Film Round-Up: The Forever Purge, The Father and Jungle Cruise
Hello.
The Forever Purge
The Purge is back and instead of ending as it usually does, the all crime is legal night continues due to a gang of rebels. It’s probably time to end this franchise. Not because this film is terrible, because it isn’t. It’s fine. But I think it’s run out of tricks. These films have always been overtly political and have been retroactively enhanced by the events in US politics which made you go from ‘This is poor commentary because nothing like this would happen’ to ‘Oh crap someone might be stupid enough to do this’. Of course it still makes little sense as the last film in the chronology abolished The Purge and now it’s back with little explanation. But heyho. The film is fairly well constructed and while it is a blunt instrument in terms of it’s commentary on immigration, it does know what it’s trying to say and can convey that to the audience. Something that basic is beyond some film makes unfortunately. It is fairly unexciting though and the series feels like it’s running on fumes after five movies and two television seasons. Which means more are coming obviously.
The Father
Anthony Hopkins suffers with dementia while his daughter Olivia Colman tries to do her best for him. Dementia will always be a tough subject to tackle because almost everyone has been affected by it in someway as we have all likely seen a relative lose themselves to it. And thankfully there is no need to make any more films about dementia because this is the definitive one. No one can do it better. This film wants to make you feel like you have dementia and it uses so many different film tricks to do so. Actors are swapped out, scenes are seemingly repeated as if you are in a time loop and it often feels like scenes have been missed out in the edit as characters refer to things that don’t seem to have happened. It is frustrating and it does start to make you angry, just as Anthony Hopkins’ character does when he isn’t sure what is happening. This is a tough, brutal movie which is going to hit too close to home for some. But it is absolutely brilliant.
Jungle Cruise
Emily Blunt enlists boat captain Dwayne Johnson on an adventure to help her find the Tears of the Moon, a myth that is said to cure any illness or curse. So what we have is a charismatic captain and a tough British woman coming together to go on an adventure which involves mythical curses. Also, it’s based on a ride from Disneyworld. Sounds quite familiar doesn’t it? Yes, this film will be very familiar to those who have enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It has a similar tone with it’s swashbuckling qualities, focus on several different types of bad guys and also just enough horror to make the young ones feel brave for having got through it. It is definitely not as good as The Black Pearl though, but it’s still fine. It’s entertaining enough and the fact it feels a bit old fashioned can work against it as well as for it. I do think it will keep the family entertained on movie night, but I doubt you’ll be rushing to rewatch it constantly.
