Last Movie Watched.... The Xenforo Edition

I'm not sure if I should put it here or what's happening in native country but I just enjoyed the first season of Dark Winds and didn't know based on a detective novel. But I don't tend to read detective novel so I'll watch shows and I'll take people pointed out to me that there's a whole series of novels behind it.

It is about the adventures of Navajo Police Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.

 

Yes, we often have impressions of whole seasons or entire runs of TV shows, particularly if binge watched as a whole work.

 

I like how they do a British style and just make it six episodes of season

 

Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)
Dir. Olivia Newman



North Carolina, 1969. Kya Clark, a young woman who is something of an outcast in her small town finds herself accused of the murder of Chase Andrews, a former HS football star, son of one of the town's most prominent families. Even though the evidence against her is largely circumstantial, there is a good chance she will be convicted, just because the jury is filled with people who have several decades of prejudice against her, knowing her primarily as 'the marsh girl'. Through extended flashbacks, it is revealed that Kya grew up on her own, living by herself in a house in the marshes, after her abused mother, siblings and finally also her abusive father all walk out on her, leaving her to fend for herself from a very young age. She develops a deep connection to the fauna and flora of her home, though forges few bonds with other people in town, making her an easy target for nasty rumors. An outcast status that becomes truly problematic once accused of murder.

I enjoyed this a surprising amount. An adaptation of a best-selling book I was not familiar with, this is a very old-fashioned type of film. In terms of its themes, its visual style, its pace and even its acting to a certain extent. There is a pleasant rhythm to the story telling and the two intertwined story-lines never feel gimmicky. Well acted all around, but especially by lead Daisy Edgar-Jones and David Strathairn, who plays her sympathetic southern gentleman lawyer.

 

The Enforcer (1951)
Dir. Bretaigne Windust & Raoul Walsh (uncredited)



Martin Ferguson is a district attorney on the eve of the start of a big trial: criminal mastermind Albert Mendoza is accused of orchestrating dozens of murders in a murder of hire scheme. Ferguson's entire case rests upon the testimony of Joseph Rico, a criminal himself who was formerly rather high up in Mendoza's operation. Unfortunately for Ferguson, Rico does not make to the trial alive. Ferguson and his associate spend the remainder of the night before the trial going over the evidence again, trying to find another way to pin the crimes on Mendoza, in the form of an extended flashback that starts at the very beginning of their investigation.

A crime noir that is essentially a police procedural of an investigation into an organized group of killers. Entertaining even though I wouldn't call this anywhere near Bogey's best work. Does feature a nice collection of colorful characters as Ferguson's investigation slowly works itself up to the upper echelons of Murder Inc.

 

It's the Belgian poster! I love these. You can recognize them by the French title mostly being more prominent and the Dutch title being near the bottom.
"De Laatste Getuige" also translates as The Last Witness.

 

The Perfect Couple (2024)
Dir. Susanne Bier



We meet an eclectic group of characters on the eve of Amelia Sacks and Benji Winbury's wedding in Nantucket. Whilst Amelia comes from a modest working class background, the Winbury's are wealthy, with Benji's father Tag Winbury more or less an old money man of leisure, whilst his wife is the glamorous and famous detective novel writer Greer Garrison Winbury. Occasionally feeling out of place in the family she is marrying into, Amelia at least has the support of her own parents and her maid of honor Merritt. Then a deadly tragedy strikes on the morning of her wedding day itself and the police investigation reveals many dark secrets about the Winbury clan as well as some of the wedding guests.

Decent six episode Netflix series. As I mentioned in the TV topic, it's clear that this started out as Netflix wanting an original show that fished in the same pond of Big Little Lies and The White Lotus. Not a carbon copy of either of those shows, but the influence of both is apparent, in spite of the fact that this series was an adaptation of a book of the same name. The show even borrows some cast members from the aforementioned HBO shows: Nicole Kidman from Big Little Lies as the family matriarch Greer and Meghann Fahy from the second season of The White Lotus as Amelia's maid of honor Merritt. Not earth-shatteringly good or incredibly original, but watchable from start to finish, which is already noteworthy for an original Netflix show. I did think the first three episodes were slightly better than the last three. Especially the final two had a bit too much filler and could have probably benefited from a shorter edit.

 

Rebel Ridge (2024)
Dir. Jeremy Saulnier



Terry Richmond cycles to the town of Shelby Springs to post bail for his cousin, who is about to be shipped to a state penitentiary. He is run over by a police car and in the subsequent search of his possessions, the money he had brought to post his cousin's bail as well as some funds to buy a truck are seized via civil forfeiture. His attempts at getting his money back so his cousin can make bail are met with hostility by the local police force. When it becomes apparent that the cops he are dealing with are dirty and abuse of power is the law of the land in their territory, Terry decides to use the skills he picked up during his active duty in the Marine Corps to get the upper hand.

Incredibly entertaining action thriller, written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier. Whilst it cannot match the stripped down brilliance of his Blue Ruin, it might now be tied as my second favorite Saulnier alongside Green Room. A very lean and at times surprisingly original revenge story, with a fantastically entertaining protagonist as played by Aaron Pierre. An actor I was not very familiar with before this movie. John Boyega was attached to this project but quit a few weeks into the shoot, supposedly due to dissatisfaction with the screenplay and frustration with the overall production. Perhaps this movie could have used Boyega's more recognizable name in promoting it, but it's hard to imagine that he would have outshone Pierre in the lead role. And I say this as someone who rates Boyega. But this should be a star-making turn for Aaron Pierre, an incredibly charismatic screen presence. Don Johnson plays the corrupt police chief. Annasophia Robb is good as a sympathetic law clerk.
One random thing I could not help but do was compare this to the work of S. Craig Zahler, a writer-director who shares more than a few sensibilities with Saulnier. There are some differences though, primarily in what is I suspect a more cynical world view on the part of Zahler. This expresses itself in a creative choice that I think Zahler would have handled differently.

Spoilers inside (open) Spoilers inside (close)

100% in the Zahler version of this film, the protagonist would kill some of the dirty cops.

 

The Stepfather (1987)
Dir. Joseph Ruben



After a cold open in which we see the aftermath of what appears to be the murders of an entire family, the culprit walks away calmly after the act. We fast-forward to a year later, and the apparent murderer has changed his appearance and now lives a whole new life, having married Susan, a widow and become a step dad to her teenage daughter Stephanie. Whilst Susan is deeply in love with her new husband, Stephanie has trouble accepting the man she knows as Jerry Blake as her new father. Not just because she balks at the idea of him replacing her real father, unlike her mother and most of their friends and neighbors, Stephanie sees through Jerry's superficial charm and has been the lone witness to his occasional extreme and seemingly violent mood swings. Her continued mistrust for Jerry does not garner much sympathy, but it does unnerve Jerry himself, causing him to end up in the same spiral that made him kill before...

A horror thriller about a family annihilator style serial killer that would probably be fairly forgettable if not elevated by a very good lead performance by Terry O'Quinn. He is easily the best thing about this film. Blu Mankuma appears for one scene as a police detective and is probably the most recognizable face among the cast, apart from O'Quinn.

 

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Navy Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell has the need - the need for speed. He had just done an incredibly brave thing in a hypersonic test craft. What he should have done was land the plane. He didn't own that plane, the taxpayers did. He was just this much from flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong. The admiral would have liked to bust Mitchell's butt but he can't. Commander of the Pacific Fleet Tom "Iceman" Kazansky could be Maverick's wingman anytime, and this was the time. He had a job for Maverick, but he wasn't gonna sit there and blow sunshine up his ass. This was dangerous. Maverick had to teach the lost art of aerial combat to insure that the handful of men and women who graduated his course were able to maneuver straight down a trench and skim the surface to attack a target that is only two meters wide, a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port. Sorry, wrong movie. But that isn't Maverick's only problem. The son of Goose, his former back seater, is there, and he's lost that loving feeling.

I've had the disk sitting on my shelf for a long time and I've really been looking forward to watching it while also not wanting to see it for fear of disappointment. I wasn't totally wrong in my fears. There were so many times I was completely enraptured and exhilarated by what was on the screen, but it was by airplane stuff, not movie stuff. I'm such a 12 year old when I'm watching fighter jets, but I had forgotten what a silly movie Top Gun was, and it all came back to me quickly because Top Gun: Maverick... well, it's Top Gun. It's not just Top Gun, it's also an ode to Top Gun, so they put in a lot of Top Gun fanservice. Some of it was a little cringe, like how son-of-Goose dressed. And shaved. And then there was that whole preposterous final air combat scene which - ok, I'm not going to lie. That was fun. The computer effects were absolutely fantastic, and having the actors in real aircraft really flying added a lot to the film.

It's not brilliant, and you will know less about air combat after watching the movie than before, but I enjoyed myself and I still have a goofy smile on my face.

 

The best thing about Top Gun: Maverick is that it's the best Star Wars movie since Rogue One.

 

Revolver (Director's Cut) (2005)

Green has just been released from prison. All his worldly goods were stolen by the unseen prisoners who were in the neighboring solitary cells, but they left him with something more valuable - the secret to winning any con, any game. He spent the next two years becoming a very wealthy man. But he still wanted payback from the murderous casino owner Macha who had sent him to prison in the first place. It doesn't go well, and Green would surely have been killed by Macha's henchmen except for two mysterious loan sharks / chess bar owners with knowledge of the future and a peculiar interest in Green. They have a plan, and I wish to almighty Superman I didn't just spend 90 minutes of my life finding out what it was.

I usually love movies that have a hyper-reality style and deep themes, but this was just terrible from the start and continually got more terribler until it broke my terriblometer. The movie is full of set-piece action scenes done in a weak simulation of Guy Ritchie movies to move plot points that don't have conclusions. One (the turncoat assassin one at the end) was entertaining, but mostly they were mean and confusing and full of a newly-invented kind of shakycam that made me seasick. I'm going to spoil the movie because it deserves it. This is all about a buddhist-style destruction of the ego - not symbolically but literally. The reason none of the plot points concluded is that nothing matters. The very idea that one man's internal peace is worth the tortuous death and maiming of dozens, and the criminal victimization of countless others is abhorrent to me. I'd rate this as one of the most evil, vile, immoral movies I've ever seen.

 

And Justice for All (1979)
Dir. Norman Jewison



We meet idealistic lawyer Arthur Kirkland as he is spending a night in jail for being in contempt of court after assaulting a judge who denied his motion to review new evidence which would have exonerated an innocent client, who now finds himself in prison. A man who frequently fights for the little guy but finds his efforts rarely rewarded by a justice system which is indifferent on the best of days. Life throws him a curve-ball when the judge he assaulted ends up finding himself accused of a violent rape and pressures Kirkland into becoming his lawyer, dangling the promise of doing something to help his young innocent client after all as bait. Kirkland loathes the idea of representing the judge in question, Henry T. Fleming, but agrees to do it in the hope of helping the client he actually cares about.

The title is meant ironically, as this is primarily about how getting justice in a court of law is a pipe dream, unless you are one of the privileged few who can make the system work to your advantage. Based on the plot synopsis I had expected something more like The Verdict, but this is actually more of a satire, though with writing that is tonally discordant. Some sequences, like anything involving his doomed young client, or the cross-dressing thief he tries to help, or his partner's despair at an unwanted outcome in a case where he got his client an acquittal... are all treated seriously, in a very sober and stripped down manner. Other story lines are plain goofy, like almost everything that involves the judge character as played by Jack Warden, including an extended scene played for laughs in which a terrified Kirkland takes a helicopter ride with the man. So I ended up not entirely sure what to make of the film. Well acted though, apart from Jack Warden, Al Pacino plays opposite the likes of Craig T. Nelson, Lee Strasberg, Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Lahti as his love interest (I already miss Evil), John Forsythe (on the cusp of his subsequent Dynasty tenure) and Sam Levene in his final screen credit.

 

Blink Twice (2024)
Dir. Zoë Kravitz



Frida and her friend Jess meet famous billionaire tech mogul Slater King after crashing a reception he attends. Frida manages to get his attention, to the point that when him and his entourage leave, they get an invite to join the group on his private island. Frida and Jess are joined not just by Slater, but also some of his associates, as well as three other women also making the trip. After their arrival, it turns into an all expenses paid vacation in which Frida and Jess enjoy luxuries their more modest lifestyle does not usually afford them. After spending some time on the island, first Jess and then Frida start to believe something sinister is hiding underneath the island's beauty and their host's generous hospitality. Expressing itself in a vague sense of foreboding as well as the increasing realization that both of them are forgetting more and more small stuff.

A pretty straightforward thriller with very familiar tropes, directed and co-authored by Zoë Kravitz. Her directorial debut isn't bad, though perhaps not super-original. I have seen and read variations on this same story many times. Still, the cast is fun and it does not overstay its welcome, so I found it to be mostly enjoyable. It should however be against the law to have a character named Slater when you cast Christian Slater in another role in the film. Lead Naomi Ackie is great, but it's Adria Arjona that left the strongest impression. Someone I was familiar with from Andor as well as the recent Glen Powell action comedy Hit Man. Two projects in which her performance is fine, but this role allowed her to shine a bit more. Other supporting players include Haley Joel Osment, Kyle MacLachlan, Alia Shawkat and Geena Davis (who is fun as the Slater character's quirky assistant).

 

Long Gone Heroes (2024)
Dir. John Swab



Gunner is a retired special forces soldier who gets an unexpected visit from his sister-in-law, who is a U.S. senator by the name of Olivia Peterson. The pair of them have been estranged since Gunner's brother died and his sister-in-law denied him any visits to his niece Julia. It's precisely Julia's predicament that has brought Olivia to Gunner. Whilst reporting on a story in her capacity as a journalist in Venezuela, it appears that Julia has been abducted by an unidentified group. Olivia is there to beg Gunner to retrieve his niece, using his skills and contacts he still retains from his former military duty. Complicating matters further is the fact that Julia uncovered a scandal in Venezuela that has the potential to embarrass U.S. military personnel on the ground there, as well an American oil company and indirectly also her own mother.

Frank Grillo action vehicle that is mostly passable entertainment. If the movie has an intended message about American meddling in South and Central America, the commentary has perhaps the depth of a puddle and is thus not really worthy of a mention. Featuring the likes of Melissa Leo, Andy Garcia and Josh Hutcherson in supporting roles.

 

Short Cut to Hell (1957)
Dir. James Cagney



Kyle Niles is a cold and detached contract killer. After getting rid of an engineer in the city planning office and the man's secretary, he is paid by the man who arranged for the contract, Bahrwell. Niles' dislike and distrust for Bahrwell turns out to be on the mark, as the 1000 dollars he is offered for the double hit is in fact stolen and Bahrwell himself gave the police the serial numbers of the stolen dough. When he uses some of the money to pay for his rent, the police track the marked bank notes back to his boarding house. He manages to elude capture, but now has a new mission: to kill the man who double-crossed him. He travels by train to Los Angeles to do just that, and becomes acquainted with night club chanteuse Glory Hamilton on the way over there, a meeting which will have far-reaching repercussions for the both of them.

If the plot details sound familiar, it is because this is an adaptation of a Graham Greene novel, A Gun for Sale, which had a much more famous adaptation that precedes this one by 15 years: This Gun for Hire. Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake are replaced here by Robert Ivers and Georgann Johnson. And whilst neither of them are bad, with Johnson especially quite charming in her interpretation of the character, this film doesn't really improve upon the 1942 version. It is however well-made and thoroughly entertaining. The only directorial credit of James Cagney's career.

 

How did watching white-men-in-Africa movies become a thing for me?



Dark of the Sun [aka Mercenaries] (1968)

It is 1964 and the Simba Rebellion against the Congolese government is growing. They are coming close to a mining town with something Congolese President Ubi wants - $50 million in diamonds. If they can be safeguarded back to the capital, Belgian interests will bankroll the Congo's fight against the rebels. But the UN is trying to prevent more armed forces from heading to the front, so the president hires mercenary Rod Taylor to take a small force on a train to the town unofficially. With him is his friend Jim Brown, born in the Congo but Western educated and idealistic about Congo's future while being pragmatic about the here and now. Leading the picked platoon of regulars is not-actually-ex ex-Nazi Peter Carsten who just rubs everyone the wrong way. All they have to do is sneak past the UN, pick up the residents of the mining town, grab the diamonds from the vault, and get out fast. Not easy, but their chances are good unless every single one of those tasks goes wrong.

I guess a PG rating meant something different in 1968 because this movie is incredibly violent (noted by critics at the time) and features a scene with a shattering feeling of doom as well as one of the most brutal murders I've ever seen on film. It's also pretty racist, and the weird thing is that I'm not talking about the rebels. The Simbas were portrayed in tribal garb armed with spears, and are utterly vicious towards the townspeople, but that seems factually accurate (although the fear-mongering is played up by having the townspeople be all white while native Congo civilians were the vast majority of the real-life Simba's targets). Instead it's Jim Brown's character and another of the troop that have a powerful dislike of anything that has the air of the "tribal" to the point of using "dark" as a swear. This has the same author as the even worse Shout at the Devil.

Not that there is any romanticism of the mercenary figure. Rod Taylor's character is as utterly unfit to be a part of a military as he is to be part of civilian life. He does have a morality and honor, but is single-mindedly selfish in how he enacts them.

The thing is, as an action movie it does have a purity and expressiveness that made it popular among viewers, including some notable directors. Tarantino is a fan, and you can definitely see how this movie influenced him.