It’s been a hot minute since Jennifer Lopez grabbed her firearms for a neat action flick. NO, Shotgun Wedding it doesn’t count and doesn’t count as it leans towards the comedy side scammersalthough more action packed than the last 35 Fast and furious movies. Lopez hasn’t made a real action movie since 2013. Parkerhowever, Lopez had begun to prefer the simpler pleasures of romantic comedies over high-octane performances, even before he outstripped Jason Statham at every opportunity.
But the heavens opened and it rained like manna MomLopez’s first action movie in a decade and eerily similar to the 2002 classic, Sufficient. More than 20 years have passed Sufficient released, and Lopez has not lost a single piece of the spark that had turned her fiercely devoted mother into an angry, glorious flame. Mom He finds Lopez in a similar predicament, having to go to extremes to protect his daughter and save both their lives.
This time, however, Lopez is no amateur fighter and mustered up the courage to stand up to her abuser. Inside MomIn , Lopez plays an Army sniper, a deadly hit man who gives up a deadly life when he discovers she’s pregnant, but turns to the grief of his equally deadly partners. To ensure the safety of her unborn child, Anne (who remains anonymous in the film) signs her parental rights and gives the identities of her former collaborators to the FBI in exchange for her child’s life-long monitored safety. But over time, a greater hunger for psychotic revenge comes, leaving mother and daughter in the sight of brutal violence.
Mom mostly thanks to Lopez’s typical guaranteed performance that can make even the smartest ideas work, he makes a pretty decent meal out of this no-nonsense concept. Here, though, she pairs very well with relative newcomer Lucy Paez, who plays Mom’s daughter Zoe. Lopez and Paez managed to rise together MomThe most convoluted elements into a solid action-drama. Their beautiful efforts are backed up by a surprising amount of technical style that holds the film together. Momhis needless sullenness threatens to shoot himself in the foot.
Still, this occasional overkill usually works in his favour. Mom It has huge binoculars, jumping around for shooting on location during Canada’s severe winters and humid Cuban nights. The promise of this interval is evident from the very first moments of the film, which takes us to the FBI safe house where Mother is being held, who is trying to secure a deal for her freedom by providing information to the feds. This scene has the distinctive feel of a classic espionage thriller. impossible mission installment. When the safe house, of course, is raided by the revenge-hungry attackers, the movie embarks on a violently grand and dangerous journey with no shortage of obstacles to get out the door.
The men after Anne are vagrants sent by Hector Alvarez (Gael García Bernal) to clean the house for his partner in brutal crime, Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes). Hector and Adrian are the ones who brought Anne back to when she was the most skilled sniper in her military unit, and their operation will be over if Anne successfully gives up on them. And although their (then pregnant) asylum seeker may not succeed in their first mission, the two are determined to retaliate over the next 12 years.
But Anne planned it. He stipulated that his daughter’s inevitable endangerment would result in a warning from agent William Cruise (Omari Hardwick), the agent whom Anne had rescued with seemingly random kindness ten years ago in the safe house. Anne is ready when Zoe is kidnapped. Despite doing her best to prevent the kidnapping with all her long-range shooting expertise, she fails to protect her child, never to let Zoe know of her real mother’s existence. Too bad for Hector and Adrian that your mother would willingly sacrifice her life to free Zoe.
Then there’s an exciting, global mess of maternal anger. Lopez is brimming with intensity and star power in equal measure, lighting up the screen in the first act of the movie with an impressive set of well-honed fight choreography. I often found myself agape MomThe movie slows down a bit in the middle of its fast pace that can easily exceed its own pace. It’s not easy to successfully transition from pushing the nuns into the street during a chase scene, to delicious and thrilling kill scenes, to a pulsating reconnaissance and rescue mission that eventually leads to a much slower second act. But the tremendous pacing, Mom‘s best features. Without it, it would have been much harder to overlook its extreme scenario.
Director Niki Caro in action Mom together with a steady stride, and effectively prevent its long central part from becoming an obstacle. This is where the movie takes its time, establishing a connection between mother and daughter – but that doesn’t always align with the reality the movie needs to properly raise the bar. Zoe and Anne have a unique relationship thanks to their shared history that Zoe never knew about. But the script never quite allows the truth to seep into their fugitive situation. Zoe and Anne function like characters, not in any real human appearance. Rather than achieve the authenticity that audiences crave, they work together to help the film reach the finish line.
Regardless, Caro’s competent direction is enough to keep focus even as the narrative begins to fall apart. Outstanding crane shots in the Canadian mountains and fields filled with snowmobiles are absolutely fascinating and often exhilarating to watch. Momindecisive sense of fear. Some excellent (and unexpected) soundtrack selections also work in this favor. I never knew I had to see Jennifer Lopez teach her daughter how to fire a sniper rifle tuned to a Grimes song. But you know what they say Mom knows best. Sometimes.
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