An exciting cross between a Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie film. Remember Gary and Dean in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels? Here we have two stupid but dangerous replica hitmen, on a train with an ultra laid back Brad Pitt. Add in a crazy girl played with flair by Joey King and cameos from Ryan Reynolds (blink and you will miss him), Sandra Bullock and Michael Shannon, it is all a hectic fiasco about a case of money. What else.
Fortunately amongst the mayhem is stacks of clever dialogue courtesy of a screenplay from Zak Olkwicz based on the book by Kotaro Isaka. (Hope I've got that right). David Leitch directs this comedy action thriller with vigour (I enjoyed his Atomic Blonde). The odd great song with "Stayin' Alive" and "Five Hundred Miles" the best.
Don't you just love a new Jordan Peele movie. This time he's gone all sci fi (but not as we know it Jim) with an alien invasion (sort of) of the California desert. here resides Daniel Kaluuya as O J Haywood who trains horses on his isolated (had to be) ranch. There are references to other films in this genre. There is even a Robert Shaw clone straight out of Jaws, again in the final third. OJ's sister Emerald is brilliantly played by Keke Palmer. As he is taciturn (wow) she is verbose. Two opposites that works really well. OJ is so sullen it's hilarious, "his minimalism sells the movie".
Steven Yuen plays Ricky "Jupe" Park who runs the nearby Jupiter's Claim theme park. I thought we were right back to the theme park in Us. The event from Ricky's childhood back story takes the movie into horror territory. I watched the film in the IMAX screen at Hemel Hempstead, and the cinematography is certainly impressive. The epic landscape of the surrounding hills looks amazing. The sound and picture are impressive, just see the trailer.
There is just that one song that knocked me back in my seat: Walk On By by Dionne Warwick. Emerald still buying vinyl in the record store. It took me back to when I was nineteen in 1964, in my first year at George Wimpey, and having saved for a Grundig tape recorder. I was sharing a room with Derek Anderson and a couple of older girls had just moved into another room. I recorded them singing along to the single Walk On By that they brought with them. Derek went on to marry Marie. Where are they now? I should have kept that tape.
Why would I want to see an Indian film in Hindi with subtitles? My guess is that if it was showing at a multiplex, it must have something. And at least I get all the dialogue which is more than I can say for Nope. I do watch foreign series and films on TV and I find that after fifteen minutes the subtitles blend into the action. One criticism of Laal Singh Chaddha was that it was a too literal remake of Forest Gump. This is so not true. OK, there were references to the original, but so much was different. I was able to completely forget the American story. For example Vietnam is replaced with the India/Pakistan fighting on the border, and the soldier Laal saves is the Pakistani commander. The clips of the real events in American history are replaced by those of revolutions in India. When Laal is a child, he and his mother are caught up in anti-Sikh riots and she has to cut his hair to disguise his religion.
The early scenes with Laal as a child and his friendship with Rupa were sweet and sad. I was captured with the film then and it never let me go. I was glad that Rupa was so different to Forest's Jenny. Rupa wants too much in life and this takes her down an unpleasant road. There are bits of typical Indian melodrama that were too obvious. I was interested to note why this film had so much negativity both in India and worldwide. (Read Monty Panesar's view). Hindi is apparently only spoken by 30/40% of the Indian population, I remembered that Crazy Rich Asians is in English, as are most Bollywood movies. So I guess that even in parts of India, this film had to be seen with subtitles? And does the fact that Laal is a Sikh goes to raise religious and political objections?
There is little I can say about the performances, the only one of note was Laal's mother played by Mona Singh. Whereas I thought Kareena Kapoor was fairly wooden as Rupa. However, the story was great, the cinematography on a big wide screen was excellent (the locations on Laal's run were particularly impressive) and I loved the Indian exteriors. I loved the music but not the songs. Fortunately there were not too many of these. I actually preferred this movie to Forest Gump. As one review put it, "it had a warmth and political honesty the original lacks".
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