Maybe after my next project. I'm feeling a bit burnt out on Disney for the time being.Well done.
Now do DisneyToon Studios, scrub.
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
- Thread starter Th3Ch33s3Cak3
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Mortal Kombat: Snow Blind - An alternate universe/elseworlds story. I like it, and it's something different from the usual MK movies. It's not another tired adaption of either MK1, MK2, or MK3, but MK crossed with Mad Max and Fist of the Northstar. Kenshi is the leading character this time, and Kano is the actual main villain of this movie. Kano and his Black Dragon Clan are ruthless in this, and it show what a complete nightmare the world would be, if someone like him got powerful. Snow Blind is a great movie, and out of all the animated MK films, this is the best by far. I would not mind more alternate storyline movies. Can we get one that focuses on Kitana, Jade, Mileena, and Sindel? A Li-Mei solo movie would be great too. Anything to bring out the underrated or obscured characters to give them their time to shine.
Sicario
I been watching Yellowstone and looking up the folks involved I realized I actually never watched this popular and often-referenced movie from 2015 written by Taylor Sheridan, starring Benicia Del Torro, Emily Blunt, and Josh Brolin. About spooks and drug cartels murdering each other basically.
I invited my wife to watch it because Emily Blunt is one of her favorite actresses.
Well she hated it because it seemed to glorify law enforcement too much. I put politics aside and just enjoyed the tension and constant sense of menace throughout the film. Ultimately the big "twist"/revelation at the end didn't feel earned dramatically but the execution (heh) was wonderful. It's a vibe film.
I been watching Yellowstone and looking up the folks involved I realized I actually never watched this popular and often-referenced movie from 2015 written by Taylor Sheridan, starring Benicia Del Torro, Emily Blunt, and Josh Brolin. About spooks and drug cartels murdering each other basically.
I invited my wife to watch it because Emily Blunt is one of her favorite actresses.
Well she hated it because it seemed to glorify law enforcement too much. I put politics aside and just enjoyed the tension and constant sense of menace throughout the film. Ultimately the big "twist"/revelation at the end didn't feel earned dramatically but the execution (heh) was wonderful. It's a vibe film.
Check out Hell or High Water and Wind River, those are pretty good as well. Sheridan either wrote or directed those, I forget. But similar vibes.
Have you checked out either of the prequels? Quite a bit different tone than Yellowstone but appropriate given the time period and more dire circumstances. The drama is stripped down to where it feels more like literal survival is the main focus.
I liked Hell or High Water, that's the other reason I was interested in Sicario.
I'm always gonna watch any of the neo-Westerns.
No I'm only gonna do that if, after 4 seasons of Yellowstone, I want more of this kind of stuff. Or maybe come back later.
The fight sequences were great though, different enough from the other movies as to make it worth it. Supposedly inspired by anime or whatever. Maybe a bit gimmicky but still worked for me.
The rest was pretty dull.
I was thinking about why the Creed series is always going to be lesser for me than Rocky, and if it's just nostalgia, but I realized there is no humor, no goofiness with Adonis. Everything is so grown-up and serious it's kinda dull. I don't just mean the overtly corny Rocky stuff we make fun, I just mean Rocky as a dude is kind of a loveable corny lug, and with Pauly around, there was always this vulnerable dad-joke energy that made it sort of quirky and charming.
What is Adonis' personality other than pride? He loves his family- cool, whatever, that's not much of a personality. Would you want to hang out with the guy, have a conversation about anything other than boxing technique? Like, who is this person?
I thought Hell or High Water was surprisingly good. It went over well with audiences and critics but it really flew under the radar. I don't think a lot of people saw it. Don't know if it was timing or what. Reminded me a bit of No Country For Old men.
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That was well down, but unrelentingly bleak. And it does glorify dodgy law enforcement, rather,
Yeah, the final fight scene was well done, but the rest of it was pretty much a predictable slog. Arguably, Damien was the most interesting character, and I don't feel they delved into his characterization enough. He seemed to be an antagonist with some really dark secrets, but in the end, he served as little more than the the "bad guy" to Creed's "good guy."
The Creed series will forever be in the shadow of Rocky. Not that those films were all great, but they are iconic. Assuming a bit of the canon to create a spinoff that does little more than repeat tropes is never a away to substantively stand apart from (let alone above) the source material. Michael B. Jordan will make his money and skip off to his next endeavor; I just hope he doesn't think there needs to be a Creed 4.
Wrote Hell or High Water (which was directed by David Mackenzie) and wrote and directed Wind River.
There will absolutely be a Creed 4, and I will go see it.
Hyenas (1992)
Tragicomedy from Senegal. An impoverished Senegalese village sees an older woman return for a visit who had left it in disgrace decades ago, but has come into money since. Hoping for an opportunity to secure funding for their home, the villagers try to ingratiate themselves with the mysterious old lady. Their morals are being tested when she offers an obscenely large donation in return for the death of the owner of the local pub and convenience store whom she harbours an old grudge against.
There is, generally speaking, not a whole lot of appreciation for West African cinema internationally. I have to admit, this is the first movie from that region that I have ever seen. Hyena's played at the Cannes Film Festival back in the day and failed to win any greater rewards or accolades. This should not come as a surprise, considering the english speaking film community has only recently even started to realize that Asian cinema exists, a production from Senegal in Wolof language probably never stood a chance to be a crossover hit.
And that is quite a shame, because Djibril Diop Mambety's Hyenas is a fantastic movie. Based on the Swiss stageplay "Der Besuch der Alten Dame", Mambety turns a story about the corrupting nature of greed into a darkly comedic parable about the desperation of a third world community. Very confidently so. Between Ami Diakhate's gripping performance as a vengeful former outcast, the lavishly realized outback setting and the score that invokes Sergio Leone in some moments and a "tribal" intensity at others, Hyenas proves to an extremely engaging watch.
Using the plot outline of a classic revenge tragedy, Mambety asks the question: How far can the promise of first world conveniences push the people of a third world nation to betray their principles. When Diakhate's Linguere returns to her former home, she never doubts for a moment that the village will eventually crack under the desire for material wealth. Soon enough the village of Colobane starts filling up with imported commodities. Refrigerators, foreign booze and tobacco, shoes and cars. Certainly, no one wants to harm the widely popular local grocer, but the money to afford it all has to come from somewhere.
Hyenas (and we actually get to see a bunch, along with various other local wildlife) are predators and scavengers. They prey on the sick and elderly animals in a herd and rather than killing them directly, they hunt them to exhaustion. This is why folklore characterizes them as cowardly, greedy and vindictive. There is, of course, little sense in assigning human traits like these to animals. Yet one can quite easily assign the animalistic traits of predatory and opportunistic behaviour to humans.
Images of hyenas and vultures are prominent throughout the entire picture, foreshadowing its eventual end. While Colobane managed to find a certain harmony, if not by any means happiness, in its shared poverty, that peace is disturbed once someone throws a piece of meat into the hungry community and promises more, for the price of nothing but their innocence. "The World turned me into a whore, so I'll turn the world into a whore house" is one of the movies many striking lines, and describes so beautifully the cycle of revenge at play in Hyenas.
Hyenas is a relatively cynical story for sure. One that slightly veers into the kafkaesque, in a sense. But it's also a very witty and elegantly told one. Full of gorgeous cinematography and memorable dialogue. A story about how spite and greed take away our humanity. One of those movies that don't deserve obscurity, but also never really had a chance to avoid it. I suppose there is little to be said except for that old yet consistently unheard appeal: Watch foreign movies. They will surprise you.
Tragicomedy from Senegal. An impoverished Senegalese village sees an older woman return for a visit who had left it in disgrace decades ago, but has come into money since. Hoping for an opportunity to secure funding for their home, the villagers try to ingratiate themselves with the mysterious old lady. Their morals are being tested when she offers an obscenely large donation in return for the death of the owner of the local pub and convenience store whom she harbours an old grudge against.
There is, generally speaking, not a whole lot of appreciation for West African cinema internationally. I have to admit, this is the first movie from that region that I have ever seen. Hyena's played at the Cannes Film Festival back in the day and failed to win any greater rewards or accolades. This should not come as a surprise, considering the english speaking film community has only recently even started to realize that Asian cinema exists, a production from Senegal in Wolof language probably never stood a chance to be a crossover hit.
And that is quite a shame, because Djibril Diop Mambety's Hyenas is a fantastic movie. Based on the Swiss stageplay "Der Besuch der Alten Dame", Mambety turns a story about the corrupting nature of greed into a darkly comedic parable about the desperation of a third world community. Very confidently so. Between Ami Diakhate's gripping performance as a vengeful former outcast, the lavishly realized outback setting and the score that invokes Sergio Leone in some moments and a "tribal" intensity at others, Hyenas proves to an extremely engaging watch.
Using the plot outline of a classic revenge tragedy, Mambety asks the question: How far can the promise of first world conveniences push the people of a third world nation to betray their principles. When Diakhate's Linguere returns to her former home, she never doubts for a moment that the village will eventually crack under the desire for material wealth. Soon enough the village of Colobane starts filling up with imported commodities. Refrigerators, foreign booze and tobacco, shoes and cars. Certainly, no one wants to harm the widely popular local grocer, but the money to afford it all has to come from somewhere.
Hyenas (and we actually get to see a bunch, along with various other local wildlife) are predators and scavengers. They prey on the sick and elderly animals in a herd and rather than killing them directly, they hunt them to exhaustion. This is why folklore characterizes them as cowardly, greedy and vindictive. There is, of course, little sense in assigning human traits like these to animals. Yet one can quite easily assign the animalistic traits of predatory and opportunistic behaviour to humans.
Images of hyenas and vultures are prominent throughout the entire picture, foreshadowing its eventual end. While Colobane managed to find a certain harmony, if not by any means happiness, in its shared poverty, that peace is disturbed once someone throws a piece of meat into the hungry community and promises more, for the price of nothing but their innocence. "The World turned me into a whore, so I'll turn the world into a whore house" is one of the movies many striking lines, and describes so beautifully the cycle of revenge at play in Hyenas.
Hyenas is a relatively cynical story for sure. One that slightly veers into the kafkaesque, in a sense. But it's also a very witty and elegantly told one. Full of gorgeous cinematography and memorable dialogue. A story about how spite and greed take away our humanity. One of those movies that don't deserve obscurity, but also never really had a chance to avoid it. I suppose there is little to be said except for that old yet consistently unheard appeal: Watch foreign movies. They will surprise you.
Fall
Two besties climb a 2,000 foot TV tower in the middle of nowhere and become stranded at the top. As mandated by the plot, they haven't told anybody where they were going. No need to suspend the disbelief from me. I knew a guy who went rock climbing without telling anybody and was found dead at the bottom of a quarry. If he'd told anybody it wouldn't have been three days before the search even started, let alone found the body.
I don't know what it is about climbing enthusiasts not letting people know. I guess you only hear about the ones who don't leave a note.
Anyway, Fall is about right. It's a survival movie that checks all the boxes of what someone might try to do to survive in extreme conditions and with limited resources. Like the movie with the three people trapped on the chairlift. It's ridiculous, I don't believe half the things they pull off would work in real life, and their timing for heart to hearts is hilarious, but it's all fairly entertaining and unpretentious.
Cast is two B-list actresses with distracting cleavages (at least for one of them that's a plot point) and Negan, who was nowhere near any of them and clearly shot his scenes with a stand in, in an afternoon. Pandemic movie.
Edit: Girlfriend nailed it: it's Swiss Army Man but with women and they hate each other.
Two besties climb a 2,000 foot TV tower in the middle of nowhere and become stranded at the top. As mandated by the plot, they haven't told anybody where they were going. No need to suspend the disbelief from me. I knew a guy who went rock climbing without telling anybody and was found dead at the bottom of a quarry. If he'd told anybody it wouldn't have been three days before the search even started, let alone found the body.
I don't know what it is about climbing enthusiasts not letting people know. I guess you only hear about the ones who don't leave a note.
Anyway, Fall is about right. It's a survival movie that checks all the boxes of what someone might try to do to survive in extreme conditions and with limited resources. Like the movie with the three people trapped on the chairlift. It's ridiculous, I don't believe half the things they pull off would work in real life, and their timing for heart to hearts is hilarious, but it's all fairly entertaining and unpretentious.
Cast is two B-list actresses with distracting cleavages (at least for one of them that's a plot point) and Negan, who was nowhere near any of them and clearly shot his scenes with a stand in, in an afternoon. Pandemic movie.
Edit: Girlfriend nailed it: it's Swiss Army Man but with women and they hate each other.
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