Red Sparrow is a 2018 spy-thriller film directed by Francis Lawrence who worked with Jennifer Lawrence (the star here) on a couple of the Hunger Games movies, but this is a very different beast. Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova (in, it has to be said, a not entirely convincing Russian accent), and Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenarts and Charlotte Rampling star as the film's secondary characters. This one is a pretty big departure from what Lawrence has done in the past, although it has to be said that she's making some pretty bold career choices. I'm not the first one to say that, and for a good reason: it's true. After last year's Mother! it appeared as if she was trying purposefully trying to appear in more "mature" films, and believe me, it doesn't get much more mature than Red Sparrow. The film plays out like one of those schlocky exploitation from the seventies, in that there's sexual violence, sex, violence, torture, and all manner o
Young Frankenstein is a 1974 horror-comedy film that was showing at Cineworld this Wednesday. It was directed by Mel Brooks and stars Gene Wilder as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, the grandson of Victor Frankenstein. It also stars Marty Feldman as Igor and Teri Garr as Inga.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein is an American lecturer who, being the grandson of the man that created the famous novel's titular monster, is trying to build a reputation, and separate himself, from the family's history. However, when he inherits an old family estate in Transylvania, he ends up discovering he's much more like his grandfather than he realised.
Before entering the screening, I'd seen this film already, but it was quite a long time ago and I could remember very little of the plot. However, I remember it being quite good, so I was pretty excited to watch it on the big screen. This time around (I'm quite a bit older), I found it worse than I must have the first time, but there was still quite a bit to enjoy.
The cinematography in this film is easily the best thing about it, and it's clear that Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder had a lot of affection for the older Frankenstein-based films. It's shot entirely in black-and-white. That, and the campy gothic set design, elevate this film far beyond the script which, in my opinion, is a little too similar to the original Frankenstein story.
Especially in the third act, there are a lot of scenes which are too similar to some in the original Frankenstein novel, and given how different the first two acts are from it, they do feel a little out of place. The scenes are still very funny and watchable, but they don't really feel as fresh as the rest of the film.
Some of the performances are great too. Marty Feldman and Gene Wilder are brilliant as the doctor and Igor, his hunchbacked assistant. These two get the majority of the funny lines, and those, alongside a lot of well-timed visual and sound-based jokes make it a very entertaining and rewarding watch.
Unfortunately, that's also where a few of the problems come in. In my opinion, the female characters (Frau Blücher, Inga, Elizabeth), were quite underwritten and watching the film now, a lot of the jokes involving the three of them seem quite sexist and outdated. They may have been suited to the audience who watched this film in 1974, but if you're a modern viewer, they're likely to leave a pretty bad taste in your mouth.
Overall, Young Frankenstein is a funny and affectionate spoof of the old black and white Frankenstein films, and although it hasn't quite stood the test of time as well as it should have, there's still a lot here to enjoy, particularly for fans of the original Frankenstein story.
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