The Contract (1999) Movie Review

The Contract is a 1999 action thriller film directed by genre filmmaker K.C. Bascombe, written by him and videogame voice actor and writer Navid Khonsari. It stars Johanna Nicosia, Laurent Imbault, Matthew Olver, Sean Bell, Jon Jordan and Billy Dee Williams. Produced by Wishbone Entertainment Inc. and Cut to the Horse Productions Inc, the film was clearly one of the films in that wave of Nikita-inspired films, comics and TV shows with women assassins in a modern crime environment. 

Hannah (Johanna Nicosia) was raised by her ex-black ops father, Luc, to be an expert assassin. They take hits for hire and execute their targets with much efficiency. An unlikely black republican politician (Dee Williams) who is, realistically, a criminal conspirator plans to tie all the loose ends that can relate him to organized crime and mess with his election chances, so he sends out his goons to murder the father-daughter duo of professional killers, but Luc is the only one that gets killed. Hannah then has to unravel the conspiracy behind her fathers death while having to reveal the truth to her boyfriend.

A satisfying stylish assassin thriller with some visual interest as it has good handheld camerawork and decent production design, even if the environments are a bit dry they do retain that starkness and grimy look a film like this needs. Always fast paced and with technical skills to keep you interested in the derivative drama and executing its action scenes with fluidity and stimulation in awesome choreographies.

The performers do their job very well and Billy Dee Williams is also a highlight. Nicosia is very convincing and likable in her role. While not everyone stands out, you do get to grasp the motivations of every single character and their place in this world, even the goons that are killed off get some decent moments to shine and leave a mark instead of being mechanically dispatched out of the movie as the disposable characters they are.

With solid action sequences and a well known but ultimately decently done storyline, The Contract is an enjoyable and worthwhile Nikita copycat. Recommended for fans of assassin ladies.

Killing Mary Sue (2025) Movie Review

Killing Mary Sue is a comedy action film written, directed and edited by James Sunshine. Starring Sierra McCormick, Dermot Mulroney, Sean Patrick Flanery, Jake Busey, Martin Kove and Jason Mewes.

The film follows Sierra McCormick as Mary Sue Harper, the troublesome deadbeat step-daughter of a Senator. The man wants to win an election but some recent scandals involving Mary Sue make him consider another option: hire an assassin to murder his step-daughter. The plan doesn't work since she discovers her unnatural and previously dormant fighting and shooting skills that allow her to murder her attackers. The girl now battles a death squad and unravels the conspiracy behind every strange event and element in her life.

This wild parody takes the meme and writing stereotype known as "Mary Sue" (a mostly false term that very hardly applies to female characters outside of fanfiction) and attempts to give it a new spin by making the tone light and the fiction itself self-aware or reality-bending (like in the finale) to launch some comedic scenarios and gags. This idea of an irresponsible couch potato who plays videogames and parties all day turning into a skilled assassin isn't anything new and the concept of the Mary Sue never goes far enough as this main character sort of struggles in many ways, her abilities are explained and her emotional conflict does present her with some character flaws and troubles to get over. So it never truly commits to the Mary Sue thing and I think that's one of the biggest issues a movie like this can have.

Otherwise, this is a rather average but serviceable action comedy, the movie warns you of its eccentric and odd nature by having Jason Mewes of Clerks fame as Mary Sue's biological father early on, setting the tone for the kind of humor you will be presented with and they do a rather decent job with the strange and peculiar jokes that sometimes come out of nowhere or are nutty and exaggerated just for the sake of it. This can usually lead to some irritating sequences but here it's toned down for its own good to a certain degree.

The fights and shootout sequences are not bad, but sometimes they feel somewhat artificial and plastic due to the abundance of CGI in a lot of the shots but they do retain a certain energy and dynamism that save them. Nothing out of the ordinary but the crew did a good job putting them together. Sierra McCormick is also quite good in the main role.

While a bit playful and self-aware it doesn't go far enough to truly work all the way. I can see some people who are into bizarre and frisky comedies enjoying it, even when the entire concept doesn't play out to its full potential and it loses a bit of team in the middle.

Thelma & Louise (1991) Movie Review

Thelma & Louise is a crime-drama directed by Ridley Scott starring Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald, and Brad Pitt. Screenwriter  Callie Khouri came up with the idea that would be a staple of road trip crime movies and an iconic women on the run flick which perfectly captured the feminist sentiments at the time but that still maintains some relevance 34 years later.

The plot involves Thelma, a hardworking housewife whose husband shows no respect for, and Louise, a witty and sharp single waitress, two friends who embark on a trip to a fishing cabin for a weekend vacation but things get ugly when a man tries to abuse Thelma and Louise saves her by shooting the perpetrator. Both women now have the police on their trail as their misadventures accumulate until a breaking point.

A very defiantly feminist text that while certainly not being the first fiction feature length movie to present feminist ideas it was one of the first highly popular films to actually break certain tropes and stereotypes and directly confront mundane patriarchal ideas in society, having women break their bond to the male-dominated civilization.

The film works with the characters of the two main ladies and their development is fueled by their dynamics and interactions, their friendship. Louise has toughened up living by herself in a harsh patriarchal world while Thelma has only known how to live under the wing of a man who doesn't even appreciate her and is controlling. The film presents the situations these leading women live in without falling into caricature. Throughout their journey and after the inciting incident Thelma becomes harsher and develops a sharpness and daringness previously missing while Louise softens up and learns to open up and feel comfortable around her friend. Both helping each other and discovering a new facet they previously were forced not to find.

This story takes place in the hot and cruel American desert, where several freeway movies and outlaw stories in western cinema took place, this time the historical misogyny of such landscape and genre is inhabited by modern day women who, tired of being tied to a sexist civilization and society, escape it to find new things about themselves while on the run from uniformed men of the law who want to punish them for it, but we never feel compelled to call them criminals, neither does the movie, as their crime is not one of viciousness but of frustration and circumstance.

With beautiful cinematography by Adrian Biddle, repetitive but fitting and somewhat emotional musical score by Hans Zimmer and a very solid direction by Ridley Scott, the film shines in the vast majority of aspects and reveals itself to not be dated at all in the ways most movies that touch upon social issues could get. Carried also by the astounding acting of Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. This is one of those movies where you get to inhabit the world of the characters and through their point of view you gain empathy, accompanying them on their struggles.

While not that well rounded, it is a movie that stands the test of time and has as much of an edge now as it did back then, helped out by the caliber of filmmakers and performers that give it a certain quality.

Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) Movie Review

After the surprise hits that parts one, two and three of the Resident Evil movie series were, Sony wasn't going to let the cow alone and eventually they decided to milk it once again, this time bringing back original director Paul W. S. Anderson, who functioned as producer and writer for the previous films and decided to make this a 3D affair after watching Cameron’s Avatar. It's a no-brainer that star Milla Jovovich would return, this time sharing screentime with Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Spencer Locke, Boris Kodjoe, and Wentworth Miller.

Alice, along with her deadly clones, visits Albert Wesker, the Chairman of the Umbrella Corporation, in Japan only to be attacked and bested by Wesker and his new superpowers. Alice survives and travels to the safe place in Alaska that was the destination of the survivors in the previous film, only to find a memory-wiped Claire who attempts to strike her down only to be defeated by the heroine. She takes Claire to California and lands the plane on a prison where another group of survivors take refuge. They try to reach Arcadia, a supposedly safe cargo tanker that's their only hope. 

This is where the fun begins. The very interesting delirium that progressively envelops this franchise reaches another level with this entry as Paul W. S. Anderson's style becomes less and less conventional. The incredible opening sequence in Japan that has the camera pull back on the infection spreading around the city (in delightful slow motion) only to pull back into it and show the effects of the now Umbrella-controlled metropolis really sets you up for what's to come. From the architectural designs stripped down to pure lines to the focus on space and time we can see the auteur's mind at work.

The frenetic and overly fragmentary style of typical action movie madness is sort of gone here, as Anderson works towards a total control of the background, the movements and the performances on screen, all with careful lighting and camera set ups and framing. You can really feel the weight and impact of the action but not as a very simple event, but rather as a stylized act in itself, which is further emphasized by the constant use of slow motion so that everything registers.

If there are major problems then that would be the middle of the storyline since once we reach the disposable group of survivors looking for the "promised land," or something along those lines (a cliche at this point), the film becomes routine and treads on derivative and familiar territory. Most of the characters, as usual, are one dimensional and uninteresting by themselves. Granted, they are fodder for the blood and guts scenes to take place but still. Alice outshines them all and when the movie focuses on her and her relationship with Claire the movie becomes captivating. 

Totally recommended, if anything for the initial act and the climax, which are more than worth the buy. 

Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) Movie Review

This third film in the Resident Evil franchise came out after the successful but not very well reviewed Apocalypse. Director Russell Mulcahy (Ozploitation filmmaker of Highlander fame) held the reins of this production with a script by Paul W. S. Anderson himself. Milla Jovovich reprised her role as Alice and starred alongside Oded Fehr, Ali Larter, Iain Glen, Ashanti, Mike Epps and Christopher Egan.

Taking place some time after the zombie outbreak of the first two films, which has now become a global problem, survivors from Raccoon City are crossing the Mojave desert in order to reach Alaska (which is supposed to be a safe place) and escape the undead flesh eaters. The T-Virus reaches animals as well and causes an ecological disaster, making the wasteland environment even more dangerous. Alice intercepts the travelling group and joins them in their journey as her superhuman abilities keep increasing.

By changing the setting from apocalyptic to post-apocalyptic I think the film gets rid of the main appeal of the original, the line between borderline chaos and complete degradation of human society and civilization has been crossed and it sort of develops into a mostly generic movie of its type with desolated deserts, fringe cannibal families and groups of survivors moving in vehicles while trying to stay alive and organizing. Nothing special and quite derivative, but in line with the director's previous work.

I will say that the direction is less frantic and the film is slightly more worried about handling the scenery and the intensity of the moment rather than rapidly moving onto the next scene, which makes it less fluid but gives you more time to breathe and digest the world and situations. The rest keeps up with the fast pace of the other films, with quick editing and constant, to the point of saturation, action and fight scenes that become more and more spectacular as the series goes on.

The dirty and grainy look serves the film right as the forsaken junkyard texture works well with the coarseness of the concept and the wardrobe and change of style Alice goes through in this movie is also quite cool and pleasant. The enemies are just as intimidating and this time we have some human threats as well but the only real good additions are the crows, which do become creepy. The comedy is pretty much sidelined here and it never feels intrusive.

There are certain well planned and well timed sequences that give us some really unsettling imagery, like the scene with the crows, that very much add to the desperation and urgency of the scene. The swift camera movements and the somewhat old but still convincing cgi along with practical effects give a very commendable visual aptitude to the overall aesthetic work.

Recommended for anyone who likes some disheveled post-apocalyptic desert action flick with gore and blood.