Archive (2020)

When "Ex Machina" (2014) was announced, it looked to me like a copy of "The Machine" (2013). Finally, it proved to have a different story, although both featured an AI named Ava. Another common part was that neither of the two movies impressed me enough to allocate time for a blog entry. That's why I wasn't expecting much from "Archive" either, which again, at a first sight seemed to be an "Ex Machina" v2.0. Only at the first sight...

There are two things in common: we have again a female AI and a robotics engineer somewhere in a secluded lab. That's where the resemblance ends. The story in "Archive" goes like this: year 2048 - George Almore is sent alone to a ultra-secured facility in Japan's forest by his company, in order to conduct some ultra-secret research in the area of robotics. This comes after escaping a car accident. Unfortunately not also the case of his wife, Jules, but fortunately in this future we have Archive. Archive is another company dealing with immediately saving the conscience of those close to clinical death, keeping up some limited means of communicating with them. The problem is that it's not a definitive save, each call getting it closer to the moment when Jules will be lost forever. Reason why, instead of dealing with what the company wants from him, George starts his own private project: the android model J-01, followed by model J-02, and the movie finds us at model J-03. Guess what's J for in these? ;)

"Archive" is slow-paced, and some might find it boring. For me it gave a sort of.. "serenity" feeling I'd say. I found the rhythm perfect - helped a lot by the technical part, which is flawless: both the sound, but mostly the visuals, meaning everything that gets into set decoration + VFX + cinematography + editing, where we have a frequent change between the lab setting and the natural environment. I've seen "Moon" more than 10 years ago, but I still remember enough to spot some similarity. Gavin Rothery - director and writer here was part of the art department ad "head of graphic design" there. And the visuals aren't the only resemblance, if we look at the whole idea of a SciFi movie with slow pacing, one actor, talking AI, and a final twist.

More than what's in common with "Moon", a core element from "Archive" comes clearly from some other place. The idea of "archive" as presented here is not new. I don't know for sure where this originates, but what we see in the movie is terribly close to the concept of "moratorium" in "Ubik". "Ubik" is a novel written by Philip K. Dick that appeared in 1969 - IMHO, or at least for my taste, the best SciFi novel ever written. The real significance of the word which is suspending something until a deadline was translated there pretty much as we have it here - a "moratorium" was a sort of a private bank keeping the conscience of the dead in cold-storage, available for communication until becoming exhausted with time. We don't have more from "Ubik" here ( although... but better no spoilers ;) ). The context is completely different, but since other movies (best example "Inception") took some stuff from there, it was hard to move over without noticing it. And it's not something bad, but I still hope to see an actual "Ubik" movie sometime :) Until then, small pieces are fine too...

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (maybe I'm a bit subjective, but I find the movie underrated - it's definitely better than "Ex Machina" at least)

The Guest (2014)

For the first 20-30 minutes "The Guest" looks like an average thriller. David Collins, just left home by the US Army after being sent to Afghanistan, pays a visit to the family of a former friend, Caleb Peterson, killed in action. It's more than obvious from scene 1 that the guy doesn't have the best intentions, and the first night he spends at the Petersons turns into a longer stay. David has a particular talent in getting close to each of the family members, either taking the role of the lost son, or resolving the issues the little brother has at school. Everything seems to be a cheap clone of many other movies (the one that pops into my mind now is "The Gift") where you can see a grim end coming where the very friendly stranger turns into a very dangerous villain. Well... the ending is indeed predictable. How we get there though...

After a first part that doesn't announce anything unusual in the expected line of above, besides maybe the fact that it sets a slightly retro feeling via its soundtrack (lots of synth there), there comes the moment when what we have here gets a different color. And the moment is a phone call to the military base took by Caleb's sister, who's the only one not to trust David completely. The phone call transfers us to an instant start of an armed operation meant to neutralize the danger, and we realize that David is not exactly the average character with mental issues. Actually David is not David, but let's not spoil the entire story.

And like that, from the start feeling of a low-budget "The Gift", at the end I was left between "Firestarter" and "Halloween" (the originals). It doesn't really have the supernatural element of the first, and also it's not really crossing the horror line of the latter, but it definitely has the feeling of a '70s-'80s thriller (a good one), and it's not only the retro score. I've seen Dan Stevens (the main role) before, but since I don't remember where, he probably seemed to me as just an extra cast member type-of-actor, while here he's probably comparable with Rutger Hauer in "The Hitcher" for the villain-esque value he brings to the character (just to put another '80s reference on the list). We also have a bit of dark dry humor, hardly noticeable, in just a couple scenes - but which you find very seldom these days in the recent productions of the genre, which either don't have any or they choose a much more open comic stance as tension relief element. Overall, the movie was a nice surprise, although I was disappointed by the ending = obviously it would've worked with less violence + I was expecting a twist that didn't come up, but there's room for a sequel ;)

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Gentlemen (2019)

I finally watched "The Gentlemen" or otherwise said, the return of Guy Ritchie to his main genre, probably something that could be called "British gangster action/comedy/thriller". Even though we had some bits and pieces of that also in "Sherlock Holmes" or in "The Man from UNCLE", the series that practically defined the genre started in '98 with "Lock, Stock..." and took a break in 2008 with "RocknRolla", hitting a peak with "Snatch", which stays as definitive reference.

"The Gentlemen" starts slowly, with a story told one evening by a private investigator who bring together the tangled pieces connecting a pot grower who wants to sell his business with his potential clients - actually only one. The purpose of the whole story is a simple blackmail for start, undoubtedly getting more complicated as we get through it. But to stick to my spoilers free rule, let's let the movie do his job for the rest of the story. In summary, we have the typical entanglement present also in the above titles, which is part of their charm after all, adding new threads to the subject as it evolves and more and more colorful characters.

All the build-up part in "The Gentlemen" up to the first scene, so to the present day, goes on for as much as three quarters of the movie, and the action really pushes the acceleration pedal only in its last quarter, which might make the rhythm to seem a bit aged compared to its younger predecessors. That was the reason of complaint for some early reviews as far as I remember. But if we check the composing pieces, some artificially introduced - fake story in the story, these maintain a certain dynamic which I find to be more than decent. Add to that the editing style which makes up for half of the movie - besides James Herbert, the editor who's working with Ritchie since long ago (you can notice similarities with "The Man form UNCLE", "Sherlock Holmes", etc), we also have Paul Machliss on the credits ("Baby Driver", "Scott Pilgrim"), so you can imagine the result. Top that with the brilliant ensemble cast, where again I'd rather let the movie tell what's to be told. Even though the story is rather predictable and clearly not as consistent as "Snatch", everything besides it dresses is extremely well. To conclude, we have a revival of the genre + in general an example of how a movie targeting pure entertainment should look like.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Ready or Not (2019)

My first impression after a couple minutes of "Ready or Not" was that we're getting towards something like "Knives Out", probably the best dark comedy I've watched in the last several years. It's not the same thing though. Here we have some horror accents, the subject is much simpler and there's no ending twist. Nevertheless, it was fun.

In the center of the story we have (as in "Knives Out", therefore the comparison) an aristocratic dysfunctional family, the Le Domas, who made their fortune in a board games industry, started like three generations behind, following a mysterious meeting of the great-grandfather, somewhere in the middle of the ocean with a guy named Le Bail (light spoiler: easy anagram). So the guy proposed a pact - luck and fortune for all the family members, but on one condition - during each new wedding night the new Le Domas is obligated to play a game with the rest of the family, the game being randomly decided by a box that draws a card for the player. The options seem harmless, chess, checkers, etc, with one single exception: hide and seek. The difference here are the rules saying that the new family member should also be the new loss of the family = must be found by the rest and sacrificed during a macabre ritual, otherwise no more luck, fortune and add the life on top of that.

We move back to the present, when Alex, apparently the most sane of all the Le Domas clan, is about to marry Grace. Obviously without notifying the poor woman of what follows, hoping that everything will just be a simple chess game. Again obviously, it's not a simple chess game, and what's next is something like "Hard Target", but without Van Damme and packing much more comedy within ( yeah I know the reference is old, but I'm too ;) ). So, I already spoiled probably the most non-linear part of the movie, therefore, I'll skip the rest of the details. Even though I'm not really into excess red paint scenes, I could say that the movie is impeccably put together, with a special mention on the audio part - the score (Brian Tyler) and the sound editing. I've seen Samara Weaving who's leading the cast here, in a somehow similar role in "Mayhem" (another dark comedy with lots of red paint). I don't know if a couple of years between the movies are enough for a consistent growth in the acting experience, but if there I barely noticed her, here I'll definitely remember her. These being said...

Rating: 4 out of 5