“Vanquish” (Action/Crime: 1 hour, 36 minutes)

Starring: Morgan Freeman, Ruby Rose and Patrick Muldoon

Director: George Gallo

Rated: R (Strong violence, profanity, sexual material and drug use)

 

Movie Review: Morgan Freeman is an Academy Award recipient actor. He is a superb legend of moviedom. He is always good in his roles. Freeman maintains his superior style of intellectual acting but this is movie terrible, giving the actor little to portray.

Known as America’s police commissioner, retired police hero Damon (Freeman) recruits Victoria (Rose), a single mother of a sickly child to complete several large sums of money pickups. 

Victoria was once a Russian drug courier and she wants to leave that life behind her. However, she has no choice as Damon holds her daughter hostage. To complete her tasks, Victoria must revert to her past mercenary skills.

“Vanquish” is a poorly written script by Director George Gallo (“Bigger,” 2018) and co-writer Samuel Bartlett. The characters are poorly developed. This exists mainly because the story feels like it begins in the middle of a story.

Character associations are scattered bits that are never explained in a sufficient manner that make one care about these people. The protagonists, Freeman and Rose, are bad people, and antagonists’ motives are just as unethical and perplexing.

The movie plays like a noir action movie. In such movies, all the characters have less than honorable lives usually played out during night scenes. They are usually all corrupt people where the intentions of at least the main characters have some good. “Vanquish” has those aspects, but it has little else. 

Grade: F (This movie will not vanquish its competing movies.)

“SAS: Red Notice” (Action/Crime: 2 hours, 03 minutes)

Starring: Sam Heughan, Ruby Rose, Hannah John-Kamen, Tom Hopper and Andy Serkis

Director: Magnus Martens

Rated: R (Strong/bloody violence and profanity)

 

Movie Review: “Red Notice” stars a handsome action star Sam Heughan behaving like James Bond, plenty of action and a worthy evil and cunning villain in the form of a seductive Ruby Rose. 

The movie entertains for sure but it is also a typical action movie. It is also shabby at moments, appearing like a comedy periodically. 

An international notice, a red notice is one of the six-color codes to seek the location/arrest of a person wanted by a judicial jurisdiction or an international tribunal with plausible extradition.

Interpol issues a red notice for Grace Lewis (Rose), her family and the group of mercenaries who work with them. Grace and her team elude law enforcement and the British government for some time. She resurfaces, leading the takeover of a train bound to France while beneath the English Channel. 

Tom Buckingham (Heughan), a British military special forces officer, is on the train. Buckingham is heading to vacation in Paris to propose to Dr. Sophie Hart (John-Kamen). Buckingham must do what he can to stop the terrorists while waiting for backup.

Magnus Martens is mostly a teleplay director. He directs “Red Source” as if it is several television episodes strung together. Unlike a television series, he does not have several episodes to develop characters from Andy McNab’s novel, “Red Notice.” Plenty of the characters have little substance, and their associations are lesser. 

The action sequences are engaging but the story is lacking. It is not convincing as a narrative involving terrorism, government and a loving couple on a romantic getaway.

Grade: C (Here is your notice.)

 

Adann-Kennn Alexxandar has reviewed movies for more than 20 years for The Valdosta Daily Times.