joebloggscity

You know if you come to this movie without any idea of what it will be about, you will be shocked. It's kind of a mish mash of ideas, but clearly takes a lot of influences (if not rips) from Tarantino's cult film "From Dusk Till Dawn", although before anyone complains, Tarantino himself has never shied away from admitting that he 'steals' ideas (his word) and doesn't do homages!

Anyhow, we have Prohibition Deep South, with our lead characters starting up a Juke & Blues House for a good time, and it encompasses various themes and ideas of the time (e.g. Colour, post-slavery, emancipation, cotton fields, racism etc).

The acting is superb, and the direction is brilliant. The storyline is very engrossing, albeit I have to admit the final quarter of the film kind of lost it for me, although I still enjoyed it in a kind of B-movie kind of way.

It's a fine film, and really the greatest credit I can give it is that it's great to go to the cinema to watch something fresh and different that is smart & funny. I hope this trend continues.

Worth viewing.

Killing Zoe is one dark toned indie bank heist thriller that really I wish could be more recognised than it is. This film likely would possibly not be still known if it wasn't for the arguably tenuous "produced by Tarantino" tag it has had since its release. However that's an injustice to what is still a clearly impressive movie despite a clearly limited budget.

The general storyline centres around an American visiting in Paris, Zed, who after a dalliance with an escort girl (Zoe) in his hotel, hooks up with an old French friend (Eric) & his mates for a major bank heist. The big catch is that this group about to take on the robbery are a motley crew of heroin junkies, whilst Eric as their leader is a total psychopath. Zed is a safe-cracker but inevitably finds himself in danger too, with the catch being that he & Zoe have fallen for each other and finds her as an employee in the bank he is robbing!

This film is is a mish mash of ideas, but for its time quite left-field as films like Trainspotting & Heat had not not yet been released whilst Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs was still very new. I'd say this is like an old 1970's nihilistic thriller, think of it like a darker hard drugs infused Dog Day Afternoon (a film I adore).

The lead roles are perfectly set (Tarantino actually wanted to play the Eric role but thankfully was passed over). The show stealer French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade as Eric who is the lead antagonist & sadistic junkie who will stoop to any depth to survive the death trap that the bank heist becomes. Eric Stoltz & Julie Delpy are excellent & believable as Zed & Zoe. He is uncomfortably brilliant in his portrayal, reminding me of his brilliant take in Queen Margo. Some surprise cameos too including one from Gary Kemp (a familiar face to British viewers).

This is a thrill ride of a movie that really pushes boundaries in taste, blood shed and even bank heist drama. For an indie movie, you have to give the writer and director his due here. What a great achievement, that really paved the way for his often understated role in the success of the soon to come Pulp Fiction.

After all these years, Cobra Kai has just completed its final run and I just can't speak highly enough of it.

It was quite clearly a show that was expected to fall flat on its face, as has been the case with so many spinoffs. Yet the show runners have somehow avoided the many pitfalls that has wrecked so many other similar attempts. Having started on the now defunct YouTube Red Channel, this series built up from humble attempts & a clearly limited budget, and defied the odds to deservedly become a huge worldwide success.

The writers centred this around the now older sparring pair from the original film, in particular around a redemption story of old school bully Johnny Lawrence whilst former protagonist Daniel Larusso finds out his life is out of balance despite all the success he has achieved in life. They are back at each other's throats despite ultimately wanting the same thing albeit following different paths.

Bring in a whole myriad of teenagers as the new pupils and we have a new set of storylines entwining through as the youngsters grapple with which karate styles & philosophy to follow, to discover there's a lot of shades of grey. Add in the surprise return of many of the characters from the original films (most often in cameo roles) and it's a pure delight to see the stories unfold. Seeing so many return shows how well they remember the old movies.

There's plenty of surprises, with the writers willing to subvert expectations without upsetting the core ideas of the films. Misdirections are often a risk, but you can see the writers respect the original storylines and faithfully thought all through before executing it. Clearly the show's writers are as big a set of fans of the original films as many of us are.

I'm keeping it all to a minimum as best I can here, but I just have so much good to say here about it all. Really this is a brilliant series with a multitude of story arcs which will keep you engrossed. There's great humour, action and drama along the way. Not something that I expected. The returning characters are as happy to be back as our lead actors, and you can see this means so much to them.

The emotions this series will bring out in you will amaze you, especially if you're from a generation who remembers the first film when it came out and the impact it had on many of us. The core themes & ideas remain, just even more humour. The writers of this series deserve more accolades & respect for this incredible effort than has been shown to date.

I just can't recommend this series enough to you all.