Tag: Ric Roman Waugh

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Shot Caller (2017)

Shot Caller (2017) is a dark metaphor of the American dream. When nice guy Josh goes to prison for killing someone in a car accident, he quickly becomes embroiled in gang culture; it’s the only way to survive. The spiral of violence turns two years into ten and follows him when he’s released. On the outside he plays a game of cat and mouse with the authorities, Texas holdum with his gang, as he tries to sell a major cache of stolen weapons. But nothing is as it seems as the plot plays a hand only Josh can see.


https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4633690/

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Greenland (2020)

I looked at the pedigree of this film with quiet optimism. Written by Chris Sparling, the talent behind the claustrophobic Ryan Reynolds thriller Buried (2010). It’s directed by the action talent Ric Roman Waugh, the guy who filled the screen with the action packed Angel Has Fallen (2019).

You’d expect Greenland (2020) to distill this mix of grain and water into moonshine. Instead we get wheat flavoured pop. There’s no rocket fuel getting you drunk, only a steady stream of sugar water that wets your whistle, but doesn’t quench the thirst.

That sounds bad, it’s not, it hits the beats in all the right places. Sometimes though it should be playing off key, enough to counter the beating drum we’re marching to.

There are interesting moments in there, but they get lost in things like media exposition, a trope that should be excised from movie lexicon, and a fanciful third act that glosses over too much to be convincing.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7737786/

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Angel Has Fallen (2019)

This can best be described as more of the same but different. The sequel that feels like a prequel. Macho gun touting mayhem that feeds on a righteous certainty. Mad, bad, and more than a bit Dudley Doright!?!