THE SUICIDE SQUAD (2021) *** 1/2 MARGOT ROBBIE, IDRIS ELBA, JOEL KINNAMON, JOHN CENA, DANIELA MELCHIOR (the voice of SYLVESTER STALLONE), DAVID DASTMALCHIAN, VIOLA DAVIS, MICHAEL ROOKER, NATHAN FILLION, PETE DAVIDSON, STEVE AGEE. Filmmaker James Gunn gets his ya-yas out in this go-for-broke kitchen sink epic taking of the cult DC Comics characters including in Robbie's hell-yeah Harley Quinn and Elba's morose Bloodsport forced to go on a secret mission with a melange of oddballs to thwart a worldwide threat in the form of an alien creature being housed as a military weapon in the fictional Corto Maltese. Totally bonkers and a ton of fun the ensemble motley crew is gonzo for destruction, mayhem and sure, saving the world at any means possible. King Shark is the wild card voiced by Sly as a man-eating cuddly great white in Jams.

Have at it!

Nope, sorry - i just didn't get the fuss surrounding this. A group of quirk-empowered miscreants are released from prison so they can embark on an highly dangerous, mission to destroy a (not so) secret facility on the island of Corto Maltese. Led by Margot Robbie and Idris Elba, this motley crew prove predictably effective despite facing the usual array of overwhelming odds that never did have much of a chance against the "Squad". The thing has precisely no jeopardy to the plot, and although the action scenes and visual effects are top drawer - so what, that's a minimum standard nowadays, rather than a selling point. Though I did appreciate Robbie more here than in the dreadful "Birds of Prey" (2020) solo iteration, and there are some fun scenes with Idris Elba there are far too many cast members to keep track of, and for the most part this film hasn't an original bone in its body. Sure it has some feisty, bad-ass attitude, but I'm afraid I've seen this all before...

"The story is invariably the sort of video-gamey, pop-corn, destroying-extraterrestrial-creature nonsense, the name "Project Starfish" is a dead giveaway of its arch-villain, but Gunn's script swiftly throw barbs towards USA government's aggressive foreign policy, hypocrisy, callousness and backdoor skulduggery, its patriotism is tainted by a mean streak that trivializes another country's human life. It is quite chilling to see Bloodsport and Peacemaker have a grisly killing competition then realize the rebel armies they massacred are actually allies, but there is no consequences, as long as they share the same enemy. Then, as the last resort, it is the puissance of the have-nots, the multitude, symbolically denoted by teeming rodents, that save the day, THE SUICIDE SQUAD is nothing if not politically perceptive."

read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, thanks.