MOVIE REVIEW: The Hitman's Bodyguard

Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson team up in The Hitman's Bodyguard. An action comedy about one of the world's top bodyguards Michael Bryce (Reynolds) who is tasked to protect an assassin Darius Kincaid (Jackson) as he is about to testify in the International Criminal Court against a ruthless Eastern European leader (Gary Oldman) from his henchmen.

This would have been a standard buddy comedy but the impeccable comic timing and chemistry of the two leading actors elevates it from the plot loopholes. The
scenes in the Netherlands are beautifully shot for an action film and props for having a chase scene in Amsterdam's infamous De Wallen more famously known as the city's Red Light District. It's pure fun to see Reynolds channeling James Bond together with Jackson being Samuel L. Jackson. With Oscar nominees Oldman and Salma Hayek in supporting roles. The Hitman's Bodyguard is pure popcorn entertainment in the dog days of August.

MOVIE REVIEW: Annabelle: Creation

The Conjuring cinematic universe continues it's winning streak with Annabelle: Creation. Forget about the 2014 prequel of the scary doll that was overall a disappointment. The film goes way back when the doll got created. In the able hands of Swedish director David F. Sandberg (in only his second full length feature film after last year's excellent Lights Out), Annabelle: Creation is ten times scarier and yet a lot of fun for those who loved The Conjuring series and horror films in general.

Years after the tragic death of their only child, a dollmaker named Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) and his wife Esther (the ethereal Miranda Otto), welcome a group of girl orphans and a nun Sister Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman) into their home to ease the pain of their loss. That's when the possessed doll Annabelle comes out to haunt them.

A doll with the right built and facial design is always scary. Children in a haunted house is scarier. Demon possession is the scariest!! Annabelle: Creation has all of these.

MOVIE REVIEW: Detroit

Detroit starts out with an excellent narration using animation with of the migration of the African-American from the Deep South to the Motor City. I learned something yet I was entertained, which sets the mood for the dark tone of the film. Then we go forward to 1967, when a party was being held at an unlicensed speakeasy for returning servicemen from Vietnam. All guests were African-American. The police came to raid the place. The people were brought outside the street and arrested in full view of the neighborhood thus anger ensued. A bottle was thrown at a police officer therefore starting what was known to be the 12th Street riots of Detroit.

The city was in crisis and the National Guard was called in to patrol the streets. A curfew was implemented and looting continued.

The movie focuses on the Algiers Hotel incident when a guest named Carl (Jason Mitchell) fired a toy gun at the police who mistakenly thought of as a sniper. They found the place and started interrogating all those who were at the building that time, including a member of the singing group Larry Reed (Algee Smith in a breakthrough performance) and his friend Fred (Jacob Latimore) who both decided to spend the night when their show got cancelled because of the riots. Anthony Mackie plays Greene, a Vietnam vet who's also checked in. Together with a couple of more African-Americans and two white girls Julie Anne (Hannah Murray) and Karen (Kaitlyn Dever), they experienced outmost humiliation and maltreatment from the cops Krauss (The Chronicles of Narnia's Will Poulter in an Oscar worthy performance), Flynn (Ben O' Toole) and Demens (Jack Reynor). Star Wars' John Boyega is also in the film as a security officer caught in the middle of the police activity.

The Oscar winning tandem of director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal does it again. Detroit is so gripping and entertaining that one wouldn't realize that it has a long running time of 2 hours and 29 minutes. All the characters from the film had their own flaws and it is up to us the audience to determine who's right or wrong. 50 years had passed since one of the darkest moment of the US had happened and still almost nothing's had changed.