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comedy

Everything Everywhere All At Once – Kwan & Scheinert (2022)

I was somewhat surprised that an action comedy would win an Oscar, let alone seven, so out of curiosity I watched the now famous film.

Sometimes said to be an action comedy, but adventure and science-fiction are also descriptions. Indeed, the film has a bit of all of that. We follow Evelyn, a Chinese immigrant running a laundry with her husband. Extremely busy, but mostly in her head, she tries to be a beacon in a chaotic life. Then her husband from a parellel universe presents himself and a story unfolds that reminds a bit too much of “The Matrix”.

While different versions of the “multiverse” present themselves to Evelyn and she slowly learns how to go from one to another (introducing a very silly element), the film gets more and more chaotic.

The story seems to be patched together from other films and the jokes are usually only mildly funny. Overall the film is somewhat amusing, but I still wonder why the film got to many Oscars. There is one scene in which the title is shown in a surrealistic caleidoscoop which I find the best scene in the in movie, but taken as a whole, “Everything…” is mostly more of a ‘could watch sometimes’ Netflix film than an Oscar winner. Of course, opinions are there to differ.

The Gentlemen – Guy Ritchie (2019)

Ritchie did his thing again. “The Gentlemen” is another violent, hip action comedy with funny characters and witty dialogues. He opened a can of interesting actors too.

Hugh Grant is a hip private investigator. Colin Farell a slick boxing trainer. Mostly, Matthew McConaughey plays the main character in the form Michael Pearson, a high end softdrugsdealer who seeks to sell his empire so he can retire.

The story is told by Fletcher (Grant) who tries to persuade Pearson’s main man to use the opportunity of his sale to become rich. In a slowly developing story we see how everybody tries to doublecross Pearson and the competition.

Tarantino-like violence, amusing dialogues, a lot of swearing, funny situations and great acting. “The Gentlemen” is indeed an amusing action-comedy.

Amsterdam – David O. Russell (2022)

Another old style crime movie with a star cast. Two American friends get wounded during WWI in France. In the hospital they meet Valerie. Valerie has got contacts in Amsterdam who can patch up the heavily wounded men and the three remain in Amsterdam for a while becoming the closest of friends.

After a while, Burt, wants to go back to his practice and his wife in the USA. Somewhat later Harold follows, leaving Valerie behind.

Odd circumstances make old problems catch up with Burt and Harold and while the two are trying to climb out of the mess, they meet Valerie again.

“Amsterdam” is a very amusing screwball comedy. The film has got amusing characters, funny situations, a whole stack of familiar faces.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Rian Johnson (2022)

The first “Knives Out” was a classic murder mystery in a 1980’ies style. A group of people in a big mansion, somebody dies and a detective comes to sort things out. For the sequel a more modern setting was chosen.

A group of rich and influential friends spend a luxury weekend every year at a surprise location. We have got our businessman, scientist, “influencer”, fashion icon, YouTube hit, etc. They are lured to a remote Greek island where they will play a murder mystery. For some reason Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is part of the group, the famous detective of part 1. Regarding the theme, this is of course fitting.

Blanc has solved the murder before it even happened and the weekend risks becoming a disaster. Of course, things are not that easy. The friends prove not to be as close as they thought they were.

The second “Knives Out” is -like the first- amusing. Critical towards (internet) celebraties and the richest of the rich. Again, there are some famous faces in the film.

Knives Out – Rian Johnson (2019)

Is it because a follow up was recently launched that Netflix is pushing this film?

“Knives Out” is an old style murder mystery. A family is gathered in a big mansion, somebody ends up dead and a witty detective comes to figure out what happened. So far, so good.

Now the witty detective is Daniel Craig and we also have Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Plummer. You get it, some old-timers wanted to have some fun with an old-time movie.

Like in Gervasi’s “Hitchcock” you get a humorist murder mystery. There are perhaps no surprises (besides -perhaps- “Murder She Wrote” on the television), but “Knives Out” is an amusing, light watch.

Bullet Train – David Leitch (2022)

Brad Pitt returns to the violent action comedy genre as the goofy “Ladybug” who is a former hitman who has retired. He is returning to his old profession though, but he will only do easy jobs, such as picking up a case on a Japanese high speed train (from the title).

But there is also the story of Kimura whose son was pushed off a roof who sets out to find the perpetrator. Also we have Wolf, a Mexican criminal whose family, including his wife, was killed during the wedding. Tangerine and Lemmon are two hip criminals who are also on the train for another job. Needless to say that the storylines get together as the film continues.

“Bullet Train” is a film as we have seen before. Witty dialogues, over-the-top bloody scenes, dark humour, action and a story that unfolds before the viewer. The result is an amusing movie with amusing elements of Japanese culture, Thomas the Train and well-read bad people.

The Adam Project – Shawn Levy (2022)

Despite being a Netflix original. Despite being somewhat ‘kiddy’. Besides being a comedy of sorts, “The Adam Project” was actually somewhat amusing. Or was it because I had not seen a film in a few weeks?

Adam from the title escapes from the 2050’ies to 2022. His aim was actually four years earlier. In 2022 he runs into his younger self and the two Adams are going to try to prevent time-travelling from being invented. Of course the future Adam has some adversaries that try to stop his efforts.

The film has a few original elements to the often filmed time travelling concept. The obligatory jokes are sometimes funny, sometimes less so, but overall not too annoying. There is some action and special effects making a film that is probably aimed at adolescents. Perhaps even a bit younger.

As said, the film is not that bad.

Big Bug – Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2022)

Jeunet made another weird and wonderful film, this time for Netflix. As more often with Jeunet, “Big Bug” plays in the future. Not a dark and bleak future, but a bright and colourful future this time.

Contrary to most of his previous films, there are but a few of his go-to actors in this Jeunet. Dominque Pinon is only on screen a split second and François Levantal has a big part, but he only appears in one other Jeunet.

In a not too far future, mankind makes greater use of technology as it does today. Jeunet came up with some amusing concepts. Some sort of little drone that can locate things that have been misplaced, a flying Citroen DS, a talking vacuum cleaner and a robot housemaid. Of course all if very secure.

For different reasons, a group of people are in the villa of the sensual Alice when the robots apparently decided to take over. They cripple mankind by creating a massive traffic jam and then local systems lock people inside their houses because the level of danger is too high outside.

In Alice’s house are some ‘vintage’ robots not connected to the main Yonyx system so not robots are immediately hostile. They are of not much help either, since they do have protocols to follow. The robots have meetings to try to find a way for the people to like them better, so they start to read books, download humour and compassion. You get it, Jeunet has stuffed his film with hilarious situations and odd findings. Laughing robots, a vacuum cleaner trying to seduce his mistress. All things you can safely to Jeunet.

The result is very amusing. “Big Bug” may not be Jeunet’s best, but it certainly is a great watch and much better than most (any?) Netflix-original that I saw so far.

Freaks Out – Gabriele Mainetti (2021)

We follow a few people with ‘special abilities’ who work at an Italian circus. Then the Nazis take over the country and things do not go entirely as planned. A bunch of them gets separated from the leader of their circus and decide to go and find another local circus looking for a new occupation.

We have a hairy man, a young man who can direct insects, a magnetic man and an electric girl. During their walks through occupied Rome they encounter German razzias, but mostly have quirky adventures and encounters. “Freaks Out” reminds a bit of the work of Jean Pierre Jeunet.

The film is amusing, but do not take too much notice of the historical elements in the story. As the film continues, the focus starts to go to one character in particular who has much bigger ‘super powers’ than the rest.

A nice one when you feel like something light-footed (but not too much) odd.

Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn – Cathy Yan (2020)

The cover suggests an action comic comedy of sorts and that proved to be true. The film appears to lift on the “Gotham” franchise. Harley Quinn from the title is a weird girl who could do whatever she wanted as long as she was the lady of the Joker. After the two broke up, Quinn finds out she has more enemies than she imagined.

The film is a women-power action with witty dialogues and strange characters. Especially in the beginning, there are a lot of comic-elements which slowly die out as the film continues. The movie itself becomes less interesting as it goes on in general.

The film has some actors who apparently wanted to make something lighter for a change. From the “Gotham” franchise there is one character that I was familiar with: Victor Zsasz, whose character is more interesting in the “Gotham” series.

Should you be interested in the detail. While the series play before the emergence of Batman, this film comes after.

An alright watch for when you are looking for something easy.