Jeremy_Urquhart Reviews

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

Ups and downs

[6/10 · 12 May 2024]

I've got some real mixed feelings about this one. Those past three movies were surprisingly good, and I was always skeptical about a fourth. The best thing I can say about the film (besides the special effects side of things) is that it does set itself a considerable amount of time later than the past three. How long isn't exactly clear, but it's good that these are new characters, and new conflicts, more or less.

As for the visuals, as mentioned before, it's all pretty good. It's hard to fault much by way of visual effects here, though there is a certain wow factor lacking. It's all very proficient and largely convincing, but it doesn't pop the way both the Avatar movies so far have, for example. Maybe you need a great filmmaker to know what to do with those visuals. The basics here are strong, because you do generally believe what you're seeing, but creatively, things aren't very inspired, especially when it comes to the action.

It's also too slow/long. To go back to Avatar, I didn't mind that last one being three hours. I wasn't bothered by the length of Babylon or Killers of the Flower Moon. But Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - on top of having too long a title - is too long a movie, I'd say by 40 to 50 minutes. It needed to be cut down, and it needed to introduce its main villain sooner.

There was only one character I really liked here, and that character wasn't in the movie enough. The protagonist is fine, the main villain is fine (once he finally shows up), and the way future sequels were set up was also fine. It's a fine movie. It's not great. It was too long. But there was enough here to prevent me from calling it bad... though it lacked a certain something to make it feel essential. I'm unsure whether I'll see the next one, to be honest.

Sanjuro (1962)

One of Kurosawa's most entertaining films.

[8/10 · 11 May 2024]

Back in the day, I watched Sanjuro (1962) before Yojimbo (1961), simply because I found a copy of the former before the latter (though the former's the latter by year of release, and the latter's the former by the same metric).

Anyway, Toshiro Mifune plays basically the same character in both, but otherwise, they're not too connected. Yojimbo's got more of a focus on suspense, and is pretty light on action. Sanjuro has a few more fight scenes - it's a real joy to watch Mifune just mow down guys in the big ones. It's also a funnier film, and possibly the most comedic of any Akira Kurosawa samurai movie. Seven Samurai's also funny in parts, but gets deathly serious during other scenes. Sanjuro stays pretty lightweight and breezy throughout, all things considered.

Despite it being more action-focused and shorter in runtime, I still feel like Yojimbo is the tighter film. It's got the more engaging and satisfying story, too, with Sanjuro really just being about the prolonged rescue of an old man. Still, it's a joy to watch the main character deceive his way through a bunch of scenarios, and then resort to chopping down a dozen guys whenever his words can't get him out of a situation.

Mifune is in his comfort zone, and is fantastic. Having seen most of Kurosawa's other films since first watching this, I also appreciate the performances of Tatsuya Nakadai and Takashi Shimura much more here. The former I've always liked for how chameleonic he is, but Shimura is also so different here to how he is in Seven Samurai; just embodies a rather minor character in a completely different way, just looking and seeming like someone entirely different. Mifune could also do this, but I do like him a lot when he's being very Mifune, and he's at his Mifuniest here.

Overall, Sanjuro is better than I remembered, and almost as good as Yojimbo. A slightly slow second act aside, it's very entertaining.

Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1970)

Pretty pure Giallo

[6/10 · 11 May 2024]

Even for a Giallo movie, Hatchet for the Honeymoon is pretty lightweight and simple, but it has what it needs to get by. There's atmosphere, it looks and sounds good, and it doesn't waste too much time, owing to its runtime clocking in at under 90 minutes.

This is only the second film directed by Mario Bava that I've ever seen. He's a big name and quite revered, but I have wondered if his style is really for me. It could also be that I'm not the biggest Giallo fan, because I only tend to like the movies that fans of the genre love. Those that are considered good, I think are mostly decent, and so on.

Anyway, this isn't bad. It mostly gets the job done. Not essential, but there's enough good stuff for it to be an okay watch.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Over-hated

[8/10 · 11 May 2024]

Hadn't seen this since it was in cinemas. I know a lot of people seem to really hate it, and maybe some of those people took some time to turn on it, but I still like it quite a lot.

I like a lot of the contentious creative decisions it makes. I like its attempts to get a little darker and more psychological, and the way the main characters are at each other's throats just as much as - or maybe more than - they work together. Sequences like the party early on and then the hulkbuster scene are top-tier, and Ultron's a fun villain. And, in hindsight, I like the way this hints at a bunch of phase 3 movies.

I had a dream once where I was watching Age of Ultron alone in a living room, and people constantly kept coming into the room, walking behind me and laughing at the fact I was enjoying it. Maybe admitting I still like it in 2024 will make people laugh at me now, but whatever- I still like it in 2024 (that being said, I will agree with the general consensus that it's the weakest of the four Avengers movies so far, though).

Crime Story (1993)

Messy fun

[7/10 · 11 May 2024]

If Michael Mann took too much Adderall and then collaborated with Jackie Chan, you'd get something a bit like Crime Story.

It's fun and frantic for about an hour of its runtime, and then undeniably loses the plot. I was starting to turn on it all as a result, but then the final 15 to 20 minutes come in and do a pretty good job at redeeming things.

I'd liken it to a slightly more intense and not quite as good Police Story. It scratches the same itch and does contain enough compelling Jackie Chan action scenes and stunts to make it worthy of checking out for fans of the actor.

It's not nearly one of his best 1990s efforts, and it's got some prominent flaws that have to be overlooked to some extent, but I had a blast with most of the action. There's quite a lot of it, and it's of a generally high quality.

The Fate of Lee Khan (1973)

Pretty good

[7/10 · 11 May 2024]

King Hu is so in his wheelhouse here that The Fate of Lee Khan is sure to provoke feelings of deja vu for anyone who's seen a handful of his greatest hits, but he did this kind of thing undeniably well. There's intrigue and characters all being very shady, mostly confined in a single location that builds suspense, punctuated by brief but satisfying bursts of action throughout, all leading to an inevitably entertaining finale.

But as far as his "deep cuts" go (basically anything that's not Dragon Inn or A Touch of Zen, and even then, those are arguably underrated in the overall scheme of things), this one's good. Some of his more out there films have bored me a little, but this one's solid. Nothing being reinvented and little by way of surprises, but it's a satisfying and well-made martial arts movie nonetheless.

Kase-san and Morning Glories (2018)

Silly but emotionally honest/authentic.

[7/10 · 11 May 2024]

A sappy and kind of all over the place romantic anime, but it gets it. It's a film that knows exactly what it's doing, and works. I feel like there's something really authentic about depicting young/extreme/overly strong love in such a bombastic way. It's a smart approach, and makes for a film that's best engaged emotionally over all else. Don't think, just feel, and all that.

I also appreciated how it clocked in at under an hour. It's just a straightforward romance story with all the fat cut out, and begins and ends without much by way of nonsense or distraction. You could criticize it for being repetitive and a bit unremarkable narratively, but I liked how it was also straight to the point and certainly successful in conveying some emotional truths. That is sort of what it's like to be in love for the first time, and for that, Kase-san and Morning Glories has value.

Tsuma futari (1967)

A muddled yet sometimes interesting melodrama.

[6/10 · 11 May 2024]

I'm a bit torn about Two Wives, because it feels like it gets a little too complex narratively at some points, but early on, the dialogue feels way too on the nose and obvious. The film feels like it spells certain things out too much (though that could be a result of subtitling; it's hard to know whether or not it's more subtle if you speak Japanese), and then also feels like it rushes a bit, which makes other parts confusing.

Maybe it overextends itself, and the dialogue's blunt to make up for that, but it's also still a decent enough film, even with those flaws. When it's working, it feels moderately successful as a complex and narratively twisty melodrama, and I think the performances are solid. It looks nice, sounds nice, and thankfully isn't too long. I didn't love it from a writing perspective (those flaws come close to tanking the film at points), but Two Wives is still alright at the end of the day.

The Fearless Hyena (1979)

Uneven, but some of it's pretty good.

[6/10 · 10 May 2024]

Fearless Hyena continues for about 45 seconds after the main villain is defeated, which is basically an epilogue by martial arts movie standards.

I have always felt like Jackie Chan was really in his element in the 1980s and throughout a good bit of the 1990s, so his late 1970s stuff has never been quite as appealing to me. With Fearless Hyena, I felt about what I was expecting. It's uneven, but the parts that work do admittedly really work, and it's during the better action scenes where you can already see Jackie Chan nearing the height of his powers.

Fearless Hyena is very silly for the first hour or so, and I was with it for a while before getting restless. Then, the tone shifts jarringly, and I felt like the movie lost me even more. Thankfully, in typical martial arts movie style, Fearless Hyena saved the best for last, and the final 15 minutes or so were pretty great; it's basically worth a watch for that whole finale alone, with Chan's physicality being as fun to watch as ever.

It's a lesser-known film for Chan, and one where he was both director and the lead actor. It's competent stuff punctuated by a few sequences of greatness; some brief ones near the beginning and then a lengthy one near the end. It's not his finest hour, by any means, but I had a pretty decent time with it overall.

Blood and Wine (1996)

Blood and Meh

[5/10 · 10 May 2024]

It's fun seeing Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine on screen together, but both are sleepwalking through this film, at least by their standards. Blood and Wine is a bit of a snoozy crime/thriller flick, not really excelling in any areas while also being mildly watchable for most of its runtime.

I come away from it feeling like it was very middle of the road. The only thing that's close to memorable (besides the cast) is the fact that Jack Nicholson's character has a Rasputinian number of violent things happen to him all throughout the film without ever dying. Something about that was kind of funny, because he looks pretty old and kind of frail here.

Rubber's Lover (1996)

I don't know about this one

[5/10 · 9 May 2024]

Look, while there's a lot that could be said about the content of this film, all I'll say is that it was surprising to find it uploaded on YouTube, even if the upload was age-restricted.

I was lucky to even find the time today to watch something feature-length, but I was unlucky that the film I picked was Rubber's Lover. It had been on my watchlist for ages, and it was directed by the filmmaker who did 964 Pinocchio (Shozin Fukui), which is a divisive and confronting film that I ended up appreciating more than I anticipated. I might even feel like calling that one a good movie, in some ways.

I can appreciate Rubber's Lover a little, but not nearly as much. It's stripped down and low-budget as a horror movie, and tries to work within its limitations. To some extent, it works, because I think it kind of sets out what it wanted to do. I more feel that what it wanted to do wasn't enough for something that was an hour and a half long; that or it did actually have loftier aspirations that weren't well explored or communicated.

Option B or C or whatever is, of course, that I'm a dummy, but I think Rubber's Lover was actually a bit dumb instead. I can't muster up hate when it's got the kind of atmosphere it does, and when some of the gross moments are effectively gross, but it all felt a little meandering and maybe even just the tiniest bit lazy, at the end of the day.

Mit mir will niemand spielen (1976)

An unusual Herzog short.

[6/10 · 8 May 2024]

This is another unexpected Werner Herzog short - I've discovered two tonight (it's been too busy a day to watch something feature-length).

No One Will Play with Me is about a bunch of kids, and one of them feels ostracized. Things sort of turn around for him, but there's not really much of a story here, and it does end at a point, kind of anticlimactically.

Still, I appreciate Herzog doing something weird again here (the man is relentless in his pursuit of the cinematically unexpected), and there is some empathy that shines through in this look at bullying and the struggles of being a young kid at school. It might lay it on just a little thick, but it was kind of interesting and I admired the attempt enough to call this one decent overall.

Precautions Against Fanatics (1969)

Surprisingly hilarious.

[7/10 · 8 May 2024]

Precautions Against Fanatics might represent a young Werner Herzog making fun of the documentary format before being fully established as one of the all-time great documentary filmmakers? I know he'd had a few credits before this one, but it can't have been many. Plus, I tend to associate Herzog's 1960s with short films, and his 1970s with feature films (particularly the likes of Aguirre and Nosferatu).

So this, in a way, feels ahead of its time, or perhaps ahead of Herzog's time. It's so stupid and one-note, but it made me laugh a good deal of the time, being a mockumentary about a bunch of very unusual people who work at a horse track that somehow functions, despite their strange qualities. It's either a proto-documentary parody or a depiction of a very funny and surreal purgatory.

At the end of almost every mock interview, an old guy enters out of nowhere and antagonizes the interviewee, the cameraman, or both... it was sometimes hard to tell, but funny in any event. There's just this chaotic and stupid energy to the whole thing that was infectious, but even at just 11 minutes, I feel like it started to wear out its welcome a tad in the final moments.

For anyone who wants to see Werner Herzog trying to replicate Monty Python (this is the best descriptor I can come up with; the 11-minute short film that is Precautions Against Fanatics fried my brain), this is the film for you!

Like Nothing Happened (2003)

Snoozy slice of life drama.

[5/10 · 8 May 2024]

The title doesn't lie, because not much happens.

Like Nothing Happened sees Ryusuke Hamaguchi doing his slow-paced, narrative-light thing. While I've liked some of his recent feature films, I've also struggled with his earlier shorts, even though there are clear similarities.

Additionally, the shorts are - obviously - shorter, but I seem to notice and take issue with the slow pace more when things aren't as long. Seems paradoxical, but that's been my experience.

I have to cut Like Nothing Happened some slack for being made when Hamaguchi was so young, and for clearly having modest aspirations as a film. It follows a bunch of ordinary people around and sure, feels like it captures their lives to some extent.

But there's just so little here to grab onto for me. I struggled, but can't entirely hate it, because of its inherent nature and its length (there is apparently a 90-something minute version I was happy to avoid - the version I found was just 43 minutes).

From One Second to the Next (2013)

Simple and effective

[7/10 · 7 May 2024]

It's somewhat unusual that Werner Herzog was behind this, because it's not characteristic of most of his documentaries. Of course, it would feel strange if it did have that signature Herzog style, given it's a very no-nonsense PSA type of documentary about the dangers of texting while driving.

There's not a great deal that can be said about it beyond that, because once you've seen one effective PSA, you've pretty much seen them all (of course, this style can be done badly). Herzog understood the severity of the stories at hand and let them speak for themselves, and though this is straightforward and sad, that's what it needs to be... so it largely works.

Succession: Celebration (2018) Season 1, Episode 1

Imperfect but still great start.

[7 May 2024]

This is my first time rewatching Succession, so I'm looking forward to revisiting it with a knowledge of what to expect.

The common opinion about Succession is that it starts a bit weak, but I think this is silly. This opening episode is great, introducing all the key players with speed and efficiency. Logan and Kendall already feel fully-rounded, in particular, with Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong instantly understanding their characters.

Succession does of course get better beyond this point, but I think the first half of season 1 is much better than most people give it credit for. Ominous, funny, beautifully shot and scored... it all makes a very good first impression.

Atlas (1961)

The smallest of epics.

[5/10 · 6 May 2024]

There's an actor in this who sounds distractingly like a Phil Hartman Simpsons character, so that was funny.

Overall, Atlas isn't very good at all, but it is still an interesting watch, quality aside. Roger Corman was extra ambitious with this one, trying to pull off a classic epic with a clearly minuscule budget. Anyone interested in filmmaking and Corman's whole style will probably find enough here compelling, outside the story and technical qualities.

It's hard to enjoy it on the level you might for a normal sort of movie, but I can't help admiring the sheer ambition of it, even when it's painfully apparent how limited the film is (you notice most of all with the number of extras). It's novel, though - I've never seen a film from this era try to do the sorts of things Atlas tries to do with such limited resources.

Hurry Sundown (1967)

Messy, but not worthless.

[5/10 · 6 May 2024]

Hurry Sundown patiently sets a whole bunch of things up, with things unfolding slowly over a lengthy runtime that nears 2.5 hours. Unfortunately, I don't think it goes to the sorts of interesting places it needed to, and it left me wanting a lot more than it delivered. It's well-presented and the cast is impressive (I guess it was the latter that mostly drew me to watching it in the first place), but overall, it's a bit too slow and has an awkward length.

It sits in between being a grounded/straight-to-the-point drama and a sprawling epic, and committing one way or the other might've helped it be more impactful or memorable. Still, a good chunk is kind of watchable, if a little boring, and I think super patient viewers will get something out of it. For me, my interest waned as it went along.

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011)

A comprehensive documentary tribute.

[7/10 · 5 May 2024]

It's hilarious how sassy Jack Nicholson is in this. It's got some very impressive interviewees throughout too - though apparently, the only time Bruce Dern was free was while he was getting a haircut.

Corman's World is an overall comprehensive and well-made documentary. It hits most of the beats you'd expect, but does go above and beyond by a little when it comes to content and info packed into a 90-minute runtime. It's definitely more than decent, and succeeds in giving me a greater appreciation for Corman (and I've always appreciated him quite a lot).

The guy's a legend, and I believe turned 98 last month. Definitely rooting for him to make it to 100.

The Avengers (2012)

Flawed but important modern classic.

[9/10 · 5 May 2024]

I was feeling nostalgic for the original Avengers movie, and it just so happens to have come out almost exactly 12 years ago to the day. This first team-up is so quaint compared to what came next, even though it's still pretty massive, and I remember how big it felt at the time. They made an ensemble superhero movie work better than ever before, with I guess X-Men walking so The Avengers could run.

It doesn't hold up perfectly, and to some extent, I can understand a few of the reasons why it's become unfashionable to like this movie. It's big, broad, silly, and - unfortunately for some - snarky. The times have changed, and there was a style of filmmaking defined within this that many reject now, or have grown tired of. And I do get that, but I also appreciate what this was for the time.

It was a significant movie and it defined blockbuster filmmaking for the rest of the decade it was released in. The MCU was unstoppable from about 2012 to 2019, and then even in the early 2020s, the franchise has had some serious hits. I don't think anything will ever stop the world again quite like The Avengers did, though. And it might not be the best MCU movie, but it's probably the most significant and game-changing. For that, I do respect it, and as for the movie itself, I still enjoy the vast majority of it.

Silent Möbius (1991)

Competent... just

[6/10 · 4 May 2024]

Like any anime from the 1990s, Silent Möbius looks cool. It's a style I can't quite define, but I just dig the way Japanese animation from this period looks.

As far as I can tell, the story is just about several different women having to team together to take down some demon in the future? I don't know, it was all a bit muddled and occasionally seedy, but I kind of liked the way it look and felt.

It didn't waste much time either, given it was only about an hour long, and I've been pressed for time a bit lately. I also liked the way some of this was set during 2024... time flies and all that. This thing's just fine.

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

As a series newcomer watching for the first time in 2024, I found this surprisingly boring.

[4/10 · 3 May 2024]

For some of this movie's runtime, I found it kind of charming, but it got really tedious at a point. I hope Vin Diesel and Paul Walker get better as the series goes on - both gave kind of awful lead performances here.

It probably doesn't help that I find cars boring and street racing stupid. That should be enough to turn me away from a series like Fast and Furious, and it has for 20+ years... but I'm fascinated by the way the series as a whole started small and morphed into something else. It's a progression I want to experience, but starting off with this first movie (as one has to do)... it was rough!

The racing scenes are pretty boring, the performances are sometimes pretty bad, and the narrative is a dull kind of "undercover cop falls for the people he's supposed to take down" thing that's been done before and done better.

Sign me up for the more over-the-top entries that verge away from racing. I think I'll enjoy them more (I saw Fast Five years ago and found it better than this... the only other movie from the series I've seen in isolation is Tokyo Drift, and I remember finding that one more watchable too).

So, the original The Fast and the Furious... it's not for me, but I am keen to keep chipping away at this series, because it's been a pop culture blindspot for me for too long. The start of it all proved to be surprisingly lame and boring though, in my opinion.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989)

Messy, strange, and sort of works.

[6/10 · 3 May 2024]

Well, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Is definitely interesting, but it feels like Pedro Almodóvar still finding his voice to some extent. From what I can tell, his earlier films do feel a little more comedic, and then he hit his stride to a greater extent when he started leaning toward drama. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Is kind of a comedy that revolves around a kidnapping, and to its credit, I think it works for more of its runtime than you might expect.

At a point, however, it starts to focus on the romance between the lead characters, and that felt like a bridge too far, even if the kidnapper is played by Antonio Banderas. I had a slightly bad taste in my mouth by the end of it all, but a good chunk of it was entertaining. Plus, it looked pretty amazing; no one makes Spain look as colorful as Almodóvar does.

Young Frankenstein (1974)

Quite funny and very impressively made.

[8/10 · 3 May 2024]

The first time I saw Young Frankenstein was a good few years before I'd seen any of the old Universal Pictures horror movies from the 1930s and '40s, and so I always felt like a rewatch was in order. Now that we're in the year where this turns 50 (and it came out the same year as the other Mel Brooks classic that is Blazing Saddles, which is just amazing to think about), it felt like the right time to go back to it.

You could technically call it a parody of old Frankenstein movies, but most of the jokes here don't really require any knowledge of that series. The benefit of being familiar with those movies comes with admiring the technical qualities of Young Frankenstein. To me, I think it's more homage than parody, because while it's a very silly and joke-filled movie, it does have a reverence for that style of horror film. Technically, Brooks and everyone else behind the camera really capture the look/feel/tone of those older Frankenstein movies. They just made a classic Frankenstein movie that feels extra joke-filled.

Also, I guess some of them were already pretty silly (at least some of the sequels post-Bride of Frankenstein), so it never quite needed the mockery the Western genre received with Blazing Saddles. Speaking of that movie, I don't find Young Frankenstein quite as funny, and I think I'd also rank it behind The Producers if we're talking about the best Mel Brooks movies... but it is likely his most technically accomplished movie. It's not his funniest, but it's his most impressive as far as the filmmaking goes, and I further appreciated Gene Wilder's gonzo central performance this time around much more than I had in the past.

She Gods of Shark Reef (1958)

Cormpletely boring.

[3/10 · 2 May 2024]

She Gods of Shark Reef is a lesser Roger Corman movie through and through, and it was a tough sit, in all honesty. I had some interest in it thanks to the title, and I've sort of enjoyed some movies that he directed around this time in his very long career, but She Gods of Shark Reef just wasn't it.

It's about two brothers who find a strange group of women - basically, the she gods - and then get wrapped up in their quest against the sharks in the reef or whatever.

It's the sort of film where very little effort seemed to be put into most of the making of the film, and that led to a dreary experience for the viewer. At least it's only about an hour long, and is tedious enough that you can drift in and out of it, never really losing anything of significance.

Even for a below-B movie, this one's not really acceptable.