Persuasion

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Persuasion (1995)!

Original image located here. Accessed 26th August 2022

So there's a new adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion doing the rounds on Netflix - one that has a lot of Austen fans up in arms.
I find this of interest as Persuasion was the first Austen novel I ever read: It was for Uni back in 2000. So the anger over this new adaptation got me thinking: Has there ever been a good adaptation of Persuasion?
Apparently there has: It was a BBC production dating back to the mind-nineties. And that sounds like a challenge to me...

I suppose it is fitting that this came out the same year as the BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice (the one with Colin Firth in it) as that adaptation will forever be the gold-standard of Austen adaptations. Therefore it would be easy to see this one mining the same audience.
Still, it is a BBC production so it has what one expects: Devotion to the source material, beautiful photography and great production. The themes are still in place and, much like the source material, it does offer itself as an alternative to the afore-mentioend P+P. Granted I haven't seen any adaptations of Persuasion prior to this one but from the looks of it, a very high benchmark has been set.

Mystery Men

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

Original image located here. Accessed 19th August 2022

It seems I have encountered something of an anomaly: It was a bomb upon initial release but in the twenty-plus years since release it seems to have finally found an audience in that people are rediscovering it and saying good things about it. And tonight I was one of those people.

It seems that the reason behind this resurrection of this movie is that given that superhero movies have become commonplace in recent years, one would think that parody would be somewhat inevitable. But that is a niche that has already been filled and Mystery Men does it admirably.
Has time been kind to this movie? One would think so.
Okay sure some of the jokes have aged poorly but there are some genuinely laugh-out moments. There are indeed some great gags that poke fun at the familiar superhero tropes. And the premise of superheroes with useless powers still works.
Plus it has Geoffrey Rush hamming it up. And I won't say no to that

22 Jump Street

And this week's Friday night movie has been... 22 Jump Street!

Original image located here. Accessed 12th August 2022

I've been putting this one off for a while. I really enjoyed the first movie so there was a sense of dread when approaching the sequel - that the whole 'lightening in a bottle' impression I got from 21 Jump Street would prove just that.

Well it seems that the makers behind this movie realised that and pretty much latched onto it. Right from the word go, there is a sense that the movie is reveling in it's own nature as a boring, replicating sequel. And this self-awareness is the key strength of the movie. Throw in a lot of great jokes, attacks on the fourth wall, and the some interesting developments between the bond between Jenko and Schmidt and we have that rare thing: a sequel that improves on the original.
Did the distance of six years (since watching the first movie) provide a fresh perspective? It's possible.
Did I go into this not knowing what to expect? True.
But in both cases, it worked out in my favour.

Thor: Love and Thunder

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Thor: Love and Thunder!

Original image located here. Accessed 5th August 2022

Another stab at the current phase of the MCU (for those keeping score it's the fourth one). I have been watching the current phase throughout these past couple of months and I will admit that whilst they have been enjoyable there is a distinct lack of direction. Which is concerning in that the MCU has pretty much defined itself by having everything planned out and adhering to a long-term plan.
In addition, assessing a MCU entrant presents quite the challenge as previous efforts have been so spectacular. That does make for a tough benchmark to follow making anything that happens to fall short look like a red-headed stepchild. Or something.

So what of Thor: Love and Thunder? Well it can't be denied that it's following the same template as it's predecessor. Ragnarok may have done a dramatic shift for the character and rejuvenated him in what many people never thought possible so in a way, such a shift would be tricky to follow. So It looks that they decided to stick with what worked before.
And you know what? It worked.
It may be adhering to a formula that worked previously but that's not really detrimental to the movie. There is bombast, there is creativity, there are tonnes of laughs, there is inventiveness, there is a genuinely compelling villain and some very interesting developments for Odinsson and the Asgardians. Also Russell Crowe stealing the show as Zeus.
Is it a misfire? I don't think so.
Guess there is value in sticking with what works