This Week in Cinema, I Learned…May 26-Jun 01 2024
Written by Cameron Geiser
Welcome to This Week in Cinema, a yearlong film criticism project wherein I will be watching a new film that I haven't seen every single day.
The end of May has come. The month of Kung Fu and Comedies must now exit stage left and make way for the first month of Summer movies. While both June and July will broadly be about Summer movies, June is more about your relaxed and adventurous films in the early morning of Summer. July will be more about the explosive blockbusters and overwhelming genre offerings. You know the kind of day, during that sweaty heat of a Saturday afternoon in July when you escape to the movie theater not just for the sake of a good time, but to cool off in the dark air-conditioned portals that transport you to other worlds and distant times. It's a magical period of the year and I plan on thoroughly enjoying my time with these upcoming films. However, we aren't there just yet. So, did I learn anything from this last week with May's theme? Well, there are three films here that go all out in their quest to entertain, to create compelling and engaging films, but the other four films are a three quarter split between three middling movies (spread across genres of Kung Fu, Comedy, and Western) and one absolutely abysmal attempt at comedy. I guess the lesson is to go for broke when you're creating something. The films that I feel succeeded the most out of this week's offerings went above and beyond when it comes to putting their blood, sweat, and tears into their art. The worst movie of the week is the ultimate contributor to this phenomenon, which is essentially just lazy writing in my opinion. I'll let you discover that gem below, otherwise get out there people, go watch something new!
May 26th
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
5/5
In the beginning of the year one of the only rules for this film criticism exercise was that I would allow myself 1 rewatch of a film that I have seen before each month if I so choose. This month that rewatch was the latest film from George Miller in the Mad Max Franchise. I have done a full review here on Films Fatale for this one, and I highly encourage you to give it a read and go see Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in theaters while you still can, it's my favorite movie of the year so far! Well, it's my favorite film so far that was released in 2024. The best film I have seen yet in this project is still Perfect Days.
May 27th
My Young Auntie (1981)
4/5
One of the better Shaw Brothers films, My Young Auntie impresses with better staging, performances, and a richer narrative than most of the studio's output. The conflict of the film is that Cheng Tai-Nan (Kara Hui) is the widow of a much older husband whose death makes her the head of the family, and therefore the arbiter of his massive wealth left behind. It's a story about generational conflict instead of one about gender, which I thought it might be based on the title etc. Yes, this one has a sprinkling of Shakespeare in the narrative through familial revenge, betrayal, and reveals in the third act. Kara Hui is the star of the show here and it's well deserved as she dictates much of the plot. The fact that she's a Kung Fu master feels like a given and is almost waved aside by the narrative which felt refreshing for the Shaw Brothers. Everything in the production was stepped up for this one, it may be a little overlong in some scenes, but it's a much appreciated raise in quality overall and certainly worth a watch.
May 28th
Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)
3.5/5
Surprisingly, I had never heard of this film until giving it a watch. Since it was classified as an action-comedy, I considered it a green light for this month's theme and watched Showdown in Little Tokyo with a friend. It's a buddy cop flick starring Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee (Bruce Lee's Son) filled to the gills with all the action movie and police procedural stereotypes and tropes you can squeeze into an eighty minute movie. Look I could describe this one in excruciating detail but just trust me on this one, there's shootouts, sword fights, fun bloody violence, horrifically cheesy dialogue, with a hefty serving of nudity, and some competent fight scenes thrown in for good measure. Is this a passionately made but poorly executed action film? Or is it a damn near perfect B-Movie with oodles of charm and style? It probably depends on your taste in cinema, but I definitely enjoyed my time with Showdown in Little Tokyo.
May 29th
Stripes (1981)
3/5
While I enjoyed Stripes overall, the story is so loose and lackluster at times that I often found myself wondering what the point of it all was. I can hang with the vibe of a slower paced movie, I mean, I absolutely love Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, The Good The Bad & The Ugly, and Blade Runner, but they all have notes of narrative evolution that keeps things moving even at a slower trot. Stripes, for the unaware like me until recently, is about John (Bill Murray) having an awful day and therefore decides to join the Army on a whim. John’s lost his job, car, girlfriend, and apartment before Noon- now, that would ruin anybody's day but for John it's just another Tuesday. He also convinces his friend Russell (Harold Ramis) into joining him on this ruinous adventure with little to no push-back.
Manipulation works if you're persistent enough! So, for shits and giggles, and the short-sighted thought that “It'll be a great way to pick up women”, the two join the Army, along with John Candy as “Ox”. There's a lot of the predictable boot camp scenes made famous by other, better, movies but I let a lot of this slide as Murray and Ramis do have an affectionate charm to their performances, but they never really sold their characters to me. I could only see the actors smirking throughout the movie as if to say, “Aren't we so clever? They're actually paying us to bullshit around and maybe memorize a monologue.” It's a story about disaffected and nihilistic yuppies that sleepwalk their way up the promotional ladder of rank. Literally. Okay, well, it's more of a slept-in situation than actual sleepwalking, but you get the drift. It's alright, but not necessarily my thing.
May 30th
Holmes and Watson (2018)
1.5/5
The comedic combination of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in any given movie is pretty much a 50/50 on whether or not the concept and the jokes will work. There are a few pairings of these two that work brilliantly, two examples of this are Stepbrothers and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Holmes and Watson unfortunately is no such success, rather it is in the bin with other titles such as Semi-Pro, Zoolander 2, and Kicking and Screaming (All notably absent Reilly, the better actor of the two). With tons of screaming in the performances, incredibly stupid dialogue, lowest common denominator humor that doesn't land, and a rather dumb and predictable twist in the third act- this one isn't worth your time folks. The only redeemable idea in play is that Ralph Fiennes would indeed be great casting to play Moriarty in any other Sherlock Holmes movie.
May 31st
The Flying Guillotine (1975)
3/5
The last day of May held one last opportunity for a crazed Kung Fu movie to slide in and blow our collective minds. Unfortunately for myself and a few friends, this wasn't the Flying Guillotine we were expecting. The first film in the Flying Guillotine series (Which were made by competing studios and stars in Hong Kong at the time, so it can get a little confusing) is more of an actual character piece than the film we intended to watch. The Flying Guillotine was a bit of a mixed-bag as it never got as insane as Master Of The Flying Guillotine (1976) made by Jimmy Wang Yu, who decided that his addition would also function as a sequel to his earlier hit film One-Armed Boxer, which is a favorite of my household. No, this film is more interested in the emotional journey of the creator of the devastating weapon who eventually realizes how corrupt and paranoid the government officials truly are and eventually fights against the tyrannical Emperor. It's a bit more interesting than the average Kung Fu flick watched over the course of May as the weapon itself and how its use is depicted on screen is equally hilarious and terrifying.
June 1st
100 Rifles (1974)
3/5
After reading Quentin Tarantino's book Cinema Speculation last year I wrote down several titles that he lavished praise on, and one of those titles was 100 Rifles. Apologies to Tarantino, but I only found this one to be “Okay”. To be fair, Tarantino's context for when and how he saw the film matters a lot, and you should give his book a read, I loved it. I didn't love this film though. I certainly don't hate it, it's just a passable lazy afternoon Western. Burt Reynolds stars as “half breed” Native American Yaqui Joe, a bank robber and freedom fighter on the run from American lawman Lyedecker, played by Jim Brown. Once in Mexico both men are caught by the Mexican Government but with a little help from Sarita (Raquel Welch), Joe's fellow revolutionary, they escape and Lyedecker reassesses his loyalties. After which they all fight together against the very Nazi looking villains. There's a lot of shootouts in 100 Rifles, but they never feel all that compelling or well composed. The actors all have the charm and acting ability to do more, but the scripting and direction never asks for more from them. It's an entirely serviceable action-western, but it's not exactly anything to write home about either.
Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.