Not yet, got it on my list to watch soon.
Oh, wow!
When can I have it?
Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. Came up on Netflix, watched it. Bloody joyous. Perfect film.
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Spiderman: Miles Morales is coming with my PS5 next weekā¦
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Yes, it is so, so good!
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Sweetheart. A woman shipwrecked on an island finds she is not alone, and is being hunted. A great premise, let down by the introduction of characters who are neither interesting nor important. If your lone character/actor is not substantial enough to carry the film, maybe donāt base 90% of the film on them? Alternatively, if they are, donāt bring in characters who might as well have I AM GOING TO DIE stamped on their foreheads. A disappointing climax where the writers obviously ran out of ideas. Lots to like about it, including a good central performance, surprising use of electronic music, solid cinematography, and you get to watch a resourceful character do some survival stuff.
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Vice (still excellent), The Worldās End (ditto).
The Hunt. A single joke, stretched too far. Lindelof involved.
High Noon. Gary Cooper is about to retire his rusty sheriffās badge when bad news comes back into town, and the local citizens, once unified behind him, suddenly find not getting shot really interesting as a career. One of those authentically sweaty Westerns where everyone looks genuinely uncomfortable, and starring a babyish Lloyd Bridges, Grace Kelly at her remotely beautiful best, Lon Chaney and Lee Van Cleef are too old and too young respectively to be easily recognised. Quality film, if a little anticlimactic.
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The Gentlemen. Another very stylish Guy Ritchie shell game, but itās still just a shell game.
Is it worth renting? I love Lock Stock, have watched Snatch about 100 times, and havenāt cared much for most of his other movies. Did he do Sherlock Holmes? That was ok, I guess.
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If you like his other works, then yes, it will probably be worth your time. More akin to RocknRolla and Lock Stock.
Raiders of the Lost Ark. Perhaps not quite as good as I remember. Certain aspects have not aged well, and Iām not talking about anything technical. John Rhys-Jones brings so much heart to his role you can forget he is a Welshman, Karen Allen is the best of a bad bunch concerning women in the Indy films, and Harrison Ford is such a skilled actor I sometimes forget just how good his timing and physical comedy is. The antagonists are a bunch of terribly bad Nazi stereotypes, sadistic, incompetent, and thuggish, so really quite accurate except for the comedy element. I do like Paul Freeman as Belloq, heās almost a well-drawn character. Denholm Elliott and Alfred Molina have wonderful little roles.
The physical aspect of the film is superb and feels very different to modern CGI; sets, locations, and stunt work are all very impressive, and the actions scenes are very well paced and punchy, and the way they are shot is incredible (Indy getting Marion out of the plane as fire creeps up the trail of fuel in the background). Spielberg was incredible even forty years ago. The music is uneven; the scoring in the plane fight is all over the place compared to the amazing work in the truck chase, but Iām not a fan of John Williams anyway. The highlight of the film for me is the stunt work, whether itās someone on a falling ladder tipping out the way of a truck, people hanging off vehicles, the innumerable excellent falls and fights, even the squibs used for the ground strafes, all of it is so good and is much rarer today.
The film still has a touch of horror about it; thereās a real feel of the occult, the forbidden, that was lost after Last Crusade, and that creepiness added to the people impaled on traps, filled full of poison darts, and chopped up by propeller. It was perfectly judged then to stick in the mind, and remains so now.
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The Dead Donāt Die. A mess of a script made bearable by a good cast (Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Danny Glover). It takes too long to get going with its premise, and the writer/director clearly couldnāt figure out how to wrap it up. Several characters are introduced, but ultimately lead nowhere. The whole thing lacks focus. There may have been a good movie in here somewhere, but this is not it.
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Tenet. Okay, so, itās Nolan doing another heist movie again. Thatās fine. What isnāt fine is taking an interesting concept and just running with it, without thought to how some of it looks extremely silly. While some of the visuals are arresting, some of them are quite frankly absurd to the point of being goofy, and it detracts from the film, which is trying to be serious. Extremely well made, the craft is practically perfect (apart from the sound mixing for some dialogue, which is awful in places), but thatās not where the problems with the film are. We know Nolan loves playing around with time, and thatās great, but he should just try making a straightforward heist film. Good cast, especially Pattinson and Debicki.
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Mission Impossible: Fallout. A remarkable amount of practical effects and action for a modern film. Cruise is well into an accomplished groove, and the returning cast members have an obvious camaraderie. Cavill is a good addition, all blunt attitude, and while big chunks of the film are just absolute nonsense and bad dialogue, there are also some good jokes, and itās all in purpose of enabling the action scenes. Worth it for the bathroom fight alone, in which both Cruise and Cavill take a very funny beating. Cartoonish plot, but entertaining hijinks.
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Hostiles. So after decades spent killing each other, all you need to do is just spend some time riding through beautiful scenery and youāll understand each other no problem. It turns out the real genocide is the guilt we felt years later after trying to exterminate people. Thatās the real magic of Christmas.
Thereās some good acting here, entirely wasted on a trite stupid story that stumbles into more racism, complete with some of the most gratuitous ākill the minoritiesā plot developments that only fosters further racism. Wholly incompetent.
Watson and Holmes. So bad I honestly feel I should not mention it, like a memetic threat from SCP, where to say it is to spread it. Not even capable of basic comedy, regularly unfunny, and the couple of laughs it does have only highlights how awful the rest of the film is. A waste.
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Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters. Godzilla is not only the least stupid thing in this film, heās the least stupid character. Utterly dire shit.
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Night and Day in the two movies released for streaming that we watched today.
Soul on Disney+ was amazing. Maybe itās because I am a middle-aged man that it really spoke to me, but I just simply loved it.
Wonder Woman 84ā¦OMG was that bad. I donāt have any idea what they were thinking about.
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We watched Soul yesterday. Itās excellent technically, thought-provoking, and heart-touching in the usual Pixar manner. My jazz musician son loved it, but fear not if youāre not a jazz lover. Jon Batiste combines traditional jazz with ethereal sounds to create a uniquely accessible score. Like Into the Spiderverse, the animation is breathtakingly beautiful and artistic. Highly recommended.
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Glad to hear the recommendations for Soul - our NYE plan is to get cocktail snacks (and cocktails for Mrs. 619 and I, obv) and watch the movie with the kids. Glad it wonāt be a repeat of the Mary Poppins Returns horror show.
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It would make a great double-feature with either Inside Out or Into the Spiderverse, if you want to make a full evening of it.
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