I loved AI but loathed the ending. Loathed it so much I actually edited it on DVD to roll credits with the kid in the ocean with the blue fairy. I turn the film off there pretty much every time when I watch the blu ray.

Clifford the Big Red Dog The kids really enjoyed the film, I didn’t hate it. Overall, it’s not a bad family movie, similar to stuff like Alvin and the Chipmunks, Yogi Bear, etc, even if I've never seen Clifford (in general) as being in the same league as them.

The Jurassic Games: I surprisingly really liked this, I saw it on Amazon Prime and decided to give it a watch, but didn’t expect much from it. It has a pretty similar premise to The Condemned which features “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, except you know it features virtual reality and dinosaurs. The film probably could have used more blood in it, but eh it is what it is and I won't hold it against the movie.

2021 Movie Rankings

SPOILER: Click to show

29. Locked Down
28. The Marksman
27. Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway
26. Sweet Girl
25. Dune
24. Clifford the Big Red Dog
23. Cruella
22. Thunder Force
21. Luca
20. Wrath of Man
19. Jolt
18. The Tomorrow War
17. Tom and Jerry
16. Godzilla vs. Kong
15. Space Jam: A New Legacy
14. Vacation Friends
13. Jungle Cruise
12. The Protege
11. Halloween Kills
10. Eternals
9. F9: The Fast Saga
8. Snake Eyes
7. Free Guy
6. Black Widow
5. Venom: Let There Be Carnage
4. The Suicide Squad
3. Raya and the Last Dragon
2. Mortal Kombat
1. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Nov 13, 2021 22:18:28 GMT iNCY said:

Nov 13, 2021 21:56:56 GMT nath45.47 said:

Am I the only one that didn't rate Shang-Chi highly?

I saw it last night on Disney+ and while it has some cool moments and is beautifully shot and put together, it isn't bad by any means, and yes, probably even good but it felt like another 'hero's journey' trope.

I also don't know how that old Jewish man who found himself inside a Korean girl keeps getting work either.

Marvel could make any type of movie in any genre at this point, if they wanted a film-noir detective movie or war drama or political thriller.. they could. I'd kill for something a little out of the box at this point in the MCU lifespan.

It's just you 🙃

Marvel has succeeded because it's movies are so different.
Shang Chi - Kung Fu
Ant Man - Heist
Captain America - War
GotG - Space Opera

They have branched our quite successfully. The films I most enjoy are the ones that have a reason for existing. If Shang Chi hadn't been made, the Eternals and Blacj Widow would have made me nervous for Marvels future.

I think post Endgame was always going to be difficult to navigate, it felt like a series finale. Far from Home was a good follow up in its own little pocket, however, following that up with a prequel (I hate prequels) in Black Widow and launching 2 new franchises, wouldn’t have been my call, people needed latching back on to the main thread of stories coming out of that movie to stop it feeling like as much of a finale that it already does.

In Marvels defence on that Covid sent the original schedule that would have seen Doctor Strange released by now but trying to convince the casuals especially the MCU isn’t over is going to be double hard but No Way Home should do the trick.

Watched Shang Chi and loved it. I loved the kung fu stuff and thought it was a fantastic fantasy film. Been a while since we had a film like this and glad to see this delivered. The Mandarin stuff and link to IM3 was hilarious.

The martial arts side of Marvel I never really got into but like IM I am hoping this sets up The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven. I would love to see a trilogy of films dedicated to the tournament that can introduce a lot of characters into the Marvel universe.

The Firm (Sydney Pollack, 1993)

I read the book recently so decided to check the film out. I really like the premise of the novel. Young lawyer signs up to a law firm where everything seems too good to be true - and it is too good to be true. Once you're in, you can't leave, or you die. It was great for the first 80%, but it ended awfully. Everything goes perfectly for the protagonist. He's able to run away from both the FBI and Mafia, hide out in a little shack in a city that is being searched head to toe by those organisations, and he sails off into the sunset. It's scarcely believable. I left the book disappointed, but also feeling like I wouldn't know how to end such a story either.

The first 80% of the film takes a very similar path, the plot is more or less the same minus some omission of details and such. It's told very well, acted well, dramatic. They change up the ending completely. It's a lot more action-based. While I didn't particularly care for the action part of it - felt very forced Hollywood - the way that the protagonist lawyer outsmarts the corrupt firm is much more intelligent compared to the books. I liked it. Not an amazing thriller but a solid book adaptation in which altering a major plot point worked in its favour.


Rush Hour (Brett Ratner, 1998)

First Jackie Chan movie I've ever watched. I really enjoyed it. The buddy cop dynamic was great, some great lines, some really fun action sequences (Chan is a machine), the story itself was pretty generic and just an excuse to get Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan together, but it's fine, I wasn't walking into Rush Hour expecting Shakespeare. It shows its age with stereotypical Asian barbs and some casual racism/sexual from Chris Tucker's character, most of this stuff didn't particularly bother me but there would have to be some serious editing to release this in the 2020s. Apart from that the only negative feedback I can really give is that Tucker is overbearing at first. Admittedly he has some hilarious lines, but when the film settles into its groove and he gets more grounded, then the character really finds his groove. Great film, does everything it set out to do.


Gemini Man (Ang Lee, 2019)

The premise of the movie is that Will Smith is an elite soldier who is targeted for assassination by a younger clone of himself. Yay for de-aging technology!

The strange thing is that Smith's character is presented as an elite sniper, as we witness in the opening scene, but sniping plays almost no part in the rest of the film. Apart from one scene all of the action is close combat. That quibble aside, the action sequences are the absolute highlight of the film. Fight scenes are shot beautifully, you can clearly see everything that's going on. There's an awesome bike chase scene. It's all good stuff.

Story wise, my friend likened it to James Bond, while I thought it was closer to Terminator. Terminator in the sense that Smith is running away from a better version of himself, with a lady friend companion. James Bond in the sense that the lady friend is independent and more than capable of fending for herself, and the layers of conspiracies and people-in-suits-pulling-the-strings arc. I wouldn't say the film fell apart in the final act, but it was a pretty meh ending and they chucked in a third Will Smith clone for no particular reason.

Mostly very good though, one of the better action movies I've seen.

Just finished Last Night in Soho. Thought it was amazing but can easily see how many will hate it.

Watching Ghostbusters Afterlife now. It is amazing. Like really amazing. Straight sequel to the first two films.

Sure purists will not like it as it is not about a bunch of guys, but cast is great, story is cool and it is a really good next gen style film. Mckenna Grace is amazing in it. Can see why people are not cool on the film, it is not a story about a bunch of guys hunting ghosts, and focuses more on the girl, who was not really a major part of the previews.  They will likely spend so much time hating on the film thinking it is like the third movie, that by the time things do exactly what they wanted them to do, they are already soured on it.

Minor spoilers for the setup and first 20 or so minutes:

SPOILER: Click to show

30 years after the events in NYC the Ghostbusters kind of went their own way after ghosts were not seen since, but Egon believed that Gozer would return. He left his family behind and went to stand vigil in a town where an old cult dedicated to Gozer was situated and like stockpiled things to defend himself slowly becoming the town's crazy person. Time passes and Egon dies and his daughter and her kids inherit the house, where his granddaughter finds his old equipment and learns her grandfather was a Ghostbuster.

Cue major spoilers for the rest of the film:

SPOILER: Click to show

Slimer and all of the Ghostbusters are in the film as is Ivo Shandor from Ghostbuster the game, Ramis being recasted for obvious reasons. Vinz Clortho the Keymaster and Zuul the Gatekeeper return and summon Gozer once again.

Watching Moby Doc, the self made doc on Moby. It is as pretentious as you expect from modern Moby. Doc is Moby narrating his life and recreating scenes from his past with puppets, some animation and actors and some music and old footage. A lot of woo is me shit as he was a latchkey kid in the 70's with mom being involved in drugs. A lot of the shit I knew since I met him and was friends with his cousin for a few years, and like met his family and shit.

Doc covers a lot of shit that was not really shared. Basically his parents always fought, leading to them seperating and his dad killing himself. Them his mom got hooked on drugs and hung out with assholes while he grew up in Harlim and his move to CT and what it was like growing up poor in CT.

Also covers a really weird awkward moment. Moby was basically my idol from the first time I heard of him when Feeling so Real hit. When I met him at a signing he was super awesome. When I met his cousin and his cousin told him I was like a superfan of his old DJ work and got into DJing because of him.  Told him I loved his Animal Rights disc and he hooked me up with super rare Evil Ninja Moby shit. Fast forward a few years to his big break, and he was still cool at shows but then did his world tour so we did not see him for a while. His cousin invited me to his birthday party and warned me that Moby was coming. I was like and this is bad? His cousin was the one who got us into all the shows he played at VIP and shit. Party comes around and Moby is there. And he was a fucking asshole. Super egotistical, the spiritual Moby was gone replaced with a drunk capitalist asshole bragging about the shit he bought and his pornography collection. We ended up like ditching him and hanging with his cousin in the basement away from his family just to not be around him. Lost touch with his cousin after this as everyone went off to college.  

Basically the doc fills this in. He kind of assumed that he could do the American Dream and be happy. Then when he succeeded and got the house and money he was miserable since he disconnected completely from the scene that he was in, which really was all that made him happy and decided to just become the clique.  When Animal Rights essentially was hated by most of his fans he just went like crazy.

He totally nailed what it is like growing up poor in this area. Was one of the reason I think he was so nice to me, mentioned I wanted some of his merc but it was too expensive.  Funny how he talks about training to NYC since we did that so much.

Good Doc if into him, but it is modern Moby and super pretentious since he is so full of himself even now. What is worse is he even knows he is, but does shit about it from what I heard. Wish so bad we could get early Moby back. The old footage made me so sad. Was such a great guy and his music so amazing, then Play and the success that came utterly ruined him.  Attitude you get now is he knows he can be dick but he is too old to change.  He straight out says he knows he popular music was not as good as his old music.

Saw Jungle Cruise (yes your boy tries to watch a movie each weekend) and it was alright in a generic adventure sorta way. Found myself borderline turning into QT. Maybe I was just extra thirsty for Emily Blunt in this movie.

Last night in Soho: Glad I was able to catch this in cinemas before it is gone as it’s absolutely fantastic, one of the most original films I’ve seen in this genre.

Acting was good, cinematography was gorgeous and plot kept me guessing.

10/10

Last Night in Soho was great. It is super original if you saw it as a horror film. As a noir film, it mostly has been done before, but it has been a long, long time since a noir film like this was made.

Feel like it was REALLY mis-marketed though. Was not all what you expect it would be from the trailers, which is why some hate it. Also I assume many would love the shit out of it would not have seen it at all because of the trailers making it into a horror film.

I expect this to get a cult following when it moves to streaming. Need to watch it again soon as the stuff with mirrors with so awesome I want to see how much more was hidden in them.

Over the long weekend I watched two movies:

King Richard - Will Smith is good, but as not a fan of biopics it had all the problems that I have with biopics. Formulaic and makes him into a hero that it doesn’t seem like he probably is in real life. I’d still give it a half-hearted thumbs up because I love sports movies, it’s telling a pretty big story, the girls playing the Williams sisters are good.

Encanto - Terrific for a kids cartoon. Fun songs, moves quick, and has a few laughs. Kiddo loved it and I didn’t dislike it, which makes it a perfect trip to the theater.

My Disney friends are going nuts for Encanto.

The Man who killed Don Quixote:

Brilliant film, struggling to finish the book (600 pages in) so I thought I’d watch this to see if it would encourage me to smash the remaining pages out.

Hilarious and such a great modern take on the story, Adam Driver is great as usual.

EDIT:

Venom: Let There be Carnage

This finally has been released in Australia, not worth the delay.
Wasn’t necessarily bad just mediocre, feel into the same category as the Fantastic Four movies.

The reference to the above book was the most exciting part aside from

SPOILER: Click to show

The mid credit scene

Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

Normally if I rewatch a movie I haven't seen in many years, I will recognise scenes and characters and clearly identify that I have watched the movie before, even if I don't remember watching it before. Most likely I will remember the plot summary, if not all the details.

Pulp Fiction has the opposite effect. I've seen it twice before, and most of the film I don't remember at all. Not in that way where I recognise the moments upon seeing them, but not remembering as if the majority of the film has been wiped from my mind Men In Black style. It's bizarre. Going into my third viewing this is what I remember:

- The opening and closing scenes in the restaurant with Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer.
- Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta's first scenes (Royale with Cheese, Does he look like a bitch? etc.)
- John Travolta dancing with Uma Thurman.

That's it. The rest of the film I may as well never have seen before. Complete memory erasure. Don't remember Bruce Willis or Christopher Walken or Harvey Keitel. Don't rememeber Marcellus Wallace getting raped. Not even the rest of the Travolta/Thurman storyline. Just the dancing.

My verdict is that it's a mixed bag but definitely upper half Tarantino. Its highest points are the best things Tarantino has ever done. It's never actively bad, but most of the Bruce Willis storyline dragged. While the Christopher Walken scene was important from a narrative perspective, it was a bore apart from the reveal concerning a golden watch and anuses, which provoked a laugh.

The apartment scene with Vincent and Jules is obviously a classic. But the highlight was everything Harvey Keitel. The scene with Winston Wolfe was pure magic from start to finish, and not even Tarantino's awful acting could spoil it. Dare I say he was even decent at some points?

The closing scene is magnificent, as mentioned it's one of the few scenes I remember and it was awesome.

Samuel L. Jackson steals the show in a cast of phenomenal performances. The journey his character goes through during the movie is incredible. Also the dialogue is tremendous throughout, particularly the conversations between Jules and Vince. What a double act they are. Shame Vincent isn't as interesting when Jules isn't around. Keitel gets the most bang for his buck, while he's not in the film long enough to eclipse Jackson, he would have done were he more involved.

"A please would be nice"

Wolf: 😡

Between this and Mr. White... the dad from Dusk... Harvey is pretty great in QT Lore.

The Humans will convince you of one thing: that movie critics are stupid and pretentious. The fact that Amy Schumer isn't even the worst part of this movie is just mind boggling. The sheer nothingness you endure while waiting for just something to happen that never does is.

It was apparently a play originally and won a Tony somehow. It's literally just a film about nothing other than Thanksgiving drama unfolding within a spoopy NYC apartment. That's it.

Insert some "iT pErFeCtLy eNcApsUlAteS tHe hUmAn eXpeRieNcE" bullshit praise. No offense to the actors, they were perfectly fine here and the cinematography was well done. But... My god, I don't understand people who gave this a 6/7 on iMDB. Don't waste your time. (2/10)

Anyone who uses phrases like "human experience" cannot be trusted.

Dune: we finally got this in Australia, it looked cool but I’ll definitely need to read the book so I can understand most of the film.

I purchased the book last year in hopes of reading it before Dec 2020, that worked out well 😅

If you read Dune it is great until God Emperor of Dune.

For the new movie, it goes right up until the book starts to get really good. So part II will be fire. Part 1, is pretty much the setup.

Dec 12, 2021 3:56:44 GMT c said:

If you read Dune it is great until God Emperor of Dune.

For the new movie, it goes right up until the book starts to get really good. So part II will be fire. Part 1, is pretty much the setup.

Is it worth the setup or is it like the new MK where they basically just cock teased us?

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}
Also killing off Goro outside the tournament lol.

Dune is fantastic. If you do not know the story though, most of the stuff people love about Dune will take place in the second film. The movie introduces Arrakis, the main people and conflict, then goes into the fall of House Atreides.

Dirty Dancing, similar to Ghost in being a hugely unexpected good surprise. Now, with this, Ghost, and Road House under my belt, I think I can definitively say I've gone from ignorant arbitrary Swayze hater to big time fan boy. Think I need to queue up Point Break, pronto.

Dec 14, 2021 2:33:20 GMT 🤯 said:

Dirty Dancing, similar to Ghost in being a hugely unexpected good surprise. Now, with this, Ghost, and Road House under my belt, I think I can definitively say I've gone from ignorant arbitrary Swayze hater to big time fan boy. Think I need to queue up Point Break, pronto.

Do it bro! My second favorite behind the amazing House of Roads. Well maybe tied with Ghost.

I never cared for Dirty Dancing that much even though it’s pretty iconic and Swayze has that specific machismo.

Dec 14, 2021 2:47:43 GMT UT said:

Dec 14, 2021 2:33:20 GMT 🤯 said:

Dirty Dancing, similar to Ghost in being a hugely unexpected good surprise. Now, with this, Ghost, and Road House under my belt, I think I can definitively say I've gone from ignorant arbitrary Swayze hater to big time fan boy. Think I need to queue up Point Break, pronto.

Do it bro! My second favorite behind the almost House of Roads.

Where does Red Dawn slot in? I've only seen the remake, and for how much I surprisingly enjoyed that, I bet the original would slay me.

Dec 14, 2021 2:48:52 GMT 🤯 said:

Dec 14, 2021 2:47:43 GMT UT said:

Do it bro! My second favorite behind the almost House of Roads.

Where does Red Dawn slot in? I've only seen the remake, and for how much I surprisingly enjoyed that, I bet the original would slay me.

I haven’t seen it for years. Probably at least 20 but I’m pretty sure I liked it - and the remake wasn’t terrible by any means.

Fatherhood is another Swayze movie I vaguely remember as a kid. No clue whether it holds up - I should track it down.

Resident Evil (2021):
Pretty good adaption of the second game without taking itself too seriously. A bit cheesy at times as are the games.

Raiders of the lost ark:
Indiana Jones has been a series on my to watch list for years so I finally started and I really enjoyed the first half of the film, not so much the second but I didn’t hate it. Hoping they go more into the mythology stuff more in the sequels

Third film is deep in the mythology. Second film is kind of weird.

Watched Pig per UT’s recommendation to 🤯.

It was good. I don’t really have much to say about it beyond that. Cage is good, the kid is good, the story’s kind of small in scale, and had some weird elements. It’s hard to remember sometimes when a movie has 97% on Rotten Tomatoes that means 97% could’ve given it a 6/10. It was a solid 7 for me, worth it if you want to see Nic Cage act or be sad for a bit.

mixtape - A new Netflix release that I found looking for a movie to watch with me daughter. The premise sounded interesting , it's about a girl who's parents passed away when she was a baby and she tries to discover more about them and herself through a mixtape she found from them. It really exceeded any expectations I could have had for it. It's funny (Nick Thune is great in it) , has a ton of heart , great soundtrack and some real tear jerking moments. Exceptional coming of age flick and a perfect entry for the genre. It's only rated PG so it's really for anyone but I imagine it's something 🤯 and Wife would really enjoy as they tend to love these contained and effective dramedies.


Freaky - Been meaning to watch this forever and just been too busy and couldn't find the right time. It's another movie that lived up to all expectations. A horror version of Freaky Friday and it too really brings some great comedy. Vince Vaughn is perfect at playing a teenage girl without being insulting to the character or audience and his costar does a great job with the opposite effect. Side characters are a ton of fun too and while the story does have holes it's still incredibly entertaining and has a ton of fun easter eggs for horror fans. Not really scary but I wasn't expecting it to be.

The Hunt - Another one that's been on my list for awhile. It's... good I guess. Probably not a movie I would go back to but I did enjoy the satirical nature of it and the fact that it took plenty of time to poke fun at both sides of the political spectrum. I do think they could have went for a better or more charismatic and believable lead but it was an interesting and fun 90 minutes. Can't complain though as I said - I don't think its one I will be revisiting unlike mixtape or Freaky , both of which I loved.

JFK - Too damn long. Some really interesting and intense scenes. The first hour and last hour I feel like I could watch again , especially that last courtroom speech but man does the middle of that movie really drag and ruin most of the experience for me. I get the love for it but I could never dedicate that much time to this movie again.


Really put me in the mood for a Costner and Vince Vaughn countdown. When I start the whole countdown thing agian.