Displaying items by tag: Mason Gooding

HEARTS EYES

US, 2025, 97 minutes, Colour.

Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding, Gigi Zumbado, Jordana Brewster, Devon Sawa, Yoson An, Michaela Watkins.

Directed by Josh Ruben.

Valentine’s Day movie. Yes, destined for repeats every February 14^th.

Title. My Bloody Valentine already taken.

Heart Eyes – certainly a killer to rival Jason, Michael Myers, Scream franchise killer is, with a mask and red glowing heart eyes in the dark.

Slasher movie. Definitely

Romantic comedy movie. Definitely.

Combination of both. (Criticisms that the makers could not decide which was more important? The fact that the makers actually did and thought that both are important and combining them?

Blood. Lots.

Gore. Lots – and many more victims along the way rather than the main targets.

How serious? Serious but a lot of the time very much tongue-in-cheek.

The romantic couple? Definitely not at first, mutual dislike, rivalry. But danger bringing them together, a precarious route to falling in love.

Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding as the couple, she still sad about a breakup, potentially sacked because of her campaign strategy for selling jewellery (Love ends tragically with glimpses of Romeo and Juliet, Titanic, Bonnie and Clyde, and the southern-drawling boss threatening to sack her with Mason Gooding coming in as the expert, and their being told to work together…

The police. Their names Hobbs and Shaw, Jordana Brewster’s character saying that she had never seen the films. (In-joking reference.)

A recommendation – fans of romantic comedies might like all of that part, but may find the slashing too gruesome. Slasher fans might like the romantic comedy but, even if they do not, will be glad to put up with it because of the terror and horror.

Trivial Pursuit note: it was all filmed in New Zealand, Auckland.

1. Valentine’s Day film? Slasher film? Romcom? Combined?
2. The American city, apartments, board rooms, restaurants, unfair, police precincts and cells, interrogation? Drive-in? The musical score, the songs and the lyrics?
3. The opening, combining romantic comedy with slasher, the couple, filming the proposal, repeats, the deaths, the killer and the mask? The information, Valentine’s Day, in past years, the deaths, the map? Seattle, apprehension and mood?
4. Ally and Monica, their friendship, the past, chatter,Aally and her breakup, brooding, the phone and images, their work, the promotion, selling jewellery, love ending in death, Romeo and Juliet, Titanic, Bonnie and Clyde…? Meeting, Crystal and her southern drawl, condemnation?
5. Ally, the special coffee, the encounter with Jay, bumping heads, his coming into the meeting, his talent and expectations? The command they work together? The discussions, Ally and her reactions, going shopping with Monica, the various dresses, her arrival, waiting for Jay, his being late, the talk, the sparring, rivalries? Her walking out? Meeting her ex and his girlfriend, the decision to kiss Jay, his response? And their being watched by Heart Eyes?
6. Ally locked out, the taxi driver, Jay coming to help, breaking the window, cutting his hand, first-aid, Heart Eyes in the closet, emerging, the fights, fleeing, the killing of the taxi driver, Jay and his being hurt, Ally escaping, the funfair, hiding, turning on the carousel, the fights?
7. The drive-in, watching Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell? Heart Eyes, the attacks, the couple hiding in the van and the sexual activities, the killings? The panic, the further deaths, the police, arresting Jay, the joke about Hobbs and Shaw and Jordana Brewster in the franchise? Hobbs and his fierce interrogation, Shaw taking over more congenial? Ally and her anxiety, waiting for information, the encounter with David, the IT man? Then the death of the officer at the desk?
8. The continued mayhem, Jay and Ally, their talking, the final confrontation, the revelation about Shaw and David, the explanations of their behaviour, the death of their third associate, the buildup to the fights, the fire, the knives, and, ultimately, Ally’s conservation straw and killing Shaw?
9. The romantic ending, sharing stories, telling the truth? And the postscript during the credits of Monica and her intervention, the photographing of the proposal?

AFTERMATH

US, 2024, 97 minutes, Colour.

Dylan Sprouse, Mason Gooding, Dichen Lachmann, Daniel Rios Jr, Megan Stott, Will  Lyman.

Directed by Patrick Lussier.

One of the many action-popcorn thrillers to sit back and watch on streaming services. It has a Christmas setting – which may remind audiences of thrillers set at Christmas, especially Die Hard. Aftermath is in this vein.

The setting is Boston, the Tobin Bridge, just before Christmas. A former Army man, dismissed from the Army for not obeying orders because of compassion for an Afghan woman oppressed by her husband who shoots her, is driving across the bridge with his younger sister, precocious and forward, wanting to drive the car and his allowing her. He is obviously protective of her – memories of the woman in Afghanistan.

Suddenly, an explosion, the central part of the bridge destroyed and falling into the River, some cars, and cars parked on both sides of the gap.

The audience has also been introduced to a tough female prisoner, Doc, being transported in the van across the bridge – and audiences will guess that the explosion is to get to her. The reason, she has been part of an elite squad of former soldiers, employed by the government for jobs outside regulations, she having given information to the authorities.

The film establishes the group who are out to capture Doc alive, a bargaining point with the authorities. And they want the Pentagon to publish a document on the issues.

What follows is as expected, the young man emerges from his car, putting his military training into action, more than might have been expected. His sister gets out of the car and gets caught up in a lot of the action, finally being offered a safe haven by a driver with his baby. A whole lot of cat and mouse chases and shootouts on the bridge as the audience begins to see the person in charge, his team, the action to track down and get rid of the military man. And, eventually, Doc is drawn into this kind of action.

The team is led by a fierce young former officer, played by Mason Gooding. The screenplay requires him to be young, to be ruthless, determined, but also later revealing that he has a brain tumour. Which explains his action and desperation – but, number of commentators have questioned the casting and the performance (as does this review).

A lot of heroics, a lot of sniping, a lot of shootouts, a special segment where it is revealed that the whole bridge has been set up with explosives and the young Army man, with the help of a sympathetic Vietnam veteran, is able to go under the bridge to defuse the explosives. Which may not matter because in the leader’s van are even more explosives threatening the bridge.

On the periphery are the police, trying to get intelligence of what is happening, who is behind the disaster, trying to make contact.

Not the greatest of action adventures like this but watchable when an audience is in an undemanding mood.