Movie Log

 Owen and I goin up in our rental car and off to Kinmount's Highland Cinema to see F1, the movie.  This film was a fine expose of the world of the top echelon engineering and racing but the embellishments taken to spice up the story was a step too far for anyone already initiated in any kind of motorsport.  The shar was jumped and after that, all the fine cinematography didn't really have anything of an improvement on the coverage, helmet cams and first-inching views of the authentic broadcasts of the real events themselves.  I enjoyed the movie, but I think just watching a race is a better experience.

 Of course you go to IMAX to see the latest of Mission Impossible movies.  Final Reckoning was in interesting movie but ended up being a curriculum vitae of Cruise and his Impossible films. The big stunt that everyone is waiting for is quite insane bure more for Cruise's sake and less enthralling as I am sat comfortable in a plush cinema seat.  The film looks to be a finale and to that end, if there is another, I imagine that if they do break down and make another, and if Cruise survives the next big stunt, I will just wait for it to come out in the streaming services and watch it at home . . . but who am I kidding!?  We all know that is a bunch of lame lip service and I will hurry right back to the IMAX if another Impossible makes its way into the world.

 Forever a Mad Max fan, I was eager to see Furiosa.  I like the George Miller's dedication to real world stunts and cars, instead of leaning on CG.  The stunts are more exciting know that a crew of slightly crazy people did all of those things for the camera.  The story follows a similar arc to the rest of the Mad Max films, but does drag a bit. After watching any of the Mad Max installments, I am always reminded of the darkest parts of human minds and habits, which I think is the goal - when I am about the invoke the allegory of the Lord of the Flies, I must remind myself that I do enjoy the movies, so it must be a success.

 Out of my blind spot, Bong JunHo released a new film.  Forever an optimist, I went to IMAX 2D for Mickey 17.  The IMAX experience didn't lend itself too much to the film, but is still a movie worth seeing in the cinema.  Just because IMAX doesn't enhance the film much doesn't detract from its quality.  Bong JunHo tends to take familiar concepts and weave uniqueness and intrigue into these common themes.  Some of the acting, although enthusiastic seems to miss the mark, but overall was well done by the entire cast.  Any shortcomings are lessened by the massive scope that the conflicts within the plot subtly summon.  Another beauty form the Korean director.

 Even though I heard on several podcasts that that 2024 The Fall Guy was a real stinker, I was still quite excited to see it. Undeterred, I even splashed out for an IMAX 2D. Underrated! The story was generally predictable but I thought that pas part of the basic paradigm of the movie.  The jokes were genuinely funny and well delivered but the whole film was a back drop for some next-level stunt work! The entire film, even if the tone and story are not to your liking is topped off with a final show stopper stunt that if your paying even half attention is an unbelievable spectacle that is flows with the story and is incredibly framed by the actors.  This is a great movie that goes, "Boom!"

 I quite enjoyed the dystopia and unease that Paquin Phoenix created in the original remake in Joker, so I was keen to see Folie au Deux. I was waiting for plot development to bewilder and confuse the audience, all the while accelerated and enhanced by Phoenix and Lady Gaga's skill as actors.  The film started out well and slowly became . . . a musical - a musical wherein nothing happens.  I suppose this is why I dislike musicals so much; so much energy and potential is poured into a story where so very little happens and the story takes a lonely back seat to tunes and dance numbers.

 Since the original character of Betelgeuse was so marked by the costume and physical affectations applied by Michael Keaton, I was sure the portrayal of the titular character would be unmarred by time since it is the same actor.  Keaton does a great job and the aesthetics are great, and it is a pleasant film.  Therein lays the problem, the original was so great and the tone so unique and enthralling, the makers of this film were chasing thunder.  There were a lot of great gags and humorous nods, but inevitably this long-interval sequel plays second fiddle to the original.

 I wandered into Lotte DongNae and caught the morning show of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.  I wasn't expecting much and drank a lot of coffee assuming I'd be bored and wouldn't mind if I had to get up and go to the John. I was happily surprised to find a witty and snappy story. The conflict is a bit far fetched but that is what makes the Indiana Jones franchise work.  The stunt work has always been a main player in these films and that stunt initiative is alive and well as the plot unravels, keeping us intrigued and entertained the whole way along.

 In a bit of a doldrum these days as my long holiday falls directly into the rainy season.  I cancelled my road trip, Finch and I grabbed a taco, and saw Spider-verse in Nampo. I had high hopes and the sequel was fantastic.  The music was invigorating and effective.  Where the story might seem overt, it is just because the story is so multi-faceted, the movie needs some predictability to bring purpose to the story.  With such massive history, and such a long list of iterations of the comic book world, yet unfettered by canon, there is a huge amount of nostalgia for Spiderman pundits and a treasure for new fans.

 A Porsche "pop-up" even got Finch and I interested, and it was a couple of bored university kids in Porsche polo shirts just telling people not to touch the new electric Porsche that had been parked inside.  So just two cars in a showroom that everyone has already seen driving around the city, we turned that bust into a showing of Moonfall. The story starts out well, hitting predictable targets nicely, such a s disaster in space resulting in meteors slamming into earth.  I was frustrated by the end of the film by the story-telling tendency to overextend the universe as physics governs it.  Finch, on the other hand loved it!  He called it ". . . all the director's greatest hits in one film."

 Finch was keen to see The Batman and I was keen to see any old thing, so off we went to IMAX 2D for a movie that lays on tension from the first moments and does not relent.  As the film progresses the tension and direction that is very effectively built is hindered and shuffles around in attempts to also be an action-hero film.  With the tense drama, and hero influences fighting one another, the ultimate experience is deflated.  The running time might have been pared down by removing a lot of the convoluted fight scenes which might be a requisite of telling any Batman story.  In the core of this film, a few good, succinct, well choreographed scuffles would have sufficed.

 I have my Covid vaccination passport, and I have a free ticket to a movie, so off to Matrix Resurrection I go.   I was dubious going in, thinking that Keanu Reeves might just be exploring his younger days and pushing some tired leftovers through the box office. Partially because the Wachowskis continue to have a unique an thorough product and partially because the original films were not only a part of Reve's past but mine as well, I was completely enveloped in the movie.  I was in high school when the first film changed the way we watched movies and the groundbreaking methods and aesthetic was also a wander through my own youth.

 I went to see The Immortals in cinema since I thought that there are likely nuances that we won't see watching on our flat screen in our living rooms.  There are quite of few nuances, but not enough to need to warrant a trip to the cinema.  The story and actin is quite good. For all the effort and length of the film, there seems to be a lot of missed opportunities by the film makers.

 The much awaited Dune! This is a film that does not fall behind the inflated expectations built on what can be argued to be the best Sci Fi novel trilogies of the world.   The depictions of the ornithopters is a point that in my mind that helps determine if the world of Dune is believable. The bio-mimcry of dragonflies was a fantastic notion that works well.  The acting and story progress was superb, as was expected.  The disappointing part of this film is that this is just the beginning of a whole canon.  That always bothers me when I go see a film and it like a street-pusher, setting us up for years of waiting and eventual decline of a story we originally loved.

 After Loro and Young Pope, I was keen to see The Hand of God.  This film is a departure from Sorrentino's usual flair.  Since it was a film festival, but socially distanced, the director filmed an brief introduction to the film.  He says that the film is autobiographical, where the dwarf monk is his innocence and the flagrant director is his experienced self.  There is a scene of what the view might assume is his current self preaching to what he remembers as his naivety.  The story's family, I think, are a collection of thoughts and memories through his journey toward experience.  I particularly like the sound of the offshore boats "touff, touff, touff".

 Finch was able to provide some tickets for the sixth year running.  Nice, Finch! In Red Rock, I was curious about what we'd find, since I haven't heard anything about the movie except for the identity of hte director.   The filming style was quite raw, even rushed at some points.  It really does have the feel of a skeleton crew.  The story was KI, but the acting brings the grainy footage gravitas and the viewer is drawn in.  The story was ultimately a portrait of a man who lives as a black hole, sucking away any positive energy around him, and leaving just flat desolation.

 Just from the sequel serial number, it is no surprise that Fast and Furious 9 jumped the shark long ago and now, particularly the physics of how magnets work is just getting made up to fit the story rather than fitting into the universe in which the story inhabits. This is a long dead horse being kicked into oblivion, but I knew that before I bought my ticket.  It's the spectacle of cars that has a draw, but how can it go any further?  The first installment was fine and a draw to anyone who enjoys any kind of engine or aggressive driving.  I am sure that I will buy a ticket to numer ten.

 Just as Covid19 hits another uprising, Tenant opened in Busan.  The cinemas seem to ahve an answer the the level2 (of 3) social distancing, so it was off to the local IMAX 2D to see a Nolan film. I'm sure the level of excitement is exaggerated since no new films of this scale have been released for a good while.  But there is no denying that the visual locations, stunt work, and writing are next level.  The plot itself is cerebral and there are little gems scattered throughout the dialogue, usually pertaining to but not limited to the paradox of time travel. 

 Danger and I did a relay movie where I get up and go to the earliest movie showing of Saturday, and in the time it takes her to get ready to go to a movie, I am back to get our car with our two boys in it.  She stopped the car at the bus stop and I drove off to the park for an afternoon of mayhem.   I don't usually go in for this kind of a docudrama but the portrayal of Freddy Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody was possible as good as Kingsly's representation of Gandhi.  The story and action seem to attempt to be as close a depiction of real events as possible, and I imagine it is eerily close to for the people who were actually there. Myer's iconic statements are an unexpected delight.

I am not teaching this whole week, so I went to a morning movie.  First Man was a long film but it was interesting the whole way.  I enjoyed the trust (pun intended!) toward the reality of the perspective of the astronauts of the 1960's.  The movie-goer almost becomes a pioneer astronaut in the old, creaking, and chaotic space craft of the era. What I enjoyed even more was the rare event that I was the only person in the theatre.  It was a prefect situation for the dichotomy of absolute dark stillness of space and the quaking thunder of the rockets and pull of gravity.  The film was also largely about Neil Armstrong's silent, intrinsic struggle to overcome the loss of his daughter.  This was a great experience that I will remember for a while.

 Finch had his motorcycle parked at the cinema center with a saddle bag unlocked with some coffee that someone had given him that he didn't want and arranged for me to come along and make this shady pick up while he was watching a movie in the theatre. I went on my way with this coffee to my own movie to see, Kirsk. I was surprised that all the dialogue was in English.  I always think it's strange to see this kind of accessibility to a film where Russian people are speaking to other Russian people but in English but maintaining a Russian accent. The film was well made and dramatizes the lives of people whose lives were ruined by machine-mind bureaucrats.  I was quite saddened buy the film because the similarities of the Korean Seawol. Although most of the foreshadowing was heavy-handed, I quite enjoyed the film, beginning to end.

 My original thought was the massive scale of costume and set this film took on, constantly and throughout.  The costumes and stetting never allowed the view to even contemplate that this film was anything but the late 19th century. The story itself was basically a lecture on the event's leading to the execution of Louis XVI, which was all pretty new to me, so I guess that it was a requisite for me to see. The acting was great and the cinematography made the exposition interesting.

 Finch delivers BIFF again!  The first film of the day, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.  It's kind of a sequel to the documentary Lost in La Mancha, since the production was so messed up in in earlier attempts.  The final cut was a great film, but somehow disappointing.  I think the enormity of Quixote's imaginative delusions is blooms in print but exasperates in film. The massiveness of the insanity of Quixote is too large, perhaps, to bottle-neck through the lens.  Also, we all know that Gilliam is able to carry an image of his are and make it real, so perhaps in chasing this image that was clear in his dreams was too much bitten off for even him to chew. The story in interesting and always inviting and appealing with incredible visuals and roads towards Lost in La Mancha.

 Because it was there, I went for a morning show of Jurassic World.  It was never really going to be a favorite of mine since the first film, in my view, was really as far as the premise was going to go.  The reboot seemed to breathe some life back into the franchise, but was just a replay of the original and this one, although had an interesting angle on the notion, it was a bit of a copy and paste of monster-film tropes.

 After wandering around the Busan 2018 car show, Finch and I slipped on over to the Centum CGV to see Oceans 8.  It was a good movie, but in some intangible way, lacked the flow and appeal of the first three of the Ocean's films.  The main characters were flat and the potential of the remaining 6 Oceans was never exhibited here.

 I was alone in a restaurant for the first time in a good while and was enjoying being solo.  I did get Finch to meet me for Tomb Raider.   I was surprised that I enjoyed this movie as much as I did.  The Fox Hunt in the intro was well designed and fun.  I lie the less voluptuous Laura Croft, although a lot of gamers might have a different opinion.  The story held some interesting turns, although the climax was predictable, and the blatant set up for a sequel is always off-putting. I like the color at the pawn shop as well as the delayed answer throughout the movie: Where are Laura's guns?

 Eric is between jobs, so we met for lunch and caught Red Sparrow.  At first, I thought that the film was just too slow, until I realized that the whole movie is a puzzle to figure out how she is going to stick it to her shitty uncle.  Once the view sees the film this way, it is very engaging.  All the pieces are laid out before you like a magic trick, then the reveal is dropped never having altered the pace, or pulling one on you.  The cinematography is great and the languid movement suits the story, the tone, and the aesthetic.  Going in cold, this film was a pleasant surprise.

 My bother and law and his wife watched our kids while Danger and I went to see Black Panther.  I gald that I watched it in WonJu and not Busan, so we wouldn't have to endure the commotion of Busan filming locations on screen, even though we were quite excited to see our city in a Marvel film.  I liked seeing Busan and Andy Sirkis' character, there was a lot of cool stuff, but it seemed like a lot of filler to me.   I think that maybe the hero mania is wearing a bit thin, I am glad to see a black hero, since it is desperately needed.

There is not much playing so Finch and I went to see this one just for the catharsis of movie-going.  I would normally have avoided it, since Hollywood war films of late usually have a political agenda.  This one is no different in my eyes showing 'America has no problems with insurgency'. The story was good, and I never felt bored or grossed out by the political imagery.  I kept wondering why I was reminded of Planet of the Apes.  I soon realized it is one of the rare cinema examples of modern weapons on horseback.

 This was not a disappotment.  Each year the franchise is under such pressure to keep the bar up.  Some noteworthy parts: the white and red aesthetic in the mineral planet, steam iron landing, and the writers were allowed to take themselves less seriously and throw in some gags like Chubaka's BBQ  and Ren's being from "nowhere. . . "

 Quite a funny movie, which is what I was hoping for.  New Zealand humor is something that we don't get enough of.  I had a nice long chat with Finch afterward in the usual motorcycle parking spot.

 This movie did not disappoint.  It was enough of a nod to the original while still creating its own intrigue. Although three hours long, the extended scenes of setting a texture are well worth the longer duration.

 Finch, Flood and I went to see Avengers; Civil War.  It is brain candy, but pretty sweet stuff.  It seems Marvel do recognize that people are getting exhausted with hero films and are trying to inject humor with growing success. It's always nice to get all three guys together and hang out relaxed, without having to represent myself, and just be friends.  We usually get as far as our motorbikes, where we will go our separate ways, and chat for almost as long as we sat through a movie.