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Mike-10432
Reviews
Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
Movie should not have worked, but does
I really liked this movie. That's a bit surprising (to me) because at some level it should not have worked as a movie. For one thing, it's a VERY long movie (2hrs, 20 min), and I do imagine that it would be hard to sit through in a theatre. Still, streaming it in three segments (as I did) reduced the impact of that. Second, one of my favorite actors, and a real treat in this movie, Jon Hamm, doesn't make it past the first hour or so. Finally, a new character, the buff good-looking Charles Manson wannabe (Chris Hemsworth) doesn't make an appearance with his crew until about 1 ½ hours into the film. Still, as a movie it DOES work.
Jeff Bridges and Cynthia Erivo are great in their roles, as is Lewis Pullman when he hits his stride late in the movie. The rest of the cast strike just the right notes for their roles.
The story starts with four strangers checking into a luxurious but for the most part abandoned Reno hotel that lies astride the California/Nevada border and is maintained by a single staff member (Pullman). Most summaries suggest that each of the four guests has a secret that unfolds over the course of the night. That's true but doesn't really convey what's going to happen. Probably better to say that each of the four is part of an unfolding story and that these stories just happen to converge and become intertwined at this particular hotel by happenstance.
Several reviewers point to similarities to films byTarantino and/or the Coen brothers, and that's certainly defensible. Myself, I see similarities to an Elmore Leonard novel, with all the intersecting storylines of those novels, but without the comedic undertones and with lots more brutal violence.
The movie unfolds linearly for the first hour or so, then jumps back and forth in time but in a way that makes perfect sense and provides past context for present events.
The promo for the movie suggests that it is a film noir, but (again, to me, at least) that's more misleading than helpful. The "feel" of the setting may be noirish but the story line is not.
Dead Again (2021)
Really wanted to like this one
I really wanted to like this movie. The premise seemed good: two nice-guy policemen in a sleepy English village, one about to retire and one just starting, slowly build to the realization that there be zombies around. The first few minutes, showing news clips of real-life world leaders (Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, and it's really them) supposedly talking about the zombie outbreak, is clever. The two policemen (played by Tony Fadil and Elliot Cable) do a good job, and their incidental banter (about the movie "Jaws" for example) is entertaining. The other characters, however, are so-so. And the zombies themselves are little more than extras smeared with a bit of blood, and never really generate the "fear them" factor that helps to make a good zombie movie. Also, too much of the movie is filmed in a reddish haze that adds nothing to any sense of tension. I did watch it to the end, however, and so feel obliged to give it a 4. With a bigger budget, and some better direction and writing, this could have been much better.
Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru made ni Shitai 100 no Koto (2023)
Lots of running around in the midst of lots of Zombies who are also running around
The initial premise of this movie isn't bad. Rather than just go on working, really, overworking, at dreary, monotonous job where he's exploited, our protagonist realizes that a zombie apocalypse in Toyko provides him with the opportunity to do a variety of (wholesome) things he's always wanted to do. As the story progresses, he eventually acquires a couple of sidekicks (including a romantic interest) who come around to his way of thinking.
Unfortunately, there's no real logic to what's being done in the movie - except maybe in the case of the "get to the aquarium" element introduced relatively late. And, in any event, when they do "get to the aquarium," the action just becomes silly - and the only result seems to be to make the movie much longer than it should be.
Much of the action is just running around in the midst of lots of zombies, also running around, who - surprisingly - aren't really all that scary.
This movie is no "Train to Busan" as regards tension and no "Zombieland" (first or second) as regards comedy.
Still, it was interesting enough that I felt encouraged to watch it to the end, and so have to give it a 3 rather than a 0.
Nobody (2021)
John Wick as a family man
One of the best action movies I've seen in years. Starts slow (for reasons consistent with ultimate narrative) but then builds to non-stop action. Imagine John Wick as a family man who can call on his father and brother for help to help right a (non-lethal) wrong to his wife and children - and you've got this movie (though it does have some elements of the original Diehard as well). As in the JW movies, the body count is uncountable but well-metered and since they're all evil Russian mobster/killers, there's little angst. Although Bob Odenkirk plays a more confident and self-assured character than he played in Just Call Saul, he does it gracefully and effectively.
Extraction 2 (2023)
Almost non-stop action, all very well choreographed
Chris Hemsworth does a good job in this film as do the supporting actors, including both his kick-ass female partner (Goldshifteh Farahani) and the evil Eastern European guy (understandable through English subtitles only), Tornike Gogrichiani. The plot is coherent, and the action (mainly fight scenes and car chases) is nearly non-stop and VERY well-choreographed. All in all, a very pleasant way to pass the time if you like action movies. The only question you'll have during the film: "where are all the frigging people, other than the combatants, in the extended hotel attack sequence??" Anyway, extra points if you spot the brief visual allusion to Thor in the final fight scene.
Cut Bank (2014)
Thorton, Dern and Malkovich are special because of their earlier films but not their performances here
Reading through the user reviews of Cut Bank, the main takeaways seemed to me to be these:
- The setting and plot were reminiscent of Fargo
- Liam Hemsworth's performance was lackluster
- The movie was carried by Billy Bob Thornton, Bruce Dern and John Malkovich
- It was a noir-ish movie with plenty of twists and turns
- Some users really liked it, others really disliked it.
I'm one of those who really liked this movie, but the user reviews are worth noting at the start because they show the dangers of letting the weight of earlier movies shape your review of something new.
As a start, though, Hemsworth's performance IS lackluster and both the setting and the plot (though to a lesser extent) ARE reminiscent of Fargo.
As to characters, it should be noted that Thornton, Dern and Malkovich are special mainly because - in each case - many of their earlier films have been outstanding and favored by a great many fans (myself included, in all three cases). In this film, however, their performances are less than outstanding.
Thornton delivers his lines crisply and clearly, but he's not really in that many scenes, and his character's actions add little to the plot.
Dern delivers his lines with an intensity and exhuberance that's appealing, but in the end he too is just not in that many scenes.
Malkovich is simply disappointing. As the small-town sheriff who's never had to deal with a murder, but who's suddenly confronted with several, his role could have been developed in an interesting way. Simply recalling how Frances McDormand's role was developed in Fargo is enough to make the point. Instead, Malkovich - who IS in a lot of scenes - delivers a performance that, in my view, is as lackluster as Hemsworth's, and - if anything - even more listless.
The person who perhaps is most effective at making this a good movie, and who is generally mentioned only in passing in most user reviews, is Michael Stuhlbarg, who plays the hermit-taxidermist-with-coke-bottle glasses. It is the Stuhlbarg character's pursuit of his private McGuffin that is the cause all the real violence in the movie. Stuhlbarg's character is understated but powerfully perceived as dangerous in all his scenes.
Someone else whose performance stands out is Teresa Palmer, who plays Hemsworth's girlfriend. Since she's not a sexually alluring tart who leads Hemsworth's character astray, she probably prevents this from being a classic film noir. For most of the movie she's just a hometown girl trying to win a local beauty contest so that the prize money can help herself and Hemsworth's character get out of a dead-end town. When she finally has to confront danger, however, she does a superb job of conveying the panic that that danger engenders.
The twists and turns of this movie are not really that sharp. As I said, most viewers will likely anticipate the first plot twist early on. And the camera lingering on a lunchbox stolen in the mail robbery that opens the movie makes it easy to guess the main outlines of Stuhlbarg's quest for his McGuffin.
Nevertheless, as long as you liked Fargo and like film noir, but go into this film knowing that it's not quite as good as Fargo and only barely qualifies as noir, I suspect that you - like me - will enjoy it.
Florida Man (2023)
Fun with intersecting stories
This was a fun series. I will leave it to other reviews to summarize the plot (really: plots). It reminded me of an Elmore Leonard book (and not JUST because most of the action takes place in Florida), with hints of the older Donald Westlake (think "Hot Rock" from the early 70s). Basically, it's the story of intersecting (and improbable) stories all driven by a medley of different characters, all of whom - the good, the bad, the in-between, whether central or peripheral - are interesting in some way. It takes a while to reach the good ending that most of the important characters want, but they get there.
Rogue (2007)
Succeeds as nature documentary, fails as scary movie
From the trailer, I expected a much scarier movie.
The star of the first 30 minutes is the Australian landscape. If you think of Australia outside of heavily populated areas as windswept and arid, think again. In this film, the camera lovingly focuses on a flatbottomed tourist boat as it lazily floats down a very wide and very green river flanked by a lush landscape. The river and the shore are populated by crocodiles (and the comely tour guide guiding the boat lectures us on croc behavior) as well as a variety of birds, insects, and other fauna - all carefully photographed up close. The tourists are a mixed bunch, (and include a travel writer who emerges as the hero) and one of them compares their experience to something out of The African Queen - and they're not far off.
Just as the comely tour guide is ready to turn the boat around and head back home so that everyone can catch their bus, the film shifts (and not really for the better) when the passengers notice a distress flare in the sky. The guide feels compelled to go a couple of more miles along to river to see if someone needs help. Although it's only a couple of miles, she quickly notes that they're in a part of the river where they shouldn't be because "it's sacred" to local indigenous groups - and the camera pans to a pictograph of a crocodile on a rock face. This "it's a sacred place" element, however, immediately disappears from the film, and the boat is rammed by what turns out to be a large croc and ends up, wrecked, on a small island in the river. One of the passengers notes that it's a "tidal island" - where "tidal" means that the rising river will submerge it in a few hours.
This is where the film's premise become seriously flawed. The passengers, along with a local yahoo who happens by in his own boat (which is promptly destroyed by the croc), spend the next few hours trying to figure out how to get to the shore without spending much time in the water.
Here's the problem: everyone acts as if simply staying out of the water will save them. But the "island" is just a glorified sandbar (something that aerial shots establish) which is only about 3-4 feet above the river at its highest point and that gently slopes down to the water's edge on all sides. Given what we were told earlier about crocs (including "they can jump 4 feet out of the water"), staying on that island is hardly protection against a rogue croc upset that someone has invaded its territory (which, we're told, is what is provoking the attacks they are experiencing).
Eventually, they distract the giant croc (who is never clearly seen for most of the movie) with bait, but not before losing the lovely tour guide to its jaws. The hero is the last to make it to shore, but as he makes his way through the jungle, he falls down a hole into a watery cavern system. But wait: the tour guide , as part of her early spiel, had said that when crocs are satiated, they sometimes take their "food" and store it somewhere for later. Yep, you guessed it: in that underground (but surprisingly well-lit) watery cavern the hero stumbles across the unconscious and badly-mauled (but still-living) tour guide.
It's only in the last 20 minutes or so that we get to see the rogue croc of the title up close as he goes after our hero in the cavern. It's a toss-up at first, but guess who eventually wins with the help of a pointed log?
There are a few "croc suddenly jumps out" moments, but generally this is not really a scary movie. Again, the value of this movie lies the lush nature shots at the beginning. The rest is passible viewing, but nothing special.
The Baytown Outlaws (2012)
Good ol' redneck (but likeable!) killers pursued by a rainbow of evil
The big names in this movie are Billy Bob Thornton and Eva Longoria. As always Thornton does deliver, at least in the scenes where he appears. By contrast , Longoria - in my view - just walks through the few scenes she's in. The film's energy - and there's lots of that - is provided by the three Oodie brothers (played to perfection by Clayne Crawford, Travis Fimmel and Daniel Cudmore), sleazy redneck casual killers all, who are used by their surrogate father (Andre Braugher), an easy-going Southern police chief, to ensure that his county has the lowest crime rate in the state. Crawford, in particular stands out, and his role here can be seen as a rehearsal for his later Martin Riggs character in the TV Lethal Weapon series.
The boys are hired by the Longoria character to retrieve her disabled godson from the Billy Bob Thornton character. Mayhem ensues. They do retrieve the boy but are then pursued - in turn - by three different motorcycle gangs that reflect (presumably tongue in cheek) a rainbow of evil (first killer sex kittens, then African American militiamen, and finally Native Americans who intersperse bows and arrows and attempted scalping (yes, scalping) with their use of assault rifles.
The one element, in my view that doesn't really work is making the godson mute and characterized (apparently) by cerebral palsy. The goal is for the audience to understand that brothers come to care for the boy's well-being (and so, you see, are really good guys underneath all the casual killing), and the boy's smile suggests that he does come to enjoy being one of the Oodies. Still, that smile aside, we don't really come to know anything about the boy or what he might be feeling about what's been happening around him.
On balance, however, this is a well-done action-packed movie with over-the-top violence that builds in a way that leads us to root for the Oodie brothers.
Ils étaient dix (2020)
Overly long, but still a good adaptation of the classic Agatha Christie story
I binged-watched the series over two successive days, and don't regret it. Still, even at 6 episodes (rather than the usual 8 or 10), this is overly long; it could easily have been shortened to 4 episodes. The Caribbean island setting, with all its lush color, and the decrepit resort, work well - probably much better than the windswept English island of the old black and white movie. All in all, it's a good adaptation of the classic Agatha Christie story. If you know that story, however, you'll know who the killer is about midway, especially since this version omits the one plot device that created so much misdirection in the original movie.
Night of the Living Deb (2015)
Maria Thayer is truly outstanding
Maria Thayer is truly OUTSTANDING in this film. Her energy carries the film and she has just the right comedic touch to carry things off in the midst of what is otherwise a standard zombie movie. I had to laugh out loud at several of her wisecracks. Michael Cassidy is also good as the environmental activist who doesn't let a zombie apocalypse dampen his concern for environmental issues. All in all, a good watch with an upbeat ending.
Black Friday (2021)
Long time Bruce Campbell fans beware
As a long-time Bruce Campbell fan, I couldn't pass on this movie. In the end, however, it was a disappointment. Strong performances from Michael Jai White, Devon Sawa, and Ivana Baquero, but the rest of the cast, including Campbell, are lackluster. The acting by the Ryan Lee character is especially irritating. The plot is a mishmash of elements from a variety of sources, including Dawn of the Dead and other zombie movies and the Blob . Part of the fun, admittedly, is guessing the source of particular scenes. Points to anyone who catches the nod to one of the more iconic scenes in the original Night of the Living Dead. And, oh yes, there's a lot of mocking the corporate culture surrounding Big Box stores. Definitely worth watching if you're a fan of the genre, but don't come with high expectations.
Copshop (2021)
Definitely worth watching, retains interest throughout
For a movie that (mainly) takes place within the confines of a police department in a small town, this is a well-plotted action-thriller that retains interest throughout. The fact that several of the characters (including the good, the bad and the semi-bad people) are given distinctive and developed personalities is a definite plus. As well, the bits of humor scattered here and there amidst the violence emerge naturally and add to the overall enjoyment of the movie. This is definitely worth watching.
Titane (2021)
Stylish and intense, to be sure, but plot not coherent
This is an extremely stylish and intense film. Too bad the obvious talent behind it all wasn't concerned much with plot. The first half hour or so: lots of naked and semi-naked women behaving in sexualized ways with cars and other women. One problem: key plot elements like all the serial killing that suddenly appears and the "sex in and WITH a car" thing were never really explained by the central character's "titanium plate" thing. Then there is the aging fire chief. I can understand the "longing for a lost son" element. Still, he took the big reveal [aka "my son is a pregnant woman" element VERY well. Best scene: when the "dancing firemen" are dumbstruck when "Adrien" reverts to type and starts gyrating atop a fire truck. I grant that the two leads are good actors, but still, a little more plot coherence please. Can't really recommend it.
Haywire (2011)
Great action movie
The set-up for this movie is given in several of the earlier reviews. I'll only add that Gina Carano is indeed a bit wooden but nevertheless a great, and believable, kick-ass action hero. The plot (much of which is told in retrospect) has several apparent twists and turns, but in the end - as we eventually learn - is totally plausible. Several well-known actors appear here and there throughout the film (Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton) and all do a great job. The scenes shift seamlessly across a variety of locations (Upstate New York, Barcelona, Ireland, New Mexico, Mexico). Well worth watching if you like action movies.
Black as Night (2021)
Worth watching
Based on the many negative reviews, I almost didn't bother with his movie. Still, there were some reviews suggesting it was worth the effort, and now - having seen it - I agree.
This is not to say that many of the criticisms in previous reviews aren't right on target: this is a coming-of-age movie, with a vampire element, that will likely appeal mostly to teens; the lead does a great job but she is hampered by the fact that she is supposed to be 14 but clearly seems much older; the tie-in with slavery and BLM doesn't quite work; the Pedro character is annoying (at least initially) and making him Hispanic seems superfluous; the sudden appearance (and just as sudden disappearance) of the "good vampires" seems odd; etc.
Nevertheless, the movie is ultimately a good watch: there is a well-developed plot, whose elements move along at a good pace; the things done by the central characters make sense; and there was even a new twist on "being an effective vampire," the logic of which seemed vaguely plausible (think: what would help a vampire function in the daylight?).
The lead, Asjha Cooper, displays strength and (occasionally) weakness, as the situation demands - and stands at the center of each scene. Over the course of the movie, Fabrizio Guido, as Pedro, becomes an appealing sidekick. There's also just the right amount of humor scattered here and there, mainly deriving from the fact that some vampire lore can be trusted when you're dealing with vampires and some, well, cannot be trusted. The "graphic novel-esque" interludes complement the plot well.
I myself could have done without the gimmick in the last five seconds or so of the movie, but it's a horror movie cliché and so easy to overlook.
I'm giving it a 6 as a way of encouraging others to see this movie while acknowledging its limitations.