Log: week 39 / 2023

Brick Town is under attack from a Duplo invasion. These invaders destroy things faster than the people of Brick Town can rebuild. A mission to go look for the source of the Duplo invasion goes wrong and the heroes are never heard of again. Emmet is their final hope to figure out what's going on.

The comedy is terrible, the voice acting is distracting, and the musical bits are not good at all. Even the visual style isn't as inventive as it could've been, but it's a nice change of pace regardless. It's a pretty grating experience though, if only they could get the comedy right a lot of these films would be a lot easier to stomach.

Hannah is married to Elliot. It's her second marriage and they're happily married, but that's about to change. Elliot falls for one of Hannah's sisters, who is in a relationship herself. Hannah feels something is off in her marriage, meanwhile, Hannah's other sister hooks up with Hannah's first husband.

There's a lot of neurotic banter, the setup gets increasingly more complicated, and the mix of drama and comedy isn't too bad. There's not too much to set the film apart from his other work though, and it lacks certain cinematic qualities to stand out. But if you like Allen's films, you won't be too disappointed with this one.

Bletch is the owner of a variety show, but his cast is a troubled bunch. Drug addiction, depression, and deceit are rampant, and Bletch himself cheats on the star of the show with another woman. When she finds out she is furious, and she decides to take matters into her own hands.

The idea is solid and there are some memorable moments scattered throughout, but its low-budget roots shine through once too often and some jokes are a little too easy. It does build up to a very worthy finale, where all characters come out guns blazing, but it's not quite the masterpiece I remembered it to be. It's still a lot of fun though.

A recently divorced couple ends up in Colombia on an assignment. The day before, they decide to go hiking together. They run into a poacher, but things get a whole lot worse when they flee and end up in a pool of quicksand. Nobody knows they are out there, and the place is teeming with venomous snakes.

It's a core genre flick, so after a short intro most of the time is spent with two people trying to escape the quicksand. Don't expect anything out of the ordinary, but the presentation is nice, the pacing is solid and there's a worthy finale. Good filler, and a nice little lead-up to the October month.

The film tells the history of an Italian family moving to France during the war. They start their story in a small mountain village in Italy, but the area is poor, and hoping to give his family a better life, the narrator's grandfather decides to move away. They cross the mountains to France, where they start over.

The wartime setting feels familiar, the stop-motion animation is decent but never remarkable. The characters are pleasant, the pacing is slick and there are cute touches sprinkled throughout, but it all amounts to little. I was hoping for something that would make an actual impact, but if you don't mind a short, animated family chronicle, go for it.

Old lovers reunite when Alphonse returns to the village Hélène resides. Hélène is a middle-aged widow who runs an antique shop, Alphonse is on the road with his niece Françoise, who is in fact his younger lover. Bertrand, Hélène's stepson, takes Françoise out to see the town, so Hélène and Alphonse can catch up about the old days.

The film isn't as dreary or dramatic as the plot makes it out to be, but the cinematography sure looks that way. Drab and grimey colors give the film a very unattractive look, while the soundtrack doesn't really make things better either. I didn't care much for the drama and the characters either, so in the end, there wasn't much left for me to appreciate.

Julianne let the love of her life slip, but they made a pact that they would marry each other if they were still single on their 28th birthday. That day is nearing and when Julianne gets a call she is thrilled at the prospect. When she calls him back though, he tells her he is about to get married to another woman.

Mulroney and Roberts aren't the most pleasant actors, the film hardly makes an effort to set itself apart from other romcoms and the romance swamps the comedy. It's simple genre fodder, a bit surprising to see this topping box office charts back in the day, but at least it wasn't a complete bore.