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Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Rusty Blade
Once you start altering peoples memories you can do any trick with the plot and and the characters that you like. Being overly long I had long lost my memory of the start of this film and ceased to care who was real as time went on. The main character must have felt the same, and only seemed remotely engaged with what was going on. There was no let up on the slow realisation that somehow the earthlings had created Robots so like us that it seemed a pity to bump them off. (One had made a flower!) They certainly had equality in the films emotional stakes and if I am right, had succeeded in mating with one of us homo-sapiens to make things even more confusing. The Hero was given a very cool hover machine to blast around in as the plot unraveled in a city landscape no one would like to live in anyway. (It looked tremendously horrendous, unless someone has rearranged my memory banks. Hang on......?)
Did it get too clever for itself or only for me? Not being able to tell who is a Robot or not, when everyone was just as uncaring and insensible, make you just not care in the the final analysis. (A half Robot?)
On the Town (1949)
Fantastic Ten!
Some people seem to criticize this film because it did not retain some of the material from the original stage version etc. However, who is to know if an even more amusing film could have been made with that material?
The fact is that just watching what was Produced deserves great praise for it's originality and skill and talent. Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra are part of a cast that never flags in dance and song. It was probably made when film musicals were not surprising and rare as they are now. (2019) Yet it is head and shoulders above others made in the same decade and is a prime example of what can be done by combining a fine group of talented people. It must be something of a surprise to those who have never seen it.
Those who know it's history should just appreciate what is great escapist film entertainment, that will never be surpassed. New York in one day...Fantastic!
Mother! (2017)
Painful
This must be a "Horror" film. It might be that I don't like it because it was so painful to watch. Is that a success as far as a "Horror" film goes? By the end the story piled on so much pain on the poor "Mother" I nearly began to laugh. Think about how people can invade your life and magnify it by more and more until it spills over into farce. This might have been the film makers intention.......?
It left you wanting believe that some circle of horrific existence was in play. At the end it was already to roll again, unfortunately. It was like Fawlty Towers with blood and gore, where irrational visitors cause havoc and mayhem yet without any laughs. (Was there a zombie disco in the poor "Mothers" home? It only got more progressively insane, to the point of ridicule.)
The "Mother", in this case Jennifer Lawrence, remained stoical in the face of her husbands need to feed his artistic ego. She was too beautiful to look too affected by the growing invasion of her lifestyle. It was if the Writer/Director had an idea about some sort of realism at the start and then added so many horrors to the story that became top heavy with misery; from people who were just bad mannered to God knows what else. It tried so hard to be utterly painful for the heroin and it was a fantastic success in this respect. Making it the same for the viewer was not a good idea. (Some seem to like the film because of this?)
Shaka Zulu (1986)
Skaka Rules
There have not been many films/series about African History and personalities. (That I know about) This series is a gem. (I don't know if it could be filmed now for various reasons) They have chosen a great cast including a charasmatic leading man and all the rest fully support the ideas and elements of the story. Elements of stoical British empirical pluck exist alongside the history of a famed African figure.
I don't know if the costumes and Kraals are true to the past, but they create a terrific atmosphere and some beautiful photography.
Really the series should be more recognised as a truly adventurous/skilled piece of work and admired by more people.
The various elements of the plot slowly unwind to create a creative collage of African images, culture and history.
Set against the invasive intentions of the British Empire, Shaka proves to be a formidable foe in a series that is surely underestimated.
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Cloudy Atlas..no GPS?
What a supreme mess this film is. It has to go through time constantly and change peoples facial/racial characteristics and personalities at the same time. It tries to present some sort of cohesive plot and it never works. (Tom Hanks might think he is a modern day Alec Guinness, yet he is certainly not. Some of his characters are surely for comedy purposes only along with his attempts at accents and compatible wigs.) Moreover, the decision to go with some sort of pigeon English for part of the film was surely a mistake too, as it became laughably inane. as well as irritating.
You have to say it was far too ambitious in it's attempts to go through time and persuade us we are all having a hell of a time in other epochs. Everyone became a Muppet-Puppet of their other selves and had a miserable time of it for three hours.
It is a pity so much time and money was spent on trying to tie an number of wholly different histories together, which if taken individually were unremarkable anyway. (The Book might have succeeded in suspending our imagination in a more complete way)
The Lion King (2019)
Roar!!!
The visual effect of this film was as stunning as you can get. (Surely!) I have not seen any previous version. It was really well paced and never flagged as the storyline weaved it's way to the dramatic finale. The music complimented the stories path and the Composer of the films themes should be congratulated on his imagination and production. (Hans Zimmer has an illustrious track record already)
I can only criticise it for the attempts at humour, as the ambition to create a dangerous scenario for the young King were managed perfectly. The Film might have reached the heights for me if it had not sometimes reached the lowest common denominator in it's attempts to make everyone laugh. The puns and banter reached low levels until the plot was resumed and the dramatic tension continued.
You could watch this film merely for the stunning scenery of Africa's foliage and the scenes where the Lions really did roar. The threat of the hyena's was really well managed too. If you can put up with some Disneyesque philosophies for the reason for our exsistence and just enjoy the visual danger, you will be well entertained.
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
Tolerable Plus!!!
I really enjoyed the over the topness of this tale and everyone in it contributes to the general ethos of good humour. The dialogue clicks along at a good rate and it never flags. The Cohen Brothers deserve accolades for bringing the best out of their own creation. If it was meant to pay homage to older Hollywood masterpieces then it pays out magnificently and, for me, joins past films in the pantheon of movie magnificence.
If you want a film to sit and feel good with then this is the one to choose. The sense of rediculousness never flags and it never reduces it's hilarious pace. George Clooney and Catherine Zeta Jones are well matched as the main protagonists/lovers/warring factions. These Stars are well supported by the rest of the cast and the Direction/editing which completes the whole facinating package.
Well done to everyone x
Hostiles (2017)
Hostile suprises!
I could have accepted this film was about the unrelenting violence of the American West in the past. However I watched this long film and found it did relent, yet in no cohesive way. I could find no reason why the main Character could suddenly forgive the Native American he was taking to his homeland. There were not enough fundemental chances in the script for him to suddenly begin to be this forgiving "Christian" soul, after he had murdered so many others.
Plus the craziness of the predicament of the crazy woman, who was tearing at the earth and contemplating suicide at the start; was then kidnapped and raped (offscreen) and who then suddenly became a well dressed Mary Poppins type figure by the final credits. Was there really meant to be final hint of romance between the two main characters, with the adoption of a bereaved native American child thrown in. (Unbelievable romcom!)
A pessimistic film centered on the intrinsic hostility of the human race was lost to saccherine inconsistency in the final frames. The plot was lost on these occasions and more......
Den of Thieves (2018)
Impossible!
Through most of this film the villains and the cops appear to know what each other are doing. So this keeps them together the whole film. No wonder the villains get caught! So the whole film is mostly Gerard Butler playing an awkward nasty brutal unlikable bloke (His wife leaves him on cam to prove this). At one moment he unbelievably blows his cop cover by deciding he does not like Japanese food. (At the end it dawns on him, and his cop gangbangers, that he has been outwitted all the time............sorry!) I spent the whole film asking why all the goodies and baddies where flexing their guns and muscles and girlfriends in unison. And then there were gunfights in odd places where there are millions of other confused people. If not for one traffic jam the robbers would have got away............with nothing? I got so bored that I couldn't easily grasp the late plot twisting, that did require some considered thought, in the final few bar filled minutes. (This review probably proves it couldn't keep someone's interest and you wouldn't care about Gerald's fate)
Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
Anti-climax
The problem with Cowboys and Aliens was that the Cowboys barely reacted to them. At first sight of the mechanized flying machines, zapping people off the earth, was met with no obvious comment, about the sheer quantum leap of the type of enemies that were presented. Daniel Craig's character was not likely to help because of his amnesia and the Harrison Ford Character gruffly headed off to head the aliens off at the pass. This despite the fact that guns had little effect on their new enemy and the only one with any fire power, wasn't really a friend. (Daniel Craig-he with the wrist beeper) All the scenes seemed massively improbable when the meeting of Aliens and Cowboys should have been shown to be one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. With the Aliens being made into only surrogate Native Americans the film sank into references to most other Cowboy films you have ever watched. (Was there an attempt at humour with Butch Cassidy and the Kid' copy scene?) Whatever
Your Highness (2011)
Below zero
This seems a very expensive and concentrated attempt to make a spoof on the Sword and Sorcery Genre. However, it misses out by the sheer inanity and hopelessness of it's puerile jokes that relentlessly drag the film down. If you took all the glib swear jokes out it would make a passable, if regular, quest movie? If you leave them all in, you are continually shaken by their sheer lack of humor and revelry in the lowest common denominator type of schoolboy smut. (Sorry schoolboys everywhere)
This was a misses chance as some of the hero's/villains/special effects are truly good. Yet the lead comedian is given the opportunity to stick his boot into all of the scenes, which in the end becomes predictable. (Surely, we can all make crap jokes)
Someone somewhere has written on IMDb, in a review/critique, that this film might "give you the opportunity to hear Natalie Portman use the f word". If that, is an example of what the merits of this movie are, then where do we go?