My Week in Reviews: June 16, 2017
A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, 1991)
At least a good 90-minutes too long.
I love a lot of Yang’s directorial choices here; the conversation behind the mosquito net on the bed, the moment between Ming and Si'r in the school hallway shown through only their reflection/shadows on a door (I love creative approaches to two characters sitting/standing there talking), the massacre in (almost) complete darkness and Si'r’s baseball bat attack are especially memorable.
If this was 150-minutes rather than 237-minutes, it’d be complete masterpiece. - 7/10
The Belko Experiment (Greg McLean, 2017)
There’s A LOT of build-up here… and when it finally gets to the payoff, it’s all far too rushed and not nearly twisted enough. The filmmakers try to be all philosophical and completely forget that this was never going to be anything more than ridiculous, ultra-violent B-movie fun. And by forgetting this, they stripped the film of a lot of the ultra-violence, and pretty much all the fun.
There’s so many amazing things sitting around office buildings that can be used to kill someone, but this movie only uses like two of them.
::shakes head, disappointed:: - 2/10
The Girl with All the Gifts (Colm McCarthy, 2017)
Led by a great lead performance from newcomer Sennia Nanua and a philosophically fresh angle on the zombie apocalypse, The Girl with All the Gifts succeeds in bringing both interesting ideas and genuine scares/tension to its audience.
I kinda loved every second of this. - 9/10
Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)
He makes it look so easy… doesn’t he?
Is there anything here NOT to love? - 9/10
M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970)
No wonder it went on to become a legendary television show… the film itself plays like a greatest hits package of a sitcom.
It’s a masterclass in comedic timing and delivery… but mostly, it’s proof that Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould are cooler than you.
It’s also just straight-up fucking hilarious. - 10/10
CHiPS (Dax Shepard, 2017)
“THE CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL DOES NOT ENDORSE THIS FILM… AT ALL.”
Neither do I. - 1.5/10 (Half point for the film, full point for Kristen Bell.)
Power Rangers (Dean Israelite, 2017)
It tries so hard to be serious and to meet some ridiculously unnecessary quota of inclusiveness that it immediately and totally abandons everything that made the original television series so fun and successful; the exaggerated fight sequences and the campy characters. - 2.5/10
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