Three Forces My gosh: how could this fail to please. It employs all three of the major forces in pandering film: cute children, a beautiful woman ennobled by adversity and finally: unlikely ‘interracial’ love (‘.. he pressed his earthy oriental skin…’). The scriptwriter’s task is to take these three forces and merge them into a… Continue reading The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
Category: Twos
Films rated two stars out of three
I, Madman (1989)
The Misadventures of Margaret The setup here is a typical fold. An actress has a day job in a book store. She reads horror books and imagines herself in them. One day, she comes across an author who, when writing, had the story and real life merge. In reading the books, they “come alive”. Her… Continue reading I, Madman (1989)
Alleyn Mysteries: Final Curtain (1993)
Exit Stage Left I haven’t seen all of these productions. Usually I go through the whole series, and I may eventually come back to this. I watched this because I saw “Death at the Bar,” which was truly superb. It was because they built it around director Winterbottom’s special skills, the writer working to them… Continue reading Alleyn Mysteries: Final Curtain (1993)
Cruella (2021)
Princess Leyline One way to look at this is why it was made. Clearly, Disney marketing has found a princess niche not served by the direct approach. You have to admire the art of discovering and mining a market. Perhaps no one can do what these folks do in discovering and exploiting tween girl urge.… Continue reading Cruella (2021)
Army of the Dead (2021)
Legionnaire’s Disease I was completely taken by “Sucker Punch”: layered, visually imaginative. Narrative ambiguity and engineered parallel causality. “300” on the other hand seemed an unadorned testosterone arc. In both cases, the visual composition was notable, in terms of mastery of rhythm. This is more on the simple side, albeit festooned with all the shooting… Continue reading Army of the Dead (2021)
The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021)
Meme Film School I am a filmsfolding guy. That is where films understand they are films and engage the viewer on multiple levels. Devoted some of my life to thinking about them and appreciating the meta-art. I should like this. It is essentially a story about a young filmmaker who goes on a road trip… Continue reading The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021)
Uncharted (2022)
The Search for Women Villains I came to this to have something to watch with my 9 and 10 year olds, and for that it was a rousing success. As I’m not familiar with the source material, I can judge it purely on the films and stunts that came before. It seems to register well… Continue reading Uncharted (2022)
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)
The Last Supper’s Table If you come to this for the much advertised fight choreography or exciting chase scenes, you will be disappointed. We’ve seen more exciting of each many times. There’s no new ground here, no stunts in the Tom Cruise sense to speak of. No risks at all. Fightwise the only novelty we… Continue reading John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)
Exit Through the Giftshop (2010)
Mister Brainwash A key insight for me is what I amusingly call Ted’s law. In this, when we layer abstractions in art, the “distance” between layers is equal. This is a great example. The idea builds on the notion that humans alone are capable of seeing themselves in the world as they see the world.… Continue reading Exit Through the Giftshop (2010)
Coherence (2013)
Encounters with Selves The idea behind this is promising: troubled couples escaping their problems and focus on their partner by encountering themselves — other versions of themselves. There is some scientific hocus pocus enlisted to enable this, but that is just incidental. And I have to admit that the execution is good. Yes, the camera… Continue reading Coherence (2013)