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Shôgun (2024)
Not an improvement on the original.
It's a decent production and from what I remember seems to be faithful to the novel. However, this is clearly another attempt at Hollywood revisionist history. For starters it's filmed in Vancouver. You can tell that the buildings are sets. Within the first 20 minutes there is a samurai being dressed down by a woman. And of course, they had to find a dark-skinned Japanese woman to play Mariko. Interview with Anna Sawai.
If you're thinking great, here we go, you'd be correct. Here are excerpts from the LA Times article "Anna Sawai's 'Shogun' role felt personal: Mariko is 'every woman in Japan who has suffered", FEB. 25, 2024
"I wanted to know that they weren't just trying to do another white savior story," says Sawai. "That they were going to do it right this time."
Her "layer of contemporary attitude," as Marks calls it, is what enables audiences to see Mariko as a sympathetic character. It's rooted in Sawai's awareness of the various Hollywood tropes and misrepresentations that have plagued Japanese women onscreen for decades.
"I didn't want it to be another depiction of Japanese women being sexualized by white men," says Sawai. "I wanted this to be the right portrayal of women."
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Shogun was great because it was an accurate portrayal of feudal Japan. This may have been, if not for the attempt to modernize it. Which begs the question, if you're not creating your own production, with your own artistic interpretation, then why remake it? Why, indeed?
Penny Serenade (1941)
A truly great depiction of a couple's real life.
For starters: this film has a REALLY unsatisfying ending. I wonder what happened, because otherwise the script was great.
Cary Grant and Irene Dunne play a couple that has just lost a child, which is revealed in the first scene. Dunne is about to leave her husband and the story is told in flashbacks as she's taking one last trip down memory lane before walking out the door.
A few things made this picture special for me. First, it was a fine representation of the arc of a married couple. From first meeting and flirtations, to getting married, and all the ups and downs that a couple goes through together. Second, and this took me until almost the end to realize, Grant's character changes. Early on I felt he was really dislikable if not an outright jerk to his wife. But as the film goes on he softens, especially after he becomes a father. How many men can relate to this?
I gave this film 8/10 because it felt real. I wanted to go higher but the melodramatic ending spoiled it for me. I'll leave it at that.
Robot & Frank (2012)
Would have been great with a bit more polish on the script
I liked it. The dialogue was a bit thin and characters tropey. Ex. A woman in her 40s calling her father daddy; hipster library guy treating a senior citizen like he's stuck in three decades ago. Other than that it was entertaining.
Tom and Jerry (2021)
To the humorless reviewers of this movie:
Boy, I'd hate to host a cocktail party with you all as guests. This was a great modern animated film. There was all the cartoon violence you'd expect to see from these two. No lame CGI. None of the politics that gets shoved down your throat in every Disney flick, or the crude jokes you hear in the Dreamworks movies. Seriously, I didn't catch a single take on current events. And the plot involved a man and woman in love planning a wedding. Gee imagine that!
This movie was funny, CGM was cute as the protagonist, and the animation was solid with the look of old school hand drawn cartoons. If I have a complaint, it's about 10 minutes too long. Also you would have gotten a better performance from a tree than Colin Jost.
I felt like my dad was taking me to the movies again. I commend WB for releasing this movie. If you're looking for something similar that also has terrible reviews, check out the recent Addams Family release. Another great and safe family movie.
Mary Queen of Scots (2018)
A disservice to an important historical period.
Took notice of the reviews, but just finished watching Wolf Hall and wanted to learn more. Within the first five minutes there was a black dude at court and Mary writing a letter to Elizabeth suggesting they push the men aside to create a treaty between two women. I turned it off, I don't have time for this crap.
The Wrong Man (1956)
A totally different Hitchcock film that might be his finest work.
20 minutes into this movie I was a bit perplexed. It was released during the so-called Hitchcock golden age of the 50's, but the pacing is so slow and deliberate that I couldn't figure out what he was doing. As the movie progressed it finally dawned on me, he's doing this purposely to make the viewer part of Manny's nightmare. This story could have been told in 30 minutes, but Hitchcock's direction made it almost painful to watch. So many long, slow shots where Henry Fonda has a blank eyed stare to communicate Manny's disbelief about what's happening to him. Manny letting down his sons, his wife's descent into madness, his alibi and defense falling apart.
It almost feels like a documentary, and in a way it is as Hitchcock used many people and places from the real events. This is what made it so much more gripping and suspenseful than even Psycho or Vertigo or Rear Window. Unreal. I'm only about halfway through the Hitchcock catalog and I look forward to stumbling across the next gem.
Arizona (2018)
Better than the rating indicates
This was a funny movie. I'm not sure what everyone expects from a Danny McBride movie but it had great direction, production, and a decent script. There was some solid black humor and McBride was funny as hell. And yes, if you've been to AZ in the past ten years it is so true.
Kodachrome (2017)
Had potential, really wanted to like it.
This film immediately made me think of Nebraska with Bruce Dern and Will Forte. Similar concept, guy taking his elderly father on a road trip. But this movie just couldn't do it for me. The story was good, the acting was OK, but the dialogue I felt was just terrible. The scenes felt contrived and predictable.
But I didn't hate it. It was a good movie, it just didn't move me like Nebraska did.