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Jeremy_Urquhart
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Steekspel (2012)
Not sure how it came to be, but it's pretty decent for what it is.
Exploring Paul Verhoeven's filmography means eventually stumbling upon Tricked, which runs for just under an hour, but doesn't seem to be a TV movie or part of a series. It was created from some kind of program/competition called Entertainment Experience, and I've been reading about it to try and understand it, but I don't. I don't even know whether calling it a competition is useful or accurate. It was some strange Dutch thing that my brain cannot comprehend or make sense of.
But the resulting film is pretty straightforward. It's short, to the point, and not nearly as crazy as most Verhoeven projects, but it works pretty well as a dark comedy. There's basically a terrible husband, and he's celebrating his 50th birthday, and he has various affairs that collide and mess up aspects of his family and professional life.
From what I can gather about the production, different people initially scripted different parts of what was filmed... but Verhoeven ended up sort of doing his own thing in the end? I don't know. This is confusing. I can usually read about unusual projects and more or less understand and summarize them, but this thing - this Tricked - has kind of tricked me. Words fail me, and I just don't know.
As a movie, it's fine for what it is. It doesn't waste time and it's kind of amusing/entertaining, if a little slight, in the end. It's interesting to see some of these lesser-known Verhoeven films, though, and I'm starting to realize that even if the director's had a couple of misses in his time, he's never seemed to miss twice in a row. The guy's made almost 20 movies, and most are at least pretty good. Even the ones that aren't good are still interesting; the kinds of somewhat bad movies that aren't necessarily bad times to watch.
Yozhik v tumane (1975)
Beautifully strange and strangely beautiful.
Shoutout to the worst Thomas Pynchon book (Bleeding Edge) bringing this strange get compelling short film to my attention. Pynchon loves to mention pop culture that both does exist and doesn't, and I was intrigued enough to check here, and thankfully there really is a Hedgehog in the Fog.
I don't know what's going on here, but it is beautiful and unique. Nothing else out there seems to look quite like the animation on offer here. I was going to call it modern, but not even modern animation really looks this way. It's entirely its own thing, and that's enough to make it worth devoting 10 minutes of your time to. It's a bit sad, it's a bit confusing, and it's all art.
House of the Dragon: King of the Narrow Sea (2022)
Solid
We've got a bit of a pattern going, so far, with the early odd episodes of House of the Dragon being big, flashy, and violent, and the even episodes being a bit slower and focused on character drama and political intrigue.
The events of the third episode are developed in relatively interesting ways, and there is a lot of sleaze in this episode which I didn't anticipate being in a 2020s series based on Game of Thrones. Not saying it's a good or a bad thing, but that show did get a little more prudish in its last couple of seasons... but we're all out in that territory here.
It sets up some interesting pieces that'll be knocked over or rearranged soon, I'm sure. It's not a huge or shocking episode in the traditional sense, but I like what it's going for, in terms of the season overall.
House of the Dragon: Second of His Name (2022)
A little conflicted
To stay positive for now, the third episode of House of the Dragon, Second of His Name, does up the spectacle once more. The first episode of the show was flashy, while the second episode was a bit quieter, and now, episode #3 ups things in terms of action.
The action at the end, though, does feature some improbable plot armor and the (seeming) death of a character who I'd hoped to see more of, owing to how intriguing they were. It was a spectacular scene, in some ways, but the execution and ramifications of it left me a bit confused and saddened.
Elsewhere, Second of His Name also jumps forward in time quite a bit, and while I was anticipating a time skip at some point this season (owing to different actors playing some characters), I would've happily stayed with certain dramatic storylines for longer. I wonder if House of the Dragon is going to continue feeling a bit rushed, because I hope this casual jumping forward of two or more years doesn't set a precedent.
There Will Be Blood (2007)
There will be milkshakes.
I can't lie. There Will Be Blood isn't anywhere close to being my favourite Paul Thomas Anderson film, but I liked it quite a bit more than before on this latest viewing. I think seeing it on the big screen helped. It wasn't as dramatic an improvement as watching 2001: A Space Odyssey on a tv, and not being truly impressed until seeing it in a cinema, but it also wasn't far off. The slow pacing in both films is easier to not notice when you're overwhelmed by what you're seeing and hearing, and when you can't see the time or any other distractions.
Obviously, Daniel Day-Lewis is at his best here, and There Will Be Blood would probably still be good if everything but Day-Lewis underwhelmed. But this is also impressively directed, has a decent number of iconic scenes, and looks grand. I still can't work myself up into a frenzy over Jonny Greenwood's music like so many people do (both for this score and his other ones... I don't believe he would get nearly as much attention as a composer if he wasn't a member of Radiohead), but at least that score sounded more overwhelming - and therefore interesting - with a proper sound system.
It's still a bit too slow a film, I feel, and the point of it all, as far as I can tell, is a bit simple for something so long. I still love the Anderson films with big casts and/or lots of energy over his more psychological character dramas, but still, a lot of this is impressive on a technical front. And those qualities really did shine on the big screen, so I'm happy I got to see it that way (and the screening sold out, which was crazy but also cool to see).
Turks fruit (1973)
An ambitious early film from Paul Verhoeven.
Paul Verhoeven really was very Paul Verhoeven right from the start. This is the oldest film of his I've seen, and one of his earliest efforts as a filmmaker. It's pretty good, and fairly in line with the sorts of things he'd later make... at least his more grounded movies, given it stands apart from the sci-fi and action flicks he's best known for making.
Still, the content is extreme, as is the case with his genre fare, and there's some violence and content that I guess you could call gross. This getting an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film, and being so extreme, makes me think more and more that movie watchers were just cooler and more open-minded back in the 1970s.
There were a few moments throughout this that didn't work for me. I kind of get the main characters being bad at communicating for the purposes of drama, but one farcical scene involving someone being too "exposed" when meeting a member of the royalty drove me nuts, because the people who noticed the problem could've just told her to cover up a bit more.
But outside that moment and some of the other scenes that verged on going a bit far, this is pretty good, and definitely interesting. It looks good and successfully tells a very human story - both pretty and ugly at different times - about a chaotic sort of young love. It's certainly not perfect, but it generally works quite well.
Christine (1983)
Sometimes tedious, and sometimes thrilling.
To be blunt, I found Christine a little bit dull compared to most Stephen King adaptations. The idea of a possessed car being able to kill people sounds like loopy fun and, to the film's credit, it tackles the idea more successfully than the surprisingly comparable Maximum Overdrive, which is wilder and messier (not to mention a film actually directed by King himself).
John Carpenter is clearly a superior director, and he doesn't do a bad job. I think the score is very good, when it does get used at least, and he was credited with composing it. Much of the film looks good, and when there's a set piece, it delivers.
I don't think there are enough exciting scenes, though. I can't see much of Christine sticking with me as time goes on. I kind of drifted through it. It was just fine, but also much too slow. It's kind of like It's a Wonderful Life (wild comparison, but bear with me) in that the "plot," as it's usually described, only really gets focused on in the final act, or maybe the final half, if you want to be charitable.
There's just a lot of Christine that's oddly boring and aimless. I might be the problem here, becuase I've grumbled about pacing in this plus the two other most recent films I watched before it: Hollow Man and Wicked: Part 1. Either I've been unlucky with picking well-edited movies, or there's something internal right now that's making it harder to get swept up in a movie. I may be at fault, in which case, there's a chance I'm being too hard on Christine.
It's definitely decent, but for now, I'm not going to join the camp of people calling it underrated or overlooked. I may still check out the novel version one day.
Wicked: Part I (2024)
A bit drawn out, but parts of it are very strong.
Sneakily released as part 1 of a duology, my biggest complaint when it comes to Wicked is that it just feels too long for half the story. This is pretty epic and sweeping narratively, and it deserves to feel grand, but I think a single 2.5-hour movie would've been grand enough. I'm not familiar with the musical, but I know that's no longer than three hours, so there would've been a relative ease with getting it all in one movie. They want money, though, and releasing like this will get them more money. And there is a lot to like in part 1 of this movie, but the first half of the story didn't need to be this long.
Rant aside, and acknowledging that some of this is too drawn out, when Wicked 1 works, it really works. Some of the sequences here really impress, and it does end undeniably strong. The two leads are both great, and outside some dimly lit scenes, most of the film looks very good.
It also sounds very good. I can understand the appeal of the music part of this musical, and I think lots of the movie feels appropriately cinematic and not stagey. It is just so drawn out, though. Despite great moments, I can't call the movie as a whole great when it's got that one significant flaw. If Part 2 makes the first half look better in hindsight, or serves as a Dune Part 2 kind of upgrade, I may eat my words, or at least snack on some of them.
Hollow Man (2000)
A bit of a miss, sadly.
Hollow Man ponders what an updated, sleazier, CGI-enhanced spin on The Invisible Man would look and feel like. It is not a total disaster, but I was still a bit disappointed. I wonder how this looked in 2000, but now, lots of the special effects involving different layers of a human being disappearing just reminded me of the Robbie Williams Rock DJ music video, which I think works better as a piece of horror than Hollow Man, somehow.
It does look at the things that someone might want to do if they were invisible, and that's kind of what the better old-school Invisible Man movies did. They were kind of wholesome, owing to their age, whereas Hollow Man is all about a complete sicko - who's also going increasingly mad - using his powers for evil. That feels like an extension of what these invisibility heavy movies used to do, but I wish Hollow Man stuck close to the runtime found in most of those Universal horror movies. This film's about two hours, and I don't think there's enough here to fully sustain that runtime.
It takes too long for there to be any sense of danger for the supporting characters, and it didn't really feel like it was trying to be a slow burn. I can potentially forgive the technical shortcomings more than the pacing problems, but I think it overstayed its welcome, and that was the most significant issue.
It's a lesser Verhoeven flick, but it's still kind of watchable and sporadically fun.
Red Rocket (2021)
Starts decently, but ends excellently.
This reminded me of a New Hollywood movie (mean that as a compliment). It's the kind of thing they made in the 1970s, and a bit during the late 1960s and early 1980s, just focusing on a screwed-up character making a mess of things without a ton of story getting in the way. It's not perfectly comparable, but it feels like an evolution of that sort of film from that era, all very clearly taking place in the 2010s and dealing with a kind of adult film industry that didn't exist back then.
It made me think a little of Midnight Cowboy at the start, but then I couldn't help thinking of two Bob Fosse films at a point. The first was Cabaret, because both that film and this one have dramatic political events happening in the background that are kind of ignored while the main characters pursue hedonistic things. And then Star 80 was one I thought about even more, given the main characters in both that and Red Rocket are terrible people who try to groom young women much younger than them. I don't think Red Rocket gets quite as dark as Star 80, but it is uncomfortable... though with a purpose. The protagonist here is intentionally no hero.
But making him the main character is interesting. I drifted a bit and when bad things started happening, I thought "oh no." But then I remembered he deserved every misfortune that came his way, and it suddenly became cathartic. You understand why he is the way he is, and why he does what he does, but it's clear what we're supposed to think of him.
The final 45 minutes of this is pretty fantastic. I wasn't exactly gripped by the first 85 minutes at all times, and I thought it was a bit too long at 130 minutes in total. I generally liked the naturalistic acting, too, but there were just a couple of points where some actors had to really emote, and those moments sadly rang a bit false. Pacing and some inconsistent (but mostly good) perfomrnaces weigh it down a bit, but there's a lot to like in Red Rocket, much to think about, and it has a great final act that's worth getting through the first two acts for.
I look forward to seeing Sean Baker's latest, Anora, when that finally hits Australian cinemas.
House of the Dragon: The Rogue Prince (2022)
Slow but intriguing
The small-scale episodes of Game of Thrones were always underrated, because that show did political drama (in a fantasy setting) well, and The Rogue Prince suggests House of the Dragon is keen to follow in that tradition. There are a few spectacular shots here, but there's not much by way of action or other spectacle, but that's okay. I'm impressed that all the actors already seem so comfortable with their characters, and the events of the first episode are already having interesting consequences. The episode kind of introduces an intriguing threat we haven't seen much at this stage, and the final scene of the episode makes me excited at the prospect of further conflict. It's a table-setting hour of television, but an effective, well-acted, and mostly well-written one.
House of the Dragon: The Heirs of the Dragon (2022)
Quite good
I'm entering into House of the Dragon a bit late, with a few things ahead spoiled, but that's okay. It feels new enough that I know I'll be surprised by some things (or hoping at least), and it's been long enough since watching Game of Thrones that I'm happy to re-enter this world.
And The Heirs of the Dragon is all about reminding one of the scale Game of Thrones had. There's a sense of fun to seeing some old locations, but they're also forging ahead straight away with all new characters, and I like that it's all far back enough that any characters who survive the series will have passed away long before Game of Thrones started. I guess we know what will happen to the dragons, but everyone else is fair game, and I like that feeling.
Gamer (2009)
A little better (and maybe even smarter) than what the critic reviews might suggest.
I probably would've loved this if I'd seen it at 14, when it came out, hated it if I watched it 5 to 10 years ago, but kind of dig it now. I guess it's better than I'd been led to believe, and made me think of Sucker Punch and the way that movie generally critiques the sorts of things people blame it for having. Granted, I think both Gamer and Sucker Punch are flawed in other ways, but they both might be movies people just didn't fully get back in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Also, the movies are quite different, but they both take risks by mainstream American standards and had similar critical receptions, so I don't think it's entirely unfounded to think of one while watching the other.
The casting for Gamer was almost great. Michael C. Hall was the MVP as a super fun antagonist. It's just a shame he disappeared for about 45 minutes there - pretty much the entire second act and a decent chunk of the third act. I was happy that John Leguizamo exited the movie early, though. He's consistently the worst part of just about every movie he appears in, and I don't like his vibe. But, to try and stay positive, Gerard Butler was well-utilized here as beefy/generic action movie protagonist, and Terry Crews was fun as an absolute psycho. Ludacris just plays the same character he plays in the Fast & Furious movies, I'm pretty sure. I like seeing him show up in stuff, but I wonder whether he has any range at all. Maybe he doesn't need range. Maybe being Ludacris is enough.
Gamer has some interesting ideas and sci-fi concepts, a handful of solid action scenes, and an admirably bold visual style. Those elements and some of the performances make it work. I don't think it's paced well, losing momentum the more removed from the action Michael C. Hall is, and it takes a little while to fully set up the rules of its strange dystopian world. But I mostly liked it, even with the clunkiness of its writing and editing. The chaos in the visual style and the ridiculous performances mostly feel appropriate, but the choppiness of its writing/assembly (and an extended appearance from The Pest himself) weigh it down quite a bit.
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001)
An all-time great sports movie
Kind of reminded me of Seven Samurai in a way, except set in India instead of Japan, and featuring cricket as the main source of physical conflict instead of swordplay and fighting.
Also: I find cricket pretty boring, in general. Yet I was so invested in this movie the whole time. It does a great job at developing some fairly simple yet also very entertaining characters, both heroic and villainous (Guran was easily my favourite of the bunch). This does help make the climactic cricket match all the more engaging and even nail-biting.
It's more than just a sports movie about cricket, though; it also happens to be a historical epic, a romance, and a musical. It juggles all these genres surprisingly well, and while I was expecting to enjoy it but find it a tad overstuffed and overlong (which happens to me sometimes with Indian films), I genuinely thought this one justified its lengthy running time, and it didn't feel almost four hours long thanks to its solid pacing.
Also helps that it looks so beautiful- with fantastic scenery and excellent camerawork- and has a great sense of scale. Also: generally really liked most of the musical numbers. I think there was only one I wasn't a huge fan of, and maybe another one or two that felt a couple of minutes or so too long, but they generally worked for me overall... and like many a (occasionally ignorant) western viewer, musical numbers in Indian films aren't always something I can click with. Thankfully here, the songs are really catchy and well-performed.
Saturday Night (2024)
Saturday (Al)Right
This was probably more fun to make than it was to watch, but I still had a mostly solid time. It's moderately enjoyable, but never quite as funny or intense as it could've been. I felt torn between a 3/5 or a 3.5/5, but I'm just a bit too disappointed for the latter.
I don't think Paul Thomas Anderson would make a movie like this nowadays, but he probably would've done a better job with the ensemble cast and creating a sense of constant momentum. Maybe the Safdie Brothers too, or just one Safdie brother. As it stands, Saturday Night is solidly funny and sometimes comes close to nail-biting, but it just lacks a bit of oomph when it comes to the writing and how it looks.
Due to the pacing and the huge cast, most actors here don't tend to do more than impressions of famous people, and, to their credit, they were generally good impressions. It's only disappointing that the cast didn't get to do more than just impersonate.
I also can't help but wonder if the story would've been more exciting had they taken the real-time approach to showing the taping of the show, rather than the 90 minutes right before it went to air. The film does little to persuade me the shooting would've gone any smoother than the hectic lead-up, so I can't help but feel it was a missed opportunity.
There was the chance for something amazing here, but it never really coalesced into something more than pretty solid. I don't regret spending time and money watching this, but can't help wishing I liked it a good deal more.
Memoir of a Snail (2024)
Kind of good, but...
Adam Elliot does it again, technically, but that's part of the problem. What felt fresh, funny, and genuinely moving in Harvie Krumpet and then Mary and Max is all kind of there in Memoir of a Snail, but nothing quite hit for me. I think it's the overwhelming, constant sadness that soon becomes numbing. You get a little comedic relief, but not as much as Elliot's other works, and what is comedic is more just mildly funny than surprisingly hilarious.
His visual style is still intact, but the way it was written was lacking. Characters come and go and fade out of focus, and yes, that's life for you, but something about it just didn't work here. It's all I've got as for explanation why this didn't really move me; that, plus the fact that it's very one-note emotionally for a feature-length film.
Sarah Snook's voice acting was also kind of bad, which is a shame because she narrates the whole thing. I get why they make her cry or express certain emotions in starkly realistic ways, but it didn't work for me with the way this looks. I liked the other voice performances though. The score was another thing I largely disliked, to be honest. It felt lazy compared to the animation.
It does still look visually striking, and it feels like there was a lot of passion gone into it on a technical front. That stops Memoir of a Snail from being bad, but I wish it had been as good as the director's prior films. If he can't top those while sticking with his schtick, I'd like to see him break out and do something different. The whole "outsider is isolated but perseveres the way they can while bad things happen and they make a few connections everything's kind of ugly" thing wore me out here, and makes me wonder if Elliot can do anything else.
This was technically good, but also disappointing considering the wait between films. I think I will forget about it quite quickly.
Lou Reed: Berlin (2007)
Decent
After getting through one hour of soul-crushing Lou Reed tracks, the concertgoers can have a little Candy Says, as a treat.
As a concert film, this is pretty ordinary. It has a few slightly artsy insert shots, but after the opening, I didn't feel like they added a ton. As a performance of a great album, it's solid.
I like seeing an older Lou Reed perform it and get some recognition for how good it is. That's the main thing this concert film has going for it. Lou Reed got to perform it live - and do a pretty solid job overall, at that - before he passed, meaning it wasn't one of those times where something wasn't fully appreciated until after someone's death.
If you like the album, this is worth checking out. Like so many documentaries and/or concert movies about specific artists, though, I can't imagine it really appealing to those outside Reed's ordinary fanbase.
Ms .45 (1981)
Empty, but that's the point or something, I don't know.
It feels a little more cinematic than The Driller Killer, but I feel like both that Abel Ferrara movie and this one feel like they're held together by duct tape. They're so blunt, weird, basic, and mystifying that I feel like it wasn't enough but I'm also missing so much at the same time.
There is a sense of things being snappier here, and there is a premise that's stuck to a bit more confidently. Driller Killer droned on, and this one feels pretty sure about wrapping itself up at a certain point without farting around.
I don't get much more than just a fairly well-made exploitation movie out of this. It's certainly less entertaining than The Driller Killer, probably by design, but I don't really know what the grimness is in service of. Lots of people seem to like the grimy NYC vibe found throughout this, and I just don't really care. It doesn't do much for me.
I can only acknowledge that this is technically better than a fair few movies from this era with comparable budgets/premises, but I'm otherwise feeling lost as to what to get from this. Watching it back to back with that other Ferrara film, I'm kind of equally mystified by both, but for very different reasons.
The Driller Killer (1979)
Broke my brain, but in a good way.
This is barely even a movie, but I don't know. I guess The Driller Killer kind of caught me at the right time, or in the right mood, because I want to give a lot of it the benefit of the doubt.
That might sound wishy-washy, and... no, it is wishy-washy. But this thing just refuses easy categorization, messes around, indulges in repetition, gets sleazy, and then goes on and on and at a point it just sort of ends (It's Always Sunny-esque) and I feel oddly respectful of that.
I don't know that all that makes The Driller Killer great, but at least it makes The Driller Killer something, and I will remember it for various qualities, like the bluntness, stupidity, title, and odd tone that makes it feel almost like a parody for most of the runtime... but a parody of what?
The mystery of the drill that kills endures.
Saturation (2017)
Long and a bit repetitive, but definitely interesting.
From memory, this documentary used to be hard to find, but became available online after the legendary boy band broke up. Or I could be thinking of the other documentary involving Brockhampton that detailed their pivotal and rather bleak 2018, when everything changed and the band slowly started to fall apart. There was still amazing music in 2018 and 2019, but in the early 2020s, the band felt checked out. By 2022, the end was officially announced.
All that preamble is to say that it's bittersweet watching this documentary now. Brockhampton had one perfect year in 2017, releasing three high-quality albums that formed the Saturation trilogy, all in the second half of the year. The looser they got, and the more fun they had, the better the music was... at least that's what the official story around the band is, and I think this documentary also illustrates that.
As for this Saturation doc, it's a fly on the wall documentary that's a more interesting historical document than it is a properly structured documentary. It probably only has worth for Brockhampton fans, but I generally enjoyed the footage here, and found it interesting. It makes me sad now, seeing the band particularly young and happy, knowing what happened after 2017, but at least they had that golden year, plus a couple more years that saw hectic roadblocks, but some amazing music nonetheless.
RIP Brockhampton, they burned bright then burned out, but were legends nonetheless.
Shanghai Express (1932)
Odd, but kind of intoxicating.
It wasn't always easy to know what was going on in Shanghai Express, but the vibes are strong and that was generally enough. It does always feel like it's going somewhere, given how much of it takes place on a train. Is the story going forward? Is it supposed to? Maybe not... characters here talk about the past a lot, after all.
That bittersweet exploration of the past and love made me wonder if this influenced Casablanca a little, which also blends genres and feels a little like an untraditional war movie. Shanghai Express feels a little bit war without being a full-on war movie, too.
It's just an engaging experience, narrative aside. Again, I found this hard to follow. But that was okay. Also, I don't think I've ever realised how great a screen presence Marlene Dietrich was until watching this. Her acting in this even comes off as not great at points, but it doesn't matter. It fits. She's playing someone kind of mysterious, and she's also so magnetic that the true strength of her performance - in a dry, objective, technical sense - doesn't really matter.
Shanghai Express is also atmospheric and never really boring. It is confusing and a bit sludgy as far as the story goes, but the style, Dietrich, blending of genres, and odd sense of momentum all work to carry the film as a whole.
Mori no densetsu (1987)
Pretty wild and continually cool.
Because it's set to classical music and features woodland animals, I guess it's easy to think of Fantasia at first, when watching Legend of the Forest. It ends up being pretty different, though, switching things up when it came to animation style throughout dramatically.
Those switch ups are so dramatic that Legend of the Forest even began with what was basically a slideshow presentation. I can't lie; I was a little worried the whole half-hour short would be like that, but thankfully it wasn't.
It's broadly got an environmental message, though it gets weird in the details. It feels like it derails at a certain point and opts to become more surreal, but I kind of dug that. It's always interesting to look at and sounds good.
Sure, it might not come together entirely, but it doesn't feel like it's trying to come together necessarily. It's a neat piece of animation and typically imaginative for the continually fascinating Osamu Tezuka.
Ali Wong: Single Lady (2024)
I'd give this a kind 6 out of 10.
I don't really know what to say broadly beyond saying that this is fine, but not as funny as the previous Ali Wong specials I remember watching. She really just sticks to the one topic the entire time, and I'm always down for the concept album equivalent of a standup special, but this one wore out its welcome at a point.
It's just about getting back into the dating scene after a divorce and going through some short-term relationships. On and on and on. I'd complain if a male comedian did the same and just talked about dates with women for an hour nonstop.
I also don't find comedians - regardless of gender - bragging about wealth very appealing because I don't like hearing anyone bragging about wealth. I don't like the idea that it should be something one's proud of, let alone people saying it and then expecting cheers or laughs. Anyway, there were some decently funny parts for sure, and it's entertaining enough, but also a bit underwhelming.
The only interesting observation I can really offer concerns wondering whether this is a standup special with product placement? She references My Octopus Teacher, The Last Airbender, and Squid Game, which are all available on Netflix, and this special is on Netflix. So it makes me wonder. I don't really want to think about Netflix being a brand while I'm watching standup, but it could also be a coincidence. There are references to non-Netflix properties, too, admittedly (like E. T and Ferris Bueller's Day Off).
Halloween Ends (2022)
no
I feel like Krusty after he saw The Worker & Parasite Show. What the hell was Halloween Ends.
This trilogy just got worse and worse as it went along. 2018's Halloween was decent enough, but now after seeing Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends, and Exorcist: Believer, I feel like it's fair to say that David Gordon Green should stay away from horror.
I don't even want to go into much detail on this. It was too annoying. There are small satisfying moments in parts of the climax (alongside frustrating things), a handful of gnarly kills, and Jamie Lee Curtis is actually in this one a little more, unlike 2021's Kills. But this is otherwise so boring and very few people involved seemed to care all that much. It's a very long 110 minutes and the premise is baffling; namely, the way it kind of sidelines Michael Myers until the very end. Bringing him back in more is cool, but then it makes you wonder why we spent so much time on all the other stuff.
I hope Halloween really does End with this one.
Halloween Kills (2021)
Kind of works as a comedy.
I didn't think Halloween Kills got off the worst of starts, but maybe it was just Jim Cummings having a cameo that was fun. I could've done without the CGI-ified resurrection of a character whose actor has passed away, though.
There's a little bit of style going on. I think Michael Myers coming out of the fire looked cool, and the shot of him dragging someone in. It's not subtle, but it is compared to when Halloween Kills presents its main message around the end of the second act. Well, it had been hammered home earlier, but it gets so on the nose that I couldn't help but laugh at the idea this is supposed to be scary (or worse, thought-provoking).
It's the second sequel to a movie called Halloween where Jamie Lee Curtis is put in a bed for almost the whole movie, but to Halloween II's credit, she did have stuff to do there in the final act. The final act of Halloween Kills is quite bad. It stops being a funny kind of bad and just ends up being baffling. It's not so much that the characters are stupid, but more just that there are instances where people react unfathomably late to loud noises or strange sounds. Someone screaming "Michael, no!" off-screen, even though he could run away, and we just see Michael lumber over - the dude had seconds, but we later find out he died. Someone cries out at the top of their lungs and another thing goes thump, but it takes a gunshot to alert someone else in the next room. And earlier, there's a hilarious scene where someone fails to shoot Michael, and I don't know what took them so long to start shooting (to say nothing of the way the movie illustrates their failure to shoot Michael).
This works as a comedy for much of the runtime. There's so much slapstick in a heavy-handed and eye-rolling sequence involving an unruly crowd in a hospital. The much-memed "Evil dies tonight" is also still funny. Some of the schlock feels intentional early on, but then my desire to be charitable dried up during the third act (I held out for a while).
What an unbelievably silly ending, too. The penultimate set piece inside a house was kind of well done, but the way it actually wraps after that... still wrapping my mind around it.