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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 10
And this, because why-not, a Rom-Com entirely written and generated by AI.
Now, Rom-Coms (Romantic Comedies), they're not my thing. Although I did like "4 Weddings and a Funeral" and "Groundhog Day" - which until this day is still a 5 star movie, regardless of what anyone says.
But this, which bills itself as entirely written by AI and the film *(??? Code?) as well - well, ...
God damn. A hard genre to fail in, but if this trailer doesn't hit all the bases...
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhQnnISdDIU
This is one of those cases where you should be damn grateful I didn't embed the trailer (because I can't, I upgraded to an unstable version of Joomla!), but - even if I could I'd want you doing that away from here. It looks like fucking hell. You're gonna love it.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 40
I'm at a friends for dinner, the final episode of "The Brothers Sun".
File under "Action/Comedy/Drama", but it succeeds in none of these. 8 episodes, 8 hours, for a big "Meh".
She's a bit of a pothead, and I'd always attributed her inability to accurately remember or describe any of these things to her 'bad habits'. But the more I watch Netflix, Prime, the other media so often hyped, and I realize that it's not her. It's the fact that the programming is so unutterably mediocre. With the exception of the "Ballad of Buster Scruggs", Coen Brothers, masterpiece.
Talking about kids, and someone I have to catch up with from when I was young, and I suddenly remember the series "Seven (7) Up", a longitudinal study of British Children that I'd mentioned on this blog some 14 years ago.
You can read my original review here: https://rodboyle.com/index.php/archives/reviews/film/the-up-series?highlight=WyJzZXZlbiIsInVwIl0=
OK. No Bird-Dog Video. But still...
I was impressed. I still am.
And by now there should be another 2 episodes for me (us) to watch.
So I put her on to it, and maybe she gets it, maybe she doesn't. But it's a fucking damned sight better than anything else Netflix is offering. We watch the first two episodes together. Oddly enough I remember them both. And I'm keen to catch up.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 50
I'd seen this about 10 years ago, but nonetheless watched it again.
And was impressed. This film is a masterpiece, after which the Mythology of the American West was molded.
In everything - in the soundtrack: the flies, the spinning of a weathervane, the gunfire, the harmonica, the sound of the Steam-Engines and Clocks all driving the movie forward...
This is not even slightly accidental, most, if not the entire, soundtrack and dialogue were added in post production. Watch the lips.
The opening - 3 Outlaws come to murder Charles Bronson aka 'Harmonica' - how long? 5? Maybe even 10, no, 12 minutes the film builds, the camera focusing on the flies on their faces, on the heat of the day, on the long wait for their intended target. Minimum speaking, none at all from the the 3 outlaws, merely waiting, character exposition. Then when Harmonica arrives they apologize, by way of making light, for bringing only 3 horses, one short, to which Bronson laconically replies "You brought 2 too many".
Leone sends up every cliche - the good guy in white, the bad guy in black, the whore with a heart of gold, the grasping and murderous railway tycoon, gunfight at high noon, the train to Yuma, the anticipation waiting for the final blow of the auctioneers gavel, and yet he does it so well that - while the characters aren't in any way real, they're archetypes, conventions, you are nonetheless heavily invested.
In every instance he shows, doesn't tell, spells nothing out for you that you should be able to see for yourself (**Note - audiences were clearly a little more clever then. "Dumbing Us Down" is a very real thing in the media as well as in School).
The cast, in places hundreds, the attention to detail - in the recreation of historical settings, props, historical costumes, etc - the scenes that Use the Monument Valley, the Cave Dwelling of the Ute people, in the execution of every trivial detail he's finishing off a masterpiece, and - well, he, succeeds. An Italian Film Director redefines the "Old West", the history, the mythology, sums it all up in the most epic Western ever made, and the world has by and large believed him.
I found it interesting that - having received similar reviews in France and Germany, the year of its release saw it panned in America, and only the fullness of time has proven his vision.
Anyways, if you've never seen this, you should, and if you have, maybe it's time to watch it again. There's a lot worse on Netflix, lemme tell you...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 96
Friends for dinner (thank god for friends or I'd be mightily lean!!), she's on to a new Netflix series. "Loudermilk".
At first it's "Meh", standard, sitcom "set" in the Pacific North West but filmed in Vancouver, with 90% Canadian Actors.
You can tell. It's "angle" is that of a recovering "Alcoholic" who leads a group at a church, and all the antics that he and his "flock" get up to. It's supposed to be "Funny" and "Charming" and "Occasionally Sad" but what it largely succeeds in is being entirely predictable (and never funny, and when it's sad I can't help but think of Oscar Wilde's quote regarding little Nell:"
"One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing."
It's as if it were written by the most liberal, understanding arm of "MADD", but, given addiction rates there's doubtless an audience. Meh. And I can't help but think that friend is showing me this as my own little 12-Step program.
But at least I'm fed.
***
And "Spaceman", Adam Sandler, again outside his box, and while it's good that he's outside his box you might want to pass on this. "Lonely man in Space with Giant Talking Spider discovering that Everything he was looking for was left behind at home..." sort of bollocks.
***
So, 2 new shows, 2 X Meh.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 133
A British film about a lonely London Screenwriter who goes to visit his childhood home and meets his deceased parents...
And a mysterious stranger.
A curious and contemporary take on the themes of ghosts, loss, loneliness and grief.
Good.