Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Eddie Murphy still has it

Posted on July 8, 2024 by kaist455

Netflix film “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F”, which was released in last week, shows that Eddie Murphy still has it, and I am glad about that. As the belated third sequel to “Beverly Hills Cop” (1984), the movie feels redundant to some degree, but it is actually better than the two preceding sequels in addition to simply letting Murphy demonstrate more of his enduring star quality, and the overall result is one of more entertaining Netflix products during last several months.

The screenplay by Will Beall, which is developed from the story by Beal and his co-writers Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten, mostly sticks to the story formula already established in the 1984 film. Not long after getting into another big messy incident in his hometown Detroit, Michigan, Murphy’s street-smart police character, Axel Foley, is notified that his estranged daughter Jane (Taylour Paige), who has worked as a successful lawyer in LA, is in a serious trouble due to her latest case, which is involved with some powerful Mexican drug cartel. In addition, his old friend Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), who has worked as a private detective since leaving LAPD some time ago, is also involved in this situation, so Axel quickly comes to LA for some help, and then things turn out to be a bit more complicated than he thought at first.

Right from when he arrives in LA, Axel is not so welcomed by the local police or his daughter, who still remembers well how problematic their relationship was when they lived in Detroit. Because her current client must be proven innocent of the murder of a corrupt police officer who was delivering some drug with him at that time, she has no choice but to let her father help her a bit, and, what do you know, they turn out to work pretty well together as shown from one humorous scene where they must slip into a highly exclusive place for getting more information.

Meanwhile, the local police, which is now headed by Billy’s old partner John Taggart (John Ashton), is not so willing to delve more into the case, though Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a young detective who was once very close to Jane, begins to sense something fishy as a number of suspicious things come out thanks to Axel. He is willing to know more from Axel, but Axel is not so sure about Abbott because he comes to find that there are a bunch of corrupt cops behind the case.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you who the main villain of the story is, because it is so transparent to us right from when Kevin Bacon enters the screen. As virtually doing everything except having a mustache to twirl during his first scene, Bacon chews every juicy moment of his with gusto, and that surely brings some extra personality to the film.

Once it establishes Axel’s main opponents, the movie provides a series of well-made action sequences peppered with some sense of humor. There is an intense shootout scene where Axel surely shows that he is still not too old for his sh*t, and then there is a thrilling action sequence where Axel must depend on Abbott’s certain particular set of skills for getting away from those bad guys together.

Frequently predictable in terms of story and characters, the movie does not have much surprise for us, especially during the last act where lots of bangs and crashes happen occur across the screen. Nonetheless, it is constantly buoyed by Murphy’s considerable personality and talent. Because he recently had the 63rd birthday, you may wonder whether he is a bit too aged to play such a hyper-active cop like Axel, but your doubt will be instantly disappeared right from his very first scene in the film, and you will come to root for his character more even if you cannot help but think of all those collateral damages caused by Axel (How the hell did he manage not to lose his job despite causing so many troubles throughout all those years, I wonder?).

Several other main cast members in the film dutifully fill their respective spots around Murphy. Joseph Gordon-Levitt imbues his supposedly thankless supporting role with some wit and intelligence, and he also did a good job of functioning as a sensible counterpart to Murphy’s character. Although her character feels under-written in comparison, Taylour Paige, who has been more prominent thanks to her breakout performance in “Zola” (2020), is also solid, and she and Murphy ably convey well to us the long history of estrangement between their characters. In case of Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot, they gladly fill their respective familiar roles, and the movie certainly doles out a bit of nostalgia for its target audiences whenever their characters happen to be on the screen with Murphy.

In conclusion, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” may be a little too late in its arrival, but it did its job fairly well under the competent direction of director Mark Molloy, who incidentally made a feature film debut here after making several commercials. I must tell you that another Netflix movie “Dolemite Is My Name” (2019) utilizes Murphy’s presence and talent more effectively, but “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” is still one of more enjoyable films in his rather uneven acting career, and it is certainly nice to see that he still can energize the screen as much as he did 40 years ago.

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Typhoon Club (1985) ☆☆☆(3/4): As a storm is coming

Posted on July 7, 2024 by kaist455

Shinji Sōmai’s 1985 film “Typhoon Club”, which happened to come out around the time when John Hughes’ “The Breakfast Club” (1985), is an adolescent drama which turns out to be darker and more disturbing than expected. Watching some of its main adolescent characters being stuck inside their school later in the story, you may be reminded a bit of “The Breakfast Club”, but the movie goes for something far less cheery, and its haunting moments of anxiety and frustrations will linger on your mind for a while.

Mainly set in some rural town outside Tokyo, the movie opens with a group of middle school girls trying to have a little fun nighttime at the swimming pool of their school. As they freely dance together around the swimming pool, it soon turns out that there is a boy in the swimming pool, and the girls’ following thoughtless prank on this boy leads to an unfortunate incident which actually could kill him.

As the next day begins, we get to know more about the girls, the boy, and his two male classmates. It is clear to us that one of the girls, Rie (Youki Kudoh), likes one of the boy’s two friends, but Mikami (Yuichi Mikami) is not particularly interested in being more than a close friend to Rie, mainly because he is more occupied with studying more for going to a good high school later.

However, Mikami does not know what to do with his life except doing whatever he is expected to do by his parents, and his two male friends have no idea either as being more aware of being hopelessly stuck in their town just like many others in the school. At one point, we see one of them showing a rather disturbing behavior when he enters his shabby family home, and we later come to have a fairly good idea on what has been going on between him and his father, who is clearly your typical alcoholic loser.

Meanwhile, the girls turn out to be as anxious and frustrated as the boys. They try some transgression to distance themselves from their growing daily ennui, and we are not so surprised when two of them try a bit on their burgeoning curiosity on sexuality. In case of Rie, we observe more of how much she is troubled behind her perky façade, but Mikami remains oblivious to that as usual while being mired in his own ennui, and that eventually prompts her to do something quite drastic later in the story.

As these main adolescent characters aimlessly sway in one way or another, we become more aware of the absence of any good adult to guide or support them. We seldom see their parents throughout the film, and their schoolteachers are not particularly interested in them except shepherding them to the next level of their education process. In case of their mathematical teacher, we get an absurd scene where his students come to learn more about how pathetic he really is, and they surely come to respect him much less than before.

While leisurely doling out one episodic moment after another along the narrative, Yuji Kato’s screenplay slowly dials up the level of emotional tension with a big typhoon approaching to the town hour by hour. Around the point where the eventual storm warning is announced, things get a lot more intense, and then there comes a very disconcerting sequence where one of the girls is terrorized and then physically violated to some degree by one of the boys.

Even at that point, the movie firmly maintains its phlegmatically sobering attitude while refusing to allow any easy way out for its adolescent main characters. When Mikami and his several classmates get themselves trapped inside the school as the typhoon is raging more and more outside, they feel more frustrated than ever, but their following attempts for any emotional ventilation do not give them much catharsis at all, and their drab reality is about to return on the very next day.

Their desperate emotional struggles are not so pleasant to watch to say the least, but they are handled with enough care and sensitivity under Sōmai’s skillful direction, and the same thing can be said about the subplot involved with Rie’s misadventure outside the town. There is an uncomfortable indoor scene between her and one adult guy, but it is presented with considerable tactfulness at least while unnerving us a lot for good reasons. I also appreciate how Sōmai and his crew members including cinematographer Akihiro Itô shows some restraint in case of a striking scene involved featuring full frontal nudity and lots of rains, and you will be relieved to know that they really took some caution in advance for shooting this highly risky scene.

Overall, “Typhoon Club” will catch you off guard as a sort of antithesis to “The Breakfast Club”, so you probably should know in advance what and how it is about. I must confess that I felt a bit impatient during my viewing, but I eventually came to accept its thoughtful approach to story and characters, and I become more interested in checking out several other works of Sōmai, who surely deserves more attention considering how he has been cited as a major influence to many different current Japanese filmmakers such as Hamaguchi Ryûsuke and Kuorsawa Kiyoshi. It does feel like an acquired taste, but the movie is still worthwhile to watch for its mood and storytelling, and it will certainly surprise you especially if you are looking for something different.

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Marguerite’s Theorem (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): A young mathematician rising from the bottom.

Posted on July 7, 2024 by kaist455

“Marguerite’s Theorem” engaged me more than expected even though I did not know that much about Goldbach’s conjecture, which has been one of the most challenging mathematical matters for more than 250 years. As closely and intimately sticking to its brilliant but vulnerable heroine’s state of mind, the movie lets us understand and emphasize more with what makes her tick, and we accordingly care more about her and her immensely demanding academic project.

 At the beginning, the movie observes its math prodigy heroine, Marguerite Hoffmann (Ella Rumpf), preparing for what may be a big breakthrough for her academic career, and she is alternatively confident and anxious about what she has been strenuously working on during last several years under her thesis director’s guidance. While she is almost sure about the success of her upcoming thesis presentation on Goldbach’s conjecture, she is also well aware of any possibility of error, but then she hesitates to get some help from Lucas (Julien Frison), a hunky male student who recently moves to her graduate school for studying under her thesis director.

When her thesis presentation eventually begins, Marguerite tries her best for presenting the result of her mathematical study, but, alas, it soon turns out that there is a big error she should have noticed from the very beginning. Quite overwhelmed by this glaring error of hers, Marguerite walks away from her academic audiences, and then she decides to quit her study and then leave her graduate school after her thesis director, who is clearly not so pleased about her academic breakdown, recommends her to study under some other professor in the department instead.   

Although she does not know what to do next for her future, Marguerite gradually comes to find a way to climb up from the bottom for now. First, she gets a cheap place to stay thanks to Noa (Sonia Bonny), a young dancer she happens to befriend later. Second, she becomes quite interested in a Chinese poker game named Mahjong via the Chinese landlord of her current staying place, and, what do you know, she soon discovers that she is pretty good enough to earn some cash as playing Mahjong on behalf of her Chinese landlord. 

Not so surprisingly, as her brain is frequently working on the probabilities associated with Mahjong games, Marguerite slowly finds her mathematical groover back. Once she gets a small but compelling idea on proving Goldbach’s conjecture in the middle of one Mahjong game, her mind is instantly driven by the tantalizing possibilities coming from that idea, and she is all the more motivated when she comes to learn later about what her former thesis director and Lucas have been working on at present.

Meanwhile, just like many other smart but socially awkward people, Marguerite comes to learn more about how to interact more with others around her, who remind her in one way or another that there is more to life than mathematics. Noa gladly shows Marguerite how to have more fun outside whenever she is not working on her new academic project, and there is a little amusing scene where Marguerite comes to have her first moment of sexual orgasm via the impulsive encounter with a total stranger. After having a moment of reconciliation with Lucas, Marguerite suggests that he should join her ongoing academic project, and she surely comes to learn the value of academic collaboration while working with him more and more.

Now you probably have a good idea on where its story and characters are going, but the screenplay by director Anna Novion and her co-writers Mathieu Robin, Marie-Stéphane Imbert, and Agnès Feuvre does not hurry itself as leisurely adding more details to its story and characters. Later in the story, we get to know more about Marguerite’s rather strained relationship with her mother Suzanne (Clotilde Courau), and it is poignant to see how they come to find a way to reconnect with each other later in the story. In case of Marguerite’s former thesis director, he was inarguably not so considerate to her when she hit the bottom at that time, but he still respects her academic talent and passion at least, and he simply steps aside when Lucas needs more time for working with Marguerite. 

Although the finale is a bit too convenient in my humble opinion, it still works under Novion’s competent direction. Unless you studied mathematics at university or graduate school, you will probably do not understand much of whatever our heroine is passionately writing on several big blackboards, but you will come to pay more attention to the joy and excitement felt by her, and Ella Rumpf, who previously appeared in Swiss film “The Divine Order” (2017), is believable in her character’s intense academic process unfolded across those big blackboards. As a matter of fact, Novion consulted with French mathematician Ariane Mézard for the more realistic depiction of mathematical works in the film, and Mézard actually made some real academic progress on Goldbach’s conjecture while collaborating with Novion. 

In conclusion, “Marguerite’s Theorem” is a modest but touching human drama which balances itself well between the matters of heart and mind, and you may get some understanding on why those challenging mathematical problems such as Goldbach’s conjecture have always fascinated and excited those smart and intelligent people like its heroine. While these problems may not be solved all even at the end of the human civilization, they will keep trying to the end as many others did before, won’t they?

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Ultraman Rising (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Bringing up baby

Posted on July 6, 2024 by kaist455

Netflix animation film “Ultraman Rising”, which was released a few weeks ago, is as silly and serious as it can be. Based on a famous Japanese superhero franchise, the film tries a cheerful mix of comedy, action, and drama, and the result is engaging enough for us to get amused and then care about the unexpected relationship at the center of the story.

 At first, the movie establishes its hero’s rather demanding circumstance. On the surface, Kenji Sato (voiced by Christopher Sean) is just a popular baseball player who suddenly decides to move back to Tokyo, Japan despite his promising Major League career in US, but he has a little secret personal reason behind his back. His aging father, Professor Sato (voiced by Gedde Watanabe), wanted Kenji to succeed him as the next Ultraman, and, in spite of a long time of estrangement between them, Kenji agrees to come to Tokyo and defend the city from those big monsters just like his father did for many years.

 It seems that he can easily go back and forth between his two occupations without much difficulty, but then there comes another unexpected work for him. Not long after he fights with the latest monster coming upon Tokyo, Kenji happens to acquire an egg belonging to that monster, and, what do you know, a little cute baby monster soon comes out that egg. Mainly because of its hyper-cuteness, Kenji has no choice but to bring this baby monster to his secret lair, and, after discussing with his AI assistant, he decides to take care of the baby monster for a while at least. 

What follows next is a series of comic moments involved with Kenji’s clumsy attempt to raise the baby monster while keeping going with his two big jobs. Despite the considerable help and support from Mina, it is often quite exhausting for Kenji to handle the baby monster day by day, and I am sure that my younger brother and his wife, who recently had a baby girl, will sympathize with Kenji a lot for good reasons. Just like my little niece, the baby monster frequently needs lots of care everyday (My favorite part is involved with its gooey excrement, by the way), and raising this little monster is surely a more daunting task for Kenji compared to playing baseball or fighting against those big monsters.

Meanwhile, it is gradually revealed that the baby monster is in a serious danger. The local military organization led by a vengeful doctor is looking for the baby monster because it can lead them to a certain hidden spot where those big monsters inhabit, so Kenji must protect the baby monster more than ever, though, like any babies, the baby monster becomes more difficult to handle as it grows day by day. Although it is pretty much smaller than its mother, it soon becomes able to fly for itself, and it also begins to show its natural abilities including sputtering a destructive ray.

As he tries his best as the baby monster’s surrogate parent, Kenji, who has been your average cocky lad, comes to learn more about being a real adult, and that eventually makes him reconnect with his father, who is willing to help his son as much as possible despite his weakening physical condition. Furthermore, Kenji comes to befriend a young female sports journalist who is incidentally a single mother who has tried to raise her little adorable daughter (This little girl is a big fan of Ultraman, by the way), and they come to make some connection between them as he gets more advice from her, though he cannot possibly tell her anything about what he has been struggling to do as Ultraman.

Around the third act, the screenplay by director Shannon Tindle, who previously adapted William Joyce’s “Ollie’s Odyssey” into Netflix animation miniseries “Lost Ollie”, and Marc Haimes, goes for more action as expected. While apparently influenced by several recent monster movies such as “Pacific Rim” (2013) and “Godzilla vs. Kong” (2021), the action sequences in “Ultraman Rising” are also colorfully stylish in addition to being intense and exciting enough for us, and it does not even hesitate to use a bit of comic book style for more dramatic impact.

Nevertheless, the film stays focused on its story and characters as usual. How Kenji’s ongoing daddy issues are eventually resolved is rather predictable, but it is handled well with enough sincerity at least, and the same thing can be said about his relationship with the baby monster. Besides brightening up the mood whenever it appears on the screen, the baby monster becomes more endearing to us along the story, and we can see how much Kenji grows up as trying to raise this big baby. In case of the main villain of the story, this character turns out to be driven by an understandable personal motive, and you may come to feel a bit sorry around the end of the story.  

 Although it is more or less than your typical superhero origin story on the whole as reflected by what is briefly shown during its end credits, “Ultraman Rising” is a fairly good one at least. I must confess that I am vaguely familiar with that Japanese superhero franchise, but I was entertained enough thanks to its competent handling of style, action, and story, and I also appreciated the good efforts from its main voice cast members including Christopher Sean and Gedde Watanabe. In short, this is one of the more enjoyable offerings from Netflix during this year, and I am willing to watch whatever may come next after this solid beginning.

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Kill Room (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): A killing art business

Posted on July 4, 2024 by kaist455

I still remember when I looked around the Contemporary Art section of the Art Institute of Chicago in April 2010. Many of those artworks in that section looked pretty valuable as far as I could see, but I often wondered whether they were simply profound or profoundly simple, and this musing of mine still amuses me even at this point.

And that is why I was quite tickled when I watched “Kill Room”, which is now available on Netflix in South Korea. Although it does not fully push its absurd juxtaposition of crime and art to the end, the movie still provides a number of delicious comic moments making a big naughty fun on the world of art dealing business, and you will be more amused if you are familiar with how things can be pretty silly and outrageous in that business field.

The early part of the movie establishes how things have been desperate for Patrice (Uma Thurman), the owner of a prominent art gallery in New York City. There was a time when her art gallery was one of the hottest ones in the city, but it has often been surpassed by many of its competitors, and she is also losing some of her biggest artists and clients just because she and her art gallery do not look that cool anymore.

Meanwhile, we also meet Reggie (Joe Manganiello), who has worked for years as a killer under a certain big criminal organization in the city. Although he does not like much his criminal occupation, he has no choice from the beginning because of a personal reason explained later in the story, and we see how he handles his latest job as instructed by Gordon (Samuel L. Jackson), his longtime handler who has incidentally run a little bakery shop as his front business.

On one day, Gordon suggests one supposedly good idea for the money-laundering process of their criminal organization. Considering how artworks are purchased at very high prices in the city everyday without drawing much attention from IRS, they can hide the transaction of their dirty money behind the frequent dealing process of an art gallery, and Patrice’s gallery comes handy to Gordon thanks to her drug dealer who happens to one of Gordon’s associates. While initially rejecting Gordon’s offer, Patrice is reminded again of how she and her gallery are on the verge of bankruptcy, so she eventually agrees to work along with him.  

It goes without saying that they need the artworks to cover their money-laundering business from the very beginning, and Reggie comes to take the job although he does not know anything about painting. Because the paintings do not have to be good at all, he can freely draw as inspired by whatever he thinks or feels, and both Gordon and Patrice have no problem with that as long as the money keep flowing around them.

However, Reggie’s paintings turn out to be much more successful than he and his associates can possibly imagine. Mainly because his first paintings are sold at very high prices, everyone in the town naturally pays more attention, and they are actually all the more interested and fascinated as Patrice understandably tries not to say much about her hot new artist.

As quite confounded by this unexpected fame and popularity, Reggie gradually finds his little artistic spirit growing further and further. While trying to provide more artworks, he also comes to express himself more into these artworks, and there is a darkly amusing moment when Patrice comes upon a sudden moment of horrible epiphany on what the latest artworks from him are actually about. After all, the main purpose of art is expression and communication, and she surely gets it in a rather unpleasant way.  

Around that narrative point, the screenplay by Jonathan Jacobson becomes conventional as Patrice and Reggie struggle to find to get out of their complicated situation, and that is where the movie comes to lose some of its comic momentum. The last act, which is unfolded at a big convention held in Miami, Florida, is a bit too neat and convenient, and the movie also does not utilize well several notable supporting performers such as Maya Hawke and Debi Mazar.

At least, the movie is buoyed by its three charismatic main performers. While Joe Manganiello dutifully holds the ground as a man who happens to get a chance for emotional ventilation via his, uh, primitive art, Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson constantly bring a sense of humor to the film. Thurman, who also participated in the production of the film, somehow makes her neurotic character more sympathetic than expected, and Jackson, who incidentally appeared along with Thurman in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” (1994) 30 years ago, is clearly enjoying his colorful role, and it is always engaging to see how smoothly he and Thurman handle several comic scenes between them.  

In conclusion, “Kill Room” is not without weak points, but its strong parts are good enough to compensate for that, and director Nicol Paone, who previously debuted with “Friendsgiving” (2020), did a good job of maintaining the lightweight mood for the story and characters. It could do more, but I got a fair share of fun and entertainment, so I will not grumble for now.

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Handsome Guys (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Jae-Pil & Sang-goo vs. Evil

Posted on July 4, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean film “Handsome Guys”, a remake of “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” (2010), attempts to transplant American horror elements to a new local background, and it succeeds to some degree in my inconsequential opinion. While mostly faithful to the original American version, the movie also tries to do several new stuffs to my little amusement, and the result often elicited laughs and chuckles from the audiences around me when I watched it at a local movie theater yesterday.

At the beginning, we are introduced to a couple of dudes who look rather unpleasant and suspicious on the surface. When these two guys happen to drop by a supermarket located in some country area, they come across a bunch of young people who come to the area for having a little rural vacation together, and they instantly give a bad impression to these young people.

However, these two dudes, Jae-pil (Lee Sung-min) and Sang-goo (Lee Hee-jun), are actually fairly nice guys who are sadly rather dim about how they often look to others. They simply come for buying a little house located in the middle of a nearby forest area, and, though it does not look exactly promising to say the least for many glaring reasons, they decide to buy it anyway because, as professional carpenters, they can fix here and there in the house while beginning to settle there.

Meanwhile, we also get to know a bit about those young people shown early in the story. As they have some fun during the following evening, their leader turns out to be quite an unpleasant lad, and Mi-na (Gong Seung-yeon), a young woman who happens to accompany him and his friends, becomes very angry and disappointed to know how she is actually disregarded by them. When she later comes to a nearby lake for letting out her feelings alone, Jae-pil and Sang-goo happen to be fishing right there, and, what do you know, they inadvertently causes a little unfortunate accident which leads to Mi-na becoming unconscious for a while.

Anyway, Sang-goo and Jae-pil take Mi-na to their house because any decent persons would do under this situation, and that is the beginning of a series of disastrous misunderstandings. Just because it looks like Jae-pil and Sang-soo kidnap her, the rest of her group attempt to ‘rescue’ Mi-na, and the leader is particularly concerned about his smartphone which happens to be in her possession. This smartphone contains some very sensitive materials which can ruin his life and career once for all if they ever get leaked in public, and he is already quite determined to retrieve it by any means necessary.

What follows next is not so far from the original American version, though the movie presents these expected moments with a bit of extra creativity. I did laugh as observing how a certain comic scene involved with a hidden hornet’s nest handled with a bit more shock and laugh, and I was not certainly disappointed at all in case of the hilariously gory moment involved with a woodchipper, which takes me back to that infamous scene in the Coen Brothers’ great film “Fargo” (1996) again.

Meanwhile, the movie gradually begins to take a different route during its second part. If “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” lampoons “Friday the 13th” (1980) and its countless sequels and imitators, “Handsome Guys” goes for Sam Raimi’s little cult horror film “Evil Dead” (1981) and its many other variations out there. As already shown to us in advance, the house has the basement full of disturbing stuffs including what is clearly a portal to Hell, and a certain powerful dark force naturally starts to gather around the house once the portal gets activated step by step along the story.

Around the point where it pulls all the stops for more horror and laugh, the movie becomes rather shaky with low-budget special effects, but it continues to amuse us mainly thanks to the solid comic performances from its several main cast members. As the South Korean variation of hillbilly characters, Lee Sung-min and Lee Hee-jun look convincing in their deliberately shabby appearance, and their comic chemistry is as effective as Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk in the original American version. Jae-pil and Sang-goo are sometimes silly and pathetic, but they somehow come to us as likable guys, even though we shake our head for their total obliviousness to how they do not look as handsome as they think.

Between her two co-stars, Gong Seung-yeon holds her own spot well in addition to playing her role as straight as possible, and Park Ji-hwan and Lee Kyu-hyung are well-cast as a couple of local policemen who gets deeply involved into Sang-goo and Jae-pil’s increasingly messy circumstance. The special mention goes to a dog which plays Sang-goo’s pet dog, and it always steals the show from the human performers in the film for its plain cuteness.

On the whole, “Handsome Guys”, which is directed and written by Nam Dong-hyub, is a fairly watchable remake mainly thanks to the good efforts from its main cast members. I give it 2.5 stars because 1) I gave “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” 3 stars and 2) it is not as refreshing as that in addition to not being totally successful in its own variations in story and characters, but you may want to check it out someday if you enjoyed its original American version.

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Mean Girls (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): It’s a musical this time…

Posted on July 1, 2024 by kaist455

2024 film “Mean Girls” has a rather complex history just like the recent movie version of “The Color Purple” (1985). It is the movie adaptation of the acclaimed Broadway musical of the same name, which is inspired by the 2004 film of the same name which is based on Rosalind Wiseman’s book “Queen Bees and Wannabes”. Nevertheless, the movie is pretty much same as the 2004 film except some updated details and a bunch of musical numbers, and I enjoyed the overall result to some degree even though I often wondered about the necessity of its existence during my viewing.

As humorously told to us via its opening number, the story is a sort of cautionary tale about your average American high school life. Our young heroine, Cady Heron (Angourie Rice), feels insecure and anxious as beginning her first high school day, and we see how she cannot help but draw attention from many other students as a newly transferred student who has been incidentally homeschooled by her wildlife researcher mother in Africa for years. Not so surprisingly, she eventually befriends two distinguished loners in the school who are also defiantly queer in each own way, and Janis (Auliʻi Cravalho) and Damien (Jaquel Spivey) willingly take her under their wing as informing her a bit about a number of various groups (or tribes, shall we say) in their high school.  

Along with her, we come to learn that the most notable group in the school is a trio of sassy girls: Regina (Reneé Rapp) and the other two girls who have been more or less than her ladies-in-waiting. As the de facto queen bee of the school, Regina surely enjoys her power and influence over many other students, and we accordingly get an amusing musical scene as she sings about how much she enjoys her power and influence.  

Because of some old personal resentment toward Regina, Janis suggests a rather mean plan when Cady happens to draw the attention from Regina and Regina seems willing to make Cady into another underling of hers. While ingratiating herself more with Regina and her group, Cady is going to look for any opportunity to humiliate Reina in public, and Cady agrees to do that because she does not like Regina and her underlings from the beginning.

However, of course, things get become a bit more complicated for Cady due to two reasons. First, as getting closer to Regina and her underlings, she cannot help but feel seduced more and more by their supposedly cool appearance as well as their power. Second, she becomes attracted to a certain hunky student who happens to attend her mathematics class, but, what do you know, it turns out that he was once close to Regina, who will not definitely allow him to get closer to her latest underling.

Therefore, Cady becomes more determined to undermine Regina by any means necessary, and Janis and Damien have no problem with going along with that at all. One of the funniest things in the film is involved with a certain kind of nutrient bar which Cady deliberately recommends to Regina, and we surely get some laugh when the movie delivers an expected punchline moment later in the story. 

Not so surprisingly, things eventually get quite vicious when Regina belatedly comes to realize what Cady is doing behind her back. Reneé Rapp, who already played her character in the Broadway production during 2019-2020, delightfully commands every moment of hers with infectious gusto, and her delicious comic performance is certainly one of the best things in the film just like Rachel McAdams in the 2004 version.

In contrast, Angourie Rice is easily eclipsed by many of her fellow cast members including Rapp. Compared to Lindsay Lohan in the 2004 version (She makes a brief appearance around the end of the film, by the way), Rice is rather colorless in terms of presence and personality, but her earnest acting holds the center as required, and she also handles wells several musical numbers assigned to her character.

Around Rapp and Rice, the movie assembles a bunch of colorful performers who bring some extra humor and personality to the film in one way or another. Auliʻi Cravalho, who has been more notable since her wonderful voice performance in Oscar-nominated Disney animation film “Moana” (2016), fills her supporting character with enough pluck and defiance, and Jaquel Spivey, who has been mainly known for his Tony-nominated performance in Broadway musical “A Strange Loop”, complements Cravalho well as her character’s best friend. While Avantika Vandanapu and Bebe Wood have each own moment as Reina’s two underlings, Jenna Fischer, Tim Meadows, and Tina Fey, who also produced the film and wrote the screenplay as she did in the 2004 film, dutifully fill their respective supporting parts, and you will probably also enjoy the cameo appearance of some other recognizable performers.   

On the whole, “Mean Girls”, which is directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., is not totally necessary in my inconsequential opinion, though it is not entirely without fun and entertainment at least. Because I still would rather recommend the 2004 version first, I give the movie only 2.5 stars, but you may enjoy and appreciate its good parts more than I did, and I will not stop you at all if you simply want to spend some free time.

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A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): The First Days of the End

Posted on June 29, 2024 by kaist455

“A Quiet Place: Day One” is inherently redundant, but it is mostly competent enough to hold our attention at least. As the prequel to John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place” (2018) and the following 2020 sequel, it does not have anything particularly new or fresh to surprise us, but it is supported well at least by the diligent efforts from its cast members, who try their best with their rather thin materials.

The opening part of the film, which is incidentally its best part, shows how things have not been that good for Samira (Lupita Nyong’o), a young female poet who has been spending her remaining days at a hospice outside New York City due to her terminal illness. Although her counselor and fellow terminal patients sincerely try to support her, Samira cannot help but feel bitter and angry about her impending mortality and worsening illness, and she is not so eager when she is asked to attend a little theater performance to be held in the middle of the downtown area of New York City.

It is not long after Samira and others saw the performance that something suddenly goes terribly wrong in the city. As she struggles to grasp what the hell is going around her after a sudden big explosion occurs, the movie deliberately evokes the aura of fear and confusion reminiscent of the aftermath of the 9/11 incident, and then she sees people swiftly attacked and then killed by those hideous alien creatures introduced in “A Quiet Place”. They do not have eyes, but they can hear pretty well in addition to moving quite fast, and they are ready to go for anything making noise.

Fortunately, Samira manages to hide inside the theater where a number of other lucky people including her counselor are hiding, and she instantly gets the rule for survival: Never make any loud noise which can instantly attract the alien creatures. While she and others around her stick to this golden rule hour by hour, things get more despairing as the city is totally isolated from the outside as all the big bridges in the city are destroyed because the alien creatures happen to be unable to swim, and their only chance for survival is a nearby port where several ships are ready for them and many other survivors.

Like the main cast members of “A Quiet Place” and its 2020 sequels, the performers of “A Quiet Place: Day One” are required to convey a lot to us without much dialogue, and they did a good job of silently embodying their fear and anxiety. Lupita Nyong’o, who is no stranger to genre films as shown from her masterful duo performance in Jordan Peele’s “Us” (2019), gradually establishes her character while looking believable in a series of suspenseful scenes in the film, and Djimon Hounsou, who previously appeared in the 2020 sequel film, and Alex Wolff are mostly solid although they are limited by their under-developed roles.

The screenplay by director/writer Michael Sarnoski, which was developed from the story written by him and Krasinski, trudges a bit during its middle part, but it patiently builds up more of the post-apocalyptic circumstance surrounding its heroine and several other characters. After becoming quite determined to do something personal before she eventually dies in one way or another, Samira embarks on a perilous journey for herself later in the story, and we observe more of the stark and barren background where the alien creatures can suddenly pop out for any unfortunate noise.

Not so surprisingly, the alien creatures are the weakest element in the story again. Although the movie attempts a bit to provide some biological details on these horrible creatures at one point, they are not particularly memorable in my humble opinion, and I must tell you that Samira’ pet cat has much more personality in comparison. While it does not seem to be particularly traumatized by what is going around it, this cute cat effortlessly steals the show as noiselessly following and comforting its owner, and we come to care about it as well as Samira. As reflecting more on their close emotional bond, I wonder whether the supporting character played by Joseph Quinn, who comes to accompany Samira just like her cat after getting some help from her, is actually necessary from the beginning.

The movie is the second feature film from Sarnoski, who previously impressed me and lot with his previous film “Pig” (2021). That movie looks simply conventional at first but then becomes quite sublime mainly thanks to Sarnoski’s thoughtful direction and one of the best performances in Nicolas Cage’s career. Compared to that, his second film is relatively more conventional without having much to distinguish itself from its predecessors, and that is two or three steps down from Sarnoski’s considerable achievement in “Pig”.

Nevertheless, “A Quiet Place: Day One” is not entirely without good things to enjoy even though it is not better than its two predecessors. I gave “A Quiet Place” 3.5 stars while handing 3 stars to its 2020 sequel, so I should give 2.5 or 3 stars to “a Quiet Place: Day One”. and I choose to rate it with 3 stars mainly because of another good performance from Nyong’o and that cute cat. Although she did not like cats much, she tried her best for interacting well with the cat on the set, and, what do you know, she eventually adapted it later. Regardless of whether you like the movie or not, we all can agree that is the best thing coming out of the movie, can’t we?

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Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010) ☆☆☆(3/4): Bloody hilarious

Posted on June 27, 2024 by kaist455

To be frank with you, I should have been a little more generous to “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil”, which is still a hilarious mix of horror and comedy although more than 10 years passed since it came out. When I watched it for the first time, I gave it 2.5 stars just because it begins to lose some of its comic momentum during its second half, but, what do you know, it remains in my mind much longer than expected, and the movie can still make me chuckle a lot more than once when I revisited it yesterday.

The movie is basically a one-joke comedy, but it is quite hilarious for how it puts some comic twist on many familiar genre elements. Around the beginning of the story, we are introduced to a bunch of young people going to some remote forest area by their vehicle, and there are surely several bad signs around them. First, they encounter a couple of hillbillies on the road, who look rather disturbing as passing by their vehicle. Second, they stop by a local gas station/store, whose name clearly signals something bad to happen sooner or later. Third, they encounter those two hillbillies again, who look all the more suspicious to them for an understandable reason.

However, to our big amusement, these two hillbillies, Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) are actually pretty nice dudes, though they are not so smart enough to present themselves well in front of these young strangers they happen to come across twice. They simply come for having a weekend vacation at an old and shabby cabin located in the middle of the forest area, and they really hope that they will have a pretty good time while fixing the cabin a bit.

Of course, that cabin in the question has full of ominous signs they should have noticed right from the very beginning. Besides its interior being decorated with old newspaper clippings associated with a certain infamous serial killing case, the cabin exudes a rather disturbing vibe here and there, and you may wonder whether it also has that diabolical ancient book from Sam Raimi’s little scary horror film “The Evil Dead” (1981).

Anyway, those young people happen to set up their tents at a spot not so far from the cabin, and one of them eagerly tells the others about that notorious serial killing case, but they do not mind at all just because, like the characters in “Friday the 13th” (1980) and its countless sequels and imitators, they simply want to have a fun weekend just like Dale and Tucker. During their first evening, they all go to a nearby river for skinny-dipping, and, what do you know, Tucker and Dale happen to be there for their little evening fishing.

Of course, there soon comes an unfortunate moment of misunderstanding between these two hillbilly dudes and one of the young people, who happens to be conveniently alone by herself. When she suddenly realizes that she is being spotted by Tucker and Dale, Allison (Katrina Bowden) comes to have a little accident which leaves her unconscious, and Dale and Tucker promptly take her unconscious body to their cabin like any decent person would do under this circumstance.

However, Allison’s friends completely misunderstand the situation when they happen to see Tucker and Dale taking her to their cabin. They think Dale and Tucker are kidnapping her, so they attempt to save her from Tucker and Dale, but that leads to more misunderstanding and conflict coupled with several hilariously bloody moments including the one involved with the woodchipper brought by Dale and Tucker. When the woodchipper appears early in the film, you may be reminded of that absurdly horrifying scene in the Coen Brothers’ great film “Fargo” (1996), and, yes, the movie does deliver its own humorously gory moment as expected. 

After many darkly uproarious moments during the first half, the screenplay by director Eli Craig and his co-writer Morgan Jurgenson becomes relatively less engaging as facing the inherent limits of its one-joke setup, but it still provides a fair share of amusement for us. Around the point where the true villain of the story eventually goes on a full-throttle mode, things get a bit more intense and outrageous than before, and you will certainly cheer for a nod to Tobe Hopper’s classic horror film “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974).

The success of the movie depends on a lot on its straight attitude to its story and characters, and its four main cast members accordingly stick to that while never being aware of being on the joke at all. Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine ably complement each other as a mismatched duo to tickle us in one way or another, and their earnest comic acting makes us actually care more about their characters even though we frequently laugh for their characters’ increasingly absurd situation. While Katrina Bowden has her own moment when her character tries to set up a silly but undeniably refreshing moment for reconciliation between her saviors and her remaining friends, Jesse Moss gleefully chews every moment of his as the most aggressive character in the story, and that certainly brings more amusement for us.

Overall, “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” is a solid genre product I regrettably undervalued at that time, and now I rectify my mistake via adding a half star to my initial rating. By the way, the main reason for revising this little funny film is the South Korean remake version which happens to be released here in South Korean in this week, and I sincerely hope that it will amuse and entertain me as much as the original version.

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Hijacking 1971 (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): An intense South Korean hijacking drama

Posted on June 27, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean film “Hijacking 1971” almost made me forget that it is actually the heavily fictionalized version of one real-life incident. While I and many other audiences knew where it will eventually land, we all were gripped by its dramatic flight course thanks to its efficient and intense storytelling, and I would have fastened my seat belt if it had been on my seat.

The movie begins with a real-life hijacking incident about which I happened to learn when I was young and wild. On December 11th, 1969, Korean Air Lines YS-11 was hijacked in the middle of its flight to Seoul, and the hijackers forced its pilots to fly the plane to Pyongyang, North Korea. After the negotiation between North and South Korea, most of the flight crew members and passengers were eventually sent back to South Korea, but North Korean government held the remaining 11 persons, who are incidentally not returned to South Korea even at this point.

When this shocking incident is happening, a South Korean Air Force pilot named Tae-in (Ha Jung-woo) and his partner are doing their usual training session on the East Sea, and they instantly go after the hijacked airplane. When he is ordered to shot down the airplane before it crosses the border, Tae-in hesitates and then decides not to obey the order, and that ultimately leads to his discharge while he feels more guilt about the incident.

Around one year later, Tae-in is now working as one of the pilots of Korean Air, but he remains haunted by the incident while still not allowed to handle the landing for himself. As he prepares for another flight to Seoul along with his captain, we are also introduced to a number of passengers ready to get on the airplane, and you may be quite amused as watching the passengers hurrying themselves just for getting a better seat first (Yes, it was a time when one could not select a seat in advance).

Like any flight disaster movies, the movie briefly introduces some of many different passengers on the airplane. There are 1) a newly wedded young couple, 2) a young student who happens to sit right next to some sassy young lady, 3) a pompous businessman and his meek assistant, 4) a grouchy middle-aged man and his wife, 5) a deaf old lady and her son, and 6) another old lady who innocently brings a chicken onto the airplane, which is not incidentally her comfort animal (It is for some other purpose you can easily guess, by the way).

Of course, our attention is already drawn to one particular passenger. Just because he heard that those hijackers were rewarded a lot by the North Korean government, Yong-dae, a despaired young man who has been frequently harassed just because of his North Korean family background, decides to do the very same thing, and he instantly takes over the airplane once it takes off from the airport.

Mainly because the captain of the airplane happens to be seriously injured as a result, Tae-in has no choice but to take its control and then fly it toward North Korea as demanded by Yong-dae. As the airplane is being closer to the border second by second, Tae-in is trying to find any possibility for saving the passengers and flight crew members before it is too late, but Yong-dae is willing to achieve his goal by any means necessary, and that makes the situation all the more perilous.

Steadily and fully focusing on what is going on inside the airplane, the movie deftly dials up the level of tension along the story. While the battle of wills between its two conflicting main characters constantly swings back and forth between them, we get a series of tense scenes which add more intensity and suspense to the screen, and we come to pay more attention to what is being on stake for everyone on the airplane. When everything dramatically culminates to where our pilot hero must make a very bold decision at the eleventh hour (Is this a spoiler?), you may find this moment a bit too exaggerated, but there is enough tension for making you suspend your disbelief at least for a few minutes.

As the main center of the film, Ha Jung-woo is believable as a principled man struggling to handle the increasingly tricky circumstance for him and others on the airplane, and he is countered well by the intense performance by Yeo Jin-goo, who is alternatively frightening and tragic as a lad resorting to a very desperate measure. While we are often shocked by Yong-dae’s brutal acts of violence, we also understand his anger and desperation nonetheless, and you may pity him more around the end of the story.

The supporting performers surrounding Ha and Yeo dutifully fill their spots around Ha and Yeo. While Sung Dong-il has some good moments as his injured character tries his best for helping Ha’s character, Chae Soo-bin holds her small place well as a female flight attendant who turns out to be more resourceful than expected, and the performers playing the passengers also bring some personality to their archetype characters.

In conclusion, “Hijacking 1971”, which is directed by Kim Seong-han and written by Kim Kyung-chan, is a competent genre film which does its flight better compared to “Emergency Declaration” (2021), another recent South Korean flight disaster movie. While that movie ended up being as clichéd as “Airport” (1970) and many other similar flight disaster films, “Hijacking 1971” handles its familiar genre elements well enough to entertain the audiences from the beginning to the end, and it is surely one of better movie experiences for me and other South Korean audiences during this summer season.

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