11 years + Isle of Dogs (2018)

At each blog anniversary I tried to find something that I could recommend with a maximum rating. It worked out at two years ("The Prestige") and at nine years ("The Accountant"), so quite seldom :) Therefore, it's at least statistically proven ( spoiler :) ) why it doesn't work at 11 years either. To be fair, I'm happy that this year I managed up to now to keep the average of one entry per week = watching around one movie weekly. To catch one that has the chance to surprise me at a fixed date... oh well... The truth is that I seriously reconsidered after last year a shutdown, especially in the context where's quite clear also for me that: 1) I don't really get to see enough movies to make a decent selection of subjects; 2) I don't really have the time to stay enough on an entry to make it sure it sounds good enough (not that I ever prepared and revised my posts, but I feel that lately I'm repeating myself too much and I'm wrapping them up too quickly); 3) the everlasting problem since I started this blog is still here - I don't have time to promote it (although, considering point 2 above, maybe it's for the better). Anyway, long story short... I'm not giving up :D (yet...). Maybe I have the chance to compete someday to the longest blog with the least amount of readers on this planet :P And now, the movie...

I had two options for an anniversary entry - "Isle of Dogs" and "Upgrade". Unfortunately I've only had time for one of them, and I've chosen the "safe" one. Wes Anderson doesn't normally disappoint. And it's not the case now either. But still I can't say that this is one of his best... Besides that, unfortunately I don't think I'm connecting too well with the subject, which is: dogs - never having one, or as a matter of fact any other pet.

The story goes like this: somewhere in Japan we have a bad mayor, from an even worse dynasty that for generations hated dogs. Also for generations, these have a tolerated status, being used in the mayor house only for guarding and other practical tasks, never like pets. From this starts a plot of completely eradicating their presence from the community, using the reason of "canine fever". Like that, all the animals are exiled on a garbage island, including the guard dog of the mayors adopted son. Only that the son, not sharing the century old family hate, doesn't really agree with the decision and starts a search and rescue expedition for finding Spots. Which, predictable, it happens, and they will live happily ever after. Considering that we know the ending, I won't say what we're going through for reaching that.

If you wouldn't know who's the writer/director and you'd see 3 minutes of the movie, whatever these might be, you could swear that's a Wes Anderson film. It's so obvious, and the best method to describe Wes Anderson is... well.. watch a movie by Wes Anderson. An ordered chaos, short on topic scenes, cold dialogues that suddenly turn warm, lots of color, a fine sense of humor (e.g., "The Search for Spots" - a reference to Star Trek, that gets a bit deeper in the context), all these are elements that you can find here as much as in "Fantastic Mr. Fox", "Grand Budapest Hotel" or even "Moonrise Kingdom". Still, it doesn't seem like the same level. But again, maybe I'm not emphatic enough with the idea :) Anyway, as in the other cases, technically as a movie what we have here is flawless. At least for that it deserves watching. And if you're a dog owner, you'll probably love it ;)

Rating: 4 out of 5

Incredibles 2 (2018)

I wasn't expecting much from "Incredibles 2" and I didn't get the surprise I was hoping for (so... maybe, I was actually expecting :) ). In brief, it's too Pixar for my taste = too nice, too predictable. I don't remember where the first "Incredibles" left us, but the second starts in the context where super-heroes are illegal, and the Incredible family must keep away from using their super-powers to make justice. Stuff that's not very convenient, but we have Winston Deavor, a prosperous business man with nice childhood memories of super-heroes, who, together with his sister, Evelyn, seems decided to start a rehabilitation and re-legalizing campaign. And like that Ms Incredible gets a new suit, all the material support and the counseling she needs to open the path for a successful lobby to solve the matter. All this while Mr. Incredible is left at home to take care of the children, stuff that apparently exceeds his super-powers.

Unfortunately all this plot has an outcome that's as predictable as unlikely it sounds - stuff that's totally contradictory, and which theoretically should've make it unpredictable, but somehow it is. It's so obvious from the start that the evil character is part of the Deavor family, such that the only unknown left is who of them is it, or maybe both? This stuff makes it totally awkward to see such support given to Ms. Incredible, when the final purpose is totally opposite to what she's helped for... And even stranger is that the attempt to bring down all super-heroes effectively starts only when Ms. Incredible discovers that the help received does not come without an interest. Which discovery was not supposed to happen... But if it wouldn't have happened, there wouldn't have been any anti-hero attack... so I don't know anymore where was the evil interest. Really, at some point the logic of the negative character gets so mind boggling, that it seems more plausible that we have an evil schizo in this role and not an evil genius, as it should look like. Anyway, long story short: the best part of the movie is by far the youngest member of the Incredible family, Jack Jack - I won't say why because I already gave too much. In any case, the script is so poor that even the most promising character is not sufficiently used in the story...

Rating: 3 out of 5

Cleanskin (2012)

Time's shrinking, movie options the same... I didn't get to see anything else besides "Cleanskin" this week - randomly picked from an older "to watch" list, and doing this in something like three sessions. What IMDb says about it might seem close to a James Bond. Not even close...

Ash is a young Muslim enrolled in the law school in London, who, unhappy with the reckless life of his girlfriend, breaks up and gets close to a radical group. And like that, in a while ends up involved in planning bombing attacks. Ewan is an ex-military, returned from Afghanistan, who's recruited by the secret services and given the mission of tracking a Semtex case. We have a series of flashbacks providing more background of the two, and finally their paths intersect. How many explosions and what follow-up we have I won't say. I'll say that we have a surprisingly clever script (for what I was expecting), which has much more life drama in it than what the trailer gives you and it also offers an ending twist. Not something very unexpected, but sufficient to consolidate a message that's written pretty much everywhere between the lines: life is not black and white, it's very very gray.

As usual, I'd rather not comment much on the political/social side of the movie. I can tell that it's maybe a bit too often, too brutal and too violent. What's worse is that it also looks sufficiently realistic - again, this is not a Bond movie, which I didn't enjoy. I said it before, I prefer that a movie takes me out of the real life, nu to remind me how scary this is. Somehow, I don't think there's any character left up to the end on who we could say that was a positive one. It manages to kill all your hopes in a world that includes somebody like that :) To conclude, is that type of a movie on which I could say it probably was good, but I didn't like it :) That's all... A, just one spoiler: Sean Bean surprisingly survives this one :)

Rating: 3 out of 5