Meet the free, proud, independent people of Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNxLzFfR5w Nothing but reviews. In excess.
From ZERO to 6 ♥s. 100% ad-free. Run on pure love for movies, documentaries and TV-series. December 2024: Updated lists of the best and worst of 2002, 2014 and 2016 - Now with 2,300+ reviews!
Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)
Johnny Depp's Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness (2024)
Lee Van Cleef strangely seems to be wearing a shiny diamont earring on this beautifully painted poster for Gianfranco Parolini's God's Gun
A priest is murdered by a ruthless thug, but his twin brother will come to take his revenge!
God's Gun is written by John Fonseca (The Great Adventure/Il Richiamo del Lupo (1975)) and co-writer/director Gianfranco Parolini (The Old Testament/Il Vecchio Testamento (1962)). It is an entertaining and well-paced b-picture western that's also semi-exploitation; it has several shoot-outs, hot ladies and elaborate rape scenes. It also has a cool Lee Van Cleef (The Perfect Killer/Quel Pomeriggio Maledetto (1977)) in the dual twin brother roles, Jack Palance (Young Guns (1988)) as the heavy and the unusually pretty (at the time) Leif Garrett (The Next Tenant (1998)) as the boy Johnny, who helps the justified vengeance along. Also with a 'ghost' duplicity plan, which is well thought up. Dragging down God's Gun are involuntarily funny scenes, primitive effects and a monotone photographic expression that relies on zooms in just about every second scene!
Listen to the film's theme in a video here
Cost: Unknown Box office: Unknown = Uncertain [God's Gun was released in Italy some time in 1976 and runs 94 minutes. Shooting took place in Israel. Sybil Danning, who plays Johnny's mother, was only 9 years older than him. Richard Boone left the film drunk and in poor health, before he had done his dub, (which was then completed by another actor), later calling the film "the worst picture ever made", as he derided its producer and director to an American reporter. The film was released in North America and at least 7 European markets, but its performance and budget is regrettably not known. It has apparently fallen into public domain and can be seen and downloaded free and legally here. Parolini returned with Giant of the 20th Century/Yeti - Il Gigante del 20° Secolo (1977). Van Cleef returned in Vengeance/Kid Vengeance (1977); Palance in Welcome to Blood City (1977). 1,182 IMDb users have given God's Gun an average 5.1/10 rating.] What do you think of God's Gun?
At least three elements are ominously superimposed on this dark poster for Mikkel Nørgaard's Department Q: The Absent One
Special investigator Carl and his work partner Assad get engaged in a 20 year-old double murder case, as new evidence makes indicate that the wrong individual was punished.
Department Q: The Absent One is written by Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg (Fighter (2007), both), with great Danish director Mikkel Nørgaard (Klown Forever/Klovn Forever (2015)) supplying concept elements, adapting The Absent One/Fasandræberne (2008) by Jussi Adler-Olsen (The Scarred Woman/Selfies (2016)). It is the second in the Department Q franchise, which spans 4 films so far, and as such another loud crime thriller without psychological or thematic depths worth mentioning. Nikolaj Kaas (Parterapi (2010)), Fares Fares (Fakiren fra Bilbao (2004)) and Danica Curcic (Nobel (2016, miniseries)) do well, and the plot is a good deal better than the one from the first film, Department Q: The Keeper of Lost Causes/Kvinden i Buret (2013). The big problem is again that we get no explanation of Carl's enormous personal investment in his job and in the case in this film. The film draws on cliches: The new secretarial colleague to Carl and Assad is a well-organized and caring younger woman; Carl smokes like a chimney nonstop; and one of the rich, evil villains is into bondage and is a violent psychopath. The original Danish title translates to 'the pheasant killers', a title which is pointless and silly: No pheasants are killed in the film, and what should be egregious about it, if there were?
Cost: 5.2 mil. €, approximately 5.72 mil. $ Box office: 11.5 mil. $ = Flop (returned 2.01 times its cost) [Department Q: The Absent One premiered 18 September (Austin Fantastic Fest, Texas) and runs 120 minutes. 7.15 mil. DKK, or approximately 1.05 mil. $, was awarded the film as co-financing from the Danish Film Institute; total financing came from 14 companies. Shooting took place in Germany and Denmark, including Copenhagen, from September 2013-?. The film had a simultaneous limited theatrical and VOD release in North America in 2016 but all of its gross numbers are from European markets: In main production country Denmark the film set a new opening record for a Danish film and sold 753,837 tickets in total, the year's best-selling movie in the country, making up the vast majority of the gross, 11.1 mil. $ (96.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Poland with 120k $ (1 %) and Norway with 118k $ (1 %). It won 2/13 Robert nominations. The Department Q franchise returned with Department Q: A Conspiracy of Faith (2016) by Hans Petter Moland, with returning stars Kaas and Fares. Nørgaard returned with Klown Forever/Klovn Forever (2015). Kaas returned first in Men & Chicken/Mænd & Høns (2015)); Fares in Child 44 (2015)). Department Q: The Absent One is fresh at 92 % with a 6.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Department Q: The Absent One?
Johnny Depp and Ralph Steadman walk together as friends in a landscape made up of the latter's humorous and grotesque art characters on this poster for Charlie Paul's For No Good Reason
For No Good Reason tells the story of British artist Ralph Steadman, who went from the tyranny of an authoritative school to friendship with American writer Hunter S. Thompson, protest in several of his works, inspiration from Leonardo Da Vinci, - up to a look at the artist's life as an aging gentleman at the time of the documentary.
For No Good Reason is a great biographical documentary by debuting Charlie Paul (Prophecy (2019, documentary)). Steadman seems like an inevitable artist, and his urge to create and his expressive works are impressive, poignant and inspiring. The documentary is exciting and intimate, also giving us the artist at work and incorporating an element that Steadman himself shuns, namely the fight about taking credit for the Steadman/Thompson cooperation. The title of the film, which is a Steadman quote, isn't bad, but perhaps another one could have invoked the man better. For No Good Reason has animation of some of Steadman's works, incredibly (and enigmatically) achieved, and it is a generous and lively portrait of a true artist.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Unknown Box office: 67k $ (North America online) = Uncertain - but certainly a mega-flop [For No Good Reason premiered 12 October (London Film Festival) and runs 89 minutes. The film screened at 4 film festivals, and in unspecified releases in Japan and South Korea. It opened #87 to a 4k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #73 and in 21 theaters, grossing 67k $. It has been shown on TV in at least 3 countries. If made on a tiny 0.5 mil. $ budget, the film would still rank as a mega-flop with the gross registered. Paul returned with Cherrywood Cannon (2012, short) and theatrically with Prophecy (2019, documentary). For No Good Reason is fresh at 62 % with a 6.15/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of For No Good Reason?
Floating star faces, floating cars and a couple of hype review citations adorn this business-primed poster for Luc Besson's The Fifth Element
From ancient times, furtive knowledge of a fifth element has existed. About 200 years into the future in New York City, aliens attack, as a strong man falls in love with a strange girl, who is this mythic fifth element. The Fifth Element is written by Robert Mark Kamen (Colombiana (2011)) and great French co-writer/director Luc Besson (The Last Combat/Le Dernier Battle (1983)), built on a story that Besson began as a teenager. An enormous space opera, The Fifth Element is mildly entertaining for a while, although it can seem impossible to get past its explosive lack of brains.The plot feels immaterial and deeply uninteresting to boot. It functions solely as a thin pretext to launch the film's attack on the senses: Infernal, dumb and loud in every possible way, the film's (lack of) style consists of loaning from other eras and throw them together in typically 1990s postmodernist fashion. This makes The Fifth Element a hideously garish monstrosity visually and design-wise; a good version of something similar would be Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall (1990). The cast sees a cool Bruce Willis (Grand Champion (2002)) team up with Milla Jovovich (Zoolander 2 (2016)), who is good as the weird Leelo; lastly Chris Tucker (Rush Hour (1998)) is noteworthy as the film's most memorable character. Funny or insufferable, his loud character is obviously sculpted on gay stereotypes, but isn't gay, which is a lack of nerve on the part of the filmmakers and a disappointment. Watching the cartoonish film, which is made with a youthful, boyish enthusiasm and a distaste for streamlining and seriousness, can feel like wacky entertainment or a futile vacuum. I have felt differently about it, watching it on three different occasions. What is surely commendable about the film is its great special effects, many of which are made with humor, and its spaceship scenes, - in particular those in the city, - which are impressively well-made. Related posts: Luc Besson: Taken 2 (2012) - Neeson's in trouble in Istanbul in dull sequel (co-writer/producer) Bandidas (2006) - Cruz, Hayek take the West in Besson's loose grip (co-writer/producer) District 13/Banlieue 13/B-13 (2004) - Parkour action in Paris (co-writer/producer)
Cost: 90 mil. $ Box office: 264 mil. $ = Box office success (returned 2.93 times its cost) [The Fifth Element premiered 7 May (France) and runs 126 minutes. Besson reportedly began the script, when he was 16. Mel Gibson turned down the lead, when the film was developing with a 100 mil. $ price tag, a development that ended in 1992. Willis took a pay cut to make the film happen. It was the most expensive European movie ever made at the time. 80 workers spent 5 months building the New York models needed. Shooting took place in Iceland, Mauritania and the UK, including London, from January - June 1996. Besson was unhappy that primary photography could not take place in France, where there were no studios of the required size. He also left his wife, who plays the singing diva in the film, during shooting, as he fell for Jovovich; the two later married and divorced in 1999. Gaumont spent somewhere between 1-3 mil. $ on the film's lavish Cannes Film Festival premiere, where it was the opening film, a record at the time. It opened #1 to a 17 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 4 weeks in the top 5, the first of which was again #1, grossing 63.8 mil. $ (24.2 % of the total gross). It was the year's highest-grossing at the French box office, selling 7.69 mil. tickets and held the record as the highest-grossing French film until The Intouchables (2011); it sold more than 3 mil. in Germany, and was the 9th highest-grossing film globally of 1997. It made 108k $ in a 2017 re-release. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. It was nominated for one Oscar; Best Sound Editing, which it lost to Titanic. It won a BAFTA award, 3/8 César award nominations and was nominated for a European Film award, among other honors. Gary Oldman, who plays the film's villain, has later related that he starred in it as a payback for Besson financing his debut as filmmaker, mega-flop Nil by Mouth (1997), and that he "can't bear" to watch The Fifth Element. Besson returned with a commercial for Chanel No. 5 and theatrically with The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), an epic starring Jovovich. Willis returned in Mad about You (1997, TV-series), Bruno the Kid (1996-97) and theatrically in The Jackal (1997). The Fifth Element is fresh at 71 % with a 6.37/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of The Fifth Element?
