if his part had been made more extensive. Enter Jared Leto, who has the unenviable task of making us not think about the legendary Jack Nicholson, the posthumously Academy awarded Heath Ledger and the very beloved Mark Hamill. (I'm assuming that Cesar Romero and voice artists like Michael Emerson pose less of a competition for Leto.) Sadly, the lack of screen time Leto gets, while certainly a good thing in a narrative sense, is detrimental to his chances of establishing a new Joker, which is why his performance feels like half Nicholson, half Ledger, even though Leto is a gifted enough actor to have tried something new. His looks are very modern, almost street gang style and this Joker, through the power of neatly cut flashbacks, gets to show us a little of Harley's transformation from Dr. Harleen Quinzel to Joker's mad love. (Incidentally, both MAD LOVE, the Animated Series episode and comic book, and the BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS video game present the same origin story for those who seek more.) Overall, Leto does a great job and I'll be glad to see more of him in future JLA installations.
The remainder of the cast, including Jay Hernandez and new RoboCop Joel Kinnaman ranges from decent to great. Overall, the casting of SUICIDE SQUAD is one of the best things about the film.
Plot
Setting up a team of misfits is always fun to watch. But what happens after that? Can we give our Guardians Of The Galaxy, our A-Team, our Dirty Dozen, our Magnificent Seven, our Seven Samurai, ... something to do? Only a very good story can keep us excited after the biggest selling point of the trailer has already been shown.
The first hour or so of SUICIDE SQUAD is an immensely enjoyable act of team assembly. Meanwhile, a subplot develops which eventually leads into a disappointing big boss fight and another machine of death, covered in copious amounts of crazy CGI. That's the climax of half the Marvel, Turtles, ID4, ... films right there. At some point in the film, you realize it's DIE ANOTHER DAY all over again. We started strong but have nothing left to do midway. (Get it? Midway? I’m so clever.) Only Harley, Waller and Deathshot can keep things somewhat interesting but often in a muddled, WTF way. It doesn't help that the rest of the team consists of uninteresting characters like Killer Croc (who should have been King Shark), Katana (who's thrown in for absolutely no reason) and Diablo whose only character trait is ... that he doesn't do anything.
If Joker's random appearances and Deathshot's cozy moments with Harley didn't keep us 'occupied', the second half of SUICIDE SQUAD would be among the dullest things I've seen in years.
Production
Let's not blame Ayer. He was hired to reward WB with their own Guardians or Deadpool and given free range to make this thing wild, loopy and nasty. And then WB got cold feet and decided to step in and go fascist on the film. They had the trailer folks re-cut the film and told Ayer to secure a PG rating because a hard R would not earn them the 800 million they need to break even. The result is - as usual - that WB has bitten in its own ass. DEADPOOL did it: why can't the SUICIDE SQUAD do it? Margot's chest alone might have sold more tickets than STAR WARS and THE MINIONS combined. Instead, we get one of DC's rawer properties boiled down to something perfectly safe for playgrounds. My saliva was ready to drip big time but instead I kept it where it belongs because the film is too careful, despite its good intentions, and the confusing and uninteresting finale left my mouth dry. What's wrong with these people? You don't hire Ayer to give you the Cindarella version of the Suicide Squad but instead to make it superbad-ass. This, however, is not bad-ass. And nothing super either.
The film is good looking and gets the technical stuff down but the music is nothing to boast of. Sure, we get some Black Sabbath, Queen and Eminem, but the score couldn’t be more forgettable. At times like these, one wonders if Hans Zimmer really is the only one who can provide DC with a decent score. Oh wait, ask Christopher Drake, whose scores for the DC Animated films are absolutely perfect. Instead, Steven Price does nothing to elevate the music above any television series been-there-heard-that kind of stuff. Haven’t people understood it yet? Music is half your film! Ask Spielberg, ask Lucas, ask Nolan, …
Final thoughts
SUICIDE SQUAD could have been great. SUICIDE SQUAD should have been great. But SUICIDE SQUAD is not great. The few bits of eye candy may tip the balance ever so slightly in its favor, but if I recommend this film, it’ll be one of the most backhanded recommends I’ve ever given. To those who went ballistic on BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE and who predicted through their impeccable future telling abilities that SUICIDE SQUAD was going to be so much better, I have only this to say. BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE may have had its slip-ups but at least it never made the one inexcusable mistake a film can make: to be boring. SUICIDE SQUAD, sadly, for all its potential and all it’s wanna-coulda-shoulda stamina, starts strong but gets very boring after a while. The mid-credits scene, which I won’t spoil, is the first thing in about an hour that got me excited again. The climax of the film in particular is a ludicrous, uninspired bit of nothingness, underusing those fine characters and simply doing nothing we haven’t seen dozens of times already in the past couple of years. Think of SUICIDE SQUAD as a strong chili con carne: things begin with spice and energy but end on a toilet where your bowels warn you for a big load of painful sobering-up. The BvS haters who ‘knew’ that SUICIDE SQUAD was going to burn BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE to a crisp because Snyder wasn’t involved – yeah, that makes sense – must now be cowering away after seeing how SUICIDE SQUAD does nothing if not make us wish we were getting that disappointing fight between Batman, Wonder Woman, Supes and a big CGI monster again. That one amazing jump Wonder Woman performs while slinging her sword at Doomsday, is better than the entire second half of SUICIDE SQUAD. It doesn’t please me to say these things by the way, because I truly love the Suicide Squad comics.
The BATMAN: ASSAULT ON ARKHAM straight-to-DVD tie-in with the video games is a better Suicide Squad film IMO than SUICIDE SQUAD is. It keeps thing interesting till the end. I recommend you watch that film first, read the comics second and maybe, purely for your love of some of the characters, watch SUICIDE SQUAD third. It comes close to being a bad film when it should have been a bad-ass film. Ayer should have been allowed his free range, this film should have been a hard R and the climax should have been about kicking zombies or kicking each other or whatever, but not this let’s-do-something-good-for-once-and-save-the-world stuff. One of my least fulfilled hopes of the year.
DD’s JLA RANKING
1) BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
2) MAN OF STEEL
3) SUICIDE SQUAD
I still think I'd be better off seeing Bourne, but this is one I feel I need to see for myself.
I disagree with the Besson comments, loved that film and the acclaimed music score is probably my favourite soundtrack ever.
However, I completely agree with you on Das Boot. Such a powerful film, definitely in my top 30 ever.
Good "Body swap" thriller, similar to the old Rock Hudson film " Seconds" only more
Action filled. Starring Ryan Reynolds , oddly enough he was also in the last film I
Watched "Criminal" ( also about body swapping )
Maybe we saw different versions of the Besson film. Apparently there are at least 2 cuts released with different scores, too. One got good reviews, one did not. I can't even imagine the "music" in the one I watched could possibly be acclaimed. So I immediately assumed it must be the other one... Or we just wildly disagree. I had heard good things about the movie so I was really disppointed.
Das Boot was fantastic indeed, though.
No.
2Fast 2Furious- 2003
Jesus, what a giant step down!
@0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 I'm glad you posted your rankings, as I agree with many of your film trends (excluding BvS ;) ) because otherwise I may have pulled the plug right there! Good to know that nearly all the movies are better than this one.
I 've been watching these on Netflix so far, so I didn't have a movie package in front of me-- and my first disappointment was near the beginning when Paul Walker says the whole 'if I'm doing this, it'll be with the guy of my choosing'.
I'm smiling thinking to myself, 'aw yeah, they're gonna cut to a clip of Vin Diesel being badass'
NOPE. He's not in this one.
Also, Paul Walker said 'dude' and 'bro' practically every other word!
The phrase 'turn your brain off and enjoy it' gets thrown around a lot around here, and that definitely applies to 2Fast 2Furious. It's not a horrible movie, just a giant leap down from the first one-- which was actually a good movie, and not just car eyecandy!
But as I said, they all appear to be much better than this one as I continue. @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 thanks again for the chronology, and those mini movies!
Absolutely brilliant, loved it.
I am 100% certain you will love all the rest of the main chronology films after this one. From Fast & Furious onward, they really explore the characters in interesting ways, spice it up with drama and mystery, gain a lot of fun continuity, add in some heist/caper elements where Dom and his grew will really grow on you, and as I said, they increasingly take the adrenaline and action to entirely new levels. The first time I saw some of these sequences, especially in 5 and 6, I was blown away. I hope you have fun with the rest, and be sure to post your thoughts here!
Bunch of law breakin' hooligans...
"Ride or die."
Campy?
CAMPY?
SIR! I'll have you know that Mister Krueger and I are good friends and let me assure you he means business. He's about as serious as that nutter Michael Myers.
I mean, glad you liked the film, @FoxRox. Huge Krueger fan here. :)
Haha yeah it was good. I've been on a horror film kick lately which is rare for me.
Very amusing movie.