Movie reviews

Back to reviews of old and new movies today.



Lethal Weapon 1,2, 3, 4

The Mel Gibson season continues. BH recommended I watch these and he was right, I did enjoy them. Gibson and Glover as Riggs and Murtaugh make a great team, with action, humour and humanity very much in evidence. The stories are great, kind of less exclusive James Bond adventures. Lots of murder and mayhem. I particularly enjoyed the mayhem. Some spectacular effects, not so much clever, more explosive. Gibson looks great, and the man can act. Yes, he is funny and flip, but the back story is always there. The Aussie accent enhances Gibson's maverick stance, as does the pretence of craziness. The four movies flow beautifully, no sequel failure in evidence. Characters continue to develop, most notably Joe Pesci's Leo Getz character, stories inter-relate and the characters age and acknowledge that. Of course the cat cameos are there, one fortunate feline is rescued from a bomb blast by Murtaugh. There is also a canine presence, Rigg's dog Sam, and a Rottweiler guard dog he befriends. Women are peripheral, although Rigg's dead wife is important to the story. Love interests are Patsy Kensit (wasn't she the little one in "The Railway Children"?) and Rene Russo. Russo is tough but I still can't take to her. My favourite bits are in LW2. The South African house "renovation" and the scene where Murtaugh pretends he wants to immigrate to South Africa. This is in apartheid time remember. Funny, and not good PR for South Africans.

Good clean LA cop buddy fun.




Inception

I thought I might have trouble with this, having read some reviews and heard comments, but I wanted to see it because of the unusual concept. It's about people getting into other people's dreams and dreams within dreams, and stealing or planting ideas. The different levels of dreams provide great opportunities for lots of simultaneous but quite different action sequences. You have to see it to get the meaning. It wasn't as complex as I feared and it was a very attractive movie. Lots of closeups, lots of detail, rich colours, good lighting. Choppy action photography, appropriate music and some really nice, clever but not silly effects. I liked the folding over of Paris. Speaking of which, if some of my work colleagues see this movie, they may have a giggle thinking about me watching it when the wake-up music comes on. Edith Piaf, regretting nothing. Di Caprio gives a solid performance, although his baby-faced looks make it hard to believe he is all grown up and has two children (in the movie). Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, another actor all grown up since "Third Rock", is delightfully suave. He has some great zero-gravity challenges. I liked the bundling up of his sleeping charges. Ellen Page (Juno) was very appropriate. Michael Caine had a small role as did my favourite actor Pete Postlethwaite. I liked Tom Hardy's laconic Eames too. Worst job, but good performance - the poor van driver! Lots of time tricks in this movie but they all make sense.

I felt there was some similarity to Red Dwarf's "Better Than Life" game, and there was a Marilyn French nod (okay, very minor, but I remembered it). Also in evidence a little Lewis Carroll and Magritte in the sense of creating a nonsense world. My daughter is a Magritte fan and I think she will understand what I mean. I liked this movie and I think it may get itself a little cult following.



Watching all those Lethal Weapon movies was distraction grief therapy. I am still very sad about my poor Marley cat, but I'm coming round to realising it was the kind thing to do. I am very grateful to him for sharing his life with us. He was a special cat.