Brian's Thoughts on Movies

 In 2024 the sixth and final season of Cobra Kai debuted.  Netflix adopted a strategy similar to what they did with the final seasons of The Crown and Ozark and dropped the episodes in groups over a several month period.  My family and I watched the first group around September or so and then the last ten in February.   Fifteen episodes was too much of a good thing.  It is enjoyable seeing these characters interact and I appreciate the commitment of the creators and Netflix to give the fans a super sized season but there was not enough story to fill fifteen episodes.  In particular the last batch of episodes felt this way even though the final episode was a well made send off. Spoilers below: The first group of episodes sets up the new Cobra Kai students in South Korea and more importantly puts Kreese to work with the ruthless Da-eun.  Kreese focuses on Kwon, played by Brandon H. Lee (no relation to Bruce Lee) who is more talented but has a manipulativ...

 George Cukor’s 1964 adaptation of the 1956 stage musical which was itself an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion accomplishes one quality I always truly admire in a film.  A viewer watching the film for the first time could easily see it is an adaptation of a play, with the long scenes (most film scenes are only a couple of minutes long) and the literate dialogue.  In addition nearly the film was shot almost completely on soundstages.  After the big opening sequence outside the theatre in Convent Garden the scene shifts to Lisson Grove even though Eliza never seems to go anywhere (the two neighborhoods are about four miles apart) which is the kind of thing that would happen only in a play.  The film is also incredibly cinematic with a lot of scenes shot on 70 mm on a big scale with many extras, all of whom of are dressed uniquely and in expensive clothes.  The quality I admire is the film is successfully both theatrical and cinematic. ...