Log: week 6 / 2024

Henri Danglard owns a bar, but he has trouble keeping his head above water. When one day he visits Montmartre, he notices that the cancan dance is still in fashion there. He meets up with a dancer and asks her to come dance in his café, hoping this may bring people back to his bar.

French Cancan is a very loud and opulent film. That is fine if you like the music and setting, it's a bit more challenging when this type of oompapa music isn't quite your thing. Renoir thoroughly focuses on the song and dance here, which I quickly grew tired of. Not my kind of film, but if you love to wave around napkins at weddings, give it a shot.

The gang (except Samantha) is married now, and married life is taking its toll on these once-dashing women. When Samanta arranges an all-expenses-paid trip for the four of them to Abu Dhabi, it sounds like the perfect escape, but of course, they run into all sorts of trouble when they get there.

The comedy is in bad taste, the performances are shabby (I can't remember them being that bad in the series, but I might be mistaken) and with a runtime of 150 minutes, the film is excessively long-winding. There are no redeeming qualities here, no moments that make it bearable in any way. Terrible.

Chan leads a team of mercenaries who signed up to rescue some workers from a plant. They are under attack and need protection, but the way out is very dangerous. Cena is one of the people assigned to stop Chan and his team, but when he learns that he was fooled by his bosses, he teams up with Chan to fight for the good guys.

Chan and Cena are a decent team, though their style of comedy is pretty predictable. It makes for a lighter atmosphere, which in turn makes it easier to forgive the film some of its wonky CG. There are some solid action choreographies, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Simple but honest action entertainment.

When Scott goes out for a drink, he meets a woman with a peculiar head and spends the evening chatting with her. When he comes back home he finds his wife strangled to death. Scott pleads guilty and wishes to use the woman he chatted with as an alibi, but nobody seems to remember her.

Much of the film feels like watching a play adapted to the screen. People talk in barren rooms and try to solve a riddle that hinges on a rather tepid finale. Though the poster promises one of the most talked-about mysteries in a decade, I assume it's much like the scariest-ever horror promos nowadays. Much ado about nothing.

To curb aging populations, Japan has passed Plan 75, a new law that allows senior citizen to plan their own death. They get a bit of bonus money to spend before they voluntarily commit suicide, and they even get their funeral arranged for them, all so future generations don't have to carry the burden of funding their existence.

The cinematography is decent but somewhat expected, the performances are solid without any standouts. It's a polished film, but the setup is rather basic and mulls on a theme that has been around for a while (anyone remember Roujin Z?). Plan 75 isn't a bad film, it's just a little too by the number to leave a strong impression.

Palestinian terrorists (off to a good start there) hijack an American passenger plane and force the crew to fly to Beirut. The Pentagon sends the Delta Force, a specialized team trained to handle these kinds of situations, to solve the problem. It's not going to be easy if they want to resolve the situation without making civilian victims.

The soundtrack is terrible, the performances are cheesy and the action is rather blah. The film is also way too long (crossing the 2-hour mark) and the pacing is all over the place. The film offers some very simple genre fun, but it's not enough to get to the end without looking at the clock once in a while.

A small company is trying to create a virtual reality paradise. They're based on a small island, which they are trying to recreate digitally. Tomohiko is a recruit who joins the team, replacing Ide. He quickly discovers that a ghost haunts the simulations and drowns people who dare to enter.

Immersion is not a bad film, updating some of the tropes and making it a bit more contemporary, while sticking with horror elements that are known to work. The problem is that it's all very much by the numbers, especially for people who've been watching these Japanese horrors for the past two decades. Decent filler, but nothing more.

Paul Brennan and three others are touring America, trying to sell luxury versions of the bible to working-class Americans. They don't have the money to spend on such a book, but there lies their challenge. They will go to great lengths to convince their potential victims to shell out anyway.

The salesmen are sleazy, their victims are rather gullible, and the endless back-and-forth between the two becomes tiresome after a while. The setup is interesting for maybe 30 minutes, but there's not enough material here to fill an entire documentary. Unless you have a thing for salesmen.

Yuan Tiangang had a traumatic youth. He was born on a cursed day, banished from his village as a kid, and taken in by a kind uncle who in return got slaughtered by an evil cult. After wandering around as a killer for hire for a couple of years, Yuan takes on a job that will reunite him with his past.

It's a more than solid streaming flick, meaning you get a lot of bang for your buck. The pacing is insane, the cinematography lush, the action and fantasy elements are properly realized, and there's infinite sequel potential. The only problem is that there are 50 films just like it, and there's hardly any way to differentiate between them. Good genre filler.

Stella is a carefree woman who doesn't want to tie herself down. She loves life and lives it generously, working as a singer in a bar. Until she meets a young soccer player. For the first time, Stella has genuine feelings for a man, but she isn't sure what to do with them, and he isn't the only man in her life.

There's a lightness here that reminded me just a little of the French New Wave (which would take another 6 years to properly materialize, it's just a bummer that a lot of time is spent on song and dance, which really annoyed me. The plot isn't too interesting either, but thanks to the short runtime it was still bearable.

Mike is a washed-up horse breeder who has little left to live for. One day his old boss pays him a visit, asking for a favor. He wants to reconnect with his son, but he lives in Mexico and his boss can't cross the border. Mike accepts the assignment and goes on a trip to bring his boss' son home.

The plot is very basic, it's really just Eastwood and some young Mexican kid spending time together as they travel back to the US. The characters are predictable, the styling is generic and the few plot twists won't surprise anyone. But at least the film has a somewhat lighter tone, which makes it a relatively easy watch.