I certainly hope it doesn’t put BB off making another genre film (so long as it’s between Bonds, not instead of them). Everyone deserves a second chance.
I think it comes down to direction and writing moreso than anything else. The central premise of the story is somewhat solid, if not particularly original. With the exception of the car chase, which was pretty good, some of the choices in direction (flashbacks, closeups, etc.) are suspect, at best. Also having the novel’s author write the screenplay (something he had not done before prior to this film), may not have helped either. A more polished screenwriter could have helped, knowing what to cut and how to streamline the film for the big screen. I haven’t read the novel, so perhaps that wouldn’t have helped as much as I think it might have, but it couldn’t have hurt to have another writer at least helping in this regard.
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Angel Has Fallen
Awful. How has this series reached 3 movies?
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So so so much worse than Rythym Section
I tried watching Angel Has Fallen and it was so bad I had to switch it off pretty early on.
I think it’s a series meant for 2 o’clock in the morning after way too much Alcohol and surrounded by fast food.
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The original was decent for what it was, but it didn’t need any sequels, let alone two. Still, I’d take either of those sequels over The Rhythm Section.
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Angel Has Fallen has got to be one of the stupidest movies I’ve ever seen and this whole series has the most inept, incompetent Secret Service imaginable. Only Gerard Butler’s character seems remotely good at anything. In this one, he is framed for an attack on the President that kills most of his security detail. This, despite the fact, that he has twice before thwarted major assassination attempts on the previous President. The FBI and remaining Secret Service blindly take the first “evidence” they find as gospel and turn on their best agent. Jada Pinkett Smith’s FBI agent has got to be the worst agent of all time. She never once questions this evidence that all seems way too perfect until its too late. Then when she finally figures it out, she goes to confront the villains with no backup and is promptly shot and killed. Terrible. Also, was the Vice President being the villain meant to be a twist? It seemed pretty obvious right from the start.
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I saw Sleepless the other day, starring Jamie Foxx and Michelle Monaghan. Critics savaged it, but I thought it was really good.
Ghostbusters II on 4K Blu-ray. Like with the original, it’s like watching an entirely different film from seeing it in its previous formats. It’s also not deserving of all of the vitriol that often gets thrown at it. Yes, it hits many of the same beats as the original, but it’s fun and ticks all of the boxes it needs to.
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Agreed - saw the film again not long ago and thought it was a fine sequel.
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I just watched it with my kids for their first time. They loved it.
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THE THOMAS CROW AFFAIR (1968 - director Norman Jewison)
What if the traditional Bond villain was actually quite handsome, not much into electrocution and would pursue his villainy more as a hobby? And what if Bond was female and actually fell for the villain?
THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR is one of those films whose influence reaches far beyond its initial box office. Its split screen visuals and use of classical music subsequently made it into a number of COLUMBO episodes and the camera work and editing are decidedly on the playful side. The whole film is an exercise of style with - or so I think - a new costume for its two protagonists in nearly every scene. I’d go so far as to say Baracuta milked a 30 seconds presence in this for over 50 years successfully.
That said it’s style over substance up to a point. Contrary to frequent labelling it’s not really a heist film - the heist part is the initial impulse, but it’s not front and centre. Crown doesn’t even take part himself, he’s playing it by telephone like a computer game. The worst thing we see him do is picking up the money and laughing diabolically when he congratulates himself.
Now the actual story of the film begins as insurance detective Vicky Anderson enters the stage and investigates for a quarter hour to finally meet with Crown. From here it’s supposed to be a game of cat-and-mouse - only that it isn’t since she declares right from the start and he never denies anything. The centre piece is a game of chess that turns into a seduction. Only that too doesn’t change anything and we as audience are never in doubt how it ends. A second heist is split screened into a coda. But effectively the film ended a couple of minutes earlier at the beach.
Roger Ebert called this film under-plotted and underwritten and if I look at it closely I have to admit he’s got a point. There’s hardly any story outside the initial pitch. Not much happens here - but what doesn’t happen is fabulously dressed and acted and photographed. So much that it stands as a classic - with the inevitable remake - over 50 years later.
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I loved TTCA as a teenage cinephile–the editing (Hal Ashby and Ralph Winters); the split-screen work; and the cinematography (Haskell Wexler). It seemed to me the ne plus ultra in modern movies.
And the theme song!!! It still stops me cold when I hear it on the radio. Only much later did I learn that the film was edited to the music rather than the music written to the finished film.
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The original left me cold, I’m afraid, not least as Crown cowardly hired thugs to do the job for him.
The remake, on the other hand, is one of my all-time favourite films. Top 5, even. It’s stylish, witty, with a better plan and neat twists. Making it an art theft was so much better than a bank job.
Needing something to restore my faith in movies after Angel Has Fallen, I went back and watched Airplane! and Bull Durham. Two all-time classics and two of the greatest films in the respective genres of all-time.
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I’m thinking of seeing 1964’s Woman of Straw, as Connery is in it. Any seen it?
I saw the latest marvel spiderman offering, i love how Hollywood seems to see Europe as one country!
I’ve seen it. If you’re in it for Connery, well…he’s there. 
He looks great but his character 's very unBondian. Everything seems to hinge on Gina Lollobrigida being gorgeous and personally I just don’t feel it . YMMV.
The scenery in particular and the cinematography in general can be great, but overall it feels like a much older film, and not in a good way. On balance its one great contribution to cinema history was providing some awesome suits for Connery to wear again in “Goldfinger.”
Thanks, David. That’s very interesting. Fascinating, too, about the suits. I know he wears a white dinner jacket in it, and assumed he’d already done GF by that point. Another step, then, towards cementing the Bond image which came with that film.