Scarlett Johansson is not only beautiful, she is also a great actress. She can play anything, from Marvel action, an unearthly “female”, a 1950’ies reporter, name it. This is also a bit of my problem with the newest Jurassic franchise. Edwards had Johansson add some extra and unnecessary drama.
Anyway, in the previous Jurassic movies, mankind had brought dinosaurs back on earth. In “Rebirth” they are again about to die out, except for a few regions where they live in ‘no go areas’ for humans.
A team is set up to get blood samples from three types of living dinosaurs. Needless to say that this is not exactly easy, but in the end the task is pulled off.
Perhaps amusing to watch on TV or streaming some time, but even Johansson could not make the film all that interesting.
In a retro future, mankind and robots fought a war and became arch enemies. Earth did not became better because of this and mankind is lulled to sleep with VR.
Two unlikely cooperations occur when Michelle (Milie Bobby Brown) set out to find her brother. A few humans and a lot of robots set out to fight the separation of both ‘peoples’.
The film is quite the family scifi adventure. Not boring, not great.
In a weird fictional future, Paul is hired by the mysterious company J.W. Wells. His assignment turned out to be: find the missing portable door of director Humphrey Wells (a great Christopher Waltz).
The film has quite the absurdist and surreal atmosphere of Tel Toro or Wes Anderson. A bit of (suppressed) romance, weird characters, a pretty odd story, subtle humour. Quite amuzing.
I was looking through Netflix looking for some light entertainment, aiming at an action comedy or something. Then “Barbie” was suggested. Of course I had heard of the film, but I never really thought about what it would be like. Probably just some teeny popcorn film. Action comedy, really?
Well no! Then again, neither it was what I initially expected it to be. Sure, you get a view in the pink fantasy world of little girls with annoyingly happy stages, songs and scenes. Every girl is called “Barbie”, every man is “Ken”.
One Barbie (played by Margot “Harlequin Jones” Robbie) has thoughts of death and what is worse: her heels touched the ground. To find out why things are no longer perfect in Barbieland, she sets out to the real world to find out what is wrong with the girl who is playing with her.
Barbie and a Ken (Ryan Gosling) step out of their fantasy world and encounter our own society in which it are not the girls who rule, but men do. Even the executive board of the Barbie franchise are all men. Real life is nothing like the world that they know and Gerwig used this thought to make a constant flow of criticism to modern living and society. That sure was an element that I did not expect.
In basis, the film is quite annoying with its happy, pink world. It appears that it is crammed with ‘inside information’ that eludes me. Limited edition clothing sets, deleted characters, etc. so it is probably a lot of fun for Barbie fans. As we saw there is an undertone that is at times to clearly portrayed that the viewer cannot ignore it. This makes the film ‘serious’ at the same time.
Not my kind of film, but neither what I thought this would be. (An no, not an action comedy.)
Val Kilmer (R.I.P.) is John Patterson, an Irish engineer who is hired to build a bridge in Africa, a continent that he always dreamed of going to.
He takes the train to where the railroad stops and where the bridge should be built. There is an entire village of workers which are both of African and Indian descent. Patterson soon gets the situation in order and things go remarkably according to plan. There are some problems though.
The main problem is that the camp is constantly attacked by a lion who drags away workers in the night. Patterson shoots it on his first day, but soon again workers are dragged out of the camp at night. Workers start to leave the camp out of fear. Patterson comes up with different plans to deal with the situation, but all to no avail.
Then Charles Remington (Michael Douglas) is hired, a lion-hunter who works with a local tribe. By then it is clear that there are actually two lions and not just any. They are so cunning and ruthless that they are nicknamed The Ghost and The Darkness.
The film is a descent look into clashing cultures of past times and the mysterious lion attacks make the film into a thriller of sorts.
I thought this was a ‘big story’ told in two parts, but part two ends with a big cliffhanger, so I suppose there will be another (few) Rebel Moon movie(s).
Since the introduction of the story is the opening sequence of part one, part two just begins with the troupe having returned to the planet Veldt thinking that they defeated the enemy. It is clear that the enemy is not defeated and that they have to prepare for another battle.
Needless to say that the fight is hard, but the good guys win.
Snyder took a stab at the genre of science fiction epic. Two movies of over two hours (with 3+ hours director cut versions) and a ‘grand story’.
Kora is hiding on a farmer’s planet. A branch of the authoritive rulers of the universe visit the planet (aptly looking like 1940’ies Germans), which makes Kora decide to become the rebel that she already was. She gathers a crowd to go after the rulers of the “Motherworld”.
Part I beging with a complex story, but -as happens more often in such films- what follows is basically a ‘good guys vs bad guys’. Not bad.
Marvel introduced yet another new troupe into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The eternals are a party of extraterrestrial super heroes, a team of which has been sent to earth to protect humanity against a type of alien super monsters. Also the eternals help humanity evolve.
The story is made a bit too ‘grand’. These eternals are -of course- ‘gods’. They are even called Gilgamesh, Ikarus, etc. They have been around for 7000 years and can’t really interfere in human affairs.
The monsters have supposedly been long whiped out, but they return and a new battle ensues. The eternals have tried to live relatively normal lives and now have to get the team together again to fight the improved version of the monsters.
Besides a few joking references to other Marvel characters, there is no connection to the ‘Cinematic Universe’.
The film is not the most interesting in the Marvel franchise.
Presented as a ‘good old distaster movie’ and that is exactly what it is. A very American one too.
A young student has a theory on how she can make a tornado disappear. Her final test goes horribly wrong and she moves from the action of being a storm chaser, to a meteorologist office job. When an old school mate comes to talk her into a new project in the middle of the action, Kate returns to the state of her birth.
Javi (the school mate) now has a big company collecting tornado data. Out in the field Kate learns that storm chasing became a hip pastime with the popular YouTuber Tyler.
In a very predictable story Kate’s allegiances change and a patriotic romance unfolds. The film does show both the excitement and spectacle of storm chasing and the devastating results. Also you get a bit of a peek into how communities living in tornado active areas deal with the constant threat. I have no idea of all the ‘smart talk’ in the film is correct, but there is also quite a bit of that.
There have been Japanese Godzilla films since 1954. In 1998 followed the first American attempt to exploit the concept. The film was no success and especially the Japanese made fun of the American version. 25 Years later the film looks like a Hollywood disaster spectacle that is at best amusing.
Of course this American version is not set in Japan, but in New York. Godzilla was born as the cause of nuclear tests, but he does not have his famous nuclear beam. Godzilla does have the ability to lay 200 eggs and hatch them in no-time, so the Americans not only have to fight a giant lizard, but also its offspring.
In style this 1998 movie fits well into the time-frame.
