@LN78 Snyder would have made for a pretty decent cinematographer, he does know how to put a good shot together. He just sort of got too big despite making an awful lot of rubbish, meaning he could only ever be a director. Perhaps with a better writing partner he could do something worthwhile (although I stand by the Snyder Cut being vastly better than Josstice League) but he would have been much better behind the camera than making any sort of executive decision surrounding story and the way in which character development is presented on screen.
@LN78 I’d rather sit through an extra 2 hours than ever see Gal Gadot attempt humour again. Or that scene with Flash falling on top of Wonder Woman. And that random Russian family for some reason? I dunno, that original cut is just so offensively terrible that anything is better, even 4 hours.
@nessisonett Slow mo Flash hotdog scene? Weird wailing Nordic (or whatever they were) Banshees? Gal bloody Gadot being given extensive narration to "perform"? You can keep 'em, bud. Give me two hours of Saturday Morning Cartoon level schlock over four hours of self important twaddle any old day.
@MrBook I used to really like "Chasing Amy" then I didn't and now I do again. Sure the sexual politics are naive but it's actually very sweet natured and Jason Lee is a dynamo.
PS Totally agree on "Clerks". One of the ten best comedies ever put on film..
@MrBook Yeah - I find his movies are typically better the more autobiographical he skews. "Clerks 2" has a few great gags and a really bizarre song and dance sequence. "Clerks 3" is just depressing.
@MrBook There certainly is but I think I'd prefer it on balance if there wasn't - it barely qualifies as a comedy. If you get a chance, seek out the "Clerks" animated series - it got canned after only about 10 episodes aired but it's pretty stylish and very sharply written and performed.
Over the weekend I watched Empire Records and Dogma.
The first is an amusing, quirky, a little cheesy, but heartwarming coming of age film from the late 90s about a bunch of teens working in arguably the coolest record store ever. A time before social media and before "talent" shows all but killed the music industry. Liv Tyler and Renée Zellweger star.
The second is probably a little more well known. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are two renegade angels trying to get back into heaven, unaware that their actions could see life blink out of existence. Quite the cast in this one, including the late, great Alan Rickman. For my money, outside of Clerks I think it's Kevin Smith's best movie.
My darling brother sent me a bootleg blu-ray copy of the 3D version of "The Phantom Menace". Apparently Lucas was going to re-release all of his "Star Wars" movies in 3D before the Disney buy-out (and presumably the death of the 3D fad) thankfully put paid to those ambitions. In any case the film itself is still ceaselessly bloody awful - I"m still baffled as to why Qui-Gonn is so intent on leaving Tatooine with Anakin when getting the queen to the capital is supposedly so urgent. Was the slave boy really going to go anywhere if the two Jedi left and came back for him after the massive galactic crisis had abated? Who knows? Who cares about the plot when we have the massively (and unnecessarily) protracted podrace now in headache inducing 3D?
Just got home from a matinee screening of Monster (怪物 / Kaibutsu), a Japanese coming-of-age drama in which a single mom seeks answers from her little boy's teachers when he starts acting strangely. I had high expectations for this and while it was perfectly fine, I felt it lacked emotional heft. Maybe I'm just jaded, I don't know. I'd still recommend it, though, as it was an interesting piece of cinema and it kept me engaged throughout as I was curious to see where it was going.
I feel like I'm damning it with faint praise here, but it was truly a good movie.
So, I saw the PushSquare review of the Knuckles series and I was filled with disbelief and doubt. Is this franchise actually watchable?
The games were never my jam, but Sonic's been around since the good old Amiga days and I've always liked the character (how can one not like a superfast blue hedgehog with sneakers and an attitude?). However, I was convinced, absolutely certain, that the recent movies were nothing more than cynical and mediocre cash grabs aimed directly at kids who don't know better.
So, having had my preconceptions completely shook, I watched the trailer and when that produced some good chuckles, I relented and rented Sonic the Hedgehog
What I got was a fun, thoroughly charming, entertaining and even heartwarming movie that made me LOL quite a few times. I love it when I'm wrong about these things
Watched "Indiana Jones and the Dial.of Destiny" again. It's going to be one of those movies that I'm constantly re-writing in my head whenever I rewatch it - there are so many minor (and a couple of major) gripes that I have with it that surely would've been ironed out with another couple of passes at the screenplay - it's just weirdly sloppy given its position in such a lauded franchise. I still like it more than "KotCS" by a wide bloody margin, though.
Did anyone read about Paramount’s latest Earnings Call? Hahaha.
CEO “steps down” they bring 3 people in to replace him, then they have a 9 minute earning call, don’t take any questions and instead play the Mission Impossible theme on a loop.
Howard the Duck (Tubi) - I... Was not expecting to see duck boobs. Seriously, this is definitely pretty bad, but so much so that it's pretty hilarious (felt pretty decently high budget for a comedy as well. This was definitely a blunder). Still, ignoring the alien demon invasion aspect in the latter half, it could have maybe been salvageable if it stuck to Howard being a duck out of water in our world for more of it's runtime. This is the kind of project that should be a D+ MCU TV series (given the character is a tertiary peripheral existence in the GotG films). Tangently related to the overall brand, but not to the point where it's particularly important to film continuity.
Showdown in Little Tokyo (Blu-Ray) - Dolph Lundgren plays an L.A. supercop who has it out for the Yakuza, who are trying to get a foothold in the US (and whose leader killed his parents). Big on action, it's short, to the point, & pretty fun. I had actually caught this late night on HBO as a kid but never remembered the name or any of the actors, so I went about 2 decades without seeing it until now when I relearned of it. These old 80's/90's Hollywood flicks that deal with the topic/fear of Japan's growing economic/cultural relevance (at the time) might not always be the best representation, but as someone who was a Japan obsessed kid before widespread Internet adoption they were pretty much all we had outside of the occasional Godzilla marathon or whatever anime was airing on Cartoon Network at the time, so I have a bit of a nostalgic connection to them. Hope I can get around to seeing Rising Sun, Gung Ho, & Mr. Baseball in the future as well (& maybe discovering some I don't know of).
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
Saw The Fall Guy in the theatre yesterday and had a very good time with it. The story is paper thin and if you don't see the "reveal" coming a mile off you'll forgive me for thinking this is the very first movie you've seen
The cast is having a blast, though, and they're uniformly great. Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling have undeniable chemistry and are supported by a scenery chewing Hannah Waddingham and Aaron Taylor Johnson, who portrays a terrible actor brilliantly, as well as a scene-stealing appearance from Stephanie Hsu. There is a fun cameo at the end of the film and the post-credits scene has another one, which I guess was kind of expected.
The real stars of the show, however, are the stunts and the action set-pieces, which are quite inventive and often spectacular (as is only proper when a stuntman directs a movie about a stuntman).
I have never seen the tv-series this is based on, so I cannot speak to any nods to the source material, but this in no way hampered my enjoyment of the film.
Good times was had
Watched TMNT Mutant Mayhem and I was little disappointed. The animation style was really cool. The story was ok. Splinters "wife" was disgusting, and April was extremely ugly. I have no idea why they decided to make her so unappealing and in 2 moments disgusting. Maybe to be funny but it was not for me.
The fighting scenes were really cool. The model quality of the turtles however is SO much better than ALL of the other models and it is distracting. Like the only areas where the animators put any effort were the environments and the 4 turtles
At the end seeing them without their iconic mask wraps playing in the school was so damn weird! I was NOT a fan of it!
With that said I will watch the sequel because I am a TMNT fan.
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