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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 16, 2020 19:12:51 GMT
Kiss Of Death / Henry Hathaway (1947). Twentieth Century Fox. Cinematography by Norbert Brodine. Screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer. Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) is a nice guy family man career crook who falls back into his old ways after being out of work for a year. KOD immediately jumps into a tense heist underway as the movie begins. Nick and two other guys ride a crowded elevator (it is Christmas shopping season) up to the 23rd floor of a NYC skyscraper to rob a jewelry dealer and then take the long ride back down. Nick gets caught and sentenced. Although kindly Assistant D.A. D’Angelo (Brian Donlevy) offers a deal if Nick will roll over on his two partners, Nick refuses. Later, he has cause to change his mind. He gets out on parole if he will befriend the dangerous sadistic hit-man Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark, film debut) and testify against him. But Udo gets free threatening Nick’s new life and family. If the first scene was tense, the final set-piece in an Italian restaurant where Nick goes to confront Udo quadruples the goosebumps. I wonder if Francis Ford Coppola had this scene consciously in mind when filming the Italian restaurant scene in “The Godfather.” A lot of film critics and historians take Victor Mature’s self deprecating humor about his talent too seriously. So much so that even great detailed and shaded acting such as he does here, doesn’t seem to count. Richard Widmark plays Tommy Udo as a giggling force of malevolence who cannot be reasoned with nor asked mercy of. It is a career making role and Widmark is amazing. Only the crimes go wrong in “Kiss Of Death,” the movie itself doesn’t make a false step. One of the great ones. Also with Coleen Gray, Karl Malden, Mildred Dunnock (who plays Tommy Udo’s most famous victim), and Millard Mitchell.  Richard Widmark  Coleen Gray and Victor Mature. Classic film noir framing and lighting. Check out those ceilings.  Gunman In The Streets / Frank Tuttle (1950). Films Sacha Gordine. Cinematography by Claude Renoir (The Spy Who Loved Me) and Eugen Schüfftan (Metropolis, The Hustler). Eddie Roback (Dane Clark) is an American deserter in Paris who made good as a violent underworld figure. He is finally caught and about to be sentenced when his gang breaks him loose in a shootout with Paris police. Although the tile brings up pictures of an armed man running wild down a street, this film takes an “Odd Man Out” approach: mostly taking place over one long night and early morning hours of the next day as a fugitive tries to get out of the city and avoid a cop dragnet. For help he goes to his former girlfriend Denise Vernon (Simone Signoret) who is already in a relationship with the American reporter Frank Clinton (Robert Duke). Denise is torn between the two men but leans toward violent, aggressive Roback. Dane Clark plays Roback as a bully and thug with no redeeming features whatsoever. An evil force of nature. This was the third and last movie for Robert Drake who is surprisingly good. Shot in France with a French cast (except Clark and Duke), this appears to be a U.S. production. Director Frank Tuttle (This Gun For Hire) is a seasoned noirist from the U.S and all the French actors speak English. Luckily, two top lead performers (Signoret and Fernand Gravey as the Inspector heading the search for Roback) speak excellent, if not fluent, English. Lots of darkness, lots of fog. A tight little suspenser. ![]()   The Girl In Black Stockings / Howard W. Koch (1957). Bel-Air Productions. Cinematography by William Margulies. An enjoyable murder mystery set and filmed in the resort city of Kanab, Utah. Edmund Parry (Canadian actor Ron Randell) owns a tourist lodge but is paralyzed from the neck down. Managing the lodge and acting as his caregiver is his sister Julia (Maria Windsor). Also helping is desk and switchboard clerk Beth Dixon (Anne Bancroft). Los Angeles lawyer David Hawson (Lex Barker) is visiting to unwind. He has also fallen in love with Beth. David and Beth are snogging at the lakeside when they discover the mutilated corpse of the town flirt. All the guests of the lodge are suspects so are held there by Sheriff (John Dehner). There are further murders and suspicion bounces from one character to another. There is a lot of outdoor photography emphasizing the Parry Lodge, a real place founded in the 19th century and still in business today. You can search it on Google Maps and see it, mostly unchanged, on the maps’ street view. The Marilyn Monroe wanna-be Mamie van Doran is part of the cast playing a tipsy bottle blonde loudmouthed floozy. Also in small roles are pre-famous Stuart Whitman and Dan Blocker. TRIVIA: the Kanab area was (and is) a frequent movie location site and the Parry lodge hosted many a movie star. John Wayne was a frequent visitor. In the early 1950s, Wayne, wanting a place to cool off, offered to pay half for the instillation of a swimming pool. The new pool and patio get special attention in The Girl In Black Stockings. The pool, too, is still a part of the Lodge campus. MORE TRIVIA: Anne Bancroft’s next released movie was The Miracle Worker which won her an Oscar. The lurid poster makes it look like the movie is about Mamie (it ain’t).  Anne Bancroft and Lex Barker  Our Man In Havana / Carol Reed (1959). Kingsmead Productions. Cinematography by Oswald Morris (Oscar winner, Cinematography: Fiddler On The Roof). Englishman Jim Wormold (Alec Guinness) is the Cuban representative of vacuum cleaner company. He owns a shop in Havana but is not very successful at it but his daughter Millie (Joe Morrow) puts him in debt. When he is approached by a haughty Brit (Noël Coward) and offered to be a spy agency’s Man In Havana he agrees because the money is good and he needs it. However, he knows nothing about recruiting sub-agents or gathering intelligence so he starts sending drawings based on vacuum cleaner designs claiming they are aerial photos of a mysterious base in the mountains. This completely shakes up the agency heads in London who send him a secretary, Beatrice (Maureen O’Hara). Meanwhile, the head of the Cuban secret police (Ernie Kovacs) starts to court Millie and his only friend, Dr. Hasselbacher (Burl Ives), begins acting suspicious. Suddenly, what was a light satire on Cold War spying turns slowly into a very dark satire on Cold War spying. The movie is based on a novel by Graham Greene and directed by Carol Reed, the same team that brought us The Third Man. The movie is a slow starter but the wait is worth it. Guinness is brilliant, as expected and Ernie Kovacs shines in a non-comical role. Highly recommended.  Alec Guinness and Maureen O’Hara  Joe Morrow, Alec Guinness, Ernie Kovacs  With his extra spy money Wormold buys himself a 1951 Morris Minor Tourer  Rambo: Last Blood / Adrian Grünberg (2019). Lionsgate. John Rambo has retired and is “keeping a lid” on his hate and rage while ranching in a serene remote spot in Arizona while helping raise his housekeeper’s sweet daughter. When the girl runs off to Mexico to find her missing father, she finds only bad luck and trouble. In revenge, Rambo lures an huge heavily armed gang of sex traffickers back to his ranch where he has set traps and proceeds to kill them all in as gory a fashion as possible. Any good that can be found in this movie lies in the continuation of the Rambo legend and backstory which began in 1982 and in Sylvester Stallone’s acting and screen presence, which is considerable. Fans of Stallone and any who want to follow John Rambo through his old age (and Stallone makes himself look old, indeed) will want to check this out. Otherwise, not recommended for casual movie watchers.   Catching Up! Kiss of Death - www.imdb.com/review/rw2132132/?ref_=tt_urv 8.5/10The Girl in Black Stockings - www.imdb.com/review/rw3328931/?ref_=tt_urv 7/10
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 16, 2020 19:21:57 GMT
Here comes the Tele movies from last week, with a few thoughts attached.  A fairly OK euro action movie, starring a few well known names, James Coburn, Susannah York, Robert Culp and Charles Aznavour (!). A rich industrialist's wife and kids are kidnapped in Greece, the action is about getting them out, before kidnappers get their demands. Enter James Joburn, cool as usual, learning that his ex-wife and kids are kidnapped for ransom, by some terrorist group. The terrorists hide high in the Greek mountains, actually the same monestary used a few years later in the Bond film For Your Eyes Only. Coburn character by accident sees a hanggliding circus in Athens, and get's the idea of using hangliders to save the kidnapped. Fairly decent for a one time look, and if you like the stars, and wan't to know how Athens and surroundings looked like in mid 1970s.  Since I'm stll in convalescence, try something different, could be refreshing! aka The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, an Italian mystery movie and even maybe a Giallo. Watched English speaking dubbed version. An old painting has put a spell on an old respectable family, the painting fortold that every 100 years the Red Queen returns and kills family members. Do someone uses the legend to kill, or has indeed the Red Queen returned to the massive estate, about to be inhereted soon. It's an OK movie of it's kind, with a very enervating elevator sounding score by Bruno Nicolai. Maybe you like this even better if you like these kind of movies.  When Woodward turned 90 I wanted to see something I've never seen before, and this happened to be the one. Woodward's character treat's severe mental patients, and in this case a person who thinks he is Sherlock Holmes, not just nutty, but actually is able to solve a few problems, and Woodward's character happend to be named Dr Watson. Based on a play, it starts very lighthearted and is very funny, with great lines, but as the story moves forward and new characters appears it becomes more and more bizarre Don't know what to make of it in the end, maybe it was done in the wrong way, or I'm too dumb to understand...  This poster makes it look like an action movie, something it isn't, though there is a few action scenes. Somehow buried among Charlton Heston's more famous movies. Lot's of artificial snow, since nobody breathes with smoke. Heston is a Maestro who's whole symphony Orchestra suddenly becomes prisoners of war, and to please the highest ranking Nazi and to save time they will give him a big concert. As the orchestra neers it's crecendo at the end it never get's very exciting, though there is some good acting, but sadly not from Heston himself who is very stoic this time.   I could watch lovely Cyd Charisse in almost anything, even after watching this one, aka Assassination in Rome, well assassination and assassination, a dead body is found at Fontana di Trevi, and who is he, and how does it link back to Charisse's character's suddenly disappeared husband. That's something American reporter (Hugh O'Brian) tries to find out, via several red herrings and mysterious characters. Neighter the best nor the worst of it's kind, lighthearted thriller movie Euro style.  As other posters have mentioned this movie I wanted to see it for myself. I've read the book that it is based on, and I see that many parts have been omitted, like the whole story of the Sheriff that hunt the heister, there is also a different ending, and many other things I noticed that I cannot tell or I would destoy the pleasure for those who haven't seen the movie yet. It's one of those things that sometimes happens, I bought the pocket book for under 50 US cents, and it must have been extremely well written since I remember many details, some not used in he movie version. If they had used all, it would have been a 3 hour movie. This movie was a highlight of the week, the tension, the acting, the direction, the plot, the issues, and together it's not just a hiest movie, it's so much more. So glad to have finally seen it.  Two redheads for the price of one! Not sure if I grasped everything, but it sure was something different. There is more than catches the eye, not difficult with Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl distracting as sisters, Rhonda is the goodhearted, while Arlene is a nymphomaniac and shoplifter who get's a thrill getting into trouble. While mob handyman John Payne tries to squeeze himself in between, using the good sister for his employer the mob, and using the other sister for pure pleasure. A lot goes wrong and everybody tries to save themselves. There is a lot of tension here, and I'm not sure I got all the angles, but I don't mind, and I somehow liked to be puzzeled, this time.  Why not an old fashioned gaslight London murder mystery, and I enjoyed it, for what it is. A noble playboy leaves murdered women behind him story, and is he or isn't he the murderer. Peggy Cummings (far from Gun Fury) tries to figure out the mystery. Great cast including Vincent Price as a not-as-dumb-as-he-appears police detective, and grand dame Ethel Barrymore as Victor Mature's mother (how did her husband look like to produce Victor Mature?). Amusing and enteraining old fashioned who-done-it, that I enjoyed watching. (Those enormous estates on the countryside, what on earth did they live on?) A moss rose is part of the clue, by the way.  Since there is a new version of the famous Jack London novel at the cinemas right now, I thought I would look up an older version. Like most versions it doesn't care much about London's novel, and only uses it for action entertainment. I shouldn't sound snobbish, since I've only read the Illustrated Classics version LOL!. Clark Gable carries this movie together with a dog named Buck. I wished this could have been an old fashioned matinee, but there is an actually totally unneccesary subplot with a woman (Loretta Young who looks gorgeous), and Jack Oakie's oldfashioned sidekick that get's enervating after awhile. There are also some very good parts, like the selfcreated drowning scenes of the gold mine thieves who can't reach the surface of a river because of their greed, and Buck with his cubs. Still Clark Gable is Clark Gable, as my mother used to make very clear to her sons.  Until next week, when we have seen more movies! Now it's the time to enjoy what others have written about what they have seen... Catching Up! Odds Against Tomorrow - www.imdb.com/review/rw3311349/?ref_=tt_urv 9/10Slightly Scarlet - www.imdb.com/review/rw2781584/?ref_=tt_urv 8/10Moss Rose - www.imdb.com/review/rw2890939/?ref_=tt_urv 7/10
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 16, 2020 19:26:54 GMT
oh, and  Casablanca - because it was at my cinema and it's Casablanca 11/10 The Quiller Memorandum - inspired by the Senta Berger thread 7.5/10 Ulzana's Raid - because of the discussion here a couple of weeks ago 9/10 The Adventurers - watched before the Lewis Gilbert thread appeared by coincidence 7/10 Bad Times at the El Royale - liked it at the cinema, held up on a second viewing 7.5/10 Catching Up! Casablanca - It's kind of the default movie when you are having a social conversation with someone who thinks classic monochrome films are over rated! I just point to it and say argue with that!
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 16, 2020 19:32:56 GMT
Raise the Titanic (1980)  Sleepy action adventure movie, perfect for nodding off to on the couch on a weekend afternoon. Not much happens but it's still a good movie, with a slow momentum. No doubt seemed fantastic and far-fetched at the time, but now seems dated and silly because the ship arrives at the surface fully intact, even though witnesses described Titanic breaking in two before sinking. The actual discovery of the Titanic, five years after this movie came out, would prove those witnesses correct. John Barry's beautiful score more than makes up for any flaws. Deep Shock (2003 TVM)  Eels! Why'd it have to be eels? Watched this because of the completely misleading poster that makes it seem like a horror movie, but instead we get a watered down sci-fi saga about intelligent eels and the possible end of the Earth. Not totally terrible, but would not recommend to non-film freaks such as myself who love/hate such films. ARQ (2016)  Time loop sci-fi thriller...wait, I can sense you losing interest in this review already, and I get that! There have been a few too many of those lately. This one is pretty contained but manages to seem larger than it actually is due to some interesting ideas, good acting and sudden twists. My only complaint being that it is so contained in the same area for so long with the same people doing the same things over and over that you feel like you're stuck in the time loop too. Flamingo Road (1949)  Joan is a carny in a steamy, small Florida town. Corrupt politicians want to drive her away and she decides to stay!  A great vehicle for Joan Crawford, a woman out for revenge. Her confrontations with Sydney Greenstreet gave me great joy. My only complaint would be I wanted a better ending, but the one we got was pretty alright too. Daisy Kenyon (1947)  Noir-ish melodrama with Joan Crawford torn between Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda, both jerks. Everyone in this story is kind of a jerk, really. Keeps your attention throughout, but no great pay off.  Daisy Miller (1974)  Cybill Shepherd as Daisy Miller in this Peter Bogdanovich adaptation is quite adequate, as is this movie. I think it practically screams out for a remake though. It seems a lot of people do not care at all for this version. Me, I thought it was okay. The constant jabbering on and on was impressive! Home Again (2017)  Reese Witherspoon plays a woman who is a little unhappy, even though she has it made. Her life is ten times more perfect already than any of the people who will watch this. She has live-in tech support, child care and sex! She has a friggin' Oscar in the spare room! You'll get no sympathy from me, Reese Witherspoon! This all sounds like the real Reese Witherspoon, but its actually her character in the movie. Husbands (1970)  Love this cast! A bit melancholy to watch now that they're all dead and discussing their hopes and dreams and regrets, but that's basically what this movie was always aiming for. Movie nerds will like seeing John Cassavetes and Nick Cassavetes in a scene together near the end as father and son, of course. Best Bit: Peter Falk pronouncing badminton as "badmitten." 🎾😀 Kodachrome (2017)  I love movies where Ed Harris is dying. The Hours was a more superior film, for sure, but this was alright, with some very quotable lines scattered throughout. Powwow Highway (1989)  "I think your car ate the godamned caramel corn!" Fun road movie, nothing overly original other than being about two native guys. One is on a spiritual journey, the other is on a personal mission. They clash, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant. The film debut of Wes Studi. Wheelman (2017)  Like Tom Hardy's Locke (2013), only with more violence. Frank Grillo is a great actor, he deserves more starring roles because he really sells this movie. Have a great movie week! See you here next time! Catching Up! Flamingo Road - www.imdb.com/review/rw3258071/?ref_=tt_urv 7/10Need to see Daisy Kenyon
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 16, 2020 20:15:57 GMT
hitchcockthelegend Obsession (The Hidden Room) / Edward Dmytryk. Truly an undiscovered gem. Dmytryk was in England a fairly short time before returning to America to testify before HUAC. His U.S. co-star in “Obsession,” Phil Brown had also taken refuge in the U.K. from blacklisting but remained for a couple more decades before returning to his home country in the 1990s. He lived to be almost 90. His most famous movie role was as Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen in “Star Wars” (1977). After his return to America, he was often seen at autograph shows. Brown in Obession  Uncle Owen  Gun Crazy. Love your characterization of this fun couple as The Real Sex Pistols. The shooting contest where Laurie and Bart match up pushes the limits of the Production Code as sexual sparks fly. The two fall into a Mad Love that leads to Laurie goading Bart into a series of armed robberies in order to make the money she wants. Right from the opening titles – that play out over a pouring rain at night – we are in a definite noir universe. My review back when also emphasized the continuous take bank robbery. One of the great ones. Drive. This is one film where I take issue with an almost universal critical and financially successful movie. I just didn’t like a moment of it. The main problem for me is the blank-faced flat-voiced Ryan Gosling. I have seen him in quite a lot of other movies (that I watched for reasons not connected with Gosling) and the only one, strangely, in which I enjoyed him was “The Nice Guys.” He was surprisingly good in comedy. Maybe he has been missing his real calling. Another trope I am tired of is the comedy actor given a criminal role. I liked Alan King in “Casino,” for example but never thought Albert Brooks was anything but a gimmick. The Salvation. This is an interesting way to make a movie: set in the American west by a Danish film company and director, actors from all over the world, and location filming in South Africa. What they have come up with is a violent revenge thriller set on the American prairie in 1871. Even though the level of violence could not have been shown during Hollywood’s period of great westerns, “The Salvation,” which I like very much, is still in the American revenge western tradition. This film is ideal for those of us who think that the time between Hollywood westerns takes way too long. Couldn't ignore this post my good man. Circumstances dictated I was restricted last week. Yep, Obsession, I hope we have sold it to others to seek out. Did I know that was Uncle Owen? Did I hell, can't believe I didn't know that, thanks for adding another bit of trivia for my brain to hold onto. Gun Crazy - I was sort of standing in my film storage room at home wondering what I was in a mood to watch, it was taking ages and I thought it was time for a classic noir. And there it was catching my eye in bright red, long overdue and it was worth every minute yet again. It's sexy, dangerous and straight out of the noirville essentials catalogue. Drive - Well you have surprised me! I would put it in the top 10 best Neo-Noir all time list. Helps I'm a Gosling fan of course, but everything about it from tech credits to character arcs, to the fate unknown finale, oozes noir from every pore. How much Gosling you seen? Or do you purposely avoid him these days? You seen Blade Runner 2049? Like Drive it's a superb piece of casting, I imaging the people behind the scenes of 2049 watched Drive and said "yes there's our man". I loved The Nice Guys, talked about it with Mr. Clain a few months back, here's my review > www.imdb.com/review/rw4580020/?ref_=tt_urv 9/10I don't love all his films, but most of them I think he lifts proceedings, and as his CV shows, he has range. You definitely should check out The Believer (2001), his first starring film and many of us watched it back then and thought straight away there's a star in the making here - www.imdb.com/title/tt0247199/reference
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Post by marianne48 on Mar 17, 2020 5:23:19 GMT
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)--This is the highest-rated movie on IMDb (9.3!) Many of the user reviews imply that it is not just a great viewing experience, but a religious one as well. So I watched it with with the expectation that some of these reviews might be a bit overrated. What I didn't expect was how underwhelming it actually was. Overlong; mawkish; tedious. Obtrusive music. Morgan Freeman's voiceovers get old very quickly. Predictable plot twists that are easy to see coming. So many people seem to have fallen in love with this film, but for me it was nothing special.
Pressure Point (1962)--On the other hand, here was another film that takes place in a prison which deserves a lot more attention, yet seems forgotten.
1962 was a good year for films, and this is one that should be on the list of the best. It stars Sidney Poitier as a psychiatrist assigned to a federal prison
in the early 1940s (thanks to the head of the prison hospital, who's very proud of himself for his "noble experiment" of hiring an African-American for the job), who
is put in the position of having to counsel a virulent racist inmate with insomnia. Over the course of more than a year, the patient, a member of the American Nazi party who was convicted of trying to overthrow the US government, discusses his childhood and younger years with the doctor in order to explain how he became what he is now, as the doctor listens with growing trepidation. The inmate is played by singer Bobby Darin in an impressively jarring performance; he's frighteningly believable as the dead-eyed, repugnant psychopath Poitier is determined to treat despite his growing realization that he is untreatable.
The film is simultaneously dated and timely, which makes it somehow more compelling. The flashbacks to the patient's childhood have the eerie quality of scenes from episodes of The Twilight Zone. Barry Gordon, a child actor who could be alternately cute or creepy, plays Darin as a boy; the scenes of his youth come off as overwrought and cliched--clinging, needy mother is overly affectionate with him, while dad is hateful to the mother and abusive to the boy (Dad is played by James Anderson, in his second role of 1962 as a vicious dad--he also played the abusive father in To Kill a Mockingbird. No Father's Day cards for him that year). At one point he brings home his girlfriend and they both roll around drunkenly in Mom's bed--on top of Mom. In another scene, he attacks the boy with a slab of liver. The boy develops an imaginary friend (played by a pre-Eddie Munster Butch Patrick) on whom he takes out his brutality. As a grown man, there's a flashback to his one potential romantic relationship, which is quickly quashed by the girl's father, who happens to be Jewish. All of this is presented as a facile, pop-psychology explanation for his sadistic tendencies and vicious anti-Semitism. Stanley Kramer only produced most of the film, but it often displays his signature heavy-handedness.
At the same time, the real strength of the movie comes from the tension between Patient and Doctor (neither character is named in the film). Poitier
tries to be calm, professionally detached, yet dedicated to his aim to help his patient, but as his distaste for Darin grows, he fears he's losing his bearings. The Patient may be twisted and paranoid, but unfortunately, some of his sick logic is all too accurate, even today--when he tells the Doctor,
"You're going to make it easier for us"--wasn't this reflected in the way so many secret bigots willingly embraced Trump because they never got over Obama attaining the presidency? The Doctor does his best to deny the Patient's claims and wants to continue to have faith that the world is changing for the better, but he has to struggle to believe it, especially when he senses that the other prison board members are beginning to doubt him--or was he set up to fail? This movie is worth watching mainly for its two-character drama.
Everybody's Fine (2009)--Robert De Niro in a nice change of pace--a quiet, understated performance in which he doesn't portray a gangster or an angry lout. Reminiscent of Harry and Tonto (but sans cat), De Niro plays a widowed father who travels across the country to try to connect with his troubled adult children, whom he never really got to know. Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, and Kate Beckinsale play the children. No big surprises, but
a somewhat somber family drama with good performances.
Hunted (1952)--Little boy does something naughty at home and runs away to hide in an empty basement, where he is discovered by Dirk Bogarde,
who's just killed a man in the same basement. Awkward...but the little boy quickly bonds with him, since he seems like a decent chap, besides that murder thing. Suspenseful and touching at the same time; shot in a postwar England that emphasizes the trapped, no place to call home feeling of the two lead characters --Jon Whitely as the forlorn little boy, and Dirk Bogarde as the fugitive who's not really the movie's villain. Bogarde gives a wonderful and sympathetic performance. The ending seems disappointingly abrupt, but otherwise it's a bleak but beautiful film.
Parasite (2019)--One of the few Best Picture Oscar winners in recent years which actually deserved the award. A poverty-stricken family cons its way into working for an affluent family. At first the situation seems like a dark comedy, until it becomes darker and darker. The question of which level of society--the underclass or the upperclass--is the "parasite" is the central theme of the movie, and it's for the viewer to figure it out (unless each feeds off the other). Ugly and shocking, and highly recommended.
Jojo Rabbit (2019)--So far, the only real competition I've seen for the Best Picture Oscar. Also a dark comedy, but the comedy is more in a Monty Python kind of vein. Taika Waititi's films have a certain style of their own, the way Wes Anderson's films do (except without Anderson's soullessness).
A naive, impressionable young boy in Germany joins the Hitler Youth because...all the other kids are doing it and he wants to be part of the club.
(The Beatlemania-type fervor for Hitler, accompanied by the singing of the Beatles themselves, may be used as a bit of comedy here, but it was, sadly, all too accurate). Jojo, a boy who doesn't have the innate sadism necessary to be a good little Nazi, conjures up Hitler himself (Waititi) as an imaginary friend to guide him. Those who might object to seeing Hitler as a comic figure might not enjoy the film, but if you can handle the "Springtime for Hitler" number from the original The Producers, you'll probably enjoy this. The film strikes a great balance between absurdist comedy and disturbing tragedy.
Also highly recommended.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Mar 19, 2020 7:55:53 GMT
My movie-watching for last week began and ended with two horror films, and in the middle I watched...the two Frozen films. Let it never be said that I don't like variety.  You’re Next (2010). Frozen (2013). Frozen II (2019). My mini review: Although the plotline of the movie was a little ‘iffy’ (Elsa follows a voice that she’s hearing and the others go along with), I didn’t really have a problem with this sequel (though I thought Evan Rachel Wood, who voiced Anna and Elsa’s mother, would be featured in the movie more than she was). I know people have said that the songs in this movie weren’t as ‘catchy’/’memorable’ as the first, and while there’s certainly nothing that’s on the same level as ‘Let It Go’, I *did* like ‘Into the Unknown’, ‘Show Yourself’, and ‘Lost in the Woods’. I’ve read comments that the ‘spiritual successor’ to ‘Let It Go’ is supposedly ‘Show Yourself’ (probably because, like with ‘Let It Go’, Elsa lets down her hair and uses her ice powers during ‘Show Yourself), but I actually liked ‘Into the Unknown’ a bit more. I didn’t have a problem with there not being any clear ‘villain’ for them to fight this time around like Hans in the first film, nor did I think Kristoff was ‘useless’ like some claimed. Sure, he mightn’t have had that much to do, but he saved several people (and reindeer) and was a good friend (I found his ballad amusing in how clearly 80’s-inspired it was, and while it was nice to hear Sven – and the other reindeer – speak/sing, I’m glad it wasn’t a permanent thing, as I prefer it the way it is with Sven just making noises and Kristoff speaking for him). I loved Elsa’s new fire lizard and water horse companions. I think if the first hadn’t been such a roaring success, then this sequel wouldn’t have been put under such close scrutiny/judged quite so harshly. I found it to be a worthy sequel with stunning visuals (though I still like the first one better).                    (2013). Hi COE! I hope you are having a good week,and how did you find letting it go again to be? From when I saw it in Jan: Frozen 2:Let It Meh. 4/10. Unable to let things go,song writers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez attempt to create another monster hit with the new 7 songs being modelled on Let It Go's tempo. With a clear focus on topping the charts, the effect is songs which come-off as sub-par carbon copies,as a basis on singing/describing a characters actions, rather their inner feelings, leading to interchangeable, utterly forgettable tunes. From the opening sweeping shot returning to Arendelle, returning co-writers/co-directors Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee unveil a backdrop with a impeccable attention to giving the backdrop animation a realistic shine, with the ripples from the rivers dotted across the screen,along with cold winds making leaves shake, and falling snowflakes covering the icy paths Elsa and Anna must take. Standing badly at odds with what is established in the opening shot, the directors contrast the grounded animation of the backdrop with a wide-eyed, rubbery design for the characters, whose contrasting appearance stops them blending into the world they are meant to inhabit. Bringing Elsa to the Enchanted Forest with a sirens call, the writers attempt to juggle a crowd-pleasing reunion, with a serious message, only to end up making a total mess. Going into what led to the creation of The Enchanted Forest, the writers bluntly use thinly-veil allegory to touch on the killing of Native Americans by European Settlers. Freezing in time a moment when a tribe leader was murdered, the writers distastefully shove aside their attempt at a message, for a ill-judged rush to feel-good fantasy,which wastes the potential offered from the mysterious siren a quick and easy fix, whilst stamping all over the plight of the Natives in order to put a Disney bow on a film which does not know where to go. A much-belated hi to you, morrisondylanfan. My apologies for not replying to you before now. I hope you didn't think I was ignoring your post. If you did, my sincerest regrets, as that wasn't my intent. I've actually been debating with myself what I could say in response to your post. A thread was started on the Film General board a while ago asking about how people respond to differences of opinion on this site. I myself have always made an effort to respect others' opinions and never start arguments with those I disagree with. As a result, I've (mostly) been able to avoid conflict with other posters (though there has been the odd one who has attacked me for my opinion or some other reason - but I just ignored them/didn't respond). In the case of your post, you in no way 'attacked' me for my opinion - and I was grateful for that/appreciated it. I wish more posters could manage to remain civil when responding to those with different opinions to them (thankfully, pretty much everyone on the Classic Film board has proven themselves capable of this). However, I was unsure of how to respond, as we had very different views/opinions of the film Frozen II. I'm not one of those people who tries to 'change' the opinions of those I disagree with. I accept that they see things one way and I see them a different way. So, after much debate with myself on how to respond to your review of the film, I've elected to go with the neutral (albeit rather 'generic') response of: I respect your opinion, but I'm afraid I disagree. I hope you won't take any offense, and once again my apologies for taking so long to respond. With posts from other posters who've been negative/aggressive in response to my opinions, I've just simply chosen not to respond to them. I made a mistake in not responding to your post as soon as I saw it, instead choosing to mull over what I should say. You didn't deserve to be kept waiting for a response from me.
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 19, 2020 18:45:18 GMT
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)--This is the highest-rated movie on IMDb (9.3!) Many of the user reviews imply that it is not just a great viewing experience, but a religious one as well. So I watched it with with the expectation that some of these reviews might be a bit overrated. What I didn't expect was how underwhelming it actually was. Overlong; mawkish; tedious. Obtrusive music. Morgan Freeman's voiceovers get old very quickly. Predictable plot twists that are easy to see coming. So many people seem to have fallen in love with this film, but for me it was nothing special. Pressure Point (1962)--On the other hand, here was another film that takes place in a prison which deserves a lot more attention, yet seems forgotten. 1962 was a good year for films, and this is one that should be on the list of the best. It stars Sidney Poitier as a psychiatrist assigned to a federal prison in the early 1940s (thanks to the head of the prison hospital, who's very proud of himself for his "noble experiment" of hiring an African-American for the job), who is put in the position of having to counsel a virulent racist inmate with insomnia. Over the course of more than a year, the patient, a member of the American Nazi party who was convicted of trying to overthrow the US government, discusses his childhood and younger years with the doctor in order to explain how he became what he is now, as the doctor listens with growing trepidation. The inmate is played by singer Bobby Darin in an impressively jarring performance; he's frighteningly believable as the dead-eyed, repugnant psychopath Poitier is determined to treat despite his growing realization that he is untreatable. The film is simultaneously dated and timely, which makes it somehow more compelling. The flashbacks to the patient's childhood have the eerie quality of scenes from episodes of The Twilight Zone. Barry Gordon, a child actor who could be alternately cute or creepy, plays Darin as a boy; the scenes of his youth come off as overwrought and cliched--clinging, needy mother is overly affectionate with him, while dad is hateful to the mother and abusive to the boy (Dad is played by James Anderson, in his second role of 1962 as a vicious dad--he also played the abusive father in To Kill a Mockingbird. No Father's Day cards for him that year). At one point he brings home his girlfriend and they both roll around drunkenly in Mom's bed--on top of Mom. In another scene, he attacks the boy with a slab of liver. The boy develops an imaginary friend (played by a pre-Eddie Munster Butch Patrick) on whom he takes out his brutality. As a grown man, there's a flashback to his one potential romantic relationship, which is quickly quashed by the girl's father, who happens to be Jewish. All of this is presented as a facile, pop-psychology explanation for his sadistic tendencies and vicious anti-Semitism. Stanley Kramer only produced most of the film, but it often displays his signature heavy-handedness. At the same time, the real strength of the movie comes from the tension between Patient and Doctor (neither character is named in the film). Poitier tries to be calm, professionally detached, yet dedicated to his aim to help his patient, but as his distaste for Darin grows, he fears he's losing his bearings. The Patient may be twisted and paranoid, but unfortunately, some of his sick logic is all too accurate, even today--when he tells the Doctor, "You're going to make it easier for us"--wasn't this reflected in the way so many secret bigots willingly embraced Trump because they never got over Obama attaining the presidency? The Doctor does his best to deny the Patient's claims and wants to continue to have faith that the world is changing for the better, but he has to struggle to believe it, especially when he senses that the other prison board members are beginning to doubt him--or was he set up to fail? This movie is worth watching mainly for its two-character drama. Everybody's Fine (2009)--Robert De Niro in a nice change of pace--a quiet, understated performance in which he doesn't portray a gangster or an angry lout. Reminiscent of Harry and Tonto (but sans cat), De Niro plays a widowed father who travels across the country to try to connect with his troubled adult children, whom he never really got to know. Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, and Kate Beckinsale play the children. No big surprises, but a somewhat somber family drama with good performances.
Hunted (1952)--Little boy does something naughty at home and runs away to hide in an empty basement, where he is discovered by Dirk Bogarde, who's just killed a man in the same basement. Awkward...but the little boy quickly bonds with him, since he seems like a decent chap, besides that murder thing. Suspenseful and touching at the same time; shot in a postwar England that emphasizes the trapped, no place to call home feeling of the two lead characters --Jon Whitely as the forlorn little boy, and Dirk Bogarde as the fugitive who's not really the movie's villain. Bogarde gives a wonderful and sympathetic performance. The ending seems disappointingly abrupt, but otherwise it's a bleak but beautiful film. Parasite (2019)--One of the few Best Picture Oscar winners in recent years which actually deserved the award. A poverty-stricken family cons its way into working for an affluent family. At first the situation seems like a dark comedy, until it becomes darker and darker. The question of which level of society--the underclass or the upperclass--is the "parasite" is the central theme of the movie, and it's for the viewer to figure it out (unless each feeds off the other). Ugly and shocking, and highly recommended. Jojo Rabbit (2019)--So far, the only real competition I've seen for the Best Picture Oscar. Also a dark comedy, but the comedy is more in a Monty Python kind of vein. Taika Waititi's films have a certain style of their own, the way Wes Anderson's films do (except without Anderson's soullessness). A naive, impressionable young boy in Germany joins the Hitler Youth because...all the other kids are doing it and he wants to be part of the club. (The Beatlemania-type fervor for Hitler, accompanied by the singing of the Beatles themselves, may be used as a bit of comedy here, but it was, sadly, all too accurate). Jojo, a boy who doesn't have the innate sadism necessary to be a good little Nazi, conjures up Hitler himself (Waititi) as an imaginary friend to guide him. Those who might object to seeing Hitler as a comic figure might not enjoy the film, but if you can handle the "Springtime for Hitler" number from the original The Producers, you'll probably enjoy this. The film strikes a great balance between absurdist comedy and disturbing tragedy. Also highly recommended. Hi marianne The Shawshank Redemption. Well for every dissenter for it there is a lover for it as well, it's just one of those pics that can induce awe and bafflement on both sides of the fences. Where you see mawkish, I see hope, where you say predictable plot twists I say they are King pieces of devilish genius. I'll print my review, one of my published ones as it happens, but not to try and win you around, I'd expect you to stand your ground and stick by your opinion. But I have to post my review to give the other side of the coin for anyone who has yet to see it. Some birds aren't meant to be caged. The Shawshank Redemption is written and directed by Frank Darabont. It is an adaptation of the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, the film portrays the story of Andy Dufresne (Robbins), a banker who is sentenced to two life sentences at Shawshank State Prison for apparently murdering his wife and her lover. Andy finds it tough going but finds solace in the friendship he forms with fellow inmate Ellis "Red" Redding (Freeman). While things start to pick up when the warden finds Andy a prison job more befitting his talents as a banker. However, the arrival of another inmate is going to vastly change things for all of them. There was no fanfare or bunting put out for the release of the film back in 94, with a title that didn't give much inkling to anyone about what it was about, and with Columbia Pictures unsure how to market it, Shawshank Redemption barely registered at the box office. However, come Academy Award time the film received several nominations, and although it won none, it stirred up interest in the film for its home entertainment release. The rest, as they say, is history. For the film finally found an audience that saw the film propelled to almost mythical proportions as an endearing modern day classic. Something that has delighted its fans, whilst simultaneously baffling its detractors. One thing is for sure, though, is that which ever side of the Shawshank fence you sit on, the film continues to gather new fans and simply will never go away or loose that mythical status. It's possibly the simplicity of it all that sends some haters of the film into cinematic spasms. The implausible plot and an apparent sentimental edge that makes a nonsense of prison life, are but two chief complaints from those that dislike the film with a passion. Yet when characters are this richly drawn, and so movingly performed, it strikes me as churlish to do down a human drama that's dealing in hope, friendship and faith. The sentimental aspect is indeed there, but that acts as a counterpoint to the suffering, degradation and shattering of the soul involving our protagonist. Cosy prison life you say? No chance. The need for human connection is never more needed than during incarceration, surely? And given the quite terrific performances of Robbins (never better) & Freeman (sublimely making it easy), it's the easiest thing in the world to warm to Andy and Red. Those in support aren't faring too bad either. Bob Gunton is coiled spring smarm as Warden Norton, James Whitmore is heart achingly great as the "Birdman Of Shawshank," Clancy Brown is menacing as antagonist Capt. Byron Hadley, William Sadler amusing as Heywood & Mark Rolston is impressively vile as Bogs Diamond. Then there's Roger Deakins' lush cinematography as the camera gracefully glides in and out of the prison offering almost ethereal hope to our characters (yes, they are ours). The music pings in conjunction with the emotional flow of the movie too. Thomas Newman's score is mostly piano based, dovetailing neatly with Andy's state of mind, while the excellently selected soundtrack ranges from the likes of Hank Williams to the gorgeous Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart. If you love Shawshank then it's a love that lasts a lifetime. Every viewing brings the same array of emotions - anger - revilement - happiness - sadness - inspiration and a warmth that can reduce the most hardened into misty eyed wonderment. Above all else, though, Shawshank offers hope - not just for characters in a movie - but for a better life and a better world for all of us. 10/10 Hunted. Well here my good lady we do have an accord, in fact it always gladdens me greatly when I see someone discovers it and it hits the mark. Hopefully we can between us encourage at least one more person to give it a whirl. What do you think girls marry sailors for? Hunted (AKA: The Stranger In Between) is directed by Charles Crichton and co-written by Jack Whittingham and Michael McCarthy. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Jon Whiteley, Elizabeth Sellars and Kay Walsh. Music is by Hubert Clifford and cinematography by Eric Cross. Story finds Bogarde and Whiteley as man and boy on the run for differing reasons. Bogarde's Chris Lloyd is a fugitive, Whiteley's Robbie a orphan being mistreated in his adoptive home. The odd couple, fleeing authority, but heading where? Haunting yet beautiful, firm but tender, Hunted is a terrific piece of Brit film noir that holds you in its grip from beginning to end. Film unfolds as being about two lost souls traversing the British lands, from a ravaged London in the beginning to a Scottish harbour at the end. Initially suspicious of each other, with the adult inconvenienced by his child companion, the relationship will develop as their respective demons surface. Who is the more frightened of the two? What hope is there for them? Fate has brought them together, but fate can often deal a deadly hand, what hand has been dealt Chris and Robbie? It's this question that hangs heavy in the tense story, ensuring our attention at all times. As the journey takes them out of the city, into the country and finally out to the sea shore, we are treated to no end of visual smarts. Imagery is a big part of Hunted's worth to the film noir enthusiast, be it monuments or various building structures, Crichton (Dead of Night) and Cross (The Mystery of the Marie Celeste) ensure that the simmering narrative is well served by locations and items that surround our two protagonists. Shadowed balustrade, spiral staircase, murky street lights, dingy basement, low lighted farm houses, barns, haystacks, railway sidings, medieval relic structure, and on it goes, all given a forbidding sheen by the makers, backed significantly, too, by Clifford's music swells and low rumble peters. Some means and motivations are purposely left grey, which means we get more dramatic/emotional impact for certain passages of dialogue, such as a bedtime story sequence that grips the heart considerably. The acting is first rate from Bogarde (Victim) and Whiteley (Moonfleet), very believable is their relationship (they would also make The Spanish Gardner together in 56), with Bogarde never better as he shifts seamlessly from a man of fiery rage and panic, to a tender soul reaching out in the shadows, desperately searching for redemption. Now available on DVD with a very good print, Hunted is yearning to be seen by more people. It deserves it, a real treat, both thematically and visually, one of the best new discoveries for me in 2012. 9/10
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Post by morrisondylanfan on Mar 25, 2020 20:29:27 GMT
Hi COE! I hope you are having a good week,and how did you find letting it go again to be? From when I saw it in Jan: Frozen 2:Let It Meh. 4/10. Unable to let things go,song writers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez attempt to create another monster hit with the new 7 songs being modelled on Let It Go's tempo. With a clear focus on topping the charts, the effect is songs which come-off as sub-par carbon copies,as a basis on singing/describing a characters actions, rather their inner feelings, leading to interchangeable, utterly forgettable tunes. From the opening sweeping shot returning to Arendelle, returning co-writers/co-directors Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee unveil a backdrop with a impeccable attention to giving the backdrop animation a realistic shine, with the ripples from the rivers dotted across the screen,along with cold winds making leaves shake, and falling snowflakes covering the icy paths Elsa and Anna must take. Standing badly at odds with what is established in the opening shot, the directors contrast the grounded animation of the backdrop with a wide-eyed, rubbery design for the characters, whose contrasting appearance stops them blending into the world they are meant to inhabit. Bringing Elsa to the Enchanted Forest with a sirens call, the writers attempt to juggle a crowd-pleasing reunion, with a serious message, only to end up making a total mess. Going into what led to the creation of The Enchanted Forest, the writers bluntly use thinly-veil allegory to touch on the killing of Native Americans by European Settlers. Freezing in time a moment when a tribe leader was murdered, the writers distastefully shove aside their attempt at a message, for a ill-judged rush to feel-good fantasy,which wastes the potential offered from the mysterious siren a quick and easy fix, whilst stamping all over the plight of the Natives in order to put a Disney bow on a film which does not know where to go. A much-belated hi to you, morrisondylanfan. My apologies for not replying to you before now. I hope you didn't think I was ignoring your post. If you did, my sincerest regrets, as that wasn't my intent. I've actually been debating with myself what I could say in response to your post. A thread was started on the Film General board a while ago asking about how people respond to differences of opinion on this site. I myself have always made an effort to respect others' opinions and never start arguments with those I disagree with. As a result, I've (mostly) been able to avoid conflict with other posters (though there has been the odd one who has attacked me for my opinion or some other reason - but I just ignored them/didn't respond). In the case of your post, you in no way 'attacked' me for my opinion - and I was grateful for that/appreciated it. I wish more posters could manage to remain civil when responding to those with different opinions to them (thankfully, pretty much everyone on the Classic Film board has proven themselves capable of this). However, I was unsure of how to respond, as we had very different views/opinions of the film Frozen II. I'm not one of those people who tries to 'change' the opinions of those I disagree with. I accept that they see things one way and I see them a different way. So, after much debate with myself on how to respond to your review of the film, I've elected to go with the neutral (albeit rather 'generic') response of: I respect your opinion, but I'm afraid I disagree. I hope you won't take any offense, and once again my apologies for taking so long to respond. With posts from other posters who've been negative/aggressive in response to my opinions, I've just simply chosen not to respond to them. I made a mistake in not responding to your post as soon as I saw it, instead choosing to mull over what I should say. You didn't deserve to be kept waiting for a response from me. Hi COE! I'm really sorry about the late reply, (have been busy offline helping family/friends sort things out in the run-up to the lockdown) and I hope you are doing well. It's fine that you disagree with how I found Frozen 2 to be,what did you most like about the movie?
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Apr 4, 2020 22:10:07 GMT
A much-belated hi to you, morrisondylanfan. My apologies for not replying to you before now. I hope you didn't think I was ignoring your post. If you did, my sincerest regrets, as that wasn't my intent. I've actually been debating with myself what I could say in response to your post. A thread was started on the Film General board a while ago asking about how people respond to differences of opinion on this site. I myself have always made an effort to respect others' opinions and never start arguments with those I disagree with. As a result, I've (mostly) been able to avoid conflict with other posters (though there has been the odd one who has attacked me for my opinion or some other reason - but I just ignored them/didn't respond). In the case of your post, you in no way 'attacked' me for my opinion - and I was grateful for that/appreciated it. I wish more posters could manage to remain civil when responding to those with different opinions to them (thankfully, pretty much everyone on the Classic Film board has proven themselves capable of this). However, I was unsure of how to respond, as we had very different views/opinions of the film Frozen II. I'm not one of those people who tries to 'change' the opinions of those I disagree with. I accept that they see things one way and I see them a different way. So, after much debate with myself on how to respond to your review of the film, I've elected to go with the neutral (albeit rather 'generic') response of: I respect your opinion, but I'm afraid I disagree. I hope you won't take any offense, and once again my apologies for taking so long to respond. With posts from other posters who've been negative/aggressive in response to my opinions, I've just simply chosen not to respond to them. I made a mistake in not responding to your post as soon as I saw it, instead choosing to mull over what I should say. You didn't deserve to be kept waiting for a response from me. Hi COE! I'm really sorry about the late reply, (have been busy offline helping family/friends sort things out in the run-up to the lockdown) and I hope you are doing well. It's fine that you disagree with how I found Frozen 2 to be,what did you most like about the movie? Hi again, morrisondylanfan. I hope you're doing okay during the lockdown and that your friends/family are okay. Again, apologies for my much-belated reply to you. I find it tricky to articulate why I like a movie sometimes and I tend to procrastinate a lot when it comes to doing things I'm not very confidant doing, which is probably why I've taken so long to reply to you (though it's also likely due to my memory being shoddy and just simply forgetting). I think my thoughts on the movie could best me summed up with my mini review I included when I posted pics/GIFs from the film in this thread back on Page 1: "Although the plotline of the movie was a little ‘iffy’ (Elsa follows a voice that she’s hearing and the others go along with), I didn’t really have a problem with this sequel (though I thought Evan Rachel Wood, who voiced Anna and Elsa’s mother, would be featured in the movie more than she was). I know people have said that the songs in this movie weren’t as ‘catchy’/’memorable’ as the first, and while there’s certainly nothing that’s on the same level as ‘Let It Go’, I *did* like ‘Into the Unknown’, ‘Show Yourself’, and ‘Lost in the Woods’. I’ve read comments that the ‘spiritual successor’ to ‘Let It Go’ is supposedly ‘Show Yourself’ (probably because, like with ‘Let It Go’, Elsa lets down her hair and uses her ice powers during ‘Show Yourself), but I actually liked ‘Into the Unknown’ a bit more. I didn’t have a problem with there not being any clear ‘villain’ for them to fight this time around like Hans in the first film, nor did I think Kristoff was ‘useless’ like some claimed. Sure, he mightn’t have had that much to do, but he saved several people (and reindeer) and was a good friend (I found his ballad amusing in how clearly 80’s-inspired it was, and while it was nice to hear Sven – and the other reindeer – speak/sing, I’m glad it wasn’t a permanent thing, as I prefer it the way it is with Sven just making noises and Kristoff speaking for him). I loved Elsa’s new fire lizard and water horse companions. I think if the first hadn’t been such a roaring success, then this sequel wouldn’t have been put under such close scrutiny/judged quite so harshly. I found it to be a worthy sequel with stunning visuals (though I still like the first one better)." I'll just add to that^ the fact that I didn't get into Frozen (2013) until rather late in the game (the first time I ever saw it was when it was on TV here) might have contributed to my not getting swept up in the craziness of how successful it was. For me, it was just like watching a normal animated movie because I didn't really know what it was going to be like going into it (I hadn't watched any animated movies in quite a long while), so despite everyone having said how great it was, I just made up my own mind about it. I also wasn't expecting the sequel to match the original like so many people hoped it would (which is kind of an unrealistic expectation), and so I was just happy that I didn't dislike/hate the sequel. Was it as good as the first? Not in my mind, but I think it's a movie some people will appreciate more with repeated viewings. It definitely feels like a 'middle film', so we'll wait and see if the third (which I presume there'll be) will be able to cap things off in a decent way (third films are usually where things seem to 'fall apart' a lot of the time). Sorry if I didn't really answer your question. If I'm unsure how to answer questions, I usually just ramble on a bit. Anyway, I hope you stay safe. Take care. 
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