Everly (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
We’ve got another movie review for you today. This time, whoever enjoys over the top action and dry humor will be pleased to know that Everly offers all that and more. Did you like Kill Bill? Well, then Everly might appeal to you as it serves its audience with the same kind of absurd situations.
The movie sets off with main character, Everly (played by Salma Hayek), stumbling naked in the bathroom of some sort of suite. It turns out that Everly is a prostitute who decided to make sure her boss Taiko (Hiroyuki Watanabe) takes the fall for all he has done to her and other women. The best way to accomplish this is of course by snitching and betraying but unfortunately for Everly, Taiko finds out she’s been talking to the police.
Everly, now fearing for the lives of her mother and daughter Maisey (Aisha Ayamah) knows she can’t just stand by and do nothing. With the help of a hidden gun, she takes out several guys in the suite but of course, a movie wouldn’t be very exciting if that was all there is to it. Taiko owns the local police force and the building in which the suite is situated is mainly a setting for his prostitutes to fulfill their duties. After the massacre in the room, it doesn’t take too long before more of Taiko’s goons show up. From then on, it’s basically a sort of survival game in which Everly needs to fend off waves of enemies.
The story is certainly not worth an Oscar as the plot is rather shallow misses a lot of depth. It would’ve been nice to get to know Everly a bit more as now, she’s just a random prostitute with a gun in her hands. Some more background information on how she got to be who she is and what her relationship with Taiko really contains (as he seems to be in love with her), would’ve been welcome to flesh out the narrative. If you’re looking for brainless acting with some entertaining humorous moments, Everly will suit you just fine but it’s best not to expect a lot from the basic story once you start watching.
Regarding action, the movie doesn’t fall short on bloody scenes with a lot of explosions and gunfire. If you’re familiar with the Kill Bill movies, Everly has the same kind of gore and dark humour to entertains its audience. Blood is gushing everywhere, people get chopped up or blown up and then suddenly, Everly starts to cleanup like nothing happened. These kind of absurd situations make the movie a somewhat weird but nonetheless funny experience although of course not everyone will like the excessive violence and out-of-place practical jokes.
The leading actress, Salma Hayek, will sound familiar to fans of the series Ugly Betty or the classic From Dusk Till Dawn. Although Hayek is certainly an actress with a lot of stuff to show on her résumé, overacting often plagues her performances in Everly. Some of the acting choices are of course made with the over the top idea of the movie in mind, but still, sometimes it can get rather annoying to see Hayek pushing it too hard. Combine this with the lack of background information on the character as said before and you’ll probably end up not caring much for the personage. If you take a look at obvious source of inspiration Kill Bill, the two movies are pretty opposite to each other on that aspect. Hiroyuki Watanabe and Togo Igawa (who plays The Sadist) are also very experienced and take the acting to the next level. Their performances are enjoyable to witness and make for some very awesome scenes (especially when The Sadist makes his appearance). Aisha Ayamah who plays little Maisey does a great job at such a young age and it’s hard not to appreciate her part in the movie.
The Everly Blu-ray disc gives us the opportunity to watch some extras afterwards. First of all, there are a bunch of interviews with the cast and crew for you to watch. If you’re more interested in the a look behind the scenes, you might want to check out the making of video and B-roll in which you get to see how a scene is performed up close. Lastly, if anyone hasn’t had the chance to watch the trailer of Everly, now’s the time as the original trailer is included on the disc.
Conclusion
Everly is the perfect movie if you just want to see some brainless action mixed with some dark and dry humour but it’s best not to expect some kind of deep, intense storyline as you won’t get one. Salma Hayek’s performances is sometimes a bit too much and overdone which can cause some irritation. Overall though, Everly is a pretty fun and entertaining movie to watch if you’re in the mood for an average action movie.
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