It has dawned on me that, perhaps unusually for a Bond site, we don’t really have a Holmes thread anywhere. I might start one up as have been on a bit of a Rathboner (as it’s known) of late. Mrs Jim bought me the box set of those Rathbone/Bruce films and - what a hoot. Such joy.
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I watched Sicario last night. It further makes Denis Villeneuve a great choice for directing Bond. There is more humor balanced in it, so I would expect him to adapt to Bond, in that department. I’ve noticed that he has directed a lot of Bond alumni already: Christopher Walken, Benicio del Toro, Dave Bautista, Javier Bardem, Lea Seydoux, just to name a few. After watching Sicario last night, I would REALLY love to see Emily Blunt be a part of the next movie. M would be my choice, but I would happily take her in any role. I feel that Denis will get the car chases right! The tension between hero and villain should be well done as well. I feel that 007 is in great directing hands!
Also, @secretagentfan for Prince of Tides, I’d like to show some praise for George Carlin’s performance. He really was a great actor as well as he was a comedian.
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Jurassic World: Rebirth
A huge box office winner around the world during this summer, people seemed to just wanted to see dinosaur action again.
If only the film had delivered that. It takes 45 minutes for the first very mild attack, then the rest is also not packed with them at all, and when a T Rex is following a rubber boat down a stream there is no tension either because the animal seems tired and dumb.
While I like the basic idea of the beginning - people have become totally desensitized to dinosaurs, and climate change and disease have killed them in most areas - this film was a total bore for me.
Taking so much time for the main characters to be persuaded to go to the forbidden island is such a weird narrative decision - we know they will do it, why not just start with a group already having made that decision? And then this film incorporates the all too tired “broken family learning to stick together because FAMILY”-trope as well. Argh. Just filling time.
Easily the worst Jurassic film, and that’s saying something after the last one (or three).
But marketing and demand will make sure we will see more of this drivel.
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Eden
Based on a true story, this tale of a handful of people aiming to start a new life on a Galapagos island after WWI and shortly before fascism will start the horrors of WWII, is a masterpiece delivered by director Ron Howard with a killer cast, playing against type.
It’s no wonder that reviews were mixed and audiences mostly stayed away or were dissatisfied - this is a darkly comic drama about the human condition, about philosphy vs reality, and how survival always brings out the harshest and meanest side in us.
Sydney Sweeney, Ana de Armas and Vanessa Kirby are absolutely perfect, and Jude Law and Daniel Brühl also give stellar performances.
But in a time in which characters always have to be sympathetic, learning to overcome their flaws in the end, this slice of reality apparently just can raise anger.
Howard, always a cruelly underappreciated director, has turned away from the mainstream pleasers for some time now. „Eden“ is a crowning achievement of his career.
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The Assessment (2024)
Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Olsen
Dir. Fleur Fortuné
In a not-so-distant future, the environment has collapsed and the everyday resources that we often take for granted are incredibly scarce. This is the world of The Assessment, the feature debut of director Fleur Fortuné that sees the remaining population under such tight control that they are no longer allowed (or capable) to reproduce and must submit to a week-long assessment to determine their fitness for being awarded a child.
That is exactly what Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) sign up for at the beginning of the film, which brings Virginia (Alicia Vikander) to their home to assess whether or not they are worthy of having a child. The whole thing feels weird and off-putting from the start and only grows stranger and stranger as the seven days progress.
Alicia Vikander continues to show why she’s one of the best actresses working today, especially in these types of smaller science fiction films. Every moment that Vikander’s Virginia is on screen, it’s uncomfortable, as the methods that she employs as Mia and Aaryan’s assessor grows stranger and more curious as the film progresses. Much like in Ex Machina, Vikander’s performance is captivating, although in this case, much more off-putting, although this is completely be design and pays off in a powerful scene between her and Elizabeth Olsen later in the film.
The other star of the film is the art design. The look of the world that this film takes place in is rather interesting. The home that the film takes place in is visually stunning, looking nothing like the standard home that most people would recognize or think of when thinking of a house, opting for a look that is heavy with varying shades of red that feels surreal when juxtaposed with the bleakness of the world that is described as being outside of the home as well as with the exterior of the home and the greenhouse that Mia and Aaryan have built to sustain themselves as well as for Mia to conduct the research that she undertakes as a part of her job.
If you like Ex Machina, chances are you will like this movie, although I will say that it’s not as good as that film. The Assessment does drag a bit at times in the middle of the film and does feel a bit overlong at just under two hours, but it’s still a solid science fiction film that features a terrific performance from Alicia Vikander.
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The Long Kiss Goodnight.
Cackaramadingdong, obviously, and it feels like a lot was cut out, but an interesting script and with the disbenefit of post 9/11 hindsight, a challenging villainous scheme.
It kept me off the streets for a couple of hours, which is habitually to everyone else’s benefit.
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I love that film. I find myself rewatching it periodically as I keep introducing it to people.
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It’s been marketed as a “Christmas film” in Germany - TÖDLICHE WEIHNACHTEN/DEADLY CHRISTMAS being a giveaway - in the vein of DIE HARD I&II. A staple with some of the commercial stations during the holiday season.
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Denzel Washington is marvelous (again, what else is new?), and he is the reason this film is worth watching.
However, I was surprised and disappointed how such a well crafted film can fall apart in the last half hour despite all the necessary ingredients were there. This film could have been saved in the editing room easily. But Spike Lee instead chose to be indulgent, I’m afraid, instead of serving the story. Still, the story works and asks some very interesting questions about humanity, and that’s why I recommend this one.
Summary
But here’s what irks me:
- after “Carlito´s Way” you can’t just film a chase on foot into a subway train without coming up bland
- instead of ending the story shortly after that finale Lee puts in a kind of music video as a precursor for another confrontation with the main villain, and the only narrative idea of that could have easily been part of their first confrontation; and then there is another song performance which takes so lang and says so little about the main character which we already knew - this is just stretching the running time out
- also: the more you think about the scheme of the villain, the less plausible it is: did he really have so many people who were ready to be involved, risking their lives and being caught by the police, when he held on to the 17,5 million dollars all by himself? And the one who gets caught does not say anything?
- And the police does not complain just a bit about Washington and Wright flashing their guns and going after the villain themselves?
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Sudden Fear (1952 film starring, and by all accounts produced by, Joan Crawford, shown on TCM’s Noir Alley program hosted by Eddie Muller): Joan Crawford films are a bit hit-or-miss, for me. Sometimes her acting could be mawkish, to the point where I find it distracting. But I was pleasantly surprised by Sudden Fear.
Jack Palance appears in his breakout role as a charmer scheming with Gloria Grahame to murder Crawford’s character, a successful playwright. The tension builds believably as Crawford learns of their plans via her audio recorder, which she accidentally left on while dictating the terms of her will.
Unbeknownst to her husband, she overrode her lawyer’s draft (which left a conservative amount to the husband), and was dictating terms that would leave him her entire fortune. Instead, he found the written draft of the will and decided she had to die before the will was instated.
This scheme is what Crawford’s character discovers on her recorder. Her emotional collapse, then rising to find her inner strength and fight back (Will she, or won’t she?) are utterly captivating. The suspense had me on the edge of my seat, right up to the end.
And now for something completely different:
Perfect Days (2023 film starring Cannes Best Actor winner Kōji Yakusho and directed by Wim Wenders, shown on Crave in Canada): As is always the case for me with Wim Wenders films, they are emotionally evocative, yet I’m never quite sure what to make of them.
We know little of Hirayama’s background, except that it seems he once had money, and now he works as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. (The park washrooms with clear walls that turn opaque are a marvel to behold!) In fact, Hirayama rarely speaks until about halfway through the film, when the surprise appearance of his niece alters the rigid patterns he follows in his daily life.
When Hirayama’s sister comes to pick up her daughter, we learn that their father has dementia and no longer acts the way he did. However, Hirayama still refuses to visit him, which led me to the conclusion that their father was abusive.
I found it difficult to make sense of Hirayama’s dreams, shown in impressionistic black-and-white sequences similar to the film photographs he takes, without looking through his camera’s viewfinder, of trees in the park where he eats his lunch every workday. But maybe the point of Wenders’ films is not to make sense of them, but simply to experience them.
Yakusho’s Best Actor award at Cannes was well deserved. Most of his emotions are expressed nonverbally. The effect is powerful, without a hint of self-pity. Yes, Hirayama works as a toilet cleaner. He has managed to find joy and fulfillment in solitude, and also with the people he allows in to his life. May we all find such peace.
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Summary
This was about dramatizing an argument within the Black community about representation, and authenticity. I agree that the final song was weak, but these two sequences had more to do with Black culture than strict narrative necessity, what Truffaut called “privileged moments.”
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I got the feeling that that last song peformance was put in to give the Denzel Washington character an ending through which he could reconnect with his son and his career, something he did want to do - so it’s absolutely fitting in that regard.
But the structure, as it is IMO often the case in Lee‘s films, is a stop and go when it is built as a straight forward drama first, propulsive and tense. And then the believability goes out the window with the subway action, and then the film meanders around to its conclusion. Too many endings.
I was so hoping for a finale in tune with the layered and interesting drama which started the film.
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Agreed. But it is also Black community fan service.
This podcast episode with Wesley Morris offers some fine insights:
One should never go to a Spike Lee joint expecting structure. His narratives are too jazz-infused.
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Since I’ve cut back on all major streaming services my latest hobby is going round charity shops in search of second-hand DVDs. Some places are practically giving them away, as I managed to pick up 4 for £1.
I’ve only watched 1 so far: Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) with Nicholas Cage.
The film was OK. It’s a decent enough action film, even if it doesn’t hit the heights of Cage’s ‘action trilogy’ (The Rock, Con Air & Face/Off). It’s a film about car theft, so the emphasis was on driving stunts. From a technical standpoint, they were all well executed, although I felt the final jump, which should have been the showstopper, was a bit underwhelming.
It also had an overqualified supporting cast, including Angelina Jolie, Robert Duvall, and Christopher Eccleston. And from what I hear, no one dislikes this film more than Christopher Eccleston.
But for 25p worth of entertainment, I can’t really complain.
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I had two weeks vacation and I watched a whole buns of favorites:
Le Corniaud from director Gerard Oury with Bourvil and Louis de Funes, the perfect summervacation movie and still one of the best French comedy’s ever.
Topkapi from Jules Dassin with Peter Ustinov, Melina MercourI and Maximilian Schell who lookes like here as a James Bond like guy. A fun and exciting movie.
The Rock from Michael Bay with Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage. Bay’s best and maybe even his only real good movie. I still watch the old dvd which you have to turn around in the middle of the film because the rest of the movie is on the other side of the disc 
Raiders of the Lost Ark from Spielberg, still the perfect adventure movie, an ode to the old serials.
Les Aventures de Rabi Jacob from Oury again with Louis de Funes, another classic French comedy
And the Bondfilms TSWLM and Moonraker and this afternoon it will be FYEO and this weekend DAF. Oh I am so original in my Bond choises! 
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I also watched the war classic The Great Escape with Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson etc. the new 4K version of Arrow, which is better than the Kino Lorber version. Great movie and seeing the King of Cool riding his motorcycle is still fantastic!
Alien: Romulus, the new alien movie, it is ok with some suspense and action,it looks beautiful, but the end monster is disappointing, why not a “normal” terifying alien instead of this creature? Ofcourse it can’t beat the suspense of the first one and the action of the second, after all those years they still are the best.
The Taking of the Belhalm one, two, three with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. Still great and way better than the remake in a great 4K transfer from Arrow.
Lethal Weapon from Richard Donner with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.
I never saw the director’s cut before and it is realy an even better version because at the beginning of the movie you see more situations why Gibson’s character is realy a loose dangerous cannon to himself and his surroundings. Great 4K version.
Mean Machine/ The Longest Yard from Robert Aldrich with Burt Reynolds and Eddie Albert.
This one is one of my personal favorites, it is such a great fun movie, forget the remakes, this is the only one you must see. The strange thing about it is that Reynolds starts the film playing a complete jerk who hits his girlfriend, steals her car and crashes it, and argues and fights with the police, but as soon as he goes to jail and is harassed by the prison warden and his staff, you start to sympathize with him more and more, and by the end, he’s the hero of the story. It even co-stars Richard Kiel!! Also a great 4K version!
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One Battle After Another
A unicorn in today’s cinematic landscape. Remarkable. Definitely see it on the biggest screen you can. I loved it.
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Stealth Fighter.
Another charity shop find. I watched this for an incredibly silly reason; one of the main characters has the same name as me.
The film was not good. I think it’s worth talking about here, though, as the plot revolved around the theft of a stealth aircraft and a Cold War-era EMP satellite weapon. This sounds very derivative of Goldeneye, released just four years before. But when you see the satellite weapon in action, it looks like the one from Diamonds Are Forever. Because it was. They literally spliced footage from DAF into Stealth Fighter. In fact, if you look at its IMDb trivia page, it’s mostly just a list of films where footage was taken from.
Other than that, it’s just an overqualified cast (Ernie Hudson, William Sadler) and some very cheap-looking sets and badly staged action scenes. There isn’t really much to recommend; all I got out of it was hearing my name spoken by B-grade action movie stock characters
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Hoe zag Sadler er uit? Als de reaper of was hij een gewone schurk?
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He was the Admiral. One of the better moments is when he starts the typical authority figure “You didn’t follow orders… You’re a wild card,” only to follow it up with “I have to give this bullshit speech; it’s required by law.”
Later he’s revealed to be an unwilling traitor, and for his final scene he puts in far more effort than the material deserved.
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