Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga

I really enjoy Eurovision, I haven’t watched it in a few years mainly because I think it’s boring to watch by yourself. I thought the idea of a Eurovision film was quite a good idea because it’s got such a wide cultural reach that it would be cool to see all of it on screen. I’ll be honest when I saw Will Ferrell was involved I was worried because he was not on a good run. I’ve seen Daddy’s Home 2, I didn’t watch it and think “This guy is going to handle a film about Eurovision well”. I was pleasantly surprised.

The Story of Fire Saga is a surprisingly heartfelt film about a band called Fire Saga that consists of two Icelandic singers, Lars. played by Will Ferrell, and Sigrit, played by Rachel McAdams. Lars has one dream and that is to win the Eurovision Song Contest. Sigrit loves singing with Lars and wants to help him to fulfil his dream but she also loves him and he does seem to feel the same way or more, he’s too focused on winning Eurovision.

Pierce Brosnan is in this film as the father of Lars, who is worried that he will embarrass him. He sleeps to have fathered a lot of children in the town, which is what you’d expect from James Bond. Dan Stevens is also bringing the sexy to this film as Alexander Lemtov, who is the representative for Russia. He tries to tear the Icelandic duo apart with charisma but he doubts the power of love and music!

In a film about music, you’d expect the songs to be top-notch and this film is full of bangers. When I first heard Volcano Man, I had high hopes for the songs in this film and they didn’t disappoint. Double Trouble, which is their official entry for Iceland at Eurovision, is great and feels so Eurovision. Husavik, a song written by Sigrit about her hometown, is beautiful and it nearly made cry! I nearly cried during a Will Ferrell comedy!

I think this benefits from the fact that it feels sincere. It doesn’t look down on Eurovision and actively celebrates it in the same way as the main characters. There is a moment half-way through the film where they are at a party with loads of other Eurovision acts and they just break out in song. There are loads of cameos throughout the songs from past Eurovision acts and I just loved it so much. They even have Graham Norton show up and by his snarky self.

The only thing that got me was the fact that the Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Edinburgh which would imply that the UK had won the contest the previous year. This is unbelievable. You expect me to believe that the UK had an act that was good enough to win Eurovision. Good one. It’s not some bullshit conspiracy theory like people want you to believe. We compete against 26 countries with a wide range of music and just send the same type of singer every year and are shocked when they don’t get many points. The UK just loves to think it’s great and it can’t accept that we’re just not very good at things unless it’s bad things like a terrible response to a pandemic, we’re very good at that.

This is a fun film. You should watch it.

July Things I Am Excited For

The cinemas in the UK are going to be reopening but I am pretty reluctant to go to one of them. I would be more tempted to go to a film at a drive-in but it seems like the UK isn’t getting in this trend or at least not in my area. Mulan is going to the first new big film to go to cinemas, I had that in my March list so I won’t put it in this list. Due to my reluctance to go to a cinema, this list will still be mainly Netflix stuff but enjoy it anyway!

Cursed

I have been looking for a new fantasy show to watch ever since I finished The Witcher. It looks as though Netflix will be provided me with a potential replacement. I don’t know much about this show apart from that it stars Katherine Langford from 13 Reasons Why and that it is based on the Arthurian legends. That is enough information for me to be interested in this show but knowing me, it’ll probably be months before I start it.

Japan Sinks: 2020

I love me some anime! There is so much anime I want to watch on Netflix like Food Wars, Beastars and A Whisker Away. I will probably take ages to watch any of those and while I’m not watching those, Netflix continues to add more interesting anime including Japan Sinks:2020. This looks like a Roland Emmerich but with more heart. I imagine this is going to be a tough watch.

The Umbrella Academy

I loved the first season of The Umbrella Academy. My partner and I watched it together but we didn’t watch the final episode because my partner doesn’t like to be left with a cliffhanger so we just stopped watching once we found out that it didn’t end with the loose ends tied. I am excited to watch the second season until at least the second last episode where we’ll probably stop again because I bet they end on a cliffhanger again.

The Old Guard

There are no superhero films coming out from Marvel or DC anytime soon but there is a superhero film coming from Netflix. It is based on a comic book of the same name. It is directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and stars Charlize Theron and Chiwetel Ejiofor. All that sounds good to me and the trailer looked alright. I’m sure it’ll be a good superhero film to keep superhero fans hyped for Black Widow and Wonder Woman 1984.

Greyhound

Greyhound was originally meant to be shown in cinemas on June 12th but it is now heading to Apple TV+ on July 10th. Apple TV+ did have much that interested me apart from Defending Jacob but this film might be the thing to get me to use Apple TV+. It stars Tom Hanks and it is written by Tom Hanks so it will be interesting to see how his writing is. I feel like this is the kind of film that would’ve benefitted from the cinema experience.

Tenet

It feels like this film has been talked about a lot lately as the film that will bring people back to the cinemas. It was going to be released on July 17th but it got pushed back to July 31st so they must’ve had some doubts that people would return to cinemas. I am very excited about this film as I am for every Christopher Nolan but we’ll have to see if I feel safe enough to go to the cinema.

 

Hey! I Bought Some Blu-Rays!

I have been trying to watch a wider range of films lately. I tend to gravitate towards big-budget Hollywood films and there’s nothing wrong with that but I want to try and find some films that were outside my comfort zone. I remember Bong Joon Ho’s speech at the Golden Globes where he said “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films” and I will get around to watching Parasite (I’m so sorry Bong Joon Ho) but I decided to look at some other films first and I bought these six films to start with.

Antiporno

Antiporno probably stands out on this list because of the name and the name did make it stand out in the offer. I have wanted to watch some Sion Sono films for a while but I didn’t know where to start and then I saw that a few of his films were in the offer. I watched the trailers for all of them and it may not surprise you but the trailer for Antiporno really stood out. I look forward to finding out what the hell this film is about.

Akira

Akira is probably the only film that I bought that is in my usual film choices because I watch a lot of anime. Well… not a lot of anime compared to anime fans but more than the average person so I’ll say a lot. I have wanted to watch Akira for a while since I always see it being brought up in terms of influences for Western Cinema in the same way that Ghost in the Shell is. I don’t know much about the plot of the film but that is such a rare thing to happen in modern culture where you’re exposed to references and spoilers all the time so please no-one spoil it!

Hana-bi

Antiporno was part of a multi-buy offer so I was looking for another blu-ray to buy with it as part of the offer and I remember hearing good things about Takeshi Kitano. I only really knew him from the live-action Ghost in the Shell so I wasn’t aware that he was a director which shows my lack of knowledge of World Cinema. I think there were four of his films in the offer but I settled on Hana-bi after watching all the trailers.

An Autumn Afternoon

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know about Yasujirō Ozu until I saw a tweet about how you could use the shots from his films as backgrounds on a Zoom call. I look at the shots and thought “those look very nice, I’m going to look into Ozu’s films”. Not exactly the way that a former film student should find out about a famous director but I guess I could’ve gone even longer without knowing about him which would have been worse. Anyway, I decide to pick An Autumn Afternoon out of his films and I’m excited to watch it.

Seven Samurai

Seven Samurai is one of Akira Kurosawa’s most famous films if not the most. It was tough to choose between this and Rashomon but I settled on Seven Samurai since I heard it was an influence on Star Wars and plenty of other Western films. I know it is about samurais and that’s about it. You’ll notice a common thread between these films is that I don’t really know a lot about them.

La Planete Sauvage

I have frequently seen La Planete Sauvage (or Fantastic Planet) called one of the best-animated films of all time so when you see high praise like that then you have to go out and watch it. The art style does look beautiful and seems like something you wouldn’t get anymore now that the 3D style is so big so it will be interesting to watch it and appreciate that style of animation.

 

Little Italy is CINEMA!

When the Little Italy trailer came out, it was widely mocked on social media with many people saying it looked more like a film from the early 00s than a film from 2018 and I was one of those people. I really wanted to watch it at the cinema but I’m pretty sure that it was mocked so much that just dropped it straight on demand to put it out of its misery. I do feel kind of bad for the film and the people who worked on it but also I think one day is film may find its audience in the same way that The Room did and I know that’s the compliment I think it is but I’d say its better than drifting into nothingness like some films do.

I watched it a few months ago and had a great time to the point where a few friends and I decided to watch it again as part of a watch party and it was a hoot! I love romantic comedies so I was also going to love this film in some way but add the casting of Hayden Christensen and Emma Roberts and you’ve got me hooked. The film revolves around two families who used to make pizzas together until one day, they had a fight and break up into two different pizza restaurants. Leo, played by Hayden Christensen, and Nikki, played by Emma Roberts, have to hide their romance for fear of how their families will react.

That’s the only conflict going on! Leo is forward-thinking and wants to make different pizzas to attract hipster customers. He has some out-there ideas like square pizzas! A bloody square pizza?! It’ll be a cold day in hell when Leo’s dad lets him make a square pizza. Leo and Nikki have a date where he makes pizza for her and she suggests putting fig on the pizza because she seems to want to give Leo’s dad a heart attack. He then makes it later and his dad tries it. Luckily, he likes it and it doesn’t affect his “vangina” or angina as it normally called.

When they aren’t fighting over pizza, Leo and Nikki are battling it out on the football pitch in a rivalry that is up there with Messi v Ronaldo. They have a competition in the rain where he takes shot at her in nets and I’m not sure how it works because surely only he can get points from scoring unless she gets points for saving shots, who knows! They bring this rivalry up so much that you’d think this film about football and not pizza. Keep your football out of my pizza films!

This isn’t the only romance going on in the film. Leo’s grandad and Nikki’s grandma are hooked in secret and plan to get married. This romance is given probably as much screen time as Leo and Nikki and it is probably hornier than Leo and Nikki’s romance. Now you may be thinking “If Leo’s grandad and Nikki’s grandma get married, would that not make them cousins?” and the answer is yes but I guess the film forgives it because I guess it’s through marriage and not blood relatives. Does that make sense? I’m confusing myself.

I love this film so much. It’s poop but I love it. I’d much rather watch this than Fantastic Beasts 2 or Sherlock Gnomes or Ready Player One. I guess it helps that this film is pretty short so it doesn’t drag and it keeps you entertained for the short runtime unlike, those other films. I want more Hayden Christensen romcoms! I think he got a harsh treatment for the Star Wars prequels considering that there are people in those films that have gone on to do great things that are just as bad as him in those films.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

I have been watching the new Star Wars films with my dad lately. We have watched The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi so far but before we watched The Rise of Skywalker, I thought it would be good to watch the spin-offs so we decided to watch Rogue One. I was too fussed about Rogue One when I watched it at the cinema, I don’t think I hated it as much as some people but I also didn’t love it. I have some thoughts on it and how watching it made me think about what I want from Star Wars in the future.

Rogue One is a prequel about the rebel mission to get the Death Star plans. This film tries to explain why there was a flaw in the Death Star that they could exploit in the first place and the answer is that the guy who designed it did it on purpose to help the rebels. I didn’t really think we need an explanation for it in the first place since I just assumed that it was there for a reason to do with helping the ship run like how a car has an exhaust pipe that it needs but you could also put something in it to break the car.

I think this is really nice looking Star Wars film and I was in awe at a lot of the shots but also I think that when the establishing shots are more interesting than the characters then that’s probably not a good thing. I know some people said that the characters don’t need to be interesting because they were going to die in the end but I think the opposite, you need to care about them more if anything because you want to feel the weight of their sacrifice.

Some of the characters are interesting like Chirrut Îmwe, played by Donnie Yen. Chirrut isn’t a Jedi but he believes in the Force and that belief helps guide him through life. I think that is an interesting idea to add to the Force. I am a strong believer that Force is something everyone should be able to connect with, not just the Jedis. I also think he was the best relationship in the film with his friend Baze, played by Jiang Wen. When everyone else talks to each other about how they are mates, I don’t buy it but I do with Baze and Chirrut. Baze has a line where he calls Jynn Erso, played by Felicity Hardy, “little sister” and it felt way too soon to be calling someone that.

While watching Rogue One, I thought about what I wanted from Star Wars in the future because I think this film did do some things that I would like to see going forward but it also did some things that I want them to not do. I would like to see more Star Wars films that ignore the Skywalker story because we’ve had 9 films of that so don’t need any more of that. I want them to make very little if any references to the past films and I want them to move forward with their own path. The universe is so big that you tell a completely different story within this universe. You could have Star Wars film that’s part of a different genre like a Star Wars rom-com or Star Wars horror film.

I also think they need to look at hiring more black and female directors so that they can offer a different perspective on this universe. I want them to hire different people from the usual people. I like Jon Favreau but the fact he got to make films for Disney, Marvel and Star Wars is wild. I don’t want them to just get someone who has done Marvel films to do Star Wars films, get some new talent involved and support their vision for the film. I think Star Wars so much potential moving forward now that we’re done with the sequel trilogy, I just hope they hire some interesting people to work on these films so that we can something a bit more interesting.

The Bodyguard

I have been trying to make my way through all the DVDs and Blu-Rays I have. I have done a pretty good job so far but I still have quite a few more to watch. I have enjoyed a lot of the ones I have watched. Go is a pretty fun film by Doug Liman. Ocean’s 13 is a good heist film that’s probably not as good as Ocean’s 11 but still a lot of fun. Mission Impossible III is a great action film that is grounded in the relationships between the characters and the consequences of the job that they do but I don’t want to talk about any of those films. I want to talk about the 1992 film, The Bodyguard.

The Bodyguard was a film that I was interested in watching mainly because it is referenced quite a bit in popular culture so I thought I’d see what all the fuss was about. It turns out this film wasn’t well-received at the time of its release which was a surprise to me but having watched, I can see why. I’m not going to go hard on this film because I don’t hate it but I am going to point at things that maybe aren’t so good.

First of all, I am going to say some nice things. Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner were nominated for Worst Actress and Worst Actor at the Razzies which I think is pretty harsh. I think Whitney Houston is pretty good considering it’s her acting debut and Kevin Costner is alright but I guess this was a pretty successful film so it makes sense to dunk on this film rather than a smaller one with worse acting.

I Will Always Love You is a great song and it gets me every time I listen to it. I also think the scene where it plays at the end is pretty dumb. Some priest is making a speech about God looking over us and protecting us but you can see Kevin Costner in the background as he guards the priest I assume. So Kevin Costner is looking over us like he’s God. That’s pretty heavy-handed by Lawrence Kasdan but he did also give Han the surname Solo because he was alone.

It was also a bold move to set this film in a world where Whitney Houston’s character is up for an Oscar. I don’t think they did it because they think this film deserves an Oscar but I also don’t think they didn’t think it couldn’t get something and it did get two nominations so I guess jokes on me. I was kind of hoping that Kevin Costner’s character would be killed at Oscars but I guess it needs a happy ending so I don’t know why I thought they would kill him.

Kevin Costner, who I am going to start calling Frank since that’s his character’s name, loves drinking orange juice. He can’t get enough of it and the film doesn’t want you to forget that. After Whitney Houston’s character’s sister is killed on Frank’s watch, he decides he is done with just orange juice and he adds some vodka to it! I don’t think this is a bad bit of character building but it would’ve been better if it didn’t feel like it was a big deal every time he had his orange juice.

I’ve listed a lot of things I didn’t like but I’d say I was mixed on this. I don’t hate it but I think it could have been better. I was dipping in and out of interest in the film. It did do a good job of building tension in scenes like in the nightclub and at the Oscars. I did feel worried for the characters in those moments but I don’t think the film around those scenes were so good as to make me care if anything did happen. I’ll say it again – Frank should’ve died at the end. Anyway, thank you for reading and remember I will always love you.

Die Another Day is WILD

I have wanted to watch this film for a while and I got a chance when it was shown on one of the TV channels in my country. The channel is actually doing a James Bond season so don’t be surprised to see more James Bond reviews. Die Another Day is a wild ride and I am going to just tell you everything that is wild about this film so get ready.

Die Another Day is the least Bond sounding Bond song and happens over one of the more serious moments of the film where James Bond is being tortured in a North Korean prison. Imagine that scene where Daniel Craig’s bond gets his balls smacked with a rope but Just Dance by Lady Gaga is playing over the top and that’s the scene.

I thought this film was going to be all like the horrible wind-surfing scene with the terrible effects but there’s some decent looking stuff in this film which makes it weirder that they decided to do that wind-surfing scene. The film does start with a stealth surfing scene so I guess it does set up and pay off James Bond’s talent for surfing.

James Bond films are always horny but this film feels SUPER horny. The scene where Hale Berry’s Jinx is introduced is probably one of the most memorable scenes from this film but the conversation she has with Bond during that scene is really… something. They try to outdo each other with sexual innuendos, my favourite being when Jinx says “that’s a mouthful” while looking at Bond’s package.

This film does Ghost in the Shell (2017) before it was inexplicably an idea. The villain in this film is a Korean man who used DNA changing technology to turn into a white man. I have no idea why this was a thing, I assume he was a guy that existed before and he was killed and replaced by the Korean man but also it seems like he’s just a guy that rose to prominence while Bond was in prison for 14 months. I’m not sure but either way, super bad to do it.

Rick Yune is the secondary villain in this film and he’s a guy who has diamonds in his face after Bond exploded some into his face. Someone with diamonds in their face is a cool idea for a Bond villain but also there’s barely any diamonds in his face so what a waste of someone with diamonds in their face. I did like Rick Yune in this film, he’s good in everything I’ve seen him in even if that thing is not good (I’m looking at you, Olympus Has Fallen!).

James Bond is famous for the Bond girls and the Bond girls are WAY too young which I know is just a thing happens in Bond films no matter who the Bond is but still too young. James Bond has to be on the bottom during sex because I can suspend my disbelief for a satellite that becomes another sun but I can’t suspend my disbelief that Bond would have the stamina to do anything but lie down during sex with women 20 years younger than him.

I did enjoy watching this film but it would be disingenuous for me to say it was a good film. This film is what I imagined Bond films were like as a kid so when I watched Casino Royale, it was a surprise that he wasn’t using insane gadgets and saying one-liners when he killed people. I think this film is closer to Johnny English than Casino Royale. Johnny English might somehow be more serious than this film. This film makes Johnny English looks like Casino Royale and for that reason, everyone should watch this film.

Top 5 Simpsons Season 3 Episodes

Season 3 is a really tough season of The Simpsons to pick a Top 5 for. I think this is when The Simpsons really started to come into its own and they managed to get the perfect balance of jokes and heart. We get a chance to see side characters like Krusty and Edna Krabappel get some development in their own episodes. We get a better understanding of the family dynamic, especially between Homer and Lisa.

There are some episodes early in the season that allow us to see sides of characters that we didn’t see. ‘Mr Lisa Goes to Washington’ is really the start of the politically minded Lisa that we see moving forward in the show. It was really tough to pick a Top 5 and as the season went on, it got harder as the episodes got funnier but I think I am pretty happy with my Top 5.

5. Bart the Lover

This is one that I didn’t think would have been in my Top 5 before I started the Season 3 rewatch but I really liked this one. The main plot is about Bart pretending to be a man replying to a personal ad placed in the newspaper by Mrs Krabappel. We get to see Edna in her personal life where we realise that she is a very sad character that is desperate to find someone. Bart comes along and pranks her by arranging a date which no one shows up for, leaving Edna alone. Bart has a moment of growth when he realises how sad Edna is and he writes her a letter that gives her some closure and leaves her happy.

It probably has one of the funniest B-plots in a Simpsons episode where we see Homer having to stop swearing after Todd Flanders says he doesn’t want any “damn vegetables”. Homer then gets a swear jar which leads to a great montage of him swearing. I love the ending when Lisa and Marge just buy a new doghouse with the swear jar money and Homer gets some beer but not after the disappointment of thinking he got Maggie.

4. Black Widower

I love a Sideshow Bob episode of The Simpsons and this one is up there with Cape Feare for me. I like how we see Sideshow Bob laying out the pieces of the plot to kill Selma throughout the episode as it makes it more believable that Bart would be able to solve the mystery. This is probably the best-looking episode of the season, which seems to be a common thing with the Sideshow Bob episodes. It was tough to pick a still from the episode to use but I am pretty happy with the one that I used.

3. Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk

This is episode is up here for the land of chocolate sequence alone but this episode has some great moments. I love how much Homer is down on his luck in this episode. He sells stock in the Power Plant for $25 when everyone else held on and sold theirs for $5,200. He is then the only employee to be fired by the new German owners. He obviously lands on his feet when Mr Burns gets the Plant back but Homer still has to watch out for Mr Burns in the future.

One of the highlights has to be the botox that Lenny gets done that makes him have a permanent smile even when it’s the worst day of his life.

2. Flaming Moe’s

I love this episode, mainly for just the idea of the Flaming Moe (Homer). I just like the idea of this drink that’s a mad mix of different alcohol and cough syrup which tastes better after it has been lit on fire. The Cheers sequence is great, which is why I used it as the image for this episode. Homer and Moe’s friendship is put to the test in the episode but Moe comes to realise that Homer is a true friend and loyal customer, who stands by him. The line of the episode has to be “Oh look at me, I’m making people happy”.

1. Homer at the Bat

This was always going to be number one. This is such a standout episode and it is weird to think that episode like this is so good especially with how many guest stars there are in this episode. Sometimes when celebrities appear on The Simpsons, it feels like they idolise them too much but this episode takes famous baseball players and has them basically become cursed. Each thing that happens to a player is great but I love Mr Burns shouting at Don Mattingly to shave his sideburns.