BEFORE: Boyd Holbrook carries over from "Vengeance". He's also in the new Indiana Jones film, but I'm not ready to watch that one just yet. I mean, I may watch it about two weeks, but I'm not going to post the review until September, it's better for the chain that way. But sometimes the same people keep popping up again and again, like I used Karan Soni as a link in July, and I'm going to use him again as a link in August, sometimes that's just how these things go. I've got another way to link to "The Dial of Destiny" when September rolls around. But after this, Alicia Vikander's going to get me all the way to Movie #4.500.
Right now I'm still figuring out how I'm going to see "Asteroid City" before it disappears from theaters, it might disappear after movies like "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" open up. I'm going to take a chance and try to see "Asteroid City" next Tuesday, when only one theater in Manhattan will still be playing it - I bet I can probably get a killer seat.
This one's on Netflix, don't know much about it - but I've made great strides in chipping away at my Netflix list, it's down to just about 115 titles, but that includes a couple comedy specials and a series or two, so probably about 110 movies.
THE PLOT: Following a tragic car accident in Greece, an American tourist finds himself at the center of a political conspiracy and on the run for his life.
AFTER: And what do I do on my nights off from watching movies, you might ask? I am trying to slow my pace down and only watch 25 movies in July, after all. Well, honestly, I watch more movies - but ones I've seen before, so they don't count. In preparation for the new "Indiana Jones" movie, I watched both "The Last Crusade" and "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" - the latter was the FIRST movie I reviewed for my blog, WAY back in 2009, and I don't think I'd watched it since, I've been too busy. (There's no need to ever watch "Raiders" or "Temple of Doom", because I've seen each one like a thousand times, like the original "Star Wars" trilogy. I could probably re-watch any of those movies just by closing my eyes, seriously.). And I've also recently re-watched both "X-Men: First Class" and "X-Men: Days of Future Past" because they're both awesome, and, well, OK maybe that's preparation for the new "Deadpool" movie, let's go with that.
But damn, seeing anything with John David Washington in it makes me want to re-watch "Tenet", which I only watched once, about two years ago - what a GREAT film, you can keep "Oppenheimer", just leave me with "Tenet" and "Interstellar" from the Christopher Nolan filmography. OH, and his "Batman" trilogy for sure, I'm probably due for a re-watch of "The Dark Knight Rises", I only watched that one once, too. Maybe I should give "Inception" another try while I'm at it, too. It couldn't hurt. I saw a co-worker watching a piece on YouTube about how they filmed the hallway sequence, and I felt the need to clue him in about both Fred Astaire AND Lionel Richie using the same technique to dance on their respective ceilings. Hey, I'm hear to educate, no judgments for sure.
By no means is "Beckett" a total mind-bending effects driven film, like "Tenet" was - but really, what else is? By comparison, "Beckett" is a very simple film about a guy who's being hunted down across - Greece, right? And he's not really quite sure WHY everyone is trying to arrest him or even kill him, but it's got something to do with what he saw when he crashed his car into a house. And it's also got something to do with an upcoming election in Greece, since for some reason the boy he saw in that house is also on the poster for the rally of this liberal politician, what could that possibly mean? I think it means that based on this film and "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent", the only thing that screenwriters really know about European elections is that they can be heavily influenced just by kidnapping a politician's family members. Umm, that's just how it works over there, right?
See, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for everybody wanting to kill Beckett - but I wonder why he doesn't ever jump to the conclusion that maybe everybody in Greece is really racist. Like, imagine if they were trying to shoot and stab him just because he was black? Man, that would be a very different film. No, the story never goes there, which is a good thing, but still I wonder why HE never thought that the violence was racially motivated. Lots of old and conservative people in Greece, just saying.
NITPICK POINT: Beckett goes back to the house that he crashed into with some pills, and he's so despondent over the accident that it seems he's going to kill himself. But then someone fires a gun at him, and he runs away - when just a minute ago, he was ready to commit suicide. Is that really what it takes to snap somebody out of their depression, just take a shot at them, so they'll quickly rediscover their will to live? I'm not sure it works that way - if he were really suicidal, why wouldn't he just sit still and allow himself to be shot? I can't really tell if this sequence of events makes sense or not.
Beckett relies on the kindness of strangers to make his way to a train station, so he can get back to Athens and reach the U.S. Embassy - but the police are everywhere, and most likely the people who helped him out ended up being injured or killed by the cops - just what, exactly is going on here? And then even once he reaches the embassy and shows his passport, can he even trust the diplomats inside to keep him safe, or are they also in on the conspiracy? There hasn't been a character on the run this confused about what's going on since "The Fugitive". And in a similar fashion, it's going to take a lot of effort for the main character to clear his name, and he can't even turn himself in, because he's seemingly committed crimes in the process of saving himself.
This makes two films in a row where the local police are seen as essentially useless and/or possibly also corrupt. I can't help but wonder if either of them, or both, were filmed during the "defund the police" movement back in 2020. Just a thought.
Also starring John David Washington (last seen in "Amsterdam"), Vicky Krieps (last seen in "A Most Wanted Man"), Alicia Vikander (last seen in "Tulip Fever"), Maria Votti, Panos Koronis (last seen in "The Lost Daughter"), Lena Kitsopoulou, Yorgos Pirpassopoulos, Filippos Ioannidis, Omiros Poulakis, Marianna Bozantzoglou, Andreas Marianos, Yorgos Vasiliou, Olga Spyraki, Marc Marder, Spyros Dimitrakakis, Ilias Pistikos, Nikolas Kounelis, Thomas Sketzas, Kostas Siradakis, Makis Papadimitriou, Abe Cohen, Sana Garner, Daphne Alexander (last seen in "The Ghost Writer") and the voice of Michael Stuhlbarg (last seen in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness").
RATING: 6 out of 10 beehives on a Greek hilltop
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