THE TWO POPES

Release Date: Netflix Malaysia, 20 Dec 2019
Genre: Drama

Running Length: 2:05

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce, Juan Minujín

Director: Fernando Meirelles

Screenplay: Anthony McCarten

Based on true events, THE TWO POPES imagines a meeting between Pope Benedict/Cardinal Ratzinger (Hopkins) and his future successor, Pope Francis/Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (Pryce). Benedict is a conservative leader while Francis is more of a liberal and modern thinker; and one of Pope Benedict's harshest critics.

I was expecting this movie to be dry and talky-talky. Yes, it's talky-talky but it's absolutely not boring.

There are elements of faith in this movie but the filmmakers are more concerned with giving us an inside look on the political side of the church and a rare behind-the-scene peek into the process of voting for a Pope. 

Of course, the highlight to me was seeing the meeting of the two men of faith. The bulk of the film happens when Pope Benedict summons Bergoglio to visit him in Rome with the purpose of informing him of his resignation, and tries to convince him to be his successor. 

What really spoke to me was seeing Bergoglio trying to avoid his destiny to be the future world leader because he felt undeserving due to a crisis of conscience (he was scarred by a particular incident that happened to him when he was a young man, shown here in flashbacks).

The performances from both Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce are on point. You can see both their character's arc transform on screen throughout the course of the movie. The dialogue is sharp and peppered with just enough humour to make me see them as imperfect humans; one more close-minded than the other, but both equally passionate for God and compassionate for His people.  

What I also like is the unconventional cinematography and editing choice the filmmakers made to keep this film moving along swiftly. The decision to use the shaky cam approach for some scenes were distracting at first, but overtime, it did successfully gave us the audience, a more intimate and almost voyeuristic view into the conversations of these two godly men.  

This is such a fascinating movie as it demystifies these divine men as mere mortals, and surprisingly, it made me reflect my relationship with God and who I am as a human being.  

RATING: 8.5/10

THOR: RAGNAROK (2017)

Genre: Action / Adventure
Running Length: 2:13
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Mark Ruffalo, Tessa Thompson, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban, Anthony Hopkins
Director: Taika Waititi
Screenplay: Eric Pearson and Craig Kyle & Christopher L. Yost

Oh wow. There's just so many things to sing praise about THOR: RAGNAROK I don't even know where to start. Well, let's just start with the overall reaction.  You know when someone asks you how was a particular movie and you would reply with an auto-response, "Yeah...it was fun"?

Well for Thor: Ragnarok, it's ACTUALLY really fun and enjoyable!

But most of all, this third standalone Thor film is hilarious! At times, I felt the overall tone was heavily inspired by Deadpool. Throughout the movie, I was thinking to myself, "How did Waititi get away with all these jokes?? I thought Marvel movies have a certain template the director must follow or else they would be fired/leave due to 'creative differences'?"

The comedy keeps on rolling, one after another. And the range is wide covering wit, self referencing jokes, gags, slapstick and meta humour. Thankfully, most of them lands and works really well.

In terms of the plot, Thor (Hemsworth) tries to stop Hela, the Goddess of Death (Blanchett) from destroying his kingdom, Asgard. But he accidentally goes on a detour to the planet Sakaar, where he is enslaved by the Grandmaster (Goldblum) and made a gladiator, and is forced to fight The Hulk (Ruffalo).

That said, as entertaining as it is, this is not a perfect movie. There were times I really wished the filmmakers didn't go overboard with the jokey tone but balances it out with some really serious emotional moments. There was probably one or two of such scenes but it was few and far between. And the villain was forgettable.

However, as for the performances, thanks to Waititi, he was able to get Hemsworth into a comedic groove, making his character appearing like a charming male dumb blonde (which I think is perfectly fine!). Ruffalo's fish out of water moments were absolute gold. A special shout-out to Tessa Thompson's character Valkyrie - oh my, she's so hot! Her charismatic performance here reminds me of a female Han Solo. Even the director himself appears as a memorable trash talking pile of rocks. And watch out for the cameos!

The action scenes are good but what's even better is how good this movie looks. There is this flashback scene of The Fall of The Valkyries which is absolutely stunning. But what's EVEN better is the game-like synthesizer infused soundtrack and the use of Led Zeppelin's classic, "Immigrant Song". Yes, that's THE song used in the trailer and it actually appears in the movie!

Indeed, the third time is the charm.

RATING: 8.5/10