I FINALLY got to finish Bullet Train after starting on it about 4 times. God. Damn. It’s like Pulp Fiction on meth in Ocean’s 11 starring Jackie Chan or something. Lol. Solid 9.

 

First Love - 8/10

A young boxer gets caught up in a drug-stealing plan between a Yakuza and a bent cop by stepping in to rescue a young hooker trapped in the organisation, and things unfold into complete chaos in a great mix of action, violence and comedy. It's beautifully shot, and really high-octane stuff at points as things just tumble out of control due to the various ineptitudes of the different factions involved.

If I were to compare it to anything, I'd say It feels like a Japanese version of True Romance, and given how much I love that film, that should tell you something about how much fun this one is. True Romance, with a bit of Pulp Fiction, blended with that almost comical blunt-feeling violence that East Asian cinema wields with great effect (and one female character in particular who feels like she's rocketed right out of Battle Royale).

Tremendous fun.

 

Watched the three Planet of the Apes reboot movies - 8/10. 8/10. 8/10

Watched the three Ant-Man movies - 7/10. 6/10. 6/10


Up next is the three (current) Spider-Man movies.

 

Three Thousand Years of Longing - 8/10

The word "sumptuous" immediately springs to mind. This is one of the most richly beautiful looking films I've seen in quite some time. The flashback scenes, which pepper the film and drive it along, are really stunning. George Miller kicking arse yet again.

It's a fantastic modern fairytale too; clearly very Arabian Nights influenced, but it brings a really cool spin to things and it all just holds together really well. Tails off a little in the third act, which brings the score down slightly, but overall just really enjoyable stuff. The sort of film to just chill out to, lie back and let the visuals and storytelling wash over you.

 

The Breakfast Club - 9/10

Some of the best acting and writing ever created for this type of genre film. While I've seen this movie many times, I watched it with my teenage daughter for her first viewing and she loved it too.

 

Crater - 9/10 Felt like the adventure movies from when I was a kid. Had some feels and I really liked the ending. If you have Disney+, I would recommend this one.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - 7/10 Full disclosure; I believe people put too much thought into these Marvel films. I have never viewed any of these films with the thought that I'm going to get some deep or thought-provoking experience. I expect them to be visually impressive, have some references to previous films or comics, and set up the next series of films. This one accomplishes those things with the added benefit of Paul Rudd who I think is always fun to watch. The rest of the cast was phenomenal as well, though. I do like

Spoiler

the introduction and "defeat" of Kang and how this all ties into the multiverse

but I can understand why people may roll their eyes with the outcome.

 

Swiss Army Man - 4/10

I went into this with high expectations, as I love EEAAO, and Radcliffe/Dano are both excellent actors.

Unfortunately this felt like a decent idea for a short (or a music video) stretched out into a movie and it didn't land for me. It was just a bit too stupid, meandering and (surprisingly) boring. By about an hour in, I was struggling to keep watching. I only kept watching as I had nothing better to do.

Fair play to Daniel Radcliffe for doing everything he can since HP to not be typecast, though!

 

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 9/10
Definitely one of the best new Marvel movies released in a long time, it was funny, it was cool, it was relatively action packed, and it was even emotional at times… like, I don’t cry much at movies but there were scenes that got me close….. and overall, a pretty satisfying ending to the GoTG franchise in my opinion.

 

12 Angry Men - 10/10

Some films are just basically perfect, and this is one of them. There's not a spare ounce of fat bogging it down, not a wasted moment or pointless aside. Everything matters.

It's also just such a masterpiece of character; you never know (most of) the Jurors' names, yet barely any way into the film you already have a handle on who they are, from the racist to the reserved, the focused to the flippant. The shifts back and forth as the case unfolds make for a better detective story than most crime thrillers.

Just an absolute pleasure of a movie.

 

Evil Dead Rise:
Turned out better than anticipated. Not many "Ha Ha that's funny" moments as the previous installments but it sure was loaded with blood baths up the wazoo.

8/10

 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 - 8/10

Truly a film that is brought down by being a part of the larger MCU, though it overcomes it about as well as could be expected. The movie feels like a liberation; Gunn is liberated from Disney and the MCU just as each of the Guardians are liberated from their own traumas and allowed to move on with their lives. It's a thematic breath of fresh air that hasn't been seen in the MCU since Iron Man 3, which of course was promptly undone. Regardless of where these characters are made to go from here, I think this movie - and the whole trilogy - is something very special, and encapsulates the very best of this cinematic project. It's so very nice to have an ending, however futile it may ultimately be.

Always love to see people appreciate this movie. I was cast in a high school theater production of it (as Juror #3) and watched it over and over to study Lee J. Cobb's performance. I won't say I did anywhere near a comparable job, but it was a fantastic experience and cemented that movie as one of my all-time favorites.

 

I once served in a jury of a double-murder trial. We were hung due to a single person. I recommended my fellow jurors watch this movie. And, guess what happened? Not one listened to me and the sole hold-out caved and was riddled with guilt after. So, what did we learn kids? It’s really hard to get people to watch b&w movies. I still can’t convince anyone to give The Thin Man a try.

The last movies I’ve watched were both versions of Hairspray because my daughter is in the school play (non-speaking part). I like some musicals, but I found these a bit boring. The Waters original is definitely the best. The newer one has the protagonist smiling and looking amazed the whole time.

Original: 6
Newer: 4

 

San Andreas - 6/10
So bad it is good type of film. Tons of stupidity.

 

Shazam 2

Why did this movie get made

 

Tetris:
Watched it out of curiosity knowing it'll have historical liberties. Was actually entertained by what ended up as a Cold War Espionage thriller.

8/10

 

So you could taste the rainbow..

 

John Wick 4 it's a 10 non stop action I loved it. It's like 3 hours long though but worth it

 

F/X - 7/10

F/X 2 - 7/10

 

Shazam 2: 4/10 it was bad but i didn’t hate it. But it was not good at all. Still was better than Black Adam.

 

Just watched the movie 65 (2023), I'm gonna give it a 3/10.

The premise is interesting enough; humanoid aliens crash landing on Earth 65 million years ago. Ignoring the "obvious humans as aliens" trope, since that's as old as film budget constraints, so much of the rest of it had me rolling my eyes out of the sockets.

I might be somewhat compromised, in that I also had just finished watching S2 of Prehistoric Planet, but the whole "dinosaurs as unrelenting monsters" rather than regular animals thing just grates on me. Yes, no doubt it would have been dangerous for any person walking around the Cretaceous landscape, but a few blast of a "photon cannon" or whatever would probably make any predator scatter in short order.

There's so much more that comes to mind, but it is really just a mindless popcorn monster movie. And that's fine, I just didn't care for it myself.