One day the world will end, they say,
In ice and dark or fiery doom,
And there’s been many a prior day
When men believed such tales of gloom
Would make a certain day their tomb.
If true, then what’s the point of life
If it should be cut short so soon?
The universe with readied knife
Will strike when most inopportune,
And in its wake, our deaths are strewn.
If such you think, make peace with fact,
For die you will someday indeed.
But till I feel my death’s impact,
Such prophecies I will not heed,
For life’s too precious to concede.
___________________
MPAA rating: PG-13
It’s been almost two years since I reviewed Armageddon, so it’s about time I watched the other catastrophic asteroid movie from the summer of 1998. I’ve heard varying opinions on whether Deep Impact or Armageddon is the better film, and I see why now. They’re both great for end-of-the-world spectacle, but they approach the disaster in different ways that make the question of “which is better” simply a matter of preference. Do you want Michael Bay-style cheesiness and frenetic action, or a somewhat more serious take on how the world might react in an apocalyptic scenario (dark cheese, you might say)? The latter is Deep Impact.
Technically, Deep Impact features a world-ending comet rather than an asteroid, a comet discovered by high school student Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood). Once a nosy reporter (Téa Leoni) stumbles upon this government secret, the President (Morgan Freeman) announces a space mission to divert it, as well as some extreme evacuation and protection measures should the worst happen. Like Armageddon, there’s a game all-star cast to elevate the disaster flick, including Maximilian Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, James Cromwell, Jon Favreau, Kurtwood Smith, Denise Crosby, and Robert Duvall as the most experienced astronaut on the earth-saving mission. Together, they provide varied views of the incoming cataclysm, from reporters to politicians to would-be heroes to everyday folks, but the best has to be Freeman as the President we’d all want in such a situation: calm, honest, and willing to invoke God and prayer in encouraging people.
Despite the life-and-death stakes, Armageddon had that Michael Bay action movie quality with strong doses of humor from the rough-and-ready drillers, but Deep Impact has much more weight to it and isn’t afraid to embrace the tragedy of the disaster. I’d heard it was darker, which led me to believe the characters’ efforts would wind up being hopeless and futile. The fact that I was proven wrong was a pleasant surprise and helped me enjoy the movie far more than I expected going in.
It still can’t quite escape shades of the cheesy and impractical. For example, my VC found it totally unrealistic for Leoni’s reporter to get on TV covering the astronaut’s mission and just leave dead air as she stares at the screen with everyone else. Still, it’s easier to take seriously than Armageddon, with good effects and the benefit of being easier on the eyes than Michael Bay’s editing. It also affirms heroism and hope in the face of apparent doom, and on retrospect, I liked how some characters’ seemingly foolish clinging to that hope actually paid off compared with others’ resignation to death. They both have their strengths, but as far as which of the two “asteroid” disaster movies is objectively better, I think Deep Impact gets my vote.
Best line: (President Tom Beck) “Cities fall, but they are rebuilt. And heroes die, but they are remembered. We honor them with every brick we lay, with every field we sow, with every child we comfort and then teach to rejoice in what we have been re-given: our planet, our home. So now, let us begin.”
As 2018 starts, it’s about time to decide on my Blindspot picks for the year. After seeing others taking part, I just started following this fun series last year, choosing twelve films that I’d been meaning to see and watching one a month for the year. For the most part, I enjoyed my 2017 picks, three of which made my Top 365 List, but I thought I’d do an official ranking before announcing my 2018 picks later this week. So here’s how the 2017 Blindspots stacked up, ranked worst to best, along with some nice short comments on each (since you can just read the review if you’re really curious).
Now that one year has ended and another taken its place, everyone’s coming out with their long-awaited retrospective best-of lists, which I love reading. As with last year, though, I don’t think I’m ready to make a Top Twelve list strictly for 2017 movies. I’m always behind other bloggers when it comes to new releases, and though I’ve seen more than in past years, there are plenty of films I need to check out before I feel I can compile a worthwhile list for last year.
What I can do is follow last year’s example and list my favorite scenes seen for the first time last year. It’s one thing to honor whole movies, but when a certain scene sticks out above all the others, it can make the movie that much more special and memorable. Thus, for this list, I have cherry-picked the top twelve highlights of my movie-watching year, and that goes for all films seen, not just the List-Worthy ones. Be warned that some of the videos may contain spoilers, such as #10 and #4. It was tough ranking these, and I think I had a better selection this year than for the 2016 list. Let’s walk down memory lane, shall we?
Ink is a low-budget, high-concept fantasy drama with a lot going on. It gives a glimpse of a kind of spiritual warfare between those who spread dreams and those who plant nightmares, and one group of invisible “dream warriors” must help a man reconnect with his hospitalized daughter. The manner in which they get his attention, so to speak, is a brilliantly composed illustration of how events are interconnected and perhaps more changeable than we realize. It would be a potentially silly chain of events if it were in a Final Destination movie, but Ink makes it somehow poetic. “Something’s got to stop the flow.”
For all my issues with Alien: Covenant, it did have some marvelous visuals, and even if I didn’t like where David ended up, his alien creations were dispatched in thrilling fashion. First, Daniels splatters one in the film’s best action set piece, and then she impales one on its way out to space, since blowing aliens into space is the preferred method in these movies. Both were grand on the big screen! (Language warning for the video.)
I won’t spoil the meaning behind the ending montage of this Italian classic, which is beautiful on its own but even more so in context. It’s simply the best possible way for the film to have ended. (Warning for two brief scenes of nudity.)
If you’ve read my posts for a while, you might know that I love long tracking shots that clearly take much effort on the part of the actors and filmmakers. One of the finest examples was Adonis Creed’s first official match in Creed. This clip isn’t quite the whole thing, but from exiting the tunnel to climbing into the ring all the way to the knockout and celebration, I can just imagine how much time it took to perfect this amazing shot.
Opening car chase – Baby Driver (2017)
Well, here’s where I really draw the distinction between movies seen and scenes seen, since I haven’t actually watched all of Baby Driver. Still, I was wowed by its opening car chase, set to the obscure rock song “Bellbottoms”. The editing and action are so well polished that I’ll definitely have to check out the whole film soon.
Entire amusement park tank battle – Girls und Panzer der Film (2015)
What do you get when you cross historically accurate tanks, high-school girls, and a ridiculous disregard for personal property and the laws of physics? Answer: Girls und Panzer, a short anime series in which tank war games are considered a girls sport. This sequel film is an utterly bonkers thrill ride once the tank warfare picks up, especially when the protagonist team uses various theme park rides to their benefit. It’s a guilty pleasure but a darn fun one, as you can see from the hilarious “reactions” in the video below.
It’s not a scene to watch casually (which is why there’s no video this time), but the re-creation of the Normandy landing in Saving Private Ryan is the first intense gut punch in a movie full of them. Visceral and masterfully filmed, it’s an unforgettable sequence that helps you greater appreciate the horror those men endured for our freedom.
Valerian had plenty of eye-popping scenes that proved that visual effects are limited only by the director’s imagination, of which Luc Besson has plenty. The best scene, though, might be the opening, a montage of mankind’s camaraderie in reaching for the stars and turning first contact with aliens into an ever-growing collaboration. Reminiscent of Star Trek, it’s an inspiringly rosy vision of the future.
Arrival was the only film to make me cry last year, but A Silent Voice brought me close with its final scene, a hope-affirming vindication for repentant bully Shoya Ishida. Building on an established visual metaphor for his feelings of isolation, the emotions and music give me chills every time.
I went in to La La Land fully expecting it to be overrated, but its very first scene bowled me over. As an entire packed freeway comes alive singing “Another Day of Sun,” the camera movements and choreography are astounding. What’s even more impressive is that it looks like all one shot!
I knew this scene would make the list as soon as I saw it. Appalled by the cruelty and helplessness of World War I, Diana steps onto No Man’s Land to prove that “No Man” does not include her. Epic in a way most superhero movies only try for, it’s an awesome action centerpiece.
Like last year, my #1 movie grabs the #1 spot here as well. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I won’t go into too much detail (no video yet either), but I’m sure anyone who’s seen The Last Jedi knows what scenes I’m talking about. This is as epic and impactful as Star Wars has ever been, and I loved it!
And here are the alphabetical runners-up, all great scenes in their own right and all for different reasons, whether hilarious, thrilling, or traumatic. A few even have more than one.
I wish I could make a montage of all these scenes. Maybe one day… What other memorable scenes did 2017 offer you? Feel free to share your thoughts and favorites!
As a holdover from 2017, here’s my contribution to MovieRob’s December Genre Grandeur of Road Trip Movies, a review of 2005’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. No one ever said it couldn’t be a road trip across the cosmos. 😉
For this month’s first review for Genre Grandeur – Road TripMovies, here’s a review of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) by SG of Rhyme and Reason
Below is the fourth remix of my compulsively compiled Top 365 favorite movie list! Please refer to my previous blogiversary post for all the details on what was added and dropped from the prior iteration, though all of the new additions are in bold type so as to be easily spotted.
As with last year’s update, the Top 200 haven’t been touched too much, with only three cracking the Top 100. The most notable riser might be the Star Wars sequels, since grouping The Last Jedi with The Force Awakens raised the latter much higher than it was. The highest dropper is The Blind Side, which is still sitting pretty at #103; I just realized that #40 was probably too high for it.
As usual, it’s further below that things have been shaken up more significantly. Most of the anime films have risen higher, while the likes of The Iron Lady (-65), Fiddler on the Roof (-58), and WarGames (+106) have been shuffled quite a bit differently than last time. Of course, I believe in combining franchises, so you’ll see that Cars 3, Creed, The Conjuring 2, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 have been added to their respective predecessors. Plus, I cheated a bit by granting a tie to Ordinary People and Rabbit Hole, due to their similarities in tone and subject matter, and to both the animated and live-action versions of Disney’s Cinderella. Interestingly, Psycho is still at #365, so I guess I just like ending the List with my favorite Hitchcock film.
Thus and therefore, I present my Top 365 Movie List, all films I’d gladly watch anytime (and often do, depending on my mood). This is strictly a personal ranking, but I’d love to hear your thoughts, opinions, and/or recommendations! There are plenty more movies out there to see, and I can’t wait to discover what might earn its way on here next year. Once again, I wish everyone a very happy 2018!
It’s hard to believe that yet another year has passed. It’s even harder to believe that I’ve been blogging for four years now, ever since my trusty Viewing Companion (VC) suggested I combine my love for movies and poetry with a Top 365 film countdown. Plus it helped to keep my mind off my hot dog business that had just gone kaput. Since then, I’ve published 825 posts before this one and earned 526 followers, for which I am very grateful. I’m glad to have started this blog simply to make friends in the blogging community and to learn of countless new movies through them. And I just find blogging to be such an enjoyable creative outlet for whatever you’re passionate about, as long as you don’t overcommit yourself. Not that I would ever do such a thing. 😛
With all the natural disasters and celebrity scandals, it’s hard to say whether 2017 was any better than 2016, but at least we were able to escape the tragedy through the movies. For one thing, I reached 500 followers earlier this year, which is a big milestone for me. This was also the first year that I watched twelve Blindspot picks, one for each month, and while I’ll rank them a little later, two ended up in my top twelve for the year. And as a certified list-fanatic, I always look forward to the end-of-year lists, including my Blogiversary post for counting down my favorite films seen in the last year and all those that I’ll be adding to my Top 365 list as of tomorrow. In addition, I must give a shout-out to the films that I still greatly enjoyed and that came very close to being List-Worthy, such as The Lake House, Fences, Empire of the Sun, The Help, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Good News, Educating Rita, The Glenn Miller Story, Ink, No Game No Life: Zero, Fletch, Girls und Panzer der Film,Cinema Paradiso, and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
I had 51 new additions last year, but only 35 this time, mainly because the bar keeps being raised since I know I’ll have to take off something already on my List to make room for the newbies. Yet I still have a fair amount of diversity here, including three war dramas, four superhero movies, four time travel stories, four rom coms, two anime, two non-animated foreign films, an ape trilogy, a single horror, and a partridge in a pear tree. I suspect I’ve seen more films this year than any year prior and liked the vast majority, though do keep in mind that I tend to run behind other bloggers as far as new releases (including some I really want to see, like Coco, The Greatest Showman, and The Breadwinner), so you’ll probably see more Oscar contenders from 2016 than 2017.
It’s been especially hard ranking them this year, trying to balance personal enjoyment with objective quality, but these are my Top Twelve films seen in 2017, followed by the rest of the additions in alphabetical order. Don’t forget also my unofficial “awards” to honor certain aspects of these 35 new additions, as well as the list of departing films I’ve had to sadly kick off the List to make room.
I may have to cut down a bit in the coming year, especially since I’ll be graduating and looking for a web design job soon. Still, I enjoy movies, poetry, and lists too much to give this up, so I’ve got plenty more planned. Without further ado, here are my Top Twelve List Additions of 2017.
The monumental military escape from Dunkirk was a pivotal moment in World War II, but it didn’t really enter the creative consciousness until this year, with three separate films about it: Darkest Hour, Their Finest, and of course Christopher Nolan’s universally acclaimed Dunkirk. It’s Nolan applying the best of his style, crafting three separate timelines that give us a comprehensive look at the evacuation from land, water, and air. Restrained in content yet still riveting, it’s an adrenaline-pumping experience.
Ever since I saw it, this anime drama has stayed with me. It’s a redemption story about a young boy who bullied a deaf girl and was soon marginalized himself. Years later, he seeks to make amends with her and reconnect the relationships he ruined. While slow and artsy at times, it’s a beautiful film in both animation and themes that connected with me on a personal level.
I might be in the minority in actually enjoying Vol. 2 even more than the first Guardians of the Galaxy. For one thing, I found it funnier, and Kurt Russell as Star-Lord’s Celestial dad is a far more appealing villain than Ronin. Plus, there’s some great development for secondary characters like Yondu and Nebula, while the action is as eye-popping as anything in the MCU. I can’t wait to see the Guardians meet the Avengers in Infinity War!
As someone with direct family ties to the space program, I loved learning about this untold story of the black female computers at NASA. The way they rose from being snubbed and discriminated against to becoming indispensable members of the NASA team is tailor-made for inspirational drama, and even if some of the facts are changed, it’s an uplifting tale of intelligence and effort rewarded.
I was very wary of my June Blindspot pick, due to Saving Private Ryan’s brutal reputation, and while it did have scenes that were hard to watch, I now see why it is considered among the best war films of all time. Spielberg outdid himself with the scope and intensity of the battle scenes and gleaned some fantastic performances from Tom Hanks and Jeremy Davies. The characters weren’t quite as well-defined as in, say, Memphis Belle, but the story was a hard-hitting testament to the horror and sacrifices of war.
Please don’t hate me for putting this above Saving Private Ryan, which is a great film but not the most watchable. Déjà Vu, on the other hand, was a thoroughly entertaining thriller that tapped into everything I love about the time travel genre. Since I’m a sucker for time travel, I can overlook a few plot holes when the rest is this good.
This was the year I finally checked out the Planet of the Apes remakes, and every one of them exceeded expectations while also upping the quality of the visual effects. Caesar’s journey from spared experiment baby to Moses-like leader of a newly sentient race tackles far deeper themes than you’d expect from talking apes, heightened by the emotional stakes of a world torn by hatred and fear. It also confirmed Andy Serkis as the king of motion-capture performance.
Like Saving Private Ryan, Hacksaw Ridge is way more violent than I usually like, but Mel Gibson’s faith-filled take on the true story of Desmond Doss was brilliant nonetheless. It was also the first R-rated film I saw in the theater. The first half is refreshingly clean, with Doss’s personal struggle as a conscientious objector in the army, while the blood-soaked second half allows his tenacious resolve to prove himself the equal of any man carrying a gun. As Mel Gibson’s return to form, it’s gratuitous but also moving, patriotic, and exceptional.
Now for my other top-rated Blindspot, again with time travel. This little-known gem from director Kurt Kuenne is a cinematic puzzle, following a man who awakes from sleep every time on a different day of his life. The way the unfolding story is edited is remarkable, and even if some people felt the ending was schmaltzy, it left me deeply satisfied.
Yes, it’s another time travel movie! Are you starting to pick up on my tastes? This romantic comedy between time-traveling Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams as yet another time-traveler’s wife charmed me as few films do these days. I was smiling more often than not, and it frankly made me wish for a romance like that of my own one day.
That’s right, all you naysayers; I still love La La Land! After seeing it again, I recognize its flaws a bit better, such as the less than professional singing/dancing, but like 2012’s Les Miserables, it’s a film I enjoyed so much on my first viewing that I just don’t care about what others criticize. Damien Chazelle’s direction, Justin Hurwitz’s score, the performances, the themes of creativity and personal goals, the awesome opening scene—it all added up to what I still consider the best film of 2016. Feel free to disagree.
If #2 wasn’t divisive enough, how about this one? I’ve seen it twice, and I still love it. Shockingly, my VC even declared it the best Star Wars movie of them all, and she’s a long-time fan. The action scenes are outstanding, boasting more than a few “whoa” moments, and it progresses the story in fresh and unexpected ways that kept me enthralled from start to bittersweet finish. True, Finn’s subplot doesn’t amount to much and there are still unanswered questions, but none of the complaints I’ve heard resonate with me at all. This was my #1 movie that I hoped would be good this year, and it didn’t disappoint!
And here are the other additions in alphabetical order, some of which will be joining others of their franchise:
And to honor these films, here are some of my personal awards I give out every year, the kind that no one cares about but are still fun to give.
Best opening scene: La La Land
Best final scene: A Silent Voice
Coolest scene: Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Biggest emotional impact: Arrival
Oldest film: A Star Is Born (1937)
Most recent film: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Longest film: Saving Private Ryan (169 minutes), followed closely by The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (163 minutes)
Shortest film: Shuffle (82 minutes)
Best soundtrack: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Best score: La La Land (The Red Violin a close second)
Best special effects: War for the Planet of the Apes
Most mind-bending: Arrival (and if it qualified, Ink)
Most family-friendly: Cinderella (2015)
Most mature: Saving Private Ryan
Scariest: The Conjuring 2
Funniest: Wayne’s World
Most controversial: Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Best VC Pick: The Red Violin
Best male performance: Mathieu Amalric in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Best female performance: Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole
Most represented year: 2017, with nine films
And now for the most painful part. It killed me to rip some of these movies from my Top 365 List, some of them just added last year and others that have been there from the beginning. I’ll tell you this: if I’ll have to knock off more favorites a year from now, it’s going to be even harder to get a List-Worthy ranking in the coming year. Despite my cutting them, these 25 “retirees” are all great movies I still love, and they will not be forgotten.
Thank you to everyone still reading and everyone who has read, liked, followed, and commented throughout the year. Even the simplest feedback is always encouraging and appreciated. To cap off the year, below is a montage of all that 2017’s cinemas had to offer (brief language warning at 1:28).
I wish you all a very Happy New Year, and may 2018 be the best year yet, or at least better than the last one!
As long as wars and battles rage,
The world will yearn for peace;
So says the pacifist with sage
Detachment and release.
Yet when the battles come too close
And reap their ruthless wound,
How quick is he made bellicose,
His former faith impugned!
Yes, grief can make the wholesome hate,
The peaceful prime for war.
Sometimes their conscience wakes too late,
With much to answer for.
_________________
MPAA rating: PG-13
Perhaps the most surprising thing about these new Planet of the Apes movies is how good they are compared with how bad they could have been. Think about it: apes using sign language, sparse and simple dialogue, “monkeys riding horses,” as Everybody Loves Raymond once put it, concepts that could so easily become laughable. And yet both Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes raised the bar for what this science fiction series could be, and 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes continued the high quality and stuck the landing, so to speak.
Picking up two years after Dawn, this end to the trilogy sees Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his band of intelligent apes embattled with a military garrison led by the fanatical Colonel (Woody Harrelson, in grand villainous mode). There is plenty of wreckage still from Koba’s uprising in Dawn, from defecting gorillas siding with the humans against Caesar to the emotional baggage of Koba’s and Caesar’s actions. When the Colonel exacts a personal toll on Caesar’s family, the ape leader starts to share in Koba’s hatred and soon sets out with his most loyal friends on a quest for revenge. The story morphs several times as it goes, from western-like journeying through snowy mountains to brutal incarceration to a thrilling prison escape tale, all while following Caesar’s emotional rollercoaster and completing the allegorical Moses narrative begun in Rise.
With each film in this trilogy, the visual effects have gotten more and more polished. The previous two still had moments when I could tell the apes weren’t real, but War makes them as realistic as any effect I’ve seen. Even if motion-capture technology is perhaps not entirely perfected, it’s jaw-droppingly convincing at this point, which allows the apes’ emotions to be as clearly conveyed as any of the human characters’. The characters behind that effects façade are also better defined here than in prior films. The chimp Rocket and orangutan Maurice have been with Caesar since the first film, and while they barely registered in Dawn, the fact that they join Caesar on his trek allows them to stand out better from the rest of the apes. Also joining them is the eccentric Bad Ape (Steve Zahn), a zoo escapee who adds some much-needed humor to an otherwise bleak tale.
My VC has had a more restrained appreciation for these movies, admiring the visual skill but finding the execution a bit plodding and slow-paced. Even so, she found the story of War to be the strongest of the three, and although I prefer Dawn, War had the clearest character arc of the three, continued the subtle references to past movies, and worked in some evidence of how the world becomes as Charlton Heston found it in the original.
I agree with her that the pacing could be tighter, particularly during the grueling prison scenes, but these films aren’t content to be mere action spectacles. They instead tackle deeper moral questions and universal themes of humanity, enlivened by moments of refreshing sweetness and stunning action. They’re a rare breed of blockbuster, and if their example overran Hollywood, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
Best line: (Caesar) “If we strive but fail, and the world remains armed against itself, then we’ve been divided, because the hunger for peace is in the hearts of all.”
If there is money to be milked,
Hollywood is there!
If there are empires to be built,
Hollywood will dare!
If there are purists they can jilt,
If there are wishes they can wilt,
Hollywood won’t care!
If franchises refuse to die,
Some revel at the sight,
While others weakly question why
And still tune in despite.
But if you silence your outcry,
Hollywood might satisfy.
They sometimes get it right.
_________________
MPAA rating: PG-13
I was among the most skeptical when yet another Spider-Man was announced, and as amazing as Tom Holland’s debut in Captain America: Civil War was, I still wasn’t sold on Homecoming’s potential. I’m one of those people who grew up loving Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, and I’m firmly convinced that no other Spider-Man will replace him as my favorite or Spider-Man 2 as the best in the series. All that said, I loved Spider-Man: Homecoming far more than I was expecting and certainly more than the Andrew Garfield films (which I didn’t exactly hate either).
The trick that this new Disney/Sony partnership pulls off successfully is making this version of Spider-Man sufficiently different that it doesn’t feel like a rehash of what we’ve already seen. For example, Peter Parker’s origin story is completely skipped, assuming the audience already knows the basics about a radioactive spider and the death of his Uncle Ben. Instead, it focuses much more on Peter’s high school life, with fawning crushes, scholastic decathlon training, and his geeky friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and more nonchalant friend Michelle (Zendaya). The typical Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, and Harry Osborne aren’t here (mostly), and instead we have some fantastic continuity with the MCU, embodied in Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) as Peter’s detached mentor/benefactor.
In avoiding past Spider-Man movies, we also get a new villain in Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes, who becomes the Vulture using alien tech left over from the Chitauri battle in The Avengers. Aside from the priceless in-joke of casting Birdman himself as the Vulture, Keaton makes his embittered contractor-turned-weapons dealer one of the best and smartest Marvel villains in a while, one who’s not evil for evil’s sake but who is still ruthless in doing what he thinks is necessary and justifying it as a family man. His battles with Spider-Man are far more thrilling than I expected from a second-rate villain like Vulture, and the fact that his motivations don’t involve world domination or destruction is actually refreshing at this point in the MCU.
Of course, the biggest challenge goes to Holland, who embraces Peter Parker’s inexperience and high school geeky side with appealing charm and an amusing tendency of being awestruck by all the coolness he encounters. What’s missing is his reason for helping people, which is unavoidable if you leave out Uncle Ben, but the filmmakers managed to create a decent replacement inspiration. With the high-tech suit provided by Stark, there’s a lot of fun to be had as Peter learns the bells and whistles available to him, including his own A.I. he names Karen (Jennifer Connelly), but he also begins thinking that the suit is what makes him a hero. How he comes to terms with that is quite well-handled, even if “With great power comes great responsibility” is still better.
Surprisingly, Spider-Man: Homecoming exceeded my expectations (especially an awesome action scene at the Washington Monument), which is always welcome. There are still things I would have changed, from an off-hand porn joke to a few politically correct jabs. Plus, I’m not a fan of Marisa Tomei as the new “hot” Aunt May, who is no longer the wise and pious counselor of past versions and made me miss Rosemary Harris from the first three films. Even so, the plentiful humor and overall entertainment value of the whole made up for these lesser elements, though my VC was less pleased with the constantly joking tone. So, although it doesn’t exceed Tobey Maguire’s movies for me, I’m largely satisfied with a new generation growing up with this Spider-Man (especially since they’ll likely still watch the original to get the full origin story).
Best line: (Peter) “I’m nothing without the suit!” (Tony) “If you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it.”
The world might keep more hope and zeal,
Might waver closer to ideal,
Might capture greater curb appeal
If life were like the movies.
Our friends might longer stay our friends,
Our enemies might make amends,
Our chances rise for happy ends
If life were like the movies.
But no, they’re not, we’re often told.
Such dreams decay as we grow old.
And yet they never lose their hold;
That’s why we watch the movies.
_____________________
MPAA rating: PG (should perhaps be PG-13, though the director’s cut is R)
It’s time now for my final Blindspot of the year, the Italian classic Cinema Paradiso (or to use the Italian title, Nuovo Cinema Paradiso). I’ve been curious about this film for a while since it seems that everyone who sees it loves it to pieces, not least of all Cinema Parrot Disco, who named her blog after it. Of the three different versions that are apparently floating around, I watched the original international release of 123 minutes, as opposed to the 155-minute Italian release or the 173-minute director’s cut. Even apart from the long list of accolades that were listed prior to the film’s actual start, I undoubtedly recognize why it is hailed as such a classic, but it also left me a tad perplexed simply because I wanted to absolutely love it but instead just really, really, really liked it. That is to say, it didn’t quite bridge the tiny gap between fondness and favorite, but fondness isn’t too shabby.
Told mostly in flashback, Cinema Paradiso is at its heart a coming-of-age tale about a young boy named Salvatore (Salvatore Cascio), who is enamored of his post-war Italian village’s local theater, the Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, and constantly pesters the big-hearted projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret). Their bond is the sweetest aspect of the whole story. Despite Alfredo’s tendency to make hyperbolic threats while waving his hands around as Italians do, his affection for young “Toto” is unmistakable, from teaching him how to operate the projector to encouraging him to seek out bigger things than their rural village.
The town at large is also full of colorful characters, from the rich man who spits on the poorer folks from the theater balcony to the crazy tramp who claims the entire town square as his own. It’s a community of mischievous lads, indignant priests, and avid movie lovers, perhaps idealized by Salvatore’s nostalgia, but still feeling dynamic and genuine. It’s also a look at an era long past. While many today scorn the old black-and-white films of yesteryear, Cinema Paradiso shows a time when they thrilled the whole neighborhood, where theaters erupted with laughter and chair-stealing mobs would form if they were denied their latest favorite. Film itself is a prominent character here, a reminder of how magical it once was, how dangerous it could be, and how beloved it still is.
Deserving Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Cinema Paradiso is full of moments designed to make you smile and even tear up by the end, and it presents them with good humor and romantic sweetness that never loses its honesty. With such strong performances, appealing sentimentality, and sincere love of film, it’s hard to pin down why it didn’t quite affect me the way I was hoping. I can’t really point to anything specific, aside from perhaps its length or the less-than-satisfying romance aspect, but I also feel that my appreciation will only grow if I see it again. It’s easily a five-star movie and an affecting tribute to the magic of film.
Best line: (Alfredo, to Salvatore) “Get out of here! Go back to Rome. You’re young, and the world is yours. I’m old. I don’t want to hear you talk anymore. I want to hear others talking about you…. Whatever you end up doing, love it. The way you loved the projection booth when you were a little squirt.”
In a galaxy far, far away, I’ve been told,
There are stories that fit in an orthodox mold
Of Death Stars and daring
And Jedi preparing
To free all from some evil emperor’s hold.
There are stories as well that are harder to tell,
That leave our hopes answered or dashed where they fell.
The many may mourn
With rebuttals of scorn,
For isn’t it always correct to rebel?
But stories in galaxies distant and near
Can hold fans and fault-finders equally dear.
Some waver and jeer;
Some stand up and cheer.
Does it matter who’s right when we’re both so sincere?
____________________
MPAA rating: PG-13
I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. Despite desperately avoiding spoilers, I quickly realized that The Last Jedi was to be a divisive entry in the Star Wars canon. Everything I did hear has been the critics lauding it and my fellow movie bloggers and “regular people” coming away with mixed feelings, thinking it falls somewhere in the middle of the pack and certainly below The Force Awakens. There’s even a petition to have it struck from the Star Wars canon. Now that I’ve seen it, I just don’t get the backlash because I LOVED IT! That’s right; for every divisive movie, you’re bound to get the full spectrum of audience reactions, and to balance out all the half-hearted ones, I’m here for a fully positive, non-spoiler review. My tastes probably differ from the majority. After all, I’m the guy who still loves La La Land, but personally I think The Last Jedi is head-and-shoulders above Force Awakens.
Let me explain that perhaps shocking claim. I liked The Force Awakens and liked it even better upon a rewatch, but I’ll always consider it “the one where they killed Han Solo.” I remember walking out of the theater with my whole family shell-shocked, not high from a rousing film as it sounds like most people did. Not to mention, it’s too similar to the original movies. I now joke that, if it was a drinking game to take a swig every time there’s some parallel to the originals, you’d be drunk by the halfway point. Thus, I’ve come to value originality, which might be why I enjoyed Rogue One more than most as well. And The Last Jedi has originality to spare. There are still clear echoes of its forerunners (Jedi training in solitude, escaping from a besieged base), but those are broad strokes in a film that is far from a retread of what came before.
Last Jedi follows several plotlines that converge by the end: the Resistance trying to escape the overwhelming attacks of the First Order, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) taking matters into his own hands for the sake of their survival, Finn (John Boyega) and newcomer Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) endeavoring to shut down an enemy tracking device, and of course Rey (Daisy Ridley) training and trying to convince Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to return to the fight while also finding a connection with Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). I didn’t find any of these plotlines to be boring, though it’s true that Finn’s role is fairly inconsequential by the end, and the stakes are as high as they’ve ever been in a Star Wars movie. In fact, one of my concerns is the sheer number of casualties on both sides. Still, hope is one of the key themes, as it has been since the beginning of the franchise, and despite how dark things get, it never failed to be entertaining, helped by a good dose of humor. (Again, I welcomed the levity that others have criticized. My mom still talks about how the entire theater was erupting with laughter during Episode IV’s theatrical run, so I don’t see what’s wrong with the humor here or how it’s not Star Wars-y enough. Again, maybe I’m just different, considering I’ve never hated the Ewoks or even Jar Jar Binks.)
The originality I mentioned is explicitly acknowledged by Luke’s warning that “This is not going to go the way you think.” Whenever you think you know how something will play out, it veers in another direction. Granted, that sometimes makes certain actions meaningless, but it also keeps things continually fresh and unpredictable, spicing up what could easily have been a paint-by-numbers sequel. A key thematic struggle is what the best course of action is, not in a morally gray sense, but as far as whether to fight or flee and whether to obey orders, sort of tapping into the same fearful desperation as Dunkirk.
The new cast continues to be engaging, with the advancement of Rey, Kylo, and Poe’s characters especially, and unexpected callbacks to the original trilogy deepen the emotion of several scenes. There were new characters I liked, like Rose, and new characters I didn’t hate, like Benicio Del Toro’s codebreaker named DJ, but all the performances were excellent. Luke and Leia have plenty to do as well, and each has their standout scenes. (Unfortunately, one of Leia’s is also the most eye-rolling moment of the film.)
Yes, there are disappointments, particularly for the much-theorized questions about Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) and Rey’s origins, but those didn’t detract too much for me, especially because I’m not convinced they’re entirely settled. Remember that Luke and Leia being siblings wasn’t revealed until the third film. Plus, the vacuum of space doesn’t seem to be as deadly as it is in real life, something I’ve also noticed in Guardians of the Galaxy, for example. Perhaps the biggest disappointment that none of these more recent films can escape is the fact that Luke and Leia and Han didn’t get the happy ending we assumed after Return of the Jedi. That’s inherent to any continuation, but given the story established in Force Awakens of Luke becoming discouraged by yet another rebellious apprentice, The Last Jedi builds the plot admirably and respectfully, just perhaps not as die-hard fans might wish. One potentially problematic flashback is made more understandable when viewed as a moment of weakness and a misunderstanding, and I found the ending open enough to expect great things from Episode IX. And I’m sorry, there’s nothing here nearly as traumatic as Han Solo’s death at the hands of his own son. Why weren’t people rallying petitions to undo that?!
One aspect the prequel trilogy always excelled at was the action sequences, and The Last Jedi did not disappoint, especially since the whole movie is practically one long space battle. Laura Dern’s Admiral Holdo gets one of the film’s most epic sequences, while Mark Hamill gets the scene of the year, in my opinion. Even Rose and Finn’s jaunt on a casino planet was a fun diversion from the life-and-death struggle of the main plot. John Williams’ still-iconic score, the visual effects, and the odd creatures (don’t hate on the Porgs) were every bit as Star Wars-y as Force Awakens, in my opinion, and the light saber duels are as awesome as we’ve come to expect from this series.
I guess I do understand some of the gripes people have had, such as the out-of-left-field new aspects of the Force or how wasted Gwendoline Christie’s Captain Phasma is, but for the larger uncertainty, I’d like to cite The Empire Strikes Back. Everyone hails it as the best of the franchise (I disagree), but think of how many questions were left at the end of that film. Was Lando Calrissian any better developed at that point than some of the new characters here? I mention this because my mom remembers how disheartened she was back in 1980 and how she would poke holes of her own, complaining that she couldn’t understand Yoda and the whole training part was boring and it was disappointing that the hyperdrive kept failing. Middle movies are often trickier than beginnings and finales, and based on my own initial enjoyment and how much happens in The Last Jedi, I do think that people will come to appreciate it more with time. So don’t overreact.
Unlike The Force Awakens, I did walk out of The Last Jedi beaming at the thrill of a great movie, and I compliment Rian Johnson’s divisive direction. In fact, it might be my favorite film of the year. My one big complaint is how long it is and how desperate I was for a bathroom by the end. I have no idea where Episode IX will take this tale, and that’s a good thing, to my mind, though I do hope it ends on a high note. While I was nervous going in, The Last Jedi had me guessing, laughing, sweating, and silently cheering from start to finish, and while I’m sorry for those who had less positive experiences, the controversies didn’t diminish my enjoyment one bit.
Best line: (Rose) “We’re going to win this war not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.”
Rhyme and Reason 