The Suicide Squad (2021) Dir. James Gunn Amanda Waller sends the Suicide squad out again, this time to the island nation of Corto Maltese. Only this time around, two separate teams are dispatched, with each not knowing about the other's presence or mission. One team is meant to be a decoy, essentially cannon fodder to distract the Corto Maltese forces, whilst the other is the actual team sent there to destroy a Nazi-era research facility where scientists are working on a superweapon known only under its code name, Project Starfish. The surviving team consists of Bloodsport, his foil Peacemaker, King Shark, Polka Dot Man and Ratcatcher 2. Harley Quinn, the sole surviving member of the other team, manages to cause all sorts of trouble on her own. This wasn't bad, certainly the best DC movie I have seen in a while. Though not as good as James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy movies, he does again display his knack for properly serving decent-sized ensembles and making fun action comedies in the process. I think most people will have thought King Shark would steal the show in this film and whilst he is quite amusing in this, the real break-out star of this film is Ratcatcher 2, as portrayed by Daniela Melchior. She has this rarest of qualities for an on-screen performer, the same thing the young Audrey Tautou had, as well as Audrey Hepburn (is it an Audrey thing?). An unoriginal way of describing it is that the "camera loves them", but it's more some innate ability to appear effortlessly charming onscreen.
Love Hard (2021) Dir. Hernan Jimenez Natalie is a L.A. based writer who had turned her terrible experiences in online dating into a fairly successful online column. In spite of that, the fact that her unlucky love life is an inspiration for her writings, she is hoping to finally change her romantic prospects. One of her work friends suggests widening her horizons a bit by not just matching with guys in L.A. itself. When she tries this, she meets Josh in Lake Placid, a guy whose charming patter matches well with the chiselled good looks he shows off in his online profile pictures. After they communicate through messaging and phone calls for a while, Natalie realizes she is falling in love with Josh. Through a throwaway comment of his - where he reveals a desire for them to spend the holidays together - she flies to Lake Place to spend Christmas with him, with the intention of surprising him by showing up on his doorstep unannounced. Only the unpleasant reality is that Josh has actually catfished her and the pictures on his profile are those of a childhood friend of his, Tag. The incensed Natalie wants to take the first flight back to L.A. but Josh suggests using his knowledge of Tag to help Natalie seduce him for real. In exchange, Josh wants Natalie to pretend to be his actual girlfriend until the holidays are over. She reluctantly agrees, mostly because she still needs a story for her next column. Guess what happens next... A pretty basic holiday rom-com. I don't think anyone will go into this believing the screenplay will reinvent the wheel and it definitely doesn't. The two leads, Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang, aren't bad, but I don't think they ever truly convince as an on-screen couple. For a company that has churned out a decent amount of rom-coms, Netflix hasn't really produced a great many I would consider memorable.
The Locket (1946) Dir. John Brahm On his wedding day, a groom is visited by a shrink who claims he knows his intended and that the woman in question, Nancy, is hiding a dark secret from her fiancée. Dubious about the man appearance, on his wedding day as well, the groom still agrees to listen to Dr. Blair's story. Blair recounts a tale about a woman whose charm and outward kindness left behind a dark history of betrayal, broken hearts, lies, theft and even murder in her wake. As the Dr. weaves his tale, an image of a very troubled young woman still carrying the wounds of childhood trauma emerges. But can the groom really recognize his wife-to-be in the dark story he is being told? Noirish drama in which a young woman's life story is told through a series of flashbacks, primarily from the perspective of the respective men in her life. A good lead performance by Laraine Day and a memorable supporting turn by Robert Mitchum as a smitten artist who is the first man to figure out that something is wrong with Nancy.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (2000-2004, 5 seasons) Yugi is a small and meek high-schooler who doesn't seem to spend a lot of time in school. And why should he - he lives in a world whose economy is mostly based on the Duel Monsters card game, and expert duelists have access to immense wealth, fame, and power. People will kill and die, and do even worse, for any edge. And Yugi has the best edge of all - after solving an ancient puzzle he shares his body with the soul of a 5000 year old Pharaoh who is the world's best duelist because he knows the truth: magic exists and the monsters are real. It might seem strange to devote over 120 hours to watching a commercial for a product I'm never going to buy, but I find the duels really entertaining. It's a lot like the TV vision of court cases, a tense debate between people trying to use fine understandings of the rules to defeat the other using an ancient language. Only in Yu-Gi-Oh the loser is sometimes sent to Catholic limbo. The first two seasons also had a mythology that carried the slow moments well enough. But the real surprise was the fourth season, with bad guys that had fascinating and poignant back stories and motivations (with badly written toning-down of death and loss for the American kids that any adult could see right through). It would have been enough to bring easy-to-manipulate spejic to tears except that the head bad guy was named "Darts". Every mention of the name took me out of the fantasy with a moment of exasperated mirth.
No Time To Die (2021) Dir. Cary Fukunaga Following dramatic events in which James Bond has reason to distrust his girlfriend Madeline Swann, he breaks all ties with her and leaves active service, retiring to Jamaica. Years later, Felix Leiter contacts him to ask for James' help in tracking down a scientist in Cuba who is meant to be involved in the theft of a top secret weapon from a British research facility. MI6 wants Bond to stay out of it and sends the new 007 to relay this message, in no uncertain terms. Bond eventually agrees to join Felix after he finds out that many of the top operatives in Spectre are also gathering in Cuba at the same time as the scientist has arrived there. In Cuba, he uncovers a plot that sends him back on a course to reconnect with his superiors and associates in MI6, as well as the likes of Blofeld and Madeline Swann... The latest Bond installment was a bit hit and miss for me. The first hour is enjoyable for the most part, especially the scenes in Cuba. The latter half of the film reveals the issues the screenplay obviously went through - Fukunaga has even revealed himself he had no idea how it would tie together because he never had a fully finished screenplay during the shoot. As a final send-off for Daniel Craig, it's not a particularly memorable entry, especially not the paint by the numbers climax. If I evaluate Craig's tenure as Bond, I have to say that the overarching sentiment is one of disappointment, though perhaps through no fault of his own. But one genuinely good Bond film (albeit still a somewhat flawed one) with Skyfall is a bit meager for a man who actually had the role the longest out of all of the Bond actors. Sixteen years between the first and last movie he was in, which is more than Roger Moore's twelve years. A total sidenote, but Ana de Armas understood the assignment (as the kids say nowadays) and actually left a strong impression as Paloma, in spite of her limited screen time. Which kind of revealed a general flaw with the Craig era for me, not enough actors who were genuinely having fun with it.
I guess it's chaotic production history has something to do with it. Purvis & Wade returned to write the screenplay, then Danny Boyle came on board to direct and did his own thing with it, only then he bowed out. Fukunaga came in and also made some alterations and then later on still EON brought in Phoebe Waller-Bridge in to polish up some sections of the screenplay. But apparently this process was still ongoing even as they were shooting?
Woman in Hiding (1950) Dir. Michael Gordon Deborah is still pining for Seldon, the general manager of her father's lumber mill. Her father does not like Seldon, who is a member of the Clarke family, once a great name within the town of Clarkesville, but several generations of poor decision making have severely diminished their prospects. For Seldon, Deborah is the best way for him to regain his family's former standing and wealth, wanting to marry her in spite of the fact that he does not truly love her. Deborah's father is opposed to the marriage, but after he dies under suspicious circumstances at his mill, there is no one left standing in Seldon's way and him and Deborah are in fact married shortly thereafter. On their honeymoon, they get the uninvited visit of Seldon's ex-girlfriend, who reveals among other things that Seldon is just using Deborah for her money and who suspects Seldon of having murdered Deborah's father. Once he figures out that his new wife actually believes his former lover's claims, he decides that the best course of action is to kill her and make it look like an accident. But when this plan fails and Deborah subsequently goes on the run, Seldon has to find her again before she can cause him real trouble. Deborah for her part has only a vagabond stranger to depend on, a man she meets during her escape but isn't sure she can truly trust. Entertaining noir, made almost entirely by Ida Lupino's excellent lead performance, as well as some interesting camera work and mise en scene by the director. Pay special attention to the use of the frame and how some things are revealed in reflections in the excellent scenes at the cabin.
Dune (2021) ~ D. Villeneuve I thought it was good, not great. For those who hate Lynch's Dune for not being faithful to the book, this seems even less so. I respect the need to pare out material, but there's a lot of things left by the wayside in the initial set up so we can see more Duncan Idaho and dream/visions. It looks great, though. I waited to see it in a mostly empty theater. I'm not sure I gained much from that versus the home watching experience. I certainly didn't leave thinking that was the only way to see it. Black Widow ~ C. Shortland I did not enjoy this. The action scenes were all just bad. Bad Jason Bourne imitations, bad 80's cheese, bad GI Joe fights. The humor is weak and poorly blended with the main theme, child trafficking? Just felt like nothing worked here. Shang Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings ~ D. Cretton On the opposite end of the MCU, this movie worked for me in every way. The action is good, the comedy is good, the characters are interesting. Maybe just behind Ragnarok of my favorite MCU films. I do wonder though that making an ensemble Avengers again is nearly impossible now that all the main characters are gods or have god-like powers.
Belfast (2021)-Kenneth Branagh-directed feature, which is semi-autobiographical. The whole film takes place in Belfast. Stellar cast, but the accents are a bit undecipherable. If you have a friend from Belfast, bring him to the theater to translate. Good slice of life movie.
Jack the Ripper (1959) Dir. Robert S. Baker & Monty Berman 1888, Whitechapel, London. A maniac is going around murdering young women, with the police unable to capture him, in spite of the amount of resources and manpower that are being poured into the effort. The man in charge of the investigation, Inspector O'Neill, gets welcome yet unexpected help in the form of Sam Lawry, an American lawman who has come to London due to the notoriety of the Ripper murders. O'Neill and Lawry have little luck in tracking down any worthwhile suspects as the Ripper increases his tally of victims. Lawry for his part is distracted by his attraction to Anne, niece and ward to a surgeon who works at a local women's hospital. The general public has directed some of its suspicions to staff members of the hospital, but O'Neill does not consider any of them credible suspects for the crimes. A Ripper whodunnit with several red herrings and a mostly satisfying conclusion. Good turns by Ewen Solon and John le Mesurier (who I mostly associate with the Dad's Army reruns I watched as a kid).
As part of my personal investment in writing, i try to watch pop culture show which I would otherwise not bother with. So recently on a whim I skim watched Lost over some months. I just skip the boring bits with the time jump, so you can actually watch a lot very quickly. It confirmed what I saw of it, but surprised me in places. Season 1 remains Epic. I loved it the first time, and loved it again. Especially the extended intro episodes are awesome. Like a movie. Season 2 is as shit as everyone says. But reading into the backstory of it, it seems like no one really expected to get that far and they didn't know what they were doing. I really like Season 3, which I think fans panned. Season 4 and 5 start to really go off the rails (which is where I originally abandoned it). The time travel in particular has no rules and is just plot driven - you can't trust anything. But IMO the Dharma Initiative stuff is great - I suspect the answer to the islands mysteries should have remained there. Making it about some olden days tacky slaver shit just on felt bgous. Season 6 ends up being fan service. Nice to watch but nothing important in terms of television. Classic JJ!
We've been meaning to watch this for some time: It's the 2014 movie version of "What We Do In The Shadows" from Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi. We've been a fan of the spinoff television show and have kept an eye for the movie to show up on one of our streaming services. It's great fun, and it was enjoyable to see the elements that had been replicated in the show.
Jermaine and Bret McKenzie and some others had a flat share round the corner from us in Mt Victoria in the late 90s In those days Jermaine and Taika were a comedy duo. I often wondered if the movie was partly based on that flat - it was an old wooden place typical of the area. Now days of course it's totally gentrified and no struggling artists could live there. But then that neighbourhood was full of creatives and you could walk 5 mins into the central city to the 3 decent bars - very bohemian!
Venom: Let there be Carnage (2021) Dir. Andy Serkis Following the events of the first movie, Eddie Brock's fortunes have taken a turn for the worst. His career is in shambles and he needs a big story to jump start it. His relationship with Anne is a thing of the past, as she is now engaged to be married to Dan. Even his coexistence with Venom becomes ever more strained. His career gets a life-line in the form of Cletus Kasady, an inmate on death row who wants to give Eddie an exclusive story. Thanks to Venom's keen observation skills, Eddie's meeting with Kasady leads to Eddie helping the police find the dump site Kasady used to get rid of the bodies. Upon his next visit to the now hostile Kasady, there is an incident where some of Eddie's blood is ingested by Kasady. Unbeknownst to both Eddie and Venom, this gives birth to a venom-like symbiont by the name of Carnage, sending Eddie & Venom on a collision course with Kasady & Carnage. Like the first movie, this is rather silly but better than anticipated. It's also structured more or less like a rom-com, with the couple (Venom & Eddie) ending the second act with a crisis and then reconciling in the third act. Like in the first film, all of the best bits are of Brock & Venom bickering like an old married couple. Neither of the two villains are particularly memorable.
Last Night in Soho (2021) Dir. Edgar Wright Eloise is a young woman who has dreamed of becoming a fashion designer since childhood. So her being accepted as a fashion design student in London is a dream come true. Eloise also carries the trauma of her murder's suicide, and appears to have an affinity with what she believes to be the spirit world, occasionally seeing her mother around the house she grew up in with her grandmother. After her arrival in London, she soon moves out of her student housing since the girl she shares a room with is kind of mean and she finds the dorm environment not very helpful to her creative process. She rents a bedsit from an elderly woman and from her first night staying there she has strange, life-like dreams of Sandy, a girl in 1960s London who came to the city with similar dreams, of becoming a successful singer. As Eloise's dreams of Sandy take an increasingly more disturbing turn, she figures out that what she is dreaming isn't just a fantasy concocted by her subconscious, but are actually real events that happened to a young woman in the 1960s... This is essentially Edgar Wright's attempt at an homage to Giallo cinema. This is apparent in everything from the camera work, the lighting, the themes, ... There are - I believe - other non-Giallo influences too, like Powell's Peeping Tom or the Boulting brothers' Twisted Nerve. It's a mostly enjoyable experience, somewhat ruined by a climax that did not live up to all of the build-up. It's still good enough to be my second favorite Edgar Wright movie after Shaun of the Dead (not that this is great praise considering he is far from my favorite director). But like with QTs love for remixing genres and movies he admired, the main problem is that the movies he references and pays homage to are almost all (much) better than this one. The cast is pretty good, though I believe Thomasin McKenzie (a fine young actress) was a tiny bit miscast in the lead role. By contrast, Anya Taylor-Joy is very much in her element and there is something of her Queen's Gambit performance in her portrayal of Sandy. The soundtrack is terrific but that isn't a particularly great feat considering the 1960s setting.
Venom/Brock is silly fun. But the villains were astonishingly dull -- just like the first movie. The only thing that didn't disappoint me was the short run time.
The Window (1949) Dir. Ted Tetzlaff Tommy is a boy known around his neighborhood for telling tall tales and fanciful lies. Some of which cause embarrassment for his parents when they are actually believed. One night, when he has crawled onto the upstairs neighbors' fire escape to more easily endure the nighttime heat, he is awakened from his sleep by the sound of a struggle. As he peers in through the window of his neighbors apartment, he sees the husband and wife murder a man. When he tells his parents about this the next morning, they interpret it as another made-up story concocted by Tommy's over-imaginative mind. When he goes to the police to report the crime behind their backs, they are even more miffed and force Tommy to apologize to the couple in question, who are now alarmed to the fact that there is a witness to their crime and they need to silence him before someone actually believes his story... A surprise hit for RKO at the time, starring Bobby Driscoll, a child actor most famous from appearing in many Disney features (including voicing Peter Pan in the 1953 animated feature). Yet it's really the murderous couple that leaves the greatest impression, with both Paul Stewart (always great when playing slimy criminals) and Ruth Roman taking on monstrous proportions as perceived through the eyes of Tommy.
The Mad Doctor (1940) Dir. Tim Whelan Dr. Downer is awakened in the middle of the night to attend to a patient of his: Ida Sebastien. When he arrives at the Sebastien home, Ida's husband George Sebastien informs Downer that his wife has died. Downer is surprised at the news, since he had reasons to believe that Ida was very much on the mend from the pneumonia she was suffering from. Downer is further troubled when it is revealed that George isn't very grief-stricken after his wife's death and he sells his late wife's estate and moves to NYC within a couple of months of her demise. Unfortunately, with nothing to go on but a certain level of outward callousness on the widower's part, Dr. Downer has no cause to get the coroner involved. In NYC, where Sebastien has moved to, along with his associate Maurice, George returns to his former profession of psychiatry. Due to a chance encounter, he meets Linda Boothe, a suicidal young woman he takes as a patient. Linda's boyfriend and newspaper man Gil Sawyer immediately considers Sebastien a quack and he tries to warn Linda against his psychological machinations. After Dr. Sebastien successfully worms himself into Linda's life to the point that Gil is pushed aside and George becomes her new boyfriend, Gil is even more determined to prove that something is off with the good Doctor. In the process he discovers that Dr. Downer's former patient isn't the only casualty left in Sebastien's wake... Noirish thriller starring Basil Rathbone - still most famous for playing Sherlock Holmes numerous times throughout his career opposite Nigel Bruce's Dr. Watson - as a murderous shrink. Rathbone is good as the superficially charming Sebastien, as is Martin Kosleck as his accomplice Maurice. Rather noteworthy for a 1940 feature is the very strong sense of it being implied that Maurice and George are more than just criminal associates, though considering the Hays code they obviously could not come close to outwardly hinting at any gay romance. But there are subtle signs in how they occasionally regard each other and in Maurice's behavior that are too numerous to be a mere coincidence.
Breaking News in Yuba County (2021)-Farcical film. Allison Janney stars as a fameseeking murder suspect. I can see why this was at 12% on Rotten Tomatoes. I liked the cast. Decent film to watch if you have a couple hours.
Wheel of Time I read the first work in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and could tell that I didn't have the bandwidth for what would become a 12,000 page saga. I remember surprisingly little of the book. So, I come to this fantasy adaption without any preconceptions or strong passions. And judging this just on it's own merits.... Meh. In the book, the journey from Two Rivers to Whitehall is epic, so fans are incensed at how much is left out of the TV production, and yet this is the slowest journey ever. It takes 6 episodes to set up the reveal that a character left for dead in the first episode is much more interesting than than the bland foursome -- one of whom is supposed to be the Dragon Reborn -- and has more power than the closed mouth Aes Sedai order we've been following. This is jus tedious. I wanted to like it, but if nary another episode gets filmed, I won't be disappointed.
I Want To Live (1958)-Anti-death penalty film. Susan Hayward won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as the main character, a condemned prisoner. Supposedly, Barbara Graham, the real person portrayed by Hayward, was actually guilty. Good flick.
There's Someone inside your House (2021) Dir. Patrick Brice The seniors at Osborne high school suddenly find themselves confronted with a masked killer who is murdering some of their classmates. Beyond the gruesome nature of the crimes themselves, there is the fact that the killer also targets students with embarrassing secrets, which he releases on social media at the same time as the murders, thus killing his victims socially as well as physically in the process. The string of murders causes deep distrust among the kids, with the popular high schoolers suspecting one of the social outcasts being responsible for the murder spree whilst said outcasts have their own theories about who might be responsible, as well as their own secrets they do not want revealed to the world. Pretty basic slasher with decent production values and some good performances, especially by lead Sydney Park. But ultimately there was very little original about the writing, certainly not enough to make this anything more than a not very interesting Scream clone.
International Lady (1941) Dir. Tim Whelan London, 1941. As the Blitz rages, an american operative by the name of Tim Hanley has arrived in London to help identify an international ring of German spies and assets who have been successfully sabotaging the planes and equipment sent over to the UK as part of the lend-lease program, with some shipments and aircrafts not even making it to England. It is assumed that the sabotage outfit consists of agents both in Europe and in the U.S. and Canada. In London, Hanley is partnered with Scotland Yard detective Reggis Oliver. Oliver suspects that Carla Nillson, an attractive Norwegian chanteuse is somehow involved with the sabotage ring. As Nilsson travels to Lisbon and then later to NYC, Oliver and Hanley follow her. Whilst Oliver grows increasingly convinced of her involvement in the sabotage ring, especially after a man he tasks with shadowing her turns up murdered, Hanley's increasing attraction to Carla means that he cannot believe her guilt, thus assuming she is either completely innocent or at worst an unwitting participant in the plot. The invitation to a party hosted by Carla's friend and sponsor Sidney Grenner, a Swiss immigrant to the U.S. who has made his fortune with a successful chocolates company, is identified as a key opportunity to suss out Carla's American contacts. A war time drama that is fairly entertaining. Shot during the actual war, and released several months before the U.S. officially entered the conflict. Thus also interesting as a snapshot of how the conflict and its participants was perceived at this time. Massey is good as the tragic Nillson. Basil Rathbone essentially plays a stereotypical Englishman, the frequent misunderstandings with his American counterpart used as occasional comic relief in the "two nations separated by a common language" mold.