Tag: The Second Act

2025 In Film: Day Four (Could Be Better)

On By troubledproductionsIn Uncategorized, Year round upLeave a comment

All Happy Families
Ups: Cosy
Interesting points to make.
Downs: Really loses focus at the end.
Kind of reminds me of Arrested Development, and when you make that comparison, you can’t win.
Best Performer: Becky Ann Baker
Best Moment: When his brother tries to explain what actually happened and why he was accused of sexual misconduct.
Worst Moment: A moment which isn’t there; the bit before the end. It definitely feels like something is missing there.
Opening: Tolstoy quote. Letting you know this film is either going to be really smart, or really pretentious.
Closing: He kisses the girl, his mum goes for a drive, his dad is wistful, as is his brother. The audience is left with a sense of missing something
Original review here

Avatar: Fire And Ash
Ups: Looks beautiful.
Some good action sequences.
Fleshes out the world a bit more
Downs: Very similar to the second one.
Isn’t a marked improvement.
Far too long.
F*cking Spider. Why do they like him so much?
Best Performer: Oona Chaplin
Best Moment: The attack on the human base.
Worst Moment: The drugged sequence. I can see why it’s there, and it is good, but it’s kind of goofy.
Opening: The family decide it’s not safe for Spider to stay with them. Makes sense, but it really skips past why anybody suddenly gives a shit about him considering he saved the villain in the last movie.
Closing: Spider is welcomed into the Na’vi. So he’s gonna play a bigger part in the sequel.
Best Line: I am the fire! By my hand, my people grow strong! We do not bend down and die just because Eywa turns her back on us! We turn our back on Eywa! A weak mother, her weak children. We do not suck on the breast of weakness.
Original review here

How To Train Your Dragon
Ups: Looks magnificent.
The dragons look terrifying.
Good performances.
Downs: Utterly pointless.
Some of the side characters aren’t given enough to do.
Best Performer: Gerard Butler
Best Moment: First flight. Just as good as it was in the animated version.
Worst Moment: When he shoots down the night dragon.
Opening: Narration, pretty much exactly how the original opened.
Closing: Hiccup loses his leg, which was careless.
Best Line: You just gestured to all of me.
Original review here

Love Hurts
Ups: Some fun fights.
Ke Huy Quan
Funny
Downs: Missing “that” scene. The one that takes it from good to great.
One of the romance subplots feels a little forced.
We never really get the sense that he was dangerous in his past life.
Best Performer: Ke Huy Quan
Best Moment: Jeff’s death is funny and inappropriate.
Worst Moment:
Opening: Introduction to Marvin. His character would not work if it was played by anyone other than Ke Huy Quan. The opening is a good indication of that, he’s so pure.
Closing: Marvin admits he loves Rose. Obviously.
Original review here

Presence
Ups: Tense.
Good message
A believable look at a family suffering.
Downs: Dull. So dull.
Mismarketed
Best Performer: Lucy Liu
Best Moment: The bedroom destruction
Worst Moment: The ending.
Opening: POV shot of someone looking around a house in the dark. Kind of feels like you’re playing a video game.
Closing: We find out that the ghost is actually the son, travelling back in time. We find this out because for some reason, after fulfilling his duties, he stuck around for a few days.
Best Line: Have you ever noticed how your advice always corresponds exactly with us not having to do anything, at all?
Original review here

Snow White
Ups: Looks fantastic.
Downs: The Dwarves (sorry, “magical beings”) are kind of annoying.
Gal Gadot.
The songs aren’t great.
We don’t get a good enough sense of how disastrous the land is under the Queens leadership.
Best Performer: Rachel Zegler
Best Moment: When Snow White approaches the castle with her followers. Incredibly Les Mis.
Worst Moment: The evil queen destroys the mirror, thereby destroying herself. She’s not smart.
Opening: Some cute animals open a book, then narration
Closing: Snow White inspires an overthrow of the Queen, who then magically dies in a kind of body-horror way.
Best Line: “The name’s Jonathan, Princess. Not Jonathan Princess, just Jonathan. Princess”
Original review here

The Second Act
Ups: Creative. There truly is nothing else like this.
Ambitious.
Some great dialogue.
Downs: REALLY loses momentum in the final third.
The very notion of its metaness will put a lot of people off.
Best Performer: Léa Seydoux
Best Moment: The opening conversation, lets you know what you’re in for. Should have been the opening instead of the restaurant set up.
Worst Moment: The gunshot. The moment itself isn’t bad, but it was the moments just after this that the film tried to be a bit too clever and ended up getting lost.
Opening: A gentleman tidies up the building.
Closing: Miles and miles of tracking equipment.
Best Line: “You can’t say that, we’re being filmed”
Original review here

Warfare
Ups: Tense.
Realistic.
Downs: Doesn’t really have a narrative.
Annoyingly unpolitical.
No way for the casual audience to buy in.
Best Performer: Will Poulter
Best Moment: The vehicle explosion.
Worst Moment: Most of the opening third.
Opening: The army dudes watch a music video then break into a family’s house and hold them hostage so they can use the building. Sorry, “commandeer a building for tactical use”. Done just to establish the time period. If it started with them in the house, it wouldn’t affect the story at all.
Closing: They leave. The insurgents make their way out of hiding. We’re then shown photos of the actual people involved, nice, but weirdly it shows some of them with their faces blurred out. So…….why show the photos at all?
Best Line: “I’m fucked up”. Nice to see male characters admit that.
Original review here

Wolf Man
Ups: Violent
Some decent transformation sequences.
Characters have depth.
Interesting look at generational trauma.
Actual emotion.
Downs: The reason for the transformation feels off.
Looks goofy at times.
Predictable.
Best Performer:  Julia Garner
Best Moment: The switch from reality to his perspective, incredible.
Worst Moment: Blake realising his father is the Wolf Man, mainly because it’s obvious.
Opening: Young Blake goes hunting with his dad. Shows why he is like he is.
Closing: He’s in pain and gets shot. Best way it could have ended, had actual emotion.
Best Line: Sometimes when you’re a daddy, you’re so scared of your kids getting scars that you become the thing that scars them
Original review here

The Second Act aka Le Deuxième Acte (2024) Review

On By troubledproductionsIn ReviewLeave a comment

Quick Synopsis: It genuinely doesn’t f*cking matter, seriously.

It’s weird how a trailer can win you over by not showing a single second of what’s in the film. It may seem counter-productive to not include anything from the movie in the trailer, but sometimes it’s not needed. Sometimes, all you need is a way to tell people “This is the tone and style”. The Second Act (TSA, pronounced Tizz-ah, but not like the drink) trailer did that brilliantly and is probably the best trailer I’ve seen in a while. It tells you everything while showing you nothing. The complete opposite of most Marvel trailers.

Now, the film itself. It’s meta and weird. Near the start, a character says something mildly transphobic and then is told “You can’t say that we’re being filmed” Then the character tries to rephrase it differently. He doesn’t say that as the character, he says it as the actor playing the character, if that makes sense? It’s a weird moment, the first of many, and how you react to that scene will let you know whether its worth continuing with the rest of the movie. Personally, I found it funny. But I will admit that it does highlight a small issue I had with this; it is occasionally too meta. As much as I do love the opening scene and how meta it is, there is still a small part of you that thinks “Get on with it”. I’m not saying be less meta, I never say that, but spread it out more among the story. As it is, TSA will stop the story for 5 minutes to focus on meta-commentary, then pick up the story again. In a film that’s less than 90 minutes long, that’s a lot of waiting around. There should have been a more seamless way of threading the meta-ness through the narrative without pausing. I typed that after 10 minutes. Really I should delete it because this film wouldn’t exist without the meta. All it has is “we’re actors making a film” and fourth wall breaks upon fourth wall breaks (16 walls?).

That kind of stuff is to be expected from fans of Quentin Dupieux, those who watched and enjoyed the *checks notes* sentient tire that kills people with psychokinetic powers movie Rubber, will enjoy this. It’s very similar, you have to go into it expecting it to break the very notion of narrative and cinema, you’re not watching it for the plot, you’re just watching it for the experience of watching it. If you are expecting some form of sense, you’re going to be deeply disappointed.

I’m quickly falling in love with Lea Seydoux, she was phenomenal in The Beast, and continues to impress throughout TSA. She’s charming, friendly, and seems believable as a slightly frustrated actress. The others are all fine, but Seydoux is the best of a very good bunch.

From a technical standpoint, this is a marvel (and not just because it stops the plot to make jokes), not in terms of special effects or even outstanding beauty, but because of the tracking shots. Oh my science, the tracking shots. They’re so prevalent that the pre-credits scene makes a point of showcasing just how long the tracks were to make them happen.

Really the only thing to take from TSA? Films are silly. Making them is silly. Writing them is silly. So what not make it so watching them is silly too? It’s not for everybody, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a slightly frustrating watch at times, but it’s also one that’s not entirely without merits.