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Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
2018 | Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Mystery
This film was just a mess. There are so many characters thrown in that it's hard to care about any of them. They aren't given enough time to be fully fleshed out or even memorable. I don't remember the names of even half of them. And while we see Grindelwald commit a few crimes, in the end his motivation is to stop police brutality and prevent World War 2 from even happening. If he's painted as anything in this film I would maybe say he was more of an anti hero than a villain and that's not what he was supposed to be. Don't even get me started on his non relationship with Dumbledore. JK Rowling wants all of the credit for having a gay character without doing any of the work. I find it to be annoying. In the trailer, Dumbledore is shown in front of the Mirror of Erised, that shows him Grindelwald. So I had some hope that their relationship would at least be mentioned in the film. Nope. Not even a little. They had a gay character in the same way the live action of Beauty and the Beast did - in that they didn't. Unless you squint.
  
Kin-dza-dza! (1986)
Kin-dza-dza! (1986)
1986 | Comedy, Sci-Fi
Soviet-era comedy-SF resembles a high-speed collision between Mad Max and The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy as directed by Terry Gilliam. Earthling Everymen are accidentally teleported to the post-apocalyptic dystopia of Pluk, where lower-caste citizens must wear bells in their noses, social status is determined by the colour of your trousers, and most of the local language translates as 'koo!' Can they persuade a couple of dodgy locals to help them get home?

Possibly a little bit slow and overlong, and many of the jokes are probably too understated, but the desolate alien world is well-realised on a low budget (special effects are sparingly used, but look good when they are) and the intricately ridiculous society of Pluk has been worked out in impressive detail. Hard to tell whether the satire is aimed at capitalist society or communist, but perhaps this is the point: life on Pluk may be unfair, arbitrary, and often unintelligible, but then isn't that true everywhere? Well-played, solidly scripted for the most part (end comes unravelled a bit), very watchable and entertaining.