Rick And Morty: Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation

Summary

It is Christmas time in the Smith household and Rick builds a robot version of himself to try and give the Smith’s the perfect Christmas.

I think this may have been the best episode of this season simply because of the emotional work it does with Rick’s character and the significance of the ending wherein Rick finally lets Morty in, which in terms of character arcs across the wider show is incredibly important and shows just how much Rick is changing as a character.

I really liked Robot Rick and thought that he had a number of funny lines, but also showed us a very different side of Rick than we normally do one that we all know is there but never see, this is important as towards the end of the episode Robot Rick says he is just behaving as the real Rick would have done which again further softens Rick’s character.

Moreover, I am very excited for the dark turn teased for the next season as it shows a proper return to building the cannon of the show rather than just jokily shutting it down like they did in the Dinosaur episode.

My one criticism of this episode is that they waste the return of the President, voiced by Keith David, and give him a fairly pointless role commenting on the decaying state of modern Hollywood franchises and as a very minor antagonist to the central duo.

Overall, the final five minutes of the episode make the whole season.

4.5/5

Pros.

The emotions

The character growth

What it sets up for next season

The reality of owning a lightsaber

Cons.

It wastes the return of the President

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Glass Onion, A Knives Out Mystery: Returning To Excess

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, goes to a private island to investigate a murder yet to come.

Whilst I still think this film is good, it pales in comparison to the first, not hugely, but certainly to a noticeable degree.

The writing is still sharp and the comedy and commentary is still very much on point, I laughed quite a few times during the film and thought that it had a number of insightful points about modern society.

Moreover, the vistas and the locations are still incredible to look at, and the film does present itself as the child of an Agatha Christie book and the excesses of the modern age.

However, outside of the comedy and the beautiful scenery is where the cracks start to immerge, and the hollowness begins to reveal itself more and more. This hollowness can best be seen in the performances, which do greatly lag behind the first film in that the ensemble never really comes together as well as feeling like each actor is playing a cliché or archetype rather than a real person. It feels like a group of actors acting rather than real characters interacting. The weakest member of the cast is probably Jenelle Monae who struggles to emote and gives an incredibly hammy accent turn midway through the film that simply isn’t believable at all, but this is why often musicians don’t make good actors.

Lastly, the runtime is an issue. At the two and a half hour mark the film quickly starts to develop pacing issues in act one and these get worse as the film progresses, there are many needless asides, flashbacks and so forth which whilst interesting to a degree in flushing out the world these characters inhabit, never really need to be.

Overall, still good but in some ways a little disappointing.

3/5

Pros.

The location

The comedy

Craig

Cons

The pacing issues and unsatisfying nature of the ending

The acting is frequently poor

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Medieval: One Man’s Rise To Greatness

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A band of mercenaries become bound up in the future of Bohemia.

On the one hand I praise this film for telling a new and fresh tale, and one in which many outside of the area, myself included, would have probably never heard of. It is nice to see lesser known historical figures get their screen adaptions over yet another film about Robert The Bruce or some Wild West Outlaw.

However, on the other hand this film is a very cliched sort of historical epic and the way in which the story is told, and more importantly acted, is nothing to write home about and lacks any kind of freshness. Ben Foster is doing his best to try and hold things together, an argument could be made that they should have got a Czech actor to play a famous national figure, but they wanted the star power of Foster to try and boost the profile of the film I’d guess. Michael Caine and Matthew Goode, both have some good moments of scenery chewing, but are used far too infrequently to have any real impact.

Overall, watchable and fresh to a degree but sadly weighed down by epic genre cliches.

Pros.

Showing lesser known historical tales

It is watchable

Foster, Caine and Goode

Cons.

Pacing

It feels very cliched

Some of the cast are very underused

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The Fabelmans: Spielberg Takes On Boyhood

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A semi-autobiographical take on the early years of Steven Spielberg told through a fictional family.

This film had a long way to go to shake off both the idea of it being blatant awards bait, in the insufferable smugness that conjures up, and also the notion of it being a director indulging in a vanity project and I think to a degree it does manage to shake off both of those labels, but not completely.

I found the coming of age angle to be quite effective, I was heavily invested in Sammy’s, played by Gabrielle LaBelle, journey into filmmaking an also adulthood and thought that the whole plot line was anchored by incredibly strong turns from Michelle Williams and Paul Dano. Even Seth Rogen brings his A game in a muted supporting role, which makes a nice change.

My big question for the film and in it my wider criticism is how is this film any different from the million other coming of age films out there? Yes it is somewhat of an origin story for Spielberg, but other than that this is incredibly by the numbers and doesn’t have anything to set it apart. The story as a whole is riddled with cliches and overly familiar plot beats, yes to a degree if this film is trying to be true to life than things were unchangeable but if it isn’t, if it is tenuous, then this needed to be changed as what we get feels like a rehash.

Overall, a compelling coming of age story with good performances, but an over-reliance on worn out cliches holds it back.

3/5

Pros

Strong performances across the board

You care about Sammy’s journey into filmmaking

The David Lynch cameo was nice

Cons.

It feels familiar

It has heavy pacing issues

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High Heat: Life After Miami Vice

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A chef, played by Olga Kurylenko, takes on the mob.

I put this on as the trailer made it look as though it was a relatively fun and silly hour and a half and I went in expecting bad puns and a general tongue in cheek attitudes. However, in all honesty all I was met by was an incredibly generic and forgettable action movie, that struggles to maintain your attention as you are watching it.

This is very much in that subcategory of action films that could be described as a John Wick clone, everything from the way the action is shot and presented to the mysterious past angle of the lead is reminiscent of the Wick films, however, unlike those films this does not have the world building or incredibly strong lead performance from Reeves to prop it up.

In that vein Kurylenko is fine but certainly isn’t breaking the mould. Looking at her recent filmography I worry somewhat that her career might take on a Bruce Willis like quality as she releases film after film like this wherein she gets paid for minimal effort. I suppose everyone needs to take work to keep the lights on, but she is so much better than this, this is a waste of her talents.

Overall, a deeply forgettable action film.

2/5

Pros.

It is watchable

It is unintentionally funny at times

Cons.

It wastes Kurylenko

The action is all very tame

It feels like a bargain basement John Wick clone.

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The Banshees Of Inisherin: Talk To Your Friends, Don’t Let It Get To This Point

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A friendship breaks down in rural Ireland.

I thought that this film was just the right amount of funny and sad, and shows how Martin McDonagh finally has his light side and his dark side under control, near perfect tonal balance.

The paring of Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson works tremendously well and the two play off each other really well. Additionally Kelly Condon and Barry Keoghan add a nice flavour to the film and do make their presence known despite only having relatively small roles. There is a lot of depth to both the world and the characters that inhabit it within this film.

I found the film to be quite funny, it made me laugh several times, however, I will say that the humour didn’t always land and sometimes the elevation and ramping up of the drama between the two men just felt silly rather than earned. Perhaps this was a deliberate intent to reinforce the futility of the feud to begin with, but rather than not I feel like a few of the twists and turns within the narrative are shoved in for cheap shock value, and that is to the films detriment.

Overall, a funny and well done film, that does border on the ridiculous at times

4/5

Pros.

Farrell and Gleeson

It is funny

The characters feel deep and the world feels aching to be explored

The supporting cast also have moments to shine

Cons.

The escalation at times feels done for shock value rather than in service of the story

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American Horror Story NYC: Requiem 1981- 1987 Part 1 and 2

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The AIDs epidemic finally begins as the season comes to an end.

I have bundled the last two episodes of this season together into one review as really they are one long continuous episode that is designed to be watched back to back.

In many regards I am deeply mixed on this episode. Certainly I admire it for tackling the AIDs epidemic in a serious grounded way, which is not something done very often by large mainstream shows, whilst also showing its effect on the LGBTQ+ community of people who were both losing friends and in some cases dying themselves. I think it is important for TV shows to show and highlight these somewhat forgotten about periods in history, not forgotten about by those effected or who lost people to it, but to the wider world who didn’t lose friends and to whom were only confronted by this in the form of nightly news reports.

However, my question is, is American Horror Story really the place for this conversation? As though this series was horrifying, it didn’t feel like American Horror Story which usually deals with the supernatural, when you think about it like that this could have easily been a different show as very little supernatural goings on were happening here. I didn’t find a lot of this season scary I found it to be depressing, and that really isn’t what you want from your horror shows.

Overall, whilst I appreciate the show trying to deal more in gritty reality this season I would say that it is the worse for it, as the campy dark charm of the show is lost in the pursuit and what we get is fairly unrecognisable to AHS.

3/5

Pros.

Tackling issues that aren’t often covered

The way the show highlights the effects of AIDs on the LGBTQ+ community

It is very watchable

Cons,

It doesn’t feel like AHS

It is depressing

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White Christmas: Frighteningly Pro-Military

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A Christmas classic featuring one of the most well known Christmas songs of all time.

Personally I can see why people like this film, but for me it left me cold. Maybe it is the outdated views which make parts of it feel problematic or just how into the Army this film is but there was something about it that I just didn’t like.

Moreover, a lot of the songs, outside of the obviously fantastic titular song, ended up sounding the same and in the end the musical numbers became tedious because it was just constantly more of the same rather than any form of variety or range.

I did enjoy the sentimentality of the story, however, and thought that the central kind deed feels very in-keeping with the meaning of the season.

Overall, not a Christmas film that I believe ages well.

2/5

Pros.

The sentimentality

It is watchable

Cons.

The songs

It ages poorly

It is very pro-Army

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American Horror Story NYC: Fire Island

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Some of the characters take a trip out to Fire Island to get over the trauma that they have been through but all the while a spector is gaining strength in the background.

Honestly I think outside of the serial killer premise, now that the show has killed that off, there really isn’t a lot of substance left. A lot of the scares just seem to be random images and vaguely through ideas, this can be seen with all the visons and when Big Daddy comes in with the save at the end of the episode, none of it seems to follow a rhyme or reason rather it is just thrown together.

Moreover, regarding the obvious Aids epidemic that is right on the precipice the show again eludes to it but doesn’t commit. At this point with all these episodes showing the signs and symptoms the show needs to stop beating around the bush and directly address it. I know that is the plan for the season finale but the season feels too long getting to it.

In addition this episode really hammered home and issue I have been having with this season and that is that it doesn’t feel like American Horror Story anymore, it feels like a different show wearing its skin. This is mainly because the supernatural is such a small part of the season as well as the show instead trying to deal with more of a real world issue than a fictional and out there idea. In many senses this season reminds me of Cult and that is not a compliment.

Overall, the season is starting to lose its way and drag on.

2/5

Pros.

It is watchable

Big Daddy continues to be interesting

Cons.

It has lost its way and seems content to limp on

It doesn’t feel like AHS

It is depressing and far too abstract

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Matilda The Musical: Netflix Doesn’t Seem To Understand How To Adapt Books

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A reimaging of the classic Roald Dahl story.

Yes, this is yet another case wherein the original is vastly better than the remake, and I don’t even mean book to film, no what I mean is that the original Matilda film with Danny DeVito was vastly, and I do mean vastly better than this film.

My main issue with this film is that it loses a lot of the cheeky sense of fun from both the original film and the book, this film fundamentally isn’t fun but is instead depressing. Within the DeVito version we never really got a sense that Matilda’s parents were outrightly abusive towards her, yet we get that here. In addition Miss Trunchbull in the original film is a sinister villain at times but also has a core of cartoonish silliness to her that makes her actions seem less outrightly sociopathic and cruel, again this is missing here.

Another thing I disliked about this version of Matilda is the songs. There is no getting around the fact that the songs in this film are not strong, worse yet the film goes out of its way to repeat the same songs or lines from them over and over again to the point wherein you question whether the film is trying to force you to like them.

I will give this film praise for a stellar performance from Lashana Lynch who does make a great Miss Honey, but her performance isn’t enough to save this film.

2.5/5

Pros.

Lynch

It is watchable

It has one or two funny moments, but it is by far not enough

Cons.

Pacing issues

It is depressing and no fun

The songs make everything worse

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