The Holdovers (2023)

The Holdovers (2023)

 8/10

 

Starring

Paul Giamatti

Da'Vine Joy Randolph

Dominic Sessa

 

Directed by Alexander Payne

 

No pandering can be found in the plot, just a little slice of life glazed with the needed comedic tonic so that it goes down well when you sit through the amazing masterpiece of this comedic drama, The Holdovers. I enjoyed how the acting in this movie is so well done by the actors, that it draws you into their lives, and you wish you could reach into the screen and hug them.

The story is well written to make you feel you got the plot figured out as the movie develops, then it takes a turn. A helicopter arrives, and we are left with the three leads. The plot pulls you into the story of three different people, but then balances the plot to make sure you get enough fun and drama from their stories and their struggles. It did not wave Hollywood magic wand in the end where everyone gets the ending, we all wish. It ends and lets you decide how you think it is going to play out for each of the characters.

This movie’s key power is not just the story, but the acting is also magnificent, and Paul Giamatti is having the best time of his life being an actor, doing all the movies he wants and how he wants.

Set in the 70s, the movie is about the life of three people woven together in a private boarding school. Giamatti’s character Paul was a strict teacher and not liked by the students or teachers in the school. During the Christmas break, he was left to care for five students whose parents could not accommodate them during the holidays. With him to care for these students was Mary, the cafeteria manager, and a bereaved mother, whom Paul was fond of.

The three characters whose lives were wound up together were Paul, Mary, and Tully. Tully was told to stay back in school, because his mother wanted to go on honeymoon with her second husband.

Together the three found a way to bond over their differences, their different challenges, and unfortunate situations as they spent the Christmas and New Year break together.

The movie got five nominations in the 96^th Academy Awards, and it was listed in the top ten movies of the year 2023 by the American Film Institute. You will enjoy this movie very much, and it will not give you the sense that you can guess how it will end from the way it starts. At the very end, after all the bonding, you can put two and two together what the characters will now do and what not, but the joy in the ride to getting to this point is worth the journey of seeing this movie.

The Fall Guy (2024)

The Fall Guy (2024)

 

7/10

Starring

Ryan Gosling

Emily Blunt

Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Hannah Waddingham

 

Directed by David Leitch

 

It has been a while since I saw a movie that had nothing to do with anything political or anything pop-culture or trying to stay woke. This movie is just pure action/comedy with the exact dose of romance to make sure the movie is not an all-out macho show. If you are looking for something to make sense of, or to find a single ounce of realism in this movie, then I am sorry you are sitting in the wrong cinema sit. This movie was made for enjoyment and enjoyment only. From nowhere the main character can fight, he can withstand some injury and the effect of drugs to make sure the plans of the “bad guys” fall apart.

The movie boasts of amazing explosions, stunts, scenery and acting that will make you feel like you are back in the 90s watching the action movies of those days.

The movie plot is about Colt (Ryan Gosling) who is a stuntman and has made a name for himself behind the scenes as a good stunt actor, working behind Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a very rich and famous actor. The movie he is currently working on with his camerawoman girlfriend (Jody played by Emily Blunt) had an accident which led to Colt getting severely injured.

He fell into a dark hole and abandoned the stunt world and Jody, for eighteen months.

While now working as a valet, he gets a call that Jody has gotten a big break, and she is directing her first film and has asked for him to be in it. He hadn’t spoken to Jody since the accident eighteen months ago, and the idea that she wanted to work with him made him take the job.

He gets to set and discovers that Jody is not aware that he is on set, neither did she ask for him, the Producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham), who called him, had lied to him to get him to come to the movie production set. She lets him know that the lead actor Tom has gone missing and without him, Jody will not be able to finish the film. She convinces Colt that he has known and worked with Tom for a long time, so he has a better chance of finding Tom than anyone. Also, it is in the best interest of Jody to keep this under wraps so that the studio does not know and shutdown the movie production.

Colt agreed to help, so that Jody does not lose her big break. Helping to find Tom drags Colt into a big dark hole which ended up getting him involved in a murder he did not know about and has him on the run.

Amazing movie, and it is sad that the movie did not stay long in the theatres for many to go and see, but it is now available to stream.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

 

7/10

Starring

Henry Cavill

Eiza González

Alan Ritchson

Alex Pettyfer

Hero Fiennes Tiffin

Babs Olusanmokun

Henry Golding

Cary Elwes

 

Directed by Guy Ritchie

 

I for one, I am happy and fortunate to not have lived through the second world war. The tragedy and unbelievable things that happened during the war are things that make up many of the movies and film character heroes we see on the screen today.

Even though war and fighting still go on today with even more unspeakable things being done, it is still a fortune that I have not directly witnessed those also (only from TV and the internet), and sad that such things still go on.

This film tells the tale of Gus March-Phillipps and his team, who were sent on a mission which part in helping Europe defeat Hitler. It is based off Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII.

The way Guy Ritchie crafted this film is what makes me love it. There is an intensity which comes from the team trying to achieve something that seems impossible, and the fear of what will happen to anyone of them. I made it a key to distance myself from the story, so I can be entertained by not knowing what could happen, or which character is real and which were made up and it was worth it in the end. The film’s well-crafted dialogue made it easy to follow what was going on. Visually entertaining is also how they used the scenes, to tell many other stories and character development, as the dialogues went along.

The plot is about how the British intelligence were able to get the Americans to join them during World War II. The German U-boat was keeping the Americans from being able to get to Europe, so the British came up with a plan to sink the U-boats so that the Americans can sail to their aid. The U-boats are being supplied their resources from a region which is neutral to the war, so the British cannot go there and bomb the whole region. To stop the U-boats from operating normally, they decided to send a team to go and blow up the U-boat supply ship, thereby rendering the U-boat useless. The team was led by Gus March-Phillipps, and since they were going to perform this act on a neutral soil, they cannot be linked with the British government, they are on their own. We get to see them come up with plans and see some of these plans fail and having to come up with alternate plans to be able to achieve their task. The political game also in play during this, is also shown, and we see that many things, even the success of the war hung on this team getting their job done.

With a moderate budget it is odd that this film is not racking in millions in the box office, I know the film will end up on the streaming services soon, and I encourage you to go watch it, it is worth seeing.

It is easy for me to say, that Winston Churchill must have been very busy during this war, because there were many other things he had to oversee from the many movies and books we have seen or read about the war. Also, the Germans from all the movies and books we have seen about World War II, must have been technologically advanced and well grounded to win this war, if not for the many actions (including this one) around the world to stop them.