Review Roundup - Scraps and Leftovers

2023 SCI-FI CATCH-UP

Time to take a look at a few random bits and pieces that I've either forgotten to consider at an earlier stage, or forgot were actually the big thing for fifteen minutes last year. As someone wise once said this can be catalogued under the heading 'too late nobody cares'. But there are always more expensive looking blockbusters to talk about, many filled with robots, creatures and animated wizardry. When some of them forget to include basic elements like well written stories or charming protagonists it starts to become exhausting. Do I really want to look at yet more movies based on 1980s toys? Has Gareth Edwards learned from his mistakes? Let's look what's on offer...

Review Roundup - Riders on the Storm

DUNE: PART TWO (2024)

In my retrospective for David Lynch's Dune I noted that the whole thing is oddly truncated and lacks scale. Not in the sense that the ships and sets were never large enough, but the way that the passage of time is too short and the scope of the conspiracy is too shallow. It's something that in a few ways is rectified by a fan edit of the film known as the 'spicediver' edition that you can see quite easily. It's something I recommend because, in spite of the varying film sources, it's more rewarding than the official cut. Which brings us to the Denis Villeneuve iteration which when combined is more than five hours long. Does it have the depth, the grandeur, and the cast necessary to fill so much time?

Review Roundup - After Life

THE BOY AND THE HERON (2023)

AKA How Do You Live, a title which in a way reflects the tone of a story centred around personal loss. It's also a film which brings a lot of the director's earlier projects together in one place. Between 1984 and 2001 Hayao Miyazaki has been involved in some of the greatest animated films of all time. Not everything was perfect but everyone will have a personal favourite. Some fans are even enamoured with his later projects after Spirited Away, which shows the appeal of his sensibilities. However, in a story which covers everything from wartime tragedy, time warping alternate dimensions, and a whole lot of talking animals, this is a movie that avoids being too lightweight but often feels too unwieldy; in both length and scope.

HCF Review - Jackpot

CASINO RAIDERS (1989)

A Wong Jing movie about gambling with Andy Lau that was released in 1989… that’s not God of Gamblers? Yes that’s right, the prolific film-maker loves this subject and these actors so much that he did it twice in one year. After all, why make one movie when you can make two for twice the price? However, far from the usual comedic farce that Wong is known for by some this is, in some ways, a more conventional crime thriller. Which is to say that it’s generally a more sombre affair, but at the same time it’s a film with a very odd structure. Perhaps this is simply the influence of have a second director-writer on board. So while the tonal shift is refreshing this is an experience that can often be unwieldy and unfocused.

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Monster Bites - Space 1999

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968)

Time for one last Battle Royale. Or at least that was the intention at the time of its release, before the producers at Toho decided that making more money and having the series last for another seven years was a better plan. Looking at it now there are moments in which it's clearly the last of its kind, but in other ways it's also another alien invasion story in which many familiar narrative moments appear. But purely as a large scale spectacle it's debatable whether this really is the biggest and best of the Showa era, as the marketing would have you believe. Claims that this is the brawl to end all brawls, featuring every classic monster, are certainly in doubt as things unfold.