Latest / Nashville Movie Dispatch / The Cinema Chronicles, Vol. 37: 'Crime 101' and more!

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The Cinema Chronicles, Vol. 37: 'Crime 101' and more! · Nashville Movie Dispatch

0:17
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another fantastic volume of these cinema chronicles
0:22
Speaker 1: right here on Nashville Movie Dispatch. I am your host,
0:25
Speaker 1: of course, Brandon vic a member of the Southeastern Film
0:30
Speaker 1: Critics Association and a board member of the Music City
0:34
Speaker 1: Film Critics Association. Today, I've got four well, I don't
0:41
Speaker 1: know if they're all good ones, but I have four
0:44
Speaker 1: movies that we're going to talk about. But before we
0:48
Speaker 1: get to that, let's catch up. Since the last time
0:52
Speaker 1: we all got together, the super Bowl happened. I was
0:57
Speaker 1: going for the Seahawks. I'm glad they won. I'm glad
1:01
Speaker 1: it was a dominant performance and I have never really,
1:09
Speaker 1: I haven't been a fan of the Seahawks since Marshawn
1:12
Speaker 1: Lynch was running around, and we all know the great
1:16
Speaker 1: actor he's become. So I was happy. I was happy
1:22
Speaker 1: with it. I don't know about these Super Bowl commercials anymore.
1:25
Speaker 1: I don't know how much it is now. I think
1:27
Speaker 1: it definitely in the millions. I want to. I think
1:30
Speaker 1: I heard like it was seven to eight million for
1:33
Speaker 1: like a thirty second spot, And let me tell you,
1:36
Speaker 1: that's a lot of wasted money that should have gone
1:38
Speaker 1: to kids that are hungry because they weren't any real
1:43
Speaker 1: funny ones, or they were just weird ones, or they
1:45
Speaker 1: were just like with Crypto or a, I don't know.
1:49
Speaker 1: It was used to you just had fun ones. You know,
1:52
Speaker 1: you had the Doritos ones, you had the bud Wiser ones.
1:55
Speaker 1: But now nobody or even better, as if social media
1:59
Speaker 1: hasn't ruined everything anyway, all most of those like good
2:03
Speaker 1: ones you could have watched probably five days before the
2:07
Speaker 1: super Bowl even aired, so disappointed and commercials happy with
2:12
Speaker 1: the outcome of the game. My son turned three. We
2:16
Speaker 1: had a going on a Yetti Hunt party, so there
2:20
Speaker 1: was snow everywhere and we had the big yetti from
2:24
Speaker 1: Rudolph that was upstairs. My wife made a cave on
2:27
Speaker 1: the stairs. We had friends and family come over. It
2:31
Speaker 1: was crazy. My son did his first keg stand. It
2:36
Speaker 1: was awesome because that's how he likes to party, because
2:41
Speaker 1: you know, he's I mean, he's he's three now, so
2:44
Speaker 1: he's you know, you got to grow up sometime. And
2:48
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day, which my son's birthday, is two days after
2:52
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day, so we really didn't do anything for Valentine's Day,
2:58
Speaker 1: but we my wife and I didn't really do stuff
3:01
Speaker 1: for Valentine's Day anyway. We rarely got each other cards.
3:08
Speaker 1: So yeah, we didn't really do anything. But we are
3:11
Speaker 1: as of this recording, we had gone yesterday, but we
3:14
Speaker 1: are going to see a play, so I guess that counts.
3:17
Speaker 1: But I don't know about the rest of you, but
3:19
Speaker 1: I don't really like to do anything on Valentine's Day.
3:23
Speaker 1: We did, we did. It wasn't on purpose, but we
3:27
Speaker 1: did go to a place for brunch and luckily it
3:29
Speaker 1: wasn't too crowded. We sat at the bar. But I
3:32
Speaker 1: don't know, we just never get into it. So and
3:36
Speaker 1: now with my kid's birthday so soon, that's what That's
3:40
Speaker 1: what February really is for us now. But yeah, I
3:46
Speaker 1: guess that's it. We'll talk about let's talk about some movies.
3:50
Speaker 1: But before before we get into that, just want to
3:53
Speaker 1: remind everyone you can see all of our work at
3:57
Speaker 1: Nashville mooviedispatch dot substack dot com. We got podcasts fixed
4:02
Speaker 1: Flix podcast, Cinema Chronicles podcast, Drinking with Podcast, listen to
4:08
Speaker 1: an Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. We got
4:11
Speaker 1: a good one about gor Verbinskime and I give a
4:15
Speaker 1: little quick review and rating of his latest it's got
4:19
Speaker 1: Sam Rockwell in there called have Fun. What is it?
4:23
Speaker 1: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die? And I also have
4:28
Speaker 1: a review on Nashville movie Dispatch of the Weathering Heights.
4:34
Speaker 1: I hear it, I hear it's pretty divisive. Pretty sure
4:39
Speaker 1: anything that Emial Fennel Ferrill does is a is divisive.
4:44
Speaker 1: So but but yeah, that's out there Corverbinski podcast and
4:51
Speaker 1: I don't even think maybe the movie was out for
4:54
Speaker 1: a week. I'm not even sure. But earlier this month,
4:57
Speaker 1: I have a review of a little horror movie called Whistle.
5:02
Speaker 1: Feel free to give give that a read. And one
5:08
Speaker 1: of the most recent ones is apparently a lot of
5:10
Speaker 1: people are loving this wonder Man Marvel series on Disney Plus.
5:15
Speaker 1: Stoney wrote a thing about it, giving it a five
5:18
Speaker 1: out of five. I don't know the last time that
5:20
Speaker 1: dude's given a five out of five to any Marvel property,
5:23
Speaker 1: but it makes me want to see it, but I
5:25
Speaker 1: have not seen it. I'm currently I am in the
5:29
Speaker 1: fifth season, which is the second to last season of
5:33
Speaker 1: Peaky Blinders. I don't know if anybody saw the new
5:36
Speaker 1: trailer that came out, but they've got a movie coming
5:39
Speaker 1: out called Peaky Blinders, The Immortal Man. Barry Kegan Keegan
5:44
Speaker 1: is in it. He's also in one of the movies
5:46
Speaker 1: we'll talk about today, and obviously Killy Murphy, Tim Roth,
5:50
Speaker 1: Rebecca Ferguson. So trying to play catch up on that,
5:54
Speaker 1: so so I can watch that movie. But let's get
5:57
Speaker 1: to it. We got four. We got for very different movies.
6:01
Speaker 1: That's how I like it. First up, let's start with
6:05
Speaker 1: a show about a band that's now a movie about
6:08
Speaker 1: two Canadian friends. Next, Nirvana the Band the Show the movie.
6:25
Speaker 1: So for those like myself who do not know what
6:29
Speaker 1: Nirvana the Band Show is. According to our friends at Wikipedia,
6:35
Speaker 1: it was a mockumentary web series that was about two
6:38
Speaker 1: best friends, Matt and Jay, based off the creators Matt
6:41
Speaker 1: Johnson and Jay McCarroll, who use elaborate, chaotic and often
6:46
Speaker 1: illegal stunts in Toronto to land a gig at a
6:49
Speaker 1: local venue called the Revoli or it could be Revoli.
6:54
Speaker 1: It features improvised hidden camera interactions with real people, creating
6:59
Speaker 1: a unique documentary style comedic look at fame seeking and
7:04
Speaker 1: Canadian pop culture. So it was recommended to me to
7:09
Speaker 1: kind of watch a few of their if not show's
7:13
Speaker 1: segments of theirs before watching the movie, and I would
7:18
Speaker 1: I would recommend the same. It just kind of gives
7:20
Speaker 1: you a better idea of what you're in for and
7:24
Speaker 1: what I personally saw. I liked. It's got my kind
7:27
Speaker 1: of humor. So before watching this, I would just kind
7:31
Speaker 1: of get a little familiar with it, just to kind
7:33
Speaker 1: of set the set the stage for you. I know
7:39
Speaker 1: that I was starting I started reading. I started hearing
7:42
Speaker 1: and reading stuff about this movie last year, and they
7:45
Speaker 1: actually did a tour and it came to the Bellcourt
7:49
Speaker 1: here locally in Nashville, and the and Matt and Jay
7:54
Speaker 1: were there, and so it got it. From what I understand,
7:58
Speaker 1: some people that were there got a a great response.
8:01
Speaker 1: So I was excited to see this one. Let's go
8:04
Speaker 1: to the Rotten Tomatoes synopsis real quick. When they're planned
8:07
Speaker 1: to book a show at the let's just say Ravoli,
8:11
Speaker 1: it goes horribly wrong. Matt and Jay accidentally travel back
8:15
Speaker 1: to the year two thousand and eight. In two thousand
8:20
Speaker 1: and eight, Stony and I were graduating college. I have
8:26
Speaker 1: caught myself telling people I graduated high school in two
8:31
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, and then I realized, oh shit, I
8:35
Speaker 1: actually graduated. That was college, so two thousand and eight.
8:39
Speaker 1: I sort of remember. There's a thing on so Elevation Pictures,
8:46
Speaker 1: which is a part of the producing film team of
8:50
Speaker 1: the movie. So on their socials they have Matt and
8:54
Speaker 1: Jay talking about their inspirations for the show but specifically
8:59
Speaker 1: for the movie, and there were I think they named four.
9:04
Speaker 1: Back to the Future was one which is very apparent
9:08
Speaker 1: from the get go in the movie. It's referenced quite
9:11
Speaker 1: a bit The Tom Green Show, which makes total sense
9:15
Speaker 1: with the way that the way that their show was done,
9:18
Speaker 1: the way that the movie's done, and its approach again
9:22
Speaker 1: kind of that hitting camera looking for like real public reactions,
9:27
Speaker 1: So that one made sense. There's one that I kind
9:29
Speaker 1: of remember seeing, but I think it's from like nineteen
9:31
Speaker 1: ninety nine, and it's a documentary called Comedian, which is
9:35
Speaker 1: just about Jerry Seinfeld going back to stand up after
9:39
Speaker 1: his show ends, and there's huge I mean it just
9:44
Speaker 1: the way that it's even filmed in a certain part
9:46
Speaker 1: which we'll get to is very much a nod to
9:51
Speaker 1: kind of their filmmaking approach back then for that documentary.
9:55
Speaker 1: And then the one that I found the most surprising,
9:58
Speaker 1: which it does make since and again I recommend checking
10:03
Speaker 1: this out on I know it's on Twitter, Instagram, Elevation Pictures,
10:08
Speaker 1: you can look it up. But is the talented mister Ripley.
10:12
Speaker 1: I didn't see that when coming, but the way they
10:14
Speaker 1: talked about the kind of characters' relationships it was I've
10:19
Speaker 1: found it quite interesting. So anyway, check that out. Back
10:23
Speaker 1: to Nirvana, the band, the show of the movie, it
10:28
Speaker 1: it has this fantastic ridiculousness and absurdity. Again, if you
10:36
Speaker 1: go back and watch some of the stuff before the movie,
10:39
Speaker 1: it is it's it's quite clear on this, but it
10:44
Speaker 1: starts practically from the beginning in the movie when one
10:48
Speaker 1: of their plans Dell involves diving onto the roof of
10:52
Speaker 1: where the Blue Jays play, and it's it's nuts. It's
10:58
Speaker 1: very funny. I will say, I'm out a fan of
11:00
Speaker 1: heights and I they they I think they're like four
11:04
Speaker 1: million feet in the year I'm not sure, but my
11:07
Speaker 1: legs were shaking just watching it. I peede a little.
11:11
Speaker 1: But again, ridiculous and absurd in a in a in
11:14
Speaker 1: an amusing way. But it's also very smart and original
11:20
Speaker 1: in its own way, because not that time traveling movies
11:23
Speaker 1: stuff is you know, is a is a unique concept.
11:27
Speaker 1: It's done all the time, it's just not done that well.
11:29
Speaker 1: And when it's done really well, you kind of remember.
11:31
Speaker 1: So that's why, you know, go back to back to
11:33
Speaker 1: the future stuff. But the way that they go back
11:39
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight, which was a big year
11:41
Speaker 1: for them, uh, and that's how the movie starts off.
11:44
Speaker 1: So when they go back to visit and they kind
11:46
Speaker 1: of run into their younger selves, it's it really kind
11:50
Speaker 1: of plays up the the friendship that they had, but
11:54
Speaker 1: also the trajectory of what they've been trying to do
11:59
Speaker 1: for so many years. But when they do go back
12:03
Speaker 1: to two thousand and eight, they use like these different
12:06
Speaker 1: cameras and look and it's exactly sort of like the
12:12
Speaker 1: way Comedian the Jerry Seinfeld documentary was done, and it
12:17
Speaker 1: really gives this like of course, it's it's nostalgic in
12:19
Speaker 1: many ways, and it has a lot of fun risks.
12:21
Speaker 1: It shows it shows how can I say, there's some
12:24
Speaker 1: people that ended up not being good people? So I'll
12:32
Speaker 1: give you a hint. One liked Subway sandwiches and one
12:35
Speaker 1: like Jello and so they so it's funny how they
12:40
Speaker 1: it's funny how they kind of go back and of course,
12:42
Speaker 1: you know, obviously a lot of time has passed since
12:46
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, so some things are funny just
12:48
Speaker 1: because we know how things turned out, but the but
12:51
Speaker 1: how but how they kind of approached that and and
12:55
Speaker 1: use the cameras from like back in two thousand and eight,
12:58
Speaker 1: I thought was a was clever as well. And on
13:00
Speaker 1: top of just the way that they the way that
13:03
Speaker 1: they use the time travel and going back to that
13:06
Speaker 1: specific year of two thousand and eight, there are a
13:10
Speaker 1: lot of there are pretty there's a pretty good amount
13:12
Speaker 1: of goofy, but also sweet moments as they kind of
13:15
Speaker 1: travel through time and you know, kind of it's it's
13:18
Speaker 1: almost reminiscing about the memories that were shared and what
13:21
Speaker 1: may have been if if the band actually broke up
13:24
Speaker 1: and you know what if they went there. There's separate ways.
13:29
Speaker 1: But the movie, I mean, without a doubt, gets its
13:33
Speaker 1: heart from their wonderful friendship. Out of everything going for
13:37
Speaker 1: Johnson and mcaroll, I mean not just the movie, but
13:41
Speaker 1: also in the series, their friendship is what powers it all.
13:47
Speaker 1: There's a there's a it is funny. I know a
13:50
Speaker 1: lot of people in fact, like, it's one of the
13:51
Speaker 1: funniest movies in a very long time. It's hilarious. I
13:56
Speaker 1: thought it has some good stuff in it. It is funny.
13:59
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say hilarious. Last year I saw Friendship. It's
14:03
Speaker 1: one of the best movies of last year. I think
14:05
Speaker 1: it's one of the best comedies of the past ten years.
14:07
Speaker 1: That to me, was hilarious. This one was not like that,
14:11
Speaker 1: but it still is pretty funny. There is one part
14:14
Speaker 1: and I will not give it away, but it's such
14:16
Speaker 1: a shocking incident that in the way and the whole
14:23
Speaker 1: like and again, it's also part of this cleverness of
14:26
Speaker 1: the movie, as I was talking about, but it's almost
14:28
Speaker 1: the way they set it up. But when this happens,
14:33
Speaker 1: it's it's hilarious, I will say. And I think this
14:38
Speaker 1: is something that kind of happens to any kind of
14:43
Speaker 1: show or series that tries to become a movie. It
14:46
Speaker 1: always kind of goes on a tad too long it.
14:49
Speaker 1: You know, there's there's times where it's like, okay, is
14:51
Speaker 1: this does this feel like just like an extra long skit?
14:58
Speaker 1: And and there's and there's aspect of that, but it's
15:01
Speaker 1: not felt throughout as much as as other, like I said,
15:05
Speaker 1: as other things that have tried to, you know, turn
15:09
Speaker 1: themselves into a movie when maybe it should have never
15:12
Speaker 1: been that. That's not this, So don't so don't take
15:16
Speaker 1: it the wrong way. But even so as as a
15:20
Speaker 1: as Meghan Lacchynski said on Twitter, because I uh, I
15:26
Speaker 1: like this one a lot, because I think it's summed
15:28
Speaker 1: up this is at Meghan Latchinski, Uh, Nirvana, the band,
15:32
Speaker 1: the show, the movie leaves one asking how the fuck
15:35
Speaker 1: did they pull this off? In the best way possible
15:38
Speaker 1: A nostalgia field, hilariously good time, hearkening back to the
15:41
Speaker 1: glory days of optimistic wonder for millennials in two thousand
15:47
Speaker 1: and eight. But I what I think surprises me the
15:51
Speaker 1: most is that this this works way better than it
15:56
Speaker 1: has any right to. And I think that really speaks
15:58
Speaker 1: to Johnson mccharel's brilliant it's slash madness. You want to
16:03
Speaker 1: see these guys succeed, even as like I said, as
16:06
Speaker 1: as silly and stupid as some things may be, you
16:09
Speaker 1: do want them to succeed. And you know, I mean
16:13
Speaker 1: it's in a friendship that is I mean, is absolutely genuine.
16:18
Speaker 1: It's a bonker's bromance, and I don't know anybody that
16:22
Speaker 1: can't watch this that wouldn't want to be friends with
16:24
Speaker 1: these dudes. So Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie,
16:27
Speaker 1: it was my introduction to this whole thing. And again,
16:33
Speaker 1: I liked what I saw before the movie, I liked
16:36
Speaker 1: what I saw when I was watching the movie, and
16:39
Speaker 1: it definitely makes me want to go check out some
16:41
Speaker 1: more of their stuff. So vic Flicks rating is a
16:44
Speaker 1: three out of five. And coming up next, the Hulk
16:50
Speaker 1: four and Catwoman are reunited? Who who we can't wait?
17:06
Speaker 1: Crime one oh one let's start with rotten tomatoes synopsis. Here,
17:12
Speaker 1: set against the sun bleached grit of La Crime one
17:15
Speaker 1: oh one weaves the tale of an elusive jewel thief
17:18
Speaker 1: played by Chris Hemsworth, whose string of heights along the
17:21
Speaker 1: one oh one Freeway have mystified police. When he eyes
17:24
Speaker 1: the score of a lifetime, his path crosses of a
17:27
Speaker 1: delusioned a disillusioned insurance broker played by Holly Berry, who's
17:31
Speaker 1: facing her own crossroads. Convinced he's found a pattern. A
17:34
Speaker 1: relentless detective played by Mark Roflow is closing in, raising
17:37
Speaker 1: the stakes even higher as the heighst approaches the line
17:40
Speaker 1: between hunter and hunted begins to blur, and all three
17:43
Speaker 1: your face with life defining choices and the realization that
17:46
Speaker 1: there can be no turning back. This is adapted from
17:50
Speaker 1: Don Winslow's acclaimed novella of the same name. The film
17:52
Speaker 1: is written and directed by Bart Layton. Barry Keyogan, Monica Barbero,
17:58
Speaker 1: Corey Hawkins, Jennifer Jason, and Nick Nolty round out the
18:04
Speaker 1: fantastic cast. First, I gotta say Michael Mann would be proud.
18:09
Speaker 1: The influence of the Thief and Heat filmmaker is undeniably
18:14
Speaker 1: here in full force. But Crime one OH one isn't
18:17
Speaker 1: some cheap knockoff. It's a slick, stylish, slow burn heist thriller.
18:21
Speaker 1: Has some great car chases, but there's no big explosions
18:26
Speaker 1: or shootouts, and that's okay because the story and the
18:30
Speaker 1: performances can carry the weight. The film, which I appreciated,
18:37
Speaker 1: is very character driven. I think it's all the more
18:39
Speaker 1: tense and compelling for it now as everything comes together
18:45
Speaker 1: within the story. It definitely does interfamiliar territory and with
18:49
Speaker 1: that comes some predictability, but it doesn't really drag the
18:54
Speaker 1: film down like it does with others. This is a
18:58
Speaker 1: part of the Daily Beasts review of the movie says,
19:01
Speaker 1: there's nothing particularly stunning about how this all plays out,
19:04
Speaker 1: but Layton has a feel for the propulsive rhythms of
19:06
Speaker 1: crime fiction and the seductive allure of la and its
19:09
Speaker 1: mixture of the wealth and down and dirty grit. Moreover,
19:13
Speaker 1: he has a cast capable of imbuing archetypes with if
19:16
Speaker 1: not novel flare, then at least engaging personality as characters
19:21
Speaker 1: they've been seen a thousand times prior Himsworth and Ruffalo
19:24
Speaker 1: make for reasonably magnetic centers of attention, and Kiogan's live
19:28
Speaker 1: wire intensity gives the proceedings of Jagged Edge. I want
19:32
Speaker 1: to pause right there because I'm not in total agreement
19:36
Speaker 1: with this. I get the reason for Barry's existence. He
19:42
Speaker 1: is this chaos factor in the film, but more times
19:49
Speaker 1: than not, he really he kind of tends to come
19:52
Speaker 1: off as more of just a distraction from these main
19:59
Speaker 1: three carecharacters that are on this journey. But you can't
20:04
Speaker 1: have the film without him, and you certainly don't have
20:08
Speaker 1: a lot of this craziness without him. But I'm not
20:11
Speaker 1: sure if he, or at least his character is totally
20:14
Speaker 1: utilized in a way that makes it like here in
20:19
Speaker 1: this review where this live wire intensity and you know,
20:23
Speaker 1: gives it a jagged edge. But back to it, the
20:27
Speaker 1: review says, it's Barry, however, who comes out on top,
20:30
Speaker 1: infusing Sharon with a fierceness that's underscored by bitter fury
20:34
Speaker 1: at a misogonistic power structure that keeps the haves and
20:37
Speaker 1: the have nots and their respective places. Despite her insurance
20:41
Speaker 1: broker being no boy tonintegrated as over the heel at
20:48
Speaker 1: fifty three one day, I'm going to learn how to
20:50
Speaker 1: read the Oscar winner proves as commanding as ever. Even
20:53
Speaker 1: her corneous moment, a kiss off speech that doubles as
20:56
Speaker 1: a declaration of feminist independence, resounds with you go, girl Viger.
21:03
Speaker 1: I will say this is some of Barry's best work
21:07
Speaker 1: in years, There's no doubt about that. I would also
21:11
Speaker 1: like to see Himsworth do more roles like this. I
21:15
Speaker 1: think he's able to show more, and I think in
21:18
Speaker 1: a lot of ways he is better when he leaves
21:21
Speaker 1: Thor's hammer at home. It's a nice reunion for Ruffalo
21:25
Speaker 1: and Himsworth, who of course have worked in the MCU,
21:28
Speaker 1: but funny enough, have also starred in some Michael Mann films,
21:33
Speaker 1: Chris Hemsworth was in Black Hat and Mark Ruffalo was
21:37
Speaker 1: in Collateral. It all comes back to Michael Mann in
21:40
Speaker 1: the end. You do want all three of these central
21:46
Speaker 1: characters to find their way out of their shitty circumstance
21:49
Speaker 1: and personal failures because they're not bad people. They just
21:53
Speaker 1: need that one break, you know, and they deserve it.
21:57
Speaker 1: Jennifer Jason Lee is in this. She is in one scene.
22:02
Speaker 1: She's great in it. She is basically the ex wife
22:07
Speaker 1: of Mark Ruffalo. They have one good scene to kind
22:10
Speaker 1: of show you what Ruffalo's character is going through on
22:14
Speaker 1: a personal level. And I I love Nick Nolty. Nick
22:22
Speaker 1: Nolty kind of plays his head mob boss. He's only
22:24
Speaker 1: in a few scenes, but he has a nice scene
22:26
Speaker 1: with him's Worth towards the beginning before he brings in
22:30
Speaker 1: Barry's character to kind of finish what hymns or starts.
22:36
Speaker 1: But it's just nice to see. I mean, they are
22:39
Speaker 1: two extraordinary actors, and specifically Nick Nolty. Anytime he's in anything,
22:47
Speaker 1: I'm for it. I still think he should have won
22:49
Speaker 1: the Oscar for Warrior for Best Supporting Actor. So Layton's
22:54
Speaker 1: latest I think is reminiscent of those nineties early two
22:58
Speaker 1: thousands LA crime action movie vs. That Crime on one.
23:02
Speaker 1: Crime one O one does get a bit rough at times,
23:05
Speaker 1: but it does have real grit in emotion with again
23:08
Speaker 1: some solid performances. I highly recommend American Animals and The Impostor.
23:15
Speaker 1: These are the two films that Layton has previously done.
23:18
Speaker 1: Highly recommend them. Barriers in American Animals as well. But
23:25
Speaker 1: like they say, imitation, you know they save. It's a
23:28
Speaker 1: sincereous form of flattery. And while other films have have
23:30
Speaker 1: done it better than Crime one oh one, I think
23:33
Speaker 1: Layton and the crew they don't bring shame to those
23:37
Speaker 1: that came before it. They clearly appreciate those classics and
23:41
Speaker 1: they look they just want to try and be cool
23:44
Speaker 1: like them. I don't fought them for it, and overall
23:47
Speaker 1: I think they did a pretty good job. So Crime
23:50
Speaker 1: one O one is getting a vix flicks rating of
23:52
Speaker 1: three and a half out of five. And coming up
23:57
Speaker 1: next a movie where Jet Lee starts kicking some ass
24:02
Speaker 1: after like fifteen years of not doing it. Next Blades
24:21
Speaker 1: of the Guardians. So this is a Chinese martial arts
24:26
Speaker 1: film that actually was released on Tuesday, the seventeenth, which
24:29
Speaker 1: is Chinese New Year per Variety. The film Hang with Me,
24:42
Speaker 1: the film adapts a comic series Bye I'm gonna try
24:46
Speaker 1: and get this right she and Jushu and unfolds during
24:52
Speaker 1: China's Sway Dynasty. I'm really trying on this one. Emperor
25:00
Speaker 1: Yang Guang Guang's oppressive Rain. The story centers on a
25:05
Speaker 1: skilled mercenary named y A Wren navigating the harsh deserts
25:10
Speaker 1: of the Western regions, who becomes entangled in a perilous
25:13
Speaker 1: scheme while completing what initially appears to be a simple
25:17
Speaker 1: escort assignment. So director Win Wooping, he he's directed Drunken Master,
25:26
Speaker 1: Iron Monkey, he directed a sort of Destiny, which ended
25:29
Speaker 1: up being the Netflix sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,
25:34
Speaker 1: and he also has done the action choreography for films
25:37
Speaker 1: like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Kill Bill. So it
25:41
Speaker 1: shouldn't surprise anyone just how spectacular these action sequence are.
25:45
Speaker 1: And what is I mean, It's an epic martial arts film.
25:48
Speaker 1: There's no question is there's a true art to this
25:53
Speaker 1: fighting choreography that we have obviously seen before. But it
25:58
Speaker 1: just it just it never gets it's old. When it's
26:00
Speaker 1: done right, there is real beauty in the bloodshed with
26:05
Speaker 1: blades of the Guardian, Blades of the Guardians. So this
26:09
Speaker 1: is actually from the film's press notes that I received,
26:12
Speaker 1: where it says action design as character design says the
26:15
Speaker 1: core principle of the production was that action should not
26:18
Speaker 1: flatten characters into one generic fighter type. Instead, choreography is
26:22
Speaker 1: used to express identity. Some characters fight with directness and weight,
26:27
Speaker 1: close range pressure, decisive impact. Others move with unpredictability, angular timing,
26:32
Speaker 1: deceptive distance, irregular rhythm. Mounted sequences are staged not only
26:37
Speaker 1: as speed spectacles, but as tests of nerve control and endurance.
26:42
Speaker 1: It goes on to say that the director also encouraged
26:44
Speaker 1: performers to integrate elements of their own discipline backgrounds into
26:48
Speaker 1: the choreography, shaping individuals individualized movements, signatures, and one example
26:53
Speaker 1: there's taekwon do based aerial leg techniques were folded into
26:57
Speaker 1: character fighting language to create at of silhouette and impact
27:03
Speaker 1: me personally. What I very much applaud is the thought
27:06
Speaker 1: and meaning that goes into each of these movements, and
27:09
Speaker 1: each of these movements movements and the execution of them
27:12
Speaker 1: as we all know that's rarely the case. It gets
27:15
Speaker 1: pretty mindless in a lot of these, especially American action movies.
27:24
Speaker 1: There's also from from the press notes that I found
27:31
Speaker 1: quite interesting was the what we like to call the wusha.
27:38
Speaker 1: When I say we, I mean the Chinese culture here
27:43
Speaker 1: reclaiming the physical language of wusha. Blades of the Guardians
27:47
Speaker 1: is conceived as a return to the physical foundations of
27:51
Speaker 1: Chinese wusha cinema. For those of you that don't know which,
27:56
Speaker 1: I had heard the phrase before, I didn't quite know
27:59
Speaker 1: what the full definition was, but it basically kind of
28:04
Speaker 1: stands for the martial arts and chivalry. It's a genre
28:07
Speaker 1: in Chinese fiction in general, and it usually concerns the
28:12
Speaker 1: adventions of martial artists in ancient China. The film Blades
28:18
Speaker 1: of Guardians places embodied performance, tangible impact, and moral consequence
28:23
Speaker 1: at the core of its storytelling, storytelling reaffirming the wusha
28:27
Speaker 1: as a genre defined by discipline, endurance, and human presence
28:31
Speaker 1: rather than digital spectacle. The performances are good, the script
28:36
Speaker 1: is simple, and the story does have its issues. I
28:40
Speaker 1: think you really need to be familiar with the comic
28:44
Speaker 1: series to really kind of get into it. It's never boring,
28:48
Speaker 1: and it keeps up a good pace, but it's still
28:51
Speaker 1: pretty thin and it appears it's only a piece of
28:55
Speaker 1: the bigger puzzle, as the whole thing is about going
28:59
Speaker 1: to this, taking this this this person to I think
29:05
Speaker 1: is it shang gun but they don't e But in
29:08
Speaker 1: this movie they never even get there. So there are
29:12
Speaker 1: quite a few characters and groups to keep up with.
29:14
Speaker 1: There's some mercenaries or some generals. There's these part of
29:17
Speaker 1: these groups called the Five Clans. There's bounty hunters, and
29:19
Speaker 1: so much of them are pretty generic with no sort
29:23
Speaker 1: of you know, personality or depth some scenes. Some scenes
29:27
Speaker 1: do come off as cheesy as well, you know it
29:31
Speaker 1: just it doesn't always feel like this emotional, sweeping adventure
29:37
Speaker 1: like it's sort of presented. But I will say that
29:43
Speaker 1: Blades of Guardians does have some stunning cinematography and the
29:48
Speaker 1: locale is is amazing. And going back to the press notes,
29:55
Speaker 1: it says that the Western China desert was the production part,
30:00
Speaker 1: and it said that filming took place extensively on location
30:03
Speaker 1: in the desert regions of western China, using real terrain
30:07
Speaker 1: and volatile conditions as active elements, and performance in choreography.
30:11
Speaker 1: The landscape functions not simply as a backdrop, but as
30:14
Speaker 1: a source of resistance. There's wind, sand, heat, uneven ground
30:17
Speaker 1: and long distances reshape the breath and timing and stamina,
30:21
Speaker 1: allowing action to register as lived physical effort rather than abstraction.
30:27
Speaker 1: It says, listen to some of these conditions that they list.
30:30
Speaker 1: So there's ground level temperatures that reached approximately one hundred
30:34
Speaker 1: and forty degrees fahrenheit during the desert shoots. There was
30:38
Speaker 1: persistent wind and sand exposure, significant day night temperature swings,
30:43
Speaker 1: an uneven terrain that complicated mounted choreography and mass movement staging.
30:52
Speaker 1: So blades of the gardens, It's gorgeous. It's especially entertaining
30:56
Speaker 1: when the action kicks in. It's where it really rives. Uh.
31:01
Speaker 1: The story does feel underwhelming, but assuming it's only the beginning,
31:05
Speaker 1: which I believe that's what it is. I don't know
31:08
Speaker 1: within the comic series what this what this film covers,
31:12
Speaker 1: but clearly there is. This is just the beginning of
31:15
Speaker 1: a of a long journey. But I do think it
31:22
Speaker 1: has the certainly the capability to get bigger and better.
31:29
Speaker 1: Now I opened up this, uh, this thing by talking
31:32
Speaker 1: about Jetly. So I don't know if anybody remembers Jetly.
31:38
Speaker 1: If you don't, shame on you. But he he was
31:41
Speaker 1: this marshal, I mean, is this martial arts legend. I think,
31:46
Speaker 1: you know. I think one of his first kind of
31:48
Speaker 1: American breakthroughs was I think it was Legal Weapon, for
31:51
Speaker 1: he was the villain in there. He's been in a
31:54
Speaker 1: I think a pretty cool movie with Bob Hoskins called
31:57
Speaker 1: Unleashed Romeo Must Die. But I think the last time
32:03
Speaker 1: most American arts probably saw him was I believe he
32:06
Speaker 1: was the Emperor in Mulan, the live action movie from Disney.
32:09
Speaker 1: But apparently this was his first live action martial arts
32:13
Speaker 1: movie in like fifteen years. But let me tell you
32:16
Speaker 1: in case, in case any of you were worried, he's
32:18
Speaker 1: still got it. He is in a fight scene that
32:22
Speaker 1: is early on and it's literally two against one and
32:28
Speaker 1: it is it is bad ass like it Not only
32:32
Speaker 1: is it one of the kind of the first real
32:34
Speaker 1: action fight scenes you get in the film, but the
32:38
Speaker 1: fact that it's him and all of this like sword
32:42
Speaker 1: plate like it's it. It was awesome to see him
32:46
Speaker 1: back in action sort of speak. So Blades of the
32:50
Speaker 1: Guardians is out now. It gets a vix Flick rating
32:54
Speaker 1: of three out of five. And coming up next, I
32:59
Speaker 1: got to see that old hound dog shake them hips next.
33:17
Speaker 1: Elvis Presley in concert or epic as we like to say,
33:26
Speaker 1: Rotten Tomatoes makes it short and sweet. Elvis sings and
33:29
Speaker 1: tells his story like never before in a new cinematic
33:32
Speaker 1: experience from visionary filmmaker Boz Lherman. If you don't know,
33:38
Speaker 1: Boz Lherman is the director of Mulin Rouge. He's done Australia,
33:44
Speaker 1: but he also did Elvis with Austin Butler and Tom Hanks.
33:49
Speaker 1: And I want to go to this Variety review of
33:54
Speaker 1: Epic because it's how Boz Lherman's Elvis documentary is one
33:58
Speaker 1: of the most exciting concert films you've ever seen. But
34:02
Speaker 1: in it and as he starts it, I thought was
34:04
Speaker 1: very interesting because all of this kind of came from
34:06
Speaker 1: when he was first working on Elvis. The film says
34:10
Speaker 1: Lherman originally planned to incorporate never before in seeden Food
34:14
Speaker 1: footage of this period into Elvis. And this period is
34:18
Speaker 1: within nineteen sixty nine to nineteen seventy seven, I think
34:23
Speaker 1: when he was performing at the International hotel and he
34:27
Speaker 1: ended up doing over like eleven hundred shows, so almost
34:31
Speaker 1: all of this footage is from this time, but Lherman
34:36
Speaker 1: decided against it. But what he discovered at the time
34:39
Speaker 1: was sixty eight boxes of thirty five millimeter and eight
34:43
Speaker 1: millimeter footage in the Warner Bros. Archives, including vast out
34:48
Speaker 1: takes from the Elvis That's the Way It Is from
34:51
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy and Elvis on Tour from nineteen seventy two,
34:55
Speaker 1: two major Elvis concert films, plus audio tapes of unheard interviews.
35:00
Speaker 1: Much of the footage was silent, though there was corresponding
35:03
Speaker 1: audio which needed to be painfully synced up, a process
35:06
Speaker 1: that took two years, and it says in certain cases
35:09
Speaker 1: the audio was created out of other recordings. Diving into
35:14
Speaker 1: this treasure trove of unseen performances. Working with the editor
35:17
Speaker 1: Jonathan Redman, Lherman has fashioned a streamlined and exquisitely paced
35:23
Speaker 1: concert film. So somewhere and I'm not sure where, but
35:28
Speaker 1: Lherman has described Epic as a tone poem rather than
35:32
Speaker 1: this traditional straightforward documentary. It's all told by Elvis and
35:38
Speaker 1: his music that you know, using all of that footage,
35:41
Speaker 1: and it is It is incredible. Lherman doesn't come with
35:46
Speaker 1: the usual baggage that I think we all know about
35:50
Speaker 1: Elvis and his life. You know, the manipulation and shin
35:54
Speaker 1: cheating and then the stealing, you know, dealing with the colonel,
35:59
Speaker 1: you know, his dem into and the and the you know,
36:01
Speaker 1: the tragedy that surrounds him. We've seen and heard. I
36:05
Speaker 1: think a lot of us have at least seen and
36:07
Speaker 1: heard all there is to really know about about that stuff.
36:11
Speaker 1: But what I haven't seen, especially in this way, is
36:15
Speaker 1: his commanding presence, his genius, the joy that music brought him,
36:23
Speaker 1: and just how much he actually like joked around and stuff.
36:28
Speaker 1: And I might sound weird, but I really don't know
36:30
Speaker 1: if I've ever watched anything where it actually shows Elvis
36:34
Speaker 1: like laughing and like kidding around while he's kind of
36:38
Speaker 1: creating the music and the show that he would he
36:43
Speaker 1: would do in Vegas. So yeah, I mean, seeing him
36:47
Speaker 1: have fun feel strange because of all we know. But
36:51
Speaker 1: he did. I mean, he really did. And you get
36:53
Speaker 1: a front row seat to it, and it's honestly, it's
36:55
Speaker 1: a It's a fabulous time. The doc does hit on
36:59
Speaker 1: his earlier day as far as being arrested going to war.
37:01
Speaker 1: The movies he made, they don't waste a whole lot
37:05
Speaker 1: of time on that, but but it definitely gets more
37:07
Speaker 1: fascinating and exhilarating once we get into the rehearsals and
37:12
Speaker 1: obviously when he's on stage during these Vegas shows while
37:16
Speaker 1: truly feeling these musical inspirations that there's footage of him
37:21
Speaker 1: talking about that deal with the gospel and country music
37:25
Speaker 1: and the rhythm and blues, the sound and the editing.
37:30
Speaker 1: But really the sound is electric. It's feeding us this
37:35
Speaker 1: unstoppable energy and pace while his majestic, unmistakable voice sings
37:41
Speaker 1: those songs that I on it, I mean, I've heard
37:43
Speaker 1: all my life. Uh epic. I think, is this kind
37:51
Speaker 1: of this spectacular reminder as well as just this rock
37:55
Speaker 1: and celebration of the entertainer and the performance, the perform
38:00
Speaker 1: and the genius that he was. You this sounds strange.
38:04
Speaker 1: For as long as he's been gone and as much
38:06
Speaker 1: as as people still are sort of obsessed about him,
38:10
Speaker 1: but also all the other different things that have been
38:14
Speaker 1: done about him, you do see him in a new light,
38:19
Speaker 1: Like he loved what he did, and he loved his fans,
38:23
Speaker 1: and boy did I mean, boy did they love him
38:26
Speaker 1: and they still do. People still, I mean I have
38:29
Speaker 1: family members who still very much love Elvis and it
38:36
Speaker 1: may and it more than anything epic. It makes that
38:40
Speaker 1: make even more sense for someone that was born after
38:43
Speaker 1: he was long gone. But the fact that he still
38:47
Speaker 1: remains he's you know, he's he's he's more he's almost
38:51
Speaker 1: kind of more infamous than famous, sort of like the
38:53
Speaker 1: James Dean and marily Monroe. But there was this, there
38:59
Speaker 1: was this power that he had that it's really I mean,
39:05
Speaker 1: who else, I mean, who else really has that? So
39:09
Speaker 1: again see him in a whole new light, his adoration
39:13
Speaker 1: for not only what he did, but the people who
39:14
Speaker 1: came to see him. And there is a thing in
39:16
Speaker 1: there where he talks about because he's been famous for
39:19
Speaker 1: so long that you know, he's talking about sion autographs
39:21
Speaker 1: now is just a part of them. It's just a
39:23
Speaker 1: part of being famous. It's something he's accepted. But there's
39:26
Speaker 1: also a comment in that that basically he liked being
39:32
Speaker 1: famous and he couldn't imagine not being famous. So you know,
39:37
Speaker 1: like I said, our our decades long obsession with him
39:41
Speaker 1: is very apparent while watching this, I mean, like, no
39:44
Speaker 1: one did it quite like him, and I honestly no
39:47
Speaker 1: one ever will. He's the King for a reason, and
39:50
Speaker 1: I think Epic shows you why, and if not, he
39:54
Speaker 1: at least reminds you of of why. Uh. In that
39:58
Speaker 1: same Variety review, he says it ends with saying, and
40:03
Speaker 1: when the movie is over, you want to applaud the
40:05
Speaker 1: showmanship Elvis's and also bos luerrmans he revers Elvis too
40:12
Speaker 1: much to let any excessive flash get in the way.
40:15
Speaker 1: There's a purity and natural born dazzle to Epic. What
40:19
Speaker 1: you see is what you get Elvis in the raw,
40:21
Speaker 1: driven by the awareness that it doesn't get any better
40:24
Speaker 1: than that. This is obviously I must see for Elvis fans,
40:28
Speaker 1: but it's for everyone and anyone who wants to see
40:32
Speaker 1: such a musical force force unleashed. I see this on
40:37
Speaker 1: the biggest and loudest screen possible. I did get the
40:40
Speaker 1: opportunity to see it in Imax. It's well worth it. It's
40:44
Speaker 1: in an exclusive IMAX run through I think Thursday, and
40:48
Speaker 1: then starting on Friday it'll be It'll be in theaters nationwide,
40:52
Speaker 1: but it won't be in the it won't be shown
40:56
Speaker 1: in Imax. But whether it's Imax or not, it's well
41:00
Speaker 1: worth it. I was. I was totally impressed and amazed
41:04
Speaker 1: by not only who Elvis was and what he could
41:09
Speaker 1: do on stage and the prep and the almost kind
41:14
Speaker 1: of this perfectionist approach to how he did things. I
41:22
Speaker 1: was mesmerized the entire time. And like I said, the
41:26
Speaker 1: editing and the way it kind of uses his music
41:29
Speaker 1: to go with it, and the sound itself. I mean,
41:32
Speaker 1: you can't do a you can't do a film like
41:35
Speaker 1: this without having some real you know, blasting, you know,
41:42
Speaker 1: shaking you know, shake shakes you in your seat sound,
41:46
Speaker 1: and it delivers, It delivers across the board. And I
41:50
Speaker 1: will say when I first saw this, when I first
41:53
Speaker 1: saw there was coming out, I really thought it could
41:56
Speaker 1: be one of those of like, oh, Boz Luhrman is
41:58
Speaker 1: just I mean, it's still the teat of Elvis and
42:01
Speaker 1: he's just putting something else out to kind of milk it.
42:04
Speaker 1: But I will tell you I liked Elvis the film,
42:08
Speaker 1: but this, to me is better. And I don't know,
42:12
Speaker 1: it's just because you're seeing the real guy, the man,
42:17
Speaker 1: and what made him famous and why he's still famous
42:21
Speaker 1: and will probably always be famous no matter how long
42:23
Speaker 1: he's been dead. This really took this really kind of
42:28
Speaker 1: took me off guard by just how well this was.
42:32
Speaker 1: And so I take it all back, Boz, I take
42:35
Speaker 1: it all back. Vix Flick's rating for this one one
42:38
Speaker 1: of the best films of the year so far, solid
42:41
Speaker 1: four out of five and that will do it for
42:43
Speaker 1: another volume of these cinema chronicles. Remember check out our
42:47
Speaker 1: work Nashville Moovie Dispatch dot substack dot com. Please subscribe,
42:54
Speaker 1: and again we got some good podcast out there, we
42:57
Speaker 1: got some recent reviews is out there, and obviously there's
43:01
Speaker 1: gonna be a whole lot more to come as we've
43:03
Speaker 1: got some big movies coming out next month. So until then,
43:09
Speaker 1: just go see a damn movie. Oh,