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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)
+ Best Buenos Aires Movie of the Year + Best On-Screen Couple of the Year: Tony Leung & Leslie Cheung + Best Rainbow Movie of the Year + Best Romance of the Year
A scene of love from the film is used on this lovely poster for Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together. - This poster was banned in Hong Kong
In a spartan apartment in Buenos Aires, two Hong Kong expats live as a couple, who love but also argue and combat each other and their lives as gay foreigners far from home.
Happy Together is written and directed by Chinese master filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai (As Tears Go By/Wong Gok ka moon (1988)), adapting The Buenos Aires Affair (1973) by Manuel Puig (Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976)).
It is a rarely un-prettied up and intimate, authentic portrayal of love, and one that's more blue than red so to speak. Tony Leung (Lust, Caution/Se, jie (2007)) is excellent as our protagonist, who works as a doorman and later in a restaurant and struggles with his boyfriend's looseness and volatility.
SPOILER Intermingled with the heartaches lie beauty and new friendship, as the two break up. Happy Together is a deeply moving and precious depiction, at the same time playful, youthful and accomplished.
[Happy Together premiered 17 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 96 minutes. Leung was lured to Argentina for the shoot with a fake script and was only then informed that he would have to do a gay sex scene in the film. Shooting took place in Argentina, including in Buenos Aires, Brazil, Hong Kong and in Taipei City, Taiwan. The film opened #21 to a 12k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, where it grossed 320k $. The film made 8.6 mil. $ HK, equal to approximately 1.1 mil. $. It was also released in many other markets, and the real total gross is regrettably not possible to ascertain but may likely be in the 2-4 mil. $ span. It has made at least 251k $ and 195k $ in re-release grosses in 2020 and 2021. It won the Best Director prize in Cannes and 1/9 Hong Kong Film awards, among other honors. Kar-Wai returned with a 1998 Motorola commercial and theatrically with In the Mood for Love/Fa yeung nin wah (2000). Leung returned in '97 Aces Go Places/Jui gaai paak dong: Jui gai paak dong (1997); Leslie Cheung (Viva Erotica/Sik ching nam lui (1996)) in Ninth Happiness/Gau sing bou hei (1998). Happy Together is fresh at 82 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Takeshi Kitano walks on a blue-colored shoreline with a psychedelic, flowery sun above in a dark suit on this poster for his Fireworks
Police detective Nishi is out on the fringes of sanity, when his family gets enveloped in tragedy, and he goes by sheer gut instinct in a period, where his own life is also up in the air...
Fireworks is written, directed and co-edited by its star Takeshi Kitano (Violent Cop/Sono otoko, kyôbô ni tsuki (1989)). The original Japanese title translates to 'fireworks'.
It is a very odd and singular film, a pure Kitano! He walks around without speaking and looks menacing and cool and torn, often wearing sunglasses, as he handles business (killing people mainly) in tough ways.
Fireworks is nevertheless a very quiet film, which also works as a showcase for a good deal of artworks made by Kitano. But is it essentially zen-cool as an experience, - or forgotten again very fast? I lean more towards the latter option, although Fireworks undeniably has a strong personality and fascinating force to it.
Box office: In excess of 0.5 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertain - but likely a flop
[Fireworks premiered 3 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 103 minutes. Shooting took place in Japan, including in Tokyo. Details concerning the film's North-American release or the gross numbers for its many other international markets are regrettably not available online, so the film's theatrical rank cannot be asserted. However Kitano said in a 2003 interview that the film was "not a big success commercially". It was nominated for a César award and won a European Film award, among other honors. Kitano returned with Kikujiro (1999). As an actor, he returned in Tokyo Eyes (1998). Fireworks is fresh at 96 % with an 8.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
The world's greatest movie star is ready to deliver something rare and special on this excitement-building poster for Joseph Kosinski's Top Gun: Maverick
Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell hasn't progressed from being a navy captain, because he belongs in fast airplanes and not behind a desk. Because he is still an extraordinary capacity, he is now tasked with heading a team of young Top Gun pilots on a dangerous mission of great importance.
Top Gun: Maverick is written by Ehren Kruger (Scream 3 (2000)), Eric Warren Singer (The International (2009)) and Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie (2008)), with Peter Craig (12 Strong (2018)) and Justin Marks (The Jungle Book (2016)) contributing story elements, and directed by Iowan master filmmaker Joseph Kosinski (TRON: Legacy (2010)), whose 4th feature it is. It is the long-awaited sequel to Tony Scott's Top Gun (1986).
Personally I had not long awaited Top Gun: Maverick, because Top Gun never was a cornerstone film for me, although it is admittedly a great watch. (My early Tom Cruise (Legend (1985)) favorite is Cocktail (1988).) But that doesn't hinder Maverick, which has been in the can and ready to release since June 2020, but has been pushed out until now by the China Virus pandemic - and Cruise's insistence that it should have a wide theatrical release.
That certainly makes sense, when you see it on a big screen, because huge, thrilling flying pictures are simply best seen on a big screen, with all the might of modern sound technology backing up the extraordinary flying scenes.
Top Gun: Maverick will bring goosebumps to many (especially male) audiences just seconds into beginning, just at the sight of the 'Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films' credit, set in that old-timey font, to some very recognizable tones, given a terrific new spin. Yes, this is a nostalgia trip, - and that's wonderful. It's also a rare breed of circus animal star vehicle with its share of cheesy moments. But that's as it should be when the film is Top Gun: Maverick. - Most importantly, the film works on all levels:
Cruise is arguably doing some of the best work of his career these years, - in Mission: Impossible films that continue to top each other, and now in Maverick. He is on fire here, and you sense the raw willpower and awesome ambition that lies behind this strong action drama. He has allied himself with some very reliable supporting actors in Ed Harris (Touching Home (2008)), Miles Teller (Get a Job (2016)) and Jennifer Connelly (Ballet (1989)). Teller works great as Rooster, whose father's demise in Top Gun is the source of the dramatic conflict between him and mentor/substitute father figure Maverick here. And Connelly is a very classy, sexy and graceful lady - who has great chemistry with Cruise. Val Kilmer (Standing Up (2013)) makes a powerful appearance as Iceman, who has now become an ailing US admiral. There's a strong team of young bucks (and one cool young woman) on the team of young pilots, each of them looking sharper than the previous one, and giving Cruise, Connelly and Teller competition. The very macho and ambition-driven film looks great from all angles. - But perhaps the supporting actor here who is most wonderful is Jon Hamm (Million Dollar Arm (2014)) as the vice admiral directly responsible for overseeing Maverick's teaching: Hamm's face puckers in so many priceless ways here, as he offers opposition to Cruise's predictable wildness as the man who wants his pilots to complete the dangerous mission - and get back in one piece.
Top Gun: Maverick has warmth, fun, romance - and suspense that jolts you back in your seat and make you grab the armrests, as you sense the G powers ripping through your body, (or rather, those on screen.) It is better than a wild roller coaster. Stupendous shots follow each other as pearls on a string, and you'll be right to bet that a lot of people worked tremendously hard to put this all together on screen. (The cinematography by Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi (2012)) is a blast.) The score, - by Lorne Balfe (Songbird (2020)), Harold Faltermeyer (Fletch Lives (1989)), Lady Gaga - in her first composing credit, singing the film's solid hit Hold My Hand, - and Hans Zimmer (Chappie (2015)), - is a wonderful, strong sound carpet for the film.
Top Gun: Maverick is a blast from the past, in strapping new threads, with top-charged talents in every department. An irresistible ode to brotherhood, teamwork, love, hard work, discipline, America and - more than anything - human excellence. Top Gun: Maverick will likely show to be impossible for Cruise to top in the years to come - and for others, for that matter. It is a pure, high-flying, inspirational masterpiece.
= Big hit (has returned 5.22 times its cost to date)
[Top Gun: Maverick premiered 18 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 131 minutes. Cruise in 1990 called a Top Gun sequel 'irresponsible'. But the sequel was gathering momentum 20 years later, until director Tony Scott's suicide in 2012. The project changed hands, and Kosinski was hired to direct instead. Cruise was paid 13 mil. $ and an undisclosed back-end percentage for his work on the film. Shooting took place from September 2018 - July 2019 in California, including San Diego, Nevada and Washington. China's Tencent production company were delivering 12.5 % of the film's budget but then pulled out over fears that it would anger the Chinese Communist Party. The release was pushed from Summer 2019 to Summer 2020 over difficult action scenes that needed a re-shoot, but then due to the China Virus pandemic, the release was pushed out another 2 years, while offers from streaming services were shot down by Cruise and co. in favor of a traditional, big theatrical release. The film opened #1 to a 126.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, the biggest opening of Cruise's career by far. It has spent another weekend at #1, and then continues to be in the top 5 with a #2 and #3 weekend currently, and a 466.1 mil. $ still-ticking domestic gross. It is the 2nd highest-grossing film of the year so far, behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and does not have a Chinese release green-lit by the country's ever-restrictive Communist Party rule. IMDb's users have rated the film in at the site's Top 250 at #43, sitting between Casablanca (1942) and Whiplash (2014). Kosinski returns with Spiderhead (2022, VoD). Cruise returns in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - Part 1 (2023). Top Gun: Maverick is certified fresh at 97 % with an 8.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
A not well looking Robin Williams hands us some green goo on this poster for Les Mayfield's Flubber
Professor Brainerd invents a green mass with a series of extraordinary properties, - but others soon want to own his invention, and his fiancée!
Flubber is written by John Hughes (Weird Science (1985)) and Bill Walsh (Mary Poppins (1964)), based on Samuel W. Taylor's short story A Situation of Gravity, as a remake of The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), and directed by Les Mayfield (Encino Man (1992)).
Hughes disappoints horribly with this surprisingly flabby turkey. Robin Williams' (RV (2006)) enthusiasm can't salvage that his absent-minded professor character is more aptly described as a complete imbecile. (His 'science' among other things consists of his getting a golf ball and a bowling ball to fly around and smash up his entire lab.)
Marcia Gay Harden (Whip It (2009)) is cold, and the romance between the two is incomprehensible, until he saves her back, and she suddenly loves him. Ted Levine (Heat (1995)) and Clancy Brown (Justice League Unlimited (2004-06)) are bad, unfunny copies of the 'wet bandits' villains from the also Hughes-scripted Home Alone movies, who go through a lot lesser ordeals. And then there's the film's green 'hero', slime-ball Flubber, who doesn't achieve any real kind of personality - and wins no-one's hearts. In one scene the fellow multiplies and dances around, - as again science is just a bullhorn for infantile antics. There's also a flying sidekick, Weebo, who suffers from the same lack of personality as Flubber; it mainly communicates through use of old Disney clips ('cleverly' done, Disney...)
Flubber may be fun for little children but is a piece of scrap for everyone else - with good special effects, mostly VFX.
[Flubber premiered 16 November (New York) and runs 93 minutes. Shooting took place from October 1996 - February 1997 in California, including in San Francisco. The film opened #1 to a 26.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then 2 more weekends in the top 5 (#2-#5), grossing 92.9 mil. $ (52.2 % of the total gross). The international gross numbers are not released, but the total gross was not enough to make the film profitable. Roger Ebert gave the film a 1/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Mayfield returned with Blue Streak (1999). Williams returned with Good Will Hunting (1997). Flubber is rotten at 24 % with a 4.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Exotic Eastern passion is promised on this colorful poster for Wayne Wang's Chinese Box
John is from the West but has lived the last two decades in Hong Kong, which he loves as a city and as an opportunistic paradise, as he one day discovers that he is, in fact, dying from leukemia.
Chinese Box is written by Jean-Claude Carrière (Sommersbye (1993)), with Larry Gross (Gunshy (1998)), Paul Theroux (Saint Jack (1979)), Rachel Ingalls (A Question of Faith (2000)) and great Hong Kong-born American filmmaker, co-writer/co-producer/director Wayne Wang (A Man, A Woman, and A Killer (1975)) contributing elements.
At times a heavy film, Chinese Box is nevertheless ultimately a moving drama, which binds Hong Kong's British heritage poignantly together with the story of a terminal expat, who also suffers from heartache.
Jeremy Irons (And Now Ladies & Gentlemen (2002)) and Gong Li (The Banquet (1991)) as his chosen, but rejecting barmaid lover are both good in this film about death, in which the ideal circumstances are out of reach. Chinese Box is sensitive and melancholy.
[Chinese Box premiered 4 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 99 minutes. Shooting took place in Hong Kong. The film opened #22 to a 97k $ first weekend in 12 theaters in North America, where it grossed 2.1 mil. $. Regrettably the gross numbers from the film's many international markets, including Hong Kong (but not China) are not made public. Without a cost figure and other gross figures a theatrical status cannot be projected for this film. It won a prize in Venice. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Wang returned with Anywhere But Here (1999). Irons returned in Lolita (1997); Li in The Emperor and the Assassin/Jing Ke ci Qin Wang (1998). Chinese Box is fresh at 64 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
+ Most Deserved Flop of the Year + Most Overrated Movie of the Year
Two Hollywood stars line up in front of a row of giant satellites on this poster for Robert Zemeckis' Contact
Dr. Ellie Arroway has always been preoccupied with the possibility of life in space, so that when the day comes when strange sounds arrive to earth from somewhere out there, she becomes central for the US response to the news.
Contact is written by James V. Hart (Hook (1991)) and Michael Goldenberg (Bed of Roses (1996)), adapting the same-titled 1985 novel by Carl Sagan, and directed by Illinoisan master filmmaker Robert Zemeckis (I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)), whose 11th feature it is.
After a very long space intro using CGI, - the film also later has fair CGI effects, - the absolute nightmare that is Contact begins. Harmlessly at first, but soon it becomes clear that Jodie Foster (Flight Plan (2005)) is here trapped in an insufferable abomination of a film in a non-character, who gets a bit of nonsense to spout to mark that she represents 'science', whereupon she has to confront apathy, stupidity, lack of curiosity and braindead 'religious' examinations throughout the film.
Contact is enormously tiring in every aspect: Among them are Matthew McConaughey (Sahara (2005)), who here looks like a surfer and talks like a Texan farmhand, - but is a Christian philosopher (!!), who waxes on.
We never get to the aliens or anything eye-opening, provocative or exciting. Rarely has a big-budget studio epic been this modest, empty and insufferable. Contact is terrible on every level.
[Contact was released 11 July (North America) and runs 150 minutes. Contact was first envisioned as a film by Sagan and his then girlfriend Ann Druyan but then written as a novel first instead. It was developed as a movie with Roland Joffé and then George Miller attached as director: The former quit, and the latter was fired, before the project landed with Zemeckis. Foster was paid 9 mil. $ for her performance. Shooting took place from September 1996 - February 1997 in Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, California, including in Los Angeles, Virginia, Washington DC, Fiji, Canada and in Puerto Rico. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Men in Black, to a 20.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#3-#4), grossing 100.9 mil. $ (59 % of the total gross). The film's international gross numbers are regrettably not made public. The film was nominated for the Best Sound Oscar, lost to Titanic. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 5 notches over this one. The White House were unhappy with the film's use of Bill Clinton quotes (about other matters) as part of its narrative; CNN were unhappy with their participation in the film; and George Miller and Francis Ford Coppola both unsuccessfully sued Warner Bros. over the film. Zemeckis returned with Robert Zemeckis on Smoking, Drinking and Drugging in the 20th Century: In Pursuit of Happiness (1999, TV documentary) and theatrically with What Lies Beneath (2000). Foster returned in Anna and the King (1999); McConaughey in Amistad (1997). Contact is fresh at 67 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Attractive blond Joey Lauren Adams is used to sell on this poster for Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy
Two young male friends, who make comic books together for a living, have their friendship tested, when one of them falls for a lesbian blond.
Chasing Amy is written and directed by Kevin Smith (Clerks (1994)).
The 1990s are ugly in a foul way; self-centered and overly talkative in this 100 % sexually fixated flick, a film that has a lot of fun with itself. It had me amused one time, I think , but annoyed me for most of the time. For instance, the titular Amy, (played by Smith's real-life girlfriend at the time and inspiration for the film, Joey Lauren Adams (Trucker (2008))), is also a comic book artist, and the protagonist processes their whole history together as a couple by immortalizing it in a comic book... But the worst thing is that Smith wants Chasing Amy to be an open-minded and frank sex romcom, while actually it is clumsy as it bumps around as essentially a very simple young hetero male's fantasy more than anything else. (The hot lesbian is suddenly not a lesbian anymore and so on and so on.)
Ben Affleck (200 Cigarettes (1999)) is good and is invested in Chasing Amy, and Dwight Ewell (On the Run (1999)), who plays a black friend that's (also) a comic book artist, is funny and charming. But Chasing Amy is still a fairly horrible film.
[Chasing Amy premiered 23 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 113 minutes. Affleck was paid 7k $ for his performance. Shooting took place in New Jersey and New York. The film opened #21 to a 53k $ opening weekend in 3 theaters, peaking at #10 and in 553 theaters, grossing 12 mil. $ (79.5 % of the total gross) in North America. Regrettably gross numbers for the film's long list of international release markets are not made public online. The film won 2/3 Independent Spirit award nominations, was nominated for a Golden Globe and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. Smith returned with Dogma (1999). Affleck returned in Good Will Hunting (1997); Adams in Oddville, MTV (1997, TV-series) and theatrically in A Cool, Dry Place (1998); and Jason Lee (Columbus Circle (2012)) in Weapons of Mass Destruction (1997, TV movie), Perversions of Science (1997, TV-series) and theatrically in A Better Place (1997). Chasing Amy is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Fiery action and tough-posing male stars attract attention on this poster for Simon West's Con Air
A sympathetic prisoner (Nicolas Cage (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022))) is going on a prisoner air transport, which almost immediately goes completely wrong. Our hero just wants to get home to his family, but the maniacs around him are making that very hard!
Con Air is written by Scott Rosenberg (Air Time (1992, TV movie)) and directed by debuting Simon West (The Expendables 2 (2012)).
One may admire how in a Jerry Bruckheimer production such as this, an entire backstory is explained in a matter of minutes even before the intro credits end, so that the film can then proceed to play out without pause: From then on it is just hung up on a lot of idiotic scenes, stereotypes and general tastelessness. (Among much else, notorious real-life serial killers are in Con Air mere content for tacky one-liners.)
The entire star cast work as so many beams of hardwood squeezed into a wood-chipper here in an insanely dumb movie, which makes manipulative stabs into thin air.
= Box office success (returned 2.98 times its cost)
[Con Air premiered 2 June (Las Vegas) and runs 115 minutes. Shooting took place from July - September 1996 in Utah, Indiana, Las Vegas, Nevada and in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #1 to a 24.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 4 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3-#5-8X-#4), grossing 101.1 mil. $ (45.1 % of the total gross). It was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Sound, lost to Titanic, and Best Song (Diane Warren's How Do I Live), lost to My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion, James Horner and Will Jennings from Titanic. It was also nominated for a Grammy. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. West returned with The General's Daughter (1999). Nicolas Cage (Time to Kill (1989)) returned in Face/Off (1997); John Cusack (2012 (2009)) in Chicago Cab (1997); and John Malkovich (RED 2 (2013)) in Cannes Man (1997). Con Air is rotten at 55 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
