The Harder They Fall

8.5/10

In this Netflix Western featuring fictionalized versions of existing notable African Americans from the Wild West, bandit Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) seeks out also-bandit Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), who killed Love's parents.

This is a Tarantino/The Quick and the Dead-esque western that's heavy on style and low on historical accuracy. It's mostly having fun, where the audience is invited to see how various situations will work out. It does have one really well done dramatic scene.

What really makes this work is the wonderful cast and characterization. Not a dull character in the bunch, and there a lot of players in this. Majors is really charismatic as Nat. The recent Power Rangers movie's RJ Cyler as Jim Beckworth gives a humorous performance. The villains in here may actually have more three-dimensionalness to them than most of the heroes. Elba manages to bring a controlled but very intimidating presence whenever he's on camera. LaKeith Stanfield's Cherokee Bill, though he definitely does bad things and is loyal to Buck, is an interesting change-of-pace for a villain. He's world weary and just tired of violence and people who try to prove themselves by taking him on. 

Though the pacing mostly works, this is a two hour, ten minute movie that may have tried to squeeze in too many characters. At one point during the big, traditional final confrontation, I asked myself "How long does this go on?" 

Director Jeymes Samuel has a wonderful visual touch, using pans, close-ups and other tricks. There is a train scene with some beautiful countryside shots. Full of modern music, which rather fits the tone of the film.

This looks like one of those films that clearly had a decent budget, especially when it comes to the cast of notable/experienced actors but wasn't HUGE. The sets aren't cheap, but you never forget that they are just sets. (In fairness, this may be due to modern digital film and it's greater detail making it so much easier to notice when something isn't real. In the first scene of the film, I immediately noticed that the food looked plastic.) The audio is too clear. It takes you out of the film when you can hear every footstep and other movements. 

Recommended. This was a pretty entertaining popcorn western.

Eternals

10/10

In this movie, the titular Eternals are immortal beings who have lived on Earth for centuries. The group, who have been scattered, reunite when their old enemies the people-eating Deviants return.  

The buzz about this film is that it was going to be different for a Marvel film and go for more of an epic feel. I'm very pleased to say that this met my expectations and really did feel different. Don't get me wrong this is still an MCU movie; it's got jokes and CGI fighting. However, it tweaks the formula a little.  There is a lot less fighting and a lot more focus on story and characters and their interactions. I know I've seen complaints about the length and pacing, but it was never an issue for me. I thought everything was done and revealed at a steady stride. I liked everything I learned as the movie goes on. It's got a large cast, but the movie makes the wise choice of not having everyone immediately meet at once, giving more time to let characters breathe. 

I give this movie credit for doing a few things you don't usually see in Marvel films. This is one of their entries that takes itself more seriously. A lot of thought is given than expected. We get the usual big fight, but it has more of an oomph than your traditional MCU finale.

The special effects in this are pretty good. Some great cosmic creature and sci-fi design. I wasn't initially sold by the Deviants' design in the commercials, looked like basic green CGI creatures, but there is a surprising amount of detail to them. No Deviant is alike and I appreciate the variety. 

Strong cast and group of characters. For 10 Eternals, all the characters' are fairly well developed, some more than others, but even the less prominent ones have distinctive traits. My favorite Eternals are probably Kumail Nanjiani's Kingo, the most humorous member of the group, and the technology-oriented Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), who has one of the more interesting life paths. Game of Thrones' Kit Harrington has only a small part as the boyfriend of Eternal Cersei (Gemma Chan), but he shines as a more human element and generally likable guy. 

 Highly recommended. I know I might be a bit vague, but I don't want to spoil anything. This is a really entertaining superhero/god-like being epic. Definitely the best of the Marvel phase 4 films so far.

Last Night in Soho

 

7.5/10

In Last Night in Soho, fresh new design school student Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) rents an apartment in London. Soon she begins to dream about Sandie (Queen's Gambit's Anna Taylor-Joy) a woman from the 60's, Eloise's favorite time period. Though she is initially fascinated with Sandie's life, things soon get darker and dangerous. The movie's got two decent acts followed by a final one that knocks it out of the park. 

LNiS is competently run throughout. It's directed by Edgar Wright and he knows how to bring in the style. The 60's London and paranormal stuff are shot so well, including an excellent use of lighting and colors and just the setup of the dream/ghostly stuff. There are a few scary/action scenes in this that are some of the best looking of the year. The basic messages of the plot, the importance of mental health and how women can be preyed upon by men, are both well handled. (In fact, the latter concept is a great example of how the second Black Christmas should have been handled. It's able to address the message of women's exploitation by men in a way that's done naturally while also telling a good story).   

However, the first two acts may be kinda a drudge for many viewers' taste. I wouldn't say any scene is too slow or boring, but there is a lot of exposition and set up. I could predict where things are going way ahead of time, and then it became the burden of waiting to see things happen. It doesn't help that mean Eloise's fellow fashion student Jocasta (Synnove Karlsen) and her clique are too one dimensional and cliched and Eloise's love interest John (Michael Ajao) feels pretty underdeveloped. 

My issues with the film disappear with the third act. I mean it completely wowed me. It's no longer predictable. Pacing, suspense, and the visuals run at 11/10. Admittedly there is one big plot hole at the end, but I didn't consider it a deal breaker. 

Great casting in this. McKenzie does a very good job playing a character going through a gamut of emotions. We get a couple solid performances from some experienced actors. Terence Stamp plays a man connected to the dreams. From what I've seen at least in his American films, he often plays serious characters, so it's nice to see him play someone more lively: a clever sort whose presence automatically makes the watcher uncomfortable. The late Diana Rigg in what is her last film shines in a smaller role as Eloise's old-fashioned, no-nonsense neighbor.   

Wonderful soundtrack, featuring multiple classic 60's hits.

Overall, I think this is worth watching. It definitely could've been improved but comes from a good place, and when it impresses it impresses. Really nails the classic supernatural thriller formula.

Scooby-Doo, Where are you now?

7/10

This special on the CW looks at the long history of the Scooby-Doo franchise and has the Mystery Inc. crew interviewed by Pretty Little Liars' Janel Parrish and, not unexpectedly, have to deal with a monster haunting the studio they're in. 

This does a good job of going over the over fifty-year-old franchise in approximately forty-five minutes. It manages to look at the series' staples and provides some fun facts about it's creation, including preliminary sketch art. Plus, equal time is shown to clips from the shows' various incarnations over the years. (Well, the better liked ones. I don't think I saw the likes of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo or Scooby-Doo and Shaggy get a Clue. As has been the practice in later years, not a word is mentioned of Scrappy. A little unfair. I'm not fond of the character, but you can't deny that he had a significant affect on the course of the show for a while.) I like that there is a fair amount of interviews with the behind-the-scenes talent, like directors or voice artists instead of just interviews with public personalities. 

The characters are represented with their original 70's character designs. I find it nostalgic to see these brought back. I would've thought they'd gone with the style they've gone with the for the last decade of the made-for-DVD films and the Supernatural crossover.

However, this is still light CW filler. There are a few fun lines, but many of the attempts at humor don't really land, especially quickie interviews with other cartoon characters.

Parrish does not make for the best host. Her interactions with characters who aren't really there is pretty awkward. Her talking to the audience isn't that great either.

It's a decent time-waster and fans of Scooby-Doo will like this, but it's not required viewing.

Star Wars: Visions

9/10

This Disney+ anthology contains nine Star Wars-themed, non-canon anime short tales.

This is a really, really good looking show. The nice thing about short animation projects is that you can visually achieve stuff and fluidity you're less likely to get in a long form project. Each episode has a distinct look. The most stylish and best executed one is the first The Duel, which goes for a black-and-white old-school film look with excellent fighting scenes.

Admittedly, most of the episodes want to focus specifically on Jedi and lightsaber fighting rather than keeping the content more varied. (I know that Tatooine Rhapsody, about a space band, is the least liked episode, but I liked that this was the only one that really went for something different.) However, every episode manages to do things differently enough that this never becomes an issue (okay, there are two pairs of episodes that cut too close to each other in basic story, but I still liked them all). In fact, I think all the ideas here are decent. I particularly recommend The Ninth Jedi, Akakiri, and The Elder.

The English dub cast is surprisingly strong, including many known names, such as Lucy Liu, Henry Golding, and Joseph Golden Levitt.

The music to this is all pretty good, too, and definitely has that Star Wars/John Williams feel to it.

Highly recommended. This is a short and entertaining program that one can quickly breeze through.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine- Season 8 (Final)

7/10

In the final season, the cops of the Nine-Nine end up going through changes in their lives.

It's B99, so the show brings the same sense of humor it's known for and does a decent job of wrapping things up and bringing back recurring characters for final bows. (No Vulture surprisingly. And, would it hurt to show Terry's wife or Boyle's longtime girlfriend one more time after years of being forgotten?) However, like the last couple of seasons, the show is no longer it's prime. It's still B99, but it sometimes feels like it's going through the motions and the jokes don't have the punch they used too. Also, there's an episode about Boyle's close-knit, weird extended family, a joke that I think has been ground to a fine dust by this point and definitely didn't need a whole A plot for.

One admirable change of this season is that it has a few episodes addressing the lack of accountability for police. Sure, the cast has grappled with cynical, corrupt, or selfish other members of the force before, but it was in a TV show-ish non-political way. With the exception of one episode about racial profiling, the show has shied away from real world controversies with police abuse of power. I give them credit, albeit belated and their hand may have been forced due to the current climate, for actually addressing hard issues.

This season has a new antagonist, police union president Frank O'Sullivan (played by Scrubs' William McGinley). On the one hand, the character feels too similar to other rivals within the force that the characters have had. Plus, he's a momma's boy, and all the jokes about that are as old and predictable as you'd guess. On the other hand, he does have some fun lines and McGinley is a comic delivery pro.

Though this season was mostly just alright, they nail the annual heist (which always risks running out of steam but never does) and the final episode is done really well. This finale tries for tugging at the emotional heartstrings like its creator Michael Schur's earlier show Parks and Recreations did. This doesn't quite hit that mark but doesn't miss by much.

Also if you're a fan of Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker), I must be the bearer of bad news: probably due to COVID, his screen time is teeny tiny. 

If you're a fan, you probably will want to see this. It's not one of the best seasons, but it ends the show well enough.

Venom: Let There be Carnage

7.5/10 

In this sequel, the alien symbiote Venom and his host Eddie Brock (both played by Tom Hardy) have to go up against the deadly symbiote Carnage and his host and serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson).

The first film felt like an older pre-Dark Knight/the MCU superhero movie> this also feels like it was made before the golden age of these films, but it feels like a movie that was made closer to that period. Let There be Carnage manages to avoid the flaws of its predecessor, such as a poorly written villain. This is a leaner, quicker-paced film. 

The filmmakers realized that what everyone liked about the last film was the comic back-and-forth between Eddie and Venom. It can be pretty entertaining; the symbiote can be so delightfully weird. However, the movie spends waaaaayyyy too much time on them. They don't even do much fighting in this (really, just in the final act.) It's just a lot of them arguing with each other. This seems to be at the expense of other characters. I like the character of Brock's ex Anne Weying (Michelle Williams) in these films, but she's given so little to do here. Also, they lean a little heavily on Brock getting in trouble with everyone.

BUT, all the scenes with the villains are loads of fun. Harrelson really pulls off the psychotic, and strangely interesting killer really well. He nails the body language. The most underrated character in this may be Naomie Harris' Frances Barrison/Shriek, Kasady's equally crazed lover. (The trailers really didn't pay her much attention.) Harris does the best character work in this. She and Harrelson have excellent chemistry as the crazed Bonnie and Clyde types. (I haven't seen Stone Cold Killers, so I can't say how similar Harrelson is to his character in that.) Also, I love their clothes in this.

As for Carnage itself, the movie really does the Venom's greatest enemy justice. His savagery and the versatility of his powers are really captured here. I mean he may be one of the best "monsters" in a superhero movie. If you're worried about the fact that the final villain of the last movie was also a symbiote, you don't need to worry about  rehashing. Carnage leaves far more of an impression. This is directed by Andy Serkis, best known for his long history of motion caption acting, and he appears to bring a real sense of movement. Carnage is a very flexible, fluid being, and the movie plays around with what he can do as much as it can. Heck, all the cinematography choices in this are really good. Harrelson and Harris's first scene together is truly something. 

The fact that this movie is about a serial killer should give you a heads up that this leans toward the dark. It's PG-13, but pushes the envelope as far as it can. If you haven't seen the first film, understand that Venom is an antihero. The film can feel didactic as it both shows him trying to be a hero while also doing some indefensible stuff.

Recommended. Definitely better than the first but still far from perfect. The back-and-forth bits can be trying. However, it's worth it for the villain scenes and the fights. They are really worth watching.