Infinity Pool: How Deep Does This Go?

Summary

A group of wealthy tourists discover the pleasure of committing crimes and then having a double of them produced and executed.

So I have to say after his last outing I had high expectations for what Brandon Cronenberg was going to do next and was very much looking forward to this film, but after watching it I have to say it feels quite hollow.

Whilst again the visuals are there it lacks any kind of substance or deeper meaning, this film feels like it is trying to parrot the virtues that were taught to us by The Island but that was a long time ago and as far as dark science fiction goes probably the better film. I suppose time has moved on from that film and this one explores the idea of clones in a more up to date way, but still it lacks anything real to say.

I would say that in terms of scares or thrills this film does have a number of good moments and goes in directions I wasn’t expecting it to, however, sometimes this results in scenes that push the line of taste and veer slightly over into Ti West territory.

Mia Goth does her best to save this film and gives probably her most manic and intense performance yet, but even she can only do so much.

Overall, a surface level horror film that is crying out for something to fill the void.

2/5

Pros.

The visuals

Goth

Cons.

It feels a little too edgy at times

It is shallow and has nothing new to say

The pace is off

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Star Wars The Bad Batch: The Crossing

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Clone Force 99 become stranded on a baron world after someone steals their ship forcing them to confront some difficult emotions.

Though this was a lot slower than the last few episodes I thought there was still a lot of good stuff here. It was nice to see the Bad Batch deal with the departure of Echo and their emotions surrounding that, yes this was done through the medium of Omega, who is annoying as usual, but even still it makes for quite an interesting introspection on change.

My issue with this episode comes from its ending and conclusions. In the end the Batch manage to contact Sid for help who promptly refuses them until she is guilted into reconsidering, my issue with this is how can the Batch have not seen thus far that Sid wasn’t there friend. They are supposedly expert special forces soldiers but they couldn’t see she has been using them this whole time? Hopefully after this weeks episode we can finally be done with Sid forever, she was never an interesting or likeable character and hopefully her villainous turn this week will lead to her being written off.

Overall, an interesting episode on an emotional front, but the conclusions reached feel like they have been obvious for a long, long time.

3/5

Pros.

Tech’s emotional journey

This feels like a very character driven episode

It is nice to have a platelet cleanser after the more action focused episodes from the week before

Cons.

Omega is just the worst

Sid’s betrayal

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Ant Man And The Wasp Quantumania: The Train-wreck You Heard It To Be?

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Antman, played by Paul Rudd, heads off to the Quantum Realm.

So I went into this film with incredibly low expectations, a lot of the bad reviews had got to me and I was going in expecting a trainwreck from start to finish, but, and I don’t know whether this was just because I went in with low expectations, I ended up enjoying it far more than I thought I would.

So first off let’s talk about what doesn’t work. Cassie, played by Kathryn Newton, is a deeply underdeveloped character and to make matters worse she is quite annoying. I don’t know what they were going for with making her an activist and having the cringey line ‘just because it is not happening to you doesn’t mean it isn’t happening’ but honestly it made her scenes ones where I tuned out. People don’t want to be preached to in a superhero film.

Other less appealing aspects of the film come from Corey Stroll’s Modok, and how they change him fairly drastically from the comics and then kill him off, wasting all of his in universe potential, though I suppose he could always come back at some point. The Modok CGI is horrible by the way, but you already knew that. Finally I will add that this film did make me miss the more street level Marvel fare as I am starting to get sick of these big CGI movies that all end up feeling the same.

Now into the positives. I thought both Michelle Phifer and Michael Douglas had really great moments here I enjoyed learning about Janet’s past and I thought Hank bringing the advanced ant civilisation to save the day at the last minute was both quite smart and also funny. I also really liked his line about socialism.

The new characters, bar Bill Murray’s Krylar, were very welcome I thought both Katy O’Brian and William Harper Jackson did a great job and I hope their characters come back in future sequels if they manage to find a way out of the Quantum realm. Of course in this regard I would be remiss to not talk about Jonathan Major’s Kang, who whilst not new as he appeared in Loki, is new in this variant. I thought Major’s was terrific and did a lot to make Kang feel like a serious threat in the MCU, I would argue he still has further to go to feel Thanos level, but I did really like seeing the Council of Kangs at the end of the film and think the MCU is going to have a lot of fun with him.

Finally, though it is a bit soppy I wanted to say that I enjoyed that the film continued the wholesome romance between Hope, played by Evangeline Lilly, and Scott, it is a nice throughline in these films and I was very worried that they were going to kill Ant-Man off and end it, I am glad they didn’t. The scene towards the end of the film wherein Hope saves Scott’s life during a fight with Kang and they hold each other after defeating him is probably my favourite of the whole film.

Overall, fairly enjoyable Marvel fare and better than most are saying.

3.5/5

Pros.

Douglas and Pfeiffer

The new characters

Kang

The romance

Cons.

Cassie

Modok

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Maybe I Do: The Rom-Com Genre Is As Toxic As Ever

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Yet another toxic rom-com in which a group of once loved actors trade away their remaining industry respect for an easy pay check.

Honestly this film has one of the most toxic plot lines I have ever seen. Emma Robert’s character thinks she can pressure her boyfriend, played by Luke Bracey, into marrying her by saying if he won’t then they will break up. What makes this more troubling is that her character’s mum, played by Diana Keaton, thinks that this is a totally fine thing to do as well. For what it is worth it is not a normal thing to do, you shouldn’t pressure your partner into doing what you want before they are ready and marriage isn’t the be all and end all that this film seems to think it is but hey.

Really you shouldn’t expect very much from a film that has such clunky lines of dialogue as this is my heart and this is my brain, whilst holding the character’s significant other’s hand over these areas. To say it is cringe is both an understatement and well as giving this film too much credit, the writing is just so subpar that it becomes impossibly not to notice bad.

Overall, avoid this at all costs and Michael Jacobs should probably never write anything ever again and hope that one day he lives down the shame of this film.

1/5

Pros.

It is short

Cons.

It has a bad message

It has deeply unlikeable characters

The romance is troublesome

It is tedious and generic

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The Godfather: Truly A Titan Of The Form

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Vito Corleone, played by Marlon Brando, is the Godfather of a crime family and everything seems to be going well that is until a gang war erupts and things take a turn for the worse.

This film really does last the test of time. Many times in my life I have had people tell me that I have to watch The Godfather and that it is an important film that someone like me, who is really into film, simply must watch, however, for one reason or another I have never gotten around to it. That was the case until recently when I finally decided to sit down and watch it, and boy was it worth it.

I think simply put this is one of the best crime films ever made, and I have seen a lot of gangster films over the years, I would say that this film is very much on the same level as the in-genre works of Scorsese. Everything about it works from the story which feels both incredibly relatable and also completely foreign, to the performances which are just top notch across the board. Even the pacing, which is usually something that bothers me a lot about films and TV shows works, not a second of this film is wasted.

It is hard to decide who has a better showing here between Brando and Al Pacino, both are terrific and have fantastic moments but I think upon reflection the beauty of their performances is really enhanced by bouncing off each other.

Overall, probably the best Gangster film ever made.

5/5

Pros.

The acting

The drama

The family dynamics

The action and the tension

The scope

Cons.

None

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The Whale: A Life Of Grief And Pain

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A dying man, played by Brendan Fraser, spends his last days trying to reconnect with his daughter, played by Sadie Sink.

This is a powerful film in a lot of different ways. It is powerful as a film about a man who has been driven by grief and guilt for all his life and who has turned to destroying himself, it is shocking as a film about a man who is eating himself to death, and it is bone chilling as a film about human cruelty and loss.

Brendan Fraser is fantastic here and really does deserve to win awards for this film as it is easily the best performance of his career and spoke to me on a number of different levels. This is truly Fraser at the top of his game. Sadly, and this may serve to be the only real negative of the film, Sadie Sink sticks out for all the wrong reasons here. In many senses there is an idea that she is being type cast, her performance here is very similar to that in Stranger Things, though one may add it seems a little more malicious here. I think her range and acting ability really doesn’t come through here at all and she is certainly blown out of the water by Fraser.

I think the strongest thing this film has going for it is a clear sense of emotional purpose and truth. This film does not mess around with its emotional impact, every scene and line is carefully crafted to make you feel something, whether it is the monstrosity with which the whale himself is shot at times or the scenes of him binging, or the final scene of acceptance and moving on. Each shot serves a purpose and infuses itself with so much emotion that it is nigh on impossible for you to feel nothing.

Overall, a powerful film that marks Fraser fighting his way back into Hollywood.

4/5

Pros.

Fraser

The emotion

The imagery and cinematography

The pacing

Cons.

Sadie Sink lets the side down

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Your Place Or Mine: If Only This Could Be What Life Was Like, Charmed Doesn’t Begin To Cover It

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Debbie, played by Reese Witherspoon, and Peter, played by Ashton Kutcher, have been friends for multiple decades but are only just now realising that they want to be with each other romantically.

In many senses this is a safe choice, it is a bog standard rom-com, nothing more nothing less. If that is enough for you then great, but don’t go in expecting anything that is going to change the game or be in any way remotely new or fresh.

I thought both Witherspoon and Kutcher brought a level of charm and warmth to their respective roles, but at the same time you would expect that from two such genre pros. In regard to their romantic chemistry on-screen, there were some sparks there and at times I found myself believing it, but it never really came alive and struck me as authentic.

As it is a rom-com we have to ask the age old question of is it sexist? The answer to that is yes, however, it is not the most sexist rom-com I have ever seen. I am of course referring to the fact that Kutcher’s Peter is a fairly well put together chap, if a recovering addict and a bit lonely, whereas Witherspoon’s character is a stereotypical overly involved mum who lives through her kid, Lord knows they can’t break away from genre archetypes and try and give her a more nuanced role. No, no as she is a woman she is stuck in the obsessive mother role, in the end she is seen trying to branch out to new horizons and work in publishing, however, this is with the implication that Kutcher’s Peter helped her calm down and stop worrying so much about her kid. Yikes.

Overall, pretty much exactly what you would expect from a rom-com both for good and for bad.

2.5/5

Pros.

Witherspoon and Kutcher both give good performances and have a little chemistry

It is fairly well paced

It is very watchable

Cons.

It is sexist

It is fairly forgettable and generic

Some of the side characters are barely characters at all

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The Current State Of The MCU: The Wheels Are Coming Off

Written by Luke Barnes

I want to use this piece to talk about the current state of the MCU in the post-Endgame landscape. Right from the off I will say that I have seen everything the MCU has ever put out, I am due to see Ant-Man and The Wasp Quantomania in the coming days and it is because of that that I am writing this piece. As it stands the third Ant-Man film has some of the worst reviews of any MCU Marvel film, at least from critics and is being torn apart for its terrible VFX work, as such the point of this piece is how did we get here from the heights of Endgame? Is it a one off or part of a larger pattern? I have broken down what I think are the current issues killing the MCU into 5 key areas, that are all fairly minor on their own but that when combined create a lethal cocktail for the future success of the MCU as a franchise.

Firstly, and most obviously there is the glaring issues with VFX. VFX artists have been coming out and talking about how bad they have it over at Disney/Marvel studios and how they are been rushed and forced into crunch time hours in order to get films ready in time for release. This is bad both as a means of how to treat your employees but also as it effects the final quality of the project, who remembers Heimdall’s son from Love and Thunder or the recent stills of Modok from Quantomania. Forcing out unfished and poor VFX work makes both your film look bad and also taints your brands reputation for quality.

However, quality leads into the second issue with the current MCU the idea of quantity becoming more important than quality. This can be seen with the amount of MCU content that is released and the time frame in which it comes out, we are getting north of 5 MCU projects a year and that is a lot to turn around in such a short space of time so it is no wonder they are clearly cutting corners. This is likely done on a mandate from Disney to prop up Disney + with content but make no mistake it is killing Marvel in the long run.

This constant need for more content is also leading to more and more people starting to be put off by the Marvel formula, which is readily apparent no matter how many different genres they try and adapt their films into, because the creative confines of what one can do and still have it be a Marvel film are incredibly limited. Yes, there are some films like the coming Deadpool film that have enough of a fanbase that the higher ups at Marvel Studios and Disney can justify it breaking formula, but even then I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t get the R rating everyone thinks it is going to get. Moreover, this is also feeding into the homework problem that has plagued the MCU for some time and is getting worse with the introduction of the Disney + shows, this is the idea that to understand what is happening in the MCU at current moment you need to have seen tons of films and TV shows to be able to get into the wider narrative, this was inevitable as an issue for the interconnected world, but it will put more casual audiences off for sure.

Another issue with the current slate of Marvel content, especially the Disney + shows is the pushing off smaller characters at the expense of killing off or retiring older characters. You can have She-Hulk and Hulk together you don’t need to retire one to have the other, the same concept applies for Iron Man, Captain America and Hawkeye, all of these characters have been replaced. In the comics Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson both existed at the same time, especially when the latter was Captain America, but the MCU doesn’t work like that. There is a school of thought that suggests that the MCU is getting rid of its classic heroes to make audiences care about the new ones, and this does have some merit. One has to ask why is Echo, a minor character at the best of times, getting a show before Punisher or Ghost Rider?

The answer to that question leads into my final issue with the MCU and the one that I think in the end will be the death nail for it and that is pushing a political message and focusing on being as diverse as possible rather than in telling good stories any more. I will add that many properties can do both, and that diversity and representation is important, my argument is that when you achieve this by dragging down or removing pre-established and well liked characters that this is not the way. Look at She-Hulk again, which in my mind was the lowest ebb yet of the MCU, the show as a whole went out of its way to drag down the Hulk and show how Jessica Walters was easily so much better than him. Why did you need to introduce a character in this way? Lots of fans like the Hulk as a character so to see both the character and the show completely disrespect him is a bitter pill to a lot of fans. If you want to introduce a diverse array of new characters then focus on making them likable and important in their own right, the MCU did this perfectly with Miss Marvel, rather than having them exist as a character to put the pre-established characters down. All this does is make your new heroes unlikeable.

I recently saw an article in which Kevin Feige said he thought the MCU could be around for many more decades yet, but I think this argument ignores the declining box office and the subscriber problem with Disney +, I think Feige response is in denial. Yes the X-Men and The Fantastic Four will bring some audiences back whenever they are introduced, but that won’t change any of these issues, and it is these issues that I believe will see the MCU either rebooted or retired within the next decade.

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Little Demon: First Season Overview

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The Anti-Christ is a teenage girl, voiced by Lucy DeVito, who meets her dad the Devil, voiced by Danny DeVito for the first time after a life on the run.

I really enjoyed this show, this as the title will explain is a full season review of Little Demon. I thought that not only was it funny, and at times also quite deep and thoughtful but I also really enjoyed how far it took things and pushed both the medium as well as what it can get away with.

In terms of the comedy of the show and the feel of it, there are definitely some Disenchantment and Paradise PD vibes running through this show which personally I enjoyed but I know it won’t be a lot of people’s cup of tea.

I think the real hidden treasure of this show is Aubrey Plaza voicing Laura the Anti-Christ’s Satan hating mum. Plaza does a terrific job here and really makes Laura into a well rounded character that can be funny, rad and also sympathetic all at the same time.

Overall, I had a lot of fun watching this series and think fans of certain types of adult animation will really enjoy it.

4/5

Pros.

It is funny

It is also surprisingly deep

The voice cast is terrific

The story is engaging throughout

Cons.

People who don’t like edgy adult animation will find little to like here

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The Last Of Us: Endure And Survive

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, and Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, try to escape from Kansas City whilst making some new friends along the way.

Man, the show really played with me. Despite playing the game and knowing this story I really felt the death of Sam, played by Keivonn Montreal Woodard, and Henry, played by Lamar Johnson, it hit like a ton of bricks. There was a small part of me that was ignoring what I knew would happen and was hoping just for a minute that this time around they might survive.

To change the subject, I think this episode may have been the most action packed yet. The sniping scene towards the end of the episode was straight out of the game and watching the horde of infected decimate all of the bandits was both horrifying and also oddly cathartic. I think this large amount of action and tension helped this episode to be one of the most riveting to watch of the whole season.

I think my one issue with the episode, and it is I will admit only a small detail, is the way Ellie reacts to seeing Sam and Henry dead. After seeing them die Ellie doesn’t cry, and whilst I can understand that she has been surviving in this world for some time and will be to a degree desensitised to death, I don’t think she is at that part of her journey where she could just shut out her emotions and carry on like this. I know later on in the story she will get to that place, but where this falls on the timeline I just thought she would be a little more upset.

Overall, another incredibly good episode. Yes, Ellie’s response to the death of Sam and Henry bugged me a bit but it was an incredibly small and insignificant thing in the context of the wider episode.

4/5

Pros.

The action

The sniping scene is straight out of the game

The death of Sam and Henry hits hard

The pacing is superb

Cons.

Ellie’s muted emotional response to the death of Sam and Henry

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