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Reacher (2022)
Tolerable but absurd
Although Reacher is a big powerful guy, I find it hard to believe that this musclebound character could actually achieve much in a battle. So suspension of disbelief is a big challenge here, and the direction does not help. In movies like Atomic Blonde and John Wick middle aged actors are made into action heroes, but this movie magic is lacking here. The beginning of Season 2 is also a bit disappointing because the loan wolf aspect of Reacher is lost, and he is part of a large and deeply uninteresting team. Not to mention another grumpy cop who turns a blind eye to the huge number of homicides being committed by Reacher and his crew. These guys are psychos. Really there is too much nonsense and not enough elegance for this to work.
El inocente (2021)
You will watch it to the end and then wonder why
I watched this because of the director who made The Body and The Invisible Guest. Those were excellent twisty turny thrillers, a bit implausible but just on the right side of crazy. The Innocent is also a twisty turny thriller, but while I found myself pretty engaged all the way through to the end, I would not go out of my way to recommend it. The plot is so contrived I found myself rolling my eyes quite a bit, especially during the last three episodes. There is a limit to the absurdity I will accept. People start to act in ways that are completely absurd, and completely inconsistent with their past actions, simply to keep the plot going. It is not at all at the level of the earlier films of Oriol Paulo. I sure hope he was paid a lot and he will put the earnings to more productive use.
I admit to watching The Stranger, another Harlen Coben adaptation, and also finding it pretty unbearable. Again, it kept me viewing and then I cursed myself at the end. This one is better, but it is definitely the last one I watch.
52 Pick-Up (1986)
Fun Frankenheimer film close to a classic
Complete spoilers below.
There are so many things to enjoy in this film. Frankenheimer was a top director, and the great cast and crew make for a tense and exciting time. The action scenes are really well directed. Vanity's attempt to escape from the warehouse is superb.
The snuff movie, the overconfident semi-smart villains, and the sleazy atmosphere make for two hours well spent. There are some annoyances. The score is a really awful product of its time. It could almost be a masterpiece if you pulled out that nonsense music and replaced it with something good -- not necessarily Jerry Goldsmith or Michael Small, but what about Tangerine Dream? Gary Chang worked with Frankenheimer a lot, which suggests to me a serious lapse of judgment. And the ending? Harry blows up the villain in his OWN (i.e., Harry's) car. That's premeditated murder -- he even unfastens the door handles using some kind of mechanism that he had to build to commit the murder. Pretty sure that just because the guy was an awful villain he is not going to get away with that. Maybe the jury will be sympathetic.
Life on Mars (2006)
Powerful and moving
I missed this series when it first appeared but catching up with it in 2020 on Netflix. Reading over the reviews here I think that its premise is often misunderstood. Sam does not go back to 1973, rather he goes back to a dream world based on 1970 cop shows -- if you like he goes back to a TV series rather than to another world. This is his imagined past, based not on knowledge of the past, but on knowledge of The Sweeney. Anyone who has thought about goofs or anachronisms has missed the point.
Its an extraordinary and quite moving series.
Collateral (2018)
Highbrow but bingeable
Great entertainment is that which grips our attention due to plot and compelling characters, but leaves us with something at the end other then the knowledge that we have passed the time enjoyably. This is the epitome of great entertainment.
The story is a thriller. A young pizza delivery man is murdered. He is an illegal immigrant with a family hiding away from the authorities. We quickly learn by whom, and the police investigation and criminal plot works its way through many levels and institutions in British society. If you are reading this you do not want to know more.
I love British police dramas. But even the most "realistic" of them (say, Prime Suspect) are a bit over the top with the difficult personal life of the cops and the extravagant unbelievable crimes. Consider, for instance, Line of Duty. But this is quite unique in that the main cop has a supportive family which never conflicts with her work. The police are all, to a person, upstanding. And the crime and how it is carried out, while ingenious, does not require any superpowers and is carried out for plausible reasons.
The dialogue is always sharp and plausible. There are three negotiations in the film, led by Carey Mulligan's Kip. (I recall only three). I don't want to say more, but the rhythm of those negotiations, as the relative strengths of the parties involved rise and fall, is something to behold.
The performances are also top drawer. This is an opportunity to see some truly amazing character actors do their very best. Of course Carey Mulligan, but there are no false notes anywhere.
Overall this is great television.
The Pale Horse (2020)
Super creepy, super fun (Episode 1 spoilers)
Agatha Christie was a master of plot and situation, but completely unable to describe the actions of adults, or to capture a realistic sense of place. This is perhaps why she is such a fruitful source of adaptations, and why those adaptations are so diverse in tone. The Pale Horse is amongst the creepy/serious adaptations of which Sarah Phelps has become a master -- her And Then There Were None is one of the greatest TV adaptations. The Pale Horse is a nightmarish fever dream. People are dying of a strange illness that makes their hair come out it clumps, and makes them die very quickly. There is a list of victims found in the shoe of one victim. It all revolves around a Summerisle-like town full of mummers, creepy masks, and three very sinister witches. The witches have something to do with the murders, but we know they won't be directly responsible, even if the murder is somehow using them. There are two main suspects -- Hermia, the very unhappy wife who is the obvious candidate for the death of Mark's first wife (but her actions are not very consistent with all the other murders), and David Ardingly. Right now I am betting on David. But I can't rule out Zachariah either.
The Stranger (2020)
Soap opera plus thriller
This is an entertaining but hardly satisfying melodrama, set in a wealthy neighbourhood in which everybody is hiding some dark secret or two, and which are occasionally revealed by "The Stranger". The first two or three episodes are gripping, but events end up being resolved in a simultaneously banal and ludicrous fashion. The main plot hook -- why would a woman fake a pregnancy? -- turns out to be a red herring. The happy ending, which stands among the worst of tacked on Hollywood style endings I have seen ever, is completely ridiculous and trashes all the (moderate) good the series has created along the way. Ending the series just before the final scene would have added a star ... maybe. Five stars because it is undeniably addictive but my "Harlen Coben TV series" adventures are now over for good.
Knives Out (2019)
Masterpiece
SPOILERS...
Saying anything about Knives Out risks being a spoiler, including saying that "saying anything about Knives Out risks being a spoiler." So don't read anything about it before your first viewing.
Here I will say just a few words, focusing on one significant aspect of Knives Out which is an extraordinarily entertaining and clever film.
What recent films can Knives Out be compared to? Coincidentally (and I think it is coincidentally but remarkably) it is Get Out. Get Out took horror film ideas and played them masterfully, but also made us uncomfortable by using them to look at ourselves. Get Out definitely changed how I saw the world, and I hope it changed how I behaved as well.
Knives Out similarly draws attention to how we interact with those less well off than us. It begins in the home of a rich family, with a wealthy author who has really produced something of worth, and his no-good family who have coasted on his wealth but believe they are deserving of that wealth. There are two servants, forgettable people who float around in the background and are sometimes very patronisingly treated as "friends". The similarity between the treatment of these two, and the treatment of the boyfriend in Get Out is striking. You no doubt remember "I would have voted for Obama a third time if I could", In Knives Out you have "I thought you should have come to the funeral, but I was outvoted". This line is funny, but it is powerful too. It shows how even when the servants are treated as friends, they are "servant friends", they are dependent on us (we hope) and so we can interact with them when we want, we can throw them a few minor rewards (a joint, an offer of a stipend) and they will keep running back to us.
I live in Europe now but have lived many years in the USA and this treatment of servants, meaning immigrants who are extremely dependent on us, is precisely as depicted in Knives Out. (Europeans do this too, but this is an American film). By no means is this anthropological precision the main source of interest for Knives Out, but it intrigued me how well Rian Johnson (really a genius) was able to capture this aspect of American life. And, as you will see, it is very important to the film. It can be appreciated for the first time without observing any of this, but it becomes much richer once you do.
It is noteworthy that Sleuth, one predecessor of Knives Out that is perhaps its equal was also deeply concerned with class and entitlement.
I think Knives Out is a masterpiece.
In the Blood (2014)
Some great violence but nonsensical and ultimately incoherent
I would say the first two thirds of IN THE BLOOD is really good. Not great, but there is some very tough B-movie action and some really awesome and nasty violence, especially that meted out by the hero (Gina Carano). So Gina's character finds out her husband is dead, and the film peaks right there. If you just switch it off and imagine what follows you will be better off.
I have a bit of a taste for unpleasantly vicious B-movies and the ending of this one reminded me of the well known Charles Bronson vehicle THE EVIL THAT MEN DO. That was a pretty stupid film, but like this one was slightly redeemed by a willingness to show violence that more tasteful mainstream films are likely to eschew. THE EVIL THAT MEN DO has a dumb ending, but this one is dumber. Really, I cannot believe it is as dumb as it is. It has no redeeming features whatsoever. It seems completely arbitrary, like the action movie dream of a ten year old child.
Sorry. Gina Carano is really great and I would be willing to watch even a mediocre action film with her in it. Why she went from HAYWIRE to this I simply cannot say.
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Great political thriller that matches its predecessor
I am a huge fan of the original film, and when I first saw the remake I disliked it. It is impossible for me to go back to my thoughts at the time, because now I believe that if anything the Jonathan Demme version is better. But it does not have to be better to be superb. Denzel Washington gives the performance of a lifetime (except of course he has given many performances of a lifetime) as a lonely Gulf War veteran suffering from some very troubling dreams. He simply lives the character of a once strong man reduced to a humiliating marginal life, not comprehending how he has come to this point or why. He slowly gets purpose back in his life as he investigates the basis for his dreams. Meryl Streep similarly embodies the role of the senator and mother who uses her son for political advantage. The scene where she persuades her colleagues to support her son as the VP candidate is perfect. Similarly, Liev Schreiber is awesome as Raymond Shaw the son whose values are so different from his mother's, and who is one of the main victims of the Manchurian conspiracy. Two reasons for preferring the remake. First, the performances are overall stronger, or perhaps its just that the characters are more believable. In particular, Denzel Washington and Kimberly Elise outshine Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh. This does not apply to Angela Lansbury of course. Second, the plot of the original has been changed to make it more credible. In the original one puzzle is why Raymond Shaw, the son of a prominent politician, is being used as an assassin. George Axelrod, the original scriptwriter, explained this with some great dialogue, but this question is resolved differently and more sensibly (and more frighteningly) in the remake. Finally, the ending of the remake is much richer. Its hard to say much more but I have found that with each viewing I have come to appreciate the new ending more and more. I love the final lines from the original of course, but the final moments of the remake reflect the fact that Jonathan Demme was perhaps a more human-centred director than John Frankenheimer. Interestingly, the Frankenheimer film that is closest to this Manchurian candidate in tone is perhaps Seconds, and it is clear from that comparison that what Demme does effortlessly comes with effort to Frankenheimer. (Although I would not have suggested Demme for The Train, or French Connection 2 or Grand Prix). The only things I absolutely prefer in the original are the trigger words "why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire" (which are kind of silly but unforgettable and chilling) and the scene between Raymond and his mother Eleanor when she gives him his instructions and justifies her choices.
Message from the King (2016)
Compelling
A well-paced and solidly written revenge thriller, pretty much a riff on Get Carter but with a nicer hero. Chadwick Boseman is a very charismatic star and his character's background is unusual for an American action film -- an ex street kid from the Cape Town gangs. The villains are deeply unpleasant and you will have no qualms about their fates. One thing I noticed is that while the underworld on display is a pretty evil one, no one appears to be racist. Given where the film is set, you might have expected King (the hero) to be the subject of some kind of racist talk, or to elicit suspicion because he is black. Not at all. Sure people often don't like him, no doubt because he is beating them up or threatening them or their livelihood, but they display no personal racist attitudes.
I would have liked to have seen more of King in Cape Town.
Bai ri yan huo (2014)
Enigmatic mystery
A highly atmospheric and fascinating mystery, set in the working class regions of Northern China. It is compelling from beginning to end, enigmatic, tragic and beautiful. It has no heroes. It ends with heartbreak and farce. It should be watched more than once.
It compares, in my mind, to the police procedurals of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo.
Many people have mentioned an extraordinary scene of violence that occurs early in the film. This is an iconic cinematic moment which you will never forget. It also transforms everything that comes later, lending it an air of ambiguity that is never fully resolved.
xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017)
Nothing is possible
There is a trend of superhero films in which the superheroes are presented as more-or-less regular people but with remarkable skills, yet in fact their talents are more akin to Spiderman or Harry Potter. And in which the laws of physics are suspended entirely, except when they are needed for the plot (in fact, they were never needed in this film). And in which the villains are completely incompetent and merely serve as cannon fodder, giving the heroes a little something to liven up their day. And in which people survive catastrophes that would kill even "normal" superheroes, but without explanation. And in which technology is a nonsense plot device that has no link with any technology in existence. This is one of those films, perhaps the most extreme I have ever seen -- even outdoing Fate of the Furious in its absurdity. Did I hate it? Yes.
PS my 12 year old son loved the film and I hope he never sees this review.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (2017)
Constantly amusing
This is not a highbrow film, but it is constantly enjoyable, without resorting to a lot of sentimentality, and with enough wit for even adults to enjoy. I went with three boys who have mixed interest in the books, and they all loved it. The script and direction are sometimes quite subtle. If you have seen the film, consider how Gregg initially tricks Rodrick into admitting a misdemeanor, and then the rest of the family pick up on it without any extravagant double takes. Or the clown pictures in the hotel rooms. There are a couple of extended Alfred Hitchcock references which are handled very well, in that they do not simply copy the originals, but draw humour from the contrast. The games convention and the Youtuber references are perfect -- I have accompanied my kids to conventions and watched a lot of their videos and this is very accurate (you could learn a lot about youth culture from the film, even if you don't have kids). And I thought it was great that Rodrick wore an Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt -- the kid has class!
Jason Drucker who plays Gregg is terrific -- many scenes require that the camera stays on his face as he responds to events around him, and he is always natural and believable. Alicia Silverstone, not surprisingly, is a powerhouse -- I would not want her as my mother, but I would cast her as Goneril or Regan in King Lear. Tom Everitt Scott is similarly wonderful.