The Dog Stars (2026)

Ridley Scott's newest pic, The Dog Stars, is as close to a western as he ever did get to do. A post-apocalyptic story, it's a very slow and intimist film, 1 character, a dog, two characters, three characters, that's it. Oh, and a Cessna 1956 plane. Major character. 

Jacob Elrodi (frankenstein) replaced Paul Mescal as Hig, the pilot. Josh Brolin who worked previously with Scott on American Gangster is the cynical Bangley. They represent opposite views, opposite worlds, one missing his old world, the other one adapting, full survival mode. 

Supporting are Margaret Qualley (OUTiH, Poor Things, The Substance, Kinds of Kindness, Drive-Away Dolls, How to Make a Killing), in her most normal and romantic role (up to now) as Cima and Guy Pearce as Pops (Pearce was the old Peter Weyland in Prometheus). Benedict Wong is also here (he was in Ridey's The Martian) and an Ewen Bremner cameo that works as a red hering. He also worked for Scott in Black Hawk Down.

Now if you already read the reviews which I can't understand...? Worst ever for a Scott film??

Worse than Gladiator II and Napoleon which were painful to sit through? Anyway, this is not that biggie of a film, compared to the scale of these two baaad juggernauts...

The film is very slow and it builds atmosphere gradually. The three acts are separated smoothly. The landscape, the nature is another silent character, the green, the mountains vs. The Wasteland.

Incredibly the whole film was shot in Italy, with the Grand Junction sets built at Cinecitta. DOP is Erik Mesermschmit, David Fincher's later collaborator, here in his 1st cinema fare with Scott (he worked before with RS on TV's Raised by Wolves and The Dope Thief).

Comparisons with The Last of Us or The Walking Dead are wrong, closer is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. 

The Dog Stars is based on the 2012 book by Peter Heller and the script is by Mark L  Smith who wrote The Revenant.

Harry Gregson-Williams composed the score, which is part elegiac, part menacing, it's his 7th for a Scott film.

The soundtrack has also dramatic value, it's folkish and rockish, from the opening credits with Hozier ( Like Real People Do), that gets replayed at the end of the film, to Van Morrison (Tupelo Honey), to Caamp’s “By and By” (on headphones), Dean Martin (Memories are made of This), to the end in The Chieftains and Mick Jagger. (The Long Black Veil). Featuring also Charmaine written by Lew Pollack, Erno Rapee performed by Jack Nitzsche, from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Fly Me to the Moon, sung by Allison Janney on screen. 

There is a most poetic scene at the end with the "mormons"/ mennonites countryfair that transcends Ridley Scott's cinema, an optimist message in a post-apocalyptic world. I sensed in the interraction betwwen Hig and Bangley could be a sort of tribute to Ridley's late brother, Tony....

To be seen on the Big Screen.

The IMAX thing is a gimmick tho.

3 1/2 out of 5, 7 out of 10 !

Her Private Hell (2026)

NWR originals -Refn 's comeback ? more like Refn's goodbye...or His Private Hell instead of Her Private Hell !

10 years ago he divided the cinema world last time with The Neon Demon, then he antagonised execs with his streaming fares, Copenhagen Cowboy for Netflix, which of course never got renewed..

Now he was in Cannes (out of competition with the worst reviews of his career) and is in Romanian theaters (very Limited, brave Bad Unicorn release), even with his new UFO, Her Private Hell.

Now, I wished I liked this, but no... fell asleep almost. 

Well the film is a dream, a dream within a dream, with dream logic and nightmares. It's supposedly concieved after Refn had a clinical death of 25 minutes in 2023...

Mist, The Letherman, Metropolis and crystals, models who can't act, yakuza and choreographed empty fights, disco inferno, lesbianism, incest. A Refn original ;) 

mixing giallo, B Sf & japanese action/yakuza films (Seijun Suzuki?).

Again the Hans Christian Andersen trauma, the girl with the matches...

visuals of Barbarella, Diabolik and Flash Gordon ?  Terrore nello spazio / aka Planet of the Vampires ?Tron meets Suspiria and other Argento fares (defenestration) ? Technicolor by Bava ?

He's trying Lynch's tricks, from Lost Highway and Mullholand Drive, but he's getting zilch. 

acting level is subzero...Sophie Thatcher, Charles Melton, gorgeously photographed but used as cardboard models. 

the letragic pacing goes lethal, the film comes alive on the neon visuals only when there's music.

So, the only redeeeming quality of the film is the score by Pino Donnagio, an eerie, elegiac beautiful (Herrmannesque, there is some Vertigo in it) score that stands out and it's one of his best, together with the ones for De Palma. It would be ironic if Donaggio reworked some of his rejected score for De Palma's Snake Eyes (1999).

The disco synth pop is not by Donnagio but by Refn's collaborator Julian Winding (Dolce mio).

https://fictionhorizon.com/her-private-hell-budget-breakdown-how-nicolas-winding-refns-costly-gamble-struggled-at-the-box-office/

2 out of 5 / 4 out of 10 !

The Bride ! (2026)

as stated on Sept. 23, 2025 when the trailer premiered.

Movie or at least Curio of next year ?

The Bride, Maggie Gyllenhaal's second film after The Lost Daughter (2021) is a revisonist retelling of Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale), with Jessie Buckley (Fargo sez, IV) as The Bride, Christian Bale as Frankenstein's Monster, and Jake Gyllenhaal, Penelope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening.

The Bride is a mix of Poor Things and Joker (Folie a deux), with elements of Public Enemies (Bale again..), Bonnie and Clyde and other goodies of the 30's era. 

Just fyi, there was another The Bride, starring Sting, Clancy Brown as the Monster aka Viktor and Jennifer Beals as "Eve", directed by Franc Roddam, in 1985.

-Update-saw the film in cinema March 9th 2026 and posted my "review" on Letterboxed here.

It says:

All over the place big budget mess of a personal (I'd say Vanity) star project (Maggie Gyllenhal's 2nd film) with an incoherent agenda: meta-cinema, pretentious literary references (Mary Shelley, Herman Melville, Shakespeare), grand feminist message, cult genre films homage, from Bonnie and Clyde to Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, over-the-top performances -Bale can go for a Razzie, gratuitous violence, #metoo engagement, anachronisms galore, chaotic choregraphy and revisionist musical score. I didn't feel involved at all, Zlatko Buric as Italian capo Lupino ! (another Ida Lupino reference !) is the weirdest casting choice. 

Folie a Deux meets (Un) Natural Born Killers, It surely deserves the exclamation sign from the title !!!

2 1/2 out of 5 / 5 out of 10 !

Masters of the Universe (2026)

 'Here we are ...with the Princes, ups, with the Masters of the Universe...'

Unexpected or more so after abysymal BO performace and Reviews. Definetly not a film for 2026. A combo of Flash Gordon and Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 1), overlong (2h20 !!!; really?), some good humor and  sexual innueundos in a PG fare, a dumbo Skeletor (unrecognizable Jared Lato with weird accent and Dr. Evil laughter does his bet job in many years here). 

Camila Mendes as Teela is hot, Idris Elba supports bravely, Roboto is voiced by Kristen Wiig, James Purefoy is the King Randor, Morena Maccarin (the) sorceress in white and the lead Adam/He-Man- Nicholas Galitzine is funny and charismatic, also Alison Brie is fun as witchy Evil-Lyn.

Coming from a line of legendary toys (that I was never fammilar with), cartoons and comics which I never saw my only reference was the 1987 very B and B budget cult film of the same name and franchise (it was a Golan-Globus Cannon production).  More so than then, this film doesn't take itself seriosusly for an even odd moment, it knows it's silly and plays it straight on. 

Added value: the score is Fabulous, Power Rock pounding heroic symphonica metallic, another great one from Daniel Pemberton, one chord to rule'm all, Queen style, even features a Highlander song and puns, plus a clone Queen song by The Darkness and surely the sound was familliar because yes, the guitarist it's Brian May !!! That in itself raises the bar (and the volume) one notch (and a star of my review here). A Dolph Lundgren cameo (hero of the 1987 version) makes it even more tongue in cheeck. For the grown-up children ;)

3 stars out of 5, 6 out of 10 !!!

Disclosure Day (2026)

Disclosure Day on the film's premiere's day.

What can I say? I expected more. But it's ok. Just that it's old news, the disclosure has been made my Spielberg in 1977 and in 1982 (E.T. phoning home ;). 

This is really a Close Encounters of the Third Kind 'cos it's beeen done now the third time.

I woun't count the War of the Worlds which I hateted masivelly when it came out, called it War of the Tripods.

My most problematic aspect is the casting. Absolute no charisma between the leads, boyfriend-girlfriend, could be way better with another actors, Josh O'Connor and Emily Blunt didn't convince me one bit. What about the old Richard Dryfuss type, even the claasical Tom Hanks Spielbergian James Stewart type? The supporting bit was clockwork, Colin Firth and Colman Domingo all serious handling the disbelief. 

Then, the duration. 2h25 could've been way shorter. Scenes repeat, chases repeat, peril repeat, mind scanning repeat, rinse, spit, repeat. like it's a TV series. 

Also the deja-vu from the telekinesis/paranormal age of late 70's, 80's, from Fury, to Scanners, via Firestarter. Just add aliens, but it's the same chase, same plot gimmicks.

But John Williams did a serios job scoring it, coming out of retirement again for his buddy Spielberg, At 94 he still rocks !!! 

 The camera work, I have a problem with the design, moving in every shot, some cool tracking shots, 180 degrees to 360. Colors too,bleak, winterish. 

3 out of 5, 6 out 10 !!!

Project Hail Mary (2026)

`Fist my bump.`

Project Hail Mary is the Feel Good science fiction film of the year, decade, and more, a hopeful unlikely buddy film well done, with winks to 2001, Intersellar, ET, Close Encounters of 3d kind and of course Rocky ;).
Ryan Gosling is at his most charismatic and Rocky is a hoot ! 
Import Deutch Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall, Zone of Interest), does a good job, and also karaoke ;)
Nice songs on the soundtrack (Kris Kristofferson, The Beatles, Dennis Wilson, Ike and Tina Turner) and effective score by Daniel Pemberton. It does what Mission 2 Mars and The Martian (also based on an Andy Weir book) did not manage to do, meanwhile touching the Grace ;)

See it on IMAX if you can, all the space sequences are shot in the format.


7 out of 10 / 3 1/2 out of 5

The Running Man (2025)

The new Running Man, is not a remake pre se of the Ahnuld 1987 vehicle, but a more faithful adaptation of Stephen King as Richard Bachman novel, written in 1973, published in 1982. That novel happened in the year 2025 and actually today it happens, with the Squid Game series and a Korean Reality show named exactly Running Man. So Ben Richards is in a banal world, becoming more real every day. I mean, it's like Y-day news after the Hunger Games series and all the Tv/straming fare of this kind. 

Running man is of course influenced by Rollerball, which still stands up as one of the best film of its era (not the shitty unnecesaary reamke) it's even worse tha n its remake.

Everyone's commenting, oh, it's an Edgar Wright film. Ok, that is like a certified value for a big budget blockbuster Sf action  (110 mill. $). surely not. I was also very dispointed by Lst Night in Soho, his take in gialllos, very pretentios and shallow. The most action Wright directed was in Baby Driver, which I enjoyed most of his all films, and he's better in making quirky, funny, heartfelt little films, not Hollywood fodder.

Also Glen Powell, which I've just seen in the lastest SNL edition, can't carry the film., at all. Not a problem with the guy and he tries hard but neh.

This would've worked as a Snake Plissken adventure, like Escape fromn the Dome. I guess Wright gave a few nods to John Carpenter. 

There's also a problem with the duration which is overlong, 2h13 min, oi, the film doesn't start until we get to the show and no matter how good Josh Brolin and Colman Domingo are, they can't help much.

Also this world, used and dirty, used to cost less to produce on the screen. Here they went to Bulgaria for exteriors and day shots. Somehow doesn't look like America. The rest of it was hot at Warner Bros' studios in England.

Now for the music, unimpressive loud score by Steven Price. And as Edgar Wright ia great fan of songs to use on the soundtrack (yeah, great in Baby Driver), here most of them are wasted. Rolling Stones'  Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker), Sly and the Family Stone (Underdog)-on the main credits, Iggy and the Stooges (Search and Destroy), The Allman Brothers (Revival) , Miles Davis (Red China Blues) and Tom Jones (Keep on Running) on the end credits. Including a riff of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (last heard appropiately in One Battle After Another). And Jamie XX, far from my desk ;)

It's been Stephen King's year all over, from Life of Chuck to Welcome to Derry, the IT prequel that runs now on HBO MAX, MGM's The Institute series, passing through The Monkey and another Bachman opus, The Long Walk (which I liked best of these all, my review here). 

Wright's film is full of King references /Easter eggs for the eyes of King's fans and King himself, credited as an executive producer. Of course King was happy with the film, as I know his tastes in film (ex: how much he hated Kubrick's The Shining and managed to to a sequel just to get rid of that Kubrick hangover, I don't care so much about what he likes or does not cinematically...hey, what about that Maximum Overdrive? 

2 1/2 out of 5 

*I opened recently a Letterboxed account in order to write down the films I see which I hardly can here, and my "reARviews" will be isssued there. Same ratings apply. 

RIP Drew Struzan

Drew Struzan, the man who designed some of the most iconic posters in the history of Movieland, for over 150 films. From the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series to Blade Runner, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China and Back to the Future in the 80's, then over a new generation of filmmakers-Tim Burton-Planet of the Apes, Mars Attacks, Frank Darabont-The Shawnshank Redemption, The Mist (David's paintings), The Green Mile, Guillermo Del Toro-Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth- has passed away on Oct. 13th. He was 78...

Note (grazie, LD): Legendary Italian poster art maestro Renato Casaro died on Sept. 30 at 89...He did the posters for the Leone spaghetti westerns, up to Flash Gordon and Conan the Barbarian (as they were Dino de Laurentiis productions). He retired in 1998 but came back in 2019, called by Quentin Tarantino to realize some "old school illustrated Western posters" ("Uccidimi Subito Ringo, disse il Gringo" aka "Kill Me Now Ringo, Said The Gringo", and "Nebraska Jim") for Italian films starring Rick Dalton, the character Leonardo DiCaprio plays in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. 

Struzan and Casaro have even a poster in common, for The Name of the Rose in 1986, for whom they did both posters. 

     
Struzan                                                   Casaro

Struzan also designed LP covers before film posters, including the legendary Alice Cooper's 1975 `Welcome to My Nightmare`.

In 2013, he was the subject of Erik Sharkey’s feature documentary “Drew: The Man Behind The Poster,” with interviews with collaborators like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Frank Darabont, Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro. 

exhaustive obit in Variety here 

 “Drew made event art. His posters made many of our movies into destinations…and the memory of those movies and the age we were when we saw them always comes flashing back just by glancing at his iconic photorealistic imagery. In his own invented style, nobody drew like Drew.”

Steven Spielberg 

The Long Walk (2025)

"Walk or Die"

Francis Lawrence never struck me as an auteur director. The Long Walk is his closest to a a personal filmmaking effort.

Constantine was probably his best flick, the man directed tons and tons of music videos, a sh***y version of I Am Legend, Red Sparrow, four Hunger Games, those probably qualifying him for this film. 

Stephen King's novel The Long Walk was published in 1979 under the name Richard Bachman, same as The Running Man, Rage, etc. 

It is set in a dystopic America, as in Hunger Games or recently in Civil War, in which young men participate in a race, without stops, until one remains. Same principle as Turkey Shoot or The Running Man (which was remade this year).  You have to keep walking at 3mph, steadily. You get only three warnings, one erased per hour if you march on.

The camera moves and moves and moves all along with the protagonist. The whole film is in movement. Belgian cinematographer Jo Willems, who worked with Lawrence on his Hunger Games films and Red Sparrow shot the film anamorpically on 2.39.1. The whole thing was shot in Manitoa, Canada, for 20 mill. $. 

The ensemble young actors are convincing, it helps they are not known. They are all called by their numbers. Cooper Hoffman (#47 / Licorice Pizza), David Jonsson (#23, Alien: Romulus), Garrett Wareing (# 38/ God is a Bullet), Charlie Plummer (#5 / All the Money in the World). Mark Hammil does a career best villain as The Major. Judy Greer is the only woman in the cast, as Cooper Hoffman's mother. The racial aspect, white, black, white, white, Asian, Indian. Let's say that is not the "woke" or globalism problem, welll, no Mexicanos, hispanics. 

Problem is the language, they all swear non stop, I guess they said, oh, it's Rated R so we can swear all the time we want. But f**k every three words is gratuitous to say the least, and they all talk the same swearing game, the boys as well as the major.

Script by J.T. Mollner (Strange Darling), the lastest on a series of aborted adpatations, from George A. Romero to Frank Darabont. 

Pulsing and dramatic score by Jeremiah Fraites, end titles have a country/Americana song composed for the film by   Shaboozey & Stephen Wilson Jr.- Took a Walk (not on the soundtrack). A rendition of Oh My Darling Clementine is sung by the boys at Mile 260 !!!

Reminded me of the WW2 war films, Sidney Lumet's The Hill (1965) in particular. And as they were running, of the final run of Black Hawk Down. 

7 out of 10 / 3.5 out of 5 !!!

*would've been more but I'd cut 15 min from the 108 min. running time, it loses its rhythm and has repetitions, most of the 50 "walkers" are just extras (in King's original there were 100 participants). 

The premise is as absurd as it gets and you got to believe it, also the lenght of the march is beyond belief... 

RIP Val Kilmer

First time I saw him in Top Secret back in the early 80's video days (& nights).

My favorite Val Kilmer part is in Mann's masterpeice of American Noir- Heat

with a soft spot for Mamet's Spartan.

He was blamed for the catastrophe that was Island of Dr. Moreau, with a mad Marlon Brando and a Mini me. Richard Stanley is over that one, John Frankenheimer is gone, like Marlon and Val now.

Val was cool in Ron Howard's Willow (sword & sorcery way before LOTR & epigons la GOT).

He was Iceman, "the wingman" in Tony Scott's seminal Top Gun. Also his last part on screen was in Top Gun 2, a cameo where he became Admiral Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky.

He was a beautiful crazed Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors

Val did a Batman (Forever)

A Simon Templar-The Saint (in Moscow)

Doc Holiday (in Tombstone).

-also Kill Me Again & Thunderheart (thx, Andrei ;)

A great comeback film, with Robert Downey jr. was Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, that me and Andrei saw in the world premiere in Cannes in 2005. And we loved it !!!

and a great parodic part in McGruber (2010) as the evil baddie ;) Cunth. 

Long suffering from throat cancer he made a comeback in the headlights with the intense documentary VAL (2021) , in the official Selection in Cannes Film Festival. He died, age 65, on April 1st 2025.

Mickey 17 (2025)

Our entire life is a punishment. 

(Mickey Barnes)

The highly expected (and most postponed release) new film of Bong Joon Ho, Mickey 17, with Robert Pattison in Multiple roles, is so-so. Frankly I don't get the enthusiastic positive reviews. The humor is lame at best with Pattison taking his ques from Jim Carrey's performance in Dumb and Dumber ! It's the Multiplicity Effect all over, clones (or how they're called here, "expendables" ), are getting dumb and dumber...duh. The film finally premiered at the Berlinale Film Fest in February with a worldwide release of March 7th. 

Budgeted at 118 mill. $ (!!!), this is surely a flop for Warner Bros. whom imo did not put a lot of faith in the finished project. The whole thing feels uninspired, the jokes are and you don't care much for Mickey or the Mickeys. Bong's humour is very personal and it worked in all his films prior to this, from The Host to Mother, also the social commentary, class commentary, leftism, was much better in Snowpiercer, which was his 1st external project out of Korea, then a flop, now a cult film and a s***ty cash-in neverending TV (streaming) series. That is why I am gonna go gloves off on Bong here. Wasting four years on this film when you were on top of the world, able to do any film you'd like, totally free of charge (he had final cut on this!). 

The source book is entitled Mickey 7 !!!, not to be confused with the 60's Mickey One ;), the material was customized by Bong for a more personal film for him, his 1st in the USA (shot in the UK Warner Leavesden studios), a follow-up to his all winning Parasite (2019). 

Shot impeccably by Darius Khondji. Dark as his TM and white -ice (the planet Nifleheim) and claustrophobic industrial corridors and chambers. Music, some of it uninspired, some good, by Bong's collaborator  Jung Jae-il (Okja, Parasite/ and the Squid Game series). 

Mark Ruffalo plays over-the-top, same Grand Guignol style as in Poor Things but here he is more like an impression of an Vincent D'Onofrio but she surely channels Trump. Toni Colette too, operatic hysteric evil lady. The aliens/monsters "creepers" are cool, but I pretty doubt they'll make a merch out of them. Starship Troopers "bugs" came to mind, but with the cuteness required. The Korean designer did work before for Bong on The Host.  

2 1/2 out of 5 / 5 out of 10 

The Gorge (2025)

Would've been nice to see The Gorge on the big screen, but it's streaming fodder (Apple+).

The leads are charismatic, Milles Teller (Whiplash) and Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa) and they have chemistry, which helps a lot. It's also a loves troy, between two isolated snipers, one burned-out American (Teller), one Lithuanian (Joy) on watch on towers on both sides of a mysterious isolated Gorge.

The story remined me of many films, The Mist, the combo of WW2 films of action and horror with experiments gone wrong (The Bunker, Outpost, Frankenstein's Army, Overlord, Biatlov Pass, etc).

Plus the riff on the corporate evil (Resident Evil;), Sigourney Weaver in an office with the Baku Flame Towers on her back ;) 

Scott Derrickson's (Sinister, Doctor Strange) direction here is good, but I guess it's the story and screenplay that rised the bar (written by Zach Dean). Location helps, gorgeous mountain scenery (in Norway, Wales and Durham County in UK).

Score by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, and good songs onto it. Rockin', grooves-The  Watchtower by Devlin & Ed Sheeran, Twisted Sister, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Ramones, The Dead Weather.

afterthoughts, "The Hollow men" and the other creatures in the gorge inspired by Polish surrealist painter Zdzislaw Beksinski. Which art is most fascinating and I suggest you dig further in.

The Universal Theory/ Die Theorie von Allem (2023)

Die Theorie von Allem /The Universal Theory is a very strange little film. Deutsche Timm Kröger s third feature, after The Trouble with Being Born (2020) and The Council of Birds (2014).

Premiered in Venice 2023 fest and won Bisato d'Oro award, won the Jury Prize in Sitges and best visual effects and cinemtography at German Film Awards 2024.

Gorgeous black and white cinematography in 2.35.1 widescreen (shot in SudTirol by Roland Stuprich, in the splendor of a white majestic winter) 

and beautiful score, a pastiche of classical Hollywood thriller & drama music from the 40s raise the bar. Diego Ramos Rodríguez, composer, with David Schweighart.

Found the whole soundtrack on youtube here. 

Though there is terrible boredom in between and the film has no rhythm, could've been 15 mins. shorter, would've helped. A lot, IMO. Even flawed, it's a unique kind of film and deserves to be seen on the big screen (which in very limited release happens now in Romania, brought by Cay Films (Red Rooms, Oddity, The Apprentice), in what it is the most Curio of the year!-well, when I saw it there was no one in the theatre, so hurry up).

Mixed reviews complain about the third act mostly, which I think was the best. 

Mixing quantum physics with a Multiverse plot thriller its not easy. 1962 feels like 1930s here, the atmosphere is very in the inbetween wars (interbelique). The actors might be the week link, or such are they supposed to be (the lead, Jan Bülow as physician Johannes Leinert is like an alien, French Olivia Ross as Karin, the pianist, is like a Nouvelle Vague apparision (Karina?). There are the two scientists, dr. vs prof., Hanss Zischler (Munich), acting at his most severe and Gottfried Breitfuss, a grotesque character. The two cops (kommisaren) are out of a Billy Wilder picture. 

References,  subliminal or on purpose: Hitchcock, Lang, Wilder, Orson Welles The Trial, The Third Man, best B & W compared with Schindler's List, Cold War, Mank and Kafka (Soderberg's). People mention Lynch and Polanski, but all there it's way older. I bet. 

Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg / Magic mountain  (obvious reference of the hotel Esplanade) mixes with The Lady Vanishes and Orson Welles' The Trial, Reed's The Third Man, reminded me also of 1964' odd thriller 36 Hours.

                                                ”A strange place between nostalgia and paranoia” (Timm Kröger)

interview with Kröger here: 

7 out of 10 / 3 1/2 out of 5 !

Ridley's Favourite Flicks & LMA @87 !!!

Today Sir Rid is 87 !

Seems that not even Gladiator II is not the much expected BO hit he wanted to have. After the vain and bloated Napoleon and 3 flicks that didn't make much waves (The Last Duel, House of Gucci, All the Money in the World), plus the self-destruction (implosion) of the Alien franchise (Prometheus & Alien: Covenant), and a series that went nowhere in season 2 and was cancelled -Raised with Wolves, it seemed he recently fared better as a producer (Alien: Romulus).

This here is an unexpected list of Ridley Scott's favourite films, or the films who influenced him. Of course there are on top 2001-A Space Odyssey and Lawrence of Arabia, but there are also unexpected choices.

LMA/ Happy Birthday, and pls. give us one more movie we should care about ! Not You should Be Dancing, the Bee Gees biopic, you should be better dancing 4 real instead...

I already revisited recently Body of Lies and now I will watch again American Gangster, and might see again The Counselor, which I loved when it came out...Gladiator I revisit too much whenever I am on a binge of sorts..

RIP James Earl Jones

 The voice of CNN, Darth Vader, Lion King (Mufasa) & a great actor in so many films is gone...James Earl Jones was 93.

Obit detailed in People magazine.

Film debut in 1964's Dr. Strangelove. He was the evil bad guy Thulsa Doom  in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Admiral Greer, Jack Ryan's boss from The Hunt for the Red October to the two Harrison Ford movies as Ryan: Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. Last part in Coming 2 America (2021), where he reprised his part of  King Jaffa of Zamunda from the 1988 John Landis' classic.

Nominated for an Oscar for leading role in 1971 for The Great White Hope and Honorary Award in 2012.

Alien: Romulus (2024)

"ANDY: Did you hear about the claustrophobic astronaut?... He needed a little space."

In Space no one hears you laugh. Or sneeze. Or does it?

Now finally out in theaters (it was first to premiere on streaming on Hulu). Saw it last night on the avan-premiere. The lighting, sound, sound fx, music, design, all it's super well done, on an A budget (shot on the Origo studios in Budapest). But too many references and beaten paths, a lot of plants but no payoffs, and a shorter running time (15 minutes easily less instead of 119) would've helped the pacing. I would've dropped the last act-or the final bit of the third act- in setting that for another film, also the premise on the Jackson colony planet, gritty and grim, with rain, poverty and darkness reminded me of the colony in Outland (1981) or the Mars environment in Total Recall (1990).  That could've been used more imo.

Alien: Romulus is a reboot, a sequel, set on the timeline between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), and functioning on the mythology of the Prometheus (my thoughts here) and Alien: Covenant (my thoughts here), these two movies existing now in the Alien universe before the original Alien.

Weyland-Yutani are everywhere, as is the Romulus/Remus theme (children Raised by Wolves), another theme Ridley introduced in his 2020 series that were mixing the Blade Runner android themes with the Alien Synthetic beings-that being and remaining Ridley's obsession-"More Human Than Human" (Tyrell being in the same universe as Peter Weyland's "Building better Worlds").

Uruguayan Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead 2013 remake, Don't Breathe), a good choice for directing, was chosen by Ridley who supervised the film and gave him notes. Alvarez and his buddy, Rodo Sayages (also director of Don't Breathe 2) wrote the script but took their notes and nods to all the franchise tropes.

The characters though are like pawns, younger actors, some annoying, ready to be sacrificed for the more important Directive, the WY priority. Just think of the original Alien cast and weep...Obvious cue, Rain (Cailee Spaeny from Civil War) is all and all from Ripley. 

The Andy Android (David Jonsson) is a step (& color) forward, instead of good/bad you get two chips, different sides of the same coin.

Another link to THE Alien (the 1979 film that is) is the Rook character, based on Ash, due to the Ian Holm regeneration on CGI & AI symbiosis. 

The music score, (key word: Pounding!) by Benjamin Wallfisch (partner of Hans Zimmer on Dunkirk & Blade Runner 2049, solo on It and The Flash) has the most references to the iconic score of Jerry Goldsmith for Alien, then James Horner for Aliens and Hans Gregson-Williams for Prometheus, plus a rendition of The Rheingold/Valkyrie Richard Wagner's anthem used in Alien: Covenant. 

“Dear Fede, Good luck. Good health. Good hunting. Don’t f–k up. Very best wishes, Ridley Scott.”

A great conversation between Ridley and Fede Alvarez here. Very cool.

But this is no longer (sir) Ridley's toy, neither is Fox's, its boss being now Disney (where the Alien films can now be streamed, on +!!!)  and that's Weyland-Yutani Industries in the Real world making Science Fiction just science 1.0.1. And horror tru. But No One hears whoever Scream. 

So, Romulus it's not innovative cinema but it's well done, some good practical FX, as opposed to only CGI, nice camerawork, claustrophobic widescreen (2.39: 1), Galo Olivares' 1st major credit, he did Gretel & Hansel for Osgood Perkins in 2000), and as I said lights & strobes, shadows, colors, flashes, fast movements- effective filmmaking. I reckon it will be a box office tie, at 80 million $ budget plus marketing and publicity costs this should make at least $300 mill to get a sequel.

But hey, we got one coming up ! The Alien Hulu F/X series led by Noah Hawley (the creator of Fargo series, so there's some hope ;). Streaming in 2025. 

3 out of 5, 6 out of 10 (for the qualities mentioned above). 

At least it's Rated R ;) Also, it's been Seven long years (und a Pandemic) since the last Alien film on the big screen. 

-also to be seen on the big screen. Full sound and scope. 

Furiosa (2024) & cronica audio

 #furiosa 

cronica mea la Furiosa in engleza aici

si aici si aici cronica audio, via Rockland radio on HIT FM.

urmeaza cronica scrisa in #culturama nr. 7

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

 #furiosa

"Do you Think you have it in you to make it EPIC?"

Yes, they do. Und they did;) And what an Epic. Oh, what a lovely day continues...

Here are my previous two posts on FURIOSA, 1st one when the trailer came out on Dec. 1st last year, then when on 21st March 2024 was announced to be in Cannes (as I surely expected). Six to seven minutes of standing ovation, depending on who you read ;)

Now, I just saw it and not only IT ROCKS, it also ROLLS. As a in a Rolls Royce of a film. Well, more like a Harley ;)

Film of the year and one of the best of this decade, scout's honor (film scout that is ;)

*

Furiosa Is ‘David Lean, But With Motorbikes Instead Of Camels’ 

Says New Immortan Joe, Lachy Hulme who took over from Hugh Keays-Byne (d. 2020-Vale)

Mithologically this is also based on the Word Burgers of the History Men and eyewitness accounts of those who survived."
Actually The History Man also appears in this one. Played by George Shevtov. And it's his voiceover. 

The film is told in Five epic chapters, very different than all the other films. And it's basically about a Peach ;) Also it has an epic length, 2h28 min, which went so fast, I personally wished to be longer. 

Fifth installment of the Mad Max Universe, born 45 years ago in Oz (Australia). As Mad Max: Fury Road happened in sequence, in 3 days and nights, this one happens over the timeline of 18 years.  

Also Fury Road took over 20 years to be made and 15 years of changes in the script, this one took 9 years in the Max Universe, but much less in terms of development and production (Miller did his Three Thousand Years of Longing in the meanwhile). George Miller is 79 now, so even for his terrific shape, I would hold my fingers crossed for a Sixth film, as I guess both Furiosa and Max have ended their character arcs). Heard in a Miller interview he has also the story of Max's year before the events in Fury Road. I would love to see that, with Tom Hardy. There's even a page and a title for this (The Wasteland). Surely WB would milk this cow forever and there's comic books and so on, but this is Miller's verse and vision, and I don't think anyone can follow up. But this is not the issue at hand. Haters and detractors will go on about sloppy CGI (really????), 'Woman Power' concessions and length, but it's their loss (as it always is and will B.)

*

The casting of Anya Taylor Joy came into the production of Three Thousand and the pandemic and is due to Edgar Wright who showed Miller a rough cut of Last Night in Soho (playing now on netflix, stream it now !). It worried me at first but now, seeing the film I think she's great !  Great eyes, also very few lines, physical acting (she's got to drive a lot and the actrees didn't drive at all!)

Also it worried me a bit that Chris Hemsworth is given such a heavy burden, being a villain, a nemesis and a mad father figure (Dementus, aptly named). And he's great too. The Teddy Bear surely helps. And the makeup, Oh, what a nose (Charlton Heston's Ben Hur?). He plays like a cross between Peter O'Toole in Lawrence, a mad messianic biker in a chariot of bikes in a Roman swords & sandals epic, and every Mad Gary Oldman performance of your choice. "oh what a day, what a deal, what a day"...

And then there's Brit Tom Burke as Praetorian Jack, who played Orson Welles in Mank (my faved film of 2020), looking like a young Stacy Keach. 

And a fabulous child Furiosa, played by Aussie Alyla Browne. 

And Angus Sampson returns as The Organic Mechanic as John Howard does as The People Eater.

Plus Rictus Erectus is here again (Nathan Jones) ;) - and so is his bro, Scabrous Scrotus (Josh Helman), who played a different part in 2015's MM: FR.

More infos on Mad Max Fandom wiki.

**

"There were 264 women and men on that stunt department. One of the sequences took 79 days to shoot. Every day, you're subjected to bad weather, covid, and exhaustion. Our one priority, led by George, is not to injure anybody. The second is to make the film that we enjoyed" (producer Doug Mitchell)

***

The music score is a revision on Fury Road score, done also by Tom Holkenborg (formerly Junkie XL), more emotion and drama and a diggeridou. And a duduk (which gets it closer to the sound of Gladiator).

The cinematography in magnificent scope is by new zeelander Simon Duggan (Live Free or Die Hard, The Great Gatsby, Hacksaw Ridge), who took over from Aussie Johan Seale, who came out of retirement to make Fury Road (& then Longing).

Should I say something about the set design, costumes, art, the VFX, the stunts, the amazing craft. No. Just Kudos. Exceptional. 

Miller wrote this with Nick Lathouris (same as Fury Road), but there are seven story contributors, including Action designer and 2nd unit director Guy Norris.

****

-The best prequel ever (Godfather 2 included !), no s*it...

As Mad Max: Fury Road (whose prequel to the key this is), is one of the best films ever made-and surely I have seen in this century and millennium !

Also helps it's Rated R.

*****

5 stars+=Eleven out of Ten -yes,this one goes to Eleven ;)

Empire 5 star review here.

RIP Roger Corman

 The (B) King is gone, but not forgotten !!!

I met him in Grossmann in 2008 ! Oh, what a Lovely Day !:) and the Night of too...

see here in the funny papers ;)

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2009/09/roger-corman-o-sa-ia-oscarul-omagial.html

Roger Corman just made it to 98 on April 5th, he was gone on May 9th....

autobiography: which I had and read-How I made a hundred movies in Hollywood and never lost a dime (1990)

great doc on him: Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011), which I saw then in Cannes 

                                                                        Cormanesque

Dune part Two cronica audio

 am scris de el aici (in ingles)

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2024/03/dune-part-two-2024.html

acum am pus cronica audio de la Hit FM aici (thx, Doc!)