Saw a review for The Batman which described Alex Ferns AKA Trevor from Eastenders as a ‘veteran character actor’ and couldn’t stop laughing. Still utterly scarred by his dong being in Chernobyl.
Looking forward to watching The Batman on HBO Max next month. Haven't been to the cinema since Feb 2020.
Also, I'm beginning to like the Batsuit more and more now. Didn't like it at first mainly because of the ears, but the cowl does look good from certain angles.
@RogerRoger I was also pleasantly surprised by Hamilton. My initial reservations were cast aside when I watched how cleverly woven together the music and story were and the talent on display, as you say.
Lin-Manuel Miranda has really become a darling in the film, theater, music, and TV world. Have you watched Encanto? It’s also pretty good. Not Disney’s finest, but pretty good, all the same, and Miranda’s musical score brings his unmistakable panache to the film.
Also, I didn’t realize Miranda has cameos in The Force Awakens and Rise of Skywalker. So he must be a Star Wars fan, which is another reason he’s okay in my book. 😉
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
They’re filming Batgirl in Glasgow just now (Keaton and Brendan Fraser have been spotted) and they seem to be filming a Christmas scene. Which means they’ve covered the cenotaph in big shiny Christmas lights. Lovely 😅
@LN78 I always found the concept of West Side Story to be odd. Not the Romeo & Juliet homage, rather the dancing, singing gang thugs. 😄 It’s very contradictory.
I haven’t seen this new version, but the old movie is held together by the good love story story and the excellent music. But the dancing and the tone always puzzled me. Granted, it’s been years ago when I saw it.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@LN78 Yeah, I’ll be interested to see it. Musicals have been hit or miss for me. But I’m thinking that with the rise of Lin Manuel Miranda and his influence on theater, movies, and music, that this Spielberg version has got to be juiced up to compete with the pizazz on display in Hamilton, In the Heights, etc. I suspect the dancing and choreography is modernized and much more acrobatic and entertaining than the original, which is where these movies can be really impressive beyond the older classics.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Fast and Furious 9. Very silly. Not even that fun. They’ve kinda jumped past the point where it was daft fun and now is so infuriatingly stupid that it gets in the way. Think the worst offender was a scene in which they drive from London to a country estate in the space of 2 minutes, in which the baddie claims it’s an embassy because he’s a diplomat’s son. Then Interpol show up because that’s what they are, private security for diplomats. In a van with ‘Interpol’ written on the side.
@WanderingBullet There’s a certain level of enjoyment to be had with stupid popcorn movies. But there’s a line. They’re just slightly creeping towards the Michael Bay side rather than the John Woo side.
Oof, Death on the Nile was one of my most anticipated movies of the year, but it suuuuucked. Terrible pacing, a lame central mystery, poor writing, etc. Even the cinematography lacked any real pop to it. And the set-up totally gives the finger to the sequel hook of the last film, Murder on the Orient Express.
Actually, I went back to watch that previous film afterword, because I remember absolutely loving it, and DotN made me wonder if it was worse than I remembered. But... it wasn't. Orient Express was every bit as witty, engaging, and dramatic as it was on my initial viewing. That film is paced extremely well, does a great job of bringing dimension to a massive cast of personalities (including its lead, Hercule Poirot, who is so much more eccentric and likeable in that first film!), and, visually, again, it pops in a way that the sequel doesn't. The sets are great, there are some fantastic camera shots that do a great job of making the train feel like a cohesive environment, the lighting is on point throughout, etc. The sequel's imagery just looks... flat. My brother-in-law, who I saw it with, compared it to a film from the seventies because of its weird pacing and lack of visual flair, and I can kinda see that. It doesn't look like a modern film.
As mentioned, the mystery is awful in the sequel, which is disappointing given how clever Orient Express' mystery writing turned out to be. And... look, Poirot does actual detective work in the first film. Orient Express gives you several opportunities to see why Poirot regards himself as such a genius. But, like, he doesn't DO anything in DotN until almost the very end. Stuff just happens, and he reacts, and that's the entire film. The "mystery" doesn't even set itself up until more than midway through the film, and it's so lame there's almost nothing you can do to make it interesting. Anyone who has been paying attention will have guessed the solution to the mystery by the time it happens.
Some of this undoubtedly is due to the source material, but Agatha Christie can't be blamed for the numerous filmic failings of DotN.
How do you go from a modern classic to such a disappointing sequel when almost the entire crew from the previous entry seems to have stayed on-board? I don't get it.
@Ralizah Interesting. I’m a huge fan of Christie and while Suchet is the definitive Poirot, the Finney Orient Express is a classic too. But I didn’t really like the Branagh adaptation at all. I just found it quite dull despite being very nicely shot. So I was probably not going to watch the new one, especially since Armie Hammer is playing possibly the most inappropriate character he could have been playing at this point in his career. I’d say watch the Suchet adaptation of Death on the Nile as a comparison but honestly, that isn’t one of my favourite Poirot books anyway.
@LN78 Once some time has passed, I intend to do something similar with WSS, having only seen the Spielberg version.
It got mixed reviews, but I loved every aspect of the 2017 Murder on the Orient Express. Brilliant film all-around. Knives Out is the only comparably excellent mystery film that comes to mind. So it's shocking how incompetent Death on the Nile is in comparison. Once I've put some space between myself and this version, though, I'll definitely check out the older adaptation and see if it's more competent. Although at least part of the problem with that story, if this film adapted it properly, is with the mystery itself. We'll see.
I think we watched a normal DVD copy of Orient Express, although I imagine it looks quite good in 4K!
@nessisonett What would you say is your favorite book in this particular series of stories?
I hadn't read the (apparently quite wild) allegations against Armie Hammer. You're right, though, given the allegations, taking on a role like this seems a bit much.
@Ralizah My favourite Poirot books are probably Dead Man’s Folly, After The Funeral and Curtain, the final Poirot book. There’s so many Christie books of varying quality but I always found myself drawn to those ones.
@LN78 Fast & Furious is all about family. There needs to be the word "Family" in title at some point like maybe "Fast & Furious: Family 10sion" for the next movie.
House of Gucci. An entire movie adaptation of the ‘when’s a your Dolmio day’ adverts. Bafflingly terrible. Jared Leto might give the worst performance I’ve seen in a movie in a long time.
Watched Cyrano. The plot itself is a little obnoxious insofar as it's hours of watching these two likable guys fixate on one largely oblivious, underdeveloped, and (IMO) entitled woman, but that comes with the material, I suppose. It's a musical, and... it's competent in that respect. There are no bangers you'll walk out of the theater humming to yourself, but the songs carry the plot and character development reasonably well, so I count it as a success in that regard. Musicals with bad music or that go on too long with their musical numbers really wear on my patience (In the Heights comes to mind).
The film is largely carried by Peter Dinklage's larger-than-life performance as the main character.
@Ralizah I haven’t watched that adaptation yet but I’ve seen Steve Martin’s Roxanne which is a modern(ish) adaptation and I studied the play a few years back. I think it’s probably possible to see all three of Roxane, Christian and Cyrano as fairly selfish or idiotic depending on your perspective. It’s really a play of misunderstandings and lies! Interestingly, I didn’t actually realise this new adaptation was a musical, but it makes sense as the original play is written in verse with a certain rhythm of the lines. Talking of musicals with obnoxious musical numbers, nothing will ever beat Into The Woods for that. Think I lasted about 3 minutes and most of that involved James Corden 😂
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