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Road House (2024)
A shot of blandness on the Rocks
I have no nostalgic attachments to the original movie, since I literally saw it a week before this one. But fact is, the original is a cult classic and this will never be. I was curious about how they would tackle a movie which has a ridiculous plot and over-the-top characters and the result is underwhelming as is every streaming-produced film. This remake has nothing going for it. They wanted to make more realistic fight scenes and try to appeal to the MMA audience, but why is everything shot on green screen, badly edited, and every car stunt is a CG car that moves and behaves in unrealistic ways? This is another one of those fun 80's movies that got DarkKnighted: make everything realistic, use a brooding protagonist, film mostly at nights but use yellow lights, up the kill count and throw more money on it. Just a reminder that this movie had six times the budget of a Godzilla Minus One.
All the characters on the island are cookie-cutter unlikeable Starbucks costumers with zero acting abilities. And Gyllenhall has no chemistry with any of them because the script doesn't allow for real human moments or connections, especially for his love interest. Don't get me started on all the meta-humour concerning the name of the bar, can screenwriters please stop doing this. Gylenhaal's character is so shallow and everyone likes him immediately especially after he beats up people. Swayze had class, was reserved, reading books and trying to teach the employees how to diffuse situations. The Dalton in this movie is too cool for all that nonsense. He just trains alone, let's others do the work, while he's busy allowing people to use his abdomen as a knife guard, because he's emo and mad inside. The director and the scriptwriter completely missed the point of what that character was about. Then we have the bad guys which also fail to leave a memorable impression. They try to make them at least over-the-top, I'll give 'em that, but they don't do much with it overall. Connor McGregor is okay for a minute of screen time, but he's always grinning like that was the only thing he was allowed to do. A croc is getting introduced just to conveniently get rid of a problem and is never seen again. And of course we get the obligatory back door for a future sequel. It's insane to me that the studio seriously thought they would have some kind of John Wick franchise in their hands. I doubt anyone is craving for more of this mediocrity.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Cinema worthy
The first Dune movie I had mixed feelings, since it felt too much like setting up pieces rather than a satisfactory story. Even if you're building a trilogy every movie should stand on it's own feet. Without ever having read the books I understand now why it is so difficult to capture them on film. Although we get a lot of story to chew here, certain characters feel still underdeveloped. To be fair I liked Part Two much more since we finally get some pay-offs from the first part. But then in the last act we get the same clunky set-ups we got in part one unfortunately. I must stress out that I enjoyed the movie quite a bit and I urge anybody to see it in cinema because it is an achievement and a sight to behold. Dennis Villeneuve and his team are masters at their craft: cinematography, editing, production design, sound & music are performing on the highest level here. It's truly rare to see this kind of united quality on a big screen, and it deserves to be up in the ranks of the biggest blockbusters. Everybody who loves going to the cinema to be immersed in another time and space should check it out. I might watch it again, just because I enjoyed it purely on a visceral level. The movie is almost three hours long but it passes by much quicker due to the great narrative flow. What I had problems with, although sounding nitpicky, is that there are so many players, that we don't get to know them very well and some important ones are dispatched of too quickly, sort of anti-climatic. Especially the ending felt kind of rushed to me. In general, but especially in the final battle I expected more losses or opposition in the fight. It almost felt too easy, no struggle. Again, this would have been great as a mini series, especially when it comes to fleshing out the antagonists. But on the other hand Vileneuve would have not gotten the budget for the location shoots, cinematography, sfx and everything else that made this so impressive if he had to operate on a streaming budget. I wished Villeneuve would release all the deleted scenes (of there are any) of this and turn it retroactively into a mini series, but since we all know his stance towards deleted scenes we know this is not going to happen. As it stands, I still enjoyed the hell out of this movie. It should be seen not only because of the immersive world and ambitious storytelling. But also to signal the big studios that audiences are tired of spectacle movies. And that they need to get their story departments in check, try to win audiences back with compelling stories rather than dangling shiny things in front of kittens.
Poor Things (2023)
The Empress with no clothes
I have watched this movie twice now in cinema, in two different languages, but I wanted to at least watch the original version to see if something got lost in translation. On the first watch I had mixed feelings, because there's honestly a lot to process with the neat visuals, bizarre otherworld and the absurdist tone/conversations. On second watch I liked it a bit less, because the film feels like it drops the ball somewhere at the midpoint of the movie. The only thing that kept things fresh was honestly the buffoonery of one of the villains played by Ruffalo. The protagonist wanders around and states very obvious things throughout the film and it becomes quite simplistic, like the story getting the reverse evolution treatment of Bella. The nudity and sexual scenes didn't bother me too much, although it definitely feels like overkill on second re-watch, and I spoken to other people who watched it and claim that it's intentionally being dull or repetitive because of 'patriarchy'. I have no problem with a movie being disturbing, just boring and repetitive are qualities that are hard to be enthusiastic about. Like I said the movie loses a lot of steam halfway through the boat trip. Especially whenever the movie is getting interesting like introducing the class system (rich vs poor) it does literally nothing with it, seeing that it is intrinsically linked with the exploitation of women, children, humans in general. It never goes more into the complexities, complications or Tha accomplice of our society. There's also no struggle in Bella's journey to attain certain knowledge, she feels sorry for the poor slum people but throws money at the problem and then completely forgets about it. She's not very smart in one scene but psychoanalyzes the cynical traveler to a T during their farewell. She's poor but immediately gets a job as a prostitute. And the depiction of the whorehouse being a jolly fun place I found especially problematic. For example, there is not one instance of violence, the worst costumer she gets, is a guy who smells funny. If you watch interviews with prostitutes and they talk about the environment, it is without a question a very harsh one. The movie always shies away from the real nasty stuff of life, and violence is definitely a prominent tool for exploitation. We get a brief glimpse of it during the appearance of her real husband, but again this issue gets solved fairly easy, it's such a mild inconvenience, I wonder why it was included at all.
Another problem I had, is the fiancé/medical assistant who has no backbone, no agency, he is such a fluff character willing to read every wish to Bella's demands, that I wonder what it is she likes about him. If one would reverse the gender of this dynamic you'd get a very different picture. It's not a bad movie, I quite enjoyed it although it's meandering to get through the finish line. I liked the saturated colorful cinematography, Ruffalo's sleazebag performance, the intrinsic set design and especially the music. I wish the movie had a little bit more to say or we would get a more interesting and challenging encounters towards the end.
The Iron Claw (2023)
Predictable but solid
The Iron Claw isn't a great movie as the trailer made it look like. It had potential, you can tell that there is something simmering underneath there, that never gets to shine. It is a well made movie with great cinematography, great ambiance and a very good cast of actors. Unlike others, I didn't find Efron's portrayal stiff, he was pretty good. The problem was that his character was under-written, so was anyone else unfortunately. The movie doesn't dig deep into the psychology of our protagonist or the Dad really, which is a shame. It would have been great to get to know the other brothers more as well, but the movie settles for simple archetypes which made the story predictable, especially concerning the fate of certain characters. Be that as it may, it is a movie that has heart. And that, you don't see often anymore from the big movies, so there are a few emotional moments which really hit home. It sure resonates with a lot of people, judging by the reviews, especially people who are not familiar with wrestling or the family (me included). I would say it is not as haunting as Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides, which deals with a similar topic and is set in the same era. But everyone else who wants to see a solid drama with good production value should definitely give it a go. I didn't regret seeing it.
6 out of 10.
Argylle (2024)
Nothing is real anymore
Oof, I was looking forward seeing the new film by Matthew Vaughn and didn't want to get spoiled by watching trailers or any promotion for this. Big mistake. I honestly don't know where to start. So I start with the question that came up at least fifteen times while watching this movie. "What happened to action movies?"
I have never been so bored by an action movie in my life. If you like real explosions, real stunts, real car chases and real locations, this movie is not for you. Not only is everything CGI like any of the action films Netflix churns out by the week. The badly integrated green screens took me out of the movie. Every time. Now you might say we are talking about one or two sequences. But this is the whole movie. I could not immerse myself in the story that is wrapped in obvious fake sets the whole time. Even regular apartments look like they took stock photos and plastered the actors on top of them. And I'm not at the edge of my seat when I see a badly rendered car swerve weightless around the corner. Hell, even the cat is CG ninety-nine percent of the time. I saw this on regular IMAX but judging by the sheer amount of 'in your face shots' I got strong vibes that this is one of those movies that will get post-converted into 3D to make an extra buck. The schtick with cross-cutting Henry Cavill was wearing thin after a minute into the train sequence, but they kept doing it.
I must say at least the story is rather ambitious: what starts off with the premise of a French comedy film (La Chèvre-1981) turns slowly into a weak 'The Long Kiss Goodnight' (1996) rip-off. But the constant misdirections where sometimes obvious and too much. And they tried too many times to go emotional and failed which brings us to the other elephant in the room: The actors.
I don't want to talk too much about Bryce Dallas Howard, she is as wooden as in every movie role, no surprise here. She is a obviously corpulent, which I thought was a nice touch for the role of the book author in the beginning. It makes sense if she spent most of her days at home writing. But the minute we involve her into gravity-defying action acrobatics, it becomes laughable. Here was an opportunity to create conflict even comedy to show how rusty she is in the field, but I guess the makers weren't brave enough for that. Instead we get served more unbelievable action shenanigans, Bradley James Allan's choreography and creativity is sorely missed in Vaug's films. More unforgiving, is that a reliable actor like Sam Rockwell totally misses the mark with his smarmy and dry delivery. I don't know what he's going for, but likeable or interesting it isn't. He is worse here than in Seven Psychopaths (2012). Bryan Cranston is okay in this, he tries at least to chew the scenery, but even he is giving up by the end. Most of it is the fault of the writing, to be fair. Some of dialogues, especially the ones in the book club are so cringe worthy written, I really want to blame AI for this. Scenes meandering for far too long, everything is spelled out and hits the viewer with a jack hammer. We have an exciting scene with Sam Jackson watching a basketball game immediately followed by an upload bar (ripped off from his own Kingman film). I leave it at that. And want to end with another question. Can we please get old school movies back?
Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
Giving up at the finish line
I have watched this in cinema, but apart from one or two image I completely forgotten what it was about or how it ended. I just rewatched it, and it makes sense why I have blocked it out of my memory, although I mostly enjoyed the set pieces up to a point. This movie starts very intriguing with lots of questions and shady characters. I also liked the lighting and camera work of the first half of the movie, the only downside is that the set looks a bit artificial in it's pristine state, since everything looks brand-new. We don't feel like the characters are stranded in the middle of nowhere since we only see the hotel and it's parking area, but nothing outside of that perimeter, it would helped to see a little bit more of the area. If it was surrounded by a huge desert area. I would have accepted more why characters don't leave this forsaken place when their life is in danger, regardless if their car doesn't start.
But those are just nitpicks to be honest. The real problem with the movie is that it has nothing really interesting to tell halfway through the film. Especially the inclusion of the cult hippie family deflates the movie from anything remotely interesting. You can tell Chris Hemsworth had fun playing that character, but it is also very, very one-dimensional on page, which culminates in him being shut down by the protagonist in the most preachy way possible. I don't buy it for a second that this self-delusional lunatic would just sit there speechless, it felt very written. A lot of it does on the last stretch. The war veteran reveal felt like this whole thing is a convenient joke. It is simply astounding how hard the movie dropped the ball after such a promising beginning. Don't get me wrong, I was rooting for the two characters to survive but it had to be earned. This move gets compared to Tarantino a lot, and although I'm not his biggest fan, at least in his movies the characters have to go through the wringer in the last act. The other reason this gets compared to Tarantino is probably it's structure. Although he certainly didn't invent the out of order storytelling, he helped popularize it, bringing it into mainstream cinema. The flashback segments on this film are interesting armt first. But the more Goddard uses it the more they overstay their welcome. I remember even in the cinema that the constant breaks in the main narrative got really tedious. And the difference between the segments in Pulp Fiction versus this movie is that they have a clear beginning, turning point and a resolution. Most segments here end with a cliffhanger or a question mark and that is what makes it more frustrating than rewarding.
Overall this movie played it too safe, and was too on the nose with the male toxicity. All the talk about religion is nothing more than lip service. I get that every character in this movie believes in their own god like christianity, government (FBI), money, Manson and music. But at the end the characters still take the blood money, so I guess that is good. Bad Times is unfortunately an empty movie since there is nothing deeply profound about any of the observations and as an entertainment flick this movie just gets lost in it's long-winded narrative. At least Cabin in the Woods was fun towards the end.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Across the Bloatedverse
I found the first film to be a solid movie. A bit over-indulgent and over-praised but solid. This on the other hand, takes all the bad aspects of the first movie and cranks it up to eleven. First off, this doesn't feel like a story about Miles Morales. Sadly we are still doing the multi-verse gimmick that has worn off three years ago. To top it off the 150 minutes runtime is in no way justified for offering such a thin story. Most action scenes are far too long, especially the one with the Vulture and the mid-escape chase scene. That one in particular felt like a redo of the lab chase from the first film. A lot of times the movie was trying to recreate moments from the previous installement without the heart.
And what's with the mediocre voice acting this time? Especially the opening monologue of Gwen Stacy felt like it was read from last-minute cue cards. To be fair, I liked the Gwen Stacy story arc in the beginning, but then they used an unbelievable character moment to make her force her hand to join the Spiderverse. And this is where the movie lost me. This whole world and the explanation of it's existence reeks of desperate attempts of an industry that is trying to sell the same doll with a different dress. I just don't watch superheroes to see them having existential crisis, it plagues the comic movies since The Dark Knight. They even implemented this narrative hook on characters like Superman (Man of Steel) who are the antithesis of this outlook and we saw how that went down.
It's no coincidence that the story got very thin after we get to the Spiderverse. From then on the writers can only throw action set pieces after the audience to fill up the two and a half hours runtime (!). Seriously it was really boring, sometimes laughable (that shot of the hologram that reveals the serious face of Spiderman 2099) and the scenes that were supposed to make you laugh were tired. Especially the quips during the action were otherworldly bad. And once the dust settled, they filmmakers could not even manage to end it in a mildly satisfying conclusion. There are ways to end a story with certain degree of closure while some story strands aren't resolved. It's an art for a reason. But this is just plain lazy. What they dish out as a cliffhanger should have been the mid-turning-point of the movie. If they had any talented writers at all they would have made this movie with Miles and Gwen in their respectable world without crossing over into the other person's universe. Seemingly having a different story but with the same theme connecting them. That would of course require more work in the writing department to pull off, but you can tell that right after the success of the first movie they wanted to keep the machine running to churn out another one of these as fast as possible. And although four years seems like a long time for a movie, I can assure it's not for an animated movie. Especially one with this magnitude of animation quality, runtime and post production requirements. Unfortunately it didn't deliver, I was honestly rooting for this film but at least I don't regret anymore that I missed it in cinema.
4 out of 10.
God Is a Bullet (2023)
Different kind of beast
God is a Bullet is a movie that is trying to be many things but falls short of being truly powerful. In fact, the first ten minutes start promising, it doesn't waste time to get into gear. But soon after that it starts to meander a bit aimlessly. I was especially disappointed that the story didn't commit to the black magic angle they teased in the beginning. There were vibes of True Detective season one where we go on a dark journey down the abyss. Unfortunately the movie gets more predictable and trivial the closer we reach the end. Again, the overall pace is very meandering and the story is handled more like a checklist unfortunately.
What deflated a lot of tension were the dumb decisions the characters made at every corner. All the time they keep talking about how dangerous it is to go against this cult and most of the time they just barge into a place unprepared and are surprised that they get caught with their pants off. All the while the movie is trying to be dark, gritty and authentic but treats the viewer with completely over-the-top moments or a character out of an 80's film. It created a weird disconnect. Maika Monroe's character "Case" seems intriguing at first but there's not much substance in her portrayal. Her divine change of heart moment is explained away as a random encounter in a grocery store. Truly underwhelming. And then there are the exchanges about faith and religion which come off very superficial and smarmy. I realized that this is basically the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo without the intriguing murder mystery (they even lift the epilogue). Instead of a good thriller we get lots of gore but it is so obvious CG that it takes all the enjoyment out of it.
The movie has some nice imagery and colors here and there but it is mostly filmed in drab colors. Nikolai Coster Waldau is a reliable actor but he already did the grieving father who's out for revenge in 'The Silencing' which was undoubtly a better and much shorter flick. Here they push it to the extreme by making him play a desk clerk who turns into Charles Bronson. Not in an interesting manner, and way too stretched out with it's two and a half hours runtime. The movie is severely lacking in the action and thriller department. Cassevettes neither commits to an authentic tone or goes completely off the rails like an Craig S Zahler with "Brawl in Cell Block 99". For more dark and authentic revenge thrillers I would rather recommend Blue Ruin or Destroyer(2018). This one was disappointing.
5 out of 10.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)
Nice visuals but derivative story
Tried to like this film, but I it was a little bit too messy. The overall story felt a bit too cliché. There were also a couple of things that I found deeply problematic, but more on that later. First the good things, visually this movie is very impressive, I liked the art style: be it the 'concept art' look of the backgrounds or the 2d effects. I also believe it's a fresh angle to have the Turtles actually be teenagers. Unfortunately they don't do much with that concept, because if you're honest you could have told the same story of acceptance with grown up characters. Splinter being the over-protective Dad is such a tired trope in animation, I rather preferred him to be a wise man with faults. At least that would have saved us some lame rat jokes. And here comes the big reason, why this didn't work for me: the jokes. They are so wannabe hip with the dated pop references, and by the way I seriously doubt that a male teenager is gonna fawn over Adele. There were too many of those cringe moments where they are trying too hard to be meta or in on the joke. I wish this kind of humor would end, it's the lowest form of writing. Coupled with a pace that is too brazen (because of joke overload), there is barely any room for contemplation. Similar like the Lego movie (and to an extent the Spiderverse) the fast cuts during action scenes left me more often wondering what just happened rather than being wowed by intrinsic choreography. Ironically they showed clips of old Wuxia films on TV, they maybe should have studied those films on how to stage action properly with fluidity.
It also doesn't help that the movie has nothing interesting to tell - the coming of age themes in particular feel half-baked. Leonardo is in love, that's about it. As a matter of fact I always felt like seeing a hodge podge of other animated movies and films. Whole beats like the citizens helping the Turtles with cranes is lifted straight out of the Amazing Spiderman (2012) movie. Others like the end fight reminded me of The Incredibles, (especially the themes about acceptance and hiding your true self). But whereas the Incredibles has clear goals and doesn't pepper in jokes at every corner, this showdown felt very convoluted. Not nearly half as much engaging, especially when the Turtles even joke while they're about to get crushed by the villain, it's just dumb.
Problematic is the message of the movie: the Turtles get accepted only AFTER they save the world. Would have been nice to see that beat play out in the middle of the story and they aren't welcomed at school like now where they arrive as pop stars. The overall message seems so shallow, but it makes sense with the way the movie reminded me of an overlong TikTok clip. I also found it problematic introducing our young 'heroes' in a theft montage without any remorse or questioning those acts. It's really weird how tone deaf some moments feel. Almost like a supervillain who wants kill all humans to avenge his Dad, who was a Human, mind you. I respect the attempt to try something new with this franchise, but they could have used better writers before they plunge hundreds of artists to give their sweat and blood for a half-baked movie.
Gojira -1.0 (2023)
Beast of a movie
It's a great movie that reminded me of the Golden era of Blockbuster movies with great action, suspense and heart. It's almost a rarity to see likeable characters in blockbuster movies nowadays that this movie feels like a breath of fresh air. Motivations are clear, ramifications have impact a'd Godzilla really feels more a force of nature rather than a movie monster. I can not express how important that simple notion is for the success of this film. The movie has a very immersive quality to it. Some scenes reminded me of other movies like Jaws (2nd Godzilla encounter) but in a good way. Another reason this movie is ahead of mindless popcorn flicks is that it genuinely has something to say. Not only is the protagonist a tortured character, nearly all the characters are reeling in from trauma, thanks to the post war setting. It's a smart choice to make the story take place in this era. Not only does it double down on the struggles of our characters. There is also a sense of desperation and vulnerability, since Japan is in shambles and doesn't have the resources or manpower to defend itself, especially not for this unstoppable force. I liked Shin Godzilla (2016) equally as well as this one, but both movies set out to do different things. This is definitely more character drive and is more appealing to general audiences. It wouldn't surprise me of this becomes a sleeper hit in the west (once it gets proper distribution). There are of course a few minor flaws, like sometimes the cgi is a bit too obvious, and I don't mean on Godzilla but on certain vehicles, trains etc. Also without getting into any spoilers there are two things happening that are considered cop-outs in lesser movies. The first one isn't really a cop out since it really resonates with the themes of survival VS sacrifice. The second one though, feels almost like they bowed down to negative test screenings or something. But again, those a minor nitpicks. I watched this on an IMAX and while the size of the screen is impressive the main attraction is the sound. So I would rather recommend a cinema with Dolby Sound or something else equally fancy. This movie is worth the cinema ticket and if more movies like this would have been made, a lot less cinemas would struggle to survive. So go watch it on the big screen if you have the chance.
Crown Vic (2019)
Training Day done right
This movie gets two of the most important things in filmmaking right: 'the writing' and Thomas Jane.
It's been a long time I have listened to such smooth dialogue which doesn't have to rely on exaggeration or over-the-top-ness (like a Tarantino flick). And out of all cop movies I watched (Brooklyn's Finest, Training Day, Dark Blue etc) this felt actually quite real and not too Hollywood. The cinematography is also very restrained and helps the authentic tone. Like someone else mentioned, this feels like watching a whole season of a series. After the shift is over you feel almost as exhausted as the the two cops making it out alive for another day. A movie or book that can put you in the shoes of someone else is the highest praise you can give, and this movie did exactly that. Thanks to an outstanding performance by Thomas Jane who embodies the old rugged cop like no other. The movie is a deep dive into the heart of darkness and some people get swallowed whole by this world.
Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka (2023)
Hayao Miyazaki delivers
Not his best, but a very solid fairy tale from the master with lots of his trademark elements like stoic characters, spirit worlds, flying scenes and characters running through narrow passages.
It is stylistically comparable to Spirited Away and Howls Moving Castle, although a bit less epic in scope. Like those films it inhibits a certain darkness and maturity at times with a war as a backdrop, that is not really aimed at children. I personally liked it and wished that more filmmakers in animation would have similar aspirations, but I guess those who do are expelled to do short movies. But back to Miyazaki's movie: it is bursting with lots of ideas, symbolism and fairy tale motifs like Snow White (with a dead mother, seven dwarfettes and a glass coffin with a sleeping beauty). At other times the character dynamics invoke Jim Henson's Labyrinth, where the protagonist has to rescue a kidnapped loved one and work with a henchman who sells him out at every opportunity until they start bonding.
All the visual ideas are great but sometimes they can unnecessary bloat the picture. It is one of Miyazaki weaknesses to be over-indulgent and unfocused at times, sometimes he needs to tighten the story in certain places - especially during the last stretch it can feel exhausting. I still like the leisurely pace in the beginning and that the movie takes it's time to slowly pull us into another world/afterlife/beforelife however you want to call this place. There are beautiful visual metaphors like when the little balloon creatures fly off into the next world, one can say that those symbolize the protagonists own emotions bubbling up into the surface (this is also the first sequence where we see the main character smile and express genuine emitions) - and that he tries to repress those feelings. Especially towards his new stepmom which he tries to rescue seemingly out of pure obligation for his father. It is also no coincidence that we witness the appearance of an avatar of his real mother in that very same sequence - she tries to protect those cute balloons from hungry predators, but in the process burns most of them. The clinging to the ghost from the past is preventing a new blossoming/beginning. There simply aren't easy and clean-cut solutions, neither in nature nor our society.
There are certain moments where someone can get the impression that Miyazaki is making a statement towards his own legacy and the studio he helped to build. There are themes of responsibility & duty versus family sharing a lot of similarities to his last movie 'The Wind Rises' . I appreciated the ending, without getting into any spoiler territory, a lot of people wondered or were baffled why the final scene feels sort of "tacked on". But when you closely observe it, it is sound with the movie's themes and illustrates rather well the important choice of our main character.
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Scoresese on autopilot: too tame & repetitive
I strongly recommend reading the book over the film. It's clear that movies simply can not communicate the same amount of events and information that books can, but that is not what's wrong here. I would say the movie is mostly faithful to the book (except with certain chronological order of events). The problem is that reading the book was a vastly more exciting experience, especially how the events unfolded. I don't understand Scorese's decision to ditch the mystery and replace it with nothing by giving away right away who's behind it all. We don't even get a solid character study since DiCaprio's character (and performance) is one-dimensional, so is DeNiro's unfortunately. You have this back and forth between these two characters, and it's always the same dynamic. Even their final scene in what is supposed to be a cathartic moment for one character felt nothing short of underwhelming. One good thing I can say is that the movie doesn't feel like three and a half hours. Although the first hour is clearly the best part, with the rest of the movie dragging quite a bit, due to it's repetitive nature. Choosing to tell the story from a perpetrator's point of view felt like a safe choice, Scorese has done this before (and much better I might add) . There are several cross cuts, upshots and stylistic choices that are straight out of Goodfellas which rubbed me the wrong way given the nature of the material. A few nice visual ideas here and there, can't breathe life into a drab screenplay. One of the best parts of the book was the investigation of Tom White into the murders which was a true Herculean act and the scientific evolution of methods like fingerprint identification. Whereas the movie zaps through it, and therefore makes it look like it was very easy to catch and convict the conspiracy behind this. The book showed a dimension of government corruption and systematic sanctioned murder that went way beyond mere individuals, which the movie simply failed to portray properly. The end coda with the Lucky Strike radio show was another one of those tame attempts to upset the audience. All it did for me, was reminding me of a similar scene in a much much better movie 'The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Bob Ford' where two brothers reenact the famous murder in a theater play. I think this movie would have been in better hands by a director like Andrew Dominic but I still commend Scoresese for putting a spotlight on this important part of American history.
The Creator (2023)
By the numbers take on man vs robots dystopia
AI is such a rich topic, it can be explored from any kind of angles but this movie decided to use it only as a prop. The AI people are just stand-ins for oppressed people X. None of the AI people are really intelligent, they behave as regular humans and even have to sleep (?!), which is one of many advantages machines would have over humans. The movie decides to tell a generic story that we have seen many times before, and in a better way.
If one ignores the paper thin story and has to describe this movie in one word, it would be messy. Awkward change of tones, a weird plot structure with constant flashbacks, unclear action, an unlikeable protagonist that gets everyone killed and even the acting is all over the place.
Similar like Neil Blomkamp, the director is more interested in world-building than in gripping storytelling. All the story beats are there, all of them predictable. Every interesting sci-fi idea is discarded in favor of a trope. You got robots who are all portrayed as inherently good (and who never malfunction) and the humans who are either evil military or grateful victims who adore their robot saviors. There are no grey areas, no ambivalent characters or ideas at play. This predictive setup reminded me a lot of the AVATAR movies. Not only do you have a protagonist who infiltrates 'the resistance' and switches sides, you got the army villain who is almost identical in behaviour and personality.
The connective tissue is supposed to be the relationship between the two protagonists. If you expect them bonding slowly over the course of the 135min runtime, you should lower your expectations. Instead we get a montage in the beginning of their journey and that's pretty much all the development you'll see in that department. It's almost like the writing was a necessary evil to get from one action set piece to another.
Talking about action, it is the most lifeless I have seen in a blockbuster (since the Transformers films). If the bad guys or our good guys get into a car, they get the biggest plot armour. Cars can get shot at by hundred guns or overturn a million times, they will get out of it unharmed and unphazed, even if they didn't use a seat belt. At one point it is super easy to destroy a giant tank with a small sticky charge, but once successfully applied, no one else will be using this tactic again. The Asian country where the story takes place doesn't have military or a defense budget, because they only have useless police cars/robots at their disposal whose sole purpose is to get blown up. And can we talk about explosions and how the director doesn't know how they work. Almost everyone who gets blown up by an explosion will look pretty with some bruises on their cheek, especially the women. There's also a thing called shockwave or blast radius which are the very things that will end your life. Our protagonist gets to witness three of them in point blank range. You have a person with a superpower to switch off all electronic devices, even a whole neighborhood and military checkpoint if the script wants to, but when it comes to a satellite those superpowers will only be used for a door. Almost every action scene ends with a coincidence, deus ex machina or that someone draws a gun faster than the other. The last action set piece in particular is redundant where they send a robot after someone who can turn off electric devices. Next time maybe send a monkey with a club to do the job. Mostly you'll see a hundred laser beams flying around without hitting anything or anyone. Again the action is so uninteresting that you never feel that our heroes are in danger, unless it's a side character, well then RIP, those have zero chance of survival. And why should they? They fulfilled their task of convenient exposition talk so let's just kill them to create artificial stakes. Those parts felt so nihilistic to me and more often than not sabotaged the message of the movie. The flashbacks are another thing that tell you nothing interesting. Unfortunately they are sprinkled throughout the film to make us artificially care about the protagonist. And that's what this movie is in a nutshell, a story written by an AI with some nice visual ideas but completely devoid of a soul. And I was rooting for the movie, it is no remake, has good cinematography and has good world building (only aesthetically though) but it just felt so derivative and un-engaging on an emotional level. It's a shame.
Thunder Road (2018)
Powerful comedy drama
To do a good comedy movie is pretty hard, to succeed in a comedy drama is even a bigger wire act. And here comes Jim Cummings tour de force, which took me by surprise. I didn't have high expectations and it's probably better to not praise it too much to let everyone else be less biased. Cummings who plays also the lead is terrific in this. It is a comedy but none of the characters border on parody, they feel grounded and it gives the movie that extra punch. The character of Jim Arnaud is slowly unraveling before our eyes in almost every scene, starting with the opening scene which is all shot in one take. There are a couple of those long shots without cuts, and the good thing is that it never tries to highlight the fact that this is a 'oner'(movies like 1917 or Bridman) The movie has my outmost respect with how much it achieves with so little budget. It is a testament to good writing, coupled with outstanding performances, as simple as matchsticks and gasoline. I don't want to call it an Indie movie, since this genre has become kind of a self-parody at this point. Anyone who wants to make short films or has a small budget (most people I imagine) should take notes from this film. This is how you expertly craft a movie with ambition and creativity.
Tragedy Girls (2017)
A mediocre slasher disguised as a lazy satire
It starts promising enough but the idea of two psychopath teens gets old quite fast. Partly because the two protagonists are annoying, interchangeable, one-dimensional, but nowhere near being interesting. For a satire it's way too superficial and has nothing to say. Although it makes stabs at social media, there is nothing clever about it's observations. And for a slasher it has way to little kills or exciting thrills. The plot is convoluted and is much longer than it needed to be, for how little it has to say. The movie tries so hard to make these provocative and edgy statements and it just comes off as ignorant and mean-spirited. And it's one of those movies with zero substance and therefore comes off celebrating the violence even though it is supposed to be a satire, which is an incredible feat in itself.
Huang jia shi jie (1985)
Miss'd opportunity
This could have been a classic right here and there. Cynthia Rothrock's HK debut coupled with the amazing Michelle Yeoh to form a buddy action cop movie is the stuff I always expected when I heard about this movie. At least I wish that would have been the case. Unfortunately that's not the movie were being served here. It seems the producers didn't have much faith in the two actresses and instead we get a movie about a trio of small-time thieves, where the two lady police officers show up every once in a while to inject the movie with some life. If you imagine that more than half the running time was spent on those clowns instead of using it to flesh out Yeoh's and Rothrock's character and their budding friendship, you feel kind of disappointed at the large opportunity they just threw away here.
Honestly, if the story about the three clown criminals were at least interesting or funny it would have been forgivable, but their banter is stretched out, tedious and often unfunny. Coupled with an outlandish plot to buy an appartement for their master. Why they have a master, how did they meet and what's their relationship you ask? Don't worry the screenwriters didn't know either. This whole quest of saving money for their master is going nowhere anyway. Instead we get a real WTF!? Ending, but I give them credit for having the balls to do that. At least these characters surprised me for once.
The only reason I give this five stars is the phenomenal stuntwork at the end. It belongs in the hall of fame of martial arts scenes. The stunts, the cinematography and editing are working on such a high level, you can only be impressed. You can see the hard work of the stunt team and the four actors in what must have been months of painful preparation. The only recommendation I can give, is to skip the movie and just watch the fight scene at the end. You will save yourself an embarrassing hour of a plot.
5 out of 10.
Heojil kyolshim (2022)
Should have been a mini series
As someone who generally loves Park Chan-wook's films, I have my fair share of movies from him that I dislike as well. Namely when he does dysfunctional love stories like Thirst, I'm a Cyborg but that's OK or Stoker. Where his storytelling goes on and on in circles with dense symbolism.
And I'm intentionally leaving out The Handmaiden on this list because for me it's less of a character-driven love story and more story driven. In this movie he tries to combine thriller and romance and it never quite goes hand in hand. Like the main characters there is always a certain unbalance in the relationship.
The themes are sound and multilayered, and yet, it still lacks appeal, emotion and overall engagement. It's drowned and muddled by the many twists, turns and mostly the lack of empathy towards the weirdo characters and their motivations. And on top, for the first time I found the directors trademark of creative camera placements and editing grating. It felt like a student film that was desperately trying to show off, the style & visual gimmicks are neat but like good spices should be used sparingly here and there, otherwise you will lose the engagement of your audience. There are a lot of clever edits and Park Chan-wook is jumping through time and locations more than any of his previous movies. Here he does it relentlessly to show the connective tissue between the two characters but it wears the audience down (quite a few people left the cinema in my cinema). One of the great qualities of Korean cinema is that you often don't know where the story is taking you. You can certainly say that about Park Chan Wook's films, yet some of them feel like they overstay their welcome too. Especially the final act feels like homework where we have to catch up with the new situation and constellation of relationships. It felt like watching a sequel and we start the dance of trust and doubt again. It's here where it is apparent that this would have worked much better as a three or four episode miniseries.
Because on paper there are many rich ideas. Especially the old-age relationship conundrum that the person you want is often not the person you need in your life.
Contradictions of a meticulous detective who has a blind spot the size of a Volkswagen towards his attractive suspect.
The attraction of two polar opposites who can never work things out between them. As is apparent with the two rooftop scenes when the detective tries to apprehend a suspect and it goes awfully bad the second time (when he partners up with his suspect). Nice little touches when the cop falls asleep when apprehended his suspect in a car. The symbolism of mountains and sea clashing which each other towards the end. The tragic ending that the only way of the couple being together is the chase and therefore she creates a final mystery for her loved one. All this is great on paper and yet often the journey to get to those places is very tedious, since the viewers had to jump through so many hoops. There were too many detours and plot twists that again would have worked better on a drawn out serial format or a trimmed down version of a movie. The whole emotional punch gets lost in all those swings. I don't know if the protagonist is a stand-in for the director who is so intrigued by an enigma that he is unable to see the big picture.
Donnie Darko (2001)
A coming-of-age superhero mystery tale
I haven't seen Donnie Darko in over 17 years. It was one of those movies which I really liked back in the VHS days, re-watched it a couple times as a teen and then forgotten about it over the years. My brother was obsessed by it. When I revisited the film recently, I immediately noticed that the movie hasn't lost it's touch. Not only is the movie deliberately slow and very skillfully shot. The confident writing and the artful shifts in tone and genres makes it look like there was a veteran director at work, rather than a newcomer. It's hard to put the movie into a box since it mixes so many since it mixes so many genres like drama, horror, sci-fi, comedy, coming-of-age, satire and mystery thriller effortlessly. The cinematography has purpose, and there are so many scenes that work just with the characters faces, like when Donnie's older sister watches him go upstairs with his girlfriend at the party or when the teacher Karen Pomeroy screams out of frustration and she notices a student who witnessed her behaviour. Even the sequence where the characters (and relationships) get introduced in the high school with one sweeping camera take shows the strength of a great storyteller. The movie has a lot of those very touching and iconic scenes. And for the record, I watched the theatrical version because I always preferred it, since it spells out less and in my opinion makes for a richer storytelling experience. The other thing I noticed on my recent watch, was how much social commentary it does on the US, and why it was set in the 80's. There are jabs on the baby boomer generation which was all about earning money, their careers, houses and their reputation and less about raising their children. The idealistic teacher (played by Drew Barrymore) spells it out at the principals office, shortly before she gets fired. Not only do most of the kids struggle to fend for themselves in this mad world, but people like Jim Cunningham (the motivational speaker with questionable sexual tastes) are put on a pedestal by society. And people like him are put in charge of telling children how to behave in life. The movie does a lot of those hints at darkness that is thinly underneath the American Dream, it's obsession of capitalism and perfect idols while willfully ignoring all the side effects it has on society, the community and the people.
All the actors are giving an A performance with Mary McDonnell & Jake Gyllenhaal being the heart of the movie. Their last conversation in the movie is heartbreaking.
The ending also felt less mysterious to me on my recent watch. I know there are many theories about it, and it's a testament to the movie that people can interpret different meanings into it. For me personally, it wasn't that Donnie had a dream of a better life before he died but that he actually experienced those things by going back in time but it came with a huge price that Donnie wasn't willing to pay. Not only did he live briefly in this alternate timeline, but the rest of the characters in this town did as well in a way. As you can see in the end coda of the film where certain characters contemplate their perceived 'dream' which felt quite real. Donnie is like every other teenager who desperately wants to know where his place is in the world is. And by the end he found his peace and cherished the few brief good moments he got in his life.
As bestas (2022)
Burning Paradise
A very gripping drama thriller that is a very slow burn. I would almost call it a horror movie, because it operates similar like Michael Haneke's films who feel very realistic. Which puts the protagonist (and it's audience) into these difficult and uneasy situations where there are no simple solutions. And I think the slow pace is an important element. It is a complicated issue because both parties have valid interests but it's a matter of how to find equal ground, together. The two brothers who are completely lost, powerless in the democratic process that denied them money, lash out at their easy prey which are either foreigners, marginalized people or women.
Their father is prominently absent, so are women in this village. And who can blame them. People like the two brothers created their own hell, in which no one else wants to live in. It is no coincidence that they attack the protagonist mostly from a point of manhood and machismo. It's where their own main frustration stems from. I can not talk too much about the story since it's better to watch it slowly unfold. I don't find the ending to be enigmatic or unsatisfying, I think all the points have been made by the movie. I really enjoyed it, and there were many tense scenes in it. Much more than I see in horror movies nowadays. It's hard to categorize it as a thriller but it does have a tension throughout the long running time. For anyone who isn't turned off by a slow moving pace this is a very rewarding film that stays with you.
Talk to Me (2022)
Good although a bit over-hyped
First I gotta to say that I enjoyed this movie overall. The first half is very tense and pretty good, but the second half becomes quite predictable. A lot of parts reminded me too much of other movies like the wounded animal in the beginning of the film as a bit of foreshadowing. It has been done quite a bit already (like in Get Out, The Invitation, Wendigo etc...). Ghosts that pretend to be a loved one but have harmful intentions and possess protagonist to hurt family members is basically the premise of Ouija - Origins of Evil. The moving shape in the shadows is already a cliche and was never as scary as in the korean movie A Tale of Two sisters. The shocking first act moment involving a kid is very Hereditary. I haven't seen a trailer or read what the premise is about beforehand, but somehow I expected this to be more of a creepy experience, given the premise. Instead, it goes more for graphic violence. There was word of mouth that this was the next Hereditary, but unfortunately this isn't in the same league, although I was rooting for it. Nonetheless for a first time movie, this is quite impressive with a really good performance by the cast. I wished they would have done more with the overall premise but I would still recommend it for horror fans.
The Women and the Murderer (2021)
Leaving out the main story
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised to see a Netflix documentary that doesn't consist of eight parts and overstay it's welcome. I think they did an okay job of telling us about the victims, but they kind of gloss over the culprit. We never get to know what drove him to this crimes, what exactly made him tick. To be fair, I don't want to get to know who the killer is as a person, he could stay anonymous for all I care, but more of a psychologic profile is the least you should get out of a doc about a serial killer. So I had to do my own digging and lo and behold, there was a whole lot of important information that the documentary left out. It's the absolute failure of the justice system and the police force. We don't get nothing from the doc on that regard which makes me wonder if the filmmakers left that part out intentionally in order to secure cooperation and interviews from the police.
But it did the real story a disservice. The neglect of woman being sexually assaulted and killed seemed to be not a high priorr9back then in France and the killer got out several times with a slap on his wrist for attempted murder. If the Wikipedia entry is more interesting than your movie, you should re-evaluate and check for sensationalism.
Not only did the killer get out of prison several times for good behaviour, got his sentenced reduced to less than half or got a 'prison vacation' , but he also comitted murders during those breaks. He escaped during police custody. This case screams of police negligence at the highest order, for which several women had to pay the highest price. A scandal in real life and a scandal for releasing this unfinished film. Does Netflix not even fact-check their documentaries?
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats (2022)
So far this series feels like an empty coffin
The first episode barely held my interest with it's rudimentary story, but at least I liked the monster design.
I have no idea why they chose this one to be the second episode,since this is basically the exact same story than the previous one set in a different time period: a sleazy guy who is in debt, plunders dead people's belongings, is trapped in a maze where the light keeps getting shut off, awakens an ancient demon by grabbing an artefact and that's it. No twist, no suspense or drama. This one is even worse because the majority consists of an actor crawling through tunnels and screaming like an annoying bird for an hour. The character is truly irritating, starting with his long speech with his debtor, giving the character no nuance whatsoever. It's a terrible acting performance. The first episode already felt cheap because of it's lack of locations, but this one takes the cake with everything looking fake starting with the computer generated sets and then the CG rats.
The "story" wouldn't sustain ten minutes, let alone an hour. This made me almost quit the show. But I give this another try since the next episode is directed by the same guy who did The Empty Man. Even if that one turns out to be a good episode it will probably not ma'e me finish the rest. These first two episodes turned me off too much. I recognize a filler series, and this one should have hired better screenwriters who can push beyond the stale premises that del Torro provides them.
I very rarely give an 1 out of 10 here but this one has no redeeming qualities and truly deserves it.
Gaga: Five Foot Two (2017)
Not enough meat on that dress
As someone who likes Lady Gaga but doesn't know a lot about her as a person, I had a very mixed experience watching this. It is a very unfocused documentary. What starts off as a 'making of' of her upcoming album Joanne, slowly turns into a shallow promo piece. For one we don't get to see a very deep look at the creation of the album, the songs, the mixing, the important decisions or leftover ideas. Especially since it's said over and over how much of ap 'personal' album it represents. Instead the doc briefly makes a detour into Gaga's private life, but similar like with her music, the doc is barely scratching at the surface. Although I like that we see Gaga vulnerable a couple of times, it still feels like the movie holds you at arm's length when it is about to dig deeper. There are segments that feel like a missed opportunity like the christening of a little child, where we can see that it really moves her. Since we never get her side or opinion of motherhood and how her lifestyle being on the edge as a popstar would conflict with this kind of choice. Other times the doc feels a bit intrusive when she shows her grandmother her song Joanne which is a tribute to her deceased aunt. It's a very intimate moment, but not only for her but also her father and grandmother who obviously have a hard time talking about this dead relative. You have to imagine there is a whole camera team present during this and I'm not sure if the family members have signed up for this, they look very reserved. I'm sure Gaga is used to it but there is something here that feels egocentric. And she is definitely someone who is very self-centered, I guess it comes with the stardom. The last part is the promotion of her album which is the least entertaining part. And then we get to the preparation for the Super Bowl Show. I feel like this was supposed to be this grand finale but the documentary kind of rushes through it. The whole thing felt underwhelming when we get to the finishing line as if the Film team didn't know how to end it thelselves. I still like her very much as an artist, but I would have preferred seeing a documentary with more of a take-no-prisoner approach like her attitude towards her music.
L'Affaire Fourniret: Dans la tête de Monique Olivier (2023)
Another one of those Netflix docu series that should have been a movie
The case in itself is interesting. But it's very unsatisfying to watch. Like every Netflix series it turns and twists itself like pretzel to create tension, so we have the obligatory back and forth of time jumps. Only once would I like to see a docu series who has the discipline to tell it's story chronologically. For example it is revealed that the perpetrator owned a castle, and you immediately go "wait what?" but the series goes on for another twenty minutes until they even adress this detail.
It's stuff like this, the dramatic re-enactments and tired symbolic images when they show a spider or the 13th time the same shot of a stuffed animal. It's tiring, it's clearly filler what should have been at best 3 episodes. And then we don't get a real conclusion. Some of the deductions are baffling, the prosectur and psychologists come to the conclusion that she has a very high IQ and therefore couldn't be stupid enough to be manipulated by her husband. But what does intelligence have to do with the tendency of being vulnerable to manipulation? Isn't this more of a psychological issue? They don't factor in her psychological profile, her upbringing or family background? I was hoping we get some revelations on the missing cases or the real face of the perpetrators. But to no avail.
The series cocludes that the last living accomplice gets a kick out of being the center of attention, so congratulations for giving that criminal individual her own Netflix series.