Sometimes, sequels aren’t needed. They are often used as quick and easy cash grabs, more than anything. I can’t fault those involved. I used to get frustrated about my favorite films getting unneeded sequels, though not nearly as upset with remakes of my favorite movies. I now accept that sequels, remakes, reboots, and prequels will continue to exist as long as the profits are large. But that doesn’t mean the producers, directors, cast, etc., only need to go through the motions, pick up their paycheck, and call it a day before moving on to their next project. Gladiator II is a movie that didn’t need to be made and didn’t have the most original story. However, despite its lack of need and poor script, it is a captivating film, rich in action sequences, visuals, and sound. It’s not a film to seek out, though if you watch it, experiencing it on as large a screen as possible with surround sound is the best way to go.
Category Archives: Year of Release
Anora (2024)
Blue Valentine, An Education, Silver Linings Playbook, Pretty Woman, The Worst Person in the World, Before Midnight, and Like Crazy. These were the seven movies in the first article I pulled up after an online search of “movies like Anora” returned. As a fan of all seven films, I needed nothing more to decide that Sean Baker’s (Red Rocket, The Florida Project) Anora was one I needed to see. I did not need to see a preview. I did not need to read a synopsis. Instead, I had to find out how quickly I could watch the film. My viewing happened soon after. It was a mixed bag and one that mostly failed. While Silver Linings Playbook and Pretty Woman have good-natured moments of good-naturedness and humor, I wouldn’t label any of these as comedies or unbelievable. While I could see vague similarities, Anora was much more comedy-first, absurd second, and attempts to portray emotional bleakness third. I would not have listed it with the movies the article I read compared it to.
A Complete Unknown (2024)
Entertaining, engrossing, and educational, it’s hard not to leave James Mangold’s (3:10 to Yuma, Ford v Ferrari) A Complete Unknown disappointed. While many will call it a paint-by-numbers musical biopic (which is completely justified), it does three things that recent films, such as Bob Marley: One Love, Rocketman (Elton John), Back to Black (Amy Winehouse), Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and Elvis couldn’t do. It held my interest throughout its 140-minute runtime. It implored me to read Bob Dylan’s Wikipedia page. It led to an interest in looking up the songs performed in the film that I had not heard before. The musical biopic genre has been bad for nearly 20 years (Bohemian Rhapsody and Straight Outta Compton are outliers). A Complete Unknown feels like a companion piece to two fabulous turn-of-the-century musical biopics with terrific lead performances in 2004’s Ray (Jaime Foxx as Ray Charles) and Walk the Line (Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash). Each film landed the lead performer an Oscar nomination, including a win for Foxx.
Sommersby (1993)
My first viewing of Jon Amiel’s (Entrapment, Copycat) Sommersby was when I was 17. I liked the story, was intrigued by the slow unraveling mystery, and ate up the sentimentality created by Richard Gere (Pretty Woman, The Mothman Prophecies) and Jodie Foster (Panic Room, The Silence of the Lambs). Had I reviewed the film in 1993, I likely would have given it an A-. As I watched the movie most recently, some 30 years later, I was impressed by how well it once again grabbed and held my interest. Much of that was trying to spot each clue that connected the start and end, which rewatches allow. However, as simple as the story was, I fell victim to Jack Summerset’s (Gere) six-year return to Laurel (Foster) following the U.S. Civil War.
Juror #2 (2024)
While viewing Clint Eastwood’s (Sully, American Sniper) thrilling court drama Juror #2, my mind kept wandering back to an unnerving thought. There was a good chance that many would go without ever knowing about this film, let alone watching it. Juror #2 had a minimal theatrical run before going straight to streaming. The reason for having a theatrical run at all was so that it could be eligible for any end-of-year awards. Eastwood is one of the greatest directors of all time. There is something about a critically and audience-acclaimed film such an esteemed director not receiving a wide release that doesn’t sit right.