Son Of A Gun [Blu-ray + Digital HD]

The real star of this action packed prison/crime drama is the youthful Aussie actor Brenton Thwaites (Oculus, Blue Lagoon, The Signal, The Giver) who has come a long way from playing pretty boy Prince Phillip in Maleficent. Incarcerated for some petty crime, he avoids being raped and beaten thanks to the help of Ewan McGregor and his fellow criminal buddies. EM takes BT under his protective wing and treats him like a master to student (shades of Episodes II and III of Star Wars). All is being prepared for an eventual prison break to be followed by a lucrative robbery. This is to be done after BT has already been released. The eventual idea was for BT to join up with EM and his escaped prison buddies to execute the pre-planned crime. Without giving anything away, there are a number of surprises and twists which, along with the constant action, keeps this movie going at a rapid pace. There is also a very human quality to all of this regardless of the lawlessness. In fact, it ultimately plays a crucial role in the film. BT has been given a moustache which, combined with a shaved head that is retained from his prison days and facial pallor, gives him an older and hardened appearance - highly appropriate for this film. Indeed, he is able to stand up to EM when necessary. The bond that evolves between these two is an essential feature of the movie. With two excellent actors as the leads along with an excellent supporting cast (especially Alicia Vikander as the one female representative in the mix), this film is far better than one might initially suspect and makes worthwhile viewing.

This is a suspense movie. Very good because everything is not what it seems. There are plenty of twist and turns that makes you say "wow, I wasn't expecting that." Great acting and great storyline. A nice young man ends up in prison only to be protected by a notorious criminal played by Ewan McGregor, who becomes like a father figure to him. The young man seems to be great at chess, thus, comes across as someone super smart in the eyes of McGregor, so McGregor takes him under his wings. This is a Mentor vs. Mentee situation in which eventually the Mentee wants to become as good or even better than the Mentor. There is a romantic component in this film for the young man who falls for a young lady who is the girlfriend of a notorious gang leader. This romantic component of course complicates everything. The question is who is playing who throughout this movie. This movie is action packed, has romance, has male-bonding, has a story. Oh, did I mention it has suspense?

This was solidly done, but nothing about it really popped out at you. Ewan McGregor is one of my favorite actors since the 1990s, and here he gives a solid performance, but nothing that deserves an award. Some people say that his talent and potential were wasted on this movie, but I disagree. He did a good enough job, but he is one of the actors that needs a great script in order to be great. He has a hard time outshining the script. That being said, he can be an outstanding actor given the right circumstances, and here he does a competent job. The script of "Son of a Gun" was good enough for him to do that. Ewan McGregor has taken a whole bunch of characters that were too goody-goody for him. Him doing upbeat cheesy roles is painful to watch (sorry, Ewan!). He does by far the best when he plays out his roughneck Scottish roots. He does best with the Celtic style, angry, yet philosophical roles. This movie allows for some of that, although it's not a hum-dinger. At the end of the day, this was a nice story about a young man (actor Brenton Thwaites) and his isolation and loneliness against the backdrop of the hard life. The desperate, gritty nature of this life is conveyed well with the production design and the costumes/hair/makeup. The mise en scene portrays this life well. However, maybe I'm just spoiled by American Hollywood movies, but I thought one area that could use a little sprucing up was the budget and the production value. I've gotten used to movies being somewhat expensive looking, and this movie (along with many other Australian movies) just looks a little amateur and cheap. The sound was a little bit off, and the music was not balanced properly against the sound of the scene-the music could be a little loud, in spite of it being very good. In fact, the song selection was one of the better things about this movie. At the end of the day, though, the plot did not come together perfectly. There were a few moments that were a bit of a stretch, but they (just barely) passed the believability test. Brenton Thwaites does a pretty good job, but is a little bit unexpressive, and doesn't nail it out of the park. He seems a bit wooden, but you can see what he is trying to convey. The story was nice, but a bit cliched in places, and then a bit too much of a stretch in others. The movie rests on a nice foundation of telling the story of a sympathetic character, but the movie on the whole has a few flimsy characteristics that pull it back to three stars. In no way is this a four star movie, yet it rises above being a two star movie as well. Three stars.

Different. I'm a fan of Brenton Thwaites so I was interested to see character development...find out what this movie was about. Had to adjust to the Australian accents. Had to 'accept' a few 'convenient' plot issues. But, let me tell you this: the video stream stopped right in the middle of the movie. I sat there confounded and upset...was streaming it through my phone to the TV. I panicked. Downloaded the movie right away...waited patiently...and right after it was done, I immediately started to watch it again. That's when I realized that the movie had captivated me--I couldn't stop watching it or "wait until later" as the streaming message suggested. No way. I had to finish watching so I could find out what happened. When a movie does that for me, I don't care what all of the critics or reviewers think about it at all. As long as it pulls me in...let's me forget about everything else but watching it...and I can't wait to see what's next...that's when I know I can recommend this movie to you. It was good. It was unique, had some great twists...yes--dark, but it was able to capture vulnerability as well. I was very entertained and will watch it again. I hope you like it.

first time i watched Vikander

Digo "sorprendente" por que superó ampliamente mis expectativas. Que no eran ninguna, obviamente por qué la compré, pero no tan altas. Magnífico Thriller, de esos que pasan incomprensiblemente desapercibidos. Pena de edición en Blu Ray. Pero es lo que hay en Españistán.

excellent film

...sehr guter, spannender Thriller, mit glaubhaften Schauspielern (vor allem Ewan Mc Gregor überzeugt erwartungsgemäß) und ebensolcher Aktionszenen. Wer die Art von Filmen wie "Heat" o.ä. mag, wird sicher auch seine Freude mit diesem haben.

Pour mon utilisation personnel et tout aimé de ce film