Spitball Army

8.4
[blu-ray]

Ron Howard has managed to pull a strong narrative out of the history of the Beatles without being too distracted by the multitude of other stories going on within the group at the same time in their history. I was unaware – unless I had just forgotten – of the seedling role they had played in weakening racial segregation in the U.S.; this was possibly the most moving segment of the film. Kudos especially to the sound mixing of the concert sequences. I watched this with a silly grin on my face throughout.

https://boxd.it/k7MYH

5.4
[DVD, library]

In his review of this show’s original run, Ben Brantley referred to it as “affectless.” Judging from this revival, I’d say he was mostly correct. There are moments of exuberance (an interpretation of “Hey, Big Spender” from Sweet Charity jumps off the screen), but this filmed stage performance is mostly an uneven jumble of shruggy shoulders, bowler hats, jazz hands and expressionless faces.

https://boxd.it/k5XKd

5.6
[streaming, Netflix]

Enjoyable but unoriginal.

https://boxd.it/k1zwt

7.3
[blu-ray, Netflix]

Well, this turned out to be a lot of fun. The creature effects were outstanding. So what if logic and reasoning were spotty…the title character is a giant ape as tall as the Eiffel Tower!! There were nods to the earliest Kong movies (Kong in chains; Kong battles a “dinosaur”; Kong battles a water creature; Kong comes face to face with humans standing on a cliff; native tribe worships Kong), which made the film more of a sequel/homage, but that was part of the fun. Samuel L. Jackson reprises the spirit of his character from DEEP BLUE SEA. Also, watch for a clever gag featuring John Goodman and a re-charging electronic camera flash attachment.

https://boxd.it/jVBep

7.5
[blu-ray, Netflix]

You have a pretty good idea where this story is headed once Tom Hiddleston’s character is warned not to mess around with his boss’s mistress. That his boss is an arms dealer masquerading as a philanthropist and that Hiddleston is an under-undercover spy infiltrating the operation just adds to the tension.

https://boxd.it/jTY8F

6.5
[blu-ray, library]

Excellently-cast low-key rescue-mission Western that borrows tropes familiar from UNFORGIVEN and THE SEARCHERS until it descends into APOCALYPTO-style gruesomeness in the last act. Richard Jenkins is especially effective in the sidekick role, and has a memorable soliloquy about a flea circus.

https://boxd.it/jTPLj

5.2
[blu-ray, Netflix]

There is humor at the edges of this paranoid fable. However, the sly satirical humor (mostly buried in the multitude of text messages that pepper the screen during the immersive social media scenes) don’t compensate for the shallow character representation and re-tread plot. Tom Hanks is fine, as usual; Emma Watson shrill and mousey and not the sparked heroine the film tries to make her out to be.

https://boxd.it/jPIgP

6.2
[blu-ray, Netflix]

This is definitely a film that benefits from watching with context. I would recommend watching the supplements on this Criterion edition prior to seeing the film, particularly the interviews with director Mike Leigh and actor Tim Roth. Tim Roth is asked in his interview to describe the plot of the film in which he appears in nearly every scene; he clearly struggles to come up with an answer. The Criterion print is vastly superior to the one aired on TCM earlier this year.

https://boxd.it/jOBhp