John Cena | Screenlife Reviews

What does the director of two of the most popular Marvel films do when the studio fires him? Well if you’re James Gunn you get to work for the competition, with the reboot/sequel to 2016’s dismal Suicide Squad, conveniently and confusingly titled The Suicide Squad. It certainly doesn’t seem like Gunn holds any ill will towards the MCU which has now re-hired him but it’s hard to imagine there wasn’t a little revenge channelled into what amounts to DC’s own version of Guardians of the Galaxy, only better in almost every way. With a surprisingly endearing core cast of outsiders and plenty of gore and crass humour, The Suicide Squad is an endless ride of entertainment, even if it does steer into familiar territory for Gunn.

For those who wisely steered clear of the 2016 original David Ayer directed film, have no fear, you will miss out on absolutely nothing plot-wise, as the concept of the squad – outlaws with bombs implanted in their heads sent on dangerous missions in exchange for reduced sentences – is quickly explained within the opening minutes. From here its all cylinders firing as the returning Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) gathers her team of misfit criminals – the central crew consisting of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), team leader Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), Idris Elba’s assassin Bloodsport, John Cena’s peace-loving mercenary Peacemaker, clinically depressed Polka Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), the rodent controlling Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) and King Shark (voiced by the great Sylvester Stallone) – and sends them on their merry way to infiltrate and destroy a defunct Nazi base on the South American island of Corto Maltese which secretly houses a scientific project with world-ending potential.

It’s a deceptively simple plot that Gunn manages to wring every last drop of movie out of, throwing in side-quests and more than a few twists and turns to keep the viewers on their toes. Not the least shocking of these is his commitment to live up to the name of the film. No one is safe and while the central team consists of those previously mentioned, there are many other obscure DC characters assigned to the mission, not all of whom make it out alive. This is explained to you through a brutally bonkers opening scene that sets the irreverent tone Gunn continues to build on perfectly: he might bring in one of your favourite comic characters who otherwise would never have had a chance at a big screen feature, only to blow their heads off a few minutes later.

At this point Gunn has all but trademarked his signature style of film, favouring stories of found families and disparate, conflicting personalities that must be brought together for the greater good and honing it with each retelling. Now, unrestricted by PG ratings and having to tie the story to a larger shared universe, the writer/director has perfected the formula, with a superbly written script that really understands the interplay between these huge, criminally insane personalities. It says a lot that he can take a character like the Polka Dot Man – a guy who literally excretes and shoots multicoloured, corrosive polka dots from his skin – and make him such a deeply sympathetic and dryly hilarious figure. A man who hates himself and has completely resigned his fate to death but who can’t help but find some gleeful joy in being a super-hero. Even a throwaway comment lamenting a largely pointless side-character’s demise does a lot to highlight the depth of the writing – these characters are more than their goofy superhero gimmicks, they’re fully rounded people that you can’t help but root for.

The casting is obviously a huge reason that the writing succeeds in the way it does. Dastmalchian is excellent as Polka Dot Man alongside other standouts in Elba, Cena and Stallone. Elba’s Bloodsport is the most obvious leading man stereotype of the bunch and it’s plain to see that Gunn is having a great time deconstructing that stereotype, giving the character a crippling fear of rats before plonking him on the same team as someone who literally controls all of them. And Elba goes for it, cowering from the rodents and turning his back on the team time and time again in a way that other leading men of the 80’s and 90’s would never do for fear of diminishing their masculinity. When push comes to shove he doles out the expected level of ass-kicking but just knowing that small flaw goes a long way to being able to attach to the character amidst all the chaos.

If Bloodsport is the stoic, quietly calm assassin, then John Cena’s Peacemaker is the complete opposite: a boastful, arrogant mercenary who doesn’t care how many people he has to kill to achieve it. It is easily his best performance to date, still as physically imposing as ever but unintentionally and hilariously self-deprecating in the complete paradox he has devoted his entire being to. The sheer stupidity Gunn has Peacemaker saying at times – delivered with a deathly serious, almost militaristic deadpan – is absolutely hilarious and the constantly bickering, macho rivalry between Peacemaker and Bloodsport ensures that there is always a joke or exasperated sigh to put a smile on your face, even in the middle of a massacre. Then there is King Shark, a giant half-man, half-shark dullard who steals every scene he is in. That’s largely due to the inherent hilarity of him being voiced by Sylvester Stallone, whose line readings sound like even he doesn’t know what is going on (Gunn gets bonus points for having Rocky himself repeatedly say “nom-noms”). He’s more than just another Groot-like animal sidekick however, with a sweet friendship with Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher 2 that hits on an emotional level more than it has any right to.

The downside of making three consecutive films in a row with similar plots and character archetypes is that the audience starts to notice the rhythm and crutches that Gunn tends to rely on. Just about every time we build to some kind of profound dramatic or emotional moment we cut to a comedic moment instead, which at this point is less funny and jarring than it is annoying. You know it is coming but sometimes it would feel far more gratifying to actually see these characters hit their big emotional beats rather than cut away and imply that these are already known. The bizarre positive of that is that Gunn builds a strange sense of anticipation in the audience when he gears up for one of these moments. You know that a big tonal shift is coming and the fact that it could be anything from a dick joke to somebody being dismembered keeps things fresh in a way that the Guardians films could never achieve without the shock factor of an R rating.

What could initially be seen as ill fortune has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for James Gunn, who has crafted his most outright enjoyable and sharply written film to date with The Suicide Squad. Taking a left turn where most superhero films would go right ensures that things stay fresh throughout the motley crew’s adventure; whether that be through the sheer insanity of the characters on-screen, the over-the-top gore or the constant stream of NSFW gags. If this is what the man can do with characters like Captain Boomerang and The Detachable Kid (as stupid as it sounds), then give James Gunn the keys to the whole DC kingdom and watch him go.

The Suicide Squad stars Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior, Michael Rooker, Alice Braga, Pete Davidson, Nathan Fillion, Sean Gunn, Flula Borg & Sylvester Stallone – In cinemas now and streaming on HBO Max in the US.

9/10

The Fast and Furious franchise is an event. Each film elevates the action set-pieces in such a significant way that expectations are sky-high for the next instalment of the street-racers turned international superspies’ story. Expectations were compounded significantly thanks to COVID and the even longer wait for more adventures from Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and the gang but now that time has come and Fast and Furious 9 was certainly worth the wait for fans of the series. As the ninth film in the series you know by now whether you’re a fan or not and Fast and Furious 9 doesn’t change up the formula in any significant way; offering a plot with more holes than a block of Swiss cheese, absolutely bonkers action that borders on the very limits of nonsense and more uses of the word “Family” than any human in existence has ever uttered in one lifetime. Let’s dive in.

Following the events of Fate of the Furious, which saw the gang take out the cyber-terrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron), Dom is now living in a remote farmhouse with Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and young son Brian. Their seemingly peaceful life is uprooted by the arrival of Tej (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges), Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), who bring news that team handler Mr. Nobody’s (Kurt Russell) plane, which was transferring Cipher, has been taken down. The culprit of this attack is none other than Dom’s estranged brother Jakob (John Cena), who has emerged from the shadows to gather together a device capable of controlling every computer system on Earth (which feels like the same plot as at least 3 of the other films), thus disrupting the world order to his favour. From here it is basic F&F fair, as the team travel the globe, searching for one MacGuffin after the next that will halt Jakob’s reign of terror and keep their family safe.

The last three films in the franchise have been fairly similar in their setup and execution. Each tries to heighten the action that has come before – which began with Fast Five’s mesmerising vault chase scene – and in order to justify these set-pieces the plot has gone to increasingly ludicrous places, often involving some world-ending stakes that only a street-race from Los Angeles and his team of near-superhuman friends can save the world from. While the films have become increasingly more self-aware as they go along, Fast and Furious 9 is by far the most in on its own joke. There is a whole sub-plot devoted to the team dissecting their own good fortune, surmising that it must be because they are invincible (a ridiculous notion that could only be delivered by Gibson’s cocky comedic voice). That self-awareness seems to allow returning veteran director Justin Lin to shoot for the stars (quite literally) with his set-pieces, with easily the most insane premises the franchise has ever seen.

We’re talking swinging cars like Tarzan, magnet powered cars and rocket powered space cars. Yes. If you like your action films believable, step away now. All the insanity is extremely well planned out and shot by Lin and co, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that this is just par for the course at this point in the franchise. It’s a strange thing to say, but once you’ve seen cars fighting tanks, submarines and fly out of planes, it is hard to get excited about them going to space or flying through the air propelled by magnets. It has been a long-running joke that the franchise would one day get so ridiculous it would head to space that now that it has the impact is simply gone.

Ever since Fast Five, each film has been delineated by its biggest stunt: – the tank one, the plane one or the submarine one – and the detriment of that generalisation to the franchise is now becoming apparent. There is at least one more film in the main series, probably many more, and the general audience, myself included, no longer comes for the plot. We have been conditioned to only respond to the bigger set-pieces and that makes it hard to maintain interest over 2 hours when these set-pieces account for all of 15 minutes. It also creates a bizarre response to a franchise 10 films deep in its run. Ask most people what their favourite film in the franchise is and they’ll like respond with something before the sixth instalment or the latest entry. Ask them to explain the plot of the last film and very few will be able to do it. The Fast & Furious franchise is the big-budget film equivalent of the mobile phone industry. A few older heads will swear by their old brick Nokia but the large majority lean towards whatever is the latest and greatest. F9 is the craziest film in the franchise for now but it’s hard to marvel at that when you know in a few years time it will be reduced to “the space one”.

The only other explanation for the franchise’s staying power is the characters at the heart of it. Each film introduces and reintroduces a myriad of characters to the point that the sheer amount of people and backstory should be impassable for a casual viewer. But Fast and Furious has an advantage over other backstory-heavy franchises like the MCU in that it places having fun with the characters at the forefront of the film rather than the deeply complex lore. The central relationship here between Dom and Jakob is universally understood: brothers who have fallen out and are at odds with each other. It is a simple framing device but a powerful one that allows for for Lin to pull on the familial heartstrings whilst all the craziness is taking place.

The fist-pumping, crowd-cheering moments hit as hard as they do because we care about Dom, Letty and everyone else. As usual Tyrese Gibson is a standout here, delivering more of his witty, seemingly improvised, off-the-cuff banter to perfect effect; always there to cut through anytime a scene becomes too serious. Minor spoiler if you haven’t seen the trailer ahead: an old member of the crew, who everyone believed dead, makes his grand re-entry in the 9th instalment. Is there a satisfying, well thought out explanation for his return. Absolutely not, but the power of the series is that we love the character so we don’t really care or dig too deep as long as they are back. Name another franchise of this size that has the power to disregard basic storytelling rules without the audience giving a damn.

Fast and Furious 9 is exactly what you’d expect: a big, bombastic adventure that doesn’t make a lick of sense but never fails to entertain with its sensory overload of destruction and chaotic action that shoots so far beyond the realms of believability that, like its cast, it is in space. While each subsequent film becomes less memorable due to the insistence on one-upping the previous entry – often at the expense of memorability – it’s difficult to not fall for the charm of the cast and go along for the ride in the moment, even if you won’t be able to differentiate it from the previous four. Few could have imagined that the humble little 2001 film about street-racing has led to one of the most profitable action franchises of all time, but under the steady hand of Justin Lin, Dom Toretto and company’s adventures keep getting faster and more furious.

Fast and Furious 9 stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, John Cena, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Finn Cole, Sung Kang, Anna Sawai, Lucas Black, Shad Moss, Thue Ersted Rasmussen, Helen Mirren, Kurt Russell & Charlize Theron – In cinemas now.

9/10

6/10