G20, the latest action/thriller starring Viola Davis, Ramón Rodríguez, Antony Starr and Anthony Anderson, is more fun than I expected.
Directed by Patricia Riggen, G20 is a story where terrorists take over the G20 summit (a gathering of world leaders to discuss economic, financial and other pressing world issues), leaving it up to Davis’s President Sutton of the United States to save the day.
Yes, some very recognisable and sometimes unintentionally amusing action movie tropes are at play here, but that does not detract too much from the elements that work well. For example, the pace, well-structured story, good performances by Davis, Ramone, plus Starr, and some satisfying action sequences.
Watch G20 if you’re curious because it’s entertaining and certainly not too emotionally taxing.
Little, the comedy about a woman struggling with the pressures of adulthood, who somehow gets to relive the life of her younger self, is a movie that did not live up to the promise of its great trailer. I enjoyed the Little trailer so much that for a few days, I confess to playing it instead of uptempo music as I worked out.
Starring Issa Rae, Regina Hall, Justin Hartley and Marsai Martin, I knew things weren’t great when I found myself losing interest approximately 12 minutes in. The disappointment was so real for me that I actually became quite impatient for Martin’s young character’s arrival; all in hopes that my feelings about director Tina Gordon’s film would improve.
They did not. Instead, I felt a strong sense of disappointment coursing through me. Okay, maybe ‘coursing’ is a tad strong but I definitely wasn’t happy. In fact, I’d best describe Little as mostly flat and bad, with moments of dodgy dialogue including some ‘definitely could have been better acting.’
I’m sure it didn’t help that once again, near enough all the best bits were featured in the trailer, leaving not much else to enjoy. And since the premise is far from fresh, the chances that Little would be a great experience weren’t the best. I still like Hall and Rae. I’m just not pleased with this movie that they made.
In terms of what I liked about Little, that would be everything before the twelfth minute, when I was still hopeful. I also enjoyed the back of Hall’s character’s striped blue shirt – including the joke that’s made at its expense.
If you like Tom Hanks’ 1988 classic Big, the film that inspired Little, watch it again instead, unless you really need to see Little for yourself. Who knows, perhaps the end result would have been different, in a good way, if Martin had been a teenager, as Hanks’ character was in Big. Perhaps.
