Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir—The Movie

Miraculous, le film; computer-animated fantasy musical, France, 2023; D: Jeremy Zag, S: Anouck Hautbois, Benjamin Bollen, Antoine Tomé, Marie Nonnenmacher, Thierry Kazazian

Paris. Teenage girl Marinette gets a crush on a boy from her high school, Adrien, but he is not interested in her. His dad Gabriel uses a magical jewel, Butterfly Miraculous, to transform into Hawk Moth and lure the forces of Ladybug and Black Cat, hoping their powers will revive his late wife Emilie. Marinette receives the superpowers of Ladybug from Wang Fu, whereas Adrien receives the superpowers of Black Cat, without knowing this of each other. They thus battle the evil forces which possess certain angry people and transform them into demons which wreak havoc. Black Cat falls in love with Ladybug, not realizing she is actually Marinette. When the forces of evil engulf Paris and cause mass destruction, Gabriel renounces his forces when he realizes he hurt Black Cat, who is actually Adrien. Father and son reconcile. Marinette and Adrien fall in love.

The feature length film adaptation of the popular computer-animated TV series with the same title, "Miraculous: The Movie" is a rather lackluster experience. "Miraculous" shares a lot of similar 'magical girl' traits with that gem of animation "Sailor Moon"—a teenage girl receives superpowers and transforms to fight against the forces of evil; a masked male superhero is her romantic interest and sidekick; forces of evil possess angry people and transform them into demons that attack people—but it doesn't share its quality, at least not in this film. Speaking truthfully, even the three "Sailor Moon" movies were also weaker than the series, never reaching its level of creativity (except maybe "Promise of the Rose" on a few occasions), but that still doesn't mean much. "Miraculous: The Movie" has too little highlights and too many boring musical sequences which feel shoehorned and like an intruder in the story, not managing to intrigue the viewers. 

The opening act has a clumsily written sequence in which Marinette runs away from the angry blond high school girl Chloe and almost gets run over by speeding cars (!) on the street, as if the former is more dangerous than the latter; whereas the jokes are only intermittently amusing—for instance, in one sequence, while fighting a gargoyle-like flying demon, Ladybug and Black Cat fall into the Seine and have this dialogue ("We have reached the bottom!" - "At least they have good fish here!"). One battle sequence is truly creative: while fighting a giant balloon-like demon, Ladybug and Black Cat get a brilliant idea how to finish him off. They use a giant leverage to move the balloon-villain onto the pointy Louvre Pyramid, thereby bursting it, which is a clever use of Paris landmarks in the story. Sadly, the rest is routine, since the dialogue and interactions are mostly bland, while the subplot involving Adrian's father Gabriel trying to revive his dead wife is a bit too depressive and dark for the tone of the movie. The idea that the heroine Marinette is in love with Adrien, while he is only in love with Marinette's alter ego Ladybug is nice, yet when there isn't that much inspiration, not much can be achieved out of that. "Miraculous: The Movie" is solid, but will not create new fans since it lacks humor, wit and ingenuity.

Grade:+

Léon Morin, Priest

Léon Morin, prêtre; drama, France, 1961; D: Jean-Pierre Melville, S: Emmanuelle Riva, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Chantal Gozzi, Irène Tunc, Nicole Mirel

A small French town in the Alps, World War II. Barny is a widow whose Jewish husband was killed, her little daughter France secretly lives in the house of another family, while she works correcting assignments for a correspondence school that has moved from Paris. She falls in love with a co-worker, Sabine. As a communist and atheist, Barny randomly goes to a Catholic church for confession to mock religion, but the young priest Leon Morin actully listens and tries to talk to her. Intruiged, Barny actually goes to visit Leon at his office and they talk about religion and philosophy twice a week. Barny converts to Christianity again. She falls out of love with Sabine, who aged after hearing her brother was killed by the Nazis, and falls in love with Leon. The American soldiers enter the town. Barny confesses her love to Leon, but he rebuffs her and says goodybe since he is being transferred to another city.

A year after Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean-Pierre Melville appeared as actor-actor in Godard's "A bout de souffle", they appeared as actor-director in the drama "Leon Morin, Priest", which film critic Roger Ebert included in his list of Great Movies. "Leon Morin" is a peculiar film that cannot be quite defined: Melville uses a classicist style (simplicity, minimalism, clarity of structure, restrained emotion, appeal to the intellect) to conjure up the storyline, but it is composed out of two incompatible halves—the one revolving around the relationship between an atheist woman and a Catholic priest, the other around the Nazi occupation of France during World War II—which are not that harmonious. It would have been a better film if it only focused on the first story, since the war subplot is questionable and feels shoehorned, like an "intruder" at times. The hidden theme is the search for love: heroine Barny (excellent and underrated actress Emmanuelle Riva) seeks love from her co-worker Sabine, from her dead husband, from the Catholic priest, from God—but she never receives it, it is always unrequited love, she stays alone, and thus the movie feels depressive and resigned in its overall tone while depicting this harsh world. The episodes are uneven—some are weaker, yet the best ones have some outstanding, brilliant dialogues, mostly between Barny and Leon. 

In one chat at his office, they have this honest exchange: "You need a husband." - "Too bad. I do it with a stick". - "You'll hurt yourself." - "I'm not fragile." After a mass in the church, Barny says this to her friend: "There are two things I'm absolutely certain about, yet they're contradictory! Father Morin is spiritually the most inspiring fellow I've ever known. And yet, last Sunday, there's no doubt about it, he deliberately walked by me, brushing me with his surplice. Imagine how I felt." At her home, Barny finally asks Leon if he would marry her if he were a Protestant priest. He hesitates in silence, then stands up, takes an axe and slams it on the wood chopper, before leaving. Barny just thinks for herself: "His hand, in a single gesture, had given all and taken all away." 96 minutes into the film, there is a dream scene that is highly unusual and deviates from the rest of the film due to an unusual camera drive which works in opposition to the static shots presented mostly up to it (Barny is in bed, the camera rotates around her to show a silhouette on the door; the door opens, but it is empty; the camera pans down, under the chair; Leon enters and kisses her as the camera rotates again around them). However, Leon is never as intimate and as honest with Barny during their dialogues, since he is always at the service of spreading religious apologetics, and thus this never reaches the coziness and comfiness of Rohmer's similar "My Night at Maud's". One episode is particularly badly done: Barny hears that her friend Christine will be killed by the partisans for her collaboration with the occupiers, but when she tells this to Leon, he advises her to stay out of it. Christine is later on indeed killed. This inexplicable passive indifference from Leon leaves a bitter aftertaste that makes him a far less sympathetic character than before, and it wrecks the movie structure. The ending is weak, and it's not quite clear if the movie intends to be critical of religion or not. "Leon Morin, Priest" is a film that will leave you thinking for so long that you'll be angry at it for not being a masterwork, since its flaws hold it back, but at the same time, so little prevents it to reach that coveted status.

Grade:+++

The Pornographers

Erogotoshitachi yori jinruigaku nyumon; drama / satire, Japan, 1966; D: Shohei Imamura, S: Shoichi Ozawa, Sumiko Sakamoto, Masaomi Kondo, Keiko Sagowa, Haruo Tanaka

Subu Ogata is an underground director of pornographic films. He entered a relationship out of convenience with his landlord, the widowed Haru, a hairdresser who has a teenage son, Koichi, and teenage daughter, Keiko. Haru also believes a carp is her reincarnated husband, so she keeps the fish in a small aquarium in her house. Subu has troubles with his semi-illegal business, so he sometimes gets arrested by the police, the yakuza raid his studio whereas there are also money problems. Here and there, Subu also sells aphrodisiacs to clients. Koichi takes Subu's money and leaves; Keiko decides to become a prostitute after Subu rejected her advances; Subu's associate robs his equipment and flees. When Haru loses her mind and dies, Subu loses his potency and slowly loses his mind, as well. Subu decides to build a sex-doll as a surogate for a perfect woman, and rejects an offer from a businessman to sell it to him. As the rope holding his boat-house loosens, Subu drifts away in it in the sea.

Shohei Imamura's breakthrough film which encompassed many themes he is fascinated with (suppressed passion in society which gives people that raw energy and makes them more "alive"; the life of the "lower" class; peculiar habits of Japan; the search for happiness outside of norms; hedonism as the meaning of life), "The Pornographers" is a flawed, but still very good satirical drama which, despite its black and white cinematography, seems remarkably modern today—such taboo topics as the life of a pornographic filmmaker or the erotic fantasies of his clients seem as if they were filmed from contemporary Japan, and not Japan from 1966. The overall tone is too conservative and timid compared to the topics it is touching upon, probably due to the censorship in Japan of the day, and thus not a single scene of direct sex is shown, but only implied (such as Haru's and Subu's close up faces when they are kissing in bed), instead only showing the film crew watching their porn movie off screen in the screening room.

Only one sequence is dedicated to Subu actually directing a porn movie (he takes his daughter's school uniform to give it to some actress in his film, because his client ordered a movie of a doctor having sex with a school girl, but the actress is mentally retarded and the actor turns out to be her dad, who calms her by giving her a lollipop, and thus Subu stops the filming). Some dialogues are sizzlingly raw and 'rough' ("That's what animals do, not human beings!" - "We all want to leave the human race. We want to be free. Only society's taboos prevent us."), whereas the storyline plays with the incest elements in a symmetry (the teenage son Koichi has a secret Oedipus complex crush on his mother Haru, just as Subu has a subconscious desire towards his adoptive teenage daughter Keiko), showing how weird and dysfunctional families can be. Imamura displays his thoughts on the consequences of capitalism on Japanese society, creating a new form of sexuality for money or for hire (Subu rents a slim woman who recently gave birth to play a virgin because a rich old man always wanted to have sex with a virgin), which alienates people from each other more and more—this goes full way in the ending where Subu decides to make a sex-puppet, completely losing his human connection with women. With a running time of 127 minutes, "The Pornographers" are overlong and overstretched at moments, and several elments are unnecessary, yet it has some vivid energy that gives it some untypical viewing fascination.

Grade:+++

I Come in Peace

I Come in Peace; science-fiction action, USA, 1990; D: Craig R. Baxley, S: Dolph Lundgren, Brian Benben, Betsy Brantley, Matthias Hues, Jay Bilas, Michael J. Pollard

Talec, a humanoid alien with long blond hair who just says "I come in peace", appears on Earth and randomly attacks people by inserting heroin into their chest with one tube, and extracting endorphins from their brains through another tube, killing them in the process. Detective Jack Caine is sent on the case, but is annoyed by his new partner, FBI agent Smith. Still, Jack is aided by his girlfriend Diane. Jack discovers a mysterious CD which levitated and killed several people, and brings it to his home. In the back of their police car, Caine and Smith discover a wounded humanoid alien who is a space Detective hunting Talec, and who gives them a special gun to kill Talec. In an abandoned factory, Caine kicks Talec who bounces back and is impaled on a hanging spike. Caine then shoots and kills Talec with the space gun.

After "Masters of the Universe" and "Rocky IV", sympathetic Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren received only film roles below his standard, and among them was this tiresome and routine science-fiction action B-film "I Come in Peace", which shows just how genius Cameron's "The Terminator" was in comparison. Except for the highly unusual concept of the humanoid alien with long blond hair killing humans just to extract endorphines (!) from them to be sold on the space market as a drug, and one good match cut (the alien extracts red fluid from the brain of a victim, which is then followed by a cut to some dark fluid flowing across tubes, only to be revealed as a coffee machine of some scientist in a laboratory), there isn't that much to see here, since the storyline is standard and as predictable as running on a treadmill. The action, fight and chase sequences are 'a dime a dozen' in the genre, lacking creativity, surprises or ingenuity. The dialogue is also way too conventional. There simply is too little of anything to save this whole storyline from routine and 'grey' craftsmanship.

Grade:+

Warm Water Under a Red Bridge

Akai Hashi no Shita no Nurui Mizu; comedy, Japan, 2001; D: Shohei Imamura, S: Koji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu, Mitsuko Baisho, Mansaku Fuwa

Tokyo. After losing his job and having problems with his wife, Yosuke decides to go to the Noto peninsula to search for an alleged stolen golden statue hidden in a house of a deceased old man. Yosuke encounters Saeko living in the house, who is ashamed of having the ability of squirting water up to six ft above her when she gets aroused. The two become passionate lovers. Yosuke accepts a job as a fisherman and meets an African man who is preparing for a marathon. Yosuke finds out Saeko's grandmother was the old man's wife, waiting for him. Evenetually, Saeko tells him there is no treasure in literal sense, but that her grandmother's "pot" was the "treasure". Yosuke's wife files for divorce. Saeko stops squirting, but starts again when Yosuke admits he likes her the way she is, and they become passionate at the beach.

Shohei Imamura's last film as a director, "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge" is a light and comedic depiction of his often themes of repressed sensuality wanting to get out and the human search for happiness. It is overstretched and has too much 'empty walk' and talk, without sharpness from Imamura's best films, yet it has some honesty that gives it sympathy. Imamura contemplates about the rift between social norms and personal wishes: the main heroine Saeko is ashamed that she has this ability of huge squirting when she gets aroused (which is presented more comical than erotic, since the squirting causes her water to splash like a fountain, six ft above as she and Yosuke passionately embrace for the first time) and wants to get rid of it. After a while, she does, but afterwards, Yosuke suddenly cannot get an erection anymore, and realizes he was excited by her squirting. Saeko thus accepts her squirting as she has sex with him again. The message is that people may feel ashamed or embarrassed by some of their physical features, untypical for society, but precisely these features can attract the person who loves this, and can thus find their happiness in a roundabout, unlikely way. Imamura is strangely timid in depicting the three sparse, short sex scenes where not much is shown (even his "Vengeance is Mine" had better sex scenes, even though they were not the main topic of the story), since Saeko never takes her shirt off on the screen, and Yosuke is shown naked from behind only once, leaning more towards the comedic (on the ship, Yosuke spots Saeko giving a signal with her mirror that she is "ready", so he runs so fast towards her house that he even surpasses an African marathon runner in speed), but even this "PG Shohei Imamura" has his virtues.

Grade:++

Another Round

Druk; drama, Denmark / Sweden / Netherlands, 2020; D: Thomas Vinterberg, S: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Lars Ranthe, Maria Bonnevie

Fed up with routine work tasks and mundane lives, four high school teachers—Martin, Tommy, Peter and Nikolaj—decide to try out an experiment: to maintain a 0.05% of alcohol content in the blood, which would give them energy. Martin, a history teacher, indeed turns his lecture more unusal and is thus able to engage his otherwise passive students. Music teacher Peter also becomes creative, by darkening the classroom during singing to enhance the audio experience, as do physical education teacher Tommy and philosophy teacher Nikolaj. However, eventually they increase their drinking, so Nikolaj's wife leaves him with their three kids, whereas Martin is shocked when his wife Anika admits she had an affair because she thought he is distant towards her. The three stop drinking, except Tommy who is suspended from school and dies in a boat accident. At his funeral, Martin receives a message from Anika that she is willing to give their relationship another chance.

A dark and tragicomic meditation on the effects of drinking alcohol—but through it also a meditation on trying to find measure and the right balance in life in general—Thomas Vinterberg's "Another Round" is a good film that is overall still a little bit overlong and somewhat under-inspired. The concept of four high school teachers who want to maintain a 0.05% of alcohol content in blood has some really effervescent moments—for instance, in order to make his history class interesting, teacher Martin starts to engage his students: "Josse, there's an election with three candidates, so who do you vote for? Number 1: he is partially paralyzed from polio, has hypertension, he's anemic and suffers from an array of serious illnesses. He lies if it suits his interests and consults astrologists on his politics. Number 2: he's overweight and already lost three elections. He's had depression and two heart attacks. He's impossible to work with and smokes non-stop. He drinks and adds two sleeping pills before dozing off. Number 3: he's a decorated war hero. He treats women with respect. He loves animals, never smokes, and only has a beer on rare occasions." The students in the class all vote for candidate number 3, and then Martin reveals they just discarded Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, and gave their vote to Adolf Hitler. More of these kind of moments would have been welcomed, since the story is a bit overstretched in the second half, and struggles to find new subplots which would justify prolonging this concept, but it has its fair share of ideas: one such is when Nikolaj laments in front of his friends that he has three kids, and that the youngest one pees in his bed, only to make an ironic full circle when the totally drunk Nikolaj wakes up one morning at home and realizes he peed in his own bed, causing an angry rant from his wife. The ending feels somewhat vague, yet the strong actors and competent directing by Vinterberg assure a quality viewing experience.

Grade:++

Short Cut Grass

Niska trava; comedy short, Croatia, 2023; D: David Gašo, S: Živko Anočić, Bojan Ban, Vlasta Ramljak, Miro Čabraja, Sandra Lončarić, Igor Kovač

Osijek during summer. A man is mowing the lawn in his backyard... A couple of kids want to play hide-and-seek, but tell the boy to count to 3,000 until he starts looking for them... A couple wants to go to the sea for the vacation, but their teenage son doesn't want to, so they leave in the car without him with two little kids. When the car stops, one of the kids is thirsty and runs away in the field... The teenage guy and his friend bathe in an inflatable pool in the back yard... A man is having a barbecue... A car leaves a trail of smoke behind, spraying against mosquitoes in the suburbs.

David Gaso's 25-minute short film "Short Cut Grass" is an amusing and oddball depiction of his hometown Osijek from which he escaped from, but is still a step below all the critical hype that surrounded it. Constructed like Andersson's "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence", "Short Cut Grass" features the concept of rigid "one scene-one sequence" mise-en-scene, without cross-cutting, showing weird or unusual episodes of people in a suburb filmed in static wide shots. Not all of them are equally as interesting, though. It has three good jokes, the rest is standard depiction of summer boredom. One of those good jokes is when the kids want to play hide-and-seek, and as a joke tell the boy to lean his head on the pole and count to 3,000—which he actually does (!), so he counts on the street all until evening. In another, two teenage guys are in an inflatable pool in the back yard, and later sit on chairs, having this exchange: "How big is it?" - "What?" - "You know. Yours. How big is it?" - "Well, it's good, for me." - "But did you ever measure it? How big is it?" - "3." - "3 centimeters?" - "No. A 3/5, meaning it's good, for me." Later on, the said guy even stands up and lowers his underwear to show it to him. In one scene, two little kids argue: "You're stupid." - "I'm older than you! I can't be stupid!" Gaso paints a larger picture of this milieu and how he felt somewhat empty there, filmed in crystal-clear cinematography, not caring so much for conjuring up a clear point as much as creating an eccentric set of vignettes that document all these characteristics and quirks in Osijek.

Grade:++

Funny Face

Funny Face; musical / romantic comedy, USA, 1957; D: Stanley Donen, S: Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn, Kay Thompson, Michel Auclair

New York. Maggie, editor of a fashion magazine for women, wants to come up with a new trend, so she sends her photographer Dick to make a few photos of a model in a book store. There, the shop clerk Jo protests due to all the fuss, but to no avail. Later, back in the office, Dick thinks Jo would actually make for a good model, even though Maggie thinks she has a "funny face". Attracted by the prospect of visiting Paris, Jo accepts the job of a model and poses in said city. Dick makes photos of her in a wedding dress. She wants to quit after an argument and joins philosopher Flostre, but when Flostre wants to forcefully kiss her alone in his room, she leaves. Dick meets Jo again in a wedding dress standing in a garden, and the two fall in love.

Even though it was directed by the veteran Stanley Donen ("Singin' in the Rain"), "Funny Face" seems like a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"-style schizophrenic movie wrestling with itself as to if it's a stiff, boring musical or a charming, witty romantic comedy. These two genres clash badly with each other, since no matter how good of a dancer Fred Astaire is, the musical segments rarely appear enagaging. However, the comedy segment has several amusing moments, almost exclusively thanks to the outstanding Audrey Hepburn as the timid bookworm Jo, who carries 90% of the film's quality. The opening act where the the photographer Dick wants to make a photo session of a model in a book store, for a more "intellectual trend" for a fashion magazine, is ravishing—bookstore clerk Jo protests, trying to persuade Maggie to get out, but Dick replies: "One never talks to Maggie Prescott. One only listens." The viewers never for a moment buy that Hepburn could have a "funny face" or be such an "unusual" choice for a model that "defies" the industry standards, yet the "Pygmalion"-concept of a "rough girl" who will be elevated and "polished" into a beautiful woman thanks to a mentor will later be used again in Hepburn's own and more famous film "My Fair Lady". Donen should have had more close-up shots of Hepburn's charismatic face, since she is able to make even some dance moves look great (for instance, while wearing black clothes in a Paris night club), yet even as it is, "Funny Face" is overall a good film, whereas it even has a great little romantic ending involving Jo wearing a wedding dress in a garden from a photo session.

Grade:++

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune; science-fiction series, USA, 2003; D: Greg Yaitanes, S: James McAvoy, Alec Newman, Jessica Brooks, Julie Cox, Edward Atterton, Barbora Kodetova, Daniela Amavia, Ian McNeice, Alice Krige, Susan Sarandon

In the 11th century after Guild, Paul Atreides is the new Emperor of the known Universe, ruling from the desert planet Arrakis "Dune", while his followers killed millions across the planets to suppress any resistance. The former Emperor's daughter, Princess Wensicia, plots to restore House Corrino to power. A ploy causes an explosion that leaves Paul blind, but he can still see visions of the future. His wife is Princess Irulan, while his mistress Chani dies after giving birth to twins Leto II and Ghanima. Paul disappears in the desert... 16 years later. Paul's sister Alia took over the rule, but is possessed by the evil ghost of Vladimir Harkonnen, turning her reign into a dictatorship which persecutes any enemies. Leto II and Ghanima flee into the desert... Leto II meets Paul alive in the desert. Wearing a robe, Paul arrives at the palace and renounces his own religion, but is killed by a fanatic. Leto II gains superpowers from the sandworms, confronts Aila who commits suicide. Wensicia is arrested for her plots against the government. Leto II goes into the desert to initiate the "Golden Path" to save humanity.

After D. Villeneuve achieved a huge success with his film adaptation of "Dune", many viewers retroactively gained re-newed interest for the only other two adaptations of Frank Herbert's cult novel "Dune". One was Lynch's film, the other was this three-part mini-series by the Sci-fi Channel which actually even took it a step further, since it adapted Herbert's two follow-up novels "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune". Its three episodes each span a running time of approximately 83 minutes, yet its overall quality is disparate, since the storyline undergoes a steady lapse since the 2nd episode. The 1st episode is the best, since it is a direct continuation of the first novel, giving again interesting symbolism—Paul Atreides' followers killing millions of people across the known Universe to establish his religion is reminiscent of the 7th century Arab conquests of the Middle East and northern Africa—and sharp observations—namely that maybe even Paul himself lost control of the movement he created, which took on a life of its own, and is now on a campaign to establish its ideology everywhere regardless of his wishes. Some dialogue is clever—the opening narration goes: "If history teaches us anything, it is simply this: every revolution carries within it the seeds of its own destruction, and empires that rise will one day fall"; Princess Wensicia (Susan Sarandon in a playful performance) at one moment says: "Learn the lesson my father ignored. It's not who controls the spice, but who has the ability to disrupt the spice who controls the Universe". 

The 2nd episode entered an erosion of quality due to Herbert's decline in writing which didn't aim anymore to reach a conclusion in a rounded-up story, but was rather reoriented to constantly shoehorn new mysteries, puzzles, subplots and cryptic visions in order to prolong the storyline indefinitely, much to the viewers' annoyance. Already some halfway into the 2nd episode, the magic is gone and the viewing experience is strained beyond belief, whereas a certain irrelevance starts to appear. Certain subplot were introduced, but never resolved (for instance, the idea to "kidnap" a sandworm from Arrakis via a giant aircraft, to be transported to another planet to try to create a new spice production and break the monopoly). The 3rd episode is the weakest: instead of a new enagement, the story just simply becomes boring, among others due to bland, monotone dialogue and a lack of a clear point. There are some good observations here—for instance, the irony that a disguised Paul Atreides returns to the palace to protest against the fundamentalism of his own religion that he unwillingly created, and declares that he wants to disolve it, meaning that he himself became a "heretic"; the inevitable fall into dictatorship of all giant kingdoms, since its rulers are afraid of conspiracies against all these various people they control—but many of them just become ridiculous, such as when Leto II gained "superpowers" from the worms and is now able to run across the desert as superfast as the Flash. And, instead of an ending, the finale is again open to a continuation, in the form of the bizarre novel "God Emperor of Dune" which was (luckily?) left out of the scope of this adaptation due to its too obscure concepts. The whole story became, just like the planet it is set on, too dry in the end, yet the competent acting performances and the ability of writers to shorten the writing to its essence manage to turn this into a curious viewing experience.

Grade:++

The Blob

The Blob; horror, USA, 1988; D: Chuck Russell, S: Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, Donovan Leitch, Jeffrey DeMunn, Candy Clark, Joe Seneca

A meteorite crashes in a forest near a small town and a pink slime emerges out of it. It attaches itself to the hand of a homeless man, but after he is brought to the hospital, his lower half of the body is found decomposed. The pink blob falls from the ceiling and "digests" teenager Paul, which shocks his date, Meg. Soon, the blob spreads across the town, killing numerous people. Rebel teenager Brian overhears the conversations of scientists on the crash site, who say the blob is actually a bioweapon created by the military and deliberately thrown at the town to test its effectiveness. Brian finds out the blob is afraid of cold, so he uses the snowmaking truck to freeze the blob and save the town.

The remake of the eponymous '58 horror film, "The Blob" is a surprisingly well made modern (B) film which benefited a lot from the screenplay by Frank Darabont, who managed to conceal some of its obvious trash flaws. The best part of the film is its first third which shows a lot of neat quiet character interactions—for instance, a Sheriff is hitting on a waitress at a diner, and as he is just about to leave, she hands him the bill with an added note she wrote at the bottom: "I'm off at 11:00". Teenager Scott wants to buy condoms at the pharmacy, and feigns in front of the pharmacist that he is only buying them for his friend, Paul, who is "irresponsible". A few minutes later, this set-up has a delicious pay-off: Paul is about to go on a date with Meg, arrives at her house, while she introduces him to her father, who lowers the newspapers—and is revealed to be the pharmacist from the previous scene, who just looks angrily at Paul. There are also other fine moments, but each good idea is thereafter nullified and "digested" the same way the blob "digests" people, which is too heavy-handed and filled with shock, vile and gore moments. Despite this mish-mash of high and low art, the director Chuck Russell manages to create just enough ingredients to pull this outlandish concept through, even adding a plot twist at the end involving the origins of the blob and the military conspiracy around it. The ending is abrupt, and the blob kills at moments like the alien from Carpenter's "The Thing", yet the fact that so many elements in the film are competent is already an accomplishment.

Grade:++

The Thundermans Return

The Thundermans Return; fantasy comedy, USA, 2024; D: Trevor Kirschner, S: Kira Kosarin, Jack Griffo, Chris Tallman, Rosa Blasi, Addison Riecke, Diego Velazquez, Maya Le Clark, Audrey Whitby, Dana Snyder (voice)

Metroburg. After a fight against a super-villain on the street goes wrong and a giant plastic donut falls and injures superheroes from the V-Team, the Thundermans are demoted by President Kickbutt and punished by being sent back to their old house in Hiddenville. Phoebe and Max try to find new jobs as superheroes, while their siblings, Nora and Billy, now teenagers, enter high school and try to impress students by bragging through their superpowers. V-Team are actually kids of Dark Mayhem, Strongdor and King Crab and plan to spread superhero seeds from the power plant across the city in order to create tens of thousands of super-villains. However, the Thundermans unite and stop them, saving the city.

The comedy TV-show "The Thundermans" ran for six years, ended, and was then semi-revived six years later in the form of this movie. All the cast returned, but it seems their charm, wit and inspiration didn't, as if their trademark humor stayed back in their original show. The opening conjures up a smile on the viewers' faces—meteorites from the sky are falling towards the city, people panic, searching for some superheroes, until they point towards the right, and the camera reveals the Thundermans posing, boasting on the street in their blue uniforms. Max and Phoebe then have this little comical exchange: "Glad they finally saw us!" - "Right? We've been standing here for three minutes." This is a great intro and immediately ignites a spark in the story. Unfortunately, the rest of "The Thundermans Return" is a level below that, since it seems the authors didn't come up with some especially good jokes in that six year pause. There are more corny jokes than truly great ones. As an unwritten rule says, if a story is concluded, a sequel needs to either raise the stakes, show character growth or expand this universe, which warrants for continuing returning to any given world. Some of these rules are followed, luckily. 

For instance, Nora (in the meantime a teenager) now uses her laser powers to burn a bow, ending her childish trait. Billy (now also a teenager) unfortunately still talks like a naive 12-year old at times, which is inconsistent, but he shows character growth when he finally has an intelligent thought and correctly guesses that the villains will execute their plan on Mt. Metroburg, causing the entire family to pause and stare at him for a minute. Chloe then interrupts and asks why everyone is "just standing around", so dad Hank replies: "Quiet, we're savouring the moment!" We needed more of these moments where we understand that some characters have "moved on" in the meantime. The supporting cast wasn't used enough, since they are mostly just cameo appearances, though the first encounter between Cherry and Phoebe is amusing, since Cherry tells: "I've been auditioning new Phoebes, but nobody's been working out!" The finale is standard and routine, missing that 'frequency' from some of the best "Thundermans" episodes which became gems of comedy, such as "Why You Buggin'?", "Patch Me If You Can" or "Save the Past Dance". The brilliant Kira Kosarin is still outstanding in the role of Phoebe, always lifting the movie a notch higher, since she is such a fascinating personality that you could watch her in whatever she does—she simply makes even the most mundane scenes appear special.

Grade:++