danigs007 Reviews

National Theatre Live: Fleabag (2019)

NOT funny.

[4/10 · 6 September 2023]

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's attempt to do a funny monologue of her fleabag character may sound promising.

However, it doesn't take more than a few minutes to realize that this is a a complete waste of time. The audience thinks so too, and sadly you can hear (and not hear) their poor reaction in the background.

At the bottom line, this show anything BUT funny.

Specifically, there are two major problems in this production:

First, her performance, as stunning as it is, constantly switches between being ridiculously vulgar to being even more ridiculously emotional. This could have worked once, but when the direction uses the same infantile approach over and over every single time, it is simply exhausting. Even unwatchable at times.

Secondly, the jokes, on, the jokes... They are either killed by bad timing, or presented dead already. If this was to be a comedy, she should have constructed the script in a way which would offer some breathing and laughing. Instead, we get a very tense hysterical speech, with "hidden" punch lines in it.

I give it 4/10 due to Waller Bridge's presentation the character which was compelling. Otherwise, a comedy which is not funny, and has more vulgarity than smiles is not worth more than 1/10.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Action packed nonsense with Cruise as the new Bond

[6/10 · 30 August 2023]

Cruise is back, and he's almost as awesome as always.

First - the stunts are superb. Cruise took it upon himself to fill in the void that the Bond franchise left 20 something years ago (forgive me for not counting the Craig films) and he's doing an excellent job.

Second - don't look for intelligent dialogues, smart humor, or an interesting plot. This film's story is mostly coherent and that is enough. Especially when you have such shallow characters, which are mostly busy explaining to the audience how the action parts connect.

Third - although there were some nice talented additions to the cast, they were not really needed and felt like marketing stunts. Furthermore, one of the characters was artificially planted, and the plot twist which brought her in was really stupid and completely uncalled for.

Last but not least - The soundtrack was too much of everything: Far too loud, much too aggressive, and ridiculously melodramatic.

Altogether - 5.5/10. (I would have given a higher rank if the dialogue wasn't so infantile)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Great for fans only (with a large stock of coffee)

[7/10 · 30 August 2023]

Producing a 5th installment to a classic trilogy is a task very few artists would (and should) take upon themselves. Doing so after the lame 4th Indy, using an 80 year old actor to portray one of the greatest adventure heroes in cinematic history is practically suicide.

And yet, Director James Mangold managed to almost do that! The basic theme is solid, the CGI and the de-aging are second to none, the references to previous films are in good taste, and the appearances of Sallah & Marion are just about right.

Furthermore, Mads Mikkelsen is a convincing villain, and Phoebe waller bridge does an incredible good job as the female lead, although she seems far too posh to play a reckless street wise character.

However, all that is simply not enough for an Indiana Jones, and the film has two great flaws which take it down from the very beginning.

First: Ford is tired. Portraying a retired professor matches his slow rhythm, but it does not match an adventure film. This also means that the jokes are tired, which is completely unacceptable in an Indy film.

Adding a child could have helped, but it didn't, mostly since the kid was assigned to Waller Bridge. She's superb as the female lead but does not pass a the motherly type.

Second, the plot goes into far too many directions with very bad choices. There are lots of unnecessary arbitrary killings of unnecessary arbitrary characters, through some very infantile twists.

As the old saying goes: "try to catch too much - and you get nothing". The script involves CIA, the summer of 69, black power, the landing on the moon, anti-war protests, ancient Greece, and of course - Nazis (or "Germans", as Indy mistakenly says in one scene), plus some philosophical discussions about the changing of history, love, life, the loss of a child, the break of a marriage, and more....

To make things worse, none of the issues in this large set of ridiculous unconnected subjects gets an appropriate closure. And so, whenever Ford appears as the most tired person in the world, the script proves to be even more tired... Even the film's climax scene is more of an anti-climax than anything. Very disappointing.

Altogether, I give it 7 due to the great camera work and the charisma of the cast. Otherwise, if you're not a fan of Ford (or Rhys Davies for that matter) I suggest to skip this one.

La Chèvre (1981)

Francis Veber at his best!

[10/10 · 7 August 2023]

Actors Gerard Depardieu and Pierre Richard join forces for the first time in this classic comedy by Francis Veber. The output is an atom bomb of brilliance and humor served by two of the greatest masters of cinema of the past 50 years.

As for the supporting cast: Well, if there was an Oscar (or a César, for that matter) for facial expressions, every single person in the cast should have won one.

Although this is not Veber's first film, it is in this one that his famous style got formed. Namely - a drama of subtle and intelligent moments presented in refined gestures along hilarious physical jokes, all tailored together in a beautiful story that discusses Veber's favrotie three topics: masculinity, faith and love.

10/10.