abeachedwhale

This was quite enjoyable on a few levels. The lead actors in general has good strong performances, with Kay Francis having a few bad scenes. I blame the director for choosing those because other scene with her were totally believable. At first the story seemed a little confusing but quickly was understandable. A couple favorite scenes of mine were where William Powell finishes talking to Kay Francis and then walks out. Most films of the time would have cut the moment he walked out, but the camera kept rolling and we saw Francis slump down in dispare. The other favorite was the top down card scene towards the end. Overall, I would mainly recommend this to fans of the Thin Man series or other serious "black and white fans." It's definitely a hidden gem.

Plot is contrived. Acting isn't memorable. The "lead" Russell Crowe just goes around acting the same, uninterested. Tough. Musical portions are vomitously auto tuned. Not many genuine raw honest moments. Plenty of glaringly forced ones though. The thing that hurts a lot though is some of the attempt at humor and the Medieval WWII invasion of Normandy beach scene..... .... wow..... seems like whoever was apart of the decisions on this one REALLY wanted to bring some world war 2 to the sword and sandal genre. But like I said there must be some good in this to warrant 4/10. The on location photography is very very good. Overall I wouldn't recommend this one. Kinda boring. Also not a fan of the "cinema verite" shaky handheld camera style.