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Been on the road a lot recently, so lots of time to see stuff that I missed. Quiet Place 2 - everyone in this movie is too good for what this movie pretends it wants to be doing. Hounsou in particular deserves way better. The opener, the water sprinkler showdown in the foundry, and the dock ambush were the best parts. John Wick 4 - can't remember the last time I felt so bored watching an action movie. All the sequences drag on so so long, the movie is too up its own rear end with the lore, and they have very clearly slowed down the fight choreo because Keanu is old (a badass but still old). They were smart to end it the way they did. Puss in Boots: Last Wish - pretty good, easy to see why Tumblr went crazy for this. Like a lot of recent movies it suffers from an inability to pick one ending and stick with it. Across the Spiderverse - amazing film, firing on all cylinders, simultaneously builds on everything that was good in the first one while also surprising the hell out of you. I hope they figure out how to not slowly kill a bunch of vfx people as they wrap up the next one. Underwater - decent B flick, probably needed to lean in more to the Cthulhu stuff. TJ Miller did not get written out fast enough. D&D: Honor Among Thieves - very entertaining, feels like there's a better cut that keeps things to a tight 90 minute runtime but as it is very solid.
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Jul 11, 2023 04:06
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Ad Astra - There is not enough story here to carry an entire feature film; feels like something that started off as a pitch for a Black Mirror episode but then got reworked/expanded upon until it was a suitable vehicle for Pitt. Speaking of - Pitt is bad in this thing, bad enough I found myself questioning if/when he stopped being a good actor. Hope Liv Tyler and Ruth Negga got big checks for their respective "woman who is only in the movie to further the male protagonist's journey" roles.
Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Jul 15, 2023 |
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Jul 15, 2023 19:00
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TENET - perfectly cromulent film, solidly in the middle of Nolan's oeuvre so not sure why this got such a middling reception. JDW is fine, although he can never quite strike the right balance of "audience surrogate into time travel secret society" and "steely hardened dangerously capable intelligence operative". Partly because he never gets to be as fun as Pattinson, and Pattinson is fantastic in this all the way through. Biggest sin is probably the romance subplot which squanders ~30 mins of runtime and wastes Debicki. Saw someone on the internet say that if the final scene has Denzel as an aged version of the Protagonist the movie becomes an instant classic and I honestly can't disagree.
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Jul 24, 2023 02:18
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Jezza of OZPOS posted:interstellar: felt weird watching the second half of this one on my phone because it was choc full of space stuff that would have looked incredible in the cinema. i fell asleep on the couch and hurt my neck and had to go lie down in bed but didnt want to watch the rest later because i was hooked. i had a lot of trouble figuring out major plot beats ahead of time but it was surprising without feeling like it was trying super hard to out smart me. very satisfying movie to watch for the first time. i dont know if id watch it again for a while unless it came to a theatre but i really regret I saw Interstellar in an IMAX theater and it owned. Agree that it's a pretty good movie overall; even the macguffins and handwavey stuff at the end don't really lower my estimation of it. On the other hand I could not have rolled my eyes harder at all the scenes on the future space station between when McConaughey wakes up and when he takes off to find Brand. You mean to tell me humanity went through a multi generation environmental disaster extinction level event, finally heaved ourselves up into the stars through a literal miracle of scientific innovation, and promptly recreated the most environmentally and culturally corrosive form of physical infrastructure to ever exist on a large scale - the late twentieth century American suburb. Falls completely flat.
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Aug 10, 2023 21:54
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The VVitch - this was all kinds of hosed up. Impressed at the restraint to leave a lot of stuff dimly perceptible or just unseen in order to amp up the feeling of dread. Kid actors were pretty solid. You don't get many horror movies this good that keep it to a tight 90 minutes anymore. Midnight Mass - Mike Flanagan needs a loving editor, this could've been an all time great with 3-4 fewer monologues and some tighter plotting. As it is still decent and probably the best Salem's Lot adaptation we're ever gonna get. The priest was the standout but good performances all around, in the sense of conveying people clearly over their heads and having very human reactions to it.
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Aug 17, 2023 12:35
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The Fabelmans - How the gently caress did this not win best picture? I loved EEAAO but it was not a better film than this. Spielberg really lets all the formative traumatic childhood stuff hang out there way more than I expected, especially the part with Mitzi dancing in front of the headlights. Very good performances out of Rogen, Williams, and Dano which probably would've gotten more attention if they weren't overshadowed by Yung Spielberg and Hirsch. Perfect ending too. Probably as good of a (moderately fictionalized) autobiopic as anyone could do. One of those rare movies that I wish I'd caught during the theatrical run.
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Sep 2, 2023 21:39
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Data Graham posted:Just watched it too. I particularly appreciated the "climactic" scene in the school hallway that is a spirited commentary on the dynamics of authorial intent and film criticism. "I don't care what you meant!" God the hallway scene is so good. I thought for a minute that the ditch day film and the positive audience reaction was going to be an uplifting moment to show Sammy getting an uncomplicated victory through his art but nope he's still depressed and then the hallway confrontation kicks in just to twist the knife a little deeper. The blonde kid (Logan?) sold the hell out of his lines - "You made me look like I could fly. I can never live up to that. Why would you do that?". Just perfect. Sammy's response at the end was one of the funniest moments I've seen in a movie this year - "I'll never ever make a movie about this. Probably". That whole scene is just great and honestly makes me really curious about what Spielberg's dynamic with Harrison Ford is like. ElectricSheep posted:Also what the hell Marshawn Lynch is actually funny Lynch has been stacking up lots of minor roles where he shines. Dude seems talented but also knows his limits and picks stuff where he can be himself but still add a lot in small ways. Very cool to see.
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Sep 6, 2023 01:54
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MokBa posted:Tell that to Ready Player One. mycot posted:I'm a believer of the theory that Spielberg did the Ready Player One movie to block anyone else from doing it. RP1 is not a good movie but it is about as good of an adaptation as you could hope to get. I actually watched it in full for the first time earlier this year - I was on vacation and caught it on some resort channel that cycled through the same dozen movies. Given how abysmal the source material is the movie is much better than one might expect; it grinds to a halt any time the actual people are on screen but the visual language and structure are super clear and Spielberg manages to embed some slick sequences in there that have much more coherence and excitement than the vast majority of overwrought CGI nonsense that is out there. Dr. Yinz Ljubljana posted:Spielberg rarely misses. (I am acknowledging the existence of RP1, the BFG, the Terminal, Crystal Skull and War of the Worlds) War of the Worlds owns though.
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Sep 11, 2023 01:55
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Gaius Marius posted:Now if Tony Scott was working on it, then we would be talking Why settle for a Tony Scott movie about Napoleon when you could have a Tony Scott movie about Toussaint Louverture?
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Sep 17, 2023 23:11
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Carpet posted:Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, 2013) I saw Gravity at an Imax theater when it first opened, loved the movie but it was an intense experience. Kind of like sitting through a two hour car crash. Not to take away anything from Bullock, who is great, but Clooney is outstanding in the movie. Feels like this was right at the tail end of a pretty good run for him in terms of understated but memorable performances.
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Oct 25, 2023 02:33
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And I'd forgotten how many Oscars this won, feels like it's not talked about that much considering - guess because it probably doesn't have the same impact without the 3D, and who's got a 3D TV these days?
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Bottoms: Finally got around to watching this & it was... fine? Very much the sort of movie that would've been in constant rotation on VH1/USA/FX back in the day. The enthusiasm of the cast did a lot of heavy lifting, but couldn't disguise the fact that the script prob needed like two more revisions - Carrie Fisher would've script doctored the hell out of this - and a more experienced team behind the camera. What keeps coming to mind is that there's very little in this movie that GLEE S1 & S2 didn't pull off way better, whether thematically or visually or whatever. Maybe a more experienced director could've landed it IDK but Seligman didn't do herself any favors here. Elizabeth Banks as the main producer should've been a clear quality tell unfortunately. I chuckled enough at Lynch and Ayo to avoid turning it off but there were some stretches where it was a close thing. Fully acknowledge that as a millennial cishet guy maybe this is just one of those "not the intended audience" things but I doubt it. Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 05:56 on Jan 6, 2024 |
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Jan 6, 2024 05:48
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There are a handful of scenes cut from the theatrical version which make the weirdness of the dynamic between Leon and Matilda way more explicit. Like you said, there's some precociousness that obscures things a bit but it's pretty clear what Besson is going for once the additional scenes are added back in. Also part of the reputation of the movie comes from the stuff that happened outside of the movie. IIRC the way that weirdos fixated on Natalie Portman after this movie came out led to her parents keeping her out of movies for a few years. Also Besson was already a notoriously sketchy guy known for grooming/preying on young girls and only got more flagrant about it as the years went on.
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Jan 7, 2024 17:29
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Ready or Not: wow this movie was loving great. Even knowing the premise going in I was still pleasantly surprised. Lots of cool little moments and interactions, good balance of scariness and humor, spot on casting and strong performances that really helped sell all the major beats. Hopefully they're smart enough to leave it alone and not mine the concept for sequels that couldn't possibly live up to this entry. Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Feb 3, 2024 |
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Feb 3, 2024 05:37
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Suicide Squad (2016): I've seen bits and pieces of this over years but never sat down to watch the whole thing in one go. This is ... actually decent? At the very least more entertaining and coherent than much of the cape flick output that followed it. The first half hour is abysmal - too much exposition, too many introductory flashbacks, every licensed track grates like a deliberate insult to the audience. Once the Midway City sequence starts rolling the movie improves dramatically. Solid performances, imagery that is both evocative and actually well rendered; you never wonder where the money went and this is maybe the last live action cape flick in recent history to not have CGI that looks interchangeable with a PS2 cutscene. The score by Steven Price is quite good, especially towards the end where it really has to sell much of the tension, which makes the decision to shoehorn as many US top 40 hits as possible into this thing even more baffling. I didn't even mind Leto-Joker showing up to carry the B-plot, he's fine here as a lethally ego -driven wildcard factor rather than the omniscient force of chaos that most recent Joker portrayals err towards. Easily the best performance from Jai Courtney in anything he's been in. The WB executive editorial influence and forced reshoots are acutely painful in that they glaringly make this movie worse while also highlighting the gap between what this could have been and what it is. Whatever you may think of Snyder's vision for the arc of DC cinematic outings, it is clear this movie was built around it and suffers for the excising of those foundational pieces. The "Darkseid glares ominously through a boom tube" easter egg was clearly meant for this movie. Should've ended on a way darker note to better sell the vibes of "unimaginable darkness and horror have now fixed their sights on a mostly defenseless world alone in the universe" but the more audience friendly conclusion was fine. I get why they reshot and recut this thing to hell because of the success of that trailer with the Bohemian Rhapsody music but still what a mess. David Ayer is right to hold a grudge over this poo poo. Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 15:28 on Feb 11, 2024 |
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Feb 11, 2024 07:02
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Mat Cauthon posted:[b]Suicide Squad (2016) One more thing - I had absolutely zero idea that the meme line of "she was fearless and crazier than him, and God help anyone that disrespected his queen" or however it goes was from this movie so when Viola Davis said it in her Waller voice I felt like I was having a stroke.
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Feb 11, 2024 22:27
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remigious posted:I think Leto was great for the part, but I understand the general hatred for him because he’s a lovely cult leader. Yeah he's an abhorrent person but that works for the role in 2049 where you need someone who exudes inherent scumminess to make certain things click. Part of the reason Luv is so great in the movie is because as soon as you get a glimpse of how Wallace interacts with her you understand 100% why she is like that.
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Feb 14, 2024 03:15
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Mega Comrade posted:Taken was such a massive hit and it's hard to understand why. "They took my daughter" action films have been around forever but this just clicked with audiences. I'm pretty sure the initial appeal was just "why is the Schindler's List guy doing a Bourne-esque action flick?" and then from there it was just word of mouth plus dropping at time when there wasn't much competition. I was still active duty back in 2009, so I got to see Taken on a military base in a theater full of other active duty knuckleheads and I cannot overstate how much we all LOVED it. Like people cheering in the theater every time Neeson maimed somebody, up to and including when he shot the French guy's wife in the knee. It would be so interesting to read a critical analysis of Taken (and the sequels) by a scholar in the field of American Studies or even sociology, because the entire movie is just American anxieties all over: - Neeson's character as the uber dad who can fix everything and spends weeks pouring over every detail of a secondhand gift (the microphone set) just to make sure he's getting the best deal because he knows the value of a dollar - very salient post 2008/2009 economic crash. - Neeson's character being the epitome of assimilated immigrant (presumably) who embodies the worst most patriotic aspects of American identity even more than native born Americans, so much so that the Leland Orster exposition insert character can't help but demonstrate his respect and admiration in every interaction. - Neeson's character as the manifestation of US hegemony in so many ways, including the rationale of "American interests" as eternal justification for stomping all over whatever and whoever we think deserves it. - Disdain for Europeans, but especially the French as too weak to what is necessary to protect their country from unsavory foreigners (read: Arabs and/or Muslims) and eastern Europeans as "race traitors" willing to betray their fellow whites for money. - The wildly orientalist, outright racist depiction of said foreigners. - The complete disdain for women as rational actors, feminism, etc.Was the ex-wife justified in divorcing Neeson? Maybe, maybe not but she should've known that when times got hard only a real man was gonna be able to get the job done and protect their family. - The insanely blatant white supremacist purity gospel undertones of the whole thing, where Neeson's character is clearly not just worried about protecting his daughter but getting her back before she is sullied (read: loses her virginity) by the evil foreigners. - The "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf" vibes from start to finish. Really kind of amazing they managed packed all that into one feature film. Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Feb 27, 2024 |
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Feb 27, 2024 03:25
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The fact that Incredibles 2 was Brad Bird's penance movie after Tomorrowland flopped probably had something to do with the final product being so uneven. Dude's heart just wasn't in it.
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Mar 14, 2024 03:07
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I agree with you that Mad Max is one of those series where the environment is not just bleak but irrevocably bleak - there is no going back and no fixing things - because that's what is necessary to make the story work. I find it pretty impressive that Miller has resisted the urge and/or pressure from executives and fans to start filling in the blanks, especially in the current media landscape where every IP has to be a "universe" with every moment of every storyline mined to death for content. Obviously Furiosa is a bit of an exception but it seems like Miller is interested more in exploring that one specific character rather than explaining how the world got the way it is.
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Apr 21, 2024 20:06
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