Thief's Monthly Movie Loot - 2021 Edition

Again not seen most of those you've watched since I last popped in so can't really comment much

I thought Wreck-It-Ralph was a fun watch but am not a gamer myself so I never quite got the hype for it. Haven't bothered with the sequel. Thought Dogtooth was brilliant, I love how bizarre but with a straight face it is - just works really well for me and is probably my favourite from Lanthimos thus far (yet to see The Favourite though and do adore Olivia Colman who to me is a perfect fit for his style so that may well change).

I really ought to get round to Fantastic Planet at some point, I never seem to hear any negative opinions of it and Nomadland will almost certainly get a view at some point (most likely in a couple of years time knowing me).

Re: Lanthimos, The Favourite is the only other film of his I've seen, and I really liked it. As for Dogtooth, I agree. Such a bizarre and unsettling film.


If you do get around Fantastic Planet and/or Nomadland, let me know what you think.

__________________

In 1996, Tom Cruise took on the role of Ethan Hunt for the first time. A highly skilled spy that ended up on the wrong end of a conspiracy that framed him for the death of his whole team forcing him to go rogue to clear his name. 10 years, one sequel, and numerous production woes later, Cruise would take on the role once again in what would end up being a very different film; one that would change the course of this franchise for good.

Mission: Impossible III features a semi-retired Hunt, who is now a trainer of new recruits while enjoying "normal" life with his fiancée Julia (Michelle Monaghan). Unfortunately, when a young trainee (Keri Russell) ends up captured, Ethan is pulled back into action; first to try to rescue her and then to try to stop Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the notorious arms dealer that had captured her. And it is at the hands of Davian that the film introduces a concept that seemed foreign to this franchise: a real threat and a real vulnerability to our "hero".

Ever since I first saw this, it has remained as my favorite of the franchise. Director J.J. Abrams and his team of co-writers do a great job of subtly introducing a certain level of intimacy and closeness to the interactions that make everything feel personal, as opposed to the detached "uber-coolness" of the previous film. You feel it in Ethan's interactions with his trusted right-hand man, Luther (Ving Rhames) or in his brief interactions with Director of Operations Musgrave (Billy Crudup), or in other small things, like him knowing the names of Julia's friends and co-workers. There's a familiarity to everything that makes you feel less secure than if it this was some other Bond-esque action film.

But the biggest way we feel that threat is through Davian himself. Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers what is probably the best antagonist performance of the franchise. His Davian is ruthless but without veering too much into "moustache-twirling". There's more of a banality to it, an "I don't care" vibe from him that I just find chilling. The above quote is one of the many threats that he throws at Ethan after being captured, and the way he pauses and enunciates Ethan's name is just one of many ways in which he signals to him "I know who you are now. I can get to you."

But aside from that, Abrams and company do countless other things to make the film feel more grounded and less exaggerated and ludicrous. From the way they coordinate infiltrating the Vatican or a corporate building in Shanghai to how they come up with their iconic masks, everything feels real. Even the action setpieces, all of which are great, feel more organic and grounded in reality than the ones in M:I-2 or in future films, regardless of how cool or great they are. To me, the ambush at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge remains one of the most thrilling and exciting action scenes of "recent" years.

Finally, the other aspect of the film that makes it my favorite of the franchise is the team aspect. To me, this is the first film of the franchise where the team actually feels like *a team*. In the first one, it's understandable because Ethan is just assembling a team of rogues he doesn't know, but in the second one, you just have Luther and some random guy in a helicopter. Here, you get that sense of purpose in each member of the team, plus that sense of camaraderie between each of them that makes it feel more like a team film instead of the Ethan Hunt Show.

All of those advantages are things that they've managed to maintain through all the other sequels. Like I said before, this is the one that changed the franchise, and the success of the other films is anchored to what they built here: from the team rapport to the character of Julia and his relationship with Ethan, and it has worked incredibly well.

Grade:

For anyone interested, I'll be a guest tonight on Let's Chat! Live via YouTube. Like the title says, it will be live at 8pm EST, so if anyone is interested, feel free to join in through here...



Or just search for them on YouTube. We'll talk about my podcast and films in general, so check it out!

Love MI: III, but I think my favorite(s) is the one-two action punch of Rogue Nation and Fallout. Rebecca Ferguson was a fantastic addition to the franchise, and the team fun is in full swing in those films. Add Sean Harris in as the villain, and we have a winner! Or, two winners, even though they are kind of one big movie when watched in sequence. III is excellent, though, with Hoffman really nailing the villain role there, as well.

__________________

Fallout is up there for me as far as a franchise Top 3 would go. But yeah, I would add Ghost Protocol to those two in terms of them working like one big film. Anyway, the truth is that they're all good, with the possible exception of the second one, which has some cool action setpieces, but feels more like an outlier.

We went through the whole series last year, and while two was the definite worst one, it wasn't as bad I remembered it being. My problem with it is that it is sort of a Tom Cruise solo piece, and MI should be all about the team as a whole.

As an aside, I used to think of Tom Cruise as sort of a Hollywood diva, and I would picture him showing up to the shoot at 2pm with his sunglasses on, doing one take for a few scenes, and then jumping in his fancy car without a word and driving off to party, ignoring the other cast and crew, except to fire an intern that looked at him the wrong way or something.

After seeing the making of Rogue Nation, it seems he is quite the opposite. An extremely hands-on guy, involved in as much as he can find time to be involved with. He is the first guy on set, and the last to leave, regularly giving pep talks and words of encouragement to the crew and his castmates. A real workaholic, that guy.

I saw M:I-2 in theaters and that's what I got out of it: kick-ass action sequences, lots of style, but not much of a genuine M:I vibe. I haven't seen it since so I don't know how it would fare now, but as far as I remember, it does stick out like a sore thumb along the others.

Re: Tom Cruise, that's the general vibe I've gotten from him lately, especially with this franchise. He seems to genuinely care about it, and I think that his close relationship with McQuarrie also helps. It's good to see someone of his "stature" to be this involved.

Anybody has any links to a Russ Meyer film that isn't Beyond the Valley of the Dolls?

I threw myself this challenge only to realize later that there literally isn't *anything* on any streaming service except Dolls, which I've seen. The only other one I saw available was Fanny Hill on Prime, but it's a rental.

It's the only category I have left to complete the challenge, so any help?

Bit of a timezone mishap, but this is in one hour (8:30pm), so be there or be...

And that's a wrap! If you didn't tune in live, you can still check out the interview on the link above.

Some of his films are on YouTube.

Woohoo, thank you! I could've swore I checked YouTube, or maybe I thought about it at work but didn't want to Google "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill" on my work laptop

I think I caught the last 2/3 or so "live". Since I missed the beginning I wasn't clear if the other two people were co-hosts, or if one of them was also a guest.

Re: Tom Cruise

If you asked me "Do you like Tom Cruise?" My knee-jerk answer would be "no", and yet when confronted with one of his films I'm always reminded how good he is. So I'm in this weird space where I don't seek out his films but usually enjoy them in spite of myself.

(and I thought it was common knowledge that he was a wild man when it comes to doing stunts and stuff. I was surprised that that seemed to be a revelation to the other chatters.)

__________________
Captain's Log
My Collection

Thanks for joining!

Re: Tom Cruise, like I said in the interview, I feel like he's often dismissed, either consciously or not, by either his looks or his crazy shenanigans... but when you look at it, he more than often delivers.

A film from the Criterion Collection whose number includes the #3 (i.e. 13, 230, 830): Rashomon (#138)
Continuing my "watch every Kurosawa film" project. This just in: Rashomon is a quality film.

A film from the 1930s: Mystery Plane / Stunt Pilot (both 1939)
From the late '20s into the '40s, Tailspin Tommy was a popular comic strip character who eventually spread to books, magazines, comic books and the movies. There were two serials and four films total, and these were the first two installments of the Tailspin Tommy Cinematic Universe. They weren't great, but it's still cool to discover a forgotten character like this. (He was a pilot, if that wasn't clear).

A documentary film:
Conny Plank: The Potential of Noise
Producer Plank was involved with some of my favorite German bands/albums of the 70s, but this doc did not shed much light on his work. The film was directed by his son who was very young when Plank died, so this mostly consists of old rockers telling him how awesome his dad was. Not terrible, but could've been better.

The third part on a film franchise:
Dracula: Prince of Darkness
(Re)Watched all of the Hammer Draculas in sequence, and this one is #3.

Hey, look at that! You went with Rashomon, I went with Ran Still trying to write something about it, though.

I've only seen the original. Any other worth a watch?

The first 3 or 4 are solid, but once you enter the 1970s your mileage may vary. This reminds me that I intended to report my findings in the horror thread but I forgot, so keep an eye out for a more detailed recap.

But definitely check out Brides of Dracula if you can (film #2 in the series). GAWD I love Brides of Dracula!

Spanish poet and philosopher George Santayana once wrote "Those that don't remember their history are cursed to repeat it". In other words, we need to learn from our mistakes as human beings and as a society, in order to not repeat them again and again. Unfortunately, we either forget, or think we're above those mistakes and that we will never trip over them again, only to find ourselves face flat next. That sentiment lies in the background of Akira Kurosawa's 1985 epic.

Set in Medieval Japan, Ran follows Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai), an aging warlord that decides to retire and hand over his empire to his three sons: Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. Unfortunately, he doesn't count on how the thirst for power will corrupt and ultimately destroy their family and the kingdom. As chaos ravages the land, Hidetora starts to lose his sanity, but still finds himself realizing that much of what's happening is a direct result of his past actions and mistakes.

This is a film that I've had on my radar for decades. Even when I was a teenager starting to get into film, I used to be drawn to its box cover which featured the iconic scene with the castle engulfed in flames. For some reason, I never got around to it, and when I started diving into Kurosawa films as an adult, some people suggested for me to start with "lighter" films and leave Ran for later. After watching four other Kurosawa films during the last decade, I thought it was about time.

There are many things that I could say about the film. It is definitely an epic in all its spectacle and scope. The setpieces are breathtaking and grandiose, the set and production design is perfect, and Kurosawa's direction is pretty much flawless. His framing and use of color and symmetry on the shots is so gorgeous that you want to take them and put them on a wall. In addition, Kurosawa uses numerous shots of nature, from the mountains and clouds to the chilling last shot, perhaps in an attempt to contrast the beauty and order of nature against the chaos ("ran") of humanity's struggles and wars.

Because Ran is a film of chaos despite all efforts. Hidetora has lived all his life building his kingdom, and for the most part has managed to avoid the consequences of the actions of his past. But as he realizes towards the middle of the film, as he finds himself in the ruins of a castle he once destroyed, men always travel the same road. Hidetora realizes that the ruthlessness with which he ruled is the same ruthlessness that he's seeing in his sons right now, and that the revenge he's being served right now is the direct effect of his own actions.

The performance from Nakadai is a spectacle in and of itself, as we see the mental and physical decay conveyed through his expressions, his makeup, and his body language. Jinpachi Nezu and Daisuke Ryu are also great as Jiro and Saburo, but Mieko Harada easily steals every scene she's in as Lady Kaede, the cunning wife of Taro. Kudos also to Peter, who plays Hidetora's fool and who probably has one of the most interesting arcs and certainl the best lines (including the above quote).

This film has certainly jumped at the top of my Kurosawa ranking, and is easily one of the most gorgeous films I've ever seen. It has surely joined the list of films I would love to see on the big screen at least once. I've only just seen it, but I would have no issues traveling this road again.

Grade: