Bodies at Rest, a Hong Kong action movie directed by has-been Renny Harlin whose expertise has brought him to non-English movie projects as of late. It's not awful, but it's really nothing to write home about. Really violent in the way that people get beat up and cut all the time, but 95% of the bleeding is just cosmetic. In fact, the plot requires the characters to wipe their faces clean and act normal a couple of times. 4/10
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
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As Above, So Below. My favorite horror movies are ones without jump scares that rely on narrative tension, music, and sound design to creep me out. It's why I love The Witch. Going by what I've heard of this film, I expected As Above, So Below to be this. After about an hour of nothing happening, the movie remembered it was supposed to end soon, killed off most of the people in a rapid manner with cliche as hell horror movie stuff, jump scares galore and the like, then it came to a sudden ending. It felt like a pointless film that was trying to be deep, but completely failed. 3/10.
I'm watching the original The Evil Dead now. I'll get back on how it is.
I'm watching the original The Evil Dead now. I'll get back on how it is.
There's a little bit of that, but I feel people tend to overinflate this. Afterall there's also the message of pursuing the talents that you have and not letting societal norms get in the way.
I, Tonya
Entertaining, thought provoking, sad. Made you feel that Harding had made some mistakes, but bigod she'd gotten far worse than she deserved.
Also, the spectacle of two total idiots doing immensely stupid things while convinced they were being incredibly smart was very funny.
Entertaining, thought provoking, sad. Made you feel that Harding had made some mistakes, but bigod she'd gotten far worse than she deserved.
Also, the spectacle of two total idiots doing immensely stupid things while convinced they were being incredibly smart was very funny.
I just saw The Last Temptation of Christ, what a splendid movie. It was a good idea to watch this soon after Noah, as both emphasize the existential/personal side of their respective famous Biblical character's journey. For a great part of its length, it's a moderately straight retelling of the story of Jesus (and a very good one with great cinematography and a ballin' Peter Gabriel soundtrack), but the last section genuinely caught me off guard and took it a notch higher. Competes with Goodfellas for my favorite Martin Scorcese film thus far.
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Huh.... I guess it kinda didn't think about that. The villain ain't much of a villain is he? He honestly just wants everyone to be equal, something objectivist hate since they can't feel superior to anyone. I guess I'm more surprised anyone follows that philosophy. I thought that it died when Rand did.
Last film I watched was Princess Mononoke the other night. Until Netflix got (almost) all of them, I'd never seen a single Studio Ghibli film. Along with Mononoke, I've now seen Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
Mononoke is very good, but far more violent than the others, and rather bleak as well. Animation is top notch, dubbing is alright, the action is quite good.
I think my favourite so far is Nausicaä, however.
Mononoke is very good, but far more violent than the others, and rather bleak as well. Animation is top notch, dubbing is alright, the action is quite good.
I think my favourite so far is Nausicaä, however.
As the theaters are closed, you can buy movies that otherwise would have been in the theater. I watched "Bloodshot" with VIn Diesel. It got horrible reviews. Hard to say if it deserved them or not. A ticket to see that movie would cost just as much as a ticket to go see Infinity War. Certainly not the same kind of bargain. But for what it was, it was a perfectly serviceable Sci Fi action movie. Vin is looking his age. I would not have cast him in the role, but he does make it work well enough.
Does he? He kills a whole bunch of people, luring them to their deaths in order to test weapons on. All this for the sole purpose of creating of weapon no one can defeat but him, so he can play the hero himself. Then when all that fails he resorts to kidnapping a baby. And none of which was even commited in the name of equality, just vanity.
Many fundamentalist Christians found it blasphemous (some parts, I concede, seemed silly) but from a humanist perspective, if Christ was not tempted to avoid that fate, would it have been much of a sacrifice to submit to it?
You both have a point. This movie is very anti-radical egalitarian. It wants people to strive to be the best they can be while realizing in a free society, you are not going to have identical people. But Syndrome was a monster. He wasn't working for an egalitarian world but one in which HE would be seen as special. The rest was just lip service from him. ( BTW: As a Batman fan, I'm not against the idea of a non-powered also trying to be the best he can be in a super hero environment. This effort was not Syndrome's evil. His murderous self serving ways were.).
Eh, you got me there. Haven't seen the film in years, so I only got bits and pieces and forgot quite a bit of the plot. I mostly just remember the "If everyone is super, nobody will be" line from Syndrome. It does sound like there is a lot more nuance to these film than I remember. Should probably check it out again.
I mean, the movie at best is critiquing the 'participation award/everyone's a winner' mentallity. But when Syndrome uses that line that reflects more on him then on the heroes' motivation to stop him or the movie's message.
Honestly, I was a little mad at the movie near the end. It's like they were too cowardly to carry through their "some people are just born superior to you, deal with it peasant" message by having Dash not use his speedster powers to win the track meet. If it really followed through, Dash would have just blinked across the finish line with no fucks given.
I just saw The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie's latest flick about British gangsters. It was alright, entertaining enough, but not great. The script felt kind of messy, like a rough draft in places. It's got plenty of style and wit, as you'd expect from Ritchie, but it never fully came together for me. I feel like in 2019, Knives Out did a better job executing on the same kind of movie: snappy dialogue, playful direction and a plot with lots of turns and twists. But whereas in Knives Out, all those elements meshed together really well, The Gentlemen always felt just a little bit off to me.
Underwater - 3/10
It's Alien, except underwater (duh). Aside from that, it so shameless copies Alien, you could call it plagiarism and I wouldn't blame you. Wait no, there is another big difference: Alien is a good movie. But hey, it has Kristen Stewart in her undies for a good amount of runtime, if that's something that floats your boat.
It's Alien, except underwater (duh). Aside from that, it so shameless copies Alien, you could call it plagiarism and I wouldn't blame you. Wait no, there is another big difference: Alien is a good movie. But hey, it has Kristen Stewart in her undies for a good amount of runtime, if that's something that floats your boat.
If Dash had blinked across the finish line then that would have revealed Dash to be a Super, and possibly outed his sister and parents. Revealing a Super's secret identity tends to be a bad thing. Plus it could have gotten his entire family into some pretty steep Federal level legal trouble.
By that point would that be necessary though? I mean, he outran a bunch of murderous hencemen piloting buzzsaw aircrafts and a giant robot shooting lasers at him. That was pretty much his sports event right there. And I don't think that was ultimately the message of the movie. Dash wants to show off because he's a little kid and that's what little kids do. And even Bob, having great pride in being a superhero and desperately wanting to relive the glory days, ultimately just wants to help people. He never uses his powers just for the sake of it to show himself superior. Except maybe when he throws his boss through a bunch of walls, but that was more him losing his temper, and he's instantly reprimanded for it be being fired.
Local Hero - 4/5
Local Hero is a lovely, quirky little 1983 film by Bill Forsyth. It's about Mac (Peter Riegert), an executive from an American oil company who's trying to purchase a small village on the Scottish coast so the company can build an oil refinery on the land. Unbeknownst to Mac, the villagers are all to eager to sell, but are feigning indifference to get more money out of him. Mac, for his part, quickly falls in love with the place he's supposed to be buying. It's quite hard to pin down quite what makes Local Hero work so well; it is funny, but in a wry smile inducing way, rather than laugh out loud. I think the heart of it is how well the village of Furness and the people in it, local and outsider, are realised. I particularly liked Peter Capaldi as Danny, Mac's hapless assistant from the Scottish branch of the company.
Local Hero is a lovely, quirky little 1983 film by Bill Forsyth. It's about Mac (Peter Riegert), an executive from an American oil company who's trying to purchase a small village on the Scottish coast so the company can build an oil refinery on the land. Unbeknownst to Mac, the villagers are all to eager to sell, but are feigning indifference to get more money out of him. Mac, for his part, quickly falls in love with the place he's supposed to be buying. It's quite hard to pin down quite what makes Local Hero work so well; it is funny, but in a wry smile inducing way, rather than laugh out loud. I think the heart of it is how well the village of Furness and the people in it, local and outsider, are realised. I particularly liked Peter Capaldi as Danny, Mac's hapless assistant from the Scottish branch of the company.
I'm old and got to see that in the theater back in the day. Before streaming and you actually had to have lots of theaters to show movies that were not AAA budget films! Got it on DVD. I should watch it again soon. Such a terrific story. Nearly 40 years later, so many scenes still stand out for me. Like Burt Lancaster's abusive therapist and the phone calls Riegert is instructed to make to him. The guy on the beach and the sand in the palm trick. Great movie.
The boy was coming home from New Orleans and the plane landed with about 15 min. to go so he had rent Parasite on youtube to catch the whole thing. He hates to read yet loved this movie with subtitles and told me I have to see it so he can talk about it with me. It is now on Hulu for free and it is very special. It is in some ways condescending but so much is horrifying, hilarious, exotic. A spectacular time. I will review it further with him over Easter lunch. Hope everyone has a great Easter. Stay safe and if you cannot be with family, there's always Skype.