@el-hombre-malo gathers us round the the virtual fire monthly to compare notes on our cultural consumptiion, and naturally we tend to the positive. So here’s a space to tend to the negative: what have you given up on, Did Not Finish, removed from your Netflix watchlist, baled out of, and so on. To get you started I have decided life is too short this month for:
Midnight Sky
DOA scifi clunker from Clooney. After 30 minutes the entire rest of the film is crushingly obvious. A combination of lazy plotting that appears to rip off Wall-E, Clooney’s Old Man and the Ice act, and a perky mute girl who appears to rassle grandpa out of his grumpiness while they face a series of barriers to save… oh it’s just lazy, dull and obvious. Do the producers expect us to believe that a mother who is part of the final exodus of all humanity from earth would leave her 8-year old behind because she believed the ‘I think she went ahead on the ship in front of us’ line. Baled after 30 minutes.
Another Life
Scifi royalty Katee Sackhoff is onboard a ship chasing the origin of a mysterious alien object that’s appeared on earth. Derivative mashup of Arrival, Star Trek and Interstellar without any of the wit and wisdom of these. Ten hours of series 1, with series 2 on the way. Again, if the producers want us to believe that earth’s first embassy to another civilization would be crewed by hot 20-somethings in beachwear…please. I baled after two-thirds of the first episode.
Lord of Light – while not as terrible as either of the above, I lasted until page fifty of this sixties Siddhartha in a strange land.
Jeff Buckley – Grace. This was a big thing in the early 90s, but what was all the fuss about? Luckily I never need to listen to this ever again.
So, gather round the virtual fire and hurl some cultural crud on! All jettisoning is final.
Also given up a double CD of Tom Middleton’s crazy covers, Cosmotronica, to the charity show when they re-open. Can’t keep something out of a sense of irony.
I sort of enjoyed the meandering nature of the first series of Back, its few mildly chucklesome moments and apparent lack of direction I took to be a more laid back “hey, just enjoy the scenery” attempt to occupy the same lane as Detectorists. But, after a full second season where lots of little plots played out but nothing really happened, I don’t think the charm of the two leads and her out of Sherlock will be enough to draw me ..er.. back..
I’ve tried listening to Grace 3 times over the last 10 years – each time I ask “what the bloody hell was all that about?”.
I think I may be due to another “Nope – still don’t get it” attempt soon.
I’m glad it isn’t just me. I never got what all the fuss was about.
If he hadn’t died young in strange circumstances, he’d be long forgotten.
There. I’ve said it.
It’s not BAD I suppose, it’s just “good in parts”. Certainly not good enough as a whole.
And it’s legacy of whiny indie soundalike bands was pretty appalling for a while.
I agree – overrated by a load of fawning music critics. His version of Halleleujah is not the definitive version as some would suggest. Look to John Cale for that.
His version of Lilac Wine is pretty good though.
I’m glad I’m not the only one – although I do like his Halleleujah.
Nope, me neither. Much too self important and self-regarding by half. And all those who hitched themselves to the bandwagon seem a bit silly with hindsight.
Katee Sackhoff? Is that a ….real name?
Where were you when the outrage was expressed that the Battlestar Galactica remake was going to have Starbuck’s character as (gasp) a woman?!
(For ’twas she)
A lot of giving up in recent weeks. Maybe I’m just getting old
The Sparsholt Affair audiobook by Alan Hollingsworth. Started out great, its now settled down into tedious longeurs and I see there’s still eight hours to go.
Chernobyl by Serhii Plokhy. The TV adaptation is meant to be awesome but it’s like embarking on a vast 19th century Russian epic with a deluge of characters being introduced in rapid succession and swiftly overwhelming my tiny brain. It is well written and brisk and when I can focus properly I will dive back in.
Snow by John Banville – next!
John Cooper Clarke autobiography – I was so so so looking forward to this audiobook but God, the narration drove me up the wall.
Chernobyl is brilliant and it’s from that, that I discovered that Jared Harris is the son of Richard Harris, he of MacArthur Park infamy. The son has definitely eclipsed the father in the Acting department. See also; Josh Brolin. Fantastic actor that also eclipses his famous actor father, James.
Jared Harris was in Mad Men too. Another thumbs up for Chernobyl.
He was the adult Will Robinson in that Lost In Space movie from the late 90s too…may just have to go have another look to see if knowing it’s him makes any difference.
He was also very good as King George VI in season one of The Crown
….Twin Peaks etc
And indeed he played John Lennon in the Michael Lindsey Hogg film where he imagined what might have happened during Macca and Mr Ono’s final meeting in NY. Harris was really good as Lennon, I thought, much better than the bloke doing McCartney.
I loved Chernobyl – having a background in the Chemicals Industry it was such a good reminder of what people are trained to avoid and how things can go wrong.
You are hilarious Moley!
“Again, if the producers want us to believe that earth’s first embassy to another civilization would be crewed by hot 20-somethings in beachwear…please.”
Hats off to you for daring to comment on the King’s New Beachware
No specific titles come to mind, but I’m getting increasingly bored with the tv crime series that feature a burned out/in disgrace/grieving cop going back to his/her home town, where, wouldn’t you know it, a serial killer/cold case/cold case serial killer requires investigation by someone who knows what he/she is doing. There are guaranteed to be dark secrets.
Cover art on crime novels this year.
Lone figure in silhouette walking away from you into a grey urban landscape. Black and white subjects and either blue or red lettering
Every time. Even the actually good ones.
You think that’s bad? The excellent Pulp Librarian on Twitter has a recurring thread called Women with Great Hair Fleeing Gothic Mansions – it was a whole paperback genre in the 60s/70s.
In the 50s there was ‘Women in the tattered remains of clinging dresses running screaming from alien monsters with eight eyes and five arms’. A hundred and some years ago there was ‘Women screaming in dark alleyways as the Ripper strikes again’. I’m seeing a pattern emerge here.
Handily enough, here we are: https://twitter.com/pulplibrarian/status/1375538324635590664?s=21
I always imagine commissioning editors listening to a pitch for yet another series like this and thinking to themselves “Hmm, here we go again, safe, familiar ground…reassuring tropes, been done before but…on the other hand, people will watch them…” and then saying aloud to the room “Great! We’ll do it, always room for another jaded cop show!” and thinking to themselves “oops, said it aloud” while the writer, although relieved, feeling like a little part of them has just died.
🤣
Questions that nobody asks:
“That new drama that’s on at 9.00 on BBC1/ITV tonight… is it another police thing?”
Even worse, the Question that they all ask:
“That new drama that’s on at 9.00 on BBC1/ITV tonight… could we make it a police thing?”
I bailed half-way through the new film version of David Copperfield last night. It wasn’t awful, lots of great actors and inventive storytelling in parts. But it’s my favourite Dickens novel and the way they rushed through the story made me feel stressed. I wish they had made it as a TV series, at a slower pace, and with some more emphasis on the tragedy as well as the broad comedy.
Best film of the last ten years – utterly brilliant.
Especially when he made that train disappear.
I’m with LoW on this – certainly one of the best…
I had high expectations. But to me it was all show and no heart. It didn’t make me feel anything.
A pretty mediocre film, I thought. Worth watching once. Best film of the last ten years? Pah. Lodey’s on the armagnac again.
Sorry, @Gary. Lodey is sober as a judge and quite right to praise Copperfield, Definitely one of the films of the year.
I can understand your disappointment though Locust. Squeezing down an enormous novel to feature film length will inevitably lead to disappointment.
I enjoyed it a lot but perhaps it was more Variations on a Theme of David Copperfield?
Ah-ha – “one of the films of the year” is debatable. Of films I’ve seen, I’d argue for The Gentlemen, Midsommar, 1917, The Irishman, Marriage Story, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Richard Jewell, Joker, Parasite (all 2019), The Trial of the Chicago 7, The Glorias, The Kid Detective, The Life Ahead, Promising Young Woman (all 2020) before Copperfield, but it’s a debatable debate. However, “best film of the last ten years” is what Lodey actually said. Which I think is reasonable grounds for doubting his sobriety at the time of posting.*
*25/03/2021 at 04:57 it says – the hour itself only going to provide further evidence, as if needed.
I’ve not seen all of those yet, @Gary, but the ones I have seen (1917, Marriage Story, Marriage Story) all get a big thumbs up from me.
I have just added the others to my Must See list
Drunk as a Skunk or Sober as a Lodestone? The sobriety of Our Man in Armagnac has just gone viral on Twitter….
Of all the films I mentioned, Marriage Story (so good you named it twice) is the one that has most stuck in my mind. I’m very much looking forward to seeing it a third time one day, as a treat.
I would add Linklater’s Boyhood to that.
I was mesmerized by the idea, the execution, and the story.
Boyhood wasn’t mentioned as it wasn’t from the same year as Copperfield (2019 or 2020), but for me it’s definitely the best film of the last ten years. Roughly ten gazillion times more worthy of that accolade than Copperfield.
“Best film of the last 10 years” was my frame of reference…
I’m shallow, quite enjoyed the Clooney film, for all and possibly because the obviousness of the outcome.
Could Mr Thep be referring to the new series of Unforgotten, or even Line of Duty, each flogging their templates hard for a final drop of juice? Unforgotten is still ok, after a lift this week, but just not as good, and I fear all the odd angles and shots, to pretend it wasn’t filmed under Covid, make Ted and company just look odd.
No, mostly I was thinking of the stuff you find on Walter (SBS over here), mostly Eurocrime. Finally a good reason to leave the EU – too many cold cases and burnt-out cops.
@Retropath2
L of D was rivetting stuff right up to the absurd conclusion of series 4. Series 5 then didn’t so much jump the shark as Fosbury Flop it. Having sat through L of D writer Jed Mercurio’s absurd Bloodlines over the weekend, not looking forward to seeing series 6 with anywhere near as much enthusiasm as I had for earlier seasons.
Anyone her see the same writer’s medical drama, Bodies, from a few years back? Absolutely terrific filleting of what goes on behind the scenes at an NHS hospital from a former doctor.
The BBC doesn’t half overdo the hype. You wonder what they would do if they’d made something properly good like Spiral or Broen.
Yup, unsurprisingly. Young Mercurio trained as a doc in Birmingham and spent a fortnight at my practice as a student. Gave it all up for the anonymity of writing for the telly. Bodies caught well the behind the scenes dialogue and flavour of bitchy medics. Not quite as well as Cardiac Arrest, which was so real folk thought it a comedy, when it was actually a documentary.
Saw CA, too. Both are very, very good. Given the COVID crisis, be interesting to see him return to that field (although maybe not just yet) as his cop shows seem to be repeating themselves ad infinitum – Aside from a rare and very welcome opportunity to see the always splendid, Lorcan Cranitch, Bloodlines was laughably bad
Perhaps he realised that Doctor Mercurio could only be the bearded presenter of a late-night Science Fiction show, which would have compromised his credibility as a medical professional.
Oddly enough Jed Mercurio has written a SF novel. Haven’t read it yet – got it as a deal of the day
His first TV series was Sci Fi, Invasion Earth. I rather liked it.
That nice Doctor Legg used to just prescribe me cream for my piles but Doctor Mercurio comes in, says some Latin and waves his hands about, opening a portal to a demon dimension and before I can say owt a bunch of these wee red f***ers are sticking hot forks in my arse.
All I wanted was my cream..
Doc Cox just prescribed me some oddly shaped vegetables. The therapeutic effect was negligible.
Welcome aboard Nurse Barbara Windsor. You’ll find this is a very professional ward, but that doesn’t stop it being friendly too. One word of advice, though, you need eyes in the back of your head when Doctor Octopus is on – he can get very handsy..
Doctor Nookie was struck off for inappropriate use of his consulting room. A bit of nominative determinism there, I think.
“Go behind the screen and take off all your clothes”, she said. But what’s the point of a screen ? You don’t get any privacy when it’s Doctor Hook – there’s blimmin’ five of them..
Talking of nominative determinism, my arse doctor shares her consulting rooms with a Doctor Winkle. Never met him, but “For Doctor Winkle, please press one” always raises a smile. I am not 13.
Press is better than pull, I suppose.
Useless point of trivia – although the character was named Matthew “Dot” Cottan in the versions of LoD that were broadcast, in the draft stages the name used was Matthew “Babs” Windsor.
Thanks @fortuneight. A wonderful piece of trivia.
Point of order, Mercurio didn’t write Bloodlines. Think he was Exec Producer. It was a dreadful series though full of plot holes and continuity errors. Not aided by a wretched performance from James Nesbitt.
Ooh I went right off him once he stopped wearing that woolly hat..
I watched first episode of series 6 and enjoyed it (Line of Duty), think the last one was the weakest but it has always been complete hokum and should be judged as such. it is extremely entertaining, that’s the main thing @Jaygee .
I’ve been consumed, if you’ll pardon the pun, with watching tsunami footage from Japan on YouTube. That and cockpit footage of women flying commercial aircraft. Utterly brilliant.
‘watching cockpit footpit of pilots flying commercial aircraft.’
There fixed it for you.
Cockpit Footpit… A mate of Foghorn Leghorn?
footage.
Footcock pittage.
Isn’t that in Cambridgeshire?
No, you’re thinking of Footpit Cottage, just outside Little Gidding.
Where is the summer, the unimaginable Zero summer?
Moosey is always, somehow, the still point of our turning world here at the Afterword.
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started…
God bless the ladies eh readers! Look, anything wot a man can do, they can do… well, not better but… eh? Don’t those uniforms look smart? Good for you ladies! Good for you!
Don’t worry guys, they’ll still be under curfew after 7.00pm – the world hasn’t gone completely mad.
I bet they got a male pilot to park it at the terminal building, eh readers?
And tell them where to go, because we know the little muddleheads can’t read maps!
PS. shall we rename the Afterword The 13th Hole? I’ve already got some appalling knitwear.
This might be a bit of a sacred cow, but Narcos. First series was great, second pretty good. But I just got a bit, well, bored after that. Haven’t finished it as a result. Similar goes for Bosch. Just a bit continuously samey after a while and I just can’t be bothered to see it through.
On the reading front, Dear Boy, Tony Fletcher’s Keith Moon biog. Now I love The Who but if I’d have had to spend time around Moon like his assistants did, presumably because they were paid to, I would have bailed within the hour. His “hilarious” behaviour wasn’t big, clever or funny, it was f*cking pathetic, needy and deeply damaged. I have managed to get 70% in and can’t take any more.
I stuck with Bosch, I felt like all the characters were my mates. Scumbags excepted, obviously.
And he does make excellent fridges.
I liked his paintings
Villain: “You have profaned the sacred scrolls!”
The Doctor: “Oh, come now, Hieronymous, enough of that bosh…”
Ah, the Tom Baker years…
Scott Walker put him high up in the Church.
Bish Bash Bosch – Painter and Decorator for hire.
And yes, I know Scott Walker got there first…
Not forgetting Mr Stanshall’s
Anonymous Bosch the secret nazi.
@Nick-L Gave up halfway through first season. thought it was very slow moving and extremely repetitive.
Coronation street used to be a mixture of great writing, wonderful acting, humour, human stories with the occasional blockbuster storyline. It has become a northern Eastenders with gangsters, death and destruction at every turn. Ridiculous storylines dragged out to fill the 6 episides a week. No wonder it cant maintain the quality control. I can’t even tolerate it for the occasional genius of David Neilsen as Roy Cropper….
See also: The Archers. It must be about time someone fell of a roof/blew up a kitchen/had it off with someone else’s wife. Again.
Ohhhh nohhhh!
I listen to The Archers for the rare episodes that Keri Davies scripts. He has a deft touch, an encyclopedic knowledge and a dry wit that although I’ve never heard him speak makes me think he must sound like The Word’s own Kerry Shale. They can be so good, I feel fired up to post something scurilous on an Archers FB group.
Good thread, by the way. A new take on that perennial AW favourite – ‘Would you like to slag something off?’
Totally agree with that Dave, my Mum was a Corrie addict when I was a kid and I used to find myself becoming completely absorbed in some of the stories. Terrific characters, with good lines well played by good actors but all in the right context. Haven’t seen it for years but your description sounds awful.
Gave up on Corrie after Pat Phelan, the latest in an endless array of serial killers to make the cobbles their personal killing field.
The many things I always used to love about Wetherfield included how:
– Unlike in real life, the police take mere seconds to send a squad car round to settle the most trivial dispute
– The price of everything is still stuck back in the 1970s – as recently as three or four years back, even a single mum hairdresser’s assistant could easily find the deposit for a deluxe flat
– How collective amnesia descends on each resident every three or four months (said single mum hairdresser’s assistant was broken hearted for a bit but soon bounced back
– How phones stop working at Wetherfield district limits, with people who return from holiday amazed to learn how the new killer at no 9 has culled four or five of his/her best friends while she’s been soaking up the sun in Torremolinos
Given all the murders and mass accidents – fires, tram crashes, etc – the insurance premiums must be through the roof. It’s also extraordinary how given everyone’s penhchant for marrying everyone else multiple times, there is so little evidence of the crippling effects of incest
Everyone in the knicker factory used to have four pints every single lunchtime without fail before returning to work for four or five hours of precision work at electric sewing machines.
In fairness, Moose, if there was a good chance you’d be garroted with a length of perished knicker elastic before your working day was out, you’d be on the grog, too
….not to mention having the buzzsaw vocalisations of Vera Duckworth in one ear and the malevolent mitherings of Ivy Tilsley in th’other. ‘Appen it’d send you bats.
See also:
Oxford. Numerous bizarre murders over the course of a decade, each one only ever resolved by one opera-loving copper in a old Jag. What do the rest of the Thames CID do?
Midsomer. Numerous bizarre murders over the course of two decades (and counting), each one only ever resolved by one old copper from Jersey or his cousin from Brighton. Everyone in the village must have murdered someone by now.
I’m starting to this think all these things are bloody made up!
What I like about Midsomer Murders, not that I have watched that many, is that the murders seem to often take place at a festival or village fete or something. As the body count inexorably rises the festival/fete carries on almost regardless as if this is fairly normal. I guess it is though in their world.
I think with M M you just have to accept their world for what it is, a bizarre and odd world. The folk festival one where the PA used in the pub wouldn’t have disgraced a Motorhead concert, oh and of course someone was crushed beneath it.
That was the one that had me shouting “do your research!” at the telly. Nobody would ever use stacked 4×10 Marshall cabs as a frontline PA, let alone a folk gig. If you want me to believe a story, you have to make some effort.
@Dave-Amitri Yes, I watched avidly until about 3 or 4 years ago and then gave up. I do miss the comedy and the excellent use of elderly actors which is pretty unique these days I think
My wife had shocked me.
She has given up on Coronation Street. She has cancelled the Series Link.
She’s fed up with the grimness. The never ending stream of murders. The lack of comedy.
This Is Memorial Device. I know it is a sort of fiction critique of NME nerdery, but crikey what a load of whining kidults. It made Ian McNabb’s autobiography sound like the memoirs of an Elder Statesman.
Dylan Jones’ Sweet Dreams, however, was 650 pages I raced through. It could esaily have been twice as long.
Sweet Dreams is brilliant isn’t it? Really enjoyed that when it came out, and generally I often find the elitism of some of those involved somewhat hard to take. As a history of the late seventies and eighties it works really well.
On the Sunday night ‘there’s been another murder’ slot – I wish I’d never started ‘not actually by Jed Mercurio’ Bloodlands. Jeezus @jaygee wasn’t it shocking. Utterly over-plotted and virtually impossible to work out what was actually going on. James Nesbit with his Easter Island Head Chewing A Wasp look on 100% of the time. Utterly unconvincing characters (the female consultant who’s actually pursuing vengeance), the daughter ‘Oh daddie you get it on with the hot consultant I’;ll be cooking next door” and…oh it was Touch of Cloth from start to finish.
There’s a cracking drama to be made about the end of the Troubles, the politics behind the Good Friday agreement and what happened to all those paramilitaries on both sides, but this absolutely was not it.
Second series commissioned.
Arf! Great description of The Nesbster.
“There’s a cracking drama to be made about the end of the Troubles, the politics behind the Good Friday agreement” – sounds like Derry Girls.
Radio Times carried a feature on Nesbitt a few weeks ago. Within it there was a section devoted to his greatest hits for want of a better term.
It was under the subhead One Actor, Many Characters. I remarked to my wife that they had made a mistake. It should have read One Plank, One Character Many Times, or something similar.
@mosleymoles
Given that his hero is the fictional cop who puts the RC in the RUC during the late 70s and early 80s, think Aidan McKinty’s Sean Flynn set of novels would make for an interesting Troubles-based series. Sadly, the books – all named after lines in Tom Waits’s songs – apparently sold so poorly he’s had to switch to writing Harlen Coben/Linwood Barclay-style potboilers to put soda bread on the table.
Would that be herring in those pots, Aidan cos I’ve been cleaning windows all day and I’m fair famished..
@Sewer-Robot
Sure, ah’ve only Wigan Wills, young Van, and the list tyme I offered ye tham, all ye did wez give ayt about how much smaller they wez then the wans yes used te get frim Fuscos when ye wez small and pleyin down by the pylons!
Bailed from the latest Line Of Duty after about 25 minutes of stilted dialogue, dialled-in wooden acting, YTS trainee predictable and unimaginative camerawork and insanely unbelievable plotting. Surely it can’t have been this bad since I last watched it (series 1 and 2)?
More the messenger than the message, but I think I may have read my last Mojo.
It still has articles I’m interested in (recently Colonel Parker, very early pictures of the Beatles) but Now Dig This, a Rock ‘n’ Roll magazine now on its 450th or so issue, is the one I really look forward to dropping from the letter box.
They’re on me of their occasional rolls with the CDs though. The recent Bowie and Steve Marriott dies have been gems.
The Word Podcast. My first and favourite and most listened to podcast. But have started skipping them. Possibly it’s a result of them not being in the same room, but they increasingly resemble two blokes shouting over each other to be heard in a noisy pub. Not a conversation anymore. And they’re so pleased with the Stackwaddy game that they resemble Kermode and Mayo at their smuggest whenever they play it (which feels like all the time). Enough, I think.
Actually podcasts in general. Love them, they’ve taken over my life. But where’s the time? Just looked at Spotify feed and there are 17 new episodes from ones I follow just over the last 3 days. Help!
Kermode and Mayo have really jumped the shark, haven’t they. I don’t mind Kermode, because he knows he is preposterous. But Mayo can be savagely judgemental and snarky, without anything positive to balance that out.
They lost it when the show was extended to 2 hours. So it is padded out with all sorts of “Wittertainment” , “in jokes” and “look at me” emails that their followers sent in each week. Unlistenable, except the podcast summary gives the times of each film review so you can skip to them if you want the “Good doctor’s” take. Alternatively he used to do a 10 minute review show for BBC News channel covering 2 or 3 films each week, don’t know if he still does that.
I still give The Word podcast a go, but it is a pale shadow of what it once was. I was listening to my audio library on shuffle last week and an old episode came up, I listened and it was very good. Kind of glad they are still going though, Hepworth is in his 70s now I think
I’d be lying if I said I’d upheld my New Year’s Resolution (I’m listening to them now), but it’s got to the stage where whatever either of them says, I’m compelled to think the polar opposite. Like Paul Morley!
As suggested, Kermode’s fine on his own, but Mayo I can seriously do without.
New month next Friday, so this will be definitely be my final episode.
I would suggest the Stackwaddy game is more amusing for them than it is for us. It’s got really stale. Generally Hepworth has interesting things to say but unfortunately Ellen likes to butt in and finish the point for him. Ellen tends to repeat things we have heard before. He seems to forget it’s all been broadcast. They have the goodwill because they’ve given so much in the past but yeah it’s not essential. Word In The Attic is better since there are usually decent guests, but marred by the duelling hosts.
In Stackwaddy, I think Mark’s constant that’s brilliant refrain for something that seems to me bang average is a bit wearing.
But it’s only a few minutes of what is generally a very entertaining podcast, so I’m prepared to be forgiving.
And for me it’s one of the delights of the podcast.
Maybe it’s because my default setting is curmudgeonly sarcasm and pessimism that someone who seems to take such joy and happiness from…stuff is nice to listen to.l
I thought the recent ‘craft beer or underachieving indie band’ was genius.
Excellent thread, Mosely.
Psychopaths, eh? They are rather like London busses. You wait ages for one and then a whole flock turn up.
This thought struck me when I was thinking about the TV shows we’ve been watching during the last week.
Killing Eve – Season 2, The Tunnel – Season 2, Luther – Season 5
They are all chock-a-block with gory murders and psycho-killers running amok.
All three are done with a lot of wit and panache, but it’s rather like watching shows about baking, interior decoration or dogging every day.
One can have too much of a good thing.
Nordic Gore! Saga has a lot to answer for!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvLEKf-W2Eg
I would have thought Dogging was just the sort of thing the Why Don’t You..? gang were on about as a fun outdoor pursuit to prise you away from your television. Disappointing that it’s on tv now..
Spike Lee’s most recent film, Da 5 Bloods, might be the worst film I’ve ever seen by a major director. The critics seem to like it, but the reviews on IMBD are more accurate. I shall quote just one of the many insightful reviews I agree with:
Steaming pile of tripe
What an absolute mess of a movie. I can’t understand how the professional critics got this so wrong. It is so bad I thought it was a spoof. Wow! Just wow! What a stinker!
That was from s_d_mcclure on 13 November 2020 and s/he is quite right. Apart from the stoopid plot and clunky dialogue, the casting is all over the shop with young actors playing old characters, old actors playing young characters. Awful.
Critics like a Spike Lee film? You don’t say.
Indeed.
Despite the poor reviews, was determined to persevere as I wanted to see how much Vietnam had changed during the 20-odd years since I last visited there for work. Lasted half an hour.
Spike Lee sneered that “Green Book” wasn’t his “cup of tea.”
Well, Spike Lee has never been my several bottles of Dragon Stout.
I’m filled with the urge to dispute the validity of your opinion.
Lèe is no favourite of mine, but his films generally have nuance and controversy that are sorely missing from the sledgehammer simplicity of Green Book’s moralising.
Hmm, well, it was beautifully made. The central performances were outstanding. The recreation of the early 60s (a Herculean task to get right over two hours) without any fault I could see.
And not every form of entertainment has to change the world.
Tricky one to get right politically.
Would Spike Lee have wanted the musician to head-butt the driver at the end?
Could have happened with a minimum of tweaking.
Would that have made it better?
Da 5 Bloods is truly truly a steaming pile, akin to what one might expect from a first time feature director given a generous budget but having no real clues.
The fact Lee is a veteran director with decades under his belt just goes to underline how embarrassing it is – so poor he really should be ashamed of it.
The plot is a transparent cod reworking of The Treasure of The Sierra Madre with none of its insights or charm & almost all the cast are pitching their performances at different levels to each other, not to mention the crass shoe horning of some sub 6th form political lecturing about the plight of African Americans in the Vietnam war.
Lee has form with ‘borrowing’ ideas from vastly superior filmmakers- I recall being impressed at the time with the ‘ Love & Hate’ speech from Radio Raheem in ‘Do The Right Thing’ only to discover shortly afterwards it was a word for word lift from Charles Laughton’s ‘ Night of The Hunter’ courtesy of Robert Mitchum.
His insights after never better than half baked & frequently toe curling – not least his films’ nauseating endorsements of the deranged Louis Farrakhan.
I can only conclude critics have often gone easy on him because he fulfils their wish for a ‘radical’ African American director with an agenda, & they’d feel bad piling on & calling him out as essentially crap. It’s a poor show, because film lovers & especially African American ones, deserve better.
Lee at his best (Do The Right Thing, Black Klannsman) gets a propulsive energy onscreen that blasts through some of the many other things that might be wrong with his films. Da 5 Bloods was at least half-an-hour too long and the energy ebbed away way before the end.
I agree that Lee’s best stuff generates great momentum, and he pops visually ( Do The Right Thing & Malcom X spring immediately spring to mind)-but I think my issue with him repeatedly is his ‘ I’ve got something to say’ approach that doesn’t appear to have evolved beyond a Rik/ Student Grant level of insight.
When he sees a nail, he hammers it flat in a fashion that brings to mind the ‘subtlety’ of Oliver Stone, to me at least.
I think Barry Jenkins has had more to say about the ‘African American experience (TM) ‘ with far more depth in 2 or 3 features than Lee has managed in dozens.
I afraid I can’t agree that it’s the worst film I’ve ever seen by a major director because I watched Tenet last night. Almost twenty four hours later I’m still staggered at how bad it is.
But you persisted @kid-dynamite – there’s something about a big budget film that makes it quite hard to bail. Clearly at the cinema you’d have invested cash and possibly have a big tub of popcorn to work through. Interesting that at home we still find it surprisingly hard to bail on a film and will ‘watch to see if it gets better’. Also there’s the social aspect – I might want to bail, but do my family or friends?
Series however are eminently bail-able as we’re much more aware that this could be ten hours badly spent.
It did take me three separate sittings to finish it. I wasn’t going to let it beat me
Do you think we tend to bail more rapidly now in the days of Netflix etc when we can see the whole series in one weekend, rather than waiting another week for the next episode?
I’ve seen Inception and Dunkirk and didn’t think much of them either. Spectacle isn’t everything. Style over content I suppose. What you are showing us is impressive, but what are you trying to say?
His Memento is good, and Insomnia is worth a watch. Interstellar swings wildly between amazing and awful every fifteen minutes or so, and probably comes out as average
I can’t remember much about Memento, and Insomnia sent me to sleep.
Here all week, etc.
If you want a truly bad film, try Six Minutes to Midnight, which hasn’t even the prescience to be tongue in cheek. That Eddie Izzard dresses up as a man, whilst Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent sack their agents.
I agree with Sitheref and Gary about Boyhood. As does Linklater!
https://www.screendaily.com/richard-linklater-jokes-that-boyhood-should-have-won-the-oscar/5103367.article
He was robbed!
Linklater’s Everybody wants some was quite decent too.
There’s something of the King’s New Clothes about some of films and shows being mentioned on this thread.
There’s such a barrage of marketing and PR that fe dare to ponit out that the item in question is a pile of old tosh.