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City of Angels (1998)
A moving retelling of "Wings of Desire"
This Americanization of Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire" if a fine retelling. Cage, Braugher and even Ryan are all incredibly good and moving.
The premise of an incorporeal, eternal being who seeks love, humanity, and the finality of death over a perfect existence, is a fascinating one well-actualized through the three stories of the angel, a brilliant heart surgeon and former angel who's made the choice "Seth" contemplates.
It's bolstered by exceptional location shots and cinematography, as well as the heavily visual story told about the angels: Tall beautiful, black-coated beings who hear music in the sunrise and sunset along the L. A. beaches, and accompany the dying to their eternal rewards.
They inhabit the library, hear the thoughts of humans, but cannot feel, taste, know pain, illness or fear, until, as the former angel explains, they choose to "fall" into life.
When Seth faces the loss of Maggie to a surgeon who's also in love with her, he decides to fall and find Maggie before it's too late.
Thereby hangs most of a romantic fantasy that's well worth the trip.
Ojing-eo geim (2021)
A creepy, horrer/sci-fi thriller
"Squid Game," with its unusual title, is a well-produced, acted, high-end production value show.
Most folks know it's about people who've lost their way financially and take a chance on playing children's games to win multi millions in Korean won.
The participants find out their moneyball plays for keeps: When you lose, you lose PERMANENTLY.
The show pulls out all the stops with costumes, a big cast of recognizable Korean actors, all of whom do fine jobs. You hang on to find out how far the puppetmaster will go in this life and death elimination match. All this is very good.
Where "Squid Game" falls short is on character details. Not that there isn't enough: There's too MANY characters and too much detail. You hear their backstories from the start and you KNOW you'll hear how they've failed in a future episode.
I found that I wasn't engaged with ALL the characters or their tales. Two or three, maybe four, were enough, but there's nearly 8 principals. The woman who's left her kid behind and sucks up to a gang leader; the gang leader, the feckless dad, the stockbroker, the dying man and their children, ex-wives, mothers.
I think with Korean drama it might be the more the merrier. But after 5 episodes I was done with backstories and wanted to get on with it.
I skipped to the final episode and the ending wasn't a surprize. Shades of Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," without the sex, and a mishmash of other sci-fi, and gory horror films and TV shows.
It's a morality tale, for sure. You make your bed, you might be able to get out of it, but not without spilling buckets of blood. It's interesting, however, how the program seems to moralize that death is better than dishonor. Sort of hari kari. They are shamed by their participation, but if they don't win the game at hand, death solves their predicament, in a horrible way.
Yet, the dead are COMPLETE losers. No prize money goes to their families. They're simply out of the game. Wow!
Though we have a winner, the person isn't exactly happy. So money doesn't solve all your problems: another truism. Not bad, but not perfect. Worth a looksee. The ending leaves an opening for the game to continue, too, for those who love to watch.
Glitch (2015)
First two seasons are intriguing; third, a disappointment
Spoilers: As many know this is the Aussie version of an American version of a French original. I've not seen the French original, but the one-season American version, "The Returned," was excellent, except it was never finished. Glitch started out fine, tense, interesting, but for some reason the final season lost everything for a fizzle of a close. The tale of why a dozen people come back from the dead for no apparent reason is sci fi /supernatural gold.
The title alone means "mistake," and the whole point of the program is "Why?" Why these people, why from their times?
Most have died premature deaths. Several are murdered, one dies of cancer. A few are criminals. We've got a broad time span from the 1700s, 1800s, early and late 20th century to a millenial. An aboriginal and Chinese man to the white inhabitants of Australia. A few women, more men. One gay man. A little diversity. All from the tiny cemetery of "Urana". When they say come back from the dead, these folk literally rise from their graves, through the dirt like zombies. But they're human: living, breathing, eating. In fact the woman who died with cancer, comes back cured. Their memories are partially wiped, but, sadly, those return bit by bit.
It's an emotional roller coaster for the revived as well as the people who befriend them. For some, who've recently died, family are who they seek, to the shock of those folk.
The flashbacks are rich in detail and compelling. We learn about who each character is and we either care, or are appalled, as the case may be. The characters, most of all, are human. That's what's fine about this series. It keeps us on the hook. Being 'out of time' inherently makes all of them out of place. They wonder too, what's the reason for their "return."
The breakdown was the final season. Most decide they've been given a second chance. But in two cases, something strange occurs. People who they know die and revive seconds after their deaths. Is this the beginning of a strange phenomena worldwide? A lab is involved in seeking to study them. A scientist expresses interest in bringing back HER dead children. Things look like they'll spiral out of control. Who WOULDN'T want to bring back a beloved dead relative? But this would mean chaos, obviously. A physicist proposes that this will tear the universe apart, a religious extremist says it's the end times. A normal man who was revived and one of the undead agree that all the returned have to die again to save the world.
WHAT? This is about physics and religion? Both the science and the philosophy are never clear and the story ends with the returned re-dying with no explanation other than everything must be as it was.. It is a dissatisfying end to a mysterious and intriguing start. But, as usual, endings are hard.
Pose (2018)
Socially groundbreaking, but otherwise weak
The fact that POSE highlights the lives and society based around Latino and black gay queens and transgender folk in 1987, plus or minus a few years, and gets a devoted audience is something. "Paris is Burning," however, did a much better job without creating a soap opera where the writing and acting are sub par.
Perhaps this is because "Paris" was a documentary and the people interviewed were real. Paris had a heart without being sappy too. Pose is excessively sentimental.
However, some do good acting. The rest are as outrageous as their alter egos and as lax as the direction. This is tough subject matter. It's difficult not to go over the top. But it's not impossible in the right hands. Kudos for getting it seen. But more work should be done with casting and writing.
War of the Worlds (2005)
Too much Tom Cruise as hero vehicle
Dakota Fanning takes over the helpless screamer role of Ann Robinson in the 1953 original, to most folks' annoyance. Enough CGI in the budget to finance another film. Cruise set up as a deadbeat dad to make the story "relevant." Yet, he rescues a group of humans about to become Martian victims. A lot of "too much" populates the movie. Death rays, giant alien ships, crazed people, terraforming, personality changes (bad dad to good dad). Superexpensive C- movie. Not awful. Just not awfully good.
Episodes (2011)
A funnier Californication with a little British sprinkled in...
Comic sendup of the most dysfunctional and unlikeable characters in the Hollywood dream machine scrabbling to survive. But, no matter how awful the situations of the two British sitcom writers imported to bang a gong in La La Land are, or the movie culture they're sucked into becomes, the laughs are gutbusters, the tears of hilarity genuine.
Show improves over its seasons. Matt LeBlanc is a cracked diamond. The befuddled British principals, Greig and Mangan, are deer in headlights. What is lovely about this series is how the humanity of the principals, as foolish and wicked as it is in all cases, unfolds and charms us in with its complexities and foibles.
A few outcomes are obvious, but the pathways to the conclusions are enjoyalbe rides. It's a dirty picture of backstabbing, power moves and desperation, and of the disposable culture where people cling to their tiny turfs in fear and grab onto any body that'll keep them afloat. You wouldn't think this'd be funny, but it is..
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Deftly handled economies of scale by Lean
Lean handles the desert as co-star with O'Toole as Ford did Monument Valley with his Western epics and Wayne. But Lean does it better.
Lawrence goes in an idealistic innocent, a brilliant but naive man who believes he can unite long conflicted tribal societies into a single, powerful group that could work themselves out of the colonial reign of Britain.
He discovers corruption and murder in other men, as well as in himself. By the time an Arab conference fails to unite the tribes, Lawrence is a shattered man. He has personally lost close friends, learned to love killing, been debased. He'd hoped to open doors for a people and place he learned to love, but manages to ruin himself.
O Toole, Sharif, even Quinn at his hammiest before Zorba, do amazing work, with pristine supporting roles by Claude Rains and Alec Guinness.
It is an stunning cinematic epic combined wth Greek tragedy. It is long, a feast for the eyes, beautiful dialogue. Spare, yet rich. Ultimately melancholy. But worth the viewing. The sand washes over you like waves.
A Quiet Place (2018)
Fine horror/thriller that doesn't work out a few glaring plot holes
The premise is great: nasty aliens are around that kill anyone who makes noise, so the farm family we learn about has learned to live in silence. Luckily, one of their three children is deaf and everyone knows sign language. We arrive in the 79th day of the alien invasion and as the family strolls along its sand-muffled walkway to the nearby village to forage, we see the last of the headlines warning people to be quiet.
The film is beautiful, great child and adult actors using eyes and faces to emote, great cinematography. On a whiteboard in the soundproofed basement of the barn they've moved to, we see writing to tell us three creatures live in the environs. You can't shoot one, or another will show up to kill you. You can't load a gun or a creature will kill you before you can shoot it. The aliens are a sound McGuffin, until they aren't. This is where the film falls down.
Around their farm house is a full-grown crop of corn. They have a silo half full of harvested corn. How do they get the corn out of it? They're eating small-garden vegetables. How are those gardens made and harvested with no noise? Most farms have animals, but no animals are present 79 days in. If the creatures killed them, the humans couldn't have used their carcasses because to butcher an animal makes noise.
OK, so the alien plot holes are many. But, the family dynamics appear genuine. Parents try to give their children as much love and normalcy in a time when nothing was normal. The electronic whiz dad even tries to fashion a better cochlear hearing aid for his daughter.
The slice of life we witness encompasses about a year and a half in these people's lives. So viewers saying how could there be food or medicine on the shelves of the stores in a small town with a small population aren't being realistic. We also don't know how many people have been killed off. It seems to be a significant number.
I think the climactic ending didn't need to be so over the top. We might've kept a wounded character and still had the two people discovering a way around the McGuffin intact. As it is, I'll notch the film down a little for the lack of internal logic. It's still a fine work that I think will stand up to the test of time.
Lost Continent (1951)
Rock climbing snooze fest
Despite having a decent B-movie roster of stars, led off by Cesar Romero, this film cannot call itself an adventure. The flimsy plot is an atomic rocket crashes on an island and must be retrieved. Three military men and three scientists are sent to recover it.
They encounter pacific islanders (2 who know English and are neither interesting nor colorful) who tell them how to get to the mountaintop where the rocket rests. After most of the film bores you while they climb the mountain, at the top they see two triceratops and two brontasauruses, both vegetarians, that charge them... and this is no Harryhausen film, so the prehistoric beasts look like poorly formed play-doh...
The adventure is over and they scamper down the mountain in a few minutes (!). After they paddle away to safety, the mountain explodes with the rocket, as you might've hoped the film would've, to ease your misery.
I saw this through the comedy stylings of MST3K, and even they couldn't make this palatable. Not funny-awful. Just awful. I think higher ratings are the result of some people citing fond memories of this film that they saw as young children. I have no such rose colored glasses. It's bad.