I watched this in anticipation of watching the second film in the series. I've saved myself some time by doing so, as I won't be going anywhere near the new one.

This hollow, soulless piece of cinematic polyester is phony and clumsy at best and simply laughable (but not in a good way) at worst. The characters are as believable as Daniel Craig's painful Foghorn Leghorn accent and the ridiculously overcomplicated plot is a time-wasting exercise in mental masturbation. The whole thing is phony to its core, and while it thinks it's clever-clever, it's simply stupid-stupid.

Naturally, since Hollywood's elites feel compelled to inject their tiresome woke politics into EVERYTHING, there is an extraneous political conversation inserted into the script, with a dig at Trump and his supporters being labeled Nazis. What's this got to do with the plot? Nothing, but the luvvies need to constantly parade their disdain for the unwashed masses who don't concur with their political viewpoint.

I've been watching a lot of classic international cinema on the Criterion Channel and I suppose it makes the contrived artificiality of films like this all the more annoying in comparison . This film fails as either entertainment or art and instead stands as yet one more example of the artistic black hole that is mainstream US cinema. Repulsive on every level...