![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
More movies
Mar. 26th, 2023 10:40 pmOperation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
A dumb Guy Ritchie movie, which is kind of a distinct phenomenon from a smart Guy Ritchie movie. I dunno, it had that signature cinematic zip to it, it had memorable characters, but the plot just had nothing going for it structurally. I was thinking about Kit Whitfield's writings on narrative capital and how the movie just seemed unwilling to ever build any reserve of it. As soon as it had any capital to spend, it spent it. There was never any suspense, any uncertainty about success. And as I've learned from Harry Keeler, the only way that strategy works is if you move as fast as possible at all times so that everything is constantly happening.
I also felt like, with its weird two part title, it's a franchise in search of a movie. I would happily watch Episode 6 of this franchise, with all of the characters in the ensemble fit securely in their well-worn grooves, but I doubt we're going to ever get that. A bit of a shame: Aubrey Plaza with a machine gun is a singular pleasure. And Jason Statham and Cary Elwes play off each other with ease. There are the ingredients here for a satisfying, not mentally taxing series of spy adventures, maybe ideally as a TV show, but it does not hang together as a standalone film.
One delightfully Guy Ritchie bit is that our heroes keep running into interference from a different spy agency and they keep calling the British government contact who sent them to ask if the government really sent both groups and all the government contact can say is that he's not sure, the government isn't talking to itself. I loved that injection of realistic chaos.
Paint
The March mystery movie. What a weird movie. Its primary impetus is to ask "What if Bob Ross were an insecure womanizing jerk?" Apparently he was, per wikipedia, but also I don't particularly care about Bob Ross's private life, let alone the private life of an ersatz Ross played by Owen Wilson with a different life story. In the end, Carl Nargle fakes his own death in a fire to escape the trap of his legacy? For True Love? I liked some of the PBS parody, laughed at a few of the visual jokes, but mostly didn't understand why this movie existed.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
What a delightful movie! A much more enjoyable Hugh Grant as bad guy compared to Operation Fortune. And Chris Pine was born to play this bard character, Edgin, he is magnetic from start to finish and in particular his platonic chemistry with Michelle Rodriguez's Holga is sublime.
I liked the sense of visual depth in the CGI a lot better than in Ant-Man 3, the world felt alive and all the different species mixed together naturally.
A large part of the movie was a fantasy heist, supertropey: let's get the team together, let's get the gadgets, which in this case are magic items, let's competently execute our plan. Except overlay on top of that the classic D&D player's frantic improvising in the face of poor die rolls and you have a wonderful combination. It was a fun and satisfying movie on its own, but it also legitimately felt like a D&D movie in particular. I'm not super into the Forgotten Realms but I liked the little namechecks to vaguely familiar lore.
A dumb Guy Ritchie movie, which is kind of a distinct phenomenon from a smart Guy Ritchie movie. I dunno, it had that signature cinematic zip to it, it had memorable characters, but the plot just had nothing going for it structurally. I was thinking about Kit Whitfield's writings on narrative capital and how the movie just seemed unwilling to ever build any reserve of it. As soon as it had any capital to spend, it spent it. There was never any suspense, any uncertainty about success. And as I've learned from Harry Keeler, the only way that strategy works is if you move as fast as possible at all times so that everything is constantly happening.
I also felt like, with its weird two part title, it's a franchise in search of a movie. I would happily watch Episode 6 of this franchise, with all of the characters in the ensemble fit securely in their well-worn grooves, but I doubt we're going to ever get that. A bit of a shame: Aubrey Plaza with a machine gun is a singular pleasure. And Jason Statham and Cary Elwes play off each other with ease. There are the ingredients here for a satisfying, not mentally taxing series of spy adventures, maybe ideally as a TV show, but it does not hang together as a standalone film.
One delightfully Guy Ritchie bit is that our heroes keep running into interference from a different spy agency and they keep calling the British government contact who sent them to ask if the government really sent both groups and all the government contact can say is that he's not sure, the government isn't talking to itself. I loved that injection of realistic chaos.
Paint
The March mystery movie. What a weird movie. Its primary impetus is to ask "What if Bob Ross were an insecure womanizing jerk?" Apparently he was, per wikipedia, but also I don't particularly care about Bob Ross's private life, let alone the private life of an ersatz Ross played by Owen Wilson with a different life story. In the end, Carl Nargle fakes his own death in a fire to escape the trap of his legacy? For True Love? I liked some of the PBS parody, laughed at a few of the visual jokes, but mostly didn't understand why this movie existed.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
What a delightful movie! A much more enjoyable Hugh Grant as bad guy compared to Operation Fortune. And Chris Pine was born to play this bard character, Edgin, he is magnetic from start to finish and in particular his platonic chemistry with Michelle Rodriguez's Holga is sublime.
I liked the sense of visual depth in the CGI a lot better than in Ant-Man 3, the world felt alive and all the different species mixed together naturally.
A large part of the movie was a fantasy heist, supertropey: let's get the team together, let's get the gadgets, which in this case are magic items, let's competently execute our plan. Except overlay on top of that the classic D&D player's frantic improvising in the face of poor die rolls and you have a wonderful combination. It was a fun and satisfying movie on its own, but it also legitimately felt like a D&D movie in particular. I'm not super into the Forgotten Realms but I liked the little namechecks to vaguely familiar lore.