Interested in what you'd think of the sequel. Our family was fairly excited to watch it, but we just never did and now it feels like it just disappeared from popular culture, ala The Lego Movie.
A ★★★½ review of Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
I really wanted to give this a higher rating, but... The plot of the film follows the title character (voiced by John C. Reilly), the bad guy of the game "Fix-It Felix, Jr." He's not exactly thrilled as the bad guy, especially since the residents of the game tend to either ignore him or treat...letterboxd.com
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
- Thread starter Th3Ch33s3Cak3
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I'll have to wait and see on that one. Haven't watched it, myself. Out of the remaining Disney movies, the only ones I've actually seen already are Frozen, Big Hero 6, Moana, and Encanto.
My biggest disappointment with that film is that, apart from some rare and very brief cameos, all the games were fictional. I was expecting something like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? where lots of established characters keep turning up.A ★★★½ review of Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
I really wanted to give this a higher rating, but... The plot of the film follows the title character (voiced by John C. Reilly), the bad guy of the game "Fix-It Felix, Jr." He's not exactly thrilled as the bad guy, especially since the residents of the game tend to either ignore him or treat...
All Quiet on the Western Front
German language telling of the classic anti-war novel. The 1930 movie is a classic but as with most such modern-day re-tellings, this is focusing on the original book as the source, it's not a remake of the movie. Still it makes some changes so, I dunno, one's mileage may vary depending on one's familiarity with the story.
As you can expect from a movie like that is nominated by the Academy for cinematography and picture and all that, it's production is gorgeous and an appropriately horrific. Acting is solid.
Every year there is a War is Bad movie that makes the critical rolls and this is the one for 2022. I have a love-hate relationship with them because I feel it's important to constantly remind ourselves of how horrible war is but with movies/entertainment, there's this thin line between poingnancy and exploitation that always pre-occupies my mind.
If you like war movies, this is certainly one of them.
I guess I'll spoiler what I say about the changes the movie makes to the book:
They don't deal with the post-war situation of a surviving soldier's return to civilian life. Instead, they shift focus to the disparity between the soldiers suffering and dying and the top brass officers and politicians making the decisions. Both are important points but it's weird the film chose one over the other.
German language telling of the classic anti-war novel. The 1930 movie is a classic but as with most such modern-day re-tellings, this is focusing on the original book as the source, it's not a remake of the movie. Still it makes some changes so, I dunno, one's mileage may vary depending on one's familiarity with the story.
As you can expect from a movie like that is nominated by the Academy for cinematography and picture and all that, it's production is gorgeous and an appropriately horrific. Acting is solid.
Every year there is a War is Bad movie that makes the critical rolls and this is the one for 2022. I have a love-hate relationship with them because I feel it's important to constantly remind ourselves of how horrible war is but with movies/entertainment, there's this thin line between poingnancy and exploitation that always pre-occupies my mind.
If you like war movies, this is certainly one of them.
I guess I'll spoiler what I say about the changes the movie makes to the book:
They don't deal with the post-war situation of a surviving soldier's return to civilian life. Instead, they shift focus to the disparity between the soldiers suffering and dying and the top brass officers and politicians making the decisions. Both are important points but it's weird the film chose one over the other.
Everything Everywhere All At Once: Really Fun / Great
A Chinese American woman dissatisfied with her lot in life suddenly finds herself embroiled in the turmoil of her infinite lives in a multiverse she never knew existed. The plight of the infinite worlds rest in her ability to harness her newly discovered existences and experiences to defeat an agent of chaos set on destroying everything.
Never has a film had a more fitting title, because that's exactly what this movie: everything everywhere all at once. It's part comedy, part drama, part action, part mystery, and it jumps between those genres frequently and often within the same scene. The existence, explanation, and accessibility of the multiverse comes at you and goes so fast, I'm fairly certain you're not meant to understand it. It was a lot of fun if completely nonsensical. The scene with the two guys fighting our heroine with the IRS lady's "awards" will forever be one of favorites.
A Chinese American woman dissatisfied with her lot in life suddenly finds herself embroiled in the turmoil of her infinite lives in a multiverse she never knew existed. The plight of the infinite worlds rest in her ability to harness her newly discovered existences and experiences to defeat an agent of chaos set on destroying everything.
Never has a film had a more fitting title, because that's exactly what this movie: everything everywhere all at once. It's part comedy, part drama, part action, part mystery, and it jumps between those genres frequently and often within the same scene. The existence, explanation, and accessibility of the multiverse comes at you and goes so fast, I'm fairly certain you're not meant to understand it. It was a lot of fun if completely nonsensical. The scene with the two guys fighting our heroine with the IRS lady's "awards" will forever be one of favorites.
Looking forward to watching this on Netflix. I read the book a million years ago. I may need to re-read and rewatch some earlier versions as I don't recall the after war section of the book. I do recall a little haiku, "with all the same work, same food and same pay, the war would be over and done in a day." Aint that the truth.
Fargo, 8/10
The Coen brothers classic is a classic for a reason. Only they could make this film work the way it does. If the exact same plot was depicted in a more typical way, it'd be a terribly depressing modern noir about a tragedy caused by misguided aspirations. But the Coen brothers turn it into a hilarious, goofy pitch-black comedy. It's a very specific type of comedy I haven't seen replicated much outside of other Coen Brothers films. Its use of repetition and especially awkwardness makes the most mundane situations just hilarious. Merely Peter Stormare's empty-eyed stare near the beginning had me cracking up. The juxtaposition of the horrific with the goofy, and the tragic with the mundane is what makes a lot of it so effective. Having seen the first two episodes of the TV series it's remarkable just how well they managed to replicate the exact same feeling in a TV format.
The acting is just fantastic across the board. Everybody knows exactly what kind of movie they're in, and even the bit parts are played to perfection, yet it never feels showy or like anybody's stealing the spotlight. There's not a whole lot I'd criticize it for, it's just not as consistently good like its successor, The Big Lebowski.
The Coen brothers classic is a classic for a reason. Only they could make this film work the way it does. If the exact same plot was depicted in a more typical way, it'd be a terribly depressing modern noir about a tragedy caused by misguided aspirations. But the Coen brothers turn it into a hilarious, goofy pitch-black comedy. It's a very specific type of comedy I haven't seen replicated much outside of other Coen Brothers films. Its use of repetition and especially awkwardness makes the most mundane situations just hilarious. Merely Peter Stormare's empty-eyed stare near the beginning had me cracking up. The juxtaposition of the horrific with the goofy, and the tragic with the mundane is what makes a lot of it so effective. Having seen the first two episodes of the TV series it's remarkable just how well they managed to replicate the exact same feeling in a TV format.
The acting is just fantastic across the board. Everybody knows exactly what kind of movie they're in, and even the bit parts are played to perfection, yet it never feels showy or like anybody's stealing the spotlight. There's not a whole lot I'd criticize it for, it's just not as consistently good like its successor, The Big Lebowski.
Loved this movie. I'd give it a 9/10. I've watched the TV show on Hulu. My daughter was outraged that
each episode begins with the advise that it is based upon a true story. They are not. But much of them feels real.
Triangle of Sadness (5/10)
I really didn't like this film. That's not to say it's bad, but for me, it crossed the line into mean-spiritedness, whereas on the other side of the line, there's some hilarious sattire.
Since the film's divided into a number of parts, I'll structure the review as such. So on that note:
Part 1
Carl (a model) and Yaya (an influencer) are dating. Carl's insecure about earning less (apparently male models earn 33% of what female models earn, so...yay, feminism?), while always being expected to pay. I've seen some people hold this up as some kind of examination of gender relations, but it really isn't. This isn't bad, though, as there's some excellent directing, such as the two arguing on opposite sides of an elevator, and Carl repeatedly holding it open to continue the argument.
Part 2
The pair end up on a luxury cruise, likely either in the Mediterranean or off the cost of East Africa. They get it for free as Yaya's an influencer, so basically, free cruise in exchange for promotion. The rest of the passengers are the 1%, who are eccentric at best, and odious at worst (e.g. a British couple who made their fortune off selling hand grenades). This takes up the bulk of the film, and is easily the best part. It's basically a skewering (and not a subtle one) of society - there's the crew at the literal bottom of the ship who keep things running, the caterers who are semi-competent, and the 1% who indulge their every whim, with Carl and Yaya sort of, but not quite fitting in with "the elite." The ship's run by a drunk captain who still turns up at the Captain's Table event, where almost all the guests end up vomitting due to sea sickness and/or the food going off, because one of the guests insisted that the crew take a swim. Meanwhile, the toilets are overflowing with shit, so, yeah - there's the literal metaphor of shit coming to the surface of the ship/society.
The entire sequence is hilarious, as the captain (a closeted American socialist/communist) and a Russian oligarch debate the merits of socialism/capitalism, and by debate, I mean quoting figures like Reagan and Lenin, before retiring to the captain's quarters so that the Russian (both drunk) can claim that the ship is sinking, while the captain chastises the 1% and lament at his own hypocrisy.
Like I said, none of this is subtle, but the whole sequence is hilarious, so I'm not complaining. However, it's after this that things start going south.
Part 3
The ship is attacked by pirates. There's a hilarious moment where a grenade is tossed onboard, killing the British couple after they recognize it as their own grenade, but apparently the grenade is powerful enough to sink the ship? Or, alternatively, the pirates board the ship (there's gunfire and screams) and sink it anyway? Neither scenario really makes sense, but a small group of survivours make it ashore. Call me whatever you want, but I found the implications really iffy here, since apparently, most of the people on the ship, of all professions/classes, are dead. One couple had a baby onboard, which cries at the Captain's Dinner, but is now likely dead. So the implication here is either that if your parents are shits, you deserve to die like them, or if that isn't the implication, then I'm left to conclude that this wasn't thought through, because no-one even remarks on the whole "hey, hundreds of people just died" thing, in what's an already iffy boarding action. I'm arguably obsessing over this plot point, but I couldn't get it out of my head.
Anyway, the survivors have no survival skills, but a cleaning lady from the ship does (fishing, fire-making, etc.), so with the island as a metaphor for society, the social order is turned around. The cleaning lady runs the show, gets all the privilages, and far from a communist paradise, the same hierarchy emerge. Ultimately, that's the theme of the work, that power corrupts, and that hierarchies automatically form, and that attempts to overthrow an unjust system will inevitably result in the replication of that system. However you feel about this theme is up to you - I certainly don't have a problem with it (I actually agree) - but I've seen this idea done before, and done better (e.g. Animal Farm), and while the island section does take some inspiration from Lord of the Flies IMO, again, LotF is the better work. Things come to a head in the ending which I won't spoil (for those who've seen the film, yes, that pun is intentional), but it's beside the point.
So, yeah. Film's okay. But my main problem is that it peaks in part 2, and part 3 is ultimately a drag. Its themes are on the nose, and unsubtle, and while that's not a bad thing per se, the film isn't saying anything that hasn't been said before, and been said better.
I really didn't like this film. That's not to say it's bad, but for me, it crossed the line into mean-spiritedness, whereas on the other side of the line, there's some hilarious sattire.
Since the film's divided into a number of parts, I'll structure the review as such. So on that note:
Part 1
Carl (a model) and Yaya (an influencer) are dating. Carl's insecure about earning less (apparently male models earn 33% of what female models earn, so...yay, feminism?), while always being expected to pay. I've seen some people hold this up as some kind of examination of gender relations, but it really isn't. This isn't bad, though, as there's some excellent directing, such as the two arguing on opposite sides of an elevator, and Carl repeatedly holding it open to continue the argument.
Part 2
The pair end up on a luxury cruise, likely either in the Mediterranean or off the cost of East Africa. They get it for free as Yaya's an influencer, so basically, free cruise in exchange for promotion. The rest of the passengers are the 1%, who are eccentric at best, and odious at worst (e.g. a British couple who made their fortune off selling hand grenades). This takes up the bulk of the film, and is easily the best part. It's basically a skewering (and not a subtle one) of society - there's the crew at the literal bottom of the ship who keep things running, the caterers who are semi-competent, and the 1% who indulge their every whim, with Carl and Yaya sort of, but not quite fitting in with "the elite." The ship's run by a drunk captain who still turns up at the Captain's Table event, where almost all the guests end up vomitting due to sea sickness and/or the food going off, because one of the guests insisted that the crew take a swim. Meanwhile, the toilets are overflowing with shit, so, yeah - there's the literal metaphor of shit coming to the surface of the ship/society.
The entire sequence is hilarious, as the captain (a closeted American socialist/communist) and a Russian oligarch debate the merits of socialism/capitalism, and by debate, I mean quoting figures like Reagan and Lenin, before retiring to the captain's quarters so that the Russian (both drunk) can claim that the ship is sinking, while the captain chastises the 1% and lament at his own hypocrisy.
Like I said, none of this is subtle, but the whole sequence is hilarious, so I'm not complaining. However, it's after this that things start going south.
Part 3
The ship is attacked by pirates. There's a hilarious moment where a grenade is tossed onboard, killing the British couple after they recognize it as their own grenade, but apparently the grenade is powerful enough to sink the ship? Or, alternatively, the pirates board the ship (there's gunfire and screams) and sink it anyway? Neither scenario really makes sense, but a small group of survivours make it ashore. Call me whatever you want, but I found the implications really iffy here, since apparently, most of the people on the ship, of all professions/classes, are dead. One couple had a baby onboard, which cries at the Captain's Dinner, but is now likely dead. So the implication here is either that if your parents are shits, you deserve to die like them, or if that isn't the implication, then I'm left to conclude that this wasn't thought through, because no-one even remarks on the whole "hey, hundreds of people just died" thing, in what's an already iffy boarding action. I'm arguably obsessing over this plot point, but I couldn't get it out of my head.
Anyway, the survivors have no survival skills, but a cleaning lady from the ship does (fishing, fire-making, etc.), so with the island as a metaphor for society, the social order is turned around. The cleaning lady runs the show, gets all the privilages, and far from a communist paradise, the same hierarchy emerge. Ultimately, that's the theme of the work, that power corrupts, and that hierarchies automatically form, and that attempts to overthrow an unjust system will inevitably result in the replication of that system. However you feel about this theme is up to you - I certainly don't have a problem with it (I actually agree) - but I've seen this idea done before, and done better (e.g. Animal Farm), and while the island section does take some inspiration from Lord of the Flies IMO, again, LotF is the better work. Things come to a head in the ending which I won't spoil (for those who've seen the film, yes, that pun is intentional), but it's beside the point.
So, yeah. Film's okay. But my main problem is that it peaks in part 2, and part 3 is ultimately a drag. Its themes are on the nose, and unsubtle, and while that's not a bad thing per se, the film isn't saying anything that hasn't been said before, and been said better.
The thing I was most impressed with in the TV show was Martin Freeman. He managed to hit that exact same note of sympathetic, yet inept and pitiful as William H Macy does in the original.
Chosen Survivors (1974)
A group of chosen survivors are taken to a fancy underground shelter to avoid a nuclear war. While they are stuck down there they found out that the US military hadn't noticed an enormous colony of killer vampire bats in the caves the shelter is built in, which is typical, I guess.
A group of chosen survivors are taken to a fancy underground shelter to avoid a nuclear war. While they are stuck down there they found out that the US military hadn't noticed an enormous colony of killer vampire bats in the caves the shelter is built in, which is typical, I guess.
A ★★★½ review of Frozen (2013)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
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Jay at RLM thought Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) was pretty solid and reviews have been positive so I decided to give it a shot.
It's kind of a strange movie. In a way I'd almost describe it as the movie "The Glass Onion" wishes it was. The cliffnotes are that a group of 20s something friends from grade school get together at a remote mansion to party during an upcoming monsoon. They decide to play "bodies bodies bodies" a game of hide and sneak where the whomever gets tagged has to play dead, whomever discovers them yells "bodies bodies bodies" and then the lights go on and they have to figure out who the killer is. The game goes uneventfully, but an argument ensues over voting for the killer and everybody kinda storms off to cool down, then..a body is discovered and everyone freaks the fuck out. As the story unfolds we learn none of these people really like or trust each other and things take a dramatically violent turn. At the same time this is kind of a comedy so it's a lot of holding your breath while occasionally having a hardy laugh. The story, acting and direction seem keenly aware of these people should be unlikable, but empathetic. They aren't cartoons. So when they inadvertently say or doing something funny, its not demanding you laugh at it. It more like daring you to laugh when you know you should feel bad.
I think what kind of sets this apart of The Glass Onion, aside from being a horror film, is that A. These characters aren't big goulish stereotypes. You went to college with these post MTV generation idiots, but they are three dimensional. B. You are kinda curious about where exactly this is going. It manages to keep you on a hook the whole film. Its not vapid and dumb or begging you to tell it how clever it is.
*Peter Davidson is in this. I almost skipped it as, like many, I don't hate him, but I'm over hearing about him. Its worth noting, hes solid here. He seems very aware of the character hes playing and isn't in the film just to be Peter Davidson.
Solid 7/10. I quite enjoyed it, lotta laughs, but it wasn't anything memorable. Easy Evening horror time filler.
It's kind of a strange movie. In a way I'd almost describe it as the movie "The Glass Onion" wishes it was. The cliffnotes are that a group of 20s something friends from grade school get together at a remote mansion to party during an upcoming monsoon. They decide to play "bodies bodies bodies" a game of hide and sneak where the whomever gets tagged has to play dead, whomever discovers them yells "bodies bodies bodies" and then the lights go on and they have to figure out who the killer is. The game goes uneventfully, but an argument ensues over voting for the killer and everybody kinda storms off to cool down, then..a body is discovered and everyone freaks the fuck out. As the story unfolds we learn none of these people really like or trust each other and things take a dramatically violent turn. At the same time this is kind of a comedy so it's a lot of holding your breath while occasionally having a hardy laugh. The story, acting and direction seem keenly aware of these people should be unlikable, but empathetic. They aren't cartoons. So when they inadvertently say or doing something funny, its not demanding you laugh at it. It more like daring you to laugh when you know you should feel bad.
I think what kind of sets this apart of The Glass Onion, aside from being a horror film, is that A. These characters aren't big goulish stereotypes. You went to college with these post MTV generation idiots, but they are three dimensional. B. You are kinda curious about where exactly this is going. It manages to keep you on a hook the whole film. Its not vapid and dumb or begging you to tell it how clever it is.
*Peter Davidson is in this. I almost skipped it as, like many, I don't hate him, but I'm over hearing about him. Its worth noting, hes solid here. He seems very aware of the character hes playing and isn't in the film just to be Peter Davidson.
Solid 7/10. I quite enjoyed it, lotta laughs, but it wasn't anything memorable. Easy Evening horror time filler.
The Money Pit: Great / Great
A couple buys a very expensive mansion on the cheap (using loans) only to find that pretty much everything is in dire disrepair. Hilarity ensues.
Yeah, you've seen it, but I was feeling nostalgic, and the bathtub scene never fails to send me into belly laughs; it's easily my favorite Tom Hanks moment.
A couple buys a very expensive mansion on the cheap (using loans) only to find that pretty much everything is in dire disrepair. Hilarity ensues.
Yeah, you've seen it, but I was feeling nostalgic, and the bathtub scene never fails to send me into belly laughs; it's easily my favorite Tom Hanks moment.
I kinda liked Hanks better in comedies. He’s great in The ‘Burbs too. That speech at the end is *chef’s kiss*
Hanks is great in everything he touches. Can't say I'm familiar with his entire body of work, but can't really single out anything he's done that I disliked enough to note it.
Mortal Kombat (2021)
Yeah, well. Martial arts movie based on the computer game, as you've probably guessed. Some guy dies in the prologue, and then we come across his descendant a few centuries later who's a moderately hopeless MMA figher. Then he suddenly gets hauled off into an interdimensional war to save Earth with some other chosen few and has to discover his magic power to save the day. The movie toddles along doing the sort of standard things you'd expect, the action scenes are fine, before it suddenly collapses into a mass of non-stop fight scenes that either are the entire second half of the film, or feel like it because it's kind of a drag. Consequently, it comes across as remarkably plotless, the characters are mostly underdeveloped, and the lead is as dull as ditchwater. Anyone who's seen Enter The Dragon should know you can just chuck a load of kick-ass people into a contest and make it work, you don't need tedious backstories and bildungsroman.
There was a Mortal Kombat movie about 20-30 years ago. It's cheap, naff... and it's better than this.
Yeah, well. Martial arts movie based on the computer game, as you've probably guessed. Some guy dies in the prologue, and then we come across his descendant a few centuries later who's a moderately hopeless MMA figher. Then he suddenly gets hauled off into an interdimensional war to save Earth with some other chosen few and has to discover his magic power to save the day. The movie toddles along doing the sort of standard things you'd expect, the action scenes are fine, before it suddenly collapses into a mass of non-stop fight scenes that either are the entire second half of the film, or feel like it because it's kind of a drag. Consequently, it comes across as remarkably plotless, the characters are mostly underdeveloped, and the lead is as dull as ditchwater. Anyone who's seen Enter The Dragon should know you can just chuck a load of kick-ass people into a contest and make it work, you don't need tedious backstories and bildungsroman.
There was a Mortal Kombat movie about 20-30 years ago. It's cheap, naff... and it's better than this.
He was good fun when he did comedies back in the 80s. It's been downhill ever since.
Tom Hanks always seems to play a certain sort of Tom Hanks character. I don't doubt his everyman charm, but I want a bit more flavour.
I’d have to watch it again to pick up on some of these details -
All hail the cheeseburger -
All hail the cheeseburger -
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He used to say his finest acting achievement was in the silly, politically incorrect, could not be made today, Bachelor Party. Uncut non-stop comic gold:
I like the idea that different people in this movie can represent each of the 7 deadly sins but I think this writer mislabels who is who.
Example: [mom = sloth. Sloth, I think, has more to do with lazyness. Mom isn't lazy: she's broken. The food critic seems prideful more than envious. The movie star is pride too but, can't have 2 different people be the same sin. etc.
Vengeance (2022) on Amazon Prime Solid A.
B. J. Novak wrote, directed and stared in this smart, comic suspense mystery. A big part of the mystery is that you don't know if there really even is one or not.
Shallow pod cast writer B. J. gets a distraught call from a man whose sister has passed and thinks B.J. her boyfriend and instructs him to come right away. Not sure why, maybe he thinks there is a story there but he goes from NYC to Texas for the funeral of a girl he just hooked up with a few times. The brother thinks it was murder and tells B.J. they have to avenge her. So, there is a story there.
Best, most interesting movie I've seen in a while. Does lose the + from the A due to one thing I thought a cheat. I won't post here.
Maybe don't watch the trailer. Don't spoil it for yourself.
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