There's a British remake of this called Mean Machine. I think I was one of about thirty people worldwide who bothered to pay money to see it in cinemas cos in 2001 I thought Vinnie Jones was one of the coolest dudes on screen. I still think he's cool, but recognise he is a limited (though excellent) instrument. It’s not what I call a good movie but I remain very fond of it.
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Have you seen this Japanese movie Survive Style 5+ by any chance? Vinnie Jones is in it and basically walking around Japan yelling "What is your function?" to like everyone.
I can safely say that I have not seen that. I’m not even sure I’d know what to make of it if I did.
A ★★★★ review of Back to the Future Part II (1989)
“The justice system works swiftly in the future, now that they’ve abolished all lawyers.” This sequel did not have an entirely smooth production. The first hurdle was that despite the ending of the first movie seeming to hint at a sequel, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale never actually had plans for...
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It's one of the few quirky and off-the-wall Japanese movies that translates really well to a Western audience. Most of those type of movies you're like "what the fuck was that?" at the end (like say Funky Forest: The First Contact that I watched because IMDB said it was similar to Survive Style).
Experimenting with VR (Quest 3 using a USB to a PC playing Netflx: utilized Virtual Desktop Streamer) just last weekend and watched the 1st Back to the Future and just amazed at how well it holds up. Great, humorous tone with enough sci-fi to keep it grounded. Fantastic characters, writing and dialogue. May have to do it again with Part II! EDIT: My recollection is that in 2, Marty is somewhat sillier, which I found distracting. Same music composer? I'll have to see what else he did as his work on this series was terrific.A ★★★★ review of Back to the Future Part II (1989)
“The justice system works swiftly in the future, now that they’ve abolished all lawyers.” This sequel did not have an entirely smooth production. The first hurdle was that despite the ending of the first movie seeming to hint at a sequel, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale never actually had plans for...
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Alan Silvestri has done SO much work as a composer. And yeah, making Marty a bit sillier was another side effect of the character flaw they gave im.
A ★★½ review of Ip Man 3 (2015)
“The world doesn’t belong to the rich, or even powerful, but to those of pure heart.” There were a couple of reasons it took a few years for this sequel to happen. The first, quite simply, is that Donnie Yen did not want to do an Ip Man 3 for a while, feeling that it was impossible to top the...
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Eternity in theaters
I saw a good youtube asking why so many movies are meh these days. It is posited, you have to have a great hook to get a studio to make your movie but there's no incentive to stick the landing.
Great hook: similar to "Defending Your Life", an old couple die and meet at a interim point where they get to decide how they will spend eternity when wife also runs into 1st husband killed in Korea before they ever got to have a life together. Who to chose?
Pleasant. But it didn't seem to have a lot to do once it got going to its reasonably predictable end. C.
I saw a good youtube asking why so many movies are meh these days. It is posited, you have to have a great hook to get a studio to make your movie but there's no incentive to stick the landing.
Great hook: similar to "Defending Your Life", an old couple die and meet at a interim point where they get to decide how they will spend eternity when wife also runs into 1st husband killed in Korea before they ever got to have a life together. Who to chose?
Pleasant. But it didn't seem to have a lot to do once it got going to its reasonably predictable end. C.
So I watched the first Back to the Future with my kids last weekend. Thank the gods it came out in the 80s becuase the anti-woke mob would have had a field day with these movies.A ★★★★ review of Back to the Future Part II (1989)
“The justice system works swiftly in the future, now that they’ve abolished all lawyers.” This sequel did not have an entirely smooth production. The first hurdle was that despite the ending of the first movie seeming to hint at a sequel, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale never actually had plans for...
And, I'm running up against the terrors of streaming services. No one is subscribe to streams the rest of the trilogy
Anyway, horny mum is wierd. I know there are twins that are seperated at birth that unintetionally incestuous. But that was weird. I didnt recall how Marty changed the timeline so much and Doc is just okay with this? I suppose he doesnt know
Some of the comedy in this is a lost art in Hollywood. I just saw Lloyd in Wednesday and he's deviod of humour. It was good to talk about time travel and paradoxes. We watched the season 4 finale of Xmen 92 and they werent following the time paradoxes. This movie is much clearer about it, especially the gradual changes in the timeline that gives the movie its ticking clock
The Syrian terrorists are riduculous
Still a solid 8.5/10
A ★★★ review of Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken (1991)
“Can you shovel manure?” “Manure just happens to be my specialty.” This film was an adaptation of the memoir written by Sonora Webster Carver, based on her experiences as a diving horse girl. What is that? Well, back in the Great Depression, one circus act involved a rider, usually a comely...
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Avatar - 9/10
Yeah, I said it. I liked this movie in 2009 and I like it now. I'd actually forgotten how good its score was; like its a really good collection of music. Especially "Jake's First Flight" and "War".
Yeah, I said it. I liked this movie in 2009 and I like it now. I'd actually forgotten how good its score was; like its a really good collection of music. Especially "Jake's First Flight" and "War".
A ★★★½ review of Back to the Future Part III (1990)
“I wish I’d never invented that infernal time machine. It’s caused nothing but trouble.” While there were some changes from the original script, as is usual for pretty much any movie, this wasn't a very problematic production...save for one incident. During a scene where his character is hanged...
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KPop Demon Hunter (2025)
3D animated Magical Girl movie about about... a KPop band who hunts demons. Yeah, the premise is kind of right there in the title, isn't it?
The movie, directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans (certainly one of the names of all time) follows band/demon hunting outfit HUNTR/X, consisting of Rumi, Mira and Zoey (aka, the Goth One, the Main One and the Annoying one, aka basically just the Powerpuff Girls but older) as they face off against the hordes of an evil demon king which are eventually joined by, wouldn't you know it, an evil demon boyband acting as their evil counterpart. This is, of course, complicated by the fact that Rumi is, herself, half demon which she's hiding from her friends so we can have the obligatory Liar Revealed plot beat at the beginning of the third act.
This was the most successful animated movie of the year and became a bit of a cultural phenomenon, its soundtrack dominating the charts ever since it came out. I watched it mostly out of a sense of obligation to keep up with popular culture, to be honest. And I liked it about as much as I expected to, which is not very. I mean, I was never gonna be very much into this, this is a movie whose soundtrack consists practically entirely of the kind of music that makes me switch the channel when they play it on the radio. I went into it figuring this would be a long 90 minutes and honestly, yes, it kinda was. I wouldn't necessarily say it's the most miserable thing I've seen all year but it's probably up there.
It's not that there was a great chance for me, a 32 year old rocker to fall head over heels for a Magical Girl movie about KPop, but let me be real here: the actual music aside, the part of it that I did actually kinda vibe with was the shiny, sparkly girlypop aesthetic it had going on, all pink, purple and baby blue, everything looking like a trans pride flag covered in glitter. And as someone who always held that a good action movie uses its action like a musical uses its musical sequences, it was fun to watch a movie where most of the action scenes are musical sequences. See, it does that Spiderverse/Puss in Boots thing where it sometimes slows down the framerate of the character animations tongive them this faux stop motion look, which at this point has become a bit of a cliche for 3D animated action movies but I still find that effect neat.
It's a well animated movie, if nothing else. They to a lot of fun things with the character models, it's all very lively. Which is something that can't be said for the writing, which even by the standards of a kids movie can, no pun intended, really only be considered to be playing the hits. Listen, I really don't want to be one of those insufferable internet people who ***** about kids movies. Like, what, am I gonna call it "woke" next? But the truth of the matter is, I didn't think this was any good.
Did I laugh at any of the jokes? No. Did I think the characters were particularly compelling? No. Was there anything to the story or thematics I haven't seen a hundred times before? No. Was there anything particularly emotionally resonant in there? No. Did I enjoy the music? Hell no. Was the animation any good? Yeah, I guess. But that alone doesn't win me over. It's not that I'm in any position to argue with it 96% critical and 99% audience approval on Rotten Tomatoes but I can't concur with it either, I didn't enjoy it.
3D animated Magical Girl movie about about... a KPop band who hunts demons. Yeah, the premise is kind of right there in the title, isn't it?
The movie, directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans (certainly one of the names of all time) follows band/demon hunting outfit HUNTR/X, consisting of Rumi, Mira and Zoey (aka, the Goth One, the Main One and the Annoying one, aka basically just the Powerpuff Girls but older) as they face off against the hordes of an evil demon king which are eventually joined by, wouldn't you know it, an evil demon boyband acting as their evil counterpart. This is, of course, complicated by the fact that Rumi is, herself, half demon which she's hiding from her friends so we can have the obligatory Liar Revealed plot beat at the beginning of the third act.
This was the most successful animated movie of the year and became a bit of a cultural phenomenon, its soundtrack dominating the charts ever since it came out. I watched it mostly out of a sense of obligation to keep up with popular culture, to be honest. And I liked it about as much as I expected to, which is not very. I mean, I was never gonna be very much into this, this is a movie whose soundtrack consists practically entirely of the kind of music that makes me switch the channel when they play it on the radio. I went into it figuring this would be a long 90 minutes and honestly, yes, it kinda was. I wouldn't necessarily say it's the most miserable thing I've seen all year but it's probably up there.
It's not that there was a great chance for me, a 32 year old rocker to fall head over heels for a Magical Girl movie about KPop, but let me be real here: the actual music aside, the part of it that I did actually kinda vibe with was the shiny, sparkly girlypop aesthetic it had going on, all pink, purple and baby blue, everything looking like a trans pride flag covered in glitter. And as someone who always held that a good action movie uses its action like a musical uses its musical sequences, it was fun to watch a movie where most of the action scenes are musical sequences. See, it does that Spiderverse/Puss in Boots thing where it sometimes slows down the framerate of the character animations tongive them this faux stop motion look, which at this point has become a bit of a cliche for 3D animated action movies but I still find that effect neat.
It's a well animated movie, if nothing else. They to a lot of fun things with the character models, it's all very lively. Which is something that can't be said for the writing, which even by the standards of a kids movie can, no pun intended, really only be considered to be playing the hits. Listen, I really don't want to be one of those insufferable internet people who ***** about kids movies. Like, what, am I gonna call it "woke" next? But the truth of the matter is, I didn't think this was any good.
Did I laugh at any of the jokes? No. Did I think the characters were particularly compelling? No. Was there anything to the story or thematics I haven't seen a hundred times before? No. Was there anything particularly emotionally resonant in there? No. Did I enjoy the music? Hell no. Was the animation any good? Yeah, I guess. But that alone doesn't win me over. It's not that I'm in any position to argue with it 96% critical and 99% audience approval on Rotten Tomatoes but I can't concur with it either, I didn't enjoy it.
Nine Auras
Documentary about Argentine filmmaker Fabián Bielinsky, who spearheaded a brief renaissance for the industry when he made the critically and popularly acclaimed Nine Queens (2000), then essentially worked himself to death while making a beleaguered follow up, The Aura (2005). Nine Queens is the one everybody likes and has been incorporated into pop culture, while The Aura is the blank check movie people admire rather than enjoy. I think both are excellent. Bielinsky was a generational champion and it makes for a tragic timeline that he didn't get to do more movies. His early death created a vacuum that has never been filled.
Documentary about Argentine filmmaker Fabián Bielinsky, who spearheaded a brief renaissance for the industry when he made the critically and popularly acclaimed Nine Queens (2000), then essentially worked himself to death while making a beleaguered follow up, The Aura (2005). Nine Queens is the one everybody likes and has been incorporated into pop culture, while The Aura is the blank check movie people admire rather than enjoy. I think both are excellent. Bielinsky was a generational champion and it makes for a tragic timeline that he didn't get to do more movies. His early death created a vacuum that has never been filled.
A ★★ review of Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)
“Take that, you winged spawn of Satan!” After the success of the first film, a sequel was basically inevitable. The studio, knowing that a vast majority of the success was due to Jim Carrey's performance, gave him the ultimate final say in the choice of director. Because of this, the original...
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Movie really should've picked a lane. Preferably the one that focussed on the frienship between the girls. Was the romance subplot that suddenly grabbed all the runtime really contributing to anything? I mean, the dude sacrifices himself for Rumi so she can get a big sword, but in the final scene she doesn't give the guy a second thought, because he was a demon I guess. So what was even the point of that whole enemies-to-lovers nonsense?
Avatar: Fire and Ash
It's a fun movie. Characters are constantly on the run, getting chased, separated, captured, rescued and presumed dead before lunch every day. Then they do it all over again. Against the sci-fi fantasy Edgar Rice Burroughs landscape we get some interesting interpersonal drama - Jake blames his whale-hugging beta son Lo'ak for the death of his eldest, while Neytiri goes on openly racist tirades against her adoptive son Spider, whose presence endangers the safety of her family (and he did let the big bad go at the end of the previous movie - but only to spite his openly hateful adoptive mom - hoo boy!). And yet one of the movie's failings is it can't choose between Jake, Lo'ak and Spider as its protagonist. Lo'ak takes over narration from Jake, but it's mostly dad and monkey boy who push forward the plot, if only because each of them is a walking McGuffin and everyone wants a piece.
We're also introduced to the fire and ash clan of space cats from the title, led by the very violent Varang, and she's a great villain with a fantastic presence until Quaritch sort of takes over. But to be fair he's the one with the possibility for nuance and personal stakes. He kinda has to be, considering he got his ass kicked at the end of the other two movies.
The other thing is that the movie ends pretty much the same as Way of Water did: the same battle, fought by the same characters, over the same thing, in the same place. I haven't seen Way of Water since 2022 but I can guarantee that much, along with the fact it's a bigger, more prolonged version of it. To its credit it's a tad more conclusive this time around, and in a world where this doesn't make 2 billion dollars, it does just fine as a finale.
TL;DR - fun first half, samey second half.
Oh and the movie really needs to get its shit straight about who is what to each person, cause there's a little too much "what are you doing step bro" going on between two characters. There's another scene in which our two main villains seduce each other and there's a horniness and an appetite in that scene alone that I don't think people born on this side of 2005 have ever encountered in their tentpole blockbuster.
It's a fun movie. Characters are constantly on the run, getting chased, separated, captured, rescued and presumed dead before lunch every day. Then they do it all over again. Against the sci-fi fantasy Edgar Rice Burroughs landscape we get some interesting interpersonal drama - Jake blames his whale-hugging beta son Lo'ak for the death of his eldest, while Neytiri goes on openly racist tirades against her adoptive son Spider, whose presence endangers the safety of her family (and he did let the big bad go at the end of the previous movie - but only to spite his openly hateful adoptive mom - hoo boy!). And yet one of the movie's failings is it can't choose between Jake, Lo'ak and Spider as its protagonist. Lo'ak takes over narration from Jake, but it's mostly dad and monkey boy who push forward the plot, if only because each of them is a walking McGuffin and everyone wants a piece.
We're also introduced to the fire and ash clan of space cats from the title, led by the very violent Varang, and she's a great villain with a fantastic presence until Quaritch sort of takes over. But to be fair he's the one with the possibility for nuance and personal stakes. He kinda has to be, considering he got his ass kicked at the end of the other two movies.
The other thing is that the movie ends pretty much the same as Way of Water did: the same battle, fought by the same characters, over the same thing, in the same place. I haven't seen Way of Water since 2022 but I can guarantee that much, along with the fact it's a bigger, more prolonged version of it. To its credit it's a tad more conclusive this time around, and in a world where this doesn't make 2 billion dollars, it does just fine as a finale.
TL;DR - fun first half, samey second half.
Oh and the movie really needs to get its shit straight about who is what to each person, cause there's a little too much "what are you doing step bro" going on between two characters. There's another scene in which our two main villains seduce each other and there's a horniness and an appetite in that scene alone that I don't think people born on this side of 2005 have ever encountered in their tentpole blockbuster.
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Weirdly sorta kinda actually looking forward to this. I rewatched the second movie in 4K a few days ago (only saw it once when it came out), and despite the meatheaded plot and dorky characters James Cameron still has that mastery when it comes to filmmaking. Dude knows how to make scenes engaging and tense even when the characters are these awkward looking cat people yelling 'bro'.