Do you like sweaty people? Thumping music? Different points in time marked by Zendaya’s haircuts? Balls (type: tennis)? Then I’ve got a movie for you!
Also: I’m not a fan of exposition dump scenes, but I really needed someone to tell my non-sports brain the rules of tennis.
I expected a movie about a stunt guy directed by a stunt guy to be full of stunts, but there’s a lot more to enjoy here. The mystery plot isn’t much more than what you would have seen on the TV show that this is loosely based on, but that’s not important. What’s important: Gosling & Blunt have great chemistry, the depiction of the movie industry feels wildly cartoonish yet somehow believable, and most importantly the stunts are a blast. The end credits are what every stunt man movie needs: an eighties-Burt-Reynolds-movie style flashback of behind the scenes shots showing the real stunts behind the movie stunts. There’s also a mid-credits scene that’s exactly what you expect. I saw it in IMAX for maximum explodey goodness. Thumbs up!
I really wanted to like this movie more. The lead kids have tons of charm, and their performances carry real weight when they aren’t trying to make the dialogue work. It’s not just them; the rest of the cast has to deal with the same problems. Add in some saccharine music and the whole thing falls apart. Even the color grading seems off, way more amber colored than the trailer.
By the way, I seem to be in the minority on this one. It has really strong critic and audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, and a pretty strong showing on Metacritic.
My brother and I saw the original 2002 Spider-Man movie in a theater last week, and it was great to see it with an audience. This week we went to Spider-Man 2, and the audience… sucked. Look, I know James Franco has been exposed as a less than stellar human, and I know his part is mighty melodramatic, but that doesn’t mean you should laugh every time he appears. Stay with the movie, people! I should have gone to the Alamo Drafthouse instead; audiences there are rarely jerks.
Rosemary Harris is the Aunt Mayest of Aunt Mays. Her Aunt May is also mighty strong: she hangs from an umbrella off the side of a build for nearly two minutes! I couldn’t do that.
Someone pointed out that a movie called “Bitter Harvest” was actually made a few years ago. If you want your poster of imaginary movies to avoid having real counterparts, steal this version instead:
Dev Patel plays kid, a homeless underground fighter with perfect teeth and a thirst for revenge. Watch and see how many different action movie references you can find! See if you can collect all the parts of The Hero’s Journey! And if you only take one lesson from this film, let it be this: Don’t mess with the Trans community.
Lots of fun, but how can you make a movie called “Monkey Man” and not include the Rolling Stones song? Maybe it was in the end credits and I missed it.
Advice: If you’re going to see three movies in three days, don’t watch the quiet subtitled foreign language film on day three after a no dialogue movie on day one and a frenetic tons of layered jokes film on day two.
Also: if you are going to ignore this advice, make sure the day three movie is worth watching. La Chimera was worth the sudden lane change and gear shifting.
What? That doesn’t seem like a review? Well, who told you this was a review blog?
This is not a movie to watch for the intricate plot or complex mystery. This is a movie to watch Jessie Buckley, Olivia Coleman, and the rest of the cast show off their character part chops. Some lovely swearing as well. Not at all “important,” but fun to watch.
I bet I would have LOVED this movie forty years ago, but now I cringe at a ton of the jokes. Too much non-consensual nudity and casual racism for me.
Look, I’m not totally delusional – I know that the only consistent reader of my posts is me. But I liked this movie a lot, and I really don’t want to spoil it by saying why I liked it, so I’m going to say pretty much nothing here except that this movie is exactly what you think it is, except sometimes it isn’t. It’s sort of like if Drive Away Dolls was more cohesive and darker, except it’s not really that either. Whatever it is, it’s full of style that doesn’t bury the substance.
So far, not thrilled with this weekend’s movies.
Wow- what a ham-fisted hagiography of a film. Everything is so broadly telegraphed that you could guess the end from the opening scenes. One of those movies where the costumes look like they came from a Broadway production: you can tell what the represent, but even the people living in poverty and filth look like they dry-clean their clothes, then reapply clean dirt in the morning.
A by the numbers documentary that manages to suck most of the life out of what should be a compelling and inspiring story.