POMO

A praiseworthy work that dusts of the good old motorcycling setting and has a good time building a story and characters. With superbly cast actors who do excellent work. The fragile Jodie Comer among tough guys who don’t belong anywhere, so they belong to themselves. Tom Hardy’s growling and stares have never been more expressive and the rebellious heart-throb Austin Butler gives the film the spirit of the most iconic version of cinematic America (James Dean). The Bikeriders is an enjoyable old-school flick for fans of ensemble acting. It doesn’t need a sophisticated plot to be entertaining with every scene and it keeps its outcome unpredictable all the way to the end. Probably the film’s coolest and most original scene, romantic and macho at the same time, is Butler’s seduction of Jodie Comer in front of her house.

If you’re familiar with the Norwegian original and thus the whole plot, The Guilty won’t manage to thrill you. Rather, we can just enjoy the presence of Jake Gyllenhaal and compare the formalistic concept, which in this case is livened up with a communication centre’s large monitors displaying Californian wildfires. The intensity of the main character’s explosive mental state is surprising for a mainstream Netflix movie, as if Antoine Fuqua attempted to make up for the original film’s lack of rawness and authenticity. Gyllenhaal tries hard and everyone knows that he is capable, but the degree of focus on his character is almost superficially overwrought. We don’t know the character and his good human qualities enough to sympathise with him.

Bad Boys for Life was surprising with its fresh screenplay, which put new wind in the franchise’s sails. But without input from Joe Carnahan, the screenplay for Ride or Die gets sloppy. Forced jokes and a moderately interesting plot, routine action without a single memorable scene. The overwrought scene with a helicopter seems to have been flown in from the Fast & Furious franchise.  The fierceness and polish of Bay’s action style is history. However, Bay appears in one shot, DJ Khaled in a whole scene, and the central duo are still cool even without good jokes. The nostalgia, bolstered by Mark Mancina’s musical motif and the setting of Miami skyscrapers with Caribbean beaches and palm trees, simply works. And young Reggie rulez!