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Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)
Filmmaker(s): Mike Mitchell

Po is gearing up to become the spiritual leader of his Valley of Peace, but also needs someone to take his place as Dragon Warrior. As such, he will train a new kung fu practitioner for the spot and will encounter a villain called the Chameleon who conjures villains from the past.

Green Noodle of Wisdom There are three interwoven stories in this edition, which for apparent cost savings does not have the furious five. So this is a one-hero show. The dominant thread is the father-son story. I guess I can understand why this so deeply plays in...


Published July 1, 2024
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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
Fury is born.
Filmmaker(s): George Miller

As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.

Maxxed out I understand how this was made. ‘Fury Road’ was a mess, a rescued, done-over-several-times mess that few people involved thought would work, but it did. So the studios were eager to make another, and Miller already had the prequel sketched because he needed a...


Published June 29, 2024
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Inside Out 2 (2024)
Make room for new emotions.
Filmmaker(s): Kelsey Mann

Teenager Riley's mind headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone.

Lassiter Layers Decades ago, I had the charter to ‘study Hollywood’, ostensibly as a model for virtual enterprises, but that extended into my now serious study of folding in film narrative. One expression of folding is the play within the play, where you have narratives and narrative...


Published June 23, 2024
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Lost Treasures of the Maya (2018)
Filmmaker(s): Frederick R. Friedel

A new "treasure map" of the Maya world is transforming what we thought we knew of one of the world most mysterious ancient civilizations.

Indiana, No Jones There are a lot of ways to make a documentary, but it seems there are two familiar models. The one I want is about the subject: I want to know about these people, and their ways through what we see of their cities....


Published June 21, 2024
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The Fall Guy (2024)
Fall hard.
Filmmaker(s): David Leitch

Fresh off an almost career-ending accident, stuntman Colt Seavers has to track down a missing movie star, solve a conspiracy and try to win back the love of his life while still doing his day job.

No Stuntman This film, and every comment I’ve seen seems to not be aware of 1980s ‘The Stunt Man”. That was a similar setup, but before the noir device evolved to the comedic. In the earlier film, the fact of the stunt guy being so was...


Published June 20, 2024
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Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself (2020)
Identity is an illusion.
Filmmaker(s): Frank Oz

Storyteller and Conceptual Magician Derek DelGaudio attempts to understand the illusory nature of identity and answer the deceptively simple question 'Who am I?'

Dark Crystal Frank Oz has always puzzled me. He is the second voice, the Garfunkle to whomever is the Simon. He is not the guy to have and manifest the primary vision, so his projects are inept. On the other hand, given a framework from a...


Published June 16, 2024
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The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)
Discover the first special forces mission in history.
Filmmaker(s): Guy Ritchie

During World War II, the British Army assigns a group of competent soldiers to carry out a mission against the Nazi forces behind enemy lines... A true story about a secret British WWII organization – the Special Operations Executive. Founded by Winston Churchill, their irregular warfare against the Germans helped to change the course of the war, and gave birth to modern black operations.

Slap in the Face Richie is not on my list of filmmakers to admire, but he has indeed made some admirable films, with probably the best being ‘Snatch’, a layering of noir and introspective humour, with harpsichord. They are jaunty, unique, personally cinematic. One might say...


Published June 4, 2024
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Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
The tide is turning.
Filmmaker(s): James Wan

Black Manta seeks revenge on Aquaman for his father's death. Wielding the Black Trident's power, he becomes a formidable foe. To defend Atlantis, Aquaman forges an alliance with his imprisoned brother. They must protect the kingdom.

A Lost Universe You will read from others the multiple weaknesses in this film from a genre that normally tolerates them. There are few new things you can do with these films, and instead of attempting some, they reverted, seeming to emulate the most popular elements...


Published April 27, 2024
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The Expendables (2010)
Choose your weapon.
Filmmaker(s): Sylvester Stallone

Barney Ross leads a band of highly skilled mercenaries including knife enthusiast Lee Christmas, a martial arts expert Yin Yang, heavy weapons specialist Hale Caesar, demolitionist Toll Road, and a loose-cannon sniper Gunner Jensen. When the group is commissioned by the mysterious Mr. Church to assassinate the dictator of a small South American island, Barney and Lee visit the remote locale to scout out their opposition and discover the true nature of the conflict engulfing the city.

Sliding Planes "Speedracer" and the "Transformer" movies, even the second "Charlie's Angels." These are silly or even bad films by the conventional measures. This is too. It is vapid, misogynistic and fundamentalist. I wouldn't recommend that anyone go unless they know themselves well enough. But like those other...


Published April 25, 2024
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A Caribbean Mystery (1983)
Filmmaker(s): Robert Michael Lewis

Aging Major Palgrave, an idiosyncratic but charming mystery writer, reveals to Miss Jane Marple that one of the guests at a luxurious Caribbean resort they're staying at is a Bluebeard-type wife murderer. Unfortunately, the Major succumbs to an apparently accidental overdose of alcohol and blood pressure medication before revealing the killer's identity. When it's discovered that the medicine belonged to another guest and the revealing photograph the Major was carrying is missing, Miss Marple realizes that the serial killer has struck again and more murders will follow.

Glass Eye To my mind, Christie’s novels are inherently cinematic. Most of them have key events: a murder or clue, that are spatially constrained, which is an attractive hook for a filmmaker. Here there are three such setups. A man tells a story about a known murderer,...


Published April 22, 2024
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