Just a quick note to say welcome to all my new subscribers. Thank you so much for signing up to my inane ramblings! These are semi regular articles that I write to discuss what’s showing in the cinema or on TV in any given week. Hope you enjoy!
I grew up watching some of the greatest boxing matches of the last century.
The welterweight and middleweight divisions were at their absolute peak in the 1980’s, making up for the dearth of talent in the heavyweight ranks after The Greatest retired, until Tyson burst on the scene later that decade.
Some of these matches were absolutely magnificent. Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard all fought each other over a number of bouts that will live long in the memory.
Boxing is not in the greatest place these days, and seems to have been superseded by MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). My son is a big fan. I am not. This hugely popular sport, fought in an octagon rather than a ring, seems like a well produced show of inelegant thuggery to me.
Of course, that is probably me being unfair, and I can see the irony of admiring the pugilism of Ali, Joe Frazier and the four men above, but decrying the barbarism of Jon Jones, Alexander Volkanovski and, of course, Conor McGregor. Supposedly some of the fights these three guys have been involved in could also be regarded as great. However, if I wanted to see folk getting randomly kneed in the face on a Saturday night, I would head down the high street and stand outside the Fox and Hound pub which, for obvious reasons, is known locally as the Stab and Wound. Let’s hear Bruce Buffer trying to compere that! It’s not my idea of a good time.
Anyway, the reason why I bring all this up is there’s a new version of the wonderfully deranged 80’s classic, Road House, which starred Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliott as philosophical bouncers who work in a rough road side bar in Missouri, but then end up protecting the town from a corrupt businessman. Even after all these years it remains a favourite of mine, and watching it the other day, in preparation for this article, reminded me of its bonkers charm and gritty, throat ripping, violence.
So, when I heard they were going to remake it, I was naturally very wary. Jake Gyllenhaal was solid casting, and I have been studying his filmography for another article I’m writing, so thought that could work even with him playing a retired MMA fighter with a dodgy past rather than a bouncer, but when I heard Conor McGregor was going to be the main bad guy, I began to have my doubts.
As I mentioned above, I’m not a fan of MMA, but I’m familiar with McGregor being quite a big deal in the UFC, and know he has a large following. I’m also very much aware of the nonsense he spouts when he’s out the octagon, so wasn’t particularly enamoured when he was going to be one of the leads but, as with everything I watch, I thought I’d give him a chance.
However, all my worries and doubts seemed to be dispelled in the first hour.
Gyllenhaal has charm to spare, and he certainly looks the part with muscles upon muscles, and a very impressive line in outrageous shirts that I want in my wardrobe. He lives on a river boat and has a pet crocodile that eats anyone that gets on the wrong side of him, so nicely weird like the first one, and director Doug Liman (Bourne, Edge of Tomorrow) mixes the well staged fight scenes with some decent character development and story telling.
And then, with literally 59 minutes on the clock, McGregor is introduced, and the whole thing goes downhill in a majorly rapid fashion.
I guess if you put someone as supposedly famous as this guy in your film, you must feel obliged to get him front and centre, and not be just another muscle bound bogey man, but actually someone who can act and hold the audiences attention. McGregor can clearly do neither.
He is simply awful. His gurning face and ridiculously over the top behaviour making every scene he appears in teeth gratingly bad, with dialogue that even AI would be embarrassed to lay claim to. And, to make things worse, he drags the whole movie down with him as it loses its sense of fun and just becomes a hugely derivative direct to video action slog. Utterly bizarre and a huge waste of a decent premise.
And, just in case folks think it was me being a grumpy old man, my son watched it with me and laughed all the way through the last hour. But not in a good way.
Anyway, enough of that. On to 3 Body Problem which is a bit of a contrast.
Last week, I had a sales meeting at my head office and discovered something that I had really known for a long while. I’m not very good at physics and maths (or math). Which could be looked upon as a problem as most of my job requires using both these subjects on a daily basis. Buy, hey, I’ve been there 22 years so I must be doing something else right I suppose.
So, I was a bit trepidatious to watch 3 Body Problem as all the reviews said it covered hugely complex scientific and mathematical ideas about the physical laws of the universe that left them scratching their heads as to what it was all about. Which immediately made me think, if that was the case, a numpty like me would have real issues.
It’s based on the book by Liu Cixin, which I haven’t read, but again, going back to earlier posts, is meant to be hard science fiction so not really my ballpark. However, that being said, it seems from the first 3 episodes that the show runners, David Benioff and DB Weiss (probably still much loathed by half the internet for the end to Game of Thrones), have turned it into much more of a detective story, with ex cop Da Shi played with brilliant shambling grace by Benedict Wong, leading us through the labyrinthine plot as he tries to figure out why all these eminent scientists around the world have supposedly started killing themselves.
One of the deaths brings a group of five former students back together to try and figure out what is happening to the universe, as it begins to exhibit some very strange phenomenon such as the stars blinking off and on.
There is also, what seems to be, an AI generated game played through a headset which some of these students get access to, that may have answers and, then again, may not. However, it does means there’s a scene where Jet Set Willy for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 gets mentioned so I had a chuckle at that.
So, as you can see, there’s a lot of mystery here, but it’s presented in such a way that it’s easy to follow, and not too much of a headache. Even for me. The cast are all solid with Wong and Liam Cunningham as the mysterious Thomas Wade, being stand outs.
It’s enjoyable enough so far, but with two caveats. The tone veers about wildly. One moment it’s all a bit of goofy fun, then the next it’s dark and ominous with a fair bit of violence and brutality which can make it hard to pin down. The other, and this is hopefully not too much of a spoiler, is that by the end of episode 3 there has been a big reveal which was a wee bit predictable and left me disappointed. However, I do have another 5 episodes to watch so let’s see what happens. All in all, quite good fun with understanding of maths and physics not required.
Right, that’ll do for now. It’s been a very strange week in many ways, and one that has ended up with me writing a great short story that I will probably never publish, and then catching a spring cold that has made me feel lousy, so if this article is full of editing and spelling mistakes, then you can all hopefully cut me some slack!
Thanks for reading. Until next time.
The Critical Drinker (youtuber) did a fun and a poignant review on the new Road house movie. The shallow person I am, I haven’t watched the movie, I just like The Drinker.😅
Why? Why? Why? Why remake Roadhouse? Pfffff. No thanks. I have yet to check out 3BP but a friend of mine who has similar taste has mixed feelings about the show and he is at ep06, not a good indicator!