Movie Review - Birds of Prey

Director: Cathy Yan
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Crime
Runtime: 110 minutes
Year: 2020
Starring: Margot Robbie, Rosie Perez, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ewan McGregor, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Chris Messina, Ella Jay Basco, Ali Wong

Description: After splitter with the Joker, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) joins superheroes Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) to save a young girl (Ella Jay Basco) from an evil crime lord.

Review: We met crazy anti-hero Harley Quinn in the essemble film “Suicide Squad”. Margot Robbie, as Harley Quinn, was the one that made this film better. And we all looked forward to seeing a movie about Harley. Again, Robbie is what makes “Birds of Prey” worth watching. But this is not a Birds of Prey movie, it’s a Harley Quinn movie.
In an animated intro we see some history on Harley, who was born as Harleen Quinzel. We see how she grew up with nuns and didn’t have a great childhood. Still she manages to go to college and become a pshychiatrist at Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum. That’s where she fell in love with the Joker, who dragged her to the dark side.
Back to the here and now. Harley Quinn broke up with her Joker. And there isn’t a lot of time to let that rest. Quinn has made a lot of enemies along the way and police detective Renee Montoya is also breathing down he neck.
“Birds of Prey” is not a standard origin story, of how the group got together. Because as I stated before, this movie is mostly about Harley Quinn. They get together and work together almost at the end of the movie. We are introduced to the other characters, through narration by Quinn and flashbacks. But any other characters beside Quinn don’t get that much attention. Their development is rather seen through lightning-quick flashbacks and don’t get too much depth. For instance, the main villain Black Mask, is an evil man, he is more evil then Quinn and her companions. But there is hardly any backstory.
I like Quinn narrating the story, sometimes even breaking the fourth wall, but it happens very often that Quinn stops in the middle of her story and goes back in time with a flashback. It sometimes takes some time for the film to get back to the original story, which makes the film a bit messy at times.
Despite the profusion of madness and witty dialogues and one-liners, “Birds of Prey” excels with its action and fight scenes. They don’t only pop off the screen visually, but are also very original.
“Birds of Prey” is slightly better than “Suicide Squad”. Its power is in leading lady Margot Robbie and the amazing action sequences. That is enough reason to watch this film. But character-wise and story wise it is lacking substance.

Rating: 3/ 5

Movie Review - The Dead Don't Die

Director: Jim Jarmusch
Genre: Comedy/ Horror
Runtime: 100 minutes
Year: 2019
Starring: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tom Waits, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, RZA, Rosie Perez, Tilda Swinton, Selena Gomez, Iggy Pop

Description: The peaceful town of Centerville finds itself battling a zombie horde as the dead start rising from their graves.

Review: With "The Dead Don't Die", director Jim Jarmusch adds a dry-comic zombie film to his oeuvre. The film was declared dead in Cannes, but that doesn't spoil the fun.
Agents Cliff and Ronnie make their daily rounds through the sleepy town of Centreville ('A Nice Town', as can be read on the place name sign) when something strange strikes them. It just doesn't get dark. And then there are all kinds of reports of missing pets. Could it have something to do with the 'solar fracking' that is being reported about, a peculiar phenomenon that causes the poles to shift? Be that as it may, it doesn't take long before the dead start to get up. What makes these zombies different is that they fall into old habits. One has an uncontrollable urge to drink, the other is diligently looking for a wifi signal.
The film takes place in the fictional town Centerville USA, where Sheriff Cliff Robertson, deputy Ronnie Peterson and officer Mindy Morrison form the police force that has to protect the villagers from zombies. The dry-humorous Bill Murray and the cool Adam Driver make no attempt at convincing the villagers as policemen. On the contrary: the central joke in “The Dead Don't Die” lies in the idea that the actors were asked by director Jim Jarmusch to play in a zombie film. Murray and Driver literally mention this aspect and these characters are aware they are in a movie. And two actresses emphasize it with the names of their characters: Rosie Perez is called Posie Juarez in the film and Tilda Swinton plays undertaker Zelda Winston.
Their laconic struggle against the corpses is thus comical enough for less than an hour, but when the joke is worked out and Jarmusch and the actors repeat themselves, the thoughts go out to all the zombie comedies that did shake from start to finish. There are too many of them to mention. Maybe that's Jarmusch's biggest problem: he tells a joke that was long dead and buried. And he kept coming back.
The horror comedy is one of my favorite genres, but “The Dead Don’t Die” didn’t give me what I wanted. It has a few funny moments and a fantastic cast, but this movie was super disappointing.

Rating: 2,5/ 5