Movie, TV, Web Series, and Music Hot Take(s).

[hanselthecaretaker]

I kinda feel like I posted this already, but I really don't get the appeal of the Rock. People say he oozes charisma but his presence in anything always makes me write the movie off as something to watch when you've got nothing left.

I've been thinking about this for the past 5 minutes and I genuinely can't think of a movie starring him that I actually liked.

He fills the void that Arnold left for muscly action stars, and aside from an American accent and his swashbuckling rep carried over from wrestling now has the benefit of a couple decades of movie tech advancements and bigger budgets to make his movies the go-to “popcorn flicks”.

If you’re looking for something thought-provoking of course you’ll have to keep on looking, but when you just want to watch things go boom, bad guys get their asses handed to them, or take advantage of a home theater system, the kinds of movies he’s in usually fit the bill.

 

[BrawlMan]

He fills the void that Arnold left for muscly action stars, and aside from an American accent and his swashbuckling rep carried over from wrestling now has the benefit of a couple decades of movie tech advancements and bigger budgets to make his movies the go-to “popcorn flicks”.

If you’re looking for something thought-provoking of course you’ll have to keep on looking, but when you just want to watch things go boom, bad guys get their asses handed to them, or take advantage of a home theater system, the kinds of movies he’s in usually fit the bill.

I kinda feel like I posted this already, but I really don't get the appeal of the Rock. People say he oozes charisma but his presence in anything always makes me write the movie off as something to watch when you've got nothing left.

I've been thinking about this for the past 5 minutes and I genuinely can't think of a movie starring him that I actually liked.

What @hanselthecaretaker said. Though the Rock has improved on his acting over the years, similar to John Cena. Funny enough, Rocky was already decent-good to begin with. He expanded and honed his craft. I admit that my older brother and I grew up on watching him on WWF/WWE at the time, but so bias may be creeping in. Even without that, the man does care about what he plays and stars in. I don't like all the movies he starred in either. He had a few below average films, but nothing outright offensive or horribly bad.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

He fills the void that Arnold left for muscly action stars, and aside from an American accent and his swashbuckling rep carried over from wrestling now has the benefit of a couple decades of movie tech advancements and bigger budgets to make his movies the go-to “popcorn flicks”.

If you’re looking for something thought-provoking of course you’ll have to keep on looking, but when you just want to watch things go boom, bad guys get their asses handed to them, or take advantage of a home theater system, the kinds of movies he’s in usually fit the bill.

Arnold is a pretty good comparison. Although I still maintain that Arnold was able to (at least sometimes) portray ultimate badasses who were still believably mortal. He could get bloodied and dirtied up, he was constantly sweaty, had to be creative.

This video (which inspired my post) said it pretty well:

It's like the Rock refuses to portrayed as anything other than the coolest, most macho guy ever (not counting his more comedy-focused roles). There's always this aura of perfection around him. Hell, in Red Notice, even when he isn't perfect, he still is. Because he was just pretending to be flawed. They also point out at 5:50 that back then, they casted pretty big around the Rock, so he didn't look like a ridiculously huge man tossing around normal sized people. From an action perspective, I really can't see why I should be rooting for the Rock when he rips through all his enemies like paper and wins without a scratch.

What @hanselthecaretaker said. Though the Rock has improved on his acting over the years, similar to John Cena. Funny enough, Rocky was already decent-good to begin with. He expanded and honed his craft. I admit that my older brother and I grew up on watching him on WWF/WWE at the time, but so bias may be creeping in. Even without that, the man does care about what he plays and stars in. I don't like all the movies he starred in either. He had a few below average films, but nothing outright offensive or horribly bad.

I will credit the Rock to being a much better actor than Arnold, at least when they were at the same points in their careers. I just think his role selection is ridiculously boring, at least these days. I didn't watch much of him when he was still transitioning from being a WWE personality. I do remember enjoying his characters in movies like Get Smart and Nice Guys, where he plays cool macho dudes who either turn out to be an idiot or a villain.

 

[BrawlMan]

It's like the Rock refuses to portrayed as anything other than the coolest, most macho guy ever (not counting his more comedy-focused roles). There's always this aura of perfection around him. Hell, in Red Notice, even when he isn't perfect, he still is. Because he was just pretending to be flawed. They also point out at 5:50 that back then, they casted pretty big around the Rock, so he didn't look like a ridiculously huge man tossing around normal sized people. From an action perspective, I really can't see why I should be rooting for the Rock when he rips through all his enemies like paper and wins without a scratch.

The Scorpion King wasn't perfect, but it is a fun movie. It was my generation's Conan film. I admit that particularly don't care for Caravan of Garbage at all. They're not bad people, but I don't find them interesting. At least most of the Rock's later action films allowed him to be vulnerable or get hurt, excluding the Fast and Furious sequels and spin-off.

I will credit the Rock to being a much better actor than Arnold, at least when they were at the same points in their careers. I just think his role selection is ridiculously boring, at least these days. I didn't watch much of him when he was still transitioning from being a WWE personality. I do remember enjoying his characters in movies like Get Smart and Nice Guys, where he plays cool macho dudes who either turn out to be an idiot or a villain.

I'm excited to see Black Adam, because he is doing something different character wise. The Rock also became the villain in the original Doom movie.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

A lot of people are saying this would’ve been a near perfect ending and I kinda have to agree -

Gives H3 at least some of its due.

 

[Xprimentyl]

It's like the Rock refuses to portrayed as anything other than the coolest, most macho guy ever (not counting his more comedy-focused roles). There's always this aura of perfection around him. Hell, in Red Notice, even when he isn't perfect, he still is. Because he was just pretending to be flawed. They also point out at 5:50 that back then, they casted pretty big around the Rock, so he didn't look like a ridiculously huge man tossing around normal sized people. From an action perspective, I really can't see why I should be rooting for the Rock when he rips through all his enemies like paper and wins without a scratch.

The Jumanji films are good "The Rock" fun if you haven't seen them. While they ironically play on the exact stereotype that grates against you, it's fun to see The Rock's personality swapped with first a wimpy nerd in the first film, then a old, Jewish grandfather in the second. You can tell all the actors had fun playing their out-of-body roles. Jack Black is exceptional entertaining.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

The Jumanji films are good "The Rock" fun if you haven't seen them. While they ironically play on the exact stereotype that grates against you, it's fun to see The Rock's personality swapped with first a wimpy nerd in the first film, then a old, Jewish grandfather in the second. You can tell all the actors had fun playing their out-of-body roles. Jack Black is exceptional entertaining.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the first Jumanji with the rock, but admittedly I started the movie when it was half over. Maybe I'll give it a try again, I did like what I saw of Jack Black.

 

[Thaluikhain]

It's like the Rock refuses to portrayed as anything other than the coolest, most macho guy ever (not counting his more comedy-focused roles). There's always this aura of perfection around him.

I think in the Fast and Furious movies, he insisted upon it in his contract. So did Vin Diesel, so the two clashed out-of-character as well as having fights neither could win because someone would lose on screen.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

If you're in a supernatural horror film, and your hear the cries of a child while you're exploring, or just lost in the woods: then back the fuck outta there cause that shit ain't real, and the longer the film takes to reveal that to you, the less it respects your time.

If you're not in a supernatural horror film, then you should probably go check it out in case the dumb shit is actually dying. Yes even if it looks very spoopy out there, you coward! Or call someone else less nervous and full of horror movie trivia, I dunno.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

 

[Piscian]

I dont know if reviewers are struggling to dance around spoilers or something but every review of Black Adam has been so esoteric as to be obtuse and its just enticing me more to go see this supposed trainwreck. Mooney is accusing it of being worse than morbius and I gotta declare hipster nonsense. Even black adam trailers are better than the whole morbius. Im sure its terrible and Ill hate myself, but they also do jack daniels freezies at my local theater.

 

[BrawlMan]

jack daniels freezies at my local theater.

Sounds unhealthy and terrible tasting.

 

[BrawlMan]

I have not seen Black Adam, but I call shit on that.

Black Adam Review: The Superhero Movie Worse Than Morbius

Black Adam review: This superhero movie starring Dwayne Johnson manages to be even worse than the train wreck that was Morbius.

www.escapistmagazine.com

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I will say, while I haven't watched Morbius, based purely on the concept alone I can't see how it could be less bad than Black Adam.

However, I totally feel like you can hate Black Adam much more than Morbius for all the potential it wastes. It could have been a much, much better movie with actual decent writing.

 

[BrawlMan]

However, I totally feel like you can hate Black Adam much more than Morbius for all the potential it wastes. It could have been a much, much better movie with actual decent writing.

Even if that's the case, I'll take wasted potential any day, over no potential and pushing out a movie just to try to screw over Marvel, and start another failed separate "cinematic universe" (again!).

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Even if that's the case, I'll take wasted potential any day, over no potential and pushing out a movie just to try to screw over Marvel, and start another failed separate "cinematic universe" (again!).

Heh, that last bit is sadly ironic because Black Adam is apparently "Phase 1" for the reanimated corpse of the DCEU.

 

[BrawlMan]

Heh, that last bit is sadly ironic because Black Adam is apparently "Phase 1" for the reanimated corpse of the DCEU.

How? If a spoiler related, don't say anything. Wait until Saturday afternoon. Phase 1 of the DCEU was the early 2010s. WTF, WBDisc is all about? Considering it's new management, I'm not that surprised. They're already gutting anything that is actually good, and removing all the colored people and women in good or powerful positions. Apparently, they're also killing Cartoon Network.

I mentioned it earlier during the summer, but after I see Black Adam, Aquaman 2, Shazam 2 (that's a very big if though), and Wonder Woman 3, they are just loose ends/closure to tie up. Once I finish those I'm pretty much done with WB. The Batman 2, I admit I will come back for that, but WB can still fuck off on Joker 2. They don't want people like me around; fuck them.

Wake me up when The Peacemaker box set gets a release date.

Sonic 3 (2024) better take place in Sonic's world for the most part. They're pretty much running out Earth of locations; he cannot do the same thing again. As much as I enjoyed the previous movie, they're going to have to really mix it up. Paramount, let these filmmakers and visual artists really go crazy.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

How? If a spoiler related, don't say anything. Wait until Saturday afternoon. Phase 1 of the DCEU was the early 2010s. WTF, WBDisc is all about? Considering it's new management, I'm not that surprised. They're already gutting anything that is actually good, and removing all the colored people and women in good or powerful positions. Apparently, they're also killing Cartoon Network.

I mentioned it earlier during the summer, but after I see Black Adam, Aquaman 2, Shazam 2 (that's a very big if though), and Wonder Woman 3, they are just loose ends/closure to tie up. Once I finish those I'm pretty much done with WB. The Batman 2, I admit I will come back for that, but WB can still fuck off on Joker 2. They don't want people like me around; fuck them.

Wake me up when The Peacemaker box set gets a release date.

Sonic 3 (2024) better take place in Sonic's world for the most part. They're pretty much running out Earth of locations, he cannot do the same thing again. As much as I enjoyed the previous movie, they're going to have to really mix it up. Paramount, let these filmmakers and visual artists really go crazy.

Oh not a spoiler. The Rock himself literally called it Phase 1 of their plan to reinvigorate the DCEU, with the Black Adam taking a central role (because of course). I assume he has big plans for the JSA and Shazam as well.

EDIT: Shazam's not in the movie or anything, but obviously his origin is tied with Black Adam through the wizard (also called Shazam... They should have really fixed that).

 

[BrawlMan]

Oh not a spoiler. The Rock himself literally called it Phase 1 of their plan to reinvigorate the DCEU, with the Black Adam taking a central role (because of course). I assume he has big plans for the JSA and Shazam as well.

EDIT: Shazam's not in the movie or anything, but obviously his origin is tied with Black Adam through the wizard (also called Shazam... They should have really fixed that).

They shouldn't even call it it Phase 1. Just call it DCEU Phase 4 and move on. It's BA's "Phase 1", but that's like calling Shang-Chi Phase 1, when it has been long passed that already.

 

[Piscian]

Man I know I should be cynical as fuck by now, but goddamn. Hats off to whoever cuts Marvels trailers, Ant-man 3 is making me pee a little.

Tron & Honey I shrunk the kids?