Well my main thoughts on 2018 in Film are done and now the time has come to reveal my main lists of my favorite and least favorite films of 2018 and well what better way to start with the worst of the year, those 5 films that took 2 hours out of our lives that we’ll never get back and I always enjoy writing these lists because you get to do one more shot at these films and do them all slowly.
5. Deadpool 2
Now this will be a surprising choice for many but I decided to put it here as I hated watching this sequel in cinemas back in May and I was a fan of the first Deadpool film with Ryan Reynolds and directed by Tim Miller though this time David Leitch of Atomic Blonde takes the directorial reins.
I hated this movie because I felt its storyline was a mess, juggling a couple of plotlines in terms of this little boy played by Julian Dennison, the introduction of X-Force and a continuiation of Deadpool and Wade Wilson’s character and if the first Deadpool reminded me of the first Robocop film albeit not as good in my eyes then this one reminded me in bad ways of Robocop 2.
And that film like this one brought in all these storylines that didn’t really work, it went for a more serious tone that it didn’t earn as I wasn’t really that invested in it, the little boy annoyed me an awful lot and Ryan Reynolds who Miller knew when to let him off the leash but also rein him in here just sounded like a goddamn parrot talking endlessly in nearly every single scene and after a while I just thought to myself “Will you Please Shut Up, you sound like a fucking Parrot.”
Hopefully next year’s Detective Pikachu will use Reynolds’s vocal riffs a lot better but we’ll have to wait and see.
4. Mute
Mute was a Netflix production directed by Duncan Jones who’s last film was Warcraft and concerned an Amish private eye played by Alexander Skarsgard as he went searching for his missing girlfriend.
And boy oh boy was this a fucking bore to sit through for 2 reasons firstly the whole look of the film not only looked really cheap like shot digitally cheap but it was such a riff on Blade Runner with its neon signs everywhere, flying transport, dark skies and funky nightclubs and robots around the place that it feels old hat now to do this kind of homage especially when this came only a few months after Blade Runner 2049 hit cinemas.
And also Alexander Skarsgard who was not yet won me over like his father Stellan Skarsgard has and it isn’t helped that his performance is the kind of expressionless blank performance that stoic performers like Ryan Gosling can do although that has grown tiresome now given the weak performance of First Man in cinemas but the central mystery he’s trying to solve isn’t really that interesting and after a while I got really bored of it.
3. Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Now I quite liked the first Sicario directed by Denis Villenuve, it had a good script, Emily Blunt was great as this Clarice Starling esque character going into Mexico and it had a great supporting performance by Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin almighty Thanos, Blunt didn’t return but Brolin and Del Toro did.
And boy oh boy is this movie a mess for one very clear reason: The script, this thing feels like 2 separate movies one being Brolin’s character and his attempts to work with US officials and the other being Del Toro trying to get this young girl to the border as if he was in a rip off of Logan.
And neither one of these plotlines feels like they mesh together as one coherent film a lot of the time I felt like I was watching 2 separate films spliced together to make it one film and even the presence of Josh Brolin who was pretty much the main reason I saw this movie couldn’t do anything to save it.
2. The Happytime Murders
Boy oh boy oh boy was this a pure and utter stinker of a movie for three reasons.
The first was that the central mystery simply didn’t work, it was one of those where it was blindly obvious who the killer was and at one point one of the Muppets does a homage to Basic Instinct which was really really bad and even the reveal of the killer just felt very silly.
This leads me to my second issue the tone is all over the place on the one hand it wants to be a Roger Rabbit type world with the Muppets and Humans living together and this hard boiled detective trying to solve a mystery yet on the other hand it tries to go for that MA15 style comedy with sex jokes, bonking in the office and really really obnoxious humour that Melissa McCarthy just shouts a lot of the time and I’m a big fan of hers.
And the comedy is my third issue this movie isn’t funny it tries to go for these big laughs that films so rarely in my experience capture as they only really work when you see the film with a big audience but rarely did I ever laugh and I like a good comedy but this just went down like a deflating Muppet that’s lost its stuffing.
But as bad as those films were those weren’t as bad as my worst of 2018 which is:
The Predator.
Now I was very excited for this movie as I had rewatched the original film directed by John McTiernan in 4K which was great and Shane Black who was actually in the original film playing Hawkins was co-writing and directing this new film and I thought “This could work.”
Alas it did not and the more I thought about the film the more it broke my heart and that feeling was very prelevant in my mind when I walked out of the film for as great as the MA action violence in the film was this new Predator failed at the very things that McTiernan’s original made work.
The first of those was the characters not once did I really give a flying fuck about any of them all they ever seemed to talk in was script language where every line coming out of their mouth was a cheap attempt at a one liner or a cool phrase and it really didn’t work and the film even goes so far to almost make light of Tourette’s Syndrome a very serious condition and Autism a condition many people live with today and doesn’t get talked about anywhere near as much as it should do.
And secondly the story was very very weak a new Predator comes to Earth and then a whole bunch of other Predators come and after a while it just turns into a repeat of the original where their in a Jungle environment and hunting the creature and I wish that had been the case in the first place put a bunch of guys somewhere, have a Predator come and then KABLAMO you have your movie but No we got a whole bunch of other storylines and stereotypes that really weren’t needed one little bit.
Ah now I can breathe a sign of relief as the Turkey’s have been thrown out and writing that is making me think of Selina’s Turkey sound she used to play on the Radio show so I’ll just pretend that’s here.
Now comes the best films of the year and it was a struggle to get it 5 as there were 4 that I loved and 2 or 3 others that I really liked but in the end I’ve gone with 5a and 5b so without further ado here we go:
5b. First Man
Damien Chazelle’s follow up project to his Oscar winning film La La Land was a biopic of Neil Armstrong that also showed the perilous journey of US Astronauts to the Moon.
And this was also a movie that I really got into even though I could see some of the problems people had with the film in terms of the lack of emotional resonance but the main thing I really liked about it was the showing of that journey to the moon, all of the trail and error and the lives that were lost along the way.
Also the film was a visual treat with its grainy 60s look and many closeups and the sound design was very impressive from the sound of the engines to the silence of space plus there were great performances particularly by Claire Foy and Kyle Chandler, it might not have worked for some but it definitely worked for me.
5a. Bohemian Rhapsody
Yes the story of the late great Freddie Mercury and the band Queen which was directed by Bryan Singer with additional filming by Dexter Fletcher who finished the filming when Singer was fired in late 2017 was uneven at times but when it works it is electrifying, delivering an emotional charge to every sense I could ever have be it sadness, smiling, laughter and SINGING and those empty Drink Bottles made for great pretend microphones.
One reason is simply Rami Malek’s extraordinary performance as Freddie and there were times looking at him in the movie from certain angles I thought I was looking at the real Freddie reincarnated as he captures not only the extraordinary showmanship that had crowds in his hands like glue but also the loneliness and the directness of the private man plus most of the actors deliver great performances in particular Gwilym Lee who looks a lot like Brian May that he must have done the mind time travel trick from Days of Future Past to send his younger self to be in the film and Lucy Bonyton as Mary Austin who does a great job as Freddie’s long time companion and friend.
But also this movie’s concert scenes are exhilarating and sounded great on a big cinema screen with the booming sound system the Live Aid recreation in particular has been the single best scene I’ve seen in any movie this year as it was such a charge of electricity to my heart that I was walking around the Warnambool Plaza still with a huge buzz inside, I can’t wait to do it all again in a sing along session one day with a packed crowd.
4. A Quiet Place
A Quiet Place was director John Krasinki’s Sci-Fi Horror film that was simply terrific to watch, this was a world where everyone had to be very quiet (shhhhhhhh) otherwise the creatures that have invaded Earth would hear them, hunt them down and kill them and as someone who has not been a big horror fan I really enjoyed that.
This was a horror film that was also built on a great idea and it was the kind of horror idea that made you go “How would I act in this situation?” and a lot of horror films for me don’t really have that kind of strong idea driving it too often there’s a reliance on blood and body parts and jump scares to terrify its audience and very very very rarely does that work as all ti does is either bore the audience and leave them feeling disgusted.
This film also had some great performances by Emily Blunt who is really one of her generation’s finest actresses (the scene in the bathtub still gives me the willies when I think about it.) and Millicent Simmonds who is a young deaf girl whose entire world is sign language and silence and it helps to add to the films terrific sound design, editing and mixing and I really hope it sweeps the sound Oscars in 2019.
3. Mission Impossible: Fallout
Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie re teamed for their second Mission Impossible film after 2015’s Rogue Nation and it was well worth the wait when I got to see it as I was very hotly anticipating this movie.
And this film purely as an action film is the kind of adrenaline rush thrill ride that we so rarely see in today’s action films, everything you see for the most part is done for real with Tom once again putting his mind, body and soul on the line for all of those amazing stunt set pieces even breaking his ankle during filming and learning to fly a helicopter for the films climactic chase and all of those scenes were fantastic.
But also Christopher McQuarrie proves that he is becoming a good director in his own right along with his gifts as a screenwriter and though this story could’ve easily fallen apart it’s a testament to those writing gifts of his that he keeps the story going and gives each character a moment to shine even though the story is about Ethan Hunt and his purpose as a hero, it was great to see Rebecca Ferguson again after Rogue Nation and both Simon Pegg and Alec Baldwin also made welcome returns along with Ving Rhames.
This movie also had a great performance by Henry Cavill as well who I feel is a worthy successor to Christopher Reeve as Superman and watching him and Tom go at it was so much fun as was Sean Harris as Solomon Lane and if the James Bond series ever recasts Blofeld he would be a great choice.
2. Avengers Infinity War
This was easily my most anticipated movie of 2018 as it was not only the culmination of 10 years of Marvel Studios and the coming together of the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy but also finally the coming of Thanos as played by Josh Brolin.
And boy oh boy was I not disappointed in the slightest as this was everything I had hoped it would be and dreamed it would be but not in a way that I ever expected but more importantly it was special again like the first Avengers film was and it also highlighted how bitterly disappointing Age of Ultron was.
But why was it special again?
Firstly the storytelling here was very sound and it takes full advantage of not only the 149 minute runtime barely wasting a minute of it but also wrangling the huge number of characters the film has both sets of Avengers plus the Guardians get ample amounts of screen time and play the parts the script needs them to do very well and it also helps that we’ve had 10 years and many movies of these characters so their use is well served by that long journey.
But this movie for me is really Thanos’s movie and Josh Brolin did an excellent job playing him, the cold calm demeanour he always portrays as he seeks to eradicate half the universe makes him all the more effective as a villain as he barely raises his voice and with the power of the Infinity Stones lays the smackdown on our heroes and using him as the spine of the storytelling structure was what helped to wrangle such a large case, I wish X-Men Apocalypse had done a similar thing with En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse himself his name was the title of the film and he should’ve been much more centre stage in his own film.
But now we come to my number 1 film of 2018 and not one movie has come within cooee of this movie when I saw it all the way back in January (yes it was that long ago) and it is:
The Post
Yes folks, Steven Spielberg’s The Post is my number 1 film of 2018 even though it opened only 2 weeks into the year but why has no other film come close to it on my list well there are 2 reasons.
The first is that I really got to rethinking my feelings about Spielberg as a filmmaker as when I was 22 back in 2008 I was very sniffy about him and a lot of his movies feeling that they were too sentimental, to sweet and too sugary for my taste I preferred the harder edge and the bite of people like John McTiernan, George Miller, James Cameron and Paul Verhoeven among others but after watching this movie I got inspired to revisit several of his back catalogue movies and I now think of him as one of the grand masters of movie making.
And secondly this movie came out in Australian cinemas not that long after I got given the marching orders from the Radio station and watching this movie made me think of all those wonderful friends I had made during my time there and seeing people like them doing what they did on the big screen was a very moving experience for me and there was even one shot of Tom Hanks with his back to camera that instantly made me think of Stuart from that Office.
So yes this was that film like Dunkirk or the Accountant where my Head and my Heart were in perfect sync as compared to the other 4 films where my Head or my Heart were the dominant feelings that justified their presence.
And so that was my list of the best and worst of 2018 and with that the year is done even though I still have a couple of films left to see but the end of this year has been crazy and its left me behind the 8 ball on new releases even more than usual.
And now we come to 2019 the year of Blade Runner no less and January has my top 2 most anticipated films of the year in M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass and Dragon Ball Super: Broly a new Dragon Ball movie on the big screen which I have to see the moment it’s out.
There’s also Avengers: Endgame and the Secret Life of Pets 2 and Detective Pikachu and Godzilla: King of the Monsters to look forward to as well but Glass and Broly are my top 2 most anticipated of 2019 and whether they deliver the goods only time will tell but I can’t wait to find out.
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Film Review - Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
Ralph Breaks the Internet is the sequel to 2012’s Wreck it Ralph and this time Ralph (John C Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) log onto the Internet when Vanellope’s racing game breaks and a new steering wheel part must be found but when you come from the Net your format as Game Sprites could see you lost on the Net.
Ralph Breaks the Internet is an okay sequel that I found to be a bit forgettable that doesn’t make it a bad film just one that I didn’t really get into but before I delve more into that I loved the world building on display here and like 2016’s Zootopia also co directed by Simpsons director Rich Moore there are plenty of visual details to see such as how people are represented, how they get around and how they use the various sites us users use every day in the real world.
There are also some fantastic references to Disney itself and the various properties it owns including some very memorable moments with the Disney Princesses who for decades served as a cornerstone of the Disney brand before Marvel and Lucasfilm came into their midsts.
As for the overall storytelling I wasn’t as fond of it as it felt like the typical friend wants to move on but other friend doesn’t want them to go story and I thought it was okay for the most part as some of us do feel that way in our own lives even though it is for the best but outside of that I never really got into that much and again it doesn’t make it bad but just not for me.
And so that was my review of Ralph Breaks the Internet and it’s a fine animation that will do well in the holidays but I found it pretty forgettable, 2 out of 5.
Ralph Breaks the Internet is an okay sequel that I found to be a bit forgettable that doesn’t make it a bad film just one that I didn’t really get into but before I delve more into that I loved the world building on display here and like 2016’s Zootopia also co directed by Simpsons director Rich Moore there are plenty of visual details to see such as how people are represented, how they get around and how they use the various sites us users use every day in the real world.
There are also some fantastic references to Disney itself and the various properties it owns including some very memorable moments with the Disney Princesses who for decades served as a cornerstone of the Disney brand before Marvel and Lucasfilm came into their midsts.
As for the overall storytelling I wasn’t as fond of it as it felt like the typical friend wants to move on but other friend doesn’t want them to go story and I thought it was okay for the most part as some of us do feel that way in our own lives even though it is for the best but outside of that I never really got into that much and again it doesn’t make it bad but just not for me.
And so that was my review of Ralph Breaks the Internet and it’s a fine animation that will do well in the holidays but I found it pretty forgettable, 2 out of 5.
Film Review - Aquaman (2018)
Aquaman is the newest entry in the DC film universe and concerns Arthur Curry aka the Aquaman (Jason Momoa) as he seeks the power of the King of Atlantis’s Trident as the current ruler King Orm (Patrick Wilson) seeks to unite the Seven Seas in a war against the Surface World though Mera and the Grand Vizor Volko (Willem Dafoe) are convinced the power of the Trident can unite both the Ocean and Surface Worlds.
Aquaman comes at a time where I have been endlessly frustrated with DC on film and that frustration goes all the way back to the very beginning with Richard Donner’s Superman the Movie in 1978 where Donner was fired from the franchise and then Tim Burton’s Batman movies pretty much ended up the same way as this current DC incarnation where Warner Brothers has panic attacks over a dark film, orders a change of direction and then gets so light that the bottom falls out of the franchise and it crashes at the box office does Aquaman sink to the bottom of the sea or does it swim to the top like 2017’s Wonder Woman.
Well it does a bit of both as I am very much in the middle on this movie firstly director James Wan’s eye for spectacle and visual effects is on full display as this movie looks fantastic on a big cinema screen as there is lots of variety to the various kingdoms of the Seven Seas and the way Mr Wan realises these and the huge underwater battle scenes is great and I was never bored watching those scenes.
Where I was bored was in the overall storytelling as it feels like a very generic semi origin story where the hero must prove his worth and go on the quest and save the kingdom from complete doom and it isn’t helped in these moments that both Wan’s direction can’t seem to nail any kind of menaningful emotional response and that Jason Momoa’s overall performance has the same snarky tone that so many lead performances in these big superhero films I mean you could swap him for Robert Downey Jr or Chris Pratt and you would barely notice any difference.
I did however in the performance front like Amber Heard as Mera even if at times it feels like she is mimicking Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow and Nicole Kidman as the Queen of Atlantis her story arc was probably my favorite of the entire film as it reminded me a lot of a show I loved called ReBoot and when its lead character Bob was lost in the Web.
As for the villains well the Black Manta was really cool though badly underused while Wilson was kind of foppish as Orm and that character is a great one in the Aquaman 2 part episode of the Justice League animated series but here I thought Momoa would squash him lickety split.
And so that was Aquaman and it’s a middle of the road entry for DC there’s still a long way back for them in my eyes and with Wonder Woman 2 now coming in 2020 I won’t hold my breath for Shazam or Joker next year, 2 and a half out of 5.
Aquaman comes at a time where I have been endlessly frustrated with DC on film and that frustration goes all the way back to the very beginning with Richard Donner’s Superman the Movie in 1978 where Donner was fired from the franchise and then Tim Burton’s Batman movies pretty much ended up the same way as this current DC incarnation where Warner Brothers has panic attacks over a dark film, orders a change of direction and then gets so light that the bottom falls out of the franchise and it crashes at the box office does Aquaman sink to the bottom of the sea or does it swim to the top like 2017’s Wonder Woman.
Well it does a bit of both as I am very much in the middle on this movie firstly director James Wan’s eye for spectacle and visual effects is on full display as this movie looks fantastic on a big cinema screen as there is lots of variety to the various kingdoms of the Seven Seas and the way Mr Wan realises these and the huge underwater battle scenes is great and I was never bored watching those scenes.
Where I was bored was in the overall storytelling as it feels like a very generic semi origin story where the hero must prove his worth and go on the quest and save the kingdom from complete doom and it isn’t helped in these moments that both Wan’s direction can’t seem to nail any kind of menaningful emotional response and that Jason Momoa’s overall performance has the same snarky tone that so many lead performances in these big superhero films I mean you could swap him for Robert Downey Jr or Chris Pratt and you would barely notice any difference.
I did however in the performance front like Amber Heard as Mera even if at times it feels like she is mimicking Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow and Nicole Kidman as the Queen of Atlantis her story arc was probably my favorite of the entire film as it reminded me a lot of a show I loved called ReBoot and when its lead character Bob was lost in the Web.
As for the villains well the Black Manta was really cool though badly underused while Wilson was kind of foppish as Orm and that character is a great one in the Aquaman 2 part episode of the Justice League animated series but here I thought Momoa would squash him lickety split.
And so that was Aquaman and it’s a middle of the road entry for DC there’s still a long way back for them in my eyes and with Wonder Woman 2 now coming in 2020 I won’t hold my breath for Shazam or Joker next year, 2 and a half out of 5.
Film Review - Bumblebee (2018)
Bumblebee is the first Transformers spin off and also the first not directed by Michael Bay this time Travis Knight the head of Laika Animation takes the helm and this story is set in 1987 when Bumblebee crashes to Earth from Cybertron and is found by Charley (Hailee Steinfeld) in an auto yard, little does she know that there is more to her new Beetle car than meets the eye.
As a long time Transformers fan I was so so happy to finally see a good Transformers movie and not having Bay in charge makes a big difference for these reasons:
- Firstly there is an awful lot of heart in this movie as writers Christina Hodson and Kelly Fremon Craig really do a lot to develop the relationship between Bumblebee and Charley and it harkens back to the boy and his car motif that Steven Spielberg tried to bring to the first live action Transformers movie in 2007 before Bay took charge with his own style but this movie takes that idea and does a much better job with it as it feels front and centre as opposed to an idea that kicks off a film that felt tone deaf in so many ways.
- Secondly the film has a far smaller scale to it than the previous Bay movies and sure there is plenty of Transformers action in the film but it all feels smaller, more personal, more connected to the characters and the storytelling and their also shot wider so you can actually see what the heck is going on and on top of all that the Autobots are not completely useless robuts who constantly get their butts kicked but I’ll stop there about those points this is a simpler story that allows the characters to come back to the focus and I am very grateful for that.
- And lastly the Transformers fan service here is fantastic, the opening scene set on Cybertron was terrific and I thought to myself “There’s Soundwave, There’s Shockwave and Starscream and Thundercracker and Skywarp” and then Ravage came out of Soundwave’s Chest and Optimus was being his noble badass self and I was a very very happy boy though if Megatron had made a cameo in the film I would’ve lost my mind (There was a scene with him in the film but it was very wisely cut.)
And also the way the Cybetron War scenes are used throughout the film it is a little reminiscent of the Future War scenes in the first Terminator film.
However if I have one complaint and its really only a minor one its John Cena and his role as Agent Burns of Sector 7 he does a good job in the role but the way the character is written it feels like a bad knockoff of the Bay style from the previous films and a lot of the scenes feel like a shaggy sideplot but hey when the rest of the film is as good as it is I won’t complain much.
And so that was my review of Bumblebee and it is about fucking time we had a great Transformers movie this has been a long time coming and I hope people go see it, 4 out of 5.
As a long time Transformers fan I was so so happy to finally see a good Transformers movie and not having Bay in charge makes a big difference for these reasons:
- Firstly there is an awful lot of heart in this movie as writers Christina Hodson and Kelly Fremon Craig really do a lot to develop the relationship between Bumblebee and Charley and it harkens back to the boy and his car motif that Steven Spielberg tried to bring to the first live action Transformers movie in 2007 before Bay took charge with his own style but this movie takes that idea and does a much better job with it as it feels front and centre as opposed to an idea that kicks off a film that felt tone deaf in so many ways.
- Secondly the film has a far smaller scale to it than the previous Bay movies and sure there is plenty of Transformers action in the film but it all feels smaller, more personal, more connected to the characters and the storytelling and their also shot wider so you can actually see what the heck is going on and on top of all that the Autobots are not completely useless robuts who constantly get their butts kicked but I’ll stop there about those points this is a simpler story that allows the characters to come back to the focus and I am very grateful for that.
- And lastly the Transformers fan service here is fantastic, the opening scene set on Cybertron was terrific and I thought to myself “There’s Soundwave, There’s Shockwave and Starscream and Thundercracker and Skywarp” and then Ravage came out of Soundwave’s Chest and Optimus was being his noble badass self and I was a very very happy boy though if Megatron had made a cameo in the film I would’ve lost my mind (There was a scene with him in the film but it was very wisely cut.)
And also the way the Cybetron War scenes are used throughout the film it is a little reminiscent of the Future War scenes in the first Terminator film.
However if I have one complaint and its really only a minor one its John Cena and his role as Agent Burns of Sector 7 he does a good job in the role but the way the character is written it feels like a bad knockoff of the Bay style from the previous films and a lot of the scenes feel like a shaggy sideplot but hey when the rest of the film is as good as it is I won’t complain much.
And so that was my review of Bumblebee and it is about fucking time we had a great Transformers movie this has been a long time coming and I hope people go see it, 4 out of 5.
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
2018 in Film Part 1
Well its that time again boys and girls, another year in movies has pretty much come and gone and the time has come to write about it and reveal my lists of the best and worst of the year.
But all of that fun is for later as for right now it is time to write about my thoughts overall on the movie year as a whole and it was an interesting one for me to start off with as this was the first full year of movie going for me since 2013 where I wasn’t doing my Radio show with Selina on ABC South East SA that having come to an end in December of 2017 sadly.
And if I was to have one regret with that ending in the way that it did it is not getting to review Star Wars: The Last Jedi with her as we had been talking about it in the last 2 or 3 shows before its December release date and indeed the day my Radio days ended was the opening day of that film so to not pay that off is very disappointing but alas these things happen and nothing lasts forever.
But getting back on track I will actually say that this year movie wise was actually pretty good and certainly better than 2016 and 2017 were and those years I was on Radio, I thought there was a nice mix of great genre cinema and independent type films and a lot of the times I went to the movies I actually enjoyed being there and maybe part of that is because I wasn’t rushing around so much to have reviews of films done by a certain date so I could do that Radio show review but I digress.
The other big film related thing I did this year was make the leap to 4K Ultra HD and it is fantastic especially with the older films I love such as Rambo, Predator, Die Hard and the Hunt for Red October to name as examples all 4 of those films looked and sounded great and made me feel like I was sitting in a Village or Hoyts or Greater Union cinema back in the time of their original release year and that 35mm print was playing in front of me for the first time.
First Blood in particular felt like I could practically smell the film grain in the print and it makes me want to see more older films make the leap to that format such as Lethal Weapon and Back to the Future but with streaming so dominant right now I won’t hold my breath.
Well that being done that was Part 1 of my look back at 2018 film wise keep an eye out for Part 2 I reveal my best and worst of the year so stay tuned.
But all of that fun is for later as for right now it is time to write about my thoughts overall on the movie year as a whole and it was an interesting one for me to start off with as this was the first full year of movie going for me since 2013 where I wasn’t doing my Radio show with Selina on ABC South East SA that having come to an end in December of 2017 sadly.
And if I was to have one regret with that ending in the way that it did it is not getting to review Star Wars: The Last Jedi with her as we had been talking about it in the last 2 or 3 shows before its December release date and indeed the day my Radio days ended was the opening day of that film so to not pay that off is very disappointing but alas these things happen and nothing lasts forever.
But getting back on track I will actually say that this year movie wise was actually pretty good and certainly better than 2016 and 2017 were and those years I was on Radio, I thought there was a nice mix of great genre cinema and independent type films and a lot of the times I went to the movies I actually enjoyed being there and maybe part of that is because I wasn’t rushing around so much to have reviews of films done by a certain date so I could do that Radio show review but I digress.
The other big film related thing I did this year was make the leap to 4K Ultra HD and it is fantastic especially with the older films I love such as Rambo, Predator, Die Hard and the Hunt for Red October to name as examples all 4 of those films looked and sounded great and made me feel like I was sitting in a Village or Hoyts or Greater Union cinema back in the time of their original release year and that 35mm print was playing in front of me for the first time.
First Blood in particular felt like I could practically smell the film grain in the print and it makes me want to see more older films make the leap to that format such as Lethal Weapon and Back to the Future but with streaming so dominant right now I won’t hold my breath.
Well that being done that was Part 1 of my look back at 2018 film wise keep an eye out for Part 2 I reveal my best and worst of the year so stay tuned.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Film Review - Mortal Engines (2018)
Mortal Engines is written and produced by Peter Jackson along with Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens who also worked together on the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings movies though Christian Rivers is the director here, the story takes place in a dystopian future where cities are now in wheels in order to survive after a 60 minute War destroyed the world and a man named Valentine (Hugo Weaving) is keen to complete a top secret energy project that may hold the key to defending the future.
Mortal Engines has some terrific visual effects and world building, the world presented here for starters is really good the cities on wheel look great and the tracks they leave behind are like mazes for humans to walk through with the giant walls and the soft ground that is left for people to drink to stave off dying of thurst plus the London city has a history museum of sorts will all kinds of artefacts and it all looks great as is the way with Peter Jackson and his team of Wizards at WETA in New Zealand.
What I wish worked as well was the human characters, Weaving does a good job as Valentine but he’s pretty much doing the standard Hugo Weaving routine by this stage, Robert Sheehan and Hera Hilmarsdottir are given very thin characters to work with and Hera really feels like a stand in for Dakota Johnson, Stephen Lang is okay as Shirke while Leila D’Onofrio was pretty good as Katherine, Valentine’s Daughter but all of them and their story in particular did very little for me and after a while I really got bored of them all despite the impressive visuals.
It also isn’t helped that the film zips along to such an extent that it barely takes anytime to put on the brakes and let its audience take in the world of the film or really develop it in any meaningful capacity which was one of the core strengths of this team’s work on Lord of the Rings where we got to see the world of Middle Earth perfectly realised on film and Jackson and Co took their time to develop that world and let us see the landscapes, environment and regions along with developing its characters whereas here we barely get to do that as its in such a rush to tell its story that a lot of that story and character development just gets passed by like a sign on the road.
And so that was my review of Mortal Engines and its okay with some terrific effects but its overall story and characters felt very thin on the ground and given what this team is capable of with their work on Lord of the Rings it’s a little disappointing, 2 out of 5.
Mortal Engines has some terrific visual effects and world building, the world presented here for starters is really good the cities on wheel look great and the tracks they leave behind are like mazes for humans to walk through with the giant walls and the soft ground that is left for people to drink to stave off dying of thurst plus the London city has a history museum of sorts will all kinds of artefacts and it all looks great as is the way with Peter Jackson and his team of Wizards at WETA in New Zealand.
What I wish worked as well was the human characters, Weaving does a good job as Valentine but he’s pretty much doing the standard Hugo Weaving routine by this stage, Robert Sheehan and Hera Hilmarsdottir are given very thin characters to work with and Hera really feels like a stand in for Dakota Johnson, Stephen Lang is okay as Shirke while Leila D’Onofrio was pretty good as Katherine, Valentine’s Daughter but all of them and their story in particular did very little for me and after a while I really got bored of them all despite the impressive visuals.
It also isn’t helped that the film zips along to such an extent that it barely takes anytime to put on the brakes and let its audience take in the world of the film or really develop it in any meaningful capacity which was one of the core strengths of this team’s work on Lord of the Rings where we got to see the world of Middle Earth perfectly realised on film and Jackson and Co took their time to develop that world and let us see the landscapes, environment and regions along with developing its characters whereas here we barely get to do that as its in such a rush to tell its story that a lot of that story and character development just gets passed by like a sign on the road.
And so that was my review of Mortal Engines and its okay with some terrific effects but its overall story and characters felt very thin on the ground and given what this team is capable of with their work on Lord of the Rings it’s a little disappointing, 2 out of 5.
Film Review - Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse (2018)
Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse is the newest Spider-Man movie this one however is animated and produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and concerns Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) who like Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and becomes a new Spider-Man but when the Kingpin (Liev Schriber) instigates a science experiment that goes wrong other Spider-Men show up and now the race is on to stop Kingpin and get them all home.
Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse was okay for me but also felt like a typical Spider-Man story but before I delve into those I want to talk about what I do like and firstly the animation style is very good combining digital animation, a comic strip drawing style, a hip hop style that nicely reflects Miles and his world and even some hand drawn style and it makes for a very trippy experience that at times is hard to keep up with but would be an absolute treat in 3D in fact I nearly went to a 3D session last night but decided not to as it would’ve finished late.
And also the voice cast are pretty good, its nice to see Nicolas Cage give a shit for once and not just phone it in for a paycheck in a B grade film, Spider-Ham is a real delight especially if you’ve seen the Simpsons Movie and Hailee Stenfeld is great fun as Spider-Gwen but sadly Lake Bell is wasted as Amanda Fisk as she barely has any lines and as someone who loved her as Chloe the Cat in Secret Life of Pets I was particularly disappointed.
There are also some very fun cameos which I will not give away.
Sadly the storytelling here just felt like a typical Spider-Man story where a loved one dies, Spider-Man throws some quips with his web, there’s a scientific angle to it all, there’s family matters and I personally have seen this all webbed up in all of the other Spider-Man movies and like those ones it was okay but kind of the same after a while and after seeing the character play around with the Avengers in Infinity War earlier this year and also having great fun with the Playstation 4 game a couple of months back I got a bit bored of it all after a while.
And so that was my thoughts on Spiderman into the Spiderverse and its okay it has some great animation and some cool voice acting but I wasn’t as fond of its story, 2 and a half out of 5.
Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse was okay for me but also felt like a typical Spider-Man story but before I delve into those I want to talk about what I do like and firstly the animation style is very good combining digital animation, a comic strip drawing style, a hip hop style that nicely reflects Miles and his world and even some hand drawn style and it makes for a very trippy experience that at times is hard to keep up with but would be an absolute treat in 3D in fact I nearly went to a 3D session last night but decided not to as it would’ve finished late.
And also the voice cast are pretty good, its nice to see Nicolas Cage give a shit for once and not just phone it in for a paycheck in a B grade film, Spider-Ham is a real delight especially if you’ve seen the Simpsons Movie and Hailee Stenfeld is great fun as Spider-Gwen but sadly Lake Bell is wasted as Amanda Fisk as she barely has any lines and as someone who loved her as Chloe the Cat in Secret Life of Pets I was particularly disappointed.
There are also some very fun cameos which I will not give away.
Sadly the storytelling here just felt like a typical Spider-Man story where a loved one dies, Spider-Man throws some quips with his web, there’s a scientific angle to it all, there’s family matters and I personally have seen this all webbed up in all of the other Spider-Man movies and like those ones it was okay but kind of the same after a while and after seeing the character play around with the Avengers in Infinity War earlier this year and also having great fun with the Playstation 4 game a couple of months back I got a bit bored of it all after a while.
And so that was my thoughts on Spiderman into the Spiderverse and its okay it has some great animation and some cool voice acting but I wasn’t as fond of its story, 2 and a half out of 5.
Friday, December 14, 2018
Film Review - Roma (2018)
Roma is the new film by Gravity and Children of Men director Alfonso Cuaron and is also a new Netflix production and takes place in 1970-71 in Mexico and concerns a maid named Cleo (Yalitza Apiricio) as she cares for a family in that city and her own journey within it.
Roma is very well made which isn’t a huge surprise given Mr Curaron’s skill as a craftsman but as much as I enjoyed the film and I did I would also say that I find myself admiring it more than I love it but there are 2 huge positives going for it:
- The first of those is Curaron’s direction and camera work, yes he does a lot of those signature tracking shots that he used to great effect in Children of Men and Gravity but their always worth a watch and they always take your eye on a journey of all kinds of little details that most edits would probably leave out feeling a need to go from one scene to the next, Curaron served also as cinematographer and he does a great job with the black and white photography as well.
- The second is Ms Apiricio’s performance, she is wonderful in this film and she does so much with just her body language alone with the looks she gives, the way she walks around and the expressions on her face that do a lot of the emotional heavy lifting without needing to say much dialogue and the film works best when the focus is purely on her.
And here is where the film faulters for me I’m afraid and yes I have some well one mainly and that is the use of the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and look this is a great looking film but there are a lot of times in this movie for me where the 2.35 ratio kept pulling back from the central intimate nature of this story and when you think back on Children of Men which was shot in 1.85:1 the film worked beautifully allowing the human story to shine element admist the dystopic spectacle that film also created.
And also the use of the 2.35 ratio tended to push Cleo to the background and away from the central focus of the film and for me I wanted her to be that central focus as its where the film works best but most of the time she has her scene and then she’s pushed away to focus on the streets and the people and those scenes are good but I didn’t really get into them as much as it felt like the background coming to the foreground to a certain degree.
And so that was Roma and look the film is good and worth watching but I also wish I had gotten to see it before the hype machine got a hold of it as I feel that as much as I like it it did fall short of that hype to a certain degree still it gets a 3 and a half out of 5.
Roma is very well made which isn’t a huge surprise given Mr Curaron’s skill as a craftsman but as much as I enjoyed the film and I did I would also say that I find myself admiring it more than I love it but there are 2 huge positives going for it:
- The first of those is Curaron’s direction and camera work, yes he does a lot of those signature tracking shots that he used to great effect in Children of Men and Gravity but their always worth a watch and they always take your eye on a journey of all kinds of little details that most edits would probably leave out feeling a need to go from one scene to the next, Curaron served also as cinematographer and he does a great job with the black and white photography as well.
- The second is Ms Apiricio’s performance, she is wonderful in this film and she does so much with just her body language alone with the looks she gives, the way she walks around and the expressions on her face that do a lot of the emotional heavy lifting without needing to say much dialogue and the film works best when the focus is purely on her.
And here is where the film faulters for me I’m afraid and yes I have some well one mainly and that is the use of the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and look this is a great looking film but there are a lot of times in this movie for me where the 2.35 ratio kept pulling back from the central intimate nature of this story and when you think back on Children of Men which was shot in 1.85:1 the film worked beautifully allowing the human story to shine element admist the dystopic spectacle that film also created.
And also the use of the 2.35 ratio tended to push Cleo to the background and away from the central focus of the film and for me I wanted her to be that central focus as its where the film works best but most of the time she has her scene and then she’s pushed away to focus on the streets and the people and those scenes are good but I didn’t really get into them as much as it felt like the background coming to the foreground to a certain degree.
And so that was Roma and look the film is good and worth watching but I also wish I had gotten to see it before the hype machine got a hold of it as I feel that as much as I like it it did fall short of that hype to a certain degree still it gets a 3 and a half out of 5.
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Film Review - The Old Man and the Gun (2018)
The Old Man and the Gun is written and directed by David Lowery who also made 2016’s Pete Dragon and stars Robert Redford in his final screen role as Forest Tucker an old man who loves to rob banks even if he is very polite about it but a detective named John Hunt (Casey Affleck) is now on his trail.
The Old Man and the Gun is a nice movie and also a fitting tribute to Redford’s presence on screen and his appeal as an actor as his down to earth charm, his no fuss charisma and his ability to do so much with his mere presence on screen is on full display here and Lowery who also directed him in a small role in Pete’s Dragon doesn’t let his direction get in the way of his performance instead focusing on recreating the 1981 look on film with the heavy grain and long takes and it works really well.
Someone else I enjoyed seeing in this movie in a small role was Danny Glover even though all I could think the entire time he was on screen was “I’m too old for this shit” and as for Casey Affleck I thought he was okay but he had a bad tendency to mumble a lot of his lines most of the time and as a result I never really got fully on board with his performance.
But this is very much Redford’s movie and his presence more than carries it though one scene in particular made me think of Grand Theft Auto 5 the game which I still love playing.
And so that was the Old Man and the Gun and it’s a nice movie that serves as a great tribute to Robert Redford and his career and afterwards it will make you want to watch your favorite Redford films I know I wanted to rewatch Sneakers from 1992 after this one, 3 out of 5.
The Old Man and the Gun is a nice movie and also a fitting tribute to Redford’s presence on screen and his appeal as an actor as his down to earth charm, his no fuss charisma and his ability to do so much with his mere presence on screen is on full display here and Lowery who also directed him in a small role in Pete’s Dragon doesn’t let his direction get in the way of his performance instead focusing on recreating the 1981 look on film with the heavy grain and long takes and it works really well.
Someone else I enjoyed seeing in this movie in a small role was Danny Glover even though all I could think the entire time he was on screen was “I’m too old for this shit” and as for Casey Affleck I thought he was okay but he had a bad tendency to mumble a lot of his lines most of the time and as a result I never really got fully on board with his performance.
But this is very much Redford’s movie and his presence more than carries it though one scene in particular made me think of Grand Theft Auto 5 the game which I still love playing.
And so that was the Old Man and the Gun and it’s a nice movie that serves as a great tribute to Robert Redford and his career and afterwards it will make you want to watch your favorite Redford films I know I wanted to rewatch Sneakers from 1992 after this one, 3 out of 5.
Film Review - Creed 2 (2018)
Creed 2 is not directed by Ryan Coogler this time (He left to make Black Panther) instead Steven Caple Jr takes the reins and this time Adonis Creed (Michael B Jordan) has to fight Viktor Drago (Florian Muntenau) the son of Rocky IV’s Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) who famously killed Apollo Creed in Rocky IV so now the sons will have the same fight their fathers once had 33 years ago.
Creed 2 is an okay Rocky sequel but Coogler’s absence is deeply felt mainly because I felt he was able to do a Rocky sequel in the first Creed film in 2015 while also telling a new story that made it feel fresh and new whereas here and it probably is due to the fact that Stallone is a screenwriter on this new film the old beats of the traditional Rocky sequels are back:
- The new opponent who tears through his competitors
- The loss of the eye of the tiger
- The hero having to deal with family affairs
- The training montage
And then the big fight and well you get the picture and look some of that was in the first Creed film but here it really feels more prevalent and as a result I felt a bit more bored with this sequel and look it isn’t bad but it really makes it feel more like we’ve been here before.
And Tessa Thompson’s character Bianca who was very memorable in the first film as this deaf woman who was still living a very full and productive life is turned into the new Adrian where she worries about her man, gives very concerning looks and sits at the side of the ring worrying about her man and boy does that get old after a while especially when she has a very touching side plot about her baby daughter.
As for the performances both Thompson and Jordan are great together and these 2 are among the best actors of their generation and really do a lot to make their material shine, Stallone is his usual self while it was fun to see Dolph Lundgren again as Ivan Drago and Mr Muntenau looks like a mountain as Viktor even if his dialogue is very minimal at times.
And so that was Creed 2 and its okay but the first Creed was a better film and felt more fresh whereas this feels like a tired Rocky sequel with all the old beats of the punching bag dusted off, 2 out of 5.
Creed 2 is an okay Rocky sequel but Coogler’s absence is deeply felt mainly because I felt he was able to do a Rocky sequel in the first Creed film in 2015 while also telling a new story that made it feel fresh and new whereas here and it probably is due to the fact that Stallone is a screenwriter on this new film the old beats of the traditional Rocky sequels are back:
- The new opponent who tears through his competitors
- The loss of the eye of the tiger
- The hero having to deal with family affairs
- The training montage
And then the big fight and well you get the picture and look some of that was in the first Creed film but here it really feels more prevalent and as a result I felt a bit more bored with this sequel and look it isn’t bad but it really makes it feel more like we’ve been here before.
And Tessa Thompson’s character Bianca who was very memorable in the first film as this deaf woman who was still living a very full and productive life is turned into the new Adrian where she worries about her man, gives very concerning looks and sits at the side of the ring worrying about her man and boy does that get old after a while especially when she has a very touching side plot about her baby daughter.
As for the performances both Thompson and Jordan are great together and these 2 are among the best actors of their generation and really do a lot to make their material shine, Stallone is his usual self while it was fun to see Dolph Lundgren again as Ivan Drago and Mr Muntenau looks like a mountain as Viktor even if his dialogue is very minimal at times.
And so that was Creed 2 and its okay but the first Creed was a better film and felt more fresh whereas this feels like a tired Rocky sequel with all the old beats of the punching bag dusted off, 2 out of 5.
Film Review - The Grinch (2018)
The Grinch is based off of the Grinch who Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of the Grinch who every year sees the people of Whoville do many Christmas celebrations and he gets so sick of it that he decides he’s going to steal their Christmas.
I was very very excited as I am a bit of a Christmas Grinch and the trailers for this movie had me thinking that if this movie could deliver the goods it would be my Christmas movie and well it does deliver and it doesn’t.
Firstly Benedict is great as the Grinch and he is clearly having a lot of fun voicing the role many of the laughs I had from watching the film also centre on him but away from him and his dog Max and his scheme to steal Christmas is where the film fell over for me.
The whole Whoville scene with the over the top Christmas decorations did very little for me after a while and there’s a cute little girl called Cindy Lou who wants to help her overworked mum voiced by Rashida Jones and it feels like a lot of that stuff was added to this movie version to make it a proper feature film as both the original Dr. Seuss book and the 1966 animated adaptation aren’t very long in fact the 1966 film is more of a special running 25-30 minutes and I feel that would’ve been better.
And lastly there is a voiceover narration that really got on my nerves after a while and rarely do I find that that kind of narration rarely ever works as all it does is just tell the audience what’s going on when it would be far better and I think this movie would’ve been much better if we got to discover that information for ourselves that way we can build a connection to the character instead we get this leaden voiceover that makes Dr. Seuss’s writing sound like an alien language.
Now the Grinch isn’t bad and I certainly had fun with it but it was also a bit of a disappointment for me in being merely fine but I think these Dr. Seuss adaptations are Illumination’s weakest point in their studio their own stuff like Secret Life of Pets and Despicable Me are much better, 3 out of 5.
I was very very excited as I am a bit of a Christmas Grinch and the trailers for this movie had me thinking that if this movie could deliver the goods it would be my Christmas movie and well it does deliver and it doesn’t.
Firstly Benedict is great as the Grinch and he is clearly having a lot of fun voicing the role many of the laughs I had from watching the film also centre on him but away from him and his dog Max and his scheme to steal Christmas is where the film fell over for me.
The whole Whoville scene with the over the top Christmas decorations did very little for me after a while and there’s a cute little girl called Cindy Lou who wants to help her overworked mum voiced by Rashida Jones and it feels like a lot of that stuff was added to this movie version to make it a proper feature film as both the original Dr. Seuss book and the 1966 animated adaptation aren’t very long in fact the 1966 film is more of a special running 25-30 minutes and I feel that would’ve been better.
And lastly there is a voiceover narration that really got on my nerves after a while and rarely do I find that that kind of narration rarely ever works as all it does is just tell the audience what’s going on when it would be far better and I think this movie would’ve been much better if we got to discover that information for ourselves that way we can build a connection to the character instead we get this leaden voiceover that makes Dr. Seuss’s writing sound like an alien language.
Now the Grinch isn’t bad and I certainly had fun with it but it was also a bit of a disappointment for me in being merely fine but I think these Dr. Seuss adaptations are Illumination’s weakest point in their studio their own stuff like Secret Life of Pets and Despicable Me are much better, 3 out of 5.
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Revisiting Rambo 1 and 2
With the recent release of the first 3 Rambo films in the 4K Ultra HD format (a format I’m a big enthusiast of) I became inspired to revisit the first 2 of these films and both of them have actually held up really well First Blood in particular hasn’t aged a day since its release in 1982 while Rambo: First Blood Part 2 has aged a little bit more since its release in 1985 but is still a very exciting action film.
But as I began to think about these 2 movies more and more I began to feel that they represent the way people began to feel about the War in Vietnam which is where the idea for the original First Blood novel came from as David Morrell had based off of some students he knew that had served in Nam and wanted to know more about their experiences both during their tour and what happened when they came home.
And thinking some more fairly recently I began to feel that both of these films reflect 2 sides of the public conscious about the Vietnam War.
First Blood is a reflection of the sobering reality of that conflict and while it is exciting and action packed and full of great characters its about the War at Home and what happened to these people when they came home in terms of they were shunned, cast out from broader society, distrusted to some extent, living from day to day, moving from place to place and taking what odd jobs they could to try and reintegrate back into society.
And all of these feelings come to the forefront during the films climatic moment where pinned against the wall Rambo explodes at Colonel Trautman and says that Nothing is Over, I did what I had to do to win and back there I was in charge of million dollar equipment, back here I can’t even get a job parking cars.
And it works beautifully helping to give the film a real emotional resonance and it became a big hit in 1982 reflecting the growing view in the public that the Vietnam Vets had been treated very shabbily and the sense of guilt that came with as director Ted Kotcheff states on the making of doco which is on the First Blood Blu-Ray/DVD release.
This leads me nicely to Rambo: First Blood Part 2 released in 1985 at the height of Ronald Reagan’s presidency (he won a crushing re election victory the previous November) it takes on much more of a different tone to the first film emphasising much more of the action spectacle feel and a lighter tone.
And whereas First Blood I feel reflected what I call a sobering reality of the War Rambo 2 reflects a fantastical feel to the conflict a burning hunger within the public to avenge the defeat of the US Forces and right the wrong that was committed especially now with a strong father figure type as President who would’ve been decisive and let our boys do their thing and now as Rambo says in the opening of the film “Do We Get to Win this Time?”
And yet while this movie has that more action heavy feel and less somber tone it still nicely continues the theme of First Blood in terms of why the character goes back to Nam its for the Missing in Action soldiers that were said to still be held prisoner even after the end of the war and the audience seeing the film would have this visceral response through the Rambo character that something good would come of all this.
And indeed the film was a smash hit in 85 coming second only to the Juggernaut success of Back to the Future at the US Box Office and having a lengthy run in Australian cinemas even though critical reaction was mixed (Siskel and Ebert gave it the thumbs up as an exciting action film while Fairfax critics here in Aus did not like the film for its jingoistic undertones)
Though I also find myself wondering if James Cameron’s influence on the screenplay (he wrote a draft of this sequel at the same he was making The Terminator and Aliens before Sly came in and did his own script work) is a big reason why I feel the film is still an exciting action film, Cameron can do amazing action as he would prove with Terminator and Aliens and also Aliens would deal with characters that went through trauma going back to the place that caused it to begin with and have a new character in Hudson start to lose his cool when everything goes bad.
I will also say however that this undertone of Vietnam throughout these 2 films is also why Rambo 3 and 4 weren’t as good for me as that character was born out of that specific conflict and reflected to a certain degree how the viewing audience felt about it that to continue on after the second film which while thinking about how it ends gives some sense of closure to the Rambo character it feels stripped of a certain point of its identity and becomes another action character without any of the subtext of the world that created him.
And that is where I will end this particular column as I wanted to get those points out of my head hopefully you all enjoyed reading it as I did writing it.
But as I began to think about these 2 movies more and more I began to feel that they represent the way people began to feel about the War in Vietnam which is where the idea for the original First Blood novel came from as David Morrell had based off of some students he knew that had served in Nam and wanted to know more about their experiences both during their tour and what happened when they came home.
And thinking some more fairly recently I began to feel that both of these films reflect 2 sides of the public conscious about the Vietnam War.
First Blood is a reflection of the sobering reality of that conflict and while it is exciting and action packed and full of great characters its about the War at Home and what happened to these people when they came home in terms of they were shunned, cast out from broader society, distrusted to some extent, living from day to day, moving from place to place and taking what odd jobs they could to try and reintegrate back into society.
And all of these feelings come to the forefront during the films climatic moment where pinned against the wall Rambo explodes at Colonel Trautman and says that Nothing is Over, I did what I had to do to win and back there I was in charge of million dollar equipment, back here I can’t even get a job parking cars.
And it works beautifully helping to give the film a real emotional resonance and it became a big hit in 1982 reflecting the growing view in the public that the Vietnam Vets had been treated very shabbily and the sense of guilt that came with as director Ted Kotcheff states on the making of doco which is on the First Blood Blu-Ray/DVD release.
This leads me nicely to Rambo: First Blood Part 2 released in 1985 at the height of Ronald Reagan’s presidency (he won a crushing re election victory the previous November) it takes on much more of a different tone to the first film emphasising much more of the action spectacle feel and a lighter tone.
And whereas First Blood I feel reflected what I call a sobering reality of the War Rambo 2 reflects a fantastical feel to the conflict a burning hunger within the public to avenge the defeat of the US Forces and right the wrong that was committed especially now with a strong father figure type as President who would’ve been decisive and let our boys do their thing and now as Rambo says in the opening of the film “Do We Get to Win this Time?”
And yet while this movie has that more action heavy feel and less somber tone it still nicely continues the theme of First Blood in terms of why the character goes back to Nam its for the Missing in Action soldiers that were said to still be held prisoner even after the end of the war and the audience seeing the film would have this visceral response through the Rambo character that something good would come of all this.
And indeed the film was a smash hit in 85 coming second only to the Juggernaut success of Back to the Future at the US Box Office and having a lengthy run in Australian cinemas even though critical reaction was mixed (Siskel and Ebert gave it the thumbs up as an exciting action film while Fairfax critics here in Aus did not like the film for its jingoistic undertones)
Though I also find myself wondering if James Cameron’s influence on the screenplay (he wrote a draft of this sequel at the same he was making The Terminator and Aliens before Sly came in and did his own script work) is a big reason why I feel the film is still an exciting action film, Cameron can do amazing action as he would prove with Terminator and Aliens and also Aliens would deal with characters that went through trauma going back to the place that caused it to begin with and have a new character in Hudson start to lose his cool when everything goes bad.
I will also say however that this undertone of Vietnam throughout these 2 films is also why Rambo 3 and 4 weren’t as good for me as that character was born out of that specific conflict and reflected to a certain degree how the viewing audience felt about it that to continue on after the second film which while thinking about how it ends gives some sense of closure to the Rambo character it feels stripped of a certain point of its identity and becomes another action character without any of the subtext of the world that created him.
And that is where I will end this particular column as I wanted to get those points out of my head hopefully you all enjoyed reading it as I did writing it.
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