Kaos (2024)

 Fullfill thy prophecy

or

ther will be KAOS

It might as well be the best thing on TV this year (so far...), except Ripley... 

(streaming on netflix)

brush up your Greek and drink up your Meander water, I mean yr Olympus yoghurts..

TBC...

Blink Twice (2024)

Worth a trip to the theaters !

and Blink Twice

Blink Twice is a term used for people who are in danger. 

It's stylish, it's widescreen, it's evil under the sun (plus champagne and strawberries), wild soundscape and it's pretty creepy (add some black humor too) !

a bit of woke (...2024?!), but also some R rated weird cutting and ambiguity.

I really enjoyed this in a theater, I'd somehow make it a double bill with Rose Glass 's film Love Lies Bleeding.

Blink Twice is Zoe Kravitz's directorial debut at 35, I guess ya all know who Zoe is (from Hollywoodland royalty -Lenny K. and Lisa Bonet). 

She co-produced and co-wrote the film, which she started in 2017 as "Pussy Island" ! Rewroted as the #metoo movemement moved on. Of course MGM blinked 'til the title was changed. See here why. & how.

Channing Tatum (Zoe's fiancee) plays his 1st mature and risque part on the screen (ok, he was in Foxcatcher 10 years ago...), Slater, a cross of Jeffrey Epstein  (for power) and Arnie Hammer (for charisma) as a rich Tech CEO who has his own island where he brings selected people to party...

Cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie from the Whitney Huston biopic) is all spellbound by this and on board for the ride, this is her story and her POV.

A new entry in the "evil rich people" doing bad s**t on an island (that started with The Most Dangerous Game in 1932 and recently goes into The Hunt, The Menu, Ready or Not, The Invitation, even Old) . Just that BT is better, way more stylish, poignant and...fun.

More value to the screen:

-Cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra's first main credit, vivid colors & panache. 2.39: 1. Shot in Yucatan, Mexico.

-A very effective soundtrack by Chanda Dancy 

-and songs (James Brown, Chaka Khan -Ain't Nobody, one Yoko One song-Don't Be Scared. Really ;)? 

-Strong supporting cast, including the likes of Haley Joel Osment, Christian Slater, Kyle MacLachan and Geena Davis. Slater in particular seems to have a groovy time. He's the one with the Polaroid camera.

...So what you need to do, is to Follow the Red Rabbit ;)

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

The Killer (2024)

 *not to be confused with David Fincher's thriller with the same name of 2023. 

This is John Woo's THE KILLER, his own remake to his famous cult film The Killer from 1989, that premiered (streaming :( on Peacock on Aug. 23 2024.

it's woke but is more than that.

It is John Woo's French film, it's an homage to Le Samourai (1967) even more than the original Killer was. In the circumstance of recent Alain Delon's demise, this works more nostalgic than intended. Shot in Paris of no limits A budget and in touristic spots, plus the church from the original and the pigeons TM. And a goldfish. A samurai (!) sword. A black hat. And a crossword pun. And bikers on relanti. In flames. Woo-ish. 

Woo will be 78 this September (22), so he's not getting any younger. His influences on the action cinema were in the '90's. That's why they called him overseas, after hardboiled (1992). He started with Hard Target (soft spot as I was a publicist on it, back in 1994's Media Pro Pictures distribution), moved on to Broken Arrow and hit the mark with Face/Off. His last great film was Mission: Impossible in 2000. After the failure of Paycheck he went back to China but I didn't resonate with any of his films there (actually I only saw the 1st Red Cliff). 

The man is surely a woman now -Zee-Nathalie Emmanuel-from the Fast & Furious series ( a la Nikita, there's even a quote of that, and that's Tcheky Karyo's cameo) and the cop -Sey-Omar Sy-international star since Inotochables- is black. The singer is given more to do and done, and the plot is mambojumbo-ish to the maxxx. The remake has been in the works from the 90's and I think it's great that finally Woo gets to re-do it and in Paris of all places. The script is credited to Brian Helgeland, Josh Sanders and Matt Stueken (surely not all together, , but Woo sure added up his own marks. The whole thing is marred by the need to switch to English all the time, and keep some French just for the picturesque. 

But Omar Sy could've been Belmondo. Le Flic.And Nathalie Emmanuel, Delon, Le Samourai.

Woo's daughter, Angeles Woo is acting in it as a killer. Name of her character, Chi Mai ;)

She's also a co-producer.

Lots of juicy parts, Eric Cantona is a Top gangster, Said Taghmaoui is an Arab prince, Diana Silvers is Jenn, the singer, victim and target, Sam Worthington is Finn, the contracter of Zee, he does a Strong Irish accent complete with the annoying "beat of my heart' bit in Irish. A stand-out, stunt woman Aurelia Ager as the baddie blonde evil henchie with ponytails Juliet, her 1st real acting part (hope she goes Zoe Bell's way). 

The music is key, Marco Beltrami at the helm, with Buck Sanders helping him, doing an Ennio Morricone tribute, with whisting, a woman operatic voice, complete with a song (that integrates the film-"Introuvable", sang by Jorane), Eric Serra style. There's even a cue from Le Samourai, "Costello dans la ville", from the score by Francois de Roubaix. 

Very well lit cinematography by Mauro Fiore, Antoine Fuqua and Oscar winner for Avatar cinematographer. Edited by Zach Staenberg, the guy who cut all the Matrix trilogy.

So, it's flawed, it's naive but I could feel it's goodhearted as opposed to cringe, and someone else would've done it worse. 

It looks like a Europacorps prod. from the 90's, it's been in development for so long, Universal studios bound, and though it ended on streaming.

Pity it wasn't in theaters, even if it's not John Wick (a series that took from Woo big time), it's his Grandfather and granddaughters. Inc. 

3 out of 5, 6 out of 10 !

L'insoumis (1964)

L'insoumis (1964) or The Unvanquished (in Engish) an early gem in Delon's filmography, little seen but famous for one shot in pop culture, The Smiths' album cover The Queen is Dead (1986).

A political thriller/film noir/doomed existential love story by arthouse auteur Alain Cavalier (Therese), and the only film Delon did with him. It is the first from Delon's production company (his first too, Delbeau) and it seems the film was a flop then and AD had an injury during filming, so he wasn't so happy with it at that time. But the film grew-given the further influence of a final shot into an iconic cover I suggest you to go for it. This is a one to (re)visit, especially now with the final dissapearence of "Le fauve", le Grand Delon.

I found it on youtube in a very good copy, with burned English subtitles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7L4y9KduN8

There is a little bummer, this cut has 101 mins, and the original cut is supposed to have 114 mins.  I understand the cuts were made by the French then, this is the film released by MGM, with whom Delon had a 5 picture deal at the time. Alternate English title, Have I the Right To Kill.

Written by Cavalier with Jean Cau, based on a real story, though they said it's not (and got sued by the real judge person).

Exquisite black and white Cinematography by Claude Renoir.

Great music score by Georges Delerue.

1961. Delon is Thomas, a Luxembourgois Legionnaire, deserter from the Algerian war (still superhot at that time, this is even before Battle of Algiers-1966), is recruited by the OAS to kidnap a young judge (Lea Massari) that came from Lyon to Alger to defend two Arabic "terrorists". And he somehow falls for it...

cool review & info here

8 out of 10 / 4 out of 5

1 minute of making of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2jicS4Zfl0