It’s been retired. An end of an era, an epoch (1969-2022) done and dusted.
A geeky pursuit, no doubt, but the landing and take-off of a 747 is something I find entirely captivating.
So many flights, so many thrills. And my personal highlight of a Boeing in popular culture has to be Airplane! (1980).
Because it’s awesome.
It’s the high expectations due to the extraordinary A-list cast that sort of let it down a bit. It’s no masterpiece, but it’s good. What’s lacking is a mood, a sense of you really being involved in proceedings. It’s just too workmanlike and clean, and lacks any sense of style. The cop-mob connections aren’t really illustrated, and there’s too much nebulous backstory between the characters.
However, it is acted as well as you’d expect, and even Stallone is fine in it, though his character could have had an edge to him, some shades of grey. The supporting cast are also stellar, and it was surreal seeing the T-1000 with a moustache. For all the considerable talent on display, Ray Liotta walks off with the movie, his conflicted Figgis shambling his way through the narrative, a guilt-ridden bad boy whom you’re never quite sure about until the denouement.
Nice poster, too.
This has a genuinely intriguing opening and the movie never lets up in its unpredictability. The four-character ensemble, lost in a listlessness of their own making, take an unorthodox and ludicrous premise and roll with it. Of chief concern here is the fun of the Devil’s buttermilk – teachers giddying around in a desperate attempt to recapturing a lost stage of development – but also the Dark Side. And it gets very dark, booze an outlet for a deeper malaise.
The best tragicomedy I’ve seen in ages.
This movie is so mad and frankly ludicrous but it’s so well put together, acted, and for a movie about killer worms, actually well written. And what a pleasure it is to see the late, great character actor Fred Ward in a leading role. Why hadn’t I seen Tremors until now?
Superb.
Brutalist and utopia are never two words to be used in the same sentence without negative connotations, but it’s a recurring theme with these building projects. We did, however, experience the “aesthetically pleasing” luxuries of A Clockwork Orange (1971) because of these architectural faux pas.
Once again: “As we walked along the flatblock marina, I was calm on the outside but thinking all the time. So now it was to be Georgie the General, saying what we should do, and what not to do, and Dim as his mindless, grinning bulldog. But, suddenly, I viddied that thinking was for the gloopy ones, and that the oomny ones used like inspiration and what Bog sends. For now it was lovely music that came to my aid. There was a window open, with a stereo on, and I viddied right at once what to do.”
Ralph Fiennes has the strangest way of delivering his lines in some movies and this is no exception. It’s like he shouldn’t fully be involved in the world he resides in, like he’s a tourist. But it works perfectly in this ahead-of-its-time cyberpunk thriller from the always interesting Kathryn Bigelow.
The POV scenes are a technical tour de force and wouldn’t look out of place in a peak De Palma, but rather than merely an aesthetic treat they serve the story, which is never dull and continually engrossing.
And it’s not bad looking, either.
It bombed at the box office. Strange.
Some movies you just ‘don’t get’. I don’t get Arrival (2016).
It’s boring. It’s derivative. It’s inordinately and agonisingly slow for no reason. It’s not even pretentious but wants to be; if you fail at that then you’re rubbish. I didn’t hate it … which just made the experience even worse. If I despised it then at least I would enjoy ranting about it. It’s merely pointless.
And so is this review.
Bye for now.
Such a body of work from this legendary thesp and such a knack for either choosing the right films or being handpicked for them. Either way, directors knew what they were getting – commitment, gravitas, an actor incapable of giving a bad performance. He excelled at both unperturbed man of action and a lad who blew his top when his buried frailties and superstructure of masculinity were exposed.
He actually got even better as he got older, and in the ’90s he was pulling out a masterclass a year. Personal highlight: Gene and Denzel Washington screaming at one another on a nuclear submarine.
I hear he’s retired from acting now and works as a novelist. He is missed. And that chuckle of his.
Everyone is in this, even a bloke who looks like the kid from Jumanji (1995), and LL Cool J is the exact same character here that he plays in Deep Bue Sea (1999) and Any Given Sunday (1999). Special mention to Janet Leigh’s mental cameo.
A rarity – a slasher in which you can believe that any character can be killed. Yes, it’s shite, but in a funny way, and it does have a wee bit of transcendence dare behind it. Amidst the garbage Halloweens, this and the first are the only ones worth watching.
Decent poster, too.
Wanderings and ... wonderings. 