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^Yeah, I went on opening night with the girlfriend and she pretty much checked out during the opening credits. Lol
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A few reviews
- Thread starter Vultural
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The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)
I suspect this probably worked better in Nicholas Meyer's original novel (or it just needed him to direct it), as the attention to the details of Holmes-lore and the fun yet cerebral concept of Sherlock Holmes teaming up with Sigmund Freud works very well. It's the variable casting choices, campy tone and odd pacing, which I was a little bit put off by. The decision to have Holmes go through drug withdrawal (à la 'Trainspotting') is interesting but it means the adventure can't really start until that is got through. The accent Robert Duvall goes for for Dr. Watson is deeply strange and I didn't think Nicol Williamson was one of the better Holmes portrayals. Alan Arkin on the other hand is brilliant as Freud. The plot felt like it was drifting towards being confusing, needlessly convoluted, nonsensical and pretty vague in the 2nd half. I wasn't surprised to read that these were the parts that diverged from the novel. Despite these flaws, the movie is a diverting couple of hours for Holmes fans like myself.
^ Despite the low quality of this trailer, the HD transfer on the 88 Films blu-ray looks lovely.
I suspect this probably worked better in Nicholas Meyer's original novel (or it just needed him to direct it), as the attention to the details of Holmes-lore and the fun yet cerebral concept of Sherlock Holmes teaming up with Sigmund Freud works very well. It's the variable casting choices, campy tone and odd pacing, which I was a little bit put off by. The decision to have Holmes go through drug withdrawal (à la 'Trainspotting') is interesting but it means the adventure can't really start until that is got through. The accent Robert Duvall goes for for Dr. Watson is deeply strange and I didn't think Nicol Williamson was one of the better Holmes portrayals. Alan Arkin on the other hand is brilliant as Freud. The plot felt like it was drifting towards being confusing, needlessly convoluted, nonsensical and pretty vague in the 2nd half. I wasn't surprised to read that these were the parts that diverged from the novel. Despite these flaws, the movie is a diverting couple of hours for Holmes fans like myself.
^ Despite the low quality of this trailer, the HD transfer on the 88 Films blu-ray looks lovely.
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^ LOL! I'm a huge fan of all three of Meyer's Holmes novels, and a re-adaptation of 7PCS will be one of, if not the, first movies I direct when I, um, win the billion dollar lottery or something. It's a project I've been dreaming of doing for over a decade. (And, since 7PCS leads directly into The Canary Trainer, I'd of course make those movies back-to-back, then reunite my Holmes/Watson pair 10-15 years later for The West End Horror.)
I only saw the '76 movie once, and, like you, was very much confused by the plot during its second half, though I'd recently read the book! As I recall, the female kidnapping victim at the center of the mystery plot was aged up and given a more upper-class background than the book character, but to what end, I have no idea (other than to cast Vanessa Redgrave, maybe?). A quick web search reveals no detailed synopsis of the movie, so I can't really go into detail about said changes.
So, when Meyer came to the Bay Area on a book tour for his memoir View from the Bridge, during the Q&A, I eagerly asked him about the movie's changes to his script - I knew he'd had sole screenplay credit, but, I asked if the story changes had been forced on him, and whether they frustrated him. "So, I take it you prefer the book?" he replied, not unkindly.
I stammered something to the effect of "Well, of course, it's your book!," but he explained that he'd wanted to make the changes, to improve upon the novel! Given how much of a mess the movie was, I was speechless. The crazy thing is, as a screenplay formatting exercise, I'd once found a digital version of the book, which I'd transferred to script form, keeping nearly all its scenes, and making as few trims to the dialogue as possible, and the result had totaled a mere 128 pages - i.e., the book was basically movie-length as written, and the movie itself wasn't particularly short, so... yeah, I have no idea what '70s Meyer was doing there. It's true that, as you say, the mystery plot doesn't get going until the halfway point or so, but the prospect of Holmes going irretrievably mad from cocaine should be dramatic enough to keep the reader/viewer compelled until the detective story begins.
In conclusion, I highly recommend all three of Meyer's Holmes books; to me, they are canon.
I only saw the '76 movie once, and, like you, was very much confused by the plot during its second half, though I'd recently read the book! As I recall, the female kidnapping victim at the center of the mystery plot was aged up and given a more upper-class background than the book character, but to what end, I have no idea (other than to cast Vanessa Redgrave, maybe?). A quick web search reveals no detailed synopsis of the movie, so I can't really go into detail about said changes.
So, when Meyer came to the Bay Area on a book tour for his memoir View from the Bridge, during the Q&A, I eagerly asked him about the movie's changes to his script - I knew he'd had sole screenplay credit, but, I asked if the story changes had been forced on him, and whether they frustrated him. "So, I take it you prefer the book?" he replied, not unkindly.
I stammered something to the effect of "Well, of course, it's your book!," but he explained that he'd wanted to make the changes, to improve upon the novel! Given how much of a mess the movie was, I was speechless. The crazy thing is, as a screenplay formatting exercise, I'd once found a digital version of the book, which I'd transferred to script form, keeping nearly all its scenes, and making as few trims to the dialogue as possible, and the result had totaled a mere 128 pages - i.e., the book was basically movie-length as written, and the movie itself wasn't particularly short, so... yeah, I have no idea what '70s Meyer was doing there. It's true that, as you say, the mystery plot doesn't get going until the halfway point or so, but the prospect of Holmes going irretrievably mad from cocaine should be dramatic enough to keep the reader/viewer compelled until the detective story begins.
In conclusion, I highly recommend all three of Meyer's Holmes books; to me, they are canon.
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^ Nice! Meyer is interviewed at length on the bonus features which was great. Apparently he wanted the film's script to be less like his own book but the director wanted the film to be closer to Meyer's book. So maybe it didn't go far enough in either direction.
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
My older brother might have introduced me to 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' way back but I'm not sure. It's not a laugh riot like 'The Man with Two Brains', it's pretty much a one-joke film, but that one joke "what if we edited a new Film Noir comedy out of pieces of vintage Noirs" is funny enough to sustain the movie for me. If you don't like old black & white movies, don't get any of the 40s Hollywood references, understand the dense Noir genre cliches, or even know who any of the old actors doing involuntary cameos are, then your enjoyment might be pretty low. Maybe I'm shallow but my biggest laugh was when Steve Martin was doing the classic hard-boiled, cynical detective voice-over and he deadpans the line "I hadn't seen a body put together like that, since I'd solved the case of the murdered girl with the big t*ts". It's the addition of a blunt, childish, modern word onto the end of what could be a genuine line from the 40s that does it. It's cool that they got actual luminaries of 40s Hollywood to work on this spoof (of their own work), like composer Miklos Rozsa and costume designer Edith Head, to add that authenticity. I've only seen 8 out of the 19 vintage Noir films used (made between 1941-1950), so I'll have to do something about that as they all look good.
letterboxd.com
^ "The people who brought you 'The Jerk'... try to make it up to you" LOL
^ Check out this vintage 35mm teaser trailer with Steve Martin being very silly.
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
My older brother might have introduced me to 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' way back but I'm not sure. It's not a laugh riot like 'The Man with Two Brains', it's pretty much a one-joke film, but that one joke "what if we edited a new Film Noir comedy out of pieces of vintage Noirs" is funny enough to sustain the movie for me. If you don't like old black & white movies, don't get any of the 40s Hollywood references, understand the dense Noir genre cliches, or even know who any of the old actors doing involuntary cameos are, then your enjoyment might be pretty low. Maybe I'm shallow but my biggest laugh was when Steve Martin was doing the classic hard-boiled, cynical detective voice-over and he deadpans the line "I hadn't seen a body put together like that, since I'd solved the case of the murdered girl with the big t*ts". It's the addition of a blunt, childish, modern word onto the end of what could be a genuine line from the 40s that does it. It's cool that they got actual luminaries of 40s Hollywood to work on this spoof (of their own work), like composer Miklos Rozsa and costume designer Edith Head, to add that authenticity. I've only seen 8 out of the 19 vintage Noir films used (made between 1941-1950), so I'll have to do something about that as they all look good.
Films used in 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid'
As of 16th May 2023, I've seen 8 of these classic Noirs.
letterboxd.com
^ "The people who brought you 'The Jerk'... try to make it up to you" LOL
^ Check out this vintage 35mm teaser trailer with Steve Martin being very silly.
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Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
The new Arrow Video 4K restored blu-ray had the option of watching the Theatrical, or Extended cuts. I think I made the mistake of going with the latter, which has about 12-minutes more of mostly Alan Rickman being nuts. It's a terrifically amusing performance but here it's perhaps too much of a good thing and over balances the film. It also magnifies (or creates) a problem in that Kevin Costner and Rickman don't share any scenes (until the final duel), so it starts to feel like two different Robin Hood movies have been welded together, one with Costner being all heroic, earnest, noble and generally gorgeous out in the woods and Rickman in his castle set camping it up in a "sword & sorcery" farce. Never mind, I'll go with the Theatrical next time.
'Prince of Thieves' was rarely off my family's TV in the early 90s and it's just as much fun today. Like a top-drawer Bond movie, this has just the right balance of daring action, deadly danger, genuine cool and ridiculous nonsense. I've never done any real archery, so I don't know if Costner biting off arrow feathers to shoot them "double barrel", or if licking one of the feathers really does "rifle" them but it looks awesome when he does it anyway, especially with the trademark slowmo "arrow mounted" camera. I'm not sure about Christian Slater but the rest of the cast have so much chemistry together. The "bromance" between Costner and Morgan Freeman and the romance between Costner and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. I can't imagine an actress playing Marian better. Again like the best "bond girls", she isn't necessarily waiting around for the hero to save her. The script/direction shakes the regular Robin Hood mythic elements up with measures of King Arthur, 'The Princess Bride', 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', 'Star Wars' and Shakespeare. Michael McShane's fantastic Friar Tuck goes full Falstaff and paraphrases some of his lines. Half the cast (including Costner) don't even bother trying to do English accents and the film ends with Tuck breaking the 4th-wall and telling the audience to leave the cinema and go out and get drunk because who gives a f**k about realism, when an adventure is this entertaining! Last but not least, Michael Kamen's insanely magnificent score is once again stuck in my brain for at least the next week.
The original trailer sadly skips Kamen's score, in favour of 'Willow' (I think):
FANEDITING CHALLENGE: Somebody here make the world a new action-packed trailer using Kamen's theme:
What is the deal with Julien Temple/Bryan Adam's famous original music video for the movie not being on YouTube and almost not existing on the internet?!? Back in 1991, this video comprised about 50% of MTV's daily output (I found it on Facebook):
Robin Hood: The Myth, the Man, the Movie (1991)
I'm very pleased to own a good quality copy of this legendary 1/2-hr promotional video, thanks to it's inclusion on the new Arrow 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' blu-ray. The quasi historical stuff about Robin Hood is a load of guff but the reason to watch this is for Pierce Brosnan's presentation. His performance is so jaw droppingly bad, it would only be explicable if it was because he lost a bet and the forfeit was to play this gig as if he was doing one of those exaggerated William Shatner parodies. Either that, or maybe an embarrassed Pierce crammed some acting lessons in before his star making turn in 1995's 'GoldenEye', or even his brilliant performance in 1993's 'Mrs. Doubtfire'. Do yourself a favour, have a few beers and laugh along to this "so bad it's good" gem.
Here We Are Kings: The Making of 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' (2022)
Although this new Arrow Video feature-length making-of lacks input from many of the key players, the ones that did show up tell a great tale. Especially Producers/Writers Pen Densham and John Watson, the passion they had to get this thing made really comes across.
Robin Hood (1991)
Following another re-watch of the rival film 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves', I decided it was finally time to view the Patrick Bergin version. It was a box-office bomb, not least because it was never released in the US but has a good critical reputation. I wondered if this was the 'Deep Impact', to 'POT's 'Armageddon', the serious, respectable but a little dull movie that was overshadowed by a big dumb, intelligence insulting, blockbuster that was just so much more fun to watch. It's a little bit that but it's far from boring and never made me think I'd rather be being watching POT. If Robin Hood had been a real person, it feels like John Irvin's version is as close to what might have been reality as a movie can get. Although the story is rooted in the Norman/French occupation/conquest of Saxon England and the political tensions between the two factions of nobility, this isn't like Ridley Scott's 2010 'Robin Hood', which IIRC gets too bogged down in that aspect, to the detriment of what makes a RH film a RH film. This manages to stick pretty closely to the established beats of the RH mythos. I loved the way those story elements unfold in a natural, random seeming way, from a chance encounter, then an unexpected explosive argument, and the "merry men" are already a bunch of dangerous cut-throat thieves, who evolve into freedom-fighters out of necessity, as much as heroism. Patrick Bergin is a really cool, charismatic RH and Jeroen Krabbé is a wonderful screen presence as usual. The scene where Robin springs a chaotic ambush in a dye shop was a clever idea as we see him and his men get stained the classic green. On the downside, I didn't think Uma Thurman was the best Marian, lacking chemistry with Bergin, plus the film doesn't 100% land the quite different reconciliation ending. Although the artistic decision to shoot the whole preceding movie overcast, except for the joyous ending in warm sunshine was genius. It's like the opposite of when a Director wants to shoot everything in "magic hour".
The new Arrow Video 4K restored blu-ray had the option of watching the Theatrical, or Extended cuts. I think I made the mistake of going with the latter, which has about 12-minutes more of mostly Alan Rickman being nuts. It's a terrifically amusing performance but here it's perhaps too much of a good thing and over balances the film. It also magnifies (or creates) a problem in that Kevin Costner and Rickman don't share any scenes (until the final duel), so it starts to feel like two different Robin Hood movies have been welded together, one with Costner being all heroic, earnest, noble and generally gorgeous out in the woods and Rickman in his castle set camping it up in a "sword & sorcery" farce. Never mind, I'll go with the Theatrical next time.
'Prince of Thieves' was rarely off my family's TV in the early 90s and it's just as much fun today. Like a top-drawer Bond movie, this has just the right balance of daring action, deadly danger, genuine cool and ridiculous nonsense. I've never done any real archery, so I don't know if Costner biting off arrow feathers to shoot them "double barrel", or if licking one of the feathers really does "rifle" them but it looks awesome when he does it anyway, especially with the trademark slowmo "arrow mounted" camera. I'm not sure about Christian Slater but the rest of the cast have so much chemistry together. The "bromance" between Costner and Morgan Freeman and the romance between Costner and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. I can't imagine an actress playing Marian better. Again like the best "bond girls", she isn't necessarily waiting around for the hero to save her. The script/direction shakes the regular Robin Hood mythic elements up with measures of King Arthur, 'The Princess Bride', 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', 'Star Wars' and Shakespeare. Michael McShane's fantastic Friar Tuck goes full Falstaff and paraphrases some of his lines. Half the cast (including Costner) don't even bother trying to do English accents and the film ends with Tuck breaking the 4th-wall and telling the audience to leave the cinema and go out and get drunk because who gives a f**k about realism, when an adventure is this entertaining! Last but not least, Michael Kamen's insanely magnificent score is once again stuck in my brain for at least the next week.
The original trailer sadly skips Kamen's score, in favour of 'Willow' (I think):
FANEDITING CHALLENGE: Somebody here make the world a new action-packed trailer using Kamen's theme:
What is the deal with Julien Temple/Bryan Adam's famous original music video for the movie not being on YouTube and almost not existing on the internet?!? Back in 1991, this video comprised about 50% of MTV's daily output
(I found it on Facebook):Robin Hood: The Myth, the Man, the Movie (1991)
I'm very pleased to own a good quality copy of this legendary 1/2-hr promotional video, thanks to it's inclusion on the new Arrow 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' blu-ray. The quasi historical stuff about Robin Hood is a load of guff but the reason to watch this is for Pierce Brosnan's presentation. His performance is so jaw droppingly bad, it would only be explicable if it was because he lost a bet and the forfeit was to play this gig as if he was doing one of those exaggerated William Shatner parodies. Either that, or maybe an embarrassed Pierce crammed some acting lessons in before his star making turn in 1995's 'GoldenEye', or even his brilliant performance in 1993's 'Mrs. Doubtfire'. Do yourself a favour, have a few beers and laugh along to this "so bad it's good" gem.
Here We Are Kings: The Making of 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' (2022)
Although this new Arrow Video feature-length making-of lacks input from many of the key players, the ones that did show up tell a great tale. Especially Producers/Writers Pen Densham and John Watson, the passion they had to get this thing made really comes across.
Robin Hood (1991)
Following another re-watch of the rival film 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves', I decided it was finally time to view the Patrick Bergin version. It was a box-office bomb, not least because it was never released in the US but has a good critical reputation. I wondered if this was the 'Deep Impact', to 'POT's 'Armageddon', the serious, respectable but a little dull movie that was overshadowed by a big dumb, intelligence insulting, blockbuster that was just so much more fun to watch. It's a little bit that but it's far from boring and never made me think I'd rather be being watching POT. If Robin Hood had been a real person, it feels like John Irvin's version is as close to what might have been reality as a movie can get. Although the story is rooted in the Norman/French occupation/conquest of Saxon England and the political tensions between the two factions of nobility, this isn't like Ridley Scott's 2010 'Robin Hood', which IIRC gets too bogged down in that aspect, to the detriment of what makes a RH film a RH film. This manages to stick pretty closely to the established beats of the RH mythos. I loved the way those story elements unfold in a natural, random seeming way, from a chance encounter, then an unexpected explosive argument, and the "merry men" are already a bunch of dangerous cut-throat thieves, who evolve into freedom-fighters out of necessity, as much as heroism. Patrick Bergin is a really cool, charismatic RH and Jeroen Krabbé is a wonderful screen presence as usual. The scene where Robin springs a chaotic ambush in a dye shop was a clever idea as we see him and his men get stained the classic green. On the downside, I didn't think Uma Thurman was the best Marian, lacking chemistry with Bergin, plus the film doesn't 100% land the quite different reconciliation ending. Although the artistic decision to shoot the whole preceding movie overcast, except for the joyous ending in warm sunshine was genius. It's like the opposite of when a Director wants to shoot everything in "magic hour".
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^I was afraid you were going to go off on Prince of Thieves for being artless Hollywood trash, but I'm gladdened that you can appreciate the art in making something so damn enjoyable.
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More like artful mid-Atlantic trash
. It's comparatively easy to make a thrilling action film, or a serious drama, or a wacky comedy, or a passionate romance but doing all of them together and making it feel easy, must actually be hard work. Making you believe in the characters, at the same time as thinking "I can't believe this is happening!". Marvel seemed to have that formula nailed for a good while. I forgot to mention that Lord of the Rings has ruined movies like both these Robin Hood versions, especially in HD. Before LotR, chainmail was woolly jumpers painted silver, and it was fine. Now I can't help but notice it in every shot. Both RH films have woollen mail on the costumes of main actors in closeup all the time.
Robinson in Space (1997)
Either this didn't have the refreshing impact of newness like the first "Robinson" film (1994's 'London'), or the expanded subject of the entire of England (as opposed to just London) was too amorphous but I didn't enjoy this quite as much. Again Paul Scofield narrates the "findings" of his associate Robinson in his "Peripatetic study of England" accompanied by static camera shots of everyday life in England circa 1995. It's part economic forecast, part travelogue, part cultural critique and all dryly amusing. Some things show it's age, like it decrying the end of coal power and bemoaning the rise of Nuclear power, perhaps the opposite to many prevailing views now. But in other ways, it feels like it's still talking about now, and on the political front, seems to be on the same spoke of the wheel as we are on today. By the way, I watched this on Mubi but compression for streaming had a weird effect due to the camera shots being mostly still but on moving 35mm, so some areas of the image would have natural gate-weave, grain etc and other parts would be completely still. So I'd recommend watching this on DVD/Blu-Ray instead.
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The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
I hadn't re-watched this since the 90s, partly because (like many Michael Mann films) there are controversial different versions and the HD transfer was supposed to be terrible (with all-time-worst artwork), so I was hoping a super-duper restoration would arrive one day. But this turned up on streaming and I decided to stop worrying about those things and watch this classic in whatever state it was in. The score is so powerful, it's big and heroic but sounds just old-fashioned enough to sound natural to the period setting. Having recently been watching 'Lord of the Rings', I felt a connection to this. There is something so exhilarating about watching characters traverse a vast wilderness, running up mountains, fording streams and doing battle far from aid. I wonder if Peter Jackson had this in mind, when he decided how to film the fellowship on location in the mountains of New Zealand (and then forgot about this movie, when filming 'The Hobbit' on a soundstage). 'The Last of the Mohicans' captures a feeling of this still being "the new world" rather than America, where there might be land just over the horizon, where no man has walked before, and men are still fighting to decide who will own it. Daniel Day-Lewis and Wes Studi are fantastic, as two equal and opposite opposing forces. The whole finale is shear perfection.
EDIT: Watching the trailer ^ again, I noticed the slowmo shot of DDL running toward the camera, though the misty woodland at 0.30, is the same shot as PJ did of Boromir during the ending battle of Fellowship, as he runs in to protct Merry and Pippin. At 4.20 in this clip:
The same speed, same framing, same context and same lighting. Interesting.
2nd EDIT: Guess I'm not the first person to think this, as a guy on youtube has rescored that LotR scene with LotM's score. Works very well:
I hadn't re-watched this since the 90s, partly because (like many Michael Mann films) there are controversial different versions and the HD transfer was supposed to be terrible (with all-time-worst artwork), so I was hoping a super-duper restoration would arrive one day. But this turned up on streaming and I decided to stop worrying about those things and watch this classic in whatever state it was in. The score is so powerful, it's big and heroic but sounds just old-fashioned enough to sound natural to the period setting. Having recently been watching 'Lord of the Rings', I felt a connection to this. There is something so exhilarating about watching characters traverse a vast wilderness, running up mountains, fording streams and doing battle far from aid. I wonder if Peter Jackson had this in mind, when he decided how to film the fellowship on location in the mountains of New Zealand (and then forgot about this movie, when filming 'The Hobbit' on a soundstage). 'The Last of the Mohicans' captures a feeling of this still being "the new world" rather than America, where there might be land just over the horizon, where no man has walked before, and men are still fighting to decide who will own it. Daniel Day-Lewis and Wes Studi are fantastic, as two equal and opposite opposing forces. The whole finale is shear perfection.
EDIT: Watching the trailer ^ again, I noticed the slowmo shot of DDL running toward the camera, though the misty woodland at 0.30, is the same shot as PJ did of Boromir during the ending battle of Fellowship, as he runs in to protct Merry and Pippin. At 4.20 in this clip:
The same speed, same framing, same context and same lighting. Interesting.
2nd EDIT: Guess I'm not the first person to think this, as a guy on youtube has rescored that LotR scene with LotM's score. Works very well:
Last edited:
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Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
I was aware of the bad reviews but (after the pointless prologue) I was really enjoying the early scenes of Scott's "humble brag" book launch, the Lang/Pym family unit was charming and then when we first go to the Quantum Realm, some of the visuals are wondrous and beautiful and filled with inventive strange creatures and concepts. Unfortunately that's about 10% of the movie. The rest is 2-hours of those initially exciting "Prog album sleeve" visuals 'til they get like wallpaper, characters saying terrible dialogue, or not saying anything, about things we don't care about, for no reason. There are some fine actors in the cast, which is great when they are reacting off each other, but it makes it more obvious that they have a glazed over expression on their faces when you cut to them for a reaction shot and they have no idea what they are supposed to be reacting to.
I get that this a wacky comic book movie concept but you need to maintain some internal logic. I thought the Ant-Man suit needed to be worn when they changed size? They are the wrong size the whole film but just take the suits on and off about 350 times. Ant-Man enlarges himself at the end to fight the villian but considering he's still infinitesimally small, why not be even larger? Plus why does everyone default to the same still wrong size? Changing size is Ant-Man's whole deal, so if the writer didn't even care about that aspect, it's no wonder this has script problems. There are many other plot contrivances (the techno ants for example) that are hand waived with a new level of laziness. I was impressed with Jonathan Majors' performance in his first scene but then you realise he's doing the same drawn out delivery and staccato rhythm on every line. It reminded me a lot of the voice Eddie Redmayne did for the villain in 'Jupiter Ascending', a role for which he won the Golden Raspberry Worst Supporting Actor Award. Bill Murray's cameo is a delight, David Dastmalchian's ooze character was adorable and Darren's death scene had me laughing out loud. Like most Marvel movies these days, this passes a couple of hours well enough, when it comes up for "free" on Disney+.
I was aware of the bad reviews but (after the pointless prologue) I was really enjoying the early scenes of Scott's "humble brag" book launch, the Lang/Pym family unit was charming and then when we first go to the Quantum Realm, some of the visuals are wondrous and beautiful and filled with inventive strange creatures and concepts. Unfortunately that's about 10% of the movie. The rest is 2-hours of those initially exciting "Prog album sleeve" visuals 'til they get like wallpaper, characters saying terrible dialogue, or not saying anything, about things we don't care about, for no reason. There are some fine actors in the cast, which is great when they are reacting off each other, but it makes it more obvious that they have a glazed over expression on their faces when you cut to them for a reaction shot and they have no idea what they are supposed to be reacting to.
I get that this a wacky comic book movie concept but you need to maintain some internal logic. I thought the Ant-Man suit needed to be worn when they changed size? They are the wrong size the whole film but just take the suits on and off about 350 times. Ant-Man enlarges himself at the end to fight the villian but considering he's still infinitesimally small, why not be even larger? Plus why does everyone default to the same still wrong size? Changing size is Ant-Man's whole deal, so if the writer didn't even care about that aspect, it's no wonder this has script problems. There are many other plot contrivances (the techno ants for example) that are hand waived with a new level of laziness. I was impressed with Jonathan Majors' performance in his first scene but then you realise he's doing the same drawn out delivery and staccato rhythm on every line. It reminded me a lot of the voice Eddie Redmayne did for the villain in 'Jupiter Ascending', a role for which he won the Golden Raspberry Worst Supporting Actor Award. Bill Murray's cameo is a delight, David Dastmalchian's ooze character was adorable and Darren's death scene had me laughing out loud. Like most Marvel movies these days, this passes a couple of hours well enough, when it comes up for "free" on Disney+.
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Great write-up on LotM. I've always been a huge fan of that movie, and the Definitive Director's Cut is mostly just more of a good thing. There's a good short behind-the-scenes doc that illustrates and discusses some of the differences in that. For years, I was resistant to watch other DDL movies because he refused to do another strapping hero and he was so damn good at it.
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- 228
The Stones and Brian Jones (2023)
I saw this in the listings and thought "oh no, not another Rolling Stones documentary" then I heard the words "Directed by Nick Broomfield" and watched it instantly. Broomfield (who met Jones once and attended Stones concerts in the 60s) obviously admires/values the guy for his cultural impact but also isn't afraid to paint an often unflattering portrait of a deeply flawed, paranoid, unreliable, sometimes mean and insecure man. It's mostly the voices of unseen interviewees (not including the current Stones line-up), speaking over well researched period films and photographs, which I found really absorbing and takes you back to the 60s and keeps you there. Unfortunately, at a couple of points Broomfield cuts to new video interviews, with the few prominent contributors he secured (e.g. Bill Wyman) for this "unauthorised" doc, in a way that feels like "we got them, so we have to use them" but they are obviously low quality, badly shot videos recorded over Zoom during lockdown, so you are taken out of "the swinging 60s" and straight into the very recent present.
I saw this in the listings and thought "oh no, not another Rolling Stones documentary" then I heard the words "Directed by Nick Broomfield" and watched it instantly. Broomfield (who met Jones once and attended Stones concerts in the 60s) obviously admires/values the guy for his cultural impact but also isn't afraid to paint an often unflattering portrait of a deeply flawed, paranoid, unreliable, sometimes mean and insecure man. It's mostly the voices of unseen interviewees (not including the current Stones line-up), speaking over well researched period films and photographs, which I found really absorbing and takes you back to the 60s and keeps you there. Unfortunately, at a couple of points Broomfield cuts to new video interviews, with the few prominent contributors he secured (e.g. Bill Wyman) for this "unauthorised" doc, in a way that feels like "we got them, so we have to use them" but they are obviously low quality, badly shot videos recorded over Zoom during lockdown, so you are taken out of "the swinging 60s" and straight into the very recent present.
- Messages
- 5,794
- Reaction score
- 299
- Trophy Points
- 123
Train to Busan (2016)
I was told by The Internet that this was a good movie - rubbish! The first half never rises above competent horror thriller, and the second half is an appalling torrent of sludgy fail. Characters consistently make completely idiotic decisions, and repeatedly take their time saying emotional goodbyes (or trading long, meaningful looks) when they've seen over and over that just seconds can separate life and death. One villainous character survives several dire situations for no other reason than an especially egregious case of Plot Armor. On multiple occasions, characters leave a (mostly) safe situation with no clear plan, and they all leave, when the more prudent course would be to send a scout. One climactic foot chase blatantly cheats at least twice, with the zombie pursuers magically (and comically) being set back through the magic of editing. And then there's the ending, where a group of soldiers who've dug in and achieved stability act like total idiots (no trigger finger discipline, no basic protocols) just to produce cheap tension.
Speaking of cheap, all of the drama is cheap as hell. The Spielbergian pathos of the workaholic absentee father having failed an angelic child in his parenting duties is poured on so thick, I was afraid the wifi tubes would get clogged up. The social commentary is as one-dimensional as a paper clip, and every bit as compelling. (Stock traders bad, but handsome stock trader maybe redeemable! Ugly older businessman, though, just the worst! But, nice old ladies nice!)
As for the violence/gore, it's hardly above PG-13 level, apart from a few streaks of blood here and there. It certainly wasn't as intense as the battles in Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, which throws a zombie child at the audience in the opening sequence, then adds a zombie baby and morbidly obese person later on. There's no such variety here.
In conclusion, Train to Busan is an alternatingly screeching and treacly waste of time. I don't call Snyder's Dawn a great film or anything, but it's a much more interesting and hard-hitting flick, with a considerably more engaging lead character and performance from Sarah Polley. Want a nail-biting survival action thriller from South Korea? Watch Escape from Mogadishu instead.
Grade: D+
I was told by The Internet that this was a good movie - rubbish! The first half never rises above competent horror thriller, and the second half is an appalling torrent of sludgy fail. Characters consistently make completely idiotic decisions, and repeatedly take their time saying emotional goodbyes (or trading long, meaningful looks) when they've seen over and over that just seconds can separate life and death. One villainous character survives several dire situations for no other reason than an especially egregious case of Plot Armor. On multiple occasions, characters leave a (mostly) safe situation with no clear plan, and they all leave, when the more prudent course would be to send a scout. One climactic foot chase blatantly cheats at least twice, with the zombie pursuers magically (and comically) being set back through the magic of editing. And then there's the ending, where a group of soldiers who've dug in and achieved stability act like total idiots (no trigger finger discipline, no basic protocols) just to produce cheap tension.
Speaking of cheap, all of the drama is cheap as hell. The Spielbergian pathos of the workaholic absentee father having failed an angelic child in his parenting duties is poured on so thick, I was afraid the wifi tubes would get clogged up. The social commentary is as one-dimensional as a paper clip, and every bit as compelling. (Stock traders bad, but handsome stock trader maybe redeemable! Ugly older businessman, though, just the worst! But, nice old ladies nice!)
As for the violence/gore, it's hardly above PG-13 level, apart from a few streaks of blood here and there. It certainly wasn't as intense as the battles in Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, which throws a zombie child at the audience in the opening sequence, then adds a zombie baby and morbidly obese person later on. There's no such variety here.
In conclusion, Train to Busan is an alternatingly screeching and treacly waste of time. I don't call Snyder's Dawn a great film or anything, but it's a much more interesting and hard-hitting flick, with a considerably more engaging lead character and performance from Sarah Polley. Want a nail-biting survival action thriller from South Korea? Watch Escape from Mogadishu instead.
Grade: D+
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- Messages
- 2,327
- Reaction score
- 791
- Trophy Points
- 123
^THANK YOU. I saw this when I was living in Singapore, and I felt at the time that I was just about the only person that thought it sucked. I feel like a big part of the rapturous response I saw around me was just people being really excited that Korea had made a big zombie action movie 'just like Hollywood'. I mean, yeah, Hollywood has made some really tropey, dumb, big budget Horror movies but, why imitate that?
I literally agree with every single criticism you bring up, and was calling all those points out even while watching. Some of the writing and editing choices were so bad that I just couldn't stop myself from pointing out to my poor friend next to me how much they broke any sense of disbelief the film had going. I honestly put several other Korean films right in the same category, like critical darling, The Host. If you swapped out all the actors for American actors and had it take place in the Bay Area, that movie would've gone direct to video and been talked about in the same breath with Sharknado...as the lesser of the two.
I literally agree with every single criticism you bring up, and was calling all those points out even while watching. Some of the writing and editing choices were so bad that I just couldn't stop myself from pointing out to my poor friend next to me how much they broke any sense of disbelief the film had going. I honestly put several other Korean films right in the same category, like critical darling, The Host. If you swapped out all the actors for American actors and had it take place in the Bay Area, that movie would've gone direct to video and been talked about in the same breath with Sharknado...as the lesser of the two.
- Messages
- 14,899
- Reaction score
- 2,425
- Trophy Points
- 228
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
I can well imagine this being some people’s favourite movie but I didn’t like it much. It can’t decide if it wants to be a sexy-cool Tarantino crime film, a sweet romcom, a wacky comedy, or a shocking violent drama. I couldn’t help imagining how great a remake would be if this did the premise with 100% seriousness. A tragic-hero Hong Kong style assassin who has vowed to give up killing, falls back in love with his high school sweetheart but has to pick up his guns again "one last time" when the Triads come for him and he dies protecting her. That, or this should’ve leaned fully into the absurdity of this situation. The scene where John Cusack is trying to calmly lay out his deepest feelings to Minnie Driver while fighting a desperate gun battle worked well because of how ridiculous it was. The jukebox soundtrack of post-punk/new-wave/ska bangers curated by the late great Joe Strummer kept me entertained.
I can well imagine this being some people’s favourite movie but I didn’t like it much. It can’t decide if it wants to be a sexy-cool Tarantino crime film, a sweet romcom, a wacky comedy, or a shocking violent drama. I couldn’t help imagining how great a remake would be if this did the premise with 100% seriousness. A tragic-hero Hong Kong style assassin who has vowed to give up killing, falls back in love with his high school sweetheart but has to pick up his guns again "one last time" when the Triads come for him and he dies protecting her. That, or this should’ve leaned fully into the absurdity of this situation. The scene where John Cusack is trying to calmly lay out his deepest feelings to Minnie Driver while fighting a desperate gun battle worked well because of how ridiculous it was. The jukebox soundtrack of post-punk/new-wave/ska bangers curated by the late great Joe Strummer kept me entertained.
- Messages
- 2,327
- Reaction score
- 791
- Trophy Points
- 123
^This is a great example on paper of the kind of film (like many Asian movies) where I would complain about the tone being all over the place and me being unable to invest in each moment. Somehow though, every surprise was just discovering a new treasure under the one you'd just unearthed. It starts funny, than you're surprised when the action is actually good, then you're pleased when the romance works, then there are odd moments of genuinely subtle drama... it's crazy that it all holds together, but for me it's a gem of a little film. Perhaps just succeeds because of the talents of the cast? Maybe my problem with so many Asian films that try to do this is that it's a bunch of boy- and girl-band pop-stars trying to cross-promote their way into films before aging out at 26. Or maybe it's director George Armitage, who balanced things really well with his earlier Miami Blues? Or maybe this is just peak Cusack? I don't know, but I frickin' love this movie. (Not my favorite, but it works for me better than most unwieldy Tarantino films, and so I feel like it is underpraised.)
- Messages
- 2,327
- Reaction score
- 791
- Trophy Points
- 123
^Oh, and to me a straight version of this (apparently how it was originally written) would be pretty predictable and boring. Unless you did it completely over-the-top dramatically like old HK style.
- Messages
- 14,899
- Reaction score
- 2,425
- Trophy Points
- 228
^ I fully expected to love it myself but it just didn't click with me.
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Sort of 'Nuovo Cinema Paradiso' meets 'Wallstreet' but in grimy Thatcher era South London. Themes around the 2nd-generation immigrant experience, sexuality, politics, belonging, education, racism, money and class are all explored together. The characters have some real spikes to keep the viewer from getting too cosy and sympathetic. I noticed there is a minor 'Ghandi' reunion going on, with at least three of the cast of the 1982 epic appearing here.
Two great actors, performing a great script:
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Sort of 'Nuovo Cinema Paradiso' meets 'Wallstreet' but in grimy Thatcher era South London. Themes around the 2nd-generation immigrant experience, sexuality, politics, belonging, education, racism, money and class are all explored together. The characters have some real spikes to keep the viewer from getting too cosy and sympathetic. I noticed there is a minor 'Ghandi' reunion going on, with at least three of the cast of the 1982 epic appearing here.
Two great actors, performing a great script:
- Messages
- 14,899
- Reaction score
- 2,425
- Trophy Points
- 228
Type Till You Bleed (2021)
Having followed Richard Jackson (the director and writer) and Duncan Casey (the main actor) for years on their lovely YouTube film channel Val Verde Broadcasting, I was excited to finally see Richard's debut short blackly-comic horror film in 4K. Duncan plays a low-wattage temp night watchman, brought into a computing museum to look after a mysterious Soviet-era experimental computer. Michael Geary is superb deadpan comic relief as the exasperated museum curator. The Giallo lighting (especially the sickly green glow from the screen) looks great, the synth music by Liam Taylor is fab and the computer's on-screen text dialogue sits perfectly on the line between innocent "choose your own adventure" type questions and creepy as f**k. I don't know why but the biggest giggle I had was the cutaway to the photo of Clive Sinclair.
Now it's done a run of festivals, you can watch it in 4K for free on the Val Verde YouTube channel:
The Trailer:
The website: https://www.typetillyoubleed.com/
It's got a beautiful poster by Dan Liles:
Having followed Richard Jackson (the director and writer) and Duncan Casey (the main actor) for years on their lovely YouTube film channel Val Verde Broadcasting, I was excited to finally see Richard's debut short blackly-comic horror film in 4K. Duncan plays a low-wattage temp night watchman, brought into a computing museum to look after a mysterious Soviet-era experimental computer. Michael Geary is superb deadpan comic relief as the exasperated museum curator. The Giallo lighting (especially the sickly green glow from the screen) looks great, the synth music by Liam Taylor is fab and the computer's on-screen text dialogue sits perfectly on the line between innocent "choose your own adventure" type questions and creepy as f**k. I don't know why but the biggest giggle I had was the cutaway to the photo of Clive Sinclair.
Now it's done a run of festivals, you can watch it in 4K for free on the Val Verde YouTube channel:
The Trailer:
The website: https://www.typetillyoubleed.com/
It's got a beautiful poster by Dan Liles:
- Messages
- 14,899
- Reaction score
- 2,425
- Trophy Points
- 228
There Will Be Blood (2007)
I thought this was pretty decent when it came out but I wasn't as bowled over (pun intended) as some. On this re-watch, after being initially irritated by the phony choice to have no dialogue for the first 14-minutes, just to be arty, I was transfixed by 'There Will Be Blood'. Jonny Greenwood's score is loud and skewing more towards what you'd expect from an operatic horror movie, rather than a period movie. The visuals are never less than stunning in every shot. Daniel Day-Lewis takes his performance right up to the line of scenery chewing excess but never crosses it. I'm not sure you're supposed to see it this way but I found his volatile Daniel Plainview to be strangely sympathetic, anti-heroic and even reasonable (on his own tortured terms), while Paul Dano's Eli is pure smiling evil incarnate. It's wonderful when Daniel gets his sweet revenge on Eli for the earlier cruel public humiliation in the church. Daniel's words cut deep enough, so I'm not sure the final act of violence was needed but it does provide a memorable, all-time great, blackly comic final line.
I thought this was pretty decent when it came out but I wasn't as bowled over (pun intended) as some. On this re-watch, after being initially irritated by the phony choice to have no dialogue for the first 14-minutes, just to be arty, I was transfixed by 'There Will Be Blood'. Jonny Greenwood's score is loud and skewing more towards what you'd expect from an operatic horror movie, rather than a period movie. The visuals are never less than stunning in every shot. Daniel Day-Lewis takes his performance right up to the line of scenery chewing excess but never crosses it. I'm not sure you're supposed to see it this way but I found his volatile Daniel Plainview to be strangely sympathetic, anti-heroic and even reasonable (on his own tortured terms), while Paul Dano's Eli is pure smiling evil incarnate. It's wonderful when Daniel gets his sweet revenge on Eli for the earlier cruel public humiliation in the church. Daniel's words cut deep enough, so I'm not sure the final act of violence was needed but it does provide a memorable, all-time great, blackly comic final line.
- Messages
- 14,899
- Reaction score
- 2,425
- Trophy Points
- 228
The Gallows Pole (2023)
Usually Director/Writer Shane Meadows works with Channel4/Film4 but this new drama is on the BBC. It's an odd mix of trippy "stag men" visions, grim 18th-century social commentary and bawdy humour. When it's funny I was really laughing my ar*e off, mostly at Adam Fogerty's slow but earnest Broadbent but also star Michael Socha's dry sarcasm. Going with modern imrov banter is an interesting choice for a period drama and does make this feel very current but on the other hand I did really enjoy hearing the dense old-fashioned northern slang in something like Mike Leigh's 'Peterloo', so I would've probably preferred that. The focus of the story (and the show title) makes more sense when you realise it's apparently a semi-prequel to a book because the ending does feel incomplete (you can look up the real events on Wikipedia), or maybe this just needs another 3-hour series to complete the story. I'd be up for that. The psychedelic rock soundtrack is sensational.
I loved the opening title sequence with the music and "Guardian of the Travelling Lamp" sounds way better than "Cinematographer":
I'll have to check out more by the band:
Usually Director/Writer Shane Meadows works with Channel4/Film4 but this new drama is on the BBC. It's an odd mix of trippy "stag men" visions, grim 18th-century social commentary and bawdy humour. When it's funny I was really laughing my ar*e off, mostly at Adam Fogerty's slow but earnest Broadbent but also star Michael Socha's dry sarcasm. Going with modern imrov banter is an interesting choice for a period drama and does make this feel very current but on the other hand I did really enjoy hearing the dense old-fashioned northern slang in something like Mike Leigh's 'Peterloo', so I would've probably preferred that. The focus of the story (and the show title) makes more sense when you realise it's apparently a semi-prequel to a book because the ending does feel incomplete (you can look up the real events on Wikipedia), or maybe this just needs another 3-hour series to complete the story. I'd be up for that. The psychedelic rock soundtrack is sensational.
I loved the opening title sequence with the music and "Guardian of the Travelling Lamp" sounds way better than "Cinematographer":
I'll have to check out more by the band: