Suspect Goes Back To The Movies - 2020

Making my list of 50 Movies I Love, But You Hate, it was fun revisiting this monster shark flick. For obvious reasons, this isn't a good movie, but for other reasons, it's perfect.

Described as a lame Jaws wannabe, Deep Blue Sea never tries to be anything more than a classic monster flick with a bit of the disaster movie thrown in for good measure. It adds to the levels of suspense and makes this film an entertaining watch 20 years later.

This film joins the ranks of movies like Anaconda or Lake Placid, but I feel that this one might rank slightly above those movies because Renny Harlin knows how to direct a set piece.

Some of the cig is a little wonky, but the animatronic shark stuff looks legit. Forget these Sharktopus, Piranhaconda type movies and watch something like this.

__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

An embarrassment for Kevin Smith.

So originally, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back was supposed to be the ViewAskew Universe's final film. Closing Smith's history with these characters and moving on to something else. So we ended up getting Jersey Girl, which was ripped apart by critics and did not do well financially. Distraught by his first attempt at something other than his usual stoner jokes, he went back to the well and decided to try and close the chapters where it all started, with Clerks II. That film was a success and it really was a nice ending for those characters and that "universe".

So Smith was confident enough to end it there and branch out. Zach and Miri Make a Porno could have very well been a film in his Askew Universe. It was funny enough but controversy in advertising meant few people knew about it and it flopped. So Smith thought he'd try his hand at directing someone else's script for the first time and we received Cop Out. We all know how well that one went. Then Smith did something bold, something that other recent people who've had success in comedies have done and he reached out to the horror genre. His next slew of films were extremely weird and out there. Red State was his take on Fargo, Tusk was an ad he saw and thought it'd be funny to turn that into a movie, Yoga Hosers....the jury is still out on what the hell that was. He even did a short segment for the holiday horror film titled...Holidays.

At this point I felt like Smith was confused by his fanbase. So many people yelling at him for doing the same old stuff and to try something new, then he does and people cry that he should stick to doing what he knows best. Mixed messages from the crowd. Well, one heart attack later and Smith knew he had to film something so that Yoga Hosers wasn't the last film credit of his career.

So we go back to that profitable well. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. It was around Red State where Smith was getting sick of the Hollywood game and he auctioned off the distribution rights of the film to the highest bidder. He bid one dollar and sold it to himself. What he did next was take the film on a road show tour, where you get a Q&A with him after the movie, this is where I saw the film and his Q&A was longer than the movie. He's done the same thing with Jay & Silent Bob, so don't be alarmed if you thought you missed it in theatres.

This movie is hard to watch. Smith thinks that if he calls himself out on his BS, that it is okay to subject people to it. This film is literally the exact same as Strikes Back. Our two stoner characters discover a movie is being made about them in Hollwood, they take a road trip to get there and stop it from being made. He literally uses the SAME JOKES from the first film and does he expect us to laugh because...nostalgia? Why waste your time with this movie when you can just watch the original and get the same content? Everyone are in their 50's now, seeing them act like they did in the early 90's is sad.

The film is a whose who of celeb cameos. Even his old friend Ben Affleck shows up in what is the best scene in the film. Smith actually shows some intelligent and emotional insight on what it's like being a father and it is an honest and genuine moment in a film that lacks many. Am I simply maturing out of Smith's crude sense of humour? No, I love Dogma and will still watch the hell out of Strikes Back. I find those movies hilarious. His attempt with Reboot is not. I do not think I had one real laugh the entire time. I might have chuckled, but if I did it was accompanied by some gas and was probably an accident.

His daughter "acts" in the movie. Again, Smith calls himself out with nepotism, but that doesn't stop the fact that she cannot act. She stalls the movie in every scene she is in and is extremely uncomfortable to hear her say some of the things she says while he dad is right there. She's been in a few of his last movies and I hope she has the acting bug out of her system. She is a distraction and nothing more. The film takes a weird left turn in the climax involving secret spies and Russia...I guess that's when the kitchen sink wasn't an option.

Is this only a film for loyal fans? Maybe. There are a lot of callbacks to his other films, the entire movie is actually a call back to his other films. But it feels like a safe and cheap cash grab aimed at the people that gave him a career in the first place. He takes aim at reboots in Hollywood and one would expect he would have something interesting to say about it, but he maybe dedicates one scene to this and then the film itself suffers from the issues he pointed out earlier. It's a Cop Out....haha.

Kevin Smith is a gifted storyteller, I could listen to any one of his numerous Hollywood stories and I have a few of his books, but this movie is pure laziness. Should he abandon Clerks 3 and Mallrats 2? Maybe, if the effort he puts forth is anything like this. Should he continue on with his weird and crazy filmography like Tusk and Yoga Hosers? Maybe. I don't have the answer, but I do know that I don't ever want to see a film like this again. It's almost insulting.

Nice to see some love for Boy

I'd have to revisit it to be sure, but I think Hausu might be essential viewing. I've been meaning to revisit it in the wake of Obayashi's passing (along with watching whatever else of his I can access) - the only other film of his I've seen is Hanagatami and it's pretty impressive that he made a three-hour film with Hausu-esque visuals in his 80s while telling a semi-autobiographical story about being a youth in pre-WWII Japan and it manages to be sincerely good.

Jay and SIlent Bob Reboot, on the other hand...I prepared for it by revisiting whatever Askewniverse movies I had in my collection (ironically, this doesn't include Strike Back, but I rewatched that on TV a few years ago and have determined that I can probably live with not owning a copy) and it is mildly fascinating to see how he alternately developed and regressed as a filmmaker (Mallrats and Chasing Amy back-to-back in particular as he goes from making a dumb-as-hell sex comedy to an achingly sincere romance - and then a religious satire like Dogma), but Clerks II really doesn't hold up. I used to think that was a good example of him trying to balance his edgy nerd humour with his growing responsibilities (it's not perhaps surprising that both of his post-Jersey Girl Askewniverse are about their respective protagonists learning that they are fathers and dealing with the consequences), but the idea that Dante and Randal simply buy the Quick Stop and re-open it seems like his ultimate mission statement - like them, he's going to stay in the same place forever (and of course Reboot is bookended by scenes at the Quick Stop). I can't exactly begrudge the guy making this film directly after his heart attack - it does feel like the work of a man who's simply glad to be alive, even if that means the end result isn't overly enjoyable. Since he's gone on to say that Clerks III is going to be about Randal having a heart attack and having his life thrown into perspective as a result, I'm hopeful that he'll actually reckon with the seriousness of this event in a meaningful way and turn out a good movie in the process - certainly sounds more interesting than him trying yet again to resurrect Mallrats.

__________________
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

A well-plotted comedy that is helped even more by the chemistry of the cast. Jamie Lee Curtis shines in a role that showcases her talents as an actress. She is equal parts sexy, funny and conniving, making every part she plays believably fun. Kevin Kline got a lot of attention as the over the top Otto and rightfully so. He has some absurd lines that I find it hard to imagine they were able to get through them in one take. Finally, John Cleese playing the straight man, which is no stretch but his own awkward predicaments are genuinely funny as well. This is one of the best non-Monty Python, Monty Python movies.

It's essentially a heist movie where the heist goes right, but the aftermath goes wrong. You simply can't trust other criminals as each one was willing to double-cross the other in order to get their dirty hands on those beautiful diamonds.

I was surprised at how much I laughed during the film and how much the story is woven in. Usually, comedies are light on story and heavy on laughs, A Fish Called Wanda manages to excel at both and never teeter to one side or the other. Michael Palin has a bit where he tries to kill a woman and is unsuccessful each time. Genuinely funny moment in a film full of them.

When I think of Broken Arrow, I think of how bad it actually is, but for some reason, I don't care. I acknowledge that it's not a great movie...heck it's not a great action movie. There are some truly horribly edited set pieces here, but you've got John Travolta having A LOT of fun as the bad guy and Christian Slater trying his best to be an action hero, all set in the desert of Utah.

This film is overshadowed by Face/Off...which has its fun moments but has some bizarrely "real" ones too, Broken Arrow doesn't try to be anything more than what it is. A dumb action movie with Howie Long....Howie Long ladies and gentlemen. It's a typical shoot at someone and hides behind a barrel or some wooden palette. You wait for them to stop shooting, then you go back to shooting and rinse, repeat.

Watch it with a brain turned off, Travolta's sh*t eating grin and a different landscape to an action film and you won't hate yourself.