Skip to main content

The Rhythm Section

A review by Brooks Rich

So I saw this movie awhile ago and it's taken me this long to write a review. It's a very middle of the road film. There's nothing inherently wrong with this film but nothing that really makes it stand out save for one very impressive scene. This film did not do well and had the worst wide opening weekend of all time at the box office.

Blake Lively plays a prostitute whose family died in a plane crash a few years back that was actually a terrorist attack. She eventually decides to track down those responsible for the attack, no matter the cost. I say eventually because my God this film takes it's sweet ass time in the first act.

The main issue people will have with this film is that it takes so long to get going. The film just feels the need to tell you over and over again that her family were very nice, they died in a plane crash, and that she's sad about it. Once she meets up with ex MI6 agent Jude Law the film picks up a little but then gets bogged down in a training montage.

The film's back half is better than the front half. Once the revenge mission starts the movie does find some momentum. Three of us from the blog saw this together and we all agreed that a car chase in the second half is one of the most innovative takes on the car crash in a long time. It's nothing like what you'll find in a Fast and Furious film but it is an interesting way to film a car chase. Full credit to Reed Morano for this sequence, which is the highlight of the film.

Blake Lively does her best here. She really does. She makes this script work as well as it can. Without her this might be unwatchable. In the end The Rhythm Section is doomed to be a film that I forget I saw in six months. And maybe that's for the best.

2.5/5


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

John Travolta month: Saturday Night Fever

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich So this was not the big start of John Travolta's career. That would be the classic sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. But this did elevate Travolta to another level. For any of you going oh come on. This silly movie with a disco soundtrack? Come on, Brooks. Just wait. Have you ever actually seen this? This isn't about disco. Disco just happens to be the music of choice. This about the kind of people who are kings at the dance clubs and then losers the rest of the time. There is a lot of darkness and truth in this film. So if you've never seen it please. Do yourself a flavor and check it out. Just watch it and then come back to read this.  This is a movie about the different types of people we become between our real lives and our weekend lives. Tony Manero is a regular working class guy in a Brooklyn neighborhood, struggling to make ends meet and dealing with his loving but at times overbearing family. He lives in the shadow of his priest brother. ...

John Travolta month

 Get your dancing shoes on! Order a Royale with Cheese! Blow millions in an overblown sci-fi disaster built around a weird Hollywood religion! Because for the month of June we are discussing the filmography of the one and only John Travolta. A man saved from being a laughing stock in the early '90s by a director making one of the greatest American masterpiece. A man who then had a stunning run of films before blowing all his goodwill not once but twice. But we of course do not disparage the great John Travolta. We want to celebrate him like we do with all of our monthly subjects. 

Forgotten Film Friday: Melinda and Melinda

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich I know Woody Allen is a complicated figure. He is a creep in a lot of ways and some people find his sexual weirdness to be too much. I get that. But on the blog I sometimes like to separate the art from artist. Not always to be sure. Jeepers Creepers will never be covered here because Victor Salva is a useless piece of human garbage. What he did I can't ignore. Allen I can push aside him being weird to cover him now and then. It's hard to write a film blog and not mention a Woody Allen film now and then. The man has some bangers. And I've always wanted to cover this film. The concept is so interesting and Allen post 2000 is fertile ground for Forgotten Film Friday. So let's look at the film and not Allen himself.  Melinda and Melinda is a dual narrative about a woman named Melinda, an underrated and brilliant Radha Mitchell, who shows up unexpectedly at a dinner party in New York. The film questions if life is inherently tragic or comic a...