defrog | Entries tagged with film star

Well, sure, since you asked.

This is probably my first meaningful year-end films list in awhile, in that I managed to actually see a decent number of movies this year – not because the cinemas opened back up (they didn’t, really, not until around September or so) so much as we finally caved in and got streaming subscriptions.

Which also means that I can now count movies made by streaming platforms, which I didn’t used to, but everyone else does now, and it’s the future apparently, so screw it.

Also, it was a pretty good year for movies, so I actually can do a Top 10 list this year. Which delights you no end, I’m sure.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: If yr favorite movie of 2022 isn’t here, it’s likely because (1) I didn’t get a chance to see it, (2) it hasn’t been released in Hong Kong yet, or (3) I did see it but didn’t like it as much as you did. Also, if some of these seem kind of old, it’s because their release date was 2021 for yr country, but 2022 for Hong Kong. See?

TOP 10 DEF FILMS OF 2022

1. Everything Everywhere All At Once

Second film from Daniels (a.k.a. Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) in which Michelle Yeoh is Evelyn, a Chinese-American trying to keep her laundry business going whilst coping with her meek husband Waymond who wants a divorce, her rebellious lesbian daughter Joy, her aging and demanding father, and the IRS. In the middle of her IRS audit interview, she finds out that a multiverse exists, that someone is trying to destroy it, and she is the only person who can stop it. And it all gets weirder from there. In fact it’s one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever seen (and yes, I’ve seen their first film, Swiss Army Man – it’s even weider than that). It’s bonkers genius, a surreal assault on the senses that throws a dozen different genres into a blender yet still manages to make sense and be emotionally moving. Proof that it’s very much possible to make a SF action comedy this imaginative on a relatively low budget without relying on bankable franchises and old intellectual property. The antithesis of the new Top Gun movie, in other words.

2. Don’t Look Up

Two astronomers discover a comet is going to hit the Earth and wipe out all life in six months. Unfortunately for them (and Earth), the media doesn’t take them seriously. Neither does President Orlean – until she finds herself in need of a distraction from her latest scandal. It’s not a parody of disaster films but a savage satire of America’s vacuous media (print, TV and social), polarized politics, climate-change denial and the Trump admin. So obviously your opinion will likely depend on your political leanings. For me, I think that while it occasionally goes overboard, it’s probably one of the most realistic disaster films ever made – and that’s thanks largely to reality having become weirder than fiction for the last five years. The satire may not be subtle, but maybe something more in-you-face is called for in in a world where Trump actually served one term as POTUS and has a chance at serving another.

3. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Sequel to Knives Out, in which Daniel Craig returns as Southern gentleman detective Benoit Blanc. This time around, tech billionaire Miles Bron has invited five old friends whom he considers fellow “disruptors” for a murder mystery weekend. But someone also apparently sent an invitation to Blanc, who appears unannounced. To say more would be to give too much away – it’s more fun if you go in cold. This is a rare sequel that lives up to the original without repeating the formula. Come for the mystery, stay for the hardcore satire of self-proclaimed genius billionaires and the people who will do anything to be close to that much money and influence. Extra credit to writer/director Rian Johnson for deploying one of the most hackneyed plot twists in mystery movies and getting away with it (though this may depend on who you ask).

4. Nope

Jordan Peele’s third movie takes on the UFO genre, in which OJ Haywood and his sister Em realize that their ranch (which trains horses for Hollywood movies) is being hounded by a UFO, and decide to try and capture evidence of its existence. Which sounds like a huge departure from Peele’s previous horror films (Get Out and Us), and it kind of is, but not in a bad way. The metaphors perhaps aren’t as obvious (the film is ostensibly about humanity’s addiction to spectacle, as well as our arrogant and exploitative attitudes towards animals and nature), but it’s a lot of fun, even during the more horrifying moments. If nothing else, it looks and sounds absolutely fantastic.

5. The French Dispatch

In which Wes Anderson pays homage to The New Yorker and the journalists and writers who filled its pages. The French Dispatch is a Sunday magazine published by the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun and based in the French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé (all fictional, obviously). The film is an anthology divided into the magazine’s sections, with each one featuring a story from the final issue – a cycle tour of Ennui-sur-Blasé, a profile of an artist imprisoned for double homicide, inside coverage of the student “Chessboard Revolution” in 1968, and a story about a heroic police chef. It’s a very Wes Anderson film in every sense, so yr opinion of this will probably depends on your opinion of Anderson’s other films and whether you’re as big of a New Yorker fan as he is. For me, I like his aesthetic approach, and as a journalist I have a special appreciation for the topic.

6. See How They Run

Equal parts Agatha Christie tribute and critique, See How They Run takes the ‘whodunit’ template and goes meta with it. The story starts at the 100^th performance of Christie’s stage play The Mouse Trap, attended by blacklisted movie director Leo Köpernick who is slated to direct a film version of the play. After he narrates his own murder, Inspector Stoppard is called to investigate the usual roomful of suspects, along with the inexperienced Constable Stalker. Part of the fun comes from the film’s dissection of the genre as it goes along, but most of it is the comic interaction between Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan and Stoppard and Stalker. It’s a decent mystery and a lot of fun. I’m told there are lots of easter eggs only fans of Christie, The Mouse Trap, British murder mysteries and theatre will get. I managed to enjoy it anyway.

7. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

In which Nicolas Cage plays Nick Cage (basically a fictional version of himself), an actor whose best years may be behind him, and plans to retire from acting when his agent tells him that billionaire playboy Javi Gutierrez will pay him $1 million to come to Majorca to be the guest of honor at his birthday – and maybe write a screenplay together. Cage and Javi become friends – after which two CIA agents recruit him to spy on Javi, who they say is an arms dealer who has kidnapped the daughter of a Catalan politician. Part action comedy, part metacommentary on action comedies, and part self-parody, it’s not exactly the weirdest thing Cage has ever done. But it is funny, and one of his better films. (It also convinced me to see both Paddington movies, so there’s also that.)

8. The Menu

Foodie Tyler and his date Margot travel by boat to Hawthorn, a fancy and exclusive restaurant on a remote island owned and operated by celebrity chef Julian Slowik, who has prepared a special and elaborate menu for this evening’s guests. The dishes are conceptual and unique and come with a story, but it’s clear early on that something sinister is as the evening unfolds. I confess I was expecting another cannibalism movie, and I was pleased to be wrong. The film is more a dark satire of foodie culture and celebrity chefs, with plenty of twists and turns. Apart from Tyler and Margot, the guests are a bit thinly fleshed out and serve mainly to represent types (wealthy regulars, renowned food critic, tech executives, famous movie star, etc), and director Mark Mylod keeps the tension going throughout. Occasionally head-scratching, but overall very captivating.

9. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Part sequel, part tribute to Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever manages the almost impossible task of living up to the original without bringing back the main character T’Challa. Of course it helps that (1) anyone can wear the Black Panther suit if they take the herb and pass the initiation, and (2) much of what made Black Panther so good wasn’t just Boseman, but a strong set of supporting characters, the detailed world-building of Wakanda and its relationship to the rest of the world in the MCU. Such is the case here – not least because this film also introduces Namor the Sub-mariner and his underwater empire. As with the original, the characters and world-building are what really sell it, and it has a lot to say about colonialism and the exploitation of developing countries for resources from the POV of the colonized – which will inevitably bother some people, but not me. The main downside is that it occasionally shifts into CG overload more noticeably than the first one. And yet despite that, in some ways it’s an improvement on the first one (which was, in my opinion, excellent).It’s not only worthy of the BP mantle, it’s also still better than most Marvel films.

10. Nightmare Alley

If Guillermo del Toro’s name is on it, I will usually give it a try. His latest is not so much a remake of the 1947 noir film as a new film based on the same 1946 novel. Mysterious drifter Stan Carlisle gets work at a local carnival with clairvoyant Madam Zeena and her alcoholic husband Pete. Carlisle learns their tricks and strikes out on his own, eventually reinventing himself as a successful mentalist. Then he meets psychologist Dr Lilith Ritter, and it all starts going to hell. As you might expect with del Toro, he dials the Noir up to 11 and exploits weird carny visuals to maximum and brilliant effect – but it’s the story and the acting that really sell it. Fans of the original film with Tyrone Power might not be impressed – on the other hand, del Toro arguably out-noirs it by staying more true to the novel’s ending.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The Adam Project

After last year’s Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds teams with director Shawn Levy again for this SF film that’s been described as a mash-up of Back To The Future and The Last Starfighter – which isn’t really that accurate. But it does involve time travel – pilot Adam Reed steals a time jet in a dystopian 2050 and attempts to jump back to 2018 to save his wife Laura Shane, who is believed to have been killed there when her own time jet crashed. He accidentally ends up in 2022 instead and meets his 12-year-old self. And from there it doesn’t quite go the way you think, mainly because the story intentionally ditches the usual paradox tropes of time-travel stories and puts the focus on 2050 Adam and 2022 Adam helping each other come to terms with their respective pasts and futures. It’s not quite as intellectual or corny as it sounds – it’s a lightweight but entertaining SF film with a sense of humor.

The Lost City

This is one of those times where the only thing I knew going in was the title and the fact that Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum were in it, and there was a lost city involved. Loretta Sage is a romance-adventure novelist who is still mourning her recently deceased archaeologist husband – Alan Caprison is the hot cover model for her books who is also the star attraction during her book tours. Loretta is kidnapped by billionaire Abigail Fairfax, who has discovered a lost city on a remote Atlantic island, and believes Loretta can help him translate a map to a hidden treasure, as her latest book included a lot of research on the island. The Romancing The Stone comparisons are rather superficial – this is more of a screwball comedy, and gets by mainly on the chemistry between Bullock and Tatum and a sense of realism in that neither are action heroes, which is a nice touch. And it’s funny too, which is nice.

Thor: Love and Thunder

Thor! More Thor! Thor War! Thor 4! Taika Waititi’s follow-up to Thor: Ragnarok (easily the best of the first three Thor films) sees Thor having something of an identity crisis whilst hanging out with the Guardians of the Galaxy (for reasons I assume are explained in some other Marvel property I haven’t seen yet). While he’s sorting that out, he discovers that Gorr the God Butcher is trying to (of course) kill all gods. He also discovers that his old girlfriend Dr Jane Foster is now wielding his old hammer Mjolnir, giving her Thunder God powers. Awkward! All up, Waititi delivers another fun Thor movie, but not quite as fun as Ragnarok – “lost Thor” is kind of annoying, actually. On the other hand, credit to Waititi for putting more emotion and believability into the Thor/Jane Foster angle than then first two movies combined.

The Sparring Partner

Hong Kong drama loosely based on a real murder case in 2013 when a man murdered his parents, chopped them to pieces, and went on the internet to tell people his parents had gone missing – after which he inexplicably admitted the whole thing online. Looks great and the acting is top-notch, but the film is also kind of messy – it’s part law procedural, focusing on the trial and the jury deliberations, but it’s also a psychological drama, and the film never seems to strike the right balance between the two. On the other hand, the film is also crafted as a subtle critique of Hong Kong’s criminal justice system – which, at a time when the HK govt is desperately trying to convince people that its judicial system remains fair and independent despite strong evidence to the contrary, is pretty brave. So, points for that.

Prey

The latest edition to the Predator franchise – this one set in 1719 in the Great Plains where Naru, a young Comanche woman trained as a healer, dreams of becoming a great hunter like her brother, Taabe. While tracking down a mountain lion that attacked one of their tribe, she realizes that there is something else out in the woods. When no one else takes her seriously, she goes off on her own to hunt it and prove herself. In some ways, it’s basically just another rehash of the Predator formula with no real surprises. That said, it does add a new twist in by pitting human and alien hunting culture against each other rather than just having trained soldiers encounter an alien on safari yet again.

Warriors of Future

In which visual effects artist Ng Yuen-fai sets out to prove that Hong Kong can (with help from China) make a sci-fi blockbuster as good as anything Hollywood churns out. And so it can – albeit depending on which Hollywood SF blockbuster you compare it to. The premise: in post-apocalyptic 2055, a giant alien plant has crashed in Sector B-16 (a.k.a. Hong Kong) that grows quickly when it rains. But it also helps purify Earth’s polluted atmosphere. A military unit is tasked with injecting the plant with a biovirus that will prevent further growth but allow the plant to continue cleaning the air. On the plus side, it’s easily the best use of CG I’ve ever seen in a HK film (even if visually it borrows heavily from a half-dozen Hollywood films, especially Transformers, Iron Man and the Alien franchise). Also, Sean Lau and Carina Lau are in it, which is never a bad thing. Storywise, it’s derivative and rather cheesy at times, and while it may tick most of the boxes in the Hollywood blockbuster formula, it’s still a formula.

BEST ANIMATED MOVIE

The Bad Guys

Based on a series of kids books, this is about a criminal gang of animals who are essentially villains because that’s what people assume they are (wolf, shark, tarantula, snake, piranha). After his team is caught by the police, the leader, Mr Wolf, agrees to a challenge by Governor Foxington (a fox) to reform the team under the tutelage of Professor Marmalade, a guinea pig philanthropist who believes anyone can turn good. While Mr Wolf is only agreeing to the proposition as an angle to commit another heist, he finds himself actually wanting to do good deeds. If you’ve seen enough of these kind of movies, you already know the key plot twist. Despite that, it’s better than I thought it would be. It sometimes tries too hard, but overall it’s fun.

THE FILM WE DIDN’T NEED IN 2022

Jurassic World: Domination

The conclusion to the second Jurassic Park trilogy, which attempts to unite the whole saga by bringing back Sam Neill and Laura Dern as Alan Grant and Ellie Sadler. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough to improve the most bloated and non-sensical film of the series (which is saying something, as the series stopped making sense with the first Jurassic World film). I get that these films are basically an excuse to see dinosaurs attacking people, but still. I suppose the biggest problem is that Dominion completely fails to run with the premise at the end of Fallen Kingdom: that dinos are now loose in the world and humans must co-exist with them. I don't know that it would have been a better film if they had, but it might have been a lot more believable.

THE OTHER AGATHA CHRISTIE-RELATED MOVIE I SAW IN 2022

Death On The Nile

Kenneth Branagh’s sequel of sorts to his 2017 remake of Murder On The Orient Express, in which master detective Hercule Poirot does indeed go to the Nile, where this indeed death, eventually. This time, Poirot is invited by his friend Bouc to join a party celebrating the wedding of Simon Doyle and Linnet Ridgway – only to find they are being stalked by Jacqueline, Simon’s former lover and Linnet’s former best friend. You know that won’t end well. Part of the fun of these movies (if you haven’t read the books, which I haven’t) is not only figuring out the mystery, but also figuring out who is eventually going to be the murder victim after 20-30 minutes of exposition. Branagh delivers on the latter, but (as with MOTOE) plays it too close to the vest with the clues, with Poirot deducing a lot of facts seemingly out of thin air. Maybe that’s how he does it in the books? Anyway, it looks fabulous and all, but MOTOE was more fun, and it’s ultimately about watching insanely rich people with problems.

THE MOVIE THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A LOT BETTER THAN IT WAS

Morbius

I guess Marvel is now looking to see what other characters it can dig out of its massive IP library for its MCU, so why not Morbius, The Living Vampire, who started off as a Spiderman villain before becoming a sort of anti-hero. This is another origin movie, in which Michael Morbius is a brilliant scientist with a rare blood disorder. He develops a cure by blending human blood and vampire bat blood – only it turns him into a vampire-like creature with superpowers. Which is fine as far as it goes – the problem is that it takes itself way too seriously for an MCU film, in part because it falls into the trappings of the vampire genre. And that might be okay, except that it’s basically just another vampire movie that doesn’t bring anything new to the table.

Bite me,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: Iggy Pop, "Every Loser"

The eagle-eyed reader may have noticed I didn’t post a Best Films of 2020 last year. And there’s a good reason for that – in 2020 I only saw two films, as I don’t subscribe to streaming services, the movie theatres were closed for most of the year, and I didn’t fly anywhere (airplanes being a key source of movie-watching for me). And of the two I saw, only one was any good (Les Miserables – not the musical, but the film about police racism and poverty in Paris, which by the way is intense and brilliant).

This year I managed to see more films, though not many more – and that was largely due to my trip to the US (25 hours each way) followed by three weeks in hotel quarantine. So I had a little spare time.

Despite that, I still didn't get to see that many films, and not that many were good, so yr getting a Top 5 from me this year, and yr lucky to get that.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: If yr favorite movie of 2021 isn’t here, it’s likely because (1) I didn’t get a chance to see it, (2) it hasn’t been released in Hong Kong yet, or (3) I did see it but didn’t like it as much as you did. Also, if some of these seem kind of old, it’s because their release date was 2020 for yr country, but 2021 for Hong Kong. See?

TOP FIVE DEF FILMS OF 2021

1. The Matrix Resurrections

Did we need another Matrix movie? Even as a fan of the original trilogy, I would say “not really” – but we got one anyway, and if we have to have one, I think this is a good one to have. Of course, I may just be relieved that the way they bring back Neo and Trinity is more or less believable (it is), and that – despite the obvious callbacks to the original trilogy in the trailer – the film doesn’t simply repeat the same story. Indeed, the film is extremely self-referential on that score – and this is a Matrix updated for the social media age, which also serves as dead-on (if oversimplified) sociopolitical critique I’ve come to expect from this series. It’s by no means perfect – as with the other films, some bits work better if you don’t think about them too much, and this time around the action scenes aren’t as easy to follow as Lana Wachowski drops the tightly controlled anime framing in favor of standard hand-held closeups. But overall I liked this a lot better than I thought I would. I loved it, actually. Caveat emptor: if you didn’t like the original trilogy (or the talky bits in the sequels), you probably won’t like this. And this is really for fans only – if you haven’t seen the trilogy, it’s unlikely this film will make any sense.

2. Nomadland

Based on Jessica Bruder’s non-fiction book about older American workers who lost their livelihoods after the 2008 recession and became transient gig-economy nomads, living in RVs and vans, the film follows Fern, an unemployed widow who hits the road in her van to find work wherever it may be. Frances McDormand is excellent as usual, every line on her face reflecting Fern’s ongoing struggle with the loss of her husband, trying to find work and being treated as a homeless vagrant. That, plus writer/director Chloe Zhao’s decision to blend pro actors with real nomads tells the film’s story perhaps more convincingly than a straight documentary would have. Zhao also wisely avoids melodrama and political polemics – to the apparent dismay of some critics who feel the film glosses over how Amazon treats its workers and should have taken the opportunity to make Big Statements about late-stage capitalism. But then it would have been a movie less focused on its characters, who aren't living van life to make a statement – they’re doing it because harsh circumstances and gritty socioeconomic realities made it their best available option, and because the community that formed around them gives them more support than “normal” society does. That’s the real heart of the film, and what ultimately makes it work for me.

3. Memories To Choke On, Drinks To Wash Them Down

This indie HK film from writer/directors Leung Ming Kai and Kate Reilly is an anthology of four stories – three fictional + one documentary – that are linked by the themes of memory and change. Storywise, it’s a mixed bag, but in terms of acting and direction, it’s a very well-crafted film. And arguably the stories themselves matter less than the film’s composite portrait / metaphor of a city in transition, with many people trying to preserve its local identity and history while being dragged into an uncertain future by economic and political forces that have no use for either. That said, Leung and Reilly wisely avoid obvious melodrama and overt political statements, opting to focus on the daily reality of life in HK amid ongoing sociopolitical crises (indeed, it’s not until the end of the third segment that HK’s political turmoil is directly referred to at all). Some may feel the documentary is out of place, but I think it emphasizes that the first three segments are grounded in the same reality of local HK culture that has always had to constantly respond and adapt to external changes being thrust upon it. It also quietly acknowledges that the 2019 protests were a real-life example of this. It might be too slow and anti-climactic for some people, and unsatisfyingly neutral for others. But few films manage to reflect the variety of modern HK life (as well as its landscape) this accurately.

4. Cockroach

This documentary from Chinese artist Ai Weiwei covers the 2019 Hong Kong protests, from the first huge march in June to the PolyU siege in November. It eschews an obvious narrative in favor of a “you are there” street level view of the protests and their descent into violence, although it does offer a modicum of context via interviews with pro-Demo figures, frontline protesters, movement supporters and even a few police officers. But it’s far from comprehensive, and thus requires a deeper knowledge of specific events. That said, its greatest success is portraying the protesters as they were – not evil, violent anarchist terrorists organized and trained by the CIA (as the govt would have us now believe), but a spontaneous, leaderless movement of ordinary people pushed to desperation by a brutal police force beating and tear-gassing them (and anyone who got in their way) for demanding the future they had been promised. There’s little doubt whose side Ai is on – and this occasionally works to the film’s detriment – but it’s a strikingly accurate portrayal of the movement. If you want to know what happened and how, you’ll have to do your own research. If you want to know what it was like to live in HK during that time (whether on the front lines or watching from home), this should give you a good idea.

5. Free Guy

In which Ryan Reynolds is Guy, a bank teller who has no idea he’s a non-player character (NPC) in a multiplayer shooter game called Free City. That changes after a random encounter with a cool player named Molotov Girl, and Guy starts to question his routine life. There’s a lot of familiar tropes here, from The Truman Show to The Lego Movie, though tone-wise it leans more towards the latter. But it’s actually a rather inspired take on what it must be like to live as a bystander in the worlds that videogame heroes (and villains) inhabit, where 24/7 badass hyperviolence is just a normal part of the environment – it’s also a not-so-subtle dig at videogames where killing NPCs is encouraged and rewarded. It’s a little cheesy in places, and if you’re one of those people who can’t stand Ryan Reynolds, this won’t change your mind. But it’s an awful lot of fun to watch.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

No Time To Die

James Bond #25 and the last one to feature Daniel Craig, It also completes the somewhat meandering story arc that began with Casino Royale in rather surprising ways (to include perhaps the boldest ending in Bond history). It also conforms to the apparent pattern of Craig-era Bond films alternating between excellent and average – this is the third best of the series, hampered mainly by running way too long and relying on yet another “Bond quits MI6 again” trope. Also, it’s a drag that Moneypenny is sidelined even more this time despite her established field experience. But it looks as fantastic and epic as a Bond film should, and it cements the Craig era as the one in which Bond became a believable three-dimensional character. Whoever gets the role next will have a high bar to clear.

Dune

Or, more accurately, Dune Part 1, as director Denis Villeneuve opted to split his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s SF classic into two films – which is probably wise, given the epic scope of the story and the notoriously failed attempt by David Lynch to cram the whole thing into one film. I’m one of those people who never got into the book (I tried it once and lasted maybe 50 pages), so I came into this with a relatively open mind. That said, the story itself is a familiar template – exploitative empires, warring houses fighting for control of the universe’s most valuable resource, the plucky resistance, a secret religious society working behind the scenes, a young teenage boy who will rise to end the war, etc. On the downside, it tends to drag in places, and it’s a little too serious for its own good. The best thing about Villeneuve’s take is the visuals – Dune doesn’t just look and sound fantastic, it really captures the epic scope of the story and feels like something that is taking place tens of thousands of years in the future.

THE OTHER HK PROTEST DOCUMENTARY I SAW IN 2021

Do Not Split

This short documentary from Norwegian documentarian Anders Hammer about the 2019 protests in Hong Kong was nominated for an Oscar this year, prompting Beijing to ban live broadcasts of the Oscars in mainland China and HK. The film is limited in scope, starting from September 2019 (when Hammer started filming) to July 2020, when the National Security Law was passed. September is also when violence was starting to become a regular feature of protests in response to the escalating police brutality against protesters and innocent bystanders alike – consequently, the film’s main problem is that it can give the misleading impression that the protesters were violent all the time, which isn’t true. Instead of providing context, Hammer stays focused on the street-level reality of the events in front of him. That said, the film’s main theme is how the protest movement had wide public support despite the hardcore protesters vandalizing China-owned shops and street furniture, largely because they were more appalled by the indiscriminate and disproportionate violence dished out by the police with the blessing of the increasingly authoritarian HK govt. It’s an intense film that works within its own parameters, but viewers should bear in mind that it’s just a portion of a much larger story.

THE OTHER VIDEOGAME MOVIE I SAW IN 2021

Boss Level

In this case, the videogame angle is aesthetic window dressing for a story in which Frank Grillo is a badass stuck in a time loop in which multiple badass assassins are out to kill him, and he constantly has to figure out how to survive past a certain time of day with each new reset. So basically it’s Edge Of Tomorrow without the aliens. There’s nothing especially original here, with most of the creativity going into cartoonishly nasty OTT ultraviolence. But it’s reasonably well written for what it is, and Grillo does convey the changes his character goes through as he finds out what’s going on. Still, Free Guy was more fun.

BIGGEST LETDOWN OF 2021

Godzilla vs Kong

Just like it says, and I have to say, I was disappointed. Sure, we’re just here to see giant monsters punch each other, and for me there’s the novelty value of watching yet another Hollywood film destroy Hong Kong at night with no respect for basic geography. But it pales in comparison to the other two Monsterverse films I’ve seen – Godzilla had a more engaging visual style, and Kong: Skull Island had more interesting (if one-dimensional) human characters to fill up the time when Kong was offscreen.

THE MOVIE THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A LOT BETTER THAN IT WAS

Chaos Walking

The setting for this SF film is a colony planet where all contact has been lost. All the women have been killed by indigenous lifeforms, while all of the surviving men have somehow developed nearly uncontrollable telepathy that broadcasts their every thought. The story follows Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland), a second-generation colonist who has never seen a woman before. So naturally he’s the one who discovers Viola (Daisey Ridley), whose ship crashed after being sent to investigate what happened to the colony. It doesn’t quite go down the obvious route from there, but the truths that are eventually uncovered as Todd helps Viola escape danger are mostly predictable. Which might be okay if the film took a deeper dive into the consequences of everyone being able to see and hear what you’re thinking, but alas.

THE MOVIE I DIDN’T LIKE THAT EVERYONE ELSE DID

Undine

This German film from writer/director Christian Petzold made a lot of Best of 2021 lists. It’s ostensibly a modern take on the mythical folktale of the undine – irresistible water nymphs who fall in love with men so they can live among humans, but must return to the water if their lover betrays them (but not before killing him first). In this case, Undine is a woman who gives lectures on Berlin architecture at the Märkisches Museum. The film opens with her current boyfriend Johannes breaking up with her, but before she can kill him, she meets Christoph, an industrial diver, and immediately falls for him instead. Their romance takes up most of the film, and it’s not until Johannes re-enters the picture two-thirds of the way in that things take a dark turn – little of which makes any kind of sense if you don't know the undine myth, because Petzold keeps the mythical angle as vague as possible, playing it as a standard romantic tragedy with a weird supernatural twist at the end. Even when you know Undine’s secret, it’s still essentially a straight doomed-romance film (albeit a well-acted and directed one). It’s okay, but not really my thing. If nothing else, I learned a lot about Berlin urban development.

THE MOVIE I THOUGHT CAME OUT IN 2021 BUT ACTUALLY CAME OUT YEARS AGO BUT I LIKED IT LOT

1480 Radio Pirates

This came out in 2014 in New Zealand (as 3 Mile Limit), but apparently got a new release in 2021 for streaming services. It’s loosely based on the true story of Radio Hauraki, New Zealand’s first pirate radio station, set up offshore in the mid-60s by a music journalist because the govt’s New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation refused to play rock’n’roll. It’s a simple Little Guy vs Big Govt story, but one I’m sympathetic to in terms of both radio and rock music. It’s also interesting that director Craig Newland opted to record new 60s-sounding songs rather than license existing ones – and for the most part you’d swear you were hearing forgotten 45s (only the sound quality gives it away). Anyway, it’s not without flaws, but it’s very watchable.

Pieces of eight,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: Webb Wilder, "Is This All There Is?"

So I watched The Ten Commandments on TV the other night. I had never seen it before. Here are ten thoughts about it:

1. The “directed by Cecil B De Mille” title card in the opening credits is very on-brand.

2. That was a hell of a lot of exposition to wade through to get to the plagues.

3. Disappointed that they cheated on the plagues by having half of them happen off-camera. Probably a budget issue, but still, it’s not like we're here for the Moses/Nefretiri love story.

4. ACTING!

5. Edward G Robinson is by far the best actor in this thing. I did not expect this.

6. The dialogue was clearly written to sound like what Americans think Shakespeare sounds like. (Best line: "The mudflower has a thorn", a line that could only be delivered by Vincent Price.)

7. Best moment: when Moses comes down from Mt Sinai to find the Hebrews partying and making golden calves and whatnot. It’s like every scene in every teenage film when teenagers throw a wild party and them mom and dad unexpectedly come home early.

8. The parting of the Red Sea looks pretty impressive, given the limitations of the technology at the time. The Burning Bush™, not so much.

9. Pretty sure half the SFX budget went into Charlton Heston’s post-Burning Bush™ hair.

10. This movie has everything: mid-Atlantic accents, high waistlines, Yul Bryner glaring non-stop, Anne Baxter's bangs, random poultry and Cold War subtext. You can practically see De Mille ticking off the boxes.

BONUS THOUGHT: It’s way too long and cheesy for my taste. But I will say the mise-en-scène of this film is off the chart. It’s like every scene was designed to resemble a religious tableau vivant. Which I assume is the doing of Loyal Griggs (director of photography).

So it will be written, etc etc

This is dF

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You knew this was coming, right?

This is probably the most pointless Top 10 list I’ve done in a while, since I only managed to see eleven new movies, most of them on airplanes, as I don’t have a movie budget or a [insert streaming service here] account, and didn’t have much time to watch movies in any case.

So basically, we’ll just pretend this is a Top 10 list, but in reality it’s literally every new movie I saw in 2019 except one.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: If yr favorite movie of 2019 isn’t here, it’s likely because (1) I didn’t get a chance to see it, (2) it hasn’t been released in Hong Kong yet, or (3) I did see it but didn’t like it as much as you did. Also, if some of these seem kind of old, it’s because their release date was 2018 for yr country, but 2019 for Hong Kong. Get me?

TOP TEN DEF FILMS OF 2019 ;)

1. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

A.k.a. “The Ninth Film By Quentin Tarantino”. I went in knowing almost nothing about it, apart from the controversy over the Bruce Lee scene, which is probably the least controversial thing about it (i.e. almost everything involving Sharon Tate and the Manson family). Anyway, the film is essentially Tarantino’s ode to 60s Hollywood movie-making and its associated pop culture, told by way of Rick Dalton, a TV action star trying to revive his career, and his stuntman and (arguably only) friend Cliff Booth. Like most of Tarantino’s recent films, it’s well-written, well-acted and probably too long. I still haven't decided how I feel about the ending – partly because Tarantino has done something like this before, and partly because it’s outlandish and over the top even by QT standards. But QT hasn’t lost his craftsmanship or his ability to get discussion groups going after the lights come up, so credit where it’s due. Not his best, but a welcome improvement over The Hateful Eight.

2. Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker

You can read the full (and hopefully spoiler-free) review here. The short version: it’s fun, and what loose ends do get wrapped up at least make sense technically, even if I’m not happy with some of them – particularly regarding the retconning of The Last Jedi and blatant fan service. The biggest problem is that JJ Abrams tries to jam way too much story into the allotted running time, so it feels rushed. All up, I feel the same way about TROS that I feel about Return Of The Jedi – it’s fun, entertaining and a decent wrap-up, but it’s also not as good as the first two films in the trilogy.

3. I Am Mother

A young girl in a sealed-off bunker is raised by a robot mother, who tells her the outside world was obliterated some time ago by a catastrophic extinction event – after which a mysterious woman from outside appears, and the girl learns the awful truth. It’s the set-up for dozens of post-apocalyptic robot vs human films, but writer-director Grant Sputore takes those familiar tropes and delivers something unexpected in a way that forces you to pay attention, which is a good thing. It's better than the marketing blurbs make it sound.

4. Still Human

This is a local (Hong Kong) small-budget film about middle-aged paraplegic Leung Cheong-wing (Anthony Wong Chau-sang) and his Filipino domestic helper Evelyn Santos (Crisel Consunji). Leung is cranky, bitter and difficult (in terms of both daily care and personality). Evelyn is new at the helper business, doing it only because she needs the money to divorce her abusive husband, but she has aspirations of her own. The film is mainly about the uneasy relationship between them. Although it is occasionally contrived and cheesy, it’s a landmark film on a number of levels – it’s the first decent role for Wong in ages after he was blacklisted for supporting the Umbrella protests in 2014 (and he’s great as usual), and it’s the first HK film ever to feature a domestic helper not only as a main character, but a three-dimensional human rather than a stereotypical caricature (with a great performance by Consunji). So while it may be a not-so-subtle riff on The Intouchables, the local twist makes it work.

5. Stan and Ollie

Laurel and Hardy biopic of that focuses on their 1953 road tour of the UK to prove they still have an audience as they struggle to get backing to film a comedy version of Robin Hood. By this time there was also some unresolved issues between them after the pair temporarily split in 1937 because Laurel didn’t want to renew their contract with Hal Roach. The story is okay but the main appeal lies in the amazing performances by Steve Coogan and John C Reilly as Stan and Ollie, respectively. It’s probably the most convincing portrayal of real-life people I’ve ever seen. And while Jon S Baird opts for gentle tribute over in-depth character study, it was arguably the right move to keep everything believable.

6. Alita: Battle Angel

I generally like Robert Rodriguez’s films, and this adaptation of the Japanese manga cyberpunk classic is no exception. Like a lot of people, my main issue is with Alita’s huge anime eyes, which never quite make it out of the “uncanny valley” for me. I get the ambition to preserve the original design of the character – which has never been done for a manga adaptation – but it seems out of place considering Alita is the only character getting that treatment. Apart from that, as CGI sci-fi flicks go, it’s actually a pretty good film overall.

7. Shazam!

When I was a kid, I watched the live-action Saturday morning version of Shazam (back when he was still known as Captain Marvel) and loved it. It’s amazing though that it never occurred to me that while Shazam looked grown-up, he was still basically a 15-year-old kid. The 2019 Hollywood version takes that idea and runs with it. The comparisons to Big are valid, but it's a twist that makes sense in the Shazam universe. And it was an arguably bold move to make this into a comedy instead of another dark gritty DCU film.

8. Captain Marvel

This is MCU Film #21, and the only one I saw in 2019. I never really followed either Captain Marvel or Ms Marvel in comic-book form, so it was a surprise to me that the story was connected to the Guardians of the Galaxy background (via the Kree/Skrull conflict). It was also nice that while they still insisted on making it an origin story, they used a different story structure instead of following the usual template. And Brie Larson really makes the character her own. So all up, it’s a solid MCU film with enough individuality to stand out from the pack.

9. The Wandering Earth

Chinese sci-fi blockbuster based on a novella by sci-fi writer Liu Cixin. The premise – the sun is dying, and humanity tries to save the Earth by literally moving it to a new solar system – seems loopy, but evidently the original story has a lengthy section explaining why it’s scientifically plausible and arguably a more practical idea than, say, space arks. Anyway, the premise is the least problematic aspect – it also borrows too liberally from other films (2001, 2012 and Gravity come to mind), and the angry-teen story involving the main character angle is overdone. But you can’t fault it for ambition.

10. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

Just like it says. It opts to build on the twist of the first film rather than trying to outdo it, which was probably the smart move. It’s entertaining enough, but is essentially more of the same without the surprises.

THE ONLY OTHER MOVIE I SAW IN 2019

Stockholm

Roughly based on the true story of the 1973 bank heist and hostage crisis in Stockholm that also led to the coinage of the term “Stockholm Syndrome”. Unfortunately, director Robert Budreau (who co-wrote the film) barely touches on this, opting instead to make a standard bank heist/hostage movie that barely acknowledges the most historically significant aspect of the real incident. To be sure, as bank heist/hostage films go, it’s alright, but it could have been so much more.

Hands up,

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Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker is playing at a theatre near you. And me. I have seen it. I will assume you haven't as I prattle on about it (meaning it’s reasonably spoiler-free). I will take your imaginary questions now.

1. How was it?

I liked it …

2. … But?

But it does have problems.

3. Describe them.

To avoid spoilers, I’ll break this into two basic complaints:

(1) JJ Abrams tried to jam way too much into the allotted running time. Consequently, while the film doesn’t drag, it whizzes by so fast that almost everything in the film is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment. A number of characters and plot twists seem to come out of nowhere, and we’re not given time to process any of them before we’re suddenly moving to the next scene. At 142 minutes, the final cut is already pretty long, but an additional 15 or 20 minutes would have helped develop some key points enough to give them more emotional impact (I mean, The Last Jedi was ten minutes longer, so it’s not like we haven’t sat through longer Star Wars films).

(2) The fan service is even more gratuitous than it was The Force Awakens. If that movie was a rehash of A New Hope, TROS is a rehash of Return Of The Jedi, with some gratuitous callouts to The Empire Strikes Back, as though Abrams is trying to compensate for the fact that The Last Jedi didn’t supply sufficient ESB fan service.

4. About that – I’ve heard TROS is a deliberate walkback from TLJ to mollify all the fans who complained about that film. Is that true?

I don’t know how deliberate it was – especially in terms of responding to fanboy complaints over TLJ – but it’s definitely a walkback. To be fair, Abrams only stepped in because Colin Treverrow was sacked, so I don’t think he was trying to right wrongs so much as resume telling the story his way, and his way is to deliver as much fan service as he can get away with.

And that might not have been so bad if Abrams and writer Chris Terrio had come up with a story that explains why they reversed course on some plot points. For the most part, they don’t, if only because there was no room for it with all the other stuff they were cramming in. Either way, it's hard not to come away with the impression that Abrams/Terrio not only declined to accept TLJ’s open invitation to come up with something original to close off the trilogy, but intentionally retconned it to suit their purpose (i.e. nostalgic fan service).

5. Like Rose Tico getting sidelined?

Yeah. Terrio has said it wasn’t intentional – they’d decided to use Carrie Fisher’s outtakes from TFA to put her in the film, and they paired up Rose with Leia for some of those scenes, but in the end too many scenes just didn’t work as well as Abrams had hoped.

And, you know, that sounds convincing on the surface – certainly the scenes they kept of Leia with Rey seem a bit odd at times. But it doesn’t explain why they also essentially ignored the build-up of Rose’s storyline in TLJ and her budding relationship with Finn. In TROS, it's like they barely know each other.

And I find it hard to believe that the situation wasn’t reversible in terms of giving Rose a more prominent role, but I guess that depends how deep into production they were when they finally realized the Rose/Leia scenes weren’t working. I suspect Abrams was so bent on making sure Leia played a big enough role that he refused to give up on those scenes until it was too late for reshoots.

And, look, anyone in charge of making EP9 would have faced the impossible challenge of giving Leia’s tale a proper ending without Carrie Fisher, and a CGI Leia probably wouldn't have worked no matter how good they made it look, so I don’t begrudge Abrams for trying. And admittedly retrospect is easy, but he should have hedged his bets and taken a chance with a less established or even all new character – Dominic Monaghan’s Beaumont Kin, say – instead of a character that frankly could have used the director’s firm backing after all the crap that toxic fanboys piled on her.

6. Do you think Disney caved to the toxic fanboys who chased Kelly Marie Tran off Instagram and complained about Luke’s development?

I don’t know. For all the fanboy backlash, TLJ did well enough financially that I can’t imagine Disney applied too much pressure on Abrams to cave in to their demands. All I can say for sure is that I’m sure the fanboys who wanted TLJ stricken from the canon are probably very happy with the TROS retcons, if not the film as a whole.

7. And despite all that, you say you liked TROS?

I did. There’s a lot to like – it’s a fun space adventure, and for the most part, what loose ends do get wrapped up at least make sense technically, even if I’m not happy with some of them.

Also, while I’m disappointed that the film doesn’t capitalize on the opportunities presented by TLJ, I’m not all that surprised. I didn't really expect whoever helmed TROS to take too many chances, if only because the third film of any franchise trilogy tends to be overstuffed with Big Action and Epic Battle Finales to leave much room for any kind of story innovation.

So TROS met my expectations in the sense that I wasn’t expecting much in the first place beyond a reasonably good time.

That said, I feel the same way about TROS that I feel about Return Of The Jedi – it’s fun, entertaining and a decent wrap-up, but it’s also not as good as the first two films in the trilogy (of which I rank TLJ as the best). Hey, it’s better than the Lucas prequels, anyway.

And since we can reasonably assume that this is by no means the last Star Wars film ever – simply the end of the three Skywalker trilogies that George Lucas more or less promised us – let’s hope that future Star Wars films finally capitalize on the rich storytelling promise of the Star Wars universe and come up with something new that doesn’t follow the same story template.

Sure, we'll probably get more prequels and origin stories of established characters and stuff. But maybe we'll get a few more TLJs as well.

War is over (if you want it),

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Because you can’t possibly have enough “Best Of The Year” lists on the Internet.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: If yr favorite movie of 2018 isn’t here, it’s likely because (1) I didn’t get a chance to see it, (2) it hasn’t been released in Hong Kong yet, or (3) I did see it but didn’t like it as much as you did. Also, if some of these seem kind of old, it’s because their release date was 2017 for yr country, but 2018 for Hong Kong. See?

TOP TEN DEF FILMS OF 2018

1. The Shape of Water
In which Guillermo del Toro basically reimagines Creature From The Black Lagoon as a love story, in which the creature is held in a secret govt lab for cruel experiments, where mute cleaning woman Elisa bonds with him. It’s as weird and tragic as you’d expect, and it’s a nice twist on a classic horror movie.

2. 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
I went in not really knowing much about it apart from the cast and the director – both of which were enough to convince me to see it. I really enjoyed Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, and any film with Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell seems like a good bet. It was – it’s a powerful story about what happens when the rage of loss is compounded by injustice, and the depths people sink to when desperation sets in.

3. Muppet Guys Talking
This Frank Oz documentary was originally filmed in 2012, and Oz sat on the footage for years before finally having the time to edit it down to a feature-length doc. The title says it all – it’s mainly five Muppet performers (Oz, Jerry Nelson, Fran Brill, Dave Goelz and Bill Barretta) sitting in a room talking about Muppet history, the characters they played, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and Jim Henson. It’s a simple concept, and it works wonderfully – all five performers are good storytellers and have plenty of great anecdotes to share. Essential for anyone who’s a Muppet fan.

4. Black Panther
I only saw a couple of MCU films last year (Infinity War was not one of them because I’ve been assured it’s really for fans only, a.k.a. people who have seen all the MCU films and remember every detail about them), but Black Panther was by far the best of the bunch for me for a couple of reasons: (1) it’s a character I’m not as familiar with, compared to Captain America, Hulk Iron Man, etc, so it offered something different, and (2) the rich worldbuilding of Wakanda, and reasonably well-developed characters (by MCU standards, anyway), to include the villain, Killmonger. Like with all MCU films, the rollercoaster CGI action is overdone, but that’s the price of admission.

5. All The Money In The World
The strange but true tale of the kidnapping of J. Paul Getty III, which I only tried because Ridley Scott is usually a dependable director and he’s good at this kind of film. Of course the race to find Paul and secure his release is interesting, but the film also succeeds as a family drama and an indictment of greed so engrained that it will drive people to put money before family. It’s flawed in places, and of course they made up some of it. But I’ve learned to expect that with “true” stories. DISCLAIMER: It was only after seeing it that I found out this was the film where Kevin Spacey was edited out and replaced by Christopher Plummer. All I’ll say is that it looked seamless to me – I’d never have guessed if TwitterBook hadn’t told me.

6. Isle Of Dogs
I’ve said before Wes Anderson is one of those directors you either like or you don’t, and this doesn’t change that. This animated homage to Japanese cinema is one of his better films – not quite as good as Fantastic Mr Fox, mainly because the characterization isn't as strong, due to it being more of an ensemble cast. But it’s full of Anderson’s usual dark humor and visual panache.

7. Bohemian Rhapsody
Oh, YOU know. And I have to say that as flawed as it is – and it is flawed, from the standard dialogue and rock’n’roll clichés to the unnecessary revisionist history (“Fat Bottomed Girls” coming out in 1974, Freddie Mercury adopting his Tom From Finland look in the late 70s, etc) – I liked it. I think it’s partly because the music is great, the cast (not just Rami Malek, but everyone) really look and act like the band, and I’ve read interviews with Brian May who says the film isn’t meant to be real life but a “painting” of Freddie, so I figure if he’s okay with it, why should I complain? That said, I maintain that if you’re going to call the film Bohemian Rhapsody, there should be at least one sequence in the film where they play the whole song through in its entirety.

8. Early Man
The latest animated film from Nick Park. I think I would have liked this less if I’d seen any trailers for it – it’s more fun to watch it unexpectedly go from a prehistoric comedy to a satire of English football. Once it does, it’s pretty predictable, and there are moments where I felt they could have done a little more with the material. But it’s still a goofy, fun and enjoyable film.

9. Incredibles 2
I don’t think we really needed an Incredibles sequel, but we got one anyway, and it’s pretty good for what it is, maintaining more or less the quality level of the first one, as well as the themes of how vigilante superheroes don’t quite fit into a world of real-world laws and regulations, and the challenges of raising kids with superpowers. Anyway, it’s one of the better superhero movies on 2018.

10. Solo: A Star Wars Story
I have so much to say about this, and you can read it all here. For the capsule review, I’ll just say that as a straight-up big-budget space-adventure film, it’s actually pretty good fun. As a Star Wars film, it’s predictable as far as the established characters are concerned (Solo, Chewbacca and Lando), and it doesn't really add much to the characters that we didn’t already know. Also, I’m one of those fans who feels that Han Solo didn’t need an origin story – part of Solo’s appeal has always been his braggadocio and exaggerating his own accomplishments, and the references to the Kessel Run work better when you don’t know how he did it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Ant-Man and The Wasp
The other decent MCU film of 2018, in which Ant-Man is under house arrest and estranged from the Pyms because of some other MCU film I couldn’t remember, but that changes when it turns out that during the first film he somehow became quantumly entangled with the original Wasp, who is believed lost in the sub-atomic realm. The Ant-Man films get by mainly on having their own specific sense of humor (Paul Rudd and Michael Pena are still great) and the writers having fun with the concept of being able to shrink and enlarge objects and people at will. This one also has a more interesting villain with Ghost.

The Crimes That Bind
This Japanese film is based on the last instalment of the Detective Kaga novels by Keigo Higashino. It’s also the last of the film/TV franchise based on those novels. I haven’t watched those, but I have read one of the novels, and I do like lead actor Hiroshi Abe (who has played Kaga before and does so here), so I gave this a shot. The story involves Kaga helping a young police detective investigate the death of a woman in Shiga in part because he suspects the case has a connection to the unsolved mystery of his own mother’s death 16 years earlier in the same town. Like a lot of Japanese murder mysteries, the truth is both insanely convoluted and melodramatic, and the film gets by mainly by good performances from Abe and Nanako Matsuhima (as a theatre owner who was the last person to see the victim alive).

Mission Impossible: Fallout
By now the M:I franchise template is pretty solid – insane action sequences, insane technology, insane plot twists, insane interdepartmental squabbles, and insane Tom Cruise putting stuntmen out of work. And that’s okay, since the franchise tends to work best when the writers and director embrace the utter insanity of the premise, take the “impossible” part literally and run with it. Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie does all of that and more. This time out, Ethan Hunt is out to recover three stolen plutonium MacGuffins that a terrorist group called The Apostles (formed from the remains of The Syndicate, which Hunt defeated in the previous film) are attempting to acquire. Insanity ensues.

Monstrum
A Korean monster movie with a slight twist in that it’s a period piece, taking place in the 15th century during the Joseon era. Following reports of a giant monster killing villagers and spreading a plague, King Jungjong asks disgraced general Yun Kyum to investigate whether the “monstrum” is real or a rumor spread by his political enemies to undermine his leadership and stage a coup. It’s a great set-up for what turns out to be a predictable story with average CG and a cop-out ending, and I think director Huh Jong-ho could have waited longer to reveal the truth behind the monstrum. But for all its flaws, I found it interesting.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

The Meg
Actually, the film overall was better than I expected – not great, but I was entertained. My main disappointment is that Jason Statham didn’t kill the megalodon by kicking its head off.

THE FILM I DIDN’T LIKE THAT EVERYONE ELSE DID

A Wrinkle In Time

My Twitter feed was full of people who loved this live-action version of the classic novel (which was one of my junior-high reading staples), and … well, it didn’t work for me. I thought it just tried too hard to be Amazing (cue “this is Amazing” reaction shots from all the characters every time they arrived at a new planet), the dialogue just doesn't flow at all, and the three Mrs Ws are kind of annoying. And while I understand why Ava DuVerny and the writers stripped out the Christian elements of the book, those elements were also crucial to explaining more or less what is going on and why, and what the Mrs Ws have to do with anything – without that context (or a workable replacement), the result is a generic good vs evil arc with no good explanation as to who the Mrs Ws are and why it’s up to the Murry children to fight IT to save their dad.

THE FRANCHISE THAT REALLY NEEDS TO JUST STOP NOW

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

This is the direct sequel to Jurassic World, both in terms of bringing back Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and Blue The Velociraptor, and in terms of the fact that the whole story depends on just about everyone besides them being a complete and utter idiot with absolutely no memory of anything that happened in the previous films. The “save the dinos” angle is interesting in that it echoes the original film’s point that the regenerated dinosaurs are in a sense victims of man’s arrogance, but the bad guy plot is beyond ludicrous and the set-up for the next film isn't that convincing.

The balcony is closed,

This is dF

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I meant to post this ages ago, and I’m obviously late to this discussion, but with a Top 10 Films list about to be published, I figured I could post this for posterity to fulfil my obligations as both a blogger and a Star Wars fan.

So anyway, back in October I finally saw Solo: A Star Wars Story, which was a flop by Star Wars standards. My not so hot take:

1. I went in with low expectations – and it probably helped. As a straight-up big-budget space-adventure film, it’s actually pretty good on its own merits, especially if you can forget that the main character is supposed to be the Han Solo of the original Star Wars trilogy – which surprisingly isn’t all that hard, since Aldren Ehrenreich plays Solo his own way rather than try to do an Harrison Ford impression, which very likely would not have worked even if it was a good impersonation.

2. However, it IS part of the Star Wars canon, and the three main problems for me were (1) the Kasdans tried too hard to reference the original films (did we really need another scene of TIE fighters chasing the Millennium Falcon through a field of space debris?), (2) it’s often predictable as far as the established characters are concerned (Solo, Chewbacca and Lando), and (3) it doesn't really add much to the characters that we didn’t already know. Also, I’m one of those fans who feels that Han Solo didn’t need an origin story – part of Solo’s appeal has always been his braggadocio and exaggerating his own accomplishments, and the references to the Kessel Run work better when you don’t know how he did it.

3. On the other hand, Solo is a fun movie. It’s been criticized for being lightweight compared to The Last Jedi and even Rogue One, but since the original film succeeded as a fun space adventure, I can’t be too hard on Solo for attempting the same – surely there’s room in the SW canon for different kinds of films.

Maybe you can say Solo plays it too safe and doesn’t take chances compared to TLJ and R1, and that's true. But that’s how it is with prequels featuring established and beloved characters – yr beholden to the future to the point that you can't monkey around with it too much. Which is why I’d really rather that future standalones introduce new characters (as Rogue One did) and tell new stories that don’t simply fill in the blanks (as Rogue One also did, ultimately).

Indeed, the biggest problem with Solo isn’t that it’s fun, but that it doesn’t contribute anything to the canon apart from character backstory that, as I say, we arguably didn’t need. The original Expanded Universe that Disney eventually scrapped proved that there’s plenty of room in the Star Wars universe for innovation and new ideas – the new batch of post-Lucas Star Wars films have also proven that. By comparison, sticking with established characters feels like a step backwards to me.

4. I don’t think that’s why it flopped – I think that’s ultimately down to Disney’s overambitious decision to release it just six months after TLJ, and at a time when it had to compete with other major Disney franchise tentpoles. But I also think releasing a film featuring a younger version of such an iconic set of characters was always going to set the film up for disappointment.

So overall: I think it’s a fun film, and the second best prequel film, but of the Star Wars films to date, I would rank it pretty much below everything that isn’t the Lucas prequel trilogy.

Punch it,

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Because you can’t possibly have enough “Best Of The Year” lists on the Internet.

And I should mention right off the bat that I managed to see exactly twelve (12) new films this year, and two of them don’t count because they were released in 2016, so this is less of a Top 10 and more of a Literally Every New Film I Saw in 2017 + Two From 2016.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: If yr favorite movie of 2017 isn’t here, it’s likely because (1) I didn’t get a chance to see it, (2) it hasn’t been released in Hong Kong yet, or (3) I did see it but didn’t like it as much as you did. Also, if some of these seem kind of old, it’s because their release date was 2016 for yr country, but 2017 for Hong Kong. See?

TOP TEN DEF FILMS OF 2017

1. Silence
Martin Scorsese’s epic film about two 17th century Jesuit priests in the who travel to very non-Christian-friendly Japan to find their missing mentor. Some may find it slow, but I found it very engrossing as the priests are increasingly forced to question their faith as they encounter the suffering of persecuted Christians and are persecuted themselves. The film asks hard questions about the balance between true faith and moral pragmatism and provides no easy answers – which is wise, because no film is going to settle centuries-old theological quagmires in a few hours. It’s thought-provoking and exhausting and totally worth it.

2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
You can read my longer review here, but long-story short: This is the best Disney-era Star Wars movie to date (and the other two are really good, mind), and possibly the third-best Star Wars film ever made. It’s got all the action and humor you want in a Star Wars film, plus extra points for having the guts to mess with the formula enough to (hopefully) take the series in new directions without being held back by the baggage of the earlier films.

3. Arrival
Based on a Ted Chiang short story, this film starts in familiar territory – mysterious aliens arrive in ships that hover over the earth – and then eschews blockbuster action for a thoughtful story in which linguist Louise Banks is brought in by the US military to try and communicate with the aliens. The sequences of decoding alien language are fascinating, and the movie explores a couple of distinct themes: the risks of miscommunication and the consequences of knowing the future, and the impact this may or may not have on our decisions. My kind of sci-fi.

4. Blade Runner 2049
I don’t know that we needed a sequel to Blade Runner 35 years after the original came out, but if we had to have one, this is pretty much what you’d want – a very good-looking film that takes the same world and creates a story that doesn’t ape the first film and doesn’t depend on you having seen the first one to be understood. Here, replicants are integrated into society as a servant class – one replicant, K, works as a blade runner and by chance discovers the 30-year-old remains of a replicant that appears to have given birth, which has serious implications all round. Like the first film, BR2049 explores themes of identity, memory and sentience, but in a more expanded form – and thankfully it doesn’t take the most predictable path storywise.

5. Hidden Figures
The (mostly) true story of Katherine Goble, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan – three black women who played key roles in the early days of the NASA space program. As with most Hollywood biopics, the movie simplifies a complex story and setting with fictional composite characters, and isn't above swapping historical accuracy for drama – but it does a good job of getting the basic story across in terms of what Goble, Jackson and Vaughan accomplished and the racial challenges they faced in doing so. Also, I likes me a good NASA drama – and the three main actresses (Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe) are very, very good. It feels a bit TV-movie-of-the-week, but it tells a good story that (hopefully) will encourage people to look up the real history of Goble, Jackson and Vaughan.

6. Hell or High Water
Crime thriller which the Howard Brothers rob branches of the same bank that is threatening to foreclose on their family ranch, while a Texas Ranger close to retirement tries to figure out who they are and where they’ll hit next. The characters are rather cliché (one brother is the handsome reluctant bank robber, the other is the unpredictable loose cannon, and the Texas Ranger is the Crusty Cynical But Smart Lawman), but it’s reasonably well written for this kind of genre, and good performances all around, particularly Jeff Bridges as the Ranger.

7. War for the Planet Of The Apes
The third installment of the reboot series, in which Caesar is forced to hunt down a renegade US Army Colonel whose men attacked Caesar’s home and killed some of his family. The film introduces some more tropes that will eventually lead to the ‘Planet Of The Apes’ scenario of the original film, but also focuses on Caesar’s struggle to not let the war turn him into Koba, the human-hating ape that rebelled against Caesar in the previous film. I thought the Colonel character was a little too influenced by Colonel Kurtz, but Woody Harrelson is generally good to watch. Overall, it’s pretty good, and marks a rare example of a trilogy where the third film is better than the first (though I think the second one is arguably the best of the three, but it’s an admittedly close call).

8. Alien: Covenant
Ridley Scott’s follow-up to Prometheus, in which a ship on its way to colonize a planet is damaged en route, and while the crew assesses the situation, they pick up a radio signal from a different planet. Unwisely, they go check it out, and that’s where we eventually find out what happened to the survivors of the previous film. Sound familiar? One reviewer described this film as an Alien Greatest Hits comp, and I can’t add much to that – it’s another compendium of body horror, suspicious androids, humans making bad decisions, etc, and it really doesn't add much new to the series. And yet Scott still manages to make it riveting viewing. It’s alright as Alien films go, but it’s getting hard to see the point of doing these if they’re not going to take it in a new direction as Prometheus seemed to promise.

9. Wonder Woman
Diana, Warrior Princess! Wonder Woman finally gets her own movie, in which her life on the hidden Amazon island of Themiscyra is disrupted when pilot Steve Trevor accidentally brings WW1 to the island. Believing WW1 to be the work of Ares, the god who is prophesied to return from exile and get humans to destroy each other, Diana sets off with Trevor to find Ares and stop him. Overall I think they did the character justice, and Gal Gadot is great, but I think they spent way too long on the exposition/origin part, and as superhero stories go, it doesn’t offer any real surprises. That said, it’s still well above average for the genre.

10. Going In Style
A remake of the 1979 film in which three senior citizens decide to stage a bank robbery after the company they work for is bought out and liquidates their pensions as part of the merger. The film gets by mainly on the strength of its cast – Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin, who are funny and likeable. Apart from that, the film suffers in comparison to the original film, which was darker but had a lot to say about growing old in America. On the other hand, if you prefer a version of that story that’s a light-hearted caper film with happy endings for everyone, maybe you’ll like this one better.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years
I missed this when it came out in theatres, but in 2017 I watched it on a long-haul flight – three times. I’ve always known the Beatles cut their teeth doing lots of live gigs before they started recording, and I’ve seen a few clips like the Ed Sullivan appearances and the screaming teenage girls, etc, but this documentary really showcases just how great and exciting a live band they were, and tells the story well about their various live tours, and why they eventually stopped doing concerts altogether.

Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World
Another 2016 documentary, this one by Werner Herzog, which takes a look at the coming “connected world”, in which everything will be connected to the internet and our lives will increasingly revolve around digital services – likely to the point of dependency in some form or other. This being Herzog, it’s not a chronicle of how these technologies evolved and how they work, but rather a meditation on the potential impact they have for humanity – both the positive and the negative. Herzog treats the subject like a museum tour, marveling at the possibilities of such technologies yet wondering about the dark side of ti all – from online gaming addiction, doxxing, and social media abuse (such as one family whose daughter died in a car crash, only for the gruesome crash photos to go viral, after which trolls emailed them to the family for kicks) to the notion that as the internet becomes the critical infrastructure on which society is based, it will take one inevitable solar flare of sufficient size to send us back to the 21st century equivalent of the Stone Age. It’s by no means comprehensive or conclusive, but it’s a unique approach to a topic I happen to cover as part of my day job.

THE FILM I DIDN’T LIKE THAT EVERYONE ELSE DID

Nocturnal Animals
A lot of people raved about how good this was, but I tried watching it on a long-haul flight and I got through about 15 minutes worth before I got bored and turned it off.

THE FILM I REALLY WANTED TO SEE BUT DIDN’T GET A CHANCE TO

The Girl With All The Gifts
A zombie movie with a difference – well, potentially. I read the novel by MR (Mike) Carey and loved it – and Carey wrote the novel in parallel with the screenplay version, so my assumption is the film sticks close to the basic post-apocalyptic story of a young girl being studied by military scientists because – unlike other people who have been turned into zombies – she can still think and learn. Somehow I missed it. Oh well, I'll see it one day.

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I have seen Episode 8.

And I liked it. A lot. I loved it, actually. This may or not be because I managed to go in without seeing so much as a trailer for it, so I had no idea what to expect, apart from two things: (1) it was presumably going to continue the story from the ending of The Force Awakens (TFA) where Rey hands Luke the lightsaber, and (2) I saw a headline that some fans were apparently so pissed off with whatever happened in the story that they petitioned Disney to delete The Last Jedi (TLJ) from the canon and remake it [LINK CONTAINS SPOILERS].

And so:

1. I think TLJ is not only a solid Star Wars film, but it’s also better than TFA – which was a very good Star Wars film whose main weakness was relying too much on fan service and retreading old ground. TLJ keeps that to a bare minimum, for the most part, and is actually better written overall, not least because Rian Johnson (finally) takes some chances and takes the character set-ups from TFA in directions that break from the standard SW template. TLJ also adds some welcome depth as it touches on the moral ambiguities of war, the consequences of ignoring orders (even with the best intentions) and the true nature of the Force – and it does all this while delivering a well-paced, action-packed space opera.

2. I have no complaints about the story’s explanation for why Luke went into exile and what happened between him and Ben Solo/Kylo Ren. Some fans have complained, but for me it all makes sense, given the events of Episodes 1 to 3, and given everything we know about Luke and his family history. Moreover, it enables the Star Wars films to further break away from the old Skywalker story that defines the first six episodes (and TFA, to an extent) and develop something new. I don’t know that they will. But they’ve certainly set up the opportunity to do so.

Let’s put it this way: Mark Hamill initially didn’t like Johnson’s take on Luke either – but now having seen the finished product, he’s admitted Johnson got it right after all.

3. Speaking of Luke, while pretty much the entire cast is good, I have to say, Mark Hamill is just superb as old, bitter Luke. I never thought he was a bad actor, but I remember some people giving him stick for his acting in the original trilogy. Well, if he couldn’t act then, he sure as heck can now.

4. Complaints? Well, it’s a bit too long for a SW film. Another minor complaint is that certain story elements that basically rely on the First Order not being all that smart. There were several scenes in which the First Order probably could ended the war (and the film) a lot earlier if the commanding officers had more sense.

5. I’m also not sure how I feel about THAT scene with Leia – apart from being somewhat implausible (even by Star Wars standards) it just doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the film, not least because there’s no explanation for it. Based on what little I’ve read after seeing the film, I’m assuming it was written as a set-up for Leia’s development in Episode 9, but sadly, that may be a moot point now that Carrie Fisher is gone (Disney has said they’re not planning to do a CGI version of Leia for Episode 9). Anyway, maybe it’ll make more sense to me later.

6. Anyway, it’s safe to say that Disney is on a roll here. They’ve put out three Star Wars movies, and every one of them are worthy of the name, and I think TLJ is arguably the best of the bunch precisely because it messes with the formula and primes Star Wars for new horizons.

Which is why I don’t know that I’m looking forward to the upcoming Han Solo movie. Apart from seeing someone else besides Harrison Ford play the character, it’s still basically a prequel trading on past glories. It might still be very good (as Rogue One was), but it’s potentially a step backwards.

Use of force,

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Because you can’t possibly have enough “Best Of The Year” lists on the Internet.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: If yr favorite movie of 2016 isn’t here, it’s likely because (1) I didn’t get a chance to see it, (2) it hasn’t been released in Hong Kong yet, or (3) I did see it but didn’t like it as much as you did. Also, if some of these seem kind of old, it’s because their release date was 2015 for yr country, but 2016 for Hong Kong. See?

Also, I didn’t actually watch that many movies in 2016, due to the aforementioned change in work schedule. I’m hoping to change that this year.

TOP TEN DEF FILMS OF 2016

1. A Perfect Day
2. The Big Short
3. Rogue One
4. Ghostbusters
5. Eye In The Sky
6. Hail, Caesar!
7. Trumbo
8. The Hateful Eight
9. Zootopia
10. The Mermaid

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Star Trek: Beyond
Happiness
The Secret Life Of Pets
The Nice Guys

THE FILM I DIDN’T LIKE THAT EVERYONE ELSE DID

A Bigger Splash

MOST POINTLESS REMAKE

The Magnificent 7

MOST POINTLESS SEQUEL

Independence Day: Resurgence

MOST RIDICULOUSLY OVERPOLITICIZED FILM OF 2016 THAT I SAW

Ghostbusters

WORST FILM I SAW IN 2016

Independence Day: Resurgence

( The long version, blah blah blah )

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I have seen Rogue One. I will opinionize about it now.

( There may be spoilers .... )

War is hell,

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Gene Wilder is gone, as you probably know.

I should probably say something – partly because I’m a fan of many of his 70s films, but also because the very first film I remember seeing in a cinema was Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.

Or at least it’s the first live-action film I remember. My parents may have taken me to see a Disney film or two (which would have been either The Jungle Book and/or The Aristocats), but I have no memory of that. But I vividly remember going to see WW&TCF. I was six when it came out, and I remember the contrast between the darkness of Charlie’s world (especially the scene where Slugworth tries to recruit him as an industrial espionage agent) and the bright Technicolor world of Wonka, and I remember the fates of the bad kids, and the twisted horror of the psychedelic riverboat scene (which scared the hell out of me).

And of course I remember Gene Wilder alternately singing, chattering and shouting his way through the picture. Wonka was the first movie character to stick in my head. He’s been there ever since, though it wasn’t until I was older that I realized just how well-constructed a character Wonka was, and how a lot of that was down to Wilder’s brilliant performance.

And then came his work with Mel Brooks – The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein – and Richard Pryor (the first two films, anyway).

By the 80s, I’d lost interest in Wilder after he seemed to just want to do sentimental romantic comedies, a genre which has never really interested me. The Woman In Red in particular seemed to cement his image as the Lionel Richie of Hollywood comedy – politely inoffensive romantic man in a cardigan – at a time when I was getting into horror movies and punk.

But I still enjoy watching him in his 70s heyday. I used to joke that he was one of the Great Shouting Actors Named Gene of my generation (the other one being Gene Hackman). But it’s intended as a compliment.

Incidentally, one Wilder film I’d recommend that isn't a Wonka or Mel Brooks film is The Frisco Kid (1979). You may want to approach with caution because (1) it got mixed reviews and (2) I haven’t seen it for over 30 years. But I remember liking it at the time. If nothing else, you get to see a younger Harrison Ford play cowboy.

Pure imagination,

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I know that most of you are here for one reason only: my half-assed amateur movie reviews.

In which case you may be wondering, “Hey man, aren’t you watching any movies this year?"

Well, I am, but not that many, and I haven’t had time to write them up here (which is also why I haven't seen that many films this year – it’s been pretty nuts).

So consider yrself caught up with this post.

The Big Short

You wouldn’t think Michael Lewis’ non-fiction books would make good films. But they do. First Moneyball, and now The Big Short, in which a small group of financial investors who realized the supposedly solid US housing market was based on fraud and on the verge of collapse, bet against it and made a fortune. It all works thanks to a combination of top-notch acting and the ability of the screenwriters to simplify the complex financial situation without dumbing it down (the gimmick of using actual celebrities to break the fourth wall and explain the wonky bits is particularly inspired). And the film smartly acknowledges openly that it’s making up some of the dramatic details but the overall story is true. It’s not a trick that would work with every “based on a true story” film but it works here. This is the best film about the 2008 economic crisis I’ve seen so far.

Trumbo

Biopic of Dalton Trumbo, the infamous Hollywood screenwriter who secretly wrote Oscar-winning screenplays while being officially blacklisted by Hollywood during the McCarthy Communist witch hunts. Like most biopics, Trumbo fudges some facts and glosses over certain details – and it makes no secret whose side it’s on as Trumbo faces off with congressmen, John Wayne and gossip queen Hedda Hopper. But it’s not exactly hagiographical either – Trumbo has his flaws, particularly when it comes to his family relationships. And at the heart of it is an interesting story of how Trumbo got around the blacklist. Anyway, I’m a sucker for stories about censorship and Commie witch hunts, so I’m with the choir this film preaches to.

Hail, Caesar!

In which the Coen Brothers pay tribute to 50s Hollywood films by way of a fake story about a real person – studio fixer Eddie Mannix, whose main job was to cover up the scandals of the studio’s stars. The Coens’ Mannix is not as sleazy or ruthless as the real one, but he does spend the film dealing with various problems, the centerpiece of which is the disappearance of Baird Whitlock, the lead actor in the eponymous film, who has been kidnapped by Communist screenwriters. The story meanders somewhat, but that may be intentional, as one of the goals for the Coens here was to create scenes from some of the big genres of post-war Hollywood, from musicals and singing cowboys to sword-and-sandals Biblical epics – which they do with stunning accuracy. The fact that they wrote their own “classic” film scenes instead of recreating existing ones is an achievement in itself. It may not be their best film, but it may be their best technical achievement.

The Hateful Eight

The eighth film by Quentin Tarantino, and the first one of his films I found it hard to get into. Like all his films, it looks great, has good acting, good dialogue and plays with the narration structure a little when it suits Tarantino to do so. The gimmick here is essentially a single-room mystery where people are not what they seem and the characters have to figure out what’s really going on. The problem for me is that there’s really no one very likeable, which is another way of saying there’s no single character you hope makes it out of the situation alive. The film is just too mired in the worst qualities of humans for me to really enjoy it. It’s not bad, it’s just one of those films I’ll probably only watch once.

Zootopia

One doesn’t usually associate buddy-cop films with animated kids films, but Zootopia is just that. Naïve idealist country bunny Judy realizes her dream of becoming the first bunny to join the police force in Zootopia, a city where predators and prey live together in relative harmony. But no one takes her seriously, and to prove herself, she takes a case to find a missing otter, with some unwilling help from Nick, a con-artist fox who is her only lead to the otter’s whereabouts. It probably says a lot that only an animated film with anthropomorphic animals could get away with using a buddy-cop formula as a vehicle to denounce racism, sexism, xenophobia and exploiting fear for political gain. Given current events, it’s arguably one of the more subversive films of the year.

The Mermaid

Steven Chow’s latest film, in which a mermaid is sent to assassinate a greedy billionaire whose development company has savaged her people’s home. It’s pretty much the usual Chow template – the selfish but redeemable protagonist, the goonish leading lady, cheesy CGI and a juxtaposition of madcap humor and senseless, cruel violence that, like most of Chow’s latter-day work, tends to lean more towards the latter. So it helps if you think of it more as a fantasy action film with comedy bits rather than a comedy film with action bits. That said, it’s also Chow’s most message-driven film – which is saying something, considering this is ostensibly a mainland Chinese-produced film that not only criticizes greedy land development but also makes fun of the growing trend of China’s growing (and in many cases irresponsible) millionaires.

Go fish,

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Because you can’t possibly have enough “Best Of The Year” lists on the Internet.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: If yr favorite movie of 2015 isn’t here, it’s likely because (1) I didn’t get a chance to see it, (2) it hasn’t been released in Hong Kong yet, or (3) I did see it but didn’t like it as much as you did. Also, if some of these seem kind of old, it’s because their release date was 2014 for yr country, but 2015 for Hong Kong. See?

TOP TEN DEF FILMS OF 2015

1. Inside Out
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
4. Whiplash
5. Ex Machina
6. Selma
7. Chappie
8. Birdman
9. What We Do In The Shadows
10. Bridge Of Spies

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Ant-Man
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
SPECTRE

THE FRANCHISE REVIVAL FILM WE REALLY DIDN’T NEED

Jurassic World

THE FILM I LIKED THAT NO ONE ELSE DID

Chappie

THE FILM I DIDN’T LIKE THAT EVERYONE ELSE DID

Kingsman: The Secret Service

WORST FILM OF 2015

Terminator: Genesys

( Director's cut! )

And that’s that for 2015.

Same time next year,

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And now, the movie review you’ve been waiting for all this time.

[NOTE: I’ve done my best to avoid spoilers, but if you haven't seen it yet, by all means wait until you do before reading this.]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Truly it’s hard to imagine another movie preceded by this much hype and an equivalent amount of baggage from fans who have never forgiven George Lucas for making grim prequels instead of giving them the Star Wars movies they WANTED. Plus, there was all the dithering over the fact that Disney bought Lucasfilm and declared most of the Star Wars Expanded Universe books, comics and games non-canon. Cos you know, Disney ruins everything, right?

Anyway, SW:TFA had a hell of a legacy to live up to, which makes it hard to review it like any other film – unless you’ve never cared about Star Wars, or you liked the films but not to the point of obsession, or you saw them starting with the prequels, or whatever. For myself, I’m from the original Star Wars generation where our young and impressionable lives were changed forever in 1977 by the original film. I didn't expect J.J. Abrams to duplicate that experience – that would be impossible, partly because I’m 50, and partly because part of what made the first Star Wars so amazing was that nothing like it had ever been done visually – Lucas’ team literally had to invent some of the FX techniques that made it work, or take older techniques to new levels. I knew going in that SW:TFA would have none of that – FX-wise, it would use the same techniques as the average Hollywood CGI blockbuster, albeit perhaps to better effect.

So I wasn’t expecting a life-changing experience – I was just hoping Abrams would make a decent Star Wars film that reflects the spirit of the original trilogy – i.e. a fun adventure in space with good characters.

So, with all that in mind, here’s what I have to say about SW:TFA:

1. I loved it.

2. Is it perfect? No – far from it. Plot holes abound, and Abrams and the writers go a little overboard with the fan service, while the story unnecessarily borrows select plot elements from the original trilogy and relies an awful lot on coincidence as a plot lubricant.

3. On the other hand, it’s got far better dialogue than any of the other films, and while the story follows some fairly obvious tropes, it doesn’t come across as a tired rehash.

4. That’s largely because SW:TFA is populated by an interesting new cast of likeable characters – Rey the mysterious Force-sensitive scrap collector, Finn the cowardly but good-hearted Stormtrooper, Poe Dameron the smart-ass pilot and BB-8 the plucky cute droid – to take the baton from the old hands.

5. Speaking of whom, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher do a great job of playing convincing older versions of their respective characters. I do admit being disappointed that Leia doesn’t have as prominent a role as Han, but at least she gets more than a cameo.

6. As the new Bad Guy, Kylo Ren is no Darth Vader, but that’s a good thing. Ren has his own motivations and complications, and actually projects his own brand of menace – until the mask comes off, but even then he comes across as a character someone put some thought into.

7. All up, is it as good as the original film? Of course not. But it’s a hell of a lot of fun, which you haven't really been able to say about a Star Wars film since 1983.

8. Is it as good as the original trilogy? Let's put it this way – I can safely say this is the fourth-best film in the series. Possibly even the third-best, depending on how you feel about Return Of The Jedi.

9. Either way, it’s safe to say the series is now back on track as the fun, entertaining popcorn space-fantasy franchise it was intended to be (whether George Lucas cares to admit that or not).

BONUS TRACK: For those of you who care, while Disney disavowed the Expanded Universe stories, that didn’t stop the screenwriters from borrowing certain ideas from it. io9 has a list here if you’d like to know more, though it is of course chock full of spoilers.

SEE ALSO: This op/ed from Ars Technica on why scrapping most of the Expanded Universe was probably a good idea.

AND FINALLY: If you want to know what George Lucas thinks about SW:TFA, you can find out here.

The Force abides,

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This will be the last of the movie reviews for 2015 – except for that one.

You know the one I mean. That one warrants a separate post, so unless we manage to squeeze in that Peanuts movie at the last minute, this is probably it for 2015.

Bridge Of Spies

Steven Spielberg’s mainly-true Cold War tale about how insurance lawyer James Donovan defended accused Russian spy Rudolf Abel and eventually negotiated a deal with the Russians and the East Germans to trade Abel for Gary Powers and college student Frederic Pryor.

Much has been made about the fact that the Coen Brothers have a writing credit, though I can’t say how much it adds to the original screenplay. In any case, while it’s not a typical Coens script, it’s pretty well written. And overall it’s an interesting slice of Cold War history that Spielberg uses to mirror the modern paranoia and questions over due process that America is grappling with today in regards to the War On Terror.

For the most part it works, even if Spielberg overplays his hand from time to time and relies on some occasional cheese (particularly the scene where Powers’ U2 plane is shot down). Some people will write it off as Oscar Bait just because Tom Hanks is in it, but there’s more to it than that.

SPECTRE

Daniel Craig returns for his last outing as James Bond, and with Skyfall completing the reboot that puts Bond, M, Q and Moneypenny in their respective positions on the board, this film runs with that set-up to introduce the classic eponymous Bond foe.

And it does so reasonably well. The problem is that Casino Royale and Skyfall set the bar pretty high, and SPECTRE doesn’t quite clear it. Part of the problem is that sometimes the script lapses into the kinds of OTT action scenes the reboot was supposed to be at least be smarter about. A couple of action sequences here are noticeably and pointlessly dumb. Also, it’s starting to feel like “Bond defies orders and goes rogue” is becoming a standard plot device for the reboot films.

On the plus side, Craig is still good, as is Christoph Waltz as This Year’s Villain. It’s also good that the writers are continuing with the notion that M and Moneypenney are more than just desk jockeys. And the “evil plot” really taps into modern paranoia about the pitfalls of mass surveillance, even if some of the technology bits aren’t that well thought out. Overall, it’s an above-average Bond film, but here’s hoping future Bond films spend more time messing with the formula rather than settling into one.

Shaken not stirred,,

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One good thing about flying 15 hours on an airplane with a decent VOD entertainment system is that you do get caught up on yr movie watching. Here’s what I managed to watch.

Jurassic World

Did anyone need a new Jurassic Park movie besides Universal Studios? Probably not, and it’s just as well I waited for the airplane release. It’s silly dinosaur fun with a new raptor gimmick (i.e. Raptor Strike Force) and very dumb science. Probably the most amazing thing about it is that it requires you to believe that either the first three films never happened or that everyone involved at InGen learned absolutely nothing from the events in those films.

Terminator: Genisys

Did anyone need a new Terminator movie besides Paramount and Arnold Schwarzenegger? Probably not, and this film basically proves that. The idea of using the time-travel angle to create alternate realities of the first two films is great in theory, but the execution is pretty bad once you realize the writers were less interested in coming up with believable consequences of time travel and more in just using it as an excuse for a do-over of the original film. The result is basically a retread of the same ideas that tries to be different mostly by rearranging the pieces.

Ant-Man

It seems strange but true that some of the best Marvel films feature the least-known characters: first Guardians Of The Galaxy and now Ant-Man, where thief Scott Lang falls in with Dr Hugh Pym who has a formula and a special suit that can shrink people to ant-size but with proportionately increased strength and speed. On the downside, it’s 100% predictable, and the family angles are cliché. But Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas are great, and it has the right tone for a superhero film.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

As franchise films go, MI has more going for it than most, if only because you can do more story-wise with the ludicrous-action spy genre than, say, Jurassic Park or Terminator. MI has generally lived up to its premise, and it’s nice that this one openly acknowledges the fact that the IMF basically gets things done on improv and dumb luck. This installment pits Ethan Hunt against The Syndicate, a rogue group of disavowed agents causing mayhem. My biggest disappointment with it is that Tom Cruise is still the big star – I’d hoped the last film would be an excuse to let Jeremy Renner take the lead for awhile. That said, Cruise is still capable of pulling off an MI film, though I did find it amusing that every scene either features Ethan Hunt or other characters talking about Ethan Hunt.

Slow West

Not a franchise blockbuster! This an indie film from Scottish writer/director John Maclean about naïve lovelorn Scottish teenager Jay Cavendish, who roams the American Wild West in search of his girlfriend Rose, who emigrated to America with her father. Jay meets Silas, a bounty hunter who knows that Rose and her dad have a $2,000 bounty on their heads. The title is apt – this is a slow-burn tribute to Westerns (as interpreted by Scotland and New Zealand) that’s often too pretentious for its own good. Still, it has its moments, and Michael Fassbender is good as Silas.

Slow ride,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Disco Bay
Current Music: The Bombay Royale, "Bombay Twist"
Crossposts: http://def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com/1193830.html

Not much time for the cinemas these days, but here’s a couple of amateur reviews to meet my blogging obligations.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

50+ years after its TV debut, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. finally gets the Big Hollywood Remake treatment, with Henry Cavill as Napoleon Solo and Armie Hammer as Illya Kuryakin, with director Guy Ritchie aiming to do with Solo and Kuryakin what he did with Holmes and Watson – i.e. an action-packed period-piece buddy film with back-and-forth narrative jumps.

Wisely, Ritchie keeps the story set in the early Cold War 60s – trying to do a story in which a CIA and KGB agent are forced to work together wouldn’t really work in a 2015 setting. On the downside, it’s mostly an origin tale of how the U.N.C.L.E. team was assembled, built around a decent but average plot involving wealthy Nazi sympathizers trying to build their own nuclear weapon. It’s debatable whether we really need a whole film to explain the background, although maybe with the show being 50 years old, exposition helps.

Anyway, the real attraction here isn’t the story so much as the way Ritchie tells it, and the interaction between Solo and Kuryakin. Cavill is all suave and unflappable, while Hammer plays Kuryakin with barely controlled intensity. It’s good that they’re having fun with it, but I did find myself wishing they’d had as much fun as Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law had in the Sherlock Holmes films. This is good as light entertainment, but it just feels like more could have been done here.

Minions

Well, why not? Take what was really the best funny bits in the Despicable Me films (the Minion scenes) and give them their own film, which explains their origins and their purpose – to find an evil master to serve. Only they’re not very good at it.

After the Minion race spends several centuries in self-exile in Antarctica, three Minions strike out on a quest to find a new master, which leads them to a villain convention in Orlando circa 1968, where they land a gig with super-villain Scarlet Overkill to steal the crown of Queen Elizabeth II so she can take over England.

All of which is pretty much an excuse to stretch all those Minion skits to 90 minutes, set to a lot of classic rock tunes to amuse the parents while the kids laugh at Minion slapstick. Which isn't to say only kids will find it funny – there’s a lot of fun to be had. Overall it’s a film that knows exactly what it is – zany goofball entertainment with epic merchandising – and doesn’t pretend to be anything else.

God save the Queen,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Causeway Bay
Current Music: FFS, "Call Girl"
Crossposts: http://def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com/1187888.html

I haven’t managed to get to the cinemas much this year for a variety of reasons. But I did make it at least twice since the last time I posted something in this category.

Inside Out

Odds are you’ll be sick of hearing about this film before the year is out, but for once the hype is justified – at least to me.

By now you know the premise – five anthropomorphic emotions run the control room inside the head of 11-year-old Riley, with Joy the primary leader. When Riley’s family moves to San Francisco, Sadness starts taking over. After Joy and Sadness – along with Riley’s core memories – are accidentally dumped into her long-term memory, they must find their way back to HQ through Riley’s mind before she experiences an emotional breakdown and loses her personality.

This is easily the most inventive and creative film Pixar has done in years, and the most layered and complex film they’ve done it their entire history. Directors Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen do a great job of distilling complex psychological concepts and distilling them into a simplified but clever story and a weird but recognizable metaphoric landscape. And sure, it’s a little heavy on the emo – the main characters are emotions, after all – but it’s never really forced or overdone, and it works thanks to a great voiceover cast that really sells the characters.

After six years of slipping into franchise retreads and pedestrian princess films (i.e. Brave – good film, but didn’t raise the bar the way I’ve come to expect Pixar films to do), it’s good to see Pixar back on form and proving it's possible to make smart, creative films and still be successful.

What We Do In The Shadows

Mockumentary from Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement (based on a short film they did in 2006) that’s basically The Real World with vampires, only it’s a comedy.

Rooted in the premise that a New Zealand film crew was granted access to the super-secret Unholy Masquerade, the film focuses on four vampire roommates who are somewhat out of touch with the modern world. That changes after they turn would-be victim Nick into a vampire, after which Nick gets them up to speed on things like The Internet while they teach him (not entirely successfully) about being a vampire. There are arguments over dishes, attempts to get invited into nightclubs, batfights and encounters with responsible werewolves.

I confess I’m not a big fan of mockumentaries, if only because it’s an overdone format. But this is rather well done. The improvised humor doesn’t always work for me, but there are a lot of genuinely funny scenes. And they have a lot of fun with the standard vampire tropes (lack of reflection, turning into bats, requiring to be invited into a building, etc) without really mocking the genre as a whole. In fact, it’s one of the better vampire films to come out in awhile.

FUN FACT: Here in HK, they actually went to the trouble of hiring local voiceover actors to do a dubbed Cantonese version.

Behold.

This is unusual – they typically only do that for animated films. Evidently they thought this would be a big enough film in HK that they thought it was worth the expense of dubbing.

Bite me,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Causeway Bay
Current Music: Throwing Muses, "Ellen West"
Crossposts: http://def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com/1181026.html

ITEM: YouTube user Marcelo Zuniga has made some videos detailing every change ever made to the first three Star Wars films, complete with side-by-side comparisons.

Many of them I already knew about via the 1997 "special editions", but I didn’t know they’d been making extra alterations in subsequent home video releases. Many of them are fairly subtle, others not so much.

Anyway, as part of the original Star Wars generation, I think these videos offer definitive proof (to me) that the originals really didn't need "fixing". In my opinion the Biggs scene is the only deleted scene that was worth adding in.

It occurs to me too that one of the biggest problems here is that Lucasfilm is subtely (if not intentionally) altering film history.

The original SW trilogy was heralded in large part because the FX were groundbreaking and visually stunning for the time period. That matters because when you watch any old film, yr basically seeing films that were made with the tools available at the time, some of which may have been invented specifically for that film. That in itself is a tribute to the ingenuity of the filmmakers, and even if it looks a little clunky by 2015 standards, you can still appreciate what they managed to accomplish.

Star Wars has a well-earned rep as a game-changer in FX, but when you stick in scenes using technology that didn’t exist at the time, it’s like cheating. People seeing Star Wars for the first time may look at the latest version and think, “Wow, they had CGI back in the 70s!”

Well, maybe not, if only because Lucasfilm has been fairly transparent about its enhancements, so it’s not they're trying to trick anyone into thinking they were that far ahead of the CGI game. And maybe it only matters to people like me who have a fascination with film FX tricks and the art of making fake look real, and how they used to do it in the Old Days compared to now.

And considering a lot of the original FX are still intact, I guess you could say the upgraded films serve as a kind of mostly seamless comparison of old-school and new-school FX that demonstrate how sophisticated Lucasfilm and ILM were when they first started.

Still, now that Disney owns Lucasfilm, I’m hoping one day they’ll release the original versions for us Old And Cranky People who will always swear that Han shot first. That doesn’t seem likely, internet rumors notwithstanding. And Lucas has adamant that the “special editions” are the definitive versions as far as he’s concerned, and the originals are “half-completed” films.

If it ain’t broke,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
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Current Music: Apoptygma Berserk, "Shine On"
Crossposts: http://def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com/1180262.html

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JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2022 LIST: THE FILMS
JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2021 LIST: THE FILMS
MOSES, MOSES, MOSES …
JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2019 LIST: THE FILMS
THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SKYWALKER
JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2018 LIST: THE FILMS
SO LOW: THE STAR WARS STORY WE DIDN’T NEED
JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2017 LIST: THE FILMS
THE LAST OF THE INTERNATIONAL JEDIS
JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2016 LIST: THE FILMS
PUTTING THE “WAR” IN “STAR WARS”
THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY IS CLOSED
WHERE HAVE ALL THE AMATEUR MOVIE REVIEWS GONE?
JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2015 LIST: THE FILMS
THE FORCE IS AWAKE – I HOPE YR HAPPY NOW
SPY VS SPIES
FOUR DUMB BLOCKBUSTERS AND AN ART WESTERN
THE MAN FROM M.I.N.I.O.N.S.
EMOTIONAL VAMPIRES, BUT IN A GOOD WAY
STAR WARS THROUGH THE AGES

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Entries tagged with film star

JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2022 LIST: THE FILMS

JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2021 LIST: THE FILMS

MOSES, MOSES, MOSES …

JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2019 LIST: THE FILMS

THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SKYWALKER

JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2018 LIST: THE FILMS

SO LOW: THE STAR WARS STORY WE DIDN’T NEED

JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2017 LIST: THE FILMS

THE LAST OF THE INTERNATIONAL JEDIS

JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2016 LIST: THE FILMS

PUTTING THE “WAR” IN “STAR WARS”

THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY IS CLOSED

WHERE HAVE ALL THE AMATEUR MOVIE REVIEWS GONE?

JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2015 LIST: THE FILMS

THE FORCE IS AWAKE – I HOPE YR HAPPY NOW

SPY VS SPIES

FOUR DUMB BLOCKBUSTERS AND AN ART WESTERN

THE MAN FROM M.I.N.I.O.N.S.

EMOTIONAL VAMPIRES, BUT IN A GOOD WAY

STAR WARS THROUGH THE AGES

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May 2025

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