Lucy (2014)

So much for my prediction that I wouldn't watch another action crime flick right away. A friend suggested we see this together. Since it runs only 89 minutes, I figured at least it wouldn't be a great loss.

Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), a college student in Taiwan, puts a little too much trust in a guy she's been seeing for a week (Pilou Asbæk). He pressures her to make a mysterious delivery where he's no longer welcome. This gets her the unwelcome attention of ruthless drug lord Jang (Choi Min-sik), who has her knocked out and surgically implanted with a pouch of a fictitious new synthetic drug to smuggle. When the pouch leaks, she acquires superpowers, escapes, and seeks to collect the drug from other known mules. Not all the effects are good, so she'll have to act fast before her body gives out.

Bullet Train (2022)

Despite its fair popularity, I wasn't particularly eager to see this. Perhaps a brief clip intrigued me; more likely, I added it to my Netflix list largely for variety. In any event, I felt like watching an action flick last night, and this was the first to come up.

Most of the 126 minutes do indeed take place on a bullet train in Japan. Focus is divided among various career criminals, generally called by their code names. If there's a main one, it's Ladybug (Brad Pitt), an operative who wants to take a more peaceable course, not least because he's had a streak of questionable luck. His remote mission control contact, Maria Beetle (Sandra Bullock), tells him to swipe a briefcase full of cash -- which assassin duo Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) have been assigned to get to their ruthless boss, the White Death (Michael Shannon), in addition to delivering his wayward son (Logan Lerman). Meanwhile, gangster Yuichi (Andrew Koji) has boarded to kill the Prince (Joey King, heh) for hospitalizing his young son, but the tricky Prince plans to coerce him to kill the White Death -- using the same darn briefcase. And they're not the only ones who show up.

The Mule (2018)

This doesn't seem to have been talked about much since it was brand new. If any aspect stands out, it's the fact that Clint Eastwood has made only one feature since, and that one bombed, whereas TM was reported halfway decent. I chose to watch it largely because it looked different from a bunch of my most recent viewings.

Earl (Eastwood), despite an illustrious ongoing career in horticulture, is hurting for money. At the advice of a "friend of a friend," he gets a shady job transporting bags he's advised not to open. I'm not sure how soon he realizes that his employer is a drug cartel, but he gets surprised at just how much they're entrusting to him. Elderly Anglos with no record even of parking violations make unlikely suspects, so he becomes an MVP, with a lot more comfort than certain other mules. But not everyone in the business is willing to accommodate an employee who doesn't follow strict rules, and one sass to the wrong guy could put him in a trunk. Meanwhile, two DEA agents (Bradley Cooper and Michael Peña) are closing in with help from a reluctant informant (Eugene Cordero), albeit too gradually for the patience of their supervisor (Laurence Fishburne).

Nyad (2023)

I knew almost nothing going in, except that Netflix recommended it when I asked for a yet-unavailable Oscar nominee. It has a higher IMDb rating than several other suggestions, tho 7.1 is still pretty low as these things go.

Diana Nyad (Annette Bening) gained fame in the '70s for setting distance swim records. Most of the movie is set in the 2010s, when she's in her early 60s. To fight boredom, she starts swimming again. In fact, she plans to do what she failed to do at 28 and what no one else has done: swim from Cuba to Key West. Few people have any confidence that she can, but her determination wins support, however shaky, from close friend Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster) and navigator John Bartlett (Rhys Ifans). Indeed, Diana gets a boat with dozens of people to sail alongside her for food, drink, medicine, defense against sharks, and rescue if needed. It's as expensive as it is dangerous, yet she'll try as many times as it takes to reach the goal or die. You've probably guessed correctly that this story wouldn't be told unless she made it, albeit on the fifth attempt.