🎬 Let me tell you what Like A Virgin's about.
Welcome back to The Reel, no. 7!
Estimated reading time: 6 mins 14 seconds.
This was an Easter weekend unlike any other.
Namely because I discovered the time-sucking, energy-draining, all too addictive app that is Scrabble GO.
Some favourite words that I played in the last few days, to my opponents’ dismay and disbelief (and, invariably, muchos points):
Drees
Gox
Ze
Za
Quarto
Bister
Zax
Bream
Preeves
Never underestimate the power of a well placed z to get you out of a bind/damage friendships.
Challenge me if you dare. I have few hobbies and an ass that don’t quit.
This week: Life, death and our hero makes a final stand.
👰 One Wedding and a Boom-eral. (🤔)
Love Wedding Repeat (2020), film, directed by Dean Craig.
Live Die Repeat/Edge of Tomorrow (2014), film, directed by Doug Liman.
Is the title Love Wedding Repeat a reference to Live Die Repeat, the tagline/alternate title of Tom Cruise sci-fi flick Edge of Tomorrow?
That would be random and obscure. But it seems to be?
Like Live Die Repeat, the central plot device revolves around replaying a sequence of events multiple times. Unlike Live Die Repeat, the title makes no sense. One cannot (or be ordered to) “wedding” so this can’t be a verb.
Love Wedding Repeat must, therefore, mean one of the following:
A) The Repeat of the Love Wedding.
B) Love, The Wedding Repeat.
C) You must love Wedding. Now repeat.
Netflix have yet to respond to any of my emails seeking clarification.
ABOVE: They’re a bit too touchy-feely for brother and sister. Like Monica and Ross but without The Routine.
Love Wedding Repeat is really not that bad, despite being very easy to bash (bash, wedding, get it?! Er). Sam Clafin and Olivia Munn star as a pair of would-be lovers at a wedding in the Italian countryside, surrounded by a charming cast.
This time we have two eccentric, comic relief best friends, played by Joel Fry and Aisling Bea (c’mon Ireland). We’re treated to the same asinine events of the wedding repeated over and over; once would have been quite enough.
This is far from the new Four Weddings and a Funeral that it tries so hard to be. But it is light, inoffensive fare for the light, inoffensive soul.
It may come as no surprise that I found Edge of Tomorrow to be the more compelling film.
ABOVE: Emily Blunt/Sergeant Rita Vrataski prepares to transfer into downward dog.
If you can get past the fact that he’s bonafide lunatic irl, Cruise is great to watch as a smarmy PR man drafted into a war against aliens. It’s another stomper for the Emily Blunt fans among us, and we’re even treated to some grumpy Brendan Gleeson (c’mon Ireland).
Strong beats of comedy, action and emotional investment make for a good watch.
Come back next week, when we review 2001: A Space Odyssey and the upcoming, unrelated romcom, 2021: A Love Odyssey.
Look out for: Just as in Groundhog Day and Russian Doll, delight at an extended sequence of Cruise’s character living, dying and repeating for comedic effect. Tim Key’s Afghanistan exchange with Munn in Love Wedding Repeat is a highlight.
If you liked this: About Time is a Richard Curtis romcom with its own time-twisty spin. If you want to get your rocks off with some more popcorn alien carnage, look no further than the 1996 classic Independence Day.
Rating: Love Wedding Repeat ⭐⭐ Edge of Tomorrow ⭐⭐⭐
🐉 His hands are registered as lethal weapons.
Enter the Dragon (1973), film, directed by Robert Clouse.
An asian man, a white man and a black man travel to an exotic island.
No, this isn’t the start of a racially insensitive joke, but the plot of Bruce Lee’s (and perhaps kung fu’s) most famous film, Enter the Dragon. His final full film appearance before his death, Lee choreographs and stars as a martial artist sent undercover to a secluded tournament to investigate its criminal host.
ABOVE: Shred to bleeding and bleedin’ shredded - the king Bruce Lee.
It’s interesting that a film so influential is itself so clearly influenced, most especially by the classic Bonds like Dr. No. The central antagonist Han is little more than a cheap Bond villain, complete with evil lair and unique physical affectation.
His legion of lackeys also reminded me somewhat of this boggling clip:
(Skip to 1:48 to have your mind blown.)
It is, however, its own film. The camera often hyper-zooms into Lee’s intense face (a kung-fu staple) and slows down for epic action, with bumpy signature soundtracks for each of the main characters.
The dialogue is particularly badass. “Cats” are making “jive” and other things I don’t understand but certainly “dig.”
ABOVE: John Saxon (left) and Jim Kelly ponder what the strange man meant when he said to enter his dragon.
It’s not the perfect film that legacy may deem it to be. The acting can be hammy, and the quality of the dubbing leaves much to be desired. But it’s a type of cool they simply do not make any more, and a foundational piece that needs to be seen.
Look out for: Jim Kelly as Williams must be the coolest man ever to grace the silver screen? Surely. I’d watch an infinite film series based solely on him, with the odd appearance by Han Solo. And Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. And maybe those hip teens from West Side Story. And Batman.
If you liked this: As well as Dr. No, You Only Live Twice is a clear influence (and my favourite Bond film). Even better martial arts than here can be found in The Raid: Redemption and its sequel The Raid 2. Both breathtaking, both on Netflix.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
⏩ Quickies
Short and snappy reviews for a short and snappy time:
Sleepers (1996, film, dir. Barry Levinson): ⭐⭐⭐
A meandering, lengthy film that doesn’t really know what it is, but this crime/prison/drama/thriller is worth a watch. Kevin Bacon is an impressive, chilling standout in a cast that includes Brad Pitt, Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman.
ABOVE (Sleepers): Jason Patric and his significantly better & more famous cast mates.
John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid: (2015, stand-up, Netflix): ⭐⭐⭐⭐
John Mulaney’s brilliant stand-up challenges the traditional idea of masculinity. See, you can be skinny, camp, enjoy musical theatre, and still be a man! OK, Dad? OK, ex-girlfriends? OK, current girlfriend? OK, face I see in the mirror..? 😥
ABOVE: Show me a man who you can tell is bad at sport from the way he moves and I’ll show you John Mulaney.
Seven Psychopaths (2012, film, dir. Martin McDonagh): ⭐⭐⭐
Disappointingly average from the Irish-British prodigy Martin McDonagh (of In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). He’s in a relationship with Phoebe Waller-Bridge. I’d like to place an order of one of their children, please.
📃 Quote of the Week(s)
Snyder: “I had only four cases last year. You know how many I won? None. That’s how many. None. And two of them I think the, uh, I think the jury blamed me personally.”
Benny: “They must have been innocent. It’s tough to get innocent men off a rap.”
Great exchange between Dustin Hoffman’s Danny Snyder and Vittorio Gassman’s King Benny in Sleepers.
📅 Previously, in pop culture…
Time is an illusion brought about by adherence to arbitrary routines.
But if time did exist, these last two weeks in film & TV history would have seen the following take place:
Apr 4 - Famed American film critic Roger Ebert dies of cancer in 2013, aged 70.
Apr 4 - Titans of industry Robert Downey Jr. and Graham Norton (c’mon Ireland) are born in 1965 and 1963 respectively.
ABOVE: The impression we never knew we needed - Tom Hiddleston does Graham Norton.
Apr 8 - In 1990, Twin Peaks created by David Lynch premieres on ABC-TV. 🔥
Apr 13 - Sidney Poitier becomes first the black actor to win Best Actor at the Oscars in 1964.
✅ Th-th-that’s all, folks.
Another one bites the dust, dear friends and comrades!
Thank you very much for reading yet another self-indulgent ramble through what can barely be classified as “reviews.” If you have any recommendations for films, TV or indeed books, please do let me know.
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Thanks again, and I’ll see you in two weeks!
xxx
P.S. I was serious about the Scrabble challenge.
Previous Reels:
🎬 Apr 2 - Grizzly Man, Spenser Confidential, Zodiac.
🎬 Mar 18 - Love is Blind, Drive to Survive, A Quiet Place.
🎬 Mar 4 - Don’t F**k With Cats, Booksmart, The Two Popes.
🎬 Feb 13 - Friends With Benefits, No Strings Attached.