Just as in the first Suicide Squad Amanda Waller creates a team of villains in order to create a great evil. Only Harlequin Jones and Captian Boomerang return, the rest are new.
There are no Gotham references this time, just an action comedy which is basically in the style of the first film. Super-anti-heroes have to invade an island to prevent a massive weapon to fall into the wrong hands.
No surprises here. “The Suicide Squad” is another amusing action comedy.
“Bardo, falsa crónica de unas cuantas verdades” or “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” is about the succesful documentary maker Silverio, who is about to be the first journalist of Mexican decent to receive a prestigious journalism award in the USA.
Silverio moved to the USA to raise his children. This is exactly something that many Mexicans also want, but do not get the chance to. Silverio makes his documentaries about the people trying to get into the USA.
In a lengthy (2:39 hours) and at times surreal drama, we see Silverio being tossed between his Mexican roots which he basically outgrew because of his succes and his succes as a journalist and how other people react to this succes. His life is not all easy and a son that was born stillborn keeps haunting his nightmares and putting pressure on his relationship with his wife. The fact that his children are neither really Mexicans nor Americans does not help either.
Iñárritu puts the magnifiying glass on migration issues between both countries, on the story of the Mexicans who did and did not make it into the USA and mixes this with the very personal view of the life of Silverio with a thick layer of Mexican culture. The film goes from common drama, to vague scenes and strange camera work.
I never realised why I kept confusing “Suicide Squad” with “Birds of Prey“. The girl in both movies is actually the same comic character: Harley Quinn.
The first “Suicide Squad” was made 4 years before “Birds of Prey” and indeed, in “Suicide Squad” we learn how Quin became the girlfriend of The Joker.
Gotham is plagued by “metamen”, people with extra abilities. Superman stopped doing his job, so a government agency decides to put the worst “metahuman” villains, that are all behind bars, in a team to fight current and future “metamen” mayhem. So we have a group of anti-heroes and the main characters of “Suicide Squad”.
The result is an alright thin story action comedy with alright jokes and descent action scenes introducing enough new characters for another few spin offs.
An attempt to make the Christmas movie classic for the current generation?
Even though it plays in cinemas, it is also available from Prime Video and it is even included in your subscription. This is for the better, because the film is not that good.
In a bit of a superhero action comedy style, we follow master thief Jack and head of Santa’s security Callum Drift who have to find Santaclaus who has been kidnapped on Christmas Eve, the busiest evening of the year. Santa lives in a high tech village on the North pole, having elves, trolls and polar bears as personnel and high-tech transport, but also powerful enemies.
The film is full of Christmas time morality. Drift woes that nowadays half of the earth’s population is on “the naughty list”, Santa explains how he tries to appeal to the child in people, etc. There are also a few amusing details such as a Krampus, which may be a somewhat unknown element of the time of the year for many people.
So a chase that includes fighting snow men, magic, secret passage ways and all that. The film appears to be aimed at the whole family, which is perhaps why it is just another Hollywood production. Not boring, but nothing out of the ordinary.
I was so disappointed by The VVitch that I skipped “The Northman”? It does have a Viking theme, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicole Kidman as actors, plus, the not-so-bad Lighthouse and the upcoming Nosferatu are also of Eggers. Let us watch it anyway.
Eggers created another nicely looking gritty, dark movie. A bit overdone ‘dark’ are Amleth’s initiation and the Berzerkr scenes. These scenes are a bit sad in my eyes. There are other elements in which Eggers seems to have ‘bended history’ to make the film more interesting.
So, some local king returns from battle and realises that he has to confer authority to his young son in case he would die soon. Amleth is initiated and immediately his father is killed by his uncle. Amleth flees and we jump forward in time where we find Amleth as a fighter in a Berzerkr troupe.
He learns that his uncle now lives in Iceland, where he has himself transported to as a slave. On the ship he meets the Slavic Olga (Taylor-Joy). When Amleth is recruited by his uncle, he starts to terrorize the village.
The atmosphere is alright, the visuals are good, the story is thin.
There have been many Star Trek spin-offs. I do not really follow them. When looking for a bit of a quiet series to watch, I gave this one a try. This spin-off -of course- has Patrick Steward return to the Star Trek franchise.
There are three seasons with a variety of stories. Picard has retired and lives on a wine farm. We are in some time in the future in which several of the kinds of beings that we know from earlier Star Trek material coexist. Usually picard is asked for help, he has to talk his way back into Starfleet to obtain a ship, is confronted by missteps in his past, but manages to go on his mission.
There are references to earlier Star Trek films (and series?), old characters return and in a way “Star Trek: Picard” is a bit of a reunion.
There is more action than I remember in other Star Trek material that I know. The series are fairly predictable, but alright watching.
A couple of years after the original, another director took up the Lawnmower Man concept. Actually, Mann picks up where Leonard left off.
The simple minded Jobe was turned into a genious by means of virtual reality. He keeps evolving and tries to take over the virtual world. In the first movie, an attempt is made to stop him.
In this second film, Jobe did not die, but was wounded. He is healed, again by means of virtual reality, by a commercial company that intends to launch an all encompassing virtual world and rule it. Jobe has other plans.
Mann uses concepts such as the internet in which all is connected, hacking, gaming, virtual reality.
I found the first film more interesting. 2 Is still somewhat amusing as well though.
Lawrence Angelo (Pierce Brosnan) investigates the possibility to enhance knowledge with the use of virtual reality. His investigations are picked up by a company that is more interested in the possibilities for warfare. When Angelo’s test-monkey dies, he tries to turn his career into a less warlike direction. His new subject becomes his lawnmower man, the simpleminded Jobe Smith.
Even with the equipment in Angelo’s own basement, results are astonishing. Jobe really does become smarter. Taking the next step in the laboratory of his employer, things skyrocket and Jobe not only develops lightening speed in learning, but he also develops psychic abilities.
Using 1990’ies computer graphics to show the virtual world and the games that Angelo also develops, a picture is painted of technology that develops too fast. The result is a descent film which also has a few warnings for our own time.
A slow, minimalist, somewhat surrealistic and interesting science-fiction drama.
A strange, purple cloud is visibe in the night sky, somewhat near Jupiter. Apparently, a mission has been sent there to investigate. When the film starts, Jakub Prochazka has been on his way on this solo mission for half a year. He is getting closer to the strange cloud.
Slowly losing his mind due to the loneliness of his job, Jakub encounters a strange, spider like fellow passenger on his ship. “Hanus” seems to be an alien life form who is interested in the human condition. Hanus not only becomes some sort of psychiatrist to Jakub, but he also explains what the cloud actually is. In the meanwhile some drama is added when Jakub’s pregnant wife, who remained on earth, has second thoughts about their relationship.
In story and atmosphere, “Spaceman” perhaps holds the middle between “Interstellar” (but not as good and not that complex a story”) and “Ad Astra” (but better).
A bit of a weird horror film and since weird is good, “Longlegs” is somewhat interesting.
A young FBI agent is put on a decade long running serial killer case in which families end up dead around the birthdays of their daughters.
With interesting camera work and colours, including vague, surrealistic scenes, Perkens tells a story of the ominous “Longlegs” (Nicholas Cage, hardly recognisable) who haunts little girls.
The atmosphere is decent, the weird scenes amusing and the overall result not bad at all.