For It Is Man's Number: July 2024

Friday 5 July 2024

Ebirah, Horror Of The Deep (1966)

In my ongoing journey through some of the classic kaiju films, and the word classic is being asked to do a fair bit of heavy lifting there, I have already grown accustomed to being a bit disappointed. The highs are really high, but there have been quite a few low points, especially over the past few weeks. Ebirah, Horror Of The Deep, also known as Ebirah, Terror Of The Deep, is not a low point. In fact, it's a new favourite, and I'm sure that many fans of these movies will already be exasperated every time I offer an opinion that is ridiculously late to the kaiju party.

The story concerns a group of men who steal a yacht. One of them has recently had a brother go missing at sea and he's determined to find him. They end up on a mysterious island, controlled by terrorists, and the waters surrounding the island are home to, as if you couldn't guess already, Ebirah, a creature that looks very much like a giant lobster. Perhaps Godzilla can be called upon to help. Or maybe another one of the gigantic creatures that we've encountered in previous movies.

Written by Shin'ichi Sekizawa, this is a fun adventure film that feels more like Mysterious Island at times than a standard Godzilla movie (and it's worth noting that Big G only really appears for a short period of time during the third act). While the characters are as forgettable as usual, as individuals, there are at least various factions interacting with one another. Yata (Tôru Ibuki) is the missing man, Ryôta (Tôru Watanabe) is his brother, the terrorists are standard baddies, and Daiyo (Kumi Mizuno) is a young woman trying to maintain her freedom on an island that has been turned into a prison. Sekizawa does well to keep bringing things back to these main players, ultimately allowing them to interact with one another until it's time to bring on the monster battles.

Director Jun Fukuda does a decent job, although the island setting means that he doesn't have the opportunity to show any truly impressive destruction, there is no major cityscape to be stomped on here. He keeps everything moving well enough though, helped by the plotting of Sekizawa's screenplay, and proves to be a very solid stand-in for/successor to the legendary Ishirô Honda.

There's no point in mentioning the performances of the cast members. They do what is needed, and Mizuno once again adds some glamorous beauty to the proceedings, but they're really just moving set dressing until the big beasties come along, and those big beasties will keep the fans happy. Godzilla is a delight when onscreen, but Ebirah is definitely one of my favourite creations from the list of many supporting kaiju that I'd never previously heard of. It looks impressive and dangerous, and the practical effects team all work hard to make it feel like a plausible oceanic threat.

A real joy from start to finish, even if it could have done with a bit more screentime for Godzilla, this is one I am glad to have finally seen. And I'd happily rewatch it any time.

8/10

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Thursday 4 July 2024

Snack Shack (2024)

Writer-director Adam Rehmeier has one hell of a filmography. He would have had one hell of a filmography if he'd stopped after his debut feature, The Bunny Game, an extreme and cruel movie that pushed things to the very edge of what is acceptable, and showed him to be as capable as he was fearless. But his last couple of movies have shown him to be brilliantly attuned to some lighter entertainment. Dinner In America is brilliantly witty and punk rock, and now we have Snack Shack, a coming-of-age movie that delivers all of the usual tropes with great energy, great lead performances, and an enjoyably eclectic soundtrack selection.

Conor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle play A.J. and Moose, two best friends who want to spend the summer months making themselves plenty of money. To that end, they use their stash of savings, no small amount, to overpay for the temporary lease of the swimming pool snack shack. They soon start to see the earning potential of their new business endeavour though, but success depends on them being able to avoid the attention of some bullies and maintain their friendship as they start to vy for the attention of the lovely Brooke (Mika Abdalla).

There's nothing I can say about Snack Shack that won't have you thinking about at least a dozen other teen movies, but don't let that put you off. Familiarity breeds contempt, it's true, but it can also breed contentment, and that is the case here. The lead characters are smart, and lucky, as shown in the opening scenes, and they are allowed to feel like real, albeit quite cocky, teens. This is all thanks to a combination of the writing, direction, and savvy casting.

Sherry and LaBelle are both very good, and they're both different in ways that complement one another as best friends often do. Sherry plays his part a bit more quietly, while LaBelle is quick-talking and more bullish, his character happy to hit the ground running at every opportunity, making an inevitable mess as he gets three steps ahead of those he wants to leave in his wake. Abdalla is a great choice to play the young woman who captures their attention, ensuring that her character is as smart, cool, and pretty as needed to create a sense of competition, and tension, between A.J. and Moose. David Costabile and Gillian Vigman do decent work as concerned parents, Nick Robinson is very easy to like as Shane, a slightly older young man that A.J. looks up to, and everyone else fits perfectly in place, whether they're playing siblings, bullies, or one of the many customers queuing up to buy food and drink at the titular shack.

You can feel the sunshine, you can smell the water of the pool, and you can remember those times as a teen when it felt as if the weeks ahead were full of life-changing potential, because that is what every summer offered, and that's another big part of what Rehmeier gets right here. There are laughs, there are moments of tension, and there are one or two diversions into sadness, but each scene fits into one another as well as the sun, the splashing, and the hot dogs and cokes.

A wonderful teen movie, a wonderful summer movie, and another wonderful movie from a writer-director who seems to be creeping closer and closer to delivering an absolute modern classic at some point.

8/10

Wednesday 3 July 2024

Prime Time: The Covenant (2023)

Guy Ritchie has had a decent run of movies in the past decade, helped by writers Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. He definitely needs Atkinson and Davies though, which makes it all the more odd to see The Covenant also listed as Guy Ritchie's The Covenant. Okay, Ritchie has a certain style, a sensibility that pervades most of his movies, letting you know that you're watching a Guy Ritchie film, but he can also work on certain projects that don't feel as if they have been given any stamp of authorship. This is one of those movies. It's good, sometimes very good, but it just doesn't feel as if it needs sold on Ritchie's name.

Jake Gyllenhaal is John Kinley, a soldier trying to stay alive during his time serving in Afghanistan. Having lost his interpreter in a bombing, Kinley ends up being assigned a new man, Ahmed (Dar Salim). Ahmed is viewed with mistrust by some, as are many of the interpreters in Afghanistan, but he repeatedly proves himself a valuable asset as he keeps Kinley and his team safe from a number of traps and tricky situations. In fact, Ahmed ends up saving Kinley's life on a daring mission that sees both men struggling to get back to safety while being hunted by Taliban soldiers who view them as top-priority targets. Can Kinley get a chance to return the favour, or will he be safely back in the USA while his interpreter/lifesaver ends up trapped in Afghanistan with a large price on his head.

A modern spin on a boy's own adventure film, although there's a worthwhile point being made about those who helped soldiers in Afghanistan before being left to languish there and suffer the consequences, this is a surprisingly effective and tense action thriller that does well to balance the issues at the heart of the whole thing with the visceral moments of fighting and gunfire. Ritchie works very well in service of the script, which ultimately helps to turn the film into something much better than it could have been. It’s a bit of a tightrope act, and kudos to him for walking it well.

Gyllenhaal is a big plus in the lead role, as expected. He can do well in a military role, being convincingly sharp and fearless, and he does well in showing the emotional toll that is taken as he figures out how to repay a huge debt. Salim is equally good alongside him, and his character is shown to be just as smart and fearless, arguably even more so, despite being initially viewed with suspicion. The supporting cast all hang back, for the most part, but there are decent little moments for Emily Beecham, Jonny Lee Miller, Antony Starr, and Alexander Ludwig.

You can view this with cynicism, especially if you feel that there’s a bit too much jingoism running just below the surface, but I think it avoids the worst potholes it could have stumbled into. Or maybe I should have used a minefield metaphor, if that isn’t in bad taste. Which I guess depends on your view of this being made in the first place.

7/10

Tuesday 2 July 2024

Boy Kills World (2024)

It always happens. One great success leads to numerous imitators. That can lead to other successes, as has happened in recent years with a certain kind of action cinema. It can also lead to the occasional mid-step, at best. Boy Kills World is a mis-step, although it’s one that I know plenty of people enjoyed more than I did.

Bill Skarsgård plays our main character, a mute man who narrates his own life in an inner voice (H. Jon Benjamin) that he used to enjoy hearing in one of his favourite videogames. He is living in a strange dystopian world, one in which the rulers occasionally just pick people to kill/sacrifice, and his own loss drives him on a wild and bloody quest for revenge.

What you get here, when it works, is an enjoyably creative killing spree centering on a main character who is skilled and fortunate enough to deal with waves of disposable villains. The action is certainly fun and energetic, and everything is underlined by a streak of hunour that many will enjoy (although it didn’t work for me).

Director Mortiz Mohr, making his feature debut, feels like someone making a feature debut. This has a great idea at the heart of it, it’s trying to boil down a pure and simple action movie aesthetic into something even more pure and simple, but the end result is too messy, with a muddled plot, clumsy tonal movement, and characters that you don’t ever care about, even if Skarsgård has an innate likability to him.

The script, fully fleshed out by Arend Remmers and Tyler Burton Smith, is a mess. I never once believed the world depicted onscreen, and the attempt to add some twists and turns were altogether unsuccessful. Either keep things rooted in pure action madness or try to deliver plotting that people will care about. This moves between both, and that caused it to leave me unsatisfied with both aspects.

Skarsgård makes up for many failings though. His wide-eyed turn is very enjoyable, and he looks more than capable when in full-on rage fighting mode. That’s a good thing indeed, because almost everyone else here is wasted. Michelle Dockery, Sharlto Copley, Brett Gelman, Famke Janssen, all wasted. It should be a crime to waste Janssen this badly. Jessica Rothe is also wasted, as is the fantastic Yayan Ruhian, although he gets a few good moments throughout, and it’s at least good to see him in a fairly central role.

I really wanted to enjoy this. I expected to enjoy it. While I didn’t hate it, I was surprised by how poor it was. Is it worth a watch one evening when you want some bloody entertainment to accompany snacks and drinks? Yes. Is it worth a rewatch at any point, and will it stay long in your memory once you go on to many of the other action movies from the past few years? Absolutely not.

4/10

Monday 1 July 2024

Mubi Monday: The Delinquents (2023)

A good heist movie is usuaully something that I can easily enjoy. The Delinquents is a good "heist" movie, and it succeeds by focusing on the consequences of robbery, allowing the job to be the focus of the film without it actually being the focus of the film. Does that make any sense? I hope so, but any confusion you feel now may be on a par with some confusion you could feel at the end of this movie. That's not a bad thing. I'm just highlighting how things play out in the film.

Daniel Elías plays Morán, a bank employee who sees an opportunity to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. He doesn't want to be a millionaire. He just wants to give himself the opportunity of a better life. He's done the maths, and he knows that the money will amount to whatever he would have earned if he stayed working for the bank. His plan is to hide the money and then confess to the crime, to be arrested and serve his time in prison while, hopefully, a good friend, Román (Esteban Bigliardi) helps to keep the money hidden until it will be split between the two men upon Morán's release.

Written and directed by Rodrigo Moreno, The Delinquents is a clever and entertaining exploration of morality, relativity, and the value of friendship. The main character doesn't seem unreasonable, whether you agree with his approach or not, and the central premise is really just a way to show someone attempting to use the system, and society's rules, in an impressively unorthodox way. It's a thought-provoking work, whether you're thinking about Morán's position, Román's position, or the emotions of other characters caught up in the whole mess (including a Norma, Morna, and Ramón).

Elías is very good in one of the main roles, although he's justifiably sidelined once he fully sets his plan in motion. He still gets plenty to do though, whether it's time enjoying his freedom before he hands himself in to the authorities or navigating the new rules and bartering system of prison life. Bigliardi is equally good, and he plays his character with enough subtlety and nuance to make it hard to predict exactly what he will end up doing at any given moment. He may be a very good friend, but he's suddenly been entrusted with a very large amount of money. Margarita Molfino also deserves praise for her performance as Norma, a standout from the selection of supporting characters all given names that are anagrams of our leads, and she provides an important point of a triangle that ultimately turns into itself and expands into something much more complicated and intriguing.

There are issues here, but viewers can decide whether or not they are problematic enough to spoil their viewing experience. The "heist" itself isn't a big deal. It doesn't require a load of planning or specialised skills. It's essentially a snatch job, the real skill being the plan for the aftermath. There's also a lengthy runtime over three hours. It didn't feel overlong to me, but some will definitely have their patience tested. Then there's the ending, one that allows for a variety of interpretations. For as much as I liked the approach to the material, satisfaction is far from guaranteed.

I really liked this, and I'd be very keen to watch it again and see how I might view certain scenes differently. I recommend it heartily to other film fans, but with a fair warning about the runtime and the open-ended structure of the whole thing.

8/10