We have to thank American director and writer Whit Stillman for this amusing adaptation of Jane Austen's "Lady Susan". Well he was born in Cornwall (upstate NY). My only criticism was that Love and Friendship felt quite rushed, as if Stillman had to pack his script into the hour and a half when, at a more leisurely pace it might have made a better three part TV production. Some of the conversations were so fast you really had to concentrate and I only worked out who was who after an hour. But it was funny at times and the cast threw themselves convincingly into their roles.
Another writer director, this time Shane Black, has come up with this comedy thriller, a throw back to the 1970's and all that entails. Apart from one thing. The dialogue in The Nice Guys is modern 21st century and thank goodness for that. It positively sparkles with wit and intelligence, so different from the stupid personalities of Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling as the dumb private investigators who collide over a missing porn star. They almost let the movie be stolen by the superb Angourie Rice as Gosling's precocious 13 year old daughter. She gets a lot of great lines. The costumes and locations are superb and the soundtrack typical 70's. Great fun.
Riding on the back of the successful original, Now You See Me 2 is a lazy repeat of the clever formulae. There are enough crazy twists that in the end they become just funny. Pacy action is no substitute for a real story and director Jon Chu relies on choreographed action to make up for the script. The same team as before go through the motions although I missed Isla Fisher. Her replacement Lizzie Caplan at least tries her best. However, there is enough star quality (why is Daniel Radcliffe here?) and great location cinematography that the time passes quickly. It just could have been so much better.
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