I recall the book as fleeter, more darkly comic; a commentary on the battle of the sexes from the front lines of the recession, and it possessed a wonderfully knowing sense of genre and how to mess with audience expectations.
This feels more like a routine mystery, a “wronged man” movie that could have been part of the flight of misogynistic paranoid thrillers from the early 90s.
The casting is spot on. Career best from Affleck? Rosamund Pike is picture…
Dodgy as hell but man oh man what a piece of ultra-violent, ultra-sweaty action-adventure cinema. Nobody has ever looked tougher in white knee-high socks than Rod Taylor. It’s absurd on every level (Jim Brown as an idealistic Congolese soldier, Yvette Mimieux as whatever she’s supposed to be, Jamaica subbing for Africa), not to mention somehow simultaneously racist, anti-colonialist, pro-violence, anti-war, cynical, and romantic. Looks incredible except for the awful process shots. Hard to believe this came out before The Wild Bunch or Duck You Sucker. A must-watch for fans of the genre.
Post-apocalyptic adventure pulp on a vast scale. This is imaginative world-building on par with Robert E Howard or Edgar Rice Burroughs. More than just a great revenge story, along with Fury Road it actually has (pulpy) thoughts about morality and responsibility in a lawless world.
Chris Hemsworth gives a wonderfully dark comic performance. Anya Taylor-Joy is more restrained. She’s good, but doesn’t have the pure star-power wattage of Charlize Theron (just like Tom Hardy is no Mel Gibson). Like Hardy…
rdeleskie followed Paul Blake
rdeleskie added Heroic Times to his watchlist
rdeleskie added The Smiling Lieutenant to his watchlist
rdeleskie added The Heiress to his watchlist
