Soul (2020)

I'm moving on in the same trend, probably already boring, to complain that I'm definitely not in the best mood for writing. Also when finding about "Soul", the title + description led immediately to the idea of a musical - the only movies area that I'm completely avoiding, with minor exceptions. On top of everything, "soul" is not among my favorite music, so I decided to ignore this. However, after repeatedly hearing that's the best animation of last year, I decided to move it in the minor exceptions category above. The first thing to say about it - "Frozen" fits probably much better with the musical genre than what we have here. And about soul music, that's really secondary behind the concept of a soul in the context of the movie.

In brief, we have a music teacher, who dreams of being part of a jazz band, and when finally the opportunity arises he fells into a manhole and he dies. Well, not really... because we're moving somewhere in an intermediate afterlife space, where the souls either move towards "the great beyond" after living, or towards "the great before" to find a new place on Earth. Well, our guy definitely dislikes the beyond option, and wants to get back to his piano in New York. And the only path seems to be through "the great before". Now, given my writing mood, I guess I said enough about the story.

Obviously the target of the movie is not in the range of PhD students in psychology for analyzing the perspectives of the afterlife concepts. Nevertheless, "Soul" is complex enough to not be labeled "childrens only". Moreover it's fresh - I didn't feel bored by material recycled from other movies (not that the idea of human soul inside of a cat is new, but I said I'm stopping with the spoilers :P). In a word, I'd qualify it as "nice". Maybe even too "nice" in the end, but these days that's actually good.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

WolfWalkers (2020)

Unfortunately, struggling somewhere between Ketorol and Nurofen for some dental issues that seem to contest my incapacitation record dating from my ankle fracture two and a half years ago, I'm not in the best mood for writing. Therefore, I'll move quickly over "WolfWalkers", although it probably deserves more.

The animation we're talking about is made by the same Irish team as "The Secret of Kells" and "Song of the Sea", reason why I didn't expect much from it. Not that the above aren't good (I guess), but... it's just a matter of taste - in brief, each of the previous movies seemed to me as a sort of Miyazaki made in Europe = lots of senses way too hidden that get lost in an Irish fantasy instead of a Japanese one, and which had the effect of a sleeping pill on me when I've seen it. We have here too an idea that probably has its origin in the local folklore - a variant of the werewolf myth, with the difference from the above that "WolfWalkers" is much more coherent in its narrative, and didn't get me bored. Everything starts with a hunter's daughter, who gets bit by another girl of about the same age, but having a wolf shape. Worse, a wolf leading a pack in the nearby forrest, considered a great danger for the town where our action is settled. The result, the hunter's daughter gets, as in any "werewolf story", the same transformation capabilities, stuff that completely incompatible with her father's job taked by the ruthless lord protector to erradicate the menace in the woods.

The way this whole story complicates can be seen in the movie. What I can say is that despite its lack of twists, what we see here is sufficiently complex to worth the time, and somehow the mix between myth, folklore and the relatively alert action, succeeds this time = it's neither too pretentios in its meanings to put the age target too high, neither too childish to make it too low.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)

I had in mind to write an entry on "Nomadland". Before watching the movie. After I did, I changed my plan. There are a couple days since seeing this and I already don't know what I've watched, so I don't have anything to write about. In brief, "Nomadland" is a movie that if you cut in pieces of ~10-20 minute, and watch these in random order you'll probably get pretty much the same thing, whatever that might be. It would be interesting if the experienced critics could do a simple exercise before throwing too much praise on a movie: just to ask themselves what is so memorable about it that they can punctually reference in three years from viewing it. Well, there's some stuff in "Remo Williams" :)...

I shifted 180 degrees with the movie genre - but I really felt the need for a popcorn movie in its more obvious shape as an antidote to the pretentious "artistic" production named above. And not so long ago I've watched "Remo Williams" as part of my '80s detour, and I actually wanted to write a couple words about it but I didn't have the time. Remo Williams is pretty much like a "Commando", but for the super-hero niche, before it became so popular as it is today. Meaning that's funny enough to not be bad, although clearly far from masterpiece level. The main character origin is in some series of pulp novels, being some kind of a super-agent for a super-secret organization, who fights all kinds of super-villains. The movie takes a bit more light the "super" part, our agent being nothing more than a hamburger eating cop, trained in a "Karate Kid" fashion by a Korean master, in order to dismantle the unlawful profits plan of an arms dealer (without other super-powers than money and relations).

What stands out in Remo Williams, to support my claim above, are the script lines: from "Your reflexes are pitiful. The seasons move faster." to "You know why Americans call it fast food? Because it speeds them on the way to the grave.", such stuff makes you remember it as quotes source. It's probably one of the most witty scripts I've seen lately. There are also plenty of action scenes, which for the '80s are comparable with what you can find in "Mission Impossible" - in particular one is filmed on top of the Statue of Liberty and sticks as a reference beyond the poster. Not last about it, the characters, or more precisely the actors, is something you'll probably remember. It was hard for me to imagine Fred Ward as a wannabe super-hero, and such casting is so weird that after seeing the movie, it's still hard to imagine. The most memorable part is though the Korean's master, Chiun (the one delivering the witty lines above), where the actor is... Joel Grey. Without ant Asian genes, it would probably make the movie to be labeled today as non-ethical, stereotypical, even rasist, despite the fact that the acting is so good that at the time got a nomination for a Golden Globe. Objectively I have to admit that I found myself the casting to be a bit unnatural, but again objectively the actor did his job close to perfection.

Long story short: it's a popcorn movie. A bit old, but enough funny and with more substance than what we have in today's Marvel productions.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5