What's Up?
As we zero in towards the May elections, I just want to remind people out there with bad memories that however bad you think the current Labour government is, try and remember the chaos and corruption we suffered for at least 14 of the 14 years the last Tory government rained down on us and while you're doing that imagine what a country the UK will be like if you give Reform UK power - given they are made up almost 50% of the worst Tory ministers we had during those 14 years; they want to stop you from having what you're entitled to - and if you refuse to believe that you deserve everything that will happen to you - and they have a leader who is a racist, Russia-loving cockwomble who will say anything to get into power so he can give tax cuts and pay days to all his far right friends. He'll dismantle everything and fuck off to France.
That's what's up and you really shouldn't ignore it.
Too Many Jimmys
After the truly dull and boring
28 Years Later, we kept putting off watching
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple because we kind of dreaded the underwhelming feeling we were expecting. We shouldn't have been so worried; this is the film
28 Years Later should have been (although, in truth, you couldn't have had this without that). This time the focus is on Dr Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) from the previous picture and his attempts to try and discover what makes the virus that turns people into marauding nutters tick. It also follow the Jimmys - led by Jack O'Connell - as they sadistically kill their way through the non-infected survivors, while despatching the infected with relative ease. This is a much better, fast moving and intelligent movie that, of course, leaves things open for a third part, by not only leaving one story completely open, but also adding the story of 'Samson', who we met in the first film, but takes a much greater role in this one. Samson is an Alpha and Dr Ian thinks he can cure him. If you watched
28 Years Later and felt cheated, then watch this as many of the pieces slot together to make a superior chapter. There's also an intriguing cameo that will give you a good feeling about the future. 8/10
An Offer You Can't Refuse
I don't know how long it has been since I last watched
The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola's seminal classic gangster movie, regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. It's probably been 40 plus years and if I want to be honest, I don't think this epic has aged well. There is a sense of this being far too long and sprawling, like it could have had some of the fat trimmed off of it and maybe some of the scenes could have been a little less circumspect. Maybe some time showing more of the violent world of the Corleones. It is still a great film, but there's something about it that just feels a little too melodramatic, too stylised and earnest. Too art house. Yes, it's about a Mafia family across a period of time and the wars they get involved with and the losses they take by being a crime syndicate family, but it really lacks levity; it's just far too serious and, as I said, goes on and on and on. In 1972 this would have felt different, in 2026 it feels of a time.
I suppose the key thing about this isn't Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone, or James Caan's Sonny, or even Robert Duval's Tom, this is about Al Pacino's Michael, the one member of the family that Vito did not want to be a criminal and how he ends up being the best suited to replace his father, because not only does he have the brains, he also has the ruthless streak that is needed to be the next Godfather. It is a three hour movie and like last week's Gandhi there's the feeling of having to plough through so much story without getting a real feel for the lives in it. I'd argue that a huge chunk of the middle could probably have been omitted and it wouldn't have lost any of its impact. Still, it's still worthy of an 8/10 although I'm sure some people wouldn't be happy with me marking it so low...
Bunker Dreams
I'm getting a little confused now. The penultimate episode of the second season of
Paradise appears to be getting more bogged down and I've lost track of what's going on so much I'm not sure who is who and what is what now. Xavier's distraction is sorted out relatively and quite boringly easily, before him and his recently reunited spouse are on a train to Colorado. In the bunker, Sinatra meets the leader of the guys who have turned up on her doorstep, the same guys we met with Shailene Woodley in the opening episode and one of them might be her dead son, if I'm following this correctly and some odd shit happens. Jane meets her match and everyone is talking about someone or something called 'Alex'. I don't think I have the will to persevere with this after next week; there's simply too much going on and none of it is very interesting.
Desert Island Dread
Sam Raimi is back. His first film since that Doctor Strange load of nonsense stars Rachel McAdam again, this time as a plain Jane accountant who attracts the disdain of her new Gen-Z CEO. He is played by Dylan O'Brien and he's a complete arsehole. The two somehow end up being marooned on a desert island near Thailand and despite McAdam's Linda doing everything she can to help and save her boss, he's an ungrateful wanker prepared to stab her in the back at the earliest convenience. The thing is, she's a fan of survival programmes and knows her way around a desert island and he's just an entitled twat. Will he change; will he see Linda for the hero she is?
Send Help is a black comedy liberally laced with some eye-popping events, to emphasise the pain the two main characters have to endure. It starts off looking like it's going to be a
Misery riff and then morphs into a kind of sadomasochistic Robinson Crusoe and while it was slightly absurd in places it was good fun. 7/10
Two Killers All Filler
Sometimes I find myself wondering why it is I never watched a specific movie. Was it because I had been put off by reviews I'd read? Possibly. Maybe it was from someone I know who's seen it and wasn't impressed? Also possibly. I don't know why I'd never got around to watching Morgan Freeman's
Kiss the Girls or maybe I had watched it and just completely forgotten about it, except for one little thing, that nagged me all the way through watching it. I knew who the bad guy was almost the instant he turned up on screen - so maybe I
had seen it and thought I should never watch it again. Aside from that this is a film that floundered at times - the story felt strangely superficial; the acting was, at times, the kind that makes you pucker your lips and wince at how bad it was and it also felt like it had had about 20 minutes cut out, which might have helped with many things about the seeming brevity of the actual story. This was released around the time that Ashley Judd was being touted as the Next Big Thing and someone watched this and realised she wasn't even going to be the next forgotten thing. Her character alone felt tonally wrong and like she had been written by a man, because she was either super weak or super strong; she had no normal traits; no middle ground. This is the story of a serial killer who is also a serial collector of intelligent women and the incompetent (or are they?) North Carolina police department who seem to have no idea what is going on. Freeman comes along as criminal psychologist Alex Cross to solve their case and uncover the shady secrets. 5/10
Absurd Nonsense
I liked
Olympus Has Fallen, compared to the disappointing
White House Down it was full of visceral action and edge of the seat jeopardy. However,
London Has Fallen, the sequel - and the film I mentioned had a lousy rating on IMDB - is absolute horse wank. Everything, and I mean
EVERYTHING, about it is bollocks. It is wrong from almost the opening minutes. I know Gerard Butler is from Scotland, but there are a bunch of British actors in this and you would have thought that one of them, in passing, might have mentioned that the entire premise for this movie is rubbish. From the destruction of London, via bad special effects, to the fact that it made little or no sense, was geographically all over the place and suggests every countries intelligence is rubbish and not worth the money that is spent on it. If anyone working on the film thought to mention to anyone important that much of this was senseless rubbish then the people who made this film took no notice and still made this load of twaddle. The movie was borderline racist and worked on the premise that you can infiltrate the Met, MI5 and 6 and the army with enough rogue mercenaries and NO ONE notices is pretty much clueless; or that London's people would simply mysteriously disappear when they could be filming it on their smart phones and streaming it live on social media was utterly fucking moronic. This was appalling and worthless. It's much worse than the 5.9 rating it commands on the internet. 2/10 (and it really should be 1).
Daddy Issues
As the show gradually winds down to its inevitable ending in three weeks, we had more resolutions (and revelations), more confrontations and quite a few unexpected events in the latest episode of
Shrinking. Sean (Luke Tennie) has been offered the job of sous chef with a big LA restauranteur but is going to let his own paid staff down badly. Paul manages to persuade Gaby back to work with added incentive and Brian gets to camp it up while giving his own version of a Ted Talk. Yet all of this pales into insignificance to what is happening at Jimmy's. His father is back on the scene and making big plans for Alice's graduation, but only Jimmy knows the bad news. This brings him at odds with Sofie, who, like everyone else, thinks Jimmy needs to park his daddy issues and just enjoy his old man being there for his daughter. The thing is Jimmy knows his dad better than anyone else...
Man Without Fears
This week has seen the return of television to my life. Despite knowing there's only three episodes of
Shrinking left and that the first episode of the new season of
For All Mankind will not be watched until Saturday, I did get to see the opening salvo from
Daredevil: Born Again as it winged its way back onto the small screen and proved yet again it is head and shoulders better than anything else Marvel has done for the small screen. In an episode that mirrors the shit that ICE has been doing in the USA for the last six months, Matt realises that his battle against Wilson Fisk has just got a whole lot worse and it isn't safe for any of his friends. As the Anti Vigilante Task Force run NYC with an iron fist and Fisk increases his power with the help of Langley, Virginia, it might take strange alliances to help him finally beat his nemesis. This is outstanding television and shouldn't be missed.
Righteous Motherf*ckers
As we plough our way through classic movies of the 20th century, we found our way to Quentin Tarantino's
Pulp Fiction, a movie that almost everybody know at least 50% of but usually forgets the other 50% - not because it isn't good, but probably because it isn't as good as the most memorable stuff. I have mixed feelings about Tarantino films. Some of them are genius, others tedious and dull; this falls into the former category as it tells a series of inter-related stories centring around Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L Jackson) as they either circle around or are directly involved in tales from a few days in LA. Ably abetted by the likes of Urma Thurman, Ving Rhames, Bruce Willis, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer, this has Hollywood themed restaurants, accidental shootings in the backs of cars, fixed boxing fights and gimps in leather. If you've never seen this movie then you need to rectify that as soon as possible; if you haven't seen it for a long time, it still packs a hell of a punch and while some of the circumspect scenes leave you wondering if these people are really like that or just reading a script; but you can't deny it's a classic of cinema. 9/10
What's Next?
It's quiz week again, so our viewing has been curtailed by more interesting things. Next week there's more Daredevil, the return of my favourite TV show - For All Mankind - and we might give Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen a spin, but given the Guardian likes it so much and has been factually inaccurate about it, I'm not terribly hopeful...
There's the season finale of Paradise, which is likely to be our final outing with it as well. It's a show I've wanted to like, but it just feels... like it doesn't really have a story. The countdown to the final episode of Shrinking really begins in earnest and there's always some other thing that creeps under my radar, this time it's the new season of Your Friends and Neighbours. John Hamm is back as the stockbroker turned cat burglar who robs from his neighbours to pay for his lifestyle choices.
Next week's films could mainly be made up of sequels. I think The Godfather 2 might get a viewing (if I can convince the wife), plus there's another Morgan Freeman/Alex Cross load of nonsense to watch and if I'm feeling masochistic there's the third in the 'Has Fallen' trilogy, but after the aberration of the 'London' instalment I might choose to abuse myself instead.
Oh and I saw the trailer for the TV adaptation of the first Harry Potter book and thought it was just a bunch of people recreating the original film but with different actors pretending to be the previous actor who played that role, if you get what I mean? It's out at Christmas. Weekly or in one drop? Who can say.
As usual, blah blah blah.
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