Especially coming off of two back-to-back masterpieces.
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Movies You've Seen Recently | March 2020
- Thread starter Divius
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Especially coming off of two back-to-back masterpieces.
I was like man there's no way a Jarmusch zombie movie with Adam Driver saying "ghouls" and tilda swinton wielding a katana would be bad
and yet
and yet
Dr. No
A tale of two halves, sadly. I'm a Bond noob, so I was pleasantly surprised by the procedural elements of the first half, with Bond essentially being a more suave take on the traditional PI. It's all relatively lowkey, relying on pointed observations, sleuthing, and Sean Connery's inherent smugness to carry the story instead of action, action, action. In other words, actual (if stylized) espionage. But then we get to Crab Key and it kind of just becomes a bore (sorry Honey Rider), albeit with some undeniably gorgeous set and costume design. Really the whole movie is beautiful thanks to the natural beauty of Jamaica and some great 60s art pop sensibilities (color!). Overall, I enjoyed this, but the Bond formula is a known entity at this point, and I wager it's modeled more after the cartoonish second half than the grounded first half, which bums me out. Spies are cool, let them do spy shit!
A tale of two halves, sadly. I'm a Bond noob, so I was pleasantly surprised by the procedural elements of the first half, with Bond essentially being a more suave take on the traditional PI. It's all relatively lowkey, relying on pointed observations, sleuthing, and Sean Connery's inherent smugness to carry the story instead of action, action, action. In other words, actual (if stylized) espionage. But then we get to Crab Key and it kind of just becomes a bore (sorry Honey Rider), albeit with some undeniably gorgeous set and costume design. Really the whole movie is beautiful thanks to the natural beauty of Jamaica and some great 60s art pop sensibilities (color!). Overall, I enjoyed this, but the Bond formula is a known entity at this point, and I wager it's modeled more after the cartoonish second half than the grounded first half, which bums me out. Spies are cool, let them do spy shit!
I have a feeling that you're going to really, really, really like From Russia with Love. No real big set pieces and a much bigger emphasis on espionage. The formula didn't really kick off until Goldfinger, where it pretty much codified the series from then on.
First half of Dr. No is surprisingly low-key and even brutal for its time (Bond straight up executing a disarmed man laid out on the floor). Once the fire-breathing tank shows up it definitely gets goofy but I find it endearing in a way that a lot of later Bond movies are not. Goldfinger and to a lesser extent You Only Live Twice really perfect that kind of 60s superspy aesthetic; Ken Adam's production design goes a long way.
Just back from seeing a print of Eraserhead at my local rep theater. Probably the last thing I see at the movies before Auckland shuts them down.
Review:
Review:
Thanks! I'm not sure if it's available here in Italy. The website doesn't seem to be working right now.
Thanks for letting me know, might check out Emma and Invisible Man. Would have been tempted to check out The Hunt if cheaper.
There they are, crazy to see. Will likely be rewatching Invisible Man as partner didn't get to see it.
Edit: This is on iTunes, UK. £15.99 to rent.
Watched The Invisible Man (2020) on Amazon Prime. Despite the trailer showing a good chunk of the movie, there's still quite a bitit doesn't show, and there are certainly some surprises. Some of these scenes aren't even in the movie, like the handprint on the shower door. It goes further to prove that the scariest things are the things you can't see, and there's a good amount of tension here. Things escalate at the right pace. Most importantly, I have to applaud it for its take on the story, being about trauma from abuse, rather than just "Invisible man runs amok".
Regardless, I think it's a great horror movie.
I will have to dock it points because the cops are idiots. If you see an invisible man attacking someone, start shooting. I also have to wonder how he's getting around so fast. Hitching a ride on the Uber would be noticeable, and I wonder how he got from the mental institution to the house so quickly. Also, voice modulation? Never explained.
Regardless, I think it's a great horror movie.
Andrei Rublev - Andrei Rublev is less about the man himself, and is more a meditation on the intersection of art, faith, guilt, and the cruelty of mankind toward one another. Tarkovsky, even in his second feature film, has an impeccable eye for shot composition and camera movement. I've used "painterly" to describe the way he moves the camera, and this is no different. Tarkovsky and cinematographer Vadim Yusov fill the widescreen, anamorphic frame with beautiful wide shots and vivid detail that feels both vast and intimate. This dovetails with the themes of the film, how art -- specifically religious art -- is simultaneously personal and existential in scope and meaning. The more I dig into Tarkovsky's body of work, the more impressed I am with how consistent he was. What few films I've seen from him so far have thankfully lived up to the hype around them. I'll have lots of free time in the next few weeks, as do countless others, so I'll definitely be squeezing in the rest of his work. Can't wait!
Train to Busan - A totally fine zombie movie. Couple of buddies and I tried out that Netflix Party Chrome extension with this, worked surprisingly well! Train to Busan is the perfect kind of movie to watch with friends: not too serious and just fun enough.
Train to Busan - A totally fine zombie movie. Couple of buddies and I tried out that Netflix Party Chrome extension with this, worked surprisingly well! Train to Busan is the perfect kind of movie to watch with friends: not too serious and just fun enough.
Even his first feature film Ivan's Childhood is chock full of incredible, influential imagery and symbolic cinematography. One of the best WW2 films. All of his films are amazing in some way.
Targets (1968): Peter Bogdanovich's directorial debut, a film that feels in a lot of ways like a Tarantino precursor in how it marries a sort of meta-examination of the career and persona of a film star from a bygone era (in this case, Boris Karloff) with a violent thriller about an ordinary white collar worker who decides to go on a shooting spree. We follow these two threads until they inevitably intersect. The sequences with Karloff (playing a very thinly-veiled version of himself) bemoaning what he sees as his increasing irrelevance and butting heads with his P.A. and his director (the latter played by Bogdanovich himself) over whether he should keep making movies are intriguing at times, other times a bit repetitive. Bogdanovich comes up with some excellent sniper sequences, particularly the climactic one at a drive-in theater, though Karloff's big moment is unfortunately a bit stagey compared to what we've seen up to that point.
Ford V Ferrari
This was really good, but the ending was surprisingly sad, very sad. Great movie though. Everyone does a great job and when there is a race you don't want to take your eyes off the screen for a second.
Jumanji: The Next Level
meh. Not as funny as the first one, though the character arcs a bit more interesting. It was ok.
This was really good, but the ending was surprisingly sad, very sad. Great movie though. Everyone does a great job and when there is a race you don't want to take your eyes off the screen for a second.
Jumanji: The Next Level
meh. Not as funny as the first one, though the character arcs a bit more interesting. It was ok.
For sure! Next on my list is Solaris, really looking forward to it. I've seen Ivan, Stalker, and Andrei Rublev so far, loved all of them.
Check out the Spanish version at some point. Shot concurrently, on the same sets, with the same script, but at night while the English version shot during the day. Even though the guy playing Dracula can't match Lugosi (though is still fine in his own right) the direction and camerawork is more dynamic and interesting. Partly because they were able to watch how the English speaking crew did their stuff during the day, and then could take notes and improve on it for when it was their turn. It's, I think, a largely better film but also just an interesting experiment in making the same film twice but with somewhat different results.
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Woah! I had no idea about any of that. So interesting. Thank you for sharing!
Sin Nombre- Decent movie about gangs, betrayal and trying to survive to live a better life
Bloodshot- ok. Lots of decent action, story line was meh
Bloodshot- ok. Lots of decent action, story line was meh
Emma.: Oh, this is the story Clueless is based on, I'll certainly have to watch that now. It's certainly a pretty movie to look at, with the English manors and countryside. A story about matchmaking gone wrong, you do have to deal with the fact that this is based on a novel written 204 years ago, and I feel I need to think about what characters are saying so I can understand them. It's certainly a charming movie though.
What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: I'm a relative newcomer to Deep Space Nine. I was 7 when it premiered, but I took no real interest in it, preferring the adventures of the Captains Kirk and Picard, at least when I wanted to. So eventually I started buying season DVDs of The Next Generation, and actually started watching these shows, going from TNG to TOS to TAS to DS9. It was certainly different, but it really got its footing once the Jem'Hadar were introduced at the end of Season 2. I ultimately finished watching the series last year, and ultimately, it's a great series.
The documentary rounds up pretty much everyone who was on the show (this was 2018, so Aron Eisenberg and Rene Auberjonois are still alive). It covers stuff like social issues the show took on, the extensive makeup, Terry Farrel leaving, and ideas for a Season 8 opener. I do wish they covered the idea of why they chose a space station instead of an exploration vessel. What were they planning to go with it? However, it's really just fun getting everybody together to talk about the show.
Superman: Red Son: I was already hooked on the concept of "What if Kal-El landed in the Soviet Union?", but this kept going beyond that concept, while also bringing about alternate histories for Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. Things escalate when he finds out about the gulags, and later takes control of Brainiac. It would seem simple for Superman to just bulldoze the US and win the Cold War, but he doesn't do that. He really just has to keep the Soviet Union stable and "liberate" the rest of the world from the flaws of capitalism. He's still a man of strong ideals, and he still gets his share of action in this movie.
On the other hand, there are still so many questions I have. What about Superman's Soviet parents? Why isn't there any Kryptonite? Why does the Soviet terrorist dress up in a bat costume, and speaking of, where's Bruce Wayne? What about Flash? How does Superman affect American history, especially with Vietnam and the '70s? How is Josef Stalin still alive in 1957? Oh, and there's some bad jokes and references.[/b]
Questions aside, I did enjoy this movie and alternate history. Maybe I should have read the original graphic novel too.
What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: I'm a relative newcomer to Deep Space Nine. I was 7 when it premiered, but I took no real interest in it, preferring the adventures of the Captains Kirk and Picard, at least when I wanted to. So eventually I started buying season DVDs of The Next Generation, and actually started watching these shows, going from TNG to TOS to TAS to DS9. It was certainly different, but it really got its footing once the Jem'Hadar were introduced at the end of Season 2. I ultimately finished watching the series last year, and ultimately, it's a great series.
The documentary rounds up pretty much everyone who was on the show (this was 2018, so Aron Eisenberg and Rene Auberjonois are still alive). It covers stuff like social issues the show took on, the extensive makeup, Terry Farrel leaving, and ideas for a Season 8 opener. I do wish they covered the idea of why they chose a space station instead of an exploration vessel. What were they planning to go with it? However, it's really just fun getting everybody together to talk about the show.
Superman: Red Son: I was already hooked on the concept of "What if Kal-El landed in the Soviet Union?", but this kept going beyond that concept, while also bringing about alternate histories for Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. Things escalate when he finds out about the gulags, and later takes control of Brainiac. It would seem simple for Superman to just bulldoze the US and win the Cold War, but he doesn't do that. He really just has to keep the Soviet Union stable and "liberate" the rest of the world from the flaws of capitalism. He's still a man of strong ideals, and he still gets his share of action in this movie.
On the other hand, there are still so many questions I have. What about Superman's Soviet parents? Why isn't there any Kryptonite? Why does the Soviet terrorist dress up in a bat costume, and speaking of, where's Bruce Wayne? What about Flash? How does Superman affect American history, especially with Vietnam and the '70s? How is Josef Stalin still alive in 1957? Oh, and there's some bad jokes and references.[/b]
Questions aside, I did enjoy this movie and alternate history. Maybe I should have read the original graphic novel too.
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Yearning
The ending left me in such a catatonic state that when I finally managed to recover I must have still had a few screws loose because my dumbass figured the best thing to do was go ahead and hurt myself all over again. Are there even words to describe what Hideko Takamine does in this movie? Surely not. I mean, this isn't merely a stupendous performance, this is all-time, pantheon-level stuff; on first watch I was pretty confident I was witnessing one of my favorite ever, and my rewatch confirmed it. She plays Reiko, a character in a constant juggle of two states of being, strong-willed widow and concerned sister-in-law, and basically every scene requires her to switch back and forth between juxtaposing modes and emotions in a matter of seconds. The remarkable thing is she never succumbs to mania, it's all very subdued, relying on subtle facial cues and vocal inflections to convey the slow social asphyxiation she endures, until her actions finally (and appropriately) boil over into melodrama. As I said, the final frame wounded me on a visceral level, but I would be remiss not to mention the scene where she cries while looking at Koji sleeping, the crown jewel of the film's most stirring sequence, a train ride you can't help but wish would never end. As for Koji, whether his revelation registers as shocking or not (the English title mitigates the surprise element), his pain and unrequited love is apparent from the jump. He floats through his days with a carefree abandon that masks his inner turmoil—a ghost in human clothing—so his fate is perhaps predestined, though no less devastating.
All of this set amidst a rapidly evolving Japan, as the cruelties of capitalism and corporate consolidation begin to rear their ugly heads (the egg eating competition is perfectly grotesque). I'm a big fan of localized cinema, wherein events primarily or exclusively play out in a central hub, and I'm a big fan of working class entrepreneurs, so naturally storefronts quite tickle my fancy. Naruse utilizes the market space to great effect, relegating business to the front end and personal matters to the back where the living quarters are, until the story reaches a tipping point and can no longer neatly divide the two. And the score is wonderful, a mix of standard melodramatic swells and mellow, romantic, almost beach-like music; according to Wikipedia Yūzō Kayama was a musician who specialized in psychedelic surf rock, so maybe he had some input? Anyway, yeah, I really like this movie.
The ending left me in such a catatonic state that when I finally managed to recover I must have still had a few screws loose because my dumbass figured the best thing to do was go ahead and hurt myself all over again. Are there even words to describe what Hideko Takamine does in this movie? Surely not. I mean, this isn't merely a stupendous performance, this is all-time, pantheon-level stuff; on first watch I was pretty confident I was witnessing one of my favorite ever, and my rewatch confirmed it. She plays Reiko, a character in a constant juggle of two states of being, strong-willed widow and concerned sister-in-law, and basically every scene requires her to switch back and forth between juxtaposing modes and emotions in a matter of seconds. The remarkable thing is she never succumbs to mania, it's all very subdued, relying on subtle facial cues and vocal inflections to convey the slow social asphyxiation she endures, until her actions finally (and appropriately) boil over into melodrama. As I said, the final frame wounded me on a visceral level, but I would be remiss not to mention the scene where she cries while looking at Koji sleeping, the crown jewel of the film's most stirring sequence, a train ride you can't help but wish would never end. As for Koji, whether his revelation registers as shocking or not (the English title mitigates the surprise element), his pain and unrequited love is apparent from the jump. He floats through his days with a carefree abandon that masks his inner turmoil—a ghost in human clothing—so his fate is perhaps predestined, though no less devastating.
All of this set amidst a rapidly evolving Japan, as the cruelties of capitalism and corporate consolidation begin to rear their ugly heads (the egg eating competition is perfectly grotesque). I'm a big fan of localized cinema, wherein events primarily or exclusively play out in a central hub, and I'm a big fan of working class entrepreneurs, so naturally storefronts quite tickle my fancy. Naruse utilizes the market space to great effect, relegating business to the front end and personal matters to the back where the living quarters are, until the story reaches a tipping point and can no longer neatly divide the two. And the score is wonderful, a mix of standard melodramatic swells and mellow, romantic, almost beach-like music; according to Wikipedia Yūzō Kayama was a musician who specialized in psychedelic surf rock, so maybe he had some input? Anyway, yeah, I really like this movie.
Ford v Ferrari
Didn't like it as much as I thought I would, but still really enjoyed it. Feels pretty rote in places, though that's part and parcel with the genre and I'm a sucker for the formula of these kinds of films anyway. That said, I doubt Leo Beebee was as much of a sabotaging asshole in real life as he was here. Both Bale and Damon were great, the latter doing a sort of Tommy Lee Jones impression. The cars just sounded awesome. Formulaic, but well-executed and entertaining formula.
7/10
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Sweet movie, and a nice workaround on the usual cradle-to-grave biopic by centering the story around Matthew Rhys' family trauma with Mister Rogers playing a supporting role in facilitating his healing. At the same time, Hanks' performance is so endearing that I wouldn't have minded at all the typical biopic format here.
7/10
I Live in Fear
Like Scandal, this is another Kurosawa/Mifune collaboration that I hadn't seen before. And like Scandal, I just don't think it was very good... that movie I thought had a fundamentally weak (or at least very dated) premise but partly made up for it with some strong sequences. On the other hand this movie I feel has a more interesting story on paper -- directly wrestling with Japan's enduring anxiety over nuclear war just 10 years after the bomb had dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- but the execution is just really dull. Mifune acquits himself well playing a man twice his age, but I can't help but feel Takashi Shimura would've made more sense in this role. I did like, in contrast to some of Kurosawa's other postwar films, filming goes beyond sets and into the streets, and we get to actually see the Japan of this period. But I otherwise thought it was a pretty unremarkable movie.
5/10
Rashomon
Rewatch for Kurosawa's 110th birthday yesterday. Appreciating how influential and important and strikingly well made this film is, I can't get into quite as much as a Drunken Angel or a Stray Dog, whose characters and dynamics I just find more engrossing. That said, it's a really interesting puzzle to think about, and the fourth story is especially absorbing and illuminating, if not also super misogynistic (perhaps to be expected in 8th century Japan lol); I love the contrast of Tajomaru's boasting and the dead man's pride with how pathetic and scared and decidedly not-tough-guy they thought themselves to be. The cinematography in this film is also on another level from other Kurosawas of the era; the lighting and camerawork and framing is just so damn good.
8/10
Didn't like it as much as I thought I would, but still really enjoyed it. Feels pretty rote in places, though that's part and parcel with the genre and I'm a sucker for the formula of these kinds of films anyway. That said, I doubt Leo Beebee was as much of a sabotaging asshole in real life as he was here. Both Bale and Damon were great, the latter doing a sort of Tommy Lee Jones impression. The cars just sounded awesome. Formulaic, but well-executed and entertaining formula.
7/10
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Sweet movie, and a nice workaround on the usual cradle-to-grave biopic by centering the story around Matthew Rhys' family trauma with Mister Rogers playing a supporting role in facilitating his healing. At the same time, Hanks' performance is so endearing that I wouldn't have minded at all the typical biopic format here.
7/10
I Live in Fear
Like Scandal, this is another Kurosawa/Mifune collaboration that I hadn't seen before. And like Scandal, I just don't think it was very good... that movie I thought had a fundamentally weak (or at least very dated) premise but partly made up for it with some strong sequences. On the other hand this movie I feel has a more interesting story on paper -- directly wrestling with Japan's enduring anxiety over nuclear war just 10 years after the bomb had dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- but the execution is just really dull. Mifune acquits himself well playing a man twice his age, but I can't help but feel Takashi Shimura would've made more sense in this role. I did like, in contrast to some of Kurosawa's other postwar films, filming goes beyond sets and into the streets, and we get to actually see the Japan of this period. But I otherwise thought it was a pretty unremarkable movie.
5/10
Rashomon
Rewatch for Kurosawa's 110th birthday yesterday. Appreciating how influential and important and strikingly well made this film is, I can't get into quite as much as a Drunken Angel or a Stray Dog, whose characters and dynamics I just find more engrossing. That said, it's a really interesting puzzle to think about, and the fourth story is especially absorbing and illuminating, if not also super misogynistic (perhaps to be expected in 8th century Japan lol); I love the contrast of Tajomaru's boasting and the dead man's pride with how pathetic and scared and decidedly not-tough-guy they thought themselves to be. The cinematography in this film is also on another level from other Kurosawas of the era; the lighting and camerawork and framing is just so damn good.
8/10
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I need fun/hopeful/inspiring movie suggestions. Most of the stuff from my recent viewings from NEON, A24 etc is not that. Anything fun/hopeful/inspiring from A24/NEON/Magnolia Pictures/Annapurna/Bleecker/IFC?
catchup
Dragged Across Concrete ***1/2
Mean and pestilential—and I enjoyed every drawn-out second, lost in the slow-motion collapse of these ill-advised plots as they redound to ruthless violence and debasement. Even better than Bone Tomahawk, and I'll continue to catch Zahler films as even if he hasn't much to say beyond spitting venom I love the way he says it.
Exhibition *1/2
An instant admission into the who-gives-a-shit canon. Within 10 minutes you've gleaned all of the slight insight this has into how a relationship is a mutual act of creation, and then it goes on for 100 more minutes. As if Joanna Hogg was clearing out all of her shittiest and most navel-gazing artistic impulses before making an attempt at actual reflection.
Zodiac **** [rewatch]
if you put all the information together, maybe you could jog something loose.
Inception *** [rewatch]
You Only Live Twice **1/2
To be quite honest I would rather have flipped through stills of the empty gorgeous sets. Connery seemed tuned out, the action was merely fine, and the women have even less personality than usual.
so far: Dr. No < You Only Live Twice < From Russia With Love < Goldfinger < Thunderball (yes really)
Dragged Across Concrete ***1/2
Mean and pestilential—and I enjoyed every drawn-out second, lost in the slow-motion collapse of these ill-advised plots as they redound to ruthless violence and debasement. Even better than Bone Tomahawk, and I'll continue to catch Zahler films as even if he hasn't much to say beyond spitting venom I love the way he says it.
Exhibition *1/2
An instant admission into the who-gives-a-shit canon. Within 10 minutes you've gleaned all of the slight insight this has into how a relationship is a mutual act of creation, and then it goes on for 100 more minutes. As if Joanna Hogg was clearing out all of her shittiest and most navel-gazing artistic impulses before making an attempt at actual reflection.
Zodiac **** [rewatch]
if you put all the information together, maybe you could jog something loose.
Inception *** [rewatch]
You Only Live Twice **1/2
To be quite honest I would rather have flipped through stills of the empty gorgeous sets. Connery seemed tuned out, the action was merely fine, and the women have even less personality than usual.
so far: Dr. No < You Only Live Twice < From Russia With Love < Goldfinger < Thunderball (yes really)
Well, they are both adaptations of the same material. The original Universal Monsters one is really good
With all this new free time I just re-subscribed to the criterion channel, my first film I always recommend is 8 1/2 by Fellini. Perfection.
I watched A Ghost Story a couple night ago and it was kind of incredible. I've never seen anything quite like it. It lays bare the feeling of loss and regret primarily through scenes of the daily happenings of life. There's barely any dialogue but its message is still loud and clear. Highly recommended. And it's on Netflix.
Watched The Martian again. It's such an excellent bit of hardish sci fi. Can't recommend it enough, especially if you are an Asimov/Clark/Robinson fan
The Martian feels like a bunch of folk sitting around thinking, "What would make for the perfect primetime cable movie?" And then they did it perfectly, while still making it feel smart and exciting.
So good. The novel it was based on is well worth a read as well. I first came across it as an epub and read the whole thing from 10pm until I finished it around 5 am the next morning. No regrets!
Watched the 2008 horror/thriller movie called delirium. Never saw it before. Recommended. It's on Netflix.
Anither we watched was the lost girls. Based on a true story and novel, it tells the story of the 2010 murder of Shannon Gilbert and her moms quest to find out the truth of her death. Very good.
Anither we watched was the lost girls. Based on a true story and novel, it tells the story of the 2010 murder of Shannon Gilbert and her moms quest to find out the truth of her death. Very good.
Playmobil: The Movie: You know something's wrong when the end credits doesn't have an end credits theme, it just reuses songs from the movie. Yeah, this is a musical, and none of them are memorable.
The biggest problem with Playmobil: The Movie is that Playmobil doesn't lend itself to the environment in the same as LEGO. It's just Playmobil figures in a fantasy world, which means the story doesn't require it to even be Playmobil. The movie is about Marla and Charlie, whose parents have died from...I dunno, a drug deal gone wrong or something. After getting transported into Playmobil World thanks to a magic lighthouse, Charlie is turned into a Viking with super strength...when he can remember to use it, which isn't often. Speaking of lighthouses, this is the kind of movie that makes you think of better movies you could be watching. The Lighthouse, James Bond, Gladiator, Jurassic Park, Cinderella, Star Wars, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...
Oh, where was I? Oh right, Marla teams up with Del, a burrito food truck worker (you know it's a front for his weed business). There's Daniel Radcliffe's role as Rex Dasher, who isn't in the movie nearly as much as you'd expect. In scenes where you'd expect him to pop up, he doesn't. The movie does through a bunch of settings that clash with each other and don't really give a visual mood to the movie outside of Playmobil itself. The Roman emperor villain whose name I forget is lame.
I don't know what people expected out of a Playmobil movie, but this certainly didn't deliver.
The biggest problem with Playmobil: The Movie is that Playmobil doesn't lend itself to the environment in the same as LEGO. It's just Playmobil figures in a fantasy world, which means the story doesn't require it to even be Playmobil. The movie is about Marla and Charlie, whose parents have died from...I dunno, a drug deal gone wrong or something. After getting transported into Playmobil World thanks to a magic lighthouse, Charlie is turned into a Viking with super strength...when he can remember to use it, which isn't often. Speaking of lighthouses, this is the kind of movie that makes you think of better movies you could be watching. The Lighthouse, James Bond, Gladiator, Jurassic Park, Cinderella, Star Wars, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...
Oh, where was I? Oh right, Marla teams up with Del, a burrito food truck worker (you know it's a front for his weed business). There's Daniel Radcliffe's role as Rex Dasher, who isn't in the movie nearly as much as you'd expect. In scenes where you'd expect him to pop up, he doesn't. The movie does through a bunch of settings that clash with each other and don't really give a visual mood to the movie outside of Playmobil itself. The Roman emperor villain whose name I forget is lame.
I don't know what people expected out of a Playmobil movie, but this certainly didn't deliver.
Contagion (2011): A movie I quite enjoyed when it came out, and which tons of people are now discovering for seemingly the first time now that we're in the midst of an actual pandemic (albeit, thankfully, one that isn't as bad as the film depicts). This seemed as good a time as any to revisit it. The film isn't perfect (Soderbergh seems to forget about Marion Cotillard's plotline partway through the movie only for her to abruptly reappear at the end, for instance), but it's a very well-made science procedural that also convincingly depicts some of the ground-level experiences of ordinary people (many movies can only do one or the other well). Matt Damon's plotline hits many of the points we're now seeing play out, such as the difficulty for parents dealing with people who don't understand the situation (though Damon also, on rewatch, inexplicably takes his daughter around outside with him unnecessarily a number of times). The only thing that the film didn't anticipate was that Jude Law's blogger character would be the president.
Carmen Jones (1954): The film that made Dorothy Dandridge a star, albeit one that Hollywood had no idea what to do with because she was a black woman; whatever else might be said about it, the film was a huge milestone for black representation in Hollywood, shot in colour and the first high-budget theatrical release that was made and marketed with the idea that white audiences would also want to see it. The story is a contemporary adaptation of Georges Bizet's iconic opera Carmen, with new English-language lyrics courtesy of Oscar Hammerstein, and honestly this is the weakest part of the film -- most of the numbers are both indistinct and can't help but feel like song parodies, as when "Toreador" is repurposed as a number about a boxer. It just doesn't sound right, for whatever reason. The except is the opening revised version of "Habanera", which is kind of awesome, and a great showcase for Dandridge, who is electric even when the film as a whole isn't.
Carmen Jones (1954): The film that made Dorothy Dandridge a star, albeit one that Hollywood had no idea what to do with because she was a black woman; whatever else might be said about it, the film was a huge milestone for black representation in Hollywood, shot in colour and the first high-budget theatrical release that was made and marketed with the idea that white audiences would also want to see it. The story is a contemporary adaptation of Georges Bizet's iconic opera Carmen, with new English-language lyrics courtesy of Oscar Hammerstein, and honestly this is the weakest part of the film -- most of the numbers are both indistinct and can't help but feel like song parodies, as when "Toreador" is repurposed as a number about a boxer. It just doesn't sound right, for whatever reason. The except is the opening revised version of "Habanera", which is kind of awesome, and a great showcase for Dandridge, who is electric even when the film as a whole isn't.
Infernal Affairs: My first watch and I know it's not fair but it was impossible for me to not think of The Departed when watching this. The Departed was the first Scorsese movie I ever saw at the age of 14 so even if I don't consider it to be one his strongest films I have some nostalgic feelings for it. The profanity, violence, insecure machismo, sex and rock music was all new to me. I was surprised to see however how closely it still follows Infernal Affairs, even down to similar/same shots in some scenes.
No doubt that the central plot is gripping and the reason for the film's success, as I was having fun following along this game of chess despite knowing how it all unfolds. Infernal Affairs is a lot more pared down than Scorsese's film, which attempts to add greater depth to the paper thin characters and simple themes of the original. While this does make The Departed more of a hangout film with a larger cast and more digressions, I don't know how compelling they really are and if it makes it better as there's some value and an exhilaration in keeping a fast pace and moving from set piece to set piece like Infernal Affairs does. The central themes of identity and self deception ring loud in both and I don't know if The Departed really adds much more to it beyond that with its extra material.
Scorsese's direction is far superior though, so much so that I was surprised by how basic and at times amateurish it appears here. The colours look awful, the slomo is bad, and the final helicopter (probably) zoom on the rooftop looks clumsy but the backdrop of mountains against the Hong Kong skyline is striking and makes up for it. The directors sometimes make interesting choices like this which while maybe not executed perfectly can be still be memorable. The film seems to be going for a Matrix aesthetic, leaving behind the vibrant neons and dense environments of Woo's Hong Kong. While The Departed is in general more visually arresting (I love the way Scorsese plays with lights and smoke in the tailing sequence) but it still feels like both share some major shots which speaks to the original's strength. I also think Infernal Affairs did a better job with the drug bust sequence, better juggling the different desperate methods used by both sides to communicate with their undercover counterparts than just simple SMSs in The Departed.
I would still rather watch The Departed but Infernal Affairs is still a fascinating watch. Looking forward to the sequel (which seems to have an improved visual style based on the first 20 mins).
No doubt that the central plot is gripping and the reason for the film's success, as I was having fun following along this game of chess despite knowing how it all unfolds. Infernal Affairs is a lot more pared down than Scorsese's film, which attempts to add greater depth to the paper thin characters and simple themes of the original. While this does make The Departed more of a hangout film with a larger cast and more digressions, I don't know how compelling they really are and if it makes it better as there's some value and an exhilaration in keeping a fast pace and moving from set piece to set piece like Infernal Affairs does. The central themes of identity and self deception ring loud in both and I don't know if The Departed really adds much more to it beyond that with its extra material.
Scorsese's direction is far superior though, so much so that I was surprised by how basic and at times amateurish it appears here. The colours look awful, the slomo is bad, and the final helicopter (probably) zoom on the rooftop looks clumsy but the backdrop of mountains against the Hong Kong skyline is striking and makes up for it. The directors sometimes make interesting choices like this which while maybe not executed perfectly can be still be memorable. The film seems to be going for a Matrix aesthetic, leaving behind the vibrant neons and dense environments of Woo's Hong Kong. While The Departed is in general more visually arresting (I love the way Scorsese plays with lights and smoke in the tailing sequence) but it still feels like both share some major shots which speaks to the original's strength. I also think Infernal Affairs did a better job with the drug bust sequence, better juggling the different desperate methods used by both sides to communicate with their undercover counterparts than just simple SMSs in The Departed.
I would still rather watch The Departed but Infernal Affairs is still a fascinating watch. Looking forward to the sequel (which seems to have an improved visual style based on the first 20 mins).
OP
OP
Rented and watched The Invisible Man again and still really effective at home. Didn't lose much a second time since it doesn't lean on the twists too much and enjoyed hearing out for the clicking of the suit prior to its reveal. The brother definitely feels like the weakest part to me.
