50. Coco (2017) - February 19th
Coco is a familiar story through an imaginatively enchanting lens, brought to life by Pixar's fantastic animation.
The whole film just pops in the visual department. The film is a spectacular rainbow, a warm orange with deep blues and purples giving way to every kind of ecstatic neon as the shining alebrijes and brightly lit cities dance and move, giving life to the land of the dead. The design is intricate and respectful to the heritage it seeks to represent, displaying a realised world born out of tradition rarely expressed in film.
The beats the plot follows and the arcs of the characters are familiar, and in some cases a little trite, but done well enough to be effectively on an emotional level most of the time, even if there are a few moments of painful contrivance on the way to a beautiful finale. There's a handful of devices that just work for the sake of the plot or interpreted in strangely literal ways, such as the technology used to determine if a dead person is remembered, or indeed a how long a person can go forgotten before they disappear entirely, and the timing on these things mostly being convenient to the plot's needs, but they aren't so convenient as to ruin the movie, largely because they're based around abstract concepts to begin with. The conveniences extend to the character arcs as well, for some reason unable to exist without a concrete antagonist to unnecessarily pad the film's running time, which could have been used to flesh out the reunification of the family, a factor of the story that was mostly relegated to a few quick smiles over good music.
One step at a time I guess, this film acts as a proof of concept for cultural inclusion in Pixar films but can't deviate from the expected plot in any significant way. The film feels in this regard similar to Black Panther; we see stuff that has flaws but absolutely works used to express the 'abnormal'. Going to the land of the dead by stealing from the dead is strange, but being born out of a simple generational difference between family members is expected. Despite going to a magical land where seemingly anything can happen, most of the creativity is ultimately fluff, memorable and fun, sure, but little of the fact that the fantasy land is the land of the dead has an effect on how the plot progresses beyond Hector and Miguel's impending potential dooms, something that is itself a familiar plot device.
That said, none of this is a problem, just considerably less exciting than the film's incredible visuals and the first act's promise of adventure in to a new world. The only thing I take issue with is the reveal of Ernesto as a by the numbers twist villain. It's a terribly done reveal, as it actually has set up and reminder before paying it off, but the actual twist is supposed to function then as a redemption for Hector and make him remembered by all, which goes against Hector's entire character. Hector learned in death what he forgot in life, that he didn't need the world to remember him, just his family. Had the movie spent actual time on his character and earning his redemption instead of shifting the blame to another character so that he didn't have to earn his redemption, it might have been a quietly compelling story of forgiveness that would play in to the themes of remembering your family and the difference between forgiving and forgetting that the film otherwise shoehorns in quickly before running off to do the finale with Ernesto. The film wanted to have a "don't meet your heroes" issue included in the film as well, but this ultimately takes focus away from and cheapens the stronger aspects of the film, which is made worse by how the finale with Ernesto plays out. Having a villain getting away because the heroes simply do nothing is a bad cliche, and the villain being caught on camera at the exact moment he reveals his true self is a bad cliche; the whole scene is filled with these problems, and it's time spent on something that is less important than what the film actually wants to explore.
The good still far outweighs the bad in Coco, to such a degree that even some of its conveniences are answered indirectly in-story. The animation is spectacular, continuing to show that Pixar just raises the bar every time they make a film. The story, when focused, is as warm and touching as the orange through which the whole film is expressed, and emotionally resonant by playing on that thing that matters most to so many people: family. - 8/10
51. Run the Tide (2016) - February 19th
There's a certain entertainment to watching a bad movie that someone hates more than you. Stuff that's awful but no worse than you expected is suddenly hilarious when your fellow watcher yells exasperatedly at the screen over the sheer awfulness they're experiencing. That was my time with Run the Tide.
The film is bad. Lacking in focus and energy, it wastes away what could have been a compelling story with little regard for contrast or emotion, as if keeping up the same dull tone throughout the movie would make the themes of the movie self-evident. It's as if the director had heard about this style of filmmaking called realism, but their understanding of it was given to them second-hand by a teenager trying to be 'deep'.
One key issue is with tone. The film keeps up this generally depressed feeling the entire time without any breathing room, with scenes of supposedly light content are left as frustrating and blaring in their self-importance as the supposed climax; it all feels the same, so when the big twist or the epilogue is played with intensity matched by a scene of two brothers playing baseball, they all hit like a wet paper bag.
Aside from that, the plot deviating from the admittedly interesting idea of two brothers with different images of their mother dealing with the conflict therein could be good, the movie puts that off in favour of a subplot involving an old flame that feels like it's going for an Up in the Air scenario but falls completely flat. I saw what they were going for, the idea that Lautner's image of Braddy was all in his head, but she was given so little definition that to the audience she was merely a well-acted blank slate with no reason to suggest that this betrayal is or isn't something she would do. It's more of a "why would you?" than a "how could you?", because we have no real sense of their connection beyond a fleeting one night stand, and the idea that she'd betray her fiance and then betray Lautner has no rhyme or reason to it.
As it is, the most I enjoyed about this film was watching a friend get anxious over the lack of consistency and poor development in characterisation. I can see what they were going for, with Lautner becoming exactly what he hated most about his mother as the lies he told to his brother to protect his brother from her come back to defeat him in his brother's eyes against the fantasy image of the mother. In another movie, it could be a powerful arc, but here the tone does nothing to support or denigrate Lautner's actions either way (again, it seems they were going for realism but overemphasised everything unnecessarily), and Lautner's character isn't humanised enough for us to be sickened but understanding; instead it's just frustrating, and it leads to a purposefully ambiguous ending that leaves you feeling nothing.
I don't want to think about this movie anymore, it's a waste of potential so forgettable that I'll forget about the movie by the time I've finished writing this sentence. - 3.5/10
52. Finding Your Feet (2017) - February 22nd
This was just fine, only a couple of bad things with a few more good things and otherwise inoffensvie things. My full review can be found here. - 5.5/10
53. Falling Down (1993) - February 23rd
This left me with complicated feelings.
First, some basic stuff. Falling Down is very well made, utilising a lot of slick long takes and an intense orange to emphasise the heat and pressure that contextualises Foster's rampage with a clear emotion, while sparing a few clever moments of self-awareness to show the dark comedy in how it represents Foster's character and the world he lives in. Likewise, Douglas' performance is an appropriate mix of stiff force and impotent catharsis that creates a sense of both villainy and victimisation that's easy to understand and impossible to sympathise with.
This is why as the movie spirals out of control and tries to have it both ways by painting Foster with the slightest of heroism its preaching goes from funny to annoying; Douglas always works as Foster, but Foster is too cartoonish to be humanised effectively, most of the time. I admit I fell for the film's shameless manipulation when he immediately dropped his guard when he thought he'd accidentally hurt a little girl he was holding hostage, but that was largely due to Douglas' capabilities, because as the situation realised itself once more its silliness kicked back in. The movie expresses a lot of 90s-relevant societal annoyances, from traffic jams to high prices at convenience stores to the oversold quality of food at fast-food chains, and it has Foster try and release society's frustrations in ways that escalate in absurdity over the course of the film. It's ridiculous enough to be dark comedy, and when Foster goes off on a racist rant at the convenience store clerk about how much money America has given Korea, only to realise that he has no idea himself, it shows a cutting awareness. Unfortunately, while the film stays funny, it seems that this moment serves only as the real tipping point, so it only comes back around to being self-aware once Foster realises he's "the bad guy", which seems only to serve the ending and explain that the last two hours haven't been simply to glorify the violence it so liberally dishes out.
This is where I find issue with the movie; what started as a surprisingly emotionally complex idea that I could respect even as I disagreed with it, it just hit the same button over and over again, and while it kept on escalating it only really struck as funny rather than didactic as a kid teaches Foster how to handle a rocket launcher. I like these moments in the film, and appreciate the humour in its hateful examination of society in its time, but either Falling Down wants to have it both ways or it's really nihilistic about the state of society, probably a bit of both. When the movie comes back around to overt self-awareness and has Foster paint himself as the bad guy, it does this off the back of making his situation somehow more ridiculous while going to great lengths to make him sympathetic. The film either wants to say that Foster is a bad guy and that he's right, or that Foster is the sort of misunderstood gentleman that society paints as the bad guy; it's why making him sympathetic beyond simply understanding of his plight just fails to work for me. Foster is like any villain with some semblance of moral code: you understand his position but disagree that his position justifies escalating his actions to violence. Unfortunately, the film seems to lose this somewhere a long the way. - 6.5/10
54. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) - February 23rd
While looking up Annihilation (2018) to see if it was getting released today, and I was reminded that this is a movie that exists. My word, it is easily one of the worst things I have ever seen, and it is glorious. My one regret is that Christopher Lambert did not return as Raiden (credited as 'Rayden'), to ham it up; James Remar is too flat and serious, and in this completely awful mess, a bit of theatricality is needed to get through it. Without Lambert, the only one who seems to understand it when it's this bad is Brian Thompson playing Shao-Khan. He's still bad; everyone and everything that has anything to do with this movie is bad in this movie (except for one thing, but I'll get to that soon), but Thompson as Shao-Khan is straight-up campy machismo.
The only redeeming factor of this movie is the soundtrack, with some energetic-if-uninspired pieces that oversell the dim lighting, shaky cinematography, poorly-timed editing and mediocre-at-best choreography.
That said, I don't hate this movie. It's completely awful in essentially every way, but when a movie hits you with the worst green screen effects, editing, choreography and acting right off the bat, there is literally no lower you can go, and no need to expect it to get better. - 1/10
55. Game Night (2018) - February 25th
My full review can be found here. This was hilarious but needs trimming down.
56. Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) (Also known as Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster)
After seeing Godzilla go in to space to fight a three-headed golden dragon and celebrating with a low-gravity victory dance, a film like this is more forgettable than anything else. This was apparently supposed to be a King Kong movie, but they changed Kong in to Godzilla at the last minute because they thought he would be a bigger draw. That said, aside from the giant monsters that show up to swim and play catch with a boulder for a few minutes, this feels more like a bad Japanese rip-off of James Bond. You have a few guys shipwrecking on an island, and end up getting roped in to thwarting a terrorist group that has a secret advanced facility on the island with the help of a beautiful native; each aspect is reminiscent of Dr. No. This connection is certainly helped by the maintenance of the campy tone so prevalent in most of the Showa-era movies. As far as monsters go, Ebirah is about as forgettable as his movie. He's no three-headed golden dragon and he doesn't have some sort of gimmick like a pair of fairies that talk to humans and watch over your young; he's just a huge lobster with one giant claw being slightly bigger than the other giant claw. It's not as if his fight is anything to remember either; Godzilla doesn't do some ridiculous two-legged kick or fly with his breath or break his jaw in half, they just kind of throw rocks at each other and thrash in the water until Godzilla rips his claws off. That said, I'm not sure if I can call this worse than the other worst of the Godzilla movies I've seen so far. It fits somewhere between King Kong vs. Godzilla and Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters; it's less weird than the former, and less boring than the latter.
Re-watches
12. The Raid: Redemption (2011) - February 20th
This was a fifth or sixth watch for me with a few friends. By this point, there's not much I can really get out of the film that I haven't already, so it's nice to just sit back and once more soak in the intensity, brutality and skill of one of the best action movies of the last decade. - 8/10
As an aside, this is also a reminder that I really need to see the Ong Bak films; The Raid movies were made famous by their incredible direction and brutal style, but by all accounts I've heard the Ong Bak movies are at least as good at this and did it all in Indonesia first.
Published February 25th, 2018
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