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The 2nd (2020)
Set up for a video game?
This was a movie made to promote a video game, right? I can't imagine any other reason to make such a cliched feature. The writing is right at the level of a video game, just setting up characters to be used in a game format, and the "action scenes" (i.e. The violence) just set up events that could be score-kept. As many have noted, "what ever happened to Ryan Phillipe that he's doing this kind of thing?" Apparently I need to write at least 600 characters to get this review published, so I'll write about the big mistake: the Supreme Court can't overturn a Constitutional Amendment, can they? Can they?
Sun Dogs (2017)
What you hope for from a "small movie"
Human-scale drama about real people that you can care about. A stylishly produced story that doesn't involve any special effects, just accumulating well-chosen details and slowly-earned emotions. A good cast without any star trips. A little message or nudge saying "try to be a better person, it will make a difference." An evening's indulgence of the fantasy that people are basically good.
Christine (2016)
Excellent direction and editing to promote a stellar lead performance
Christine is a bummer story, but it's told in a dynamic way that brings the viewer into Christine's world through energetic direction and especially crisp editing. There is a style of film-making today where the camera lingers on silent characters after dialogue, or characters silently stare at something while pensive music plays on the soundtrack--thank goodness, this isn't one of those films. As a movie, Christine moves! Everything brings our attention to the main character, and Rebecca Hall delivers a fully-realized performance that combines sympathy with critical thinking--how does this character add up to this climax of action?
Ava (2020)
What is WRONG with these movies?
They've got Colin Ferrell and John Malkovich fighting with a knife and a rock! The level of violence is appalling, but worse than that I'd challenge anyone to point to a human moment in this story. As many have noticed in reviews, the writing is hackneyed.
I wonder if the sadistic money people (think of someone like Steve Mnuchin, who went from Hollywood to Secretary of the Treasury for President Trump) make bets on how badly they can humiliate the "talent." "I bet I can get John Malkovich to fight with a rock." OK, mission accomplished.
What a sad misuse of a pretty good cast.
Murder Mystery (2019)
Writers benefit from comic actors
A lot of Netflix movies suffer from poor writing, and this title is probably not very well written, but you can't be sure because the actors are movie stars who specialize in comedy. As long as the framework enables comedy, Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston can take it from there, sometimes manufacturing laughs that weren't in the script. The screenplay keeps events moving in order to let the leads do the humorous work, and I laughed out loud pretty frequently, especially when the comedy amplified the renewed love the couple finds through adventure. A fun modernization of the Agatha Christie genre.
Spiderhead (2022)
What did you see in the James-Bond mash-up finale?
Since this is another one of these Netflix Debacles, I'll accentuate the positive by focusing on the "homages" in the finale, which to me suggest a passel of Bond movies. I'll suggest a few to get the ball rolling:
*Like Dr. No, Bond and the girl chase around in a concrete villain's lair
*Like The Man with the Golden Gun, the villain has a plane to fly away from his tropical lair
*Like From Russia With Love, Bond and the girl get away on a boat.
Windfall (2022)
That got bad quickly . . . but not quickly enough!
In the first few minutes it struck a kind of whimsical comic tone underscored by the music and cinematography. But then it got boring for a long time. Then it got sick, and eventually it was over.
Triple Frontier (2019)
The Netflix Thing
After the onset of the pandemic, Spartacus Super Bowl watched a lot of Netflix movies, and about three-quarters of them fit this pattern, The Netflix Thing: interesting premise, interesting cast (I have a rule to watch anything with Oscar Isaac), acceptable action, uninspired cinematography, and disappointing writing. Triple Frontier has that same synthetic video look as all the rest of the Netflix Things, lacking inspiring photographic values, and the writing--especially the "dialogue"--epitomizes what we now call "Meh." These so-called warriors just sling Military Rap for Dummies cliches when they really should STFU because they are in tactical situations. For dudes who constantly prattle about all their great military achievements, they sure don't have much in the way of field orders or battle plans or immediate action drills. I'll still watch anything with Oscar Isaac, but I won't watch this Netflix Thing again. Sincerely--Spartacus Super Bowl.
Bo we mnie jest seks (2021)
Who could resist such fun?
Spartacus Super Bowl doesn't usually much care for movie musicals--AT ALL--but Autumn Girl is an irresistible blast of singing dancing fun! To use a great juicy Yiddish word, the zaftig star Maria Debska projects such charm and energy, sex and soul, and the director Katarzyna klimkiewicz (who also wrote) throws it all out there in front of the camera with such panache that who can refuse?
The Green Knight (2021)
It's a movie, not a poem, and not entirely hideous
Spartacus Super Bowl has a PhD in literature, and can assure you that any discussion of medieval poetry is a big stinking red herring. This is a movie, not a poem, just a combination of moving images and sound.
Once you get over the whole Chaucer distraction, you can look at this in terms of Kubrick's concept of the "submersible writing unit" from 2001: A Space Odyssey. That's how The Green Knight is put together, a one-digit number of card-titled units that don't exactly present a single flowing narrative, but aren't just random pieces, either. The Green Knight especially resembles 2001 in having the boringest unit up first, and in zooming ahead in time-frame a couple of times.
It's just a movie, and in the middle features some imaginative and compelling visual sequences (I liked the parts with the second coming of Alicia Vikander). The sound is often esoteric, and in fact the story relies on some esoteric elements, too, and that gets you back in touch with 2001 and the whole Kubrick oeuvre (music and the occult). It doesn't revel in light the way Kubrick does, though, and muddles around in some dark limited-palette sequences that tend to bore the eye. That's a sin of contemporary cinema.
Spartacus Super Bowl advances the thesis that this is what you get from a generation that thinks Tolkien is great literature (instead of potent imaginative narrative) and Peter Jackson is a cinematic artist (instead of a meticulous craftsman). Not that bad, but it's just a movie. ;-)
Skyggen i mit øje (2021)
Harrowing and deeply affective
This is a harrowing World War 2 story, with a deep emotional impact earned through distinctive characters. Spartacus Super Bowl won't say much more, to avoid spoilers, but the child actors in this Danish film are truly wonderful.
Fallet (2017)
I loved this cast of characters
Great mashup of social satire and police procedural. Well-paced series that kept advancing a peculiar plot until it reached the climax. No spoiler, but the last episode built to a really well-earned and somehow heart-warming punch line. I guess that's the benefit of letting characters drive the plot!
Tiempos de guerra (2017)
Julia: the empty space at the center of a very interesting cast
I'm going to agree with boraksbianchi's review above and concur that Julia is the one odorless colorless character in a cast abounding with handsome, dynamic, well-defined characters overacted in the finest soap opera tradition! I guess it kind of doesn't matter, but something feels unfair about a flat-affect Rene Russo lookalike with anachronistic hairstyle getting top billing over so many appealing actors and actresses.
The Highwaymen (2019)
Woody Harrelson rides shotgun!
You can like this movie or not, I don't care--it's hardcore like dry-shaving with a rusty razor. I like the front-seat acting of the co-leads, Costner and Harrelson, the latter of whom gets a lot of space as the wing-man. Since Costner's part is written without a shred of humor, and the actor plays it with magnificent gravity, Woody gets to show off his comic chops and sideman skills. Over the years, he's gotten to be such a great character actor. It's funny how at the very end of the movie, Costner's character finally lets Harrelson's character drive--he's earned it! Spartacus Super Bowl wants Woody Harrelson riding shotgun whenever the opportunity arises!
Detour (1945)
For the film-noir fan, this is a tasty tidbit, and probably not even an acquired taste for anyone else.
Sophocles would probably make this movie if he was a veteran returning from World War II and had about a thousand dollars to spend. This is decidedly low-rent (all the action on the highway is filmed on the same location, for example), but it moves forward with tragic certainty. Detour is almost surreal in its rejection of realism--it's just a dark fable about how fate can trip anyone up, and probably will. Tom Neal is one of the best of the put-upon film-noir anti-heroes (he knows what he doesn't want to happen, and that's just what does happen), and Ann Savage lives up to her name as a potent harpy pecking at his liver. For the film-noir fan, this is a tasty tidbit, and probably not even an acquired taste for anyone else.
Batman: The Cat and the Fiddle (1966)
Holy Look-a-Like, Batman!
James Brolin plays a small part as an armored-truck driver in this episode, and, wow, does he ever look like future Batman Christian Bale!
Frantz (2016)
It Makes Me Want to Live
I loved this, a film as a series of scenes the significance of which register on the lovely, expressive face of the leading lady. I would hardly expect a contemporary film to exhibit such calm, quiet confidence in the most basic elements of cinema: talk, and pictures. Paula Beer was enchanting, the moral center of a potentially depressing story that instead affirms life. "It makes me want to live."
The Grissom Gang (1971)
Natural Born Killers as a TV Movie-of-the-Week
Spartacus Super Bowl compares The Grissom Gang to an Oliver Stone film without the quality of writing or cinematic craft. Hyped-up, morally ambivalent people in action without contemplation.
Mickey and Mallory would have felt right at home in that psychedelic love-nest up over the downtown club, though.
The Chase (1966)
Seamy Preview of Better Things to Come from Director and Cast
Spartacus Super Bowl Sees a Director and a Trio from the Cast Getting Ready for More Great Work in Better Films.
Only a year later, Arthur Penn would get the violence and sexuality sorted out in the hard-hitting Bonnie and Clyde. Three more years would see Robert Redford and Jane Fonda start to turn it on as movie-stars, Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Marlon Brando, adrift in the horse-latitudes after his fiery run in the 50's, would have to plod along for another six years in uneven pieces like this before he found his mature style in The Godfather.
The story itself is liberal Hollywood's fantasy of a Southern--here, actually, Texas--town hoist by its own hypocritical petard in a fetid soap-opera of booze and sex and bigotry. This narrative would only need a year to find its effective manifestation with In the Heat of the Night, directed by Norman Jewison and raised to a higher level by the thespian sparring between Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier.
Spartacus Super Bowl thinks this is like watching a 1960's Pro Bowl, with all the talent but none of the competitive edge of a real game.
Crime in the Streets (1956)
Let the performances draw you into this dramatic world
Spartacus Super Bowl says let the performances draw you into this dramatic world. You can probably find fault with the scenario, but just accept the story as what's going on. Director Don Siegel draws out and controls convincing performances from all the major players, and the pacing is dynamic.
The contrast in styles between John Cassavetes and James Whitmore perfectly captures the generational difference between their characters. Cassavetes is volatile and enigmatic, in a new and emergent style, while Whitmore brings all the authority of a seasoned character actor with leading-man capability to a role with some depth. The result, with the support of a strong cast of movie and TV regulars, and especially the conflicted emotional center in Sal Mineo, is compelling drama in the style of the Golden Age of TV Drama.
Crime in the Streets was, in fact, originally presented on television, directed by Sidney Lumet, and was written by Reginald Rose (who wrote 12 Angry Men, among others). The film version might seem a little stagey as a result of this genesis, but the performances make it worthwhile.
Mank (2020)
It's hard to write about writing
I've written a few things in my life, and I can affirm that writing is a peculiar business. To me (Spartacus Super Bowl), writing something original feels like living underwater for hours at a stretch. Two films I kind of like have tried to represent writers' processes: Capote and Mank. It doesn't really work out in either case.
Writing is a peculiar business and not necessarily dramatically intriguing. While you can show how the writer is developing his material (Capote interviewing Perry Smith, and Mankiewicz jestering Hearst), you can't really show where their desire is leading their literary art. What vision of the infinite are the writers pursuing? Neither film really assays that inquiry--that isn't really film art, it's the definition of literature.
Mank pushes the actual writing offstage for the most part, and uses a lot of its run time on a political subplot that seems like it was thrown in to make the film relevant to 2020. It doesn't quite figure out the relationship with Marion Davies, either, and that's the most attractive element in the film. It comes across as kind of boring, a long harangue by an angry drunk whose script takes a nasty shot at a woman who didn't deserve the scorn. That's something Mank and Capote share: they are stark and uncomplimentary depictions of the nasty consequences of the drinking life.
I'm glad Fincher made Mank because it looks and sounds fantastic, and I suppose it's appropriate that a movie about writing a movie would fail in part because of the writing. Writing is a peculiar business.
Mikey and Nicky (1976)
I guess the problem is the writing . . . .
Since this is written and directed by the same person, it's easier to theorize about why it doesn't really work. My vote is for the writing--as if Elaine May had some character dynamic she was exploring but couldn't develop to the point of clarity.
The scenes, played by a couple of very capable and interesting actors, develop the plot very slowly and tend to drag on, as if searching for that clear point or detail rooted in who they are and what's gone on between them (it seemed like they were getting close in the cemetery). Maybe these guys are based on real people the writer knew but didn't understand (that happens in life, but it makes for murky cinema), but they don't add up to a coherent character-based story.
Spartacus Super Bowl doesn't feel he wasted his time on this, just that it was more like reading someone's draft and not knowing how to comment constructively.
Manhunt: Ted (2017)
Authoritative Production of a Pscyho-Drama
A tremendously-persuasive use of the production capabilities of limited-series television. "Ted" immerses us in the psycho-drama of an overly-intelligent teen-aged outsider who is spotted, groomed, and doomed by the military-industrial complex on Harvard's campus during the Cold-War era. The combination of letter-written voice-over with live-action representation combines the meditative depth of literature with the visceral thrill of great cinema. A compelling deep dive into the horrific world of the character who is the target of the "Manhunt" of the whole season.
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Mostly about caste-system and castouts . . . in Hollywood
Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood is really a great movie, if also greatly flawed, distinguished by keen cinematography, a ridiculously articulate soundtrack, and obsessively-accurate period detail. Writer-director Quentin Tarantino has elicited varied, nuanced, and powerful performances from a huge cast of stars of yesterday and today, and especially young stars on the rise. The story is, in fact, about generational succession and aging in Hollywood careers, and the 2019 film can be meaningfully described as a survey of the Hollywood caste-system circa 1969. Who is anointed to party and dance in the upstairs lounge of the Pan Am 747, who has to settle for first-class, and who rides way back in coach? As in the best of Tarantino's other films, the story also stirs the pot with explicit and implicit moral questions, one of which I'll enumerate here as "how does Hollywood deal with the outcasts of its society?"
Spartacus Super Bowl has more to say at FOOTBALL examen . . . .