“Don’t let them get to you. You are worth so much more than this.”
There is a lot of charm in Jackpot, a film that is relatively light on its feet and a charming showcase for stunt choreography.
That said, Jackpot suffers slightly from the sense that it needs to be just a little bit sharper and more cynical, as the film softens the edges of its dystopian premise and lacks the killer instinct implied by its set-up. Jackpot is…
“Can you be my daddy? He won't do it anymore. And my real daddy won't do it. And that bastard, Dr. Raglan, won't do it anymore. You see, my real daddy rejected me. And my surrogate daddy rejected me. That's just f&!king wonderful, don't you think?”
For all of the emphasis on Cronenberg’s films as body horror, the grotesque physical transformations tend to be manifestations of his characters’ inner lives. The body horror is just a literal manifestation of some…
“I broke history. Eric Stolz is Marty McFly.”
There’s an interesting sequence early in The Flash, where Barry realises that he has effectively rewritten history. This revelation doesn’t come with the discovery of any significant global events. This isn’t a world where the Soviet Union won the Cold War or where the British Empire still exists, where Al Gore won the White House or where 9/11 never happened.
Instead, Barry discovers that the universe is broken because intellectual property has…
“Get away from her, you… b-b!tch.”
Look, it’s odd enough when fictional characters know something they said in an earlier film is a meme - “I’m something of a scientist myself” or “some motherf&!kers always trying to ice skate uphill.” However, it is even stranger to have a character quote an iconic line that a franchise lead who they will never meet will say at some random point in future continuity, to get a cheap cheer from the audience. It’s…
