On Christmas Eve, ordinary man Brian Godlock (Joel Kinnaman) witnesses the death of his young son when the boy gets caught in crossfire between warring gangs. Recovering from a wound that cost him his voice, he soon embarks on a bloody and grueling quest to punish those responsible.

Regarding action cinema filmmakers, John Woo stands as one of the all-time greats to ever revolutionize the genre. While Chad Stahelski might be the torch carrier now, John Woo burst into cinemas with his all-action, violent extravaganza of craziness and the development of the ‘heroic bloodshed’ genre with works such as A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hardboiled, Broken Arrow and Face/Off. Now, the talented filmmaker returns to the action genre with the pulse-pounding Silent Night. He raises the stakes up a notch, as this film is a fully kinetic experience delivered through action, emotion, and ambient music, and it is completely devoid of a single word of dialogue. What this creates is a stylized, almost art-house action picture, and it makes a very creative and out-of-the-box viewing experience.

Stepping into the action of Silent Night is noted Hollywood leading man Joel Kinnaman, and the Swedish star relished the opportunity to make things interesting next to Woo. Kinnaman is no stranger to the action genre with films such as Suicide Squad and Robocop to his name, but Silent Night allows him to dig deep into his acting craft, and what we see is a display of pure performance. Robbed off his ability to speak through a heinous crime and gripped by the need for revenge, Kinnaman delivers a performance that is delivered through pure expression and gesture, and it’s a role that keeps things everything. His performance as the film’s protagonist makes for a hell of a journey, and his burning desire for revenge against a corrupt system sees him transform into ‘an angel of death’ who is ready to deliver plenty of hardboiled justice to all those who’ve been bad at Christmas time.

In terms of sheer ultra-violence, well, Woo keeps it at a steady delivery, and the audience will watch with excitement as Kinnaman’s Brian transforms from an ordinary man to a John Wick-infused badass! And then the fireworks start. Whether he’s smashing in the bad guy’s faces, going full auto with an array of very big guns, or slamming down on the accelerator in a custom-built Ford Mustang and tearing up the streets, there’s enough action beats that will spike the adrenaline of any fan of the genre. The actions are wild, the gunplays are insane, and plenty of gore is spent by the time the credits begin to roll.

Silent Night is an incredibly different and distinct cinematic experience, and its action cinemas as art thanks to the eye of John Woo and the performance of Kinnaman. It definitely makes for a different cinematic experience, and audiences who are wanting something unexpected will find it with this one.

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In a small U.S. town post-WWII, far from the horrors of the Nazi labour camp where Maja (Noomi Rapace) was held with other Romani prisoners, she and her American husband Lewis (Chris Messina) have built a peaceful life. When a chance encounter leads her to the man (Joel Kinnaman) she thinks brutalized her and her family during the Holocaust, she spirals back to a night she has tried to forget for the past 15 years. Fearful that her tragic past has come back to haunt her, she kidnaps him, seeking vengeance for the heinous war crimes she believes he committed against her. But can she be sure?

Director Yuval Adler places audiences on a tightrope of suspense in his dark and foreboding tale of justice and the truth in The Secrets We Keep. Set in the years following the end of WWII, The Secrets We Keep focuses in on sudden events of previously buried trauma, and Adler uses this intense kidnap narrative to explore ideas of memory, secrets, identity and truth, and it’s 97 minutes of pure suspense.

The Secrets We Keep is all the more intense through the lingering doubt of its characters and the multiple viewpoints established between the three of them. Each of them have their own biases and differing opinions. Then the narrative mixes into this long-held secrets, burning lies and some awful truth, and Adler keeps his audience bound in a suspenseful vice-like grip that dosen’t let up for a moment. This movie starts quick and fast and things soon get dire because of Maja’s actions and her kidnapping of the man she suspects to have abused her during the war. But did he actually do it, or has the nightmares of her mind finally caused her to snap. It’s this uncertain narrative that keeps you guessing the whole way through and leads into an ending that is completely shocking and unexpected.

Noomi Rapace is the central focus of The Secrets We Keep as the film’s main protagonist Maja. As a Roma Gypsy who suffered greatly through WWII she has now built a new life for herself and her family in post-war America…until the dark moments of her past awaken once again. Rapace is consistently one of the most interesting working actresses in Hollywood and here she spins audiences for a loop with her performance. Going from cheerful housewife to wide-eyed kidnapper, Rapace’s unhinged intensity makes you both certain and doubtful of Maja’s quest for justice all at the same time. Rapace keeps her audience guessing the whole way through and her handling of such dark subject matter is a tribute to her level of talent as a performer.

Forming the object of Maja’s fury is Joel Kinnaman’s Thomas Steinman, a Swiss immigrant who has settled in the same town as Maja, but who in her eyes is actually an SS officer who abused her and her sister during the war. But who exactly is he? Like Rapace, Kinnaman excels as her bound subject, and from the outset, you can never tell whether he’s innocent or guilty. Whether he’s telling the truth or simply doing everything he can to survive Maja’s onslaught of rage. Kinnaman is given very tight confines to work with in The Secrets We Keep and like Rapace he keeps audiences on their toes the entire time.

Stuck in the middle of his wife’s quest for revenge is Chris Messina as Lewis, a former Army doctor who she met after the war and whom she has managed to build a life with in America. A naturally good and just man, he soon finds himself caught up in this impossible situation and an accessory to her crime which heightens the tension even further. Messina’s Lewis is the devil’s advocate of the film. And he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place with his wife’s rapidly deteriorating mental state and the fact that that there’s a kidnapped man, who may, or may not, be a Nazi in his basement. Messina plays up the panic of the situation perfectly and leans into and pulls away from his wife heightening the stress of the picture further.

The Secrets We Keep is a thriller in the classic sense as it builds quickly and doesn’t let up to the very end. Yudal doesn’t waste any time here and his insistence on a quick and to the point cinematic experience keeps you primed as an audience member. One of the ways that he builds up the anxiety and pressure of the picture is through his use of a very tight and confined style of cinematography that amplifies the claustrophobia of the film and helps to draw out Maja’s already unstable mental condition even further.

The Secrets We Keep is a film for those who like their thrillers to keep them slightly on edge. Its exploration of trauma and the dark corners of the mind marks it out as something different and it doesn’t let up for a moment.

Image: 387 Distribution

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While audiences will easily be won over by the appearance of Jared Leto as The Joker and Margot Robbie as the deranged Harley Quinn, my attention has turned to the wild card of the group: non-villain Colonel Rick Flag, a Special Forces operator and right hand man to Task Force X’s mastermind Amanda Waller, who will be played in the film by rising talent Joel Kinnaman.

Originally introduced to the comic books in 1959 by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru, before writer John Ostrander acquired him for his critically lauded rival of the Suicide Squad, Rick Flag Jr was a dedicated soldier recruited to Task Force X by Amanda Waller. Although somewhat of a blunt and efficient instrument, Flag took deep personal issues with Waller’s orders and was also blindsided by his love for fellow Squad mate Karin Grace, as well as his feelings for super villain Nightshade.

Flag was a complex character through the book’s entire run, performing well in executing Waller’s will while falling into fits of despair at the horrors and atrocities that he was forced to sign off on. Flag’s single biggest story moment came when he set out to destroy the supervillain terrorist group known as The Jihad, who were trying to utilise a Nazi era nuclear bomb. Flag would slew his way through the terrorists and confront its leader Rustam, with both characters seemingly dying in a blast as they fought to the death.

But given that no one ever really dies in comics, Flag was found to have escaped the blast before being captured, and was then rescued by Task Force X member Bronze Tiger in ‘Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag’. Given the choice to resign by his superiors he chose not to, uttering that the Suicide Squad will always ‘need a Rick Flag’.

Flag’s appearance in Ayer’s film is cause for excitement, especially in the way that it is likely to break up the narrative. While you have a crew of out-for-themselves villains, and a puppet master like Waller who has her own grand schemes, Flag is likely to be the everyman character who will work towards the greater good. The various trailers and publicity materials have shown that he’ll have a healthy dislike for Will Smith’s Floyd Lawton/Deadshot, and that he appears to have had a past relationship with Cara Delevinge’s sweet archeologist June Moon, who is later possessed by the entity known as The Enchantress.

While British thespian Tom Hardy had initially signed on for the role, he had to relinquish it due to scheduling conflicts with The Revenant (something he was publically displeased by). Jake Gyllenhaal was said to have passed on the role, while Jon Bernthal and Joel Edgerton were also in the running after Hardy’s departure. But in the end, it would be Kinnaman who earned a spot on the Squad, and based on the footage we’ve seen so far he is really holding his own.

I for one am happy that Kinnaman won the job. He’s an actor who has made bold choices throughout his career including roles in the Easy Money trilogy, Robocop, The Killing and a recent appearance in House of Cards. I myself always thought that Hardy’s casting was a bit too on the nose, and with Kinnaman I think we’ve got an actor who can make the character his own, projecting a man who is not only imposing and tough, but who has a great deal of vulnerability, especially in relation to his romance with June Moon.

Kinnaman looks the part as well, standing at an imposing 6’2, and he reportedly underwent rigorous firearms and combat training with the likes of ex-Navy SEALs to get into character.

Kinnaman will have his work cut out for him as Rick Flag, with his responsibility to wrangle this twisted collection of criminals, crazies, and psychopaths that make up Task Force X. But armed to the teeth and boasting a ‘take no shit’ attitude, he’s all but guaranteed to complete his mission.

Suicide Squad opens on August 4 in New Zealand and Australia and on August 5 in the US and the UK.

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After watching a sneakily filmed but fuzzy version that’s been online for the last few days, fans finally have a crystal clear and ultra magnificent trailer to view.

The trailer is an absolute roller-coaster ride from beginning to end, establishing the scene with Viola Davis’ sly manipulator Amanda Waller suggesting the use of high functioning, and lethal supervillains to do the government’s bidding on highly controversial, and thus highly deniable black ops missions.

We get a look into the squad including the diabolically cute and twisted Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), the rough housed Deadshot (Will Smith), Aussie bruiser Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), goth princess/sorcerer Enchantress (Cara Delavegne), and the military-minded Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). The trailer is non-stop action and intriguing mood, before it introduces us to Jared Leto’s Clown Prince of Crime himself, The Joker, who’s all ripped, and tatted up, and offers us a glimpse at his psychotic new voice with the words “I’m not going to kill you, I’m just going to hurt you….really…really bad.”

With directors like Ayer and Zack Snyder, and properties such as Suicide Squad and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Warner Brothers and DC Comics are certainly re-writing what constitutes a comic book adaptation.

On August 4, 2016 prepare for justice with a hint of evil.

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