Glad to hear this! I enjoy Guy Ritchie’s action romps (particularly The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and had high hopes for Operation Fortune. Sounds like fun!
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An excellent commentary on an outstanding action masterwork. I loved every single second of JW4.
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Dynasty Warriors. A fairly good adaptation of the games, which of course means it is rather shallow, with lots of big battles, often using the sort of slightly shonky graphics you would find in the games, and a few scenes that are notably better than average, including a good chase, a hilarious mass murder because of a misunderstanding, and a solid final fight. Lightweight, passable.
Daisy Edgar-Jones is perfect as the lonely woman looking for someone who isn’t a piece of shit, and Sebastain Stan is okay as her possibly-not-piece-of-shit. The direction is skilful, but the script is a little bit average; Edgar-Jones makes the whole film, Stan does a good job with what he has to work with, but that honestly isn’t very much. Jonica Gibbs gets a stereotypical role as the black best friend, for instance, and while she is good, the role isn’t, and the film is like this throughout; parts are very good, other parts of it are not. I think the ‘picking someone up in the fruit aisle of a shop and also the film is called Fresh’ epitomises the fact that the film isn’t as cute or as smart as it thinks it is. It’s verging, unfortunately, on the grounds of being a tired retread of better films, despite the fact that parts of it are very good.
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I had never seen this, so the wife and I watched it tonight based on your mention of it, and that was a lot of fun.
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Cocaine Bear. It’s okay. Extreme levels of slumming it from Margo Martindale, Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, Isiah Whitlock, and Ray Liotta, who are all fine or better in their roles. The comedy isn’t tight enough, the supporting cast aren’t sharp enough, the timing isn’t good enough, O’Shea Jackson Jr. should find another career, and the film just needs to be 5% more energetic/snappier/tightly paced and it would be great. It does have plenty of fun and funny moments, but scene after scene shows they just didn’t have the quality to make it all work.
If you want to see bear rampage, go see D&D: Honor Among Thieves instead. OK, yes, technically it’s an owlbear. But awesome nonetheless. Highly recommended.
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is that Character Actress Margo Martindale?
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I saw D&D a few weeks ago and never reported that it was highly entertaining.
I just saw the Mario movie with my kids and hated it. Pointless eye candy.
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Saw John Wick 4 yesterday. It mostly earns every minute of the 2:45 running time.
It did increase the silliness, but if the over the top violence and “how the hell would anybody survive that” feeling didn’t keep you from watching the first three, this one won’t either.
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D&D was great. The last kid-focused video game movie I saw that was worth a ticket was Detective Pikachu. Got dragged to that one against my will, but ended up having a fun time.
Detective Pikachu actually had a story. I enjoyed it well enough.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves. This was much better than I expected. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was good, though. A solid dash of humour, and an understanding of the world, combined with some half-decent writing. Pine is good, doesn’t get to hog the screen, and Rodriguez is unrecognisable, and poorly motivated. Page is great but one-dimensional, which in fairness fits his character. Smith has an unfortunate role as the character undergoing the most change with the least justification. Lillis has a wonderful role that is woefully underwritten. Hugh Grant is a delight.
As much as I liked its knockabout fun, and as good as its references and in-jokes are, it’s got some glaring weak points, shaky writing, and too many dodgy plot events. I like it, it’s better than you might think, but we’re a long way from real quality here.
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Saw the Mario movie with the family last night, definitely well done. Illumination always nails their movies visually and the writing was pretty sharp. The story was basic, but still, I never would have guessed it would be Mario that actually broke the video game movie adaptation curse.
The Big Short. Possibly the funniest film about the 2008 financial crisis, in that it’s about a bunch of outliers who all bet on it happening, and suffer a world of shit until it does, in the form of Bale’s eccentric hedge fund manager, Gosling’s rebellious exec, and Carell’s bitter team of finance pros. Bale is fine, Gosling is good, but Carell is amazing in this, an awful force of nature, a deeply conflicted and embittered man cantankerously clanking his way through life. The film isn’t quite as good as say, Inside Job, at explaining the whole thing, but it is unconventional and clear enough to stop it ever becoming boring. The characters are better than Margin Call’s, and the film never descends into ‘just’ comedy, even though elements of farce and satire are present. Great cast overall, and a really solid film, but then McKay also directed Vice, so I should have expected this.
The Hummingbird Project. Reminiscent of Flash Boys (Lewis’ book, same bloke who wrote The Big Short), it’s a project to create a high-speed market connection to carry out high frequency market trades faster than traditionally available, headed by Eisenberg as an ambitious idiot, Alexander Skarsgard as his pet programmer, and Michael Mando as his abrasive engineer. Salma Hayek’s one-dimensional role as finance’s Cruella de Vil is compelling thanks to her, but stupid thanks to the writing. The film is a little bit silly, and ideologically empty, if competent.
Howling. Korean colleagues flying kick each other to settle professional differences, but there’s a murder plot via a dog that takes on a life of its own to hilarious results. Sexism in the workplace is one thing, but a dog that remembers its own motive for murder is quite another.
Renfield. The plot of this film is a little tired, but the performances from Hoult and Cage keep it going. Awkwafina is fine, but why have you given a relatively straight role to a comedian. Bonus demerit for wasting Shohreh Aghdashloo in a one-dimension villain role. The film isn’t afraid to be silly, which is very welcome, because it doesn’t really have a lot going for it otherwise. There is some surprisingly decent action, and they went overboard on the gore. Some very funny moments.
War of the Arrows. As internal strife attempts to wipe out a royal family, the children flee, and within 20 minutes we’re involved in a drunken brawl in a brothel. My sort of film, as warring states and an invasion impinge upon personal lives, complete with lowbrow comedy, and ends with a wonderful sniper-style duel between archers as the last third of the film becomes a hunter/hunted chase. Very enjoyable all the way through, for different reasons in each act.
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Across the spider verse.
No spoilers.
If you enjoyed the first one, watch this. It’s raised the bar for animated films.
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It’s on my June to-do list for sure.