Category: reviews

Terminator: Dark Fate

And still no one’s learned …

The humans haven’t learned that if they find the melted remains of a cyborg killing machine from the future, then don’t use them to build an AI killing machine in the present.

The AI hasn’t learned that by sending cyborg killing machines back in time to prevent its eventual destruction, it will cause its eventual destruction.

It’s not rocket science!

Now, to start with, Dark Fate (bad title) asks you to forget every other Terminator movie since Judgement Day: this is the sequel; the one in which Sarah Conner drives by and saves humanity’s future.

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Film review: Joker

Every time I review a DC film, I say pretty much the same thing: they have to stop taking themselves so seriously. Well, once again, they ignored me: Joker is about as serious as you can possibly get, and it’s a much better film for it. For me, this is their best outing to date, and it’s pretty grim.

Joker is set in Gotham, before Batman and before Arkham became a rest home for homicidal super villains. The connection is there, but it’s very loose: this is not a film about super heroes, this is a film about how we’re all just a few steps removed from becoming a menace to the public.

So much for the healing power of laughter …

Joaquin Phoenix, unsurprisingly, turns in a masterful (and I mean masterful, as in ‘Oscar worthy’) performance as Arthur Fleck, a failed clown and failing stand-up comedian suffering from a range of mental ailments and perpetual bad luck. As his life spirals out of control and his past unravels around him, he becomes increasingly unhinged, delusional, and of course, homicidal.

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