This is a terrible film in so many ways. A mish-mash of sub-Tarantino delight in violence and death, Baz Luhrman-esque style ‘postmodern’ spectacle, superhero cartoon, and God alone knows what else (as the credits roll the music harks back to Spaghetti Westerns!).
Oh, and I’m not a fan of Guy Ritchie (or Madonna, for that matter).*
It’s really disgusting, with its totally pornographic revelling in murder and butchery, it’s love of crass populist fluff, and, to cap it all, some ‘woke’ bullshit liberally sprayed over everything, like the topping of some mad turf trifle.
In spite of – or because of? – all this and much more (or is it less?), I enjoyed this ludicrous big-budget soufflé of total and utter bollocks.
It claims to be based on historical reality; Operation Postmaster. But this is a Commando comics on Angeldust ‘reality’, in a world where only surfaces are truly real, all taking place in a kaleidoscopic multiverse of mirrors.
And all of it connected to yet another crazy fantasy world, that of Ian Fleming’s James Bond. So this movie can, in addition to all its other magpie thievery, hitch a ride on the coat-tails of the 007 franchise.
Who cares about history or reality, when you can submerge yourself in rivers of Nazi blood, amidst barrels filled with human hearts? Panem et circenses, indeed.
*Both are consummate producers of ‘product’ in/for the shiny ultra-commercial pop age.
