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Land of Bad (2024)
Land of Bad
Liam Hemsworth plays Kinney, a young air force operative joining a Delta Force mission to rescue a spy in the southern Philippines. When all goes badly wrong, Kinney is left alone in the jungle with only a drone operated from base to guide him, flown by Eddie Grimm played by Russell Crowe.
Exciting, well played out action thriller. All alone behind enemy lines in the jungle isn't a new idea, but what makes this different is the evolvement of modern warfare and how trained soldiers still work in the field but are supported by amongst other state of the art technology flying, armed battle drones with satellite technology. Hemsworth does a pretty good job in the Ramboesque lead, but scenery chewing Russell Crowe steals the picture as the eccentric, angry but caring (aaah) drone flyer. The action scenes are impressive and some of the violence is pretty nasty for those who yearn for such things, but it's the interplay between in the field and back at base which drives this forward.
Hollywood in the Atomic Age - Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists! (2021)
Hollywood in the Atomic Age
Following WWII, the Cold War with the 'red Menace' and the threat of nuclear war persuaded Hollywood to create any number of sci-fi / horror films. Some were classics, some were hits and many were awful.
This documentary makes little attempt to really get under the skin of what made these films so popular. Instead, largely in chronological order through the fifties into the early sixties, the trailers are shown and then actor, director or technician from the day talks about the films, with some providing amusing anecdotes. Whilst some films get mocked eg The Killer Shrews, for the most part these people clearly adore them, and it is clear towards the end that they think America in the fifties was as good as life got. It's fun to hear about these films, but as a documentary it is poorly structured / edited and lacks direction.
The Greatest Hits (2024)
The Greatest Hits
Harriet (Lucy Boynton) is still mourning the death of her boyfriend Max in a car accident 2 years earlier. To complicate things when certain songs are played from their time together, Harriet goes back in time to when she was with Max when it was being played. Unable to move on, she is convinced that if the right song comes along she can save him. At the same time a new man, Justin comes into her life - will she mess this up and can she save Max.
Whilst this is a fun romantic notion and the ever excellent Boynton puts in a good performance, this isn't enough to give any spring to the story. Hence everyone goes through the film largely depressed waiting for the next time shift. It's all a bit dull and the relationships with Max particularly but also with Justin don't quite ring true. Still it comes to a satisfying conclusion after 90 minutes, shame the rest couldn't have been more interesting.
Saw X (2023)
Saw X
Jigsaw serial killer John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is dying of cancer, but finds out about an underground experimental procedure that has had some impressive results. He therefore heads to Mexico where the team, lead by Cecilia Pederson (Synnove Macody Lund) perform an operation on his brain and prescribe new drugs. He soon realises that he has been conned and there was no cure and so he sets out to take revenge in his traditional manner.
The difficulty with the Saw franchise is that whilst the killings are imaginative, deeply unpleasant and with just a touch of black humour, there is little where else to go with the story. This one is a bit more inventive story-wise and whilst there are no great surprises this is quite good 'fun'. This in large part is because of the presence and performance of Bell, who has more to do here than usual including dishing out some delightfully nasty deaths.
Strays (2023)
Strays
Will Ferrell voices Reggie, a dog who thinks his master, Doug, loves him, but clearly doesn't. Abandoned, he joins forces with 3 other dogs voices by Jamie Foxx, Isla Blair and Randall Park to have fun and to find Doug and bite his xxxx off.
This is clever to watch and convincingly done, the 'voice talents' do well enough and I will admit that I did laugh from time to time - just. That said it runs for just about 90 minutes, isn't consistently all that funny, has a very slight story and basically once I got over the hilarious notion of dogs swearing and doing the strange and often disgusting things dogs do, I wasn't wholly sold on the notion that this added up to the best use of my time. Allright, with a few laughs.
In the Land of Saints & Sinners (2023)
In the Land of Saints and Sinners
Liam Neeson plays Finbar, beloved character and apparently a book seller in a small coastal village in County Donegal in Ireland but who is in fact a hitman for a local crime boss (Colm Meaney). He decides to quit and atone for his crimes, however 3 IRA killers on the run turn up and, well, it's just a matter of time....
It's easy to speculate that this must be another of Neeson's tough guy revenge type thrillers. It is not. Instead he plays a disillusioned killer who has a good life with a number of good friends and needs to move on, but is unable to if he is to protect those he loves. The whole thing looks beautiful, Neeson proves what a good actor he is and the supporting cast incl Ciaran Hinds, Niamh Cusack, Meaney and Jack Gleeson all bring much to the party. It is witty, even charming yet laced with the inevitable menace brought by the ruthless IRA, here is the shape of Kerry Condon, terrifying as the women who believes utterly in her cause and fears nothing and nobody - a stellar performance. Not a great film perhaps, but solid, exciting and certainly worth seeking out.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
The Shop Around the Corner
Ernst Lubitsch's classic romantic comedy stars James Stewart as the top store clerk in a leather goods store in Budapest. He's writing romantic letter anonymously to a girl and she is replying to him and they don't realise that they're working in the store together and not getting on.
Generally regarded as near perfect, this has an exceptionally strong, razor sharp script thanks in part because at no point does it descend into sentimentality and slop and even covers such dark elements as infidelity and suicide. The story rolls out very neatly without missing a beat, contained as it is largely within the store and features a fine array of amusing supporting characters to enjoy.
Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver (2024)
Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver
Following directly from Part One, the baddies rescue nasty Admiral Noble's body and put him back together again and he awakes obsessed only with getting Kora. Meanwhile, Kora, Gunnar etc are preparing for another big fight creating cunning traps, putting bombs everywhere etc around their small village.
Whilst like its predecessor there is a great deal wrong with this, firstly the 'good' stuff. The action sequences, whilst we've seen them many many times before in better films are well staged and bordering on exciting, supported by seemingly hours of slow motion and a highly portentous score. On the downside, Snyder seems so eager to create his own galaxy far far away with associated history and lore he fails to create characters that will fill it - all they do is fight, roar as they charge into battle, make speeches and burst into tears, all without a scintilla of humour.
Bottom line, I just don't think I truly understood all this. The cause of the vast empire of soldiers attacking this little village still seems geared around getting grain - really? And the politics is rattled out quickly in a short section at the start - again I wasn't clear on this - perhaps I'm
just not bright enough. Anyway it does seem as if Snyder is ready to make 2 more of these plus extended R rated versions of the first 2 parts are on their way - I'm so excited!
Expend4bles (2023)
Expend4bles
Nasty guy Rahmat and his army of followers (who incidentally don't appear to be able to hit the side of a barn) are in Libya to steal nuclear warheads for the mercenaries' mysterious leader Ocelot so he/she can start WWIII. Stallone gathers up his Expendables to take the bad guys out and get the warheads. Things don't go as planned and a tragedy alters things dramatically.
Despite facing some pretty stiff competition, this is easily the lousiest film in a pretty lousy franchise. The story is lame, the effects feeble, it's witty throw away lines should be thrown away, Ocelot's identity is mind numbingly obvious and the slight, predictable twist can be guessed about 20 minutes in. What just about makes this tolerable for some scenes, is the presence of The Stath, the only one who actually looks tough, rather than old and makes such nonsense believable. Stallone, who actually isn't in this that much had problems with this episode - probably the story, script, cast, effects and overall effect - but he does put in another performance as the character he seems to play in every film he makes, yet again. Grim stuff.
BlackBerry (2023)
Blackberry
A fictionalised semi comedic version of the events that lead to the incredible rise to global success of the BlackBerry only to be smashed out of the market place by the creation of the iPhone. It follows the build and sale from the perspective of the 3 principal players involved, the 2 inventors and the marketing expert who got it out there.
As a film, it fires along at breakneck speed which is often funny, sometimes quite dramatic, but always exciting as they overcome seemingly absurd obstacles to get to the top. What raises this up even more than anything though has to be the performance by Glen Howerton as the marketing whizz Jim Baisillie who shouts and swears and steam rollers his way through everyone. He is so obnoxious, arrogant and down right impenetrable that you just have to love him. It must be said however, and this depends how true this all is, is that the other two characters are less impressive. Jay Baruchel is Mike Lazaridis, the genius here with no real common sense, grasp of what is needed or indeed oomph. At the bottom of the pile is Matthew Johnson as tech wizard Matthew Johnson who comes across as a great big child, I hated him every time he spoke - aaargh.
Still a lot of fun with great pacing and ultimately even rather sad - worth catching.
Ribâ, nagarenaide yo (2023)
River
On a snowy day in a charming riverside hotel near Kyoto the staff and guests suddenly become subject to a time loop. As a result every 2 minutes time resets and they start their 2 minutes again and again from where they were the first time.
Whilst this may not have the humour, pathos and life lessons to be learned elements of Groundhog Day, it follows a reasonably similar path, it's just every 2 minutes. This makes it in some ways more fun as whatever they're in the middle of, they remember, but just have to start from the launch point - so lots of Japanese slapstick type humour with everyone screaming and shouting and running around. It's sweet in its own way and not without a few laughs and never really gets serious. It also offers a really silly conclusion and reason for the time loop. Pleasant enough.
Tales of the Uncanny (2020)
Tales of the Uncanny
A documentary looking back an anthology horror films which was apparently made throughout lockdown with the 61 so called experts all giving their views from their homes. Whilst it is undoubtedly fun to look back at the many portmanteau films that have been made and you are spoilt for clips, most of the experts (I should say there are one or two real pros here) had something to do with one or two straight to video productions and all think everything made is amazing, astonishing, brilliant! Having seen most of the films they discuss this is patently not the case, although you must applaud their undying enthusiasm.
As a documentary, it is a bit limp as it pretty much shows throughout its running time a bit from each trailer, praises the film to the skies and then moves on to the next one. There is no real attempt to analyse anything just to say how clever and wonderful it is and to get as many films into the running time as they can. Overall then, fun for horror fans looking for a bit of nostalgia, but that's all.
The Kid (1921)
The Kid
A woman on skid row abandons her baby and Chaplin's Tramp finds it and takes it in looking after the boy for 5 years. During this time the woman has become rich and famous, of course, and the authorities are getting concerned about the boy's welfare.
Clearly this is regarded as something of a masterpiece, bridging the gap between Chaplin's silent slapstick and his later classics. I had somehow managed to miss this and was reticent given its reputation for cloying sentimentality, but a restored 4K version persuaded me. What I found for the most part was a really funny film and limited sentimentality, albeit when it arrives it's laid on with a trowel, supported by Chaplin's treacle thick score. Coogan is absolutely terrific as the kid and easily holds his own with the man himself. Overall then rather enjoyable and often very funny - albeit I didn't care for the messy dream sequence though, which felt like padding.
Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019)
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Cate Blanchett plays Bernadette, a wife and loving mother who has rather lost her way in life. Originally a famous, award winning architect, she has devoted her life to motherhood and running a home. However, giving up a key, creative part of her life has left scars and turned her into a sometime shut off, bitter individual. When her daughter asks if the family can go on holiday to Antarctica, to help with a school project, the extremely reluctant traveller agrees, not realising the impact it will have on her.
An odd, somewhat eccentric, even fairy tale look at the pitfalls of changes in life, in this case, giving up something you love and not really acknowledging it. It is as they say in many reviews - 'quirky' - which makes for ideal fodder for arguably the best film actress on the planet, who clearly relishes the often over the top, eccentric, sometimes annoying and even sometimes unbelievable character. Nicely offset then by Emma Nelson as the loving daughter who doesn't entirely see the issue and especially by Billy Crudup who does and is desperate to find a solution. Suspend any disbelief you may have and enjoy.
Bande à part (1964)
Bande a Part
Frank and Arthur are two great friends who, at an English class meet and fall in love with Odile - the three of them hang out. She tells them that in the house where she lives with her Aunt and a Mr Stolz, there is a huge pile of cash in an unlocked room. There men decide to steal it and persuade the reluctant Odile to help.
Jean Luc Godard's highly acclaimed French new wave comedy is a bizarre mixture of light on your feet comedy, clever one liners and even episodes of 'The Monkees'. It's great fun to be with these three characters and their witty banter and enjoy the now famous cafe dance sequence and breaking the visiting the Louvre record. What also impresses though is when the free wheeling comedy switches quite unexpectedly and at odds with the prevailing tone in different directions again totally at odds with what a typical tale such as this would follow.
Una ragione per vivere e una per morire (1972)
A Reason to Live, A Reason to Die
With very obvious shades of 'The Dirty Dozen', ex Colonel James Coburn, in a bid to reverse the prevailing view that he's a coward, announces that a number of men who are about to be hanged can go free if they help him recapture Fort Holman - he had apparently too easily surrendered the fort before to evil Telly Savalas. The men agree to support him, but later turn on him only to be told that there is $500,000 in gold in the fort - which persuades them to stick around.
This is a perfectly solid, unremarkable spaghetti western with lots of grumpy and grubby Italians supporting superstar Coburn on yet another impossibie mission. Coburn is Coburn, Savalas is Savalas, leaving Terence Hill's long time partner Bud Spencer to walk off easily as the best character and actually, actor. The final scenes are pretty good fun and provide plenty for the stunt and explosive effects guys to keep them busy plus it has quite a nice score..
To note: there is a scene that is intended to be tense where a rope gets stuck in a crack in a rock face - this goes on for ages, isn't tense and is in fact very silly.
The Kings of Summer (2013)
The Kings of Summer
3 teenage guys living at odds with their parents decide to stay in the forest for the summer, build a house and live off the land. They are having a whale of a time until a girl joins them. This all occurs as the parents and the police try to find them.
A coming of age mixture of drama, charm and comedy a la 'The Wonder Years', 'Stand by Me' and many, many more which ok, is pleasant enough. You do though need to skate past the fact that this all seems quite a stretch as a plot. Teenage boys are after girls and want to have fun, not build a house (really!) and hunt rabbits to eat. They are nevertheless quite good company as are their parents with the best comedy easily coming unsurprisingly from very sarcy Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally in their searches for their kids - who again, would not be difficult to find. Pleasant enough.
Run Rabbit Run (2023)
Run Rabbit Run
Sarah Snook is Sarah who is having trouble with the increasingly strange behaviour of her daughter Mia (Lily LaTorre) who claims to be her long missing sister Alice. Simultaneously Sarah starts having bizarre hallucinations which together with Mia's behaviour puts pressure on their relationship.
Whilst Sarah Snook given another quite excellent performance here as does the young LaTorre, it isn't enough. This is a really intense, unflinching look at loss and motherhood and not coping with it as well as hints of a ghost story. Because it never lets up with long slow shadowy scenes of Snook looking troubled and/or crying and ultimately has nothing but shades of grey you just dunk into a depressing, extremely well acted mire. Hard work.
Red State (2015)
Red State
3 lads decide to visit a woman (Melissa Yeo) who will perform sexual favours for free. However when they get there they're drugged and wake up tied up within a deeply fundamentalist church run by Pastor Cooper (Michael Parks) where pastor and congregation seem set on eliminating homosexuality and anyone who gets in the way of their cause.
The film begins with a discussion in the boys' school on the 1st and 2nd amendments and subsequently moves on to exploring this further with Kevin Smith's obvious ranting on the extremes of these issues. Whilst this is a rant, it is a fun one and although dark, sinister and occasionally rather unpleasant, it also has plenty of enjoyable black comedy, mostly courtesy of government rep John Goodman, sent to sort the church out in a second amendment shoot out. It's short and sharp and you move on grateful that such people couldn't possibly exist in a modern sophisticated country.
Inland Empire (2006)
Inland Empire
Hollywood actress, Nikki (Laura Dern) starts work on a new film which co-stars Billy (Justin Theroux) and is directed by Kingsley Stewart (Jeremy Irons). Stewart tells his stars on the first day of shooting that this is not in fact an original story. The original was a Polish production which was unfinished because the two leads were murdered and was believed to be cursed. Filming continues, but Nikki starts to be become dragged into the character she is playing rather more than is normal, with disturbing results.
Aside from his 'normal' and largely admired storytelling films eg 'The Elephant Man', 'The Straight Story', Lynch is best known for letting his weird and wild imagination let rip, which divides audiences between the truly devout and the rest of us, unclear whether this is an artistic genius at work or whether he's having a laugh at our expense and occasionally something in between. This is one of those films. It starts off, a bit strangely, but is not difficult to follow, in fact it is quite engrossing. Then the great man takes us down a rabbit hole of pure Lynchian surrealism riddled with endless no doubt meaningful scenes of a sit-com featuring people dressed as rabbits, a group of scantily dressed women endlessly laughing and dancing and what seems like hours of shadowy faces in close up telling tall tales.
Ok so there are definitely things here to marvel at, and as usual it looks and sounds great and as several wise critics have said, it is best watched just laying back and letting it wash over you. Lynch has refused apparently to explain what it all means because it is up to the individual to interpret. I like to think he hasn't a clue what it's about and is sniggering somewhere. My interpretation is rather null and void then as whilst I admired bits of it and indeed Dern is absolutely terrific, I didn't understand it and felt that it wasn't unreasonable to expect just a few more down to earth clues. In conclusion then and on balance I thought it was three hours of my life I won't get back.
Too Many Crooks (1959)
Too Many Crooks
After a group of thieves led by an incompetent George Cole mess up robbing corrupt business man Terry Thomas, they kidnap who they think is his daughter. It turns out to be his wife, played by Brenda de Banzie and TT refuses to pay for her return. Upset, de Banzie takes over the gang and devises more cunning plans to relieve her husband if his money.
Immensely enjoyable / silly comedy with lots of laughs thanks to a great British cast of comics. Standouts are certainly Terry Thomas in usual devilish cad mode, devoting his time to avoiding the tax man and at the top of the pile the legendary Sid James as the only one of the gang with a brain cell. Good fun.
The Beanie Bubble (2023)
The Beanie Bubble
The story of Ty Warner and the 3 women in his life who created a multi billion dollar empire out of 'Beanie Babies'. Interestingly Warner has commented on the film and seems to find pretty much the whole thing a fiction - although in fairness it is acknowledged at the beginning of the film that some of it is made up. It is nevertheless a fascinating story, particularly Ty Warner himself, played by Zach Galifianakis who plays Warner as a greedy, stupid and narcissistic throughout and a character everyone will love to hate by the time the credits role.
The 3 women, his original business partner played by Elizabeth Banks, the women he proposed to by Sarah Snook and the true operations manager played by Geraldine Viswanathan are all good, especially Snook.
The difficulty with the film is that there is nothing to like here. Warner is loathsome and the women seem determine to lose to him until the last few enjoyable, partly true minutes of the film and the whole thing is ultimately flat and unenjoyable. Quite how much is true here is anyone's guess but it is interesting in his interview that Warner said that Galifianakis was the wrong actor to play him and he felt Daniel Day Lewis would have been better - I think this says a lot. The American Dream eh!
Boîte noire (2021)
Black Box
A highly regarded aviation black box investigator, Mathieu, is overlooked to take part in the investigation of a major commercial airline crash by his boss Pollock. When Pollock mysteriously disappears, Mathieu is asked to take over. More and more strange information comes to light and Mathieu become even more obsessed and paranoid than usual in his determining the cause of the crash.
Terrific, old fashioned, in a good way, thriller which Hitchcock would have been proud of. Whilst there are plenty of exciting more typical thriller elements on show, what really makes this a bit special is both the procedural, technical scenes relating to analysing the black box, which are quite riveting and more crucially the central character. His obsessive, autistic need to solve this come what may, even at a risk to his marriage makes for a quite different character than usual - this guy is no Cary Grant. In fact he's often irritating such that the scenes where he overstates his case and gets metaphorical doors slammed in his face because of his attitude ring a pleasantly different tone from usual. Really good thriller, amazed Hollywood hasn't yet pounced with Ryan Reynolds or Chris Pine in the lead.
Cobweb (2023)
Cobweb
A young lonely boy, Peter, lives in a dark, run down house with his oddly nervous but strict parents. One night he starts hearing knocking on the walls and later the knocks are replaced by the voice of what sounds like a young girl.
Rather a difficult 'horror' film to pin down, in that for the most part it focusses on the increasingly distraught relationship between the boy and his deeply strange parents and his school teachers growing concerns for his well bearing ie it's almost a domestic crisis drama - almost. Eventually though the twists untwirl and it becomes clear what has been going on, at which point we revert to more classic horror territory. The difficulty here is that whilst it is well enough crafted and the acting is solid, it's really not very scary and the promise of mystery is never really explored. Also, whilst the inevitable climax is well filmed, this is done so, as is so often the case these days in darkness such that you miss a lot of it. Disappointing, but never mind, the sequel is blatantly signposted for all to see.
Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans (2019)
Horrible Histories: The Movie
Following on from the popular BBC children's television series, this looks at Britain under the Romans whilst Nero was the emperor and having trouble with Boudica.
It actually seems a little redundant to rate / review something that is clearly made for ~10 year olds - anyway.... The TV series, without clinging to curriculum in any way aimed at making history more fun for kids mixing historical fact with songs and silly nonsense and proved immensely successful - and still does. This silliness is riddled with famous TV Brits, including Derek Jacobi returning briefly as Claudius and is I guess probably daft fun, full of laughs. Sadly there's never a 10 year old around when you need one to prove this, although I did laugh at the 'No I'm Farticus' scene, but that probably says more about me than the film. Find a young kid and enjoy.