Lou

I thought that it might be different from the usual woke nonsense of today but here we have something that's part of the malaise. An entirely unbelievable plot with an old woman with super skills that are hard to swallow along with the co-actress who hasn't been to acting school. Alot of the movie could've been easily edited out but the director chose to waste our time with very predictable cliches. Really bad acting with laughable stunts. Has some good filming in moments but all that is overshadowed by a dragged out Rambo style overreaching storyline. This lengthy movie drags and best avoided if you value your time.

This is one of those wovies, that starts out with an interesting setup, but keeps getting progressively worse over time. The surprises aren't really surprising, the characters manage to get ever more bland and stereotype as you learn more about their background and the "suspense" scenes feel awkwardly out of place. There are some decent action scenes and cinematography is not bad either but the story is incredibly boring. Why would you want to bring Iran into this story at all? Just to have a "good" and "bad" side? There was enough material to fill a single episode for a tv show, but absolutely not enough for an entire movie. Feels like a lost chance.

Allison Janney is so great in this movie. She was perfect for this role. I loved the other actors too. I don't understand people who think this was 1) predictable and 2) a dud. We thought it was really different and had some surprises. We did not think it was a dud. It was exciting and the action sequences were great, especially the cabin fight scene. The photography was beautiful. It held our interest throughout. It was different from a lot of movies Hollywood cranks out that have no originality. I have to mention that the little girl was wonderful in this. The interaction between the two women also added to the movie.

Hollywood and in particular Netflix has gone too far with Lou. I was foolish enough to give the movie some of my time. An unconventional hero using cunning, training and local knowledge to defeat a much stronger and better equipped enemy? That sounds interesting. However what we get is your usual girl power narrative, only this time it isn't a girl but an old woman instead. An old woman who can kill not one but two trained special services soldiers 20 years her Junior in unarmed combat. In fact she kills one of them by cutting his throat with a soup can. Yes, really. Off! So instead I watched Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult and nearly died laughing.

Allison Janney (Lou) and Jurnee Smollet (Hannah) are both good actors, and the little girl Ridley Asha Bateman (Vee) is adorable. She did a good job and has the potential of being a really great child actor. It's not the actors' fault, they really didn't have much to work with; the storyline was just terrible. While they're at it, they should add comedy to the genre. Everything became hilarious and predictable at the lighthouse. The mother and son fight on the beach will go down as one of the worse fight scenes ever. They should have put a lot more thought into this one before going into production.

Genuinely hard to watch. Not for reasons like, oh that's rough to see. But more like this is an absolute slog. It is dull, boring, poorly written and acted. And you can't help but feel ,why not give the money this cost to the homeless. It's just poor. 20 mins generously is all needs watched. Start,fly to the middle, then the end. Within a short space of time starting watching this film, you will no doubt have worked out the entire plot, "twist" and what action, and I use the term loosely. Will happen. The most redeeming feature and why it gets a 2 star rating is the dog seems like a quality actor. Unbelievable.

In a secluded part of the Pacific Northwest, loner Lou Adell (Allison Janney) is living a solitary life with her dog Jax with her only regular contact being with single mother Hannah Dawson (Jurmee Smollett) and her daughter Vee (Ridley Bateman) who rent property on Lou's land. During a massive storm Hannah's abusive and presumed dead ex Phillip (Logan-Marshall-Green) kidnaps their daughter Vee and Hannah enlists Lou's help in tracking the two down leading to Lou tapping into her dormant skillset and long buried wounds that made her who she is. Lou is the directorial debut of cinematographer Anna Forester whose previous directing credits were in television such as Criminal Minds and Outlander. Produced by J. J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions, the film while initially setup at Paramount was dropped early on with Bad Robot opting to film Lou independently with distribution rights eventually being picked up by Netflix. The movie doesn't break too far from the established formula of this kind of action thriller, but it does deliver on suspense and character you expect from this type of film. One of the things that stood out to me with Lou was just how gritty the film looks. While Lou is set in the 1980s, the movie wisely avoids becoming "nostalgia *" and really only uses 80s iconography or references when appropriate and in context rather than reminding you every few minutes as some films set in the decade have been guilty of. From the hard-edged fight sequences to some really tense survival sequences such as a setpiece on a lopsided rope bridge the movie reminded me of thrillers such as 1988's Shoot to Kill which mixed this kind of chase movie with environmental perils. Allison Janney is really good as Lou and her performance as this hardened isolated loner is well done and she fits the role very well in terms of both the character's backstory and skillset as well as conveying the inner turmoil of this character when it's revealed what the source is. The other actors are good in their roles too with Jurmee Smollett's performance as an abuse survivor quite engaging and Logan Marshall-Green a solidly done antagonist even if they're not as compelling as Janney's role. The movie does have a twist relating to certain character relationships and like most twists related to this type of genre exercise I think most will see it coming, but it works well enough thematically and leads to a tense and emotional climax that I was willing to let it pass. Lou doesn't reinvent the wheel when it comes to this kind of gritty minimalist action thriller, but it gives enough meat to the characters, aesthetics, and performances that I was kept engaged throughout the film's brisk 100-minute runtime. Anna Foerster shows solid work in her first feature in the director's seat and I look forward to seeing her hone her style in other films.