Watched Bullet Train. Felt like it could have been really good but it just wasn’t. The story wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t overly exciting either. The direction and cinematography was great, though.
Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
Exp:
Watched a Clint Eastwood classic Every Which Way But Loose. The story of Philo Beddo and his ape Clyde. I give it an 8ot if 10 for pure entertainment value.
Watched Bullet Train. Felt like it could have been really good but it just wasn’t. The story wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t overly exciting either. The direction and cinematography was great, though.
5/10 for me.
That's just cause you're a diesel
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I liked Bullet Train, wasn't anything groundbreaking but was a fun action movie that was a throwback to 90s action films that don't really get made anymore.
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I liked Bullet Train, wasn't anything groundbreaking but was a fun action movie that was a throwback to 90s action films that don't really get made anymore.
I agree. It probably could have been 20 minutes shorter but it was still pretty fun.
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Ambulance is terrible. Ridiculous premise, stupid plot, cringe-worthy dialogue, and Gyllenhaal's worst performance that I've ever seen. I tried my best to power through but turned it off an hour in, which was far more time than I should have committed.
Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are overall shockingly positive.
I like dumb silly movies, but Michael Bay isn't my kind of dumb. Same with Roland Emmerich (all the disaster movies), just not my kind of dumb. Ambulance gave me a mind ache. Not a headache, it somehow hurt the thinking part of my brain. It's like there is almost an amazing action movie in there but terrible execution.
Haven't reviewed a movie in a while. Here are a bunch from 2022:
Beavis and Butt-head Do the Universe: Surprisingly hilarious. Not going to stir much intellectual thought but delivers a fun ride with lots of laughs and nostalgia. Mike Judge does a great job balancing this nostalgia with a modernization of the story in a way that other reboot filmmakers should learn from. 8/10
Enola Holmes 2: An acceptable sequel in the Millie Bobby Brown detective series providing an interesting mystery. The biggest draw is Henry Cavill returning as Sherlock in an expanded role that could almost be called a co-star. Some tonal issues going from silly to serious and sometimes turning into an action movie. Also hated how they developed Enola as being smart and a good fighter yet we have to keep seeing flashbacks of how she learned to be smart and a good fighter. 7/10
Jurassic World Dominion: What a mess. Not at all a fan of the direction Colin Trevorrow has taken this series. Felt like a mash up of a sequel to Fallen Kingdom that I had no interest in with a 29 year later sequel to the original Jurassic Park that I was mildly interested in. At times didn't even feel like a Jurassic movie, instead more of a generic Fast and Furious style action movie but the bad guy had dinos as disposable henchmen. At other times felt like a comedic parody of a Jurassic Park movie and had me laughing out loud. Wish they leaned more into the parody with only Goldblum seeming to figure it out. Redeeming features were the dumb ending at least gave a few cool dinosaur moments and can't complain about Sam Neill. A stupid movie that I feel stupider for watching. 3/10
The Northman: I'm a big fan of Robert Eggers films but hate to say this could have used a little less of his influence. There is an excellent hero's journey revenge story here that gets sidetracked at times by too much weirdness exploring the mythical side. Would have liked to see more action which was well done in small doses. An otherwise brilliant movie. Great acting and sound but the cinematography is the best part as this is just gorgeous to look at. 9/10
Scream: A reboot/sequel that is an okay entry to the slasher series. There are a few good twists and turns with a modernization of the meta references but this ultimately plays it safe with a familiar story. Falls into the trap that just because your characters make references to bad reboots that rely on nostalgia it doesn't excuse you for having the same problems with an over reliance on nostalgia. 6/10
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: An original and silly tribute to Nicholas Cage films and the art of film making that put a smile on my face. The best part is Cage, playing himself, acting against Pedro Pascal, playing a Cage super fan with a twist. Shifts from a character study to over the top action which is a bit jarring but works adequately within the story. 8/10
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The Bad Guys is a fun little movie. It's just clever enough for adults to stay interested, but you can tell its main goal was to appeal to kids. The voice acting was damn solid for what seems like an afterthought film (Rockwell and Beetz especially, and imagining Marc Maron doing his lines in a booth somewhere was entertaining). Lots of little nods to other heist/crime films, including the longest singular animated take in a Dreamworks movie, referencing Pulp Fiction.
The big draw was the animation style, which was entirely captivating. You could tell it borrowed from Into the Spider-Verse and tried to innovate in its own way. Happy to see more movies are trying to experiment with their animation ala Spider-Man and The Mitchells Vs. The Machines.
You'll likely be intrigued and chuckle a bit, but your kids will probably love The Bad Guys. Available on Crave at the moment.
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-'Badger' Bob Johnson (1931-1991)
"I see as much misery out of them moving to justify theirselves as them that set out to do harm." -Dr. Amos "Doc" Cochran
There's already been some good takes on these ones, but my thoughts:
Banshees of Inisherin: I can recognize this as a thoughtful and well-made movie but it wasn't my cup of tea. I think the allegory it was trying to execute was pretty heavy-handed and detracted from character development (although they both go hand in hand so I dunno). Kerry Condon stole every scene she was in.
Glass Onion: I had fun watching this but agree with others that the mystery was pretty obvious (compared to the first one). Daniel Craig is hilarious.
Barbarian: Was looking forward to this based on online reviews but I hated it. Again, it was trying to connect social commentary with the characters but was pretty heavy-handed... although in this case it made sense with character development. Justin Long was very smart casting.
Horror is so hard to do because you're trying to put people into horrific and illogical situations while having them do logical things to get there. So in the case of Barbarian, you have people only doing illogical and stupid things to get into trouble. Along with poor pacing and editing, this was a huge miss for me.
One of the best and worst things I've done is get into this podcast. I only listen to the episodes covering movies I like but the thing is after listening you can't help but watch the movie again.
I've recently plowed through Major League, Bull Durham, War Games, The Running Man, Big Trouble in Little China, Willow, Poltergeist, Innerspace and Crocodile Dundee.
Watched Sorcerer 1977 for the first time last night.
What a fantastic movie. It's about 4 men who have fled to a remote South American town to escape their pasts. Life in the town isn't what they expected so they take an extremely dangerous job to transport dynamite that is leaking unstable nitroglycerin through the jungle.
The movie takes it's time in setting up the characters stories and the reason for this highly dangerous mission. The second half is basically a Top Gear special but with no humor, only tension and brutality.
There's already been some good takes on these ones, but my thoughts:
Banshees of Inisherin: I can recognize this as a thoughtful and well-made movie but it wasn't my cup of tea. I think the allegory it was trying to execute was pretty heavy-handed and detracted from character development (although they both go hand in hand so I dunno). Kerry Condon stole every scene she was in.
Glass Onion: I had fun watching this but agree with others that the mystery was pretty obvious (compared to the first one). Daniel Craig is hilarious.
Barbarian: Was looking forward to this based on online reviews but I hated it. Again, it was trying to connect social commentary with the characters but was pretty heavy-handed... although in this case it made sense with character development. Justin Long was very smart casting.
Horror is so hard to do because you're trying to put people into horrific and illogical situations while having them do logical things to get there. So in the case of Barbarian, you have people only doing illogical and stupid things to get into trouble. Along with poor pacing and editing, this was a huge miss for me.
I really think Barbarian is a victim of its own reputation.
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Thats why Flames fans make ideal Star Trek fans. We've really been taught to embrace the self-loathing and extreme criticism.
My partner had a multi-day migraine over the holidays, so I had a lot of spare evenings after my kids were down. I did minimum two movies a night and watched Drive (not my first viewing; I think I've watched it 3 times. Best soundtrack!), Donnie Darko, Ford vs. Ferrari, Whiplash, Parasite, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (again, watched multiple times), Glass Onion, and Straight Outta Compton.
Enjoyed all of them and would recommend any of them.
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