Star: Samuel L Jackson

Unbreakable (2000) – Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson

Unbreakable (2000) begins with a few minutes of torture in the form of loud crying babies. I simply couldn’t listen properly to any of the dialog here – I had no choice but to mute the entire scene and ready the subtitles. Not a good start!

10 minutes later, after a slow but watchable scene with Bruce Willis on a train, we discover why this movie is called Unbreakable and it becomes quite intriguing. Bruce Willis’s character basically has the same superpower as Marvel’s Luke Cage – an unbreakable body; and by contrast, Samuel L Jackson‘s character easily breaks all his bones like they’re made of glass, but never dies – hence the memorable threequel called Glass (2019) which came after the sequel called Split (2016).

This 100 minute long movie doesn’t get really cool until around half an hour before the end. The movie is like all drama for plot build up until near the end, then findally it becomes really interesting as everything that’s been set up unravels as Bruce Willis’s character finally entertains the ideas of Samuel L Jackson’s character, and Bruce accepts that he probably is a real-life version of a comicbook superhero with multiple superpowers. Nice plot twist at the very end too, as we discover what Samuel’s character is really all about.

All in all, I think we can say this is a strange “mild sci-fi” mostly-drama movie with just enough action, and superhero concept, and cinematography, and star power coming from the lead cast members, to make it Watchable for action hero movie fans who aren’t really into the slow drama genre. I’m certainly in no hurry to rewatch it though – this is one of those movies to be watched once in a lifetime, and maybe again with a friend who’s never seen it before, and maybe again if you’ve completely forgot all about it. Best to enjoy it sequentially before its threequel (Glass). I’d skip the first sequel (Split) though. As weak as they are on the action side of things, Unbreakable and Glass just about manage to sustain attention and be quite emotive and memorable to action fans thanks to their star power in Bruce and Samuel plus decent cinematography.

Sequels

The first sequel – Split (2016) starring James McAvoy (from Wanted) – is of zero interest to action hero movie fans who aren’t into slow gritty drama and find horror repulsive. There are no action heroes in this movie except for a seated 1-liner cameo appearance by Bruce Willis in the final few seconds of the movie. It’s just a serial killer-kidnapper drama-horror movie with zero relevance to action hero movie fans.

The threequel – Glass (2019) – gets off to a better start with the return of Bruce Willis as the unbreakable superhero. His age is really showing here though, as he’s in his mid 60s already and doesn’t try to hide it.

Spencer Treat Clark also returns, as Bruce’s son in Glass, although he looks nothing like him and never did, and looks even less like supposed mother. Still, he makes a good office-based sidekick in this movie.

James McAvoy also reprises his role from Split, as the serial killer-kidnapper with split personalities, but fortunately his role is far less one dimensional here, and the entire movie doesn’t revolve around him like it did in Split. Bruce Willis gets an equal share of screentime this time round.

Cleaner (2007) – Samuel L Jackson

Cleaner (2007) is a simple story with an interesting angle. It shows Samuel L Jackson in his element as Tom Cutler, a retired policeman now working for himself as a dead body residue cleaner, often contracted by the local police department to clean up crime scenes.

This movie has a decent supporting cast, including Ed Harris & Luis GuzmĂĄn as detectives and former colleagues of Tom’s, plus Eva Mendes as the lead female and wife of the missing man.

I’m not normally a fan of this slow & gritty pace of movie – it’s like a random episode from a TV crime drama series – but Samuel makes it work. Still, it’s so basic, I can’t rate it any higher than just Watchable. I’m certainly not expecting to watch it again so long as I remember much about it, and there’s not much to be remembered except a few nice plot twists.

Jumper (2008) – Hayden Christensen and Samuel L Jackson

Jumper is a fun movie with a good amount of action to match its fantasy concept. Hayden Christensen stars as the main character in this movie – he’s a boy who discovered he can teleport, or ‘jump’, to pretty much anywhere in the world. Samuel L Jackson plays the main man tracking him down, trying to kill him – Samuel leads a squad of agents tracking down all ‘Jumpers’ to kill them on the spot. They both do a great job in the roles here.

Other key cast members include Rachel Bilson who plays the lead female role adequately. And Jamie Bell does an alright job in playing an experienced Jumper who helps Hayden’s character secretly before eventually befriending him and mentoring him in being a good Jumper.

One of the most memorable parts of this movie, is a cheeky line at the beginning where the lead character, acting as a narrator to the audience, says: “I wasn’t always like this. Once I was a normal person. A chump, just like you!”

Go on Hollywood, tell us what you really think about us!

Jumper (2008) is a Decent movie over all. Not many boring bits if any. It delivers a respectable level of entertainment quite consistently.

If you like the concept of this movie, where certain people can jump between places around the world, you may also enjoy movies where certain people travel through time, into the past and the future – such movies include Looper (2012) with Bruce Willis; Timecop (1994) with Van Damme; and the Back To The Future movie series.