A few reviews

[skyled]

Ruben Brandt, Collector (2018)
An animated heist movie in a cubist/pop art style. It's about a therapist that uses art to treat his patients who is suffering nightmares based on famous paintings. His patients all happen to be highly skilled thieves, so together, they decide to steal the paintings that are haunting him. It's visually very inventive and unique, but plot wise it's quite poor. One of those movies with a unique visual style and an interesting idea, but without the story telling to back it up. It probably would have been better as a 30 minute short. I would compare it to the unique feats that can only be accomplished in animation that Satoshi Kon movies have, but his movies are far more engaging. Recommended for hardcore animation fans though.

The Assassin (2015)
A Taiwanese wuxia movie by Hou Hsiao-hsien, most famous for directing A City of Sadness. This was billed as extremely beautiful, like a Wong Kar-wai movie. Instead it's a tedious bore. Seemingly plotless, meandering, dull, and not all that beautiful either. I considered turning it off after 30 minutes but foolishly stuck with it until the end. There's almost no action and very little wuxia wire-fu. Taiwanese movies have a reputation of being very different than Hong Kong and Chinese mainland movies: critics love them and audiences find them unbearably boring. This one is no different.

 

[TM2YC]

The Assassin (2015)
A Taiwanese wuxia movie by Hou Hsiao-hsien, most famous for directing A City of Sadness. This was billed as extremely beautiful, like a Wong Kar-wai movie. Instead it's a tedious bore. Seemingly plotless, meandering, dull, and not all that beautiful either. I considered turning it off after 30 minutes but foolishly stuck with it until the end. There's almost no action and very little wuxia wire-fu. Taiwanese movies have a reputation of being very different than Hong Kong and Chinese mainland movies: critics love them and audiences find them unbearably boring. This one is no different.

I went with the "turning it off after 30 minutes" route but the blu-ray is there waiting so I'll give it another go sometime.

 

[TM2YC]

Drive My Car (2021)
'Drive My Car' is centred around a theatre production of 'Uncle Vanya', which is one of the most famous plays ever written, so it's not an unreasonable expectation that the viewer would be familiar with it but I wasn't, so I felt I was missing some of the intended layers of meaning. I liked the two reserved, damaged characters and the tentative connection that develops between them, the supporting cast was lovely too but did it really need every minute of the 3-hour runtime? A widower's departed wife being called "Oto", while he prizes a red Saab 900 Turbo, felt a bit "on the nose" for such an otherwise subtle, minimalist film.

---

The Beast Must Die (1974)
I randomly caught this film on late night TV when I was a teen, the "werewolf break" intermission bit was burned onto my brain but I'd forgotten pretty much everything else and hadn't rewatched it since. It's 'The Most Dangerous Game', mixed with a British Agatha Christie style country-house weekend "whodunnit", a gory Hammer Horror style werewolf thriller and a "Blaxpolitation" action-movie, with some James Bond-ish elements, rolled into one but it isn't quite as awesome as that implies, mostly down to a laughably bad "German Shepherd in a wig" werewolf monster. A millionaire playboy big-game hunter invites a group of people he suspects are werewolves to his mansion, hoping to discover which is the beast and to hunt them for sport. Making the main character both the protagonist and antagonist is an interesting approach, and Calvin Lockhart plays him with real flair and gravitas. Quality thesps like Peter Cushing, Michael Gambon and Charles Gray fill out the cast. When it came to the infamous "werewolf break", where the film actually pauses and the viewer is invited to solve the puzzle, against a literal ticking clock, I had an educated guess and got it right. Yay!

That "werewolf break" sequence:

I did a homage called "The Darkplace Break" in one of my edits from 2015:

Darkplace: Tales From The Hellmouth - Fanedit.org

ifdb.fanedit.org

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Drive My Car (2021)
'Drive My Car' is centred around a theatre production of 'Uncle Vanya', which is one of the most famous plays ever written, so it's not an unreasonable expectation that the viewer would be familiar with it but I wasn't, so I felt I was missing some of the intended layers of meaning. I liked the two reserved, damaged characters and the tentative connection that develops between them, the supporting cast was lovely too but did it really need every minute of the 3-hour runtime? A widower's departed wife being called "Oto", while he prizes a red Saab 900 Turbo, felt a bit "on the nose" for such an otherwise subtle, minimalist film.

---

The Beast Must Die (1974)
I randomly caught this film on late night TV when I was a teen, the "werewolf break" intermission bit was burned onto my brain but I'd forgotten pretty much everything else and hadn't rewatched it since. It's 'The Most Dangerous Game', mixed with a British Agatha Christie style country-house weekend "whodunnit", a gory Hammer Horror style werewolf thriller and a "Blaxpolitation" action-movie, with some James Bond-ish elements, rolled into one but it isn't quite as awesome as that implies, mostly down to a laughably bad "German Shepherd in a wig" werewolf monster. A millionaire playboy big-game hunter invites a group of people he suspects are werewolves to his mansion, hoping to discover which is the beast and to hunt them for sport. Making the main character both the protagonist and antagonist is an interesting approach, and Calvin Lockhart plays him with real flair and gravitas. Quality thesps like Peter Cushing, Michael Gambon and Charles Gray fill out the cast. When it came to the infamous "werewolf break", where the film actually pauses and the viewer is invited to solve the puzzle, against a literal ticking clock, I had an educated guess and got it right. Yay!

That "werewolf break" sequence:

I did a homage called "The Darkplace Break" in one of my edits from 2015:

Darkplace: Tales From The Hellmouth - Fanedit.org

ifdb.fanedit.org

Ha! My recent review notes that familiarity with Uncle Vanya likely helps, but I also said I never felt the movie was too long despite the three hour runtime.

 

[mnkykungfu]

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
Whoever did the brilliant fight choreography needs to be given carte blanche on the sequel (I think the best bits were Hong Kong pro Andy Cheng?), not the FX team because there was too much of that and it was weak.

The best bits were likely Bradley Allen, the fight choreographer was part of Jackie Chan's stunt team and played opposite him in several notable fights (Gorgeous being my favorite). Unfortunately, he passed away far too young shortly after Shang-Chi.

 

[TM2YC]

The best bits were likely Bradley Allen, the fight choreographer was part of Jackie Chan's stunt team and played opposite him in several notable fights (Gorgeous being my favorite). Unfortunately, he passed away far too young shortly after Shang-Chi.

Oh that's a shame. I wish it was more clear who to applaud on that gig and wish there was some decent making-ofs on the subject. Cheng was working with Allen on the fights ('cause he's done interviews) but I don't fully understand the division of labour when it comes to stunts, choreography and 2nd-unit directing.

 

[mnkykungfu]

^I saw the director do a GQ breakdown of the bus fight and it seemed incredibly collaborative. That said, when I look at previous body-of-work, Allen's stamp stands out in that clearly to me, like a cop sniffing out a serial killer's M.O. Sure, Andy Cheng worked with Allen and was on Chan's Stunt Team too, but when you look at his body of work and try to see something like the bus scene in films like The Rundown or The Scorpion King, it just doesn't bear out. Allen was on a different level.

 

[mnkykungfu]

(Raya and the Last Dragon) features lush authentic cultural art direction and a cast of voice actors of Asian decent, this comes across as a veneer since the cast all talking in aggressive Californian "valley speak". The script is full of "I got this!/You got this!/We got this!", "sureeoooslay?!" and anachronistic 21st century terms like "note to self".

As someone who lived in various countries in Asia, this turned me off so hard. Most of these countries (Japan is often in the news) don't really care about cultural appropriation since their gender and cultural attitudes are still pretty much in the 1950s and they're just pleased people like their stuff at all. For me however, this Hollywood trend seems like the absolute worst form of "representation" and it literally turns my stomach. Couldn't even entertain watching this as a frivolous kids' film...there's just so much better stuff out there (you just have to look for it rather than having the Disney machine push it at you.)

 

[Darth Kermit]

Yeah, I’ve seen some beautiful clips of animated Asian films from the YouTube channel Accented Cinema. I’d certainly rather watch them (have added them to my list already) than Raya. He’s a Chinese-Canadian guy iirc, and his content is so great and so educational in terms of Asian film culture. Highly recommend. He’s got a two part video on gun fu that @TM2YC might enjoy specifically.

 

[mnkykungfu]

Luca (2021)
Definitely my favourite Disney animation this year

The Tender Bar (2021)
This might not be remembered as one of the greats but George Clooney’s classic Directorial style crafts the kind of absorbing, thoughtful and heart-warming coming of age drama where you go “Oh.., is it the credits already?”.

Thank you! These two films didn't get nearly enough love this year, at the Oscars or elsewhere. Luca especially suffered due to being released so long back, but it seems to me far superior than more recent animated films, and unfortunately written off because it didn't push the gay metaphor enough (in a kid's film) for critics who seem to want everything to be agenda-driven first and a good film second.
<gets off soapbox>

 

[TM2YC]

24x36: A Movie About Movie Posters (2016)
This disappointing documentary starts off well with an exciting 20mins-ish rush through the whole history of beautiful fully-painted movie posters, then about 2mins on how the photoshoped post-90s era sucks, then the other hour is annoyingly devoted solely to modern Mondo-type screen-printed fan posters, the artists and the collectors. They all look kinda the same to me, boring exercises in making a "cool" pop-culture poster for a "man child" to hang on their wall, bereft of genuine artistic flair, soul, or any actual relevance to the film's tone, character, or story. When you've got Joe Dante sitting there prepared to enthusiastically talk to you about gorgeous b-movie posters for films like 'Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman' and 'Attack of the Crab Monsters', spend 90mins on him, not some hipsters talking about posters for Marvel/Star Wars/Batman, or Star Wars/Batman/Marvel, or Batman/Marvel/Star Wars.

 

[mnkykungfu]

Passing (2021)
Every frame is perfectly composed by Director/Writer/Producer Rebecca Hall

I couldn't believe this didn't get all the award nominations and Power of the Dog did. The Oscars are so political, the Academy just really wanted Campion to be back in the limelight. Whereas Hall is an actress and this was, stunningly, her first feature behind the camera! Not really my kind of movie, but a phenomenal debut.

 

[mnkykungfu]

Zelig (1983)
Allen's attention to the style, movement and texture of 1920s/1930s film-making and film-stocks is so perfect

The style of this kept me interested at first, but the story eventually lost me as it failed to present an engaging character or do anything with the premise.

The Lost Daughter (2021)
Was it just me, or did the film's excellent score (by Dickon Hinchliffe) sound identical to 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World' by James Brown, to a copyright infringing degree.

Compare from 0.20 in Dickon Hinchliffe's 'Let Me Tell You All About It'...

...to 0.14 in this James Brown instrumental...

I totally hear it. It sounds like a cover.

The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Given the length, the structural issues I mention and the availability of deleted scenes, there must be a potentially better cut of this story

Do I hear a Godfather II TM2YC fanedit coming? That would be ballsy, and amazing.

 

[TM2YC]

Do I hear a Godfather II TM2YC fanedit coming? That would be ballsy, and amazing.

It has crossed my mind.

 

[Hymie]

As someone that finds the Godfather movies incredibly dry and far too drawn out, I would welcome a more streamlined approach. Gangster movies, for whatever reason, seem to demand the most screentime from the audience while the ones I enjoy the most are all able to tell their stories in a much more manageable time.

 

[Darth Kermit]

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022):
So good. Lots of really personal emotions for me, but everything about it is just fantastic. It’s crazy, mad fun with a huge heart and a lot of joy. Don’t miss it on the big screen.

 

[mnkykungfu]

I went with the "turning it off after 30 minutes" route but the blu-ray is there waiting so I'll give it another go sometime.

I wouldn't if I were you; you will never get that time back. The Assassin is a film that doesn't get better after the start, if anything, it gets worse. The cinematography and stillness is simply all there is to this, and if that didn't hold you from the start, there are certainly no story elements that are going to make up for it. I ripped into it in detail here.

 

[TM2YC]

Con Air (1997)
As top-tier Director Tony Scott and 2nd-tier Director Michael Bay were already busy shooting six action blockbusters for Jerry Bruckheimer in the 90s, he turned to first-time director Simon West for 'Con Air' and presumably told him "just copy Scott and Bay's style exactly". It's better than Bay, managing to have all the amped-up action and gloss, without the grubby tastelessness and inflated runtime but it's not quite got the visual wit and class of Scott. The script is pretty much another 'Die Hard' clone and has to have a cleverly worked out and eventful plot to keep that premise going, considering it's taking place inside a tiny aircraft, not a skyscraper. The script falls apart in the last Las Vegas act, it needed another pass to add some more justification for why Poe continues the chase. It wouldn't have been that hard, either have Cyrus kidnap his wife, or kill his friend (or both) and we'd be onboard with Poe's quest. The thing that puts 'Con Air' above many "big dumb" action flicks is the fantastic cast of notable character actors, all on top form. Nothing is really done with Steve Buscemi's Hannibal Lecter-esque serial killer (he could be edited out with zero effect to the plot IIRC) but his performance is so mesmerising that it's perhaps the most memorable part.

 

[mnkykungfu]

his performance is so mesmerising that it's perhaps the most memorable part

...well, besides:

 

[Jrzag42]

Con Air (1997)
As top-tier Director Tony Scott and 2nd-tier Director Michael Bay were already busy shooting six action blockbusters for Jerry Bruckheimer in the 90s, he turned to first-time director Simon West for 'Con Air' and presumably told him "just copy Scott and Bay's style exactly". It's better than Bay, managing to have all the amped-up action and gloss, without the grubby tastelessness and inflated runtime but it's not quite got the visual wit and class of Scott. The script is pretty much another 'Die Hard' clone and has to have a cleverly worked out and eventful plot to keep that premise going, considering it's taking place inside a tiny aircraft, not a skyscraper. The script falls apart in the last Las Vegas act, it needed another pass to add some more justification for why Poe continues the chase. It wouldn't have been that hard, either have Cyrus kidnap his wife, or kill his friend (or both) and we'd be onboard with Poe's quest. The thing that puts 'Con Air' above many "big dumb" action flicks is the fantastic cast of notable character actors, all on top form. Nothing is really done with Steve Buscemi's Hannibal Lecter-esque serial killer (he could be edited out with zero effect to the plot IIRC) but his performance is so mesmerising that it's perhaps the most memorable part.

Watched Con Air for the first time...I was going to say a couple years ago but thinking about it more I can say more specifically that it was around February of 2019. My grandmother is a big Nicolas Cage fan and really likes Con Air in particular, so I wanted to get a copy of it for her birthday. I wasn't working at the time, so I had to resort to the cheapest used DVD I could find online. We proceeded to watch it together, and it was a great time. Steve Buscemi was absolutely the best part, I loved his character. I don't have much to say about the rest of the movie, it's just a fun enjoyable thing.

Recently when looking through Cage's filmography, I realized that his name in the film is Cameron Poe. I couldn't help but wonder if he was the inspiration for Poe Dameron's name in The Force Awakens. Turns out I wasn't the only one to wonder that, and I actually found an interview with J. J. Abrams where he addressed it. He mentioned that he actually worked on Con Air, but nonetheless the naming wasn't intentional, and Poe was named after...someone, I forget now. Still a funny coincidence.