johnke.me
Enjoyable-enough mid-level sci-fi/horror that is essentially just the action of something like Kong: Skull Island (tbh there are probably a few dozen films in this “like” category) transplanted into an episode of Doctor Who with a Doctor Who-level budget. The story is generic and unremarkable but the performances just about carry the film. Anthony Ramos is solid, playing the role that probably would have gone to Will Smith 20 years ago. And Kristofer Hivju once again proves he works best when he’s cast as a weird little chaos gremlin.
A quintessential 3/5. Forgettable fun.
Surprisingly sweet and effective story about an unlikely friendship. It’s a little saccharine, a little basic, and its lack of ambition is frustrating at times, but despite all this, <big emotional moment> hit me like a ton of bricks and left me in bits, so it was doing something right.
The John Wick films have always worn their videogame influences on their sleeves, and Ballerina is no different. This film is centred less around set-pieces than all-out levels. It’s pure game logic and I’m totally fine with that. I was even wondering if they had deliberately de-rez’d the flame-thrower baddie’s head to make him look even more like a PS1 character.
But this videogame structure contributes to the feeling that, even in a franchise not famous for its story, this is the worst story so far. Cults and counter-cults and there are no consequences for anthing and it all makes no sense. But that’s by design, so I’m left feeling a bit stupid for even mentioning it here?
On the other hand, Ballerina contains easily some of the best fights in the franchise. They’re more physical and acrobatic and weightier than we’ve seen in a while. Axes lodge themselves in bodies with a believable thunk. Obviously helped by the fact that Ana de Armas is almost twenty five years younger than Keanu Reeves, so she’s able to throw herself around a lot more. It also means they’re not relegated to just using stupid kevlar suits as a get-out-of-jail-free card in the fights.
And, I’m sorry to report that I’m a but a weak middle-aged hetero male and so any scene with Ana de Armas kicking ass a split-leg dress and big stompy boots will instantly earn the film an extra star by default.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting to.
Slightly over-long and with an almost entirely unnecessary coda (leading to a series-worst climax), but pound-for-pound, this might be the most non-stop entertaining of all the Die Hard movies. John McClane is a great character but Willis and Jackson have a phenomenal chemistry together and their interplay elevates the bonkers action.
Also how great is it to see actual, on-the-streets, non-CGI New York in a film like this?
One of the things that struck me on this rewatch is how, for such an enormously complicated and consequential film, Spielberg seemed to be directing by the seat of his pants. There are so many continuity errors (e.g. the hatching sequence), logical errors (the reflections in the kitchen), or even just plain error errors (the camera initially missing the tracking on the helicopter as it flies to the island has always bothered me). And none of these actually matter or take away from the enjoyment of the film because the vibes are immaculate.
Some hardcore Polish grimness. Properly cynical, properly bleak. It’s packed with wonderful ideas and some striking political allegories, even if it misses some of the emotional beats. And despite being a little of its time (as opposed to dated), it’s still a visually stunning film. Feels like this was some influence on the look of the future timeline in Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys.
Connery is a little out of his depth here, especially in the more metaphysical scenes where he just comes across as, I dunno, adrift? Regardless, this is still a potent mix of hard sci-fi and childish fantasy with lots of really fun ideas underpinning it.
So much better than I remembered.
I enjoyed the Philippou’s previous film, Talk to Me. It was a simple premise effectively told by a bunch of genre sickos.
Their follow-up, Bring Her Back is a different beast. It’s still got plenty of the stuff that we want from a film like this - a lady learning how to summon a demon via a Russian VHS? Yes… ha ha ha… yes! - and when the film goes hard, it goes fucking hard with plenty of, uh, mouth destruction(?) with some top-class foley-work that is plenty squirm-inducing.
But this comes at a cost. I feel like the story, by virtue of being more complicated, kind of got away from them a little? At times the film is let down by some incredibly inelegant writing (e.g. Chekhov’s body-spray) with an inability to settle on a single tone they were going for and that made it less of a fun hang. It’s frustrating because the film is so close to being a lot better than it is.
But I’m begging of you, A24, can you please, please, please stop trying to make Hereditary again?
Fair play to Sally Hawkins though. Not so much playing against the Sally Hawkins type as much as weaponising the Sally Hawkins type by placing it in a more sinister context.
Look, it’s dhh and we all have our thoughts about him and his political beliefs but when he sticks in his lane of only doing code/technical stuff, he can produce some really good stuff. His Arch/Hyprland setup here is lovely.
I’m trying to switch over to the Affinity design tools (designer, photo). The best way I’ve found to learn a new thing is to give yourself a specific project so you’re forced to poke at the uncomfortable bits. So I decided for this, I’d mock up some Topps trading cards for some rad movies that deserved some trading cards.
