Movie Reviews

The Rhythm Section Review: Very Slow But Huge Potential

Synopsis

Stephanie Patrick veers down a path of self-destruction after a tragic plane crash kills her family. When Stephanie discovers it wasn’t an accident, she turns to a former CIA operative who can help her find the culprits. But her quest to uncover the truth soon turns into a full-blown quest for revenge as Patrick decides to punish those responsible.

Release Date: January 31, 2020

Budget: $50 million

The Rhythm Section Review

At this point in time, I have watched almost everything that was released in the movie theater. The only two films that I have not watched was The Grudge, which I missed, Dolittle with Robert Downey Jr. and The Rhythm Section. With Dolittle and The Grudge, I have seen a good amount of marketing but with Rhythm Section there was little to no marketing for this film, so I had no expectation for the film.

I am not going to sugar coat this, the first forty minute or so where a snooze feast and that is a huge disappointment especially since you have a powerhouse cast. Blake Lively plays Stephanie Patrick, Jude Law playing B, and Sterling K Brown playing Serra. This is due to the lack of experience on Reed Morano part having the only director two feature films before this (I Think We Are Alone and Meadowland) and to be quite frank this is not the worst action/thrill film I have seen, the big issue is that she played it too safe since she went out of her comfort zone.

Which is fine the only way you can get better at your craft is to get out of your comfort zone. Within Reed Morano’s resume, she has done more cinematography work with films like Frozen Rivers, The Skeleton Twins, Lemonade, and more. I respect her for doing some that she hasn’t done before and hope she keeps working as a director.

Blake Lively, Jude Law, and Sterling K Brown they are all brilliant actors and that is why upsets me the most because of how talented they are and they acting is great in this but it just overshadowed by how boring the overall film, which makes it much more disappointing and adding more to the disappointment is the cinematography, Sean Bobbitt who is a fantastic cinematographer who has done Stronger, 12 years of Slaves and Hunger he has a great resume and to see his work on The Rhythm Section is just disappointing, so many close-ups, shaking cam when it comes to action there was no imagination when it came to the cinematography especially with some as talented as Sean Bobbitt.

The twist near the end was kind of lackluster, it was missing that certain punch, that makes everyone lose their minds like (SPOILER ALERT 🚨) Empire Strikes Back, with “No, I am your Father.” or Sixth Sense where Cole is able to see dead people they whole time. My point is that the movies that I mentioned all had a strong twist for one reason the anticipation of what is going to happen next prior to that scene, with the Rhythm Section it just happens, we as an audience do not care because scene prior to the twist we’re so slow we stopped caring.

Overall I would not recommend this movie to anyone especially since we have a lot more good movies coming on soon and great movies out now such as Birds of Prey, Bad Boys For Life, The Gentlemen or you can get caught up with the Oscar movies.

Score: 67/100 (D+)