Following a career-ending injury, Stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is parachuted back into action when the star who used to double, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), goes missing.
Enlisted as a stuntman/investigator by producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham), Colt is back in the viewfinder of director and former flame Jody (Emily Blunt).
Can Colt save the day?
This might be the best David Leitch movie, and I still left it feeling nothing.
You can tell he is passionate about the subject.
But it is still a Leitch joint.
Directing is about making choices.
It is a measure of taste, refracted through all the variables and structures of money, time, star ego and studio dictates.
This is along way of saying The Fall Guy suffers from the same problems as his previous movies: It is still too long, packed with unoriginal needle drops and too many extended comedic beats.
Leitch’s instincts are the most solid when he is constructing stunts, but he never figures out how to differentiate between the reel and real parts of his movie.
One of the big issues is that there is no differentiation between movie stunts and the real danger our hero is.
All the set pieces are constructed using the same cinematic language. There is no sense from the filmmakers that Colt is in danger.
It still feels like the movie is operating by the same logic as the action movie they are making. There is no contrast and therefore no irony (or stakes) to Sever’s predicament.
The movie benefits enormously from Gosling and Blunt. Their chemistry is fine, and they wring what pathos they can from the script.
Sadly, like other Leitch movies, The Fall Guy feels like it should be better than it is.
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The fourth in the Crime City franchise, Punishment follows on from last year’s No Way Out.
One of the great things about the Round Up movies is that they are completely refillable.
Some ludicrously evil villain is out in the world and Detective Ma will need to punch his way through an army of goons (with the occasional garden variety asshole thrown in).
The experience of watching this movie was fantastic - the theatre was packed and we’re totally keyed into the movie’s vibe.
As a movie, Punishment feels a little too formulaic.
A fifth instalment is already in production, and here is hoping that Ma returns in 10 more movies. So I am hoping that this instalment is just a programmer entry, rather than a sign of stagnation.
This movie is fine, but it took a while to cook.
Ma’s illiteracy around computers is funny, but that conflict with computers is only used for a few jokes. It is a twist to have our hero, a guy who can solve Lost problems with a punch, not show that much concern about online crime, but it feels like the film misses an opportunity to put Ma against an obstacle he cannot fight.
Aside from the cybercrime angle, which is not as major as it appears, the movie does not have the same sense of heightened absurdity - at least for a while.
I was having a good time, but something was missing.
And it was only when Ma has to but heads with his l traditional offsiders, namely the brass, that the film becomes more engaging.
The film remembers that one of the joys of these movies is when ordinary people come into contact with the Beast Cop.
When the film reminds the viewer how unique Detective Ma is, the film unlocks the franchise’s special magic.
The third act is terrific - we get another brutal close quarters fight, this time in a first class cabin, with Ma forced to battle two opponents. We also get an all time great gag involving an angry airline representative reprimanding Ma’s chief while he escapes up an escalator.
When American nun Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) arrives at her new covenant.
She falls pregnant - an immaculate conception.
But Cecilia is suspicious that it is not the miracle the other nuns seem to treat it as…
The First Omen had the bad luck of coming out after Immaculate. And I had the good luck to see them both at the same time.
While the films seemed pretty similar sight unseen, I was excited.
If The First Omen is the big studio release, is Immaculate the Roger Corman-style ripoff which stole its thunder?
I watched Immaculate about an hour after The First Omen, which probably coloured my viewing a bit.
One worry I had was that the films would blur together, and they do share a large number of similarities.
Watching them back-to-back felt less like comparing a Hollywood original with its ripoff, and more like two adaptations of the same text.
It is interesting how both films reframe the catalyst of horror as the Catholic Church itself.
The plots are also similar, with the villains here using genetics to recreate the Messiah.
The evil comes from an adherence to dogma, which is even more explicitly patriarchal (repeated references to the deity as “he”), especially in terms of its treatment of the central character.
The male priests and doctor spend the runtime gaslighting Cecelia about her own body and autonomy.
Ironically, Immaculate is not nearly as effective or memorable as The First Omen. There is an intensity and sense of claustrophobia to that movie which this film - despite being similarly anchored to one setting - is not able to match.
This might be a result of watching both films so close together but I am not so sure.
Sweeney is effective in the lead and Álvaro Morte oozes superficial charm as the film’s Big Bad. the film’s scene stealer is Italian actress Benedetta Porcaroli as her new friend Sister Gwen is the film’s scene stealer.
The one cast member I was disappointed was not in the film more was Simona Tabasco. So good in The White Lotus, she gets little to do here.
A totally solid thriller, Immaculate gains bonus points for going absolutely wild in its climax. A gore-y farce, it feels like a different (although enjoyable) movie.
The other highlight of the movie was the score, which feels more identifiably Italian in instrumentation and style.
Overall, a solid thriller.
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In 1971, a young American nun in training, Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), arrives in Rome to take up a post at an orphanage.
Plagued by memories of her own abusive upbringing in a similar orphanage, Margaret takes an interest in troubled orphan Carlita (Nicole Sorace).
The pair’s growing rapport draws the disapproval of the other nuns, and Margaret finds herself ostracised.
As a series of strange events plague the orphanage, the trainee nun begins to feel herself going mad…
A few weeks ago, I binged the original Omen movies (1976-1981). I had never seen them before, although I was aware of the concept and the iconography.
I was not even aware this movie existed until the week before it came out, and it was not until I had finished those earlier movies that my curiosity was piqued.
I was also aware that Immaculate was out, and boasted a vaguely similar concept, so I decided to make a double bill of them.
While it’s ending acts as a segue into the ‘76 original, The First Omen feels like it’s own beast.
There are a few echoes and callbacks, incl a nasty addition to the franchise’s list of diabolically inspired deaths.
The film embraces its early 70s setting, setting up the era’s sense of rebellion against the status quo, and using that as the catalyst for the film’s villains.
This is a paranoid conspiracy thriller that ties itself to both the 70s, and the more contemporary conflicts over a woman’s right to choose.
If the film has an influence it is Rosemary’s Baby - Margaret’s flashback to her impregnating recalls the earlier film’s nightmarish copulation.
One could even draw connections between both films’ depictions of Catholicism, and the way that has shaped the central characters’ approach to sex and their own bodies.
A theme that seems to come to the fore in the Omen sequels is the idea of people being attracted to facilitating Damien’s rise for their benefit.
This may be the result of narrative ellipsis, but I got the sense that while a certain people are genuine acolytes (Miss Braylock), others like Robert Foxworth’s unscrupulous executive in Omen II would be looking for other tools for their own power if the Antichrist was not an option.
That attraction to power is remoulded in this film. Instead the film becomes a metaphor for the ways in which ageing power structures will often side with violent forces which share their animosity for change.
There is no satanic conspiracy. Instead, Damien is directly tied to the upheavals of the time in which he was born.
Rather than satanists, it is a faction of the Catholic Church that sees the future Damien as a way to scare people back to God. The Antichrist becomes a literal boogeyman for restoring the power of the Catholic Church.
The film is well cast.
He is only onscreen for a few scenes, but Bill Nighy is cast against type as Margaret’s mentor, lending his charm as a misdirect.
When his monstrousness is finally revealed, Nighy’s warmth is rendered in a new light.
Sonia Braga is almost part of the art direction, her iconic face rendered a sinister mask in a nun’s habit.
More fundamentally to the whole experience, The First Omen never feels like a prequel. There is a glimpse of Gregory Peck, but it is so minor it never feels like the movie is bending itself into a pretzel to fit the beginning of The Omen.
While it teases a follow-up I did not care for, on its own, The First Omen is a terrific picture.
Damien Thorn (Sam Neill) is now a man, with the world at his feet.
But with ultimate power in his reach, Damien is aware that a new messiah is about to be born - and with it, his demise.
Determined to fight this inevitable fall, Damien organises a plot to kill every newborn who could grow up to destroy him.
This movie is underwhelming.
There is no way around it.
In its favour, new director Graham Baker does try to keep the film to the low key style of the 1976 picture - or the filmmakers were so bereft of ideas that the film comes off more low key than intended.
Aside from a Rube Goldberg-esque assassination at the start, the assassinations are not that interesting.
There was something uncanny about the setpieces in the first film. The second film went bigger, and perhaps the filmmakers of the third film felt there was a ceiling on how over the top they could go.
This film has little flare, and the deaths that take place are uninspired.
It is hard to compare this film to the others, because (to its credit) it tries to do its own thing. Even Jerry Goldsmith is on the blank slate, delivering a completely new score - not that gothic but also feels inappropriately grandiose for how small it feels.
The film’s key failing is that it does not know where the horror in its story is, and how to convey it.
The film is centred around Damien, now played by Sam Neill as a fully self-aware and all powerful Antichrist.
Neill does his best, and there are a few moments where he creates a sense of simmering menace.
Sadly, it is hard to be afraid of him.
Spending so much time with Damien dissipates any sense of mystery or powerful. He just comes across as a rich guy.
There is also a lack of scope. We are told the world is in chaos, but we do not see any of that chaos.
The Omen managed to couch its terrors in familiar situations and settings - the family.
The third Omen flirts with horror concepts - altho of a magnitude that is not exactly workable for a big budget mainstream Hollywood thriller.
Damien’s plan is to prevent the Second Coming of the messiah by pulling a King Herod and murdering all babies born under a specific constellation.
There is also a collection of monks who have found the daggers of Megiddo.
Damien is so omnipotent and their demises so underwhelming the film almost plays like a parody (but the scenes are not silly enough).
Despite Damien’s fear of being overthrown by a new Christ - a flip on the dynamic of the previous films’ leads - the film is never able to make him an engaging antagonist.
One of the compelling elements about Omen II was the way it treated Damien as a kid wrestling with what he will have to sacrifice.
Omen III’s adult iteration is at the height of his power, with no doubts about himself. He has no arc.
It would have probably worked better if the film had focused around the monks, with Damien as an unstoppable villain.
If the film had followed the same course as its predecessor, there is an alternative version of this movie based around Damien which could have worked.
Imagine an Omen III where Damien is trying to fight his destiny by using his company and connections to help the world. Inadvertently, he fails upwards (downwards?) to become the Antichrist.
But that is not the movie we ended up with.
Aside from a wonderfully spiteful final line, The Final Conflict is a sad down note for the original Omen franchise.
