Probably the best Netflix series I've seen this year, and the best from Gaumont (I'm glad that they kept the same quality level from Hannibal), again shot in 4K for main photography and 8K for aerial views. From the production standpoint, it proves that José Padilha is one of the best Latin American directors & producers, as he kept most of his Brazilian film production crew, including Pedro Bromfman (his haunting music is excellent for this series). The fact that this series was mostly shot in Colombia (in some of the real locations where Escobar lived), is noteworthy, and the level of realism and fully transparent visual effects by Mr. X (via Technicolor) gives us a whole different sense of the unfolding drama. If you have seen the VFX breakdowns, you'll know that most of the streets and landscapes in this series are CGI-enhaced and extended. We all know already how this story ends in 1993, and despite this fact I'm glued to the screen in every episode. The Spanish dialogues are tweaked in a way that when translated the meaning is slightly different, so I'm pretty much sure that the whole series was written first in English. The whole cast is great, despite not many of them being Colombian (mostly Mexican, actually), and Wagner Moura's performance is spot on (probably an Emmy nomination would come his way soon) despite his very, very heavy Portuguese accent. Some parts I couldn't even figure out what he was saying, even when Spanish is my native tongue, so I kept the English CC active in every episode. Honestly, I can't wait for the second (and most likely the last) season. Their main achievement with Narcos was not glamorizing Escobar or the drug trade, but presenting a compelling, human story that everyone can relate to.
This is a huge course correction that practically negates TLJ. It has its moments, and given what the director-writer had to work with, it's understandable how it ends with such a feeble whimper. This isn't a good film and shouldn't be mistaken for one. TROS is a very disjointed, clearly rushed, derivative experience, that shows its editorial seams, packed with callbacks to all the good things the original trilogy had to offer in order to make you up for it. The visual effects are quite good in most places (nothing stunning or eye opening), but some in the third act are not really at par with the rest of the movie. The plot could be written up with a crayon in a napkin, and I wouldn't be amazed if that was the case, as this isn't Citizen Kane. The amount of loose ends and plot holes this film has, are way too many to me. This is a $300 million plus film (without accounting for marketing, re-shoots and extra CGI) and yet, it doesn't feel as good on the screen as Infinity War or End Game, (very good films made by the same Disney company). After leaving the theater, I was not full of hope, sad or willing to buy another ticket or even willing to watch this movie ever again. I felt nothing but sorry for George Lucas and couldn't care any less about what happens to Ben, Finn, Poe and Rey. The problem with this film when compared with any of the original trilogy is that those felt timeless (grounded on mythical archetypes, Japanese samurai films, Westerns, Flash Gordon serials and the hero's journey) and this plot will look very dated by next year, I'm sure of it. Luke Skywalker took 5 years to master the arts of the Jedi, having two Jedi masters to introduce him to its philosophy. Rey has some old books and voices in his head to kinda learn in months a lot of fantastic new Jedi powers that made no sense. No matter how much it makes back at the box office, it will lose in long-term repeated viewings (one time is enough for me), Blu-ray and DVD sales, and of course, merchandise. It is a good thing we have The Mandalorian to keep the franchise in life support until the inevitable reboot comes along in 5 years. Edit: Forgot to mention that there were only 9 people on the first IMAX showing of TROS on this movie theater (this is a 3.5 million people city). Back in 2015, all the showings were packed for TFA the first 4 days.
Getting an invitation for a Marvel early screening was meant to be something great in the past. Sadly, I've just got it for this stinker of a movie, and lost two hours of my life. I'm a fan of Josh Trank's Chronicle, so I kept my hopes high, but not much so, as he's a competent filmmaker but more in tone with an indie vibe rather than a blockbuster, in my opinion. I'm so disappointed regarding this movie that I can resume the entire plot in the following few lines: a couple of kids (one a mild-mannered-mad-scientist-in-the-making and an honest-to-God-sports-jock) try for nearly a decade to create a functioning prototype of a phase-quantum-dimensional-shifting device (a teleportation machine, for the layman), getting the attention of a gifted scientist (who happens to have a politically correct bi-racial family) from a government-funded think-tank. Together, they spend HALF (yes, half) the movie trying to make the prototype of the device (now named "Quantum Gate") fully functional and open a portal to Planet Zero (a desolate generic CGI dimension that co-exist with ours), with the unwilling aid of Victor, a hacker-wiz kid who happens to be sadly in love with the only female character in the film, who in turn has a crush for Reed (as you might expect, Reed is utterly oblivious to her most of the film). The whole ordeal feels detached, procedural and boring, but has the very brief quality of portraying them as humans, with flaws. Anyway, as expected (because bad things do happen when you rush experiments), their visit to Planet Zero goes awry when Victor tries (as any scientist might) take a sample. The portal collapses, and Victor is left behind. I must dearly advise to you: it follows one of the most disturbing, un-glamours and painful transformation scenes I've ever seen in a Marvel movie. Their DNA is changed and they have odd molecular-phasing side-effects that can be characterised as "super powers". A great deal of the rest of the film is spent trying to - ironically - reverse the molecular-phasing disease, and we get to see a few neat scenes, while one of them is remorseful and contrite (hiding in South America) and the others begin to use their abilities to become military assets. This goes for a while until out of the blue, Victor (quite understandably bitter with them) decides to destroy our Earth using the Planet Zero portal. He's so good at it that he gets to almost destroy Earth without any complicated laboratory or technology. Then it comes the 10 minute studio-mandated battle where the characters become reluctant heroes (honestly, Reed a melee expert?) and obviously defeat Victor, who "disintegrates" (I don't believe that at all) while the portal finally collapses. After those 10 minutes of low quality CGI extravaganza, they get fully funded by the US Military, and decide to use their side-effects to protect humankind, while searching a cure for their disease (unlike the X-Men and most Marvel characters, the FF have always been in good terms with the US Government and NY authorities). In the end, I was baffled that there was not a single ounce of wonder or enjoyment from their part in their abilities, and that the characters feel underdeveloped, to the point of being hollow jokes compared to their comic book counterparts (especially the latest incarnation). With the exception of Michael B. Jordan and Red E. Cathey, the rest of the cast is AWFUL, their dialogues becoming wholly interchangeable. Really. Write down snippets from the dialogue, and any of the characters can deliver those lines. It's that bad. I'm sure I'll never watch this movie again, and I do hope the sequel never gets made. By the way: this movie isn't part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a good reason.
Just like his previous film (Downloaded), Alex Winter creates a whole narrative stitching himself into the characters he's connecting. First, it paints an image of The Silk Road as a community whose main goal was to decrease the level of violence involved in drug-related transactions, to benefit the buyers (that rated both sellers and their products) thus creating an utopian libertarian free market experience. Second, it follows the case of the government and law enforcement agencies, their efforts to shutdown TSR and the ultimate futility of them, as several dozen drug markets appeared in the Deep Web as soon as TSR went offline. Third, it creates an analogy between the War On Drugs that has been going on worldwide for the past 40 years (to negligible effect) and how moving it into the DW will prove useless, given the vastness of the realm and new crypto technology that will arise from those angry against the US agencies involved into hacking a foreign server without a warrant, literally with nobody bating an eye. Lastly, it gives depth to Ross Ulbricht as both a gentle person and a free spirited thinker who was a believer of applying free market rules and 21th century economics into the drug trade. The toll on his person, his family and friends is felt in the last part of the film, humanising Ross and those around him. Ross Ulbricht was a very, very naive fool?... most likely. As a physician who has seen first hand the long terms effects of recreational drugs on patients, and its deadly outcome in many cases, I can't condone or offer any sympathy to Ross as a Deep Web drug concierge. He's a criminal who happens to be a nice guy. However, I'm very much against the way the government built its case, essentially breaking international law and precipitating a whole new level of drug trade that won't be excised by shutting down one of thousands of drug markets that have appeared with the demise of Ross Ulbricht. Nobody wins. Nobody.
I have to say from the beginning, that I do truly hate the original Attack On Titan anime. But I do happen to love Japanese cinema, and was willing to give it a try, as many live-action adaptations take a very original take on their source material (like Death Note, Mushi-shi, Gantz and Rurouni Kenshin). I'm so glad that I did it. For starters, the story is now set in Japan (instead of Central Europe), the origin is told in less than 60 seconds, the focus of the story is now placed into another character (therefore the metaphysical/ideological/romance non-sense from the series was dropped altogether, along with the German names) and his main motivation was introduced in a way that it's totally credible. The Titans themselves are quite plausible as they come. There are clear objectives, set goals in the plot, without missing a beat. The movie doesn't even try to explain anything beyond the scope of the plot, and that's a blessing. Suddenly, the whole thing made sense, and ATOT became a stylish, visceral sci-fi horror movie, with plenty of action and very decent CGI (something that isn't common in Japanese live action adaptations, that are usually low-budget fare). What I like the most is the portrayal of the Titans, as they are surreal, menacing, but with a hint of sadness. I'll recommend you to enjoy this movie with an open mind, and embrace the visual chaos from the action scenes with a wicked grin. This movie rocks and kicks ass, for sure. I do respect that it dares itself to take a huge risk and create an original film and piss off the fans in the process. Now, I'm waiting for the second part (and the mini-series Attack On Titan: Beacon For Counterattack), something that I couldn't even fathom when I pressed the "play" button one hour and a half ago.
I tried to be more than fair to this film, given its cast. It has Michael Barrett's excellent photography, the original premise is also quite interesting and there are bits here and there where the writer-director tried to flesh out some characters. In paper, it has an outstanding cast. I loved Brendan Fletcher's performance. Eliana Jones is amazing, stealing all her scenes. And that's about it. Nomis a.k.a. Night Hunter has some of the worst acting I've seen lately. Henry Cavill couldn't be more cliché and honestly he's seems like he's just going by the motions, not even trying to be more than your typical burnt out cop. Alexandra Daddario looks so out of place that I was surprised she wasn't edited out of the movie. Her performance couldn't be more flat, totally coming across as a nuisance in all her scenes. Stanley Tucci, Nathan Fillion and Ben Kingsley seemed only interested in cashing their checks, and that's utterly sad. Alex Lu's score is intrusive, and repetitive. Heck, it even sounds like stock fare from any given music library. It's a very disappointing film and pretty good example of a nice premise going the wrong way. This is David Raymond's first "real" film as a director with a "real" cast, and I don't know who was financing this bloody mess, but I hope they get at least a third of it. They made a good choice to make it VOD.
Something very interesting happened between the time I did stream this pilot from Amazon Prime for the first time, and eight months later, that I'm checking it out again. In the weeks following the premiere, writer Agness Kaku complained about that many of the japanese signs in the show were utter non-sense, like the word "Respect" written all over the place, an ad for "Viper Pharmacy" hanging in a place of honor in the Aikido dojo, the fact that naming San Francisco's International Airport as "Hiroito" and the bus station as "Imperial" violates Japanese naming customs and Joel de la Fuente delivering a line that was apparently written using Google Translate ("Yes, let us go then, you and I, when the evening is spread out against the sky. Ta, my good suspect!"). Well, the producers made a different cut, that's the one available for streaming now: the scene with the badly translated line was cut entirely, and several signs on the street (and the one in the dojo) were digitally changed for something more realistic. The Hiroito International Airport and bus station stayed, oddly. Also the Blade Runner homage in the Sunrise Cafe was cut short, and the pilot now has a different narrative, adding more bits here and there, and a whole different ending, with more scenes mashed up to add exposition and increase the story's relationship with the I Ching (as in the source material). Isn't a bad cut at all, and it feels different, probably better than the original.
About the only reason I did enjoy this movie, was the cast, as they tried their best to flesh out unidimensional characters in a script that sadly, tries a little bit too hard to pay an homage to the original (and to a couple more films), but that also had a few twists now and then. I'm not comparing at all my experience as a 12 years-old kid watching the original. Back then, an uncle of mine (who passed away some years ago, God keeps his soul) was the manager at our town's largest cinema (a nice 70mm film 2000 seater that has been torn down since), and used to let me watch for free (and most of the times, all by myself) every single new film they got, before it opened, from 1980 up to 1987, when I moved to another city. Now, 1982 was for me a GREAT year: Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, Blade Runner, Tron, The Thing, E.T, Conan: The Barbarian, Creepshow, The Dark Crystal, Firefox... almost every Saturday opening was a fantastic movie, in every genre. For the original Poltergeist, I was alone in the cinema, scared shitless. For this version... let's say I was checking boxes (while eating my popcorn) regarding how they got this or that from the first one, and the cast made me enjoy the experience. Have we seen way too many movies, that now we have become so cynical, expecting so much at every opening?. I don't know. I'm still missing watching in awe brand new movies on a huge screen all by myself as a kid. Having said that, I'm sure that there are some scenes cut from the theatrical release that I hope will get into the Blu-ray. It's a fine move, and it stands by itself when we cease to compare it.
Another DC dissapointment. The movie beings with all the promises and high stakes of a great film for the first half hour, and at first glance, Ayer places skillfully all his pieces on the board, and then, suddenly he loses all kind of sense of direction, despite spending some serious money on a really very cool visual design. This is a movie comprised of many brief moments of humor and running gags, not really scenes, it lacks an original story structure, as the whole "mission" is a mean by itself and there is not really an end game because the antagonist is very lame, with a generic CGI look. Those moments when the movie shines are great - don't get me wrong - but they don't contribute at all to enhance the overall plot development and some are just plain fan service, like the Batman cameo here and there to remind us that this an official DC movie. There are a lot of PG-13 jokes and innuendos (sadly, the best were in the trailers and many are out of place), and flashbacks... tons of flashbacks and dreamy sequences. Regarding the cast... imagine now that you have a basketball dream team... and they have someone who doesn't have a damn clue about the game as their Coach, and that Homer Simpson has written the playbook they are using, and you'll get an idea about how BAD this movie is, and no Director's Cut or Ultimate Edition can save it from the rubbish it is. It's ultimately such shame, because the acting is in my opinion so spot-on in most characters (specially Jared Leto's Joker in the very few minutes of screen time he has - yes, he is hardly at all in this film, so don't get your hopes high about his few lines of dialogue), but the charm or shock-value from those characters as themselves doesn't contribute to what it could have been a great film, as the whole conclusion isn't worth it (you'll get it by the third act). I would gladly watch a movie about The Joker and Harley Quinn's relationship... but this is, in the end, a lost opportunity. Oh... and the amazing vibe from the trailers?... you're gonna miss it because the music score is generic, bombastic and common-place (except for a few classic rock songs that the director tries to use to get his point across). It seems that Justice League will be the "good" DC movie after all (it better be, for Warner's sake). I'm not even keeping my hopes too high for next year's Wonder Woman after this mess, because trailers ARE deceiving. Suicide Squad is a movie that I won't buy on Blu-ray or catch again on Netflix. For those having high hopes for this film based on the material shown in the trailers: you will wish you could ask for a refund.
In true George Lucas fashion, there are 3 different versions of this Kevin Burns documentary, produced by Prometheus Entertainment. The first, running at 2:31:00 (in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio framed as 4:3), available only in the original 2004 Special Edition DVD release, in monoaural audio. A second version, intended to be broadcast on A&E to promote the release of the Special Edition DVD trilogy, that cuts down 1 whole hour of content, yet has commercial breaks planned, a fast paced beat, it retains only key interviews, and features a 2.0 Dolby Stereo track (that actually kicks-ass), and the framed 4:3 aspect ratio. The third version is available on the US version of the Blu-ray 2011 release (those box sets with the extra content disc), and it only cuts half-hour of the original content and yet adds some new visual snippets and bits (like some shots featuring world-class swordsman Bob Anderson without the Darth Vader mask in the fencing sequences, a role that Lucas never acknowledged he performed until Anderson's passing), but sadly isn't available on HD (Burns used a 720p Hi-Def video camera for the archival interviews and made a 720p cut, but Lucasfilms had the dumb idea of cramming 8 hours of content on a single dual-layer Blu-ray, so they had to keep it at 480p with 2.0 Dolby Stereo), but it restores the original 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The original 2004 version is an excellent general-interest documentary (a must-see for anyone interested in the art of filmmaking), with the added bonus of being mastefully narrated by Robert Clotworthy (Jim Raynor in Blizzard's StarCraft video game series, Marshall Law in Tekken 5 and the soothing voice in the otherwise crazy History Channel's Ancient Aliens). Gosh, I would love to watch a 720p 1.78:1 version of it, some day.
An excellent documentary. After following for years in the press this case, I was expecting someday a "behind the scenes" documentary of the case inner workings like this one, and it really was an eye opener. Amanda Knox must be one of the most dumb, egocentrical, deceitful, unreliable, manipulative and superficial persons that I've ever seen in my life. She's guilty as hell, of course. You can see clearly in her body language and expressions that she's lying during the whole documentary. Most of the time, she's acting like it's a joke for her. Sadly, the Italian police made crucial mistakes during the investigative process and the judicial system there isn't precisely the best. It must be clear for the viewer that she wasn't declared "innocent", but got the equivalent of a mistrial (twice) and the prosecution wasn't able to create a new case against her sucessfully to stand against their appeals. That's such a shame, because she should be behind bars instead of everyone treating her as the spoiled brat that she is. There was no justice for Meredith, and Amanda's family is deeply in debt after all these years (and probably will be for over a decade). Hope she rots somewhere, someday.
I gave myself time to wait a little bit to watch this movie two weeks after the premiere. It was in an excellent 300 seats movie theatre with only 3 people at 8:00 P.M. The movie, as a visual spectacle, works as such: excellent photography, good acting, very nice VFX's, and excellent music. The problem, is the narrative. For a movie, it's a bloody mess, that actually would work GREAT on a miniseries, with enough time to expand the plots and flesh out the characters. I didn't have problems to follow the story because I'm used to read books with hugely disjointed or dreamy plots. But this is a visual experience, and that sets a whole different level of expectations for the CASUAL viewer. DC Comics buffs won't have problems to find the virtues of this movie (and I must confess myself a fan of Batman) but I have to point out that the couple that was in the theatre with me, left the movie about 1 hour into the show, so I ended up watching the rest alone. I'm buying this Blu-ray (hopefully a director's cut) for my collection, but to be honest, BVSDJ needs one hour more of exposition and plot to really tell the story right. This movie will lose money, that's for sure. I just hope that fact doesn't mess with the rest of WB's plans, because I'm really looking forward for Suicide Squad and Aquaman (albeit not James Cameron's, sadly). As a bottom line: I'm sure there's a good BVSDJ movie in there, that was probably left on the cutting floor, and damn, I would loved that one!.
Golgo 13 is a retro-style anime that draws heavily from sniper stories about impossible shots in adverse conditions during the turmoil of the Cold War. If you don't know the manga by Takao Saito (the oldest still in publication, since 1968 and most likely about to conclude soon), the whole vibe of the series will feel wrong to some viewers, as Togo's narrative hasn't changed since the 70's. There is not need of character development, as the series depicts vignettes in the daily life of a professional actually doing his job, and nothing else. The characters around him are either service providers (weaponsmiths, intelligence brokers and prostitutes), clients or victims, and pretty much following the structure of the classic Japanese gangster movies, characters fade in and out, and never cross paths with him again. These 50 episodes are just like the stories depicted in the first 70 numbers of the manga. We don't know anything about Duke Togo (that isn't even his real name), and we never will (other than his code name is an "engrish" word for Golgotha and the number 13 a reference to Judas). He has an asian appearence, but never in the manga is stated as Japanese (he travels with a passport from an unspecified nation), as he speaks fluently russian, german, spanish, french, italian, english, mandarin, afrikaans and portuguese, all of them well enough to pass as a native speaker. I happen to find Golgo 13 quite refreshing, as the "assasination of the week" nature of the show is my kind of thrill (L&O style), and I don't have to worry about what's going on next, as do I know he'll get the job done and collect his 3 million dollars... or else. Suggestion: don't watch the dubbed version, and try to watch before "The Professional: Golgo 13" and the "Queen Bee" OVA, so you can get in to the mood.
One of my favorite 70's mini-series as a kid was Martian Chronicles. I had just finished Ray Bradbury's book back then (1979), and I was "in the zone" the first night that the haunting theme composed by Stanley Myers came out my little TV (as a kid I had a B&W 12" General Electric portable TV that my grandmother gave me as a gift so I could watch series at night while lying on my bed). The story was a huge departure from the book, but I was thrilled, and hugely dissapointed that it was only 3 episodes long. Over the years, I have bought this series several times (Betamax tapes, VHS tapes and the infamous Collector's Edition DVD, and also the soundtrack CD from MGM Music), and today had the chance to enjoy it in 720p, in one sitting. It looks fantastic. The budget was spent in the main cast and locations, and very, very little in visual effects (as usual in most of BBC's fare of the late 70's), and the end result is fairly decent, with only a HUGE, AWFUL, BAD VFX shot in the third episode that even as a kid made me laugh, and a few matte paintings that aren't that good here and there. The sets, props and art design are early 70's top of the line (it was shot in 1978), some of them as good as anything NBC or BBC had on the air back then. The idea was that keep the story and message clear, despite the obvious flaws. The Martian props are just amazing, and I've been looking for Martian Conflict Masks since. As a modern viewer, you'll need to look at this show with you suspension of disbelief mode fully active (the sky is blue, there are clouds everywhere, water canals and more importantly AIR, on Mars), and take the astronautics "science" with it huge grain of salt (that part of the show was crap even then). You have to, in order to enjoy a great cast, a thoughtful narrative and an excellent ending.
The visual effects by Universal Hartland for the pilot movie and some of the episodes were excellent, however this show recycled so many shots by the end of the first season that I truly knew them by heart as a kid. When Universal Hartland closed its doors in early 1981, the quality of the visual effects went down the drain, in a very noticeable way. This show benefited by Battlestar Galactica's cancellation, as many props, sets, costumes and even some visual effects were taken directly from that show. The Terran ships were designed by Ralph McQuarrie (of Star Wars fame), so even now they look sharp and timeless. It's great to see the grounds of Montreal's Expo 67 standing in for New Chicago, just as well as the Bonaventure Hotel. As for the writing... well, it's a Glen A. Larson show, so it varies from campy to awful. Gil Gerard wanted more serious storytelling instead of an "alien of the week" fare, but Universal and NBC deemed the American public of the 80's not ready for something like that. The second season was (at Universal request, actually) a direct copy of Star Trek: The Original Series, and that abrupt change made the ratings drop so fast the season was cut short after the eleventh episode. The fan base decided to ignore the second season, and actually Season One is the only one available on DVD right now (Season Two is out of print since 2004). My favorite episode is the one featuring Buster Crabbe (as Brigadier Gordon), the original Flash Gordon AND Buck Rogers.
This show is - just as the original movie was, in retrospect - a fine example of why we can't have nice things: we're such a bunch of a*******s, that enjoy destroying and perverting everything we dare to touch. There's never a middle ground. Westworld is a late-21st century place where you can f++k, rape and kill at pleasure - feeling no guilt - at $40,000 US Dlls a day per guest (around $9,000 of today's money), running under the same 3 premises that Crichton had for Jurassic Park: any sense of control is always a delusion, any complex system becomes inherently unestable with every new element that is added, and wherever we try to harness and control something (let's say, nature, genetics, the atom, chemistry, etc) it will invariably turn against us. Putting aside the philosophical and moral implications, the entire primise is outdated. Why would someone travel to somewhere in the middle of nowhere just to f++k, rape and kill, when virtual reality and neural-feedback (that will be most likely available by the end of the century) could provide a better experience (including the f+++++g, of course) without ever leaving your living room?. A late-21st century virtual reality experience will probably be better than anything Westworld has to offer, in a more cost-effective way... and it'll be probably available, even more gory, sexy and violent than whatever this show has to offer for the rest of this season. Anyway... this episode looks very expensive, so Westworld needs to grab the audience fast, lest this be its only season, following the usual curse that J.J. Abrams seems to have right now.
To be honest, I was expecting something entirely different. This was a whole different fare for me, and it never felt like an adventure, but more like a s*** hits the fan CGI-fest. Two kids are sent by their ass-tired parents (hey, Judy Greer!) to a totally secure JP that has been operating without major problems for 10 years in order to visit their aunty, who happens to run the whole operation, and who's too busy to care any less for them. Like an echo from the 90's, the big bad corporation who runs the park has a CEO who decides to create a new dino species with the initial motive of boosting ticket sales, because as any parent who has taken her/his kids to Orlando surely know, Mickey can be fun for the little devils only a few times. Their ulterior motive is revealed later, and I won't spoil it for you, but it's as just as lame as you might expect and totally unrealistic (like taming a flesh-eating tornado to kill your enemies). Anyway, as it could be predicted, the "asset goes out of containment" and things go awfully wrong. One single dino literally wrecks havoc and destroys a muti-billion touristic attraction.The whole time I was thinking in the back of my mind "Gosh, those lawsuits are gonna be awful, InGen and Masrani Corp are soooooo broke right now". It's a so-predictable late 90's movie that it's a little bit more fun than JP3, but only barely. The story has many plot holes and tries to support itself on outdated conventions. What made this flick at least tolerable for me (besides the excellent 3D conversion), was Chris Pratt as the "Raptor Whisperer" who becomes (of course) the "reluctant" hero who happens to be also humble and funny (and a former lover of the kids aunty). He's getting typecast so fast into those roles, I'm afraid. My hopes were too high for this movie, and I was utterly disappointed. Maybe you won't, until you settle down from the adrenaline rush and notice the paper thin story. Sequels like this one are the reason why I own only the first JP movie in Blu-ray, and gave away the other two.
An improvement over the theatrical version, the Ultimate Edition is a better cut with some narrative patches, but not yet a great movie. Some scenes from the original release are trimmed and others totally missed (some very important for character development, as the fist fighter that Wayne helps in his match), as expected, because there is a limit of assets that you can have on the disc. However, the problem persists: the narrative is still very much disjointed and chaotic, with those lame dream sequences trying to serve as plot points and all the main characters developing telepathy by the third act, so they "know" where to go and what to do without exchanging a single word or even a glance. I would gladly give up half the screen time devoted to the action sequences in order to add more dialogue and clarify tons of plot holes and get rid of so many character contradictions, not to mention why in heaven and hell Luthor decided to put all these events in motion. When it comes to franchises, every director must play with the toys at hand, be grateful of having the chance and return them into the box in one piece, so others can play after him. So, you don't kill characters just to have fun (Kimmy Olsen), or alter a half a century old geography setting to place two N.Y.-size cities one across the other because it pleases you, just to name a few. Snyder is a great visual artist, and really I do happen to enjoy his films in a visual sense, but I don't like his vision for the DC's Extended Universe, and I can only really hope someone takes it from his hands before we end up with Darkseid as the antagonist in less than two movies (the Mother Boxes and the "dream" are so obvious). Remember: it took Marvel almost a decade just to place the chess pieces on the board for one single game with Thanos. After Thanos... it will be hard to find an all-powerful adversary. Warner is making a disservice to DC trying to play catch up and introducing their villain so soon. Take 10 years and a dozen movies to develop settings for the Darkseid battle. Enjoy the game, and let us enjoy it too.
Building over the previous instalment, Rogue Nation proposes a plot that involves a deep-secret organisation hidden in plain sight within the confines of the world-wide intelligence community. Of course, this isn't something new, at all (S.P.E.C.T.R.E. did all that back since the late 50's). The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist, and just like that The Syndicate goes to extreme lengths to cover its tracks, not too convincingly. I mean, The Syndicate has been operating with almost unlimited funding since 9/11, but has never been able to manage a true chaos environment to thrive in and keep the status-quo... and that's a complete failure of its mission statement, specially with that kind of budget. The real C.I.A. did better than that with just a a minimal fraction of that money in South America in the 60's and the Middle East in the early 80's. The action scenes are good enough, but none of them surpass the elegance and thrill of the Burj Khalifa sequence in Ghost Protocol (and that's sad, in my opinion). Sam Harris isn't as convincing as he needs to be as the main antagonist, and I did find his exposition scenes a little bit forced, and within the Hollywood cliché that the villain has to explain everything to us, mere mortals, instead of just just killing the hero. The Chinese investment in the film is felt and unwelcome, in my opinion, just like it happened to Marvel in Iron Man 3, trying to add Chinese characters and scenes (trust me, those 15 extra minutes of the Chinese plot in Iron Man 3 available only in the Asian version of the film are worthless). Overall, this is a fine movie, albeit of lesser quality than the previous one in terms of scope. IMF is always (except in the first 2 movies) in the verge of disappearing, and 4 of the movies have the characters in rogue mode, so it's a little bit disappointing to me that they are still beating that same dead horse once again. Please, it is that hard to portray a few flawless missions just as the TV series did in a hundred episodes with a bare-bottoms budget and good acting?.
Ira Levin's novel is one of my favourites, and Polanski's film happens to be almost a step-by-step adaptation (he was Oscar-nominated for it), with a marvellous cast. This adaptation directed by Agnieszka Holland (adapted from the film, not the novel itself) isn't half bad. She had at her disposal a great cast also: modelling legend Carole Bouquet (my favorite Bond Girl), the always charming Jason Isaacs (he's 100% fluent in Spanish and he shows us that he can also deliver his lines in French, nicely), the very likeable Patrick J. Adams (in his contractually-mandated Suits haircut) and the lovely Christina Cole (a little bit under-used in her role). However the whole 3 hours lie to rest on Zoe Saldaña's shoulders, who is also producing. Moving the plot to Paris was a good move, albeit a distracting one given the fact that most of the cast is American or British, with a few French extras tossed in the mix. There's nothing in modern-day NY that even resembles the feeling and mood of the 1967 film, so the new setting might be an understandable approach. The locations (very touristic shots of Champs-Élysées, Eiffel Tower, Sorbonne, Le Grand Véfour and The Catacombs) and settings are fresh (all the interior shots were done in London), and the photography feels moody and effective. The fact that Rosemary is now an accomplished ballet dancer that supported her husband through college instead of a naive high-school graduated Omaha housewife, was a nice touch, given the current times. However, the final product feels more at times like an slasher-splatter film, departing drastically from the implied elegance in Polanski's film. This mini-series suffers (in my opinion) from the added scenes (the police commissioner and Julie's scenes are tedious) and plots (so much unnecessary drama) needed to fill-in the allotted 3.2 hours, despite its nicely done editing, music, CGI and practical effects. The supporting characters are underdeveloped in most cases, and Rosemary's nightmares and pregnancy ailments take so much exposition time, that it becomes boring. A well-trimmed 2 hours version in film format might deliver (removing the explicit violence) a better experience, at least for me.
This movie is relevant for several reasons. The first one, is that it's the first movie with Morgan Freeman as the only male lead (Seven had Pitt billed as lead). You can count with one hand the number of movies with african-american leads in the 90’s. This movie also jumpstarted Ashley Judd's film career (she was fresh from 4 seasons in Sisters) and prompted her as a main female lead for about nine movies (including one more with Morgan Freeman). It's also one of the few James Patterson's screen adaptations, and probably the best of them (Along Came A Spider is not as good and Alex Cross is just awful). In retrospective, the problem with Kiss The Girls is that the part that happens in California was re-cut and re-shot by the producers, and it feels rushed and part of a whole different movie. Gary Fleder is a very talented director, but critics felt he was too young at the time (most of his credits were in TV, and this was his second feature), so the critics were very harsh about his gritty visual style, that now happens to be the norm in film and TV. Finally, the film was too dark for the 90's (even with the over-stylish and not explicit shots), both in theme and style and the American audience just wasn't ready for its visual language. In 1997 this movie was released against Titanic, JP2, The World Is Not Enough, Men In Black, Air Force One and The Fifth Element at the same time in the box office, and suffered for it, because the marketing was scarce, too focused on the American public, and Paramount barely spent any money to promote it overseas. It's an excellent dark movie, that just got lost in the glitter.
There's certain degree of nostalgia when popping in this DVD into my player, upscaled to 1080p in 4:3 aspect ratio. Back in 1992, I got hold of this VHS tape named Beyond The Mind's Eye, at a Musicland (for those of you who might remember them when there was one in every mall) for $29.99. It's a 45 minutes showcase of the CGI state of the art from 1987-91, including graphics from leading CG artists, VFX houses and some universities, with background music from Jan Hammer (of Miami Vice fame). Totally amazing back then, even when the narrative is so disjointed and the overall quality of the CGI varies from segment to segment, it tries to keep coherence and provide a story hold together by the music. It works, because I used to keep it playing hours at a time while I was busy, as a background video. In 1998 I was able to replace my VHS tape with a brand new BTME DVD (Musicland rocks) for $39.99, now including Jan Hammer's CD soundtrack for the same price. The other entries in the Mind's Eye series are not as polished or successful as this one, and were a disappointment when compared to this beauty, where the quality of the clips and music make them work as a whole. Miramar (the company that released this series) went bankrupt, the material out of print and today used BTME tapes and discs (LD and DVD) command prices between $49.99 and $60.00, so I didn't lose a dime. It's a shame that the source material for this disc is 480p 4:3, because it would benefit from a re-release.
What to say, that hasn't been hammered to death by critics and press already?. For starters, if you try at any moment to take this film seriously, you'll be seriously disappointed. But, if you approach it with an open mind, it's actually a really light hearted and goofy comedy. I couldn't help laugh or chuckle most of the movie, and I like that. Both Johnson and Dornan are good performers, but can't help that their dialogues are unintentionally funny, and some are more than laughable. Well, I happen to find that a great redeeming quality that I wasn't expecting to find. The dozen little nods that try to break the fourth wall (like a serial killer reference to Dornan's role in The Fall, and the Crazy In Alabama little nod), the fact that the featured luxury items (expensive but not exclusive) are what any under-2-billion nouveau riche would try to acquire, kept me watching it (the photography and art direction are also top-notch). This film has the best non-score soundtrack I've heard in 2015 so far, and I've to admit that I paid for it as soon it was available in iTunes (great choice of songs and placement in the scenes). As a romantic comedy of sorts, it works up to the first moments of the third act, when everything hits the fan. However, we all know 50 Shades Of Grey isn't marketed as a comedy. It's a huge failure as a sex thriller (less than 10 minutes of sex scenes), that is light years away from any resemblance of what a true & healthy BDSM relationship should be for its participants. Grey breaks so many conventions and rules that the BDSM community holds close at hand, that it made me cringe and dismiss him immediately as a cartoonish single-sided character (and I have to accept that Dornan tries his very best to deliver his lines as straight as possible). On the other side, I did find Steele's character sparkly, funny and charming, empowering at times, incredibly naive, but dead-pan honest. That confers a certain tenderness to Johnson's performance, that isn't lost to me. Anyway, we all know that the film's producers are laughing from critics all the way to the bank, and the officially licensed products (from pencils to sex toys) are selling better than candy (somewhere close to $1 billion, so far). So, I'm enjoying it as much as possible you can with any pop-corn flick and waiting if they can improve the characters in the next instalment, while keeping in the back of my mind that I might be able to edit this movie and turn it into a bad-ass great comedy.
