Pearl Harbor (5 Stars)

Disney Wednesday #24

I'm actually watching a Disney Plus film on a Wednesday. That's new! It's only a Wednesday film on a technicality. I started to watch it with my grandson Oliver last Friday, but we interrupted it because he had to go to bed. Today we finally finished it.

I actually wanted to watch "X-Men First Class" on Friday, and we could have finished it, because it's a shorter film. I already had the disc in my Blu-ray player when Oliver said he wanted to watch "Pearl Harbor". Evidently he'd already seen it on television with his parents, but he wanted to watch it again. I'm always happy when he says something like that. Watching a film more than once is a sign that you're a true film fan. My personal definition is that a film is a good film if I want to watch it at least three times. As you can see in my alphabetical list of posts, there are several films that I've watched a lot more often. I admit that there's a certain excitement watching a film for the first time, but most films have subtleties that can only be picked up on repeated viewing.

I'm surprised that Oliver likes the film so much. I can understand that he likes the action scenes, but it's also a love story. It's a sign of maturity that he can also enjoy romantic scenes. He's eight years old now. Two years ago he would have been bored and told me to fast forward.

Critics have slammed "Pearl Harbor" because of the love story. They say the film should have concentrated on the attack itself. I disagree. In fact, I strongly disagree. The love story gives the viewer an emotional connection. When Japan attacks, we don't just know the main characters, we feel their suffering and we cry with them in the face of adversity. This is how to make a good film. Sometimes the critics just don't know what they're talking about.

But "Harbor" is spelt wrong. Or maybe it isn't. "Pearl Harbor" is a place name, so it has to be spelt the way it's written on maps and street signs. But as a common noun, "harbour" is the only correct spelling.

I only found out today that there's a director's cut of the film. Unfortunately, it was only released on DVD, and it's long out of print. I'm not willing to pay a high price for a second hand DVD on Ebay. I wouldn't even pay a high price for a brand new DVD.

Success Rate:  + 1.2

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Harold and the Purple Crayon (4 Stars)

Books are magic. In a way, they're more magical than films. When a child picks up a book he's carried away into another world, empowered by his own imagination. In 1955 the American author Crockett Johnson wrote a book called "Harold and the Purple Crayon". It was about a boy who lived in a world where everything he drew became real. Despite his Godlike powers, Harold was lonely, so he drew animals to be his friends, Porcupine and Moose. However, Harold wasn't completely alone. He heard the voice of Crockett Johnson speaking to him. He considered him to be his father, which was partially true.

Rather than being an adaptation of the book, the film takes place on a meta level. One day Crockett stops speaking to him, so Harold decides to travel to the real world to find his father. As if the outside world is any more real than Harold's world. That's a question for philosophers to discuss. It's a strange new world, much bigger than he expected. Most wonderful of all, he now has a three-dimensional body. At first Harold travels with Moose, but he's later joined by Porcupine, both of whom have acquired human bodies.

The film is hilarious, most of the humour stemming from Harold's childish naivety. Zachary Levi carries the title character with his spotless comic timing. The other characters, though also funny, are overshadowed by his performance.

I'm surprised to hear that the film has received poor reviews. I can't fault it. It was made as a children's film, and I find that it succeeds within the parameters of children's films.

After seeing the film I want to buy the book. For my grandson. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

The One I Love (3 Stars)

This is a surreal mystery film. Ethan and Sophie are a young married couple who are going through a crisis after Ethan's infidelity. They're visiting a marriage counsellor who advises them to spend time at a remote cottage. It's actually two houses facing one another, a main house and a smaller guest cottage. So much room for one couple?

Ethan and Sophie sleep in the main house, but Sophie's curiosity leads her to check out the guest cottage. While there she has sex with Ethan. She returns to the main house and finds Ethan asleep. Did he use a short cut? She thanks him for the time they spent together, but Ethan denies having had sex with her. Sophie kicks him out, and he goes to sleep in the guest cottage. Sophie joins him later and apologises for her behaviour. Ethan goes back to the main house in the morning, and Sophie insists that she spent the night alone.

After a few more confusing experiences, Ethan and Sophie conclude that they have doppelgangers in the guest cottage. Whenever one of them goes into the cottage alone, he finds a copy of his partner, but when they go into it together nobody else is there. The doppelgangers are ideal copies of themselves, perfect and loving, so they decide to remain and take turns with them.

The film is 10 years old, so I can allow myself a few spoilers. Ethan finds evidence that other couples visited in recent years who also experienced doppelgangers. The Sophie doppelganger confesses to the real Ethan that their purpose is to make the couples fall out of love, so they'll remain in the cottage while the two doppelgangers take their place in the outside world.

This is where the film's mystery began to fall apart. The director has left things open so that the viewer can fill in the blanks, but I didn't like this. I want to be told what's happening. Are the doppelgangers alien invaders? Possibly. Is the marriage counsellor in on the conspiracy. Certainly. How are the couples supposed to stay in the cottage? Are they murdered? Are they whisked away to another world? There are so many possibilities. And if it's really a story about alien invaders taking over our world, why go to so much trouble? They could simply move into a town, go to church, make friends and blend in.

I enjoyed the film when I was watching it, but it left a dissatisfying aftertaste. I have no intention of watching it again, but I invite my readers to watch it and make up their own minds. If you can watch it; it's no longer available on disc or streaming. Maybe you can find it on Ebay.

Monsieur Klein (4 Stars)

"Monsieur Klein", more commonly known as "Mr. Klein", is a French film made in 1976 that stars the recently departed Alain Delon. It takes place in France in 1942, when Paris was under the control of the Vichy regime. Robert Klein is an immoral art dealer. He buys paintings from Jews who are desperate for money so they can leave the country, offering them far less than the paintings are worth. Does he have a bad conscience? No, it's just business.

Mr. Klein becomes a victim of mistaken identity. There's another man in Paris with the same name who's a Jew. Robert is horrified. How dare he be called a Jew! His dealings with Jews have warned him that persecution is upcoming, so he tries to prove that he's a good non-Jewish Frenchman. Apart from trying to find the other Robert Klein, he wants to prove his pure racial background by getting the birth certificates of his grandparents.

A small note: there's a common misconception that being Jewish is a religion, not a race. In 2022 Whoopi Goldberg was suspended from a television programme she hosted for expressing this view. It's a relatively new theory that's been invented to deny Jews the right to live in their ancestral homeland, Israel. A Jew is someone who's a descendant of Abraham via Isaac and Jacob. Their religion is Judaism, but they're still Jews if they convert to Christianity or any other religion. It's possible for a person to become Jewish by accepting the Jewish faith, but it's not common. Unlike Christianity, Judaism isn't a proselyting religion. This means that someone can be a Jew without knowing it, or even if he denies it.

That's the dilemma Robert Klein faces in the film. He claims to be a good Catholic, but there are allegations that he's a Jew. Merely saying he's not a Jew isn't enough. He has to prove it.

On first viewing, the film confused me because so much isn't explained. It's deliberately left open whether the allegations of his Jewishness are a mistake or a deliberate plot against him. Robert Klein seeks answers, but the more he searches the less he knows. Some people who know the other Robert Klein even think he's him when they see him. It's a Kafkaesque nightmare. This is a film that I need to see again.

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Die Schule der magischen Tiere 2 (4½ Stars)

Amazon Friday #39

It's the school holidays at the moment, so I'm letting Oliver decide what he wants to watch. He loved "Die Schule der magischen Tiere 2" ("The school of magic animals") when we saw it in the cinema, so he was overjoyed when he saw it was available on Amazon Prime.

The title comes from the habit of an explorer to bring children magic animals once a year. There are only a couple of animals each year, and the animals themselves decide which child it wants to adopt, or rather be adopted by. They're natural animals, such as parrots, penguins or foxes, but what's magic about them is that they can change themselves into stuffed animals whenever necessary. It's often necessary, because wild animals aren't allowed in school. The only person allowed to see the animals in their true form is Miss Cornfield, the explorer's girlfriend. She's in on the secret.

How old are the children? My guess is that they're the 10th class, i.e. 15 and 16. They looked a lot younger in the first film, made two years previously. That's a problem with series of films about children. The actors grow so fast, so their development has to be built into the films. In the case of the Harry Potter films it was done very well. Each film was a new year in school. The magical animal films are a bit more chaotic. Two more sequels have been planned, and if they're not made fast the boys will have beards and the girls will look like old women.

Surprisingly, the film deals with subjects that aren't directly related to the magical animals themselves. A play is being made to celebrate the school's 250th anniversary. The headmaster has written a screenplay about the school's founder, but there are doubts whether he really was the founder. Miss Cornfield knows more than she's willing to tell. There's a mean girls clique that wants to derail the play and make themselves the main actresses, even if they don't have the required acting skills. They have good looks, but that's not all that's needed.

I'm glad Oliver persuaded me to watch the film again. I can hardly wait to see the third instalment in the cinema later this year.

Alien Romulus (4½ Stars)

This is a film I almost didn't go to see. I had my doubts about its quality, especially after hearing that it was originally planned to be released direct-to-streaming. That's never a good sign for a film in a major franchise.

Fortunately, the film has been released in cinemas. I was enthralled from the first few minutes. The atmosphere was overpowering. The scenery on the mining planet Jackson's Star is futuristic but primitive at the same time. The colonists are living in dirty conditions without any hope of being able to leave. The main characters are a group of young people who take things into their own hands. They steal a shuttle craft to fly to an abandoned space station, hoping that it will be a first step in their escape to a new planet. They don't know that dangers are waiting for them on the space station.

My only criticism of the film is that there's hardly any character development for the young people. We see them and hear them talking, but we don't get a feeling for them.

I shan't write any more. No spoilers! I just recommend that my readers go to see the film for themselves.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (5 Stars)

There are people who don't watch super-hero films on principle. I can understand them. There have been good super-hero films in the past, but in recent years Marvel's films have become progressively worse. As a dedicated Marvel fan I go to see every film in the cinema and buy it on Blu-ray a year later, but I'm not blind to Marvel's faults.

However, "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (I prefer to shorten the title to "Shang-Chi") is a masterpiece. And do you know what makes it so good? It doesn't look like a super-hero film. It's a martial arts classic, complete with fantasy creatures. If someone sat down to watch it after the opening credits, he wouldn't even recognise that it's a Marvel film.

It's a tragic film. Shang-Chi's father is a ruthless warlord, and he doesn't want to follow in his footsteps. His father tries to change and become a good man, but after his wife's death he reverts to his old ways. He has an organisation called The Ten Rings that supports or topples governments. But his greatest wish is to get his wife back from the dead. He hears her calling to him, telling him she's trapped in a cave in her home village of Ta Lo. What he doesn't know is that it's really a monster imitating her voice, a monster that wants to devour the world. Shang-Chi has to fight against his father to stop him. Father versus son is a tragic conflict in any culture. Tony Leung is an incredible actor, and the look on his face is heart-breaking when he finally realises he was wrong.

A second Shang-Chi has been promised. Can it be as good as the first? I hope so.

Success Rate:  + 0.9

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Thanksgiving (4 Stars)

Netflix Thursday #43

If you live outside of the USA, you probably won't know what Thanksgiving is. It's a celebration that Americans have the day before Black Friday. That's all you need to know.

I'd already seen trailers for the film, but they didn't prepare me for what I would see. It's a teen slasher movie, which wasn't at all obvious from the trailers. The film begins with Black Friday sales. There's a riot, and there are several deaths. The following year there are a series of murders, targeting teenagers who were present at the riots. Is someone trying to get revenge? It seems like it, but there are no obvious suspects.

If you like slasher movies, you'll enjoy "Thanksgiving". It follows all the usual tropes, including repeated jump scares. And best of all, it's directed by Eli Roth, so you can expect quality.

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You might be wondering why I've been calling my recent posts "Netflix Thursday", even though it isn't a Thursday. My explanation is little more than a lame excuse. A few years ago I decided to watch a film on Netflix once a week, every Thursday. I didn't keep to this decision, and I watched a lot less than once a week. I've only watched Netflix when I'm with my son Benjamin, usually at the weekend, but I've been on holiday with him in Borkum all week. I don't have my Blu-rays with me, so I rely on Netflix. I've been calling my films Netflix Thursday films, whenever I watch them. Does that make sense? Not really.

Success Rate:  + 1.1

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Hostel: Part III (2 Stars)

Netflix Thursday #42

This evening my son Benjamin said he wanted to watch "Hostel Part III" with me. I watched it a few years ago, but I could hardly remember it, except for the fact that I didn't like it. I could have read my old review to refresh my memory, but I decided to jump right in.

I haven't changed my mind. The film is still a disappointment to me compared with the first two parts. It isn't the same without Eli Roth. The new director, Scott Spiegel, considered it necessary to do something new. By changing the premise, he's ruined the film. In the original two parts people paid large sums of money so they could kill someone. In this part people just pay to watch others do the killing for them. Wimps.

I shan't say anything more about the plot. My words might entice you to give the film a chance. That's the last thing I want to do. Maybe it's unavoidable. In America the film is only available as part of a box set with the first two parts. If you're curious enough to watch it, don't say I didn't warn you.

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Madame Web (4 Stars)

Netflix Thursday #41

After watching "Madame Web" in the cinema I read many reviews that said it's a bad film. The reviewers said that the film is illogical. I can see their point, but I disagree. Or rather, I agree that the film is illogical, but I disagree that this makes the film bad. Comics are illogical. They present many fantastic things that can only be accepted by children or naive adults. A man is exposed to gamma rays, and from then on he keeps growing into a green monster and reverting to a man at random intervals. Where does the additional body mass come from? Where does it disappear to? This contradicts the laws of physics, but who cares? I'm a naive adult who can accept whatever he reads in comics.

In the same way, I accept what happens in "Madame Web". There's a man who can climb walls and a woman who has visions. There are three teenage girls destined to acquire spider powers. It all makes sense to me. I'm too naive to question it.

I hope there will be a sequel. Or better still, three sequels. I want to see what happens to the three girls. They all deserve their own film, but alas, the box office failure of "Madame Web" makes it unlikely.

Success Rate:  - 0.7

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Smile (3 Stars)

Netflix Thursday #40

I saw the trailer for "Smile" repeatedly at the Fantasy Film Festival in 2022, but I never got a chance to see the film in the cinema. It was only shown for a week, and it disappeared before I had a chance to see it. That's the usual fate of unsuccessful horror films, so I shrugged and thought nothing more of it. I only found out recently that it was a big box office success. Evidently only in other countries.

Dr. Rose Cotter, a therapist in a psychiatric hospital, is traumatised when a patient commits suicide in front of her. Worst of all is the way the patient is smiling as she kills herself. But there's a mystery. A week previously the patient had witnessed someone kill himself. And a week before that the person had witnessed someone else kill himself. There's a chain of suicides going back years. Dr. Cotter fears that she might be next.

However interesting the story might sound, the resulting film seems very generic. It's all about a curse and/or a supernatural entity haunting potential victims. There are many films with themes like this. I don't understand why the film was so successful.

Success Rate:  + 10.8

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