So, wow, this was a very pleasant surprise.
I really feel this film hasn't gotten enough love. And it really deserves buckets full of it.
It's one thing to try to captivate the spirit of the brilliant sci-fi/horror shows and series of the eighties, but it is a whole other thing to embody that spirit as thoroughly and completely as Juel Taylor's film does. It isn't filled with cheap nods and winks, it is engrained in its very essence.
This…
Oppenheimer is an uneven, clinical film, but with craftsmanship involved that is unrivaled.
My main criticism is twofold. For a film that is supposed to explore the mind of the man that changed the world I felt we were never really allowed in. Nolan keeps us at a distance and while that is a stylistic choice I'm not opposed to, here it didn't work for me.
I feel that had a lot to do with my second problem with the…
Sometimes in a film everything just clicks. And when no one expects it to happen, it's all the more satisfying to watch it unfold on screen.
Plot, casting, direction, everything just blends together in this lovely slice of action and adventure that doesn't pretend to be anything else than it is.
Furthermore, it has its tongue firmly planted in its cheeck throughout, something which only works if you understand and respect your source. Something the writers/directors clearly do.
The only…
Now that's more like it.
Unlike its predecessor, which I consider to be quite awful, this tries to be much more its own thing.
Tapping into the more frenetic nature of the very first Evil Dead film's deadites, Cronin predominantly keeps everything neat and tight. He paces his film just right, never outstaying his welcome.
This strong point is also its weakness unfortunately. It stomps down the beaten path a bit too often, interspersing moments of great terror and gore…
Yeah, yeah I know, Marvel is evil and the death of cinema and whatnot.
But this? This is just a simple, perfect slice of entertainment spawned from reverence for the source material and the medium used to bring it to life on screen.
Form, function and effect at its most potent.
But most importantly, it's fucking hilarious.
Even though its tone is all over the place, never really successfully walking that tightrope between embracing and ignoring its roots, Cruella is still a lot of fun.
Stone is superb and holds her own against the legend that is Emma Thompson, the latter embracing her role with obvious self indulgent glee making it quite infectious. Add to that a great soundtrack, amazing costumes and enough of an edge to make it stand out and it's easier to gloss over the weaker aspects in this film.
One thing is certain, I shall not be making the same mistake I made with the first Avatar movie. I will never, ever watch The Way of Water on the small screen.
Again, Cameron manages to achieve something that is a masterpiece on a technical level. It is quite simply unprecedented. It's quite easy to dismiss this film as a CGI driven piece of fluff, but that would be selling short what Cameron and his team have conjured up here…
Apart from the hugely annoying, big ass Deus Ex Machina and the conveniently rushed ending, this is very serviceable and sometimes delightfully bonkers stuff.
Still think Rudd is perfect as the hero who isn't a hero, Douglas and Pfeiffer kick ass and Majors nails the villain.
I went to see this with my oldest daughter who said she got Star Wars vibes from Quantumania.
I'm inclined to agree.
If Star Wars had done LSD.
I have absolutely no idea what this is, or what everyone involved was thinking while making it.
It tries so very, very hard, to be a self aware, bordering on parody, action movie and fails so miserably at it, it basically feels like watching a group of people being in on a joke absolutely no one gets.
Brad Pitt basically walks around like a demented grandpa having no clue what he's doing on the set, the action sequences are cartoonesque…