TYTD Reviews

Living in the UK, I never really got to experience the whole ‘Animatronic pizza place’ stuff that the US seemingly got hand over fist in the 80s and 90s. Here? animatronics were largely religated to clunky museum oddities or bizarre and terrifying fairground attractions. But i’d been aware of the ‘Chuck E. Cheese’ and ‘Showbiz Pizza’ animatronic bands for years and was hoping that this documentary would shine more light onto the phenominon. and…well, it kind of does?

This is one of those documentaries that, instead of just telling the story of the ‘Rock-a fire Explosion’ (the showbiz pizza animal band) explaining its creation, how it grew into a 200+ chain of restaurants, its money troubles and eventual merger with Chuck E. Cheese. We instead *kind of* chart the history of the restaurant, but really we focus more on a small circle of die hard ‘Showbiz Pizza’ fans sharing their memories of the restaurant, the animatronics and we even get to hang out with the original creator of ‘Rock-a fire’ and get a tour around his workshop.

And…thats FINE…but I feel like this films really quite a victim of the time it was made. Y’see, this film came out in 2009/2010 (at least, I think it did…theres an epilogue in the credits that runs as late as late 2009.) and thats the problem…

Because AT that point in time, the whole ‘animatronic animal band’ thing was a cheesy, niche and slightly cringy thing to be interested in. Kids wernt interested, investors thought it was kind of old hat. This documentary at the time it was made was aiming almost to kind of try and document the dying throws of what was quickly becoming a lost art.

Then, 5 years later “Five Nights At Freddy’s” would be released and COMPLETELY rejuvinate the whole ‘animatronic animal band’ thing, turning it from a cheesy kid friendly dated bit of nostalgia bait, into a mature adult horror series where the creepiness of the animatronics were changed from a fault, into a feature.

As such, it makes this film feel almost like its fallen out of a paralel world where these animatronics were LITERALLY rotting away in some overly humid abandoned warehouse, with a double digit ‘hardcore’ audience were clinging onto it for dear life.

Had this film been made even 5 years later, it could have approached its subject with a COMPLETELY different attitude and mindset, and taken the whole thing in a VERY different direction (likely being WAY more successful as a result). Instead, it spends most of the runtime essentially silently signalling that this documentary may well be the last coherent media piece to document a band who’d last been seen over 15 years prior.

As it stands, as a ‘people’ piece, its a fascinating time capsule, dealing with folks who genuinely thought this was the end of the line, and I feel we likely wont see that kind of mentality again for a good while. So in some ways its documented a completely unintentional aspect of this fandom and done it fairly well!

theres real emotion and passion in the fans and the rock-a fire’s creator Aaron Fechter. they’re all UTTERLY eccentric (I suppose you have to be) but they sincerely believe the concept will live on, and it is kind of satisfying to sit here in 2024 and see that they REALLY wernt wrong.

At the same time however, as a bit of a pandoras box warning for this documentary…my advice is maybe dont google ‘where are these people now?’ immediately after watching this documentary…As I did that and…well to cut a long story short, long term I dont think ONE person featured in this documentary made it into the 2020’s without either going VERY (bad) strange or ending up in serious debt/holding a serious criminal record…That taints this films somewhat bittersweet optimistic messaging I can tell you!

I kind of wish this doc HAD gone a little deeper into ‘Showbiz’ history beyond just the animatronics. they allude to TONS of animatronics that Aaron had made between the early 80s and mid 90s for showbiz, but they never really explore them outside of the core band. Aaron seems to have a lot to say, but its all been trimmed around in the ‘shaping’ phase of the edit which has left it feeling like we’ve only really got the absolute base elements present (which is honestly VERY surprising given the films only just cut to feature run time…like, they DID have scope and bandwidth to go deeper.)

Its VERY clear and careful to state that ANYTHING ‘Chuck E.’ will NOT be discussed in the doc, and the interviewee’s are VERY clear to pour scorn on the ‘the other place’ throughout. Which…when you pull back a bit and realise these were childrens pizza restaurants and that these interviewee’s are all in their 30s and 40s here…was bizarre to say the least.

Had it gone a little deeper, I think i’d have genuinely loved this documentary. As it stands the ‘people’ focus over the subject focus (which in my opinion was done to death between 2005 and 2015) combined with the bad timing PLUS the pretty depressing ‘2024 check in’ just kind of soured this one for me a bit.

I WILL however say that if you can get your hands on AGFA’s recent release of this, it’s ABSOLUTELY worth every penny, because; while the doc is pretty okay, the extra features are RAMMED with showbiz pizza stuff, trailers, recordings of shows, testing footage, archive footage. its basically all the stuff I really WANTED to see in the doc, and is definitely worth your time.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-rock-afire-explosion/

One of the more infamous ‘public health films’ of the 1940s, ‘Mom and Dad’ was the brain child of Kroger Babb and William Beaudine and managed to maintain its reputation by being one of the first ‘hayes era’ films to feature full frontal nudity…It achieved this however in the form of showing a live birth (almost entirely unedited and VERY graphic) alongside several images of both male and female full frontal nudity as victims of severe infections from Ghonnerea and Syphillis.

To say that, even by modern standards I was not quite prepared for just HOW graphic and bloody this film would get in showing a cesearian birth or several shots of gnarled and mangled genitles/heavily deformed babies, I hope that sets an expectation of what your letting yourself in for.

The film presents itself as an educational film aiming to educate the youth of today about the dangers of ‘relations’ with an opening caption claiming that ‘Innocence isnt ensured by ignorance’ and that ‘Knowledge is power!’ before telling the cautionary tale of Joan Blake, a young woman just about in her teens, who’s mother is totally against Joan learning ANYTHING about ‘that kind of thing’ and a father who’s basically relying on the mother to ‘fill in the gaps’.

As you can imagine, the film then inevitably gets right to the point when Joan heads to her highschools annual dance and meets and young man by the name Carl Blake. a slightly freer and looser spirit who drinks beer, jitterbugs! AND is into premarital SEX!

Well, Joan doesnt know about the birds and the bees and soon finds herself without Carl AND very much pregnant.

And, from there? the film basically kind of splits in two, with 50% of the runtime continuing the cautionary tale, but 50% being given over to a series of sexual health lectures detailing menstrual cycles, how conception happens, fertility, the birth cycle AND for good measure, how births occur and the risk of unprotected ‘relations’ and the ‘social diseases’ that can occur as a result.

And…I think what sets this film apart from the likes of ‘Reefer Madness’ and ‘Child Bride’ is that, this film feels INCREDIBLY awkward and clunky…But theres a real slathering of melodramatic ham thrown into the mix that ultimately was what kept me tuned in.

The script itself is kind of basic, the pacings pretty good to start with, but around the mid point theres a break in the film where a real world clinician was supposed to walk into the theater and give a lecture + Q&A on sexual wellness, before the second half of the film starts up (obviously, that doesnt happen in the home release…or i’d be wondering how a clinician got into my house at damn near 10pm on a Tuesday.)

Its the second half where the momentum begins to get a bit squiffy as the film gets bogged down in 20 minutes of a class watching a health film INSIDE the main picture (so we’re watching a movie inside a movie at this point) and then the film kind of realises that it DID have a plot before we went to an intermission, so it hastily writes up a resolution that left me feeling a little unsatisfied and ended VERY abruptly.

Honestly? this film, while trying to give the appearence of a professional and considered Hygiene film. Realistically comes off as if a slightly drunken dad was trying to explain sex to his kids, while REALLY not wanting to talk about ANYTHING to do with sex. thats the kind of tone and vibe this thing radiates. Which I found VERY strange, but VERY funny.

I will also say that the opening half has a LOT of padding in the form of lounge singers, dancers and gymnasts…I dont know why they’re there…I assume its to make sure the audience are still awake. But I found it to be a bit of a double edged sword, as…on the one hand they dont even TRY to pretend these moments arnt filler…But then at the same time, the sheer absurdity of having 3 happy clappy gymnasts bouncing around in the middle of a film that, some 30 minutes later, will be showing ACTUAL blood, guts and gore alongside imagery of rotting penises…Was something that I just had to bleakly laugh at.

The whole thing is ABSOLUTELY tone deaf. and its good intentions are the thing that ultimately saves it from becoming just a fairly dry sexual health film. It feels like exploitation cinema, and if John Waters and David F. Friedman are to be believed it ABSOLUTELY is. (I will not dispute this)

The film looks fine on a direction standpoint, its a little on the cheap side, but it still looks pretty sleek given this kind of cinema was often reserved for Poverty row. theres a clear and clean visual vision present here and the film does get quite creative at times. which was nice.

For the 40s, the cine is quite impressive too. A lot of it reminded me of Ed Woods ‘The Violent Years’ only…Eds film was 11 years later than this and didnt feature live births…But composition here is solid, they work a good range of sequence structuring…the transitions on the edit are a little slack which is a shame, but I think this easily holds together better than a lot of the health films that were doing the rounds at the time.

As mentioned, the performances are melodramatic, over the top hammy goodness. Everyones either a ‘Chipper’ 50s stereotype, or about a hairs breadth from throwing their pinny over their face, screeching and running out of the room. Its easily one of the better aspects of the film and definitely an element that kept me watching!

‘Mom and Dad’ I reckon would STILL turn some kids heads these days, and its absolutely NO wonder that it got banned for 11 years for what it shows. As far as PSA health films go? its one of the more graphic, more interesting and more entertaining. DEFINITELY not for the squeemish. If you like cheesy public information films, this ones definitely worth checking out.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/mom-and-dad/

Probably one of the most unusual fumbles in recent corporate cinema history, the decisions that went into the making of ‘Rise of Skywalker’ Still to this day leave me kind of reeling as to exactly WHY they chose the direction they chose.

So, to my understanding, ‘The Last Jedi’ upset the fan base because it made the bold decision of actually trying to do something different with a francise that was (at that point) 7 films deep and had been trading on nothing but fan service for at least 5 of the entries up to that point. Was it perfect in what it wanted to achieve? No. But it set the groundwork to easily allow the ‘Star Wars’ universe (in time) to grow beyond its boundaries of ‘Good vs Evil with Overt Vietnam/Nazi references’.

Disney, noticing that the hardcore fans who were upset that a story DARE morally question its characters or the motives of the Jedi order decided TWO FILMS INTO A TRILOGY…that the BEST course they could have is to bring back JJ Abrahams (Because ‘Force Awakens’ was their safe gamble that paid off big time) and essentially get him to undo as MUCH as physically possible from what happened in ‘Episode 8’…

And so, we have this film. The closing part of the sequels trilogy that seemingly literally only exists to air lock the last film and set everything back to a ‘reset’ position so that in 5-10 years they can try this all again.

The plot? For reasons that make ZERO sense and have NO setup, Emperor Palpatine is back!..for some reason…and its retroactively revealed that EVERYTHING from the end of ‘Return of the Jedi’ up to now on the sith side of things has happened purely because the Emporer survived and built a weird clone lab/fleet of death cruisers in the bombed out basement of what was left of the second death star…

If you havent had an anurism by this point. the film then goes on to basically reset the characters from their place at the end of ‘Last Jedi’ more or less getting rid of Rose completely and resigning Finn to a position just above an extra, as the plot swaps to Rey trying simultaineously to find the emperor, deprogramme Kylo Ren AND learn who her REAL parents are.

While Kylo teams up with the Emperor with the ultimate aim being a total takeover of the emperors own army, christened ‘The Final Order’.

And theres lots of running around, and light sabre fights and references to the original trilogy…and we’re basically just back to ‘Force Awakens’ terratory of playing everything INCREDIBLY overly safe, cramming as many in references and MCU style gags in as possible…When I tell you that Richard E Grant turning up as a ‘special guest’ playing an admiral for the sith was the BEST part of this film for me…I hope that lets you know the dissapointment I was feeling.

The thing is, when I went to see this in theaters on its original run, I remember leaving the cinema kind of feeling a bit nonplussed…Not raging…But just kind of like ‘Welp…that was an ending I guess…’ But having watched this film now in close proximity with the other two ‘Sequel’ trilogy films, its ASTOUNDING that a corporation like Disney would have allowed this to be released. It borders on feeling disrespectful to the work Rian Johnson put into his entry in the franchise, but this film being the way it is makes the other two films NOT ONLY feel totally inconsistant tonally and thematically, but it puts the audience into a position where they’re forced to accept that non of this trilogy really matters now. they openly make the point of saying ENTIRE FILMS worth of lore can be rewritten and undone in less than half an hour with next to no effort. And thats insane to me.

My thoughts on this film are quite similar to my thoughts on ‘The Force Awakens’ really…in the sense that. This is a multi-million dollar corporate backed movie. It was always going to meet a standard. The direction and cine are fine to decent for the most part. But like ‘Force Awakens’ it rarely pushes any boundaries or challenges the viewer with striking work. The performances feel dialled back after ‘Last Jedi’ and now sit in this weird hybrid of cold with sudden sparks of animation. The score…Is ‘Star Wars’…

But for me? this was the film that kind of burnt out the last of the goodwill I had towards the franchise. ‘Force Awakened’ worked for me to a degree because, it’d been almost 10 years since the last run of Star Wars movies…the public were hungry for it, and at that point in time after a mixed response to ‘Phantom’ and a horrifying response to ‘Clones’ a ‘Safe’ star wars film that did just enough to curry good favour felt like water in the desert. This? This is curdled milk in cinema form.

The action scenes are CG heavy and nothing we havent seen in the previous two movies, the pacing is awkward, lumbered and overly slow. The tone is awkward, overly cold and lacking a sense of depth, the way the characters have been treated given the last 2 entries is frankly shameful…This film to me at least? smacks of the vibe that the studio knew this trilogy was DOA (in there opinion) and that they wanted it closed and gone as swiftly and safely as possible.

and on the rewatch, I felt that hard. A real letdown, It’ll be a LONG time before I give this one another spin…If I fancied watching some ‘Star Wars’ a couple of weeks ago…Im positively fatigued by this point…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker/

If one of my biggest gripes with ‘The Force Awaken’s’ was that I felt it played things ‘too safe’ and relied too heavily on call backs and references to try and secure an older audience while encouraging a younger one. Then ‘The Last Jedi’ is a film that inverts that.

A film that challenges (or at least attempts to challenge) what the point of ANY of these movies is about. A film that gets oddly philisophical about the nature of good and evil, dogma and morals. ‘The Last Jedi’ picks up with the rebels on the run from the ‘First Order’ and Rey trying to get Luke to both come and help the rebels defeat the order, AND show her a bit more about herself, and how to unlock her own Jedi powers.

The problem? is that Lukes become dissillusioned with the Jedi, the force…all that stuff, after a particularly bad experience. He wants nothing to do with Rey or any of her business and basically wants to be left alone to live out the rest of his days on an island as a hermit.

While this is going on, Kylo Ren is getting increasingly frustrated both at his inability to capture Rey or the rebels AND by comparisons being drawn to him basically being ‘baby Darth Vader’. Via the force Kylo and Rey communicate multiple times and slowly begin to exchange base level beliefs, softening one another to the others stances.

Oh! and Finn wakes up after being gravely injured in the last film, decides enoughs enough and tries to escape, only to be stopped by a rebel named ‘Rose’…the pair find themselves in a strange and cookie B-plot adventure at a casino involving freeing an army of puppy horses and getting acquainted with a Han Solo style scoundrel with a keen eye for lockpicking.

And…Honestly? there wasnt really a whole lot I actively DISLIKED about this one. I thought the script was a nice subversion of expectations, pulling away from the formula in some regards (it bottles it towards the end, but for most of the runtime, its nice to see the Jedi and Sith get played down as just cosplaying space police/nazis)

Its because of that challenging of convention that I can totally understnad why some of the more hardcore elements of the fandom actively hated this one. But realistically, while I cant say it nails every plot thread it touches, I’ll always champion a film that tries something different with successes and failures to show for it, than one that plays it safe hoping to cost on fan appreciation.

The script heres largely punchy, seems to ACTUALLY get the tone of the original films about right in terms of mixing darker more unpleasent moments with lighter SINCERE comedy thats more than just ‘suave one liners’ and awkward fumbling (See: The MCU). They maek Old Luke and Leia feel much more in character than the previous entry, its got a solid 3 act structuring and I feel the characters get the chance to be much more fleshed out and interesting than they were in the first film.

The downsides do unfortunately stop this one though from fully crossing the line into ‘Classic’ terratory for me. The chief amongst them being that the 2nd act gets WAY too bogged down in trying to create artificial tension. It quickly devolves into people just talking in quite nicely lit rooms, and not really saying a whole lot other than how awful the first order is or how powerful Lord Snoke is.

I feel like the finn and rose B-plot at the casino gets way overplayed and seemingly only exists because the writer/director didnt really know what to do/care about Finn, so they just shoved him into a seperate story for an hour and a half before reuniting him with the rebels. Which made me feel bad for John Boyega who seemingly was INCREDIBLY enthusiastic about his involvement in these films, had a decent hand in the first one, only to find himself basically put in the broom cupboard for most of this movie with not a whole lot to do with the main story.

I also quite struggled with Carrie Fishers turn here as Leia, I get the feeling Rian Johnson didnt really know/care about Leia as a character…so she seemingly spends 90% of the movie just looking a bit sad/lost and making wisened remarks about the force and keeping faith in your actions…OR shes there to basically do the whole shrugging ‘Dont look at me!?’ comedy bit when they wanted a younger/more atheletic actor to do something more action heavy. I feel it did her a disservice really and after her appearence in the first film seemed to give her a bit more fight, here she’s kind of dull really…

That does kind of feed into the key theme of this film though, which is the idea that relics SHOULDNT be idolized and SHOULD be left in the past. The ultimate end message resolving that to ‘The past is the past, you design the future, but that doesnt mean you cant take the good from the past with you INTO that future’.

This film really tries its best to wind down luke, leia, the falcon, han, chewie…all of the old guard. I feel that was the correct thing to do and and I think it was (mostly) done successfully…again im sure there’ll be many who disagree with me. and Its a real shame that this ‘changing of the guard’ wasnt doubled down on and cemented into the next film as I feel with the right kind of investment in the new characters we could have helped establish a new generation of heroes for the kids of tomorrow to appreciate more fully.

Instead, the next film pretty much returns to revearing these characters and underplaying the new crop. Leading us to the inevitable problem of stagnation later down the line…But thats a problem for another movie.

Outside of the script? I honestly have no other faults for this thing.

The directions gorgeous and probably some of the best visual and creative direction seen since ‘Empire’ theres some phenominal lighting and colour play across the runtime, this feels like an incredible leap in quality over ‘Force Awakens’ to me.

Direction of the cast is a big step up as well, allowing the cast to loosen up a bit, get a bit more raw and emotional and allowing them much more freedom to explore the set spaces and utilize props, the deliveries come across as (mostly) more naturalistic and believable. I honestly think this is one of the most stylish attempts at making a Star wars movie in at least the last 40 odd years.

The cine is rich, sumptuous, the CG elements are prominant but not aggressive, compositional choices are frankly INSANELY good. the edit is near frame perfect with just the right cuts and transitions hitting at JUST the right time.

The performances, loosened from their shakles are rock solid, very animate and physical, with just the right level of energy and charisma put into it. again, this is the closest to capturing the energy of the first couple of films that ANY of the sequels have managed before. Other than Carrie Fisher being left a little high and dry, I had no complaints from ANY of the on screen performances.

And the soundtracks awesome…its still Star Wars, but its used well here.

I have a real soft spot for ‘The Last Jedi’ quite honestly if it was 20-30 minutes shorter, gave Leia a bit more character and lost a few of the more pointless call back moments. This would BE my favourite Star Wars film. A film that challenges the franchise in a way that it hasnt previously, I really wish Johnson had stayed on for the finale honestly…But…its the 21st century and we arnt allowed to have nice things I guess…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/star-wars-the-last-jedi/

After a near 10 year absence from theaters (and a hand acquisition by the Disney corporation) ‘Star Wars’ returned in 2015 with a new trilogy and promise of a new expansive universe (largely modelled on the success of the MCU).

The first of these? would be 2015’s “The Force Awakens” And…well…Disney basically wanted a ‘safe’ bet, and thats pretty much what we have on our hands here…

A significant (but undisclosed) period of time has elapased since ‘Return of the Jedi’ Luke Skywalker has gone into hiding under mysterious circumstances and hasnt been seen in a decade or two, Han Solos vanished as well and Leia is now leading the last of the resistance against a newly reformed ‘Empire’ made up of the surviving factions, rechristened the ‘First Order’ and bought under the direction of one Kylo Ren (as instructed by a mysterious ‘General Snoke’)

For us? the action picks up with Rey, a scavanger on a desert like planet who’s just about making ends meet, when a BB-8 droid appears out of nowhere, shortly followed by a mysterious gentleman called Finn who’s claiming to be from the resistance (but is actually a stormtrooper from the first order who fled the army as he realised it really wasnt for him.)

The film from here basically follows the pair as they (accidentally) steal the millenium falcon and (accidentally) end up running into Han and Chewie, leading to much adventure and a startling revelation that will set Rey, Finn and Kylo on a new path of destiny that may well decide the fate of the force once and for all.

And if you want my quick caption summary for this film, its basically 25% original story elements leaning more into world war 2 style storytelling (but with more emphasis on how the Nazis were portrayed in film, rather than how they ACTUALLY were in real life) with a few post modern swipes at modern culture thrown in for good measure, married up to 75% plot beats and elements from the three ‘Original Trilogy’ movies.

I cant go into detail as to exactly WHAT plot elements are lifted from the three films, but anyone who’s familiar with the original trilogy will notice key points from ‘Hope’, ‘Empire’ and ‘Return’ are all present and correct here, just given a new lick of paint and more modern cinematic twist…Oh! and because this is a Disney movie and disney REALLY wanted to hock AS MUCH MERCH POSSIBLE in order to justify George Lucas’ MASSIVE payday for selling the rights, expect a TON of callbacks, references and nods to the old films thrown in for good measure.

I mean…its a weird place to be put in as a film critic, because on the one hand I REALLY wanna slap this film for its absolute laziness in just cobbling together a plot out of offcuts from the last 6 films into some kind of ‘Cinematic meat obolisk’. But on the other hand, having seen the behind the scenes on this thing, the attention to detail in nailing those elements was frankly insane. They went as far as to shoot on the same cameras using as close an approximation to the film stock that was used for ‘Empire’ to get the specific look and feel, all the callback props are either refurbished originals or 1:1 highly detailed replicas. Its insane.

In terms of the script, its fine…maybe a little slow at times. But when the film is basically doing the cinematic equivilent of ‘Upcycling’ and this is the first part of a trilogy, there isnt really a whole lot I can say. Its got a semi decent 3 act structure that transitions between the acts pretty seamlessly, theres a few minor pacing issues in the 2nd act, but its consistant throughout…The characters (at this point) are maybe a little bland, but they develop them enough across the runtime that I feel they could have real potential in later films.

I dont feel they really quite nail the older takes on Han, Leia and Luke in this one. Honestly, other than to have them in the trailer, I feel like, if anything the shadow of there presence hangs WAY too heavily over this film. They’re treated with reverence, when realistically NOONE should really know who Luke or Han are, outside of die hard war afficionados, and Leia *should* have a bit more of a status, but is kind of downplayed. Everyone looks old, tired…and it really contrasts agains these fresh faced new characters in a way that feels less ‘changing of the guard’ and more ‘We wanted the likeness rights so we could do T-shirts…’

The tone is more in line with what worked so well in the original films, than with the prequel movies…But it suffers a bit from ‘Marvel’ syndrome, where every characters ‘Charisma’ is to just be a bit snarky and awkward a few times across the runtime…which is a bit of a shame.

On the direction and cine front? its got JJ Abrahams in the hotseat, he’s got a proven track record and ‘safe’ is about as good as it gets here, there are WAY too many ‘homages’ to the older films for my personal taste, but it all looks great for the most part, Im glad they’ve seemingly learned from the ‘Prequel’ trilogy and paired back on making every single scene an overstuffed CGI smeared nightmare, but it does still creep in from time to time.

As for the cine more broadly? shots are well composed, they borrow heavily from ‘Revenge of the Sith’ and ‘Empire’ for colour palette inspiration, the edits a little *too* busy for my taste at times, and the use of CG driven transitions in places didnt quite land for me…But its a Disney grade studio production, so it was always going to be ‘good’. The broader issue is that because its trying SO BADLY to not end up being another ‘Prequel’ nightmare, it fails to really define itself. To the point that it never really goes above ‘Good’ and into something truely ‘era’ defining. It just does what it does quite well and then gets out of there. Which…for the time when this film came out, was something I feel ABSOLUTELY was needed for the franchise, a strong safe opening and a good foundation to build a new trilogy from.

Unfortunately; having now seen the trilogy that followed, it does rather leave this film feeling less like a promising opening to what could be an astounding trilogy, and more like the old sailors tail of the ships captain who saw a ghost on a bridge waving in distress and warning not to sail, days before the ship capsized killing all on board.

The Soundtracks fine. Honestly? the whole movies fine to good. And realistically? I think this is a solid way to get kids of the ‘now’ into Star Wars and as a gateway to get them into the older films. Its probably thge easiest watch out of any of the films released to date. But its not original, and while the attention to detail is incredible, it fails to really, truely capture the whimsy and adventure that these films generally thrive on.

Overly safe to its own detriment, ‘The Force Awakens’ is FINE. but its not great and struggles under the weight of its own assumed legacy. Definitely worth checking out (and encouraged) if you’ve never seen a ‘Star Wars’ film and are looking for a good ‘in’ point. But if you’ve seen the other films a million times, I think you may start find it a little TOO comfortable a watch.

direction of the cast is a little lacking, theres a certain coldness to the way the cast have been asked to perform here and it does lead to deliveries that make the more lighter moments of the film feel a little out of place and strange. Again…its fine for the most part, but it struggles in places.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/star-wars-the-force-awakens/

The concluding part of the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy is a little bit of a bumpy landing for a franchise that, up till this point had managed to pull of the seemingly impossible task of getting ‘Lighting in a bottle’ twice in a row. And while it still manages to succeed on most fronts. I have to be honest when I say that its an entry that really struggled to hold my interest.

The plot picks up around 6-12 months after ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ Hans still frozen in Carbonite, Luke has vanished to complete his training and 3PO and R2 are back on Tattoine trying to rescue Hans cryopod from the lair of Jabba the Hutt.

After a somewhat spirited escape, its revealed that the empire has been constructing a 2nd EVEN MORE powerful death star that, this time is reinforced by a shield thats being beamed up from the planet Endor. While Luke goes to confront his father and the Emporer once and for all, its down to the rebels to get down to Endor, drop the shields and take out the deathstar once and for all.

And, realistically, there isnt a tremendous amount to criticize the film on visually. While (I feel) it may not pack the punch that ‘Empire’ managed with its use of colour, composition and blocking. Its still a rather nice film to look at that has a keen eye for a good visual and the use of colour, while a bit more muted, is still pretty decently handled.

The direction too is pretty solid as well, with some heavier Blue screen and CSO work creeping in to the fray compared to the previous two entries. The film still manages to utilize cutting edge technology from the time to deliver a creatively compitent piece that mixes in a wide range of styles and methods to deliver an end product that…while not UTTERLY breathtaking, is still a damn site better than a lot of the stuff that was coming out by this time.

Equally, I cant fault the soundtrack, which…now seems to have a bit more of a poppy influence in places vs the previous two movies…but for the most part is business as usual…if not a little strange at times.

For me? its the script where things really seem to have started to go a bit wrong. at 2 hours and 11 minutes, this is the longest film in the ‘Original Trilogy’ and was kind of the last chance this series had to make these films run to 2 hours or less. After this it was kind of a set standard that these movies (FOR SOME REASON) had to be 2+ hours long…Even if it was to the total detriment of the film itself.

My criticisms for the script really arnt anything new, with the biggest issue I found simply being that it feels like Lucas and Co sacrificed giving the trilogy a coherent and high quality send off, so that they could instead insert AS MUCH opportunity to make and sell merchandise as possible. Its no secret that Lucas decided to ask for a percentage of merch profits in lue of an actual payment for these films…and it feels here like he was basically trying to ‘Cash Out’ after the success of ‘Empire’.

From Jabbas palace, to Bobba fett, to the Ewoks EVERY. SINGLE. THING. that happens in this script is seemingly motivated by ‘how many T-shirts can we make with this characters face on?’ or ‘How many micro machines playsets can we sell of Jabbas palace or the death star?’

Its an element that basically infects and influences almost all other aspects of the production. The characters all feel underwritten, in part because I think they realised at this point that ‘Star Wars’ was a VERY lucrative kids market, so they toned back the nazi-isms and more philosophical tones in favour of making it more kid friendly, but also because of the toy-commercialization of the film itself, it means Han, Luke, Leia and the gang just…arnt really in this film that much…and if they are they’re more just standing around or trapped somewhere rather than ACTUALLY directly engaging in the plot…And no. In my opinion BEING there while the actual plot unfolds…But not really doing anything DOESNT constitute ‘Being involved.’

The Ewoks are fine in my opinion, but slowly become more and more prevelant until…basically it becomes impossible to really do anything other than watch the Ewoks do stuff. It really undercuts the ending of this film to go from a very Poigniant moment between Luke and Darth Vader, to a Ewok jamboree 5 minutes later with funky dunky ewok music and the little bastards doing cartwheels.

Because of this, the pacing takes a hit too, we end up with a Firey and fantastic action packed opening act, that gives way to a yawning chasm of a 2nd act…and then, just as things start getting kind of interesting in the 3rd act it all comes crashing to a halt with the Ewok Jamboree.

It leaves the audience with a script that DEFINITELY feels geared towards much younger kids vs what came before it, thats sacrificed some of its darker tone, its complex characters and its interesting narrative direction to push Ewok lunchboxes. I can only imagine what went on in a kids head who saw the original ‘Star Wars’ when they were 8, and were greeted with THIS as a 14 year old…

The other issue for me really is the performances, they dont feel as acidic, they dont have the darker tones to them. I dont believe Han ACTUALLY even shoots anyone in this film. Everyones been toned up a little more, they’re lighter, more comedic. The will they/wont they between Han and Leia has been simplified into a younger persons concept of love, rather than the more mature direction of it in the previous films. Harrison ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie fisher are all still delightful to have on screen. But you get the feeling they were done with the series by this film, and the overly simplistic dialogue and scaling back of the bite probably only weathered them further on the production. They were good! But not great…

For me? ‘Return of the Jedi’ IS fun and IS watchable…But its NOWHERE near as good as the rest of the films in this trilogy, its the first (of many) missteps in the franchises history and while I wont begrudge another rewatch in future, I dont think i’d ever really CHOOSE to just watch this one. Its definitely in the upper half of the ‘Star Wars’ films…But it lacks the ‘spark’ to take it into being something truely ‘Great’.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/return-of-the-jedi/

This is probably going to be the shortest review i’ve written for a movie on here. Mainly because…its ‘The Empire Strikes Back’…Theres nothing I could add, no pithy observation, no new nugget of info…It’s a film thats been (rightfully) mined to death.

So I’ll keep it brief and personal. My one critique of ‘A New Hope’ was that, at times it felt a little bit ramshackled, and Lucas’s remedy of slapping CGI all over it, FAR from ‘fixed’ that issue. Otherwise, its a DAMN fine movie that VERY easily shows why it, alongside ‘Jaws’ helped ‘Save Hollywood’ in the 70s…

‘Empire’ has EXACTLY the same sentiments, but now has the budget and resource to fix the ‘Rickety’ problem. It now Looks great, has a fantastic script, an astounding score and some of the best performances of the entire franchise.

Pound for pound? I think i’d still lean towards ‘A New Hope’ as a personal preference as I feel like it works (marginally) better as a self contained work, But I cant deny that this film is as impressive today as it was when it landed in 1980. Its easily (in my opinion) the best ‘Star Wars’ film made to date. and is an absolute ‘Must See’ for any afficionado of ‘Sci-fi’ as a genre.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-empire-strikes-back/

I think its kind of easy to look at the original ‘Star Wars’ and take it for granted. Its a little rickety by modern film standards, but this alongside movies like ‘Jaws’ helped essentially bring the Hollywood system back from the brink of literal death. And even to this day, rewatching this film for the GOD knows how many-th time. Its kind of easy to see why. 

For clarity, ever since I managed to get ahold of the HD ‘Despecialized’ versions in the early to mid 2010’s (Versions that attempt to restore the film as closely as possible to their original theatrical premier iterations after Lucas basically tweaked, upgraded and altered the film with near enough every single home and theatrical release this had) The ‘Despecialized’ versions have been my go to for rewatches.

And…honestly? what is there to say really…it’s ‘Star Wars’ Often imitated, rarely equalled its near enough the perfect blend of JUST the right elements on almost every front, to create something that…for the time was genuinely a form of revolutionary cinematic recycling. 

The scripts well paced, doesnt overstay its welcome, has near seamless transitions between the act structures. It balances dark themes with a lighter and genuinely comedic tone at times. It isnt afriad to be silly, witty or charismatic. The characters all have a degree of depth, nuance and come across as sincerely genuine and likeable. 

The directions near enough perfect, as is direction of the cast. The cine is rock solid utilizing technology that, for the time was in and of itself a marvel. 

The casting is LITERALLY perfect, the editings razor, the scoring…a delight. 

I dont really have much more to say other than that. Its a damn fun film thats maybe a *little* creaky by 21st century standards. But I figure this Lucas Kid is gonna go places if he keeps this kind of thing up!

https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/star-wars

Watching the ‘Star Wars’ movies in order, a problem quickly presented itself to me…’Wont the transition between the ‘Prequel’ trilogy, and the ‘Original’ trilogy be a little jarring?’ I mean…the prequels are all CGI heavy love ins using (at the time) cutting edge technology, where as the Original trilogy is pretty much the exact opposite y’know? VERY practical effect heavy, all real sets and locations…good…its like the total oppostie of the prequels!

WELL! It seems the question was somewhat resolved by ‘Rogue one: A Star Wars Story’ A film that…has its problems, but does a DAMN good job of smoothing over the transition from ‘new’ to ‘old’.

The film basically recalls the events of a rag tag group of outcasts trying to locate the plans for the ‘Death Star’ to help aid The Rebel Alliance…Basically, a key part of ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ is that some rebels managed to smuggle the Death star schimatics out of an empire base and transmit them back to HQ where they’ve been decoded to help give the rebels an edge against the empire…This film tells the story of that. Its a small part of ‘Episode 4’ but its a key part. So it is kind of interesting to see it realised on a big screen budget.

This is a good AND bad thing because, on the one hand it sets the film slap BANG in the middle of one of the most interesting points in the ‘Star Wars’ universes history. the initial battle between the empire and the rebel alliance. On the downside it means the films problems are now twofold because it suffers from issues that plagues the ‘Prequel’ AND ‘Original’ trilogy, rather than just one of them.

The script, personally? I thought was solid…But a little flat. I think the overarching narrative is pretty solid, I thought the first and 3rd acts were fun enough…But at some point towards the end of the first act it kind of settles into a steady pace and just rides that right up to the finale…which pretty much killed the momentum of the film for me, because…not only does not a lot happen for most of the second act and bits of the first and third, but compounding that issue…NON of the characters are particularly engaging.

They’re all just kind of…skills, placed onto people. So you’ve got a robot thats good at processing data (basically your door opener) you’ve got a blind martial arts expert who can see using the force. a weapons expert, a pilot…and our main protagonists whos main driving personality trait is they’ve both had hard upbringings under the rise of the Empire…But in giving them that as their personality in the NOW it means they’re incredibly bland when it comes to wanting to know them as people IN the now.

The pacings kind of stop start as well…Theres plenty of references to the source material that led to the origianl trilogy here (vietnam, samurai movies, the old flash gordon serials) But they really arnt subtle about their inspirations here making it particulalry dull for people with a level of media literacy…the original star wars didnt exactly HIDE that stuff…but it did a better job than this film.

The directions actually probably this films high point, its a really solid hybrid of on set and location work, enhanced with some CG elements. basically mash up the creative styles of the ‘Prequel’ and ‘Original’ trilogies and you get this film. the styalisation is largely in line with the ‘Original’ trilogies sensibilities, but occasionally you’ll get those grand and ultra busy (and slightly annoying) Prequal style scenes where they just fill the frame with as much crap as they can throw at the screen. I will give them some credit however, they’ve at least toned down just HOW busy the frame can be at any one time…which is a small mercy.

Which leads me to the ‘Horrors beyond our comprehension’ part of the direction…(and VERY mild spoilers here) but they ressurect Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher using CGI welded onto an actors face…Fishers likeness is brief and…I didnt think it was half bad…But Cushings!? its uncanny valley, he looks like a dead eyed CGI puppet interacting with real world people…its hideous…they could have achieved a greater effect by simply masking his face and keeping his role to a minimum…but instead I dont get to sleep tonight…yay.

The cines a step up from ‘Episode 3’, but probably not as good as ‘Episode 4’…again, the use of ACTUAL sets and locations is an absolute boost for this, compositional choices are rock solid…its a disney studio picture…this thing COULDNT fail on visuals…it literally wasnt possible…so…at minimum it’s good…at best it has some of the best cinematography in a Star wars movie since ‘Empire’.

Performance wise…I cant fault the casts physicality, they bring a lot of themselves to the role…But I just dont feel there was enough ‘character’ there to really win me over. and no. ‘Character’ doesnt mean ‘Delivers snarky one liners every other scene’…Felicity Jones is probably the best of the bunch in the lead as Jyn Erso, but thats because her character is traumatised, seeking closure and stoic…so the dialogue and way the film sets her up perfectly aligns with the tone of delivery, shes brill.

But as for Donnie Yen, Diego Luna, Forrest Whittaker and Mads Mikkelson? I felt nothing…they were all too flat and serious, there was no real range other than sadness and anger…and even then they struggled to muster even that…And the comedy…good god, the ‘comedy’ in this is pitiful. PROPER eye rolling attempts at gags, it did nothing for me and if anything turned me off the production.

And the soundtrack? its star wars…it cant be bad.

I feel like, as a transitionary film to get you from ‘Episode 3’ to ‘Episode 4’, ‘Rogue One’ does a fantastic job of adjusting the Star Wars universe so that the age difference between productions isnt as noticeable…However, as a film by itself…while fine for the most part and largely enjoyable, it just…drags…SO bad. It has nice moments, but a strong overreliance on knowing the Star Wars films inside and out so that you appreciate all the little references, combined with quite dull characters…kind of makes this a film that i’d absolutely watch again if I was watching ‘Episodes 1-6’ But not one that i’d watch as a standalone.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story/

And so, I arrived at the final part of the ‘Prequel’ trilogy, and it was a first time viewing to boot! After ‘Episode 2’ managed so entirely to sour my feelings towards the Anakin arc, I just…never could be bothered to find out exactly what happened in the end. and I do kind of regret that a little bit.

The film still has a lot of problems that the previous entries had, an overreliance on CG, overly busy frames that detract from the overall meaning and enjoyment of the composition…stilted and semi awkward dialogue and arguably one of the worst ‘NOOOOOOOO!!!!’s in cinematic history. BUT! there is a lot of good to be found here as well!

The script feels incredibly refreshing offering a vaguely coherent plot that carries for 3 acts quite comfortably, there are a few plot decisions that seem a bit farfetched to me personally and the pacing is still quite out of whack (but thats seemingly more of a ‘prequels’ problem than something unique to this film).

I think the significant difference between this film and the 2 before it, is this one actually feels like the writers were having fun. The first film felt like they were setting the table for a grand plan, which backfired spectacularly forcing them to alter their vision. The second film felt like 2 and half hours of ball fumbling. But ‘Episode 3’ has a lot to work with, key among them being the rise of Vader and the key beats for ‘A New Hope’ being established.

And I feel (for the most part) that the film handles these elements well. Its pooling from a solid source material to help establish the framework, they tone down the romance elements and go back to focussing on the key elements that made the franchise popular, rehashing and recycling old 40’s and 50’s adventure movie tropes.

That isnt to say the film isnt without it’s problems however. there is a LOT of padding present here, scenes run for WELL past their shelf life and the final fight runs to just shy of THIRTY FIVE Minutes and left me flip flopping between it being a fun and engaging finale, and border insufferable.

That being said, the characters are given a bit more…well…character…here. In particular Obi Wan and Anakins relationship seems a lot healthier and stronger than the previous two entries. Padme and Anakin actually get to emote a fair bit more, which helped things along. and the random aliens and comedy 50’s diners are paired back in favour of an espionage thriller plotline that I felt handled itself quite well honestly.

The direction and cine have the same issues from last time, just slightly less prominently. We still have a film that was seemingly almost entirely manufactured in a computer…which is a shame. But they do utilize more real set spaces for a big chunk of the runtime here, theirs a nice creeping sense of familiarity as the tech featured in the ‘Original’ trilogy slowly creeps into the fringes of this film.

Direction of the cast seems more relaxed and naturalistic. Theres still an heir of stiffness about it, but nowhere near as bad as the previous entries.

The cine is vivid colourful and arguably holds some of the more iconic imagery of the prequel films. I dont feel it really pushed the boundaries of what *COULD* have been on screen, but its arguably one of the least offensive on the eyes.

That being said, the edit is still QUITE a mess here. while we have less plots than the previous films, it still feels like quite an intense juggling act to follow Anakin, Obi Wan, Padme, Yoda, Palpatine and the 10 or so supporting cast plots as they all semi converge and run independently across the runtime. There really was no way to cut this thing to make it feel like a smooth and coherent production. But the editing team have tried there best.

Performances too get a bit of a boost Hayden Christiansen’s turn as Ani is more emotive and has a little more complexity here over his previous appearence. I still wouldnt say it was great…or even good. But its a lot better than last time…so thats a plus.

Ewan McGregor as ‘Obi Wan’ is probably the strongest performance of the trilogy here for me. He gets a full and well rounded range, he works with dry and witty and genuinely emotional scenes well. He has a decent physical presence and after two films of essentially playing a slightly quirky introvert, I feel here we really get the best out of the character…and i’ve made a note to check out that ‘Obi Wan’ Disney+ series he did recently, based solely off his performance here.

Score? John Williams. Nuff Said.

This is about as good an end that the prequels could have hoped for. Given the utter mess that trailed before it, I came away from this one ACTUALLY feeling like I just watched a ‘Star Wars’ movie. It had a semi interesting and fun script, it toned back its excesses to moments that really counted and the cast seemed to have been given a bit of leash to work more of a range. All small and incremental improvements. But ones that have added up to this probably being my favourite watch of the three and a relatively solid way to lead into the ‘Original’ trilogy.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/star-wars-episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sith/