Latest / Nashville Movie Dispatch / The Cinema Chronicles, Vol. 35 - Wicked: For Good and More

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The Cinema Chronicles, Vol. 35 - Wicked: For Good and More · Nashville Movie Dispatch

0:19
Speaker 1: Hello, welcome in, Come sit down and pick a stogy up.
0:25
Speaker 1: It is time for another volume of the Cinema Chronicles
0:29
Speaker 1: right here on Nashville Movie Dispatch. I am your host,
0:34
Speaker 1: Sir Brandon Vick. I'm the let's see what am I?
0:37
Speaker 1: I'm a board member of the Music City Film Critics
0:40
Speaker 1: Association as well as a member of the Southeastern Film
0:43
Speaker 1: Critics Association, and of course the resident the film critic
0:49
Speaker 1: of the Nashville Movie Dispatch. So let's go ahead and
0:55
Speaker 1: get some stuff out of the way here. This is
0:57
Speaker 1: the final Cinema Chronicles twenty twenty five. I'm taking a
1:02
Speaker 1: break next month for the holidays, so we will be
1:07
Speaker 1: back with another volume in January of twenty twenty six.
1:13
Speaker 1: But there will still be a vix Flicks podcast next month,
1:16
Speaker 1: and I will be I'm currently working on a vix
1:20
Speaker 1: flick special edition review and rating for Timothy shallow May's
1:25
Speaker 1: Marty Supreme that you can catch next month. So there'll
1:29
Speaker 1: still be some stuff out, and we've got some best
1:31
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five stuff, so you'll still be hearing
1:36
Speaker 1: from Nashville Movie Dispatch, but there will not be a
1:38
Speaker 1: Cinema Chronicles next month, and I'm also happy to say
1:45
Speaker 1: that within I mean within days now, you can buy
1:53
Speaker 1: our Nashville Movie Dispatch Movie Annual for twenty twenty five
2:00
Speaker 1: will be up on Amazon anytime now, So keep your
2:05
Speaker 1: keep your eyes peeled for that. And yeah, I mean
2:11
Speaker 1: I think, uh, there's some housekeeping for you as far
2:14
Speaker 1: as what's going on here and what to look forward to.
2:17
Speaker 1: And Thanksgiving is Thursday. I don't know about you, guys,
2:22
Speaker 1: but I'm not a I could take it or leave
2:26
Speaker 1: it with Thanksgiving. I know, I know people, I can
2:30
Speaker 1: already feel the outrage. But I love Christmas. I love Halloween.
2:35
Speaker 1: But and I love the idea of Thanksgiving. But as
2:39
Speaker 1: far as just sitting down and eating turkey and they're
2:43
Speaker 1: gobblers and stuff this, and it's just it's not It's
2:49
Speaker 1: not for me. I would, uh, what's my Thanksgiving meal?
2:53
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what it is. It would be a
2:56
Speaker 1: Marco's pizza the end. So but for all that do
3:02
Speaker 1: love what every for of what everything Thanksgiving means and brings.
3:07
Speaker 1: I hope, I hope it's a good one. I don't
3:10
Speaker 1: the whole year's flown by. This month is flown by,
3:13
Speaker 1: so I know that Christmas is going to fly by,
3:17
Speaker 1: but going to try and slow down a bit, try
3:21
Speaker 1: to enjoy it a little more. And so so yeah,
3:28
Speaker 1: I think that's uh, I think that's really about it.
3:31
Speaker 1: I've been, Uh, we're kind of in the process of
3:34
Speaker 1: doing my best of twenty twenty five and then part
3:37
Speaker 1: of those film critic associations I mentioned a few minutes ago. Uh,
3:42
Speaker 1: we're all going to start voting next month. So trying
3:46
Speaker 1: to catch up on some films that I haven't seen
3:49
Speaker 1: and some that I'm lucky enough to see in advance.
3:52
Speaker 1: And so I'm deep into award year FYC for your
3:58
Speaker 1: consideration type stuff. This I tried, since this is the
4:04
Speaker 1: last Cinema Chronicles of the year, I tried to really
4:08
Speaker 1: kind of pack this one in. So I've got four
4:12
Speaker 1: good ones to share with you guys, and I think
4:17
Speaker 1: I'm gonna at least say three out of the four
4:18
Speaker 1: you probably know or have seen. So so yeah, I
4:24
Speaker 1: was trying to trying to build this one up a
4:26
Speaker 1: little more before we call it quits here. So let's
4:31
Speaker 1: just let's just get right to it. I said, Happy
4:33
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving to all of you, and if you don't if
4:37
Speaker 1: you're like me and you don't care, about Thanksgiving. I'll
4:39
Speaker 1: just go ahead and say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
4:42
Speaker 1: and enjoy whatever that day is that you guys spend
4:45
Speaker 1: with your families, eating, eating hoghooves. So let's get started
4:52
Speaker 1: with with a movie of the one and only Jennifer
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Speaker 1: Lawrence Gone Wild Next Die My Love, starring Jennifer Lawrence
5:16
Speaker 1: and Robert Pattinson, directed by Lynn Ramsey. I'm right here,
5:23
Speaker 1: you just can't see me. That's a line said by Grace,
5:26
Speaker 1: It's played by Lawrence, and that one sentence it pretty
5:31
Speaker 1: much says it all for Ramsey's messy marital fever dream
5:36
Speaker 1: per IMDb. Grace, a writer and young mother, is slowly
5:39
Speaker 1: slipping into madness. Locked away in an old house inn
5:42
Speaker 1: and around Montana. We see her acting increasingly agitated and erradic,
5:46
Speaker 1: leaving her companion Jackson, increasingly worried and helpless. The psychodrama,
5:55
Speaker 1: as I like to call it, is visceral. It's beautiful,
5:58
Speaker 1: it's audacious, it's depressing, it's agonizing and angry, though it's
6:03
Speaker 1: never not fascinating. It's undownlyad the personification of postpartum depression
6:09
Speaker 1: with I gotta say one hell of a performance from
6:12
Speaker 1: Jennifer Lawrence. She is fucking feral and fearless, portraying a
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Speaker 1: mother whose mental, physical, and emotional will being is being
6:21
Speaker 1: suffocated from the inside out. This is via Indie Wier.
6:28
Speaker 1: It says Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson on zolof method
6:31
Speaker 1: acting and the anxious romance of Dying My Love. It's
6:35
Speaker 1: an interview and they ask again Indye Wier. They asked Jennifer,
6:41
Speaker 1: what was it like being four months pregnant while crawling
6:45
Speaker 1: through the bushes and dragging your fingernails across the wall?
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Speaker 1: How did that affect your performance? And she says, I
6:51
Speaker 1: was in my second try master. I wouldn't have been
6:54
Speaker 1: able to crawl through grass if I was in my third.
6:57
Speaker 1: But I found it helpful and freeing because when you'regant,
7:00
Speaker 1: you're in a very animalistic state. You're doing something that's otherworldly,
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Speaker 1: and you're feeling protective, you're feeling instinctual, and adding that
7:09
Speaker 1: element of her being like a trapped animal while I
7:12
Speaker 1: was in this animalistic state was helpful, so that that
7:19
Speaker 1: kind of gives you a glimpse into what state of
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Speaker 1: mind Jennifer Lawrence was in while doing this, and Honestly,
7:27
Speaker 1: if you've seen this movie, it makes so much, it
7:31
Speaker 1: makes so much sense to what she's saying, and it's
7:34
Speaker 1: really I'm just curious if she would be able to
7:37
Speaker 1: go to these spaces if she wasn't pregnant. Now she's
7:43
Speaker 1: already she's already a mother because this was her second
7:47
Speaker 1: child that she was pregnant with. But I'm just curious
7:50
Speaker 1: if she could still get there if she was not pregnant.
7:56
Speaker 1: But being pregnant really does add a whole other element
8:03
Speaker 1: to Grace. I I don't even you see them in
8:10
Speaker 1: the preview. I don't even know if their names are
8:13
Speaker 1: on the post or anything, but I love seeing Nick
8:15
Speaker 1: Nolty and Sissy Spasic in this. They're just too old,
8:19
Speaker 1: too old prose. Sissy Spasic has kind of the more
8:24
Speaker 1: role with substance, But I will say when you do
8:27
Speaker 1: see Nick Nolty, it is a bit haunting in ways.
8:31
Speaker 1: There's one scene where they're kind of dancing in the
8:32
Speaker 1: woods that that instantly comes to mind. But Sissy Spasic
8:38
Speaker 1: is almost kind of shares a certain kind of a
8:44
Speaker 1: certain kind of feeling that I think she recognizes in
8:51
Speaker 1: Jennifer Lawrence's character Grace, but she's also going through her
8:55
Speaker 1: own sort of grief and going through her own grief
9:03
Speaker 1: and also trying to deal with I think what that
9:08
Speaker 1: means now, what her life looks like now. And she
9:12
Speaker 1: plays the mother of Robert Pattinson, so she she kind
9:16
Speaker 1: of has this perspective that no one else does because
9:19
Speaker 1: I think she sees the spiraling out of control for
9:25
Speaker 1: Jennifer Lawrence as a mother and as a wife. But
9:29
Speaker 1: then you're also talking about that she is married and
9:32
Speaker 1: going through all this stuff with that is that who
9:35
Speaker 1: is her son? So it's it's it's complicated, and so
9:41
Speaker 1: I was happy to see those two in this. Robert
9:45
Speaker 1: Pattinson plays the plays the husband. I he's good here.
9:52
Speaker 1: He kind of plays the oblivious, kind of dim witted
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Speaker 1: partner who clearly loves Grace but is also clearly incapable
10:01
Speaker 1: of giving her what she needs. Additionally, I got the
10:08
Speaker 1: needle drops in this are all stellar choices. But I
10:11
Speaker 1: will say John Prime and Iris Dements in Spite of
10:16
Speaker 1: Ourselves is definitely the MVP of all the tunes. It
10:21
Speaker 1: comes in at a couple of crucial times and Grace
10:25
Speaker 1: in Jackson's life, and it really is almost kind of
10:29
Speaker 1: dead on to what that song says and how you
10:34
Speaker 1: can apply it to this relationship between the two. This
10:43
Speaker 1: is per Slate talking about In Spite of Ourselves why
10:48
Speaker 1: a twenty six year old song is suddenly everywhere now.
10:52
Speaker 1: This is by Sam Adams. This is explaining the scene
10:57
Speaker 1: where we hear the John Prime Inspire Herself song for
11:01
Speaker 1: the last time, and he says, as they're driving down
11:05
Speaker 1: the road and frozen silence in the wake of yet
11:07
Speaker 1: another fight, Prine's voice comes over the radio and Jackson
11:11
Speaker 1: starts singing along. When de mense voice comes along, Grace
11:15
Speaker 1: joins in too, her voice soft, her eyes wide open.
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Speaker 1: The song doesn't take over this time. You can hear
11:21
Speaker 1: it and them both trying to bring it into their
11:24
Speaker 1: world rather than vanish into it. But they're too flawed
11:28
Speaker 1: and too far apart. Right before he starts to sing,
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Speaker 1: Jackson promises Grace, I can try harder, and you can
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Speaker 1: tell he wants to mean it, just as you know
11:37
Speaker 1: he doesn't or he can't. You can't force the kind
11:40
Speaker 1: of love in Spite of Ourselves is about you have
11:43
Speaker 1: to earn it, and one day after another, and they're
11:46
Speaker 1: out of time. So as much as dime. I Love
11:49
Speaker 1: flourishes and being hallucinatory, hallucinatory and hypnotic. It certainly establishes
11:55
Speaker 1: this kind of unique kind of mood and experience. It's
11:58
Speaker 1: also overly styvized and too abstract for its own good.
12:04
Speaker 1: We are dragged in by Lawrence, it shoved away and
12:08
Speaker 1: it feels like by Ramsey's imprecise narrative. But with all
12:12
Speaker 1: of her films, if you've seen them, Ratcatcher, Morvan, Caller, Caller,
12:18
Speaker 1: we need to talk about Kevin. You were never really here.
12:21
Speaker 1: She does what she wants in her films, find ways
12:25
Speaker 1: to resonate on some sort of personal level, no matter
12:28
Speaker 1: how challenging she may make it. I wanted to read
12:34
Speaker 1: a part of the Nashville Scene review that's written by
12:38
Speaker 1: Jason Shawhan, who is a fabulous critic who is also
12:43
Speaker 1: a part of Music City Film Critics Association. In his
12:47
Speaker 1: review titled Die My Love as an elusive immersive character study,
12:51
Speaker 1: he says, you can sense, excuse me, landmark works of
12:56
Speaker 1: womanhood and crisis percolating and Die My Love's insides, a
13:00
Speaker 1: woman under the influence, Women on the verge of a
13:03
Speaker 1: nervous breakdown, Diary of a mad Housewife, Opening Night, Secret Ceremony.
13:09
Speaker 1: You can feel the fore mothers of these kinds of
13:12
Speaker 1: narratives stalking the woods around Grace and Jackson's new home.
13:16
Speaker 1: And though there's nothing that speaks to any specific time period,
13:20
Speaker 1: what Ramsey gets across is the unspoken weight of being
13:27
Speaker 1: alive and trying to be sociable and pleasant, even as
13:31
Speaker 1: it pulls at your feet like the thickest of mud.
13:35
Speaker 1: He goes on to say, but you don't seek out
13:37
Speaker 1: the cinema of lim Ramsey looking for an easy ride.
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Speaker 1: She has always had a gift for making the dealing
13:44
Speaker 1: nation between the internal and the external elusive, immersing the
13:49
Speaker 1: viewer in character studies that sidestep narration and exposition to
13:53
Speaker 1: let us live inside another life and our subject. Grace
13:57
Speaker 1: allows for empathy, shock, revulsion, and pity and analysis, but
14:01
Speaker 1: she does not invite any of these things. Tickets get
14:04
Speaker 1: bought and rides get taken. There are temporal shifts here,
14:08
Speaker 1: but nothing that needs to be solved, like a math problem.
14:11
Speaker 1: These jumps in time serve more to unify the vibe
14:14
Speaker 1: which die My love is very much a vibe. Even
14:17
Speaker 1: as the opening credits are unfolding, were immersed in a
14:19
Speaker 1: forest springing into fiery life. Is it a literal fire
14:24
Speaker 1: or something more metaphorical or symbolic? The answer is yes,
14:30
Speaker 1: so for me, Die my Love, Sorry, Die my Love
14:35
Speaker 1: is easy to appreciate, but difficult to feel totally satisfied
14:39
Speaker 1: once it's over. However, Lawrence is breathtaking, bearing her entire soul,
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Speaker 1: confronting what so many mothers endure but can never express,
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Speaker 1: bringing us back to where we started. I'm right here,
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Speaker 1: you just can't see me. Die my Love gets a
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Speaker 1: Vixflix rating of three out of fire and coming up next,
15:03
Speaker 1: the Predator is Back and He's funny. Next, Predator is
15:21
Speaker 1: Back and Predator bad Lands per Rotten Tomatoes Predator bad Lands,
15:27
Speaker 1: which stars l Fanning and Demetria Schuster. Kalamatangi is set
15:32
Speaker 1: in the future of a remote planet where a young predator,
15:34
Speaker 1: outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in thea
15:39
Speaker 1: and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the
15:42
Speaker 1: ultimate adversary. First and foremost, I just want to go
15:46
Speaker 1: on record as I'm giving my blessing right now to
15:49
Speaker 1: have Dan Trachtenberg cook forever with these things for Prey,
15:55
Speaker 1: which he directed the Predator franchise was taken back to
15:58
Speaker 1: the basics and turn crafted like this brutal, bloody, badass
16:03
Speaker 1: survival tale. It was a much needed reminder of why
16:06
Speaker 1: Predator scared the shit out of us to begin with.
16:10
Speaker 1: Then earlier this year, which there was a review on
16:12
Speaker 1: Nashville Movie Dispatch about it called Predator Killer of Killers,
16:15
Speaker 1: It's a sublime animation that's brilliantly and beautifully utilized. The
16:20
Speaker 1: animation is brilliantly and beautifully utilized to enhance the storytelling,
16:25
Speaker 1: especially when it comes down to the action sequences. They
16:28
Speaker 1: are bloodthirsty and barbaric, just the way we'd like it. Also,
16:32
Speaker 1: its further strength is the franchise by adding depth and
16:35
Speaker 1: more deadly variations of these baneful beasts that we know
16:39
Speaker 1: as the Predators. And now here we are with bad Lands,
16:43
Speaker 1: where Trachtenberg continues his ambitious storytelling, further expanding the mythology
16:48
Speaker 1: while making a legit exciting and entertaining underdog story slash
16:55
Speaker 1: buddy action comedy that's right, you heard me right. Bad
17:01
Speaker 1: Lands marks the first Predator movie to get a wide
17:03
Speaker 1: release in theater since twenty eighteen, and is also the
17:08
Speaker 1: first PG thirteen rating, as all the others have been
17:13
Speaker 1: rated are before. But Pray came out on Hulu, as
17:18
Speaker 1: did Killer of Killers, so so yeah, it's kind of
17:23
Speaker 1: crazy to think this is the first one in theaters
17:25
Speaker 1: in almost ten years. But as far as the PG
17:28
Speaker 1: thirteen rating, don't let that. It's not a problem here.
17:30
Speaker 1: There's no restraint felt in bad Lands thrills and violence.
17:34
Speaker 1: It's stellar and it's smartly coordinated. Playing a yacht a yacha,
17:41
Speaker 1: hold on, let me on air, let me test that
17:46
Speaker 1: yacha yep, yatcha. It looks weird the way it's spelt.
17:52
Speaker 1: Playing a yachtcha yatscha runt with a lot to prove.
17:55
Speaker 1: Demetria Schuster Kalametanji brings the pain and the total physic
18:00
Speaker 1: obviously that is required. He even cracks a joke or
18:03
Speaker 1: to Yet, what may be most impressive here is the
18:07
Speaker 1: range of emotions he's able to convey with the limited
18:12
Speaker 1: expressions that are available, which is really a huge credit
18:17
Speaker 1: to the makeup and special effects teams. El Fanning, she's
18:22
Speaker 1: actually pulling double duty as two sents. Tessa is a
18:26
Speaker 1: no nonsense type of gal has a mission to accomplish,
18:30
Speaker 1: but the other who is THEA is where I think
18:34
Speaker 1: she's most superb. She is as THEA. She's a legless
18:39
Speaker 1: and quite funny, being truly along for the ride as
18:43
Speaker 1: most of it is. She is being carried on deck,
18:46
Speaker 1: that is, the young young Yatcha being carried by him.
18:53
Speaker 1: But she proves to be more than just a tool
18:56
Speaker 1: for him. As their bond grows stronger and stronger. She
19:00
Speaker 1: adds way more emotional depth to I think what would
19:03
Speaker 1: be considered air quote machine character. It's pretty amazing, especially
19:12
Speaker 1: after watching this, uh this one, just how far we've
19:16
Speaker 1: come from that nineteen eighty seven o g one with Arnold.
19:21
Speaker 1: I would think that rooting for the Yatcha probably seemed unfathomable, unfathomable,
19:28
Speaker 1: but not anymore it was I guess obviously its probably
19:32
Speaker 1: was only a matter of time before that before they
19:35
Speaker 1: would become the hero that we all need. This was
19:40
Speaker 1: an interview done on Faye's Hero and with Dan with
19:45
Speaker 1: Dan Trachtenberg, and I really I really found it interesting
19:50
Speaker 1: on what he was saying as far as what his
19:52
Speaker 1: approach was going to be. And I feel like this
19:54
Speaker 1: is that, I mean, you can see it for anybody
19:57
Speaker 1: that has watched Prey and Killer of Killers and now
20:00
Speaker 1: Predator bad Lands. I feel like he's really has a
20:03
Speaker 1: vision as far as where to take this world. But
20:09
Speaker 1: so Tracktenberg says, it was really in trying to figure
20:12
Speaker 1: out what we hadn't seen yet. After Prey came out,
20:14
Speaker 1: I didn't want to just make the part two of
20:16
Speaker 1: the thing that was really cool. I wanted to think
20:19
Speaker 1: of is there another thing as an idea that was
20:23
Speaker 1: also really cool? And there was this sentiment that I
20:26
Speaker 1: was quite aware of that is why does the Predator
20:29
Speaker 1: always lose? It's supposed to be the greatest hunter in
20:33
Speaker 1: the entire galaxy and he comes to Earth and gets
20:36
Speaker 1: his butt kicked every time. So I started thinking about, Okay,
20:39
Speaker 1: that's the untapped thing in the franchise, Like why, you know,
20:43
Speaker 1: could I make a movie where the Predator wins? But
20:46
Speaker 1: I just was not driven to make a slasher movie
20:49
Speaker 1: where in the end the slasher wins, and that that
20:52
Speaker 1: isn't something that would be special beyond the franchise. And
20:55
Speaker 1: that's when it came like, Okay, what if I made
20:58
Speaker 1: something where the monster the creature is the protagonist. That's
21:02
Speaker 1: something that the franchise has never seen. That's something that
21:05
Speaker 1: sci fi has never seen, so that was the first
21:08
Speaker 1: idea that we had. It works better than I think
21:13
Speaker 1: anyone could have imagined as far as what ended up
21:17
Speaker 1: kind of hashing from this idea and what eventually he
21:20
Speaker 1: has created with Predator bad Lands. And honestly, part of
21:25
Speaker 1: the reason why I think it works so well and
21:28
Speaker 1: why I think it kind of comes as somewhat of
21:30
Speaker 1: a surprise is that it's because it's unexpectedly heartfelt and
21:34
Speaker 1: does really focus on family while presenting this obviously the
21:39
Speaker 1: spectacular sci fi spectacle with two great performances with Fanning
21:47
Speaker 1: and Demetrius, and it's got such creative, impressive creatures and
21:58
Speaker 1: some breath taking shots and a striking score. If I
22:03
Speaker 1: had to describe this movie in one word, it is badass.
22:08
Speaker 1: And with that, I'm gonna give a vix Flick rating
22:12
Speaker 1: of four out of five stars. One of the best
22:15
Speaker 1: movies of the year. I'm not sure if it's still
22:18
Speaker 1: playing in Imax or not, but if it is, catch
22:21
Speaker 1: it in that and then coming up next, Glenn Powell
22:24
Speaker 1: runs and runs and runs next The Running Man starring
22:41
Speaker 1: Glenn Powell, Josh Brolin, Coleman Domingo, and it's directed by
22:47
Speaker 1: Edgar Wright per Rotten Tomatoes. In the near future society,
22:51
Speaker 1: The Running Man is the top rated show on television,
22:55
Speaker 1: a deadly competition where contestants known as Runners, must survive
22:58
Speaker 1: thirty days while being hunted by professional assassins, with every
23:02
Speaker 1: move broadcast to a bloodthirsty public and each day bringing
23:05
Speaker 1: a greater cash reward. Desperate to save his sick daughter,
23:09
Speaker 1: working class Ben Richards played by Powell, was convinced by
23:13
Speaker 1: the show's charming but ruthless producer, Dan Killiam played by
23:16
Speaker 1: Josh Brolin to enter the game as a last resort,
23:19
Speaker 1: but Ben's defiance, instincts, and grit turn him into an
23:22
Speaker 1: unexpected fan favorite and a threat to the entire system.
23:25
Speaker 1: As rating skyrockets, so does the danger, and Ben must
23:28
Speaker 1: outwit not just the hunters, but a nation addicted to
23:32
Speaker 1: watching him fall. So for those of us that are
23:37
Speaker 1: old enough to know, The Running Man was a movie
23:40
Speaker 1: that starred Arnold Swarzenegger, and I think it's it's I mean,
23:45
Speaker 1: I haven't watched it and I don't know how many years,
23:47
Speaker 1: but it was not that's It was pretty silly and campy,
23:54
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, it had it had its sci
23:56
Speaker 1: fi elements, of course, and I mean with that and
23:59
Speaker 1: some action. Besides Arnold being in it, I only really
24:03
Speaker 1: remember Richard Dawson being in it, who was like the
24:06
Speaker 1: original host of Family Feud, and he was kind of
24:08
Speaker 1: the host of The Running Man. But obviously that movie
24:14
Speaker 1: is not taking that is not taken that seriously. But
24:16
Speaker 1: I mean it's a fun I remember it being a
24:18
Speaker 1: fun watch. I should I should have probably watched it
24:20
Speaker 1: again before telling you guys that. But this one that
24:24
Speaker 1: Edgar Wright did is more of a direct adaptation from
24:30
Speaker 1: the book, which was written by Stephen King. So this one,
24:35
Speaker 1: I is apparently a lot more closer to the source
24:39
Speaker 1: material and then obviously trying to redo that eighty seven version.
24:51
Speaker 1: Edgar Wright had tweeted back in twenty seventeen that The
24:55
Speaker 1: Running Man would be the remake that he's he most
25:01
Speaker 1: wanted to make, And I must say we should be
25:06
Speaker 1: careful what we wish for, because this Running Man is
25:15
Speaker 1: pretty lackluster, with Edgar Wright running on no style or personality.
25:21
Speaker 1: It's honestly, it's absolutely baffling that the guy behind like
25:25
Speaker 1: Baby Driver, Sean of the Dead and Last Night in
25:27
Speaker 1: Soho plays it so safe and boring with this material.
25:32
Speaker 1: It's got a messy tone and structure. There's clumsy dialogue
25:36
Speaker 1: popping up all over the place, and even the action
25:40
Speaker 1: and though it is hit or miss, and the sequences
25:43
Speaker 1: that do hit, they don't seem to last that long.
25:48
Speaker 1: I it feels like The Running Man kind of falls
25:52
Speaker 1: victim of taking itself too seriously and is in desperate
25:57
Speaker 1: need of some more humor. I'm not saying the movie
26:03
Speaker 1: doesn't try at times, but it frequently feels like it
26:05
Speaker 1: forgets how to how to have some fucking fun and
26:09
Speaker 1: for something like this and for something with the world
26:12
Speaker 1: that's been created here, and like I said, the story itself.
26:17
Speaker 1: They have so much opportunity to kind of run wild
26:21
Speaker 1: with it, and and they don't. You know, there's a
26:27
Speaker 1: sense here that right is kind of wanting to capture
26:31
Speaker 1: some of that eighty shlock. But the longer the narrative runs,
26:35
Speaker 1: the more repetitive, the more repetitive, everything more repetitive and
26:42
Speaker 1: imitative it gets it. It's it's just straight up corny
26:48
Speaker 1: at times. And yes it's updated for our times, tackling
26:53
Speaker 1: themes dealing with authoritarianism, marginalization, and misinformation, but it's also
27:01
Speaker 1: really quite heavy handed in its approach, and I don't
27:05
Speaker 1: I would say it's hardly even successful. Then there's the ending.
27:13
Speaker 1: I thought it was awful. I won't give it away here,
27:17
Speaker 1: but it really comes across as embarrassingly lazy. There's no
27:21
Speaker 1: bigger bummer than coming out of such mindless mayhem to
27:25
Speaker 1: get to the quote unquote main event, and it falls
27:29
Speaker 1: flat on its face. Now, Powell is decent and really
27:34
Speaker 1: tries to carry the movie on his back, but sadly
27:37
Speaker 1: and kind of mind blowingly sort of buries most of
27:42
Speaker 1: the charm and replaces it with like angry yelling. And
27:46
Speaker 1: it's not that he's not an action star, but if
27:49
Speaker 1: you're not going to have him show off his strengths,
27:52
Speaker 1: then I'm really confused on what's the point here? Just
27:56
Speaker 1: throw Mark Wahlberg in there, you know, just throw his
27:59
Speaker 1: ass in there. Brolin kind of plays the clich cliched
28:03
Speaker 1: evil creator, while Coleman Domingo has more flash than just
28:08
Speaker 1: one of his suits that he wears than the entire
28:10
Speaker 1: movie combine. But I will say, Michael Sarah, he is
28:14
Speaker 1: my m v P. We finally get some sort of
28:17
Speaker 1: a flesh and bone type character rather than character caricattures.
28:22
Speaker 1: But of course, like most good things in this Running Man,
28:27
Speaker 1: it's over before it even begins. But the little time
28:30
Speaker 1: we share with Michael Sarah is Uh is probably the
28:36
Speaker 1: the best. I saw a tweet from a guy that
28:42
Speaker 1: I follow and he's and he's I really I really
28:46
Speaker 1: like his his perspectives on stuff. It's Griffin Schiller, and
28:51
Speaker 1: it's at Griffin Schiller if anybody wants to follow him,
28:57
Speaker 1: but he has. He sent out a tweet review and
29:00
Speaker 1: one of the last kind of things in it is
29:03
Speaker 1: where he called with The Running Man one of the
29:05
Speaker 1: most radical blockbusters you'll see all year. And with all
29:11
Speaker 1: due respect to Griffin, I'd say that this is probably
29:14
Speaker 1: one of the biggest disappointments of the year. There's momentum
29:19
Speaker 1: and excitement as the movie kicks off, but right and
29:22
Speaker 1: Gain can't sustain it. The entertaining elements of it come
29:27
Speaker 1: and go. Yet what mostly hangs around throughout his sort
29:32
Speaker 1: of this overwhelming feeling of just either confusion or just
29:36
Speaker 1: simply asking ourselves as the movie finally ends, how could
29:40
Speaker 1: this have gone so wrong? It's just not what you
29:45
Speaker 1: would expect from Edgar Wright. And it's almost like that
29:50
Speaker 1: this movie is not an Edgar Right movie, and that
29:55
Speaker 1: saddens me. And so The Running Man gets a vix
29:58
Speaker 1: FLICKX rating of two out of five. And coming up
30:02
Speaker 1: next is the one we've all been waiting for. We
30:05
Speaker 1: finally get to hear Cynthia Rivos sing I'll get you
30:09
Speaker 1: my party next. It's Wicked for Good. I just want
30:27
Speaker 1: to go ahead and get this out of the way.
30:29
Speaker 1: I don't think it matters what I tell you people
30:32
Speaker 1: about this movie. You probably will see it, have seen it,
30:36
Speaker 1: and maybe you're already have seen it two or three times.
30:39
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna give it to you anyway. Per IMDb
30:42
Speaker 1: in case you don't know what it is. This is
30:44
Speaker 1: the second part of Wicked, which is based off a book,
30:48
Speaker 1: but more importantly of the musical Broadway smash hip. After
30:54
Speaker 1: challenging the wizards totalitarian regime and Oz, Alphaba must grapple
31:00
Speaker 1: with her identity as the Wicked Witch of the West. Meanwhile,
31:03
Speaker 1: the Wizard has given Glinda the title Glinda the Good
31:07
Speaker 1: and a public status as the nation's defender against Alphaba.
31:11
Speaker 1: The two witches must make decisions that sealed their fates
31:13
Speaker 1: in the second musical installment, So obviously if you've seen
31:18
Speaker 1: the musical, you already knew sort of what for Good
31:21
Speaker 1: was going to be. Wicked ended when the musical had
31:27
Speaker 1: its intermission, so this is actually the second part of it.
31:32
Speaker 1: But please keep in mind the musical was about two
31:34
Speaker 1: and a half hours and this movie alone is almost
31:38
Speaker 1: two and a half hours. So clearly there's a lot
31:41
Speaker 1: of stuff in here that was not and some of
31:43
Speaker 1: it helps, some of it doesn't. Some of it tries
31:45
Speaker 1: to kind of kind of iron out some details, while
31:50
Speaker 1: also it just seems unnecessary. But I think the main
31:54
Speaker 1: thing to know is that this for Good is sort
31:58
Speaker 1: of the darker part of Wicked, but it doesn't mean
32:04
Speaker 1: that it's the better part of Wicked. I think splitting
32:09
Speaker 1: this into two films catches up with Wicked here. There's
32:14
Speaker 1: just simply not enough material for this to be a
32:17
Speaker 1: solid kind of standalone film. I was reading some stuff
32:21
Speaker 1: after I watched this, and I saw where people like,
32:25
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, you knew that the second part was
32:28
Speaker 1: the weakest of the two, And I'm thinking, if if
32:32
Speaker 1: we all knew that, then why not just make one movie?
32:34
Speaker 1: Because when you watch it as one complete piece, it's
32:40
Speaker 1: it's great because for Good really compliments the first part.
32:45
Speaker 1: But when you choose to do this part one, part two,
32:48
Speaker 1: and I mean I'm not saying it's you know, you
32:51
Speaker 1: probably are gonna have ten billion dollars made, but it's
32:54
Speaker 1: it doesn't. It doesn't work the same way. And this
33:00
Speaker 1: is I mean, this is the case. We waited a
33:02
Speaker 1: year and now we're watching the second installment as its own,
33:07
Speaker 1: and it doesn't. It doesn't measure up. And I guess
33:10
Speaker 1: as much as as much as I saw people say
33:12
Speaker 1: we knew this was the weaker part than I guess,
33:14
Speaker 1: no one should be surprised that, yes, this is the
33:16
Speaker 1: weakest this is the weakest part, and it's just not
33:20
Speaker 1: as good I would I will say the one thing
33:25
Speaker 1: that really holds up is performances. Uh Ariana Grande, Cynthia Rivo.
33:30
Speaker 1: They are powerhouses. They are great. I don't think it's
33:34
Speaker 1: anything that they haven't already done in the first part,
33:38
Speaker 1: but I do, I really do like them. Michelle Yeo's
33:42
Speaker 1: fine and Jeff Goldbloom. It seems like everybody else is
33:45
Speaker 1: like it's it's not that they're It's not that I
33:48
Speaker 1: don't like the performances. I just think that there's just
33:52
Speaker 1: there seems to be a real gap between our two
33:54
Speaker 1: witches and kind of everyone else. And I think a
33:59
Speaker 1: lot that I liked about this one was that Glinda
34:03
Speaker 1: and Alphaba were able to kind of flesh out their
34:06
Speaker 1: characters a little more. They were able to really kind
34:08
Speaker 1: of dig into this friendship and that had just grown
34:13
Speaker 1: because obviously we first when they were first introduced in
34:16
Speaker 1: kind of figuring out who they are in the first one.
34:19
Speaker 1: This one, I think they're still trying to figure out
34:22
Speaker 1: who they are, more so Glinda than Alphaba. I think
34:24
Speaker 1: Alphabet pretty much knows who she is and and what
34:28
Speaker 1: her kind of mission is as far as fighting the
34:30
Speaker 1: Wizard and you know, exposing his lies. But I I
34:36
Speaker 1: did see and I agree where it's almost like Wicked
34:41
Speaker 1: was kind of for Alphaba and Wicked for Good is
34:44
Speaker 1: really for Glinda. It's Aarona Grande gets gets to really
34:50
Speaker 1: kind of explore that character more and we kind of
34:54
Speaker 1: get to understand get to understand both of them. But
34:58
Speaker 1: with Glinda, I really liked her story arc from the
35:03
Speaker 1: first one to this one and sort of how it's
35:07
Speaker 1: almost like you almost she's become what she's always dreamed
35:11
Speaker 1: to be. But of course it's not what she it's
35:15
Speaker 1: not all you know, it's not all what it's cracked
35:17
Speaker 1: up to be. And there's also this real sincerity about
35:23
Speaker 1: the how these two women really do care for each other,
35:26
Speaker 1: even though they're standing on opposite ends of what too
35:29
Speaker 1: of kind of what they represent, what they stand up
35:33
Speaker 1: for and and yeah, and I mean and and Cynthia,
35:38
Speaker 1: the the emotional and the just the humanity that she
35:43
Speaker 1: brings to the quote wicked Witch of the West is
35:49
Speaker 1: is sublime and so harivo grande. They're they're both, they're
35:55
Speaker 1: both fabulous and I and I the best parts of
35:59
Speaker 1: her good is when we kind of get to the
36:02
Speaker 1: intimate personal aspects of their characters and would not only
36:10
Speaker 1: as as they sort of find their way, but also
36:15
Speaker 1: reckon with who they are and what they're meant to
36:19
Speaker 1: do alone and together. The visual grander still there, still
36:28
Speaker 1: going strong, the production design, the costumes, much of the
36:34
Speaker 1: special effects going on. There's very vibrant it. It looks gorgeous,
36:39
Speaker 1: it looks good. There's you know, it's that carried straight
36:42
Speaker 1: over from the from the first one. The songs are
36:47
Speaker 1: a little they're not very uh, they don't really pack
36:53
Speaker 1: much of a punch in this one, I would say,
36:54
Speaker 1: if any of them do probably I would say no
36:58
Speaker 1: good Deed for sure, and and for Good probably the
37:02
Speaker 1: only highlights in this one. One thing I wish that
37:06
Speaker 1: For Good had more of was humor. I feel like
37:09
Speaker 1: there's a huge amount lacking and and and in this
37:13
Speaker 1: one quite a bit of pacing issues. I think that's
37:18
Speaker 1: probably its biggest flaw here. There's there's a lot that
37:24
Speaker 1: is thrown in there that's just unnecessary. And I don't
37:28
Speaker 1: know if they were just trying to make it over
37:31
Speaker 1: two hours no matter what, or if they thought they
37:33
Speaker 1: were kind of you know, creating more insightful things about
37:37
Speaker 1: these characters. But a lot of it doesn't doesn't work,
37:42
Speaker 1: not very effective. The I think the one thing that
37:48
Speaker 1: is kind of annoying, even though I feel like it
37:50
Speaker 1: has it just had to be done, is a lot
37:56
Speaker 1: of this movie is trying to set up Wizard of
38:00
Speaker 1: Oz from the goal, you know, the the yellow Brick Road,
38:09
Speaker 1: to how Dorothy gets there and what you know, kind
38:15
Speaker 1: of like the the e true Hollywood story of the
38:18
Speaker 1: wicked Witch of the West and the real reason with
38:22
Speaker 1: Dorothy and those slippers and and how how those slippers
38:26
Speaker 1: came to be and what they meant and oh how
38:28
Speaker 1: the cowardly Lion got there and the you know, mindless
38:32
Speaker 1: Scarecrow and heartless tin men and there's that, and it's
38:36
Speaker 1: it really kind of drags it. It really kind of
38:39
Speaker 1: drags it down. And I know it's something that has
38:41
Speaker 1: to be done and they have to do it. I
38:44
Speaker 1: just wish it was kind of structured better, implemented more creatively.
38:50
Speaker 1: I don't know, some of it just seems so I
38:53
Speaker 1: don't know, it just seemed it just seems somewhat absurd
38:58
Speaker 1: on on some of it and kind of them, Like
39:02
Speaker 1: I said, I it's a shame that they are basically
39:07
Speaker 1: shackled to the Wizard of Oz in the second part,
39:09
Speaker 1: because it's it's almost like they have to do it.
39:13
Speaker 1: But I almost wish some parts of that were just
39:17
Speaker 1: left out, or maybe some of this that can be
39:20
Speaker 1: suggested without actually like going into you know, the some
39:25
Speaker 1: of these creations of these characters and anyway, and not
39:31
Speaker 1: all of it's bad. I mean some of it is cool,
39:33
Speaker 1: and I mean a lot of it is of course,
39:34
Speaker 1: is nostalgian to show and like oh, you know, it's
39:37
Speaker 1: almost like, oh, I'm gonna go back and watch Wizard
39:39
Speaker 1: of Oz because now it's going to be so different.
39:41
Speaker 1: But I mean, you know, let's be honest, some of
39:43
Speaker 1: this stuff and just making up Wizard of Oz of
39:47
Speaker 1: what in the thirties. So but I will say I
39:52
Speaker 1: did like the way that they showed the last part, which, again,
39:57
Speaker 1: if this was one movie, I think all of it
39:59
Speaker 1: would be much much more coherent, much more enjoyable, much
40:03
Speaker 1: more entertaining. Because this one does compliment the first one.
40:06
Speaker 1: I just don't think you quite realize it because of
40:10
Speaker 1: them splitting into two movies. But the way you kind
40:13
Speaker 1: of wicket opens and the way that it ends is
40:16
Speaker 1: sort of the same. And I and I love that
40:18
Speaker 1: they I love how they did the whole throwing the
40:22
Speaker 1: water on Alphaba, what they were able to do there
40:27
Speaker 1: is there is a part in there, and it's one
40:30
Speaker 1: of the best parts. It's just between it's towards the
40:32
Speaker 1: end with Glinda and Alphaba, and I had just read
40:34
Speaker 1: a story somewhere where that that was just done in rehearsal.
40:40
Speaker 1: It wasn't in the script, but it's something that Arevo
40:42
Speaker 1: and Grande decided to do, and it's it's really well done.
40:47
Speaker 1: It's very touching, and I'm glad that they had the
40:51
Speaker 1: instincts to do that and also actually put it into
40:55
Speaker 1: into the movie, which kind of leads me to where
40:59
Speaker 1: the ending is quite emotional as far as just the
41:02
Speaker 1: ride that you know, audiences have been on for this long,
41:05
Speaker 1: from the musical to now this, you know, the the
41:09
Speaker 1: hit the hit movies. I do think it's a satisfying
41:13
Speaker 1: way for Alphaba and Glinda to kind of end it.
41:19
Speaker 1: I liked, I liked what they did. Like I said,
41:24
Speaker 1: there's a there's a there's their kind of scene at
41:27
Speaker 1: the end that's I thought was done really well and
41:33
Speaker 1: it was a nice little send off for them both.
41:36
Speaker 1: Once we kind of get past the water splashing part,
41:41
Speaker 1: they kind of have to do their typical wrapping up thing.
41:45
Speaker 1: But even even then I don't hold much against them
41:48
Speaker 1: for doing for doing that. So the good news is
41:52
Speaker 1: is that at least it ends. At least it ends
41:57
Speaker 1: in a good way, because again, it's really truely about
42:00
Speaker 1: Alphaba and Glinda, and I wish we kind of kind
42:05
Speaker 1: of stayed with that more instead of kind of venturing
42:08
Speaker 1: off with all the other shenanigans and again trying to
42:12
Speaker 1: set up Wizard of Oz but but yeah, but there's
42:19
Speaker 1: so many parts that drag it down, and I guess, uh,
42:21
Speaker 1: I guess you could say that it ain't define gravity
42:24
Speaker 1: no more. I wanted to make sure I got that
42:27
Speaker 1: dig in before I ended this. But but yes, in
42:31
Speaker 1: the end, I think you'll leave satisfied. But clearly there
42:36
Speaker 1: is a huge difference between the first part and the
42:40
Speaker 1: second part, which again leads me to believe that I
42:42
Speaker 1: think you could have just done one movie. But but hey,
42:47
Speaker 1: when there's money on the table, let those witches fly
42:54
Speaker 1: so wicked. For Good is getting a vix Flix rating
42:59
Speaker 1: of two and a half out of five, and that
43:03
Speaker 1: is it again. No Cinema Chronicles next month, but do
43:10
Speaker 1: be on the lookout for a vix Flicks podcast. Got
43:12
Speaker 1: a lot of best of twenty twenty five stuff that's
43:14
Speaker 1: going to be posted throughout the month, as well as
43:16
Speaker 1: my review and rating for the new Chalome movie Marty Supreme.
43:21
Speaker 1: Don't forget to be on the lookout for our Nationville
43:25
Speaker 1: Movie Dispatch Movie Annual twenty twenty five. I think it's
43:29
Speaker 1: it's got It's bigger than last year. We got like
43:32
Speaker 1: over two hundred pages worth of reviews and lists and rankings,
43:37
Speaker 1: and so pick it up, read it now, get it
43:42
Speaker 1: for a friend, get it for family, for Christmas, whatever,
43:46
Speaker 1: just be on the lookout for it where everyone at
43:48
Speaker 1: Nashville Movie Dispatch is pretty pumped about it. And that's it.
43:54
Speaker 1: Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and till January
44:02
Speaker 1: just go see a damn movie.