Rurouni Kenshin

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Rurouni Kenshin (2012)!

Original image located here. Accessed 27th March 2020

Twenty years ago, I had my first exposure to the anime that was Rurouni Kenshin. And, much like many people, I thought it was awesome. Later that year I watched the Memories OVA and doing so truly cemented my interest in Kenshin.
So perhaps it was inevitable that I would come to the series of live action movies that had been produced under the Kenshin brand.

If anything this movie is clearly aiming for a large audience. Granted it has a ready-made audience as this is based on a widely-loved manga/anime series, but there are various indicators of working beyond such a fanbase: The budget is clearly a big one, the fight scenes are stunning to behold and as an action movie it works well.
As a fan of Kenshin, I could recognize the important elements of Kenshin and some key story beats. This is clearly an adaptation of the first manga arc and it does it well with handling of key characters and even adding parts that were only introduced later in the manga. So i did enjoy this movie but would appear that being a fan of Kenshin helps - because I watched this movie with the gf, with it being her first exposure to Kenshin, who was left baffled.

But of course, this movie is the first of a franchise, so it would be interesting to see what happens next in the sequels....

The Talented Mr Ripley

And this week's Friday night movie has been... The Talented Mr Ripley!

Original image located here. Accessed 20th March 2020

Once again, this is another case of a movie I've been meaning to see for some time. But I finally come around to it for three reasons.
Firstly, I recall when this movie originally came out and left a lot of people baffled as to what to make of it - least not my parents who thought it was some sort of inspirational/life-affirming movie (and I can imagine they weren't the only ones). Yet once again, the distance of time builds a perfect platform to assess this movie on it's own merits.
>Secondly, I have seen the stage version of this with the titular role being played by a good friend of mine.
And thirdly, further interest was generated with the connection this movie has to The Room.

Perhaps it is just as well that I approaching this movie with an independent mindset because this is, ultimately, an odd movie - both for it's time and over twenty years later. As a psychological thriller it works well, assisted by some truly stunning imagery of Italy. But at it's core, this movie is a character study, one of a person who is a con-artist and commits some horrible acts but, at the end, still comes out as sympathetic. And the confusion surrounding Tom Ripley, assisted by Matt Damon's performance, makes him a compelling character to be sure. So in the end. if this movie is making me feel for a guy I have no right to, then it must've done something right.
What concerns me though is that we have a guy trying to belong but is greeted with condescension. Which makes me wonder how many 'people who shout at other people on the internet' would find such a scenario familiar....

Emma

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Emma!

Original image located here. Accessed 13th March 2020

Funny how things turn out: I never had much interest in the works of Jane Austen - I may have read Persuasion at Uni but said interest never went any further. That was until I was involved in a stage adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (twice!) so if you told 2000 me that I would be watching the latest adaptation of Emma twenty years later, 2000 me would say you'd be out of your mind.
That and the gf chose this one.

I suppose with any Jane Austen adaptation, there will be a ready made audience more than eager to lap it up. Of course, Emma is unfamiliar to me so i had no idea what to expect. And this was a surprise to me: It is slow moving at times but it still has plenty of humor. The number of characters may be difficult to keep track of but they are played by a committed cast.
Ultimately the movie is beautifully shot and the costume design is stunning (high collars ahoy!). So yeah, looks like we have a winner.

Senna

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Senna!

Original image located here. Accessed 6th March 2020

Last year I saw the documentary Amy and came away impressed - so much so, I was inspired to check out this: an earlier documentary from the same people, focusing on legendary Brazilian F1 racer Aryton Senna.

Much like Amy, Senna is intent on building an image of it's subject, showing Aryton doing what he did best. As such, we follow his career as the documentary discusses various points in his career: His rise to success, his various wins, his ability to drive in the wet, the rivalry with Alain Prost, and Aryton becoming a hero to many a Brazilian. We see nothing of Aryton's personal life but we do see a tonne of footage that, in hindsight, would've been difficult to get a hold of.
So this documentary goes a long way in explaining who Aryton Senna was, his passion towards F1 racing and his various triumphs. And even when we know how the story ends, it still hits hard.