Not Ready

Horror? Comedy? Why not both? And then comes the torture porn.

A new bride, a rich family, what could possibly go wrong? But of course there's the ancient tradition of needing to play a game, but this game takes a deadly turn (well, it doesn't turn deadly, it just straight up starts deadly). Fortunately, the bride turns out to be an expert survivalist... no wait, the family just sucks, but that works to. But deals with power never goes smoothly.

So this is largely stupid fun. If you've seen the trailer, you know mostly what you are in for... but then there's what happens to Samara Weaving's character later on. Spoilers? She gets hand trauma... then more hand trauma... then back trauma in which the camera rather lovingly close up shows happening. Really? Even the deaths of the servants (which we see in the trailer) are done with a more comic tone, but this is just straight up "look at this gore!". Bah.

Fortunately, most of the movie is stupid fun, so if you can get around that, you are going to do fine. No-one is going to win acting awards here, but they are clearly enjoying themselves. Much is made of "rich people" to excuse what happens, but it's a paper thin excuse, up there with "oh, the cellphone just so happens to be in a dead zone." We aren't talking hugely complicated in depth story construction and acting brillance here, basically.

So enjoyable, but disposable. It'll do.

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Bother to Sorry You

I missed this when it came out, but lots of people talked it up.. and I only now remembered to check it out.

I can see why people are being careful about the plot. It starts with Cassius Green getting a telemarketing job, and doing very well, and goes from there. I certainly didn't see where it was going, and, to be honest, I did wonder for quite a while what was so different about this movie. Most likely there is incredibly vicious social commentary that I didn't get, but even I could get what was going on once it started getting on.

Which does make the film rather unbalanced, the start is slow and the latter half really ramps up. If people left around midway (although I'm not sure why people would), they would get the sense that this was just some attack on telemarket corporations. Which makes the second half really come out of nowhere. I've seen more than one movie where there is a swerve, but this is a big one I didn't expect. People are going to remember the second half more and pass over the slower first half. I'm not trying to say 'no, judge harshly because of the first half', just that I would prefer a more balanced flow.

Lots of good performances, I'm not going to single out people. Certainly some cameos and voices I wasn't expecting, but a lot of actors are willing to give things a go, and I can see why they would get in on this.

Basically, this indeed has good press, and if you are going to watch it (if you haven't already), I would say 'stay with it'.

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HoHo Rabbit

So I asked the man at the store for one of them JoJos the kids are all talking about, and he said this was the one I wanted.

We are following Jojo, a young kid nazi, who has an imaginary friend in Adolf Hitler (that should do interesting things to my google rankings). At camp, he learns about the evils of the Jews, but then learns one is in his house. How can he live with this creature?

First up, this is entirely satirical to the max. Almost every moment is spent mocking nazis or showing how human the people resistance are. And there is a particularly realistic moment at the end. But we also have Taiki Waititi as over the top Hitler, so there is a lot here taking the piss.

The kid as played by Roman Griffin Davis is... all right. Not too terrible, but clearly young in his acting. Thomasin McKenzie doesn't get that much to do, but she's decent as well. We also have Scarlett Johansson doing her think, and a brilliant turn by Sam Rockwell.

Admittedly, outside of the war context, this is a rather familiar story, but the chance to get another dig in at the nazis makes it worth the effort.

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Dial M For M U R D E R

I can see how this easily was a stageplay. Everything basically plays out in one room, which makes like easier. This is the movie adaptation of Dial M For Murder.

Tony decides that his wife needs a killing, and sets up his old school chum to do the deed. Unfortunately, plans are thwarted when the chum gets killed instead. Tony tries to make hay out of this, but, shockingly, the police aren't as stupid as most movies would have you believe.

This is quite a good movie in that after the rather cliched opening of the husband and wife in "love", we get rather good character interactions and motivations playing out. The movie is a bit too aware of itself with how it suggests people get away with murders, but it's pleasing to see the police actually be competent in this sort of thing rather than be minor background characters.

At that ends the run of Hitchcock at the cinema. So that is all the big ones, and I clearly haven't missed anything.

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No so Super

Weird things happening in an apartment building? Sure, I'm in.

A man and his family moves into a big apartment building, where the man is one of three people looking after maintenance. However, people are slowly disappearing from the building, and suspicion falls on the creepy old janitor. Unfortunately, the police don't hold him, so he's still around when more weird things happen. The worst part is... we now know who is doing the weird things.

Okay, I'm going to spoiler this. Because it is not good. And the twist comes out of nowhere and I wasn't 'hey, that's cool!', I was 'that's just bad'. So, okay, the big reveal... the man moves in with two daughters, but the younger one is actually a ghost that only he (and others when they are about to die) can see. Somehow the ghost kid enables him to pop around the building and kill people, so... how? ...okay, sure. And any time her twin sister gets someone she likes, the ghost kid arranges for the man to turn up and kill them. Now where the hell did that decision come from?

One going thing, Val Kilmer is in this. He's recovering from cancer, but it enables him to come across as really creepy and that works well. Note, the is not the man. That is by... someone else. Oh and Paul Ben-Victor is also in this, so that's another good thing.

But other than them, this is just full of "wha??", and just pass it over.

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Banananana Splats

What do you do when you get a children's property, but don't like children? Turn it into horror! Featuring children!

The Banana Splits are a popular children's entertainment... thing. And one kid really, really likes them, so the family goes to a live taping as a treat for his birthday. Unfortunately, a) they are robots, b) it's their last show, and c) their switch is turned to 'Evil'. And so we get random special effect filled deaths of adults as children are rounded up and 'entertained' by brutal acts... not that far from actual children's programming? But can the adults save the children? Are they actually worth it?

This is well known as a Five Nights At Freddy's rip off... but even as that, this bad. Like, really mediocre. Even as a cheap knockout product, this is a cheap cheap knockout product. What budget there is was put into the death sequences, and they are... all right, I guess, but nothing feels that fresh or original.

I'm not sure why anyone bothered with this, less so as a Banana Splits deal. Just don't bother.

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Joke-nah

Todd Phillips thinks comedy is hard? That explains why this film about a comedian isn't funny!

Arthur is a party clown by profession, but has a series of Very Bad Days and one particular incident that sparks off the city. As the place crashes around him, he finds out more about his past life that lead to more problems, but everything is solved by Robert Di Nero.

I can't really say that this is a bad movie. It held my attention during the run time... but this is not a fun movie. Like even Zack Snyder enjoyed himself and at times his movies were light. This doesn't ever get light. Grim and gritty the whole time. Yes, this can be done, but this isn't really something I wanted in a Joker movie.

Which this isn't really. Yes, the main character is a clown, but really this could have been any person going through a bad day that had some identifiable gimmick going for him. Joker is such an iconic character that this is just a mediocre telling of that particular character. There is a moment when the movie does try to suggest something quite different, but in the end it just wants to shoe horn in more Batman references to try to give it legitimacy.

Joaquin Phoenix is good in the role, but considering the current discussion around what actors put them through to achieve the body we demand on screen, I'm not sure what the over skinny-ness shape he is in is worth it when it's not really saying anything.

Anyway, this is A TAKE, but one I doubt will really ultimately be remembered as a thing.

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