A new restoration is always a reason to watch an old favourite again. This is a 2K version from Studiocanal, and looks really nice. (I think I’ve seen this before in a small cinema, on VHS, and on DVD.)

I remember the colours being more unreal and deeper, though?

It’s such a lovable movie… it’s not exactly slow and gentle — it’s pretty brash in parts — but it’s got a magical glow and a satisfying progression of nonsense that build into something more.

Now, that’s more like the colours I remember.

This movie is perfect — I have no notes. The soundtrack, the cinematography, the pacing, the performances: It’s all exactly the way it should be.

Perhaps there’ll be a 4K version, so I’ll have an excuse to watch it another time?

And I hope they get their acts together and make a 2K release of Zuckerbaby, which is Percy Adlon’s other Great Movie.

Bagdad Café. Percy Adlon. 1987. ⚅

Of course I’ve seen this before (at least a couple times), but this time around, it’s a 2K restoration from StudioCanal. I likes dem pixels.

This movie is one gorgeous shot after another, and I guess it’s a kind of parody/pastiche of these kinds of secret agent films?

It starts off in a totally perfect way, but we then get a bunch of scenes that seem like in-jokes and where the tension dissipates.

The use of the soundtrack on this film is both very amusing (seen as a parody of this sort of dramatic music) and also works brilliantly on its own.

It’s a lot of fun, and there’s scenes that are absolutely flabbergasting. But it’s not quite … all there? So:

Alphaville. Jean-Luc Godard. 1965. ⚄

BUT WHICH ONES ARE THE VILLAINS

Well, I like that things are easy on the brains.

So it’s about these people who have the super-power to do really, really cool stunts. That’s cool.

Marky Mark is a blacksmith!

I bet that guy’s nice…

This is big and stupid and prone to random bursts of violence. Excellent!

I wouldn’t have recognised Marky Mark here — he’s gotten smaller? Except for his forehead?

Unfortunately, this film seems to work only when there’s a big action scene. When they’re infodumping at each other randomly, it’s kinda boring.

But it’s well made. What was the budget on this? The greenscreening and compositing is really well done, and things look convincingly non-CGI-ey. I mean, a lot better than any random Marvel movie, for instance.

They really have a thing for drowning people in this film — this is the third time they’re kinda-sorta drowning somebody?

If only all scenes in all movies could be Marky Mark riding a bike, jumping onto airplanes! It’d be a better world.

So is this movie fun? Yes, but only intermittently. I don’t really mind the plot not making much sense (the Evil Ones want to kill off the entire population of Earth because they’re tired of being reincarnated. Sure! No notes. But! They also have a weapon they’re terrorising the Good Guys with — which is putting their souls onto computer chips so that they’re not reincarnated. So… wouldn’t it be easier just to chip themselves instead of all this malarkey?), but two thirds of the film is basically just boring scenes of exposition. I guess that makes sense from a budgeting point-of-view, but it’s a drag to watch.

Infinite. Antoine Fuqua. 2021. ⚂