Tag / toby jones

by Jaime Rebanal

‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Review: The Magic Just Isn’t There Anymore

✯✯½

After a highly disappointing previous chapter in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a new chapter had to come by in order to provide the proper closure that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’s long-running franchise had deserved. But without Steven Spielberg at the director’s chair, and George Lucas writing a story, it’s clear something is missing. With directing duties passed on over to James Mangold, who previously directed Logan and Ford v Ferrari, it’d be easy enough to at least hope the shoes are filled. Yet when we’re talking a film series that started with Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was just about the perfect action-adventure movie anyone can ask for, those would be such massive shoes to fill for a fifteen year wait in between the preceding chapter and this one. Sadly, it seems like all those years have left Indiana Jones to conclude not with a bang, but with a whimper.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Jaime’s Film Diary: February 28, 2020

In order to continue keeping this site as active as possible while I have not been able to write as many full-length film reviews as I had planned initially, I figured that another solution would have come by in placing my Letterboxd entries starting from the week before here as a placeholder for eventual full-length reviews that are set to come by, if I were able to find the time to write another one. But as is, these are quick thoughts that I figure would be nice to keep afloat so that the site will remain active on a regular basis.

First-time viewings are noted as such. You can follow me on Letterboxd right here.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Christopher Robin Review: Disney’s Ode to Nostalgia Is a Heart-Warmer

✯✯✯✯

I don’t know a single person whose childhood never included Winnie the Pooh in any way, shape, or form. He was always that presence that some of us recognized for the fact that he always represented the pleasantness that we had loved most about childhood, and for that alone it was always a most comforting moment for us in our lives. But those memories fade away from us in the same way that they had done for the young Christopher Robin Milne, who later grew to distance himself from the creations of his own father. In the case with Disney’s own Christopher Robin, we already have a reminder as to how important it is to have felt such joy in our lives, no matter how small it may be – you just know it was always there. It would be in knowing this you already feel Christopher Robin being a great film for the family, because sometimes we need that reminder it should be made into something more and from the simplest words, it may indeed have come from nothing.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s Subtitle Best Sums up the State of the Franchise

½

If one already were to think that the previous Jurassic World film was bad enough, somehow Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom makes said film feel even less lamentable in retrospect. With the predecessor having built itself on cynically cashing in on what were the most memorable moments from the original Jurassic Park film, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom seems to go a complete 180 on its predecessor and somehow managed to leave behind something that was even worse. I was hoping that I could at least doubt that something much worse could come forth given the fact that this was directed by J. A. Bayona, and somehow I found myself deceived the moment I had come out. The idea of a director like Bayona offering his own take on the Jurassic Park franchise was one that almost seemed too good to be true and to say the least, my suspicions were only proven right.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Atomic Blonde – Review

✯✯½

I’m still not sure how exactly did something like Atomic Blonde, carrying so much unexpected promise from the idea of one of the original directors of John Wick going solo to helm this, with Charlize Theron leading the way, with a soundtrack that goes from The Clash, New Order, Depeche Mode, and David Bowie – would end up becoming as disappointing as this. After Chad Stahelski has found himself achieving success from directing John Wick: Chapter 2 solo, I’m not sure what is left of David Leitch’s future after this, because the lack of Stahelski by his side shows that there’s still something missing in what could have made itself a female equivalent to John Wick. And given as it was exactly what I was hoping for, I was disappointed that it wasn’t a female equivalent in such a sense, more just a hollow imitator.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Morgan – Review

✯

There was a time I remember when Ridley Scott had managed to create one of the most unsettling and thus one of the greatest horror films ever made by playing upon the fear of the unknown with the original Alien film. I’m not even sure if his son, Luke Scott, had gotten a grasp on what it was that made Alien a genre defining work just as it did, because there’s a lot here that almost rings from the beats that made Alien as effective as it was; only numbed down as a result of its attempts to reach out at pseudo-philosophy almost as if it were aping on Alex Garland’s Ex Machina from a year prior. It’s almost like a diet mix of both Alien and Ex Machina in the very worst sense possible, because there’s no thrill to be found within the action they present nor is there anything insightful to come about: Morgan is just a film that lies dead in the water all around.

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