The Baker

A nice gritty cliche about an old man whose past does not reflect what he's doing now until he's forced to go on a road trip with his granddaughter who he just met to find his astray son who got himself into a mess.

Pearlman plays it like a champ, giving a great performance and even better action sequences. It's like he's trying out for the new Expendables movie as he pulls off these cool combat sequences where he's facing bad guys one at a time, which makes sense because The Hellboy star has to be 70 years old, and it would have been unrealistic if he was battling 20 at a time.

It a good watch with an interesting leading man able to hold my interest for the entire time. Thumbs up!

If you think the story line is familiar, winner winner chicken dinner.

Its another in a long long long line of 'who is this guy' movies.

So, its nothing new. But, that's ok. What really matters here is 'do the performances hold your attention'? Yes they do. Extra large Ronnie is awesome in this, yes he's playing the same role (Hellboy aside) that he always plays and he does it with a nice undercurrent of humour and not taking himself too seriously.

Elias is solid if not under used and Harvey K delivers exactly what you think he is going to do. Still its nice to see him on screen.

The movie (see for yourself) does miss the opportunity for a classic screen moment towards the end but such is life.

Watch the credits.

Nice effort :)

Pappi (Ron Perlman) is the baker. His estranged no-good son Peter (Joel David Moore) shows up out of nowhere with mute daughter Delphi (Emma Ho). Peter had stolen from Vic (Elias Koteas) and mob boss Merchant (Harvey Keitel) is not happy.

This is part John Wick and part Léon: The Professional. It's got the extended continuous fight action. It is a simple story. Ron Perlman is always a dominating presence. It's a simple role for him. It also has some great actors filling out the cast. The girl is pretty cute and being mute does limit the possibility of failure. It all adds up to a solid B-movie.

"The Baker" centers on a quiet, lonely man , Pappi (Ron Perlman) whose estranged son (Joel David Moore) suddenly comes back into his life with a granddaughter (Emma Ho). He never knew existed, then he must do everything he can to protect her from the mob hitman, Vic (Elias Koteas), sent by ruthless mobster chief Merchant (Harvey Keitel) to find her. When his son disappears on a shady business opportunity, the solitary baker must do everything he can to find his son, and he'll stop at nothing and at whatever price. Together, the baker and the little girl must avoid corrupt people, contract killers and the mob to survive and at all costs.

Thrilling and nail-biting movie with noisy action, shootouts , spectacular scenes, strong fights, violence and amazing finale . Action thriller loaded with violence in which Ron Perlman plays a baker tormented by his past who sees his life change when his missing son disappears due to a nasty business, now the baker must do everything possible to find him and protect his granddaughter from the mafia hitmen sent to look for him. It pits a dark, sinister, explosively violent world, filled with murders, against the gravitational forces of long forgotten loved ones. There is a beautiful relationship between the grandfather and the mute granddaughter -that bears remarkable resemblance to ¨Luc Besson's The Professional¨- the latter notably played by Emma Ho, despite her novice in interpretive art.

In addition to Ron Perlman who gives a stunning interpretation making its reluctant hero do anything to protect the innocent , the cast includes two heavyweights such as Harvey Keitel (¨Pulp Fiction¨) , Elias Koteas, (¨Angels and Demons¨, ¨Chicago P. D.¨) and adding Joel David Moore (¨Avatar¨). This slow-moving and some boring motion picture was professionally directed by Jonathan Sobol, though with no originality, because the matter of the story, we had already seen it before and better in other films. Sobol has directed a few movies with uneven success, such as: ¨A Beginner's Guide to Endings¨, ¨The Art of the Steal¨, ¨Young Drunk Punk¨ and ¨The Padre¨. Rating: 5.5/10. Average but acceptable and passable.

I'm a fan of Ron Pearlman. I've seen him in so many movies and love him in Sons of Anarchy. I'm glad to see him get a leading movie role, and his performance does not disappoint. The more surprising development is child actress Emma Ho somehow matching his performance, especially when much of this movie rides on her shoulders.

The Baker is mostly well-made and does a good job investing you in the characters. They add in little details, moments, and actions that may seem inconsequential to the story but make both lead characters so endearing. And it doesn't feel randomly inserted, but rather a natural part of the story and characters.

The fight scenes are the only thing holding this back from crossing the threshold between good and great; from being something I rewatch. And I don't think it's the fault of the director. I don't know how to say this without sounding mean, but Ron Pearlman is too old to perform convincing fight scenes. It's the Liam Neeson effect.

The reason I don't think it's the directors fault is a fight scene early on that doesn't involve Pearlman. It's a good scene and got me excited. When Pearlman has a fight scene, there are five cuts per second (no exaggeration) to mask the unconvincing choreography. It's hard to watch, metaphorically and literally.

In another fight scene involving Pearlman, there are no cuts for about two minutes. But the scene is intentionally shadowy and never once shows Pearlman's face. It's clearly a stunt double the entire time. And because it's so dark, it's difficult to see the fight itself. It could have been a cool one-take scene if they didn't have to film it in the dark.

I still had a good time with this movie but I doubt I'd watch it again. I think most people will enjoy it, at least mildly. It's definitely better than most streaming movie garbage. (1 viewing, opening Thursday 7/27/2023)