I need to admit something – after everything I’ve heard about this movie, I was ready for one of those cheesy 80’s films that are not watchable today, where I will be bored for most of it. Boy, I was so wrong. This film has surprised me in several instances, where ultimately, I had a much better time than expected. Does it hold up today? Largely, no. But can you still have fun with this film? Absolutely. And the best part? Surprisingly, the pacing.

Where Flash Gordon might lose some points for the laughable CGI (that must have looked fake even during the movie premiere back in 1980), it immediately gains more points for how fast the story moves along. I believe we don’t spend even ten minutes on Earth before we go to space. The story kicks in almost instantly… who cares that it doesn’t make sense? That there is some arbitrary time limit before the Moon will fall apart…? Flash Gordon is a rarity because plenty of times, I struggle with pacing with these movies, as filmmakers “in the ye olde days” usually took their time establishing everything. Not in here though, it honestly felt like we were thrown in the middle of the action from the very start. That was something, I truly appreciated.

Also, I wasn’t prepared for how surprisingly sexy this movie is. For all the talk about how campy this film is, how dated it is etc., nobody ever mentioned the literal harem of women (that belongs to Max von Sydow‘s character, The Emperor Ming) that is “lead” by the stunning Ornella Muti. I have always known her to be a stunning woman, but I had never seen her when she was young (in here I believe she’s around 24 years old) and yeah, what a stunner. Speaking of stunning women, Melody Anderson isn’t too sore for the eyes either. Even though her character is just there to fall for our “all American hero”, Sam J. Jones. And talk about a perfect casting choice. If you asked someone: “How would the most stereotypical American guy from the 1980’s look like?” Sam J. Jones would have been THE prototype. Blond, athletic, patriotic, ready to die for Earth… what else do you want?

Who I also didn’t expect to show up here was Timothy Dalton. If somebody told me he got the role of James Bond based on how charismatic he was in this film, I would believe it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Timothy has a lot to do in this film, but he oozes charisma and charm. And that can be said about most people in this movie. Don’t expect any great performances here. Even usually reliable Max von Sydow isn’t that great in this film, but I wouldn’t blame him or anybody else. You know the movie had some issues when the director Mike Hodges says, and I am paraphrasing here:

Flash Gordon might be the only improvised $27 million movie ever made.

Mike Hodges, source IMDb.com

But despite everything, despite the laughable CGI, questionable acting, and von Sydow playing a character called “The Emperor Ming” (again, we can’t judge a movie from 1980 by today’s standards), this movie is still fun to watch and honestly, it flies. I think this might be the best example of “the magic of movies” I’ve seen in some time. Because if somebody were to describe this movie to me, I would be willing to bet this wouldn’t work today. And yet, I had a good time with it. Because of pacing, charismatic cast, killer Queen soundtrack, as let’s face it, music by Queen could improve anything that’s just a fact. But mainly how the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously (at least I never got that impression). Yep, honestly, that surprised me too.

Overall, Flash Gordon is one of those films where it doesn’t matter how many things you might have heard about it because it demands to be seen. This movie is the epitome of “you’d have to be there”. Yes, everything is “slightly” all over the place. Mainly the CGI was out of date even when the movie was shooting, so imagine how laughable those effects look today. But there was this level of honesty, something, that said: “Hey, we know how this looks, but we are trying our best.” I can’t put my finger on what exactly made me feel this way, but that’s “the magic of movies” to me. Sometimes, a film shouldn’t work at all, and yet, despite everything, it kind of does. And what I mean by that it’s not a total disaster. I want to make it crystal clear Flash Gordon isn’t some “forgotten masterpiece”, no. But if you watch it expecting a bore-fest, you might be in for a surprise. At least I was.

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

Until next time,

Luke

I know what you are thinking – complaining about the fact a movie titled Serendipity plays into its title a bit too much, is like complaining about Cool Hand Luke (1967) being about a cool person called Luke (what a nice name…) or about Love Actually (2003), that people actually do fall in love in that movie a lot. And yet, I feel like this film took the concept of serendipity way too literally, to the point, there were no stakes involved. This is a shame, as our main protagonists were great and if you were to dial the serendipity concept down about 20%, you might have something on your hands.

If you boil it down, this movie is really about people, who are too afraid to take charge of their own life. So they let fate decide. No need to take phone numbers, names, or addresses… well John Cusack did try, to be perfectly fair. But it was the witty, beautiful and British Kate Beckinsale, who decided to task “fate” and make it their matchmaker. So they would only meet again if it’s “meant to be”. And by that, it means if she either gets a $5 bill with his name and phone number written on it or if he gets a book with her name and phone number written in it, who she donates to an unspecified charity shop… are you with the movie yet? If so, congratulations, this movie might be exactly for you. If not and by this point you are yelling at the TV, asking the main protagonists to do pretty much anything else but that, it’s too late…

Serendipity truly is an “anything goes” kind of movie. They make a world, where there is no longer a fate, but it is just a matchmaker made in heaven, because of course, seven years later (after we are told how much he’s tried to find her, not shown, but told) both our heroes have moved on, John’s character is about to get married, but do you think he’s *truly* happy? Nah, because it’s “only” to Bridget Moynahan (someone, who certain John Wick can’t get over) who he presumably knows longer than a couple of hours, they actually share history, interests, you know, the good stuff together…? But because she isn’t this stranger (aka Kate) who he met that one day for a couple of hours, seven years ago, he’s just not THAT into her… that’s understandable, right? No, ok, let’s keep going! So this brilliant matchmaker called fate, throws John the unexpected bone, so he could try to find her, one last time… just a few days before he’s supposed to get married… what a dick if you ask me. Both the fate and John.

But let’s move on. Seven years later, do you think Kate has managed to move on with her life? Yes, she has! She has a boyfriend, who is playing music, that nowadays would get him cancelled on Twitter, as it is this weird, pseudo-Indian genre. Well, do you think she is happy? No, of course not, because he puts his band/music before anything else. If you think about it, fate really did them a solid, that even though they both have managed to move on, they both landed on people, who are “so easy” to dismiss, compared to this mystical, perfect stranger, right?

You don’t need me to tell you how this is going to go. But that is the thing. This whole premise is about how much you buy into not only the serendipity concept but “the other part”, where you should be slightly worried, whether they might end up with each other or not. And the movie plays so hard into the whole “they are meant to be, so here is that” card, it doesn’t balance itself out. There isn’t a moment where you might think “they might not end up together.” And that’s the problem with this film in a nutshell. It’s a completely harmless, sometimes funny (Eugene Levy has some moments and surprisingly Jeremy Piven too) film, that simply can’t work without any stakes.

I would compare this in a weird way to a prequel to any movie you have ever seen. Sure, the stakes are gone, because you know where the story has to end up, so it’s all about how you enjoy the journey, that takes you there. And with Serendipity, the journey is bumpy, let’s just put it that way. Some scenes/moments worked, others didn’t. But the main cast is saving it from being something way worse, it could have easily turned into.

Overall, Serendipity is a perfectly fine movie, you won’t probably remember in a month. It has some good/funny scenes, a great cast of people, who are easy to root for, but the lack of any stakes is what is holding it back from being more than a mediocre watch. When comes to your stereotypical romcoms, I would say this ranks somewhere slightly above the average, as it’s not painful to sit through. Young Kate might have something to do with that (even though she blossoms like a fine wine, so I actually prefer her now).

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

Until next time,

Luke

When a Stranger Calls is one of those films, where I have unintentionally seen the remake first (When a Stranger Calls (2006)) that was… pretty average movie with a great idea. And knowing what I know, I had an inkling, that the original should be much better film, so it’s been on my ever growing “to-watch-list”, that includes thousands of movies (yes, that list might just be an imaginary one, inside my head). Well finally, I have stumbled upon it recently, and I immediately pressed play, to see how much the remake took from the original, and whether the original was really that great. Turns out… the remake only took the concept and modernized it, and the original is just slightly better, but not miles better.

The first 15/20 minutes are almost perfect. The way this film builds up tension, the constant phone ringing (remember, this was long before caller IDs were a thing) and the ultimate “pay off” – I was hooked. But then, the movie makes a really interesting choice that just didn’t work for me. There is no way for me to talk about that without spoiling pretty much the entire thing, so that is what I am about to do. But before putting the spoiler tag on, let me just say that overall, I see what this film was going for, but I don’t think the idea worked. And in some way, I wish somebody took the best parts from both versions (this movie and the 2006 remake) and made them into a one, “ultimate” film, because I think both movies just scratched the surface of what could have been achieved. With that being said…

Beware, SPOILERS are coming!

Let me make myself clear – the parts of the remake I really enjoyed was the idea that someone can trap you within a house, where they can see your every move and they always seem to be a few steps ahead. Not giving you plenty of outs. That is what I thought I am going to get here, that the entire film will be about the babysitter dealing with this weirdo on the phone. But no, that’s only the first 20 minutes, and then, we suddenly get to not only see the weirdo, but also get to know him. A lot. And not only that, there is a time jump and suddenly, right after the opening 20 minutes, we jump to “seven years later”. And you know when you get to know the “big bad” in movies, what motivated them to do what they’ve done, it usually makes them less scary? Unfortunately, this would be the prime example of that.

When the movie focused for most of it on the “stranger” and what makes him tick, tried to give us exposition about him, all tense atmosphere just went out of the window. And the time jump didn’t make sense to me. It almost felt like the people behind this movie weren’t too sure if they’d manage to make this film work within just one set/house, so they’ve decided to take the “easy” route and give us some backstory about him, just so we “re-unite” with the babysitter 7 seven years later, only this time, she herself has a babysitter…? Circle of life metaphor? Why? And for some reason, this guy is really fixated on her, even though we don’t know why.

That’s the thing that bothered me the most – if you stop your film dead in its tracks to give us the entire backstory of somebody, who kills two kids in the opening scene (and apparently, he didn’t need any tools, he just ripped them apart, so he must have superhuman strength) they didn’t really say or suggested why would he go back? Why was he so fixated on Carol Kane‘s character to come back and haunt her…? If there ever was an example of “having your cake and eating it too” in movies, this would be a perfect one, as we get this backstory, really “exciting” chase scene and yet, when comes to the movie’s finale, we are just supposed to accept he’s back, because we have seen her character in the beginning…? Honestly, the movie really falls apart for me in the middle.

Let me just say, even though it didn’t make sense to me (or to formulate myself better, wasn’t explained well) the last 20 minutes or so were really enjoyable and I wished the movie just picked a lane. It almost felt like someone directed the beginning of this film, got fired right after that, somebody else overtook the movie, but since they shot the “boring” parts, they also got fired, and the original person was re-hired to finish the film, hence the last 20 minutes we have a great tension again. This movie confuses me on so many levels.

Overall, When a Stranger Calls is a story of two films, actively battling each other. The first and last 20 minutes can be viewed on their own as sort of masterclasses on how to build up tension. How to do a lot with a little and I really liked that. Unfortunately, the middle part of the movie stops the film and any tension dead in its tracks. Which brings me to a strange position – the remake was quite an average film that was still watchable, the original has highs, but also lows, so it balances itself out. But I can’t say just because the original came first, it’s much better than the remake, as it is simply not. Don’t get me wrong, when this movie operates in its peak, it’s great. But that middle part just drags everything down. This might be one of the rare instances, where I would say if you liked this film, you might (to a certain extent) like the remake too. That doesn’t change the fact that both could be improved. If you think about it, most successful thriller/horror movies worked, because they made us afraid of everyday things (like Jaws (1975) made sharks scarier than they were, or Psycho (1960) made us afraid to take a shower). This concept (stranger won’t stop calling you and makes you isolated in a house, you don’t know) is a great one. But neither of those two movies explores it well enough.

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

Until next time,

Luke

Finally, here it is. The movie, that got 5 (yes, FIVE) release dates, finally arrived in 2020 and after everything we’ve heard about it, how there were supposed to be reshoots, but the cast got “visibly older” (the movie was shot around 2017, if I am not mistaken) so it was re-cut a bit… talk about too many cooks making a stew. But the funny thing is, that usually is a death sentence for any movie, because every time you hear stories about test audiences not being satisfied, new release dates being implemented, you kind of expect a bit of shit storm. And this movie, while not great by any stretch of imagination, it’s actually not that bad. It is also not that great.

I find myself typing this a lot lately, but The New Mutants is yet another instance, where I can see the overall idea, the movie is based on being really interesting, but it didn’t translate that well to the movie itself. Respectively, the movie doesn’t know, what it wants to be. It’s blending genres like it’s nothing, but not everyone can blend them well enough to actually create a palatable film. It’s like when cooking a meal, just because you use 20 different ingredients with 15 various spices, that itself won’t make it a delicious dish. This film wanted to be teen angst drama, mixed with horror, mixed with X-Men universe on the side. The result is… all over the place. For a horror it’s not scary, it doesn’t know how to build up tension properly, so most of those “horror” scenes end up being laughable, rather than scary. The only decent example of getting really close to the horror element, the film desperately wanted to have, was the “Smiley Men” sequence, but even then the entire thing was over, before it started and the build up wasn’t quite there, so it “comes and goes” fast.

Let’s talk about the accents – they were really all over the place. There are 3 characters with strong accents – Anya Taylor-Joy with a Russian accent that was… ok at best? It wasn’t distractingly bad, just it wasn’t great. Then we have Charlie Heaton and something I like to call “the Kentucky fried accent”, that’s was really one note, but at least the accent seemed to be the same one throughout the movie. But the award for “the most distracting accent I’ve heard in a while” goes to Maisie Williams, and it’s not even close. I swear with her character, I was so distracted trying to place her where she was supposed to be from, it took me out of the film almost every single time she opened her mouth. Believe it or not, throughout this entire film, nobody actually mentions, where her character is supposed to be from. Only thanks to the IMDb’s trivia section, I’ve learned her character was meant to be Scottish. As someone, who lives in the mighty Scotland for almost 10 years now, nah. I am sorry, I actually liked her character (more about that in a second) but Maisie went to some sort of bizarre “Tour De UK”, as at times, she sounded Irish, other times almost Welsh, and some other times English with Scottish influence. I am not a dialect coach by any means, but it’s been a really long time since accent took me out of the movie so much. At least Anya’s and Charlie’s were kind of constant throughout.

It was definitely a shame, because as I have alluded to before, I actually liked Maisie’s character. Wasn’t my favourite, but she was intriguing, I understood her backstory and minus the accent, I thought Maisie did a good job. My two favourites from this film were Blu Hunt and already mentioned Anya Taylor-Joy. Blu managed to be a great lead, I would definitely love to see her in more movies, as I thought she did the best with what she’s been given. But Anya seemed to be the only one, who tried and went for something. She almost seemed to be in a different movie from the rest of the cast, as she struck me as the only one, who kind of played more into the whole “X-Men” aspect of the film (could easily imagine her doing some cool things, as even her superpowers weren’t something generic, we’ve seen thousand times before).

By far the biggest issues with this film is its unevenness, when comes to the narrative. The script just jumps from one cliché element (killed my dad/killed my girlfriend) to another (girl, who acts all cool for school was molested and that’s why she killed 18 men), without having the length, or means to go any deeper beyond that. On paper, it sounds pretty intriguing, a low-budget superhero movie, that focuses on young people, who because of their powers, have been through some stuff and need to work their way through variety of issues. But it didn’t translate well onto the big screen, as it comes across as half-baked something, we’ve seen done before and better. Sometimes (actually more often than not) the simpler the better, is the rule of thumb. Not every film needs to combine/blend a few genres to work, if they just focused on the thriller/horror elements and went with hard R rating, this could have been pretty awesome. Unfortunately, what we’ve gotten was a mix of genres, which should work on their own, but mixed together, they just didn’t.

The one thing that swayed me for slightly higher rating, is how they dealt with one gay couple and didn’t make it into a big thing. I won’t tell who this couple was (even though while watching the film, you will know pretty much straightaway who I am talking about) but all I will say is – bravo. It didn’t feel tacky, forced or “we need to be inclusive for inclusivity sake, we need some gays in here, ASAP!” They dealt with them as with any other couple. Really liked that approach.

Overall, The New Mutants is a strange film. On one hand, after some many delays, some reshoots, plenty of jokes, how this movie will never come out, it’s arrived and I think it surprised me, by simply not being “as bad as we all thought”. Which is not a praise by any means, but it also feels slightly underwhelming. I always say if there is something I really don’t like, is a really average movie. Because I often forget them. Think about it – if film is great, you will remember it. If it’s bad, like honestly really bad, you will also remember it, it will stay with you. But average movies, at least for me, they come and go within a couple of weeks, where after a month or so, I won’t remember most of what happened in them. The New Mutants is definitely prime example – a really average film, that mixes a few different genres and the only thing, that saves it from even lower grade, was the genuinely great way they dealt with the one gay couple this movie had. It’s a shame we need to count that as a plus, as some movies still feel the need to pat themselves on the back for doing the bare minimum, and this movie deals with that like it’s nothing. If there is one element, other movies need to take from this one, please let that be it.

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

Until next time,

Luke

What started as a really great, one-off action movie (Olympus Has Fallen, 2013) has somehow evolved (does a movie evolve, if neither sequels are as good as the original? Discuss.) into a trilogy, that get’s progressively more boring with each new instalment. Angel Has Fallen is a mere shadow of what 6 years ago was really enjoyable, kick-ass movie with some surprisingly great action sequences (I still remember, how effective was the scene, where they get into the White House, capturing the president). From this movie, I think the last action sequence on the halfway was… alright…? But everything around it was just so… predictable and boring, you really hope nothing will “fall” anymore, so Gerard Butler doesn’t have to suit up for a fourth instalment, where he would have to fight… maybe aliens, or COVID-19, (or get this, aliens infected WITH COVID-19! Let’s make it a super-mega-ultra threat!) as I am sure by now, he killed pretty much everybody else, who ever threatened the government of USA.

This movie could have easily been named “Everything is So Painfully Obvious: The Movie” as you can predict without a single moment of hesitation where everything (story, characters) is going. You can tell who’s the bad guy literally within a few seconds of their screen time, you can tell what happens next before it happens with Gerard’s character… and for the most time, the action is your stereotypical “it’s alright” type, where it’s not horrible, but there is nothing, that would stand out. Again, maybe the very last set piece, but even that it isn’t something, that would have justified not trying to come up with anything original story-wise. Every turn this movie makes, you have seen done better, some place else. And I understand, that expecting some level of originality from a third instalment of something, that I still don’t understand how it became a trilogy in the first place, it’s as silly as listening to a flat-earther explaining why Earth is flat, but still, you’d expect that the film would at least throw you a bone…?

But not this one. So it hits every single beat – the main hero hides a sickness from everyone (family, friends, president of the United States, you know, the usual) that will limit him in some minor scenes, but you can bet most of your crypto, that once he’s needed, he will fight like a 20 year old, who drank 10 Red Bulls at once. And that part of the story, when everybody thinks he’s betrayed everyone? He will prove, he didn’t do it and all those crimes he’s committed, while trying to prove his innocence? Totally forgotten, don’t you worry about that. We know, you had to do them, in order to clear your name.

Angel Has Fallen has only thing going for it and that’s the fact it’s not overly long and even though nothing stands out, nothing really drags on. The movie itself actually flows pretty well, so even though you are kind of annoyed, at how predictable everything is, you are not bored and the movie has the decency to have good enough cast to get you through it too. I am not quite sure, whether Piper Perabo replacing Radha Mitchell (who played Gerard’s girlfriend/wife in the first two movies) is good or bad, but to be honest, these movies don’t really give that character anything to do anyway, so I am guessing it doesn’t really matter who plays it? My guess would be most people didn’t even realise that’s not the same actress (which again, falls on this franchise, as they never have given her any agency besides being Gerard’s girlfriend, who becomes his wife) but she’s fine in this film. The same goes for Lance Reddick or Danny Huston, bot decent enough actors, who have little to do here, as it’s all about Gerard’s character kicking all kind of ass. Which is not a bad idea in theory, but in practice, when this is his (counts furiously) 76th movie with him pretty much playing the same character, it starts to get a bit monotone.

The only reason my rating is still fairly high (for what is arguably just an average action movie) is the fact that I was never bored while watching. Sure, was I surprised by anything? No. But was the movie sluggish, where I’d felt the movie’s length? Also no. That surprised me, to be perfectly honest, that even though you’d need a microscope to find a speck of original idea in this film, I was never bored. Yeah, don’t how that works either.

Overall, Angel Has Fallen is as average of a movie as it gets. What puts it slightly above the mediocrity is the casting of enough decent people and the fact you are not counting down seconds for the movie to be over. I mean, you might, but I definitely wasn’t. That being said, will I be in any kind of rush to re-watch it? Absolutely not.

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

Until next time,

Luke

Before watching Nomadland (2020), the movie, that won Chloé Zhao Oscar for Best Director and went on to get the Best Picture Oscar too, I wanted to get familiar with her other films and was lucky enough, that Mubi (this is not an ad, by the way, but if you are a cinephile, you need to get on Mubi) had Songs My Brothers Taught Me on it. This is her first feature debut and it is as indie as it gets. And in this instance, unfortunately, the “as indie as it gets” is a double-edged sword.

Let’s start with the positives – even from the tiny Oscar snippets (yes, even though I live in the UK, I still get up at 1AM to watch the Oscars live, I am one of those crazy people) I understood that Chloé has an eye for beautiful cinematic shots and that goes for her first feature too. This movie doesn’t look/feel like a feature debut, but it feels more certain, like some sort of seasoned veteran decided to make a low budget movie. Honestly, the way she frames the shots are stunning.

The story couldn’t be simpler, we follow a large family, where the dad, who had 25 (!!) kids with 9 (!!) different wives, suddenly dies and we get to see, how that affects some of his kids. Sometimes, you might get lost when comes to who is who, as most of the cast is made up by non-professional actors. And that is another positive for me – not only that adds authenticity to this story/movie, I wouldn’t have guessed most of them never acted before. That means, either Chloé Zhao stumbled upon quite a lot of people who can (somehow) act, or she is pretty great at directing people (come to think of it, she did win an Oscar for Best Directing for her 3rd feature, so I am guessing the latter is correct).

What I also liked that movie flown quite well, even though it’s one of those indies where seemingly “nothing happens”, as it’s paced differently than your stereotypical Hollywood drama, it never felt boring or too long. The only real issue is, if you are like me and watched quite a few indies in your time, nothing here will surprise you.

The movie doesn’t really have anything “extra” in store, what you see is what you get, it’s that kind of honest movie. Which sometimes, is great and can work beautifully. But Songs My Brothers Taught Me left me ultimately feeling cold at the end. I feel like we’ve focused way too much on Johnny’s character, which I didn’t find that intriguing and I hoped, we would focus more on Jashuan’s character, who definitely was the star of this movie. What I found fascinating about this young actress, was how much she could convey in one simple stare, how many emotions were pouring out of her eyes in just one look. How through her, you fully understand this place, and how either you get out of there and try to make something out of yourself, or get stuck there and you will be there forever, bumping into the same people you grew up with.

It pains me to give pretty average rating to this movie, as it’s masterfully shot and told in a way that makes you understand that the person, who tells you this story, knows what they are talking about. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, it doesn’t give you anything extra, a mere day after watching this film I can’t remember one scene that would stand above the others, everything kind of blends in together. I know movies don’t have to be revolutionary, or have some sort of plot twists to be considered excellent, but I just wish Chloé would have given us something more, that would stick with you.

Overall, Songs My Brothers Taught Me is perfectly fine movie from a somebody, who just made a history (for those of you who don’t know, she’s the first Asian woman ever to be nominated, let alone win the directing Oscar and only second woman ever to win in that category, before this year’s ceremony, it was only Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2008)) and who by all accounts should have hopefully a great career in front of her, as her next movie is this little film, from this studio you might’ve heard of, Marvel – The Eternals (2021) and I can’t wait to see what she will bring to the table there. If you are into indie movies and you don’t mind a really simple story with no real surprises along the way, then this movie might be for you.

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

Until next time,

Luke

The Devil’s Own is your typical “story of two movies”. The first half is really great, because it’s full of promise, it’s almost all setup for something big to come. For a great finale, for a great “punchline” almost. And it just never comes. Or, what comes is the bare minimum you’d expect to come…? I thought from someone like Alan J. Pakula (for whom this was his last movie he directed) I just expected more.

The main issue I had with this film, it is very much of its time, which I don’t necessarily mind that much, but I do mind when that gets into its own way. Let me explain – the main issue here is Brad Pitt is playing IRA terrorist, and you can kind of put together what he is/stands for from the movie, but I don’t think it was enough. You don’t really get any information about the history/context about Ireland and Northern Ireland, or IRA, just are just kind of thrown in the middle of everything, because I would imagine in 1997, most people knew enough about that conflict, so maybe the people behind this movie didn’t feel the need to explain too much (after all, we all know what’s happening, right?) But then, movies should work on its own. They should provide you enough knowledge so you can enjoy it, even let’s say 20 something years in the future, rather than say “oh, you don’t know about this? Well, you should really go to the library more often…”

I was expecting some big monologue from Pitt’s character, where he would sum up the situation, why is he fighting, how it’s more nuanced, than what the average American would know, and once we got to that scene… I just felt like the movie gave us the bare minimum, where his entire thing was triggered with his dad’s death (which is not a spoiler, but the very first scene we see in the movie). And for a character motivation, that is fair enough. But if your main story is about how this war doesn’t have any winners, just losers and how it’s more complex, you really should show us the complexity/nuance.

What I liked was the feel of this movie, that almost 70’s raw-ish perspective on things (not just with Pitt’s character, but with Harrison Ford‘s cop character too) so I really enjoyed that. Almost like Pakula captured the decade he shined in the most and managed to bring it to the 90’s. Speaking of Harrison, I did enjoy his performance, the “cop who never stepped over the line” kind of guy, always honest and honourable, that kind of character always suits him. When comes to Pitt’s performance, let’s just say the Irish accent was… ehm… interesting…? I mean, there are definitely much worse UK based accents in American movies, and Pitt at least tried, but just saying “Aye” a lot, doesn’t make you Irish.

As I wrote prior, for the first half of this movie you are intrigued, as plenty of things are setting up nicely and you can’t wait how things turn out. And then, it’s dragging along, and the movie loses momentum in its second half, where the ending should affect/shock you more, but at that point, you are really bored, to the point where you don’t even care anymore. Which is a shame, because you can tell this has been done by somebody, who understands the craft. But, as one of the golden rules of Hollywood says, it’s not about how you start, but how you finish…

Overall, The Devil’s Own is a movie full of promise, but not enough payoffs. If you happen to know more about the Ireland x Northern Ireland situation and IRA, you might enjoy this movie more than your average movie goer (I know a few things, but I still could use a lecture or two, so I wouldn’t mind if the movie at least tried to give me more context) if you know nothing about it, you just need to be satisfied with the fact, that Brad’s character is one of those “good bad terrorists” as that’s all you are given by the movie. And yeah, people in Ireland say “Aye” a lot, did you know that?

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

Until next time,

Luke

I could easily copy and paste most of my review for the original National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983, review here) as that would apply to most of this sequel too. And yet, there are some differences that make National Lampoon’s European Vacation slightly better movie, in my opinion. Because for me, the comedy worked slightly better, there were no relatives and kind of liked the repeating bit about Audrey missing her boyfriend.

Why I think this movie clicked for me slightly better was the change of direction. It’s almost as Amy Heckerling realised that “the Griswolds” are not that good of a family unit (how I was talking about the lack of heart the first movie was trying to have) so she leaned more into them being weird and awkward, but without judging them! I have never felt like she would put them under a microscope and said “Look at those losers”, because they seemed not only more self aware of that fact, but proud of it! They embraced it (hence the beginning of the movie and them “being pigs”) and that was definitely a good decision. I also might the only person, who isn’t a big fan of Randy Quaid and everything regarding “that side” of the family, so I appreciated them not being part of this movie.

What I thought was weird, was the recasting of both kid actors. I get the reason for Anthony Michael Hall not being there anymore, (he decided to make Weird Science (1985) instead), but to drop Dana Barron because you didn’t get Anthony, doesn’t really makes sense to me…? But this franchise managed to turn this into almost a staple, as in next two movies, the kids are always played by somebody else, so you could almost say they created this almost a running joke out of necessity. It’s just slightly confusing the first time around as you get used to the fact the kids look a bit differently then the last time we’ve seen them.

I think the change of scenery, going from USA to Europe definitely helped this movie, as it made the movie feel more alive. Especially putting a clueless family such as Griswolds into more and more ridiculous situations (the roundabout scene was my favourite) and I have appreciated cameos of Robbie Coltrane, who most of us know as Hagrid from Harry Potter movies and Eric Idle as the English guy, who constantly gets injured by Clark, but he doesn’t want to make a fuss about it, you know, because he’s so English. I thought especially his cameo worked nicely. I also (maybe surprisingly) liked all the jokes/innuendos about Audrey missing her boyfriend (for example when the bratwurst was served, she looks at passionately and just says “God, I miss Jack.” in really dry way, that just catches you off guard).

But even this movie suffers from what I wrote about the first one – I laughed a bit more than the first time around, but it was just a bit more. This comedy wouldn’t be on my “to re-watch” list, as I don’t think it is a good comedy. It’s more than decent movie and for me, it’s slightly better than the previous movie, because of those cameos and couple of decent scenes where you will laugh a bit. But exactly as I said with the first movie, if something is presented as a comedy, and for a good chunk of it, it doesn’t make you laugh, you do feel a bit disappointed.

Overall, National Lampoon’s European Vacation is a step-up from the first movie, but that is like saying “Yes, it is raining, so instead of standing in the rain, we put this fishing net above us, that will protect us!” Baby steps is what we are dealing with here, but as every parent tells you, those are important and sometimes, can be a pleasure to watch. If the baby isn’t yours though, not as much.

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

Until next time,

Luke