gilbert-07919

Joshua Ford and Tom England were so good in the 2019 film Cosmos that I found and watched their 2021 film Repeat as well. The acting is very good but the plot details are absolutely implausible and I'm not referring to the idea of communicating with the departed; quite the converse, I'm referring to the premise in the movie that the protagonist's work finding a reliable scientific way to communicate with the dead is hardly noticed at all by the public or fellow scientists. In actuality, such efforts and research would make worldwide headlines (even if it was quackery), so that aspect of the film, that his work was only know to a handful of visitors to his public demonstrations, was not credible. Also that the low-budget "equipment" he was using was clearly car boot sale junk was somewhat detracting from the film, although that in itself was overcome by the excellent acting and was mostly overlooked at least by this reviewer. Additionally his use of radioactive materials for his machine pilfered from a storeroom while not in and of itself unbelievable, becomes unbelievable due to again small but important details, such as storage and transport in an unmarked petrol jerrycan, and "holding a mask on his face", rather than actually wearing it properly, and mild radiation symptoms where actually he would be seriously ill in hours or days, was also very thin on attention to believeability. So this movie was not the best vehicle for the excellent talents of the actors and actresses who all turned in very good performances. Watchable but not believable.

An modestly engaging movie that against all reason achieves suspension of disbelief punctuated by moments when the viewer cannot help but realize this movie is utterly ridiculous. For example sustained gun battles with 3 figure body counts but no sign whatsoever of Paris gendarmes, ever, not even once. No one out on Paris streets except John Wick and endlessly hapless hit men wThis movie is Wily E. Coyote vs Roadrunner elevated to the grandeur of "Vger" from Star Trek The Movie. Harking to the Matrix, we have Laurence Fishburne reprising his role as Neo's (John's) "facilitator" and we have Clancy Brown as "The Harbinger" remarkably similar in look, feel and stature to Helmut Bakaitis as "The Architect" in the Matrix replicating a role as an "above it all" Master of Ceremonies, and Bill Skarsgard as The Marquis, a role very similar in look, feel and stature to Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian, as a very high ranking cog and straw man. And yet this movie John Wick 4 was engaging, which is troubling, because it is just nonstop violence at times on the level and filmed exactly like Call of Duty or GTA etc. It also shows people who have been shot several times speaking normally apparently immune to the immediate unconsciousness that follows massive blood loss and blood pressure drop. Also endless scenes of people jumping back up after collisions with objects, falling 3 stories onto pavement, being hit head on by a fast moving automobiles, etc etc that in reality would put people in hospital with life changing injuries and certain unconsciousness/death, not momentary hangovers that pass in a few seconds, with no broken bones. Basically a remake of the Matrix but stripped down to nonstop fighting with some mainstream noble subplots to lend a veneer of humanity to the project. Quite an accomplishment to package up terrible goings on into engaging funl. The final battle is a huge extended extravaganza with much in common with the original Gladiator movie, wherein The Marquis cheats to have John Wick "pre-weakened and softened-up, and the biblical references "invoked" by "The Harbinger" in the immediate prelude to the final battle were not appropriate appropriations by the makers of this grinding violence for profit film. What makes this movie work pretty well is that the viewer can disregard any of the trite plot scaffolding since this is obviously nonstop unrealistic fantasy action, so as a viewer you are released from caring about plot and can just remain detached and amused at this nearly 3 hours of watching Wily E. Coyotes get run over by Roadrunner ("meep meep") John Wick's freight trains over and over and over, and no matter how many times flattened 2-dimensional Wily E Coyote gets up off the pavement, Roadrunner just gets him again.

Le Bon Plaisir is simultaneously tense yet relaxed. It's a tribute to the skill of the team that made this film. I can hardly find words to describe. It must literally be seen and heard to be experienced. Not to be missed. A Masterpiece of detached plot development where outcomes and impacts are not neither anticipated nor expected. The movie has a solid plotline, and yet the movie seems to flutter aimlessly in the wind like a flag on a day of gentle puffs of wind. There's an other worldly quality to this film for which I can't yet find a verbal description, but I will try. It's as if the characters are playing themselves in the movie and are aware they are playing themselves and are aware of the impending outcomes of their actions and machinations but are inexorably destined to play out the action over and over like marionettes. It's a very haunting effect.