#73: SUPER TROOPERS 3

 

STARRING: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Hannah Simone, Nat Faxon, Chace Crawford, Brian Cox, Lynda Carter. Written by Broken Lizard. Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. 104 minutes long.

The continuing adventures of a group of idiot state troopers as they do very little but prank motorists and each other while swearing, drinking to excess and being marginally crude. I have no desire to do a deep dive into this. I think I saw the first one, the second one was crowd-funded and apparently terrible and this is a soft as putty, vaguely amusing, although not funny, sort of thing. The characters all look the same and it features Brian Cox clearly doing it to pay the mortgage. There's a nice bottom on show, some sexy underwear and a flash of boob, but that's about it. The plot has something to do with drug smuggling and maple syrup. There's some nonsense about the funniest character getting married to the sister of one of the others, but the brother isn't happy and tries to sabotage the wedding. At the stag do, strippers are called in to disgrace the groom to be. Mild racist jokes are made, but they're utterly inoffensive and are mostly unfunny, as is the whole thing. 

There's a talking eco car, a car stunt and a baddy who's hiding in plain sight. That's it. The ending rolls to a halt at the wedding and someone, the baddy is shot and killed. Then there's three weddings and a final post credit sting with Brian Cox and Lynda Carter lying in baths. The whole thing is written by the cast and has all the spark and vim of a ward full of medicated geriatrics. 

I've seen a lot worse and a lot funnier. This is the mildest of films and I doubt any of you will go and see it, and if I'm being honest I'm really not too sure why I went, I knew it was going to be this sort of film and yet I went. Is my life this meaningless that i fill the waking chasm in my soul with this sort of shit? Isn't there a single other thing I could do than sit in a cinema with just two other patrons and watch this. I mean I could have stayed at home with the wife, still recovering from a hip replacement, but oh no, I choose to go and see this. I suppose it was cooler inside and the cherry slushy was nice.

What I will say is that I saw something that deeply shocked me, and no it wasn't the sight of Brian Cox in a bath, it was a trailer for Silent Night 2, a film about an ultra violent Santa Clause that's not out till November. What the hell is wrong with this goddam world, this week, Harrods opened its Christmas department and the cinemas are trailing films for Xmas, it's the middle of August you sons of bitches, we're living through the worst heat wave in living memory and you're already getting excited about Christmas. Put a fucking sock in it you pricks. 

Anyway back to this. I missed the second outing, only vaguely remember the first and will never watch this ever again. I suppose I saw it so you don't have to. So, don't and if you do, then don't say I didn't warn you. 

Middling, dull, and rather bland. Thank god for Brian Cox who gives a 5% performance that still 10 times more than the rest of the regular cast.

3/10 mostly for the fore-mentioned nudity and the occasional chortle. 

#72: DAVID BYRNE'S AMERICAN UTOPIA

 

STARRING: David Byrne. Written by David Byrne. Produced by David Byrne and Spike Lee. Music by David Byrne. Featuring the Chris Giarmo, Tendayi Kuumba, Karl Mansfield, Angie Swan, Bobby Wooten III, Mauro Reosco, Tim Keiper, Gustaveo Di Dalva, Jacquelene Acevedo, Daniel Freedman and Stephan San Juan. Directed by Spike Lee. Running time 105 minutes.

This is the second concert film for me of the year following the sublime EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert. This one, directed by Spike Jones is a filming of the 2020 tour, which due to Covid didn't get released at the time. It's a filmed performance of the New York Broadway run. Back in 2020 I was lucky enough to see this extraordinary performance at the O2 just before Covid shut the country down. It was the second time I've seen David Byrne perform live, the first as part of the Talking Heads tour, was back in 1982, that was an experience that bordered on the religious for me and I was profoundly moved by it. Watching American Utopia live 28 years later was similarly sublime. Sadly this year's David Bryne American Utopia world tour was prohibitively expensive and I had to give it a miss, so when news of this one night screening of the 2020 show was announced I pounced and I'm glad it did.

Featuring among other Burning Down the House, Don't Worry About the Government, Once in a Lifetime, and Road to Nowhere as well as 17 other numbers from Talking Heads: 77 to American Utopia, Little Creatures, Remain in the Light and Fear of Music this really is a visual and audio masterpiece. The band and Byrne surge endlessly across the stage, wearing their instruments and dancing, as they follow their glorious leader from one song to the next, this ebbs and flows and is a vision to behold. As a committed Talking Heads fan I can only fault this for one glaring omission, the lack of Psycho Killer, the song that made me a fan and that I've listened to more than any other song. But that is the only negative I have for this wonderfully moving and extraordinary film. 

Spike Jones directs this wonderfully, the camera never intrusive, flowing with the cast and feels organic. the way the performers move around the small stage is a marvel, performing as they dance, there is no backing track, no speaker stack, no leads and cables just Byrne's crew wearing their instruments, playing, singing and dancing, always moving. I wish I'd seen this on a bigger screen, but regardless it was a joy, and Petra on only her second cinema visit since her hip replacement gave it a very rare, for her, 10/10.

Me I couldn't possible disagree, that would be rude. 10/10

#70: SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY

 

STARRING: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Florence Pugh, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando and Mark (I'm not the Gruffalo) Ruffalo, Marisa Tomei and Liza Colón-Zayas. Written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (not the brother of Scott Sommers, who spells his name Summers). Based on the comic strip created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Budget $225 million. Running time 145 minutes. 

Set four years after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which saw Spider-Man, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) forced to cast Dr. Strange's spell that robbed the whole of the world of the knowledge that he was Spider-man, including love of his life MJ (Zendaya) and bestest friend in the world, Ned (Jacob Batalon). This Spider-Man has been fully accepted as NY's masked avenger and rightly feted by its populace, there's no J.J. Jameson to sully his name, so he can concentrate on dealing with a seemingly never-ending wave of street level villains from Scorpion, to name but one, as I don't want to spoil anything for you here. That said, there's one wonderful homage to a comic that had me squeaking in sheer delight, and on the Amazing-o-meter it rated a solid 15! He's got a friend in the NYPD, detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas), acting as his Commission Gordon, and a love/hate relationship going on with Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) aka The Punisher. Parker lives an almost monastic life from his attic, alone and mourning his lost relationships. Then, one day an audacious attack on Damage Control HQ by a little old lady in an armoured tank, brings Spider-Man face-to-face with a mysterious villain who can leap into the minds of people and take control, but who are they and what does it have to do with Damage Control?

There is a lot of plot, characters and incident to shoehorn into this film, no wonder it's so long, at its core the loneliness of Peter Parker - still grieving for the loss of Aunt May and MJ, but there's also the sense of hope, of a 'brand new day' as Parker goes about trying to build new relationships, like the unlikely one between Parker and Castle, or Detective DeWolff, as well his feeble attempts to somehow reconnect with Ned and MJ. 

The action aspect often takes a sidestep, which isn't necessarily a bad thing although it certainly spoiled a lot of the younger kids in the audience's enjoyment, this is a 12A film, it's quite sophisticated in its language, plus it's not a live-action animated film, there's a lot of talking and I think younger kids are going to be bored by this, one such tyke in the audience last night started playing with his pinging tablet last night and his mother couldn't seem to care less, till several people around her told her to shut it off. 

ANYWAY, the film itself. It was surprising to see so much of Spider-Man in full costume talking and interacting with people, it felt strange, but in a good way and soon became quite believable, he's a very likeable character perhaps the most relatable of all the superheroes. The action is jawdropping, the Hulk, revealed in the trailer so there's no spoiling to mention him here, is great, brief but great, and when he finally goes full Hulk it's fantastic! Likewise the relationship between Parker and The Punisher is funny and rewarding too, but the Punisher struggles to work in a 12 A universe, ultimately his superpower is just shooting guns, but there's a connection between the two that reminds me of Superman Vs Batman, but done better. In fact all of the relationships at play in this film are deeply rewarding, perhaps none more so than the final one between Ned and Parker which really choked me up.

The phrase Super Hero Fatigue gets thrown around a lot these days, but I can tell you there's no such think as Spider-Man Fatigue, judging from the crowd I saw this with. I think the fatigue comes from a hideous glut of truly mediocre superhero fare with generic off the peg stories, and threats too big to comprehend. Not so this, the story at it's core is the important sauce. Give the audience a strong story with a proper emotional core and some stakes they can relate to will win the day.

This isn't a perfect Spider-Man film, for me that would be Spider-Man Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004). This is a tad too long, and the effects are a little soft and murky at times, the direction by Destin Daniel Cretton is very perfunctory and pedestrian and lacks the visual flair of Sam Raimi, he's just a safe pair of hands. Plus the villain, as surprising as they start out to be is, if I'm being honest, a tad disappointing by the end. The soundtrack, which seems to be mostly pop songs doesn't really register and this feels like a TV movie rather than a spectacle and doesn't quite have that gloss of a big Hollywood blockbuster, which at a price tag of $225 million it should have.

Anyway, exceedingly fun and entertaining and filled with some simply excellent Spider-Man moments, with plenty of action and emotional resonance, but sadly not quite firing on all cylinders. It flew but just didn't quite soar.

So this gets an Amazing Fantasy rating of Tim Boo Ba, or 9/10 if you don't know your comics.

#69: RAGING BULL

 

STARRING: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty. Screenplay by Paul Schrader adn Mardik Martin. Based on Raging Bull: My Story by Jake LaMotta, Joseph Carter and Peter Savage. Cinematoraphy by Michael Chapman. Edited by Thelma Schoonmaker. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Budget $18 million. Box office $23. 4 million. Originally released in 1980. Running time 129 minutes.

For a film that garnished a lacklustre boxoffice haul of just $23.4 million off of a budget of $18 million, and mixed reviews at the time, this black and white biopic certainly packs a punch. It went on to become the first film selected into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry for being 'culturally historically, or aesthetically significant'. It was ranked in 2007 by the American Film Institute as the fourth-greatest American movie of all time. Robert De Niro would win an Oscar for Best Actor and Thelma Schoonmaker one for Best Editing. It was nomitated a further six times by the academy and went on to win a further 16 International film awards. Three more of Scorsese's films would go on to be selected for the the National Film Registry including Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Goodfellas. 

The plot is simplicity itself, it's the biopic of Jake LaMotta, his rise and fall, or knock down, and based on his own autobiography tracking his career from king of the ring to nightclub owner and stand-up comic of sorts.  

What stands out is De Niro's commitment to the role, perhaps no other actor with the exception of Daniel Day Lewis commits so much to a role. In De Niro that commitment saw him pile on a legendary 60 lbs or 27 kg to portray the older post fighting Ray LaMotta. This is not an easy film to watch, it's savage, aggressively so, in fact on its release the sheer violence of the film damaged it with the movie going audience not used to the sort of savagery Scorsese filled his screen with. But it's necessary, Jake was a very violent man inside and outside the ring, he's a man that only ever seemed happy beating another man half to death, his jealousy made him a monster outside the ring and the brutality meted out to his brother, Joey (Joe Pesci) and wife, Vickie (Cathy Moriarty) makes for deeply uncomfortable viewing, but isn't that a good thing? We grow up with films that glorify violence, how many times the noble hero who stabs to death an opponent or shots another with impunity, but when it's on a human level, a domestic one then the violence becomes ugly, and hateful and deeply uncomfortable. Once again, Thelma Schoonmaker's editing is an utter masterclass, as is the cinematography by Michael Chapman, which reminded me of Elephant Man and Eraser Head.  And as always, Scorsese uses music and popular music to powerfully create tension, mood and drama. This truly is a superbly made film and it leaves you emotionally drained. De Niro is mesmerising in the role, his self-made transformation into the bloated LaMotta is genuinely astonishing and you do literally forget you're watching De Niro. Similarly, both Pesci and Moriarty give their roles depth and nuance.

10/10 A profoundly powerful experience.  



 



   

#68: GOODFELLAS

 

STARRING: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino. Screenplay by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese. Based on Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi. Edited by Thelma Schoonmaker. Budget $25 million. Box office $47.1 million. Originally released 1990. Running time 146 minutes.

God bless Cineworld for showing a short Martin Scorsese season, with eight films in total ranging from King of Comedy, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull to Casino and I intend to see them all except for Shutter Island, which although I enjoyed I don't feel the urge to revisit. This one however, Goodfellas was an absolute no-brainer to see again. It's a film I've watched a dozen or more times since it was first released 36 years ago and I never tire of rewatching it. 

A critical and commercial success, it was deemed 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant' and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. Nominated for six academy awards it won one for Best Supporting Actor (Joe Pesci) it would go on to win 28 International film awards. And today it is widely considered to be one of the best films ever made.

Based on the true life story of Henry Hill, the plot told from his point of view of Henry Hill (a career defining Ray Liotta) and narrated too, follows Hill's life from school boy to gangster in the New York Mafia run by Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino) along side Tommy Devito (Joe Pesci) and Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro). Spanning several decades as the three lead crimbos work their way up the pole to the top, robbing trucks, clubs, airports and anything else they can, while also manufacturing and selling drugs, and killing if it'll help, there's nothing these wiseguys won't do to make a dishonest buck. 

This is Scorsese firing on all cylinders, or all chambers if you want a gun reference, from the direction, to the performances, the music, the cinematography, the visual look and the astounding three-minutes single-take camera shot of Henry Hill and Karen arriving at the Cococoba Club, this is a film to be savoured like a fine wine, it needs to be viewed on the big screen without interruptions, writ large where it can soar. It is a timeless film that will still seem as fresh in 50 or a 100 years from now. It feels like the flip side of a coin where the other face is The Godfather, this in contrast is the grubby blue-colar world of organised crime, where the only honour exists for as long as money holds out. Where lifelong friendships can be exterminated over a mink coat, but you never grass to the feds, unless you're Henry Hill. It plays a clever trick on the viewer, at first it seems to almost glamourise the lifestyle it presents, an apparent  victimless world with the adage of take what you want with impunity. It's a close knit community among the gangsters they seem to live in each others' pockets offering a family of sorts, gathering for birthdays, weddings and weekend BBQs and while the men conduct their business the wives ignore the truth and live a pampered life. Then slowly as the film progresses and the greed and pursuit of money takes over the veneer and glamour of their world wears off and the ugly truth is revealed and it's genuinely horrifying. And that makes this whole film so gripping, it's a dirty, grubby world and its sheer power is a joy to behold. A film so filled with incident but never feels rushed, you are whisked along with a soundtrack of superb pop music that's matched to the year and ends with The Sex Pistols. 

A stone cold classic. A brilliant, gripping, dramatic and very brutal film filled with incredible acts of cinematic genius and moments of unbelievable savagery. A film worthy of all the praise and adoration and it is in a word, simply magnificent.

10/10  

#67: TAXI DRIVER

 

STARRING: Robert DeNiro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris and Albert Brooks. Written by Paul Schrader. Produced by Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips. Cinematography by Michael Chapman. Music by Bernard Herrmann. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Budget $1.9 million. Original box office take: $29 million. Running time 114 minutes. Originally released in 1976.

I was 13 when this first came out and had to wait until I was 15 before I got to see it in a double bill with Midnight Express. And whereas I enjoyed Midnight Express, I was, very much like Harvey Keitel's character, blown away by Taxi Driver. That said, it's not a film I've rewatched that many times since, it sort of stays with you and so I've probably only seen it once or twice since 1978. So the chance to revisit it up on the big screen as part of Cineworld's Scorsese Season was an opportunity to good to miss. 

The story is nothing that special, it sort of meanders long, a bit like Vietnam vet Travis Bickle's (Robert DeNiro) life as he fills his days and nights driving a taxi, visiting porno cinemas and obsessing about a young woman, Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) whom when she rejects his naive and awkward advances determines to rescue a young teenage prostitute, Iris (Jodie Foster) from her pimp, Sport (Harvey Keitel) in a triumphant display of violence and thereby redeem himself.

My god, what an extraordinary film, it's haunting and intense, DeNiro is an utter revelation his performance is nothing short of astonishing. But then, just singling him out does a massive disservice to everyone associated with this film. It is a remarkable cinematic achievement and one of the greatest films ever made. Starting with the music by Bernard Herrmann, which acts as the film's actual beating heart, it throbs with menace, with a soulful saxaphone and jarring strings. The cinematography captures a lost era of New York City, all dazzling neon reds and yellows of the streets and crumbling decayed interiors of cheap hotels. This is a snapshot of social history whose real life details reward the careful viewer, and the performances from the rest of the cast from Jodie Foster to Harvey Keitel, Cybill Sherherd, Peter Boyle and Albert Brooks is brilliant, Jodie Foster just 12 when she made this shows a maturity and still that staggers belief. Then there's the amazing special effects of a young Dick Smith that help to make the insanely violent ending so realistic.

I utterly loved this film, it has lost not one iota of its power or its majesty. If you get a chance to see this at the cinema do yourself a favour and see it. You will not be disappointed. 

A peerless, note perfect 10/10

Trivia.

• Martins Scorsese has two cameos, the first as a bystander watching Betsy arrive at work and the second as a cuckold husband fantasying about killing his adulterous wife. 
• Two of the films that appear on cinema hoardings in the background are Charles Bronson's Mr. Majestix and Clint Eastwood's The Eiger Sanction. 
• George Lucas named the Emperor Palpatine after Senator Charles Palantine.
• This was Bernard Herrmann's last musical score he died within hours of finishing it.  

#66 & 71: THE ODYSSEY (TAKE 2)

STARRING: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Charlize Theron and John Leguizamo. Based on the poem by Homer. Music by Ludwig Goransson. Written by Christopher Nolan. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Budget $250 million. Running time 173 minutes. 

It's been three years since Nolan unleashed his last movie, Oppenheimer on the world, in fact he seems to release a film every three years. Each one hailed as a masterpiece by the critic-arti and Nolan declared the new Kubrick. He is worshipped and adored and it's considered rude to point out any faults with his films. One can't but admire this approach, apart from the Battyman trilogy, Nolan makes his own IP and like Kubrick before him, he tends to jump from genre to genre making films he wants to make and the studios indulge him. Often on repeated views, unlike Kubrick, his films tend to reveal their faults - laborious ridiculous plotting of Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises, or OVERLY LOUD BOMBASTIC AND IMPOSSIBLE TO LISTEN TO SOUNDTRACKS, woeful sound mix, like Oppenheimer, relentless, non-stop explosion of plotpoints that pummel you into submission, Tenet or ridiculous left turns into stupid-land, like Interstellar. That said he also made the utterly superb Inception, The Prestige, Batman Begins and Memento, so you know swings and roundabouts.

Whatever you think of Nolan you can't fault his vision, drive or ambition. And so it is with this, The Odyssey a project he's been noodling about for the past twenty years since he walked away from the 2004 Brad Pitt movie, Troy.

This is an adaptation of Homer's epic ancient poem The Odyssey and apparently the Emily Wilson translation. The plot follows a non-linear path cutting between Odysseus (Matt Damon) on the worst work outing in history as he and military faction of the Greece Empire turn up in Troy on a pub crawl, while 8 years later, his missus, Penelope (Ann Hathaway) and their son, Telemachus (Tom Holland) fend off the amorous advances of a bunch of randy suitors lead by Antinous (Robert Paterson), while wondering where their husband and father is. Meanwhile, Odysseus, who's been held prisoner by the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron)on a desert island paradise and fed a memory robbing lotus flower, struggles to regain his memory and find his way back to his wife and family before the 'people from the sea' arrive and destroy his world.

This is an extraordinary movie, powerful, satisfying, and adult, brilliantly acted by all, especially Matt Damon who is exceptional in the lead role. Nolan directs with consummate skill and the soundtrack by Ludwig Goransson helps to build drama and tension with genuine skill. Similarly the cinematography and production design are top notch. At its core a deeply engrossing story, with action that is brutal, savage and intense, and featuring seamless special effects, as witnessed by Nolan's version of the cyclops which is exceedingly clever in its design and practical execution, indeed  the sequence with Odysseus and his men trapped in the cyclops's cave was one of the highlights and also surprisingly frightening. Similarly there's a fight in a forest with an army of silent giants that just makes you tense up in alarm. And the attack on Troy really conveyed the true horror of war and the commentary from Odysseus, "I opened the gate and unleashed ten years of hate." really hit home. God, I can't fault this film, it was so engrossing, so satisfying and so complete. And that's before we get to the scene with Samantha Morton that took this to a whole other level.

There's a sequence late in the film where Odysseus realises the true extent of what he has unleashed and the enormity of his actions and the impact it will have on his world. It's powerful and deeply emotional and it left me a little dazed. In fact it makes you wonder if the whole film isn't just the fever dream of someone suffering from PTSD.

It's deeply refreshing that Hollywood is still producing films as unique as this one and I think it's the first Nolan film I've seen which doesn't scream 'Kubrick' at me and this also feels the most grounded and personal of all his films, indeed it might be my favourite of his. I look forward to seeing this again and possibly again on the big screen.

My only criticism is the use of the word, 'dad'. Telemachus uses it all the time and I found it oddly jarring, it feels too 20th Century. But that's as far as it goes for negatives. 

At the end of the day I say see it on the biggest screen you can find and loose yourself in a tale as old as time. 10/10 

TAKE 2
Well, it's still a magnificent film, and deeply engrossing. However, it takes too long to get going, but when it does, boy does it motor. However, just like Oppenheimer before it, this suffers from too much going on all the time, there's no let up, just a relentless onslaught, no time to breathe, but then perhaps that works in its favour, since it means you lose a sense of how long it is. 

As always second time round you get to look around and explore the detail and this is full of them. A still very satisfying and powerful film, and it occurred to me that I can't remember the last time two huge blockbuster movies came out that featured the same three actors in both. 

Still deeply satisfying, powerful and engrossing and still a well deserved--

10/10