CorumJI

Kinda Sorta this is a RomCom, but, really, it's not. It's a RomCom in that one of the major subplots about the story is RDJ's character screwing up his burgeoning relationship with his fiance, but the real purpose of it is a tour-de-force acting job by RDJ and the four main characters who are "haunting" him, since their souls were inadvertently attached to his as he was being born. It's funny and poignant and very very well done, as it discusses family, aspirations, bravery in life, and guilt. It's not a deep philosophical tract -- after all, it is a light comedy -- but it can be used as a springboard to discussions about any of those with friends, children, or significant others.

And yes, that is, early on, in the nightclub, Bob Newhart's son on the stage, playing... Bob Newhart doing one of his classic routines as a comedian. Just a fun little detail they threw in for no particular reason, just to put an Easter Egg in for astute viewers.

YMMV, but I find this movie to be posdef one of the ones to be "trapped on a desert island with". It is very very rewatchable.

I'm not even a full hour into it, and we've had at least one stupid thing happen -- the plot advances because the people involved are complete idiots -- and an entire action sequence that crosses well into "Oh, gimme a BREAK!!" territory as she escapes capture. She should have died at least four times, but, no, she has lucky coincidence after lucky coincidence save her stupid butt. This movie is a total failure, given the budget, because they didn't comprehend how to write an action movie without creating ridiculous action -- the actiony version of the "drama" in "melodrama", when the action is so over the top ridiculous that you are taken right OUT of the moment to go, WtF???

Yes, this is a *meloaction* movie. The later Fast & Furious movies are somewhat like that, too, but at least they are somewhat intentionally whimsical in that manner. They *intend* to be somewhat ridiculous, so they're mildly amusing, and that saves them a bit. These filmmakers think they're actually making a *serious* action film... so it's annoying instead. I'm going to watch the rest of it.

OK, I watched it all. It got worse. Not only is there "meloaction", there is considerable melodrama, as well. And no, the macguffin is exactly what you thought it was, about 30-45m into it. She gets what is a nontrivial injury, but it has no significance a day later. Oh, and, on the way out... what happened to the room with the floor? No spoiler, there, but she apparently doesn't go through it at all. A number of holes in this whole thing you could drive a bus through.

Another problem: Vikander is a freaking WAIF. Yes, she put on some muscle for this, this is clear. She didn't put on enough because she's not capable of it. The issue here, it's not that she has a small chest and LC, historically doesn't, that is the real problem. No, the REAL problem is that she's got no real muscle. There is no way she's going to fight guys and stand with them for long enough to win, even with the extra muscle. One, maybe two of the blows she takes, she shakes her head and shrugs off, more -- and she does get more, multiple times -- is going to put her down for the count. And she's rarely going to be able to turn the tables on any guy with athleticism and acrobatics, for this, she doesn't have the MASS needed... She does a flying kick at a guy and 95% of the time he's gonna *laugh* at it. Lara needs some bulk. She doesn't need to look like a body builder, but she does need to have actual muscle mass, not just muscle tone. They claim she's 53k/117 pounds, but I'm not buying it. She's more like 110 with clothes on.

Don't get me wrong, Vikander is a good enough actress, though she's given scant material in this... she just lacks the physically imposing qualities needed for this specific character. There are things you just can't fake or simulate.

It's been decades since I saw this in the theaters, so I cannot recall an awful lot about it, but one of the most glaringly bad elements of it was the horribly done fight sequences.

I specifically recall cases where they shot a kick from an angle, and it was obvious from that angle that there was no actual contact made between the kicker and the supposed target. And we're not talking a small difference, here -- this was easily a miss by more than six inches!! And this happened more than just once or twice. No effort was made to even hide the bad stunt work.

It's not the absolute worst movie I've ever seen -- that would be Manos, Hands of Fate -- but it's pretty low down on that bar. The only way you should watch this is by giving it the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment -- get a bunch of your buddies together with beer or drugs, and popcorn, and rag on it from start to finish.

Trust me, it deserves to be ragged on, more than 99% of all films.