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

Until very recently, I’ve only seen this movie once, and it was at the time I’ve started to watch movies “more seriously”, so about 15 or so years ago. And even though I remember loving this brilliant film, you do forget a thing or two, so I’ve decided to re-watch it, just to refresh my memory and to see how this movie compares with today’s films. The answer is, it not only compares, but it’s still above… well, all of the movies of this genre.

The Silence of the Lambs succeeds even today, because it relies on good old fashioned suspension, that gradually (and more importantly naturally) builds up throughout the movie, so by the end, what is now the (in)famous night vision scene, you truly are on the edge of your seat, as you can almost feel danger lurking anywhere. It doesn’t rely on cheap jump scares (I don’t think there is one!) or over-complicated plot.

Another piece of this great puzzle must be the characters – this movie was so ahead of its time it’s fair to call it genius. Only now I’ve realised how several key scenes with Jodie Foster are clearly making a statement about woman being in that line of profession, how she’s almost always surrounded by guys, who because of her stature (short, slim) don’t take her too seriously, so in order for her to be heard, or to taken seriously, she must be better and tougher than most of them. Or how Anthony Hopkins inspired most of the “serial killers” nowadays, where they are almost always this all knowing entity, who’s always a few steps ahead of everybody, enjoys classical music and if you underestimate him once, if you slip up just by a tiny bit, he’ll take it and make that into an advantage for him.

There is another piece of why this movie still holds up as well and that’s the craft behind it. Jonathan Demme made sure most of the dialogues are almost always centred on the camera, so we feel more involved with everything. Because of it, we feel like Clarice is talking to us, or that Hannibal is looking right through us and thinking about what would we taste like (you’re welcome for that visual, btw). Also, and I might be wrong here, but I do believe this was one of the first mainstream movies to use the editing as a part of misdirection, when comes to what’s happening where. To be specific without going into spoilers, towards the end of this movie, we are following a SWAT (I believe they are SWAT?) team, who are about to break into what they believe is Buffalo Bill’s house, only to discover it’s not it. And the way that sequence is edited together… now, it’s almost a staple of any crime TV show, but I do believe (and again, don’t quote me on this) that this might be one of the first instances of this clever misdirection.

Yet another point – we tend to forget how much this movie influenced our pop culture. Not only we all know a few quotes from this movie, but if you think about it, how many TV shows from 2000’s onward, are really heavily focused on twisted, dark serial killers doing god knows what to their victims? How many movies and TV shows used the “let’s talk to this bad/evil/psychotic person in prison/mental institute in hope they’d help us solve this case we are not able to crack ourselves” aspect? Too many to count, name or write about. I’m not saying there were all influence JUST by this movie, all I am saying it if it wasn’t for this movie, we might not have a few tropes we know now.

The Silence of the Lambs is a true classic of its genre, who properly kick started careers of both Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins (I know both had careers prior, but this was definitely breakthrough) and established how well can story like this be told, without relying on cheap jump scares, CGI or anything else.

In conclusion, I will only say this – there are only 3 movies in the entire Oscar history, that have managed to win the “top” Oscar awards – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor/Actress (Lead) and Best Screenplay. It Happened One Night (1934) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) were the only 2 movies, until The Silence of the Lambs joined them. Ever since then, no movie has managed to do it. I do sometimes wonder, whether we will ever get a movie, that would join these 3, as all of them are masterpieces in their own right. If you are one of the few people who still haven’t watched this movie, don’t wait and run to watch it.

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

Until next time,

Luke

Oh, Eurovision… If you are not familiar with this competition, know this – it used to be a pretty decent platform for bands from all around Europe to have some spotlight shine upon them, but lately, it turned into a bit of a strange show, where the more weirder your act is, the better…? At least that’s the impression I’ve gotten from couple of clips I’ve seen.

From that angle, it was only matter of time before somebody takes the concept, that within itself, is fairly bizarre and turns it into a comedy. The question was, will that comedy be actually funny without being mean? And this film actually does that, so yes, it could be done. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is a movie, that doesn’t mock the competition or the people who compete in it, it makes fun of everything else… and Americans.

We all know Will Ferrell is a funny man, who can make almost anything watchable, but some times he doesn’t work as well when comes to the actual story, if you can’t “ground” him. Luckily, this movie not only did that, but they hired somebody perfect to be his partner (and potentially sister, but probably not) Rachel McAdams. She’s the scene stealing queen of this movie, where her (always) positive attitude, combined with her believing in elves (who might or might not be real) just wins the entire movie for me. And this hasn’t happened for the first time, by the way.

Rachel McAdams has been sneaky great for much longer than you realise – she’s managed to be Oscar nominated actress for Spotlight (2015), was the highlight of another, even better comedy, Game Night (2018) and overall proven she can do pretty much anything. Just a side mini rant, but I really hope she will act a bit more, in leading roles, because she’s got what it takes to be funny/dramatic and have a movie made around her.

Back to Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga – even though I did enjoy the movie overall, I did feel like it would work better if it was slightly shorter. The movie is just over 2 hours long, which isn’t an issue if you have a story to tell, but for a comedy about a Eurovision, there seemed to have been moments, that were dragging on a bit too much. If they’ve managed to condense it into 100 minutes or so, I think the movie wouldn’t loose its magic and if anything, it would’ve improved on the flow of it, making it snappier.

I also need to mention the music, as this movie really understands what Eurovision is and what kind of music you could expect to hear on the stage, where at first, you think to yourself “typical Euro music”, but there is something about them, that makes them stuck in your head and you end up listening to those songs for a few more days. In here, it’d definitely be these two songs below:

What I like about these two songs is they both sum up what Eurovision is about – most of the time, you would find songs like the “Double Trouble”, but sometimes, you do find a surprisingly nice song like “My Home Town”, that gets stuck in your head in a different way, and you actually like that song without feeling “guilty” about it.

Overall, I have enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. Could it be 20 minutes shorter? Definitely. Have I laughed a lot? Yes. Do I wish more comedies had Rachel McAdams? 100%! Do I believe in elves now? Maybe…

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

Until next time,

Luke