Gunpowder Milkshake - 5/10
Kinda like how we had movies trying to be Tarantino movies, we now have movies trying to be John Wick clones, and this the latter but with chicks (Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Angela Bassett, Carla Gugino, and Michelle Yeoh). Instead of The High Table, it's called The Firm. The movie is going for a lot more of a comedic vibe than John Wick and you can really see how much it's trying to be funny, cool, and witty and that's not a good thing at all. The action scenes are a bit of a mixed bag but decently fun overall. The one action scene in the bowling alley is really poorly choreographed and it feels like they only had the time/budget to do a couple takes. Then towards the end there's a scene where the result of the fight isn't really shown and you'll like "wait, she lost, and they took the kid too?". I even went back to rewatch the last part of the fight and it's like the editor mistakenly left out the conclusion of the fight.
The Gorge - 7/10
This was a pretty solid movie overall. The premise is that there's mysterious creatures in this foggy gorge since WWII and the west and east send a person every year for the whole year to live in towers on each end and make sure none of the creatures escape. The movie stars Miles Teller as the American and Anya Taylor-Joy as the Russian. The movie procedes as you might think where they check out what the other one is doing with binoculars, then they write simple messages on a board that they can see with the binoculars, and that then escaluates to one of them going over to the other side to meet in person. That all works and flows fine enough. The 2nd half of the movie is the interesting half and it goes places that I totally didn't expect, mainly in scale as I figured it would stay as pretty much a very small scale romance.
It's What's Inside - 8/10
Really interesting movie where the premise is that the characters a playing a game like Mafia/Werewolf but with the twist that there is a body switching machine so everyone also switches bodies. It's a bunch of friends (I think 8) that get back together for a wedding and have a party beforehand. The movie's cinematography is really interesting, especially for a Netflix movie. With the body switching mechanic, the movie is a bit confusing in keeping all the characters straight but the movie does a decent job of showing you who is who. One of my friends was like belingerantly mad at the movie for being purposefully confusing and the rest of us were like "it's not that hard to follow". After he left, we put on Robocop and when he took off his helmet late in the movie, we were all like "oh, that's the guy from the beginning of the movie, so confusing!!!"
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Nosferatu: Meh / Great
Dracula buys a new house, and the bank sends a guy to be the rube for the former's proclivity for hot young women.
Not sure what I was expecting given all of the high praise I've seen, but a very "meh" movie for me. Nothing exceptional, nothing exciting, just another take on "Dracula" which ceased to be interesting decades ago. Maybe I'm spoiled given Anne Rice's vampires became the much more interesting take on the vampire for me years 30 years ago. Might have missed the point, but, meh, old guy in a coffin covets young woman... okay, AND?
Yeah, I found this movie pretty boring overall as well, it felt like it took forever for "Dracula" to get to the city finally. Defoe is like the only character that brought energy to the movie. I also found it weird that Defoe's character is essentially the exposition dump character but the movie never really gives you the vampire rules either. One friend (the one that likes this director's previous films) commented that it felt longer than Wicked that we saw the night before.
I watched Wicked (part 1) and it was quite alright. Didn't really know what to expect seeing as I'm not a Broadway person, and while I can enjoy a musical now and then it's mostly Disney fare, which from what I can gather isn't Broadway. Anyway, I had fun with it. I also heard a lot of talk about the visuals, primarily the colouring, of this movie, and this being the biggest point of contension I have with almost every blockbuster today I was expecting the worst. Fortunately though it didn't bother me much at all. I can't say the tepidness in the colouring wasn't there, but it didn't draw my attention. Maybe it's the artifice of it being a musical, or maybe it's the camera work never lingering too long on the scenery.
Cynthia Erivo is pretty great as Elphaba. She has amazingly expressive eyes, and it's quite something how well the whole look works for her. Oh, and she can sing up a nice storm as well. Ariana Grande barbies it up without it ever becoming annoying, which is a talent I guess. And Jeff Goldblum is always a treat. Michelle Yeoh feels a bit undercooked though.
I have read some of the book that the musical and the movie was based on, and you can tell that everything between Galinda and Elphaba and the whole misfit at school was kinda crowbarred into the original story. Not that it's bad, but it often forgets the entire reason Elphaba even rebels at the end. Animals being treated like shit and being removed from society only comes up once or twice. Not that the story should've been lazer focused on this - it's not like the movie necessarily needed more Animal characters, but showing the oppression in the background really could've helped. There's a scene where Elphaba and Glinda arrive at the Emerald City and there's just Animals walking around without a care in the world, when Dilimond had to meet in secret at Shiz with other Animals to discuss how the walls are closing in on them. And with this demonization being the product of the Wizard, you'd think the Emerald City would be the worst place for Animals, but not from what the movie shows.
Anyway, it was charming overall.
The coloring is rather subdued as I watched Oz, The Great and Powerful the day after and the colors really pop on that movie. The overall theme is definitely muddled because you have your whole main character that's a perfect example for racism/discrimination but then you also have to do this really heavy handed animal allegory to racism as well? Also, Elphaba is kinda no longer being discriminated anymore as the movie goes on as well so they just kinda drop the whole theming with the main character. Though overall the music is great and the set-pieces are awesome and it's a pretty enjoyable movie overall.
