There are only a handful of movies I’d call a masterpiece. To me, that word means something, that can’t be changed, tweaked, improved on by any means, as that would temper with something else and might destroy the entirety of whatever you’re trying to temper with (a movie, a book, an album…) Rear Window is without a shadow of a doubt (see what I did there? Ok, I’ll see myself out now :-)) a true masterpiece, where everything is crafted to a perfection.

I’ve recently re-watched it for a third time, and I was still amazed how much this “simple” story structure (a man who broke his leg, so now he needs to stay home, before the internet and TV and needs to find a way to occupy his time) covers, as it’s not just about James Stewart being in a wheelchair. We get to see and experience plenty of other stories throughout his binoculars. And as boring as it might seem, it’s actually fascinating, when you have somebody like Alfred Hitchcock behind the camera, who makes you fall in love with most of these quirky characters. And this might seem trivial, but it’s not, as that gives this movie the extra flourish, where every time we might get “bored” with the main story line, we jump to see what this neighbour is up to, or this one…

Of course, the main story is about whether there was a murder or not. And the brilliance of this movie is the built up towards the last scene. Hitchcock perfectly crafts the field, the rules of this film, and slowly guides you towards the end, where for it to make sense, you need to believe that Stewart’s character isn’t just a bored man with a set of binoculars and that his neighbour might actually be more sinister that he seems.

While re-watching this movie, I’ve noticed something, which might be considered a bit forward thinking – Grace Kelly is the hero of this movie and the “moving” piece. Think about it – yes, Stewart’s character was the one to notice there might have been something fishy going on, but everything practical that’s done in this movie, including the final “rescue” of our main protagonist, is only due to her. When I think about this now, this movie could very well be compared to a chess game – Hitchcock is the player, who moves every piece, and even though James Stewart is the “main figure” (King) of this movie, as anybody who’s ever played game of chess know, Queen is almost a key to any game. Can you win without her? Sure you can, but it’ll be much more difficult. This is Grace’s role here – she’s the Queen she was born to be… well, in a real life, she did become the Princess of Monaco, so close enough?

I do need to mention that even though today, most actresses are stunning, there was something about (especially) two stars from these years of 50/60’s – Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly – where I don’t know how to describe it. They almost seem out of this world, just the way they carry themselves, they speak, they look… In every scene in this movie, Grace Kelly wears something different, but she looks like she’s about to walk a fashion runway in Paris. No wonder she became a real-life princess, even though I wish we would’ve gotten her in more movies.

Rear Window is definitely in my TOP 3 of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies and you know, he’s got a few movies that are identically great, so it’s no small matter to rank his movies, trying to establish which classic is better than another one of his classics. But instead of mentioning the obvious ones, I’d want to give a quick shout out to the movie Rope (1948). “The” Hitchcock movie, that doesn’t get the credit it deserves.

If you haven’t seen this movie in some time, I’d highly recommend re-watching it, as this gets wrongly classed as “that Hitchcock movie about the bored guy with binoculars”. Not that this isn’t fairly accurate description, but there is just so much more to Rear Window than this. Mainly with the precise focus on other stories of the neighbours around our main character, where you can actually see resolution to them! That is what separates this from any other remake or movie, that borrowed an element of two from this film. That is what makes this film a masterpiece. That and Grace Kelly, the Queen.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

I remember that day like it was yesterday – I was 15 years old (that sentence sounds really terrifying almost 15 years later, well nobody’s getting any younger) and somehow, the tiny city I lived in at that time, had a local cinema, that wasn’t really packing crowds on a good evening, if you know what I mean. But somehow, the owner back then, managed to preview this movie the same day as the international premiere, so for that one evening showing, the cinema was properly packed. That was the first and the last time I’ve seen that cinema fully packed.

I remember really liking the movie (but then, I was 15, so that’s not saying that much) and my mum, who’s read the book prior, really loved it. Over the years, this movie became one of our “safe choice” films. Those are movies we would pop in any time we wouldn’t feel like watching something new, so we would play something we had seen a few times prior. Kind of like a background noise, where you don’t necessarily watching it fully, but still catch yourself watching some scenes, as the movies would usually be entertaining. And that to me is the perfect definition of The Da Vinci Code – don’t think about it too hard (you can’t really) and just try to enjoy it.

I haven’t read the book, but I have been told by people it’s highly readable material (as most of Dan Brown’s books apparently are) but I can tell why this book would be popular – it really dives into something, people nowadays gravitate towards – conspiracy theories. Where somebody tells you: “Everything you know is a lie. Here’s the real truth!” Just think about it – we live in a world, where people believe or don’t believe in:

• Vaccines
• Global Warming
• Flat Earth
• COVID-19 being caused by goverment
• COVID-19 being caused by 5G towers
• COVID-19 being born in lab in China (yep, plenty of COVID-19 theories around).

And this is just a top of an iceberg I don’t really want to sink into. And it’s by no means a new thing, but because of the internet being so widely accessible, now more than ever, anybody can voice their opinions on some blog, pretending like they know anything about what they are writing about (like me and this blog! Oh, wait… have I become one of them? Harvey Dent from The Dark Knight was right all along, you either die a hero, or you live a long enough to see yourself become the villain…)

Anyway, back to The Da Vinci Code, don’t expect a history lesson, any historical accuracy (well, there is some, but not a lot) or anything to actually chew on, as this movie is just a fast food of movies. Which every once in a while, is not a bad thing, especially if you know not to take it for something this movie isn’t. If you do your own research (dammit, I’m sounding like the conspiracy people again!) you will see how much Dan Brown made up, or tweaked to fit into his narrative. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it only becomes a bit dangerous when you are adamant about it being real (read it for yourself here).

And this is something I’ve always struggled with when comes to The Da Vinci Code – even though I know I shouldn’t enjoy it as much as I do, because of these half-truths and twisted facts, but I still do enjoy this, as for me, this is purely a work of fiction. And if I am judging it based on that criteria alone, it shall pass (yes, Sir Ian McKellen is in this movie) on the movie being just entertaining enough, that I don’t mind anything else. Plus, the film’s run time is 2 hours 29 minutes, but it never feels like that, and that’s a definite plus in my book.

I would recommend this movie on a lazy Sunday afternoon, where there is nothing better on, it’s raining and you just want to cuddle up on a sofa with something, that grabs your attention, but it doesn’t demand a lot from you. If you take this movie as it is, and won’t be expecting any historically accurate drama, I think you might actually have a decent time with this.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

The very first I’ve heard about this movie was on SinCast (my review for this great podcast can be found here) where they had the co-director and author of the graphic novel this movie is based on, Scott Christian Sava as a guest in 2017 (for anybody interested, the episode number is 130). Scott really painted a picture of a strange, strange production hell this movie was stuck in and ever since then, I’d occasionally think about it and wonder how is he getting on and whether we would ever see this movie.

So you can imagine my excitement when I’ve heard the first time, that it will be available on Netflix, and right after that, Scott even came back for another SinCast episode to discuss yet another part of what it took for this to happen (the episode number is 239) so I knew I just had to see this. After everything this movie has been through, I wanted to like it so bad, and I was worried, what if it isn’t any good? I went to this with some worries, as Scott came across like a such genuinely nice guy, that I was almost worried about not liking this movie as much.

Luckily, I can say I did enjoy this movie. Animal Crackers has a really interesting premise, that is utilised perfectly and feels fresh. My main thing with animated movies (and Pixar aside, as they “play” in a league of their own, for the most part) is most of the new ones feel a bit stale, and this movie didn’t. I am not saying something groundbreaking is happening in this movie, not really, but I am saying that the main idea is utilised very well and it works.

The voice cast is simply brilliant. From Danny DeVito, Sir Ian McKellen to Raven-Symoné, Patrick Warburton and Gilbert Gottfried (whose character Zucchini stole the movie for me, not only because of his voice, but also how he always refuses to acknowledge his boss isn’t his henchmen) they all put in a brilliant and fun performance and you’ll have a blast listening to them.

I do need to admit, this movie isn’t perfect, as the beginning feels a bit over the place, which even the director admits. But Animal Crackers is one of those movies, where longer you watch them, the better they get. Once they fully embrace the circus, the transforming into animals, that’s where the fun starts and that’s where the movie catches your attention. But for me there was something else, that truly persuaded me into liking this as much as I have. The family angle.

I feel like any other “studio” movie, would’ve lost its way in all those circus shenanigans, where the moment you are supposed to feel something, you don’t and the movie doesn’t work. What I truly appreciated in this movie, there was no “cheap” moment of tension, where the family would break apart (the movie has a scene where I thought that moment was coming, just to pull the rug from underneath me) and then reconcile 5 minutes later, nothing like that. The story, and the conflict, felt like a natural and logical progression.

I also liked the fact both parents are sensible people. What I mean by that – plenty of movies (and not just the animated ones) have this “template” of family, where one parent is the smart/responsible one, and the other is the “simpleton” with a heart of gold. Usually the mom is the smart one, the dad is the goofy one. I never once felt like this movie tried to do that, as both parents have the child-like side to them, where you are convinced that is why they work together so well. And the relationship with their little daughter was also portrayed in such a loving, caring way, you could tell this it was written by a dad, who wanted his child to have something nice.

Is Animal Crackers worth seeing? I would say so. Does it have flaws, mainly the beginning that drags a bit too long and feels a bit over the place? Absolutely. But will you care, at the very end? Not really, at least I didn’t, as the movie managed to convince me to just sit down, and enjoy this (literal) circus. And that’s coming from me, who’s never been keen on circus and I have visited some during my childhood years.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

Gemini Man is a fascinating movie. On one hand, I wasn’t bored watching the action scenes, I thought most of them were actually solid, I thought most of the CGI was pretty great (definitely not the final scene though, which I will talk about later) and I do like both Will Smith and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, so what’s not love, right? Well, right after I’ve finished the movie, I wasn’t sure about my rating, so I’ve waited a few days and discovered, that there is no standout, as now, only couple of days later, I only remember fragments of the movie, but there is no one scene, or sequence that’d stuck with me.

According to IMDb’s trivia, this movie has been in development since the 90’s and it shows, as the story definitely feels like a stereotypical 90’s action/drama, where there is one man, who’s THE BEST at what he does, until somebody wants to kill him (no less than government’s officials) so he goes on the run with a woman, who was supposed to spy on him, but since he is THE BEST, he immediately knows she’s agent… but this time, the twist is… clones. And that’s no spoiler, as the official trailer pretty much spoiled it for everyone. Still don’t understand the logic behind that, but I guess if you advertise the fact Gemini Man has twice the Will Smith any other Will Smith movie ever, you make twice the money…? Well, that didn’t work…

There are two major things that I had issues with – the story and the CGI. Let’s break it down, shall we?

The story is really, really basic. What I mean by that is, if you ever seen an action movie from past 30 years or so, you will not be surprised by literally anything that happens in this movie. This movie might have been in development for the last 30 years or so, but the script was written in 90’s and than nobody touched it since, just pile of papers, collecting dust, while the CGI got better. The script feels unoriginal and predictable, which makes it boring. And just the action scenes will not save your otherwise boring movie… I mean, they potentially could, but then your action scenes would have to compare to movies like The Raid (2011) or John Wick (2014) to even stand a chance, as these two franchises are perfect examples of what really great action scenes can do for a really simple story, but this movie ain’t it.

Let’s talk about the CGI… I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seemed the longer the movie got, the worse the CGI was. When the clone first showed up, I thought it looked a bit “rubbery” but it was still pretty great job. But then it seemed like the movie was running out of money, time or both, so the further in the story we’ve gotten, the poorer the clone looked like, and then the very last scene happened, which was… funny, yet disturbing and a bit embarrassing at the same time…? I mean honestly, I don’t know whether they had to do the CGI for the last scene 1 day before releasing the movie into the cinemas or something like that, but holy shit, that was… something. It’s almost like having a decent dessert, where when you start eating, you think to yourself “alright, it’s not the best dessert of my life, but it’s decent” but the more you have, the weirder it gets, only for you to discover at the very end it was actually a piece of fake plastic, that somehow managed to trick you. And then you feel strange, and tricked and full of… well, plastic.

That’s what Gemini Man is in a nutshell – a strange, weird dessert, whose last 5 minutes sink the entire selling point of this movie – the CGI. It’s so distressingly bad, I am honestly still not over it. I was thinking about posting a picture below, but then I thought to myself, no, I should not do that. I don’t want to take this “surprise” from anybody who might consider watching this movie for the first time. I want them to be as shocked as I was/still am. And isn’t this what being a movie fan is all about? We should all suffer I mean share things together. 😉

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke