Brian's Thoughts on Movies

Sir Ridley Scott is, as of this writing, 84 years old, and he released two big productions within about six weeks of each other in 2021, The Last Duel and House of Gucci.  A few years ago I wrote about how Scott recast J.R. Getty about a month before the release of All The Money in the World and reshot all the scenes that were originally filmed with Kevin Spacey with his replacement, Christopher Plummer.  In this case The Last Duel was filmed partially before the pandemic and then picked up later in 2020.  House of Gucci was made entirely in 2021 but it still is impressive to make big budget period films back to back and be able to release them so close together. I think part of Scott's proficiency is that like, his fellow elderly directors like Steven Spielberg and Client Eastwood, Scott continually works with a lot of the same crew so he saves time on hiring and has developed a shorthand.  Both Last Duel and House of Gucci were photographed by Darius Wolski, had th...

  The Rocky movies are one of the longest lasting series in movie history and possibly the longest franchise with a sports theme at its center.  The basic concept, that any person who is struggling can get an opportunity to make the most of themselves, resonates with audiences and their investment in the character and his loved ones has kept the franchise going. Sylvester Stallone has had three other franchise characters by my count (Rambo, Escape Plan, and Expendables) but in the U.S. at least Rocky is the one people truly embrace as he embodies the best of us.  Rocky is a streetwise character with a good heart who is nice to everyone.  As Rocky Stallone goes sometimes goes to depths as an actor that he often stays away from in other roles.  As the writer on the series Stallone has used Rocky to comment on life and as a way to relate his experiences.  I've enjoyed Rocky so much that I often refuse to dump on Stallone when one of his other films do not work...

 In 2009 Paramount relaunched the Star Trek movie series with director JJ Abrams at the helm.  Abrams had created a terrific Mission Impossible film for Paramount in 2006 and been a showrunner on Lost and Alias which had loyal viewers.  Abrams agreed with the condition that he could use the characters from the original series.  The opening sequence of the first film has an event that changes the timeline from the date of James Kirk's birth which freed Abrams and his writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman to reference situations from the old TV show and movies without being beholden to them.   Abrams also has the job of recasting the iconic characters.  He wisely avoided trying to replicate the look of the original cast and instead selected mostly unknown performers who could give their own interpretations of the characters.  Chris Pine looks more like a young Harrison Ford than William Shatner but this allows us to see Kirk without picturing Shatn...

Writer-director Quentin Taratino is back on track with this, his 9th film. Tarantino's previous two films, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, had some good moments but I did not find them very rewatchable, especially with their inflated running times.  Both films contained some interesting characters and dialogue but focused more on violence and revenge, upsetting the balance from Tarantino's previous films.  I enjoy excitement but I prefer it to be wrapped in a story worth of the character dynamics that he excels at.  In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Tarantino tells a story from a positive perspective about the film world he loves so much and he mixes real and fictional characters to tell a little revisionist history. When I first learned that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood would focus on the death of Sharon Tate, I was concerned that Tarantino might sensationalize it or tell some story of her husband Roman Polanski waging war on her killers since Tarantino had been ...

In early 2020, prior to the Academy Awards I saw director Sam Mendes' war film 1917 and was wholly impressed by it.  1917 was an utterly immersive look at the wartime experience and the single take approach (in actuality about 24 takes cleverly stitched together to appear as one) put the viewer in the shoes of the lead characters.  I had not yet seen Parasite but had heard good things about it.  In previous years I had seen Boon Joon-ho's films Mother and Snowpiercer (I do not know if his films always use single word titles in Korean, but they always seem to in English) and I had really liked Mother.  I did not really connect with Snowpiercer however, since despite liking the concept as presented I felt the film was a little too outlandish and some of the performances were too big.   There was some surprise when Parasite won Best Picture over 1917 and I admit that I was disappointed.  A few days later I watched Parasite on a plane.  Now having had...

  Quentin Tarantino films are always events.   They occur every three or four years and are represented by a talky film that has memorably named characters, spouting fun dialogue as they go through an often larger than life scenario.   They are usually kind of violent though his better films mostly use it sparingly. Despite the rhythmic nature of the title, I found the name The Hateful Eight uninspiring.   For the most part I love Tarantino films and I thought Inglorious Basterds was one of his best films, but he followed it with Django Unchained.   As I mentioned in the review, I was disappointed by the amount of blood spatter and lack of imagination especially in the last act of that film, after an intriguing set up.   When I learned that Tarantino was going to make another western, with an advance poster showing a wagon creating a trail of blood I lost enthusiasm.   At one point a copy of the script leaked (Tarantino writes all his scripts on a word...

  The late Sir Sean Connery will likely be most remembered as the original James Bond but his work goes far beyond that and any examination of his career should account for his other roles.  Starting in 1962, Connery starred in five Bond films in six years, got tired of the role and all the scrutiny that came with it (and of being underpaid for it), started to develop his career with other roles, but returned to Bond twice, in 1971 and 1983.  After his last Bond Connery did a lot of films which were either ensemble pieces or films in which he was paired with a younger current star often as a mentor.  I will note, I have seen most of Connery’s work in the 1980s and 1990s (except for the Highlander films which never interested me).  The only films of Connery’s that I have seen from the 1970s are The Man Who Would Be King, The Offence and Robin and Marian.  I still want to see The Andersen Tapes, Wind and the Lion, Murder on the Orient Express, and Cuba. ...