The Hateful Eight

And this week's Friday night movie has been... The Hateful Eight!

Original image located here. Accessed 25th September 2020

I have seen a Magnificent Seven, a Ruthless Four and now we arrive at a movie that I've been wanting to see for quite some time. And I finally got the opportunity to do so (thanks Nick!).

No way around it: This a Tarantino film and it is therefore expected to see what he can do with the lessons he had picked up through watching countless movies. In a way, considering his affinity with gun battles, disjointed narratives and limited locations, it is unsurprising that he should again try his hand at a western.
Now I do enjoy a good western and I can see some familiar tropes being put to use: The use of scenery, the bounty hunter tracking down criminals, the presence of a stagecoach, the abrupt nature of people getting gunned down, lot's of blood and the presence of the late great Ennio Morricone. But these tropes are placed through the lens of a Tarantino picture: Thus we have some fascinating characters, a truly weather beaten look, some gripping suspense and a lot of black humor.
It may be difficult to determine Tarantino's best work but this is well and truly up there

Bill and Ted Face the Music

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Bill and Ted Face the Music!

Original image located here. Accessed 18th September 2020

Of all the late eighties/early nineties franchises to resurrect, I didn't think anyone would touch this one, let alone it being any good.

Once again, the titular characters make the movie - after they're all there in the title. It's amazing how Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves can step back into this roles, after nearly three decades, and bring these characters to life. They may be older and but by no means wiser and they're still funny to watch. One might think that it would be embarrassing to see some middle aged dudes still acting like teenagers but here it just adds to the hilarity.
But even though this is Bill and Ted's movie, it's their daughters, Billi and Thea, who end up stealing the show. Brigette Lundy-Paine and Samara Weaving have the mannerisms of their onscreen fathers down pat that they are a delight to watch
It would be baffling to think of such committed actors in what is, a lowbrow stoner comedy but here it works. Throw in a message of bringing the world together through music, one surprisingly touching scene and a theme of second chances (which i will admit to being a sucker for) and we have a movie that is better than it has any right to be. It could've attempted to do a flat out (and lazy) reprise of Excellent Adventure but, much like Bogus Journey, it refused to do so and came out all the better for it.
You could say it was....Excellent!

A Clockwork Orange

And this week's Friday night movie has been... A Clockwork Orange!

Original image located here. Accessed 9th September 2020

This may surprise a number of you readers but I have never seen this movie. Sure I have seen parts of it but I have never seen it all the way through - and not doing so seems dishonest to this serial and myself as a cinema geek. Ironic that this particular movie has a reputation as being one of the most difficult to get through.
Furthermore, this is another case of a movie being so well known that it's reputation precedes it (seems it's something of a touchstone for both film snobs and the anti-sociable). And I have always been suspicious of such proprieties: How can you judge a work on your own terms when it has a weight of a reputation so large that it can't hope to live up to such expectations? (Yes Firefly, I am looking at you).
Finally, there is the issue of shock tactics. For me, the greatest enemy of shock tactics isn't the straight-laced complainers who protest them -- No, it's the march of time. Because the march of time brings copycats who will either replicate the same approach (to some extent) or try to surpass the original to the point where the original looks toothless.
With such factors in mind (whether we like it or not), how do we assess A Clockwork Orange?

In all honesty, i have seen worse.
It may be a bold claim but i this lifetime, I have seen countless movies, a lot of anime, many a music video on rage and a whole lotta weird stuff on SBS.
So yeah, I've see things.

But given the passage of time, I have to admit that there is still some bite in this movie. The art design is extraordinary, the vision of the future is both bleak and plausible, the satire hits with precision and the movie still looks relevant nearly half a century later.
It may be easy to slam Stanley Kubrick for being self-indulgent (seriously how much phallic imagery can you cram into one movie?) but it certainly stands head and shoulders above it's followers. Amusing one moment and downright disturbing the next, this isn't the type of movie I see myself revisiting but at least i can say that I've seen it.
Also, the sci-fi nerd in me finds it funny to see David Prowse in this movie.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

And this week's Friday night movie has been... The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader!

Original image located here. Accessed 4th September 2020

And so, following from Prince Caspian last week, we arrive at the followup. Can't say i read the book, as opposed to the other movies, but I do remember this segment from the BBC adaptation quite vividly. So maybe that may yield a fresh perspective?

Once again the strengths of this movie series are evident: Plenty of imagination, stunning locations, impressive special effects, an adaptation that somehow achieves the difficult balancing act between being faithful and putting a new take on the material, and a cast giving their all & injecting their characters with plenty of personality. I think it's fair to say that this is the point where the movies stopped looking over the shoulder of the Lord of the Rings movies and started down their own path.
Also the idea of Eustace being a steadfast sceptic in spite of being transported to a high fantasy world is an idea that has plenty of mileage.

However, there is no getting around it: This is the endpoint of this particular movie series. It is indeed disappointing as there was a lot going for this serial and was, so far, shaping up to be the strongest adaptation of the Chronicles of Narnia - how fitting it is then that the final image in the movie is a door closing. Which means now that the rest of the books in the series (four for those keeping score) will remained unfilmed, the series will remain incomplete and the entirety of having the whole series adapted remains out of reach.
All hope now falls to the proposed Netflix adaptation to carry the baton but somehow I doubt it can match, let alone surpass, this effort.
Besides, I doubt I can accept Aslan being voiced by someone who isn't Liam Neeson