newfreeupdate.bsky.social
Just here to catalog my movie thoughts so my friends get a break
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I'm not a powerscale guy but its impossible to ignore how meaningless the final battle feels because we have several movies showing how dangerous a Hulk is. As such,This movie also suffers the most from "where are the other heros?" Disease.
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A movie about a normal guy you can just shoot with a bullet, cept he has wings, needs a story that thematically confronts that, top to bottom. The way Winter Soldier confronted Cap's complicity with military powers. This chooses many other, wrong, things instead.
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I'm a slight marvel apologist but this is a hard one for me. To spend this much time making a movie no one asked for, and for it to be so thoroughly sauceless is truly mind boggling.
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I just dont know who's writing these things anymore. It makes repeated attempts to make a soulful case for Sam not having superpowers, and each one is different, underbaked, and poorly conceived.
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Its well known that im an idiot so if MGMazon reads the room and returns to classic goofy spy films instead of making more grimdark, self serious pap i'll be happy. im probably the minority there though. I'm just sayin theres a reason he got overtaken by Ethan Hunt.
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It also makes sense that the concept of a 2nd die hard - of this happening again, to the same guy - makes the callbacks stylistically necessary in order to keep the suspension of disbelief light and breezy around the fact people just want more McClane.
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Most of all, its an indicator of where action movies were headed. One-man armies were giving way to the the wide range of profitable action genres, fueled by burgeoning VFX and a huge stable of established stars.
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I'm still struck by the amount of callbacks. It seems too winky & meta for 1990. But deciding what is iconic to a series based off 1 prior movie (especially when some of those elements are just good filmmaking) simultaneously shows studio bravado and insecurity.
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The bad is just as interesting as the good: Certain parts of McClane are cartoonishly turned up to 11 (he's a luddite, all women are attracted to him). The budget dips and swells unpredictably, but its always pretty well shot. The squib budget must have been insane.
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The bad guy is introduced in the best way possible - naked Tai chi in his hotel room. He makes eye contact with himself in the mirror as he does a front kick. Focus. Spirituality. Courage.
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Die Hard is special cuz the action is just John trying to avoid gunfights, but Harlin likes the theatrics of gunfights (like the snowmobile joust), and he understands that throwing invisible rocks at each other is cinematically meaningless unless there are cool consequences (lots o' squibs)
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I remember twitter not liking this movie or something? Something about his scooter? But honestly unless you are one of those who think certain genres have to behave a certain way, Popes Exorcist is just excellent film making from someone who fully considered every moment they put on screen.
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The funny thing about the Gorge is its a great side by side example of how not to use the volume. Characters run through a real forest and tightly packed trees pass in front of the camera. It works. Volume shots are a massive space where nothing ever blocks the camera, and it feels vacant and fake.
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It struggles with the issue that the likes of Schitts Creek solves - if your story is about wealthy people encountering troubles for the first time - they have to be unsympathetically clueless to what real struggle looks like. Not some Wasps who refuse to alter their lifestyle.
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As much as i'm an advocate for The Volume, some productions have an over-reliance on it and that's why Winter Soldier (directed by people with a decade + of scrappy sitcom filming), feels very alive. There's lots of beautiful on location work here.
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From the guy that brought you a man searching for his sister, who is only missing because his adopted mom kidnapped him, a mom he loves unquestionably for some reason, we have Duplicity, where our leads spend more time hating each other than anything else. Now root for them?
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His technical screenplay skills are sharp & efficient, but that same efficiency skips emotional beats the human side of the story needs. It feels cold & technical, like the audience always missed a key conversation that explains why the characters act this way.
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After Clayton, i was hoping other Gilroy movies would help me "get" Andor, but all its done is reveal exactly when he slid into the creative habits that rub me the wrong way.
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There were moments where i felt it would be my favorite movie ever, and Duplicity shows Gilroys desire to do lighter Heist fare - but due to over-cleverness, the entire thing ends in a stalemate subversion, which makes the largely chemistry-free 2 hours feel like a waste of time.
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It felt like Gilroy saw Closer and his main takeaway was "what if Julia and Owen were spies instead but i kept the rest of the distrust and self disgust"
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It also suffers from "everyone's an asshole all the time" syndrome, so it's hard to really care about any of this.
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I struggle with the leads. The director seems so be so enamored by their performance that just having them swear a lot and improve is plenty. There's not much else here, and I dont think it's the actors fault.
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Just watch the kings of summer.
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As someone who was around 14 in 1991, the choice to set it in the past is distractingly meaningless. I assume the writer/director worked in a snack shack, it's got that indulgence about it. But the precious memories are unpolished and were probably cooler to experience than actually watch.