The Pope’s Exorcist (2023) with Russell Crowe and Franco Nero. Some of the YouTube movie reviewers were merciless with their criticisms of this movie. But, I enjoyed it, and thought that it tread into new territory regarding the subject of exorcisms. In this case, exploring evil unleashed by the historical sins of the Church. It was loosely based on the work of real-life exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth (1925-2016), who was featured in an interesting 2017 documentary by William Friedkin (The Exorcist), called The Devil and Father Amorth. I wasn’t expecting too much, except a fun time out with a friend of mine. I will admit that my spag west nerdiness became unleashed over what Franco Nero’s role would be as the Pope who helps Amorth (Crowe) exorcise a powerful demon with a hidden agenda, who has possessed a young boy. Would he get a gatling gun out of a past pontiff’s tomb beneath St. Peter’s Church in Rome, bless an arsenal of bullets, and save the possessed boy, his angsty teenage older sister, and their Spanish castle-flipping mother from the demon a la Django style? Alas, this did not happen. Nero has a small role. But, Amorth came across as sort of the boozey, anti-establusment, anti-hero His Holiness uses to go after the foul-mouthed, cockney-accented demon. I had a few laughs over the possessed boy’s lewd comments. At times he sounded like he was possessed by a character from a Guy Ritchie movie rather than one of Satan’s higher-level minions. As Amorth, Crowe steals the show, and his performance keeps the movie interesting during its slower parts. If you plan to watch The Pope’s Exorcist with the hope of the greatness of The Exorcist, you will be disappointed. If you go with the mindset of Crowe giving a great performance as an Italian priest, Franco Nero as the Pope, and a plot that brings new ideas to the cliched exorcism horror subgenre, you may have an enjoyable time!
I saw Le otto montagne and Master Gardener a couple of weeks ago. Thought both were OK, nothing more. I still enjoy seeing movies on a big screen, and one theater near me will bring in Korean movies that I am unlikely to ever find on Blu-ray, so I try to catch those.
There is so much good stuff that has come out of Korea. I’ve only really gotten into Korean cinema over the past year or two but now I am totally addicted.
I really like how Korean films shatter genre conventions, such as a policier in which the cops never solve the crime spree, or mash together a couple of seemingly incongruent genres, as Bong Joon-ho did with The Host, which is both a family drama and a giant monster movie. And think that Song Kang-ho is the best actor working in movies today. If you haven’t done so already, try to find Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird. As the title indicates, it owes a lot to spaghetti westerns, and in my opinion, it’s the best action of the last 15 years, and Song is a hoot as the rough equivalent of Tuco.
I have seen The Good, the Bad. the Weird and agree about Song Kang-ho. He has been in some classics. The first film he was in that I saw, and the one that first truly got me curious about Korean films in the first place, was Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder. I followed that up with Jae-woon Kim’s I Saw the Devil and I was hooked.
No offense, but I think I will pass. Seeing two movies in the theater in no way makes up for having to live in that absolute and complete shit hole of a city that sits inside an absolute and complete shit hole of a state.
And, while I mean no offense to anyone that may actually live there, I have made it my personal mission in life to never go near that “hellscape” on earth again unless someone is giving me a very…very…very hefty check to do so.
Interstates full of bumper to bumper traffic, smog so thick at times that you can barely see, non-stop forest fires that are a direct result of the powers that be being too stupid to clean out dead underbrush in wooded areas due to the fact that it might disturb the habitat of some bug that then ends up barbecuing in that aforementioned forest fire. Political correctness run amuck. Homeless that “we need to find a way to help” up until the point they show up in just the right neighborhoods at which point they must be jailed and hauled away. Human excrement on the streets (especially in San Francisco). Earthquakes. Political leaders that shut down entire cities during Covid with stay inside orders issued while they in turn ordered restaurants opened so that they and their friends could party without being subjected to the little people. Crime run amuck (new laws made the theft of $900 or less a misdemeanor where the thief is cited and released), high taxes, and ridiculous regulations forcing entire corporations to leave the state due to the high cost of doing business. Wal-Mart, Target, and Walgreens are closing their doors in the most high crime areas due to the fact that whole gangs come in and loot the store while, in many areas, the police are restricted from lifting a finger to do anything about it. To me anyway, this looks, sounds, and smells exactly like a shit hole.
Yeah, it isn’t pretty. I read that between April of 2020 and July of 2022 that the population of California decreased by over 700,000 people. There probably won’t be more up to date numbers until next month.
I lived in California for a short while in the early 90’s and remember that a lot of locals had a negative opinion of LA.
I just went there for a few days to Disney/Universal studios - I enjoyed the trip as a tourist.
My first experience of the spaghetti junction of roads leading into the city was quite daunting.
Ridiculous regulations? Which such? * Note: I don’t want to start a off-topic political discussion - which is why my reply is a bit late - I just wondered.
… and I thought my hometown was a shithole, but it’s paradise by comparison.
*