Today on "Words On Film", Dan Burke reviews "Deadpool & Wolverine", "Kneecap", and "Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person". Mr. Burke also gives a spoken word preview of movies subject to being released in theaters and/or on streaming for the week of August 5th - 9th, 2024.
WBCA Podcasts
Words On Film
Today on "Words On Film", Dan Burke reviews "Deadpool & Wolverine", "Kneecap", and "Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person". Mr. Burke also gives a spoken word preview of movies subject to being released in theaters and/or on streaming for the week of August 5th - 9th, 2024.
- Duration:
- 53m
- Broadcast on:
- 05 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
[music] Hello and welcome to Words on Film, the spoken word show dedicated to moving pictures. I'm Dan Burke, your host and movie critic and you're listening to Words on Film on WBCALP Boston. I will be reviewing some of the newest movies out right now. I am back after a two week hiatus and by hiatus I mean that I went on vacation and was out of town and therefore didn't do my show last week. So I have a little catching up to do and there are some brand new films that came out for the weekend of August 2nd through August 4th, 2024 that I did not get to review just yet. I added some other films that had to come first especially the first movie I'm going to be reviewing for you which is old in my book I guess but it's probably new enough to you. So I'm going to get to that film in a little bit. There's another film that is brand new from this weekend that I will also review but it's also an indie film which you probably haven't seen yet. I'm going to get to that as well but I've got a lot of discussing about three movies that I'm going to be reviewing for you for this show. The first movie I'm going to be reviewing for you is Deadpool and Wolverine. This despite the talks about there being comic movie fatigue has been probably one of the more anticipated movies of the year not only not just the most anticipated comic book movie. And honestly this year has not been largely good for comic book movies and that is thanks in large part to a certain film starring Dakota Johnson that came out earlier this year, Madam Webb. And that film was a critical and commercial failure but this film Deadpool and Wolverine looks a lot more promising. It probably would have been released earlier but production was suspended in July of last year due to the 2023 sag after strike but resumed in November and production for the film wrapped in January of this year. And the film's title was revealed a month later and the movie premiered on July 22nd at the David H. Koch Theater which I presume is in New York City and I am correct and was released to theaters nationwide on July 26th. And to be honest with you I wasn't really looking forward to this film not because it's a comic movie and I'm sick of comic book movies because I'm not sick of comic book movies. If the movie is good regardless of whether or not it's based on a comic book character I will watch it and probably like it. But the Deadpool character, at least as portrayed by Ryan Reynolds, I've felt over the last couple of years has been grossly overrated, kind of like Ryan Reynolds himself. And this movie adds to my irritation with Ryan Reynolds and his riffing and I feel like in Deadpool and Wolverine, regardless of whether or not you are a fan of Deadpool or not, I think the shtick with Deadpool has gotten largely old. And while this film had a few chuckles here and there, largely I was just tired of Deadpool's shtick of the Breaking the Fourth Wall and the pop culture references. And in this movie, a lot more than in the first two films, I feel like Ryan Reynolds' quips and his Breaking the Fourth Wall are not nearly as clever as they were previously. In fact, even the Fourth Wall breaks seem a lot more random. There are times where he looks right at the camera and says something that just doesn't really make a ton of sense and if it does make some semblance of sense, it's usually not particularly funny. And Deadpool is of course the selling point of this film as he's the first hero, or should I say the anti-hero, that's mentioned in the title of this film. But in this film, he's offered a place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by the Time Variance Authority but instead recruits a variant of Wolverine to save his universe from extinction. So there is a lot going on in this film. What is the Time Variance Authority? It is an organization that's located outside of space and time and was created by a character whose name is, and this is true, he who remains to ensure the preservation of the quote unquote "sacred timeline" which I presume to mean the timeline that's probably the most consistent in the multiverse. And he who remains created the TFA to stop evil multiversal variants of himself from coming into being after a multiversal war waged between them led him to destroying the multiverse to stop them by keeping the sacred timeline in check. So, taking that into consideration, Deadpool or Wade Wilson is actually arrested by the TVA authorities for a variant of crimes. It's not specified what crimes Deadpool has committed but judging from the first two films and how Deadpool considers himself to be an anti-hero, you could pretty much figure that out for yourself. And this movie also takes place after the events of Logan, which I don't really think narratively was the right move. There's just a cheap gag in the very beginning where Deadpool is digging up the remains of, oh, I'm actually giving away a bit of a spoiler from the film Logan and of course my show, if I can help it, is no spoilers. But anyway, let me just say that there is a cheap gag involving the ending to the film Logan, which otherwise would render Wolverine probably dubiously existent in this film. But Deadpool finds Wolverine in a variant of multiverses. And I think probably the first two or three multiverses that Deadpool visits are kind of clever, particularly where he visits a multiverse where Wolverine is short and Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds kind of ruins it by saying, oh, this is more accurate to the comic. Just like, shut up and just go to the next multiverse please. But in any event, when Deadpool finds Wolverine, he is an alcoholic and he drinks a lot and doesn't get drunk. Of course, as you might expect from the Bryan Singer directed X-Men films, Wolverine also considers himself an anti-hero. And honestly, I was kind of phased by the first Deadpool film. I didn't really, I gave it my rating of a checkout, but it was a low checkout because I got really tired of Ryan Reynolds' quips and he seemed less like a naturally talented comedic actor and more like the class clown who made one funny joke at the beginning of the class, but then he makes ten other jokes that fall flat, nobody laughs, but he continues to make jokes anyway, even though they're not funny. That, in a comedy, is Ryan Reynolds to me when he is unhinged and when directors like Sean Levy, who directed Deadpool and Wolverine, give him free reign to just improvise. And Ryan Reynolds is honestly not good at improvisation. Maybe he's laughing all the way to the bank because of how much the Deadpool films have made fair enough, but to me, and undoubtedly to some other people, Deadpool's stick gets really old. Plus, when you combine Deadpool and Wolverine, you know that Deadpool is going to riff a lot and make pop culture references and Logan, or Wolverine, as portrayed by Hugh Jackman, is going to tell him to shut up, and that happens about five or six times in this film. In addition to that, there are also some other cameos by the likes of Jennifer Garner and Wesley Snipes, who play Elektra and Blade, respectively, not only other Marvel Comics characters, but Marvel Comics characters who were previously portrayed by these actors in other films, and their cameo here is short-lived, and they don't contribute very much to the story. However, Channing Tatum plays a character by the name of Gambit, who seems like an unlikely hero, because a superpower is throwing cards at people. But to Channing Tatum's credit, he makes this character look very cool. The problem with this movie is that he's not in the movie for very long, and it also doesn't occur to either Deadpool or Wolverine to take him with them to the main timeline of the multiverse. And if I were in their position, I would grab him by the arm, regardless of what kind of card he throws at me, and get him into that other multiverse. The villain of the film, I also thought, was pretty good. Her name is Cassandra Nova, and she has a relation to the X-Men, even though she's not an only person herself. She's played by Emma Corrin, and she has a neat trick where, or rather, her superpower is she's not only able to manipulate people, but the way she is able to read people's thoughts and also control their thoughts is a really good use of CGI. But overall, I think that Deadpool and Wolverine may give some comic book fans due here, but it didn't do a lot for me, mainly because the use of the multiverse had been done before, especially done well in films like Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse. But it was kind of misused in other films like the second Doctor Strange movie, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. But here, there's a trick where they have other Deadpools from other parts of the multiverse who all come together and try to kill Deadpool and Wolverine, and the part is ruined by Ryan Reynolds making a quip about the multiverse getting old, judging from other films. And while I do agree with the idea that the multiverse when misused does get old, particularly in MCU films, I don't want to hear Deadpool by way of Ryan Reynolds say it, because that's almost like the writers of this film saying, "Okay, we have an unoriginal plot here, and we know that, but we're still going to give you the story anyway." And that's not clever, that kind of breaking the fourth wall. So, Deadpool and Wolverine had some parts that were confusing, some parts that were impressive, a few parts that were funny, but overall, it pales in comparison, especially to what I think is the best of the Deadpool movies, which is Deadpool 2. And when you have other cameos by the likes of Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes, Channing Tatum, and there are others that I won't give away, but when you don't have one of the best characters, perhaps the best character in Deadpool 2 coming back, who is Domino, played by Zazie Beats, that was a huge mistake for this movie to make. So, Deadpool and Wolverine gets my rating of A Strike Out. This is a film that has some very impressive special effects, it does have some very well developed characters, but largely, Ryan Reynolds-Stick is getting really, really old to me. He's not very clever, he's not good at improvisation, some of his best jokes make for sitcom chuckles. But overall, he talks way too much, he thinks he's more clever than he actually is, and unfortunately, that brings the movie down a lot. Now, I know there are some die-hard Deadpool fans, I know that Deadpool is a very hot commodity right now, but to me, the character is getting very old, and there were some other more clever ways in which Deadpool and Wolverine could collaborate besides this kind of Aben and Costello, or maybe even a second-rate poor man's Aben and Costello routine, that they have, that could have been better written and better elaborated. Unfortunately, Deadpool and Wolverine squanders that opportunity. [Music] Welcome back to Words on Film, the spoken word show dedicated to moving pictures. I am your host and movie critic Dan Burke. The next movie I'm going to be reviewing for you is Neecap, and this is a film that is a music film, it's not a musical per se, but it is a dark comedy and drama that is loosely based on a real Irish rap group by the name of Neecap, and when I say that they're an Irish rap group, what I mean is that they are actually from Northern Ireland, specifically from West Belfast, which is a city that I would love to visit someday. Now, some people may not know this, but not only do I have Irish heritage, but I'm also a dual citizen of the US and Ireland. I worked about 10 years ago, actually 12 years ago, to make that happen. Now, the Ireland in this film is Northern Ireland, which is largely Protestant, and it's also part of the United Kingdom, unlike the rest of the island of Ireland. There are six counties in Northern Ireland. One of them is Belfast County, which is home to Belfast City, and I could go on about the history of Ireland, but I'm not going to do that. But there are quite a few films that take place in Northern Ireland. Belfast, from a couple of years ago, which was directed by Kenneth Branagh, was one of those films, and that was an amazing film that, in my opinion, should have won best picture at the Oscars the year it was nominated. It didn't, but at least it was nominated and at least got some critical appraisal, which it deserved. But Neatcap is unique in that not only does it take place in present-day Belfast, Northern Ireland, where a lot of movies, particularly those that make it to the United States, don't, but the movie is also largely in the Irish language, which is probably better known, particularly to this part of the world as Gaelic. But it's really amazing to see some of these young people who are Millennials or Gen Z, who actually use the Gaelic language regularly. And they actually use it so much in this film. It made me want to study the language of Gaelic. I'm not sure how well I would do, but I think learning any kind of language is a process that takes quite a while, unless you have a certain sort of mindset that I don't have. But Neatcap is somewhat based on a true story. I think there are some parts here that are fictionalized, but the members of the group Neatcap actually play themselves. There are the two rappers and the DJ, so they're like an Irish version of Run DMC. There is one of the rappers by the name of Leon Og O'Hannide, who is better known as Mochara. There's Nisha O'Kalaran, better known as Moglibop. And if you ask me what Mochara and Moglibop means, I wouldn't be able to tell you. But there's also a DJ whose name is JJ O'Doshartai, who's also known as DJ Provie. Now, would I know what Provie means? Heh, not a clue. But the movie details their life in Northern Ireland, in the city of Belfast, how they're into a lot of hip-hop and EDM, and they also create a niche in the local hip-hop scene as one of the few rap groups that actually raps in Gaelic. I don't know if they were the first, but they definitely were one of the groups that popularized Gaelic rap. And when fate brings Belfast teacher JJ into the orbit of these self-confessed low-life scum, Nisha and Liam Og, the needle drops on a hip-hop act like no other. Wrapping in their native Irish, they lead a movement that leads to saving their mother tongue. And if there's any way to save their mother tongue, it would probably be creating a mainstream group where they make great music and also use their own language. And there are a lot of great scenes in this film, not just when they're on stage performing their music, but also when they are living their own life in Belfast. And particularly, there is one of the biggest actors in this film is Michael Fassbender, who unbeknownst to me, is actually Irish. He plays Nisha's father, Arlo, who is running from the British government and is presumed by the British government to be dead, but he actually isn't. And that's not a spoiler, this movie makes perfectly clear that Michael Fassbender's character faked his own death. And the movie deals very well with his relationship to his family when he is on the run and they know he's alive, in addition to what kind of cause for which he is fighting, as he was previously a member of the Irish Republican army. So there are a lot of politics that are going on behind the scenes in this film, and it also deals with the native Irish relation with the government of the royal crown, which is particularly contentious. And that's part of the driving force behind the rap group kneecap. And I was very impressed by this film. I thought that Moglai Bop, Mochara, and DJ Provi also played themselves as well as Eminem did in 8 Mile, and not so much like Vanilla Ice did in the movie Cool as Ice. These are people who are probably better known for their music and granted, it probably is easier to play yourself than it is to play another character, but I was impressed by the acting of this group, not to mention their chemistry, which probably comes from their performing their music as they have for the last couple of years. And I was also taken aback by the direction by Rich Papayat, who also co-wrote this film with Moglai Bop and Mochara. And the film is very well acted, and also I thought that the subtitles were also tied into this film with a lot of style, because there is a lot of Irish or Gaelic that's spoken in this film, and it's put out there at a rapid pace. Sometimes even the subtitles can't seem to keep up with Moglai Bop and Mochara, but that's okay because you kind of get the gist of what they're saying in some of these brief scenes that don't have subtitles, but the styling of the subtitles, almost like they're written in some sort of journal, as Moglai Bop and Mochara are writing their songs, is also stylized very well in English for the people who don't speak Irish. And that's one of the things I really liked about the film, it brought you into what modern-day Belfast is like, and it also shows that the fighting between the Irish Republican Army and the British government has largely ceased, but there is some contention in Belfast that still kind of resonates to this day, even with the two main rappers in this film who weren't even alive during the conflict in Ireland and Northern Ireland. So, kneecap is a film that is a very pleasant surprise, it has some great music, some great acting, and it tells a really good story, which is why I give kneecap my rating of a knockout. I might have some bias because this is an Irish film, but I don't entirely care. This is a film that even if you are not Irish or you have a very small percentage of Irish in your background, this film might make you not only want to be Irish, but also even want to learn Irish. And I certainly want to learn that language for myself, thanks at large part to this film. [Music] Welcome back to Words on Film, the spoken word showed dedicated to moving pictures. I am your host and movie critic Dan Burke. The next movie I'm going to be reviewing for you is Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, and yes, that is the entire title of this film. It was first released in the Venice International Film Festival on September 3rd, 2023, and was released in its native Canada on October 13th. However, it didn't reach the United States until a couple of weeks ago, and I was fortunate to have seen this film. It is indeed a Canadian film, and it was filmed in Quebec, and also it is almost entirely in French. The movie is about a young woman vampire who is unable to kill to meet her need for blood, but may have found a solution in a young man with suicidal tendencies. So this film has some elements of some other modern vampire stories that we've seen before. The idea of a vampire who doesn't want to kill human beings but still gets her, or his, a source of blood from other places like blood banks has been covered before by Anne Rice, particularly in the beginning of the movie Interview with the Vampire, or the book upon which Interview with the Vampire was based. But here you have something a little different in that the character Sasha, who's played by Sarah Montpetite, is not only moral, but she's also a bit squeamish when it comes to killing other humans for blood. And for those who know the mythos of the vampires, vampires could do one of two things to their victims. They can either kill them and take all their blood, or just suck the blood out of them and make them a vampire as well. But it all depends, at least in this film, of timing. So Sasha's sister is Denise, and she's played by Naomi O'Farrell, and she is the most probably well-adjusted vampire of her family. The rest of Sasha's family, including her parents, are just fine with sacrificing human beings if it means that they can live. But Sasha is not so much, and she's a little bit less like a vampire and more like a human being when she is witnessing her family actually killing a clown that they hired for her birthday right in front of her. Now, for other vampires that wouldn't be such a big deal, but for Sasha, she's horrified by it. On the flip side, she does still need blood to live, and she kind of takes pouches of blood that you'd probably find at hospitals or at the Red Cross and sucks them like she is drinking Capri's son, for example. But she meets a lonely teenage boy by the name of Paul, who's played by Felix Antoine Bernard, who not only is very unpopular in school, but he also has suicidal tendencies. And for any other vampire, seeing a human being with suicidal tendencies is probably gold. But then again, if vampires really existed, and if their mythos is actually accurate to what you see in TV and movies, there probably wouldn't be very many suicidal people in this world because the vampires would be pretty much all set. But in the context of this cinematic universe and this world in which the squeamish vampire Sasha lives, well, it's not quite that simple. But I still like the dynamic between Paul and Sasha, and at first Paul naturally doesn't know that Sasha is a vampire, and he also doesn't know what Sasha could do to him in order for her to survive. So the movie takes a little bit less of a supernatural approach and more of one of those first awkward teenage love moments. And this movie did this a lot better I think than the Twilight stories did, making the teenage experience of first love about as awkward and probably more analogous in this film and the scenes within it. And the movie title is long, it's called Humanist Vampire Seeking Concenting Suicidal Person, but it gets right to the heart of what this movie actually is and what the story is. But the heart of the film is most certainly the love story or the sort of semblance of a love story that happens between Sasha and her maybe would be victim Paul, which is why I enjoyed this film very much. I love the atmosphere of it as it takes place, as you might expect with vampire films mostly at night, but I also really liked some of the dark comedy that happens in this film. In fact, the first scene where Sasha is a little younger, she looks like a six year old, but knowing vampires like we do, she's probably much older than that, and how she has a birthday party where her family hires a clown only to consume the clown is hilarious. You don't see very much in terms of bloodshed, it's largely implied off screen, but it's still very funny, especially when you see how particularly untalented this clown is. It certainly set the movie on the right kind of mood in terms of its atmospheres as well as where it was willing to go in a comedic sense, which is why humanist vampire seeking consenting suicidal person gets my rating of a knockout. I loved just about everything about this film. Despite the fact that it takes place at night most of the time and seems to have a pacing similar to Jim Jarmish movies, I actually thought this movie was better paced than a certain vampire movie that was directed by Jim Jarmish that starred Tilda Swinton. And I remember probably this movie, Humanist vampire seeking consenting suicidal person, a lot better than Jim Jarmish's movie. That's not a slam on Jim Jarmish because Jim Jarmish has his way of directing films, and sometimes it works like in some of the films he did in the 80s and 90s, but then his last film, which was 2019's The Dead Don't Die, didn't work particularly with that pacing at all. But the director of this film, Arian Luis Cés, as well as the writers of the film, Luis Cés and her writing partner Christine Doyan had this movie in the right kind of pacing, as well as the right kind of black comedy, and I thoroughly enjoyed this film. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Welcome back to Words on Film, the spoken word show dedicated to moving pictures. I am your host and movie critic Dan Burke, and now that I've reviewed all the movies that I have to review for this show, it's now time for me to get into my final segment, or at least the first part of my final segment, which is What's Coming Up Next. This is a spoken word preview of movies that are subject to being released in theaters for the weekend of August 9th through August 11th, 2024. And if I have time, and it's likely that I will, I'll also go through some of the movies that are subject to being released on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, or whatever I have time for later on in this show, and also this segment. So I've got a lot to cover here, and I'm going to start with the movies that are subject to being released in theaters for this coming weekend, August 9th. So on Friday August 9th, probably the biggest film that's going to be released in theaters this weekend is a movie that's called Borderlands. And this is a PG-13 rated action comedy that's actually based on a best-selling video game, which may or may not be a selling point for this film, but it has a terrific cast in its roster, in addition to being directed by Eli Roth, who's probably better known for his horror films, but he's also directed some pretty decent fantasy comedies over the last couple of years. The house with a clock in its walls was probably one of his better films, but this film Borderlands, which is based on a video game that I've never played, follows a ragtag team of misfits on a mission to save a missing girl who holds the key to unimaginable power. Who this girl is, I don't exactly know off the top of my head, but the cast of the film includes Kate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramirez, and Jamie Lee Curtis, and it also features a vocal appearance by Jack Black. So you have a terrific cast right here who's headlining this film, and there are some other actors in this film that I could cover, but I won't exactly give away, but the movie looks definitely subversive and also raw and clever. So, I don't know how this film is going to be, it looks very promising and also directed by Eli Roth, who is very much like his contemporaries Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, a very subversive and also very talented director. I don't know how this movie is going to be, but I will see it and I will let you know what I think on a future show, presumably next week's show. Another film that is subject being released in theaters on August 9th is a movie that's called It Ends With Us, and this is largely a movie that is very different in tone from Borderlands. This is a movie that's based on a book written by Colleen Hoover and it stars Blake Lively, who plays a woman by the name of Lily who overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. And a chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection, but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parent's relationship. Ew. Oh boy. So Blake Lively has largely been in some of these romantic dramas, some of them have been laughably bad, like The Age of Adeline for example, but Blake Lively has actually impressed me in some of the other films in which she has acted. For example, in the town she played a native of Boston, even though she's a native of Los Angeles, and she played the role incredibly well. Another film in which she acted with Anna Kendrick that was called A Simple Favor in which not only was that movie an excellent mystery and Anna Kendrick as usual was good in it, but I also really liked Blake Lively in it as well. And I expected to see the film and not like Blake Lively, but to Blake Lively's credit she impressed me. So I can't exactly say if this movie is going to live up to the standards of a simple favor, but it is a movie that I will see and I'll let you know what I think on a future show. The movie that is subject to be released in theaters on August 9 is a movie that's called Cuckoo, spelled C-U-C-K-O-O. And it's a movie about a 17 year old girl who is forced to move with her family to a resort where things are not what they seem. And the movie stars such actors as Hunter Shafer, Jan Bluthart, and Martin Socus, who I don't know. But this is an independent film that is being released in the theaters by Neon, who very much like A24 has released some very noteworthy, if not flat out excellent films to theaters, that are probably the antithesis of the common complaint that movies are A) unoriginal and B) based on comic books right now, but the movie is directed by and written by Tillman Singer, and it sounds kinda like a standard horror film, but I'm only to give this movie a chance, and I'll let you know what I think on a future show. Another film that is subject to being released in theaters on August 9 is a foreign film that is called Twilight of the Warriors, Walled In, which, judging from its colonnaded title, Walled In, sounds like it would be a sequel, but I don't exactly know if it is. What I can tell you is that it follows troubled youth, Chan Lock Kwan, as he accidentally enters the Walled City, whatever that is, discovers the order amidst its chaos, and learns important life lessons along the way. So this movie, according to IMDB, is a martial arts action crime thriller. That's not normally the combined genres that has its protagonists learn important life lessons along the way. That sounds a little bit more like a family film, and this movie is certainly not a family film, not only from the clips that I can see, but also judging by the fact that the movie is rated R. But it's a movie that it looks like I will might see, I can't guarantee that I will, it looks like it is a South Korean film, and it is also based on a graphic novel. The director of the film is Soy Chang, and it stars Louis Ku, Samo Kambo Hung, and Richie Jen, no actors that I know there, but if I see this film, I'll let you know what I think on a future show. Another movie that is subject to being released in theaters on August 9th, and this is probably a bit more dubious, is a movie that's called Girl You Know It's True, and this is a film that's based on the life and very flash-in-the-pan career of Millie Vanilly. It's about dancers, Rob Pilatus and Fabriz Morvin, who rise to fame the late 1980s and become stars with number one hits and won their only Grammy for Best New Artist. And the duo never sang a word in their songs, at least not before they were outed as lip sinkers, and the truth was revealed, they stare, this is poorly written. They starred as one of the biggest scandals in movie history, there was a typo there, and I very much screwed that up, but the director and writer of this film is Simon Verhoeven, and the parts of Millie Vanilly are played by Tijon Nij, who plays Rob Pilatus, and Elan Ben Ali, who plays Fabriz Morvin. So we've had some biopics this year, some musical biopics, of two great artists, Bob Marley and Amy Winehouse, and those are artists that had a prolific career where they didn't lip sink, and they died young, but the movies were largely okay. I personally didn't think they were that great, and I don't think very many other people did either, but you might have actually a better film with the story of Millie Vanilly, because there are some things about Millie Van Manilly that not a lot of people know. For example, after it was broken that they had lip synced their debut album, and they gave their Grammys back, they actually released another album after that where they actually sung, but they released that album to a very struggling record company, and only 3,000 copies of the album sold. But I actually heard songs from that new album, or their newer album, which came out around 1992 or 1993, and they went on the Arsenio Hall show to promote it. It sounds really good, and I'd love to get my hands on that album, and unfortunately, particularly Rob Pilatus struggled with life post fame after they became music industry pariahs. And Rob Pilatus actually died of a drug overdose in 1998. Sadly, Fabriz Morvin is still around, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was a consultant on this film, but I don't know whether or not this film is going to be released in theaters, but if it is, I'll see it and I'll let you know what I think on a future show. [music] Welcome back to Words on Film, the spoken word show dedicated to moving pictures. I am your host and movie critic Dan Burke, and now that I've gone through the movies that are subject to be released in theaters on August 9th, it's now time for my second segment, or my second part of the segment, what's coming up next, where I reveal to you movies that are subject to be released on streaming for the week of August 5th through August 9th, 2024. And there are many films that are going to be released on streaming for this week, and there are some films that are originals to their respective platforms, and there are others that are films that I may or may not recommend. And there's one film that is actually going to be released on Netflix on Tuesday, August 6th, it's not a Netflix original, but it was interestingly enough first released on HBO Max in August of 2021. It was also released in the theaters, but it was at a time where not a lot of people were going to theaters, including myself because we were still waiting to be double vaccinated, which we ultimately were. I was a little reluctant to go to the theater, plus I had a subscription to what's now known as Max, but what was previously known as HBO Max at the time, so I stayed home and watched this film. The film was called Reminiscence, and it stars Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, and Tandu Newton. And Hugh Jackman plays Nick Banister, who is a private investigator of the mind, who navigates the alluring world of the past when his life is changed by New Client May, and a simple case becomes an obsession after she disappears, and he fights to learn the truth about her. This is a really good psychological thriller and action film, not to mention a mystery. And I also liked probably one of the other parts of this film that's sort of a subplot where the movie takes place in the not too distant future, and there's water on the streets, and people really don't take very much notice of it. I think that probably results in people in this cinematic universe who are just completely used to climate change, which is abhorrent in one sense, but also telling in the other sense. Reminiscence is a film that I enjoyed, I believe when I first reviewed it, I gave it my rating of a knockout, but I'm not going to review it for you now because I already reviewed this film three years ago. On Wednesday, August 7th on Netflix, there is another film that is an original, and it's called "Low Low and the Kid", and this is a film that will be making its premiere on Netflix. So this is a brand new film, and it is about a hustler and the child he took in who routinely conned the wealthy, but a life-changing opportunity could end their inseparable bond, which kind of sounds in plot to the movie Paper Moon, which was the Academy Award winning film that came out in 1974. I don't know if this is a remake of the film, but the plot sounds similar. It is directed by and written by Benedict Meek, and it stars Yuen Mikhail, excuse me, Yuen Mikhail Aleita, Niko Antonio, and Yom Bascon. None of these actors I know, and I presume that this film is from Spain, based on the names of the actors of the film, but I don't know if this is a film that I will see, but if I do, I'll let you know what I think on a future show. There is another film that is not a Netflix original that's going to be appearing on the platform on Thursday, August 8th, and that film is Drummeral Please, the Emoji Movie, and I am amazed that the Emoji Movie is showing its face on Netflix, or any streaming platform for that matter, because the Emoji Movie is largely a terrible film. It has some relatively impressive animation, but largely it is a rip off of Inside Out, Wreck It Ralph, and some other movies that are out there as well, some animated movies. So if you want to see the Emoji Movie, even for kicks and giggles, it's appearing on Netflix on Thursday, August 8th, but from my professional opinion, I'd say skip it. On Friday, August 9th, there are three movies that are going to be appearing on Netflix, and all of them are originals. The first one is a documentary which is called Inside the Mind of a Dog, and I, judging from the title of the movie, I would presume that it is a movie that is from a dog's eye view. Interestingly enough, the movie invites you to embark, maybe pun intended, I don't know, on a delightful journey into the world of dogs in this documentary that reveals the scientific and emotional insights about our lovable BFFs. The movie is, of course, a documentary, so it doesn't exactly star anyone, but the narrator of the film is Rob Lowe, who has a good narration voice, so it looks like it could at least be a cute movie. I don't exactly know if it's going to be a film that I'm going to see, but I'll put it on my list and I will let you know what I think on a future show if I do, in fact, see it. Another movie that is subject to being released on Netflix on Friday, August 9th, is a movie that's called Mission Cross, and this is definitely a foreign film, presumably a South Korean film, and it's an action film that's also a comedy that has an agent turned house husband, who, in the ultimate test of marriage, gets tangled in a perilous mission with his detective wife, who's clueless about his past. So it kind of sounds like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but I'd be willing to give this movie a chance anyway. As I said, it's written and directed by Lee Myung-Hoon and stars Jolene Kim, Wang Jung-min, and Kim Juhan. So, not actors that I know, at least not off the top of my head, but it looks like it would be at least a fun film, so maybe, just maybe I'll see it, but if I do, I'll let you know what I think on a future show. Another movie that is also going to be premiering on Netflix as a Netflix original is a movie that's called Fear Aiyi Hasen Dilruba. I already struggled enough with naming the title of that film, so I'm probably not going to research what the movie actually is about, but actually, I'm looking it up right now, it was quicker on my database to bring up than I thought it would be. It is definitely an Indian film. Is it a Bollywood film? I can't exactly say, because I can't assume that every film that comes out of India is Bollywood, because that's not necessarily true. But, this is a movie about a couple by the name of Rani and Rishu, who, while evading the cops in Agra, scheme to run away together, but when their plans go awry, Rani asks a mild man or admirer for help. I presume an admirer of the woman in the situation, I don't exactly know. The movie is directed by Jay Prad Desai and stars, Topsy Panu, Vikrot Masi, and Sunny Kushal. So, I don't see a ton of Indian films, let alone Bollywood films, so this is a film that I will likely skip, largely because there are so many films that come out of India that is really hard to keep track of them. So, I won't exactly go into that, but, in any event, it's a film I might see, but no guarantees. There are films that are higher on my priority list, especially films that are being released into theaters. So, as I've said before, I don't have a subscription to Apple TV Plus, but what's notable here is that there is a movie that is premiering on Apple TV Plus as an Apple original. And this movie is called The Instigators, and sometimes, sometimes, movies that are released on Apple TV Plus are also released into theaters. And this movie, especially given the really impressive roster of talent, who's in the films, who's in this film, might be one of those films I could see in theaters, it's definitely going to be released to streaming on Apple TV Plus first. But the movie is actually co-written by Casey Affleck, and Casey Affleck stars in this film along with Matt Damon. Interesting. And the movie follows two robbers who must go on the run with the help of one of their therapists after a theft doesn't go as planned. The movie is directed by Doug Lyman, and in addition to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's more talented actor brother Casey Affleck, Hong Chao also co-stars in this film as the therapist who goes on the run with these two. And this is actually not the first film in which Matt Damon and Hong Chao have acted together. They also acted together in the movie downsizing. And that film had an interesting premise, and I thought Matt Damon and Hong Chao did what they could with their, with what was given to them, but that film wasn't all that great. But the instigators looks a bit more promising, especially considering one of the other stars of this film is Alfred Molina. And Alfred Molina is one of those actors who chooses his projects very well. And even when he's in a bad movie, very much like Alan Cumming or Guy Pierce and a handful of other actors, he's usually one of the best things, if not the best thing, about the movie. So I'd be interested in seeing the instigators, but this is low on my list because I do not have a subscription to Apple TV Plus. But if it's in theaters, I'll check it out and I'll let you know what I think on a future show. So moving on to Disney Plus just briefly, it doesn't look like any movies are going to be premiering on the platform, at least not this week. There's a series that's called Are You Sure? Grown-ish Season 6 is going to be appearing on the platform on Wednesday, August 7th. And that actually excites me because I do like the show Grown-ish, and I haven't seen the last two seasons of it, so I'd be interested in seeing that. On Hulu for the week of August 5th through August 9th, I'm going through here and I'm trying to see if there are any movies that are going to be premiering on the platform. And it turns out, even though there are some series that are going to be premiering on the platform on Wednesday, August 7th, there are no original Hulu movies, unfortunately. There are a couple of films, though. There's Food Inc. 2, and I haven't seen Food Inc. 1 because I kind of want to live in blissful ignorance about what I eat. I don't want to be entirely disgusted. But I do remember Food Inc. 2 came out in my local theater, but I have a role with sequels in that if I see a sequel, I have to see the original first. There are some exceptions, but that movie will be premiering on Hulu on Thursday, August 8th. And the only movie that's going to be appearing on Friday, August 9th is a movie that's called "Chief of Station." But that movie is not categorized according to my database as a Hulu original, but I'd be interested in seeing it and maybe reviewing it for a future show if it's brand new. That just about does it for this episode of Words on Film. Words on Film is the spoken word show dedicated to moving pictures, and I am your host and movie critic Dan Burke, reminding you that the views and opinions expressed on words on film about movies or other topics are solely those of your host and movie critic Dan Burke. They not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of any employees or volunteers who are working at WBCA or the station as a whole. Until I watch a whole bunch of brand new movies, this is Dan Burke saying I'll see you at the movies. [music] [BLANK_AUDIO]