Bob Marley One Love

I got to tell you man, earlier today I was feeling totally not up to trekking out to the theater but you know what, I'm very glad I did.

Drumroll please. Turns out the whiter than sour cream Dude from the lone star state has barely heard a shred of reggae in his life and knew nada about Bob Marley. Shocking. However! I feel the true purpose of any biopic or documentary settled on an individual is to get you to want to learn more about them, a stepping stone to see the individual and not the star. And with such a unique and still iconic endearing figure like Bob Marley it did make me want to know more about him, to listen to his music, to expose myself further to the culture of Jamaica. So obviously this is not going to be a how accurate is this film kind of chit chat, but I will tell you it is a good movie worth seeing. The film jumps about in time from snippets of Bob's early life to his peace concerts and european tour around the late 70s, more to give a broad strokes tribute to his music and message than to be an intricate detailed study of the man himself. Speaking of which, I felt Kingsley Ben-Adir was quite good in this role and brought a spark to the screen, showing a lot of brightness but still able to get those dramatic parts across. By the by this is no doubt totally on me, but I am not super familiar with the jamaican dialect so it was tricky to get it at first but I blame that squarely on my fairly uncultured ass rather than the actors themselves. It was nice to see Lashana Lynch as Bob's wife Rita, she got some solid material to work with and was the stand out performer for me almost entirely due to the scene where she lays down the law and confronts Bob on his future. I bet she gives kickass hugs too. It's more of an ensemble cast production with a real sense of this tight knit group in Bob's entourage who are prevalent throughout the film with all the actors giving solid performances. The production quality is pretty grand too, with the 70s apparel and clever use of stock footage of legit Jamaica during that turbulent period of history. The film really doesn't shy away from the bad stuff but neither does it overemphasize it either. And to switch gears to a happier topic, I think I know how the phrase "We be jammin!" came about because I was digging the soundtrack something fierce, I would have zero issue tracking down this soundtrack and listening to all the tunes, it's just groovy good vibes all around so big thumbs up from me on that front! I like how the movie kinda has an artsy side to it, it's more downplayed but I appreciate the effort and because of it has my favorite shot in the movie and it's already a nice looking movie. It's not a great film but it is a good film and worth seeing if you like biopics on musicians or if you're just a fan of Bob Marley. I give it 3 stars, 7.5/10!

No Time To Die

As strict first impressions go I very much liked this movie but this is the first time where I am curious where the series will go from here.

As an exit for Daniel, it worked. As a Bond film I thought it was great. But it just raises too many questions, not in term of plot but what comes next? Despite my love for the Brosnan era, it never crossed my mind once what would happen after Die Another Day, the Bond series has always been something that has been a matter of fact, those movies have always been around. I was always looking back and never ahead until now. But I had a real good time with it. Does it improve on Spectre? Partially. It does it's own thing entirely with Bond coming out of retirement to usurp the new villain Safin from releasing a blood virus on the world, while he reconnects with Madeliene. It's a good plot and for an almost 3 hour film the pace was kept excellently. Craig is having the most fun I think of this role than any others in his tenure, he gets little moments of each Bond. He gets some charm from Connery, the humor of Moore, the romance of Lazenby, the cold kill of Dalton, and the action man status of Brosnan. And yeah, there was some fan wank in this film boy but I won't lie, I loved it. When I heard the chords of We Have All The Time In The World and Vesper's theme I did have an emotional response. The marketing campaign puts a lot of emphasis on secrets and changing the game which it delivers on quite a bit, but not really in the way you would think. This is one of those movie that will get an In Retrospect one day and there will be much to discuss. New additions to the cast are great with ample love going to Ana and Rami who were excellent. The action got my blood going and was always visually interesting. The sets and locations are wonderful and each used to the fullest. It all worked for me, despite there being some big notes from me. I do definitely recommend it, I would give it 4 stars, and an 8/10. Stay tuned for the also long delayed ranking of the 007 series tomorrow.