Log: week 11 / 2019
Vintage Jing Wong. It feels a lot like a film I've already seen, then again Wong made a bunch of similar films around that time. The quality of these films is rather low, but the pacing is nice, the atmosphere is extremely light-hearted and while far from great, they make for an amusing 90 minutes. Decent filler.
Visually riveting, but the rest of the film isn't quite up to par. The drama, the acting and the soundtrack are quite overdone, which makes for a confusing watch. There are a few scenes that are absolutely marvellous, but these are mere highlights in a film that's a lot more troubled and confused than it should've been.
When Keaton cuts down on stunts, the quality of his work drops significantly. He's a decent comedy actor, but his films are way too simple and the comedy too predictable to make much of an impact. Battling Butler is one of Keaton's lesser works, only a handful scenes brought up a smile, the rest was negligible.
This one won a couple of Razzies, but who cares. There's a real lack of bona fide American comedies and Cohen fills the gap quite nicely. Ferrell and Reilly are nice, there are some silly but effective jokes and even though it's not a stand-out film, it's funny, short and to the point. Not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.
A romantic comedy with plenty of drama, but nothing really sticks. The characters are flat, the actors look bored, the dialogues are stiff and predictable. Reiner does his best to inject some romance through idyllic landscapes and luxurious events, but even that fails to make a real impact. Extremely forgettable and pointless.
Decent comedy about a city cop who has to solve a murder case in a small island village. Don't expect anything too original, it's simple urban versus rural police fodder, but the pacing is nice, there are a couple of fun jokes and the actors clearly had a lot of fun with it. Pretty okay filler, nothing more, nothing less.
Waititi started his career on a strong note. Eagle vs Shark manages to be extremely funny, strangely awkward and surprisingly touching, all at the same time. Horsley and Clement are perfect, the film is short and to the point and even though it's obviously a low budget affair, Waititi turns it to his advantage.
I'm not a fan of Oliver and Hardy, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a film about the duo. Coogan and Reilly are exceptional, the direction of Baird is solid and the special bond shared between the two is aptly depicted, without too much need for lengthy dialogues or overstated drama. A very fine film indeed.
A film with two distinct halves. The first part is a pretty lame and predictable romantic comedy, the second part is more vintage Keaton, with lots of crazy stunts and gags. It shows that Keaton is a little limited, on the other hand his stunt work is still impressive to this day. Watch it for the finale, it's worth it.
The Lego franchise, because why not. It's just another extension of the superhero hype that ties a popular toy brand to well respected superheroes. Mo hype, mo money. Sadly McKay can only mask the poor comedy by hyper-pacing his film, which only ends up accentuating the lack of anything funny. Pretty bad.
Not Ritchie's best. He's not really the man to do these big CG-fests and it shows. Worse though is that he tries to inject the film with some of his typical style elements, but seems to fail consistently. Makes my ponder if he still has it. In the end the film turned out to be amusing nonsense, but little more than that.
Decent and quirky mix of genres. There's some dark comedy, some horror elements and quite a lot of satire, but it never really gels into a solid, singular experience. The art world satire is a little cheap, the horror a bit too tame and the comedy not sharp enough. Even so, it's still quite fun, mad and original.