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Reviews
Babylon (2022)
Remember when Spinal Tap turned their amplifier up to Eleven?
A new champ has arisen to take the crown of Worst Movie I've Ever Seen--Babylon. What a waste of money and talent, to come up with this bloated, excessive, heavy-handed mess. This movie starts with someone being pooped upon by an elephant, immediately followed by someone being peed upon during sex, then going into a way too long full-blown orgy scene--I guess the director was trying to grab our attention. But the effect was the opposite--I was looking at my watch about 10 minutes into the movie, wondering when the plot would start to develop. When you start out over-the-top like that, it's hard to keep up the level. To do it, the director must have given his cast instructions to scream at the top of their lungs in almost every scene, because that's what they did. Margot Robbie went overboard in her portrayal of an aggressively vulgar sexpot, which eventually wore a bit thin, to the point where you wanted to just change the station. In a crescendo moment, Brad Pitt delivers a passionate defence of the movies to his more 'theatre arts' type wife, claiming that movies are the art of the 'real' people, not the 'phony' New York snobs. But a crescendo is something that builds to peak: like everything else in this film, it's all one great plateau of loudness and screaming. You can almost sense the director prompting, 'Brad, scream louder, so they'll know you're really Acting!" Poor Brad Pitt, after the subtle and wonderful performance he gave us in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, to be involved in this mess. I will just mention that there is a ridiculous scene of Margot thrashing around with a rattlesnake, its fangs embedded in her neck, which also went on far too long. For your added entertainment, the F word was used in all its variations--as a verb, noun, adjective, adverb--in almost every sentence. All this would maybe be forgivable if you were left with some real feeling, some depth, some emotion. But it's flat. If everything is at the same volume, there's nothing that stands out. It's all Eleven. If you have the patience to sit through this thing, you'll be treated to a montage of seemingly every movie ever made, which tries to signify that this whole thing was a tribute to the history of the glory of movies. Too bad this wasn't one of the glorious ones.
The Last Wave (1977)
Can't accept the ending
I liked almost everything about this movie. Setting, mood, theme, cast. But the ending threw me for a loop. The theme deals with the lost traditions of the tribal aborigines, remnants of whom are still living in the city, guarding their sacred secrets, which lawyer David Burton is trying to unravel. Yet when we are led to the final 'holy of holies', why do the cult objects and artifacts visually refer to Mesoamerican cultures? The paintings are clearly Aztec/Mayan etc. In style, as are the megalithic structures. We learn in the film that Burton is of South American heritage. He seems to share the ability of his ancestors, a certain
"other" tribe of Mukturu (?sp) to dream the future. So are we to infer that the traditional knowledge of the aborigines originated in South America? It's not a theory I've ever encountered, and we know that Australia's aboriginals have been there a lot longer than the Aztecs. So, I don't get it. I wish somebody would explain it to me.
Shetland: Episode #4.6 (2018)
Gut-Wrenching
It was the acting that got me this time. The character of Tommy Malone pulled out my heart and left me in tears. I still tear up thinking back, and thinking about all the underdogs and outcasts of life. Much praise for the actor, Stephen Walters, who took this from good to outstanding.
One of the best series I've ever watched, including series like True Detective and The Wire. Shetland takes you to a different milieu in the world of police drama. Season 4 was intelligently written, kept me guessing as to the solution of the crime(s) without introducing a surprise 'villain' at the last minute.
Keeping Faith (2017)
Slow and Ugly
I enjoy films in which the plot unfolds gradually and character development is unhurried. This is not one of them. What aspires to be subtle sensitivity devolves into egregiously extended padding, mainly consisting of alarmingly close headshots of Faith going through every facial expression in her repertoire, coupled with flinging around messy, unkempt hair that destroys any credibility of her position as an attorney at law. Do we really need giant shots of Faith slathering her lipstick onto gigantic lips, Faith grossly chewing her food (while attempting to lure her husband into sex--no wonder he heads for the hills!), Faith huffing and puffing in exasperation whilst lying on the floor? While we contemplate large nostrils and pores the scale of craters on the moon, we're treated to Oooie Gooie background music and the occasional song lyrics that, in case you didn't get it already, further illustrate her suffering and add to ours.
All these take place in the frequent pauses in the story during which, I suppose, its creators are figuring out what to do next to fill up an eight episode series. She's a good actress, but this needed a heavy dose of directing, editing, and please, a revision of the art direction--give that macro lens a rest! and for heaven's sake, lose the stiletto heels and give her a pair of shoes she can walk in.
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Art can be fun!
Haven't had this much fun since Pulp Fiction. Finally some terrific entertainment that isn't a comic book character or a lot of cgi. I'm rating it 10 because I can't think of a way it could have been better. There wasn't a minute in this film where I wasn't interested, engaged, and eager to keep watching. It's punchy, funny, LA glamourous, colourful yet noir-ish, the violence is gutsy and visual but it's Tarantino, so not just a run of the mill punch up shoot out--always a surprise and enough of a twist that you can't help laughing. The editing is an excellent juxtaposition of scenes and images. Lots of recognizable memories if you're a boomer--you'll be going "oh yeah, that's right!" But more than that, it has characters who are interesting, not just cutout action figures, but human beings, from the lead roles to the bit parts. This looks like a movie where the actors sincerely got into the spirit--art can be fun!
Alexander (2004)
Dog's breakfast
This film moved me to register with IMDb just to say how awful it was. No, not because of the relationship with Hephaestion. That's historical. But because of the all-over-the-place direction. Platoon to the nth degree! right to the slo-mo encounter between stallion and elephant. Misdirected by Oliver Stone, "Alexander" spends most of his time either with his huge eyebrows slanted up in a worried direction, or bellowing like Joan of Arc in "The Messenger". Two basic expressions. Poor Val Kilmer gets to do a nice Oliver Reed impression. As far as history goes, we're provided with a quote from Virgil (70 bc or so) right at the start, which Alexander then repeats about 300 years earlier. (Virgil stole it from Alex, right?) Alexander was a truly amazing strategist. The first battle in this film was such a disorganized, overblown mess that this was hardly apparent. Also, the film made it seem as if that was it, one big battle, empire conquered. It was his continued consistent victorious streak against all odds that amazed people and kept his men with him for years on end. Yet hardly any of his other successes were mentioned. His continued brinksmanship with Darius was largely ignored. Where was the building of the bridge to the island? Where were the things that made him such a superstar of antiquity, such as the oracle from Zeus in Egypt, or the cutting of the Gordian knot? Instead we see him coaching his men with some new-agey pop psychology and multicultural idealism. (This didn't make sense either--on one hand he was all about the equality of all cultures, on the other he kept talking about bringing enlightenment to the barbarians) Not very likely for a Macedonian warrior, whose motives were more likely power, glory, and to outshine his father. I know it's hard to make a good movie, but this one was just a dog's breakfast.