Blu-ray thumbs

[Johann]

GET ON UP (2014)

Directed by Tate Taylor, this biopic does the Hardest Working Man in Show Business Justice.
I loved this movie. It doesn’t shy away from the unsavoury aspects of James Brown’s life.
No no no- it’s all here, his rough childhood, his mothers’ prostitution, his jail time, his abusiveness towards his wife- it’s warts and all.
But we also get incredible concert moments and performances. Chadwick Boseman deserved an Oscar.
He is James Brown. I had no trouble giving it up for him here.
Makes you want to buy some albums!
Two big thumbs up.

[Chris Knipp]

I remember how frustrating that movie was. But I felt it deserved a thorough going over. Rian Johnson - despite what Oscar said originally - that he didn't like BRICK, the debut that was almost a cult hit - led one to expect a lot more. And he did - he gave us LOOPER, he gave us 84 Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (not my thing, but good reviews) and he gave us KNIVES OUT. So BROTHERS BLOOM was sort of a sophomore slump. Now KNIVES OUT ii is on the way next month.

[Johann]

The main problem with it is how artificial it feels.
Rian Johnson has a solid film career, but he drew a lot of ire from Star Wars fans. I still don’t know how he landed that job.
Like you, I won’t watch The Brothers Bloom again. It has no lasting power.

[Johann]

WARRIOR (2011)


Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior is long but great.
It’s sports drama at its finest, a la Rocky.
Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton turn in great performances as MMA fighters and brothers who ultimately fight each other in “Sparta”, a tournament of champions.
Tom Hardy is actually trained in ju-Jitsu, and Joel passes for an MMA fighter no problem— he’s certainly got the physique.
There is a fair amount of pre-fight family drama, with their father Paddy (a great Nick Nolte).
This is a more polished and heady version of The Fighter.
And like that film, there’s a really happy outcome.
Recommended.

[Chris Knipp]

The main problem with it is how artificial it feels.
Rian Johnson has a solid film career, but he drew a lot of ire from Star Wars fans. I still don’t know how he landed that job.
Like you, I won’t watch The Brothers Bloom again. It has no lasting power.

I don't know how he landed it either - or why he'd want to. He has talent though and KNIVES OUT is one of the most ingenious and witty puzzle murder pictures ever.

[Chris Knipp]

WARRIOR (2011)


Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior is long but great.
It’s sports drama at its finest, a la Rocky.
Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton turn in great performances as MMA fighters and brothers who ultimately fight each other in “Sparta”, a tournament of champions.
Tom Hardy is actually trained in ju-Jitsu, and Joel passes for an MMA fighter no problem— he’s certainly got the physique.
There is a fair amount of pre-fight family drama, with their father Paddy (a great Nick Nolte).
This is a more polished and heady version of The Fighter.
And like that film, there’s a really happy outcome.
Recommended.

I listed it in my Best Movies of 2011 list, but I didn't write a review of it - did not engage with it as much as THE FIGHTER and consequently don't remember it as well. THE FIGHTER got better reviews than WARRIOR, in fact - despite WARRIOR's physically impressive leads.

[Johann]

THE FIGHTER got better reviews than WARRIOR

The Fighter was prime Oscar bait; I feel Warrior could’ve won Oscars uif it came first.
The editing should be singled out too. The fights were more exciting than real MMA fights!
With a couple being VERY satisfying to watch.

[Johann]

UNFAITHFUL (2002)


Adrian Lyne directed a fine erotic thriller with Unfaithful.
Richard Gere and Diane Lane are fantastic as a married couple where one is unfaithful.
One day Diane bumps into Olivier Martinez on the street on a windy day, scraping her knee.
They end up getting hot and heavy, beginning an affair. She is excited and terrified at the same time that she’ll be found out.
And she is.
Gere goes berzerk after he deduces what’s going on.
He kills Martinez in a rage, making things very interesting….
Loved it.

[Chris Knipp]

UNFAITHFUL (2002)


Adrian Lyne directed a fine erotic thriller with Unfaithful.
Richard Gere and Diane Lane are fantastic as a married couple where one is unfaithful.
One day Diane bumps into Olivier Martinez on the street on a windy day, scraping her knee.
They end up getting hot and heavy, beginning an affair. She is excited and terrified at the same time that she’ll be found out.
And she is.
Gere goes berzerk after he deduces what’s going on.
He kills Martinez in a rage, making things very interesting….
Loved it.

We have to go back 20 years for my review of this one. You may think I'm a party-pooper. It was fun: why spoil it? And I'm not saying you're 'wrong.' But I just thought its source was better, and I try to explain why. Lyne's cast is good, though, especially Diane Lane. Gere had a tendency to seem generic but Olivier at that time was very handsome and he had sizzled in the 1997 HORSEMAN ON THE ROOF>

[Johann]

You made/make valid points. I’d never heard of the original Chabrol.
The ending is a bit wonky, true.
I still loved it. I found it engaging and interesting, in an Eyes Wide Shut kind of way.

[Chris Knipp]

A British review gives more info that was new to me - Gere was in five Hollywood adaptations of much admired French originals by that time. He also grants Lyne's version has its points, and laments all the British talent being 'wasted' in Hollywood! English movies used to be really great in the Fifties and Sixties - then what happened?

[Johann]

Good review. I really want to see the Chabrol now, to compare.
I reckon it’ll be hard to find on blu-ray…

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks.
That's true, about Blu-ray of the film. You can watch UNE FEMME INFIDÈLE free right now on YouTube, but that's without subtitles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKheDEHPsBw
The DVD with subtitles is cheap - $12 (Amazon).

[Johann]

Alright!! I’ll watch that.

[Johann]

THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE (2017)

Niki Caro has made a good holocaust film, one that doesn’t show the horrors implicitly, as critics complained of.
I don’t know what they want, Nazi Brutality on film?
Why do we need images that recoil us. We know how bad it was.
As Kubrick said about his holocaust project Aryan Papers: “How can I film it?? How can I make actors pretend it?”

The Zookeeper’s Wife can be favourably compared to Schindler’s List, in that Polish Jews were successfully saved in the Warsaw Zoo- over 300 in fact. Jan and Antonina Zabinski are real-life heroes for their actions during WW2. Jessica Chastain plays Antonina, and she continues to surprise me with her roles. Jan and Antonina run the Warsaw Zoo at the time of the Nazi takeover, and this film shows us what they had to endure in vivid detail. No, it’s not as horrific as it really was, but as an audience we get the gist.
Daniel Bruhl lends a unique dimension as Hitler’s Chief Zoologist.
Recommended as a sobering history lesson.