ID4: Resurgence - 1/10

As much as the visuals and Harvester aliens were cool, I've got 2 words for that movie: absolute borefest

 

I don’t understand how they managed to do that. I mean Christ, it’s a special talent that makes an alien invasion movie that sequel hooks to an interstellar war movie boring. I mean, fucking how?

 

Battle Los Angeles

Every aspect of the movie was well executed but boring as hell. I dropped out midway. I decided to read the rest on wikipedia and it went exactly where I thought it would, doing nothing new nor interesting with the material. Gets at least a few points for technical competence, but I can't really grade it since I didn't watch the entire thing.

I, Daniel Blake

Fantastic movie but miserable to watch. I felt like there was no reason to watch a movie about how a predatory and uncaring heathcare bureaucracy grinds people down until they either give up or die without getting the care they need and have paid into their entire working lives, because in 15-20 years, I can simply live that story myself. I didn't need to be made aware of and angry about this kind of corrupt system because I was already aware and angry about it. The movie itself: 8/10. My experience watching it: 1/10

 

The Hitman's Bodyguard - 9/10

A really great action-comedy with Jackson and Reynolds bouncing off each other wonderfully. Although I don't get why movies keep depicting Interpol as some kind of global F.B.I.

 

Thats a lot of "perfect" movies....?

 

Detective Pikachu - 7/10.

It's funny, if a bit predictable. Still very entertaining though.

 

Godzilla 2: 4/10
Stupidest movie I've seen in a long, long time. Monster action saved the day because plot dots were all poorly connected.

 

Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019) 7.5/10

Definitely better than the 2014 dogturd.

 

The Big Short - 10/10
Christ, if even half of his movie is accurate I am legitimately surprised the public didn’t setup a fucking guillotine on Wall Street and do the execs of Lehman Bros. and Goldman Sachs what was done to the French aristocracy.

 

Shazam! 7/10

Detective Pikachu 6/10

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile 6/10

Mid90's 9/10

Godzilla (2014) 9/10

Mad Max: Fury Road 9/10

Aladdin (2019) 7/10

Triple Frontier 7/10

Heights 8/10

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 10/10

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) 7/10

 

Captain America: Winter Solider - 9/10

Still my absolute favorite MCU movie to this day!

 

I just went cross-eyed for a second. BvS not only gets a 10 but rates higher than Fury Road?

I haven't seen it yet, but most of the reviews I've been seeing from actual Godzilla fans seems to echo this. The first Legendary movie was not perfect, but a more legit attempt at doing what classic Godzilla movies traditionally have been, while the new one is the shallow, all-out action, throw-everything-at-the-screen cacophony that non-fans want and assume Godzilla movies are.

I still want to see it, but my expectations have been lowered.

 

Aladdin - 7/10
Much like its predecessor Dumbo, Aladdin reskins a Disney classic with cutting edge technology while bringing nothing new to the table. It lacks the magic of the classic, but is in no ways a bad film. For what it’s worth, I liked it more than I would’ve expected.

 

Godzilla: King of the Monsters 9/10
Holy goddamn, this was this a fun movie!
My only complaints are the majority of the monster action being mostly obscured in a storm- again- and that one human character (glasses white hair) who's trying- and failing- to quip all the time.
To me, it hit all the right notes of a "versus" Godzilla movie- and in some cases, actually did it better than it's been done (like with Mothra)- but it would be nice to see the monsters fighting more clearly and maybe a bit more destruction on their part (not just the aftermath). I feel like my husband and I picked up on just about every nod to the existing Godzilla mythos (from Atlantis, to Castle Bravo, to King Ghidorah being called "Monster Zero", to the blink-and-you'll-miss-it nods to Mothra's own mythos, to the otherwise unnamed Super-X plane) the film threw at us, which made it all the better for it.
Extra points for Bear McCreary making a remix of Blue Öyster Cult's "Godzilla" with Dethklok and getting it to lead in the end credits of a Godzilla movie AND integrating Akira Ifukube's iconic themes into the score!
Oh no! They say he's got to go! GO-GO-GODZILLA!!!

 

Yep. I love BvS. It feels like a movie that was made specifically for me and no one else.

 

Yeah, the Interpol thing is Hollywood standard fare that makes no sense if you dip beneath the surface. But aside from that this movie has some of the best dialog and riffing in any modern comedy action film. Reynolds saying, "The man single handedly ruined the word motherf*cker!" had me rolling.

I have a friend that's obsessed with the financial market during this time period and studies every aspect of it. He's had me read up and watch other movies depicting it, and you'd be shocked just how much of it is dead-on accurate. There's reasons nobody got the beating they so richly deserved, but those reasons would cross the line into politics and I'm not much in the mood to fight that battle here.

Sadly, we're setting up a very similar scenario again. And again there's nothing much us common folk can do but watch in horror if we see it coming.

We watched Wine Country over the weekend. I'd give it a 7/10, which is way higher than expected going in. Typically I'm not a big fan of all female ensemble comedies, because for my taste they tend to be super mean spirited in order to pull off the comedy side of things. This one had moments of that, but it was all tempered in realistic relationships and the fact that, as we age, life tends to stomp on ambition and dreams. Aside from some way over the top pratfalls and such, it was a surprisingly realistic look at a group of friends coming to terms with aging in the modern world, and facing the dilemmas that life tosses in front of us. All that without forgetting it was a comedy.

I wouldn't run to watch it ten times or anything, but it was a fun once through experience.

 

Rocketman - 8/10.

By all accounts, a great movie, with Taron Egerton channeling Elton John with astonishing clarity and Jamie Bell delivering a heartfelt performance as writing partner Bernie Taupin. On screen, Egerton and Bell are as accomplished a duo as John and Taupin are in reality. As for facts, however, the film transitions into fantasy for moments of both triumph and turmoil, depicting both him and his audience levitating off the floor during his star-making appearance at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in 1970 (and playing a song, "Crocodile Rock," that he wouldn't write for another two years). As a child, Elton and his family sing his 2001 hit "I Want Love" while demonstrating that none of them are capable of giving or receiving it.

And so Rocketman is less concerned with historical accuracy and more with presenting Elton's life as rock opera, using his songs to underscore key events regardless of when they actually emerge in his career and giving singing parts to the people around him, musical-style. And due to a framing sequence of Elton in group therapy positioning the film's story as a series of flashbacks, there is nothing presented that is not from Elton's own perspective. While this approach undoubtedly results in a one-sided view of history (and Elton executive-produced, so presumably nothing got in that he didn't want there), fortunately Elton doesn't view his past through the same rose-tinted glasses he often wears, treating us to wrenching scenes of excess and bad behavior.

More than anything, I came away from the film with the impression of Elton as an enormously gifted musician who managed to build his fame and fortune on a foundation of uncertainty, distress, unrequited longing and self-destructive tendencies. Here is a man who wanted to be himself without knowing for decades who he really was, and fearing that who he really was could never allow him to be who he wanted to be, almost becoming Elton John by accident. It's an intriguing biopic that dispenses with a dry retelling of the facts in favor of a dig for a deeper, hidden truth.

 

Godzilla: King of the Monsters 8/10.

Only ever watched half of the 2014, but this film looked pretty cool. Overall, wasn’t disappointed. I enjoyed the human cast more than others seemed to, but I absolutely despise that mother. Fight scenes were awesome, as expected.

I liked Kong: Skull Island a lot and this film was pretty nice, so I’m sold on Kong vs. Godzilla.

 

John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum 5/10

 

Godzilla: King of the Monsters. I had a ball and felt like a kid all over again. My 9 year old self would have given this movie 9/10.