NoWo's Reviews
A more polished Blade
I actually like this 2nd iteration better.
Snipes and Kristofferson bring more of the same, but within a tighter script, with better photography and choreography.
The tacticool factor is now turned up to 11, with the addition of a semi-ensemble cast.
Created: 10-28-2024
Some franchises are always trying to ice-skate uphill
Snipes sells the movie with his shameless, balls-to-the-wall approach to the character. He's neither as over-the-top nor as good as in Demolition Man, but he is Blade, no contest.
Kristofferson also is an outstanding casting choice.
Without them, the movie would be tepid at best.
As it stands, it's cool and flashy in just the correct amounts.
But we still had to wait 14 years to Black Panther to get the first black super-hero on a theater screen, but, why bother with facts.
Created: 10-28-2024
Sci-fi masterpiece
As in old-school, socially and humanly relevant science-fiction.
Scott's best in my opinion, which is a pretty high bar.
Ford's best in my opinion, which is a pretty high bar.
Hauer's best, well, you get it. Same goes for Young.
Created: 10-28-2024
Cheap but entertaining.
Cheap is relative: the reported budget for this is enough to shoot a whole Godzilla movie. Still, it’s the cheapest instalment in the Hellboy franchise (as far as I know), and it does show at times, such as the opening sequence, which suffers from average CGI and a very flat-feeling picture. Almost reminded me of the first Evil Dead. Might have been on purpose.
Kesy does a very good job as Big Red, although the make-up, especially the hand, could have been better. They should have dropped the bad CGI and spent the money there. Like animating the tail; the tail was always very expressive.
But Kesy’s got the smack-talking, wisecracking no-frills bad-assery down pat, more than Perlman ever managed.
The mystical Southern mood is pretty well set, and the music is spot on.
The script is classic Mignola Hellboy; it doesn’t get much better than that. The reworked ending has some real good in it.
Now for the bad: the script writers forcefully inserted a DIE hire (DIE, not DEI, I’m old-school like that), because it won’t do to have all white male leads. HB technically is a bright red male, but he was raised white, I suppose.
The original comic by Mignola and Corben is pretty stream-lined, even minimalistic to an extent, and it's a two-seater. The extra character is disruptive and useless in most scenes it appears in. Noisy too. Must be my age showing. Rudolph is quite fetching, but nowhere near enough to make the addition bearable.
She’s not overbearingly girlbossing, and there’s no preaching. It’s an unfortunate in-between, really: the Morally Superior (tm) will see the character as tame and subjugated by The Patriarchy (tm), and the intellectually not-impaired will just wonder, if it serves no purpose, why put it in?
And of course, she saves the day, because of course. Drivel, I tell you, woke drivel! (shakes fist at the sky).
Created: 10-26-2024
Average horror
Average horror movie, all twists are predictable, in part due to a slow pacing. Good production value.
Although it is a French effort, it doesn’t feel exceedingly so, except for all cars being from the same (domestic) make (and one of its subsidiaries, I believe).
Ledoyen apparently made a career of a comely appearance (The Beach with Di Caprio comes to mind), which has been lost to time. Hamy seemingly was/is a model.
Neither have enough acting chops to carry a movie, though, which is rather unfortunate for a leading duo. The kid is good, so there’s that.
Woke elements: few, but an undertone of damsel-in-distress inversion, arrogant bitch female, passive bitch male, all of which are somewhat explained by the script, but rather unnecessary.
Surprisingly, for a movie apparently steering clear of overt political messaging, a very visible background of a “Feministe pour toujours” tee (“Forever feminist”, do they say Semper Fem in woke bootcamps?), and a “ACAB” graffiti, which is American, but maybe in use in France due to cultural contamination.
Pet peeves: apparently, the French carry in condition 2 all the time, which is sort of dangerous considering how ill at ease they appear with their own sidearms.
Also, lazy character naming. Guardian(o) and (de) Roland? Seriously? For the worst offender, refer to the Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis / Lesser Key of Solomon, but this one is obviously a spoiler.
Could have been a good movie, but lacks soul (atrocious pun intended).
Created: 10-25-2024
French Jumanji
No spoilers (it’s literally the first scene), but yeah, French Jumanji, except medieval.
Not a bad movie. Photography is quite good, actually. Period sets are excellent. Visual effects are pedestrian at best.
Peeve of mine: the arms and armours are off, historically and financially. The lute is somewhat accurate.
Reno is decades away from Leon and the Big blue. Still good, though, as the senile old fart.
Dubosc has a domestic career as a comedian, but turns out competent in a slightly more nuanced role. The two male leads have good chemistry.
The female lead is average at best, but it could be because of a badly written role. Despite being a barrister, her character shows a total lack of both subtlety and impulse control, to the point one would suspect the director of making a point against trusting women with, well, anything.
IMDB shows the actress to be an obvious activist. Meh, she’s probably just bad.
Having switched between US and domestic trailers: the comedic timing and general snarkiness are fairly off in the dub. Then again, French has a permanent +2 snarkiness bonus. And the dub seems somewhat lazy.
Substract 1 point if you don’t intend to watch a subbed version.
Woke elements: emasculated, moronic male lead, hyper-competent females, gender ambiguity (male, obviously), multi-racial recomposed family. To be fair, it’s not as heavy-handed as American productions, but definitely there. Except the feminism. Light-handed feminism is an oxymoron; here, it's normal, ie: ham-fisted
It’s often and distracting, and, as my fellow young people put it, cringe. Dock one point for excessive girlbossing.
2/5.
Could have been average. The arrow scene is funny.
Created: 10-24-2024
Less philosophy, more action thriller
Well, slightly less philosophy. More like sociology. Anyway.
My main gripe is the Major trading depth of character for depth of cleavage. She's less borderline-psychopath bad-ass, more passive eye-candy. Not necessarily a good move, considering the franchise is built around her. On the other, the ensemble cast gets a lot of character building, so there's that.
Both seasons are mostly one overarching plot each, across 26 episodes, so casual viewer beware. Also, can run quite talkative, especially the 2nd gig (Individual 11).
Still, creative, well written, clever. Loved it.
Created: 10-18-2024
Some call Oshii pretentious
and they very well might be right.
This one is probably too high-brow for it's own good, but I still loved it.
Exploring the GitS themes through Batou is a welcome change of pace; the visuals are mind-boggling, and the flawed pacing was OK with me.
Overall, probably a fantastic failure, but worth a see.
Created: 10-18-2024
Subtle masterpiece
Directed by Oshii, so, simultaneously a action-packed cyberpunk thriller, and a reflection on the human nature.
Same as the original manga, one could argue, but with less gratuitous nudity. No insult to the author, but sometimes lesbian orgies do distract from the flow of the narrative.
I'll admit that Oshii introduces non-gratuitous nudity (is clothing enough to make a (wo)man?), but hey, it's intellectualized, but it's OK.
Visuals are top notch, soundscape is fantastic, highly recommended.
Created: 10-17-2024
Uninspired copy
Best part are purely visual, frame-for-frame copies of Oshii's animated movie.
Oshii uses nudity as a marker of psychological state; Johansson renounces leveraging her bountiful bosom and butts.
This should leave her acting talent apparent, but I seem to have missed it. Should have opted for 4k, I might have seen it.
Also, Johansson (and Binoche) add a discreet aura of girl-boss to their characters. Might be me, and maybe they just don't understand strength, and are thus unable to render a legitimately strong character.
Asbaek and Kitano (well, obviously) are solid in secondary roles.
The movie may not deserve of 0 by itself, but it's bad plagiarism, and the original exists. Watch the original.
Created: 10-17-2024
