I’m a sucker for mediocre action flicks. I’m not a big fan of gore and horror and get squirmy at romance and comedy, but give me some violence and I’m there.
For the the past few weeks I’ve been slowly getting sucked into a youtube vortex of action scenes from these two films. Once the algorithm caught my attention, the positive feedback loop took over. And then, youtube found me an Egyptian subtitled version of these two movies.
The next two nights disappeared.
I’m not proud of it.
In fact, I’m quite ashamed of getting spoon fed down this rabbit hole, and this post is an attempt to salvage my dignity.
The story concept is appealing. An everyman (Denzel Washington as a working stiff with a slight paunch) anonymously wreaks justice on the rest of the world. It’s a power fantasy that appeals to a middle aged dude like me navigating a rigged world.
Unfortunately, universal themes are wrapped in a debased magic that dissipates quickly. The first movie had some charm, the second was just pure banality.
I honestly couldn’t recommend either of them, even though they deliver exactly what they promise, like The Prince (2014) or Outside the Line (2021).
The shame is in wanting what they offer. It’s not worth even 90 minutes in this short life of ours.
Editing this post a few months later, I’m amazed that I actually watched both full films. My mind must have actively erased this fact from half a year ago. In any case, I still have a tenuous relationship with YouTube. Late night is a dangerous time. If I get myself onto Grizzlypear or the ebook reader after the kids go to sleep, I can do some productive stuff before going to sleep. But if I get sucked onto my phone, I can easily lose an hour in the blink of an eye.
Having quit Facebook and Twitter already, getting better control over YouTube is my next horizon. I still enjoy the short documentary and commentaries YouTube videos (see my obsession with HEMA), but I’m coming to realize that this trivial edutainment may not be worth the time spent or the danger of slipping down truly frivolous rabbit holes. Like Facebook a couple years ago, I have entered the phase of “deleted the app, both still logging in via the web browser”. We’ll see if I wean of YouTube over the next couple years.
The need to be more selective about my entertainment options has been highlighted by my recent reading of the Journey to the West. In many ways, this book has all the ribald action sequences and entertainment of such films. However, this book is one of the four Chinese Classic Novels for good reason. It gives you the base satisfaction of a fantasy novel but also brings much more to the table. I wouldn’t claim that reading classic novels are as elevated as pondering a dense philosophical tome, but if for late night entertainment, it’s worlds better than this fluff.