what was the last movie you watched?

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
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I wanted to point out how criminally underrated this post is. Not only did the absolute All-Star @atxrocker pop in after years away from the board for a single post then bounce, but did so to promote quite possibly the most exciting film of the year, and potential antidote to all this Marvel malaise.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Michelle Yeoh is an international treasure; the Meryl Streep of martial arts movies. But even that supposed complement ultimately proves reductive for Yeoh; she is so much more than a martial arts actor*. Like Streep, Yeoh has an impossibly sweeping range to believably be the only "Bond Girl" to play as Bond's equal, the beating heart of one of the few martial arts movies to break through to become an American mainstream household name, Jackie Chan's fellow Supercop, a meticulously precise geisha mentor, and the Crazy Rich Asian dragon mom who is both menacing and relatable, all with a sublime mix of sensitivity, strength and superb comedic timing. Yeoh might be the only person on the planet who could have made Everything Everywhere's ambitious and moderately insane premise work.

The fact that Yeoh can carry this film should not be a shock. However, Ke Huy Quan - who most people last saw as Short Round in Temple of Doom or Data in Goonies and hasn't been on a big screen since his child actor days more than 30 years ago - is nothing short of remarkable in his contribution as a seemingly goofy beta-male house-husband who is eventually revealed to be the hinge on which the plot turns.

The film itself defies genre classification. Seemingly a melding of martial arts, slapstick/absurdist comedy, romantic comedy, family drama, religious philosophy, artist spectacle, and superhero films, all interwoven into an immersive and maniacal whole. There is a lot of abject silliness and exposition dumps at the beginning, which slowly evolve into deeper meanings with superb payoffs as the film unfolds.

Perhaps the best example, (and hopefully vague enough to not warrant spoilers) the "villain" of the story is a hyper-aware, godlike entity who can travel the multiverse at will. As omnipotence does, the being becomes bored and begins to dabble in the absurd for entertainment, in this case, putting literally "everything" on a bagel. It's at that moment the entity spirals into nihilism, believing existence has no meaning and going on a multiversal rampage with the "bagel" resembling a zero of nothingness. Eventually, we come to understand the bagel also resembles the enso, or Zen symbol, giving new perspective to the purpose of existence by the end.

Also there's a universe where everyone has hotdogs for fingers.

This movie is overwhelming. Rarely have I dwelled on the philosophic meanings of a film that included a purple sex toy as a fighting prop. This may be simply too absurd and erratic for your tastes, and that's perfectly fine. But films like this need to be supported, otherwise the artform gets static and formulaic.

If you've at all be disapponted by blockbuster films of late, you owe it to yourself and the industry to support films like Everything Everywhere All at Once.

And see it twice.

View attachment 11187

*I just learned Yeoh supposedly has never been formally trained in martial arts, but knows enough about dance to quickly pickup the moves on set. I suppose that's the martial arts equivalent of learning lines phonetically. What a badass.
I just got this movie and have not watched it yet. Looking forward to it!
 

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
I watched this with my brothers a couple days ago. I knew I wouldn't like it because I generally dislike superhero movies, but I went along with it because they both wanted to see it. All 3 of us thought it was bad to awful with a baseline level of entertaining enough to endure the entire thing. To me, it suffered from what essentially all superhero movies suffer from: bad writing, illogical and inconsistent plot progression, and way too frequent "huh?"/"lol" moments. This is only like the third or fourth Marvel movie I've ever seen, so I thought i would be the only one with issues, but we all sat there for twenty minutes afterwards complaining of its flaws and saying we were glad we didn't go to a theater and pay extra money to watch it.
It definitely suffers in areas, but I knew it probably would going in and wasn’t being too critically minded while watching it. Definitely not in the top range of Marvel flicks.
 

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
Well No Way Home was certainly a good movie to probably close out my theater going experience for the foreseeable future (just reading the tea leaves with how this wave of the pandemic is going not sure how the theater release schedules going to be in the next couple of months).

I don’t think it was necessarily the best movie movie of the Spider-man extended franchise (that would still have to be Homecoming for me) but it might be the best Spider-Man movie of the bunch in terms of sheer spectacle while also setting up a healthy course for future Spider-Films.
I watched it again, and I think that it may be my favorite of the Spider-Man flicks. Darn good show.
 

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
I wanted to point out how criminally underrated this post is. Not only did the absolute All-Star @atxrocker pop in after years away from the board for a single post then bounce, but did so to promote quite possibly the most exciting film of the year, and potential antidote to all this Marvel malaise.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Michelle Yeoh is an international treasure; the Meryl Streep of martial arts movies. But even that supposed complement ultimately proves reductive for Yeoh; she is so much more than a martial arts actor*. Like Streep, Yeoh has an impossibly sweeping range to believably be the only "Bond Girl" to play as Bond's equal, the beating heart of one of the few martial arts movies to break through to become an American mainstream household name, Jackie Chan's fellow Supercop, a meticulously precise geisha mentor, and the Crazy Rich Asian dragon mom who is both menacing and relatable, all with a sublime mix of sensitivity, strength and superb comedic timing. Yeoh might be the only person on the planet who could have made Everything Everywhere's ambitious and moderately insane premise work.

The fact that Yeoh can carry this film should not be a shock. However, Ke Huy Quan - who most people last saw as Short Round in Temple of Doom or Data in Goonies and hasn't been on a big screen since his child actor days more than 30 years ago - is nothing short of remarkable in his contribution as a seemingly goofy beta-male house-husband who is eventually revealed to be the hinge on which the plot turns.

The film itself defies genre classification. Seemingly a melding of martial arts, slapstick/absurdist comedy, romantic comedy, family drama, religious philosophy, artist spectacle, and superhero films, all interwoven into an immersive and maniacal whole. There is a lot of abject silliness and exposition dumps at the beginning, which slowly evolve into deeper meanings with superb payoffs as the film unfolds.

Perhaps the best example, (and hopefully vague enough to not warrant spoilers) the "villain" of the story is a hyper-aware, godlike entity who can travel the multiverse at will. As omnipotence does, the being becomes bored and begins to dabble in the absurd for entertainment, in this case, putting literally "everything" on a bagel. It's at that moment the entity spirals into nihilism, believing existence has no meaning and going on a multiversal rampage with the "bagel" resembling a zero of nothingness. Eventually, we come to understand the bagel also resembles the enso, or Zen symbol, giving new perspective to the purpose of existence by the end.

Also there's a universe where everyone has hotdogs for fingers.

This movie is overwhelming. Rarely have I dwelled on the philosophic meanings of a film that included a purple sex toy as a fighting prop. This may be simply too absurd and erratic for your tastes, and that's perfectly fine. But films like this need to be supported, otherwise the artform gets static and formulaic.

If you've at all be disapponted by blockbuster films of late, you owe it to yourself and the industry to support films like Everything Everywhere All at Once.

And see it twice.

View attachment 11187

*I just learned Yeoh supposedly has never been formally trained in martial arts, but knows enough about dance to quickly pickup the moves on set. I suppose that's the martial arts equivalent of learning lines phonetically. What a badass.
OK, having watched it tonight with my dad (neither one of us had any real idea what it was about other than it was a "multiverse" type movie and wasn't affiliated with any existing other film or franchise):

Agreed on Yeoh. She's great in everything. Superb job again by her.

Also agreed on Quan. Thanks for pointing all that out!

I almost didn't recognize Jamie Lee Curtis in this. She also did a fantastic job.

I am 100% with you on the bolded part. It wasn't quite my "thing" - bit too over the top at times for my taste ("absurd and erratic", you said, also very applicable). My dad didn't really care for the movie, but he did say he understood what it was doing and that sparked a good conversation about the film and life in general at our house after the flick. I told him that this movie, like some other art (or art forms), may not necessarily be right in my wheelhouse but if it can make you think or feel or prompt conversations then it has done its job. So, for that reason if nothing else, I'm glad I picked it up. A good movie, even if it wasn't quite my kind of movie due to the absurdity.
 
OK, having watched it tonight with my dad (neither one of us had any real idea what it was about other than it was a "multiverse" type movie and wasn't affiliated with any existing other film or franchise):

Agreed on Yeoh. She's great in everything. Superb job again by her.

Also agreed on Quan. Thanks for pointing all that out!

I almost didn't recognize Jamie Lee Curtis in this. She also did a fantastic job.

I am 100% with you on the bolded part. It wasn't quite my "thing" - bit too over the top at times for my taste ("absurd and erratic", you said, also very applicable). My dad didn't really care for the movie, but he did say he understood what it was doing and that sparked a good conversation about the film and life in general at our house after the flick. I told him that this movie, like some other art (or art forms), may not necessarily be right in my wheelhouse but if it can make you think or feel or prompt conversations then it has done its job. So, for that reason if nothing else, I'm glad I picked it up. A good movie, even if it wasn't quite my kind of movie due to the absurdity.
Agreed on Yeoh. She’s one of my favorites. Also, will say that although It wasn’t quite my thing, I do enjoy these types of movies. The type of movie where I have to start googling some “movies explained” afterwards.
My wife and I were told by friends to watch it, it was the best movie of the year. I just don’t know if I agree with that. I did like it but it was out there for sure. May have been more confusing than Mother!
 

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
Caught Cleaner (Netflix) earlier today on a whim. Nothing special - short (1 1/2 hour) police-type drama with decent acting and evolving storyline, but you can guess some of the twists.
 

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
If you like offbeat documentaries, check out Untold: Crimes and Penalties on Netflix. True story of a mob boss that bought a minor league hockey team for his 17 year old son to be GM.
 

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
Caught The Gray Man (Netflix) last night - it is a pretty decent action flick with some good one-liners - they kept a smile on my face throughout. It does suffer at times from the need to include some over-the-top action sequences and, at times, performances. The cast is good (Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Regé-Jean Page, Billy Bob Thornton, and Jessica Henwick). They definitely left it open for a sequel, and that has already been announced.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Just watched it……damn good. Did you watch the first part of the end credits?
I'm of two minds on that. Sure I’d love a sequel but this particular set of characters probably works best as a one-off thing since we know how things are gonna end up one way or another (
the Predators end up taking the gun and giving it to Danny Glover three hundred years later and the Native Americans don't exactly come out on top of the next several centuries of North American history
).

That said, with the sheer amount of good will and praise this movie is getting, it feels like a sequel of some sort is inevitable at this point.
 

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
Dad wanted to go see Bullet Train, so we went to the theater this afternoon. It's a turn-off-your-brain action flick with some decent comedy in it, largely supplied by Brad Pitt who is enjoyable in this one. Lots of moving parts at first that come together at the end. A couple of nice cameos in this as well. Funny, pretty decent action bits, too many F-bombs in the first 1/3 of the movie or so (just not necessary, but thankfully they lighten up on that), a bit Tarantino-ish on the blood at times (that could have been toned down), some action sequence silliness throughout (with the train in particular). Just ignore it and enjoy the show - go for the fun and grab a bag of popcorn. Don't expect any awards though. Definitely not that kind of flick.

Watch the extra scenes in the early credits.
 
Prime has a just released 13 Lives by Ron Howard. Has Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortenson as the main stars but it’s a really good movie in regards to the Thai soccer team that was trapped in the cave. I had watched a documentary on this event and Howard adds a few things that hadn’t been in the documentary.
 
Prime has a just released 13 Lives by Ron Howard. Has Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortenson as the main stars but it’s a really good movie in regards to the Thai soccer team that was trapped in the cave. I had watched a documentary on this event and Howard adds a few things that hadn’t been in the documentary.
that’s the next one on our list to watch
We really enjoyed Prey
 
I felt obligated to see this considering I’d already gushed all over its pseudo-rival for the “best multiversal sci-fi film of the summer” crown.

More importantly though, it was on Disney+, and I didn’t have to pay to see it. I’m glad for that.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

I was rooting for Wanda the whole time.

Not really for her to accomplish her goal, which was ultimately rather trite, and the exact same as Kingpin’s in Enter the Spider-verse, (so like, come on guys, you can do better). But it WAS exhilarating to watch the Scarlett Witch kick everyone’s ass for a while.

Aside from that, the whole venture felt decidedly empty, hollow, sanitized, stale. For a movie subtitled Multiverse of Madness there isn’t much of either. Honestly, Loki felt considerably grander in scope and scale, exploring a litany of time periods and dimensions, while here only 2 other realities were legitimately visited outside the half-minute montage, gap junction, and America’s memory.

And on the note of America, I was not at all impressed with her charatization here. She was essentially little more than a human MacGuffin and occasional snarker for the majority of the plot. She only became competently self-sufficient with the out-of-nowhere and illogical “believe in yourself” Strange pep talk pivot to manufacture some zero hour character growth for the former Sorcerer Supreme. That was not at all earned. Really undermined any kind of impact I was meant to feel in America taking her inevitable and necessary step toward badassery and mopping up the mess of the plot at the end.

I also audibly laughed at America’s not-comic-accurate tragic origin story. Not that I particularly care about being true to the comics, but in this case, the film’s take on America’s motivation for leaving the Utopian Parallel is really rather silly compared to what I read of her mothers’ sacrifice in the comics.

Otherwise, I struggle to fully describe why the rest of the film feels so uninspired. It’s like trying to rub out an itch instead of scratching it.

A giant eyeball-tentacle monster “Gargantos” (sadly, not actually Shuma-Gorath for licensing reasons, which would have altered the encounter and film considerably) attacks New York, and just like the non-powered residents of the Marvel Universe, I’m like … yeah, we’ve all been here before. I totally get why Dr. Palmer’s wedding party started gleefully snapping selfies and the bride became only mildly annoyed while an inter-dimensional demon rips through downtown a few hundred yards away. For them, it’s a Tuesday. And it felt that way for me as well.

The cameos and concept of the alternate reality Illuminati was cool … but was teased to death in the trailers and ultimately didn’t amount to much anyway. Some of the quips and banter between Strange and Wong (and here and there, America), are fun … but that’s the standard Marvel formula humming along in its hypnosis-inducing rhythm. The horror elements in a Marvel movie were unexpectedly refreshing … but truly little more than Raimi paying homage to far superior classics of the genre, or himself. The corpse dreamwalk was a clever touch … but threw in unexplained elements without much or any setup really just because they made cool visuals and artificially gave Palmer a reason to be there (whereas minutes before, she was literally asked to wait outside).

I suppose what frustrates me is the general lack of real ambition here. I have some disappointments with No Way Home, but it admirably set the stage for Marvel’s grandiose multiverse phase that was both comprehensible and compelling, and which Doctor Strange was supposed to fully embrace. Instead Marvel seems to still be sheepishly dipping it’s toe into the scary deep-end of experimentation.

-You wanna do a Wanda heel turn? Milk the ruse for longer than a two minute scene and make the Darkhold-corrupted Scarlet Witch absolutely terrifying, maybe even legitimately, unreasonably insane.

-Pay a few extra million to bring in Shuma-Gorath as a secondary antagonist instead of “Gargantos” as yet another mindless cannon fodder monster for a brawl in MCU Manhattan where they’ve become as common as cockroaches.

-Explore a half-dozen or so realities you have left over from the What If … series.

-Give America a sliver of control over her powers so she’s more involved, and maybe the plot becomes an inter-dimensional chase / horror film like a multiversal Terminator (that would be rad).

-Flex that acquired IP muscle and bring in some more unexpected cameos or even full-fledged characters: Specifically, I wanted Anya Taylor-Joy as Magik from the awful New Mutants movie, just to mess with heads. Or X-23 from Logan. Or X-Force characters from Deadpool. Or hey, a heroic Thanos to really put a subversive spin on the whole “you took everything from me” Endgame scene. Bonus, could have Brolin play both Thanos and Cable.

-You’re gonna call it the Multiverse of Madness, then get nuts.

Raimi got to push the boundaries ever so slightly, but not anywhere near enough to make this reach its monumental potential. This was a kid borrowing his dad’s car, but thinking he’s a rebel when he blasts Metallica on the radio and doesn’t always use his blinker.

Next time, drive it like you stole it Sam.
 
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Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
Just watched it……damn good.
It was good - a different take on the series and definitely well acted, cast, and executed. Some bits are still a bit on the silly side (as with just about every one of these) but overall definitely a worthy addition to the franchise.

I saw somewhere that folks are wanting a Predator movie based in feudal Japan with samurai and/or ninjas - I'd be down for that if it was as well done as this one.

It's still all a bit silly that these Predators have laser sights, great weapons, invisibility, etc., and can still be taken down by all these "lesser" humans (throughout all the movies). I think it was CBR that had an article that maybe these are not the "top" Predators in the species and that Earth is more for the "under achievers". Makes sense to a certain extent, especially when they repeatedly get taken down one-on-one. They have the strength and power - maybe they just really aren't that bright even with all their cool technology?

The Predator's weapon here is a bit of a take-off on Yondu's arrow weapon, and I thought it was fairly obvious she was going to use that against the Predator once they showed how it worked. I was a bit surprised that her "axe with a rope" didn't play more into the final battle.
 

Warhawk

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Just caught Morbius and it was pretty meh - you could see the plot lines building a mile away. Leto did a fine job - nothing wrong with the acting. Not sure how the end credit scenes will play out long-term, though....

Sony should just relinquish (sell) the rights to Spider-Man movies (and associated characters) back to Marvel. They really need control over all their properties again.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
It was last weekend but TJ and I watched Jackass Forever (along with 4.5 and a few of the others). More of the same but I am glad most of the old crew is back together. And also a good reality slap in the face for us Gen Xers (and maybe elder millenials) who grew up with the crew to see how we've aged.

The main reason I am commenting though is because my partner watched the whole thing the other night and then AFTER WATCHING ALL OF IT, gave me a long lecture on how gross I am for watching it and how dumb it was.

LOL
 
It was last weekend but TJ and I watched Jackass Forever (along with 4.5 and a few of the others). More of the same but I am glad most of the old crew is back together. And also a good reality slap in the face for us Gen Xers (and maybe elder millenials) who grew up with the crew to see how we've aged.

The main reason I am commenting though is because my partner watched the whole thing the other night and then AFTER WATCHING ALL OF IT, gave me a long lecture on how gross I am for watching it and how dumb it was.

LOL
Admittedly, I've never watched any of the movies, but I think that is what made the show so great. I will admit, I was never an avid watcher back when it first aired on MTV, but I used to watch it when there was nothing else on that sparked my interest, or when my DVR was lacking shows for me to watch. But, when I did find myself tuning in, it was 30 minutes (or was it 60???) of continuous laughter.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
Admittedly, I've never watched any of the movies, but I think that is what made the show so great. I will admit, I was never an avid watcher back when it first aired on MTV, but I used to watch it when there was nothing else on that sparked my interest, or when my DVR was lacking shows for me to watch. But, when I did find myself tuning in, it was 30 minutes (or was it 60???) of continuous laughter.
The primary difference with the movies is that it is a lot of R-rated stuff.

Starting with the third one they got a really big budget though, so its all really well lit, high quality video whereas the old stuff was extremely poor quality. The quality of camera work in the opening scene in #2 where they are running with the bulls vs. the opening scene in 4 which is a big budget action piece interspersed with a long D-joke is night and day. It is somewhat interesting to note they have kept a lot of the crew on the whole time as well.

there's a lot of male nudity in this new one. Something for the ladies that like elder dirtbags? (there's a few fresh faced "kids" as well, Poopy is the new Steve-o I guess).
 

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
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Went to a friend's house and watched Ambulance today - a Michael Bay movie that fits the mold but is somewhat better than most. Yes, some of it is ridiculous and silly (like Speed), but the action keeps moving and the acting is fairly well done. Enjoyable, with a couple of twists, but ultimately a summer popcorn movie if there ever was one.

Edit: and I think many of the actors must have been old Stormtroopers or Cylons, because they are spraying the streets with gunfire and can't hit anyone.
 
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Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
Dad saw the ad for Samaritan on Prime when we were watching the 49ers on Thursday so he came over to watch it this afternoon. It was a B+ grade minor-superhero type action flick with a twist along the way. Acting was decent enough with Stallone, GoT's Euron Greyjoy, and Ender's Game's Bonzo as the most recognizable faces in this one. Not great by any means, but enjoyable enough to kill 1 1/2 hours without feeling too bad about it. Dad even somewhat enjoyed it (he's usually pretty critical about flicks) but I think some of that was just due to the old familiar face of Stallone kicking some ass again even as a senior citizen. I think my dad (at 84) can kind of relate to movies with the older generation of action superstars still having a little fire left in them.
 
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Wife and daughter are out of town camping while I stay home for work, so turning lemons into lemonade with a movie marathon binge. Haven’t done one of these since the height of the pandemic.


Joker

Really signaled early what movies it was trying to emulate by pulling out the 70s Saul Bass Warner Brothers logo. That is, the grit and grime of New Hollywood, specifically, Taxi Driver. Even recruits De Niro as a not-at-all subtle wink and nod to Taxi Driver.

This is not Taxi Driver. In fact, while I appreciate the overall premise, I found a great deal of the execution to be rather ham-fisted, devoid of any real nuance or subtlety.

Look, I got that the widening gap between the rich and poor is contributing to the moral rot of Gotham, and as social services are cut, an environment festers in which a mentally ill person could devolve into psychopathic behavior and be celebrated for it. And this theming was made pretty clear well before Joker literally shouted that message on live TV in the grand finale.

The shoehorning of Batman’s origin story was awkward, unnecessary, and a little corny; I would have preferred if the city was left unnamed, the Wayne’s were left out of it, and the story was allowed to breath a little outside the confines of the DC universe.

When the “twist” was revealed about the girlfriend, I immediately thought “Oh good, because their relationship otherwise made absolutely no sense.”

And even with every character taking as much dialogue space as possible to comment on how much it sucks to be poor in Gotham while the fat cats are living large, I never fully bought the premise of a whole swath of people learning of a triple homicide, and immediately siding with the murderer because the victims were rich. (I know that statement can be picked apart, and there are plenty of examples of something similar happening in reality. What I’m saying is the movie did not establish well enough for me that this was a reasonable response from Gothamites).

I know this sounds overly negative, and that’s not especially fair. I thought Phoenix’s performance was excellent, causing me to feel compassion and the creeps for Joker. The brutalist settings and cinematography were often exceptional. And generally, I enjoyed what the film was trying to accomplish and to a large extent succeeded at doing. I suppose I just have trouble matching the mouth-foaming praise this received for being gripping, intense, dark and edgy, when it’s essentially just “DC Presents, the Joker in Taxi Driver … lite”


The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Predictably it’s weird, but a good weird. Frankly, the Nic Cage weird I was hoping for from Prisoners of the Ghostland. I kinda want a full movie of Nic Cage playing himself in his regular life and arguing with his younger, cocky Id-self without the fantastical spy-action adventure pieces this devolves into. And I’m still confused as to why Cage plays himself, but has a completely fictitious ex-wife and daughter here.

Regardless, fun premise, fun cast. Cage and Pascal work great together. Enjoyed Sheen and Horgan as Cage’s not real family for what relative little screen time they had (just found out Sheen is Kate Beckinsale’s actual real daughter, so that’s neat).

There’s a scene in which Cage and Pascal try to rather dramatically scale an 8 foot wall while on mushrooms for a few minutes. That’s what you’re getting into here. Drags at times, but overall good for a number of belly laughs.


Free Guy

Logged into Disney+ thinking Thor: Love and Thunder was streaming, but guess I jumped the gun. Settled for another film I thought had also been directed by Taika Waititi because he’s in it. Turns out, nope, he really is exclusively an actor in this one: I wasn’t aware he was allowed to do that.

Anyway, Ryan Reynolds seems to have a legitimate affinity for geek culture of comics and games, so this doesn’t turn out to be the lazy cashgrab it could have been. Allusions have been made plenty of times before, but it really does have a sense of The Truman Show set in a GTAVOnline/Fortnite/World of Warcraft hybrid world.

Takes a rather superficial stab at a fairly interesting subject regarding moral depravity within online sandbox games and gaming culture generally, but nothing really ground shaking. Find it strange the protagonists realize they essentially created sentient life, but don’t waiver from the plan to turn it into an indie life sim game.

Another one that dragged on a little too long, kinda lost focus, became a bit repetitive, and tried to stuff in too many references and cameos. Also doesn’t have the gravitas of The Truman Show, but entertaining enough.


The Nice Guys

Would you look at that; another Saul Bass WB logo. Loved Black’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and for the most part, I enjoyed this nearly as much.

Gosling and Crowe trade barbs and sharp, snappy banter similar to KKBB’s Downey Jr. and Kilmer. (RDJ even has a cameo as a corpse).

Then-child actor (she’s now old enough to drink) Australian Angiour Rice does an astonishingly solid job as Gosling’s kid, steering mostly clear of the annoying hanger-on or tiresome damsel-in-distress tropes, instead settling in as a competent “unofficial” crew member. Fully expected her to be the nagging “but daaaad” character when introduced, but really grew to love the wrinkle she added to the “buddy cop” dynamic.

I think this certainly deserves its cult status as a hidden gem. While I didn’t enjoy it as much as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, I audibly belly laughed more than a dozen times, and I will forever know what “equanimity” means.


RRR (Rise. Roar. Revolt)

Despite its current buzzy status, I really had no intention of seeing this. Figured I’d check a few scenes to get a feel for it before dropping out because I didn’t want to commit to its full 3 hour runtime.

I ended up committing to the full 3 hour runtime.

Truly a case study of cinematic “spectacle.” I’d put it on par with Hero or The Fall in being a worthwhile experience for visually compelling cinema alone.

The somewhat crude CGI animals, and over-the-top superhero/kung fu physics do not diminish this as a kinetically beautiful film. The expert use of scale and color paint every scene with pomp and circumstance. Some set pieces, particularly the gargantuan action scenes, present as living Kandinsky paintings, while more intimate shots around Delhi resemble the “golden hour” approach that dominates Barry Lyndon.

Story is standard fare for a fantastical action movie of its ilk. Not the main draw, but it does its job in grounding the spectacle in meaning, and earning genuine buy-in from the audience to care about the welfare of our two Übermensch protagonists.

There is a lot of Indian nationalism that didn’t connect with me (nor was it ever meant to), and the thrill somewhat wore thin deep into the third hour, but certainly worth seeing once.

As a passing thought, I do find it amusing that a movie that turns two real life Indian revolutionaries into the equivalent of a pair of Marvel Avengers is being lambasted by some as unrealistic for its totally fair and justified portrayal of British Imperialists as being crappy jerks.
 
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Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
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We caught House of Gucci on Prime, and my wife and I both enjoyed it. Lady Gaga did a great job here and Adam Driver was both a tad bit over the top at times and a bit overly reserved at others, probably by design. I didn't even recognize Jared Leto - great job and makeup!
 
Watched Elvis on HBO Max on the weekend. I liked it quite a bit. There were times the lead looked and moved like Elvis to the point it was spooky. Tom Hanks as Colonel Parker was good. And there was no mistaking this movie as a Baz Luhrman project.

I’m sure there was quite a bit of Hollywood-izing parts of the movie but it was infuriating how people used Elvis as a cash cow.