Le Gardien

It's kind of all the same - a former super agent in retirement seeking revenge for the death of his beloved neighbor... definitely giving off John Wick vibes, with some decent fights and an interesting plot, although the ending is a bit over the top. Overall, a successful action movie that won't disappoint. The correlation with the current political situation in the USA is quite amusing - two stars. (04/02/2024)

A delightful B-movie with a demented script by Kurt Wimmer, with extreme and bloody action. I don't understand who consulted and explained to the filmmakers the general workings of computers, how phishing takes place, what the lairs look like, where the millions disappear from the retirement accounts of American pensioners, but the result presented here is so over the top that I suspect Wimmer and David Ayer of making a satire of sorts. And Jason Statham is something of a force of nature. A hurricane that takes out the amoral call center fuckers, while looking like my dad watching cycling on TV. Ayer and Gabriel Beristain keep the visuals in check, and that's what makes the film look great. Josh Hutcherson, unfortunately, is not ugly enough as the vile perpetrator of all evil. He tries, but you just don't believe the self-absorbed prick. Jeremy Irons has virtually nothing to work with. And that security guard at the end, that's something. But what I enjoyed the most was the role of the FBI agent, a stay-at-home dad who figures out how to get out of work and all of Statham's destruction, only to have his stupid partner (Emmy Raver-Lampman) drag him into the hardest shit, only to change her mind about the whole thing. Maybe it's not even a B, it's a C. It's terribly bad, but I had a royal good time in places. Guilty pleasure? To bee or not to be? (17/05/2024)

An enjoyable, simple, effective and gritty action flick from the old school, for fans of intense action. Jason Statham is an actor I'm always happy to see in an action film and this one is rather reminiscent of his films of 10 years back, but that's okay. Here we have a former agent of the mysterious Beekepers organization who goes to execute revenge on the scumbags who are robbing innocent and old people (phishing scams) (thanks to the organization's novel lore, it's at least a little more interesting). In short, we all love these roles of retired agents who have to get back into action, and Statham takes them down for the whole movie! There's a lot of action, Statham takes on both SWAT and Delta teams (no ordinary people, but all tough guys with experience, but even they don't stand a chance). There are some of those army tricks (the elevator scene is the best), or how Statham marches alone like the biggest dude among the whole SWAT unit, so that was a very cool moment. Too bad there weren't more agents from the Beekepers organization after him. The final act is cool too, with a bunch of assassins coming to the rescue, and the final duel with the fighter without a leg is intense and brutal as fuck. Statham uses maybe four types of martial arts – Aikido, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Kung Fu – and I thoroughly enjoyed it. David Ayer made me happy with this actioner right off the edge of the year. 8/10. (01/02/2024)