I am glad they did. But just because you can, does not mean you should. I rather the guy and gals just use that money to fund a new original project, or a spiritual successor. Upgrade ended perfectly the way it did, despite making me very depressed.
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
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Love and Monsters (2020)
This is a sort of young adult post-apocalyptic romcom. I know they've pushed the ages of the leads to the mid-20s, but they're clearly designed to be sort of teen. The lead, "Joel", is in some form of arrested development having never moved on from the day monsters took over the world, pining over his girlfriend Aimee who he was separated from many years previously. Humanity lives in bunkers, hiding and defending themselves from mutated giant bugs. Joel is, well, useless. But he keeps in contact with Aimee (who has grown to be her bunker's leader), and when she reports she's in trouble, off Joel sets for a 7-day yomp through the infested country to help. And thus, bildungsroman as Joel finally learns to grow up. In a humorous, slapstick, fashion obviously - this film is not very serious. And he finds a lovely, surprisingly well groomed, friendly and useful dog, because young adult stuff has a thing for cute and helpful pets. All progresses ends as you expect. Everything is so cliched and/or telegraphed so clearly an adult should have no problem predicting everything and how it will resolve in good time. It's basically a pretty baseline popcorn muncher for a young-ish audience, undoubtedly losing plenty of impact for an older watcher.
This is a sort of young adult post-apocalyptic romcom. I know they've pushed the ages of the leads to the mid-20s, but they're clearly designed to be sort of teen. The lead, "Joel", is in some form of arrested development having never moved on from the day monsters took over the world, pining over his girlfriend Aimee who he was separated from many years previously. Humanity lives in bunkers, hiding and defending themselves from mutated giant bugs. Joel is, well, useless. But he keeps in contact with Aimee (who has grown to be her bunker's leader), and when she reports she's in trouble, off Joel sets for a 7-day yomp through the infested country to help. And thus, bildungsroman as Joel finally learns to grow up. In a humorous, slapstick, fashion obviously - this film is not very serious. And he finds a lovely, surprisingly well groomed, friendly and useful dog, because young adult stuff has a thing for cute and helpful pets. All progresses ends as you expect. Everything is so cliched and/or telegraphed so clearly an adult should have no problem predicting everything and how it will resolve in good time. It's basically a pretty baseline popcorn muncher for a young-ish audience, undoubtedly losing plenty of impact for an older watcher.
It felt like a movie based on a videogame if it was good. Just straight-forward plot and monster fun. It was also really weird how the main character is called Joel, lives in the post-apocalypse, gains a companion called 'boy', and then meets up with a surrogate father-daughter team of survivors. I don't know if this was a little too on the nose, or just a huge coincidence.
It was also nice to see Bruce Spence again.
The ending made Joel look really irresponible though. Calling out everyone living in bunkers - families with children included - to not be afraid of the monsters that have killed 95% of the human race, and just leave the bunkers to live on the surface as some act of rebelion or something. Like seriously Joel, you're gonna have so many deaths on your conscience.
Probably won't watch it again, but it was a fun romp.
Another infinite time looping day movie, Palm Springs, a Hulu original. I think I've seen 3 in about a month? It's a fun concept and this one is fun and imaginative. Takes place on a wedding day, over and over again. 7.5/10.
Krampus
Fun movie, good balance of comedy and horror, great throwback to 80s "family" horror movies starring kids like Gremlins and The Gate. And I like how the ending doesn't feel like a cop out at all, which I thought it would, but manages to be creepy without feeling like a downer.
Fun movie, good balance of comedy and horror, great throwback to 80s "family" horror movies starring kids like Gremlins and The Gate. And I like how the ending doesn't feel like a cop out at all, which I thought it would, but manages to be creepy without feeling like a downer.
Yes.
I mean, when the entire world's military has been chewed up and spat out in a year, you can't seriously believe your untrained bunker-dwellers are going to come out of that experience well. Joel has essentially all but guaranteed the deaths of a substantial remaining portion of humanity. The argument "Hey, 75% of you will die, but the other 25%, you're going to be really tough!" is kind of a poor selling point. Of course, the nomad guy played by Michael Rooker and daughter make light of that in the final scene: "Ha, the idiot, he's going to get himself and everyone else killed!" What he really needs to do is create a cadre of rangers, preferably with the assistance of the nomad, and gradually train them up.
But that is the essence of YA. Take out your brain and hang it on the peg when you enter.
Just finished Godzilla: King of the Monsters. I was not feeling it for the first half hour. Not enough monsters, too much army (although Charles Dance is always nice). And then Ghidorah woke up, and the movie became most of what I was hoping for: bunch of monster fights with scenes of humans trying to not be in the crossfire. I did have some niggling points Really wish that Mothra had at least gotten a kill before she got vaporized, for example, and I felt Rodan was done dirty but overall, I had a good time after the slow beginning.
Shazam
It's actually about family, for once. Not like Star Wars is about family, or Fast and Furious is about family. Goofy but sincere, hews close to Spider Raimi. The beginning is a bit too slow and the finale goes on for a bit too long, but the middle is a lot of fun. I even laughed at some of the jokes. Iffy CG, villain is boring but at least has character. And the Jimmy Fallon looking dude was an entertaining lead.
It's actually about family, for once. Not like Star Wars is about family, or Fast and Furious is about family. Goofy but sincere, hews close to Spider Raimi. The beginning is a bit too slow and the finale goes on for a bit too long, but the middle is a lot of fun. I even laughed at some of the jokes. Iffy CG, villain is boring but at least has character. And the Jimmy Fallon looking dude was an entertaining lead.
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I watched The Ninth Configuration, a 1980 psychological thriller/comedy written and directed by Exorcist author William Peter Blatty. It's about an isolated military asylum and focuses primarily on a captain newly assigned to oversee treatment, and a patient, a former astronaut, who suffered a breakdown before a moon mission.
It's very odd, at first seeming like a mix between Hogan's Heroes and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest, then transforming into something more grim and thoughtful. The first half, personified in manic comedy and wide-eyed argument, was less compelling. I felt it had a pretty narrow vision of what 'insanity' is. When it focuses more on a couple characters in the back half (and also has a prolonged barroom sequence that successfully travels from camp to horror), I think it becomes something pretty noteworthy.
It's very odd, at first seeming like a mix between Hogan's Heroes and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest, then transforming into something more grim and thoughtful. The first half, personified in manic comedy and wide-eyed argument, was less compelling. I felt it had a pretty narrow vision of what 'insanity' is. When it focuses more on a couple characters in the back half (and also has a prolonged barroom sequence that successfully travels from camp to horror), I think it becomes something pretty noteworthy.
I've never heard of that film but it looks really interesting - thanks for the tip I'll check it out.
The Critic example used in the wiki explicitly calls out Stallone's habit of hiring stand in directors and being a control freak. That's gotta sting.
I dunno if this made it to the movie but originally that astronaut was supposed to be the guy at the party in The Exorcist that Regan says "You're gonna die up there".
Roman Polanski's Pirates
Polanski's infamous 1986 box office bomb about a dead genre starring a vile, hateful main character and a bunch of unknown actors in a plotless mess with a dark, gross sense of humor and a downer ending. Wonder what went wrong here.
This reminded me a lot of Fearless Vampire Killers. Comedy duo featuring an incompetent mastermind and his long-suffering sidekick, B-movie send-up, plotless situation comedy, nihilistic ending. I didn't laugh once during the whole thing but it was immensely entertaining. Every scene presents some kind of urgent conflict and seems as if guided by fevered nightmare logic, where every tentative solution turns on the leads in really nasty ways. The production is also admirable in a really gritty, repulsive way. In a movie with tons of fire, blood, sleaze, grime, dead bodies and icky rat soup, very little looks like a special effect. And the ship looks real and dirty and lived-in. Apparently they built a Spanish galley from scratch just for the film, which remains the largest movie prop ever built, floating to this day in a Genoan port as a museum. Crazy!
Polanski's infamous 1986 box office bomb about a dead genre starring a vile, hateful main character and a bunch of unknown actors in a plotless mess with a dark, gross sense of humor and a downer ending. Wonder what went wrong here.
This reminded me a lot of Fearless Vampire Killers. Comedy duo featuring an incompetent mastermind and his long-suffering sidekick, B-movie send-up, plotless situation comedy, nihilistic ending. I didn't laugh once during the whole thing but it was immensely entertaining. Every scene presents some kind of urgent conflict and seems as if guided by fevered nightmare logic, where every tentative solution turns on the leads in really nasty ways. The production is also admirable in a really gritty, repulsive way. In a movie with tons of fire, blood, sleaze, grime, dead bodies and icky rat soup, very little looks like a special effect. And the ship looks real and dirty and lived-in. Apparently they built a Spanish galley from scratch just for the film, which remains the largest movie prop ever built, floating to this day in a Genoan port as a museum. Crazy!
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I mostly didn't like that film, but I did like the setup of a couple who were fosters themselves, deciding to do a foster house of their own, because they know what it's like to be a kid in the foster system. That was pretty cool. And I enjoyed the stronger together, found family angle, especially at the end.
I really liked Shazam. It's one of those movies thats not doing anything particularly special, but if I walk in and people are watching the middle bits I'll happily sit down and watch. At some movies I'll get so mad I'll lose my mind and scream at the screen "Real people don't talk like that!" immediately BVS comes to mind. Shazam is a gem in that the dialog and jokes all felt very sincere. The disabled kid in particular hit pretty close to home. I agree, while not painful to watch, the beginning and end stuff is hazy and did not stick with me.
Sleepers.
I have always liked this film (well, it's horrible, but you know what I mean), and I wrote my A-level dissertation (whatever the A-level dissertation equivalent is) on it, but I increasingly am unsure about the casting of Jason Patric or the boy who plays young Michael. Jason Patric may be a fine actor and a fine person, I really have no idea, but replacing Keanu in Speed was a bad call. And young Michael just has odd delivery, though maybe that's a Hell's Kitchen accent?
Anyway, I saw it at the cinema when it came out. That's how old I am.
I have always liked this film (well, it's horrible, but you know what I mean), and I wrote my A-level dissertation (whatever the A-level dissertation equivalent is) on it, but I increasingly am unsure about the casting of Jason Patric or the boy who plays young Michael. Jason Patric may be a fine actor and a fine person, I really have no idea, but replacing Keanu in Speed was a bad call. And young Michael just has odd delivery, though maybe that's a Hell's Kitchen accent?
Anyway, I saw it at the cinema when it came out. That's how old I am.
Jason Patric was very successful when he was younger. I cannot help but feel his primary selling point was his looks: not that he was necessarily a bad actor either, mind.
Mr. Jones on Hulu.
The true story of a young journalist that goes to Moscow around 1935. The world is in a global depression. Yet the young Soviet State under Stalin appears outwardly to be experiencing explosive growth. How?
Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times desk head/journalist Walter Duranty was being pampered in Moscow at that time as he wrote of what a stunning success the USSR was. Jones uncovers and reports upon the Holodomor, to which Duranty publishes a rebuke in the New York Times.
Don't watch this video if you don't want to see spoilers.
I give it a 7/10. This is not a fun watch, nor is it made in a particularly impactful manner. But it is done well enough and its message is relevant today, in a world full of multi millionaire corporate talking heads that attend all of the very best parties in Washington.
The true story of a young journalist that goes to Moscow around 1935. The world is in a global depression. Yet the young Soviet State under Stalin appears outwardly to be experiencing explosive growth. How?
Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times desk head/journalist Walter Duranty was being pampered in Moscow at that time as he wrote of what a stunning success the USSR was. Jones uncovers and reports upon the Holodomor, to which Duranty publishes a rebuke in the New York Times.
Don't watch this video if you don't want to see spoilers.
I give it a 7/10. This is not a fun watch, nor is it made in a particularly impactful manner. But it is done well enough and its message is relevant today, in a world full of multi millionaire corporate talking heads that attend all of the very best parties in Washington.
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