A Quiet Place Part II - A Review of the Sequel Film by Mark Barry...

"...Stay Calm..."

A Review of "A Quiet Place Part II"

You don't expect much from sequels, maybe do just as good a job as the first outing and not completely embarrass itself or you in the offering.

But "A Quiet Place Part II" is a properly great follow-up film that manages to combine scare-the-crap-out-of-you thrills and a real sense of humanity in the face of all the teeth-nibbling and slash-arm carnage (largely down to the power of the acting ensemble). The creatures are a stunning creation too and genuinely menacing every time they skit onto screen like gangly scissors men. Throw in the use of sound vs. silence to amp up the tension to 11 on a monitor of 10 and you have one skilfully managed night of tears and screeches.

I openly worship at the altar of all things Emily Blunt (I'd drink her bathwater, and in several British real ale minibars, probably have). She is never less that sensational as the beleaguered mother Evelyn Abbott trying to keep her siblings alive and safe in a landscape of terror at every turn. But even her and Krasinski's tight direction are outdone big time by the two kids - Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe playing Regan and Marcus Abbott. They are truly fabulous throughout, having to mine emotional depths in every single scene that few actors twice their age would be capable of.

But the master stroke is the introduction of the blue-eyed heavily bearded Cillian Murphy as the new man in their lives - a traumatized neighbour you see in flashback as the story returns to Day 1 in small-town USA when the monsters arrived without warning. Murphy is another top-quality presence in a story that needs heart as well as grab-my-hand darling jumps. As anyone who loves him in Peaky Blinders will know, Cillian can infuse a real person into every heart-breaking decision for survival. Gladiator-star Djimon Hounsu also has a small but effective part later on.

Some will say the original was better (and it probably was and had the shock factor too and big cinema prior to Covid-19) - but Writer and Director John Krasinski has nailed it big time for "A Quiet Place Part II". My missus actually clapped come the final credits and you don't say that of too many sequels...

Anna - A Review of the 2019 Luc Besson Film on BLU RAY starring Sasha Luss, Cillian Murphy, Helen Mirren, Luke Evans and Lera Abova...

"...Pawn Takes Queen..."

"Anna" is a stiletto of a movie – long-legged, elegant and you definitely don’t want to mess with that girl's pointy ending.

French filmmaker and Director LUC BESSON has been here before with "Angel-A" (2005) and "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blonc-Sec" (2010) – two cracking little films that bristle with his style, clever story lines and a flawed but ultimately beautiful and brave female lead (see reviews). Theorists, plagiarists and in fact anyone with an '...ist' in their bonnet will go on about yet another Atomic Blonde type movie - leggy girly with guns and lipstick and bruises and nude scenes (the staple for such films) engages in protracted battle sequences with dodgy unaccountable State forces and so on to a gore-fest finale – and deep down I'd concede they probably have a point. There have also been rumours flying around about on set shenanigans while "Anna" was being made which has meant it may have slipped through the nets in this horribly woke world we're presently in.

But I think Besson is different. I get the impression that he likes women, adores them even. And I'd say that it makes a genuine difference here. When most of the other films depicting such characters have the feel of a user, Besson actual likes his creations and his female leads may start out sappy or even ordinary but they never end up that way. The actresses are given real meat to work with. They are always strong, do their own thing on their own terms and men - though they might like them to be nice or even half-decent and humane on occasion - had better keep their hearts, underpants and wits about them.

What also makes "Anna" work and so entertaining is the superb quad of leads: for the ladies there's the ludicrously beautiful Cillian Murphy and his f-yeah eyes (an absolute crush for many of my lady friends) playing CIA maverick Lenny Miller - a suit who is a lot smarter than the by-the-book company man he first appears to be. On the other side of his morally murky world are the ruthless yet possibly might–have-a heart duo of Helen Mirren and Luke Evans who recruit the young street junkie Anna into the Russian Secret Service. Mirren eats this stuff up – her old, smoke and be-damned Olga is stony faced and precise. Olga has only survived in this vicious man's world by being equally quick with a Bowie knife, Bear Trap or a poison ink-nib. Moreover, Olga will not let her bright new recruit Anna lapse for even a second into mistakes that will get her killed - whilst at the same time having to appear to tow the line for corrupt males officials who give her orders to eliminate supposed enemies of the state and not ask too many questions about the validity of such appraisals.

And then there's the Russian model Sasha Luss playing the lead role of Anna – the kind of sleek trophy totty that adorns the arms of drug dealers by swimming pools or Bond villains in biotechnology labs or the love interest in Kingsmen movies who carry a machine-gun umbrella in London's Saville Row. Only this time in real life our Sasha has actually trained in ballet and that elegance of movement shows in every scene. Sasha Russ is genetically gorgeous for sure - but Besson also knows that she has to be riveting in the role and at the same time exude a tremble of fragility and humanity – and Russ achieves all of it. This is an actress you want to watch. Plus our Sash gets to have fun in and out of expensive dresses, popping off baddies with silencers, skewering bodyguards in fancy restaurants with steak knives or a broken dinner plate, fighting Soviet soldiers in sewers, binning wigs – the usual slow Tuesday stuff for an International espionage agent.

So, beautiful but drifting Anna Poliatova realizes she has a chance to escape a world of user boyfriends and bedsit dime-bag deprivation if she goes with her new handler Alex Tchenkov (a superb Luke Wilson) and commits to years of espionage training. This will eventually turn her into a sort of bloodier version of Killing Eve machine Villanelle – same great outfits but without the jokey psycho streak. On graduation, promises are made of five years service and Anna soon adopts a cover in a Parisienne apartment with the gorgeous Lera Abova playing Maude, Anna's lesbian lover who is in love with Anna but also oblivious to where or what Anna is as she disappears for days on end for business trips. 

But soon Anna begins to realize that she may have traded one life of servitude to drugs for another serving the equally treacherous State and that there is always one more job, one more misery, one more heartless using of her skills that will never end. So as a child prodigy Chess Player, she begins to plot out minnow-moves that none of the bigger fish will see coming. Or will they? Is Olga always one step ahead of her and everybody in fact or is she a Ruskie patriot through and through to the point where Anna is just collateral damage?

If this all sounds a bit complicated for a Spy Action Thriller then actually it is. Besson frames his spiky tale in a series of flashbacks and flash forwards and replays where you begin to realize and see what is really going on. It's a clever and thrilling way to keep the story and action moving. The set pieces/fight sequences are suitably brill and cool and have of course silly body counts that no one seems to notice as they chow down on their oysters and linguini. Then as Anna begins to outplay or even break the hearts of her American and Russian men – you're more and more invested – rooting for her to win...or not...

In March 2020, the BLU RAY is clocking in at about £10 new, but will undoubtedly fall in price as these sort of titles always do, and the picture quality on it is spot-on.

I know many have been derisory about "Anna" - but damn I enjoyed it a bunch even if it isn't quite "Leon" or "Lucy". Top cast, clever story, great set pieces and Daddy's smart girl gets to play Chess too. 

 "Anna" can have my spy bra strap any day of the week...