Weekly Recap 28 | The Suicide Squad, Killing Fields, Talented Mr Ripley & more

This Weekly Recap is an episode of extremes. I’ll either be lambasting the film, or praising it lavishly: you’ll find no inbetween today.

The first film of the week is another film that I really don’t understand why I watched it. In Nemesis, chaos is rampant as ‘information terrorists’ threaten to destroy order in society. Alex is a part-man, part-machine LAPD cop who is the best at what he does. His final assignment is to apprehend an old colleague who has stolen some data; however, there is more than meets the eye and Alex must question his allegiance.

Blimey, this film was pure trash. It’s a shame because the premise really appealed to me, but the cheapness of its visuals, acting and writing are simply inexcusable. It’s a toss up as to which is worse here: the atrocious acting, or the screenplay the cast are made to ham their way through. The overall effect is of one of those cheap foreign movies that has had some really bad improvised dubbing added, only this film isn’t dubbed. I generally love cyberpunk as a genre, but what passes for a plot here is so inexplicable, that the only reason I kept half-heartedly watching was out of a morbid pleasure in seeing just how bad this movie could get,
how much it could borrow from much better films, and whether I would gain any understanding of it, or its characters, by the end (which I didn’t). To be honest, I really shouldn’t have bothered – and certainly shan’t for the many sequels that Albert Pyun somehow managed to make. I get that there’s a few people who do love it for what it is simply because they dig the style, but I find it practically impossible to enjoy anything of such low quality. 

This next film is one of those films that proves that the Oscars are nonsense: Chariots of Fire. In the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners train for the 1924 Paris Olympics.

Oh my days, this was so boring! I’m not going to go into any mega depth in my review for this film because there genuinely isn’t anything to talk about. I guess once you see one sports movie you’ve seen them all, since they all follow the same tired tropes and themes. It’s very difficult for me to find any sports movie interesting, but the blandness of this film’s narrative and presentation is honestly one of a kind. The running scenes are underwhelming, the dramatic scenes are ungripping, and the music is horrendous – despite it inexplicably being one of Vangelis’ most recognisable scores. I’m not even shocked it was such a huge Oscar winner; I’m just dissapointed people won’t stop talking about it when it’s such a miserable experience.

Ok, I thought I wasn’t going to watch this next film, but I got dragged into it and had to suffer through over 2 hours of trash all over again. With Part 3 of Rurouni Kenshin, Shishio has set sail in his ironclad ship to bring down the Meiji government and return Japan to chaos; in order to stop him in time, Kenshin trains with his old master to learn his final technique.

At last, the legend ends and I can put this wretched series to bed! Miraculously, the writing has gone from bad but with interesting potential, to downright abysmal. Overly sentimental, obnoxiously cartoonish, lackluster philosophising, and utterly wasted characters, amidst a screenplay predicated on the most absurd of plot contrivances. And that climatic duel that has been built up for the past 4 HOURS has to be the most overbloated and boring final showdown I’ve ever seen, ending in such an unsatisfying manner. The thing is, I did think that the film started off much stronger than its predecessors, so the downfall in quality is even more disappointing precisely because I recognised the attempt at crafting a competent story. I will also say that I think the political stuff is at least handled a bit better here, though it still doesn’t fully dive into those themes and issues as much as I’d like. But just like with part 2, it devolved so quickly back into the atrocious to the point where all I could do was laugh at all the stupid things that kept happening, as I was utterly powerless to find any redeeming qualities in the film – aside from the pretty visuals, of course, which seem to have been created by the only people in the crew with any semblance of actual talent. I know that there’s two more films left in this series, but considering that they just keep getting worse and worse, I think I really will just wrap it up as a dissapointing yet conclusive trilogy.

Jumping straight from 1 stars to 4, Stillwater is Tom McCarthy’s latest film. This might be the first film I’ve seen of his, but I know Spotlight to have been extremely well received, so I should watch that when I have the chance. Anyway, Stillwater follows Bill Baker, an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma, who travels to Marseille to visit his imprisoned daughter, Allison, as she claims she is not guilty of the murder that she has been charged with. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter.

Damn, what a performance from Matt Damon! I feel he’s become pretty boring of late, but here he pulls out a stoic, subdued performance, with the most subtle of facial changes inducing a plethora of poignancy. Aiding him are Abigail Breslin, who delivers some superbly heartbreaking scenes as Bill’s ‘falsely’ imprisoned daughter, while Lilou Siauvaud has to be among the best child actors I’ve ever seen with many moments that are overwhelmingly sweet. The funny thing is that I thought this was verging on being a bad movie in the first half, with far too much contrived drama amidst a weak vigilante-esque plot. But I really loved the change of pace that occured around the halfway point, as it straight up abandoned that mediocre crime thriller to instead opt for a slow burning character study. Normally I find such an inconsistency in a film’s narrative structure to be detrimental, but I truly vibed with it here as the writing and performances were top-notch. And while I guessed the twist literally from the outset, it didn’t detract at all from making the gradual build-up to that revelation incredibly impactful.

The Suicide Squad is the latest blockbuster to have come out to cinemas, and I made sure to grab my seat on day one. Supervillains Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker and a collection of nutty cons at Belle Reve prison join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X as they are dropped off at the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Now, I haven’t watched the original Suicide Squad, and truth be told I have no interest whatsoever in the wellbeing of DC. I literally only watched this for Peter Capaldi, which is funny cause he’s pretty much just playing the Doctor, with many lines that I swear I’ve heard him say before. But as much as I love Capaldi – as well as James Gunn for the brilliant two Guardians of the Galaxy films – I honestly wasn’t expecting this to be any good. 

So imagine my surprise when I found out just what a fun, wild mess this turned out to be, full of great characters, amazing visual effects, a lovely amount of morbid humour and self-aware comedy, plus a genuinely decent plot. DC have been having a hard time ever since Zack Snyder spearheaded their disastrous Cinematic Universe, failing miserably right from the outset since it was so hastily constructed. Suicide Squad is probably the most hated of the films that have come out of this company in recent times, which is no doubt an indictment of how incongruous edgy tones and dark lighting are to making the average superhero flick enjoyable. Which is why James Gunn’s fusion of his morbid humour with light-hearted action and a bright aesthetic for the sequel to Suicide Squad is simply a work of genius. Of course, a big problem with packing your film full of comedy is that it’s inevitable not all the humour will land, so paired with some weird moments of sincere sentimentality, my laughter did gradually die down as the film progressed. But even so, The Suicide Squad is teeming with creativity in both the writing and visuals, crafting a film that might not be the most incredible thing ever made, but is certainly worth catching at the cinema.

Aight aight, let’s get our political hats on now. The Killing Fields, tells the real-life story of a friendship between two journalists – an American and a Cambodian – during the bloody Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia in 1975, which led to the death of 2-3 million Cambodians during the next four years, until Pol Pot’s regime was toppled by the intervening Vietnamese in 1979. I saw First They Killed My Father first, which is funny because everybody was comparing that to this as though there was a huge gap in quality. But I found them both to be brilliant – aside from some glaring flaws that I’ll elaborate on shortly – so I don’t see the need to compare them. Jolie’s film can essentially be viewed as a remake of this film’s second half only with a more modernised aesthetic.

The first half explores the lead up to the revolution through the eyes of passionate and unrelenting journalists; this part of the film is very slow paced, but its meticulous and character driven detailing of the story is certainly gripping. The second half is probably the most exciting the film gets – as sickening as that may be – since it delves right into the eponymous killing fields, with Communism in its purest form decimating the population, all viewed through the eyes of the Cambodian journalist who got left behind. While the film noticeably changes tone between these two halves, it’s a wonderfully effective method for heightening the tragedy and the fear induced by the Khmer Rouge. However, it’s a shame about the bombastic music, because it spoils the natural emotion by overly sentimentalising many already poignant scenes. Honestly should have let the writing, performances and cinematography speak for themselves, because they all beautifully bring to life this horrifying true story of the evil humanity is capable of. But although I feel some of the directorial decisions were detrimental to the quality of the film, this is certainly a harrowing experience and unfiltered account of one of recent history’s most brutal events, making it the definitive film of the Cambodian Communist Revolution and its inevitable consequences.

But what’s Weekly Recap without at least one 5 star film? Fret not, for I shall now leave you with a most unexpected masterpiece: The Talented Mr Ripley. Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it’s better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.

Let me just say now that I am so grateful for the way it ended! When that final scene happened and Matt Damon’s reflections converged into one another amidst the heartbreaking voice-over, I was chanting in my head for it to end. Not because I didn’t like the film – far from it, I loved this film – but because I’ve never before in my life seen such an ideal place to cut to black and for it to actually do so than in this film. What I find so shocking about this film is how there’s absolutely no mistep in the presentation. Pretty much from the word go the filmmaking on display is enchanting, delving straight into the story with no need for a pointless preamble. This is one of those films that has an excellent screenplay that goes into most fascinating territory as the plot thickens, but is made truly great by the performances. Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchet, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jack Davenport make up a superb supporting cast with such a distinct blend of humour, melancholy, excitement and introspection, which really helped in making all of the scenes immensely enjoyable to watch. But obviously, Matt Damon is the real star of the show with his psychopathic but simultaneously sympathetic character, switching so effortlessly between his two personalities as he attempts to hold the lies together. This might just be because I’ve been watching him recently, but the directing style rather reminds me of Hitchcock, since the entire film is an unending experience of being utterly gripped to all the twists, thrills and tragedies that befall this gorgeous cast of characters. Not to mention the incredible cinematography and creative editing, which are deceptively brilliant considering most of the time it’s putting up a facade of normalcy, letting it drop at the perfect time to heighten the emotion with fascinating splendour. Plus the music – from the jazz to the opera – is simply divine, enthused with such a gorgeous amount of energy and passion to elevate what was anyway a masterful film into something that I could truly adore.