Gladiator, The Last Duel, Blade Runner, or Alien, it is not. Ridley Scott’s Napoleon was my most anticipated movie of 2023. The elements were in place. It had the director. It had the actor (Joaquin Phoenix – Walk the Line, Joker). It had the story. Yet, the pieces never came together. Instead, it was a two-hour and 38-minute chaotic mess that offered no logical transition of scenes, little connection between characters, and easily forgettable battle scenes that left much to be desired. This film was a catastrophic failure in many ways.
Category Archives: Ridley Scott
House of Gucci (2021)
I have been hesitant to want to claim that movies are progressively getting worse. However, it’s starting to get to the point where there are only a few outstanding films each year, whereas there would be upward of a dozen in the past. Last year, the best movies were Promising Young Woman and News of the World, two that, while suitable, wouldn’t have even made my Top 10 a decade ago. This year might even be worse. As we enter December, the best movie I’ve seen is a quiet little movie called Blue Bayou, which could get some late Oscar buzz, but it’s unlikely to sneak into the top lists of critics like Sound of Metal did a year ago. Likewise, movies such as The Last Duel, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and King Richard have had some excellent individual acting performances but have underwhelmed as a whole. The same can be said of Ridley Scott’s (Alien, Black Hawk Down) flat House of Gucci.
The Last Duel (2021)
Ridley Scott’s (Aliens, All the Money in the World) The Last Duel has been my most anticipated theater-going experience since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the last 19 months, I’ve been to the movie theater 20-25 times, far more than anyone I know. Theater attendance is down, as would be expected. I purchased a ticket 15 minutes after the previews started (customary for me when I see movies alone). My showing was at 11:00 a.m., but it was also the day after it was released. There were 15 moviegoers in a theater that held 250. It’s been a struggle to get back to the theater, especially with many movies having a same-day Video on Demand release or a release to popular streaming services much sooner than pre-pandemic days.
All the Money in the World (2017)
You know it’s a great year for actresses in a leading role when Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine, Manchester by the Sea), arguably the greatest actress of her generation, gives one of the greatest performances of her career and won’t even get a sniff when it comes to an Oscar nomination. But that is what we had in 2017. We have a year that, as a whole, hasn’t produced a lot of great movies, nor has it given us many great performances for actors in a leading role, but has given us so many amazing lead actress performances that the likes of traditional heavyweights Williams, Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game), Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes), Jennifer Lawrence (mother!). Williams gives one of the top five performances of her career in Ridley Scott’s (Gladiator, The Martian) All the Money in the World. But it likely will be forgotten for two reasons. The first is that it is not one of the five best performances of the year and thus won’t be recognized during awards season. The other is that they reshot a good portion of this movie following the claims of sexual assault against Kevin Spacey, one of the key figures in the movie. The movie might be more known for what went on behind the scenes than for its final product. Scott replaced Spacey with Christopher Plummer (Beginners, The Last Station), brought in all the key players to reshoot the scenes involving this character (often 18 hour days), spent an additional $10 million to do so, and only delayed the release of this movie by three days. It was the right thing to do. I applaud Scott and all of the people who sacrificed time and money to do what was the right decision. If you’ve heard about this, I’ll mention that I did too. But I felt it was downplayed some because Plummer was only in a few scenes. That is not the case at all. In my opinion, Plummer made this film. He stole every scene he was in, and it’s impossible to picture anybody doing a better job. This decision could earn All the Money in the World its only two Oscar nominations (Best Supporting Actor, Best Editing). All in all, it’s a very good movie with top-notch performances. But it isn’t quite as memorable, nor does it hold the weight of the movies that the Academy will recognize this Oscar season.
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Alien: Covenant (2017)
Ridley Scott’s (Gladiator, The Martian) brainchild franchise proves a few things. First, the Alien series still has legs, its sequels continue to evolve, and Scott has no plans of letting his baby fall into the wrong hands again. Ridley’s monster first burst onto the screen in 1979’s Alien, a movie that did for space travel what Steven Spielberg’s Jaws did for swimming on beaches. It certainly wasn’t the first movie set on a spaceship. But, if it wasn’t the first horror film set in space, it was certainly the first one we all remembered as being the first one. And, just as the tagline of the original movie poster suggests, In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream, nothing can be truer as sit down and prepare ourselves for one of the Alien movies.
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