Twisters, Longlegs and It Ends With Us

 

Someone said "there was very little chemistry between the leads". The problem was that Glen Powell's character was meant to be over the top but instead was just highly annoying. He almost made me dash for the exit. You would think from some of the reviews that he was the main character and the driving force behind this blockbuster. Everything was shouted out loud. And the script was awful. But then the real star, Daisy Ridley was great. I enjoyed her performance in Where the Crawdads Sing. I haven't seen her in Normal People, but having loved the book I might not ever watch it. I cannot remember her in  Cold Feet, but then she was very young.

Back to the film and it seemed that we had the same set pieces over and over again. There were a couple of interesting novelties like hiding in the empty swimming pool. The special effects were fine but it was all spectacle and maybe for some that is enough. But not for me.   

I wondered why Longlegs was advertised as a horror movie. Yes, there were the occasional nasty bits, but this film was much more like The Silence of the Lambs that whilst it has some horrible stuff, it is also similar to films centred on an FBI investigation such as Zodiac, Se7en and the TV series True Detective.  Here a deadpan Maika Monroe (from It Follows) is Agent Lee Harker whose sort of psychic abilities lead to Nicholas Cage in full bore silliness. He hardly features in the first three quarters of the movie, thank goodness. Rural America is always great to see. Writer/director Osgood Perkins does a fine job except for the ending that i didn't get at all. But that is what these film do.

We are slap bang in the middle of the school holidays and in the absence of any normal dramas, I found this Blake Lively vehicle in an adaptation of a book by Colleen Hoover. Yes, I should have known better. Well it does look good and glossy, and some of the star's dresses and costumes are great. But how can you have the heroine opening a flower shop when she is called Lily Bloom? There are just too many co-incidences all the way through. This is not your normal romcom where they are part and parcel of the story. Here they just seem stupid. 

Justin Baldoni has adapted the book (a lot of clunky dialogue) and directed (maybe stick to that?) and starred. He was awful. As a brain surgeon??? How someone like Lily would fall for this guy stretches the imagination. Well she was warned more than once. There were the occasional emotional tugs (I guess from the book) and the songs on the soundtrack helped to stop me from walking out. But the best bit about my visit to the Odeon was the trailer for The Critic. Ian McKellen stars is an adaptation of the book Curtain Call. There is a wonderful British cast and opens in the middle of September. I can't wait.