Thursday, May 23, 2019

Crisp Criticism - "Aladdin", "The Hustle", "Tolkien", "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum", "Under the Silver Lake", "All is True"


by
Julien Faddoul















Aladdin
A live-action retelling of the 1992 Disney film of the same name.
When will these Disney remakes end? The lachrymose that they induce is becoming too much to bear. I have nothing new to add that wasn’t already covered here or here. Whenever I walk past the ticket usher and into the cinema to experience another one of these, I often think of something Elliott Smith once wrote: “Two tickets torn in half and a lot of nothing to do. Do you miss me, miss misery, like you say you do”?
d – Guy Ritchie
w – John August, Guy Ritchie
ph – Alan Stewart
pd – Gemma Jackson
m – Alan Menken
m – Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul
ed – James Herbert
cos – Michael Wilkinson
p – Jonathan Eirich, Dan Lin
Cast: Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, Will Smith, Marwan Kenzari, Navid Negahban, Nasim Pedrad, Billy Magnussen, Alan Tudyk, Frank Welker, Numan Acar, Robby Haynes, Nina Wadia

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Crisp Criticism - "Pokémon Detective Pikachu", "Long Shot", "UglyDolls", "The Intruder", "Chase"

by
Julien Faddoul





Pokémon Detective Pikachu

In a world where people collect pocket-size monsters (Pokémon) and treat them like cockfighters, a boy comes across one that can talk and seeks to be a detective.
As cynical and disturbing an example of current studio cinema as one could encounter: Yet again another movie designed to indoctrinate the idiot seals who in the case are apparently children of the 90s to slap their fins in unison at the altar that is the never-ending ouroboros of corporate nostalgia. Judging from the first week of receipts, it worked. The plot is a rip-off of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), the dialogue is embarrassing, the performances are uncomfortable, the sound design is screeching and the visuals look like vomit.

d – Rob Letterman
w – Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, Rob Letterman, Derek Connolly, Nicole Perlman   (Based on the Characters Created by Satoshi Tajiri, Ken Sugimori, Junichi Masuda)
ph – John Mathieson
pd – Nigel Phelps
m – Henry Jackman
ed – Mark Sanger, James Thomas
cos – Suzie Harman

p – Satoshi Tajiri, Thomas Tull, Ali Mendes

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Bill Nighy, Ken Watanabe, Chris Geere, Suki Waterhouse, Josette Simon, Alejandro De Mesa, Rita Ora, Karan Soni, Max Fincham