Reviews
The Old Guard (2020)
Forgettable action flick
This is a typical Netflix production, that checks all the up-to-date social boxes. The premise is very interesting, but we're never given enough background to "get it", and of course we're not given a satisfying ending. Netflix being Netflix, they treat their movies the same way they treat their season finales : a stupid cliffhanger that may or may not live to see a sequel.
About the movie itself, I found the production adequate, with some good fight sequences. The soundtrack was terrible; and very often not fitting. The acting was ok.
More importantly this full-length feature has the story of a new series pilot: this 2 hours movie answers one basic plot question, presents many new possibilities, introduces new characters, and throws a cliffhanger. It's like Netflix can't even tell the difference between movies and series anymore; same boxes to check, same cliffhangers to drop for possible sequel dollars.
This a 2-hours pilot, not a movie.
Nicky Larson et le parfum de Cupidon (2018)
Faithful and nostalgic
This movie is not for everybody. It is primarily aimed at those in their 30s who grew up watching the "Club Dorothée", a french kid TV show in the early 90s that was the first vector of japanese animes in France.
Nicky Larson was the french version of City Hunter, and it was altered a lot compared to the original version. The serious stuff was edited out, the bad guys had silly voices and words, and it all worked to produce a goofy detective series with the heavy and adult themes glossed over. The tone of this movie is aligned with this representation of City Hunter, it's not faithful to the manga, it's faithful to its arrival in France in 1990.
For this reason, Nicky Larson is a cameo trove specifically aimed at those 90s kids. The TV show presenter has a cameo, the french theme singer has a cameo, all the other japanese animes that were shown at the time in France have (not-so) hidden references (Captain Tsubasa, Attacker You!, Saint Seyia, Fist of the North Star, Nobody's Boy: Remi, Dragon Ball, Inspector Gadget, and so so many more). It's a constant.
As a part of this french generation, watching this overflowed me with nostalgia and I was grinning from ear to ear for the whole movie.
But it's not just a nostalgia machine, this is an actual Nicky Larson episode with real actors who play their roles well (I liked the Ryo and Saori actors a lot). Laura (Saori) chases Nicky (Ryo) with her hammer, we see the XYZ board line, we learn about Saori's brother, a crow crosses the screen, we meet a damn ressemblant Mammouth (Falcon). Nicky has perfect aim and kicks ass in pretty well-made actions sequences, especially considering the budget of the movie. As tradition we get the goofy "pervert Ryo" start to a mission, and we end with a "serious Ryo" kicking ass.
I went into this movie expecting another disastrous adaptation, I left it with a broad smile. For the target audience it's a masterful adaptation, but I fear that many of the references might not work outside of France, which would only make it a weird/ok version.
Finally, I give this movie a 9 and not a 10 because that intro sequence is gross, will turn some people off, and is not representative of the rest of the movie.
Still the best anime-to-live adaptation I've witnessed so far. Philippe Lacheau knew his material from front to back, and it shows even in very tiny details only massive fans would detect. This movie is made out of genuine knowledge and passion for the original material and era.
Black Mirror: Striking Vipers (2019)
Interesting, but not fitting
To put it bluntly, Striking Vipers was really boring to me. This is a way too long romantic story with a hint of tech as a parameter. The tech was just an excuse to present a conundrum (that is not new).
A Black Mirror episode will usually introduce a tech idea that will be either be too invasive, pushed too far, going out of control, etc. It's stretching what could go wrong with where our current technologies and online habits are, to an entertaining point.
This episode uses "tech" as a plot device to support a moral complex dilemma, but doesn't really fit the Black Mirror concept. It's just a romantic story with questioning, and drama, and technical references.
Us (2019)
Very flawed
I liked the first part, well acted and enticing. A mysterious intro, a classic portray of the family on holidays, and a strange night with a weird family standing in front of the house.
I liked that things picked up fast from there, showing the "doubles" surpsisingly fast and setting up the hostage situation. It obviously gets intriguing and paranormal with the doppleganger theme, but then it drops the ball. It becomes a slasher with useless one-on-one confrontations, and we learn that it's happening in many other places at once.
I have to go to the big reveal from here, and how it makes no sense.
1 - the doubles are shown mimicking mundane daily activities, dressed in the same clothes. This is silly. Where are the clothes from ? How do they replicate the "surface" landscape from their small square rooms ? Surely they don't have "crossing the street" practice areas.
2 - why the red suit when they practiced in copied clothes ? Either they want to replicate the surface version, or they want to differentiate with the red suit. We get both. (again where do the red suits come from ?)
3 - why did the swapped good version of the mother go insane and behave like that for the whole movie ? The predictable reveal made everything we saw prior to it make even less sense. She grew up underground in this hostile environment, and she had the same children but twisted ? She never used the elevator to get out ?
4 - the reveal has no weight. A good version underground gets bad, a bad version on surface gets good. The vilain is still the vilain, same for the victim.
5 - The red suits lines are just silly. It's just a useless mystery added to the mess. They won't stand against military or police, they're present all over mountains where there are no sewers ("you number 317, walk 2 days and stand on this hill to hold hands with 316 and 318 for no reason").
I like that the movie dared to give reasons rather early, instead of the usual "no idea, maybe-its-cliffhanger". But the execution and especially the background are seriously lacking. It all just makes no sense. At all. It just doesn't justify the watching time it takes to get disappointed.