The Flash (2023) - Movie Review

Even with how much I go to bat for the superhero genre around here, I was… kind of dreading going to see this one?

Part of that is because of Ezra Miller and what can loosely be described as their touring psycho circus over the past year and a bit (it’s been going on for much longer, but I mean in terms of mainstream coverage of it), of which I will not be getting into as it could take up this entire post all on its own… and quite frankly, I don’t feel all that comfortable commenting on it at length to begin with.

Part of it is because the entire conversation concerning the DCEU, the beginnings of its transition into the James Gunn-led DC Studios, and people still clamouring for Snyder to come back, has grown extremely tiresome, with this film being the cornerstone for that major transition.

And part of it is because I didn’t exercise due caution when it comes to new blockbusters and wound up having quite a bit of the film spoiled for me beforehand (specifically the… let’s call them ‘necromantic cameos’), and what I saw didn’t exactly raise hopes of this working out in the midst of everything else.

As I’ve gotten into in past reviews, the main reason why I do these reviews in the first place is because… well, I have fun doing this. It isn’t to present myself as some high arbiter of taste or to get involved in fandom politics; I enjoy watching and writing about films. Simple as. And watching films with this much baggage behind them, both as art and as studio product, tends to kill the mood for me. But at the very least, having now watched the film in question, I can say that I had more fun with the film than I was expecting.

Hypnotic (2023) - Movie Review

There are few things that fill me with more delight than seeing the words “Directed by Robert Rodriguez” in big fuck-off letters on a cinema screen. I’ve gotten to the point where I would willingly watch the guy work on just about anything, but there’s something special about seeing his work on the big screen. The human lab rat turned one-man film crew who lives and breathes neo-exploitation and old-school pulp cinema, he’s the guy that marked the real turning point for my fascination with filmmaking as a creative process, and auteur theory in particular. And with his latest, a detective-led crime drama that spirals out into a government conspiracy involving psychics and the power of hypnotic suggestion, there’s quite a bit of other auteurs to be found in the construction here.

Deep Water (2022) - Movie Review

After a twenty-year hiatus from filmmaking (save for a brief stab at screenwriting in Alex Pettyfer’s Back Roads), one of the few directors that could actually get his head around erotic mainstream cinema, Adrian Lyne, has returned. And true to his sweaty and mentally fucked-up trappings, it’s an unsettling take on the idea of romance, but there's a fair bit of rust showing through as well.

The Last Duel (2021) - Movie Review

I haven’t really gotten into this in past reviews of his work, but I have a serious admiration for the work of Ridley Scott. When he’s on point, he is capable of some of the greatest works that the medium has to offer, whether it’s Alien, Blade Runner, or (personal pick here) Hannibal. But even in his lesser films, there is always something in his productions that I just have to point to as being objectively brilliant.

Exodus: Gods and Kings? Yeah, that wasn’t great, but the casting for God was ingenious. Prometheus and Alien: Covenant? Michael Fassbender’s David is one of the most fascinating cinematic characters of the entire 2010s, even if those films didn’t make full use of him. Even All In The Money In The World, which I seem to be in the minority on as I found it quite inconsistent, has Christopher Plummer giving the performance of a lifetime that held everything together. The man’s talent shines through no matter what he’s working on, so regardless of how this turns out, I’ve been looking forward to it all the same.

Jay And Silent Bob Reboot (2020) - Movie Review

“Just for the fans” can be a real kiss of death when talking about any form of media, but movies especially. In the mainstream, finding-those-who-share-your-fandom-has-never-been-easier landscape, there is a lot to unpack around the idea of making products for an already-established fanbase. It can range anywhere from ‘let’s keep our customers happy’ to ‘what they say they want and what they actually want aren’t the same thing’, and pretty much every point on that scale has its ugly side.

But it needn’t always be a bad thing. Sometimes, it can be as simple as showing gratitude for audiences that have kept up with your work for years, even decades, and wanting to let them know that you see them. Avengers: Endgame from last year is an excellent example of that in the more positive sense, and while not really on the same wavelength, I’d argue that this film would be another.

Live By Night (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) is a gangster in Prohibition-era America. Against the wishes of his police captain father Thomas (Brendan Gleeson), he gets involved in a gang war brewing in Boston between the Irish Gang, led by Albert White (Robert Glenister), and the Italian Mafia, led by Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone). As he becomes more embroiled in criminal life, and opens himself up to doing some favours for Pescatore, he eventually gets given an opportunity in Tampa, Florida that he grabs with both hands. However, it seems that his days at the top are numbered, as a series of obstacles present themselves that may prove too difficult for the nicest gangster in town.

Justice League (2017) - Movie Review

 

This is the film event of the year but for all the wrong reasons. After the far-from-impressive track record of the DC Extended Universe up to this point, we now have the big team-up feature to kick things into high gear. But then the production issues started to pop up: Avengers writer Joss Whedon was tapped by Zack Snyder to write scenes for reshoots, then Snyder left the project due to family medical issues so Whedon had to direct the reshoots himself... and then Snyder hit up the Internet after the film's release, practically begging the public to show interest in his original cut for the film, rather than the one in cinemas which was edited down.

 

Knowing how scattershot the production values of all the DCEU films have been so far, with the highly lauded exception of Wonder Woman, this kind of production background isn't making me hopeful that this will be the one to finally push DC out of the red. But, as I've said before, I've always had a soft spot for superhero and comic book-related films; hell, I still think that Suicide Squad is a decent, if flawed, feature. Maybe that will kick in again and I'll walk away from this happy. Maybe.

The Accountant (2016) - Movie Review

Some of my long(er)-time readers may have noticed that I am not one to shy away from certain aspects of mental disorders. Specifically, when it comes to how modern-day cinema portrays said disorders. As someone who freely admits to using movie-watching as a form of personal therapy (less risky to lash out at a piece of fiction than at an actual person), seeing films use mental conditions that I personally relate to can be a big part of that. Some films do an incredible job with them like Inside Out, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children and X+Y, and some can make a complete dog’s breakfast out of it like Mommy, Love Is Now and the more recent headache of Vaxxed. Today, we have another addition to that canon, except this is something that I don’t think exists in that great a number out there in the larger cinematic world. And quite frankly, we need more films like this.

Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016) - Movie Review

I briefly got into this same point when discussing The Death Of Superman Lives, but it bears repeating here: I seriously do not care about Superman. Whether it’s not being brought up in the right place or era where his brand of heroics would’ve left a proper impression, or just a general disdain for overpowered main characters in action films, Superman has never struck me as a character I should care to see on screen. This probably isn’t helped by how the only Superman film I’ve seen in full is 2013’s Man Of Steel, which might well be one of the most unheroic depictions of any superhero that doesn’t involve straight-up torture (Looking at you, unaired pilot of Wonder Woman). Anyway, to paraphrase fellow reviewer and frenemy of the blog Todd In The Shadows: “Being bulletproof is boring. I’d rather be the guy who gets shot and still keeps fighting.” Yeah, I’m backing Batman in this fight, in case it hasn’t already been made clear. There’s quite a bit riding on this film, considering it’s not only the latest reboot of the Caped Crusader but it’s also supposed to serve as the entry point for a DC cinematic universe… but since this is guaranteed to make money, I’m not going to pretend that that plan isn’t already going ahead. But should it, based on this initial outing?