Deadpool & Wolverine

Deadpool & Wolverine; fantasy action satire, USA, 2024; D: Shawn Levy, S: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfadyen, Rob Delaney, Aaron Stanford, Dafne Keen, Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes, Chaning Tatum, Morena Baccarin, Chris Evans, Jon Favreau

Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, is summoned by an organization known as the Time Variance Authority (TVA), represented by Mr. Paradox, to Earth-616, and join their team to speed up the destruction of Wade's parallel universe, which is in decline after the death of the "anchor being", Wolverine. Since Deadpool actually wants to save his world, including his nine friends, he goes to an alternate universe where Wolverine refused to be a superhero, and brings him to help him. Paradox sends them to the Void, a purgatory universe where rejects are sent. Deadpool and Wolverine team up with Electra, Blade and Gambit to defeat Cassandra, the twin sister of Charles Xavier, and use her telekinetic powers to be sent back to Earth-616. After fighting a hundred Deadpools from different parallel universes, Deadpool and Wolverine create a short circuit of the Time Ripper machine and thereby kill Cassandra who wanted to destroy all other parallel universes besides this one. 

After Ryan Reynolds invoked Wolverine for two "Deadpool" movies, he finally got his wish and crossover film with him in part III, "Deadpool & Wolverine". Wolverine is Hugh Jackman's role of a lifetime, a one which he played for 10 movies, but it only truly earned its status of a lifetime role in his last two movies, "Logan" and this one. "Deadpool & Wolverine" is a mixed bag—on the one hand, having these two superheroes team up and interact is exciting and stimulative (though the stoic Wolverine is surprisingly the better half of the duo) because they are such different personalities; but on the other hand, one whishes they were in a better written story than the mess we got here, which is so overburdened by excessive 'breaking-the-fourth-wall' moments that it shoves anything in its way, and thus the viewers have trouble fully engaging. The overkill use of ultraviolence and cruelty as something "humorous" is also a negative point, since at times it really went too far in this category. However, if the viewers can accept that everything is only meant to be an (R-rated) comedy and just plain untrammelled fun, then they could enjoy the movie more. 

Reynolds' antihero again has the best jokes and sizzling lines (upon hearing from Al that his rent is due, Wade says: "Relax, I have the money. I sold some old blood pressure medication I've found lying around", upon which she says: "I pray every day that fire finds your body and finishes the job God didn't have the nuts to do!"; After a monologue at the party, the man standing next to him raises his finger as if to say something, but Wade stops him: "No speaking lines. Bye"; "I am the Messiah. I am Marvel Jesus"). Even during one shocking and sudden moment, where the villainess Cassandra uses her telekinetic powers to take away the skin of Johnny Storm and graphically disband his body into hundred pieces in an elaborate (and obviously expensive) visual effect, this is used for a metafilm gag when Deadpool laments at Johnny: "Look what he's doing to the budget!" Deadpool even makes fun of Marvel's multiverse phase by setting the story in this premise, but it doesn't gel well with other elements. The "Void" segment, in which Deadpool and Wolverine are stuck in a dumping ground universe, takes way too much time, over half of the movie—it should have been cut by a half, especially since they crammed everything and anything in this (overlong) middle act. The only indisputable highlight in this segment are delicious cameos from "rejected" and "forgotten" Marvel films, which should not be missed. When one supporting characters starts a long, epic revenge rant against Cassandra, Wolverine just interrupts him: "Not everyone gets a speech!" As with the previous two films, some emotions are inserted in the final act, which give Wolverine pathos and weight, preserving his mythical status. But this also leads to an astonishing conclusion regarding this movie—it is better during Wolverine's scenes which matter and have weight, and actually weaker during Deadpool's scenes which have too much throw away, wasteful jokes.

Grade:++

Spencer

Spencer; psychological drama, UK / USA / Germany, 2021; D: Pablo Larraín, S: Kristen Stewart, Jack Farthing, Timothy Spall, Sally Hawkins, Jack Nielen, Freddie Spry, Stella Gonnet

Three days in the life of Princess Diana of Wales, alias Spencer, around Christmas 1 9 9 1. While the staff is preparing dinners at the Sandringham castle, Diana is plagued by depression and anxiety. Her relationship with Prince Charles is disintegrating, so she spends her time plays with her sons William and Harry or wondering off around the her former estate when she was a child, taking a jacket from a scarecrow in the field. Diana has hallucinations and contemplates suicide. Her dresser Maggie admits she is in love with her. Diana walks in front of the hunters who were firing at pheasants, and orders William and Harry to leave the guns and abandon the hunt. Diana takes her chilren to London for hamburgers.

You would not know Diana, Princess of Wales, is one of the most beloved and affectionate celebrities based on Pablo Larrain's film "Spencer" alone. Larrain presents her as a confused, demented, mentally-ill and unstable woman who occasionally swears using the "F" word and says this to an assistant in her room: "Now leave me. I wish to masturbate. You can tell everyone I said that". It is understandable that she feels lost in a foreign world as a civilian in the Royal family, neglected by husband Prince Charles, but this doesn't always translate naturally to justify some of her confusing actions. The movie is a mess. Its only undoubtable virtue is the excellent performance by Kristen Stewart in the leading role, who even has an impeccable British accent—yet one wishes she was in a better movie. It's almost as if the movie itself is in her way. 

The script by Steven Knight is episodic and all over the place, unable to craft a linear storyline. It also shows some of Diana's hallucinations—in one of them, during a dinner, she imagines seeing Anne Boleyn, the 16th century Queen beheaded by Henry VIII, at the table. Diana then imagines eating pearls from her necklace in the soup, then tumbling across the hallway and ultimately throwing up in the toilet. Knight takes more license to invent stuff of what Diana ostensibly felt than he has right to. The best moments are when Diana is simply allowed to be herself, a kind person, such as when she talks to a pheasant while sitting in the garden, or when her dresser Maggie (Sally Hawkins) admits at the beach: "I've never told you this and it probably means you'll have to fire me, but... well, actually I'm in love with you", causing Diana to start giggling. But Maggie then actually sums up everything about Diana's trauma in a serious observations: "F*** doctors. What you need is love". The last 20 minutes are thus the most focused and meaningful parts of the movie, since this observation resonates with Diana's erratic behavior, and shows her in a more sane, genuine edition when she forbids her sons William and Harry to shoot with hunters at pheasants. It is indicative that right at the end the viewers feel a sense of sadness that they are leaving this character behind, since it stems from the impression that we would have wanted to see Diana in some other story than this.

Grade:++

Tatort: Der Fremdwohner

Tatort: Der Fremdwohner; crime, Germany, 2002; D: Peter Fratzscher, S: Miroslav Nemec, Udo Wachtveitl, August Zirner, Michael Fitz, Barbara Philipp, Andreas Maria Schweiger, Claudia Lössl

Munich. Josef wears a courrier suit and uses one of his fifty keys to enter someone else's apartment. When the real owner, Veronika, shows up, he witnesses how she is killed by photographer Ana Gram and Richie, and left in the aquarium. Police commissioners Ivo Batic and Franz Leitmayr investigate. Josef continues living in foreign apartments, but gives them a hint whom to investigate. Ivo and Franz discover that Ana's late rich father changed his last will to not leave her any inheritance, and that she persuaded notary Manz and his assistant Veronika to change the will back. Predictably, Manz is also soon murdered. Josef presents himself as a ghost to a little girl, but her mother Claudia discovers him. Years before, Josef's son drowned in the river, and his wife killed herself after it. When Ana and Richie want to eliminate Josef at the bridge, they are arrested by Ivo and Franz.

Episode 515 of the ever popular German TV-crime series "Tatort", "Foreign Resident" is a solid and good edition, but just barely. A lot of threads connect in the end, but a lot of them are also left incomplete and unresolved. There are some neat twists in the opening that trick the viewers thinking one thing, but it later turns out that something else happened: for instance, Josef, a stranger, enters a foreign apartment, but then hides when the real owner, Veronika, shows up. Veronika is later found murdered and the viewers immediately jump to the conclusion that Josef is the perpetrator, but it later turns out he was just the witness to the real two killers who attacked Veronika at her home. Another suspect, Veronika's ex-boyfriend, Bartl, is caught trying to falsify her signature to get her savings, but it turns out he also didn't kill her. One throw-away joke involves a random pharmacist saying this joke: "A Rabbi complains to God: 'Jehovah, what should I do? My son converted to Christianity!' And God tells him: 'And? Mine too!' 'So what did you do?' 'I just made a new testament!'" The movie gains the most from the two charming lead actors Miroslav Nemec and Udo Wachtveitl as the police commissionars Ivo and Franz, but the voice actress Claudia Lossl is also great in the small role of the hairdresser who discovers Joseph, yet she is sadly underused and required more screen time. He is the weak link: why is he living in other people's apartments? How does he get in without anyone noticing? One presumes that the story will explain that he is a locksmith or something, but no, nothing is clarified. The story needed less Ana Gram and more Claudia, yet it is overall still a solid episode.

Grade:++

In the Mood for Love

Huayang Nianhua; romantic drama / art-film, Hong Kong / France, 2000; D: Wong Kar-wai, S: Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Siu Ping Lam, Rebecca Pan

Hong Kong, 1 9 6 0s. Su Li-zhen Chan and her husband move to an apartment, while journalist Mr. Chow and his wife move to the neighboring apartment. Since Chow's wife and Su's husband often travel for business and they don't see their spouses that often, Chow and Su start having dinners and talk. They realize their spouses maybe having an affair with each other. Chow invites Su at his apartment ostensibly to help him write martial arts stories, but since the neighbors are nosy, they decide to meet in room 2046 in a hotel. Su and Chow fall in love, but separate. Chow and his wife go to work in Singapore. Years later, Chow visits the old Hong Kong apartment. In Cambodia, he whispers a secret to a hole in Angkor Wat and burries it with mud.

Everything in Wong Kar-wai's minimalist film "In the Mood for Love" is restrained. The characters, their passivity and their love for each other, as well as the story are all so restrained and subdued that it seems that they even contaminated Kar-wai himself, whose own directorial vision became too restrained to truly captivate the viewers to the fullest. Similarly like Lean's "Brief Encounter", this movie explores the notion of (feigned) unrequited love, but it is not that simple since both the man and the woman are married to someone else and want to keep their honesty—despite the rather effervescent twist where they assume that their spouses are having an affair with each other. Despite a gorgeous cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Ping Bin Lee with a several aesthetic images (Mrs. Chow's hand with the wedding ring as she touches the wall at the door; 61 minute into the film, a shadow of a "wavy" courtain seen traveling on the red table; Chow picking up a cigarette stub with lipstick on it, signalling Su was there), "In the Mood for Love" is a rather standard, conventional film. It suffers from too much empty walk, is boring and almost nothing ever happens: the only noteworthy event in the first hour is when Su confronts someone turned with his back to the camera about him having an affair, and slaps him, but instead of that being her husband, it is actually Chow, as they act out and rehearse how they should ask their spouses about the affair. Because of this lack of connection, Su and Chow never really feel like they are soulmates, except in the very emotional, devastating and cathartic finale. Why is there archive footage of Charles de Gaulle visiting Cambodia? Why didn't we get an epilogue? The movie is contemplative and spiritually elevating, but it still could have been made more effective and proactive.

Grade:++

Rocky IV

Rocky IV; sports drama, USA, 1985; D: Sylvester Stallone, S: Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Carl Weathers, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Brigitte Nielsen

Heavyweight boxing champion Apollo Creed challenges Soviet boxer Ivan Drago to a boxing match, despite the objections of his friend Rocky. In the match in Las Vegas, Drago knocks Apollo so heavy that Apollo dies. After the funeral, Rocky vows to avenge Apollo. Rocky's wife Adrian and son say farewell, as Rocky and his trainers Paulie and Duke travel to the Soviet Union to prepare for the upcoming match. Rocky trains in the nature and snow. In the boxing match, Rocky is able to knockout Drago and win the match, and later give a speech to the crowd to reconcile. 

1985 was one of the best years in Sylvester Stallone's career: both sequels to his most commercial franchizes—"Rambo II" and "Rocky IV"—reached their most commercial heights, as both of these films were the 2nd and 3rd highest grossing films of the year. After a weak and routine "Rocky III", Stallone somewhat managed to improve the trend with this part 4, by connecting the boxing match with the Cold War rivalry. In the age of Trump-Vance, "Rocky IV" contains for today's age unheard-of vision of an American hero whose spirit defies Russian pressures and refuses to appease his own integrity and honor, as Rocky chooses to fight instead of to bow and give up in the name of easier concession. There are still problems in the story, whose formula has been pretty much established to the point of repetition: a setback; training montage; Rocky fights and wins in the boxing match. 

The dialogue is underwritten and stale, and several characters are neglected to the point of becoming irrelevant (for instance, Adrian and Paulie), but Dolph Lundgren is very effective as the threatening Russian rival Drago, who doesn't need much words to transmit his anger with his looks. This is used in one of the best moments in the film, as Apollo is so perplexed with Drago's silence at the press conference that he humorously says: "The man's tongue didn't come through the customs!" Challenged that he can beat Drago, Apollo continues with another joke: "I've retired more men than Social Security!" The motivation for Rocky's urge to have a boxing match with Drago feels like a stretch, and the training montage feels too long, yet in the end it connects with Rocky's character arc that he needs to challenge and change himself every once in a while, to remain human, so he trains in nature, while Drago remains a robot, who trains in technological environment, and thus Rocky's genuine spirit edges him closer to his goal. The match isn't that well directed (though it has an aesthetic double exposure of Rocky and Drago fighting and moving from right to left, as a camera pan from right to left follows the faces of the audience in the "transparent" background), but the whole film is simply pure 80s flair, which has its own pathos.

Grade:++

They Call Me Renegade

Renegade - Un osso troppo duro; road movie / action / comedy, Italy / USA, 1987; D: E.B. Clucher, S: Terence Hill, Ross Hill, Donald Hodson, Beatrice Palme, Robert Vaughn

Luke is a wanderer who drives across Arizona in a car and a horse trailer. He goes to visit his friend Moose in prison who claims he was framed. Moose asks him to accompany his teenage son Matt (16) to his new cottage, "Green Heaven", which he won in a poker game. While traveling on the highway, Luke and Matt are attacked by two truckers and later on by a motorcycle gang, though Matt makes friends with the latter. Luke and Matt arrive at the cottage, in the middle of a forest, and befriend the Amish neighbor Eli, who has four daughters. Two lawyers representing a certain Mr. Lawson want to buy the land, but Luke rejects them. The cottage is later destroyed in an explosion. Luke goes to personally see Mr. Lawson in the office, but then recognizes it is his former captain from the Vietnam War who feigned his death and escaped with cocaine. Lawson's men chase Luke and Matt, but then the motorcycle gang shows up to help them, and the police arrests Lawson. Moose is then freed from prison.

The sometimes inspired Italian comedy director E.B. Clucher, who cooperated five times with Terence Hill and B. Spencer ("They Call Me Trinity", "Go For It"), and also even more separately with them individually, did not manage to extract something more this time around in this meandering road movie that works better during its (sparse) comedy scenes than its action and chase scenes. Terence Hill still has some charm as the naughty protagonist Luke who ignites a few chuckles here and there in the first half. In one such good joke, while traveling in his car, Luke realizes he is short on money, so he decides to sell his horse from his horse trailer. Luke gives the horse to a farm and gets 300$ from the buyer, a cowboy. Later, Luke just drives away, but suddenly stops and just waits on the road—until the horse runs towards him and goes back into the trailer, as Luke protests: "It never took you this long to escape from a farm!" In another, Luke hears that two burglars with machine guns want to enter his motel room through the window, so he plucks the electric cord from a lamp and throws it inside a bucket of water, which electrocutes the burglar when he steps inside it. The rest is rather overstretched, thin and without any creativity or ingenuity that adorned some of Clucher's and Hill's best films. Hill always wanted to make it into the American cinema market, and thus "They Call Me Renegade" serves as his wishful project set in Arizona and featuring American actors. The vague story about some land that is coveted by a greedy lawyer is just an excuse for Hill's display of acting, but there are not that many good jokes this time around for him to seize them. It feels more like an exercise in filmmaking than a truly engaging and fun film.

Grade:+

Tereza37

Tereza37; drama, Croatia, 2020; D: Danilo Šerbedžija, S: Lana Barić, Ivana Roščić, Leon Lučev, Dragan Mičanović, Marija Škaričić, Goran Marković, Goran Bogdan

Split, Croatia. Tereza has had enough—after her fourth miscarriage, she feels her marriage with sailor Marko isn't going anywhere, and almost as an insult, her sister already has three kids. When her gynecologist tells her to "try it out with a new man, maybe it works", Tereza has sex with a man she met on the street, Serb Nikola. During a high school reunion, Tereza has sex with a waiter, Ante. Later, she meets a random man at a night club, but he gets jealous of her seeing other men and rapes her in his car. Finally, Tereza discovers that she is pregnant. Marko is notified, while Tereza's friend leaves for Berlin to live with her husband. While walking back from the airport, Tereza notices a red patch of blood on her dress, meaning another miscarriage.

Even though it won the Big Golden Arena for Best Film, psychological drama "Tereza37" didn't age well and feels just like another of the same old static art-films where the protagonist aimlessly wonders around the city, contemplating about his/her life, all until the random end where nothing is resolved and everything is just left vague without a conclusive satisfaction. This passivity in directing and writing hinders "Tereza37", especially in banal dialogue, though it is saved almost exclusively thanks to the strong performance by the excellent leading actress (and screenwriter) Lana Baric as Tereza, whose charisma manages to conjure up some higher leyers of meaning in the (thin and empty) storyline. A big surprise for the conservative Croatian cinema are several sex scenes since Tereza wants to get pregnant already, and thus goes from man to man until she "completes the task". It is questionable how much of this is realistic and accurate, though (would a waiter just randomly have sex without a condom with a woman he just met (?), and knows not if she has STDs, and do it out in the open on the street at night?), yet the filmmakers have audacity, and the cinematography manages to capture some aesthetic images of Split (Tereza watching a residential building through the window, while the sea is in the background). Only marginally successful contemplation on feminism and patriarchy in modern society, without much inspiration or ingenuity.

Grade:++

Mafia Mamma

Mafia Mamma; action comedy, UK / USA / Italy, 2023; D: Catherine Hardwicke, S: Toni Collette, Monica Bellucci, Eduardo Scarpetta, Alfonso Perugini, Giulio Corso

After her teenage son leaves for college, she catches her husband cheating on her, and her boss thinks of firing her, Kristin has enough and accepts the offer of becoming the new mafia boss in Italy after hearing that her grandfather was assassinated there. Having bodyguards, like Fabrizio, and secretary Bianca guiding her in this new criminal business, Kristin still has time for an affair with an Italian man, Lorenzo. As she was negotiating with the Romano family, Kristin and other mafia criminals are arrested, and it turns out Lorenzo was an undercover agent all along. Fabrizio attempts to kill Kristin's family and take over, but dies in the process. Kristin retires from the mafia.

Neat idea, underwritten screenplay—"Mafia Mamma" is a thin comedy, but it has one great feature: excellent and underrated actress Toni Collette, who acts with such enthusiasm in every scene as if she thinks she is in a great movie. Unfortunately, the whole movie is below her, rarely managing to conjure up some inspiration, wit or hilarity. One rare example of a good joke is when Kristin and her friend Jenny are working out in the gym, and Jenny orders her to shout a mantra, "Eat, Pray, F***", many women in the gym join her chant, but as Kristin hesitates, Jenny orders her to be louder: "From the vagina!" Another good gag is when the bodyguards insult Kristin's ex-husband by calling him "stronzo", who protests: "How dare you call me something I don't even know what it means!" Yet the distance between good jokes is far, leaving a solid, but meagre comedy on 'autopilot', since the storyline unravels as if anyone could have written it, without much surprises or higher lift-offs. Three violent-bloody sequences stand out (in one, Kristin kills a mobster with the sharp end of her high heel hitting his head) since they feel somewhat uneven. Wacky and weird, but only for fans of Italian mafia stories.

Grade:+