Number 151 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2009 drama: Hachi: a Dog's Tale.
A remake of the 1987 Japanese film Hachiko Monogatari, in itself based on the real life Akita dog, Hachiko, this film follows the story of Hachi. Upon becoming lost at a US train station, Hachi is found by Professor Parker Wilson (Richard Gere.) Over time, an unbreakable bond forms between the two.
I'm going to say it now. This film should not be on the top 1000 films of all time. It felt like a failed children's story. What should have been a truly emotional, heart-breaking tale was either completely flat or overly-sentimental. Hachiko was a real Akita dog in Tokyo who was adopted by Japanese professor Hidesaburo Ueno. After Ueno dies of an unexpected brain hemorrhage, every day for 9 years, Hachiko would return to the train station to wait for him to come home from home.
This true story is revealed after the film ends and it made me more emotional than the actual film did. Just like the real story, whenever Professor Wilson went to work via the train station, Hachi followed him and waited for him to return home. He even becomes a bit of a local celebrity. While this has definite potential to be emotional, it didn't land for me at all.
I think there should have been far more work done to develop the relationship between Wilson and Hachi. There were some montages of Wilson trying and failing to train Hachi, but slow-motion and happy smiles wasn't enough to invest me in the movie.
Like his real-life counterpart, Parker Wilson suffers an unexpected brain hemorrhage and dies. I don't know enough about the real life story or how hemorrhages work, but this seemed too sudden. It had so little grounding that it felt like a plot device rather than anything natural. It was a contrived way of forcing things forward. But then again, maybe I'm ignorant of the true nature of brain hemorrhages.
The film ends with a montage of Hachi reflecting on all of his happy memories with Parker Wilson. This was overly-sentimental and had me rolling my eyes rather than feeling anything sad.
Akita dogs are very cute and there were moments when I felt very sorry for Hachi, but these were few and far between. What should have been a truly tragic film completely missed its emotional mark.
Saturday 30 November 2019
Cool Hand Luke review
Number 150 on top 1000 films of all time is the 1967 prison drama, Cool Hand Luke.
Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is a likeable and relaxed war veteran. When he is caught drunkenly destroying municipal property, he is sent to a Florida prison. There he quickly becomes a hero to the other prisoners, in particular to the formidable Dragline (George Kennedy,) when he refuses to bow to the prison rules.
When I started looking into this movie, I thought it would be something like One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Luke Jackson is McMurphy standing up to the Nurse Ratchetesque guards. Except the film didn't play out like that.
Although the film is supposed to be in a prison, it didn't feel like that. The prison guards didn't have the tyranny or the hostility I was expecting. I thought they would be absolute despots abusing their power and their prisoners, but they seemed more like bored college kids at a holiday camp. True, they weren't overtly cruel, but they were also quite indifferent to the prisoners. They were more like acquaintances than prison and guard.
While there was the punishment of spending the night in the "box" - a tiny cell with barely enough room to sit - and the prison bosses, but I don't think they were utilised enough for them to be any serious threat. If we had seen more of them - more of the true horrors of the box, then the drama of this film would have been more apparent. But as it stood for me, I didn't find it particularly tense or engaging.
What I preferred watching was the relationship between Luke and the other prisoners particularly Dragline. George Kennedy won Best Supporting Actor for his role and it was well-deserved. Kennedy was a powerhouse in this film. He brought a great energy to the role and was very charismatic. Although the two initially are at each other's throats, they quickly win each other's respect.
And with Dragline's respect, the rest of the prisoners quickly follow. There is a particularly powerful section where after Luke is recaptured after an attempted escape, the guards give him extra rice to eat at dinner. If he doesn't finish his plate, they will punish him. The prisoners all take spoonfuls of rice and help him to finish.
I imagine I'm going to get some slack for this review, as I usually do, if I don't positively review one of the best 1000 films of all time, but Cool Hand Luke didn't land for me. While I liked the relationship between the prisoners and George Kennedy was great, this film didn't have enough dramatic tension to keep me engaged.
Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is a likeable and relaxed war veteran. When he is caught drunkenly destroying municipal property, he is sent to a Florida prison. There he quickly becomes a hero to the other prisoners, in particular to the formidable Dragline (George Kennedy,) when he refuses to bow to the prison rules.
When I started looking into this movie, I thought it would be something like One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Luke Jackson is McMurphy standing up to the Nurse Ratchetesque guards. Except the film didn't play out like that.
Although the film is supposed to be in a prison, it didn't feel like that. The prison guards didn't have the tyranny or the hostility I was expecting. I thought they would be absolute despots abusing their power and their prisoners, but they seemed more like bored college kids at a holiday camp. True, they weren't overtly cruel, but they were also quite indifferent to the prisoners. They were more like acquaintances than prison and guard.
While there was the punishment of spending the night in the "box" - a tiny cell with barely enough room to sit - and the prison bosses, but I don't think they were utilised enough for them to be any serious threat. If we had seen more of them - more of the true horrors of the box, then the drama of this film would have been more apparent. But as it stood for me, I didn't find it particularly tense or engaging.
What I preferred watching was the relationship between Luke and the other prisoners particularly Dragline. George Kennedy won Best Supporting Actor for his role and it was well-deserved. Kennedy was a powerhouse in this film. He brought a great energy to the role and was very charismatic. Although the two initially are at each other's throats, they quickly win each other's respect.
And with Dragline's respect, the rest of the prisoners quickly follow. There is a particularly powerful section where after Luke is recaptured after an attempted escape, the guards give him extra rice to eat at dinner. If he doesn't finish his plate, they will punish him. The prisoners all take spoonfuls of rice and help him to finish.
I imagine I'm going to get some slack for this review, as I usually do, if I don't positively review one of the best 1000 films of all time, but Cool Hand Luke didn't land for me. While I liked the relationship between the prisoners and George Kennedy was great, this film didn't have enough dramatic tension to keep me engaged.
Sunday 24 November 2019
The End review
The Ersatz Elevator review
The Vile Village review
The Hostile Hospital review
Dear Reader,
we have reached the end So you can stop reading. Right now. Look away. Goodbye.
I want to start this review by saying this was a great ending to a great adaptation. Dare I say it's the definitive adaptation. Certainly more definitive than the train wreck of a film anyway.
If anything the End plays out like an extended denouement with the main narrative having been wrapped up in the Penultimate Peril. Questions were answered in a satisfactory way and there was enough content that things never felt stretched out.
With the Hotel Denouement burning to the ground int he last episode, the Baudelaires escape with Count Olaf via a boat. Moral dilemmas abound as the Baudelaires contemplate pushing Olaf overboard but they are interrupted by a storm that washes them onto a desert island. The island was supposed to look like a tropical paradise, although the CGI was less than convincing. But then again, the CGI has never been spectacular on this show.
The Baudelaires are discovered by a young girl called Friday who is scavenging what the storm has washed up on tidal shelf. Friday invites the children back to her home. However, when Olaf tries interfering, Friday fiercely rebuffs him. This marks one of the few occasions that a character has so easily seen through Olaf's nefarious deceptions and signifies a decline in his hypnotic control. He is left behind with the rest of the flotsam and jetsam on the tidal shelf.
The Baudelaires meet the rest of Friday's colony - a rag-tag bunch of people who has all washed up on the island. They are all dressed exactly the same in simple robes and are presenting their finds to their leader Ishamel. With his fluffy white beard and a long hair, Ishmael almost looks like God or at the least, a shepherd. And his ultimate concern is the safety of his flock. This is why whenever he is presented with a scavenged item, he manipulates his flock into thinking it is dangerous and should be thrown away. he makes a warm exception for the Baudelaires, inviting them to join the others, under the condition that they don't rock the boat.
However, he isn't so generous to Count Olaf. Whee he tries to take control, Ishmael orders he be locked in a cage and left to drown by the tidal shelf. Once again, the Baudelaires question the morality of this. Olaf is their great villain, but is is right to leave him to die like this?
They see him and give him food. He offers them crucial information about their parents and VFD if they release him. They ultimate refuse and leave him to his fate. From here, we see an interesting take on the trouble in paradise trope. Everything appears to be idyllic on the island, but that is because there is no individuality. Everybody has to dress the same. They have to eat the same bland food and drink the same coconut cordial. Suspecting something is amiss, the Baudelaires investigate. They discover footprints leading to a secret cove. In this cove is everything Ishmael claims is too dangerous for the island. There are all manner of mechanical devices, books and things for biting.
But most intriguingly there is a huge book - a book that contains the handwriting of the Baudelaire' parents. Upon closer inspection, the children discover their parents were residents of the island. Ishamel appears and explains that he created VFD to fight the figurative fires of the world. it was here where he met and recruited Olaf into the organisation. But after schism, Ishmael left the group and exiled himself on the island. Later on, the Baudelaire parents washed up. They had Violet on the island and after a while, despite Ishmael's warnings, they leave the island. They claim they can only do so much to shelter themselves from the evils of the world, before they have to stand up for what's right.
It's also reveal that the coconut cordial is slightly alcoholic, helping to he keep the colonists subdued. There is also a big apple tree. Ishmael reminds the Baudelaires that it is Decision Day tomorrow. This is the one day of the year when the tide rises high enough that a boat can surpass the coastal shelf. He offers them some cordial before encouraging them to stay on the island.
Decision Day arrives and nobody chooses to leave the island, but the Baudelaires. Ishmael strongly argues they should stay and as things become heated, Friday spots another castaway. A heavily pregnant Kit Snicket on a raft made of books. As Violet and Sunny run to her, who should appear but Olaf. He is crudely disguised as Kit. The islanders immediately see through his disguise. The two argue, but Olaf threatens to unleash the Medusoid Mycelium the island. Ishmael threatens to shoot Olaf with a harpoon gun.
But seeing Kit's pregnant belly makes Violet realise that Olaf is hiding disguising a diving helmet containing the Medusoid Mycelium as his pregnant belly. Violet runs to stop Ishmael, but she's too late. He harpoons Olaf, inadvertently unleashing the Medusoid and poisoning everyone, including Olaf, the colonists and the Baudelaires. The children say that horseradish is the cure. But Ishmael is unwilling to relinquish control and so he orders the colonists to sail to a horseradish factory in Lousy Lane.
The Baudelaires suspect the cure for the cure for the Medusoid is in the secret cove. They discover it is in the apples of the apple tree, but are too weak to reach them Just when things look lost,t he Incredibly Deadly Viper appears, bringing the orphans an apple. They eat and are instantly cured.
They bring the apple to Kit, but she doesn't eat it for fear of hurting her baby. Knowing they need to take her down from the raft, but being too weak, they have no other choice but to ask Count Olaf fro help. he is weak from the Medusoid and refuses to help. Btu when he discovers Kit is in danger, he snaps into action. he eats the apple and brings Kit to the shore. The two share a tender moment where the depth of Olaf's love for Kit is revealed. And then he succumbs to his harpoon wound.
The Baudelaires rush kit inside where later that night, in a surprisingly tense moment, she dies giving birth to a girl who the Baudelaires name after their mother Beatrice. But before she dies, she reveals the secret of the Sugar Bowl. inside is sugar that is a botanical hybrid that immunises you against the Medusoid Mycelium.
The Baudelaires take care of young Beatice for a year before Decision Day comes and they decide it is finally time to leave.
But that's not the end. Not quite yet. We get a montage showing the fates of the different side characters. The Quagmire are reunited. Fiona and Fernald find their step father. Olaf's former henchfolk find artistic fulfillment. Finally we focus on the subplot bookending this episode. A young girl is following in the footsteps of the Baudelaires. She invites Lemony Snicket to share a story over ice cream. And this young girl is none other than Lemony's niece Beatrice Baudelaire. The episode ends on Beatrice and Lemony connecting over stories of the Baudelaires. This was a particularly heartwarming note to end on.
And the same goes for the whole episode. It was full of emotional pay-offs - Olaf and Kit's deaths, Lemony discovering his niece. And none of these payoffs missed their marks. What made this episode work so well was how it was only 1 episode, as opposed to a two parter.
While the two-parters are good, they often did feel padded, but this episode was perfectly plotted. It didn't lag and it didn't overrun. Everything was tied off nicely and there were some truly poignant moments. This was great ending for a great series. And I do hope the Baudelaires get the happily ever after they so truly deserve.
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