Wednesday, 28 May 2025

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)

SPOILERS BELOW

Bit of a disappointment after the high standards of so many previous ones. It's all very 'this might be the last one, global stakes' portentous and slow, it doesn't keep a light touch while maintaining the stakes and not winking at camera, unlike the best of them. There aren't any classic M:I heists or anything like that, and the action scenes weren't that thrilling; it's weird, this one felt more like it was COVID-affected than the last one did.
I didn't even really care about Luther dying, it just felt so rushed and perfunctory - why was he ill, how did Gabriel find him? Speaking of which, we never really found out the deal with Gabriel and Ethan's backstory, never got a proper confrontation between them. And the Entity doesn't have a personality so that can't really be the baddy either. Not that an M:I film needs one - Ghost Protocol did fine - but it helps! And all the 'Ethan must reckon with all his mistakes, This Is His Final Reckoning' stuff didn't work either - the Jim Phelps thing was so gratuitous, why should Ethan feel like he needs redemption on that front? And then the guy is like, I don't care about what happened with my father, I just think you're a maverick. And then there's Donlowe - I really liked them bringing him back and keeping him as part of the team, that was great, but of all the things Ethan has to atone for, it's getting this office drone reassigned? And then they contrive it so he did the guy a big favour! The whole thing just felt a bit rushed and unpolished, I think they really got a little high on their own supply and bit off more than they could chew with these last two entries.

Rating: It's okay, but I think probably my least favourite of all of them. I'd probably rather rewatch MI2 again than this one because as cheesy as it is, at least it's an hour shorter and it's got some proper action in it.

Monday, 26 May 2025

Rick & Morty (2013 - )

note: pulled from Discord posts, so the first three seasons don't get discussed week by week and some episodes get missed (which probably meant they were mediocre!). Probably some spoilers.

S01-S03 - great!

S04 -
2&3 were the worst of the entire series, just really poor. I'm going to be severely disappointed if getting such a large episode order on one go means that they don't bother pushing themselves any more and take a Simpsons-style dive into lazy mediocrity.
4 is terrible.
5 is a return to form. It's not a groundbreaking classic or anything, but it was funny and light on its feet.
6 is great. Such a relief for the ratio to be going back up.
7 not awful but not particularly good either. Bit of a confused, unimaginative mess.
8 - okay. Some funny stuff, wraps up a bit lazily. This seems to be the new standard - season 1 level laughs and ideas, but a little less care taken over it.
9 - The beginning and end were a little sweaty, but the middle section was great. It does still feel like the writers have got a bit lazy - there's stuff that definitely could have used more work.
10 - proper good! Clever, funny, exciting, fast-paced, pulling off satisfying lore updates while simultaneously poking fun at them. Not in the top ten or anything, but not in the bottom ten either. Probably my only niggle is that they didn't add anything new to the ||'sad Rick ending'|| trope so it felt a little pat.

S05 -
1 - okay. Not great, not awful. Felt a little derivative of previous episodes.
2 - I did enjoy it, and at times it felt quite fresh, but then other times it would hew too close to something from a previous episode and it would suddenly taint the whole thing. Plus I'd be thinking 'now I'm not going to be as excited if they do another Council of Ricks/Evil Morty' episode because they've done so many slightly-adjusted copies of it now.
As I wrote that, I suddenly realised that this episode is probably a metaphor for how they realise they're writing the same thing over and over and the episodes gradually turn into 'slightly worse copies' as it goes on :(
3 - Felt again like a remix of old stuff, along with whatever random ideas they had floating around, rote edgelord stuff, and a straight-up rip-off of the Funny Or Die Captain Planet videos. It wasn't as bad as that dragons/cat episode, but it was getting close.
4 - I was quite enjoying it at the start, felt like a fun low-stakes romp. But it kept getting worse as it went. I swear the show never leant on meta humour, pop culture references or 'lol random' stuff this much before. It's actually starting to remind me of Family Guy. I'm kind of scared to go back and watch the first three seasons now, in case it was always this bad and I just never noticed because it wasn't done so clumsily/lazily.
5 -  really good!
6 - quite fun, but it ran out of steam a little in the second half.
7 - mediocre at best
8 -  really good! I think it's only one of two this season I've actually enjoyed (along with ep 5), and certainly the only one that's felt up to S1-3 standards.
9 - I enjoyed the Morty story, but the Rick one felt pretty rushed and flimsy. And the ending just had no emotional heft. As we've said previously, this show really needs to change or expand or something, and I guess they're not going to because they have this safety net of the 70(?)-episode commission or because vocal fans turned them off it or whatever.
10 - Watched the second one. For the first half I was like 'Jesus, this is weak. Another full-blown anime pastiche?' Then they just did a sharp turn into a Citadel episode halfway through, which was a fun twist, and it actually felt like they were trying again. The problem is, I could barely follow the serialised stuff! I don't know if that's because I'm not smart enough or I haven't been poring over wikis and fan theories, or if it's because they didn't do  good job. But it didn't really feel like it did anything new with the character arcs either - I liked the whole 'I'm only Evil Morty because I'm sick of him' thing, but it doesn't say anything about the Rick-Morty dynamic that the first Evil Morty episode didn't say. I wish they'd spent two episodes on this instead of mostly doing the crow shit. They even could have tied it in loosely with the Birdperson stuff. Oh well, if I ever do a R&M rewatch again I'll be skipping a lot of 4 and 5 but this one at least makes it onto the list, I think.
Okay, just looked at some story discussion, and these are two things I didn't fully grasp from the episode:
a) The Ricks specifically bred Morty to be the perfect sidekick by hooking their daughter up with some loser with the right DNA, i.e. Jerry. (I initially thought this was happening under evil Morty's rule.)
b) The reason all the universes have a super-smart Rick is that he’s walled off those universes, and has been visiting only a small (but still infinite) part of the multiverse in which he dominates – the central finite curve.
I think that was all told in a pretty muddled way, and also I thought there was a line there about how Rick created the Citadel, but it turns out his wife was killed by a Citadel guy? So what's up with that?

S06 -
1 - Enjoyed it! It was basically a lot of plot tidy-up but it was funny and interesting, and not lazy in a way they could have got away with. It probably worked a lot better with me having done a rewatch of the first three seasons plus the good episodes from the next two.
2 -  it was okay. The Roy thing was a really interesting idea but didn't really develop into anything after the first half, and the Die Hard stuff was pretty uninventive. It's not like I mind them riffing on stuff - the Inception/Nightmare On Elm Street mash-up is still great - but when it's like this or the whole 'two crows anime pastiche' thing, it's just so 'South Park did this fifteen years ago'.
3 -  I don't mind them doing a slow character-based episode, but it wasn't particularly funny or inventive (shagging your own clone is like plot device 3 in a clone story).
4 - really enjoyed it! Strong premise, well done. Not laugh out loud funny, and it even has a couple of Futurama moments (dynamite museum, ugh, funny Jewish stereotype robot, what the hell was that? I feel like I was missing some reference there, but still, eesh), but overall very enjoyable.
5 - Enjoyed it. There were a couple of elements that didn't really work, but mostly very funny and cool.
6 -  bad. Just disjointed and tired and unoriginal and not funny at all. Utterly bland autopilot episode.
7 - okay, but a less funny rerun of the story train ep.
8 - pretty good, a funny metaphor for toxic online discourse.
9 - mediocre at best. Total autopilot.
10 - This show is so tired. It's just 100% recycled bits.

S07
1 - I don't think it was in the five worst episodes or anything, but only because of its lack of ambition. It was like a better-written episode of Family Guy. Turns out the new voices are more convincing than the new writing.
2 - A little better just by dint of having a story idea and being a little less lazy, but also just felt like reheated elements of previous episodes while not fully examining its own premise.
The whole show needs some kind of shake-up. The 70-episode commission didn't do it, Roiland leaving didn't do it, maybe if Harmon leaves too that will do it? I guess the issue is that because it's animation, there are no enforced changes. Roles can be recast, characters are much less affected by their actors aging or having other life issues, locations never become unavailable, budget doesn't have as much effect. Simpsons at least had show-runner changes, though - R&M hasn't even had that.
Community losing Harmon for a year and having an awful season, then losing half of its main cast in quick succession probably led to a much better two seasons than if everyone had just stayed put for season 4.
3 - Dull. Doesn't do anything new with the Unity concept, relies mostly on dialogue being read out very fast rather than actually being clever and funny.
4 - best one in ages. Probably better than the weakest S1-3 episodes. (Can't believe they went to the 'watch someone's whole life in a montage' well again but it was at least a good version of it.)
5 - this was okay, the fight and action choreography was fun and Evil Morty still works well as a character, but as a 'continuity' episode it felt perfunctory. There was nothing to it except moving the continuity on a step. I used to get very excited when these episodes came up but now it just feels like wiki fodder.
6 - great! Good old taking a fun concept and squeezing it for all it's worth and writing good jokes instead of just making everyone talk real fast. Also, I genuinely forgot Roiland was gone until after I finished watching. (One could argue that the fake clip show format is something they've done a bunch before and is maybe easier to write than a full story but hey it shows they can still do some stuff well.)
7- So bland, felt like an AI wrote it. And almost every single joke had a line of dialogue explaining it directly after. Wondering if that 'rich dickheads thinking 69 is funny' bit was a jab at Musk, though. If so, either it got snuck past Harmon or he's finally come around on 'Musk is a useless tool'.
8 - bad. Taking something that worked great as a post-credits gag and stretching it out over a whole episode without any extra layers to it. (I did like the post-credits scene to this one, though. Probably bodes poorly for about three seasons' time...)
9 - Another bland one, with some story stuff that didn't really track or at least was muddy. Also another example of the references getting lazier, just like naming and showing the actual thing (here Pokéballs and Pokémon) and that's it.
10 - Pretty good! The 'conquer your fear' mechanic didn't always make complete sense, which it didn't need to have done by the end but was a little distracting in the moment. And wow yet another 'live a whole life' sequence though at least it was quick. But overall interesting and fun.

S08
1 - mixed bag. The 'Summer and Morty have scarred middle-aged minds now' thing works really well, but it all devolves into the usual 'whole life montage'/world where everything revolves around one thing/wacky extreme action stuff, which is fine but directionless.
2 - Fine but very watered-down. It's essentially a standard sci-fi action story with a ton of lazy lampshading and Futurama-level 'comedy bad guy' stuff slathered on top. They can't even get their post-modern riffing right the whole time, they misuse 'foreshadowing' and mix up their unlikely ally tropes. The one smart thing they do is an idea I've had in my back-pocket for ages ('successful heist plan narration continues over the actual heist going tits-up') so even that was a bit annoying!
3 - so, another kind of story they can't do well anymore, the 'serialised side-story without R&M prime'. There was nothing really interesting, funny or satisfying about this one, it was just 'more Ricks and Morties fight'. It didn't really take advantage of the fact that it was all clones with their own stereotypical identities, it didn't move anything on, and there's a weird incongruence where they remind the viewer that all the non-clone Ricks and Morties got pulled back to their own dimensions but then there's a non-clone Rick here with no explanation. There's probably some way it makes sense, but for a show that complains a lot about doing serialised episodes, it sure made its own lore irritatingly complicated.
4 - Some fun ideas, but the lore was just too stuffed full. I know that was the joke, but it still meant that there wasn't any space for actual jokes (outside of 'puke is funny' and 'sex is funny', and if you're too scared to show sex or even nudity uncensored then don't try to make comedy out of showing it). Then there was the weird epilogue with Summer which was also overstuffed with lore, and perhaps that was supposed to be playing on the theme, but it didn't make sense (why has spring break gone on for so long and turned into its own hierarchical society just because Summer has a high drug threshold now?) and again didn't really have any space for jokes. R&M at its height would have just enough moment to moment story information to force you to pay attention but not so much that you couldn't keep up without focusing on anything else or that it stopped feeling like a comedy. It felt smart, but now it feels like they've read that 'you have to be smart to understand R&M' meme and actually found it inspirational.
5 - mediocre. Picked up a bit with the Mad Mad Mad World stuff, wish they'd gone with that a bit more and actually put some mini-arcs in there and stuff. Otherwise, same old same old. Didn't feel overstuffed, but the jokes weren't that funny and the ideas were pretty bland.


Cruella (2021)

It's actually pretty good! It's a bit too long and leans a bit too heavily on needle drops, but it looks great, it's really well directed, all the performances are fun. If all the Disney live-action remakes/prequels were as good as this or Pete's Dragon, I don't think people would be complaining about them half so much.

Rating: pretty good

Thursday, 22 May 2025

The Monkey (2025)

SPOILERS BELOW

A too self-conscious Final Destination/Wishmaster mash-up.

It applies zaniness unilaterally, which just dampens the effect overall - if you have a toy monkey killing people in bizarre ways and a guy who starts worshipping it, you don't also need to make the local priest really insensitive at funeral speeches and the adoptive parents swingers (they mention this in a single line of dialogue, it doesn't come into play at all) and the new partner of the lead's ex a weirdo self-help guide writer played by Elijah Wood (especially when he's only in the movie for two minutes).

The story doesn't really kick in until very late on (basically when we learn what the bad twin has been up to) and there are some holes there too. Like, why did the aunt die if the brother hadn't retrieved the monkey yet but still had the key? Did the monkey just decide to show back up again and did it have one more bang of the drum left to use? Do the rules, which the movie seems to care a lot about, not actually matter? The movie simultaneously wants to be meticulously constructed and gonzo, and the two instincts clash.

It reminds me of a Chris Carter-penned comedy X Files episode, where he's trying to emulate Darin Morgan but doesn't have the comedic restraint and tonal control.

Rating: Kind of fun but a bit of a mess.

Flow (2024)

While it's a really chill watch full of strong animation, nice visuals, cool moments and adorable animals, there's not really any plot and it ends up feeling like watching someone play an incredibly impressive 80 minute videogame 'tram ride'. Also, while the world is intriguing - I wanted to go visit that windmill, work out what that key was for etc - it didn't feel hugely imaginative, it was pretty much South America jungle/temple setting with a +10% fantasy bump. So I would recommend it but I think it got a more enthusiastic response than it perhaps deserved, at least online, due to being not just  another Dreamworks snarkfest and to centring around a cat.

Rating: lovely but shallow

Wednesday, 21 May 2025

Love Hurts (2025)

Doesn't hit 80 minutes before credits roll and it's still too long.
The script is just one huge convoluted backstory being endlessly exposed via terrible clunky dialogue. There's so much of it that the film is covered in jarring ADR.
The fight scenes are technically impressive but overly choreographed and sterile with the actors doing a lot of the melee work but at the cost of seeming to have most of their focus on counting through the beats, barely making eye contact never mind actual facial expressions. There's no emotion or impact to it, so the viewer is left counting the beats too - a few melee moves, cut to stunt performer for wirework, cut to actor for ill-matched reaction close-up, Jackie Chan comedy moment, repeat.
I have a lot of goodwill for Ke Huy Quan, and maybe with a good script he would have shone, but he shows limited range here and this dud may well mark an end to his recent career blow-up. To be fair, no one gives a particular good performance, so it's likely not his fault.

Rating: terrible

Saturday, 3 May 2025

Another Simple Favor (2025)

SPOILERS BELOW

Probably a little bit worse than the first one, as it throws more pointless stuff into the mix.

Otherwise it pretty much has the same issues. Firstly, the twists are obvious. Mention that stillborn triplet Charity was burned dropped into the conversation apropos of nothing? Clearly still alive, and we see a photo ostensibly of her sister scheming with the aunt but can't see her face so obviously that's actually Charity and she and the aunt are working together. (This is particularly weird, as they are identical and so hiding her face is completely pointless.) The rival mob boss of equal age and sexiness to his counterpart cries when the latter is killed? Clearly they're secret gay lovers. (This never has any effect on the story?) The kid is flying a drone with a camera around the whole time? Clearly that's going to be revealed to have recorded some evidence at some point, livestreamed a confession or whatever... well no, actually, they don't do anything that integrated with it, it just flies into someone's face during a fight scene. And that's about it for the twists through the whole story - turns out it wasn't the serial murderer doing the murders this time, it was her identical twin. Though this doesn't really make any functional difference either except to allow for the thriller-y second half to happen. Maybe one of these pointless extra details will get used in the next movie (which they awkwardly line up in a final scene), as the mention of a dead triplet in the first one did here (according to Feig the detail was not an intentional set-up and it took them a few drafts of the sequel before realising they should use it - it's a smart move, though one ruined by the loud signposting), like the FBI agent who is utterly useless and about whom the detective tries to tell Stephanie something but gets cut off and then is promptly killed having added nothing to the story.
And yes, that is the second repeated issue - the mystery is essentially tied up halfway through the movie.

The third issue, Kendrick being a dull lead, is one they try to fix by saying that she's toughened up now, but it is painfully awkward watching her aim for a Kristen Bell level of sass and landing on third-rate mean girl. The only time it ever works is when Stephanie is given sodium pentothal - perhaps they should have had her high through the whole movie. But sadly they don't commit to it so she spends the movie moving between original milquetoast mode and vague Karen energy. And as in the first movie, the nicey-nice /straitlaced protagonist concept isn't done in an interesting funny way as with, say, Hot Fuzz or Elsbeth.  I don't think most of this is Kendrick's fault, she's given bad dialogue to work with, but she isn't able to somehow spin gold out of it. And once again, the film has a bunch of good actors given fun characters but very little to do with them. At first I thought that having everyone on a small island this time would allow them to get more time and to intermingle, to interact with the plot, but no.

Sidenote: The movie's big creative swing, having Lively play two sisters in a scene where one roofies and then molests the other, is technically impressive but a tonal disaster.

Rating: Not good. All the issues of the first one, a little more cluttered, and Lively is less fun.

A Simple Favor (2018)

SPOILERS BELOW

This was just about okay. The performances are good to solid (Lively and Friend stand out) and it looks pleasant enough.

The mystery is mildly intriguing, though I was ahead of it on most stuff to the point where I wasn't sure if these things were supposed to be obvious. If you're going to have a kid in the first scene of the movie say while playing with toys "I'm not dead, I came back to life" with very clear enunciation and audio mixing, I'm going to assume that's happening at some point; if you have the victim receive a weird looking photo of themself with "got to have FAITH" written on it, I'm going to assume they have an identical twin called Faith and that's who the body was and so the 'victim' will come back to life. I'm not great at solving mysteries ahead of time and I mostly don't even try to, so if I'm this far ahead of a mystery then I assume it's too obvious. Plus, identical twins is a pretty cheap move.

The big problem is that it reveals most of this around halfway through the movie and the rest of the time is spent on drip-feeding the few remaining details, and a simplistic cat and mouse game, so it's no longer really a mystery, it's just a very tame thriller. Neither half is helped by the decision to have the protagonist be a milquetoast pushover as the lead. Kendrick is good at this, as always, but she never gets to let loose so there's nothing new for anyone familiar with her and the movie never gets out of third gear. The script gives her a dark backstory, perhaps to compensate, but outside of one momentary slip she's also a sweet little wallflower in those flashbacks, and it has zero bearing on the main story. Perhaps that time could have spent on building up the characters of Rupert Friend, Linda Cardellini or Jean Smart- as it is, they're all rather wasted here and they don't feature enough to help beef up the mystery.

Overall, it feels like it was made by someone with very mild tastes and no understanding of how mysteries work. It simply does not measure up to the likes of the Benoit Blanc mysteries or Poker Face.

Rating: milquetoast mystery.