I caught three movies at the theater this past week: The Green Knight, Jungle Cruise, and The Suicide Squad. I found things to like about all three. Let’s discuss!
Jungle Cruise
Jungle Cruise was fun. Shorter than expected (this is a good thing), more jokes, the three leads and villain were likeable, the plot took some unexpected turns. Edgar Ramírez was underused but that’s fine, as the ghost conquistadores were my least favorite bit of computer effects.
As has been said before and will be said again in this world of endless franchising, if they must steal from other movies, at least they are stealing from good ones (The Mummy, Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, African Queen). I confess to neither knowing nor caring to know the structure of the amusement park ride upon which the movie is based, but those who do have said that a lot of the Rock’s corny jokes are lifted directly from the ride. If so, kudos to whoever originally wrote those jokes, as they were hokey and delightful. I also loved the jaguar.
Recommendation: if you want a lighthearted adventure film with a reasonably restrained amount of franchise building and CGI.
The Green Knight
This is a special movie. Dev Patel headlines a cast of absolute ringers, from Alicia Vikander playing two roles to Sean Harris and Kate Dickie as King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. The lighting is incredible, feeling at times like a nod to John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981) but at other times like the complete inverse, with tons of scenes seemingly utilizing only natural and within-the-reality lighting like Barry Lyndon (1975).
The best advice that I can give is that the movie doesn’t hand-hold and leaves a lot to be inferred. Ya gotta pay attention. I feel like the trailers had it painted as an adventure film, but it is more akin to slow-burners like The VVitch (2015) than a two-fisted actioner like Sherlock Holmes (2009).
Recommendation: If you want a visually stunning movie that leaves a lot unexplained.
The Suicide Squad
Since we live in the dumbest timeline, movies now have near-identical titles despite being sequels. So I must clarify that I am talking about The Suicide Squad (2021), featuring Idris Elba as the dad figure alongside a giant shark man, not Suicide Squad (2016), featuring Will Smith as the dad figure alongside a giant crocodile man.
This one was a real treat. It’s a hard-R (HARD-R) action movie. To elaborate, this movie is Commando (1985) via Dead Alive (1992), with dozens of exploded heads, eviscerations, and dismemberments. Do not get attached to anyone for too long. But like Dead Alive or the Troma films, the violence pushes well past being upsetting and into being very funny.
The highlights for me are Peacemaker (John Cena, better used here than in F9: The Fast Saga), King Shark / Nanaue (voiced by Sylvester Stallone and acted by Steve Agee), Ratcatcher II (Daniela Melchior), Sebastian the fancy little rat, and Thinker (Peter Capaldi, with one scene where he gets to curse like Peter Capaldi). But there is not a weak link in the cast: this movie is stacked, it is crude, it is funny, and like Guardians of the Galaxy, it has touching moments where we look at all of these broken, horrible people and see how they become a family.
Recommendation: If you want a 1980s action movie that is absurdly violent and laugh-out-loud funny.