There's something very wrong when you KNOW this isn't going to be a great movie and yet you still enjoyed it more than the new Jurassic Park World offering.
Typical beginning to end slasher tropes and even the twist isn't much of a surprise.
Saw this for the first time last night and really liked it.
Cuba Gooding Jr. and especially Laurence Fishburne were fantastic in their roles.
Great movie!
One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson and the cast knocked it out of the park with this one. I felt that the B-plot with Sean Penn's character, Col. Lockjaw, really adds to the menacing atmosphere Anderson aimed for.
The especially menacing part of the scenes with the "Christmas Adventurers Club" is just...they're not slackjawed hicks whose every second word is a slur, they're not foaming at the mouth about whatever they think "Judeo-Maoists" or whatever are up to today, and they don't get onto Twitter to reply "concerning..." to footage of the protest in the 2nd act as di Caprio's character "Bob" tries to escape the city. We don't know if they're politicians, venture capitalists or "tech bros", just that they're puppeteering from the shadows.
Watched L.A. Confidential tonight and really liked it. I‘ve seen this many times before and it was still just as great as ever, the movie’s atmosphere is incredibly well done.
Watched L.A. Confidential tonight and really liked it. I‘ve seen this many times before and it was still just as great as ever, the movie’s atmosphere is incredibly well done.
Sunday's movie was The Menu. It is highly conceptual and honestly, pretentious, caught between suspense, social critique, and dark humor. Anya Taylor-Joy is in autopilot and Ralph Fiennes is rather wasted as a sinister top chef. At least Nicholas Hoult gets to flex some Lex Luthor's traits later in the film. The best thing in the film was that cheeseburger, I want one! Umm, 5 out of 10.
On Saturday I rewatched A Complete Unknown, which is more a full-blown musical than a straight biopic of the life and times of Bob Dylan, from his appearance in the folk scene, his on/off relationship with Joan Baez, and until he launched Highway 61 Revisited. It barely touches the personality of the man, but the music, acting, photo, and editing are all enjoyable. 8 out of 10.
Finally watched Alien Romulus and was pleasantly surprised. I expected a trashy movie that couldn't hold a candle to the original but it got reasonably close. I was emotionally invested and it held my attention throughout the whole movie. It also had the same gritty aesthetics as the original.
Alien Earth will be next. I hope it doesn't disappoint.
Finally watched Alien Romulus and was pleasantly surprised. I expected a trashy movie that couldn't hold a candle to the original but it got reasonably close. I was emotionally invested and it held my attention throughout the whole movie. It also had the same gritty aesthetics as the original.
Alien Earth will be next. I hope it doesn't disappoint.
I would like to rate Alien Romulus as two films, the first half and the second half. The first half was great, really solid atmosphere and it really built up to the poop hitting the fan, a solid 8/10. The second half dropped the ball a bit IMO though, and that half was probably a 5/10. So overall, it's a 6.5 movie for me.
Sadly, I really didn't like Alien Earth, it started well enough, not without obvious flaws, but as a fan of the franchise I wanted to like it, but I ended up watching it just because I had started in the end.
Just taking a little advantage of the local holliday
1. Speed (1994) (9/10)
One of my favorite 1990's movies, very well made as well since every time I see it I still get some goosebumps everytime I see the bus's needle almost going below 50 mph (if you saw it, you know what happens if it did it). This was Keanu Reeves WAY before (20 exact years before, to be exact) John Wick, by the way. Long story short, here he plays a LA Cop which mission is to avoid at all costs that a bus blows off by getting it all the time above 50 mph, below that, or if one passenger goes off without the bomber's (a retired Atlanta cop-turned-rouge due to money played by the late great Dennis Hopper) permission... BOOM.
I've saw the sequel many times as well with Willem Dafoe now as the villain (IMO, one of the best villains of its kind) and Jason Patric now doing the cop role (Keanu Reeves declined from this sequel) and... yeah, better rule it out... Not all on the actors' fault, but more on the writers' and the director's (same one of the 1st) fault for thinking a hijacked cruise ship would give same chills as a freaking bomb-armed bus...
Also, Billy Idol's Speed, MAN, WHAT A SONG ❤️
2. The Girl Next Door (2004) (8/10)
Saw it before Netflix took it out of its library, to say it short, Mia Khalifa's dream-life-taken-into-reality movie , yes, I'm involving her since the main girl (Elisha Cuthbert) plays a pr0n star in this thing (and yes, this movie involves n00ds too but don't get your hopes up ). Long story short, a love comedy about your typical american high school senior (Emile Hisrch, the real-life Speed Racer) fells in-love of his new neighbor (Cuthbert) and, for both, is quite love-at-first-sight, but he doesn't know she's actually a pr0n star, and that makes him have more than a trouble troughtout the movie because he has to actually take her out of the industry in order to conquer her heart, thankfully for him, she's wants herself out too, but, as Mia Khalifa explained MANY times, that ain't an easy task, especially if you're a VERY requested and desirable pr0n star...
All the cheesy and comedic stuff aside, this movie is great comedy love film, it shows that pr0n stars are as well normal people with feelings (they just love Snu Snu a little bit more), and they want to feel loved not by their job, but as normal people, settle down, have kids, live just the relationship part instead of the you-know-what, you get the idea, this movie is a good representation of that and that's why I like it.
Talking out Speed Racer...
3. Speed Racer (2008) (8/10)
Saw it yesterday night, easily one of the most underrated movies of all times, yes, the CGI is bad (quite acceptable for the time), but the idea of making the visuals very cartoonish (it's based on a cartoon, after all) makes sense considering the stunts all the racers make here, Emile Hirsch really did its best to be the real-life Speed Racer and, IMO, he quite did it stayed quite short as well, the other actors did great on their own too, especially John Goodman (Pops Racer), but what really stood out was, apart of the visuals, the script, not the best, but at least it was simple-yet-complex enough to be enjoyable, even to the point the formula was applied again for an animated Nickelodeon show featuring Speed Racer's sons (and a more mature Sprittle) a few years later. Basically a family with HUGE love for motor racing fighting through the corruption and greed big-head companies have that destroy the purity of the sport (I'M SEEING YOU, FORMULA 1). Man, I wished a sequel would have happened, but at least the movie has its story telled from a to b on the 1st try without leaving open doors for a sequel, that's why I like it!
Also, Yokohama must have touched gold with its Advan placement, making them look like the most durable racing tires on earth in that time considering ALL the wear the race cars were putting into them with all those stunts . And talking about the cars, the Mach 6 is amazing ❤️
Ok, last, but not least
4. The losers (2010) (6/10)
To put it straight out of the bag, this is one of the MOST WASTED OPPORTUNITIES when it comes to comic-based-movies, to put it simply, this is Captain America (Chris Evans), Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), Heimdall (Idris Elba) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), all of them (except Morgan) some of the most loved Marvel characters/actors of the MCU in a DC MOVIE. Yes, this is a DC Movie (Vertigo/DC to be more exact) made BEFORE the rise of the MCU (in 2010, the MCU just had Iron Man 1, 2, and Thor), had Warner/DC had the balls to do it, they could have easily made the move of signing all of them for different movies besides the sequel of this one, but they didn't and then you know where they ended. Story-wise, it was good, apart of Gamora, the guys and two more friends were a group of mercenaries left behind and betrayed by the CIA (which in here, the director is Jason Patric) during a mission in Bolivia and, since then, its a journey to revenge, DC definetely wanted this movie to work out since they even left the story open for a planned sequel, but the reviews (justified IMO) bombed it out so hard they cancelled it out.
The worst thing about this thing is the marketing, or better say lack off, this movie had, without a doubt, this is the Enthusia Professional Racing of the comic-based movies, it had EVERYTHING to make it work out and could have changed the genre one way or another, but the lack of marketing and the fact the MCU was starting to go BIG made this movie flop hard.
Almost three months after, I know... TBF, I wasn't aware of this movie's existence since it never appeared on my dashboard, I didn't even know I added one of their main songs on my Spotify (same can be said about a Phantogram song from another netflix movie that was nowhere near this one), but after a Salsa remix of one of their songs, then a Bachata one of another (I'm latino, ok?? ), and MANY MANY trendy videos on TikTok from either normal people and reviews, and even some backstories, I decided to give it a go. I was expecting something very girly, very VERY K-POP oriented (almost cliché-ish) and basically a bad, childish script compensated by the animators overflexing their skills cough Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs cough, but no... ¡¡THIS IS A COMPLETE MASTERPIECE!!
Let me get this out of the bucket already, this is Netflix's MOST WATCHED MOVIE IN HISTORY, and for MANY VERY GOOD REASONS, first, the story, basically a Hunters vs. Demons fight throught the whole thing, something that in the movie states it goes back from many generations ago, but instead of fire, the main hunters' weapons is music, the best, most powerful music they can give, for this generation's hunters is, of course, K-POP, only this time is different because of social media, which helps as a power-up for the Hunters' music to the point they could, with the right song, easily end the battle for good thanks to the deployent of a magical barrier called "The Honmoon", enough power releases the Golden Honmoon which is the Checkmate move, of course the main demon knows this and in desperation tries to find the best attack, and one gives the best idea, fight power with power, the Hunters were a very popular girl K-POP group doing their job, good, then a selected group of demons would be a K-POP boyband with the target of stealing the hunters' fans thoughout their music, weaking their power in the process and turning their main objective further and further away. The story goes even better when the complexity of being a half-and-half starts thanks to the Hunters' leader, Rumi, which is half Hunter/half demon and has to personally battle between both sides, despite she considering herself more of a Hunter, and her counterpart, Jinu, being a complete demon-but-once-human but with a HUGE hidden guilt. Of course the movie focuses more on Rumi's backstory and strugles than Jinu's since she's the main character, but without absorbing too much the other Hunters' screen time of relevance, and that final fight... VERY VERY well made script!!
I'm not a K-POP fan myself, but the songs here are TOP-NOTCH on their own, I said at the start I added one of the soundtrack's song on my Spotify without knowing ("Takedown"), AMAZING song and easily my favorite of the bunch, but I have to admit nothing comes close to "GOLDEN" (the Salsa Remix song I talked about), WHAT A SONG THAT ONE IS, no wonder why is the most popular of the bunch and, easily, one of K-POP's most popular songs of all time, the singer Ejae (Rumi's singing VA, keep that name) with Audrey Nuna y Rei AMI (the other Hunters) really gave everything and made the hit of the year on my book (and in many people's book)! ❤️. "Free" (the bachata remix one) is amazing too and "Soda Pop", a very catching one too, again, a TOP-NOTCH Soundtrack! ❤️
The animation itself is top notch as well, basically is the same multi dynamic fps, 2D/3D hybrid "Animated for twos" style animation as Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse with some adjustments (like no 2D elements) since this is not a comic-based movie, which was a bullseye move since, combined with the script made the movie extremely enyoyable, pleasing to watch to the eye, funny, and have some very impresive visuals ❤️.
What makes me more enamored of the movie is Ejae's (Rumi's singing VA) REAL Backstory, which makes the soundtrack (especially "Golden") EVEN BETTER, from being a trainee ("Junior" on the K-Pop world) in SM entertaiment (one of K-Pop's biggest agencies) with the target to become an "Idol" (how South Korea call their singers), just to be stupidly rejected for being "Too Old" (she has 26, btw), becoming a composer for many K-Pop bands and arriving to the movie's team in 2020, in fact, both Rumi and her have many things in common and that's why the character feels so SO unique and heart-felting! ❤️. I can go far beyond, but basically, this is her "middle finger" moment to SM and the K-Pop bigheads overall for rejecting her and for the absolute posibilities this masterpiece has.
In my opinion... easily one of the best non-pixar-non-dreamworks animated movies of all time, and i'm saying it right now, this is not an OSCAR favorite, THIS IS AN OSCAR WINNER already (Best animated movie, best Original song for "Golden", I even dare to say huge candidate for "Best Movie"), hell, ¡Even the OSCAR's Tiktok (and pretty sure other socials) dedicated a video to "Golden" admist the trend!, and let's not talk about the Grammys... Definitely a movie to watch and see, despite your music tastes! ❤️
I want to take the opportunity to go back to my K-Pop Demon hunters review, almost a month happened since I did it and... man, I think my excitement was quite short...
To put it simply, I don't think that since Shrek or Despicable Me (when it comes to the movie itself) and Pharrell Williams's Happy (when it comes to "Golden") that a phenomenon like this happened, especially in such a short time, I get K-Pop is one of the most popular genres of today, but not even that justifies the absolute NUKE these girls became... To put it short, the movie now has over 300+ million streams on Netflix (and will just go up), and "Golden" has just become "Platinum" yesterday (no, really, it's commercially successful enough to become Platinum) in just 3 months, no other song of its kind hitted this hard. Not only that, but I've seen little girls on the streets using Rumi's haircut (same magenta color, even) or either Zoey or Mira's haircut, and its not even halloween yet, surely bet you will see MANY little Rumis, Zoeys and Miras asking for candies this year.
I saw yesterday the singing VA's performance on Jimmy Fallon's show (where he announced "Golden" became platinum) and I (like many fans) so wished to be there so I could hug the girls so hard to congratulate them, especially both Rei Ami (Zoey) and Ejae (Rumi) since they couldn't hold their emotions during the show... All of them deserve the success this masterpiece had and this is just the start.
Sony must be like this after selling the project to Netlflix after considering it a "Side Project" (tbf, I found nobody had faith in this movie except the involved ones), and now it has become into one of the biggest phenomenons of the decade . This is Concord levels of failure, I think even bigger failure to them since this had the chance to shine and boy, ¡it did!
My personal Spotify GT7 playlist now has 999 songs on it, been adding/deleting songs like crazy because I personally want the 1000th song to be special considering not only the song itself, but also the story behind it, on October 24th, I have faith Ejae will be the 1000th with her new song announced for that day ❤️
Also, at this moment planning something I think Sony SHOULD HAVE DONE LONG TIME AGO WITH ITS TWO BIGGEST IPs
Saturday - Caramelo (Netflix). An abandoned and mischievous mutt meets and changes the life of a young aspiring Brazilian sous-chef (No, it's not like Ratatouille). Of course, it is a very sentimental movie with all the bittersweet tropes that come with dog movies and still is quite engaging. If you love dogs, cuisine, and your mum, you'll enjoy Caramelo. 8/10.
And on Sunday I finally watched The Substance (HBO Max). It treats the subjects of fame, ageism, sexism, and self-loathing, and the material culture that holds it together, with a blunt and over the top narrative and visual style that is quite engaging throughout, even if the finale is excess at that point. Now that I've watched it along Anora, do I think Demi Moore's performance was worthier of the Oscar vs the younger Mikey Madison? In a word, no, because Anora's plight is similar in many ways, but the role and movie are more grounded in reality and way more fun (unexpectedly, Pretty Woman(ish)+The Hangover).
But anyway, I had a darkly fun time with The Substance (disclaimer: the women in the house did not) but I won't rewatch. 7/10.
I remember the family from my youth and watching the movie didn’t really bring back any memories. Heartbreaking for children that get pushed by their fathers. Amazing triumph for the family at the end.
Rim of the World.
Watched with the whole family. Had mature themes though. Doing double takes of “What’d he just say?”, “I thought that’s what he said.”. Surprisingly shocked at how funny and entertaining it was. It was like ATTACK THE BLOCK, but in California.
So my BFI copy of “La Haine” arrived today. I’ve owned a copy of this film on various formats over the years and I’ve always enjoyed the black and white visuals. The 35mm stock lends itself to new scan perfectly keeping it gritty and grainy without looking bad.
HDR 10 adds some nice shadow definition over my SDR Blu-ray version. I’m so glad they kept the stereo audio as it’s much better than the 5.1
The new score by the “Asian Dub Foundation” is good but I still prefer the original songs.
If you’ve watched plenty of French Cinema then you’ll see some familiar if yet younger looking faces. It’s also clear from Vincent Cassel was going to be a name to watch and see develop over the coming years.
Saïd Taghmaoui has also carved out a great career for himself too which is great to see. Hubert Koundé has made a few films and TV but seems to have not done quite as well as his two counterparts. It must have been by choice because he has some great acting skills.
The film isn’t going to be for everyone as it meanders across 24 hours from scene to scene with the three friends busting each others balls and talking nonsense all while feeling the pressures of being disenfranchised and lost in a world that doesnt seem to care about them other than to keep them down and out. All three have different ideas about how to go about life and at times butt heads. In the end their loyalty to each other keeps them solid up to the bitter end.
So I went into this movie expecting it to essentially be Ralph Bakshi's answer to Richard William's work on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," which was released four years prior. The set design - especially the backgrounds - was pretty neat, and the actual animation quality is quite splendid. However, it does feel like Bakshi keeps wanting to flex his animation chops even when it doesn't seem to really belong in some moments. On top of that, with this seemingly early entry in Pitt's career, he does seem awfully wooden - makes me wonder if even I could've acted better than he does here. The whole thing gives off this disjointed and unfinished vibe, as if it could've worked a lot better as a music video.
Also, apparently Frank Sinatra Jr. appears as himself in this?!
Saturday night movie was The Witches (1990) and is as creepy as I remember, children's movie my foot. With memorable practical effects, by Jim Hanson, no less, and outstanding performances, including Anjelica Huston and Mai Zetterling (the grandma), and very interesting camera work. However, the "feel good" ending comes out of a minor subplot and is completely unearned. So, 8/10 but deserving of its cult film status.
I have some thought on the film too: Viewed today, I would think the story "demonizes" women, but specifically women that opt to not have children or raise families (because its assumed they "hate" children), and who are independent and successful, and pits them against "good" women that do, as exemplified by the protective and sympathetic grandma. That being said, Anjelica Houston and Mai Zetterling (RIP) are strong and successful women, and Zetterling in particular was not only an actress, but a director and novelist and very much a feminist. So maybe it pits bad feminism vs good feminism through the lens of a male author? That being said, it's a good movie.
Yesterday I watched One Battle after Another and had a good time with what seems like running commentary on how things are in the U.S. now and in the near future (although there are no dates mentioned and no visible changes in technology/fashion even with a sizeable time lapse). I would describe it as a guerrilla film in the actual and literal sense.
As an automotive bonus, you will probably never see again a Dodge Charger, a Mustang Shelby GT500 and a Nissan Tsuru (or Sentra SE-R probably) go at it on screen (!)
Sunday's movie was Weapons (HBO Max), which I missed on theaters, so I got to see if it lives up to the hype. It's good and I got some good jump scares out of it, and I like the narrative structure of arcs that move the story forward to a point, go back and overlap to get to the climax.
That being said, I think Longlegs (2024) is scarier and very underrated.
Yesterday I watched A House of Dynamite (Netflix). I liked how it built the tension up to the climax, if it can be called that. However, I do have an issue with the structure of the story: By having an Obama-like President in the third arc (a miscast Idris Elba) we are robbed of the terrifying possibilities of having and older and compromised Commander in Chief, whether by age/mental decline (46) or by the foregoing PLUS incompetence and hubris (45-47). Also, the arc of the Secretary of Defense (Jared Harris) is far more interesting and complex than that of Capt. Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson), thus the latter feels a bit redundant at the end.
I guess it's a well-produced existencial horror film, but it came a bit short for me: 7/10.
Yesterday I watched A House of Dynamite (Netflix). I liked how it built the tension up to the climax, if it can be called that. However, I do have an issue with the structure of the story: By having an Obama-like President in the third arc (a miscast Idris Elba) we are robbed of the terrifying possibilities of having and older and compromised Commander in Chief, whether by age/mental decline (46) or by the foregoing PLUS incompetence and hubris (45-47). Also, the arc of the Secretary of Defense (Jared Harris) is far more interesting and complex than that of Capt. Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson), thus the latter feels a bit redundant at the end.
I guess it's a well-produced existencial horror film, but it came a bit short for me: 7/10.
I‘ve watched this movie as well a few days ago and I agree with most of your points, especially Idris Elba really didn‘t fit his role (and I usually like him as an actor). The first third was good and got me interested but by the last 20 minutes I was done with the movie. It felt like they were building a huge amount of tension in the first half an hour that ultimately didn‘t go anywhere.
Telling the same story from three different perspectives that barely give the viewer any new information with each new iteration didn‘t help either.
Also way too much stilted exposition dialogue from most characters. Another okayish Netflix movie that didn‘t live up to the hype.
I‘ve watched this movie as well a few days ago and I agree with most of your points, especially Idris Elba really didn‘t fit his role (and I usually like him as an actor). The first third was good and got me interested but by the last 20 minutes I was done with the movie. It felt like they were building a huge amount of tension in the first half an hour that ultimately didn‘t go anywhere.
Telling the same story from three different perspectives that barely give the viewer any new information with each new iteration didn‘t help either.
Also way too much stilted exposition dialogue from most characters. Another okayish Netflix movie that didn‘t live up to the hype.
Yes, that's why I think the Secretary of Defense's arc has more meat: it's hinted he is a recent widower and is estranged from his only daughter. The most poignant scene is him reaching out just to say hello, since he knows the futility of telling her, and then being the most competent character, kills himself.
In a way, I'm reminded of Deep Impact, where too many characters and subplots can dilute the movie overall.
Don’t know what to make of this. Who am I to root for? Bunch of terrorists, a pot-head father who stubles his way through the movie and ends up at the right place and time, a moron racist general, a daughter who has no character? I don’t know. It more of a jiggsaw than a real story.
And this movie could be 90 minutes long, and not dragged much….
I finally saw Fast X, yep, cringy as hell when it comes to the action parts (Hollywood magic, I know). Still, when it comes to the storyline itself, even if some characters were predictably what they were supposed to be, it worked out well, it's the 1st time I saw it and it's quite the story, returning to the climax of the 5th one (where we all thought it was going to be the franchise's ending) and continuing from there traspassing the other's storylines, i knew this was going to be a 1st part out of 2, so I wasn't expecting an unfinished storyline, but it was pulled out well. I can't wait for the last part to come out, hopefully, in 2027, that of course, if Vin Diesel can get his ego straight and make an agreement with Universal and some of the actors (like The Rock) to give the franchise's main storyline the ending it deserves... at last...
Song of the year
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media
Best Song Written For Visual Media
Best Remixed Recording (this one was the most questioned because the remix by David Guetta wasn't that well-received compared to the original version of "Golden")
I can go into details, but a friend on Twitter basically summed up the whole thing like this
Those were the actual performers' reactions; it even went to the point where they suffered from impostor syndrome and were asking themselves if they deserved it. I cannot be more secure when I say they deserve it, the three of them. This is the part I say "specifically", but no, the three deserve credits equally for this, and I will be rooting for them that day.
I still need to watch "Sinners", but sadly, it hasn't been available here in Peru. Hopefully, it will be, after all, Baby Driver wasn't available here until two months after the movie premiered.
, yes, I'm involving her since the main girl (Elisha Cuthbert) plays a pr0n star in this thing (and yes, this movie involves n00ds too but don't get your hopes up 
