tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21315527434271440492024-03-13T05:31:26.223-07:00Film FanTony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.comBlogger292125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-49447198106422635482024-02-11T03:05:00.000-08:002024-02-15T15:02:01.109-08:002023 Movies Viewed/ Ranked<p style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Viewed/Ranked</i></b></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><i>Oppenheimer </i></li><li><i>Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant </i></li><li><i>Asteroid City</i></li><li><i>The Creator</i></li><li><i>Napoleon </i></li><li><i>The Flash</i></li><li><i>Beau Is Afraid</i></li><li><i>Knock at the Cabin</i></li><li><i>65</i></li><li><i>Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre</i></li><li><i>The Equalizer 3</i></li><li><i>The Holdovers</i></li><li><i>Paint</i></li><li><i>American Fiction</i></li><li><i>Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One</i></li><li><i>Polite Society </i></li><li><i>John Wick IV</i></li><li><i>Poor Things</i></li><li><i>Killers of the Flower Moon</i></li><li><i>Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny</i></li><li><i>The Iron Claw</i></li><li><i>Master Gardener</i></li><li><i>Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom</i></li><li><i>Barbie</i></li><li><i>A Good Person</i></li><li><i>Magic Mike’s Last Dance</i></li><li><i>Blue Beetle</i></li><li><i>Marlowe</i></li><li><i>The Super Mario Brothers Movie</i></li><li><i>Sound of Freedom</i></li><li><i>Fast X</i></li><li><i>A Haunting in Venice</i></li><li><i>Shazam! Fury of the Gods</i></li><li><i>Sisu</i></li><li><i>Ant- Man and the Wasp: Quantumania</i></li><li><i>Sweetwater</i></li><li><i>Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3</i></li><li><i>Chevalier</i></li><li><i>Renfield</i></li><li><i>Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse</i></li><li><i>The Pope’s Exorcist </i></li><li><i>Creed III</i></li><li><i>The Last Voyage of the Demeter</i></li><li><i>Ruby Gilman, Teenage Kraken</i></li><li><i>Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves</i></li><li><i>Haunted Mansion</i></li><li><i>80 for Brady</i></li><li><i>Butcher’s Crossing</i></li><li><i>Plane</i></li><li><i>Cocaine Bear</i></li></ol><div><i><b>Other</b> <b>Notable</b> <b>Releases</b></i></div><div><i>Air</i></div><div><i>Anyone But You</i></div><div><i>The Boy and the Heron</i></div><div><i>The Boys in the Boat</i></div><div><i>Dream Scenario </i></div><div><i>Elemental</i></div><div><i>Expend4bles</i></div><div><i>Ferrari</i></div><div><i>Godzilla Minus One</i></div><div><i>The Little Mermaid</i></div><div><i>The Marsh King’s Daughter</i></div><div><i>The Marvels</i></div><div><i>Meg 2: The Trench</i></div><div><i>M3GAN</i></div><div><i>Migration</i></div><div><i>Next Goal Wins</i></div><div><i>No Hard Feelings</i></div><div><i>Past Lives</i></div><div><i>Priscilla </i></div><div><i>Saltburn</i></div><div><i>Saw X</i></div><div><i>Scream VI</i></div><div><i>Strays</i></div><div><i>Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour</i></div><div><i>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem</i></div><div><i>The Wandering Earth II</i></div><div><i>Wish</i></div><div><i>Wonka</i></div><p></p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-58344737217508375492024-01-13T09:57:00.000-08:002024-01-13T09:57:07.481-08:00The Creator (2023) review<p><i>rating</i>: ****</p><p><i>the story</i>: A vet in plunged into the endgame of a war between humanity and AI.</p><p><i>the review</i>: Here's another movie I have no clue hasn't had far more praise than it's received. It's damn near a work of genius. It's close to a masterpiece.</p><p>I'm starting to implicitly trust John David Washington's instincts. He's had a whole string of fascinating projects under his belt in recent years (<i>Tenet</i>, <i>Amsterdam</i>, and now <i>The Creator</i>), pushed himself well beyond dad Denzel Washington's shadow, and establishing his own definitive screen presence, not the calm cool of dad, not necessarily capable of <i>more</i>, but very much his own, and with the capability to fit in effortlessly into sweeping situations without being lost in them.</p><p><i>The Creator</i> is more than Washington, of course. It's Gareth Edwards' directorial follow-up to <i>Rogue One</i>, which is the leading candidate for Star Wars fans as best of the current cinematic era. I personally was not a fan of <i>Rogue One</i>. No, I was very much the opposite. In context, now, however, it makes a lot more sense, since in a lot of ways <i>The Creator</i> is a response to and continuation of its ideas, which makes much more sense, to me, in this context. <i>The Creator</i> itself also serves as that elusive concept Hollywood chased for years after 1977, a movie that evokes Star Wars without buckling horribly under the pressure, a thing that was almost impossible for twenty years. (Incredibly, although I have no idea when I myself will be able to consider the results, 2023 potentially gave us <i>two</i> such movies, with <i>Rebel Moon</i> also clearly envisioned from the bones of Star Wars.)</p><p>This is familiar territory, whether you consider the classic <i>I, Robot</i> stories, the movie that eventually resulted from it, the Terminator franchise, the Matrix movies, or even current fears of emerging AI prominence (although <i>The Creator</i> features traditional robots, its was heavily marketed with the concerns sweeping through the culture at the moment, and viewed from that light by critics and likely audiences). It doesn't matter. You've never seen anything like this.</p><p>I even say this as someone who loved Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen's <i>Descender/Ascender</i> comics, which have a number of parallels to <i>The Creator</i>, including a child robot destined to play a climactic role in events desperately sought by numerous figures. Doesn't matter. Visually the results are astonishing, exactly what modern filmmaking should be accomplishing (and not just an endless stream of superhero movies), but narratively, the results are equally assured, deliberate, and where all the critics complaining otherwise are coming from, I haven't a clue, since the central message is as relevant as it's ever been: the oppressed just don't want to be oppressed anymore, they just want to be free to live.</p><p>And that's really what's so great about <i>The Creator</i>, that it finally boils the robot story to what it really always was. We keep dreading the robot apocalypse, and yet...why? Why assume they're just gonna want to annihilate us? When do we figure out the best solution will always be the one that benefits everyone? That's what intelligence tells us, and the "i" in "AI" literally means "intelligence," so again...why? </p><p>That's what <i>The Creator</i> answers. That's what pushes it toward greatness. </p><p>Along with Washington are a few name actors, Allison Janney representing the humans and Ken Watanabe the robots. Isn't the presence of Watanabe itself an indication of quality? He's another actor who's consistently selected great material, always unfailingly delivering quality performances in roles intriguing and relevant to the success of the films around them.</p><p>Trust Ken Watanabe. Trust John David Washington. There are built-in moments just waiting to be enshrined in the pop canon. Help make <i>The Creator</i> a cult sensation at the very least!</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-22794467135597903802024-01-13T09:33:00.000-08:002024-01-13T09:33:16.468-08:00Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) review<p><i>the rating</i>: ****</p><p><i>the story</i>: Indy has a chance for one last great archeological find.</p><p><i>the review</i>: I now have my second favorite movie in the series. And who knows? It might even become my favorite. This is not likely something you've heard about <i>Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny</i> before. Certainly not with someone saying their favorite is <i>Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade</i>. I don't come to the franchise as a diehard believer. I caught up with <i>Raiders of the Lost Ark</i> much later than other fans. To me it's the first movie (and <i>Temple of Doom</i> is just another in the series). I liked <i>Kingdom of the Crystal Skull</i>, thought it was inconceivable that Lucas and Spielberg struggled to make what was such an obvious entry in the series (aliens) for the kind of careers each otherwise had. But it took James Mangold to reach <i>Dial of Destiny</i>, which achieves its greatness in much the way he did with <i>Logan</i>.</p><p>By finally just doing the kind of story that should have been told in the first place.</p><p>Henry Jones is an adventurer. But that's just the stories he finds himself in. He's actually, in his normal life, a professor, a lover of history, who sometimes goes on archeological searches, which happen to blow all out of proportion. But mostly a lover of history. I think <i>Dial of Destiny</i> is the first time that's really emphasized. By the time we reach the ending (anyone quibbling about what happens is perhaps forgetting about the leaps of faith the other entries ask of us), it's what he always wanted, the thing that he was destined to experience all along.</p><p>Mangold previously achieved this with <i>Logan</i>, as I said, the first and to date only Wolverine appearance from the X-Men film franchise to stop worrying so much about superhero adventures and just let the guy be himself, in his own life. <i>The Wolverine</i>, which was supposed to be the one that fixed that, buried him in a moody superhero adventure anyway. <i>X-Men Origins: Wolverine</i> tossed him throughout the timeline, and forgot who the villain was supposed to be (Victor Creed, not Deadpool, regardless of how he was portrayed). <i>Logan</i> made up for all of that. It told a complete story, and even played out symmetrically with the first standalone movie (by having Wolverine fight himself, it finished the story the first one abandoned). It also let him by the hero in an X-Men movie, which the X-Men movies kept dancing around, even when it was clear he was the star.</p><p><i>Dial of Destiny</i> throws the accustomed Nazis at Indy, enemies and allies to work off of, but for the first time it's <i>not</i> the adventure that drives the plot (as with a lot of modern filmmaking the screen is too dark anyway) but rather the awareness that Indy himself is the star, which is also why <i>Last Crusade</i> worked so well, because it put the focus on Indy and his dad (which is what inspired the <i>National Treasure</i> movies). While Disney continues to marvel at the technology that allows it to de-age faces, it's the older Indy that fascinates, and he's still very much up to the task, incredibly, all these years later. And at five films and a little over forty years, we've gotten to see a complete arc of the good professor's life.</p><p>What's most remarkable, perhaps, is that if you were to watch only one Indiana Jones movie, you could absolutely make the case for it being <i>Dial of Destiny</i>. Partisans will always default to <i>Raiders</i>, while <i>Last Crusade</i> has its selling points, too, but <i>Destiny</i> has young Indy, and it has old Indy, essentially a complete arc unto itself, and a single story uniting both, and a story linking his teaching life definitively to his private life. It's all there. That's why it's easy to sell.</p><p>Rounding out the cast this time are Antonio Banderas (I confess to missing everything but a glimpse of him), Mads Mikkelsen as the obligatory Nazi, Boyd Holbrook (who was also a standout in <i>Logan</i>), and Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a more youthful audience surrogate in case you're not <i>that</i> interested in seeing old bones revisited. </p><p>They say this is the last one. It should be. What a way to go! </p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-19353913568126765612023-12-30T12:49:00.000-08:002023-12-31T02:19:01.620-08:00Films from cheap DVD collections<div style="text-align: left;"><b>20 Classic Movie Collection: Leading Ladies</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Till the Clouds Roll By</i> (1946)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Biopic of Broadway pioneer Jerome Kern (best known today for the song "Old Man River") featuring Judy Garland (her spotlight song clearly evoking "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"), Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury. Not exactly <i>Yankee Doodle Dandy</i> but worth a look.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Home Town Story</i> (1951) Marilyn Monroe has a bit part in this film that's not quite <i>Citizen Kane</i> or Frank Capra, but tries hard to be.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Affair in Monte Carlo</i> (1952)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Weird editing makes this movie's timeline confusing in ways the filmmaking doesn't really support, essentially the body is flashback to a present that doesn't have much to say. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The Last Time I Saw Paris</i> (1954)</div><div style="text-align: left;">The unorthodox editing works better in this one (in other words, just plain better filmmaking) featuring Elizabeth Taylor, Donna Reed, Roger Moore, and Eva Gabor. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The Groom Wore Spurs</i> (1951)</div><div style="text-align: left;">A sendup of the classic celluloid cowboy featuring Ginger Rogers.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Midnight Cop</i> (1988)</div><div style="text-align: left;">A horrible detective story featuring Michael York and Morgan Fairchild.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring</i> (1975)</div><div style="text-align: left;">TV movie about Sally Field being a hippy who worries her family including Jackie Cooper (the Christopher Reeve-era Perry White) by dating and/or living with other hippies like David Carradine, who looks considerably different with all that hair.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Tulsa</i> (1949)</div><div style="text-align: left;">A movie starring Susan Hayward (and the Ed Begley who's not Ed Begley, Jr.!) that took on new light after I saw and read <i>Flowers of the Killer Moon</i>, covering very similar territory from a much different vantage point.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>The Deadly Companions</i> </b>(1961)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Sam Peckinpah directs a movie where people are crazy about Maureen O'Hara, with one good guy having to constantly defend her against all the bad guys he inadvertantly linked up with and prevent everyone from seeing the telltale clue about his past hiding beneath that cowboy hat he never removes...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Dishonored Lady</i> (1947)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Overblown drama revolving around Hedy Lamarr, (part-time inventor).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Kill Cruise</i> (1990)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Nonsense survival fluff featuring a young Elizabeth Hurley.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Nothing Sacred</i> </b>(1937)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Nonsense newspaper shenanigans featuring Carole Lombard, Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch of the West!) and Hattie McDaniel (<i>Gone with the Wind</i>).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The Snows of Kilimanjaro</i> (1952)</div><div style="text-align: left;">An adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway story featuring Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward and Ava Gardner.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Road to Bali</i> </b>(1952)</div><div style="text-align: left;">The sixth of seven in the series featuring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour (in most of them). Classic screwball comedy.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Mutiny</i> (1952)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Ridiculous tale featuring Angela Lansbury.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Never Wave at a WAC</i> (1953)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Screwball look at women in the military.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Jane Eyre</i> (1934)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Adaptation starring the literary classic.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The Seducers</i> (1977)</div><div style="text-align: left;">I watched through a lot of movies. Some of them I did not watch very thoroughly. Some of them just weren't worth the effort, okay? When these things are being compiled through the public domain, they take what they can get. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Katherine</i> (1975)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Another darned TV hippy flick, this one starring Sissy Spacek in the role of the young future star as a hippy and Henry Winkler as the hirsute actor you'll struggle to recognize as the hippy love interest.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Power, Passion & Murder</i> (1983)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Michelle Pfeiffer conveniently in the public domain, and also Hector Elizondo. And Holland Taylor!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>20 Classic Movie Collection: Leading Men</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Constantine and the Cross</i> (1962)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Cumbersome version of how Constantine converted himself and/or the Roman Empire.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The Night America Trembled</i> (1957)</div><div style="text-align: left;">This right here was for me worth pursuing any of this in the first place. A TV version of the famous Orson Welles broadcast of <i>War of the Worlds</i>, featuring Edward R. Murrow, Warren Beatty, Ed Asner and James Coburn.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The Animal Kingdom</i> (1932)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Puffle featuring Myrna Loy.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The Pied Piper of Hamelin</i> (1958)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Clever musical version of the classic tale featuring Van Johnson and Claude Rains (Prince John in the classic Errol Flynn <i>Adventures of Robin Hood</i>).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">That Uncertain Feeling</i> (1941)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Nonsense romance shenanigans featuring Burgess Meredith.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Life with Father</i> (1947)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Directed by Michael Curtiz (best known for <i>Casablanca</i>, but with a bunch of other standouts), but not worth much, a silly story about a dad played by William Powell (<i>The Thin Man</i> et al) and featuring Elizabeth Taylor.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">This is the Army</i> (1943)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Also directed by Curtiz (they couldn't afford any of his <i>good</i> movies), featuring Ronald Reagan in a movie that wishes it was <i>White Christmas</i>, with cameos from the likes of Irving Berlin, Joe Louis and Kate Smith.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The Amazing Adventure</i> (1937)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Cary Grant tries to prove he can survive without relying on his massive inherited fortune...but kind of only succeeds because of his massive inherited fortune anyway.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Borderline</i> (1950)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Fred MacMurray's the hero and Raymond Burr's the villain in this tale of uncertain identities pursuing justice.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">A Bolt of Lightning</i> (1951)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Another TV episode, a drama set during the runup to the Revolutionary War featuring Charlton Heston and very little to interest viewers.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">A Tattered Web</i> (1971)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Features Lloyd Bridges, James Hong (many small roles over the years!), and not much by way of me remembering anything about it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Target of an Assassin</i> (1976)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Features Anthony Quinn and another movie I don't remember much about.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The Bushwhackers</i> (1952)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Features Lawrence Tierney, Lon Chaney Jr., and a third disc of the set that starts out with nothing much happening.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Royal Wedding</i> (1951)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Fred Astaire to the rescue! Featuring memorable dancing on walls, ceiling...anything at all, even dancing with a hatrack!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Made for Each Other</i> (1939)</div><div style="text-align: left;">James Stewart and Carole Lombard can't save this.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Fighting Caravans</i> (1931)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Gary Cooper looking so young it's like seeing a silent film version.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The Lady Says No</i> (1952)</div><div style="text-align: left;">David Niven in not much to talk about here.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Behave Yourself</i> (1951)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Lon Chaney Jr. in another movie I didn't spend too much time on that same day.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Port of New York</i> (1949)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Gosh, <i>had</i> to pay attention to this one! Yul Brynner's hairline makes it pretty clear why he ended up with the bald look...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">David and Goliath</i> (1960)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Orson Welles can't save <i>this</i> one.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I barreled through all these from October 2nd to the 29th. It was an accomplishment of endurance and commitment when a lot of the material really didn't merit it. Here we are finally writing this up, which was the main reason I did it at all. Huzzah!</div>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-67368784289013515432023-12-09T05:19:00.000-08:002023-12-09T05:23:52.739-08:00Every 2023 movie I’ve seen so far<div style="text-align: left;"><b>65</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The more I thought of this one the more I loved it, an experience that’s worth it on a number of levels. Plus allows me to admire Adam Driver’s acting without much distraction.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>80</b> <b>for</b> <b>Brady</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The cast is low energy but it would be a sin against my home country not to partake.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>A</b> <b>Good</b> <b>Person</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">This was the year I finally understood the appeal of Florence Pugh. Another Zach Braff film worth savoring, another excellent turn from Morgan Freeman.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Ant</b>-<b>Man</b> <b>&</b> <b>the</b> <b>Wasp</b>: <b>Quantumania</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The problem with recent MCU movies is that they keep trying to be overly ambitious without necessarily understanding how to do it. It’s the reverse of <i>Captain</i> <i>America</i>: <i>Civil</i> <i>War</i>, the third one in that trilogy that was essentially an Avengers movie. Keeping this movie entirely contained with Ant-Man characters both robs it of the Ant-Man storytelling from the two previous entries and makes Kang look infinitely smaller than he should. It’s one thing to contextualize Thanos, another to just use the villain and actually defeat him in epic fashion before he has a chance to be a threat worth bringing in other heroes.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Asteroid</b> <b>City</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">My gosh one of my favorite Wes Andersons.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Barbie</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Yeah, it was fun!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Beau</b> <b>is</b> <b>Afraid</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The director (Ari Aster) has been a cult favorite for a few years now, but ironically I find him most palatable when he’s at his most indulgent and not just trying to impress. A strange wonderful experience.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Blue</b> <b>Beetle</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I loved this more in theaters than I did at home. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Chevalier</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Wanted to make one point and either intentionally or accidentally made another. Look, we have a black musical genius who ended up buried by history. Worth rediscovering. Not worth trying to sell the benefits of the horrific Reign of Terror in the process.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Cocaine</b> <b>Bear</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I really wanted to like a big dumb movie. I ended up just sort of liking it. Desperately needed characters as outlandish as the premise. But the ‘90s sort of proved this was a very fine line to walk. So I get why it went in a different direction.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Dungeons</b> <b>&</b> <b>Dragons</b>: <b>Honor</b> <b>Among</b> <b>Thieves</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Basically an MCU movie set outside the MCU.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Fast</b> <b>X</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I’ve been along for the ride since the second one. Of course I’m still aboard.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The</b> <b>Flash</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I will always doubt public opinion on the face of it when it’s too universally positive or too universally negative, since it becomes clear most of it is just people deciding it’s easy to just agree. This would be one of those modern examples. I love the Barry Allens. I love Keaton’s return. I love Supergirl. I adore this depiction of the Allen household and crisis. Everything else is needless nitpicking.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Guardians</b> <b>of</b> <b>the</b> <b>Galaxy</b> <b>Vol</b>. <b>3</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I love that we get the secret origin of Rocket. Everything else basically ignores Rocket himself, though, which is the basic problem of the film. If you have the heart you need it pumping.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Guy</b> <b>Ritchie’s</b> <b>The</b> <b>Covenant</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">From April until July this was easily my movie of the year, a breathtaking set of journeys built around themes of duty, commitment, endurance, responsibility, humanity, all needful statements in this current age.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>John</b> <b>Wick</b>: <b>Chapter</b> <b>4</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Watching it in the theater I wondered if it had, other than its ending, something valuable to add to the franchise. Watching it back later, I understood its merits better.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Killers</b> <b>of</b> <b>the</b> <b>Flower</b> <b>Moon</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Martin Scorsese has been chasing <i>The</i> <i>Godfather</i> his whole career. This may be his most complete response.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Knock</b> <b>at</b> <b>the</b> <b>Cabin</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">M. Night Shyamalan back to his classic roots after years of experimenting. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The</b> <b>Last</b> <b>Voyage</b> <b>of</b> <b>the</b> <b>Demeter</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">As an addition to Dracula film lore, I’m glad this happened.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Marlowe</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Liam Neeson is taken totally for granted these days since he “only makes mindless action movies.” This is a great take on a classic literary and film figure.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Master</b> <b>Gardener</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">A classic showcase for Joel Edgerton.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Mission</b>: <b>Impossible</b> - <b>Dead</b> <b>Reckoning</b> <b>Part</b> <b>One</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is the fourth stylistic reincarnation of the series, more playful, somehow more dramatic.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Napoleon</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Ridley Scott is the unchallenged king of historical epics. And this is probably his best work.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Operation</b> <b>Fortune</b>: <b>Ruse</b> <b>de</b> <b>Guerre</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">It’s strange how effortlessly I’ve become a fan of Guy Ritchie in recent years, since for a long time I couldn’t have cared less. But these days he can do no wrong for me. This one’s popcorn enjoyable.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Oppenheimer</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Something would have to come out of nowhere to displace this as my favorite movie of the year. A career pinnacle of a career built out of pinnacles.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Paint</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Owen Wilson doesn’t appear in <i>Asteroid</i> <i>City</i>, but in this film found something Andersonesque anyway. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Plane</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">On Facebook I’m in a <i>Lost</i> group. Someone pointed out this was essentially a Gerard Butler version of the basic plot of the series. Which it is. Which is not necessarily the only way to enjoy it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Polite</b> <b>Society</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">This year’s closest equivalent to <i>Everything</i> <i>Everywhere</i> <i>All</i> <i>At</i> <i>Once</i> is a delight not completely to that level but its own irresistible pleasure.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The</b> <b>Pope’s</b> <b>Exorcist</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Russell Crowe getting back into theatrical starring roles is a good thing as far as career statements go. This one wasn’t as good as it could have been. Almost. Still an interesting role and performance from him, though.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Renfield</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The other Dracula movie (perfect role for modern Nic Cage!) is great fun.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Ruby</b> <b>Gillman</b>, <b>Teenage</b> <b>Kraken</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">It’s not just Disney firing blanks with families this year. This is an entertaining movie that came and went with nobody noticing.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Shazam</b>! <b>Fury</b> <b>of</b> <b>the</b> <b>Gods</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">More confident than the first one. Still requires you to believe this is the DC alternative to everything you didn’t like about every other recent DC movie.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Sisu</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">One of those obvious cult classics in the making that it’s absolutely worth experiencing. A slightly more grounded John Wick. <i>Slightly</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Sound</b> <b>of</b> <b>Freedom</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Jim Caviezel has become a genius at finding projects for those interested in him from that time he got brutalized for two hours.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Spider</b>-<b>Man</b>: <b>Across</b> <b>the</b> <b>Spider</b>-<b>Verse</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">A kind of postmodern superhero movie that’s less about the superhero doing anything super and more about the superhero plunged deep into superhero logic. Most comics are being written like this these days. I know this is the second one, but I found this one easier to watch. But still a snake eating its own tail.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The</b> <b>Super</b> <b>Mario</b> <b>Bros</b>. <b>Movie</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Pretty much exactly what it needed to be. (So the exact opposite of that other attempt thirty years ago which thought it was <i>Beetlejuice</i>.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Sweetwater</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">The kind of movie that gets no attention these days but used to be studio and cultural bread and butter, explores the story of the first black player in the NBA, totally unknown today.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Other movies to catch up on, others yet to be seen…!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-44764867539659893482023-09-16T11:44:00.001-07:002023-09-16T11:44:55.442-07:00Don't waste time investigating Billy Jack<p>Because a collection was at Walmart featuring the character's entire legacy, I finally had a look at <i>Billy Jack</i> (1971), a movie I first heard about when investigating historic box office results. Until then I had no clue it existed, which is incredibly rare for a large box office hit, which is a phenomenon that happens because a movie makes a significant impact on the pop culture and will be referenced one way or another for years to come. The Oscars are a completely different matter. Most nominations are minor films featuring performances or production work Academy voters are keen for one reason or another to recognize, and it's always been that way.</p><p>Actually watching <i>Billy Jack</i> explained why this happened to it pretty quickly. It's a terrible movie. Its predecessor, <i>The Born Losers</i> (1967) is terrible. Its sequels, <i>The Trial of Billy Jack</i> (1974) and <i>Billy Jack Goes to Washington</i> (1977; which doesn't fail <i>because</i> it's an almost complete reshoot of <i>Mr. Smith Goes to Washington</i>, but because it retains the same hairbrained production values as the rest of the series, which has as its dubious legacy forcing the blockbuster concept on the wide release schedule movies have been following ever since),<i> </i>are terrible.</p><p>I mean <i>terrible</i>. The title character (which is itself <i>terrible</i>) is a macho hippy. But a hippy all the same. All his supporters are hippies. The real hippies, not the ones the media has tried for decades to sell on a gullible public in the post-hippy era. Basically the ones Quentin Tarantino features in <i>Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood</i>, only the Billy Jack hippies are presented as the counterculture heroes of legend, a <i>huge emphasis </i>on "heroes."</p><p>The most offensive part, for me, is that these hippies believe they make good music, but they seem fundamentally incapable of any such thing. The whole series features, proudly, the anthem "One Tin Soldier" which, if you're keeping up with me, is <i>terrible</i>. Just so completely convoluted it's difficult to understand how even <i>one</i> film, much less any <i>audience member</i> (it's described elsewhere online as iconic) could believe for a hot minute it isn't complete garbage.</p><p>Billy Jack himself is pretty awesome. He's a dude who can't help but get into fights, and he pioneered martial arts as a cinematic way to do so. He's worth rooting for, but nothing around him really justifies his actions except in the most cardboard way. It's like the charisma of Steve McQueen without the cool. Basically every successful Steve McQueen flick was all <i>about</i> selling the cool image. It was the whole point. McQueen went well out of his way to <i>make sure</i> he looked cool. He had an ego. In the right context, that's exactly all you really need.</p><p>Billy Jack desperately needed anything, anything at all to work. The success of the films, such as it was, owed everything to guerilla marketing. It worked. For that time. But no one in the Hollywood establishment respected the results. You don't need that. But you do need good filmmaking. </p><p>So do yourself a favor, and don't waste time investigating <i>Billy Jack</i>. It's not worth your time. Unless you have morbid curiosity.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-34594073254010490582023-09-09T11:38:00.004-07:002023-09-09T11:38:50.541-07:00Always adding physical media into the collection…<p>I never stopped buying DVDs to my collection. I only <i>started</i> buying Blu-rays a few years ago, when I finally got a player upgrade. Yesterday (and today!) was pretty lucky. I always like to check out thrift stores to see what they’ve got. A local community college had apparently purged its collection (because, y’know, streaming platforms fall all over themselves promoting classic film…), had even tried <i>giving</i> <i>their</i> <i>stock</i> <i>away</i> <i>for</i> <i>free</i>, and, well…I ended up getting to benefit. I certainly don’t mind!</p><p>Here’s what I picked up:</p><p>-<i>As</i> <i>You</i> <i>Like</i> <i>It</i>, one of Kenneth Branagh’s later Shakespeare adaptations. Haven’t seen it yet.</p><p>-<i>Blow</i> <i>Out</i>, a Brian De Palma/John Travolta classic I also haven’t seen yet, in a Criterion Collection edition, no less.</p><p>-<i>Cloud</i> <i>Atlas</i>, one of those supremely ambitious novels/movies with an all star cast headed by Tom Hanks in probably (several) of his most interesting performances, which I’ve been wanting to revisit for a few years.</p><p>-<i>Dog</i> <i>Day</i> <i>Afternoon</i>, an Al Pacino classic I’ve never seen.</p><p>-<i>Exit</i> <i>Through</i> <i>the</i> <i>Gift</i> <i>Shop</i>, a documentary on Banksy. Back in yon Borders days, I learned about the graffiti genius through a number of books we always had stocked. A few years back I saw a different Banksy doc on a plane ride.</p><p>-<i>Frost</i>/<i>Nixon</i>, which is another movie I’ve long wanted to see.</p><p>-A doc on Hemingway.</p><p>-<i>The</i> <i>Madness</i> <i>of</i> <i>King</i> <i>George</i>, a ‘90s movie that I’ve also been interested in seeing for years.</p><p>-<i>The</i> <i>Man</i> <i>Who</i> <i>Would</i> <i>Be</i> <i>King</i>, which I’ve been wanting to add to my collection for years. Great movie.</p><p>-<i>Tess</i> <i>of</i> <i>the</i> <i>D’Urbervilles</i>, a BBC production starring Gemma Arterton I’ve had in my collection before and am glad to add back in, also so I can watch it again.</p><p>-<i>Whale</i> <i>Rider</i>, which I’ll be very happy to see again.</p><p>-<i>White</i> <i>Christmas</i>, which is a big family favorite I haven’t owned until now.</p><p>-<i>Leading</i> <i>Men</i>/<i>Leading</i> <i>Ladies</i>, one of those collections of material that would probably have not sold much individually. By far the production I’m most interested in, here, is <i>The</i> <i>Night</i> <i>America</i> <i>Trembled</i>, concerning Orson Welles’ infamous radio broadcast of <i>War</i> <i>of</i> <i>the</i> <i>Worlds</i>.</p><p>Dollar Tree is a surprisingly good place to find interesting things, including books and, yes, DVDs (and Blu-rays!). Today I found:</p><p>-<i>Good</i> <i>Kill</i>, a movie starring Ethan Hawks and Zoe Kravitz (which will probably be the first time I see her in something other than a genre performance).</p><p>-<i>The</i> <i>Sun</i> <i>Is</i> <i>Also</i> <i>a</i> <i>Star</i>/<i>Everything</i>, <i>Everything</i>, two adaptation of Nicola Yoon books.</p><p>-<i>Killing</i> <i>Eve</i> Season Two, a BBC series (Dollar Tree often has BBC programming, including generous helpings of <i>Doctor</i> <i>Who</i>) starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer (who stole <i>The</i> <i>Last</i> <i>Duel</i> from Adam Driver and Matt Damon). Haven’t seen the show yet, so this will be interesting.</p><p>-<i>Spectacle</i>: <i>Elvis</i> <i>Costello</i> <i>with</i>…, a TV series featuring interviews with and performances from a variety of interesting folks.</p><p>-<i>Best</i> <i>of</i> <i>British</i>, a box set of various documentaries and several facsimiles of historical documents, which was indeed an awesome find.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-13124974065557033012023-09-02T12:54:00.001-07:002023-09-02T12:57:50.196-07:00Oppenheimer (2023) Review<p><i>rating</i>: *****</p><p><i>the story</i>: The director of the Manhattan Project discovers great achievements don't always have happy endings.</p><p><i>the review</i>: Most of the time, when you see what's going to be your favorite movie of the year, there ought to be no doubt. Christopher Nolan has been one of my favorite directors since 2001, when <i>Memento</i> was released, and for a few years held the slot of my <i>favorite</i> movie, and in the two decades or so since, he's continued to make movies that I have very enthusiastically received, <i>The Dark Knight</i>, <i>Inception</i>, and <i>Interstellar</i> being my favorites from their release years (2008, 2010, 2014). Although it received a considerable amount of pre-release buzz, in part because it was scheduled to hit theaters the same weekend as <i>Barbie</i>, I had no idea what to expect from <i>Oppenheimer</i>. I loved his previous attempt at historical, WWII drama, <i>Dunkirk</i>, but it didn't feel like an <i>achievement</i> so much as an <i>experience</i>. Nolan is <i>very</i> good at <i>experiences</i>, and has at times been on the verge of letting his talents rest of that level alone (here I certainly think of <i>Tenet</i>, which is its own kind of great filmmaking, but not as clear a <i>statement</i>). <i>Oppenheimer</i> is a complete package. As social media personality Logan Paul famously lamented, it's pretty much <i>nothing but talking</i>, but it's a tonal masterpiece. The score certainly helps, but three hours of a perfect score is something even Terrence Malick can't necessarily reliably pull off. Eventually there needs to be some concrete substance, and <i>that</i> can be found in <i>spades</i> throughout <i>Oppenheimer</i>.</p><p>It certainly doesn't hurt the sheer embarrassment of talent, and this is something even <i>I</i> can sometimes get carried away being dazzled by, but <i>Oppenheimer</i>'s cast is stuffed to the rafters, and most of its actors are in relatively small roles while the bulk of the film rests on Cillian Murphy (long looking for that one great role, which this is) and a little on Robert Downey Jr. finally proving, once again, he's not just a superhero great at making quips, very deliberately changing his look and most of the time sounding nothing at all like Tony Stark (though happily our Iron Man comes out of his shell now and then), and Emily Blunt resting comfortably in the background until she <i>commands</i> the screen, and Rami Malik echoing <i>that</i>, and Matt Damon playing first supporting role (the man is as near a genius at selecting material as modern cinema has ever found, so often willing to play whatever role he wants it's astonishing that he's also remained a reliable <i>leading</i> actor the whole time), and then there's also Casey Affleck, Gary Oldman and Kenneth Branagh, Jason Clarke...A pair of would-be next generation lead actors, Dane DeHaan and Josh Hartnett, <i>they're</i> here.</p><p>Tom Conti, a respected actor from a previous generation, turns in a chameleon role as Einstein, a pivotal if minor one in the movie. Einstein's role itself in the movie is genius, stepping away from the theatrics of <i>The Prestige</i>'s Tesla though hinging on the same basic story structure, of a crucial moment between two characters that must be examined either by the audience or by the story itself to be understood as so crucial, the kind of storytelling Nolan employed in his <i>first</i> movie, <i>Following</i>, that had one of those twist endings that originally made Nolan himself seem as if he might after all be dismissed as a gimmick, as M. Night Shyamalan was for so long (and so many <i>still</i> believe so <i>today</i>), a fad. </p><p><i>Oppenheimer</i> is the definitive proof that Christopher Nolan is no such thing. When Spielberg delivered <i>Schindler's List </i>and then <i>Saving Private Ryan</i>, his <i>own</i> one-two WWII punch, it opened new avenues of appreciation for his talent, and <i>depth</i> of talent. Nolan, even in his superhero movies, never went broad. He sought audience approval in scale of spectacle, the way Spielberg did it in the '70s, and never in mere thrills or childlike awe. For too long Nolan was easy to dismiss because he didn't pursue the "truly adult," the straightforward drama. Even <i>Dunkirk</i> relies on a series of timelines that robs it of a center beyond the central event. <i>Oppenheimer</i> is classic Hollywood, a biopic. Except no one's done it like <i>this</i> before. </p><p>In most of his films, Nolan studied the concept of not just <i>identity</i> but <i>self</i>-identity, and while his characters often find themselves misunderstood, he's never really allowed them to <i>suffer</i> for it, never quite left the impression of an unhappy ending, and yet that's exactly what he does with <i>Oppenheimer</i>, and is thus the answer to why Einstein's brief role in the film is so crucial, why the story keeps circling back to it. In criticizing the past, Nolan is of course giving us a damning metaphor about the present, since sometimes when you can't state things outright, you have to elucidate another way. </p><p>I've long since stopped worrying about what Christopher Nolan can possibly do <i>next</i>. Anything he wants. It's all possible. Of course he could never make another film, and his work will have already towered over his contemporaries, and the whole history of the medium. </p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-2221052046548383162023-08-12T10:43:00.003-07:002023-08-12T10:51:24.821-07:002022 Capsule Reviews<div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Batman</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: As unlikely as this is for me to believe, there are now two visionary depictions of Batman in the movies, <i>The Dark Knight</i> and <i>The Batman</i>. By the final act, in which Batman realizes his idea of "being vengeance" ended up sending the wrong message, and instead choosing to rescue people in broad daylight, that's a quantum shift in the legacy of the character. This is the kind of thing that matters when deciding to make yet another Batman movie. Tim Burton's <i>Batman</i> made it okay to take the character seriously, and now Christopher Nolan and Matt Reeves have built on that, which to my mind makes it the most important film of the year. The idea of the superhero has been one of the leading concepts of the past hundred years of pop culture. Still done best with this one.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Amsterdam</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The idea of the adult drama has suffered in recent decades as a popular phenomenon, but this David O. Russell all star ensemble is an excellent reminder of just how important it is to the art of film. I would stack it up with anyone's idea of Hollywood classics.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Banshees of Inisherin</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Colin Farrell got another legitimate classic out of this reteaming with Martin McDonagh and Brendan Gleeson (after <i>In Bruges</i> saved his Hollywood reputation), though it's far darker and less kind to fingers in general.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Everything Everywhere All At Once</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: That this somehow actually won the Best Picture at the Oscars is a kind of miracle, but it's such an interesting and insightful movie, hopefully more people actually watch it as a result.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Three Thousand Years of Longing</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Another miracle, though it's disappointing that hardly anyone seems to know it happened, even while George Miller, Tilda Swinton, and Idris Elba fired on all cylinders to make it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Elvis</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: For decades, if Elvis made it into biopics at all they were either on TV or some minor productions, on the whole, they might as well not have happened. This was a necessary thing, then, that nailed it. Also, Tom Hanks in one of his character roles. Not the first. Probably the one most fans will point to in later years.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Nope</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Jordan Peele earned himself the title of auteur with <i>Get Out</i>, but owns it with this ambitious meditation on strange phenomena (and other matters).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Top Gun: Maverick</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Probably the single most telling success story of the year, one very view would have seen coming just a few years earlier, when it seemed Tom Cruise's popular career was over. Instead he turns in a true classic sequel to one of his earliest and biggest hits. This is how you know the death of cinema was greatly exaggerated.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Bullet Train</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: In college, at least when I went, there was an obsession with obtaining posters to plaster dorm walls, and one of the themes from the selections would be cult cinema. I can't imagine <i>Bullet Train</i> not obtaining that status. Brad Pitt had a whole renaissance year in 2022, and this was its peak.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Where the Crawdads Sing</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The wide success of the popular novel in the early century led to an explosion of bookclubs to keep it going, which eventually led to the book on which this was based. Eventually I was smart enough to read that book, and made the even better decision to watch the movie that resulted. The emphasis on David Straitharn's supporting character, to my mind, makes it a classic.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: At this point it's a known fact that this series ended with <i>Secrets</i>, and it's really hard to believe that the studio didn't know it was going to make that call right at the start of production. There was a hard pivot at just about every juncture, except most of the main characters returning and receiving a kind of closure, with an even bigger emphasis on Dumbledore than the last one. As a fan of the series and franchise, I think it accomplished what it needed to, though it's still rough to think what might have been.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Avatar: The Way of Water</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I don't think enough has been made of just how grand these films are as cinematic spectacles. I mean, it's pretty much the whole point. With the first one, after a while, people started to wonder why they cared so much, why it made so much money, and so they doubted the much-belated second one would be any kind of success. But of course it was anyway. And was just as astounding. In storytelling, it's not overly special. But it's pure movie magic.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>After Yang</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A much more quiet but still critical success for Colin Farrell. There's a neat moment near the beginning where the family dances. I like that bit.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Outfit</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: After <i>Waiting for the Barbarians</i>, I became a fan of Mark Rylance, who pulls off another success with this unexpected suspense drama.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Breaking</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Holy cow, what a spotlight for John Boyega! In other decades he would've been showered with acting awards. Somehow not in this one.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Marry Me</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Jennifer Lopez hit a another popular peak in recent years, and this throwback to her biggest movie successes works, for me, as it happens to costar Owen Wilson, who's been a lowkey favorite of mine for years.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Uncharted</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Made me actually like the pipsqueak who plays the modern Spider-Man. A solid riff on what will forever be known as the Indiana Jones archetype.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Sonic the Hedgehog 2</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Jim Carrey declared he was done with acting after this. If he really is, it's not a bad way to go.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Black Adam</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: People with nothing better to do have been having a field day with the box office failure of this one, saying it's the final nail in the coffin of Dwayne Johnson's popular career. Most of them have barely any notion of what Johnson's career has actually looked like. Well, anyway, I loved it. I think it's an astonishing miracle it got made like this at all, much less the fact that it got made only because Johnson took the role. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Bad Guys</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: On Twitter (or whatever you'd like to call it these days), I have one of the creators of the cartoon strip <i>Over the Hedge</i> in my feed. I bring this up because he's always trying to drum up support for a sequel to the animated film that resulted from it. I figure <i>The Bad Guys</i> is destined for that kind of fate, a classic of a movie that maybe will never get the respect it's due, much less a sequel. But it could play out differently!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Ambulance</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: It's kind of hard to believe <i>now</i>, but there was a time when Michael Bay was taken seriously as a filmmaker. The Criterion Collection even added <i>Armageddon</i> to its highly selective catalog of mostly European cinema and American auteurs. I haven't always overly interested in his career myself (still have yet to see <i>Armageddon</i>, even!), but I figured if anyone was capable of helping define the cinematic surge that was 2022, it was Bay. I was right. Good stuff.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Contractor</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A fine spotlight for Chris Pine, an action as well as character drama that allows him to showcase his strengths in both.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Menu</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, crazy social commentary...Whate else do you want served?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Puss in Boots: The Last Wish</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Unlike his last solo outing, Puss's belated second adventure leans back into his <i>Shrek</i> origins with more shenanigans and spoof characters.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Crimes of the Future</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: David Cronenberg showing up in a recurring role for <i>Star Trek: Discovery</i> was enough to convince me to have a look at <i>Crimes</i>, which was overly sensationalized (the third <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> movie received similar treatment) by sensitive viewers, when it's really a quiet drama about outsiders.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Don't Worry Darling</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I am not remotely part of the critical cult of Florence Pugh, but this compelling cautionary tale from Olivia Wilde (<i>now</i> I get why Salman Rushdie was so interested in her; y'know, other than the obvious), which also gives Chris Pine a higher profile gig, a nice spotlight. Harry Styles got the opposite of the Pugh treatment for no discernible reason.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Lost City</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: This all star ensemble (Sandra Bullock! Channing Tatum! Daniel Radcliffe! even Brad Pitt in a supporting role!) is a fun ride. I would've tweaked some things here and there. Still kind of upset Pitt didn't have a bigger role. Kind of stole the movie for me. Fun fact! Bullock and Tatum also both show up in <i>Bullet Train</i>. Very weird. Fairly certain they were completely different studios.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Ticket to Paradise</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Nice to see George Clooney show up in something visible again (and it was also a minor hit!). Not to par with his best movies, but certainly worth watching. His costar Julia Roberts, she's worth noting probably, too. Old school Hollywood definitely felt like asserting itself in 2022.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Moonfall</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Another callback to the '90s! It was like <i>Independence Day</i> all over again!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Death on the Nile</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I read the book before watching the movie. Usually I call hogwash the notion that the book is always better than the movie. But I had a hard time forgetting how enjoyable the book was. I adore Kenneth Branagh making these movies, though. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Babylon</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Here's Pitt again. But it's really mostly just Margot Robbie doing her crazy routine in the most thoroughly old school Hollywood possible. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Father Stu</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I was surprised when I heard my dad say he enjoyed this one, since I thought it leaned a little heavily on Father Stu's pre-Catholic days.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Thor: Love and Thunder</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: For me a huge step up from <i>Ragnorak</i>, which everyone who saw it loved, and loathed this one. You never can tell how these things will play out. Best Thor movie, and very easily so for me.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Forgiven</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I wasn't actually much of a fan of Ralph Fiennes' prior career as a generally mopy movie star, and yet this is a callback to that, with the added bonus of Jessica Chastain joining along for the ride.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Northman</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Cult-like success convinced me to watch. Generally worth it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Clerks III</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Haven't technically seen the other two. Kevin Smith growing nostalgic works on its own.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The 355</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: An all-womens all star ensemble led by Jessica Chastain is probably well worth another look down the line despite being savagely dismissed on original release.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Beast</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Idris Elba in a family drama highlighted by a vicious fight scene at the end with the eponymous lion.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Morbius</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: People have no idea how often they're manipulated by studios. Disney is a terrible offender in this. They hype up their product, and spread bad vibes for any and all competitors. This isn't conspiracy. It doesn't always work, too, especially when no one is really going to see a wide success coming. But you get things like the constant mindless negativity for Sony's <i>Morbius</i>, which is admittedly already an improbable vehicle. Better than any of the Blade movies ever were, anyway. Once the machine gears up, people assume their poor opinions of something were self-generated. Don't know what to tell ya. Most of you don't work <i>that</i> hard to generate a reaction. You agree with the consensus, even when it was somehow there before a movie like this was even released. That's how it works.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Minions: The Rise of Gru</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: This sort of thing will work really well for kids, but for adults the charms of the original (<i>Despicable Me</i>, in case you forgot) suffer diminishing returns the more the series forgets that the whole point was to, y'know, <i>redeem</i> Gru...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Memory</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A minor though interesting variation in the later Liam Neeson action canon, allowing the reality of his aging to inform some of the drama.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Fabelmans</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: For me, Spielberg's career becomes increasingly sad as he desperately pleads for the approval of the Hollywood establishment. This is the guy who <i>redefined</i> the establishment forty years ago. He has no business worrying about such things. And yet he does.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Jurassic World: Dominion</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: This is a whole franchise (going all the way back to <i>Jurassic Park</i> itself) that I've never really been overly invested in, and yet they keep making new movies, and so I have a look every now and then, and it's okay. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Medieval </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Gosh, I wish Ben Foster had held out for something a little better.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>DC League of Superpets</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Will certainly be worth revisiting, but immediately seems to have been worth the trailer, which was really good, and not a whole lot more.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I think probably after it lost its original meta plot of Nicolas Cage appearing in a Quentin Tarantino film, I lost most of my actual interest. But it's still nice that Cage clawed his way back into movie theaters thanks to whatever you want to call the finished results.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The King's Daughter</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Live action Disney that isn't Disney nor adapting any known Disney material. So it's probably definitely something you can show the whole family and enjoy. But not remember very clearly later.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: To me, the definition of insulting is bothering to bring in a collection of cameo characters that you mindlessly slaughter to drive up the threat of the character who isn't even, in the final analysis, the main threat of the movie. What a truly embarrassing statement on the current state of the MCU. Astute readers will note I haven't seen all of the recent additions. I really don't see the point. Now they're just making it the same as the actual comics. Which for me have also been widely skippable. In order to prove their further relevance, they're becoming either further irreverent or mindlessly obsessed with counterfeit legacies. What joy.</div>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-15873316521307662032023-07-15T10:58:00.001-07:002023-07-15T10:58:36.845-07:002021 Capsule Reviews<div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Last Duel</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: You can tell how lousy critical standards have gotten when a movie that would've been universally acclaimed twenty years ago, been hailed as innovative, and boasted career-defining performances is instead derided, ignored, shunned. This is a masterpiece. Besides Matt Damon and Adam Driver you've got Jodie Comer in a career-making role as each of their perspectives is tracked, separately, until the truth (Comer's) closes out Ridley Scott's spectacle (no one has come remotely close to matching him in terms of consistent achievement in historic epics).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The French Dispatch</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Wes Anderson's most laconic film is basically a glorified anthology, in which he's clearly indulging himself. Another great film that in any other era would've been celebrated as such. This is what you get when the pandemic is still happening and streaming services are hogging all the attention. No perspective.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Courier</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: My biggest surprise discovery of the year would've been standard acclaim material in any other era: Benedict Cumberbatch in a spotlight as he suffers the depravities at the height of the Cold War. If I hadn't randomly decided to watch it in the theater early in the year, I probably would never have known it happened at all.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Green Knight</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: David Lowery has been one of the premier artistic directors of the modern era, but it somehow took for this for the mainstream to notice, and even then it wasn't hailed as the huge achievement it really is. A classic retelling of a classic tale.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>No Time to Die</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The second and only other time critics actually liked Daniel Craig as Bond (<i>Skyfall</i>, basically a desperate attempt to justify Judi Dench in the franchise) is basically also the only time I <i>didn't</i>. The audacity of <i>No Time</i> is that it dares to <i>complete the story</i>, which <i>Casino Royale </i>and <i>Quantum of Solace</i> had originally suggested was this version of the character's hallmark. This, then, is the first time the story has an ending, that James Bond has an actual arc. It's the <i>Dark Knight Rises</i> of 007. It's a new wrinkle in the mythology. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Boss Level</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Qualifying as one of the miracles of the pandemic was the actual release of the much-delayed <i>Boss Level</i> from Joe Carnahan, which was the first of a one-two punch from him for the year. A classic example of the time loop genre.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Snake Eyes</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: If not quite <i>The Dark Knight</i>, this is probably the closest we're liable to see anytime soon to G.I. Joe being taken seriously as a cinematic property. Another unfairly dismissed film from the year.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Die in a Gunfight</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: What I'd like to consider an easy candidate for cult status, a retelling of Romeo & Juliet that also recasts the gang film genre into something more artistically ambitious.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Last Night in Soho</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A spellbinding time travel experience that combines the unique charms of Edgar Wright and Abya Taylor-Joy.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Settlers</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: For my purposes I include only cinematic releases. I'm not <i>sure</i> this was, but I don't really care, as it's worth the exception. A fine space western centering around a young girl struggling to survive terrible circumstances. Worth considering for cult status for anyone who bothers to seek it out.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Needle in a Timestack</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Another genre spectacle, this time from John Ridley, involving more time travel hijinks in innovative ways, someone changing the timeline trying to find their perfect reality, and finding poignant results.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Judas and the Black Messiah</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Explosive drama featuring a standout lead performance from Daniel Kaluuya that would have been instantly iconic in any other...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Mauritanian</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The trilogy of great historic dramas concludes with this look at Guantanamo Bay. Add Tahar Rahim to the list of those robbed of their just acclaim from the year.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Free Guy</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: This was basically Ryan Reynolds' audition for the Disney version of Deadpool. A very rare original blockbuster idea for the modern era.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Belfast</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Kenneth Branagh has been successfully navigating an era in which his kind of career shouldn't still exist, so he got to make a personal film along the way, a throwback to the kinds of movies they were doing back in the '90s.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Dune</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Denis Villeneuve has stepped away from his solo auteur status to embrace his unique role as a successful director of auteur blockbuster adaptations. An incredible ensemble of acting talent came along for the ride in this first installment.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Pig</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The very rare exception to the modern rule that you probably won't personally be interested in Nicolas Cage's further career if you liked him in his earlier stages when he was doing serious material.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Zola</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I found Taylour Paige to be exceptionally magnetic in this small-scale drama based on a series of tweets.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Copshop</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: If you loved Robert Rodriguez's early films you'll probably enjoy this second Joe Carnahan romp from the year. Both are also excellent showcases for Frank Grillo, by the way.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Sing 2</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I came for U2, but it was actually Coldplay that stole the movie for me. Also some typical but enjoyable animated material around the music.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Death of a Telemarketer</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Silly and yet enjoyable. Haley Joel Osment pulls in a supporting role! He looks like a teddy bear these days. Put a few more years on him and I think he can use that for a career revival.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Chaos Walking</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Spider-Man and Rey help each other survive a weird planet. I think this was interesting.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Venom: Let There Be Carnage</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Maybe if they make enough of these they'll just let Tom Hardy exist on his own wacky terms with his goop doppelganger.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Old</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: M. Night Shyamalan rediscovering his classic footing. A minor but welcome addition to his filmography.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Every Breath You Take</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A nice actors' drama revolving around Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, and Sam Claflin.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Little Things</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Denzel Washington, Jared Leto, and Rami Malik in another throwback to the '90s. Well worth watching these guys work alone.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>House of Gucci</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Come for a much more odd Leto turn in a supporting role, stay for Adam Driver and Ridley Scott in a second, minor triumph to bracket the year together. Marvel that Lady Gaga doesn't seem as wildly out of place as she did, when not singing, in <i>A Star Is Born</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> <b>King Richard</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Destined to be known as the movie that led to the Oscars moment, this is also Will Smith's latest attempt to be taken seriously as an actor. He got the Oscar to show for it. But he kind of blew the moment anyway.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Our Friend</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Affleck again, this time with Jason Segal, whose star potential is once again lost in a year that saw no point in paying attention to cinematic releases.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Space Jam: A New Legacy</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: If anything, this gimmick-infused belated sequel knew even better how to be frivolously enjoyable than the first one.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>City of Lies</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Well, it was still mandatory to shun Johnny Depp at this point, so there was no way anyone would admit this Biggie Smalls movie was worth anything.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>F9</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Very surprisingly for me, since I kind of got over John Cena and his shameless mugging years ago, but I think he proved a worthwhile addition to the series.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Matrix Resurrections</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I love the original trilogy, all of it. This is a worthy and clever coda.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Spider-Man: No Way Home</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Basically this whole era of Spider-Man only exists because the MCU was looking for a boost of interest. Otherwise it's really had no clue how to justify itself. This incredibly gimmicky third entry finds it in shamelessly bringing back characters and actors from the prior two. But it works.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>In the Heights</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: No one has a better grasp of smug self-satisfaction as Lin-Manuel Miranda these days. The storytelling is decent. He needs to work on writing actual songs. He's capable. He just doesn't want to.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>A Quiet Place Part II</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I still haven't seen the first place. Presented no discernable problem to enjoying this one.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Mortal Kombat</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A fine pivot into a more serious direction for the franchise.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Profile</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Far more movies than you'd think believe the gimmick of presenting themselves solely from the lens of social media exist. This one's worth watching. It revolves around the horrors of terrorists recruiting unwitting victims. This one is using herself as bait.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Both of these films are enjoyable throwbacks with excellent casts.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Voyagers</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I'm not overly fond of material that actively seeks to make its audience uncomfortable, and so that's the weakness of this one (it costars Colin Farrell, although he's dispatched relatively early) about teenagers stumbling over themselves to survive a long journey in space.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Black Widow</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The much-much belated solo film from one of the characters who debuted earliest in the MCU is fairly standard material for the franchise(s).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Nomadland</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Periodically the Oscars insult the demographic it otherwise abhors by lavishing praise on movies that star Frances McDormand.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Wrath of Man</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I wasn't really into Guy Ritchie earlier in his career, but I am now, and this was a fine way to help segue to what I consider 2023 being a career year.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Naked Singularity</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I'll be honest; I really just need to watch this one again. Mind-bending spotlight for John Boyega.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Reminiscence</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Between this and <i>The Fountain</i>, Hugh Jackman seeks to corner the market in sleepy high concept dramas. But it's nice to see him in something, anyway. Always likeable.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>State Like Sleep</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I actually liked this one starring Katherine Waterston.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Lansky</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A fine minor mob movie featuring Harvey Keitel and Sam Worthington.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Spiral</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: To get me interested in the <i>Saw</i> franchise again, you really do need an infusion of Chris Rock.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Virtuoso</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A nice spotlight for recent Star Trek renaissance actor Anson Mount. His narration as the start of the movie is itself worth watching to experience. I guess I just like his voice.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Ghostbusters: Afterlife</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Really, even before the climax proves to be an exact copy of the original, I wasn't as wowed as I expected to be by this.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Suicide Squad</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I'm hoping James Gunn isn't as enamored with his weirder tendencies with his further DC duties than he allowed himself to be with this one.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Till Death</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Proof that Megan Fox is still hot even if she's handcuffed to a corpse. So there's that. Really not that bad. Just not much compared to other movies.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Those Who Wish Me Dead</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: There's really nothing wrong with this Angelina Jolie vehicle, either. Just needed more, I guess.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Godzilla vs. Kong</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I actually haven't seen the whole thing, but from what I did see it seemed much more interested in continuing <i>one</i> of the two monster movies series than <i>both</i>. But it's both anyway.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Midnight in the Switchgrass</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The latter-day Bruce Willis has now been explained, so we all understand what's happened to the quality of his acting and career. I caught this one since it was filmed and had its premiere here in Tampa, and has an interesting title. Will watch again at some point to see if it's worth anything.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Lady of the Manor</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: For years now critics have been trying to convince me that Melanie Lynskey is worth more than the character of Rose in <i>Two and a Half Men</i>. I think this movie officially convinced me otherwise.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Crisis</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: An excellent cast. Not the firebrand it otherwise wishes it were.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Licorice Pizza</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I'm just not a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson, I guess. I find him needlessly indulgent. This particular version of his work stars the son of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is no Philip Seymour Hoffman, but Paul Thomas Anderson will indulge his belief that he is anyway.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-42892699367201695022023-07-01T13:57:00.001-07:002023-07-01T13:57:20.149-07:00The Flash (2023) Review<p><i>the rating</i>: ****</p><p><i>the story</i>: Barry Allen attempts to rewrite his own history, and instead breaks the timeline.</p><p><i>the review</i>: It's going to be completely impossible for anything resembling a reasonable popular consensus on the DCEU to exist for years, decades. Its proximity to the height of the MCU created a huge distorting effect in much the way DC and Marvel in the comics have competed for top placement for sixty years. Simply put, their coexistence could not be reconciled by the mere weight of pop culture. <i>The Flash</i> is a last attempt to conclude the DCEU, in the most dramatic way possible, and to my mind a hugely successful one, although it has features that are admittedly hard to appreciate.</p><p>Chiefly, its special effects, especially the crucial depiction of the Speed Force, where Barry Allen watches outside regular time the effects of his speedy travels. After the high water mark of Quicksilver's appearances in the X-Men movies, the superpower of speed was always going to be difficult to depict in a truly satisfying way. Actually, <i>The Flash</i> opens with a scene that <i>tops</i> them, improbably saving the lives of a bunch of babies while looking like it's the last thing on his mind. I work with babies. This is the kind of scene that will win easy bonus points for me. Otherwise, Barry looks unreal on his feet, in ways Spider-Man never did slinging through New York City in the Sam Raimi movies that set the new bar for the genre twenty years ago. But it's because, <i>dude's ability is running</i>. This is never going to look awesome. Not if you're forced to depict it. </p><p>There's really no way around that. But the story itself is absolutely killer. Geoff Johns first wrote this story in the breakthrough event comic <i>Flashpoint</i>, which has already been adapted twice, once in the <i>Flash</i> TV series (third season) and the animated movie <i>Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox</i>, which like the comic depicted Barry brutally electrocuting himself with lightning to try and get his speed back. For me this is iconic material. For me, when Barry has to say goodbye to his mom at the end of the film, it means more than Rocket Raccoon, the b-plot in his starring role for <i>Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3</i>, gets some kind of comeuppance. It's <i>earned</i>. </p><p>And around that, you've got Barry, the version of Barry Allen that could only exist as portrayed by Ezra Miller, essentially first and foremost essentially starring opposite himself. And then you've also got Michael Keaton returning as Batman. This was heavily promoted in exactly the opposite way as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield showing up in <i>Spider-Man: No Way Home</i> (uh, spoiler?), since you <i>can't</i> hide such a crucial point. In a lot of ways, it's <i>almost</i> the whole point. We're in an age where seeing old stars in old roles is supposed to be the selling point. This isn't even nostalgia but awareness that some franchises were abandoned, or changed, too quickly. Keaton only made two Batman movies, and while one of them isn't as fondly remembered as the other, everyone was always bummed he didn't appear in the other two. It's the same impulse that brought Connery back to Bond, eventually, at least for one more movie (even if it's technically unofficial), forty years ago. This is really nothing new.</p><p>The movie climaxes on Barry's fight against <i>himself</i>, a <i>third</i> version who couldn't let go. It's not really the fight with Zod, the deaths of Batman and Supergirl, although this part of the movie is <i>directly</i> addressing the DCEU, the controversial way <i>Man of Steel</i> ended, the "original sin" that needed erasing a decade ago. Most MCU movies only ever have the one kind of ending. <i>Guardians 2</i> had "Mary Poppins," which is what redeems it for some fans. That's a rare exception. Usually the villain is meant to be the villain, and the hero just needs to defeat them. They don't really learn anything. They just move on to the next one. For a long time, that formula worked, and a DCEU trying a different narrative was cognitive dissonance: "<i>That's not what these kinds of movies should be doing!</i>" They're <i>supposed</i> to be emotionally simplistic. Their ambition is just building to Thanos! </p><p>In a lot of ways, the implosion of the DCEU resulted in something far more interesting. <i>The Flash</i> might have been envisioned in its basic shape this way all along, but it has far greater symbolic meaning. You get to see all those digital cameos, and even the official ones, because this is an ending. Its story takes on greater resonance for it. Barry needs to let go, and figure out that it's better that way. Same, <i>The Flash</i>. Same.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-25452760057332486842023-07-01T13:33:00.000-07:002023-07-01T13:33:07.806-07:00Asteroid City (2023) Review<p><i>the rating</i>: ****</p><p><i>the story</i>: Young achievers are unexpectedly at the heart of an unlikely alien encounter.</p><p><i>the review</i>: So I've really gotten into Wes Anderson, finally, and predictably it's just when critics have gotten over him. I mean, they've been over him for at least a decade, and I didn't get into him, really, until a few years ago, so it's not <i>that</i> surprising. Of course I had to see <i>Asteroid City</i>. Of course it was likely that I would enjoy it. I expected to like it <i>more</i>, but I definitely <i>liked</i> it. The appearances of Tom Hanks and Steve Carell actually created a kind of uncanny valley, that breaks the typical mold of total control on Anderson's part. Most actors who appear in his films fit the mold perfectly; Hanks can't help but be Hanks, and the same is true of Carell. Everyone else (Owen Wilson is atypically absent, but Jason Schwartzman, another longtime collaborator, is back in a starring role) very much fits in nicely.</p><p>"You can't wake up if you don't go to sleep."</p><p>That's how the movie ends. This is not a spoiler. Just as <i>Amsterdam</i> ends with each of the principle characters reciting the eponymous city name to the audience, and <i>Cradle Will Rock</i> builds to the climactic moment from the 1937 play it's built around, <i>Asteroid City</i> concludes with the cast of stage actors reciting this line. How much you appreciate the movie is likely tied to how much thought you put into it. The movie preceding it plays out along two separate tracks: one is a presentation of a play, and the other as if the play were happening in reality and not on a stage. Schwartzman's character pulls himself out of the play when he struggles to understand why his character chooses to burn his hand on a grill, and so clearly Anderson's intent is for his audience to figure out his intent, too.</p><p>"You can't wake up if you don't go to sleep." There will be plenty of speculation about it for those interested, and so maybe this review isn't really the place for it, but the story pretty happily busies itself with the story of Schwartzman's character in the story trying to have an honest reckoning with himself and his young family, something he's been avoiding for the past few weeks. Eventually an alien shows up (an absolutely perfect moment, a perfect marriage of Anderson's best live action and stop-motion instincts). Around all this, as Anderson movies tend to go, a niche community (well, in this case, <i>two</i>) is explored, although it's not really the point, but how the community(s) reacts to circumstances. </p><p>Me, I'd choose, if forced, to interpret the point of <i>Asteroid City</i> to warn against comforting complacency, that in order to make progress you have to challenge yourself. But this isn't possible unless you're first willing to admit your complacency.</p><p>At any rate, Hanks and Carell are the signifiers that although this acts and behaves like a typical Anderson movie, it really isn't. He is very obviously trying to make a point. It's very possible this will raise <i>Asteroid City</i>'s value for me, later, when I will have more fully digested the results. But it's certainly another excellent effort on his part.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-44924973214682598202023-07-01T13:08:00.000-07:002023-07-01T13:08:03.474-07:00Marlowe (2023) Review<p><i>the rating</i>: ****</p><p><i>the story</i>: Private detective Philip Marlowe searches for a dead man.</p><p><i>the review</i>: Some movies get dismissed by critics seemingly without their ever having watched them at all. I assume <i>Marlowe</i> was simply because it was another Liam Neeson movie in the era of <i>Taken</i>, when he's chosen to star in an endless series of movies of that ilk. The other reason would be the pointless crusade of the media to protect Old Hollywood by immediately rejecting anything that could possibly evoke it. Raymond Chandler's Marlowe was of course the character Bogart played in <i>The Big Sleep</i>, one of his Big Three roles alongside <i>The Maltese Falcon</i> and <i>Casablanca</i>. </p><p>At its heart <i>Marlowe</i> is of course evoking classic film noire, but not as obviously as, say, the <i>Sin City </i>movies. It isn't shot in black and white, for instance. The storytelling beats are all there. The end of the movie evokes <i>Maltese Falcon</i>, even <i>Raiders of the Lost Ark</i>, making a joke of the whole idea of the maguffin, since the real point was exploring the nasty secrets of Hollywood (apparently no way to make a living making movies these days). Having recently rewatched <i>The Third Man</i>, I couldn't help but think of <i>Marlowe</i> as more that kind of movie, although of course its inversion, since <i>Third Man</i> famously stars Orson Welles, whom we don't see until about the third act, whereas Neeson is obviously the star of <i>Marlowe</i> and its "third man" is another very capable Mexican actor doomed to be ignored by mainstreatm modern Hollywood (hello, <i>Die in a Gunfight</i>!), who just so happens to sound like Brad Pitt. The whole point of casting Neeson in a movie like this <i>is</i> to draw on the <i>Taken</i> mystique, to find Marlowe credible in all his story beats. But <i>Marlowe</i> is otherwise nothing like <i>Taken</i>. In fact, most of Neeson's <i>Taken</i> movies try to find <i>some</i> interesting variation. I remember <i>Unknown</i> finding interesting things. <i>Marlowe</i> has more in common with <i>A Walk Among the Tombstones</i> than <i>Taken</i>. But critics want Neeson to star in another sad Irish epic like <i>Rob Roy</i> or <i>Michael Collins</i>, or <i>Schindler's List</i>. Forget that they ignore stellar work in <i>Silence</i>, <i>A Monster Calls</i>.</p><p>The director is the reliable Neil Jordan, the screenwriter William Monohan, neither of whose work deserves such casual dismissal. Neeson has Jessica Lange and Diane Kruger as his dames to kill for, the likes of Danny Huston (born for this role, possibly his best iteration of it, in such a pure state), Alan Cumming, even Colm Meaney, Adawale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (playing the role Dennis Haysbert did in the second <i>Sin City</i>, but a heroic version).</p><p>This is a version of classic Hollywood, sure, but the version that was possible to make in 2023. You don't win any points by claiming "they did it better back then." There are so many versions of so many stories told over so many thousands of years, you don't win points by stating, "they did it a hundred years ago." Characters like Marlowe are liable to disappear if they don't resurface every now and then. Eventually no one will care Bogart played him. If he's no longer relevant, it doesn't matter.</p><p>This is an excellent way to bring him back around again. If the critics want to contradict themselves and claim there's no point bringing Marlowe back and that it's just another forgettable post-<i>Taken</i> movie for Neeson...It's their loss. For the art of film, this is everyone's gain. A movie I was very pleased to press "play" again when there were things I missed. </p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-8881875595787905062023-05-27T10:56:00.005-07:002023-05-27T11:01:34.041-07:002020 Capsule Reviews<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Crazy Samurai Musashi</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Wow! In recent years an increasing number of filmmakers have pursued the "single tracking shot" concept, from <i>Birdman</i> to <i>1917</i> to even <i>One Shot</i>, and as far as I'm concerned it's always on the face of it impressive on that level alone. <i>Musashi</i> is much like <i>One Shot</i> insofar as it's a horribly obscure movie, but it's such a brilliant execution of the concept, one samurai facing off against an entire clan, just a constant stream of sword-fighting, but always staged with keeping the action interesting. For me I fell instantly and hopelessly in love with the results. I doubt this even received a theatrical release in the States. As far as I can tell distribution was negligible, and I only even knew it existed when I saw the movie at Walmart (and since physical media is rapidly declining, the chances of finding something like this outside an equally lucky find at Dollar Tree have only further diminished), and reviews have been hopelessly dismissive. So this won't even show up in streaming platforms, probably. I don't care. I discovered it. It's now one of my favorite movies.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Waiting for the Barbarians</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Hollywood, and the press, and critics, often collude in destroying careers, and there's not a reasonable argument against this. <i>Barbarians</i> costars Johnny Depp, in the period where everyone still believed he was probably the bad guy in the Amber Heard situation. <i>Now</i>, of course, there's far more wiggle room, but people don't really re-evaulate movies, especially ones that were instantly obscure. But this is another work of genius. No doubt in my mind.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>True History of the Kelly Gang</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: For me, Russell Crowe was one of the big cinematic heroes of the early pandemic, between his small role here and one of the wide releases that dared open in 2020. Another hopelessly obscure work of genius. That's three.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Emma.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Anya Taylor-Joy in a joyously inventive revisioning of the classic.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>WW84</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Everyone went gaga over the first one, but I instantly preferred this one, which was a better overall showcase for Wonder Woman, and had a memorable villain or two besides. The opening sequence alone is a classic, and I guess I'm a sucker for ones showcasing someone in a cathartic flying experience, since I loved that best about <i>Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban</i>, too.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Tenet</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Christopher Nolan was cinema's big champion that year, and he was widely criticized for it, but for me all I cared about was that <i>Tenet</i> was as close to matching the action scope of <i>The Dark Knight</i> as he'd attempted to that point. I also love how it audaciously tackles the idea of combatting terrorism, which is basically the whole point of the movie. Plus a lot of visual gimmicks to satisfy viewers who still think <i>Inception</i> was his best movie.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Bill & Ted Face the Music</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: One of the pandemic miracles, or so it seemed then, was the appearance of this late third entry in the series, thereby further solidifying Keanu Reeves as a modern master of franchises, if somehow anyone still doubted it. Probably bolsters the reputation of the whole series.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Gentlemen</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Critics kind of fell all over themselves trying to explain why Guy Ritchie no longer had it (they're still trying to make the fatuous argument here in 2023), but at least this played out before the pandemic hit. For me, a great cast, and a standout supporting role for my favorite actor, Colin Farrell.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Capone</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I can think of very few actors who without the benefit of some scandal have garnered such undeserved scorn from critics as Tom Hardy. For anyone else this would've been hailed as a genius showcase.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Way Back</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Gavin O'Connor has been one of my favorite directors of the past decade. Ben Affleck has surprised a lot of people by how much they liked him in the same period. Here they work together for an affecting sports drama that's heavy on the drama and light on the sports. A great combination.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Sonic the Hedgehog</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The hedgehog is entertaining, but for me it's a hugely welcome spotlight and return to form for Jim Carrey after years of exile.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>News of the World</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: For years I was uninterested in the movies Tom Hanks was making. For me this was a comeback of interest. Kind of a later spiritual sequel for <i>Road to Perdition</i>, but one that allows him to have a little fun, too.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Downhill</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Wow, so Will Ferrell, I don't know if you've noticed, isn't as popular as he once was. <i>Downhill</i> came and went I think without the pandemic affecting no one noticing. But it's a great dramatic film for Ferrell, from filmmakers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, both still somehow highly underrated.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Greenland</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Gerard Butler can sometimes (okay, <i>a lot of the time</i>) seem as if he chooses projects without regard to quality, but this was an exception, a standout survival drama that feels like a blockbuster in the style of <i>Independence Day</i>, but keeping things at a strictly human scale.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Ava</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I keep mentioning in these capsules how critics are inexplicably undervaluing major talent, and Jessica Chastain is a favorite victim of this. Here she's combining her penchant for human drama with the needs of action films. Another supporting spotlight for Colin Farrell. He had a banger year for those. I never have gotten around to seeing the Disney+ exclusive <i>Artermis Fowl</i>, in which Farrell is literally plugged into the movie post-production to try and save it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Let Him Go</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: One of the benefits of starring in a critic-proof, stubbornly hugely successful TV series like <i>Yellowstone</i> seems to be Kevin Costner gets to once again revive his movie career, and this was well worth his time in doing so.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Unhinged</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A critical darling for a few years, Russell Crowe fell from grace years ago, and it's only freed him to make increasingly interesting choices. Here he's an unabashed villain. Whatever publicity he gets now shamelessly mocks his weight gain, in an era that's supposed to be tolerant of such things. So you kinda know how hollow such campaigns really are.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Night Clerk</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: For me much of the early pandemic meant as releases thinned out there was at least a greater chance of minor films getting noticed, and many of them evoked classic Hollywood, and while all the attention of course instead went to streaming services (critics ended up being slavish in their new devotion, so that if awards are given out, they go to streaming releases almost exclusively), films like <i>Night Clerk</i> gave good material to stars like Tye Sheridan.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Bloodshot</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: An attempt at jumpstarting a new cinematic superhero universe for most viewers, even before the pandemic, was instead a nonstarter, with Guy Pearce gamely trying to rub off whatever remaining <i>Memento</i> magic he had on Vin Diesel. But Vin Diesel never really has fans outside of the Fast & Furious movies, alas, even if he makes decent action movies out of the concepts driving them.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Birds of Prey and the Fabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: After the belated popular failure of <i>Suicide Squad</i> (one of those unpopular box office successes), even if Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn was an instant icon, it really didn't matter <i>what</i> she appeared in next. But for the life of me I don't understand ignoring an obvious spotlight like this, and object lesson in proving that no matter <i>what's</i> happening around her, she still shines.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Bad Boys for Life</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return for this belated sequel that revived interest in Smith's career, and wisely acted as if it was basically a Smith spotlight in the style of the bright '00s period of it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Burnt Orange Heresy</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Like <i>Night Clerk</i> a bright throwback spotlight vehicle for a worthy aspirant, this time Elizabeth Debicki.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Rhythm Section</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Tagged with some of the worst reviews of the year (and before the pandemic!), this one stars Blake Lively and Jude Law, and it's a movie I'll need to revisit, since I remember <i>liking</i> it, but I have few specific memories <i>of</i> it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The New Mutants</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Holds the dubious distinction of being the last of the Fox productions of X-Men movies, with a troubled release date history that no doubt benefited from the pandemic for finally happening. Not a bad movie by any means, but its existence in a vacuum is disappointing given how most of the other films in the franchise went out of their way to provide some tangible link to the rest of it, usually with a throwaway cameo or two.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Last Full Measure</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: In a prior era this would've been a standard adult drama anyone would've known existed, but in <i>this</i> one it falls into instant obscurity. Features the likes of Sebastian Stan, Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Peter Fonda...Worth assembling such talent.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Mulan</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: For me the original animated version <i>was</i> Mushu (as voiced by Eddie Murphy). This live action version doesn't even <i>have</i> Mushu. But I guess the greater point of the story still stands.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Archenemy</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: After <i>The Man Who Killed Hitler and then the Big Foot</i>, I kind of wanted another cult-sized experience. Joe Manganiello, as great as he is, turns out to not quite be Sam Elliott, but the results are still worth a look.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Irresistible</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: It turns out Jon Stewart reuniting with Steve Carell wasn't quite the second coming of <i>The Daily Show</i> for critics. But it's still a biting political satire well worth checking out.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Hunt</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A totally different political satire! But worth watching, too!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Jungleland</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Not quite <i>Warrior</i>. But worth a look.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Tax Collector</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: David Ayer's career plummeted after <i>Suicide Squad</i>. But that doesn't mean he's any less interesting a filmmaker. If you still like <i>End of Watch</i>, you'll like this, too.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Infidel</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Jim Caviezel still gamely pursuing the audience of <i>The Passion of the Christ</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Emperor</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: It's a testament to how shallow the movie era is when one of the most famous and infamous figures in American history, John Brown, shows up as a supporting character in this and the results are completely ignored.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Vanished</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: There was a time when Jason Patric's unusual career choices interested critics. That time is long past. But this is another of those, and it's worth a look.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Fatman</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Mel Gibson has been pumping out b-movies. They're not all terrible. In fact he's made some brilliant choices! But this Santa Claus thriller ain't necessarily one of 'em.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Legion</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Mickey Rourke was another critical darling tossed to the scrapheap whenever the mood struck them, and this is another lean period. It was suggested his turn here was an embarrassment. It isn't, and it's also the best reason to watch.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Robert the Bruce</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Another very belated sequel! This one sees Angus Macfadyen reprise his most famous role, from <i>Braveheart</i>. This one's less rousing.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Empty Man</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Very, very unfortunately, James Badge Dale cashed in all his chips from his small-scale career revival for this mainstream horror movie. If I ever try watching it again, it'll again and this time emphatically be for Dale alone.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Warrant</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I remain a big fan of Neal McDonough, who I first saw in <i>Star Trek: First Contact</i> and later starred in the brilliant but short-lived TV series <i>Boomtown</i>. This is a low budget western. Alas.</div>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-90090649950023810142023-05-13T12:20:00.000-07:002023-05-13T12:20:14.704-07:002019 Capsule Reviews<div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Man Who Killed Don Quixote</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Terry Gilliam's much-delayed masterpiece probably works better than it would have originally infused with Adam Driver. I don't suppose critics were disposed to adoring the results anyway, so forget <i>their</i> lukewarm reception. Gilliam is always just this side of genius, and sometimes is firmly <i>on it</i>, and this is his best film. Absolutely worth all the hassle to get it done, worth the wait, and all the needless later loopholes to actually <i>see</i> it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Yesterday</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Critics were equally dismissive of this one, since they couldn't wrap their heads around the Beatles being popular <i>today</i>, and maybe it's because I'm unabashedly a fan, but I put well aside my usual apathy for romantic movies for this, and eagerly so. Between the Beatles themselves, <i>Across the Universe</i>, and now this, I've witnessed the same songs executed to perfection in widely different ways.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Quentin Tarantino returns to the laconic form of <i>Jackie Brown</i> to rewrite history in a story about two lives that really had nothing at all to do with the Manson murders, but comment on the nature of living the film life better than anything I've ever seen.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Joker</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Opinions range from brilliant to apathy, depending on how invested the viewer is in the legacy of the character. The stairway sequence alone makes the results iconic, and Joaquin Phoenix a worthy successor to Heath Ledger.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Knives Out</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Daniel Craig powers an ensemble that redeems Rian Johnson's reputation after <i>The Last Jedi</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating: ****</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: At this point you were either onboard with the sequels or had already dismissed them. I found the conclusion of Rey's journey, her relationship with Kylo Ren, to be perfect, a response and the antithesis to how things played out in the original trilogy (and even the prequels), daring to believe in hope in a most cynical age.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Zombieland: Double Tap</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: An underrated gem of a series in the modern era, and a worthy follow-up to the original, both of which I've grown to appreciate more over time.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The bombastic third entry in this series turned it into a legitimate blockbuster, and knew exactly what it was doing, turning John's survival into a true epic experience.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Jojo Rabbit</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Burned by my experience with <i>Thor: Ragnarok</i>, I was hesitant to follow Taika Waititi down this, heh, rabbit hole, but once I did, I fell in love with its unlikely magic.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Hotel Mumbai</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The age of terrorism finds perhaps its perfect cinematic depiction in this unheralded ensemble drama.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Serenity</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: My appreciation for this one is possibly only beginning; where others were baffled by its twist, I thought it added to the movie's power, and all the same, became another great example of why Matthew McConaughey should never, ever be underestimated.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Where'd You Go, Bernadette</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Actresses often find it hard to star in truly worthy vehicles for their talent, and Cate Blanchett has been no exception, but this is one of them.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>1917</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Presented as one long cut, a truly harrowing depiction of WWI trench warfare.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Standoff at Sparrow Creek</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: James Badge Dale saw a resurgence of interest from filmmakers at this time, and this was the best result, a riveting look at the preppers phenomenon.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Terminator: Dark Fate</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Ever since the second one, this franchise has been hellbent at sabotaging itself. <i>Dark Fate</i> was the rare instance of everyone sort of agreeing to trust the results. I've generally enjoyed every film, but this one was a cut above.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Lighthouse</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Robert Pattinson has been keen to find oddball projects, and this was perhaps his most successful at getting the mainstream to notice. Personally I need to watch it a few more times, since I find his performance to be unusually showy, but I guess others didn't.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Detective Pikachu</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A genius depiction of the Pokemon franchise, starring Ryan Reynolds in another perfect role.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Hustle</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Trashed or outright dismissed otherwise, I found the comedic pairing of Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson to be irresistible (between this and <i>Serenity</i>, as far as I'm concerned this was a career year for Hathaway).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Dumbo</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I'm not overly attached to much of Disney's animated canon, so this particular live action edition landed well with me, which was certainly helped along by costarring Colin Farrell.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Glass</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Putting the focus squarely on the franchise's best character helped achieve a solid hit for me from Shyamalan.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>High Life</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I actually like this Pattinson (performance) better, but the films in this de facto ranking are still probably accurate in terms of overall worth.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Ad Astra</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Falling in the same basic range is the similar Brad Pitt experience, made before Hollywood realized Tarantino was revitalizing his career.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Upside</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The film that made me a fan of Kevin Hart. I guess I could care less for him as a strictly comedic performer, but he plays dramatic roles surprisingly well.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The movie with the most ridiculous title ever is absolutely worth experiencing, especially the tense first half, which leads to getting to just spend time with Sam Elliott, since the actual climax isn't worth as much.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Ford v Ferrari</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Christian Bale as a loose cannon racecar driver trying to prove Ford can make something good is worth Matt Damon not particularly clicking with the material, mistaking smugness for confidence.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Donnybrook</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Another career seeing a bit of sunlight during this time was Frank Grillo, who unlike Dale carried the momentum further along. Here he's stuck in a rut of being a thug, but it's still a far cry from not even knowing he was an actor in <i>Warrior</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Under the Silver Lake</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Basically the Andrew Garfield version of <i>Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Motherless Brooklyn</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating****</i>:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Edward Norton made this one happen, otherwise he'd still be looking for another starring role. Also Bruce Willis' last shot at legitimate cinema.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Richard Jewell</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I figure Clint Eastwood was being allegorical with this one.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Toy Story 4</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: For me the third one was needless rehash, but I figure there was actual new ground in this one, chiefly in the existential crisis of the toy that was made by a kid. Although if there's another one they might validate the idea a little better.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Captain Marvel</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Nothing wrong with it, except there's no way it can validate the hero's claim to icon status, which is the one thing it really needed to do.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbes & Shaw</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: If Johnson & Statham had to be relegated to their own vehicle (heh), it could've been worse. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Frozen II</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I still don't know what my niece thinks of this one. So I don't really know, either.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Fighting with My Family</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Being familiar with the source material, these results are okay, but at least they depict in cinematic terms The Rock's persona.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Can't really compete with the poignant twist at the end of the first one.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Men in Black: International</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: There's nothing wrong with this, except it doesn't have Will Smith. Or Tommy Lee Jones.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Dark Phoenix</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Kind of ironic that the end of the Fox franchise proper circles back to the point everyone thought killed it in the first place.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Avengers: Endgame</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the whole Thanos experience. They just didn't know what to do with him, so fittingly, he's barely in this one. This is the definition of the MCU's villain problem.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Alita: Battle Angel</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Nothing wrong with this one except it feels like small potatoes compared to most of the other things from the year.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Shazam!</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: As it turns out, if people keep saying your movies are too grim, it's not the appropriate response to make a movie that features a kid in the body of an adult. The results aren't bad, but keeping them disconnected from everything else is <i>definitely </i>the wrong move.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Gemini Man</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I have a full review with a much different rating (I'm pretty sure), but this one's more accurate to relative results. I guess I really would rather watch <i>Men in Black</i> without Will Smith than <i>two</i> Will Smiths. This is '00s Smith rewarmed. He'd already moved past this kind of material.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Spider-Man: Far From Home</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I just wasn't a fan of the MCU Spider-Man, until he was joined by the <i>other</i> Spider-Men in <i>No Way Home</i> (which like <i>Far</i> needlessly belabored the title of the first one).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Secret Life of Pets 2</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I'll clue you in on a little secret: usually when I don't have <i>strong</i> memories of a movie I don't include it in these things. This one was close, and I only saw it at all because of my niece, and isn't exactly something I'd go out of my way to watch again (unless I was still living with her and she insisted, which could just as easily turned its reputation around). But I remember enough. It was basically a decent experience. Gruff Harrison Ford. That's what I remember most.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Hellboy</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I was never the biggest fan of the original films. This one is a marked step <i>down</i> from them.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Midsommer</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Florence Pugh is the golden child of critics these days (she also starred in <i>Fighting with My family</i>, which is probably the only reason it was taken seriously by them). And mostly, I just don't get it. This was one of her breakout movies. I found it needlessly impressionistic. Because it's really just one of those weird movies that desparately wants to be profound but isn't. The exact opposite of the movie at the top of this.</div>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-22648615040766037652023-05-12T11:47:00.000-07:002023-05-12T11:47:01.956-07:00Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) Review<p><i>rating</i>: ****</p><p><i>the story</i>: The band gets back together. Again!</p><p><i>review</i>: The original <i>Blues Brothers</i> was so iconic, and so closely identified with John Belushi, it was always going to be a tall order to make another one <i>without</i> Belushi, who had been dead for years by the time production began. <i>Blues Brothers 2000</i> became, as a result, a poster child of unwanted sequels. It does not deserve such a reputation.</p><p>Filling in for Belushi are John Goodman and Joe Morton, who are nothing like the brash Belushi, but who nonetheless step into the act with Dan Ackroyd in such fashion that you really have to be committed to hating the results to hate. Morton, a reliable hand who has never gotten his due in general, has an actual plot behind his character, an arc that culminates in a tent revival scene that has one show-stealing (and for me, movie-<i>defining</i>) song, "John the Revelator," leaning heavily into the supernatural elements that allowed the original band to survive all manner of '80s mayhem without a second's thought. Watching Ackroyd in all this is to reconcile <i>Blue Brothers</i> with <i>Ghostbusters</i>, a logical leap that should also not be so difficult to manage.</p><p>But the <i>real</i> charm of <i>Blues Brothers 2000</i> is that it actually features blues music! The music here isn't just memorable pop songs from days past, but blues acts getting to sink their teeth into their craft. You have the likes of B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Dr. John, and even Eric Clapton putting on appearances, plus Erykah Badu immersing herself deep into a character role, and Blues Traveler! One has the idea that the whole point of the movie is celebrating these and other acts, to give back after the first one, and this is a most worthy cause. To watch <i>this</i> one is to experience the world the brothers celebrated in the <i>first </i>one. Is that really so hard to love? These are both movies that are elaborate excuses to enjoy some good music. They happen to have different vantage points, even if on the surface they look exactly the same.</p><p>I think it's well worth revisiting.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-59558338729603896322023-05-12T11:31:00.003-07:002023-05-12T11:31:48.191-07:00Red Tails (2012) Review<p><i>rating</i>: ****</p><p><i>the story</i>: Tuskegee airmen perform heroics during WWII.</p><p><i>review</i>: Until <i>Top Gun: Maverick</i> exploded at the box office last year, I was, like many other filmgoers, overlooking one of the original joys of Star Wars: the X-Wing run down the Death Star trench. It's easy to forget the appeal of the sequence when the focus so often shifts to the world-building, the characters, the tension of the moment, but really, it's a holdover of the fighter pilot era best defined by WWII, and by the release of the original <i>Top Gun</i>, fast receding into the past. Incredibly, George Lucas never featured that exact kind of storytelling again, until <i>Red Tails</i>, which he developed much earlier than its release date suggests, but kept getting turned down by studios (yes, even though it came from George Lucas), he contends, because it features an almost entirely black cast.</p><p>Lucas himself doesn't direct <i>Tails</i>, though by all accounts of his filmmaking career it's extremely difficult to imagine he stayed far behind during production (he's credited with direct involvement only during reshoots). In effect this was his big goodbye to the world of film, before Disney kicked off the new Star Wars era without him. The whole thing is basically one long excuse to immerse deeply into the dog-fighting Luke Skywalker experiences for just one moment in 1977, though its grounding in the all-black squadron history subsequently unearthed is probably far more personal to Lucas than it might be supposed, given his childhood memories of the black community around him and the black woman he married later in life. Star Wars fans who always complained there wasn't enough black representation in the saga would have you believe otherwise, but Lucas himself never had a problem with black people.</p><p>The actors in <i>Tails</i> would be a highlight in any film, and by this point <i>had</i> been, including Cuba Gooding, Jr., whose breakthrough performance in <i>Jerry Maguire</i> was a tough act to follow, and basically he tried everything and never found traction. He's joined by Terrence Howard, one of the modern era's great actors, frequently sabotaged by the reputation of being difficult to work with. Howard appears in a very similar movie, <i>Hart's War</i>, which covers a sequence omitted in <i>Tails</i> of what happens to a black soldier in German captivity. They're surrounded by an embarrassment of riches, including Leslie Odom, Jr. (later associated with <i>Hamilton</i>), Michael B. Jordan, Nate Parker (whose <i>Birth of a Nation</i> was crippled by allegations made against him), and David Oyelowo, whose <i>least</i> rewarding performance, to date, for me anyway, was MLK in <i>Selma</i>. Otherwise, as <i>Tails</i> again proves, he's an overlooked treasure, easily the star just below Howard and Gooding of the movie.</p><p>The politics of what films gain recognition are so byzantine it's sometimes impossible to navigate, but something like <i>Red Tails</i> is worth the effort to discover.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-34535267091576691122023-05-12T11:12:00.004-07:002023-05-12T11:12:51.007-07:00The Prestige (2006) Review<p><i>rating</i>: *****</p><p><i>the story</i>: Rival magicians can't figure out that they have very different approaches to and goals for their craft.</p><p><i>review</i>: I've reviewed <i>The Prestige</i> before, here, <a href="https://filmfancompanion.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Prestige" target="_blank">which you can read for yourself</a>. It's one of those movies I'm constantly reevaluating, and it's absolutely worth the effort. By this point, I'm perfectly willing to call it a classic.</p><p>Now, the whole reason I've struggled in this manner is that it's a film by Christopher Nolan, but unlike other film fans, this isn't the result of trying to keep up with Nolan's dizzying stories, but in comparing it to his other films themselves. For a while, <i>Memento</i> was my favorite movie, having dislodged <i>The Truman Show</i> for that honor. I value ambition and cleverness, but these are qualities that walk a dangerous line. I used to view <i>The Prestige</i> as being the result of Nolan desperately trying to live up to the reputation of <i>Memento</i>. I had a similar problem with <i>Batman Begins</i>, which I thought didn't chase that legacy <i>enough</i>. <i>The Dark Knight Returns</i> was the point at which I began to realize Nolan himself wasn't that concerned with the <i>need</i> for some gimmick, but appreciating Nolan's abilities as mere storyteller took time. By <i>Tenet</i>, I saw a director who was trying to make a point, and using all manner of tricks to achieve it. I adore <i>Interstellar</i>, which hit me in a visceral way that had been absent from his other films. <i>Inception</i> dazzled me most in its casting. <i>Dunkirk</i> is a tour de force of tension without letting it ever get in the way, in all respects Nolan having learned his lesson from <i>Memento</i>. Very early on I also went back and watched his first film, <i>Following</i>, which is all style. <i>Insomnia</i> might have fallen into such a trap, but it's driven by two great performances, the first time Nolan allows his actors to leap ahead of him.</p><p>Integrating all his instincts is really Nolan's defining production technique. <i>Memento </i>proved he could work with known actors, but it also trapped Guy Pearce into that role, and he's really never recovered since. He's the <i>Memento</i> guy. When <i>The Prestige</i> was released, it was most notable as starring Batman and Wolverine, so it was hardly going to suffer from known quantities. And yet Hugh Jackman was himself in the early process of disentangling <i>himself</i> from one role, and hadn't yet accomplished it, so to view <i>The Prestige</i>, since Jackman is the lead actor, on its own terms, you need to not only separate it from Nolan, but from Wolverine, to let the story settle into itself. For me, it was a process of letting its conclusions settle. I always found it easiest to view the lead character as the most sympathetic, so Jackman's concluding thought ("It was the look on their faces.") that always stuck with me, and was the basis for which I would attempt to explain the movie to <i>others</i>, never mind <i>myself</i>.</p><p>It's a movie you have to understand in order to appreciate. Bale's character doesn't have his story spelled out, not even by the ending. Chronologically, we never really see a starting point. We have to fill it in for ourselves. Since the movie ends with Bale theoretically "winning," we are then to assume that maybe he was the good guy all along, and yet he really isn't. He makes unfathomable sacrifices, and basically the whole point of the story is Jackman trying desperately to understand them, and he never can, even as he subsequently makes even more horrifying ones in order to do so. In the end, it's because they have very different goals, and their approaches are defined by them. For Bale, the act is its own reward, the knowledge of a trick well-performed. For Jackman, the point is to entertain, and in order to derive any pleasure from pursuing such a craft, he needs to see his audience entertained. It's a post-<i>Gladiator</i> world, folks.</p><p>Interpreting any of this through Nolan's need to live up to <i>Memento</i> is, in this context, absurd. He knew very well what he was doing, and he was certainly not sending his audience any messages. He was, if anything, telling us that how we interpret his films are as much our business as his in making them. He knows what goes into them, and he certainly doesn't mind seeing how audiences react (he was to his detriment a proponent to reopening theaters during the pandemic), but regardless he's going to make movies the way he finds interesting, and he's now got a long career to show for it. Studios might be willing to indulge him in scale, but if he really needed to, he could bring it back to intimate levels. This is where his skill in casting comes in, his storytelling. He doesn't <i>need</i> David Bowie (who this time I noticed actually sounds a lot like Pierce Brosnan), but it doesn't hurt to get him, either. It doesn't hurt to include as subplot the perennially enigmatic Nicola Tesla, when anyone might have expected him to <i>headline</i> a Christopher Nolan film. For Nolan, expect the unexpected, but don't expect that twist to be <i>necessary</i>. That would be <i>your</i> mistake.</p><p>The result is a film only Nolan could have made (even if it's based on someone else's material). <i>The Prestige</i> was released the same year as <i>The Illusionist</i>. It used to be that I allowed this fact to distract from my enjoyment of it. But I don't revisit <i>Illusionist</i> as obsessively as <i>Prestige</i>. Sometimes having to work for it works in its favor.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-41602820609152242892023-05-12T10:44:00.001-07:002023-05-12T10:44:43.912-07:00Reign of Fire (2002) Review<p><i>rating</i>: ****</p><p><i>the story</i>: Dragons are accidentally awakened in the modern world, and subsequently are the subject of a desperate quest to eliminate as mankind struggles to survive.</p><p><i>review</i>: This is the of film you're maybe not sure what to think of initially, if you're like me, but years later realize what an improbable phenomenon it really is. Here I'm thinking of it in terms of Matthew McConaughey, whom I've grown to appreciate more and more over the years, and how even now he's never done anything even remotely close (unless you count <i>Free State of Jones</i>) to it since, and he's basically a supporting player to Christian Bale the whole time. Bale has made a career of the unexpected, and since <i>Reign</i> has certainly covered genre material quite heavily (Batman, <i>Terminator: Salvation</i>), so it's not as difficult to reconcile with the rest of his career, but in hindsight it might be easier to view as a rare original role in one that with Batman and <i>Salvation</i> sought to myth-build so eagerly.</p><p>Besides that, it's another movie featuring Gerard Butler before <i>300</i>, when he was still mostly anonymous. For me, it was also one of the films from this period to feature Alexander Siddig, a standout from <i>Star Trek: Deep Space Nine</i>, although he has few enough lines, and the original reason I sought <i>Reign</i> out in the first place. The film is directed by another Star Trek veteran, Rob Bowman, whose next and most recent production, <i>Elektra</i>, ended up defining his Hollywood career.</p><p>Watching Bale and McConaughey grapple with the dragon problem, and each other, Bale's guilt for having unleashed them (in his mind) to begin with, also rings true with Bale's later career, also filled with such roles, and as such is essential viewing as to how it took shape. The bald pate McConaughey sports doesn't really hide his essentially heroic nature, though as in his critical breakthrough role in <i>True Detective</i>, he's his rogue self trying to let the hero out when other people (Bale, in this instance) can't see it.</p><p>And it's a movies about dragons! Since most of the action takes place at night, the film doesn't have to worry about the effects holding up, since they were designed to pop effortlessly, and so they certainly hold up to modern expectations. Critics typically hate genre films that don't blunt their stories with comedy, but then they also hate comedy, which is to say, they don't like genre films, so <i>Reign</i> was always going to have a tough crowd. Even in 2002, franchises were so important to success, but <i>Reign</i> concludes its epic in the one movie, so there was no hook other than the spectacle on display, and mostly the human drama generated by Bale and McConaughey, which should have been enough, and is, if you let it, and it shouldn't be <i>that</i> hard to manage.</p><p>It's a textbook definition of a lost gem.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-37134336456528240062023-05-12T10:25:00.004-07:002023-05-12T10:25:42.125-07:00Savage Salvation (2022) Review<p><i>rating</i>: ****</p><p><i>the story</i>: An ex-military ace seeks revenge on the system that allowed his wife to overdose.</p><p><i>review</i>: Such are the times that star actors can see their movies swallowed into a void. Robert De Niro costars in this, but his presence didn't prevent such a fate for <i>Savage Salvation</i>, which also features John Malkovich and stars Jack Huston.</p><p>Huston's the reason I made sure to watch. The latest of a storied Hollywood family, he's struggled to find footing since <i>Ben-Hur</i>, which otherwise suggested to me a new talent worth following, but few enough starring roles to show for it. Most of the story beats of <i>Salvation</i> are well-trodden material, so it's not something you watch for originality, but I've certainly never let it get in the way of spending time with quality actors. De Niro is in subdued mode, and for him <i>Salvation</i> is <i>No Country for Old Men</i>, <i>Hell or High Water</i> territory. You wait for Malkovich's part to amount to something, and on that score the end twist is telegraphed, as Huston discovers the system is all too happy to exploit individuals without much concern to the consequences. Waiting for that to play out is more suspenseful than the revenge rampage Huston undertakes, or the withdrawal scenes he appears in.</p><p>With so little to show for his career to this point, Huston had a lot riding on whether or not he could carry <i>Salvation</i>, and to my mind he does, and for that reason watching him find a context in the rampage, how he carries himself is worth the experience. The greater narrative around all of this, the eponymous concept, both when the body of his wife is baptized and when he himself sinks into the water at the end, it gives depth to the rampage that can sometimes be relegated only to the original impetus, since the reward tends to be reduced to mere memory, rather than consequences or some greater goal, which in this case is finding peace, from a community that both supports him (De Niro) and betrays him (Malkovich), as well as beyond it.</p><p>Where Huston goes from this point I'm as eager as ever to find out.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-7684752545769659022023-05-12T10:11:00.001-07:002023-05-12T10:11:52.547-07:00Angry Neighbors (2022) Review<p><i>rating</i>: ****</p><p><i>the story</i>: A writer seeking to lead a secluded life feels infringed upon by a neighbor's ongoing development project.</p><p><i>review</i>: Not being overly involved in the streaming world (previously I was never overly involved in the cable world), I still participate in physical media, which is why I frequent Redbox kiosks, which is why I knew about the existence of <i>Angry Neighbors</i>, which exists well outside the mainstream despite starring Frank Langella. Langella's career is been that way all along, of course, rarely appearing in movies people have actually seen, but otherwise being well-respected. The closest he's come to a starring role with critical acclaim is probably <i>Frost/Nixon</i>. I had recently seen him in the Jim Carrey TV series <i>Kidding</i>, and <i>Angry Neighbors</i>, on a superficial level, resembles those results closely enough where I would endorse it for that alone, a quirky production featuring Langella. (The last time ones of his films got noticed was <i>Robot & Frank</i>, in which he stars opposite, obviously, a robot.)</p><p>The only chatter surrounding <i>Neighbors</i> stemmed from the original source material, which drew on the woes of other pampered residents of wealthy waterfront property, which was of interest mostly to <i>them</i>. Everyone else was left to scratch their head over the title, which surely evoked <i>Grumpy Old Men</i> if anything, and yet Langella's antagonist doesn't show up until the end (it turns into a metaphor of lost youth, I think), and he instead plays off others caught up in his struggles, including Bobby Cannavale playing the foreman in charge of the worksite unhappily afflicting him.</p><p>There's also, of course, Langella's dog, who speaks to him in the voice of Cheech Marin, personifying his closed world. If Langella and the narration and style of production weren't pitched enough, Marin's part cements the film's intentions. I have no idea why <i>Neighbors</i> would drop straight into obscurity (except, perhaps, allegations against Langella, which is such an old Hollywood story one wonders why the studios still get away with it except for the existence of endlessly compliant press). Spend some time in Langella's company. Don't worry if anyone else is, or if his character would approve of your choices. This would be an excellent one.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-85303952587165788042023-05-12T09:46:00.002-07:002023-05-12T09:46:35.887-07:00Amsterdam (2022) Review<p><i>rating</i>: *****</p><p><i>the story</i>: Three friends make a pact during WWI, and unexpectedly find themselves having to fulfill it during WWII.</p><p><i>the review</i>: The movies one considers a classic are sometimes confused with personal favorites, especially when critics have decided to ignore, overlook, or downplay their worth for whatever reason. I suspect this occurred with <i>Amsterdam</i> since director David O. Russell has had bad publicity in recent years stemming to his treatment of Amy Adams on the set of <i>American Hustle</i>, and he hasn't produced a wide success on the order of <i>Silver Linings Playbook</i>, despite high expectations for both <i>Hustle</i> and <i>Joy</i> after it. I've been a fan of Russell since <i>Three Kings</i>, which remained my favorite of his efforts despite his critical reputation blowing up with <i>Playbook, </i>and while I loved what he did with Christian Bale in <i>The Fighter</i> (a showy supporting role, but one that took pressure off an actor who can sometimes get lost in his performances, and thus became a career highlight), I hadn't been wowed by one of his films again. Russell is an idea guy in the vein of Orson Welles, and the way he achieves his results can lead to complicated productions, but the results speak for themselves. George Clooney found his first great film in <i>Kings</i>, when he was often typecast as a rogue (<i>Out of Sight</i> being the exception that proved the rule) without a way forward. Russell used the film to make a bigger point about the chaos of war, and how even the worst of intentions (stealing Iraqi gold) can lead to altruistic results (saving the innocent lives being ground up by the war). That Russell shows up in <i>Amsterdam</i>, plus a cast I couldn't resist (and certainly Russell has developed a reputation for great casts, regardless of what he does with them) in Bale, John David Washington, and Margot Robbie. So when I saw the results for myself, I found myself with an instant personal favorite, which for me turned out to be a classic waiting to be discovered.</p><p>The leading factor in my evaluation is Bale's performance. I haven't seen all of his films (much less some of his more famous, or infamous, ones in <i>American Psycho</i> and <i>The Machinist</i>), but he's long been a favorite, so I have a decent idea of his range, and certainly his willingness to transform himself for a role. One of the great joys of following a career is seeing an actor age, and what they do with that. <i>Amsterdam</i> is the first time I've seen him lean into his aging as part of the performance, not merely because the film covers more than a decade of time, but that instead of gaining or losing weight to inform a character, he gets to showcase how his face has changed over the years. This time it's very much the hair that helps shape the look, a period style that accentuates the effect of seeing Bale look older. Besides that, he gives an atypically lively performance, a comedic one that gives the film its voice. I've read critics suggest there's no memorable dialogue in <i>Amsterdam</i>, and even if that were the case (which it is not), the pleasure of Bale's phrasing keeps things moving along nicely. Too often we take for granted the mere acting, unless it's filling out a greater message, which Bale's does not. All he does is set the tone. This film, as a result, is very easy to watch. It's unlike anything Russell has done before. Even Clooney didn't get into his Golden Age act until well after <i>Kings</i>.</p><p>Washington, who was a breakout star in both <i>BlacKkKlansman</i> and <i>Tenet</i>, has his first real chance to shine on his own merits. Putting aside my reservations of his physical appearance (how Spike Lee designed the distracting afro) in the former, and Christopher Nolan's patented ambition in the latter, in <i>Amsterdam</i> Washington has a part that rises or falls on its own, how he plays against other actors. He couldn't ask for better partners than Bale and Robbie, both of whom could very easily swallow him whole if he couldn't keep up with them, but he can. He's not his father, who commands effortlessly any scene he's in, sometimes with very little dialogue at all. He doesn't even particularly <i>look</i> like Denzel Washington. Clean-faced, he almost looks anonymous, but <i>Amsterdam</i> soon gives him a look to match Bale's, and the result is more proof that the man pulls off a beard as well as anyone ever has. The undercurrent of race relations that never plays out in conflict with Bale or Robbie, or any other character who carries weight in the movie, is instead moved to subtext, a complementary commentary to the reasons for the conspiracy the characters unite against as they attempt to solve a murder mystery.</p><p>Probably the critics poopooed the movie since they feared it went against their chosen narrative of the present, a conspiracy plotted against FDR and therefore the country itself that perhaps suggests too closely the Trump debacle. Whether you choose to interpret it that way isn't mandatary; like any good story it's merely a cautionary tale, and that becomes its second key selling point, a story with an actual point, and one that doesn't lose its compelling lead characters in the process, but rather one that gives them their weight.</p><p>There is of course Robbie rounding out the leads, and Hollywood has found another way to explain her volatile charm, like <i>I, Tonya</i> a movie asking you to sympathize with her despite the insane circumstances around her, which her other big 2022 movie, <i>Babylon</i>, didn't quite pull off, leaving the viewer to be lost mesmerized by the spectacle she inevitably creates, in very much the Harley Quinn way. This girl was determined not to be just a pretty face. She's the Brad Pitt of actresses, and <i>Amsterdam</i> is ultimate proof.</p><p>Rounding out the cast are Robert De Niro, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana, Rami Malek, and of all people Mike Myers (who previously appeared with Robbie in <i>Terminal</i>), a small but crucial role deftly walking the tightrope between comedic and dramatic, evoking his appearance in <i>Inglourious Basterds</i>.</p><p>If <i>The Batman</i> hadn't pulled off a miracle by once again redefining its title character and thus further developing one of the modern era's defining fictional creations, I wouldn't hesitate to call <i>Amsterdam</i> the best film of 2022. It is a masterpiece, and by all rights should have swept all the awards ceremonies. Hopefully it'll be rediscovered in time.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-21379242025697005142023-04-09T16:21:00.001-07:002023-04-09T16:21:19.114-07:002022 Box Office Top Ten<p>As of 4/9/23, according to Box Office Mojo, here’re the top grossing movies of 2022, both nationally and internationally:</p><p>US Box Office:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Top</b> <b>Gun</b>: <b>Maverick</b> ($718 million) By far the biggest surprise of the year, Tom Cruise’s biggest blockbuster ever and his first unconnected to the Mission: Impossible films in years. Clearly audiences were ready to revisit the previous film. Strong X-Wing/ Star Wars vibes certainly don’t hurt.</li><li><b>Avatar</b>: <b>The</b> <b>Way</b> <b>of</b> <b>Water</b> ($682 million) They say never bet against James Cameron, except every time he comes out with a new film that’s exactly what everyone does, and he still comes out with a blockbuster. The last one was a phenomenon more than a decade ago. </li><li><b>Black</b> <b>Panther</b>: <b>Wakanda</b> <b>Forever</b> ($453 million) After the huge success of the previous entry in <i>this</i> franchise, this was a disappointment by comparison. Still the biggest superhero success of the year, at least nationally.</li><li><b>Doctor</b> <b>Strange</b> <b>in</b> <b>the</b> <b>Multiverse</b> <b>of</b> <b>Madness</b> ($411 million) After the huge success of the last Spider-Man movie, audiences were primed for another superhero flick with surprise appearances, which this one had with a few (basically) throwaway cameos.</li><li><b>Jurassic</b> <b>World</b>: <b>Dominion</b> ($376 million) The dinosaurs remained a huge draw in this franchise, wrapping up the sprawling saga.</li><li><b>Minions</b>: The <b>Rise</b> <b>of</b> <b>Gru</b> ($369.6 million) The biggest family hit of the year was another prequel in the series begun with <i>Despicable</i> <i>Me</i>.</li><li><b>The</b> <b>Batman</b> ($369.3 million) Technically the first “original” (not a sequel) hit on the list.</li><li><b>Thor</b>: <b>Love</b> <b>and</b> <b>Thunder</b> ($343 million) Superhero fatigue started to settle in officially with this one, leaning into the same comedic formula of its cult favorite predecessor, failed to find a happy audience.</li><li><b>Sonic</b> <b>the</b> <b>Hedgehog</b> <b>2</b> ($190 million) If you believe him, this is Jim Carrey’s last movie.</li><li><b>Black</b> <b>Adam</b> ($168 million) Dwayne Johnson took years to get around to making this one. Thought it would be embraced as a game-changer for DC movies. The studio changed the game on him instead.</li></ol><div>International Box Office:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Avatar</b>: <b>The</b> <b>Way</b> <b>of</b> <b>Water</b> ($2.3 billion) The clear winner here was a little different.</li><li><b>Top</b> <b>Gun</b>: <b>Maverick</b> ($1.4 billion) </li><li><b>Jurassic</b> <b>World</b>: <b>Dominion</b> ($1 billion)</li><li><b>Doctor</b> <b>Strange</b> <b>in</b> <b>the</b> <b>Multiverse</b> <b>of</b> <b>Madness</b> ($955 million)</li><li><b>Minions</b>: <b>The</b> <b>Rise</b> <b>of</b> <b>Gru</b> ($934 million)</li><li><b>Black</b> <b>Panther</b>: <b>Wakanda</b> <b>Forever</b> ($859 million)</li><li><b>The</b> <b>Batman</b> ($770 million)</li><li><b>Thor</b>: <b>Love</b> <b>and</b> <b>Thunder</b> ($760 million)</li><li><b>Water</b> <b>Gate</b> <b>Bridge</b> ($626 million) Here’s China’s contribution.</li><li><b>Puss</b> <b>in</b> <b>Boots</b>: <b>The</b> <b>Last</b> <b>Wish</b> ($480 million) The biggest gain on this list was the late entry in the Shrek franchise.</li></ol></div><p></p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-85034468122577392392023-03-25T10:30:00.000-07:002023-03-25T10:30:43.017-07:002018 Capsule Reviews<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Isle of Dogs</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating: </i>*****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The movie that definitively made me appreciate Wes Anderson, his second stop-motion animated flick, about a nightmare scenario striking a Japanese city which exiles all its dogs to "Trash Island," and the courageous dogs (and humans!) who struggle to save the day. Packed with Anderson's trademark ability to collect great stars to his projects, including what's now my favorite Bryan Cranston performance as Chief, the unlikely leader of this pack. The whole film is amazing, including a perfect soundtrack.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Death of Stalin</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: What do you get when filmmakers take the Monty Python approach to Soviet Russia? I think the answer ought to be obvious: an instant classic.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The media found a perfect storm of scandals to break the appeal of this series, whether it was J.K. Rowling, Ezra Miller, or Johnny Depp, who took center stage in this middle installment as Grindelwald, with Jude Law debuting as the young Dumbledore. Competes with <i>Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire</i> as the definitive cinematic installment in the franchise, for me anyway. Completely brilliant.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Old Man & the Gun</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: For nearly everyone else David Lowery is still trying really hard to impress them, but for me he's very easily one of today's best filmmakers. I really thought he'd reach that point with this latter-day starring role for Robert Redford, but 2018 in general was kind of a black hole, a transition, a singularity leading to the present day, in which the old rules simply no longer apply. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Solo: A Star Wars Story</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: For most Star Wars fans, my opinions are the exact opposite of mainstream opinion. Just recently, I thought <i>Rogue One</i> was basically an abomination, and the sequels were brilliant. And I <i>loved</i> Solo, exactly what the character Han Solo needed to solidify his legacy, including an extremely clever interpretation of the old Kessel run record he bragged about in his first appearance. If ever Star Wars truly became more than just the Skywalker saga (sorry, <i>Mandalorian</i> fans), this is what it looks like when Han takes center stage, and exactly how it ought.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Damsel</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The Robert Pattinson career revival that led to his successfully starring in <i>The Batman</i> last year continued, quietly, with this oddball western, with Pattinson thoroughly embracing his inner Brad Pitt in a gonzo performance thoroughly worth experiencing.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Super Troopers 2</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I didn't really get into the Broken Lizard boys until <i>Club Dread</i>, so the first <i>Super Troopers</i> had for a long time been a comedy milestone for <i>other</i> movie fans. I was more than ready for this late sequel, however, especially thanks to all the Canadian humor infused into the shenanigans.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Favourite</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Director Yorgos Lanthimos first landed on my radar with his previous standout collaborations with Colin Farrell, including the classic <i>The Lobster</i>. He had me without Farrell thanks to his including Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone in this one. Dude knows how to pick, and showcase, his stars.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Dark Crimes</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Jim Carrey's brief comeback began with this obscure thriller in which he commits to a serious character role, which he nails. In career overviews, hopefully it'll garner more attention later.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Gringo</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A classic ensemble farce lampooning corporate nonsense. Another movie that demands a much wider and acclaimed reputation. This year was full of 'em.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Tag</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Famously the movie that broke Jeremy Renner's arms (he's had some terrible luck, okay?) and limiting his resulting chances to be featured heavily in the later Avengers movies (but was that <i>really </i>ever going to happen?), but well worth it. A classic comedy.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Holmes and Watson</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Ferrell and Reilly team together for another classic. Reputation certainly suggests otherwise. But...people developed increasingly poor taste. Keep reading the list, okay?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Yellow Birds</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A who's who of great young actors (Alden Ehrenreich, Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston) power this war drama.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Woman Walks Ahead</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Jessica Chastain's whole career kind of falls into the black hole of this era, and so this movie certainly was completely overlooked. With a voice likes hers you'd think she'd only have so much range, but she always surprises. If she's somehow not enough for you, there's also Sam Rockwell.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Operation: Finale</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Sometimes it really seems that what people are telling you and what they possibly really believe are in fact two different things. Here's another movie that should have been a huge deal, as Oscar Isaac goes Nazi hunting in South America. Riveting, with a signature turn from Ben Kingsley to push things along.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Sorry to Bother You</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: LaKeith Stanfield had a breakthrough year (he also had a small but striking supporting role in <i>The Girl in Spider's Web</i>), headlined by this wicked satire.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Peppermint</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: If you'd asked me twenty years ago if it was at all possible to completely take Jennifer Garner for granted, I would never have believed you. She attempts a comeback that strongly evokes <i>Alias</i> (or at least her acting in it), and that's how it's greeted. Figures.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Paul, Apostle of Christ</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Jim Caviezel's second biblical epic drew considerably less attention (here he's only Luke, alas, and by the end of the film really just a supporting player), but a pretty impactful experience, once you let it sink into you.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Sicario: Day of the Soldado</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The opening scene is so mesmerizing, I really haven't been able to make it through the rest of the movie even now. Seems more of a spotlight for Benicio del Toro than Josh Brolin. I'm okay with that. Will eventually experience the whole thing!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Girl in the Spider's Web</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Once I got into Lisbeth Salander, I saw her as a true modern icon. Book buyers bought and then abandoned her, and this second of her two American movies didn't make much of an impact, and yet she remains compelling, for me.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Can You Ever Really Forgive Me?</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The downslope of Melissa McCarthy's sudden wave of massive popularity was precipitous; this excellent dramatic spotlight was paired in 2018 by the movie that finally did it in, which you'll find later on in this list.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Vice</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Adam McKay's biting political bio wasn't bold enough for the viewers who wanted him to really savage Cheney (and/or Bush), but I figure it did its job well enough.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Widows</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I think ultimately its sprawling cast of standout performances overwhelms the overall experience. But what a cast!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Stan & Ollie</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Y'know, <i>Laurel & Hardy</i>. This biopic is perhaps a little too depressing in its spotlight of their declining years. But well worth experiencing as a tribute to their enduring appeal.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Ant-Man and the Wasp</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Paul Rudd is such a great hand, it's easy to forget why he's generally not really considered a leading man. This is even more obvious in the recent third installment, but in this second one, there's plenty of assisting parts, including an upgrade so Marvel could claim it used its female characters better than its record had really stated by this point. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Mission: Impossible - Fallout</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Ah! Right! The infamous Henry Cavill role that produced the mustache! Tom Cruise had developed a nasty habit in this series to curb the wider appeal of any potential usurpers (Jeremy Renner, previous victim, <i>Ghost Protocol</i>), and Cavill's best scene, preparing for a fight in a restroom, showcased in the trailers, is relegated to much less impressive results in the film itself, and of course a reveal as one of the bad guys. But I really do love this series.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Avengers: Infinity War</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Elsewhere on this blog you can see where my original thoughts were considerably more positive, but hindsight places the best sequence, and the only one I really think fondly about, in Steve Rogers' dramatic comeback. Otherwise, dramatically underscores all the failings of the MCU to be anything more than throwaway entertainment. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Venom</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Hey, I'll follow Tom Hardy anywhere! Typically great performance. Rest of the film around him...well, it's there, anyway.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Aquaman</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I just haven't really gotten around to revisiting it. I <i>love</i> Jason Momoa's Aquaman. But he doesn't feel as electric as he does in (either cut of) <i>Justice League</i>, here. Role of a lifetime all the same.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Deadpool 2/Once Upon a Deadpool</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The novelty of Ryan Reynolds getting to have the first one made overlooks that the results are seriously obnoxious, without anything around the performance remotely capable of or interested in balancing it out. This second one has Zazie Beetz as Domino. It's pretty much enough.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Ocean's 8</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Well worth revisiting the formula with an all-female all star cast.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The House with a Clock in Its Walls</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Cate Blanchett and Jack Black as wizards in this kind of alternate take on Harry Potter (based on a book that predates Harry Potter, to be clear). Well worth the look.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Tom Raider</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: ***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Goodness, Alicia Vikander deserves a far larger legacy than she ended up getting. This take on Lara Croft is far more credible than its two cinematic predecessors, and not just because it's based on later entries in the game series that grounded our hero more in the real world. Last year's <i>Uncharted</i> shows where this one really fell short of the mark: besides Vikander, there's not much else to see.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Teen Titans Go! To the Movies</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Endure the stuff happening around it if you want to see Nic Cage officially as Superman!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Early Man</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A kind of disappointing creative follow-up from the genius creator of Wallace & Gromit.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Black Panther</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I still don't get why the character of Black Panther itself isn't considered hugely embarrassing, but it seems a sizable portion of both black and white audiences prefer a fantastical vision of Africa, and an African hero, to represent the best hopes of black people in America, than anything else. In any other setting, this would work much better. As the most famous and successful black superhero (at least at the movies), I just don't get it. Might still end up the most enduring artifact of the MCU era. If so, its legacy should grow accordingly. As part of the MCU, it's just ridiculous.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Crazy Rich Asians</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Credited with raising the profile of Asians in American film (but somehow it took until last year's <i>Everything Everywhere All at Once</i> to have any kind of follow-up), but really just another fever dream of obscene wealth.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Robin Hood</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A fun update but decidedly a lower register than the Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe versions that preceded it. I mean, is Taron Egerton ever going to <i>be</i> considered to portray a father figure to Superman???</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Skyscraper</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The movie all those recent critics of Dwayne Johnson doing the same thing every movie most ignore (from his recent output), a decent effort at making him more human, but kind of focusing too much on the dramatic heroics to really qualify.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Death Wish</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Bruce Willis's last shot at a mainstream hit is a remake that doesn't really know how to spotlight him.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Sisters Brothers</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A screwball buddy western that looks too grim to really soak in its comedic potential. Or I just need to watch it again.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Mary Queen of Scots</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I probably really, really need to revisit this one, as it <i>seems</i> to waste both Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan. How is that even possible???</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Annihilation</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Much buzzed about, but mostly a wasted cast in a movie of total nonsense.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>You Were Never Really Here</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Basically the exact experience of Joaquin Phoenix's <i>Joker</i>. But worse.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Great animation (of the kind later put to equally stellar work in <i>The Mitchells vs. the Machines</i>), but otherwise lost in spastic storytelling.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>A Star is Born</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: The zenith of Bradley Cooper's star power from the unexpected huge success of <i>American Sniper</i> boils down to one really great song ("Shallow") and a spotlight for Lady Gaga, eating up with all her insecurities any decent chance for Cooper himself to stand out. Well, she fits in <i>House of Gucci</i> much, much better.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>BlacKkKlansman</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Spike Lee's comeback is by most rights a seminal experience with a number of great performances, from John David Washington and Adam Driver, but the results, at least for me, are completely sabotaged by the horrendous afro Washington sports throughout, which looks more like a turban than hair. I mean...unless there was somehow a point being made, did nobody notice that? At all?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Mary Poppins Returns</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Did no one notice in <i>this</i> one that the songs in it are not even remotely reminiscent of the ones in the original? And if they're not...what is even the point???</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Bumblebee</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: A lot of viewers thought this one corrected the mistakes of the Michael Bay era. But the results are basically exactly the same as the Michael Bay era. But without the Michael Bay magic. So...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Happytime Murders</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: I really, really wanted to like this. But the absence of a truly sympathetic, <i>comedic</i> lead pseudo Muppet robs this Melissa McCarthy vehicle of rewatch appeal. A fine thing for what it is, but in this case, probably rightly roundly rejected on release.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Ready Player One</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: **</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: Modern Spielberg is desperate to please, and here's his shot at adapting a popular book. It's not Harry Potter.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Hurricane Heist</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>rating</i>: *</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>review</i>: My first viewing suggested a surprisingly amateurish experience. Wanted to be kind of like the Fast & Furious films. Fell well short of the mark.</div>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131552743427144049.post-51948486360799894432023-02-12T03:34:00.002-08:002023-02-12T13:34:16.474-08:002022 Movies Viewed/ Ranked<b><i>Viewed/Ranked</i></b><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><i>The Batman</i></li><li><i>The Banshees of Inisherin</i></li><li><i>Everything Everywhere all at Once</i></li><li><i>Three Thousand Years of Longing</i></li><li><i>Elvis</i></li><li><i>Nope</i></li><li><i>Top Gun: Maverick</i></li><li><i>Bullet Train</i></li><li><i>Where the Crawdads Sing</i></li><li><i>Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore </i></li><li><i>Avatar: The Way of Water</i></li><li><i>After Yang</i></li><li><i>The Outfit</i></li><li><i>Breaking</i></li><li><i>Marry Me</i></li><li><i>Uncharted</i></li><li><i>Sonic the Hedgehog 2</i></li><li><i>Black Adam</i></li><li><i>The Bad Guys</i></li><li><i>Ambulance </i></li><li><i>The Contractor </i></li><li><i>Crimes of the Future</i></li><li><i>Don’t Worry Darling</i></li><li><i>The Lost City</i></li><li><i>Ticket to Paradise </i></li><li><i>Moonfall</i></li><li><i>Death on the Nile</i></li><li><i>Father Stu</i></li><li><i>Thor: Love and Thunder</i></li><li><i>The Forgiven</i></li><li><i>The Northman</i></li><li><i>Clerks III</i></li><li><i>The 355</i></li><li><i>Morbius</i></li><li><i>Minions: The Rise of Gru</i></li><li><i>Medieval </i></li><li><i>Memory</i></li><li><i>DC League of Superpets</i></li><li><i>The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent </i></li><li><i>The King’s Daughter</i></li><li><i>Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness </i></li></ol><div><i><b>Other</b> <b>Notable</b> <b>Releases</b></i></div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>Amsterdam</i> </li><li><i>Armageddon</i> <i>Time</i></li><li><i>Babylon </i></li><li><i>Beast</i></li><li><i>Black Panther: Wakanda Forever</i></li><li><i>The Black Phone</i></li><li><i>Dog</i></li><li><i>Empire of Light</i></li><li><i>The Fabelmans</i></li><li><i>Glass Onion</i></li><li><i>Jurassic World: Dominion</i></li><li><i>Lightyear</i></li><li><i>Marcel the Shell with Shoes On</i></li><li><i>The Menu</i></li><li><i>Puss in Boots: The Last Wish</i></li><li><i>Scream</i></li><li><i>See How They Run</i></li><li><i>Spoiler Alert</i></li><li><i>Tár</i></li><li><i>Till</i></li><li><i>Vengeance</i></li><li><i>The Whale</i></li><li><i>The Woman King</i></li></ul></div>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0