D&W
My friends and I had a blast. The movie is insane, off the rails, and hilarious. I’m a wee bit disappointed in some aspects, such as how not important this movie ends up feeling towards the MCU as a whole. It’s not completely isolated from it but it does feel like they could completely forget to reference this movie again. I also felt a little cheated that there wasn’t the opening credits jokes like the previous two films opened with. But that aside it is a great Deadpool movie, and Reynolds and Jackman are a solid team. The fight choreography is perfection, with so many wonderfully gruesome kills that you can only hope an R feature will deliver on. There are some solid cameos and surprises here.
I just want you to know how confused I was for a moment there because of where I live.
Although seeing the two of them working behind a deli counter, or possibly being a cashier/bagger combo sounds like it would be ... weirdly appropriate somehow?
Showed my kids The Sandlot this weekend. They had to pause the swimming pool scene due to laughter. They rewatched that scene again. What a great movie.
Unrelated note, they were watching Shrek recently, and while I like the music and dialogue, I sure think the animation could be updated. I don't know if that would detract or help. Maybe it was just my TV but it didn't look good.
Showed my kids The Sandlot this weekend. They had to pause the swimming pool scene due to laughter. They rewatched that scene again. What a great movie.
Unrelated note, they were watching Shrek recently, and while I like the music and dialogue, I sure think the animation could be updated. I don't know if that would detract or help. Maybe it was just my TV but it didn't look good.
I noticed the same thing when we were watching Shrek not too long ago with Li'l Z. I think you just have to except that the animation is more than 25 years old, so it's going to look a little choppy compared to more recent stuff.
I personally don't think it really needs updating.
I mean, smoothing a bit? Probably, might improve things... But I've seen too many attempts at "improving" animation only to have it get infinitely worse to wish it on any movie.
Though with the way the sector is going, I expect a remake soon - either suddenly with real life actors and CGI, or rewritten to be extra super duper inclusive of Everyone (I'm not a right wing nut - far from it. But Shrek would not be improved by making Donkey trans, Fiona black or the Gingerbread Man... I dunno, biscoff instead of gingerbread. It's a trend in remakes, which rarely helps either the story or actual inclusivity/representation).
But Shrek would not be improved by making Donkey trans, Fiona black or the Gingerbread Man... I dunno, biscoff instead of gingerbread. It's a trend in remakes, which rarely helps either the story or actual inclusivity/representation).
I personally don't think it really needs updating.
I mean, smoothing a bit? Probably, might improve things... But I've seen too many attempts at "improving" animation only to have it get infinitely worse to wish it on any movie.
Though with the way the sector is going, I expect a remake soon - either suddenly with real life actors and CGI, or rewritten to be extra super duper inclusive of Everyone (I'm not a right wing nut - far from it. But Shrek would not be improved by making Donkey trans, Fiona black or the Gingerbread Man... I dunno, biscoff instead of gingerbread. It's a trend in remakes, which rarely helps either the story or actual inclusivity/representation).
On Netflix, there used to be a video you could borrow or stream (I can't remember if I used the physical copy) that would teach you "Bye Bye Bye", "Oops I Did it Again", and a bunch of the signature pop dances from that time. It was fun!
Watched John Wick 4 last night. It's definitely the weakest of the bunch. Way too long and they might as well have given them superpowers with the ridiculousness of the suits and what they survive.
But... The fight scenes are still awesome, there's an entire action sequence that's filmed top down like an action game in an uninterrupted sequence that's REALLY cool and Donnie Yen is amazing.
I stumbled across the trailer for this and it piqued my interest. The title doesn't really do it justice.
I really dug it. It's set almost exclusively within the span of a cab ride through New York, starting at JFK airport, with a deep, personal conversation between the driver (Sean Penn) and the passenger (Dakota Johnson). While cruder and maybe not as introspective as My Dinner With Andre, it's probably the closest comparison I can think of. My Dinner With Andre didn't briefly show a dick pic in a phone text for example.
Still, I'm really glad I watched this one. It's very well shot. The camera doesn't linger too long any one shot, so what's mostly a back-and-forth conversation between two characters is never dull to look at. Both actors have great, unspoken character moments in just their expression that speak volumes.
It's just over an hour and a half, so it's not a terribly long movie. If you can get it, I recommend checking it out.
Finally got tired of ducking spoilers on the internet and went to go see DP & Wolvie this weekend.
The last movie I went to in the theaters was the Top Gun remake. The last movie PREVIOUS to that was Thor: Ragnarok. So I don't go to the theater much.
I really enjoyed this one. Yes, it had a lot of shameless callback plugs to bad past sony/marvel movies, but I had a really good time anyway.
I did not see it coming that the Loki TV series might be a prereq for really understanding what was going on in this one though, which was a bit of a bummer for my GF as she hasn't seen that one yet. But then I don't think she's even seen Endgame yet, so she was just able to appreciate the gags and fights for what they were and not think about the rest too hard.
Finally got tired of ducking spoilers on the internet and went to go see DP & Wolvie this weekend.
The last movie I went to in the theaters was the Top Gun remake. The last movie PREVIOUS to that was Thor: Ragnarok. So I don't go to the theater much.
I really enjoyed this one. Yes, it had a lot of shameless callback plugs to bad past sony/marvel movies, but I had a really good time anyway.
I did not see it coming that the Loki TV series might be a prereq for really understanding what was going on in this one though, which was a bit of a bummer for my GF as she hasn't seen that one yet. But then I don't think she's even seen Endgame yet, so she was just able to appreciate the gags and fights for what they were and not think about the rest too hard.
I took my 17yo son to see DP&W since he had seen all the other Marvel movies and TV, so I thought we'd be fine.
I forgot that he hadn't seen a single Fox/Marvel movie property, including Deadpool and Deadpool 2. He really enjoyed the movie and thought it was funny but there was a lack of context to basically the entire movie.
But... The fight scenes are still awesome, there's an entire action sequence that's filmed top down like an action game in an uninterrupted sequence that's REALLY cool and Donnie Yen is amazing.
I enjoyed that D+W movie. I VERY much enjoyed the look on my partner's face when Cassandra Nova started her thingy that anyone who's seen her in the comics knew was coming (Though they eventually overused it). I'm glad I didn't know shit about shit about the movie because some of the gags were enough to carry the awful paper thin TVA plot, it's so barely cohesive with anything else. In fact, most of what sucked about it involved all the Disney+ TV show stuff. Made all those &'s in the Written By credit stand out, you could tell the script passed through many hands. The movie is dead right about one thing, the multiverse fucking sucks.
Comic Accurate Wolverine What If episode please and just pay Jackman to voice it.
The way Disney has handled the "multiverse" has been incredibly uneven, but it was a problem they were going to run into when they started making Marvel movies. Disney always wants to please the largest crowd in the least offensive way (because it gets them the most $$$), and they had to find a way to rewrite the universe without completely shitting all over the movies that came before they were under their umbrella. Because, as we know, fans are the most even-tempered and understanding.....HAHAHAAHAHA, I couldn't even finish writing that, sorry. Fans are the most delicate, demanding and whiny manbabies, so this was the only solution, it seems. It also gives them an out when they have to recast or reboot because the actors leave/age out/ want to stop abusing their bodies.
Deadpool's 4th wall break about making Hugh do this until he's 90 was painfully true.
The downside of live action films. And greed. But despite what Gordon Gecko said, greed is never good.
I've had a free subscription to Apple TV for awhile and this looked cute. Didn't look like anything great, but cute. So I added it to my watch list and finally got around to it.
And my first impression was right: it's cute. It's fine. It's harmless fun. There are many better movies out there, but I've seen worse. Chris Evans and Ana de Armas have decent enough chemistry to get through the movie. Apparently Scarlett Johansson was originally supposed to play opposite to Evans and...I kind wish we got that, instead, as we've seen those two have great chemistry. De Armas is fine, though.
There's also a cameo fest scene with bounty hunters showing up played by notable actors (some fellow Avengers cast). Even though it was relatively short, it just got tiresome.
Still, I dunno, the action sequences were pretty fun, even if all the violence was bloodless.
I'll likely never revisit this, but it was okay. For a movie I got through a free trial for a streaming service, I got my money's worth.
Not a movie, but a play. The Mousetrap. Agatha Christie showing why she is the GOAT when it comes to whodunnits.
No I didn't work out who the killer was. I won't say I didn't suspect them at one point, but only because I suspected everyone at some point (except the character who dies at the end of the first act).
This was...a frustrating movie. On the surface, it's a great premise. A movie from the serial killer's point of view trying to escape a massive concert set up specifically to trap him. Good premise! And there is some excellent directing from M. Night Shyamalan, as one would expect. Like Zack Snyder, I think he missed his calling as a cinematographer, rather than a director.
The movie can be very tense, where you can almost see the gears in Josh Hartnett's mind turning as he tries to work an angle. There are times where it's so well shot, with great body presence from Hartnett, you can almost feel what he's thinking even when his back is turned entirely. Hartnett is great in this and very much carries the film where his co-stars are mostly teen girls.
This also felt largely like a vehicle to showcase M. Night's daughter, Saleka Shyamalan, who plays the Lada Gaga-esque singer, Lady Raven. If this movie was made just as a vehicle for her, then mission accomplished, because she's great. Apparently she wrote and performed all the songs herself. And she's a pretty decent actor, too. Not great, but I've seen worse.
What makes this movie frustrating goes into spoiler territory, so...
So, two thirds of the movie take place at the concert. By the time they leave the concert, we've seen just about every angle of it. Hartnett's character charms his way into every nook and cranny, including chumming up to a backstage pass for him and his daughter. He manages to get out without being directly profiled by the hundreds of police or the special profiler on the scene. And that's where the movie loses it for me. Kind of.
See, the whole movie is built around his relationship with his daughter, and it's great. To some extent, we also get quite a bit of Lady Raven, too. But after they leave the concert, via Lady Raven's limo, it becomes more about him and Lady Raven (he divulges to her that he's The Butcher and threatens to kill the person he's held hostage). Then it kind of become a cat and mouse game between him and Lady Raven.
But then the movie keeps going and she manages to get away from him...but then the movie STILL keeps going.
The movie actually culminates in a tense confrontation with his...wife, who is barely mentioned at all up until basically the start of the limo ride. So two thirds of the movie are built up around him and his daughter, only to suddenly shift to him and Lady Raven, only to pivot again to a confrontation with his wife. Who, it turns out, knew he was the killer and planted the concert ticket for the police to find.
But...it's not really earned. As great as the scene between he and his wife is (wife is played by the always great Alison Pill), it's not earned because the movie didn't build up to it. Arguably, it could have worked if the wife scene was swapped with his daughter (and I bet there was an early draft with exactly that), because it would have been earned. Hell, a confrontation with Lady Raven would have worked. I half expected them to reveal she had a personal connection with The Butcher, like the daughter of one of his past victims, but no.
But it doesn't work with the wife because she has no presence for most of the movie. I don't think there's even a mention of him being married until the daughter calls her mom in the limo. The wife is barely a presence when Lady Raven invites herself into their home because the focus is still on Lady Raven. The daughter is a complete non-factor once the focus swaps to Lady Raven. We get a token moment between them right at the end and it feels tacked on after everything else.
I still liked it for the most part. I'd even say it's a good movie, in the 6 or 7/10 range for the acting and directing. But it's frustrating because with a little tweaking or another run of edits on the script, it could have been a great movie.
The Beekeeper with Jason Statham.
This movie wasn't even a mindless fun popcorn flick. The acting was overwrought, the plot thin, and the backstory barely described. The action was ridiculous. I guess the keeper guy was supposed to be some kind of John Wick style super killer but he was also given cheeseball philosophical drivel to spout. I got strong Steven Seagal in Glimmer Man vibes. It was just all-round awful.
I just saw Deadpool and Wolverine yesterday. It was a rollicking good time. I won't spoil anything, but one of those accents sounded like Farmer Fran from The Waterboy and Ed Orgeron combined.
