Tag Archives: Movie

Mar 20 2023
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Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized

The Ninth Gate (1999).

Tell you what, this wasn’t bad at all and I usually can’t stand Depp. 

He is on a short leash here, and Frank Langella gives perhaps the best creepy phone performance (mostly) ever. 

It’s got this low-key, slow-burning atmosphere that is bizarrely twinned, somehow to effect, with intentional comedy deriving from awkward social and professional interactions, and I know all about those for they happen every hour. Despite the supernatural elements, they are cloaked in a story that works as a basic thriller.

And the score by Wojciech Kilar. Listen to this and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) for a double bill. 

Further reading:

https://www.looper.com/842473/the-ending-of-the-ninth-gate-explained/#:~:text=Encased%20in%20a%20ring%20of,him%20out%20of%20his%20misery.

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Mar 13 2023
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Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).

Does it still hold up? Did it ever?

The antics of the Pythons have in recent years been wholly irritating, with their pointless TV travelogues and various silly projects, clearly living off past glories. But this has 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. It must count for something.

Oh dear, a pretty daft excuse for a feature-length movie, this was just boring. So smug, and vexingly self-referential in its desperation for laughs, sketches went on and on and I couldn’t cope anymore so turned it off. The impression I got was of a bunch of very lucky big babies with a budget.

It’s not funny at all. 

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Mar 11 2023
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Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Technology, United States

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Urgh.

The reasons multiple, I put off watching this for a long time.

My two cents:

Again, the needy references to superior fare, the sheer desperation of bad writing, the mindless action with seemingly nothing at stake.

The ‘characters’ here buy the premise so instantly that you’re immediately questioning their validity, and as they have no dimensions it’s doubly irritating. They are chucked into unimaginative shoot-outs from the get-go. Who are these people? No idea, so I don’t care. There’s an antagonist who is as threatening as a poodle slurping a bowl of Bacardi Breezer, a hero sent from the future who is just plain dull, and Linda Hamilton looks more bored than I was watching her being bored.

I got to 48 mins. I couldn’t take any more torture and turned it off before Arnie arrived. So boring, so without logic or merit, so pedestrian on every level. This has to be the end of this extended shower of shit.

No more.

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Mar 06 2023
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Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, Vietnam

Platoon (1986) is almost ruined by its voice-over, but it isn’t.

It’s entirely and totally unnecessary, and the only explanation I can find for it is that it’s a relatively inexperienced director without the confidence to let his characters demonstrate what he’s trying to get across; they even do this without the voice-over.

It’s the single most pointless use of a character’s narration ever, yet the film succeeds despite of it. That’s the sign of a great movie.

And what the hell happened to Tom Berenger? He should have graduated to the status of a menacing Paul Newman, or at least a top-drawer character actor. But he didn’t.

Beguiling.

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Mar 05 2023
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Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Technology, United States

Street Fighter (1994) is special.

Unit of bad-asses over here.

I don’t care what anyone says, this movie is entertaining as hell and that’s all that matters.

Aye, it’s a pile of shite but it knows it’s a pile of shite; no one is splitting the atom here and that’s a wise decision considering the ludicrousness of every situation, character, line reading, fight sequences, … everything. A nice wee companion piece to Mortal Kombat (1995), which does take itself seriously, but not too seriously, this movie defines the burgeoning video game era, nonsensical attempts to translate a new(ish) medium to another.

In a way, it wouldn’t survive on its own as a movie; it’s game-dependent in that every facet of it is explained by the game.

Aside from JCVD’s accent.

Further reading:

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/jul/16/inside-street-fighter-movie-jean-claude-van-damme-kylie-minogue

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Feb 28 2023
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Architecture, Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Technology, Uncategorized, United States

Timecop (1994).

JCVD is fine here, which I find sort of shocking. He displays levels of vulnerability that Seagal couldn’t even consider. The Brussels lad (I can’t be bothered spelling his name) can act if given the right role.

An intriguing premise that is fulfilled, decent action, JCVD doing the splits for a reason, a slimy Ron Silver, Bruce McGill who seems to be in everything, and two female leads who aren’t annoying.

This was a decent movie.

But not as good as this:

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Feb 27 2023
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized

Oldboy (2003).

A movie almost unique in its seamless harnessing of script, characterisation, and style, Oldboy (2003) is two-in-one, arthouse and popcorn cinema. Its influence international and far-reaching, one must be conscious of not just lifting a few stand-out scenes for praise, but the corridor scene is immense. Not only did it connote the visual delights of Donkey Kong on the SNES (or is that just me?), it gave a whole new dimension to the sequence shot, one that went beyond just an aesthetic achievement.

No matter how many times I’ve watched this, it still impresses. And that score. Wow.

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Feb 23 2023
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Air travel, Architecture, Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

The Long Good Friday (1980).

Thatcher’s Britain and all that.

Bob Hoskins as the criminal parvenu Harold Shand in The Long Good Friday (1980).

A “testicle on legs,” as Pauline Kael once wrote of the lad. An extraordinary performance from a bloke who never gave a bad one despite not a single acting class in his life. He was a born thespian.  

Bob Hoskins was quality – even in a Mario Bros. movie. 

‘The Yanks love snobbery. They really feel they’ve arrived in England if the upper class treats ’em like shit.’

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Feb 22 2023
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Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

The Whale (2022).

First of all, let’s get the ‘controversy’ out of the way: the director is correct when he says these critics make no sense. How many actors could fit the comeback story of Brendan Fraser in this? How many obese actors are out there? Haven’t fat suits been around for a long time? More importantly, what is the big overall deal? There isn’t one, just something for folk to moan about.

Anyway, it’s not a brilliant film but it’s worth watching. The performances are fine, and Fraser does a rather sublime job at eliciting sympathy without mugging it. And it doesn’t feel like a marathon experience despite the entire story being set within the confines of a house, the shots mostly of Fraser. It reminded me of Tom Hardy in Locke (2013), a sort of less indulgent and more engaging companion piece. Maybe the latter was more captivating for I viewed it melted on a rickety plane dancing over Siberia.

I must confess that I have expected more in recent times from Aronofsky, but I suppose his mega-impressive triple bill of Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), and The Fountain (2006) are his stylistically expansive works; he appears to have withdrawn into the interior these days. The shackles are back on.

Decent movie, though. It shows what is possible with a minuscule budget and a whale.

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Feb 16 2023
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Britain, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, World War Two

Escape to Victory (1981).

How does this even exist? The cast is something out of a piss-up, a charades gone wrong. Sly, Bobby Moore, Michael Caine, Ossie Ardiles, Pelé, Max von Sydow. Erm, what? And to boot it’s made by John Huston.

Less interesting is the movie, a run-of-the-mill affair, the footy action shot with all the imagination of your random YouTuber.

But it still fascinates merely by its existence. And that’s why it hasn’t been destroyed. It’s a testament, a relic, if you will.

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