NEW PODCASTS 2020

I skipped last year for some reason, but here is a brief list of podcasts I have been listening to this (and last year.

Best Movies Never Made

Hosted by filmmakers Stephen Scarlata (Jodorwosky's Dune) and Josh Miller (2020's Sonic The Hedgehog), Best Movies Never Made is the podcast for anyone who used to share copies of James Cameron's 1995 treatment for Avatar or searched the Internet looking for information about Kubrick's Napoleon.

From blockbusters that never were (Godzilla 3D) through alternate versions of movies that got made (Star Trek, James Bond), this podcast is a fun spin on the ‘making of’ sub-genre. What makes this one interesting are the frequent appearances by key creatives who were involved with these projects.

Blank Check

Hosted by critic David Sim and comedian Griffin Newman, Blank Check covers directors' filmographies, especially filmmakers who are so successful they have been given a series of 'blank checks' to make what ever they like.

This podcast is pretty well-known; I heard about it a couple years ago but never bothered to check it out.

Both hosts are knowledgable and personable, and their discussions are fascinating and enlightening.

They also take time out to review various odds and ends (I particularly enjoyed their reviews of Under Siege 2 and Assassins Creed), which round out the show. 

The Cannon Canon

A worthy companion to one of my favourite podcasts, Action Boyz, comedians Frank Garcia-Hejl and Geoff Garlock have given themselves the unenviable task of reviewing every film associated with the Cannon Group, the independent film company run by Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus.

If you are a fan of Chuck Norris, Chuck Bronson, Jean Claude Van Damme, Masters of the Universe, Superman IV or the Breakin' movies, you have had some experience with their output.

Equal parts fanboys and incredulous bystanders, Frank and Geoff provide a running commentary of trivia, analysis and observations (their nickname for Chuck Norris is an all-timer) that make the episodes enjoyable without watching the movies.

Double Toasted

At the start of the year, I was bingeing reviews of Tyler Perry's latest opus A Fall From Grace. I stumbled upon Double Toasted. The show has been running for years, so I have been bingeing on their archive - the show is also released on YouTube, which has been my main port of entry.

The moment I knew this show was great was the extended debate between hosts Korey Coleman and Martin Thomas about the morality of Grover the muppet. Extending across two episodes (so far), it is a mind-melting example of how wonderful the internet really is.

Covering everything from weird news stories to the latest movie reviews, Double Toasted is a great show to check in on. 

How Did This Get Played?

Imagine How Did This Get Made?, except for video games and hosted by a robot.

Co-hosted by Nick Wiger (of Doughboys fame) and Heather Anne Campbell, the show is very informative and very self-aware review of the worst and weirdest video games ever made. I could not care less about the subject, but the hosts and guests are so funny about the thing they love that I got into it.

Iconography

Hosted by comedians Ayo Edebiri and Olivia Craighead, Iconography is... something. Every episode Ayo and Olivia invite a guest to share their icon. Most of these icons are celebrities that the guest looks up to, or finds fascinating. The guest has to argue their case and then the hosts decide whether this icon will endure. The scope of the show is almost infinite, and the hosts provide a steady supply of supplemental nonsense that makes the show a real meal of a listen.  

Sam Pancake Presents The Monday Afternoon Movie

Technically, I started listening to this one last year. Hosted by actor Sam Pancake, the show covers TV movies form the 70s. Pancake is an affable host, and he is fount of knowledge about his chosen subject.

 

I tend to gravitate toward niche subjects curated by funny people, and while it is not a laugh riot, Pancake and his guests have a knack for zeroing in on the most ridiculous aspects of the movies they are reviewing. 

Scam Goddess

Hosted by comedienne Laci Mosley, Scam Goddess is all about scams and the dastardly rogues who carry them off. Bouyeed by Mosley's sheer joy in the subject, Scam Goddess is a unique show that you should probably listen to rather than read some minor blogger ramble on about it.

You In Danger Gurl

I cannot remember how I ended up clocking Jamelle James - I think she guested on an episode of Nicole Byer's Why Won't You Date Me, and that led me to this show.

I am a big fan of 80s and 90s thrillers, but James is a REAL fan of the genre, particularly the wonderfully cheesy erotic thrillers. The best part of the show is the segment 'Red Flags', an opportunity for listeners to submit their own stories about terrible dates and partners. Some of the stories are terrifying, and some involve clown college. 

If you like the genre, and if you like to laugh, You in Danger Gurl is worth checking out.

READING 2020

I have been trying to read more, and 2020 provided plenty of reasons to get back into it.

Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics

Written by historian Kimberly Phillips-Fein, a look at the historical, social, economic and political context of New York's re-making in the mid-seventies. New York's painful transformation into a hub for massive conglomerates set the stage for the kind of austerity politics that feel all too familiar in the 2010s, and Fear City interrogates the political choices underpinning the fiscal decisions which destroyed a unique example of local social democracy.

Reading Fear City in 2020, and watching New York struggle with Covid this year brought home how the scars of the mid-seventies remain.

The Liquidator

When I was younger, I loved reading the James Bond novels. The most prolific author of the series was John Gardner, and I read quite a few of his. They did not grip the same way as Ian Fleming's work, and my opinion has not improved on a recent re-read.

However, curiosity got the best of me and I decided to read the book that gave him the Bond gig, The Liquidator.

A blackly comic spin on the Bond formula, The Liquidator is a modest but really enjoyable little thriller that builds into a marvellous farce as the title character stumbles through a conspiracy both more and less complex than he understands. I want to keep it vague because we will probably cover it on the James Bond Cocktail Hour at some point in the future, but it is a lot of fun, and has led me to completely reassess my opinion of Gardner as an author.

Madea Lives!: A Film-By-Film Guide To Loving Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry is a fascinating character. He reminds me a lot of Russ Meyer - not in subject, but as an independent filmmaker with a genuinely original take on his art and the financial independence to not have to deal with outside interference (for good or ill).

Written by film critic Evan Saathoff (formerly of Birth.Movies.Death), this comprehensive tome examins Perry's filmography up to 2013's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor. 

Combining close analysis with humour and a genuine passion for Perry's work, Saathoff captures his own fascination with the filmmaker, and made me more interested in watching the man's films.

Nixonland

Technically I am still halfway through this one but it depressed me so much I had to take a break. A terrifying portrait of ambition coinciding with the worst elements in America's psyche, Nixonland is a great book, particularly if you want an inkling of how the US ended up where it is now. Author Rick Perlstein has written a series of books on the modern conservative movement, from Goldwater to Reagan. All are vital reading, but Nixonland is a great starting point. 

Quarry

The hardbitten tales of a hitman operating in the middle of the midwestern United States, Quarry is the creation of writer Max Allan Collins, who is probably most famous for writing the graphic novel Road to Perdition. 

I bought the first book of this series a few years ago and forgot about it. I started reading it at the beginning of the year and sped through it. While it was not the most original story in the world, the prose was tight, and Collins writes with an extremely dry sense of humour.  

I ended up reading the first four books of this series this year - the highlight is the third one, Quarry's Deal, in which our protagonist forms a relationship with someone who just might be in the same profession. 

The one criticism I have the books are the cover art. The latest editions were published by Hardcase Crime, a speciality label which tries to recreate the feel of the old pulp thrillers. This includes creating painted cover art that evokes the those old paperbacks. My problem is not that these covers feature scantily clad women, it is that they have almost nothing to do with the content or style of the books - and it also feels like the art completely misses that pulp covers generally included more elements than sex appeal. They generally featured a strong image that would give some sense of a key sequence that would make people buy them. These covers feel like pale imitations, with no sense of imagination. 

Well, that went on longer than I thought. Anyway, if you are in the mood for something short, brutal and a morally questionable, Quarry might scratch that itch.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

OUT NOW: Misbehaviour

I had an idea as I was heading into the theatre - somebody missed a real opportunity to make a 'Die Hard'-style action movie entitled Misbehaviour. And then I remembered the 1995 film No Contest, which is that movie. Ugh. Anyway, onto the review...

London, 1970. Activist Sally Alexander (Keira Knightley) comes up with a plan to infiltrate and disrupt the staid Miss World competition, which plays to a worldwide TV audience of 100 million. On the night, the protest puts the Women's Liberation Movement on the map, while Grenadian contestant Jennifer Hosten (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) became the first black contestant to be crowned Miss World.

2020's Misbehaviour is an ensemble comedy based on a real-life incident: the Women's Liberation Movement's protest at the 1970 Miss World competition, an event which would also see the crowning of the first black winner, Hosten aka Miss Grenada (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).

I enjoyed the movie but I could not get over the feeling I was watching the Richard Curtis version of the story. I think the events of the last couple of years, along with a lot of reading, has made me incredibly cynical towards movies like this.

It can be hard to balance history with the dramatic requirements of a classic genre narrative, particularly when that movie touches on the development of a movement. And when that movie wants to be a commercial entertainment, the possibility of challenging ideas and nuance (such as different ideas of feminism and ways to enact structural change). Misbehaviour is certainly watchable, but it feels like it is set at a simmer, when it should be at a boil. 

Tonally, I was a little lost. The movie seems to be trying to encapsulate both the degradation the women face and also the excitement of the contestants. It is an ambitious attempt to present a multiplicity of women in different positions of power and privilege. 

It is a good idea but I was struggling to figure out what the through-line of the movie was. The movie moves between Sally, Jennifer, host Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear) and Miss World founder Eric Morley (Rhys Ifans), so we get an overview of the event, but the cumulative effect is a bit diffuse. 

The movie feels like it wants to be a feel-good story about underdogs taking on the system, but the filmmakers' approach felt too broad. During the initial sequence showing the formation of the Women’s Liberation front, the filmmakers dub in ‘Respect’ by Aretha Franklin. It is such a cliche, I thought it was going to be a set-up to some kind of joke, but it is just an obvious needle drop.

The presentation of the finale, especially the score, make it feel like a great victory, but it seemed like the scene needed a montage of different people around the world reacting to seeing the events on TV. 

 I feel like I am being too harsh, but it does feel like a much bigger story that has been squeezed into a movie format. There are so many interesting characters and elements to the story, that the filmmakers' decision to focus on everyone diminishes their impact.

The story might have worked better as a miniseries - Jennifer and Pearl Jansen aka Miss Africa South (Loreece Harrison) feel particularly shortchanged, considering what happened at the end of the event. 

While the movie is not hard-hitting, a few moments are clearly meant to hammer home the reality of 1970 for women: Sally’s university supervisor staring down the camera as he nonchalantly dismisses her thesis topic (women workers) as too niche; the sequence during the contest when the contestants have to turn their backs on the judges so that they can inspect their rears. The camera focuses on the panning of the TV camera, the faces of the audience, and the gazes of the judges before showing the contestants. 

In another scene Pearl talks to Jennifer about the how the South African government have given her strict rules on what to do during the competition, and have threatened to ban her from returning home if she breaks any of them. 

As far as the acting goes, most of the performers are good, with one surprising exception.

I have not seen Keira Knightley in anything in awhile - she acquits herself quite well as Sally, the reluctant initiator of the Miss World protest. She has a fine rapport with Jessie Buckley as the more radical Jo Robinson, who leads the commune of women who infiltrate the event. Their dynamic is the one time the film really tries toe explore the ideological differences between the various movements which fall under the banner of Women's Liberation.

It is always good to see Gugu Mbatha-Raw in movies, and she provides a warmth and spark to Jennifer Hosten. However, I could not help feeling like this role feels too small for her. 

There is a moment midway through when someone announces that Jennifer's age is 22. I spent the rest of the movie pondering. There are few roles for actresses of colour in Hollywood and the UK. Was this a missed opportunity for a younger actress to get a shot?

Surprisingly, the one big miss in the movie is Greg Kinnear. The movie's tone is a little too broad for the story, and Kinnear;s subplot as Hope feels the most like a caricature. Hope was a larger than life figure, with an identifiable schtick. Kinnear leans into Hope's familiar ticks, but I never felt the man behind the character. The moment where I really felt it is when Sally storms the stage and points a squirt gun at him. Hope retires to his makeup room and has a breakdown, but it seemed like Kinnear was not able to find the cracks behind Hope's persona.

Overall, Misbehaviour is an entertaining but slight look at an important event. It is fun, but it never conveys the impact of the event it is based on. It might be worth waiting until it is on Netflix - it feels more suited to the home format.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

NZIFF 2020: The Perfect Candidate

Maryam (Mila Al Zahrani) is a doctor at a small country clinic - the road to the clinic is unpaved, and is constantly susceptible to flooding. Through a series of circumstances, Maryam ends up as a candidate for her local council, running against the local member who has ignored her pleas for a new road.

With the road as her first campaign issue, she enlists her sisters to get her campaign off the ground. While their father is away on a music tour, the three sisters support Maryam’s campaign.

Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia's first female director, The Perfect Candidate is a David and Goliath story about a young woman and her sisters taking on the system.

In some ways it reminded me of Sunshine Cleaning, in that it is about a family of sisters pulling together to accomplish a goal. 

What I liked about it was while it did not lean too hard into the darkness of the system, there was always a sense of barriers. I was on edge throughout the movie that there would be some kind of dramatic pushback on Maryam or her family, but nothing like that arises.

The film is packed with great scenes, from Maryam's abortive attempt to do a teleconference with a tent full of men, to the sisters researching campaign videos by watching a homemade campaign video by an American guy whose key policy is to move his state capital.

Maryam is a great character - she has a strong sense of self-worth, and as barriers arise to her candidacy, she takes up this opposition as a part of her campaign. Actress Mila Al Zahrani brings a clarity and purpose to the protagonist, bringing a fire that the rest of the film does not have.

I hope The Perfect Candidate shows up on a streaming service soon - it is a warm, funny story from a perspective we do not get to see.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Future Nostalgia (Dua Lipa, 2020)

I thought I might have a few more albums to write about this year, but this year was 2020 so it is just Dua Lipa's latest album.

I wish I had more to write about, but my brain has been all over the place and this was the only record that I was able to stick with.

I was not that familiar with Dua Lipa's music - I tried listening to her first album, but none of the songs stuck in my head. 

And then at the end of last year 'Don't Stop Now' came out and that song completely turned me around. This was also around the time when she was being touted as up for the next James Bond theme, and I was keen to hear what her new album sounded like.

Released just as New Zealand went into lockdown, Future Nostalgia was probably intended as a party album but at the end of March it became a different form of escape.

I always liked disco music, and this album seems to be a refraction of the neo-disco revival of the millennium.

 'Don't Stop Now' is a minimalist dance number that manages to feel familiar. Boasting a simple catchy chorus, funky bass and some stabs of strings, the song feels like a dare. Big crunchy pop-dance songs are not as in vogue as they were a decade ago, and this song feels like it is answering a challenge to create a dance track without the heavy percussion of a David Guetta. 

My favourite chunk of the album is from 'Levitating' to 'Good in Bed'. I do not mind 'Physical' or the other early tracks, but this batch of songs build upon each other in a really fun way.  

From what I have read, 'Levitating' was the song that cracked the overall sound of the album. Opening with repeated processed vowels (I could not tell if they an instrument or a vocal sample), it feels like a mini-introduction to this section of the album. It is a fun song, but it is followed by 'Pretty Please', which might be my favourite track on the album. It features a particularly bouncy bottom end that is hard to resist.

'Hallucinate' is another highlight - closer to the dance songs of a decade ago, it quickly became a song I gravitated toward. Listening to this song, I was reminded of Lipa's interest in singing a James Bond song. While the production is probably too poppy, there is something in it that put my onside with this idea, particularly the lyric "Kill me slowly with your kiss". 

What I liked about the album was how stripped down it is as a pop album - it is only 11 tracks, and only one song goes over four minutes. Bless.

The songs also stick to the dance floor - I was expecting some kind of ballad or torch song, but the album stays the course. The lyrics are witty and filled with innuendo. Lipa's phrasing is pretty spare but her restraint actually works for the songs' humour. There is a lack of pretension to the whole project which is admirable. 

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

NZIFF 2020: 1982

On the day of his final exams, Wissam (Mohamad Dalli) tries to work up the courage to talk to his crush, Joana (Gia Madi). On any other day, this would be the biggest thing on his mind.

Meanwhile the staff members scramble to figure out how to get the kids out of the school as word arrives that Israeli forces are approaching Beruit...

About a minute into this movie I realised I have never seen a Lebanese movie. I realised that the only vaguely relevant movie I had seen was Lebanon, which is set inside an Israeli tank during the conflict 1982 is also based in.

I do not usually get personal on these blogs, but I felt really embarrassed watching this movie. I am of Lebanese descent, but I know almost nothing about the country outside of Wikipedia and what I read in the news. 15 minutes into the movie I was scrawling through a history of the civil war, trying to explain the background to my mum while trying to follow the subtitles onscreen. I wish I knew more, and 1982 only highlighted just how deep my ignorance truly is.

That aside, while the issues underpinning the conflict are complex, 1982 focuses on the impact of these broader forces on ordinary people. 

This movie is based on multiple fault lines, areas of conflict which create overlapping catalysts for suspense - student Wissam (Mohamad Dalli) and the object of his affection, Joana (Gia Madi); her friend Abir (Lelya Harkous) and his friend Majid (Ghassan Maalouf); their teachers; there is even the more mundane pressure of exams.

And then there is the advance of Israeli troops outside.

Despite the context the story takes place in, the movie is very understated. The only signs of the approaching conflict are news reports, snatches of conversation and a brief sighting of an aerial dogfight in the sky. The movie has all the tension of a thriller, yet the filmmakers manage to balance that inherent tension with the more mundane conflicts between the kids, particularly Wissam and his mate Majid. 

The movie does not belittle Wissam and the other kids, but there is some gentle humour in their interactions - particularly in the mirroring of Majid and Joana's nosey friend Abir. It is a real achievement that the movie has enough space to provide these little breaths in the tension.

It is a complex juggling of viewer responses, but the filmmakers weave these two storylines together with tact and empathy for everyone onscreen. 

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

NZIFF 2020: The Last Wave

After losing and re-finding my notes, here is another review of one of the films I saw at this year's New Zealand International Film Festival. I wish it could be more in-depth, but it has been awhile since my screening. Consider this a preamble to a longer piece sometime in the near future.

After a white lawyer (Richard Chamberlain) becomes defence counsel for a group of indigenous men who have been accused of murder, he finds himself drawn into . As his investigation progresses, strange weather events are taking place all over Australia...

Directed by Peter Weir, The Last Wave is a fascinating movie. I want to put out this review almost as a teaser for when I am able to take in a few more viewings, and read more around the film.

Released in the late 70s, The Last Wave feels like an Aussie take on the pessimism of the Western world in the Seventies - post-Dissmissal; post-fuel crisis, wrestling with its colonial past (or not). 

Generically, it feels like a more elliptical take on a disaster movie, but is it a disaster signalling the end times, or a transition?

It also feels like Peter Weir's vague concession to the Ozloitation movies of the era, but despite the presence of an American star, and has some iconography which might be associated with horror, The Last Wave cannot be boxed in to a specific sub-genre.

While the movie utilises the idea of Indigenous people as mysterious figures associated with elemental forces, the movie is more interested in holding a mirror up to the white characters' perspectives.

As the film progresses that mystery is rebounded on the white characters, to reveal their ignorance and racism. It is a complicated but more nuanced POV than the generic ‘magical Person Of Colour’ - it is not unproblematic but The Last Wave is more interesting for the way it portrays past and contemporary white Australians.

And rather than being a white saviour, Richard Chamberlain’s central character comes across as an unknowing portent of doom.

I have really only touched the surface with this one - I am keen to revisit the movie, and check out any scholarship around it.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

OUT NOW: Wonder Woman 1984 (some spoilers)

In 1984, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) operates incognito as Wonder Woman, while working at the Smithsonian. 

When a new artefact arrives at the museum, Diana is soon forced to contend with the man who would like to possess it, Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal).

As she goes on the trial after Max, Diana also has to deal with the mysterious return of Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), the mortal man she loved and lost back in World War One. 

This movie is fun. After a year like 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 was a welcome reprieve. It was also great to have a superhero movie that wanted to have fun. And while it is entertaining, it also has some more serious ideas that make it stick more in the mind.

I was interested to figure out why the titular year was so important. Was it another example of the recent trend of Eighties nostalgia, an  excuse for using familiar aesthetics of the time period?

What I found interesting was how understated the visuals were. The eighties milieu serves as a. ready signifier for the central macguffin of the movie - the plot of the movie is based around an object that can grant you a single wish. The filmmakers use this idea to play with familiar ideas from the decade, from 

All the characters have desires and they ultimately sell themselves for their wishes:

Max Lord, a combo of corporate monster, con man and televangelist, is obsessed with success and recognition. Cheetah is a wallflower who is tired of being ignored or walked over. And Diana has built a life around the loss of her lover Steve Trevor (Chris Pine).

While the movie has a breezy sense of fun, as Max Lord’s scheme grows the movie skews increasingly dark. It’s not Cormac McCarthy, but the movie’s darkness carries more weight than the ‘grimdark’ posturing of the Zack Snyderverse.

The filmmakers are invested in the characters, and give the film a sense of sincerity that never goes too far into schmaltz.

When it comes to Gadot in the lead role I am torn. I thought she was good in the first movie, where her bluntness worked for the character’s naïveté. This movie is more premised on dialogue than the big set pieces, and Gadot seemed slightly out of place. There is something about Gadot that always bumps me a little. I think she has too much jock energy to come off as a pacifist.

I really felt it during the scenes set in the Middle East, when she rescues the kids from the villains' truck. While that is a very Wonder Woman thing to do, I could not help but think about Gadot’s views on Palestine. Is this scene acknowledging this offscreen context, or trying to soften it?

Not to relate everything back to Bond BUT I almost felt a similarity in her performance to George Lazenby as Bond. There are a few bumpy moments but there is a cumulative affect which works. 

In the same way to Lazenby, sometimes Gadot's bluntness does kind of work for the film's tone which is sloppily, almost monochromatically earnest. While it is fun, what I appreciated about WW84 was how earnest and open it is with its characters' emotions. While the comparison is not exact, the movie WW84 reminded me of was Batman Returns, which is another movie with its own self -contained sense of movie logic and heightened characters (although that movie is more nuanced, complicated - heck, living - than this movie could ever hope to be).

Kristen Wiig delivers an understated performance as Cheetah; as Minerva she feels like a quieter, sadder version of her role in Bridesmaids. Sadly, the character her is pretty underwritten so the role feels like window dressing - she ends up just being someone for Wonder Woman to fight.

Pedro Pascal plays Mac Lord as the ultimate retail politician - he is aggressively trying to be liked. Since this is the eighties, it is easy to see him as a cartoon analogue for a Trumpian con man, with a little of the televangelist thrown in. There is an ever-present sense of desperation which alternately comes off as sad and terrifying. It is a big florid performance and it is great to finally get one of those in a superhero movie again. 

Chris Pine is a treasure - he is always great, and he is a great partner to Gadot. He never takes the limelight, but never feels like a joke to bounce off his immortal foil. The surprise and sense of joy he brings to Steve’s discovery of the 1980s is addictive. I could have watched 90 minutes of the pair wandering around the world. 

Gadot and Pine have good chemistry, and Gadot’s acting in their final scene is the strongest in the film.

One thing I loved about the movie is that it ends on an argument not a fight scene - one of the strengths of the first movie is Diana’s belief in people’s better nature and it is a testament to the characters that they let her intellect and empathy take the win, rather than just her fists. The character remains the moral centre of DC’s current cinematic output, and I am really interested to see how that will affect future movies.

The movie is also not worried about being realistic - this is more akin to a musical of primary colours and primary emotions, but with all the vividness of the best musicals. 

Speaking of music, I appreciated Hans Zimmer’s score. He is the king of the shortened melodies, but I liked the use of choir and the 80s synth tones. I do not know if it will stick in the brain but as a piece of the movie it worked. 

If I have one complaint, it is the over-emphasis on CGI, particularly in the last fight scene, which includes some confusing camera-work and blurred motion. It also takes place at night, which makes it harder to follow. 

It might be how jaded I am, but big CG set pieces do nothing for me anymore. I think that is part of the reason why WW84 won me over. Aside from the amusing opening robbery, there were few moments where I felt a sense of wonder (no pun intended). The only one I can think of is when Diana lassos lightning. That was more interesting than anything that other lightning guy from those other movies has done.

I do not need them in every scene but I never felt a visceral rush during the big set pieces. Maybe I am getting old. Maybe the over-saturation of the genre has deadened my inner child.

One thing did occur to me in the lead up to this movie, and how this movie resolved that issue leaves me curious about how the portrayal of this character will proceed.

In the first Wonder Woman, what really struck me was how engrossed I was in the dynamic between Steve Trevor and Diana. Their relationship helped to ground the title character, in a similar way to Lois Lane and Clark Kent. 

When it was revealed that Pine would be back, I did wonder what this meant for Diana. Do the filmmakers only think she can be relatable in juxtaposition with a man?

In this movie, I think the filmmakers threaded that needle in an interesting way. Diana’s conflict is about letting go. In order to save the world, she has to give up an opportunity to have Steve back. 

As the credits rolled, I wondered how the filmmakers are going to tackle Diana in future sequel/s, and give her worthy opponents. It is a similar problem with Superman: How do you make these invulnerable people vulnerable? 

They found a way to bring Steve back here, but they cannot go back to that well again. On top of that, do they really want to build their main female superhero around her relationship to a man? 

I have to say while I had some questions and criticisms, I really enjoyed WW84. Maybe not as much as the original, but I liked that this movie did not try to replicate its predecessor, and found a new kind of antagonist that fit Diana, and did not turn into a giant CGI monster.

Overall, WW84 is a fine piece of entertainment, and in an era of weightless, repetitive set pieces,   is worth watching for the character dynamics rather than the fight sequences.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)

When Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken for a secret agent, and then blamed for a political assassination, he has to go on the run to track down the mysterious 'George Kaplan', the man he has been mistaken for.

As he flees across country, he becomes entangled in a widening web of conspiracy involving a beautiful blonde (Eva Marie Saint) and a team of killers led by an urbane Englishman (James Mason).

Man, I took way too long to watch this movie.

I was a big Hitchcock fan when I was younger, but I got interested in other filmmakers and North by Northwest fell by the wayside.

I watched this movie after Saboteur, and it was like going from the Wright Brothers' plane to a supersonic jet. 

From the opening notes of Bernard Herrmann’s score, I knew we were in good hands. The movie moves so seamlessly into the caper so quickly, I wanted to clap. 

Made almost two decades after Saboteur, and after assembling the team that would be the source of his greatest successes, Hitchcock’s final and most successful ‘Man on the run’ thriller is a joy from beginning to end.

It is so well paced and moves so fast that you never worry about contrivances or logic gaps. I recently watched a webinar where James Cameron was the guest, and he made a great point about logic in screenwriting. You need to treat it like a lawyer in court: only ask the questions that you want answered.

North by Northwest is never concerned with realism, and it is all the better for it. All that matters is that Thornhill's reactions and choices make sense. If you can track the characters, and they remain consistent, nothing else matters and anything is possible. 

The villains' plot ends up being about a MacGuffin that is purely designed to give the characters to chase after, and by the end that little item is completely secondary to our protagonists rescuing each other. I have run into a couple of movies recently that have bungled their macguffins so badly, it really sets in relief how they need to be employed - a big culprit is Mission: Impossible III, a film which teases out its MacGuffin for so long that you fixate on what it actually is (which says something about how underwhelming the other aspects of the movie are). 

While the movie is pure popcorn, North By Northwest has fully-developed characters who form the spine of the movie. The MacGuffin and the broader conspiracy do not merit much attention, only in terms of the pressure that it places on Thornhill and his romantic love interest, the mysterious blonde Eve, played by Eva Marie Saint.

The central couple in Saboteur feel like pieces on a board moving from set piece to set piece, North by Northwest's script (by Ernst Lehman) keeps the focus on Thornhill's motivation to clear his name, and his burgeoning relationship with the mysterious Eve. With sharp repartee and strong chemistry between the leads, this is a couple that feel equally matched. 

Grant is on terrific form as a shallow man who is forced to become a part of something important. Saint matches him as the whip-smart and conflicted Eve, while James Mason is the best Bond villain that never was as the smooth Vandamm.

As a James Bond fan, I have always been aware of the connections to Hitchcock's work. Watching North by Northwest cemented the connection - the long running series feels like a continuation of Hitch's man-on-the-run thrillers, with the glossy North by Northwest, with its location hopping, sexual innuendo and set pieces, as the bridge between the two. Fundamentally the two are very different, and a big reason is that Thornhill, despite his charm and suits, is an everyman. He never comes across as someone who is going to win, and watching Grant figure out how to outfox his opponents gives the film an excitement that the Bond series rarely reaches for.

The set pieces have been dissected for decades, so I will not spend too much time on them. I will just add to the chorus of 'They are great!'. What stuck with me was how funny the movie was - Thornhill's confused interactions after being kidnapped; Thornhill's relationship with his mother; even Thornhill's expression in the newspaper photo when he is holding the knife at the UN is hilarious.

Well-paced, suspenseful and hilarious, North by Northwest is a timeless good time. If you have not watched it, do.

Related

Saboteur

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Die Hard 2 (Renny Harlin, 1990)

It's Christmas Eve. John McClane is at the airport, awaiting his wife Holly's (Bonnie Bedelia) plane.

What he does not expect is that a group of rogue special forces soldiers led by Colonel Stuart (William Sadler). They hack in and take control of the airport's ground control systems and communications with the aircraft overhead.

In a race against time, McClane must defeat the terrorists before planes start dropping out of the sky...

Released two years after Die Hard, Die Hard 2 was a huge hit that cemented Bruce Willis as an action movie star. For years, it held the distinction of being the weakest instalment in the franchise, sandwiched between John McTiernan's Part One and Three.

Watching it post-two more sequels (only one of which I have seen), Die Hard 2 comes across as a solid action film of its era. It lacks the special magic of the original, but it is a fine piece of entertainment on its own terms.

On this viewing, I did wander whether it would have worked better as a standalone film.  

One of the interesting things about the Die Hard movies is how they are all based on other properties - the original on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever, while Parts 3 and 4 were scripts that were re-jigged into Die Hard movies. This movie was based on the novel 58 Minutes by Walter Wager, with the biggest change being the replacement of the book's German villains with Cold Warrior/mercenaries.

Written by Steven E. DeSouza and Doug Richardson, Die Hard 2 tries to maintain the verisimilitude established by its predecessor, while replicating and expanding upon the elements which made it a success. 

In contrast to the one-man-armies of Stallone and Schwarzenegger, Willis's John McClane was presented as an everyman, with relatable problems and fears (a broken marriage, a fear of heights). In the sequel, the filmmakers try to present him as an accidental celebrity who is recognised and criticised in equal measure. It is a fun idea that I wish the movie did more with. 

If you are a fan of the original film like I am, the constant references to Nakatomi Plaza do start to grate. You cannot help comparing the two films, and I think I would enjoy DH2 more if it was not so enamoured of the first movie. The fact that they find a way to wedge in the reporter Thornburg (William Atherton) is a bridge too far. And then there is John McClane - the biggest reference to the original movie. More on that later.

Despite the references, and repetitions of key moments, Die Hard 2 does not feel like the original. Directed by Renny Harlin, the film’s style is noticeably more aggressive. There are far too many cuts and angles within individual scenes. There are a ton of dutch angles and slow motion to accentuate deaths that feel like flourishes rather than adding to the scenes. 

It is a more hectic movie, and does not have the same sense of mounting tension or sense of geography.

Part of the problem is the size of the airport. Compared with the building in the original, there are so many different environments, and it is harder to piece together where the characters are.

And while there is plenty of action, it does not pack the same sense of stakes. That being said, the SWAT team ambush is exciting (you can catch future T1000 Robert Patrick as one of the bad guys), and the finale on the wing of a 747 is great. 

What I found interesting about the movie is how it feels like a bridge, between the original movie and the excess of the late nineties, in films like Con Air or Michael Bay's whole career. The bit where McClane ejects out of a plane straight toward the camera as it explodes behind him is enjoyably ludicrous. Moments like this would soon become cliche.

The cast are as strong as the original, but the roles are not nearly as well-drawn as the original. William Sadler, John Amos and Frank Nero are good, but their roles feel more generic - while competent, the characters’ motives are vague. The biggest sign of a different director is the minor players, like the eccentric maintenance man (Tom Bower) who assists McClane. There is a cartoonish quality to the minor characters that really sticks out. Die Hard is packed with minor characters who feel fleshed out. Even Al Leong's terrorist (who raids the snack bar) feels more real than the populace of the sequel. 

People talk about the lack of believability of John McClane in the latter sequels. Watching Part 2, I can feel a little of that omniscience coming in here. Bruce Willis is still good, but the character feels like it is on rails. McClane snoops, shoots bad guys, the authorities do not believe him. Rinse and repeat.

Even the moments of peril feel generic - I give kudos to the filmmakers for having the villains down a plane, but when the victims are a planeload of British stereotypes (on 'Windsor Airlines'), it is hard to buy in.

Frankly, Die Hard 2 might have benefited from being its own movie. Moments like the downing of Windsor 114 might play better if they are not in service of a sequel to Die Hard. 

While it cannot reach the heights of the first Die Hard, Die Hard 2 is a fun time. With a Vengeance (Part 3) is closer to the first movie, but just as a ride, Die Hard 2 gets the job done. And it is still a Christmas movie.

As an exercise in (mostly) pre-digital blockbuster filmmaking and sequel-building, it is more interesting.

I am more keen to read 58 Minutes now. Watch this space...

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

BOOTLEG REVIEW: Backtrack (Michael Petroni, 2015)

[A version of this review was published in 2016]

Ugh, I wish I could backtrack the 90 minutes of my life wasted watching this movie.

Adrien Brody stars as a psychiatrist dealing with the trauma of his daughter’s death. This trauma has in turn caused him to begin to hallucinate about a terrible event that took place during his childhood.

This movie is a collection of horror cliches wrapped in the over-saturated visual style of soap adverts and grunge music videos. 

It’s not scary, it’s not suspenseful, and it is not compelling in any way. 

Brody does his best (with a whiffy Aussie accent), Sam Neill pops his head in for a few scenes, and Robin Mcleavy of Loved Ones fame does a good job in a thankless role as a cop dragged into Brody’s troubles.

Although the filmmakers do their best to make everything look good (the photography is very sumptuous), their efforts at atmosphere amount the usual ‘strobe light and loud bangs’ approach of bad horror movies. 

Ultimately, the script is the root of the problems here. The protagonist’s story is hard to get involved with, and his predicament is never that scary.

While never actively terrible, Backtrack is aggressively un-involving.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.