First I've watched some TeeVees - more than I have been lately - and highlights include:
Damnation - After ZZZ I had to wash the corrosive taste of hyper-capitalism out of my system and this pulpy, operatic ultraviolent labor-wars drama did the job nicely. Too bad Tony Tost didn't get to tell a multi-season story, but the single season we got packed in plenty of plot, colorful characters and cathartic scenes of anti-authoritarian bloodshed. I swear some days I think about Logan Marshall-Green casually shooting oblivious cops for sport from a moving train and it's succor to get me through these trying times. On Netflix.
Movie (Series!)
The following are my final rulings on the rankings of a couple of franchises I finished in May.
First Blood > Rambo > Rambo: Last Blood > Rambo: First Blood Part II > Rambo III
Rambo: Last Blood got dumped on pretty hard last year. When I first heard about the it going into production Rambo vs. The Zetas (or whatever) sounded fucking perfect, but then when it turned out to be about the less specifically-Mexican issue of sex trafficking I got the same 'ah-shit' creeping dread that we were in for a border-fear-stoking shit-show, but I'm so happy to report that what we actually ended up with was about forty-five minutes of clunky set up followed by a couple of lovely beatdowns and topped off with the most fist-pumpingly gruesome and fucking mean finale I've seen in a minute set to The Doors' Five to One. Holy shit. As someone who didn't grow up watching the films and for whom the character doesn't hold any special place in my heart, I realize I might be in the tiniest minority in enjoying the way this closes the franchise, but... here I go again on my own.
Death Wish > Death Sentence > Death Wish 4: The Crackdown > Death Wish V: The Face of Death > Death Wish II > Death Wish 3 > Death Wish (2018)
Yeah I still haven't read Brian Garfield's novels (Death Wish and Death Sentence), so I can't compare the original film with the source material, but even the first movie stands waaay apart from the sequels and seems like a sober-minded meditation on the price of violence - righteous or not - on your soul than the extreme stand your ground porn the franchise quickly descended (some would say transcended) into. For my money the best of the rest is James Wan's Death Sentence which combined gnarly violence with budding auteur-shit set pieces and visuals, but after Michael Winner's goofy grindhouse sequels (II & 3), 4 & 5 kept the ridiculosity of the violent confrontations, but took the plot in some new (though, hardly original) directions which elevate them slightly over the urban hellscape cleaning up the neighborhood retreads. I'm not sure when it became the thing to dunk on Eli Roth (I don't know anything about him outside of his movies), so I took the dismissal of his (Joe Carnahan penned) remake starring Bruce Willis with a grain of salt. Turns out you guys were right about it not being worthwhile. Limp and uninspired, but worst of all boring.
Brand new movies
Come to Daddy - Ant Timpson - Elijah Wood responds to an unexpected letter from his father who left him when he was a kid. It's an awkward reunion and full of unexpected dangers. This one jumps sideways pretty hard in a way that makes talking about it at length tricky, but the tone is darkly, uncomfortably funny and surprisingly gnarly when it gets down to the onscreen violence. It's also kinda sweet. Good shit (now on Prime).
Debt Collectors - Jesse V. Johnson - An unexpected sequel to 2018's Debt Collector which ends with the heroes French (Scott Adkins) and Sue (Louis Mandylor) pretty certainly dead from getting shot to fuck by Tony Todd's goons. Admittedly, the ending is a significant part of why I loved Debt Collector (now on Netflix) and giving the odd couple a new lease on life does kinda cheapen the original film... but it was already a cheap film, what the hell. Debt Collectors finds French and Sue as surprised as their audience that they're alive and even gives us an awkward scene of the two of them hashing over how puzzled they are the other survived (hard to say exactly how long after the events of the first film the sequel takes place - long enough for everybody to have healed from their significant injuries, yet not long enough for curiosity to have gotten the better of either buddy to the point that they did an online obituary search - it's a wonky world) and it's one of a handful of so below the bar nods to movie-make-believe that end up making the sequel work. Following the blueprint of buddy action comedies this one gives the dysfunctional duo a new set of situations to punch through, as well as a few new character wrinkles (ranging from laughably dumb to surprisingly affecting) in an effort to keep things fresh. Despite nothing about the franchise being fresh, I'd not call it a wasted effort because the effort shows and is charming at its best and good-naturedly owning its goofiness at its most clumsily mis-calculated. Yes, a lesser film than the first, but an onscreen team I would happy to spend another installment or two with. Now on Hoopla.
A Good Woman is Hard to Find - Abner Pastoll - Sarah Bolger is terrific as a recent widow and mother of two young children at the ragged edge of not getting by. She desperately needs help, but every bit of assistance offered (from family, from neighbors, from government representatives) comes loaded with barely concealed contempt, patronizing advice or a debasement clause that only adds to her burden. When a local dirtbag makes her an accomplice in his criminality she takes the money and keeps her mouth shut because she's out of options, but her (in)actions put her in the crosshairs of the police and rival drug dealers and it all escalates to a series of very satisfying confrontations that include the weaponization of dildos and the absolute best hiding place for a handgun. Also: electronic score, neon lights and hammers as weapons are officially tropes now.
Les Misérables - Ladj Ly - Ever timely drama about policing the over-policed. Damien Bonnard is the new cop on the block getting a tour of his new beat by a pair of detectives (Alexis Manenti's prick with a stick and Djibril Zonga's slightly more carrot-prone counterpart). Over the course of the day he'll be put through hazing rituals, meet the population and then put out a series of small fires threatening to consume the whole neighborhood. Police brutality caught on video, highly combustible racial tensions and rioting in case you're not getting enough of that right at home. Now on prime.
VFW - Joe Begos - This is the version of The Expendables I've been waiting for. A siege movie set inside a rundown VFW hall full of brokedown soldiers commiserating on their place in the world that's left them behind. Gnarly violence, kickass pacing and a cast of character actors to die for (Stephen Lang, Fred Williamson, William Sadler, Martin Kove, David Patrick Kelly and George Wendt finally back at the end of the bar). Definite John Carpenter two-fer vibe to the whole affair (like Assault on Precinct 13 set in the urban wasteland of Escape From New York). Available to stream on Hoopla.
Couple micro-budget mentions
Empathy Inc. - Yedidya Gorsetman - Cool little sci-fi crime/horror thriller with a social message way out front and honestly a little in the way... at first. But hang with this one and see if it doesn't deliver some legit thrills in the back half. Kinda like a mumblecore version of Strange Days. Check it out on Prime.
Thieves - Bryan C. Winn - Put the scripts to Heat, Thief, To Live & Die in L.A., Drive, The Killing and Narc in a blender, add a pinch of Points Blank and Break and I bet after five or six tries you'd arrive at this exact shooting script. Before you rush off to watch it lemme be clear, it's not a 'good' movie, it's amateur-hour everything, but if your tastes line up exactly right it might be a good time - kinda like those kids who made a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark - you're rooting for Winn and company and they do pull off an homage not really worth your time, but I bet they had a blast making it. And hey, more power to them. About five minutes in I thought it might make a fun drinking game - calling out the name of the movie that line came straight out of - but I cannot in good conscience recommend anybody do that... it would probably be lethal. Find it on prime.
Yeah I still haven't read Brian Garfield's novels (Death Wish and Death Sentence), so I can't compare the original film with the source material, but even the first movie stands waaay apart from the sequels and seems like a sober-minded meditation on the price of violence - righteous or not - on your soul than the extreme stand your ground porn the franchise quickly descended (some would say transcended) into. For my money the best of the rest is James Wan's Death Sentence which combined gnarly violence with budding auteur-shit set pieces and visuals, but after Michael Winner's goofy grindhouse sequels (II & 3), 4 & 5 kept the ridiculosity of the violent confrontations, but took the plot in some new (though, hardly original) directions which elevate them slightly over the urban hellscape cleaning up the neighborhood retreads. I'm not sure when it became the thing to dunk on Eli Roth (I don't know anything about him outside of his movies), so I took the dismissal of his (Joe Carnahan penned) remake starring Bruce Willis with a grain of salt. Turns out you guys were right about it not being worthwhile. Limp and uninspired, but worst of all boring.
Brand new movies
Come to Daddy - Ant Timpson - Elijah Wood responds to an unexpected letter from his father who left him when he was a kid. It's an awkward reunion and full of unexpected dangers. This one jumps sideways pretty hard in a way that makes talking about it at length tricky, but the tone is darkly, uncomfortably funny and surprisingly gnarly when it gets down to the onscreen violence. It's also kinda sweet. Good shit (now on Prime).
Les Misérables - Ladj Ly - Ever timely drama about policing the over-policed. Damien Bonnard is the new cop on the block getting a tour of his new beat by a pair of detectives (Alexis Manenti's prick with a stick and Djibril Zonga's slightly more carrot-prone counterpart). Over the course of the day he'll be put through hazing rituals, meet the population and then put out a series of small fires threatening to consume the whole neighborhood. Police brutality caught on video, highly combustible racial tensions and rioting in case you're not getting enough of that right at home. Now on prime.
Couple micro-budget mentions
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