Tag Archives: Sneakers

Sneakers Review

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It’s time for an Oceans 11 type of film that I hadn’t really heard of before. This one has aged well and I just enjoy these kind of heist stories. There is a good sense of danger throughout even if the ending is perhaps a bit more optimistic than what would likely be happening here. The important thing is that the movie wasn’t going to end on a super sour note and I definitely appreciate that.

The movie starts with Martin and Cosmo using their hacking skills to steal a ton of money from rich people and reallocating it to their favorite social causes. Cosmo ends up being captured by the cops while Martin escapes and changes his identity. Many years pass by and now the NSA has caught up to him. They blackmail Martin with his past and say that they will keep it quiet if he steals something from them. A powerful new kind of hacking equipment that can get decrypt any security system in an instant. Martin gets his team ready for this but should he really give such a powerful piece of equipment to the government?

A big theme in the film is about not trusting anyone. Everyone has some kind of an angle here and you’ve got quite a few factions running around. The Russians are behind every corner of course and all the letter agencies would be interested in this as well. Just stealing the thing won’t be easy either as Martin runs into his past on this adventure. That said, Martin isn’t as indecisive as you may expect with these stakes. He just can’t let the blackmail get out under any circumstances and so he is ready to play ball with the government right from the beginning of this story. He never looks back either and just gets to completing the mission.

Something I appreciated about the film is that all of his teammates are important. The film balances them all rather well. First up we have Whistler who is blind. You may figure this will make him ineffective in most situations but he actually does really well and even gets the MVP spot. He’s the reason they find the enemy base, the reason they had an escape route, etc. Without him they would not have lasted long here. His senses are virtually superhuman.

Then you have Donald who used to work with the CIA. He has a lot of connections as a result and is the most professional member of the group. He has a gun at the ready and bails Martin out from a trap. Definitely the muscle behind the team and he keeps Marin from being too impulsive. Martin does well as the leader but he absolutely does tend to be pretty emotional and lose his cool.

After that is Carl who is the youngest member. He tends to do a lot of the grunt work like hacking at close range or being the guy to pull off social engineering. Carl can be the most annoying one as well though as he gets distracted on the missions and tends to be a little girl crazy. To an extent they all are, but the others at least try to hide it. By default the smallest role would be Darren who handles all of the tech. He makes sure that everything is working well on the ground which is why his codename is “Mother”. So he’s very important but gets a little less to do in terms of individual scenes.

There’s also the main heroine Liz who used to date Martin but managed to get out of that situation. Well when he asks her for help, Liz can’t really bring herself to refuse. She probably should have to be honest though. She’s stuck with the worst tasks like seducing someone to get his voice on record. That’s always a very tired spy trope that never really works without the victim just looking bad. In this case Liz got super sloppy though which put her in a tricky spot.

As for the main villain, well he is pretty good but definitely too indecisive. He can never seem to decide if his main goal is something really personal to him or for the greater good. He tries to use the latter as his reasoning a lot but it always tends to come off as a cover story. Really this guy just wants to prove that he is better than Martin and messes up a lot of his free shots by the end. He could have come out on top easily in this film if he didn’t make massive errors. I thought he made for a good villain overall though. He was certainly entertaining even if he wasn’t always very effective.

The pacing is pretty good here and the writing is solid. It does have the occasional miss when it comes to the jokes but nobody bats 1000. The end of the climax also may have been a little too goofy at the end. The film is part comedy but up to that point the serious scenes were mostly played straight. I suppose they just wanted to have a bit of fun with the ending and it’s a short scene so it’s not like I had any big issues with it. It just felt a little jarring with the timing and all.

The movie really made the most of the tech aspect of the heist. I enjoyed the challenge of Martin having to move really slowly to get past one of the security systems for example. There were a lot of things that had to go right for the heist but they all felt like fairly reasonable challenges without a whole lot of plot armor. There will always be a little bit of that in a film like this but it was never excessive.

Overall, Sneakers is a pretty good film. I had fun with it and it succeeds in being entertaining all the way. There may be a twist that you see coming a mile away but it’s still a good plot on the whole. The title of the film also stands out and is a really good pun. If you’re looking for a well balanced film then I would check this one out. It may not become your next favorite hit but there aren’t a ton of heist films out there and this one holds up with the ones that are already out.

Overall 7/10

Air (2023)

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This write up is of the TV-14 edited version. All thoughts below should be addressed as a write up of the uncut version would be more negative

It’s time for a film about how Nike would go on to recruit Michael Jordan. It’s a pretty fun event to go and make a movie about. Give me one of these over one of those events we’ve all seen a million times. There’s a lot of story to tell here after all and it’s handled very well. If you’re not familiar with the events surrounding this moment then this will be a good way to find out about them. In a way, that’s another advantage of making a movie out of lesser known events since the whole thing will feel a lot fresher and be a new experience for most of the viewers.

The film starts off with Sonny being put on the hot seat again for not delivering on results. The guy’s job is to expand Nike’s basketball program and there have not been any real improvements in a very long time. The program has really stagnated though and there don’t seem to be many promising leads. That’s when Sonny decides to go big. He wants to recruit Michael Jordan even though it means they will have to use the entire budget on him. No other players can be added on or anything like that. The line will run through him. Can Sonny convince his bosses of this and more importantly, can he convince Jordan?

It’s pretty interesting to see Nike as the big underdogs at the time of the film at least in the Basketball world since they were always the big shots when I was growing up. Adidas and the other company were looking tough here. My only slight complaint is I would have liked them to have looked a little more intimidating though. Yeah it’s from Nike’s perspective so of course they end up getting rolled when they actually showed up but it should have been a bit more even. I think you could have done this by briefly showing a montage of them stepping in and defeating Nike on several players before Michael Jordan stepped into the picture. That would have been an excellent way to establish them as a true threat the whole way. The competition is part of the fun after all.

It’s why my favorite character was Falk the agent. This guy was on point with looking after his client’s interests and making sure that Sonny couldn’t just do whatever he wanted. Ultimately Falk wants his money so he’s not going to get in the way if it’s a good offer/deal. He gives the film a lot of good banter with Sonny the whole time and is definitely a real highlight. The guy also doesn’t give in to a quick emotional speech the way that the other characters do. It’s just not how he rolls.

Then you have Sonny who is a solid main character the whole time. He’s certainly determined and never gives up. Things look rather bleak for him on several occasions but he always finds a way to push back and so that’s definitely good. I liked the CEO quite a bit. He may not take as many risks as he used to, but when the chips were down he ultimately went back into competitor mode and backed Sonny up. You definitely want a boss like that who is always ready to match the energy.

Meanwhile Michael Jordan himself is hidden for basically the whole film. It was an interesting decision, I guess this way it keeps the focus on Nike or perhaps they couldn’t find anyone they really liked to portray him. Regardless, it meant that his parents got to really have the focus this time around. In particular his mother handled a lot of the negotiations and did a really good job in making sure that he got a good deal. Getting the royalties from the sales was definitely a massive move because that’s how you get the real money in the end. Always make sure that you get that part of the deal if you find yourself on a show like Shark Tank in the future.

The actual shoe also looked really good. I’m curious how the fine situation played out over time and if the rules were changed or eventually Nike was forced to bring the shoe back into regulation. It’s hard to imagine that the NBA would just let this slide. Fines or not, you’d expect them to reign this in after a while.

Air has the right balance of suspense and fun the whole time. I would call it a pretty upbeat movie the whole time and all of the characters were fun enough. The guy who was in charge of making the shoes could be a little annoying at times but that seemed to be intentional. The rest of the characters had a lot of fun conversations and debates in the meantime. For a film like this you need good writing and the title delivered. The pacing is good and so I had no serious issues. It’s the kind of film you could easily watch at any time without any issues and get absorbed into the story. This is definitely the kind of way I would want to see other stories adapted as well, it feels like the right formula.

Overall, Air is a pretty good film. I’d say it feels like they did a good job adapting all of the events and really keeping you engaged. I would have liked to see a little more of the competitors but I suppose they probably didn’t want to go too much into that or it could have quickly transitioned into more of a fictional setting which would hurt the biographical part here. You’ve got to have a lot of restraint. Whether you like Basketball or not, I would say the film is definitely very accessible and enjoyable.