A few reviews

[Gaith]

[Contagion (2011)] The only false notes I detected were the cynical assumption that health workers would go on strike and refuse to treat patients in such a crisis (When the opposite has been true, they've gone into battle everyday, regardless of the danger, whether the government provided them with any PPE or not)

That line (and, to be fair, it's just a line) jumped out at me during my recent rewatch, too. In the movie's defense, its fictional virus appears to be at least twelve times as fatal, at around 25%, as coronavirus, and possibly up to 25 times as fatal, if COVID-19's infection fatality rate is as low as 1%. (However, the movie's virus also kills so quickly that containing it via lockdown measures would likely be far easier and quicker than is shown. Paltrow goes from smiling and active to dead in 2-3 days, whereas COVID-19 symptoms can take up to two weeks to even begin showing.)




Mindhorn (2016) (US Netflix)



Good heavens, this flick is hilarious - sometimes in a low-key way, but it's an even better time than Dr. Kermode, who also liked it, thought. Required viewing for anyone who loves MacGruber, Hot Rod, and British comedy in general.

Grade: B+
 

(btw... There is a little joke during the death scene of a particular character that is one of the darkest and funniest things I've seen all year. Worth the ticket price alone)

Oh, yes. I howled at that one. (Though the end credits montage seems to establish that said character survives.)




The Death of Stalin (2017) (US Netflix)


 

Blackhole-dark satire from comedy-legend Armando Iannucci, about the fevered scramble for power following Stalin's death. An all-star cast led by Simon Russell Beale, who plays the chief of the secret-police with a horrifying mixture of jovial charm and total evil. I loved it but one person who watched it with me found it too dark and disturbing to really laugh at. With the sound off, you might very well think you were watching something along the lines of 'Schindler's List' rather than a comedy.

Aye, a hoot. It reminded me most of Valkyrie, one of my favorite films, but played for laughs. Don't have much else to say about it, other than it's wickedly funny. Grade: A-