mongbei Reviews

Leave the World Behind (2023)

Occupants of the B Ark

[5/10 · 11 February 2024]

A driven, unpleasant, marketing professional (Julia Roberts) books her family to a weekend house stay on Long Island. The husband is a fairly weak character, a lecturer of media studies. The two children are stereotypical screen dominated.

They get to the fancy house, but by chance this is the day an undetermined enemy decides to launch a cyber attack on the US and all communications are lost. Late in the evening a man and his daughter arrive at the house claiming to be owners of the house. There is a bit of suspicion caused partly by the man's unclear demeanor and the daughters arrogant behaviour. The fact that they are black also contributes to the suspicion. However they do turn out to be the owners, fleeing from the city that they know is going to erupt- as he is a finance manager who had a client who had intimated such a thing was about to happen.

So the scene is set, but the film dies not venture much beyond this point. Self driving Teslas crash. Planes crash. Propaganda leaflets in Arabic (??) stating Death to America are dropped from the air. Some people become very edgy and we see New York in flames in the distance. Animals behave oddly, there is a very loud noise. The son is sick and his teeth fall out. A prepper neighbour (Kevin Bacon) refuses to help. The young daughter finally gets to see the last episode of Friends that she has been longing for.

The financier explains the enemy's strategy is to rely on a weak country to destroy itself.

So this is the message : the US is in such a febrile state of decline that it is in danger of being extinguished. The two families are typical of soft, neurotic, self obsessed Americans dependent on technology. They are all unlikeable. Julia Roberts and her family like to swear a lot. They are prime candidates for The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy B Ark.

It is unfortunate the film did not go further. The odd animal behaviour was an unnecessary addition - and the gratitituous swearing, especially from Julia Roberts, was uncalled for - unless we are to take it that the typical American family does behave in this way, in which case they deserve everything coming to them.

Bank of Dave (2023)

entertaining until you find it's (mostly) not true

[2/10 · 5 September 2023]

Quite watchable, typical feel good British movie - in the same style as many other feelgood British movies in the past. The of Dave and many of the others is quite natural. The fellow Hugh tries too hard to play this shy awkward character - painful to watch at times.

We are taken on a simplistic, obvious, story line to an uplifting ending - passing the obligatory stereotypes on the way - hard working trustworthy northerners, nasty shallow southerners - and obligatory elements - southerner doesn't understand northern accents - the north is surprisingly nice place to be - but sill poor.

But the kicker is that when you raise a glass at the end for the inevitable successful outcome, then go to read the full story, you find that almost all of the film is artifice and you have been hoodwinked.

Surely Dave has a good story without having to add a bunch if entertaining fictions to support it?

Very disappointing.

The Constant Gardener (2005)

An engaging yarn with authentic locations

[7/10 · 8 August 2022]

This is a good film that is believable.

A quiet diplomat with an active wife are stationed in Nairobi. She uncovers some dodgy work by an international drugs company, which the British government is keen to keep hidden. She is murdered which sets her husband on an investigative trail that ends with him being murdered too, though all the culpable politicians and diplomats do get their comeuppance.

Can't agree with the downvoters who complain that there is no African voice and that this is bleeding heart propaganda. It is just a story, about an international drugs company and the British government. In a way it has authenticity in that Africa is still the playground of global interests which smothers any local voice.

I enjoyed the locations, having lived in Kenya for a while, one appreciates that they went to the trouble of going to Turkana, Kibera,Lokichogio etc. The observation of the High Commission and NGOs existing in their incestuous clique is true too.

Eye in the Sky (2015)

A tense, but unrealistic, film

[7/10 · 7 August 2022]

The British have some wanted terrorists in their sights, tracking then in Nairobi. The Americans are brought in for their technical abilities (drone flying and targeting) and the fact that one of the terrorists is an American citizen.

The intention is to capture the terrorists, but the plan has to be changed to eliminating them instead. The politicians are very hesitant in taking the decision, and there is much concern about collateral damage, but in the end they go ahead and send a couple of missiles in to finish the baddies off. In doing so, a young girl is killed.

The acting is good and believable. The pace of the film is well done with tension sustained throughout.

However, it is a fantasy. It is unlikely that there is so much concern about collateral damage as the film makes out. The Kenyan government would have been more involved. There is no part of Nairobi that has people driving around with guns mounted on Toyota Landcruisers - the director is wanting to suggest Nairobi is like Mogadishu, it isn't.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Predictable excitement

[3/10 · 1 June 2022]

If you liked the first Top Gun, you'll probably like this one. Fighter jets, macho pilots, American jingoism and cheesy dialogue. In fact this one is almost a reflection of the original, same idea in many scenes. Even the theme music is the same The high speed flying scenes were exciting, but that's about all.

The more I think about it, the lower my rating goes.

Don't Look Up (2021)

Entertaining, but only for the Americans (again)

[5/10 · 9 April 2022]

I seem to often watch films these days that are from the perspective of someone from the US, commenting only about things in the US which are then raved about by people from the US.

This is one of those films. Though the planet is going to be wiped out by the imminent impact of a huge comet, pretty well all the commentary is in the US - the US President, US talk shows,... As a satire the film lampoons US led trash society, (ironically by US actors). Reading the reviews it would appear that the people who consider the film to be a grand revelation of current society are themselves left wing US people.

The film has only a single proposition- society will take no notice of anyone with a serious message, and the only ones who will listen are the people who want to take personal advantage of your message. This sort of satire is not new. The film is an illustration of the lack of nuance Hollywood manages to achieve with this genre.

Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King (2022)

Interesting but too many unanswered questions

[5/10 · 31 March 2022]

This documentary tells of a young nerdy chap who starts a crypto currency exchange website. After a while, people using the site are unable to get their money out. Then the nerdy chap dies a suspicious death in India, only shortly after having written his will leaving almost everything to his new wife. There is an investigation by a Telegram group, and local reporters and finally the authorities. It is found that the nerdy chap had been running a ponzi scheme while helping himself to a large amount of the money. The people who lost out are told the money is gone for good. The wife says she knew nothing of her husband's business, even though there are hints to the contrary.

This seems to tell only part of the story. For example: why was the wife not interviewed or what reasons did she give for not being interviewed? Why did the reporter who went to India not dig further into the death? Why were the authorities so inactive until the very end? If the authorities could see that the money was taken falsely, then why was there no further explanation of where the money went?

The wife had had three different surnames in a very short time, why?

It was mentioned that the nerdy fellow bought an island, where was the island?

How could the co-founder of the company, apparently a prior fraudster using a fake identity, have been allowed to set up a company?

Why not interview the Indian doctor in the film rather than rely on second hand reporting?

Too many unanswered questions for a good documentary.

Army of Thieves (2021)

A waste of time

[1/10 · 3 February 2022]

Dreadfully dull and formulaic.

Chose this to watch from Netflix without knowing this was a prequel. I should have done some reading beforehand. The mention of a zombie virus should have been a warning - not interested in the zombie genre at all.

Assembling a gang of people to open some tricky safes - and then not taking all the money inside - there must be a reason surely? Motivation was not established, tension and excitement was low, characters were thin and acting was 2 dimensional and so I gave up before the end.

Very irritating dialogue - this sort of arch/quirky/cute way of talking is a chore to watch.

Overall - you are unlikely to get anything from this film therefore save your time and skip it.

Hypnotic (2021)

you are feeling sleepy.....

[2/10 · 30 October 2021]

Predictable, unexciting, cliche-ridden. The actors do try their best though.

Why is there always a lone cop who rushes in ? Why do phones conveniently die, or become unreachable? Why does nobody lock their doors?

When I count to three you will wake up and forge this ever happened.

One

two

two and a half.

The Guilty (2021)

worse than the original

[3/10 · 8 October 2021]

After a while thinking 'I have seen this before' realized that I had seen the original Danish film and this was just a copy. Only this one was poorer.

The main character clearly has some anger issues - killed someone, broken family, always shouting and being wound up by not having enough coffee. He was not good as a cop either - jumping to conclusions all the time. It is unclear that his intervention with the family on the phone had any positive impact. There was nothing in the film that made him relateable, and as he was essentially the only character in the fil, then the film was effectively a big empty thing with nothing going for it.

Molly's Game (2017)

Mildly entertaining but not engaging

[3/10 · 21 July 2021]

Summary: An accident puts talented girl (with pushy father) out of the Olympics squad. She became a cocktail waitress and transitioned into running high stake poker games. Had some scrapes, made some shady choices, but came out of it without much downside. And a reconciliation with her Dad.

She could have easily become highly successful through the traditional route of academia/picking a profession. But she didn't - it wasn't really explained.

This is a film with no message and only mild entertainment value. Fortunate whiny Americans squandering their gifts is not an interesting story for most of the planet.

The Mexican (2001)

Dreadful

[1/10 · 11 May 2021]

Who cares about the characters played by Pitt and Roberts? Why such a big deal about the hitman being gay? Why did. Pitt brutally murder him?

Why did it have to have so much nasty stereotyping of Mexico and Mexican people?

Another miserable US-centric (in all ways) waste of time.

Tenet (2020)

Half a movie for the price of one

[5/10 · 21 February 2021]

You will see everything twice- once going forwards and the other coming back. Often when seeing the other half of the scene you say 'ah yes, so that was the man in the black mask' or 'of course, it was her'. But this is just an artifice to hide the fact that we are missing the really exciting bit - when someone comes into contact with their antii-self and must instantly annihilate - I was waiting for this but it never happened.

Exciting in parts and confusing. Not very good sound and jumps between scenes were too abrupt - hopping from Estonia to Mumbai and back again without much effort.

There might be a prequel/sequel which will also be called Tenet, where they might do a bit more multiverse hopping just to mix it up a bit.

Pieces of a Woman (2020)

Why treat decent men so badly?

[5/10 · 31 January 2021]

Well acted, though a little disjointed. However I would like to focus on one aspect - the part of the husband in the film. What had he done to deserve such poor treatment? There was some simmering resentment about the wealthy mother-in-law's insistence to be always involved, and her snobbery towards his manual work.Sure - the woman had borne the child and physically suffered, but he had played his part in the marriage, worked hard, supported his pregnant wife, done everything expected of him. His wife then ignored his request to bury the baby and instead gave the body to science. His grief was completely sidelined. While everyone worried about the mental state of the woman, nobody thought to give him support (apart from the physical support the lawyer gave him). Then, the mother-in-law simply paid him to go away and 'never come back'. What was that about? The woman, or her sister, might have been expected to show some empathy with the husband but there was not one shred of it.

In the end the woman is reconciled with her mother, and the final shot suggests, ambiguously, that she goes on to have a child in some happy ending. But what about the man? They both struggled through their individual grief but there is no indication that the man recovered from his.

This treatment of the husband is similar to that of the husband in Marriage Story, which also puts the man as the bumbling, somehow culpable, loser.

The Heartbreak Kid (2007)

Ghastly

[1/10 · 21 February 2009]

This is a dreadful film.

A man hurriedly marries a woman he finds attractive. During the honeymoon he finds there are things about her that he does not like. He falls for another woman.

There is nothing to like about this film and plenty to dislike. The characters lack any dimension that leads us to feel sympathy for them. There are many horrid scenes and language that I suppose some might take as 'comedy'- but are just indicators of how far the film's perpetrators have come towards forgetting what comedy is. These characters are whining, amoral, trashy, superficial. Everything is stereotypical - from Mexico to Mississippi. The dialogue is ghastly, self-centred, American.

Actually I couldn't bear to watch it to the end - though I doubt the last 30 minutes were going to be any different.

Vile, repulsive and worthless.

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Kept me awake for a couple of hours

[2/10 · 11 June 2006]

If you like action then you will like this, but if you appreciate any sort of plot then you might just have a hollow laugh.

In the same vein as the '24' series, Cruise has a ludicrously small amount of time in which to achieve more than one impossible task. He is indestructible.

However it is not clear why he does any of these things. We know there is something very dangerous 'a Rabbit's Foot' and an ultra baddie to be dealt with, but at the end of the film we still do not know much more about these things - and find at the end that we don't really care either. Anyway - he was never going to fail was he? So we have just a sequence of actions that do nothing much to stir the blood as we are given no connection to the characters or their reasons. This is less than a Bond film and might as well be a Superman or Batman one. But I remember the original Mission Impossible TV series to be far more believable, the tension to be greater, the gadgets and action to be far more ingenuous and less reliant on guns. Maybe this is just the imperfection of memory, but at least that is how I would like Mission Impossible to be.

On a particular point I object to its use of Shanghai as pure backdrop. In fact Cruise's fall from the high building is truly impossible as the building is in LuJiaZhui in PuDong, east of the HuangPu that divides the city, but he hits the ground in PuXi (Yan'An Road?), west of the river. But that is detail, and maybe we shouldn't be worried about such petty detail in a film that suspends belief everywhere else.

So at the end - there is no point at all to watch this movie. It is purely cinematic wallpaper, eye candy for grown infants.