Beckett

The movie was ok but nothing special. On the plus side the Greek scenery at the beginning was beautiful and wild and reminded me of lord of the rings, the acting of most of the cast and especially Washington was really solid too. Now for the not so good. The plot was really weak and almost paper thin the main idea was great but the execution not so much. Another thing that bothered me as a person who lived in Athens for 6 years is that they made it look like a distopian third world country which was weird because Athens is a really beautiful City. I get that the movie is set in a distopian political alternate reality but they made Athens look like Baghdad or something. As a final verdict I think the movie is watchable but had potential to be much more if the writing was better.

This movie was not for John David Washington, they should have cast someone else. The acting was generally really bad, I felt nothing for the characters and I also didn't connect with the story. The Characters who are seemingly "in-love" had no chemistry between them. The camera work and editing were the biggest let down, some of the shots were out of focus....not artistically out of focus, like incompetent DP out of focus. Editing department should have cut those out. Some scenes were shot like it was a low budget student film. This movie was hard to watch because the overall quality was really poor.

I thought that the filming was incredible. Great shots and great edits. The story was the typical chase and crime thriller. Compared to other recent films, I thought this story had more depth to it than say Without Remorse. I enjoyed that the plot focused on the character rather than the detailed politics. It kept it more relatable. Really a pleasure to watch and just enough details to keep you interested. There was realistic violence versus the over the top.

What a nauseating beginning to what turns out to be a perfectly mediocre action movie. After going on for some 10 minutes, much more of the eponymous Beckett and his girlfriend's lovey-dovey, cutesy-wootsy foreplay, and I would've been ready to run their car off the road. These American vacationers (well, I guess Alicia Vikander is Swedish, but whatever) in Greece display some of the most irritating intimacy ever filmed, I swear--talking nonsense to each other, fondling each other while driving, drawing a heart on him--grown adults acting like horny teenagers.

Otherwise, and despite what the extra-T "Beckett" might conjure regarding more thoughtful fare involving a Thomas or a Samuel Becket, this "Beckett" is a good alternative for anyone who enjoyed watching John David Washington running around in "Tenet" (2020), but would rather not engage with a complicated narrative, or those who liked the conspiratorial intrigue of him in "BlacKkKlansman" (2018), but wished the politics of it were vague to the point of irrelevance. Communists and fascists, oh my. An old-fashioned American-savior narrative, but without the white guilt, an unwitting wrong-man mystery solved during panting breaks in between fighting and chasing. The scenery is nice, though, and, granted, a movie that begins by prophesizing the hero at the ruins of the Oracle of Delphi can't be all bad, although grand, Ancient Greek tragedy this isn't. Watch the "John Wick" shoot-'em-ups for that, seriously.

There's also the debatable appeal of Washington's hero not being without personal guilt and being mostly realistically human--limited by injuries, fatigue, panic attacks, an' all. Yet, he still ends up doing a Batman in a parking garage. If Washington keeps this up, Marvel or DC is going to cast him in one of their superhero burgers.

What i liked was the old fashioned way its filmed. Reminds me of classic greek cinema. Also as a Greek watching many beautiful locations or streets that i walked thousand times cetrainly keep my interest. Greek actors were fine, their acting felt natural. Im not a camera expert but the way its filmed feels like you re not watching a movie but events unfolding in front of you, like a documentary.

And here is where my biggest complain is. In order to make up for that normal like 'anti-cinematic' way of filming you need to balance it with something very captivating in order to keep audience involved, in other words some spicy flavour. Its like filming myself running from Metsovo to Athens. It may be a movie, but not an art, not something more than a few people would care to watch. And if someone makes a movie without some sort of a greater philosophical meaning at least he owns the viewer some kind of entertainment.

Do you remember some american shows where you have the real person tell a life surviving story and in the meantime they make a short cheap movie to alternate so you dont watch a person talking on a chair for 50 mins? Make those 50 mins 105 and you have Beckett, only the story is about politics, a subject few can relate to.

I wont even discuss about Johns performance as he wasnt given a fair chance.

Summary: it captured some greek elements and it felt real and natural but it was missing taste and artistic touch to make it appealing for a larger audience. Dont feel like trashing this movie since im from Greece so i cannont give it any less than 6/10, propably more of what is worth for.