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[Azas]

 

[Onhell]

Yesterday evening, me and wifey watched The Blues Brothers for our film club.

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And ... I don't know how to put this, but people who have made this a classic surely do have a strange view on what amounts to comedy. Or even an interesting film.

It was incredibly tedious and thoroughly unfunny; James Belushi was a very talented comedian (elsewhere I have seen moments of his where he was downright brilliant), but this is an utter waste of potential. And mind you, I should (in theory) like the overall aesthetic, music makes up a significant part of my life and in certain metrics, I analyse art and text for a living and for my pastime, yet I was completely baffled at this. I don't understand this movie and I don't understand its cult. It usually doesn't even attempt to be funny, mostly it's just stuff blowing up, deadpan people in sunglasses, things crashing into other things and some shouting. Yeah, and music cameos, but I don't get any kind of satisfaction from realising that this stereotypically gobby black woman is played by Aretha in particular and that it's hey, John Lee Hooker playing Boom Boom in the street.
It gives me Who's That Girl flashbacks, only unlike that particular headache on wheels you can't even say this film could use a strong dose of Ritalin, because so many scenes are just going on and on, droning without a point, just ... being there.

The trolling in the restaurant was almost the only scene that really approached some attempt at comedy, or maybe I just don't understand this type of humour (Carrie Fisher shooting at them with rocket launcher certainly doesn't fit my idea thereof).

I suppose it's the general SNL vibe or maybe just 80s US as well - I mean, I also don't really understand the mass appeal of John Hughes' comedies - maybe it was something in the water at that time or whatever...

I LOVE this movie! Especially the music. The scene when they go see "The Penguin" is hilarious LOL. There is a lot of random nonsense, like how they never react to Carrie Fischer trying to kill them, but that's part of the fun. The police chase in the mall is utter chaos and it's great. LOL. I guess it's just one of those films where the humor is not only dated, but not easy to translate the cultural context. IDK.

It's not really a "movie," in a traditional sense, it's a series of musical numbers loosely tied together with the thinnest of plots. Belushi finds God, they get the band back together, the end. Oh and they hate Nazis LOL. Oh, Oh, They're no a mission from Gad. LOL. Love it.

This past weekend I watched Megan 2.0 and it was amazing. I really enjoyed the first one which is little more than James Wan's take on Chucky. This one is little more than T2 and follows in the foot steps of several horror sequels intentionally going full comedy. It references a ton of 80s sci-fi pop culture subtlely enough where if you blink you can miss it. In one scene, Megan takes over a car and the Knight Rider theme is mixed into the soundtrack, little nods like that here and there both with visuals and audio. Highly recommend it, especially if you saw the first.

 

[Maturin]

Watched The Count of Monte Cristo (2024), the French movie.

Rewatched The Count of Monte Cristo (2024), the English language mini-series starring Sam Claflin.

Two adaptations, almost released simultaneously.

Despite the popularity of the French movie, I found some jarring differences from the book irritated me. You are allowed to make changes - like the chess piece in the 2002 movie which was glorious (a very small change) and which enriched the story greatly, but these do not fall into that category. I like it, but it's probably not a movie I'm going to rewatch again and again like the 2002 version.

The English language series (French/Italian-production) I adore. Excellent adaptation, excellent casting and a deep dive into parts of the original only glossed over or not even included in previous movies. Possibly the best overall adaptation of the novel yet, despite obviously not having a Hollywood budget for the sets.