Movie Monday: Wrath of Man, Shadow in the Cloud Worth Watching

I didn’t need to graduate from film school to watch a movie everyday. Movies have been my preferred mode of entertainment since I discovered my dad’s Star Wars collection on Betamax. I used to play sick and skip school, hook up the Beta, and watch the trilogy beginning to end before my parents got home from work. So going forward, Mondays at Go Gonzo Journal will be devoted to a movie or two, with a review of a movie worth seeing in theaters and/or movies worth seeing on streaming platforms.

In Theaters: Wrath of Man

Writer/director Guy Ritchie almost always gets my money, so when I saw in the Wrath of Man trailer that he was back to directing Jason Statham, he got my money. Statham was the star of Ritchie’s two greatest films, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Both were incredibly influential and made me want to write movies. The way Ritchie does his revealing in his heists is especially engaging and usually hilarious. Wrath of Man brings Ritchie back to the basics.

While Wrath of Man isn’t on the level of Snatch or Lock, Stock…, it does feature some hilarious moments resulting from Ritchie’s creative means of storytelling. You might get confused as to when in the hell we are in the movie, but it’s all for the best. It was all for the best when Quentin Tarantino did it in Pulp Fiction, too.

What makes Wrath of Man worth seeing in theaters isn’t the action, but it isn’t an action movie, apart from the last half hour. What makes it worth seeing in theaters is the shared experience of finding out who done it together, and the sound that can’t be duplicated by your stereo at home. Ritchie’s use of misdirection had me making everyone the inside man except the actual inside man. Also, Johnny Cash’s best song, “Folsom Prison Blues,” is often featured.

On Hulu: Shadow in the Cloud

Wrath of Man wasn’t even the best movie I saw last week, though. A little gem called Shadow in the Cloud on Hulu took that honor. Now, I’ve been a sucker for any action movie featuring Chloë Grace Moretz ever since Kickass, so take this with the same sized grain of salt you did with Wrath of Man as a result of my love for Guy Ritchie.

That’s right. A female World War II pilot carries a classified package onto a plane attacked by gremlins. Need I say more? I didn’t think so, but I will anyway. The set design of this film is awesome. Most of the movie takes place on the plane, and the sets seem super authentic. The type of plane, a B-17 bomber, which is specified in the movie’s official description, allows us to see the outside of the plane from some really cool angles, like the gunners’ positions.

Shadow in the Cloud has everything I like in a movie these days: a strong, female lead, a strong soundtrack, a strong story effectively told, excellent set design, creative audio editing, special effects that are effective but aren’t overdone, and a runtime under 90 minutes. It is the perfect moving picture. I was delighted by every bit of it.