Black Panther
Casting Bilbo Baggins as the token white guy was a nice touch.
Black Panther
Casting Bilbo Baggins as the token white guy was a nice touch.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
The newest Avengers film. Eh, it was okay. Some entertaining bits, lots of explosions. They telegraphed the end pretty heavily and also telegraphed what the likely resolution will be in the next film. Precious little character development because, let's be honest, it was an enormous cast and most people were just there to be seen.
I was pretty surprised how cheap-looking the CGI was. Thanos looked, honestly, like Archimonde from Warcraft 3 in terms of sophistication of the animation. There were lots of weird issues with sizing/perspective in his interactions with live action characters, and there were a bunch of other jarring combinations of live action and CGI with other characters. Maybe my standards have gotten too high?
There were also the usual silly issues with power mismatches and awful tactics. But that's the only way you can make a movie like this work, so I guess I'll just pretend that's okay.
Worth a watch, but don't assume it's amazing. It was just... functional. Like a well oiled Marvel machine for printing money.
"When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: Why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer for the first." - Werner Heisenberg (maybe)
Solo.
I liked it. It was a solid adventure movie that could have stood on its own if the star wars universe didn't exist. No problem with the casting decisions.
It's only hang up was how hard they forced it into the existing timeline/canon at the end of the movie, and no I'm not talking about the halogram.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Deadpool 2; loved it.
Avengers, infinity war; liked it.
Der Hauptmann; trying too hard, snoozefest despite air defense guns being used to shoot suspected deserters to smithereens. After a while I was thinking I was watching a dark universe version of the 'Der Hauptmann von Köpenick' and was very surprised to learn that this was actually based on real events in 1945.
Ladybird; gorgeous, go see it.
Bankier van het verzet; Dutch movie about a banker who during the German occupation managed to steal the equivaltent of half a billion from the Central Bank of The Netherlands from under the noses of its German caretakers, using the money to finance all sorts of resistance activities. I'm not a big fan of Dutch movies, but this one actually was quite good.
Solo; why are all these Star Wars flicks so godawful long?
Congratulations America
Solo
Ultimately disappointing.
Felt like they tried too hard with the casting of Han; looking for the same loveable, rough-around-the-edges rogue character that only Ford can pull off, and ended up with some square-jawed American nitwit who did nothing but handsome his way through the part. I didn't care what happened to him.
Qi'ra was a little better, and I liked how her arc concluded in darkness.
Lando was ok, suitably smooth.
Woody Harrelson's part was average, I felt he could/should have been more zany and off-the-wall, as the parts he plays so often are. I suspect he was reined in somewhat by the direction. His character at least provided a couple of twists to the tale.
Thandie Newton was hardly in it.
Chewie was just Chewie, and can't go wrong really.
Highlight out of the characters was certainly the droid L3. The only times I laughed out loud were from her lines.
Plotline was fairly dull, I didn't much care for it. In fact waking up this morning after seeing it last night, I'm struggling to remember much detail, it did that little to impinge on my emotion or conscience.
None of the tightness of direction, production, and acting which gave us the edge-of-the-seat desperation as seen in Rogue One; a much, much more accomplished film.
Hoped for better from Ron Howard.
6/10
Deadpool 2 is def. the best romantic family comedy of the year. Not as effortlessly stylish and perfectly choreographed as the first, but a better film overall.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Seem to have had a bit of a British WW2 binge over the last few days.
Darkest Hour
Oldman in his Oscar-winning performance as Churchill.
And an astonishing performance it was too. Not a lot happens in the movie, the entire screenplay was about the ill-favoured Churchill thrust to the fore with Hitler's advance across Europe, and Chamberlain's appeasement thereof.
I enjoyed it. Oldman pulled off something special here.
7.5/10
Dunkirk
Rather peculiar in its assembly of moving parts, but also rather clever. Differing scenes happening on the beach, in the sea, and in the air, each occurring within their own timescales, but each ultimately interlinking with each other until they each make sense in their own right in the wider context.
No outstanding performances, but this was not an actor's movie- in fact there hardly seems to have been more than a dozen lines in the entire film. This was a movie of cinematography, and excellent in that it certainly was. I was particularly moved by the scene in which Tom Hardy lands his Spitfire on Dunkirk beach when out of fuel. Beautifully setup, and beautifully filmed.
I was also struck throughout by Hans Zimmer's driving, pulsing, chilling score. Outstanding and utterly memorable. Zimmer receiving a Best Original Score Oscar nomination for this.
8.5/10
Ant-Man and the Wasp
It was f-ANT-astic much better as a movie than eg. Infinity War and even GotG2. Great cast where everyone pulls their weight and there is no shortage of laugh-out-loud funny scenes. I'm glad Hannah John-Kamen is getting movie roles but obviously sad that this keeps her away from Killjoys
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Redbad, a dutch movie about a Frisian chieftain in the 8th who fought to keep the Franks and their christian religion out of his lands. 2 hours and 40 minutes of action and slightly confusing story telling that made me want to chew off my paws to fight the utter boredom.
FYI; Frisian here includes West-Frisia which is where my maternal ancestry hails from, so I still feel good about seeing a feature film about this man.
Congratulations America
The Place; an Italian movie about moral choices. The place is a cafe/restaurant where a guy without a name grants wishes, at a price.
Tag; don't bother.
Ocean's 8; entertaing for if you've got nothing better to do. Not worth a ride to the theatre.
Congratulations America
Watching In Time. A little bit of a B-movie but liking it so far.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Used moviepass to buy a ticket to teen Titans go. By the time the movie started there was a crowd outside the theater cause it looks like moviepass has run out of money to load their credit cards. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Going to use the digital ticketing every day I can before it collapses completely.
The movie was bonkers. For the kids that only know teen Titans go and newer they won't get most of the references. It is purely a kids movie for adults.
Oh, and the last line was fucked up.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
The newest Mission Impossible; lazily written snorefest, do not bother. Not even when you can see it for free on Netflix.
Mamma Mia; here we go again. Loved it, absolutely loved it. Saw it twice already. Other people may hate it.
Congratulations America
The First Purge; I was expecting some fluff for the saturday evening. Turns out this movie actually has a message. Black Lives Matter.
Congratulations America
I skipped The Last Jedi in theaters because of all the bad press surrounding it, but now that I caught it on Netflix, it wasn't that bad. I liked it more than The Force Awakens. Rei was less of a Mary Sue this time around, and the story wasn't just a repeat of the first trilogy. It still borrowed a bit, but this time around it felt more like callbacks/tributes than straight plot copying. Yeah, the flying Leia scene was silly (comeon guys, I know it fits with the lore, but you need to foreshadow that shit). What happened to Luke also didn't bother me that much, but that part was spoiled for me before.
I'm still having trouble with the scale though. The war between theRebel AllianceResistance and the First Order is being billed as a galactic conflict in a densely populated galaxy, so why does it feel like it's just a few dozen people on each side squabbling? Sure, both sides have some solid resources backing them up, but the scale of everything was so small it felt silly that this was supposed to be a big important war and not just two rival local gangs or something. I know Star Wars can do big scales, they managed it in both previous trilogies, so why are they struggling with it so much here?
It wasn't brilliant this-should-be-a-cultural-phenomenon cinema, but it was adequately entertaining. Worth the watch while it's on Netflix, anyhow.
Wind River
Wind River
Wind River
Writer of Sicario and Hell or High Water. It was about to be released by the Weinstein company just as it imploded, so the release was cut-back until a new label picked it up. But builds slow, very good.
Also, coincidentally, features Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner being grownups.
The Spy Who Dumped Me
SO FUCKING STUPID
Makes total sense why Atom was giving tickets away for 3 days straight trying to get people into this movie.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
But Kate and Mila
The Meg
It's a fun movie with some good tension, if you didn't watch any trailers, and a great way to introduce your kids to jump scares.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
I haven't seen it, I just keep saying, "My god... It's megalodon!" at random things in my best Statham voice.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
The Spy Who Dumped Me
Crap for a spy movie, passable for a buddy comedy. Kate McKinnon was consistently hilarious. Everyone else was hit or miss. There's enough there to keep you amused for 2 hours.
Hope is the denial of reality
Crazy Rich Asians, a romcom as advertised. Very much like any 'girl meets prince, mother in law hates her' story. Entertaining, though the conspicuous consumption at some times gets tiresome. I really like Constance Wu by the way, and her prince was delectable.
Congratulations America
Happytime murders
So Jim and Jane Henson had a son. That son is behind Happytime Murders. That son shouldn't be allowed near anything related to movies or muppets ever again.
I thought it was going to be a movie full of tongue in check references to the muppets we grew up with. It looks like he attempted it with one muppet then chickened out.
The story is nonsense and full of holes, the movie relies on cgi and green screens rather than puppet work. The raunchy bits are forced, and weak. They literally had more "stupid says what" jokes than actual sausage party levels of adult depravity.
We're both kind of annoyed we used our 3rd and final moviepass for the month on this movie.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
He was involved, as was Hallmark, so that likely kept most of the plot decisions out of his hands.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Peppermint.
Better than Elektra, I'd say it even rivals the worst Punisher movie. Which it pretty much was.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."