That's not setting the bar very high at all. Apart from the "Have you tried not being a mutant?" scene in the 2nd film, they seemed to want to avoid all that.
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
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Nothing Compares
A recent documentary about Sinead O'Connor, a singer who courted much controversy in the '90's.
Certainly a nostalgia trip to this 90s kid and music fan. The film understandably focuses on her rise to stardom and fallout from controversy. This is the infamous tearing up the pope on Saturday Night Live thing.
Unfortunately the film speeds past and over almost everything since, so like 25 years, lol. Including which she said a bunch of stupid shit on twitter, tried to kil herself, and converted to different religions. I assume this was necessary to get her involvement- she narrates parts of it and appears performing at the very end.
Regardless of her many issues and flaws I've always felt that she got a major bum rap about that pope thing especially since of course she was right. I'm also anti-censorship/pro-artist to a fault and genuinely think her second album is one of the all-time 90's greats where every track except one is amazing.
Anyway if you're into music docs at all check it out. Some awesome nostalgic (or, for you youngins, historical) iconography. My favorite being O'Connor singing her first single at the 1989 Grammys with the Public Enemy logo on her head to support their boycott.
A recent documentary about Sinead O'Connor, a singer who courted much controversy in the '90's.
Certainly a nostalgia trip to this 90s kid and music fan. The film understandably focuses on her rise to stardom and fallout from controversy. This is the infamous tearing up the pope on Saturday Night Live thing.
Unfortunately the film speeds past and over almost everything since, so like 25 years, lol. Including which she said a bunch of stupid shit on twitter, tried to kil herself, and converted to different religions. I assume this was necessary to get her involvement- she narrates parts of it and appears performing at the very end.
Regardless of her many issues and flaws I've always felt that she got a major bum rap about that pope thing especially since of course she was right. I'm also anti-censorship/pro-artist to a fault and genuinely think her second album is one of the all-time 90's greats where every track except one is amazing.
Anyway if you're into music docs at all check it out. Some awesome nostalgic (or, for you youngins, historical) iconography. My favorite being O'Connor singing her first single at the 1989 Grammys with the Public Enemy logo on her head to support their boycott.
There's also that plotline in The Last Stand about "curing" mutants (read: conversion therapy) and the conflict about how many of them are willing to go for it just because they're so sick of their powers/being persecuted for them, even though they should be accepted for who they are as a matter of principle.
Really all the movies have an us vs. them narrative, to some degree. I just never really believed that any of those people would have trouble fitting into society if they bothered. Everybody looks normal, usually handsome; those who don't have serums/cloaking devices to look normal. If anything they're rightfully rejected for posing an actual threat to society because they're always fighting each other and have godly powers that allow them to kill people with their minds or control the weather or cheat death.The freaks in Nightbreed are repulsive, would never in a million years be accepted in society and seem mostly interested in fucking each other anyway. Anybody worth a damn in a fight is easily killed in that hick cop raid in the end.
A ★★ review of Peter Pan (1953)
Let's get the positives out of the way first. The animation in this film is very solid, a significant improvement over both Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland when it comes to the humans. In addition, the voice acting is quite good, with particular standouts being Kathryn Beaumont as Wendy...
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True, though the only one we see wanting to become normal whose motives are shown is Rogue, who doesn't want to murder anyone she touches. Which isn't really a great metaphor for LGBT people.
Yeah, that's a problem when you use monsters that pose an existential threat to humanity as an LGBT (or race metaphor). True Blood/The Southern Vampire Chronicles was pretty bad at this as well. "God hates fangs" is impressively unsubtle, and even the nice vampires are murderers.
Rush Hour the first one.
I had really good memories of this movie. For some reason, they'd play this movie on almost every single field trip I went on as a kid. Good times.
So, the movie: Chris Tucker does the funny, Jackie Chan does the kung fu. But the movie was surprisingly low key, I found myself surprised at how simple the movie seemed. Although, Jackie drops the n-word in this movie. That's not something you'd ever see today lol.
By the time we finished the movie, I realized all the nostalgia I thought had for this movie was actually for Rush Hour 2 and 3. Which makes a lot more sense, because I wasn't even born when the first movie came out.
All in all, it was a fun enough movie. It's got a lot of racial jokes that definitely wouldn't fly these days, but Tucker and Chan surprisingly have a lot of chemistry. We'll probably watch the next two movies for movie night.
I had really good memories of this movie. For some reason, they'd play this movie on almost every single field trip I went on as a kid. Good times.
So, the movie: Chris Tucker does the funny, Jackie Chan does the kung fu. But the movie was surprisingly low key, I found myself surprised at how simple the movie seemed. Although, Jackie drops the n-word in this movie. That's not something you'd ever see today lol.
By the time we finished the movie, I realized all the nostalgia I thought had for this movie was actually for Rush Hour 2 and 3. Which makes a lot more sense, because I wasn't even born when the first movie came out.
All in all, it was a fun enough movie. It's got a lot of racial jokes that definitely wouldn't fly these days, but Tucker and Chan surprisingly have a lot of chemistry. We'll probably watch the next two movies for movie night.
I was 8 when the first movie came out. I will warn you that while RH2 has the best action of the whole trilogy, the comedy is a step down and becomes hit or miss. The movie also made the mistake of making Carter (Chris Tucker) more annoying and less likeable in certain aspects. RH3 dials it back a bit and brings Carter towards more so his characterization in the first film.
While you're at it, try the movie that inspired RH. The director of RH1 even admitted that he would not been able to get his movie off the groundwork, if it wasn't for Drive (1997). Make sure you get the Director's Cut and not the Theatrical Cut. The good and best news is that the Director's Cut is widely available in most regions now.
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I feel like I’ve heard that in regards to just about every other movie that gets suggested or becomes a classic.
Makes you wonder if the execs are ever going to learn to keep their hands off and let directors release the movies they shot.
What sucks even more is the "hotshot" exec in charge at that time had Stephen Yang trim the runtime down (thus losing a lot of the character development), because "no one likes long movies, nor having emotions in action movies!". Changed to the soundtrack to an all (unfitting) techno soundtrack, instead of just the final battle. The original cut is only 120 minutes, with US/Theatrical Cut being 90 minutes. What sucked even more for us in the USA was that to legally watch the original cut, it was either import and not much else. Otherwise, bootleg or torrents. It wasn't until 2020, us American got the official release of Drive (1997) Director's Cut on Blu Ray and DVD.
Creep
Found footage about a dude who gets hired by some creep (!) off the internet to film him for a day. A lot of it is riding on the performance of Mark Duplass, who I know as the amputee fetishist from Goliath season two, and plays a very convincing creep (!) here. I think the movie loses a little steam once we figure out the dude's "deal" and the plot moves away from the main dramatic event, but everything leading up to that point is very unnerving and effective.
Found footage about a dude who gets hired by some creep (!) off the internet to film him for a day. A lot of it is riding on the performance of Mark Duplass, who I know as the amputee fetishist from Goliath season two, and plays a very convincing creep (!) here. I think the movie loses a little steam once we figure out the dude's "deal" and the plot moves away from the main dramatic event, but everything leading up to that point is very unnerving and effective.
Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. I didn't really enjoy it. It lacked the brash, quippy ... let's say charm ... of other Marvel films and just felt a bit like hard work. A series of set-piece scenes loosely strung together with a not very good plot.
And what's the deal with x is the most powerful superhero ever ever ever, except on this one occasion where that would ruin the plot? Irritating and, dare I say, unrealistic?
And what's the deal with x is the most powerful superhero ever ever ever, except on this one occasion where that would ruin the plot? Irritating and, dare I say, unrealistic?
Barbarian 2022
Jesus Fucking Christ... 8/10
Jesus Fucking Christ... 8/10
A ★★★★ review of Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Honestly, this movie is quite successful in all the areas it was trying to succeed in. The plot is quite simple, following a dog named Lady (voiced by Barbara Luddy) as she is raised by Jim Dear (Lee Millar) and Darling (Peggy Lee). Along the way, she meets a stray known only as Tramp (voiced by...
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Jason Bourne on Netflix
Amazing how this movie can look and sound so much like the Bourne trilogy while lacking all of the charm and creativity.
Really confusing why this movie was even made. Doesn't further the ongoing story left from Legacy, clumsily sets up an awful origin story for Bourne, and doesn't even leave us wanting a sequel.
Amazing how this movie can look and sound so much like the Bourne trilogy while lacking all of the charm and creativity.
Really confusing why this movie was even made. Doesn't further the ongoing story left from Legacy, clumsily sets up an awful origin story for Bourne, and doesn't even leave us wanting a sequel.
The problem with JB4 as whole is that the film was pining for nostalgia not needed, most people weren't asking for, and undoing everything capped off in Ultimatum. Legacy I never bothered seeing, because I was so sick of quick cut and shaky cam. I only saw JB4 at a cheap ticket price to see how much Greengrass would fuck it up. Plus, I am a Tommy Lee Jones fans and it's always fun seeing him. Speaking of quick cut and shaky cam.
The Hourglass Sanatorium
Surrealist Polish movie from the 70's, adapted, as I understand, from a book of the same name. A visit with his father in a mysterious, overgrown sanatorium sends a middle aged jewish man named Jozef onto a dream like journey throughout various absurd scenarios, many of them connecting to his and his families history. That's about as well as I can describe the plot, as it all plays out much more like an Alice in Wonderland style series of scenes, following that dream logic of flowing into each other very seamlessly, but never really logically connecting in any discernible way.
Director Wojciech Has really went all out on giving this journey the fantastical dimensions that it needs to live up to its sprawling ambitions. Honestly, it can't be overstated how absolutely insane the level of production value is for an experimental Eastern European movie from the early 70's. The set design, conjuring up up a gothic vision of ambiguously 20th Century Middle Europe alone would have been the envy of most Hollywood productions of the time, and some very impressive editing and sound design do their part to add to what stands amongst some of the most lavish productions of European cinema.
Even when the plot feels as opaque and twisted as the kind of avantgarde literature it's adapted from, brushing up, but never quite lingering on, themes like familial trauma, holocaust imagery, colonialism, the teacherous nature of memories and the no less teacherous nature of recorded history, its hazy, fairy tale like presentation prevents it from ever feeling tedious, even at a runtime of a bit over 2 hours. Even when its plots and ideas are never fully comprehensible, its firm command over mood, frequently beautiful visual and tinges of Carrolian wordplaythat translated surprisingly well, it's constantly engaging.
Hourglass Sanatorium really does feel like some sort of dream, projected right out of the European subconsciousness, more than it does like a film production in the conventional sense. Between it's painterly locations that never quite seem to conform to any specific region or time period, its extended tracking shots and scene transitions that sometimes feel like magic tricks, it offers some beautifully absurdist pieces of dialogue. "Do you know that your dream of the biblical Joseph was noticed at the highest level and severely criticized?", the protagonist is asked, at one point. "Time has its side offshoots, some illegal and dubious." he is told at another. Lines that stick with you, even when you can't quite put your finger on what they're trying to say.
It's insane to think that this movie managed to get made the way it did, at the time it did, under the circumstances it did, with the level of quality it did. Especially so, considering that the Polish government really, really didn't like Has and has been known do obstruct the production and distribution of his works on several occasion. Nevertheless, though, Hourglass Sanatorium stands as one of the greats of European filmcraft. The quality of its productions invokes some of Terry Gilliam's best works, it's one of those rare pieces of fantastical film making where there was such a clear vision of what it was supposed to look and feel like, that it somehow managed to be adapted to film in a way that feels thoroughly uncompromised by any practical restrictions.
I'm well aware that not a whole lot of people whose engagement with film isn't academical will go out of their way to watch old, european arthouse productions (Hey, at least it's in colour!) but Hourglass Sanatorium is such an impressive piece of film making that masterfully covers the entire spectrum of human emotion inside of a surrealist journey that I can't see it leaving anyone cold. It's the sort of thing that, when I was a teenager, made me develop a deeper interest in film to begin with. The sort of pure expression of human imagination and emotion that only a visual, kinetic medium could ever convey. It's a movie to remind you why you love movies.
Surrealist Polish movie from the 70's, adapted, as I understand, from a book of the same name. A visit with his father in a mysterious, overgrown sanatorium sends a middle aged jewish man named Jozef onto a dream like journey throughout various absurd scenarios, many of them connecting to his and his families history. That's about as well as I can describe the plot, as it all plays out much more like an Alice in Wonderland style series of scenes, following that dream logic of flowing into each other very seamlessly, but never really logically connecting in any discernible way.
Director Wojciech Has really went all out on giving this journey the fantastical dimensions that it needs to live up to its sprawling ambitions. Honestly, it can't be overstated how absolutely insane the level of production value is for an experimental Eastern European movie from the early 70's. The set design, conjuring up up a gothic vision of ambiguously 20th Century Middle Europe alone would have been the envy of most Hollywood productions of the time, and some very impressive editing and sound design do their part to add to what stands amongst some of the most lavish productions of European cinema.
Even when the plot feels as opaque and twisted as the kind of avantgarde literature it's adapted from, brushing up, but never quite lingering on, themes like familial trauma, holocaust imagery, colonialism, the teacherous nature of memories and the no less teacherous nature of recorded history, its hazy, fairy tale like presentation prevents it from ever feeling tedious, even at a runtime of a bit over 2 hours. Even when its plots and ideas are never fully comprehensible, its firm command over mood, frequently beautiful visual and tinges of Carrolian wordplaythat translated surprisingly well, it's constantly engaging.
Hourglass Sanatorium really does feel like some sort of dream, projected right out of the European subconsciousness, more than it does like a film production in the conventional sense. Between it's painterly locations that never quite seem to conform to any specific region or time period, its extended tracking shots and scene transitions that sometimes feel like magic tricks, it offers some beautifully absurdist pieces of dialogue. "Do you know that your dream of the biblical Joseph was noticed at the highest level and severely criticized?", the protagonist is asked, at one point. "Time has its side offshoots, some illegal and dubious." he is told at another. Lines that stick with you, even when you can't quite put your finger on what they're trying to say.
It's insane to think that this movie managed to get made the way it did, at the time it did, under the circumstances it did, with the level of quality it did. Especially so, considering that the Polish government really, really didn't like Has and has been known do obstruct the production and distribution of his works on several occasion. Nevertheless, though, Hourglass Sanatorium stands as one of the greats of European filmcraft. The quality of its productions invokes some of Terry Gilliam's best works, it's one of those rare pieces of fantastical film making where there was such a clear vision of what it was supposed to look and feel like, that it somehow managed to be adapted to film in a way that feels thoroughly uncompromised by any practical restrictions.
I'm well aware that not a whole lot of people whose engagement with film isn't academical will go out of their way to watch old, european arthouse productions (Hey, at least it's in colour!) but Hourglass Sanatorium is such an impressive piece of film making that masterfully covers the entire spectrum of human emotion inside of a surrealist journey that I can't see it leaving anyone cold. It's the sort of thing that, when I was a teenager, made me develop a deeper interest in film to begin with. The sort of pure expression of human imagination and emotion that only a visual, kinetic medium could ever convey. It's a movie to remind you why you love movies.
Rebel Without a Cause (1955) 6/10
This is one of the most quintessential pieces of teenage cinema history. It's about a bunch of troubled teenagers who over the course of a day get into all sorts of typical teenager idiocy, and manage to ruin several lives in the process. It would be interesting to know how this was received at the time, because it holds up pretty damn well for a film pushing 70. The trappings and time period may be different, but the themes of teenage torment, not fitting in, being unsure of your place in the world and wanting to belong are as timeless as ever. It's downright disturbing in some aspects: these characters are not all right in the head. Jim seems like a ticking time bomb, Judy falls head over heels for a guy she literally met the same day, and Plato seems like a dude heading to be the subject of an episode of Mindhunter. There's some pretty strong hints of intergenerational trauma and abuse as well. The scene towards the end where the main trio just fuck around in the abandoned house was particularly unnerving: despite their rage inside, these are still just kids. Which only highlights how when said kids get their hands on the wrong stuff things go catastrophically wrong.
It's mostly pretty straightforward, and most of its downsides are areas where it doesn't really hold up: despite its succinct 105-minute runtime, at times it does feel kind of meandering, and the cinematography is definitely nothing to write home about; there's like 3-4 memorable shots in the entire film. Still it's important to visit these cornerstones of cinema history to understand their impact on culture, and how they influenced film.
Edit: Having though about it a bit, the title can be interestingly be read as having a double meaning: It can mean "A Rebel Without a Cause", as in one individual ie. James Dean. Or it can mean a suggestion: "[You should] Rebel Without a Cause", referring to the mindset that permeates the teenagers in the film. They feel the need for rebellion, but against what or who and why, they don't know. Whether intentional or not, it makes interpreting the film more interesting.
This is one of the most quintessential pieces of teenage cinema history. It's about a bunch of troubled teenagers who over the course of a day get into all sorts of typical teenager idiocy, and manage to ruin several lives in the process. It would be interesting to know how this was received at the time, because it holds up pretty damn well for a film pushing 70. The trappings and time period may be different, but the themes of teenage torment, not fitting in, being unsure of your place in the world and wanting to belong are as timeless as ever. It's downright disturbing in some aspects: these characters are not all right in the head. Jim seems like a ticking time bomb, Judy falls head over heels for a guy she literally met the same day, and Plato seems like a dude heading to be the subject of an episode of Mindhunter. There's some pretty strong hints of intergenerational trauma and abuse as well. The scene towards the end where the main trio just fuck around in the abandoned house was particularly unnerving: despite their rage inside, these are still just kids. Which only highlights how when said kids get their hands on the wrong stuff things go catastrophically wrong.
It's mostly pretty straightforward, and most of its downsides are areas where it doesn't really hold up: despite its succinct 105-minute runtime, at times it does feel kind of meandering, and the cinematography is definitely nothing to write home about; there's like 3-4 memorable shots in the entire film. Still it's important to visit these cornerstones of cinema history to understand their impact on culture, and how they influenced film.
Edit: Having though about it a bit, the title can be interestingly be read as having a double meaning: It can mean "A Rebel Without a Cause", as in one individual ie. James Dean. Or it can mean a suggestion: "[You should] Rebel Without a Cause", referring to the mindset that permeates the teenagers in the film. They feel the need for rebellion, but against what or who and why, they don't know. Whether intentional or not, it makes interpreting the film more interesting.
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This is a late reply, but I just recently watched The Northman myself and read up on it a bit. I agree with your rating. It’s an awesome movie.
And the reason why it has similar plot points to Hamlet is because this movie is a retelling of the Norse myth that was the inspiration for Hamlet.
Seconded. Saw it without any trailers or spoilers and don’t regret it. Just now seeing the trailer though, I was surprised by the restraint it showed. As a big horror fan very few movies have me reminding myself “it’s just a movie”, but this did. All the plot holes actually made it easier, and after the big reveal it basically turned into a comedy.
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