Just watched a movie called You're Next from the year 2013. Best way I can describe it is a home invasion horror movie meets Home Alone. It's a great watch, with some fantastic black comedy, some neat twists, and a great performance from the lead.
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
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Dune is mostly interesting just for how unrealistic his plans for it were and how close it did actually get to being made. It just sounds like a complete pipe dream. "It'll have Salvador Dali! And Orson Welles! And Pink Floyd is gonna do the music! And it'll be six hours long!" It's the sort of thing I imagine when I fantasize about making a movie.
But yeah, I read the Incal trilogy. I have a pretty good idea of what it would have been like and I don't particularly feel like I've missed out on that much.
What I do think is a bit sad is that he never got to make Sons of El Topo. I have a soft spot for the original El Topo. It's another project he eventually adapted into a comic book and I really liked it.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - My kids loved it/10
The latest in the long line of continuity reboots of Eastman and Laird’s piss-taking money printing empire. And I’m about to commit heresy worthy of Horus by saying I think the visual aesthetic is crap when it’s moving, looks great in stills though.
With that said, the movie nails like a champ the emotional beats between the brothers and Splinter. Top fucking marks there. Good voices for almost everyone too. Also, for all I dislike the style, I’ve also gotta say all the designs are unique and interesting. And all the fight scenes are winners.
Less positively, Ms. Utrom’s voice is just the shittiest kind of evil Nazi scientist (I means it’s a German accent but who are they fooling?) and there’s something odd about her face, although I have a feeling why that may be. Also, this version of Splinter is not my favourite. Jackie Chan is great in the role but I‘m not a fan of the changes made to Splinter here.
The climax isn’t what I expected but it’s good and opens the door to some new and interesting plot lines. Also, this isn’t a criticism but the script has a touch more edge than most animated movies for families. Nothing outrageous, but just brace yourselves for it.
The latest in the long line of continuity reboots of Eastman and Laird’s piss-taking money printing empire. And I’m about to commit heresy worthy of Horus by saying I think the visual aesthetic is crap when it’s moving, looks great in stills though.
With that said, the movie nails like a champ the emotional beats between the brothers and Splinter. Top fucking marks there. Good voices for almost everyone too. Also, for all I dislike the style, I’ve also gotta say all the designs are unique and interesting. And all the fight scenes are winners.
Less positively, Ms. Utrom’s voice is just the shittiest kind of evil Nazi scientist (I means it’s a German accent but who are they fooling?) and there’s something odd about her face, although I have a feeling why that may be. Also, this version of Splinter is not my favourite. Jackie Chan is great in the role but I‘m not a fan of the changes made to Splinter here.
The climax isn’t what I expected but it’s good and opens the door to some new and interesting plot lines. Also, this isn’t a criticism but the script has a touch more edge than most animated movies for families. Nothing outrageous, but just brace yourselves for it.
I used to have this movie, but I sold it a few months after it came out on DVD in 2013. I thought it was okay, but I do dislike the ending.
Cats - 2/10
A friend basically forced the rest of us to watch this as a group because we do watch musicals, but everyone was like "really?" but we humored her. The movie that I wasn't completely paying attention to (browsing on the phone a decent amount) just seemed so same-y the whole way through. I really had no idea what the story was and the songs were all very similar. I figured there'd be good songs because it's a movie of a musical that ran for a long ass time. The songs were just overall boring and blended together, they were sung mainly softly (so nobody really belting out any great vocals or anything) with similar tempos, nothing really catchy or to hook you in at all. Also, the size/scale of the "cats" and the environments were just weird; maybe cats were are size as seen in the movie but the fact that the cats are humanoid made it so weird looking.
Barbie - 8/10
We watched this after Cats and this movie is basically a banger. The Ken song alone blows Cats out of the water. The direction and sets were just awesome. There's some really funny moments and Ryan Gosling plays Ken as basically a dumb Ben Stiller character (Tropic Thunder, Zoolander, Heavyweights, Dodge Ball, etc.) and it's great. I was somewhat relieved that it wasn't just pro-woman messaging with dumb shit like "gender pay gap" or some other BS like that.
A friend basically forced the rest of us to watch this as a group because we do watch musicals, but everyone was like "really?" but we humored her. The movie that I wasn't completely paying attention to (browsing on the phone a decent amount) just seemed so same-y the whole way through. I really had no idea what the story was and the songs were all very similar. I figured there'd be good songs because it's a movie of a musical that ran for a long ass time. The songs were just overall boring and blended together, they were sung mainly softly (so nobody really belting out any great vocals or anything) with similar tempos, nothing really catchy or to hook you in at all. Also, the size/scale of the "cats" and the environments were just weird; maybe cats were are size as seen in the movie but the fact that the cats are humanoid made it so weird looking.
Barbie - 8/10
We watched this after Cats and this movie is basically a banger. The Ken song alone blows Cats out of the water. The direction and sets were just awesome. There's some really funny moments and Ryan Gosling plays Ken as basically a dumb Ben Stiller character (Tropic Thunder, Zoolander, Heavyweights, Dodge Ball, etc.) and it's great. I was somewhat relieved that it wasn't just pro-woman messaging with dumb shit like "gender pay gap" or some other BS like that.
What does Elvis have to do with whether burgers/beef are healthy or not?
For a change of pace, watched a Netflix documentary for my film tonight, called Class Action Park. A pretty good documentary about a horrifying theme park. I thought I was not going to be watching a horror movie tonight, but for as many bad things as I knew about Action Park, this documentary showed even more that made the fact that this place ran for years without being sued into oblivion as terrifying as any horror movie I've seen.
Oh, Elvis ate burgers until they killed him. Surprised you didn't know that, everyone knows that.
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3
(Disney Plus)
Rating: 6/10
Thoughts in a tagline: The most Marvel films James Gunn's name has been linked to and not it a good way.
Review bit:
Ok coming in on this I like the Guardians of the Galaxy films, I like 1, I like 2 (maybe a bit less than 1 but I find more extra stuff and it growing on me more on on rewatches) I even really enjoyed the Holiday special. To say Guardians 3 disappointed me is more a testament to the other films quality.
My issue with Volume 3 is it feels like the James Gunn made half the film, Marvel studio bosses the other half and then they two bits were stitched together. You get the some of the more Troma leaning James Gunn stuff from faces being pulled off to body horror elements and animal experimentations and people being reduced to charred corpses but also the Marvel studio seemingly mandated giant SFX battle sequences. This is a personal story of Rocket Racoons trauma along with themes of trying to move on from bad things happening which ends with two giant spaceships exchanging multi coloured lasers as smaller ships dogfight about as the backdrop to the final confrontation.
Volume 3 feels like both the end of the James Gunn era but also a "See you later at some point I'll be back one day" moment but it doesn't feel earned. It does feel like it ends on a to be continued moment that was earned because like many other Marvel films it has to somewhat neatly wrap up with the villain being killed. It's been said Thanos broke the "rules" of the MCU as such by how he acted such that how the rules operated for him made the heroes normal methods turn against them somewhat (e.g. the hulk can't win just by smashing Thanos like he normally would). Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 feels like it needed to have it's Thanos moment, it feels like the High Evolutionary needed to live and this would have fit better with the themes of dealing with trauma because it would be been Rocket accepting this guy was still out there but knowing if and when he pops up again he can deal with it.
The Jokes seemed a little more hit and miss this time too.
I will credit the use of physical sets quite often though as a nice thing to see.
Oh and one final note: wow the weird sort of deceptive stuff in the trailers that does happen in the film but the trailers imply it being far different and far more serious events than they are.
(Disney Plus)
Rating: 6/10
Thoughts in a tagline: The most Marvel films James Gunn's name has been linked to and not it a good way.
Review bit:
Ok coming in on this I like the Guardians of the Galaxy films, I like 1, I like 2 (maybe a bit less than 1 but I find more extra stuff and it growing on me more on on rewatches) I even really enjoyed the Holiday special. To say Guardians 3 disappointed me is more a testament to the other films quality.
My issue with Volume 3 is it feels like the James Gunn made half the film, Marvel studio bosses the other half and then they two bits were stitched together. You get the some of the more Troma leaning James Gunn stuff from faces being pulled off to body horror elements and animal experimentations and people being reduced to charred corpses but also the Marvel studio seemingly mandated giant SFX battle sequences. This is a personal story of Rocket Racoons trauma along with themes of trying to move on from bad things happening which ends with two giant spaceships exchanging multi coloured lasers as smaller ships dogfight about as the backdrop to the final confrontation.
Volume 3 feels like both the end of the James Gunn era but also a "See you later at some point I'll be back one day" moment but it doesn't feel earned. It does feel like it ends on a to be continued moment that was earned because like many other Marvel films it has to somewhat neatly wrap up with the villain being killed. It's been said Thanos broke the "rules" of the MCU as such by how he acted such that how the rules operated for him made the heroes normal methods turn against them somewhat (e.g. the hulk can't win just by smashing Thanos like he normally would). Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 feels like it needed to have it's Thanos moment, it feels like the High Evolutionary needed to live and this would have fit better with the themes of dealing with trauma because it would be been Rocket accepting this guy was still out there but knowing if and when he pops up again he can deal with it.
The Jokes seemed a little more hit and miss this time too.
I will credit the use of physical sets quite often though as a nice thing to see.
Oh and one final note: wow the weird sort of deceptive stuff in the trailers that does happen in the film but the trailers imply it being far different and far more serious events than they are.
Dungeons & Dragons Honour Among Thieves
(own copy)
rating: 7 / 10
Tagline: The most inaccurate trailer of the year award winner for a film that picked up Guardians of the Galaxy's slack.
Thoughts / review:
There's deceptive advertising to make a film look better than it is and then there's the trailer for Dungeons & Dragons honour among thieves which gives you almost an entirely different film to what the trailers promised.
I want you to watch that trailer and then tell me you didn't think it would be some kind of thieves redemption story where having screwed up and unleased evil they now have to set things right by taking on that evil.........................That is not this film, this film is a heist movie with magic.
After a heist goes south our heroes are scattered, 2 are in prison. One has had to go back to smaller scale work just trying to get by and one of them has somehow ended up lord of a kingdom area. If this sounds like a stock heist script it is but then thrown onto this template script are more elements from more complex characters to the the scheming of a greater evil at work.
In a year of Guardians of the Galaxy 3 I didn't think I'd be saying that Dungeons & Dragons Honour Among Thieves would be the better story about the idea of found family and dealing with loss but I am because this one really does do an ending you'll both see coming miles away but also hit the landing pulling together character development and story elements into an ending that still feels emotionally impactful.
(own copy)
rating: 7 / 10
Tagline: The most inaccurate trailer of the year award winner for a film that picked up Guardians of the Galaxy's slack.
Thoughts / review:
There's deceptive advertising to make a film look better than it is and then there's the trailer for Dungeons & Dragons honour among thieves which gives you almost an entirely different film to what the trailers promised.
I want you to watch that trailer and then tell me you didn't think it would be some kind of thieves redemption story where having screwed up and unleased evil they now have to set things right by taking on that evil.........................That is not this film, this film is a heist movie with magic.
After a heist goes south our heroes are scattered, 2 are in prison. One has had to go back to smaller scale work just trying to get by and one of them has somehow ended up lord of a kingdom area. If this sounds like a stock heist script it is but then thrown onto this template script are more elements from more complex characters to the the scheming of a greater evil at work.
In a year of Guardians of the Galaxy 3 I didn't think I'd be saying that Dungeons & Dragons Honour Among Thieves would be the better story about the idea of found family and dealing with loss but I am because this one really does do an ending you'll both see coming miles away but also hit the landing pulling together character development and story elements into an ending that still feels emotionally impactful.
El Topo and Holy Mountain are his most famous movies but I posit his best is Santa Sangre. Not only maintains his fabled levels of blood, gore and WTF surrealism but it's also his most narratively coherent and technically impressive movie. Like an artsier, hornier Brian de Palma.
He also has The Rainbow Thief. I don't know how the hell it came to be but it somehow stars Peter O'Toole as a hobo king living in a sewer, with Omar Sharif as his long-suffering manservant. To continue the comparison game this one is like if Polanski made a Hallmark movie.
Danza de la realidad is his latest (?) movie. It's meant to be autobiographical and mostly focuses on his father but also basically plays out like one of his fables/fantasies. It's the one I watched in theaters and dragged on for a bit near the middle because of all the tangents.
He also has The Rainbow Thief. I don't know how the hell it came to be but it somehow stars Peter O'Toole as a hobo king living in a sewer, with Omar Sharif as his long-suffering manservant. To continue the comparison game this one is like if Polanski made a Hallmark movie.
Danza de la realidad is his latest (?) movie. It's meant to be autobiographical and mostly focuses on his father but also basically plays out like one of his fables/fantasies. It's the one I watched in theaters and dragged on for a bit near the middle because of all the tangents.
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Not quite, that's Poesia Sin Fin from 2016. Another autobiographical work.
New movie tonight was the original The Town That Dreaded Sundown. I'll have to roll it around in my head to decide if I actually liked it, but I at least admire what it was doing. It's a slasher film, but a very early one, predating even Halloween. Because of that, it doesn't follow what is now the standard "introduce a bunch of teens, then kill them off" formula. Instead, it's filmed like a documentary recounting an old serial killing spree committed by a masked figure known only as The Phantom, and focuses more on the police investigation than the killings themselves. It makes for a unique take on the genre, but there are definitely some unnecessary comic moments to "lighten the mood" throughout the movie, and there isn't a whole lot of character development going on, even by slasher standards. In essence, it does its job of feeling like a documentary...but that may not necessarily be a good thing.
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Daredevil and Elektra
Before there was the MCU, there were... well, other Marvel movies. I have never seen these before but they have come up in conversation with my wife, as she was comparing Affleck's superhero acting with Daredevil and Batman. We're also watching Alias- a re-watch for her, a first watch for me- so I figured I'd complete the Jennifer Garner early-00s pop culture trip by watching these while wife is away for work.
Well... I don't really have strong feelings about superhero movies other than when they're really bad or really good, and I wouldn't see these are bad as I had been led to believe. Basically they have two opposite problems: Daredevil is trying to do too much and Elektra is not doing much of anything. In Daredevil you get TWO origin stories. The thing that surprised me the most about Daredevil is just how little of actual Daredevil there seems to be. Lots of flashbacks to him as a kid and since I got the Director's Cut I got to see Coolio sit in a courtroom which... ok, lol.. but I never got a sense of how Matt Murphy makes an impact in his community, which is important to the character. The action scenes look incredibly dated and overly stylized.
I actually like Ben Affleck a lot- he feels awkardly human to me in a way that other actors who have been tabloid to me do not. And I just think he's too human to be a superhero. He's kind of a doofy guy and super-heroes should be a little larger than life. Jennifer Garner manages to pull it off a bit more, to which I credit her angular features and athletic physique.
The Elektra movie introduces this grand epic setup with a secret society of wizard assassins but, like, what are they- a crime syndicate? political? no they just want to recruit a teenage girl that's good at fighting so Elektra saves her. The plot is kind of empty, and that's saying something for a comic book movie. The action is much better though because you can actually see some of the fighting, and I enjoyed watching Alias deal with an army of assassins. Some of the magic stuff was corny but entertaining.
Some interesting appearances in Daredevil- Kevin Feige was producing and John Favreau appeared as his usual schlubby unfunny comic relief self. As with The Hulk, these in retrospect feel like rehearsals for getting the formula right with Iron Man. Colin Ferrell also appears as an absurd villain and if I'd have watched this at the time I'd never thing that this dude would become my favorite movie actor years later.
Before there was the MCU, there were... well, other Marvel movies. I have never seen these before but they have come up in conversation with my wife, as she was comparing Affleck's superhero acting with Daredevil and Batman. We're also watching Alias- a re-watch for her, a first watch for me- so I figured I'd complete the Jennifer Garner early-00s pop culture trip by watching these while wife is away for work.
Well... I don't really have strong feelings about superhero movies other than when they're really bad or really good, and I wouldn't see these are bad as I had been led to believe. Basically they have two opposite problems: Daredevil is trying to do too much and Elektra is not doing much of anything. In Daredevil you get TWO origin stories. The thing that surprised me the most about Daredevil is just how little of actual Daredevil there seems to be. Lots of flashbacks to him as a kid and since I got the Director's Cut I got to see Coolio sit in a courtroom which... ok, lol.. but I never got a sense of how Matt Murphy makes an impact in his community, which is important to the character. The action scenes look incredibly dated and overly stylized.
I actually like Ben Affleck a lot- he feels awkardly human to me in a way that other actors who have been tabloid to me do not. And I just think he's too human to be a superhero. He's kind of a doofy guy and super-heroes should be a little larger than life. Jennifer Garner manages to pull it off a bit more, to which I credit her angular features and athletic physique.
The Elektra movie introduces this grand epic setup with a secret society of wizard assassins but, like, what are they- a crime syndicate? political? no they just want to recruit a teenage girl that's good at fighting so Elektra saves her. The plot is kind of empty, and that's saying something for a comic book movie. The action is much better though because you can actually see some of the fighting, and I enjoyed watching Alias deal with an army of assassins. Some of the magic stuff was corny but entertaining.
Some interesting appearances in Daredevil- Kevin Feige was producing and John Favreau appeared as his usual schlubby unfunny comic relief self. As with The Hulk, these in retrospect feel like rehearsals for getting the formula right with Iron Man. Colin Ferrell also appears as an absurd villain and if I'd have watched this at the time I'd never thing that this dude would become my favorite movie actor years later.
Barbie 7/10
I sat down and watched Barbie over the weekend. I can't really decide if it just wasn't for me, or if it was actually a muddled mess. It's a film that can't seem to decide if you're supposed to care about the logic or just have fun or if it has a message and if so what that is.
Unfortunately for me my expectations were impacted heavily by the political and critical noise around the film. Everyone seems to love or hate it and hate everyone else who disagrees with them. It's kinda like that Ghostbusters 2016 thing where if you don't like it youre incel nazi and if you do then youre a "woke something something rant about gays." Hollywood is getting pretty darn good at wielding the hype machine. The way it affected my viewing is that I found myself forced into analyzing everything more than I wanted to. At 41 I'm starting to think I'm just gonna shut off the news. I'm already pretty good with grey areas and glass houses. I don't need to constantly be told whats right and wrong by the media anyway. So somebody msg me if the worlds ever about to end or something so I can at least get my pontoon ready.
The trailers explain that Stereotypical Barbie, that her actual name, like you know to differentiate her from pilot barbie president barbie etc. I lol'd, is having an existential crisis and seeks the advice of "got played with too much, weird barbie" who tells her she has to go to the human world because her child is also freaking out and that is having a causality affect on Barbie. This is told within the backdrop of Barbieland which is a not quite opposite version of the real world. Barbies are in Charge and Kens just exist. Beach Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, is obsessed with Barbie, believing they are destined for true love. She isn't interested. Not sure why, at least the start of the film. He seems like an okay dude and is pretty adorable. Anyway they go to the human world hijinx ensue
and when they return to Barbieland its been taken over by Kens while Barbie is gone because Beach Ken discovers Patriarchy and they have to fight to get it back while also finding Barbies purpose in life since, as stereotypical Barbie she's one of the only Barbies without a real job or function.
So to sort of paraphrase an MTG streamer I watch ashlizzile, she said she didn't like it because she really was looking forward to it just being a silly girl/LGBTQ positive romp and all the messaging stuff was weird and she wasn't into it. I think, on the surface I sort of feel the same way. Ryan Gosling is fantastic. You remember Ben reilly from across the spider-verse? He's essentially like that only also a dumb jock and demure silly goofball. He's just bonkers the entire film and you're sorta forced to laugh your ass off every scene he's in. He really steals the whole film.
Margot Robbie is good, Kate Mckinnon is hilarious, Will Ferrell is awesome. That said every other character was kinda flat or just filling space, at least for me. That sorta leads me to the problems I had with the film. When it's comedy I was having a great time, but man when it's not, the films just crawls. I was definitely checking my phone. I could not get invested in any of the drawn out pseudo lore of the film or meaning of life stuff. It was good ideas, but idk. Maybe it was the pacing. I will say however the political aspect of it, hinted in the trailers with Ken finding out Men are in charge irl, wasn't a problem for me. I'm sad the media made such a big deal about it. Infact I sorta wish they'd cut out all the "Toy Story message" stuff and let that be the main plot.
So idk, your mileage may vary. It was fun, but my mind wasn't blown or anything. 7/10. It has Ryan Gosling and he's not chopping off his own hands.
I sat down and watched Barbie over the weekend. I can't really decide if it just wasn't for me, or if it was actually a muddled mess. It's a film that can't seem to decide if you're supposed to care about the logic or just have fun or if it has a message and if so what that is.
Unfortunately for me my expectations were impacted heavily by the political and critical noise around the film. Everyone seems to love or hate it and hate everyone else who disagrees with them. It's kinda like that Ghostbusters 2016 thing where if you don't like it youre incel nazi and if you do then youre a "woke something something rant about gays." Hollywood is getting pretty darn good at wielding the hype machine. The way it affected my viewing is that I found myself forced into analyzing everything more than I wanted to. At 41 I'm starting to think I'm just gonna shut off the news. I'm already pretty good with grey areas and glass houses. I don't need to constantly be told whats right and wrong by the media anyway. So somebody msg me if the worlds ever about to end or something so I can at least get my pontoon ready.
The trailers explain that Stereotypical Barbie, that her actual name, like you know to differentiate her from pilot barbie president barbie etc. I lol'd, is having an existential crisis and seeks the advice of "got played with too much, weird barbie" who tells her she has to go to the human world because her child is also freaking out and that is having a causality affect on Barbie. This is told within the backdrop of Barbieland which is a not quite opposite version of the real world. Barbies are in Charge and Kens just exist. Beach Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, is obsessed with Barbie, believing they are destined for true love. She isn't interested. Not sure why, at least the start of the film. He seems like an okay dude and is pretty adorable. Anyway they go to the human world hijinx ensue
and when they return to Barbieland its been taken over by Kens while Barbie is gone because Beach Ken discovers Patriarchy and they have to fight to get it back while also finding Barbies purpose in life since, as stereotypical Barbie she's one of the only Barbies without a real job or function.
So to sort of paraphrase an MTG streamer I watch ashlizzile, she said she didn't like it because she really was looking forward to it just being a silly girl/LGBTQ positive romp and all the messaging stuff was weird and she wasn't into it. I think, on the surface I sort of feel the same way. Ryan Gosling is fantastic. You remember Ben reilly from across the spider-verse? He's essentially like that only also a dumb jock and demure silly goofball. He's just bonkers the entire film and you're sorta forced to laugh your ass off every scene he's in. He really steals the whole film.
Margot Robbie is good, Kate Mckinnon is hilarious, Will Ferrell is awesome. That said every other character was kinda flat or just filling space, at least for me. That sorta leads me to the problems I had with the film. When it's comedy I was having a great time, but man when it's not, the films just crawls. I was definitely checking my phone. I could not get invested in any of the drawn out pseudo lore of the film or meaning of life stuff. It was good ideas, but idk. Maybe it was the pacing. I will say however the political aspect of it, hinted in the trailers with Ken finding out Men are in charge irl, wasn't a problem for me. I'm sad the media made such a big deal about it. Infact I sorta wish they'd cut out all the "Toy Story message" stuff and let that be the main plot.
So idk, your mileage may vary. It was fun, but my mind wasn't blown or anything. 7/10. It has Ryan Gosling and he's not chopping off his own hands.
i think it’s just easier for some people to make political hay out of superficial and highly visible things like movies than to engage in the actual political engagement required of participatory citizenship. Posting your pink outfit you put on to go see Barbie is easier than challenging your husband, father, or boss for how you’re treated.
also remember the overwhelming regular marketing. I have not seen a traditional marketing blitz like this for a movie since the last Star Wars
Probably but a reality check or three is good for the….well it’s good. But then if Disney had put it out then everyone would be bitching about their monopoly on things so maybe it’s just simply good a (very) well received mid budget film was put out by the competition.