A Working Man - The scoop and digest

David Ayer's latest project (ntbcw similarly titled 2019 film Working Man) is co-written by Sylvester Stallone and based on Levon's Trade, the first in Chuck Dixon's book series, and also takes a chunk of trafficking from Levon's Run.

Jason Statham - Levon Cade

David Harbour - Gunny Lefferty

Michael Peña - Joe Garcia

Jason Flemyng - Wolo Kolisnyk

Arianna Rivas - Jenny Garcia

Richard Heap - Dr. Roth

Isla Gie - Merry Cade

Summary

Former Royal Marine Levon Cade works as a foreman on a construction site and sees his boss Joe Garcia as almost family.

When Joe's daughter Jenny is kidnapped at a bar by Russian human traffickers, Levon agrees to bring Jenny home, by any means necessary.

Kill this demon

Taken meets Commando (less the cheesy charm) is as generic as they come, but tailor-made for the Stath.

One-man army (who occasionally buys drugs), biffs and shoots his way through enemies with a minimum of fuss, making the whole thing rather tedious.

Jesus Christ, there isn't even an end boss.

In the book, Jenna (as she's called), died by choking on her own vomit after Dimi drugged her.

Dark stuff.

But here, she's rescued by Levon before ass can be sold to a rich client.

But the most bizarre subplot unfortunately omitted is hitmen kidnapping Roth and his wife looking for Levon, with the latter quickly executed.  To save his own skin, Roth makes a deal with the devil, supplying the Russians with cheap medications and eventually becoming a private doctor to the gang.

Err, what the fuck?

Shiver Me Timbers - The scoop and digest

The third horror in so many months exploiting E. C. Segar's Popeye is written and directed by Paul Stephen Mann (in his directorial debut).

Amy Mackie - Olive Oyl

Niamh Parrington - Cylinda Oyl

Brendan Nelson - Castor Oyl

David Hallows - Old Man Popeye

Paul Dewdney - Homeless George

Anthony Greer - Monster Popeye

The following film is based on real people, real events, and real murders. The story depicts actual murders that occurred and is intended to provide a realistic portrayal of these incidents.

Summary

April 12th 1986.

In Northern California, a mother and daughter discover human remains.

24 hours earlier.

Olive, Cylinda, Castor and other friends arrive at a camp site for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of witnessing Halley's comet.

After they ignore the warnings from a vagrant to get the fuck out of dodge, a tiny meteor fragment lands inside an old sailor's pipe, transforming geezer into an unstoppable killing machine.

The comet is evil

Ahead of Popeye obliterating the head of his first victim with one punch, he exclaims "Well blow me down!"

That sets the standard for absolute BOLLOCKS, and not in a 'so bad it's good' way.

Script, acting and kills are embarrassing, but top tier CG saves the day.

(Frowns).

At least climax is game for a laugh.

Aliens (1986)

Just before Popeye is about to murder bestie Cylinda, Ollie, armed with a giant handheld circular saw, exclaims "Get away from her you PRICK!"

'Ripley' apparently kills antagonist by slicing open his belly and villain says: "I just can't take it no more!"

Pretty funny really, considering actual catchphrase is: "That's all I can stands, an I can't stands n'more!"

Evil Dead II (1987)

A few weeks later, a radio broadcast reports more murders, suggesting that Popeye survived.

Having just applied the finishing touches to her robotic hand, Ollie turns to the camera, raises her eyebrows and states: "Groovy!"

HA HA HA HA!

Novocaine (2025) - The scoop and digest

Dan Berk and Robert Olsen's action comedy is written by Lars Jacobson and unrelated to 2001 film of same name, or Eels song Novocaine for the Soul.

(Ahem).

Jack Quaid - Nathan "Novocaine" Caine

Amber Midthunder - Sherry

Ray Nicholson - Simon

Jacob Batalon - Roscoe Dixon

Conrad Kemp - Andre

Evan Hengst - Ben

Summary

Socially awkward Nathan Caine works as an assistant manager for a trust credit union in San Diego and has congential insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA).

On Christmas Eve, three men dressed as Santa rob the credit union and their leader Simon takes Nate's love interest Sherry hostage.

After impulsively stealing a cop car, Nate gives chase and uses genetic disorder to his advantage.

Survive & thrive

Considering the central concept is basically Kick-Ass, search and rescue mission should have been a lot more fun than what it actually is.

As a side note, there's also an Indian film called Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota (The Man Who Feels No Pain), whose main character has the same condition and embarks on a revenge mission.

Anyway.

Sherry is Simon's sister and was in on heist from the beginning, but developed genuine feelings for Nate.

There's some nice choreography and bloody violence, but tone is consistently all over the place and can't make up its mind if we're supposed to laugh or cringe.

Case in point is Andre pulling off Nate's fingernails with a pair of pliers.  During which, Nate feigns injury waiting for online gamer Roscoe to arrive.

The main problem is that Nate isn't The Terminator or a fucking superhero, so I'm certain a normal human being (no matter how tough) would die from the amount of punishment he sustains.

Some things of note.

Kickboxer (1989)

While fighting tattooist Zeno, the ground gets covered in glass which Nate repeatedly punches to embed fragments into fists.

Kurt and Tong Po fight the "ancient way", wrapping their hands in hemp rope, which are then coated with resin and finally dipped into broken glass.

Sequence was famously parodied in Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993).

Mortal Kombat 1 (2023)

Nate breaking his arm and using exposed bone to kill Simon is extremely similar to Havik's RAD-ius Incision fatality.