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A few reviews

TM2YC

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Thanks. I wonder if your estimation of The Menu will rise over the coming days. For me, my opinion changed as I found myself thinking about it for days after.

It's just risen a little in my estimation after seeing the similarly themed 'Glass Onion':

Glass Onion (2022)
The general opinion of this sequel to the excellent 'Knives Out' seemed to be "it's okay" and I'd have to agree. With 'Glass Onion', Rian Johnson gets wrapped up in surface puzzles and loses sight of telling a good and believable story. His thing about wanting to be seen to be clever, means he has characters spell out almost every part of the plot to the audience in a meta way because he reckons the viewer will never spot it, but then you blatantly do and so are a bit bored waiting round for it to play out. The long intro feels like a waste of time when you are watching it and even more so on reflection. Just start the film on the jetty. Johnson does a thing I really hate in murder mystery films, by cheating and showing the viewer something that didn't happen, if you don't want us to try and solve the murder, why are we here? Blanc's abrupt monologue, when the whistle is blown for the start of the murder mystery weekend game was very funny though and Daniel Craig and Janelle Monáe are terrific as usual. There was something off about Leslie Odom Jr.'s presence that I couldn't put my finger on, later realising it was because he'd also played a Doctor in Kenneth Branagh's similar murder mystery film 'Murder on the Orient Express' just a few years ago.

 

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regardless of their wealth and privilege

My interpretation was that the director hated foodies, not rich people. He captured all the tropes in individual patrons, pictures of food, food critics, obsessed who think they're chefs and know all the equipment, rich people who just want to be seen, etc. It's all aspects of foodies, not wealth, and her reactions were meant to be commentary on the foodie culture - a director eye-roll at them if you will.

That said, I expected from the trailer that it was going to be darker. It wasn't bad but not something that I'd watch twice.
 

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See How They Run (2022)
I happened to of recently watched a new BBC documentary series 'Agatha Christie: Lucy Worsley on the Mystery Queen' which covered the story behind the making of 'The Mousetrap' stage play in some detail, so I was primed to enjoy this clever murder mystery, tribute and send-up, which takes place backstage at the famous production. I'm sure many will make comparisons to 'Knives Out' but I actually preferred this, it doesn't try quite as hard to create a convoluted plot, concentrating more on witty homages to the genre and a truly wonderful Holmes and Watson relationship between Saoirse Ronan's enthusiastic but inexperienced young Constable Stalker and Sam Rockwell's jaded Inspector Stoppard. I really want to watch this pair in a sequel solving another crime and exploring how their careers and relationship develop further. 'See How They Run' also has some well aimed jabs at paternal sexism within the Metropolitan Police, which given the scandals of recent years, seems to have advanced very little from the 1953 setting of this terrific caper.

Thanks for the rec; the family and I watched this on a cold, rainy night yesterday, and it hit the spot. I remember going to Dr. Strange last spring, and there were previews for this, Amsterdam, and Don't Worry Darling - a real smorgasbord of period piece romps. :)
 

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The Good Nurse (2022)
This looks like a grey, barely lit, blur but the two central performances by Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne make it well worth trying to strain your eyes to see what is happening on screen. I think it was a mistake to tell us the audience what is going on in the very first shot but not to have our protagonist realise the same thing until half way in. The trials of Chastain's (real) character's life are hard and well played but are given too much focus, when it's the horrifying banality of managerial/corporate evil that fascinates and disturbs. The most chilling bit is the creepy look that passes over Redmayne's face as he realises a hospital administrator isn't firing him for killing people but for a minor technical mistake. It's like he's enjoying the joke of knowing, that she knows, that he knows, she's helping him commit murder. Redmayne does strange contortions with his body and fingers in an unsettling way.

 

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Sharpe's Challenge (2006)
Since I'd recently watched through the classic 90s Sharpe blu-ray boxset, where all the films are about 100-minutes, I opted to re-watch the 100-minute version of this follow up (rather than the 2-part, 135-minute version) for a fair comparison. It's much better than I remember, still not on the level of the classic series but entertaining enough. Sean Bean looks in good shape for the heroics and I was glad John Tams was back for the closing song (even though his character had died in the last film). Harper deadpans a great one liner, "Say hello to Mr Nock" before giving an enemy all seven barrels of his Naval volley-gun point-bank to the chest. The opening flashback was a mistake, it's simply unnecessary and 46-year-old Sean Bean isn't convincing anybody he's a young 20-something Sharpe. For me, Toby Stephens has the same problem here, that he had in the 2002 Bond movie 'Die Another Day', in that he's massively overplaying the sneering arrogance of his baddie character. With Sharpe and Harper riding off at the end and the desert-like India locations, this felt more like a Western than a Napoleonic war movie.




Sharpe's Peril (2008)
Again I went for the 100-minute version, rather than the originally broadcast 2-part, 138-minute version, so I'd be watching it at the same length as the original 1990s Sharpe movies. At first I was thinking, actually this isn't that bad but as the film goes on it gets very exposition heavy, overly talky and lacking in humour, action and flavour. I think some of that might be down to this shorter version jettisoning every line that didn't advance the plot and paring back the many side characters to the point that they serve little purpose. Afterwards I dipped into the longer cut and soon caught myself laughing out loud at little moments, like where Sharpe almost gets slapped in the face by a lady, to Harper's amusement. Bits like that would be better put back in, because in the shorter cut, this older Sharpe looks exhausted and depressed all the time. The scenery shots of India look stunning, they picked out some amazing hill fort and mountain village locations, that really take the viewer back 200-years, with no need for sets and CGI. Sharpe always felt quite Bond to me, so the opium plot made me think of 'The Living Daylights' and other elements reminded me of 'The Temple of Doom'. I noticed way more punch in the bass from Harper's Nock volley gun in this 2008 soundmix, , than in the 1990s Sharpe series.

 

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Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022)
The poster and streaming thumbnails make this look like the blandest, least appealing, awards season comedy imaginable. However, it's a beautifully intimate and tender two-person comedy drama, performed by two incredible actors. It's pretty much just 97-minutes in one hotel room, where the layers of each character's external armour are peeled back, one initially projecting confidence and one a ball of nerves. I was so surprised to see UK comedian Katy Brand's name on the writing credit, that I had to pause it and go back and check. Her type of lowbrow stand-up humour has never really been my cup of tea but on the evidence of this, she might have missed her true calling in life so far. More scripts as good as 'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande' please Katy. The only nitpick I had was the lack of full-frontal male nudity, and in a film like this, which is trying to have a frank, liberating discussion about sex, it felt prudish (especially given Emma Thompson leaving nothing to the imagination) but I suppose sexist censorship is still what it is and they didn't want to be lumbered with a restrictive 18/NC17 certificate.




Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
I was a little lukewarm on Guillermo del Toro (and co-Director Mark Gustafson)'s reimagining of 'Pinocchio' at first. The stop-motion animation is gorgeous of course but the brief musical numbers are a bit wishy-washy and I began to low-key dread them when I could feel them approaching. But as it goes on del Toro begins to diverge more and more from the familiar narrative and it gets exponentially more powerful, thematically resonant and emotionally effecting. I was almost in tears at the finale. del Toro's subversion of the ending and reimagining of the genesis of the titular character is genius in it's simplicity, it's the way this 140-year old story should always have been told. I think knowing where it was going, will make it better on a second viewing. Did I miss something, or was Candlewick's subplot left unresolved? Young Gregory Mann and old David Bradley are perfect as Pinocchio and Geppetto respectively but I didn't think Ewan McGregor was right for the Cricket voice.




Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: Handcarved Cinema (2022)
This accompanying making-of gets a bit too much like EPK self-congratulation. Hyperbolic claims like Christoph Waltz's "It doesn't look like any animated film you've seen before... it's completely different" are off-putting but there is also plenty of juicy behind-the-scenes detail on how it was done, which still make this well worth a watch. As always, Guillermo del Toro's enthusiasm and the deep thought he puts into every aspect of his projects comes across, as does the enthusiasm he inspires in his creative team. This features mild spoilers so I wouldn't recommend watching it beforehand.

It's been put up on youtube as well for free:

 

Moe_Syzlak

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All Quiet on the Western Front (2022). I haven’t read the book nor have I seen any previous film version. Plus I’m an American living in Germany. And one of the few Americans here (seemingly) that isn’t associated with the US military or government. Anyway, that’s my background going in. My wife, however, had read the book, but more years ago than she’d like me divulging. 🤣 She definitely did remember some differences. Notably the B storyline with Erzberger (Daniel Beühl), which she doesn’t remember existing in the book at all. Though she admits she could be mistaken.

The movie itself is beautifully shot. I hesitate to even use the word beautiful since it is so brutal, but it is shot very well. The acting all works for me as well. I wish the actors were given more opportunity to bond. We see a bit of it but not enough to really make me feel the impact of the brutality of war. That job is left to the visceral combat sequences. And there are many and they are brutal. War is hell, I get it; but I think emotion trumps gore for depicting that. The Paul/Kat relationship is the best part of the movie. I just wish we got more that with more characters.

About that B story. I said to my wife at one point midway through the film that I hope that storyline serves to illustrate the conditions of armistice that Germany had to accept and how that allowed Hitler’s rise. That’s certainly not to excuse the Germans in any way, but rather to add the very distinct historical context to what otherwise would’ve been a “war is hell” movie that happens to be about WW1. But it never really quite goes there and leaves me wondering why it was included at all.

It’s like a horror movie that relies on gore and jump scares rather than emotion. It can be effective when done well—and it’s done well here—but it’s not my preferred route. Still, it is just gorgeously shot and a good movie worth your time.

Please PLEASE turn off the dubbing if watching on Netflix. This movie, like all others, deserves to be watched in its native language.
 

TM2YC

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All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
The shots that are in focus look absolutely stunning but it was really lacking an introduction to the characters. Showing young men being fed into the war machine is always going to be powerful but it would have been more so, if I'd known a single thing about who they were first. The scene halfway in, with our two main protagonists sitting down and having a cr*p in the woods was the first chance we get to learn who they are, who they were and how they feel. It was beautifully played on Albrecht Schuch's face, as a letter from his wife is read to him. The later scene with the tanks and flamethrowers is shocking like 'Saving Private Ryan' was the first time you saw it. In that sequence, through Paul's eyes, we experience a new hell on earth, feeling like a human mouse caught in an open air laboratory, experimenting with new forms of mechanised death. It's that kind of visceral horror that overrides the deficiencies in character because I couldn't help but be caught up in their plight. I watched 1985's 'Come and See' a few weeks ago, so I was seeing stylistic parallels with this, Paul is often centre frame, looking out at us in terror, in much the same way, with progressive makeup telling the story of degradation on his crumpled face. Volker Bertelmann's startling score reminded me of Hildur Guonadottir's soundtrack for 'Chernobyl', it's got that same sense of impending doom.


The guitars (I think?) on this are something else...

 

Moe_Syzlak

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The lack of early character development (and much character development at all for those other than Paul and Kat) really is a missed opportunity. It’s still one of the better movies I’ve seen this year, but it left me wanting. Good call on that score though!

What were your thoughts on the political side story? Do you know if that was a creation of this particular version or if it had been in any previous adaptations (or the book for that matter)? Ultimately felt kind of pointless to us.
 
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TM2YC

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What were your thoughts on the political side story? Do you know if that was a creation of this particular version or if it had been in any previous adaptations (or the book for that matter)? Ultimately felt kind of pointless to us.

I'd have preferred more character stuff, if deleting that subplot would have given us that, but I thought in itself it was well done. It provided a good counterpoint to the insane general sending the men to their slaughter as fast as he could, for as long as he could, right up to the last minute before the ceasefire (something that really happened, although the character was a fictional composite). I'm pretty sure it was not part of previous versions of the book.
 

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Navalny (2022)
This documentary is built around the completely astonishing sequence where Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his tenacious team "prank call" one of the FSB agents that tried to assassinate him 2-years ago and fools the guy into explaining the whole operation in detail. After hanging up they joke that the guy will probably now be killed, then repeat the sentiment but they're not laughing so much any more. There is that general "laughing in the face of death" attitude about Navalny but the film only manages to scratch the surface enough to make us wonder if this can be entirely true, with a couple of shots of him gravely staring into space. He seems guarded against providing, even this friendly documentary, with any footage of him looking afraid, or weak in the face of the enemy. In the opening interview Navalny opines that he doesn't want this film to be a "boring" retrospective in the event of his death or imprisonment, he wants it to be a "thriller" and it really is.

 

TM2YC

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The Wonder (2022)
The solution to the central mystery is revealed halfway through, so despite some excellent performances and a wonderfully oppressive, dour atmosphere, I wasn't sure why we needed to be there for another 50-minues. 'The Wonder' seems to always be about to say something profound about things like faith, the lack thereof, intolerance, hope, penance, forgiveness and the 19th century Irish/British social/political context in which it occurs but never satisfactorily does. I didn't fully understand what the 4th-wall breaking bookends were for but they're very cool and worth seeing just for that. Did I miss something, or was it never stated what was in the bottle that Lib drinks from? Her taking opium is a pretty big plot detail to just leave up the audience to purely guess on their own. I looked it up on Wikipedia, other viewers might just assume it was cod liver oil?




Babylon (2022)
This immediately dives right into a debauched party at a pre-code Hollywood movie mansion, which I personally found mildly tiresome, and after what felt like an hour, the horrible thought crossed my mind that this might actually be where the whole 3-hours takes place. Thankfully it was not but the 2nd sequence which runs around amongst the chaos of a movie set, continued at the same hysterical pace but in this part, all the madness culminates in a couple of moments of impossibly romantic "movie magic", where the pain was temporary and the film was forever. I could still have done without the party scene but from that moment on, I got it, this totally worked for me. I suspect if the viewer gets all the allusions and homages to the history, movies and darkest legends of the silent era, the experience will be greatly enhanced. It most closely reminded me of the similarly caustic 'The Day of the Locust' but also 'The Artist', 'A Star is Born' (the 1937 original), 'The Bad and the Beautiful', 'Sunset Blvd' and of course 'Singin' in the Rain', plus although it's about a different era of Hollywood, the repeat casting of Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie makes it impossible to not make comparisons with 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'. Pitt has a couple of absolutely soul destroying scenes and new (to me) lead actor Diego Calva is fantastic. The kaleidoscopic end montage recalled sequences from Abel Gance's 1927 'Napoléon' (made at the same time as 'Babylon' is set), which neatly illustrates how daring early cinema could be, before censorship and "good taste" took over, so a hundred years later, a new movie doing the same thing, still looks daring compared to other mainstream movies of this year. I didn't like everything about 'Babylon' but when I did like it, I loved it!

By the way, this is well worth seeing on the big screen while you can.

 

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@TM2YC Have you not seen Banshees of Inisherin yet? Talk about a movie you should see on the big screen. If I missed your review, pleas point me in the right direction.
 

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@TM2YC Have you not seen Banshees of Inisherin yet? Talk about a movie you should see on the big screen. If I missed your review, pleas point me in the right direction.

I haven't yet but I will, although not at the cinema.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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I haven't yet but I will, although not at the cinema.
Happened to see a video review from your guy Kermode. He was gushing about it but also seemed to be getting a completely different subtext than I did.
 

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In the streaming age it can be quite hard to find what you want to watch, when you want to watch it but happily four interrelated volcano docs were on Netflix, BBC iPlayer, YouTube and Disney+ at the same time this weekend...

La Soufriere: Waiting for an Inevitable Disaster (1977)
A short documentary where mad lad Werner Herzog and two crew members stay and film on an island that has just been evacuated due to the volcano apparently being about to erupt. They find an silent ghost-town world, littered with evidence of hastily abandoned life, dead pets and one drunk and/or loopy villager with a death wish. Not as crazy as you'd expect, or hope it to be.




Into the Inferno (2016)
I was expecting this to just be one of a series of volcano documentaries which Werner Herzog has made but he perpetually strays so far off on various tangents, for such lengths, that you start to question where it's going, or if it's coming back. It's all fascinating material, presented with Herzog's trademark poetic musings on human existence but it didn't totally hang together. I was also constantly distracted by how much, our enthusiastic and knowledgable on screen guide to this world, volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer looks like Harpo Marx.




The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (2022)
This is more what I was expecting from a Werner Herzog volcano documentary. He combines an almost dialogue & sound free assembly of footage from the archives of volcano film-makers Katia and Maurice Krafft, with his own continuous narration of what we are seeing and his thoughts about it. The soundtrack is made up of various classical requiems, giving the apocalyptic footage the feel of Stanley Kubrick's "dawn of man" sequence from '2001: A Space Odyssey'. Most of the footage is extraordinary but the jaw-droppers are the shots where the Kraffts appear to be mere feet from raging torrents of lava flowing past them at terrifying speeds.




Fire of Love (2022)
It's a brave woman who decides to compete with Werner Herzog by releasing a documentary on the same subject, at the same time but Writer/Director Sara Dosa does a fantastic job. One thing 'Fire of Love' obviously does better than Herzog's 'The Fire Within', is by not cropping the spectacular 4:3 volcano footage captured by Katia and Maurice Krafft down to widescreen. The alarming scale of the volcanic clouds and walls of lava are magnified by the extra height looming over the shots of Katia. The voice-over goes a bit too far into making pronouncements about the relationship between Katia and Maurice (considering that I doubt anybody involved with this film actually knew them, or were even alive at the same time) but it also gives Herzog's philosophical ruminations a run for their money. Watching this right after 'The Fire Within', it's interesting to see the different ways the film-makers use the same footage. Dosa tends towards the romantic, Herzog towards the realist, Dosa's film is more powerful and epic but Herzog has more of the mundane moments of life. On balance I prefer Dosa's film but ideally, you should watch both together, for a rounded portrait of these two extraordinary people.

 

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
After seeing the trailer for the forthcoming "Indiana Jones in Space", I thought a new bar for how low this franchise could sink had been set, so maybe 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' wouldn't seem so bad? The fact that most blockbusters today are full of physics defying, lacklustre, cartoony CGI has taken much out of the shock of how bad 'Crystal Skull' originally looked compared the first three, this sort of movie was still a relatively "fresh hell" back in 2008. I always liked Cate Blanchett's scene-stealing baddie, Shia LaBeouf's headstrong young greaser and even Ray Winstone's dubious side-kick, so I didn't hate everything, like some other viewers. It's got far too much talky exposition and too little really gutsy action but I kind of enjoyed hanging out with the characters chatting and watching little moments like Mutt dipping his comb in a guy's coke. Hot take = not the worst movie ever.

My personal fan-theory (not based on any concrete evidence) for why this film went so wrong was Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' long friendship. Spielberg and the producers made statements about it being mostly practical and indeed on the making of docs you can see that some scenes that look 100% fake, were actually shot on location. So I believe Spielberg handed the film over to Lucas and ILM to handle the wire removals, some minor digital matte painting etc and instead Lucas went nuts with the awful CGI over everything and ruined it, but Spielberg didn't want to argue with his old friend, so just let him have his way.


^Kudos to whoever edited this new(?) trailer for KotCS, it makes it look amazing! (which it isn't).



The Great Wall (2016)
This looked like a misguided attempt to mathematically design a blockbuster which would cater to the tastes of both US and Chinese audiences and so not really completely satisfy either. It is that but mostly it's surprisingly decent and entertaining to watch. We all know Zhang Yimou likes colour but he goes a bit far here for my tastes, the armour looks like 'World of Warcraft' meets 'Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'. That aspect and the Marvel superhero style action, does sometimes rub up against the generally serious, historical-drama tone of the setting and dialogue. What makes it work, is the well defined characters and their individual perspectives on war, duty and sacrifice. Plus Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal have a pleasing Han & Chewie/Butch & Sundance type chemistry.

 

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
After seeing the trailer for the forthcoming "Indiana Jones in Space", I thought a new bar for how low this franchise could sink had been set, so maybe 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' wouldn't seem so bad? The fact that most blockbusters today are full of physics defying, lacklustre, cartoony CGI has taken much out of the shock of how bad 'Crystal Skull' originally looked compared the first three, this sort of movie was still a relatively "fresh hell" back in 2008. I always liked Cate Blanchett's scene-stealing baddie, Shia LaBeouf's headstrong young greaser and even Ray Winstone's dubious side-kick, so I didn't hate everything, like some other viewers. It's got far too much talky exposition and too little really gutsy action but I kind of enjoyed hanging out with the characters chatting and watching little moments like Mutt dipping his comb in a guy's coke. Hot take = not the worst movie ever.

Covenant Edition in 4K anytime soon? :D
 

TM2YC

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Covenant Edition in 4K anytime soon? :D

If I was going to revisit this film, I'd make a different edit, to the one I made almost a decade ago. The thought had crossed my mind while re-watching KotCS.
 
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