Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Easy E wrote:

Red Notice
It reminded me a bit of the Man from UNCLE remake from Guy Ritchie in tone and feel.

Completely skippable, but not bad either.

I rather liked UNCLE for that reason. It was palette cleansing. I'll have to give this one a go.

Double tap of mediocre tonight...

GI Joe Retaliation (the one with the Rock and Bruce Willis)

Saw this in the theaters soon after the Wonder Twins were born. I remembered the zipline ninjas and Big Bruce's House O'Guns. Turns out those were the only parts worth remembering.

Shame because they sure had a lot of talent in this, Bruce and Dwayne, Ray Park, Adrianne (Agent of SHIELD) Palicki, that guy from Game of Thrones, that other guy from that movie, lots of good folks. And just nothing worth watching out of it. Just using the classic cartoon theme in some way shape or form would have raised this a star or two.

Arnold Schwarzeneger in RAW DEAL

OK so Arnold is like infiltrating the mob or whatever and gets sent to kill the only guy who knows he's undercover and so he goes into rampage mode and kills everyone. A film most remembered for Arnold's custom gun.

It's not just that the film is totally lacking in drama or characters we care about, it's that fight choreography sucks. Just guys standing in the open firing guns. A lot bloodier than most 80s flicks but that does nothing to help it. The penultimate fight in a quarry is decent enough but the rest is awful.

Somehow in all my years of cable TV, VHS, and Blockbuster nights I never, ever saw this and I didn't miss anything. Ah well I got a few lines for my ongoing Arnold in 40k fanfic so there's that.

The worst bit is, per wikipedia, this is the film we got INSTEAD of Conan 3 from Arnold. Tough I still hold out hope for Conan the King staring Governor Schwarzeneger.

Vendetta (2015)

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, it's a vigilante/prison action film starring Dean Cain, Paul Wight and Michael Eklund. Directed by the Soska twins, written by Justin Shady. I mention the latter two (or three rather) because up to now I knew nothing of the Soska twins, but I'm very sure that Justin Shady is not the writer's real name.

Copdetectiveman MASON DANVERS (just one step away from Mason Storm and played Dean Cain) is forced to watch his wife getting beaten to death by bad people. He goes into the prison these people sit in to get his revenge. Warden (Eklund) and prison guards are evil, as are the evil inmates. Paul Wight is huge and is boss of the gang who killed the wife.

This sets the stage for a clichéed prisonrevengeactionfighty film. I generally don't like prisonfighty films much, because I often find them too violent. I can deal with Mean Machine or Tango and Cash, but that's about the extent to which I'll enjoy such films. However, I was intrigued by the cast. Paul Wight is huge and perfectly fine an actor for the roles he's predestined to play, Michael Eklund is playing the prison warden kinda like the baddie in The Professional (but of course just to 20% of the effect. He does a LOT of leaning down and talking real closely to people though. He's a close talker!).

I thought even back in 2015 Dean Cain only did films marketed towards Evangelical Christians in the US any more, so I was surprised to see him in this one. I'll always have a soft spot for Dean Cain. I mean he's Superman! And he played Santa Claus on Frasier. AND he starred in the Warhammer film alongside Jimmy! But yeah, I've never seen him in a good film. Actually, Vendetta probably is my favourite Dean Cain film now. In fact, this film kinda convinced me, that Dean Cain - for all his inherent prettiness - might make for a good action lead. He looks surprisingly grim in this film, and the action scenes work really well.

The somewhat interesting twist is that between Dean Cain and Paul Wight, the prison warden Eklund (he's got an evil name too, something like Snyder or something like that) is a third power factor, trying to cut deals with both men as he sees fit and furthers his own goals and so on. Especially the scenes between him and Wight's gang boss (did I mention that he's huge?) are pretty fun, as the warden has some leverage on Wight's character, so we see him going from defiant to worried to angry and all of that.

Again, it's not a good film by any stretch of the imagination. It's full of clichées, the interesting bits aren't very clever at all, it's still very violent, but at least they didn't try to put comedy in there. For how basic a film this is, it's not bad. The three leads help, especially Dean Cain. He really surprised me there.

Don't Watch, because why would you. It's not horrible though and made me laugh here and there.

I re-watched a pretty poor film the other evening called Rat Race (which was an early 2000s re-imagining of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad world). The film hasn't aged well but one bit that was pretty amusing was a great helicopter chase sequence, where Dean Cain had cheated on his girlfriend (she is flying the helicopter) and she goes after him in his truck. Apparently it won a load of awards for stunt actions, film is probably worth watching for that sequence alone! It's one of the only movie appearances by him that I can think of.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Double tap of mediocre tonight...
Arnold Schwarzeneger in RAW DEAL

OK so Arnold is like infiltrating the mob or whatever and gets sent to kill the only guy who knows he's undercover and so he goes into rampage mode and kills everyone. A film most remembered for Arnold's custom gun.

It's not just that the film is totally lacking in drama or characters we care about, it's that fight choreography sucks. Just guys standing in the open firing guns. A lot bloodier than most 80s flicks but that does nothing to help it. The penultimate fight in a quarry is decent enough but the rest is awful.

Somehow in all my years of cable TV, VHS, and Blockbuster nights I never, ever saw this and I didn't miss anything. Ah well I got a few lines for my ongoing Arnold in 40k fanfic so there's that.

The worst bit is, per wikipedia, this is the film we got INSTEAD of Conan 3 from Arnold. Tough I still hold out hope for Conan the King staring Governor Schwarzeneger.

I agree this is probably one of the weakest of Schwarzeneggar's actions films, certainly for that period of time when he was at his peak. I most remember it for the brilliant trailer, "nobody gives Schwarzeneggar a raw deal!" cue him machine-gunning people.

Henry wrote:

 Easy E wrote:

Red Notice
It reminded me a bit of the Man from UNCLE remake from Guy Ritchie in tone and feel.

Completely skippable, but not bad either.

I rather liked UNCLE for that reason. It was palette cleansing. I'll have to give this one a go.

Have a look at how much that film cost! An insane amount of money, something like $200 million +. I think most of it went on the actor salaries.

That's the thing I don't get about many of these Netflix films - how come they cost so much money for results which often look like direct to video flicks with big name value stars? They really seem like something that's put together by an algorithm. But then my opinion on those films is entirely hypocritical, because I don't watch them. HOWEVER, I get them advertised to me, and that irks me in itself. I hate the golden egg!

Dean Cain was in Warhammer, I'd like to think that he was in some sort of die hard clone?, he certainly was in God's Not Dead 2 or Heaven is For Real or something like that. I just checked. Holy cow. Since 2020 he's been in 25 films (8 or 9 thereof in post-production). Loads of his role start with "pastor" in these films. To be honest, seems like he's a good'un. Or well connected to some crazy cult.
...
Just did a quick check. Interesting dude (in that complete blandness he embodies of course), but seems to be decent overall. He's got traction with the right-wingers, but nothing crazy, it seems. Doesn't really matter either. Still, he seems to be well in demand, which is nice.

The Man Who Knew Too Little

Comedy spy thriller starring Bill Murray as Bill Murray, and a lot of now quite big name British actors.

It’s quite good fun, if clearly low budget. Plot is Bill Murray is visiting the U.K., and is meant to go on a live interactive street theatre thing, but ends up mistaken for a spy. From there the relative hilarity ensues.

Bill Murray is clearly having a great time in it, I’ll give it that much.

Moonraker

Take what I said about Spy Who Loved Me and turn it up to 11.

Some dudes steal a fething Space Shuttle so James Bond has to bed this girl in California, who sends him to bed this girl in Venice, who send him to bed this girl in Brazil during Carnival who puts him on a fething Space Shuttle into Space and then the Space Marines come and have a laser fight in Space and then he has sex with the second girl but now in Space.

Grade AA Bond Cheese.

Laser fight was shorter than my 7 year old self remembers though.

The best thing to come out of Moonraker were the Lasers in the Goldeneye Game.

Infinite ammo. Infinite ammo!

Have you any idea how I terrorised my foes as soon as I got one?

Z triggered more than Trump supporter presented with facts, though probably not quite so long because such an instance with a Moonraker laser had a definite end point.

I may have to try Octopussy next, the only Bond film I'm not confident will make it through the language filter.

And yet it did!

I bloody love Bond films. They’re all quite silly, but in different ways and to different degrees.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The Producers (2005)

God I love this film. It’s a solid satire on the show biz industry and “Hollywood Accounting”.

The show they put on should by all rights be highly offensive, regardless of your political or religious preference.

That Mel Brooks himself is of course Jewish isn’t in itself an excuse. But good gravy he carries it.

He sends it all up. Every aspect of the film’s plot is made suitably ludicrous.

Just….watch it. It’s so, so good.

Watched Belle at the pictures today, and it was bloody amazing. Beauty & The Beast meets The Matrix meets Macross Plus, but at its heart is a very down-to-earth story that is not in the realm of fantasy nor science fiction.

Went in all gangsta, came out trying not to cry...it was that good.

Redline

A very good anime film that's basically Speed Racer on steroids with gorgeous animation.

I'm kind of ashamed I've never heard of this movie. I had heard Madhouse went bankrupt back when and barely came out of it, but I didn't know the full story or that this film played into it.

Short, this film bombed hard at the box office. I assume it had to be a marketing failure because this is one of the best animated movies I've ever seen IMO.

The story is fairly generic, especially for a sports anime but the draw of this is the artwork. I really miss hand-drawn animation. No one really does it anymore and this was apparently one of the last animated films to use hand-drawn art in Japan when it released in 2009. That's the real draw for this one IMO. The action is over the top. The characters are standard fair but fun. The art is fantastic.

Actually, that might not be fair.

A lot of the style of the film is very familiar now, but this movie came out in 2009. The influence on subsequent works like Kill la Kill stands out really hard when watching it.

Movie has a very solid English dub.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
The best thing to come out of Moonraker were the Lasers in the Goldeneye Game.

I'm sorry but I must disagree.

First of all there is the astronaut/CIA agent Dr. Holly Goodhead, another name that should not get past the language filters. Kyoto Secunda and her Clone Sister assumed it was because she was so smart and we'll just leave it at that.



But more importantly is the aptly-named Venice Coffin Assassin. When Bond is in Venice cruising around in his gondola (as one does) he passes a funeral boat. The coffin slowly opens and a dude sits up and throw a knife into Bond's Gondolier/MI6 contact and then throws a knife at Bond himself.





Which just raises so many questions. If you know which canal James Bond is going to be cruising down and have time to arrange a funeral boat with fresh flowers, why go with a knife thrower and not like a bomb or a speed boat full of guys with machine guns (which they do in the next scene). Why did the knife thrower kill the gondolier first? Was he somehow the greater threat in the picture?


https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/Venice_Coffin_Assassin

Now the audience (and the James Bond Wiki) of course assumes that the Venice Coffin Knife Throwing Assassin was hired by Drax to kill Bond, but that's just an assumption. What if the Gondolier was the target and he just threw a knife at Bond as a warning? What if the Secret Guild of Venice Coffin Knife Throwing Assassin Undertakers is in the middle of a Hundred Year Vendetta against the Secret Guild of Venice Spy Gondolier Assassins and Bond's contact Franco was just the latest victim? Or what if the Venice Coffin Funeral Boat Knife Throwing Assassin wasn't an assassin at all but a Venician serial killer fond of throwing knives at random passers by?

The point being, Bond films never seem able to decide if he lives in a semi-realistic world where when you need to kill someone you send a speedboat full of guys with guns to kill him (which they do twice) or a bizarre operatic world where you send Knife Throwing Undertakers, Koreans with buzzsaw top hats and Kendo Masters with wooden swords to kill him.

Frankly I prefer the second world very much.

Now obviously when they finally start making films set in the Greater James Bond Expanded Cinematic Universe the first beneficiary should be Jaws, who is the stand out henchman in this film. But after that I am totally down for GJBECU: Venice Coffin Assassin The Motion Picture.

Addition:

The other stand out from Moonraker is the U.S. Space Marine Corps.

https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/Colonel_Scott

For the climax Bond is trapped in a Space Station so the Americans quickly send up a shuttle full of U.S.S.M.C. Drax sends out his goons in space suits, so the shuttle opens up and out comes like 100 guys in space suits with laser guns to fight them.

In the Greater James Bond Expanded Cinematic Universe does the United States just have shuttles full of guys at Vandenberg Air Force Base ready to launch on a moment's notice in case James Bond and Dr. Holly Goodhead need help?

Apparently they do.

So when the GJBECU streaming channel launches I definitely want a U.S. Space Marine Corps show. I see it as a one-set sitcom where the Space Marines sit around the U.S.S.M.C. rec room playing ping pong and swapping jokes waiting for the go call (which never comes). Basically Cheers meets MASH meets Waiting for Godot.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The Producers (2005)

God I love this film. It’s a solid satire on the show biz industry and “Hollywood Accounting”.

The show they put on should by all rights be highly offensive, regardless of your political or religious preference.

That Mel Brooks himself is of course Jewish isn’t in itself an excuse. But good gravy he carries it.

He sends it all up. Every aspect of the film’s plot is made suitably ludicrous.

Just….watch it. It’s so, so good.

I watched the original Producers recently and thought it was ok at best. I have enjoyed the other Brooks movies I have seen so I was a bit disappointed. Is this worth a watch if I didn't enjoy the original?

House of Gucci.

Latest Ridley Scott's movie, with an all star cast. I admit, I only watched it because I adore Lady Gaga and I was curious about all the critiques about the accents.The important thing here is that italian americans don't sound like italians speaking in english. At all. For us they just sound like normal americans, just with a minor funny accent.

As an italian I can give my two cents: Adam Driver, Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino for the entire movie sound like english native speakers who occasinally try to sound something else, Jack Houston doesn't even try to speak with an accent. I think all of them actually believed that talking like italian americans was enough to do the part. Lady Gaga was ok and did a pretty good job, although in some moments she does sound like a russian, but she was also the one who had the best pronunciation for italian words (Adam Driver in particular was terrible, the couldn't even pronunce "Grazie" (Thanks) correctly), but it's Jared Leto who absolutely nailed it, he really managed to talk like a real italian. I mean like an italian would talk in english, especially in the 70s and 80s, when the movie is set.

I know the producers and the directors weren't interested in realism but rather they wanted immersion for the non italian audience (aka pretty much the entire world, lol) and they had to give the cast an accent; although for an italian it does sound very odd that italian characers who live in Italy talk in english with an accent and some occasional italian word or even a full phrase. I had the same "issue" with Pixar's Luca, and also Coco a few years ago.

Overall the movie is a perfect exercise of how cinema should be done, on any possible level (except for the accents ). I didn't mind it but it's a totally uninteresting story. It worths a watch I believe, mostly out of curiosity or just to see that great cast though.

I hear you on Hollywood and accents.

The best use of language I ever saw was Mel Brook's To Be or Not to Be.

They spend the first 5 minutes of the film speaking Polish (including a full production of Sweet Georgie Brown in Polish) only for the Voice of God to announce that henceforth for the sake of everyone's sanity the film will be in English. The cast, in the middle of an argument in Polish, stop, look around, and continue in English.

I had a Johnny Dep/Tim Burton Double Feature this weekend.....

Dark Shadows

Eva Green steals the show, what little of it there is. She is electric! Too bad this is like.... 75% of a movie and can't decide how serious it wants to be. Big miss from Tim Burton. Very forgettable.

Sleepy Hollow

Now, this is a good who-dun-it movie set in late 18th century New England and full of the Gothic. Man Puritans were crazy, and we need more films to remind us of that!

Good stuff from Depp and Ricci. The other named actors are also fun. Notable for a non-Johnny Ricco Casper Van Diem! I guess there is also a certain Christopher Walken and Christopher Lee in it too.

Good stuff all around, and just campy enough at the end.

 Easy E wrote:
I had a Johnny Dep/Tim Burton Double Feature this weekend.....
....

Yikes!

Okay. alright, Sleepy Hollow is pretty good.

 Sigur wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
I had a Johnny Dep/Tim Burton Double Feature this weekend.....
....

Yikes!

Okay. alright, Sleepy Hollow is pretty good.

Indeed, perhaps his last "good" movie, but my Tim Burton timeline is on the fritz so I could be wrong.

It kind of wanted me to track down From Hell the Johnny Depp movie about Jack the Ripper?

That is a shame about Dark Shadows - I love Eva Green so had had that on my list. Is it worth watching for just being a really big fan of hers?
Sleep Hollow I remember being a good film and Christopher Walken being perfectly cast, almost like he didn't really need makeup haha.

Matrix Revolutions (2021)

Ooh boy, where do I start.. Firstly, I will say the original film is definitely one of my favourite ever films. I went to the cinema 6 times (seriously) when it was first released. It's safe to say that, as a piece of entertainment, I can't think of any other films that had such an impact on me. I don't think I'm alone in this assessment and a lot of critics acknowledge that it was a seminal release that changed the industry.
The sequels I thought had a very difficult act to follow. I enjoyed them, but despite I think the single greatest continuous action sequence ever filmed in Reloaded (starting with the car chase and simultaneous fight sequence with the Merovingian's cronies) it disappears up it's own behind too often, and some of the SFX didn't work that well. The third film again I think had a very difficult act to follow. I don't think it's a bad film per se and it did wrap up the trilogy, but I thought was the weakest of the three.

So, with my reference of my feelings for the original, the new film! I have put in Spoilers as its still a very new film. But I haven't given away any major plot points.

 Pacific wrote:
That is a shame about Dark Shadows - I love Eva Green so had had that on my list. Is it worth watching for just being a really big fan of hers?

Matrix Revolutions (2021)

Well, regarding Dark Shadows, I did not feel like I wanted my 2 hours of my life back BUT it really is not good. The conclusion is all over the place. Green is BY FAR the best thing in the movie, which is saying something as it also has Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Chloe Grace-Moritz in it; who are all very skilled performers.


Regarding Matrix:Revolutions, I put my thoughts in the thread dedicated to the film, but I will say the following:

- The main leads are great together
- The set-up of the movie is great
- The new human crew is..... forgettable (and the movie even makes a joke about it)
- The villains are underwhelming, even if the new Architect's take is very "post-truth" era
- The movie has somethings to say about our current moment compared to 1999
- The action is not nearly as good as the original trilogy, but the action is secondary. Bots are worse than agents.
- The music was a complete let down compared to the original
- This movie felt like it was made by a more mature creator

It is really hard to watch all four of the Matrix movies now and not make them into a Trans allegory, even if that is not the creators intent.

I've not seen Matrix Revolutions yet but I nonetheless have Strong Opinions about it being a trans allegory.

1-Given that both Wachowskis transitioned, and that the films are about finding the truth about yourself and the world... how can they not be?

2-Thing is though, every single of one of us has to play a role in life, every single one of us has to decide several times a day when to keep playing that role and when to step out. Calling it 'just' a trans allegory is I think too reductionist, it's about growing into something new beyond the limits you've been told about your whole life. And who among us cannot see that?

It's like when people say the X-Men about about racism or coming out as gay. You can see that yes. You can also see it as a metaphor for the generation gap (I am an alien to my parents, my kids will be aliens to me), puberty or just growth and aging in general. I didn't get laser eyes when I turned 13 but my body did some weird stuff.

So the whole idea of finding out this world is an illusion is we can move beyond it, but that the illusion is quite tempting and not without its upsides is I think the message of the Matrix. Whatever illusions we uncover or evolution we may go through in life.

 Pacific wrote:
That is a shame about Dark Shadows - I love Eva Green so had had that on my list. Is it worth watching for just being a really big fan of hers?
Sleep Hollow I remember being a good film and Christopher Walken being perfectly cast, almost like he didn't really need makeup haha.

I mean, if you're wanting to see certain assets on screen that she's rather famous for, this isn't the movie for you.


If you're a fan of her other acting skills, sure. . . Personally, I found Dark Shadows to be an entertaining enough use of time for the first view, although I doubt I'd go out of my way to watch it again

Haha no I am not too worried about that, I just find her really enchanting as an actress. She transformed Casino Royale for me and what a Bond girl could be (really the whole Daniel Craig character arc) and have always found she brings a lot to whatever role she plays.

 Easy E wrote:

 Pacific wrote:
That is a shame about Dark Shadows - I love Eva Green so had had that on my list. Is it worth watching for just being a really big fan of hers?

Matrix Revolutions (2021)

Regarding Matrix:Revolutions, I put my thoughts in the thread dedicated to the film, but I will say the following:

- The main leads are great together
- The set-up of the movie is great
- The new human crew is..... forgettable (and the movie even makes a joke about it)
- The villains are underwhelming, even if the new Architect's take is very "post-truth" era
- The movie has somethings to say about our current moment compared to 1999
- The action is not nearly as good as the original trilogy, but the action is secondary. Bots are worse than agents.
- The music was a complete let down compared to the original
- This movie felt like it was made by a more mature creator

I will say I agree with all of that!

Quite interesting comments there too Kid_Kyoto. I agree there is definitely a reflection of the creators in the film.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I've not seen Matrix Revolutions yet but I nonetheless have Strong Opinions about it being a trans allegory.

Matrix has always been about a trans allegory, since the first movie. I read about the character called Switch that was originally a man in the real world and a woman in the matrix, which explained where her/his name came from, then they changed into an androginy woman in both worlds.

Trinity is also a quite masculine woman character.

Isn't the whole thing about Neo as a hero, and all those hollywood hero stories are about the hero going from zero to hero, ie changing?

One of the cool things about Matrix 1, and in that I very much agree with Blackie, was of course the whole thing being slightly post-gender, and post-everything in general. That whole thing was settled very early on by Neo meeting Trinity in person, claiming he thought she was a dude, she's not, and that's that. It was humans vs. machines. Could do with a bit of that nowadays. Everything was very much sexless, except for Mouse (and to a lesser extent Cypher, but his sexuality was pretty much reduced to reading code).


Of course the Switch character being a dude in the 'real world', using a female avatar would have been cool (and also very much in tune with how back then [still] we perceived the internet as something liberating), but it was alright in the grander scheme of the film, since otherwise Trinity would have been the only real-world female, which would have changed the whole dynamic a bit.

Well, I recently watched the Blade Trilogy, and Dark Shadows so last night I went back to the *ahem* (post-modern) source and watched Interview with a Vampire. I vaguely recall seeing it in the theatre and reading the book. RIP Anne Rice.

Anyway, this movie..... is ..... something.

Kirsten Dunst steals the show as Claudia (So she was a pre-teen at the time) and often out acts Pitt and Cruise. PItt is terrible in this film as Louis. He is wooden, dull, and brings nothing to the part. His character is a cypher to me, but is also the protagonist and is suppose to be the "heart of the film" but he comes across as weakness personified.

The big climax against the Theatre de Vampyres is boring. The "final fight" with Santiago is anti-climactic. The whole morale or message of the film is a muddled mess. It doesn't even look as good as it should due to the darkness everywhere and the sets are a bit wasted.

Cruise is Cruise, but he does not run in this film! Huge change in casting, I guess he must not have owned the rights, wrote the script, and produced the movie too.

Overall, this movie kinda sucks. However, it is also a bit of a product of its time. It is hard to recall the hype of this movie and this book in the way back machine. It was no Matrix, or Blair Witch, or The Crying Game; but there was a lot of hype. It makes me think a bit more about the more modern Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey hype.

It's most notable feature is as a supernatural pre-cursor to Brokeback Mountain.

But there isn't even a cowboy in it!

Oh, I get it.

 Easy E wrote:
Well, I recently watched the Blade Trilogy, and Dark Shadows so last night I went back to the *ahem* (post-modern) source and watched Interview with a Vampire. I vaguely recall seeing it in the theatre and reading the book. RIP Anne Rice.

Anyway, this movie..... is ..... something.

Kirsten Dunst steals the show as Claudia (So she was a pre-teen at the time) and often out acts Pitt and Cruise. PItt is terrible in this film as Louis. He is wooden, dull, and brings nothing to the part. His character is a cypher to me, but is also the protagonist and is suppose to be the "heart of the film" but he comes across as weakness personified.

The big climax against the Theatre de Vampyres is boring. The "final fight" with Santiago is anti-climactic. The whole morale or message of the film is a muddled mess. It doesn't even look as good as it should due to the darkness everywhere and the sets are a bit wasted.

Here's the thing. Louis being a wooden cypher and the moral/message of the film being muddled is... exactly true to the book. 'Weakness personified' is... harsh, but sort of actually fair. He depressed and actively suicidal (or, rather, looking for other people to kill him) after the death of his sister/wife (the movie changed it to wife, iirc? On the basis that it would seem less creepy than sister?). Now, why Lestat is fascinated by suicidal depression is another story, but that gets into the moral/message angle. Mostly there isn't one, other than the authors love of fetishizing broken gay boys. And incest and pedophilia (but that's mostly another series. Mostly- Armand's backstory is largely about the latter). But anyway, Louis is mostly there to be a passive witness to the horrors of 'eternal life,' but mostly he just needs to be punched in the face again and forced to do... anything.

I agree that the film really tried to replicate the book, sometimes for good and ill so you had the anti-climatic ending, but indeed that's how the book ends. It leaves things open ended for the sequels. Really the 'ending', rather than the burning of the crypts, is that the reporter (Christian Slater) even after everything that has been said to him by Louis, still wants to become a vampire. And the wrapping up of the history of Louis as retold to the reporter. I thought Pitts performance was a bit like his in Meet Joe Black and Ad Astra,; of just being inexpressive. Unfortunately I don't think he can pull it off in the same way as Ryan Gosling or Mark Rylance, I guess I forgive it a bit as his character in the book isn't very flowery and is a good counterpoint to Lestat.

Interestingly Anne Rice actually disavowed the film when she heard Tom Cruise had been cast as Lestat (baring in mind he is meant to be over 6' and blonde). But, after seeing him in the role she changed her mind and actually agreed that he had done a good job. I think he captured the arrogance and flair of Lestat really well, and was really the most interesting character in the books and film.