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Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Nostalgic but Fairly Entertaining.
An ancient battle among different Chinese factions shows good and bad among the culture. It's American and Chinese without much issue. I like that ole Jack Burton isn't going to save the day, but he's gonna be a part of it. He's arrogant but giving and Wang Chi is a surprising warrior that may just save the day on his own. There's a lot going on here that can fan out into different stories of interest: the history of the mythology and legend, the history of the Elemental warriors, short story adventures on the sorcery and the practitioners, further episodes in the buddy adventure, a whirlwind romance, etc.
Night Teeth (2021)
Potential As Direction Goes, Needs Refinement on the Details.
Pros: Good acting, even the awkwardness of gender-fluid Rocco. Benny and Blaire's magnetism worked out, a believable bond in the making. The tone and speed made it an interesting viewing. Hip without being obnoxious and in your face (though I have a Con for this too).
Cons: The environment of vampires coexisting, even having a truce with the humans, is not one that hasn't been done before. You weren't really left with a hopeful feeling about anybody in the film. After two hundred years, I think a vampire would either be animalistic and insane for all they've seen, or quite refined through all the eras and cultures they've experienced, but this is another film that shows them as young, hip, cultic, and modern (which worked for Lost Boys part one but not the rest) ... resembling current trends more than anything, and unless they were pushing for public discord through powerful socio-political positions, they shouldn't have been so defined here as ritzy white vampires and Hispanic vampire hunter familias, more so should have been quite the mixture of backgrounds and people on both sides. The vampire lifestyle here was one sect of Beverly Hills that I am not keen to take an adventure through. No vampire nor hunter could take on Blaire and Zoe, they were simply super-powered and unstoppable.
Lean on Me (1989)
Great Representation That Doesn't Get Modern Notice.
This movie did a good job with showing a pretty grey area, with only a few things here-and-there as black-and-white. Freeman's performance not only showed that Joe Clark was the name for the job, but that he had moments of clarity that he wasn't always doing as he should (like with his school staff). The film also did good in showing that the community was divided on how schools should be handled, what they should focus on, and the subcommunity of black people were even divided. Joe made a good speech about the black, brown, and white children being together and going through the same thing, and the potent debate of overuse of welfare versus some folks actually needing it to some degree, is one that modern talking heads won't present under a banner of discussion. There was no black is righteous and white is evil. There was not black is savage and white is civilized. The representation was true to reality for those of us who live in diverse communities and attended public schools. Even though the film didn't go into it, the irony that the State wants to take over your school because the children cannot pass a State standard is shameful in retrospect. The Mayor needs votes and taxes, a political welfare for the rich.
Conann (2023)
Content Fails to Connect to Source Material.
The content fails to connect with the source material. Robert E. Howard wrote of masculine men and feminine women, of course, and he also leaned into a feminist viewing of women where they were strong enough to handle themselves even when the odds were against them. His publicized letters shows an affinity towards such too. He likes his men and women strong in the face of systematic adversity where the rulers are corrupt and debaucherous. If the content is worth anything, create new characters and see how far it goes. Even the coattails of success of Conan the Barbarian cannot drag this into a coherent and enjoyable experience. Simply, those who look for such content, don't look for Conan, and vice versa.
The Principal (1987)
More True Than Modern Imaginings.
Modern films and shows want to create a divided line where bad is bad, and good is good, as long as they fit within compartments. In reality, the lines get blurred because not everybody wants to be apart of the bad crowd, and not everybody doing good is sincere in the projected outcome. This was an entertaining flick that Belushi pulled off well. He and Gossett were a magnetic duo once they started feeling each other out. A couple of the bad ones were sympathetic in the end, the atmosphere was a diverse mix of kids who simply don't do well, the surrounding communities were presented as people who knew that the policies afoot restricted them from getting involved, but the principal's no B. S. attitude that treated the kids like accountable humans is what is and was needed.
Joe Kidd (1972)
The Nuance of War
I wonder if there is any relation to Elmore Leonard's Frank Harlan and to his Harlan County in his Justified novels. Clint Eastwood is as cool and calm as ever here. I've always liked john Saxon but this accent isn't one of his best. Still, it's Saxon, Eastwood, and Robert Duvall, so you can't go too wrong. Gregory Walcott, Paul Koslo, James Wainwright, and Don Stroud did good jobs as the no-nonsense sheriff and henchmen for Harlan. Kinda wish there was more of Dick Van Pattern and Lynne Marten. As a Revisionist Western, you'd have to hold your breath to see if it's going to be a bashing of all things American or Western, but it wasn't in this case. True-to-form, the lines between good and evil were blurred but for the most part, the bad guys were on both sides with the innocents caught in between, with revolutionaries wanting others to die for their cause, and wealthy land owners wanting to suppress the local land rights. Entertaining and enthralling.
Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)
Cliche versus Trope.
I hope not to repeat what other reviews have already touched on. Zack Snyder can, and does, make entertaining films, or at least, if the film is too kong and doesn't hold a cohesive story of interest, he gives us entertaining moments, and even things to think upon in character dialogue. Here, it is stated that Snyder borrows a lot from other sources, including other films, but his imagery of the Imperium strong-arming the farmers, and the outfits of the officers, is very reminiscent of Nazi Germany. The world-building is indepth and the execution goes back-and-forth between dramatic intensity to drawn out dialogue. Is it western, space opera, sci-fi, fantasy, etc? No matter, it can work. Where it fails for me, is that all the bad guys, the most vile, the abusive and rapey, are all white men, even a pig-faced perv at a bar. A galaxy far away is so different than Earth that the human tendency to conquer and garner power, assault inferiors, is subject to a demographic. In addition, a woman trained under the Imperium, is able to destroy a whole Imperium military unit of men, though her backstory is that she has no special powers or abilities different from them. This is a common Hollywood trope, for decades, amplified with Disney and Marvel and so forth, to present women as powerhouses, creating a standard of elitism that neither man nor woman can keep up with. This also hurts the main character's personality: she is bitter to be around, depressing, monotone, and a harbinger of justice and revenge that that doesn't age well even after a few hours.
Yu yu hakusho (2023)
Better Than Most Available Shows.
In comparing this series to what else is out there, it's definitely entertaining and better. It doesn't rely on sex and flesh to sell, nor a heavy hand in socio-political sermons. There's a nod towards the next generation fixing things, appealing to the youth, and towards elitist entertainment at the expense of human life, but we're not beat over the head with it not is there a lot of time spent on it. Rating this unto itself though, I've no real complaints but it's not perfect. Like many typical mangas/animes, there's a lot of over-explaining of emotions and motivations. The fights drag out almost for a whole episode in some scenarios, where the good guy and the bad guy level up, beat the snot out of the other, and then cycles through who will come out on top. Another trope is the swagger and rounded shoulder manners of the young studs, as well as the flare of style and clothing. Many animes use a formula of students who maintain uniforms and strict schedules with a few unique that either bullies or special/talented. Introduce a supernatural threat and/or compatriot and witness an adventure of chaos from heaven to hell. All that said, it's not perfect, nothing is, but it was better than most.
The Witcher: A Grain of Truth (2021)
Potentially Good, Executed Questionably.
On its own, this episode is morbidly interesting, dark, and clearly a darker reimagining of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. The reveal of the Beast's vile act came off as an after-thought, an insincere virtue signal symbolizing that monsters aren't so bad, but one. Comparing this episode to the actual source material, Sapkowski did a way better job at nuance, and the success of it simply gave coat tails for this series to ride on and revamp. The differences are loud and as much as many others enjoyed this opening episode, it fails to stay within the dark fairy tale universe of the Witcher literature.
Day of Wrath (2006)
Is It Still Genocide When It Comes from Within?
During the Spanish Inquisition, the sheriff of a Spanish town nurses an alcohol addiction while trying to investigate brutal slayings of nobles. Most of the slayings have a calling card left behind of a letter carved into the noble's body. Ultimately, the mysteries revealed, after a past decree that Jews be banished from the empire, these Jewish victims have hid their heritage and names in order to keep their wealth and prestige, to appear as Spanish royal families. But now they are being ticked off one-by-one by ... other secreted Jews. Just like in our World War, many would throw their brethren under the bus in order to save their own skin. The self-persecution comes at the desire of the secretly Jewish governor being blackmailed and not wanting to lose his wealth and position for his origin, so he blackmails the Jewish families on a secret list to prevent his own fall from grace. He intends to murder every Jew on this list except himself and his heir. The governor realized that being born Jewish is crime enough punishable by death, so ironically he kills people for being born Jews. The quasi-Christian sheriff, not knowing his own heritage of Jewish ethnicity, must now reconcile that this part of the Inquisition wasn't about the purging of sinners but about Jews murdering Jews to save themselves.
The content and setting are very intriguing but unfortunately, the acting and direction fall flat. The acting is very cringe-worthy and wooden.
Isenhart - Die Jagd nach dem Seelenfänger (2011)
Atmospheric Environment Compartmentalizing A Complex Topic.
"The real world can only be understood by rejecting God as an explanation. Anyone who answers a question by invoking God's will just doesn't know. The way to knowledge is paved by curiosity and inquiry, not by faith and dogma. Inquiry means movement, faith means stagnation, for faith is content with ignorance."
- 'The Non-Existence of God' by Sydal von Friedberg
"Presenting two extremes as the only two options in a choice is a logical fallacy called a false dilemma. This fallacy misrepresents the issue and excludes any nuance, which just isn't reflective of the way the world works." - Dr. Fran Turek
A tale that unintentionally touches on how the powerful dictated religion, science, and law among the masses, limiting the People's exposure to learn for themselves, what this film has going for it is the historical setting, the somber mood with macabre dealings, and the hint of magical romance. If the same tale were told as a modern story, I think it would alienate and fail, flat out. The anti-faith message starts to get heavy but the actions and dialogue of the skeptics become monstrous and zealous, faithless religious fervor unto itself. The skeptics, even our protagonist, have been conveniently given future eyes, where they have lofty ideas about the advancement of science while everybody else, especially those of faith, are damnedly ignorant.
An interesting tale considering it's German connection. A tale of scientific exploration causing a travesty by murdering innocents to examine their anatomy and their souls. A twisted perception of that which we don't know in God and eternity and the soul. I think the writers wanted to show how faith caused ignorance and death, and science could get you murdered because faith wouldn't let it flourish. This doesn't age well considering the recent abuse of science for politics and pandemics, or as appropriate as ever, the elitist mind set that some deserve knowledge at the expense of most. It's almost like the writers don't remember a tragic World War and it's travesties.
When you look at historical elitist communities, royalties at times, they would decree their laws in the name of God or in the name of their own lineage or in the name of country. This is why many preferred for the masses to not know how to read, or at least not know the language that the Bible was written in. What was also common though, was a man of faith being a man of science. Science was not forbidden to people of faith but education was forbidden for the lowly ones, lest they become smart enough to topple their rulers. This mentality still exists today, where science and faith are pitted against each other to exert control but both are very complimentary of each other for a sincere seeker.
According to this tale, you die by faith, ignorantly, but are murdered for science. And it's faith's fault that science cannot flourish, since science cannot force itself on some to educate others.