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« Last post by Kaos on April 19, 2024, 06:57:19 PM »
Three quick ones for you:
Ghosted
Tried really hard to hit the spy spoof center, but ended up missing badly. Anna de Armas and Captain America (Chris Evans) in a twist on the bumbling citizen gets pulled into a massive spy conspiracy game.
de Armas is the spy, Evans is the inept besotted farmer along for the ride. Should have been so much fun. Unfortunately the chemistry between Evans and de Armas just wasn't there. The plot kept twisting sideways and upside down. Numerous cameos from Ryan Reynolds to Bucky the Winter Soldier to Falcon, but even those couldn't save it.
It really lost me when de Armas was driving a bus backward down a mountain pass in Khandar with at least four guys chasing her in a vehicle, all armed, all firing away at the bus and she never got hit. They were literally 10 feet away with a truck-mounted gun.
It was kinda cute, but failed to deliver in the way it should have.
Argylle
A really chunky Howard daughter as an author who writes spy novels that are too close for comfort to the real spy network. Sam Rockwell is the deep cover spy tasked with grabbing her before the bad guys - who know her upcoming book will expose secrets - can get their hands on her and her ridiculous cat.
This one flips the script so many times that it was hard to keep up with who was on whose side. Bryan Cranston, Superman Cavill, John Cena, Samuel L. and a nearly mummified Catherine O'Hara (did she leave Kevin home again?) make up the rest of the cast.
This one was really poorly paced and an absolutely ridiculous colored-smoke dance/fight scene did the film no favors. Would have been nice to like it, but the bizarre ice-skating-on-an-oil slick scenario was too much to bear.
Bad.
Napoleon
Looked forward to this. The French Revolution was a fascinating era, as was the Emperor's rise and fall - as well as his well-documented fascination with Josephine.
This film did a really good job with costumes. The battle scenes were great. But it felt far too much like a series of disconnected vignettes, none of which combined to tell the entire story.
Part of it was the completely flat, dry, and emotionless performance by Joaquin Phoenix as Bonaparte. Most of the movie consisted of him slouching around looking very much like a constipated owl. I was really disappointed in his or the director's take on Napoleon's countenance and behavior.
It briefly skated past significant events and personalities (Robespierre for one) in its rush to showcase Napoleon making odd noises while he stared at Josephine or to stage the next sprawling battle scene. There was so little context, so little explanation of why those people/events mattered that it failed to connect. It took such liberties with the history I remember, that it was difficult to watch.
Napoleon's story, framed as a part of the Revolution, is one that deserves to be told. Just not like this. Done properly, it really should be more like a limited series, maybe four episodes.
Can't argue with the visuals. But once you got past that facade, the rest of the film was an empty shell. Kind of like biting into what looks like a delicious buttery croissant only to find that the insides are nothing but air.