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Megalopolis – Francis Ford Coppola (2024)

When a F.F. Coppola is rated only 4.7 on IMDb.com, there has got to be something with it, right? Is it not commercial enough?

Let me immediately say that I quite like “Megalopolis”. It is indeed quite pomp in setup and execution, but perhaps it is Coppola’s critique of American culture that costs him internet points.

American culture is compared to ancient Roman culture, a culture that collapsed at its peak and American culture seems to head in the same direction. To tell his story, Coppola transposed the story of Rome to a future America, New York to be more specific.

The major of New York is Cicero, his main opponent is the visionaire Cesar Catilina. Cesar has big plans for the city. A large part is whiped out for a green and social new part of the city. Those in power have more interest is keeping their power and their decadent life-style. When the daughter of the major starts to work for Cesar initially tongue-in-cheek, she starts to understand what he is after and what his reasons are.

The historic-futuristic setting is not never seen before, but also not entirely uncommon. The pomp goes with the message. All in all I find “Megalopolis” an interesting watch.

Rebel Ridge – Jeremy Saulnier (2024)

A positive surprise. Clicking through Netflix for something to watch, I found what I thought was an old thriller. It is perhaps a bit of an old style thriller, but it is fairly knew.

The black Terry is driven off his bike when on his way to bail out a nephew. The other party is a police car and soon the money that Terry had in his bag for the bail, is confiscated. Terry has walked into a swamp of a corrupt local law enforcement.

But Terry is not just any commoner, he is an elite mariner who calmly sets out to set right the wrongs of the community where he happened to bike into. Rather than making a hip supersoldier shootout film, Saulnier created a slow thriller with an interesting story, a descent atmosphere and slowly rising tension. Not bad at all.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare – Guy Ritchie (2024)

Can it be done? Making a comedy about World War II? Based on the diaries of Winston Churchill even? Well yes, Ritchie pulled it off.

Germany is rapidly conquering Europe and they control both the land and the sea. Their submarines are a manace to allied forces who have no answer to the U-boots. Then a daring plan develops.

The Germans appear to transport almost of their supplies with one ship and an elaborate plan involving ‘difficult people’ is forged to sink that very ship in its African port, in order to take out the U-boots for a considerable time.

With amusing dialogues, a lot of fighting and shooting, a story that appears have been true, we get a peak into the development of the James Bond stories (!). Indeed, a WWII story can be told with humour!

A Complete Unknown – James Mangold (2024)

  • music

Timothée “Paul Atreides” Chalamet is Bob Dylan (1941-). Mangold shows a short period in Dylan’s life. As a prospective singer/songwriter he comes in contact with Pete Seeger (an overly friendly looking Edward Norton) and he rolls into the popular American folk music scene. Dylan found folk too limiting from the start, but he made a flying start and is soon the new star within the genre.

His succes sky rockets in a period he is still inventing himself. He goes from typical folk, to more politically themed lyrics and then starts to experiment with his sound, to the dislike of people who want to stick to ‘pure’ folk music. In this ‘coming of age’ proces, Dylan finds different lovers.

Just before I saw the film, I was reading a very critical review in the major Dutch film media “Filmkrant”. The reviewer wondered what the film is about. Dylan’s break with folk music? His escapades? The film tries too hard to be on the train of overly dramatised biopics of famous people.

Perhaps this is true. You will learn only a few things about Dylan, but the film stops before he became really successful. It is amusing to run into an equally rebellious Johnny Cash (perhaps the next subject for a similar film?), get an idea of the American folk scene and its popularity. Perhaps it is best to see the film just as a peak into a short period of Dylan’s life. Formative years for sure and therefor of some interest.

Enemy Of The State – Tony Scott (1998)

The passing of an actor can be an occasion to pick a film that (s)he plays in. Apparently I have never been a big fan of Gene Hackman (1930-2025) it seems, because most films that I found I had not yet seen.

The main character in this film is Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith), a lawyer who accidentally becomes the enemy of the state. He has to flee from every imaginable government agency. During the proces he runs into Hackman’s character (“Brill”).

A descent action thriller with an alright story putting the finger of privacy problems due to technology. Scott does give the goverment agencies possibilities that I doubt are even at that level today, but perhaps that makes the film still relevant today.

Get Shorty – Barry Sonnenfeld (1995)

  • comedy

A year after “Pulp Fiction”, John Travolta is again a hip criminal. He is a fast talking gun for hire who lets himself being hired by his victims. In that chain he meets film producer Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman).

An amusing chain of events, funny dialogues, weird situations. “Get Shorty” is perhaps not the classic that “Pulp Fiction” became, but it is an amusing crime comedy.

Criminal Intent – Jim Kouf (1997)

  • thriller

Apparently also known as “Gang Related”, we follow the cops duo Frank (Jim Belushi) and Rodriguez (Tupac Shakur, who had passed by the time this film came out).

The cops have a side job, finding drug dealers, taking their stock or cash and killing them. This is quite lucrative, until they shoot the wrong guy. The rest of the film the two twist and turn trying to cover up their mistake.

The film is a bit of a mix of a court thriller and a cop thriller and makes a descent watch.

Passengers – Morten Tyldum

Because the earth is full, a commercial company created a new earth. People can emigrate. The trip is a 120 years voyage in ‘cryo sleep’. Just before the ship arrives, everybody wakes up (passengers and staff) and learns about the ways of the new world.

After some problems underway, Jim wakes up, only to find out that he is alone on a ship which has yet 90 years to travel. After a year of trying options and being lonely, he wakes up Aurora. Initially a relationship blooms, but when Aurora finds out why she is awake, that (of course) cools.

After a few more adventures, the two decide to make the best of their time.

“Passengers” is an alright science fiction drama.

Captain America: Brave New World – Julius Onah (2025)

  • action

The speed with which new Marvel movies are put out is staggering. This time they did not introduce yet another new set of heroes, but we have a new episode in the series on the oldest of Marvel heroes: Captain America.

I am unsure if I already saw that it is no longer Buck Rogers who is Captain America, but Sam Wilson. In any case, Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) used to be the bad guy, now he is the president of the USA. He is actually trying be good and do something for the world.

A material even stronger than “Vibranium” has been found, Ross tries to prevent falling it into the hands of one country. Of course there is a bad guy with other plans and he elaborately plans the downfall of both Ross and Captain America.

But you know what? Captain America saves the world!