Michael Shannon Movies Blog

  I wasn’t expecting to enjoy ‘The Flash’ due to its troubled production and so-so reviews but I really did. It was a bit long and possibly confusing (I’m not totally sure) but it was good fun with plenty of surprises and some decent action, albeit mostly CGI. I bailed out on the Justice League film and haven’t watched The Flash TV series, apart from that 90’s one, so I went into this somewhat cold. I do have a good idea of the comics but the Flash was never really a character I liked. Initially he could run fast but once he could travel through stuff and time it seemed a bit far fetched. I know! We meet Barry – the Flash’s alter ego - as he’s helping the Ben Affleck Batman sort out some Gotham based hassles. Gotham, which looks a lot like Glasgow, is under attack and whilst Batman does the heavy lifting the Flash saves some babies in a hospital in a funny sequence. Wonder Woman shows up too in a largely pointless cameo but she does generate a few laughs with her golde...

  If ever a film was less than the sum of its parts it would have to be Jonah Hex. There is clearly a decent budget in play and a veritable galaxy of stars on show – for your money you get Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Michaels Fassbender and Shannon, Megan Fox, Gob Bluth, Lance Reddick and even one of the ‘Dukes of Hazzard’, yet you end up with this complete turd of a movie. It had ‘troubled production’ written all over it, with go nowhere scenes and a voice over to cut through some of the narrative blocks. Even with what appears to be brutal editing and a short 72 minute run time you still end up with something that makes little or no sense, no characterisation and a plot with more holes than a colander factory. Brolin plays Hex, a DC comics character who is coming out of the Civil War having fought for the South. “You never believed in slavery” someone says, apropos of nothing, to let us know he’s a good guy really. He had an unfortunate tangle with Malkovich’s baddie wh...