Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
"Will this agony ever end?" C3PO.
Hmmm...I thought intially The Last Jedi tried too hard to wrongfoot fanboys second guessing the plot; but it grew on me a bit more after a second watch.
This one.... a few things just bugged me
Bringing back the Emperor ?
Seems a bit of a cop out, like they killed Snoake a film too early and couldn't think up another bad guy.
So...Palpatine's just been hanging round for 30 years with a vast fleet of super Star Destroyers twiddling his thumbs ? Didn't buy it
Kylo Ren can't afford to make another helmet but sticks together his old one ? Oh come on. Is there suddenly a shortage of metal in the galaxy ?
Rose got a bit of a raw deal, main player in 2nd film, hardly in this. Gets bumped for a gratuitous return of pensioner Lando
Too many MacGuffins... A Sith Wayfinder ? A dagger that leads you to a Sith Wayfinder ? A ship in a desert that Luke apparently had the co-ordinates to but couldn't be bothered looking for just a little bit harder ? In God's name what for ?Don't tell me as a master plan to lead Rey to Palpatine. There's surely got to have been a simpler way
Killing Palpatine will cause his spirit to go into the killer and he's resurrected ? OK....but then...Rey produces two lightsabers in a vaguely anti-Dracula crucifix formation and magically his own lightning bolts kill him...and his spirit isn't reincarnated after all. So there's killing and killing ?
A fleet of Super Star Destroyers so feeble they can't tell which way is up without a special tower and take 45 minutes to lift off ? Yet their fighter ships can zoom out and fly around no bother. And..oh wait, they don't need a tower, that can be done by any of the ships just as conveniently.
M
Fritz Lang - 1931
The police are hunting down a creepy child killer played by Peter Lorre who crawls the streets hunting for victims while whistling the familiar tune of Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King". The police operation is disrupting the activities of the criminal underworld and so their overlord decides to use all his resources to track the killer down and kill him. Who will win the race and what will be the fate of the killer?
Lang's first talkie and supposedly the first film about a serial killer it is quite tense and atmospheric although it drags a bit in the middle and it has an oddly abrupt ending with a plea by a victim's mother for all of us to look after our children.
Ranked 58 in the TSPDT list of the 1,000 greatest films.
89
A very good sports documentary that gives an insight into Arsenal's 1988-89 title win. Good watch for everyone but especially sports fans
9/10 (I'm easily pleased
)
Extraction (Netflix)
Well after all the hype around this film I must say I did enjoy it. Interesting camera work (almost FPS game style at times) really puts you in the action and Chris Hemsworth portrays the main character's empty existence well.
Might just be my TV but some of the dialogue was very quiet and the action very loud so adjusting volume required for late night viewing!
Oh and Hopper's in it
Solid 8/10. Inevitable sequel already in the works apparently.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Stanley Dolen - 1954
A feral pack of backwoodsmen siblings kidnap a bunch of gals for the purposes of cooking, cleaning and
rape marriage. After a few months captivity the Stockholm Syndrome kicks in and they all live happily ever after. Harvey Weinstein's favourite film.
Nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and winner of the best score in a musical.
yesterday
10/10
best film ive watched this year
just an all round good movie
much better than i thought it would be
highly recommended
Welcome to Leith - A highly rated documentary about White Supremacist Craig Cobb, who moves to the tiny rural town of Leith in North Dakota & begins to buy up land in a hope to create a white's only commune within the town, available with Amazon Prime
The Year of Living Dangerously
1982 Peter Weir
"Guy Hamilton is a journalist on his first job as a foreign correspondent. His apparently humdrum assignment to Indonesia soon turns hot as President Sukarno electrifies the populace and frightens foreign powers. Guy soon is the hottest reporter on the story with the help of his photographer, half- Chinese dwarf Billy Kwan, who has gone native. Guy's affair with diplomat Jill Bryant also helps. Eventually Guy must face some major moral choices and the relationship between Billy and him reaches a crisis at the same time the politics of Indonesia does." (from IMDB)
Not a bad film but it focuses too much on the affair between Mel and Sigourney and not enough on the political events. The background to the films is an attempt in 1965 by the communist PKI to oust the dictator Sukarno who had led Indonesia to independence from the Dutch, with the army led by conservative muslim generals determined to stop them. The failure of the PKI coup led to brutal reprisals with over half a million killed but you wouldn't know this from the film which ends with the lovebirds flying off into the sunset with a few roadside exectutions thrown in to add a bit of flavour.
Another issue with the film is the Billy Kwan character. The fact that the actor is obviously a woman is a big distraction. "Is this meant to be a trans character or intersex or what?" I was constantly thinking. It turns out that the director couldn't find a suitably small male actor so used a woman instead. The Oscars were impressed though as Linda Hunt won best supporting actress for the role.
Firefox
One of my fav Clint Eastwood movies.