I managed to write more than two sentences for the movies I watched this week. As always, check out the IMDb links in the titles if you need a description of the plots of each of these.
203. Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) - July 23rd
I'm reminded of other horror sequels like Final Destination 2; films that take the competent or popular elements of the original and mix it in with a certain satire or cheesiness so that the filmmakers can let the audience know that they're in on the jokes of their own idea. It's not quite so overt in this as it is in Final Destination 2, but once Patrick Wilson went full crazy I was completely on board with this. Wilson is a terrific actor giving a gloriously over the top performance, and the rest of the cast (especially Byrne) play off of this unhinged cheese with a collectively almost matched gusto. This is honestly as mediocre as the first, going for the simple build-up heavy first half/action heavy second half structure but failing to make the former any sort of interesting and succeeding with the second half as much on enthusiasm as skill, but the film is worth at least that much. - 5/10
204. Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004) - July 23rd
I'm still not entirely sure that this wasn't a fever dream; at the very least it's a movie squarely aimed at and actually appropriate for babies, so it's got one up on its predecessor. That's only one up from the bottom of the barrel, but still. Obviously, I knew the sort of thing I was getting in to before I watched it; I've seen the first, and I know that both of them have been on the IMDb bottom 100 list for basically as long as that list has been around, and I occasionally watch the absolute worst I can find from time to time because I think that it's important to have a sense of just how wide the spectrum of quality for film is, while giving yourself a greater appreciation of great, good, and even mediocre films.
At least, that's what I tell myself when I'm staring in to the void of unspeakable horror that is Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2.
Seriously though, this movie is completely inept and incomprehensibly weird, but also utterly inoffensive; it's just stupid fart jokes and references no baby will understand amidst incredibly bizarre (but again, and more importantly unlike its predecessor, harmless) action sequences. It's basically just a bunch of flashy, incoherent ideas that feel like an overproduced version of jingling keys, which is once again the film's only merit, that as a movie for babies it definitely feels designed for its target audience. This doesn't cover for the inherent problem of having babies as your main characters (they have no idea what's going on and don't even know to look at the camera, which obviously means that they're dubbed over and adjusted with effects to suit the movie, but it's done so poorly that from a technical perspective the film is unsettling to look at for its uncanny nature) nor does it get around all of the other problems the film has in terms of writing and content (yes, it's a film for babies, but there have been plenty of films with such young audiences in mind that have been far better and far less exploitative). Being more appropriate for its target audience is the only thing that has that makes it better than its predecessor, everything else is just chaotic, inept mush. - 1/10
205. Blockers (2018) - July 24th
Here we have the first movie of the week that actually felt worth my time. Blockers had a big disadvantage with me from the start; in addition to being from one of my least favourite sub-genres the trailer was absolutely awful focusing entirely on the worst parts of the film, but as someone who really doesn't enjoy sex comedies relying on gross-out humour I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. For every joke that was far too much there was another that made me laugh out loud, and as often as it gets obnoxious with its approach to expressing its politics the film offers great turns from both the parents and the teens, who are all playing well-rounded characters in their own right that together make the most of the human moments in the film, with special note to Leslie Mann who gives one of her best humorously vulnerable performances. There's some nice twists on expected comedy, such as Ike Barinholtz' initially gross Hunter revealing himself to be more complex than just his comedy sidekick role would suggest as he shows the best innate understanding of his daughter out of the three parents, learning an entirely different lesson from the other two that fits really well in to the themes of the movie. Speaking of themes, the film actually has them, and as obvious as it seems that it should it's good to have this sort of movie actually take the time to consider why the characters do what they do and grow from the experience, and more importantly in this case work it in to the comedy; at one point it felt as if the film was going of the rails to devolve in to a straight and blatant discussion of the politics the film was already expressing fine on its own, but then they make that part of its own ruse and so it shifts right back in to the comedy that makes the film that much more worthwhile. - 6.5/10
206. Rambo (2008) - July 25th
I appreciated how Rambo's character had developed, I did not appreciate how gratuitous this film was with its violence. It has been said that it is impossible to make and 'anit-war' war movie, and while there have some films that make a good argument to the contrary, by technicality First Blood included, Rambo is a far cry in its approach from that sort of filmmaking. Even though every word spoken by John Rambo in the earliest parts of the movie is of the conflict within him of who he is and what he does and how that's all he knows how to do, the film drops any sense of this conflict as soon as he throws himself in to the blood bath; he just starts killing and doesn't stop, despite the fact that his whole character is embittered by the idea that all he knows is killing. This wouldn't be so bad if the movie didn't revel so much in the violence itself, showing utterly insane amounts of fake and flashy blood and guts without a hint of weight to their presence. The action is good in its own schlocky way, but it's add odds with the themes set up within the character of Rambo and does nothing outside of its own gratuity. There's potential for a good film here, and it doesn't fail entirely, at least succeeding in its first half, but in abandoning the potential nuance in the themes it introduces it becomes less like the predecessor that made the character of Rambo great and more like the predecessors that didn't understand why he was great; once again, the war veteran is substituted for an action hero, and all that makes him human is forgotten at the chance to sling some blood and bullets around. - 5/10
207. The Tunnel (2011) - July 26th
Have I mentioned how much I love that us Aussies are actually good at horror? Between this, The Loved Ones, Wyrmwood and The Babadook we manage to have a growing list of solid or even great entries in to so many horror sub-genres. For me personally this is also important because found-footage is probably my least favourite film technique and always puts me off a movie from the start, so understand the exception I make here when I say that this one is actually good.
There's a lot of technical choices here that give it a superiority over others of its ilk; the guerilla-style shooting interspersed with documentary interviews gives the whole thing an added layer of authenticity, even if interviewing characters who are part of a story after the fact is usually a problem in itself (not inherently, but usually; it gives easy outs and segues between scenes that often feel mandated to make sure the audience understands what's going on, rather than anything that actually adds to the narrative, while also essentially confirming the characters that live and die before the story has even started, which can be a problem in a horror movie, since most of the tension is wrought out of who lives and dies). The movie manages to get past this, however, the tension carried through the characters not involved in the interviews and through skillful use of mystery in regards to the horror itself that's subdued enough that when something happens the contrast is actually felt. It's a film that works around its limitations to create something really worthwhile, and has enough truly memorable moments to leave a lasting impression. - 7/10
208. In the Name of the Father (1993) - July 27th
The award for best movie I saw this week goes to this. The controversy over the liberties taken with the story aside (because the value of changing a fictional representation of a factual story to suit the actual story the writer wanted to tell is a discussion entirely unto itself), this is powerhouse of acting, with Pete Postlethwaite showing that he's probably the only person who could out-act Daniel Day-Lewis in a movie where Daniel Day-Lewis is the lead. Seriously, both of these guys do an absolutely fantastic job showcasing not just the raw emotional outbursts but the quieter moments too, each with equal and incredible skill, the likes of which are rarely seen. It's not just their individual work, but how the two are able to play off one another as well, for every second they spend together on screen they feel like a real father and son with a complicated and storied relationship that doesn't go away the moment the credits roll. It helps that these are based off of real people I'm sure, but still, this is damn good stuff. The rest of the movie is good too, but these two are fantastic, and Postlethwaite in particular is transcendent. - 8/10
209. Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018) - July 28th
Had Superbabies not already forced me several feet below it, this and the next movie would be rock bottom for the week. This is hardly worse than Planet of the Monsters, but it's filled with many of the same issues that plagued it: a lot of great ideas presented in the most flat and boring way possible, and without the initial wow factor of Godzilla as we've never seen him to carry the ending. There's still the action, which when combined with smoother animation makes for a slightly more entertaining time, but it's a continuation of the same story and style that leads to a lot of time wasted on trope-y subplots such as the obvious and undeveloped love triangle and the continued ideological differences between the humanoid races as the driving conflict between them, with a twist that's far more nonsensical than the last one and with far less impact. Now, my bias to seeing Godzilla content, even bad content, means that I still feel more highly of this than I would another film of the same type under a different banner. It's not a huge differential, but I think I should acknowledge it before I give my rating, although the biggest reason that this maintains the same rating as the last is due to having more action which means less boring exposition. - 4/10
210. Extinction (2018) - July 28th
This movie is a nice twist on a derivative idea that loses all impact as soon as it actually explores in detail the vague idea it introduces. Visions of a coming apocalypse that leaves you distanced from your family as you struggle through life is a good plot hook, but it becomes clear as the film goes on that none of the interesting ways that this idea could be taken are going to be explored, and while some twists have really nice foreshadowing (there's one edit in this movie that's just good enough to stand out against the rest of this awfulness), others are total nonsense that feel ripped straight from a young adult sci-fi novel, even down to the ending that resolves nothing and only suggests that something might be resolved in a future movie, as the main characters escape on a train to go in to hiding. Seriously, the film's ending felt lifted straight from Divergent, only with significantly worse effects. That's the other most bothersome thing about this movie, the effects start well but get worse as the movie goes on, like its effects were added chronologically and they ran out of budget half way through, leaving the final moments of the film looking so bad that it feels borderline experimental, or at least somewhat intentional. All of the films cool ideas save for one devolve in to cliches, and the one idea that feels unique becomes weightless when so little of the rest of the film feels so unsure of what its trying to say as it wades through vague ideas of A.I. as living beings and makes sure of little else and only raises further questions with its constant turns, questions that I ultimately care so little for because this film presents all of its ideas so plainly that none of them are worth thinking about. I'm moving on from this one pretty quick - 3.5/10
Published July 30th, 2018
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