Monthly Archives: June 2021

'F9 : The Fast Saga' (2021) Review: Big & Boastful. It’s hard to think of a film series with more humble beginnings. What began as a gritty exploration of underground street racing, has evolved into a spy action adventure franchise with the kind of special effects one used to expect from movies with either superheroes or dinosaurs. 'F9: The Fast Saga' is the culmination of 20 years worth of history, but more than that unprecedented achievement, the series is now trapped in an unending pursuit of bigger and better visuals to justify its existence.Whereas Marvel films operate on a superhuman basis, Fast and Furious maintains that its protagonists are in fact human. The job of the film is to put these ordinary heroes into countless situations that by all accounts should leave them either intensely injured or fatally wounded. F9 is exceedingly good at visualizing these dangerous situations, but is less interested in explaining how exactly the crew does the impossible again and again.Truthfully, the film would be worse for it. The movie is most entertaining when it moves at a nitrous speed from one action event to the next. Any attempt to make sense out of it would surely kill the fun F9 brings to audiences. The film flexes the kind of self awareness to push the series into full blown parody, while still showing some mileage left. That mileage will run out once the films stop being fun. Fast 9 thankfully…

'Cruella' (2021) Review: Emma vs Emma Of all the Disney villains in history, there are none quite so devious as Cruella De Vil. Royal traitors like Jafar and Scar take the prize for most ambitious, but there’s a particular black heartedness to planning the murder of a hundred adorable puppies simply for something nice to wear. A coat which, by all accounts, Cruella would have likely forgotten about or thrown out the moment she was tired of it. There’s no sin more original than that, so it’s easy to understand why you’d want to make a movie about that person. Why ‘Cruella’ decides to tell the story about such a villain with a sympathetic view? Your guess is as good as mine. Still, that’s the tale that is told in the live action ‘Cruella’ in which Emma Stone plays a relatable young fashion designer with a bit of a mean streak.Early in the movie Cruella’s life as a young girl named Estella, shows that mean streak in its infancy. She’s hot tempered and will get herself into trouble as naturally as a dalmatian wears its spots. Rarely though is her bad action unfounded. Her methods are extreme but the film always roots her reaction in empathy. Cruella is a protagonist you can easily get behind, especially given her storied past.Soon after, Estella becomes Cruella proper, and unfolds the mystery of her past, while making an explosive entry into the London fashion scene. Standing…

'The Mitchells Vs The Machines' (2021) Review: 21st Century Family In high school, the thing to talk about with the same passion and fervour that I spoke about seeing 'The Godfather' for the first time at 12, was football. I distinctly remember trying to fake my way through conversations about Chelsea & Liverpool. Names that meant nothing to me since I knew neither their history nor their ability. The World Cup was always a Godsend because at least countries I could keep track of. Still, I always yearned to find people who I could get into long winded discussions about film and entertainment. There was a time when I would've given anything to care this much about anything else, but you can't choose what you love.I’d like to think my story of self love is pretty interesting, but it can't top a dysfunctional family road trip coming of age story, set against a robot apocalypse, brought about by a sentient scorned smartphone for which hell hath no like fury. The honour of such an interesting story goes to Katie Mitchell, the main protagonist in the epic and wildly entertaining ‘The Mitchells vs The Machines’.Katie, played by Abbi Jacobson, is the misunderstood oddball who goes to bed dreaming of seeing her name in lights - preferably for her work behind the camera. She sees the world through a filmmaker’s lens, a stark difference from her dud of a dad Rick, brought to life…