I’m watching it now.

This is a strong opening.
Macgruber style.

That this film celebrates the shitness of so many characters is why it is already ten times better than the first film.

John Cena looks like a bodybuilder from the 70’s.
Great body, office hair.

Racist underwear lol

All of this is good stuff.

It’s like he thought “I need to clean house literally” to clear out the stink of the first dismal effort.

This is fucking hilarious

This is going to end up being a 4/4 film if it carries on at this rate

Totally bonkers plot involving a gigantic sentient starfish and a man with batteries in his head.

Margot Robbie doing her best acting possibly ever

I’ll review this after a second viewing.

That’s how good this is.

Yeah this is Margot Robbie at her best ever. Great material for her. She should work more with directors that know what the fuck they are doing.

Polka Dot Man backstory... Jesus

Film just made me laugh at a 69 joke...

Really love Cena’s costume...

Film is top class.

Harley Quinn seems like a different character here.
She’s fun now!

The smartest decision that James Gunn made here was having them do real practical effects alongside the CGI. Lean into the crazy.
It’s great trying to get a good look at the tubes in that guy’s head. There’s stuff sloshing around in there.

Wow...

When the drama comes in it is devastating.

Well that was great. I will watch it again and review it properly but that might be my new favourite Super anything. Fuck me that was good.

The Suicide Squad-10/10

Absolute blast. Good character work. Funny, violent, gory and glorious. Everything the first one should’ve been.

The Suicide Squad- 8/10

Gun is almost showing off here.

He takes a previously failed property and points the finger squarely at its creative. The film hits on all relevant cylinders.

The characters are all fleshed out in ways that when the tension hits its peak you absolutely care.

the action, and theres a ton of it, its REALLY well shot and some of the framing is wildly technical especially when blending cgi and practical effects.

the script is often outrageously funny and the pacing is exceptional. the surrealist approach adds a ton of flavor and sets this appart from not only other films in the genre but other films in general.

the cast all deliver and huge. Kinnamon has big lead man energy (RIP altered carbon [suck a dick Anthony Mackee.]) Cena is shockingly good. Everyone punches above their weight here and i have to believe that its Gunn who is pulling them up.

the sound track is completely perfect.

this is a home run and not be reactionary but probably pretty easily the most improved sequel ever...not completely due to this films strengths but all the same.

He was definitely showing off.

He managed to shove an anti child abuse speech in there and I’ll bet I wasn’t the only one who saw that as him wiping old Twitter shit crumbs off his cock and onto the studio bedspread.

The sight gags during the action scenes were tits.

Peacemaker casually hatcheting that wounded soldier was world class. His game of one upmanship with Bloodsport was the sort of brilliantly aware touch that the first film sorely lacked.

You are probably right about it being the most greatly improved sequel ever made.
I would have to find a property so bad they should have binned it who’s sequel was literally perfect and I don’t think that film exists.

The one up scene in the village was hilarious. Also, Viola Davis was excellent. Cold and heartless but quietly charismatic. Gonna have to watch this again before it comes off HBO max.

It would be nice if Viola Davis could play one role where her eyes aren’t permanently watery

The Suicide Squad - 7.5/10

First half was eh, but then it got real good by the end. I'd still put it below Birds of Prey in the "movies with Harley" power rankings

Superman: Red Son - 6/10

Some things are best left to the comics.

Utter rubbish.

Go and fix yourself.

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

For my money, Meatballs is one of the very finest kids films ever made.
I love it.

I specifically hate you for that terrible opinion.

Even if there’s a character called Spaz and his fat friend who run about acting like horny creeps the whole time

Damn.... Roles reversed.... usually it is you with the bad opinions....

My opinions are like mustard on a hot dog compared to your dog poo on a human poo opinions.

Midnight Special - 7/10

I liked Birds of Prey a lot. It has the same spirit as TSS but on a dramatically smaller scale. TSS is Birds off Prey on performance enhancing drugs.

Wanderlust - 5/10

Jungle Cruise-6/10

Indiana Jones meets Pirates of the Caribbean. The Rock tells dad jokes and puns. Emily Blunt is a strong independent explorer in pants. They are funny together and the film is harmless, fantastical nonsense that is just fine as a two hour waste of time.

Dreamscape (1984)

Starring Dennis Quaid, Max von Sydow, Christopher Plummer, Kate Capshaw

Dennis Quaid is a psychic that is enlisted into a Government-ran research program revolving around entering people's dreams, which on the surface appears to be a benevolent project to help people suffering from nightmares and other psychological conditions. Christopher Plummer's Head of Covert Operations then takes over and uses it to try and kill the President.

It is rather dated, but in a charming 1980s way, and it is quite enjoyable. If you are into sci-fi, you should check it out.

Randy Quaid?

Are they both in it?!

Corrected, you bastardo!

The Green Knight 7.5/10

It is from the same production company that has given us Hereditary and Midsommar, so as you'd expect, it is a bit off-kilter. Perhaps not as compelling as it should be, given how odd it is, but I still enjoyed the film.

The Suicide Squad - 7/10

Falling Down 8/10

Starring Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall and Barbara Hershey

Douglas plays a recently fired defence worker who snaps whilst stuck in a traffic jam, and decides to make his way on foot to see his estranged family on his daughter's birthday, leaving death and destruction along the way. Duvall is the cop that hunts him down before the inevitable showdown.

I don't think I've seen Douglas in such a dark role before and he pulls it off; he pretty much carries the film.

Falling Down is a great character piece for Michael Douglas.
Ironically if you want to see him at his most unsettling you really want to chase Falling Down with Behind The Candelabra.

The burger restaurant scene always pops up on my social media feed and I agree about the pathetic looking burgers

Turned on my TV and caught the start of a Documentary on the Go-Go's. Didn't know much about them but ended up watching the whole thing. It was really interesting

8/10

Medicine Man 7.5/10

Starring Sean Connery and Lorraine Bracco

Connery plays a field scientist, living in the Amazon forest, who has discovered the cure to cancer, but is unable to replicate his initial success. Bracco arrives from the institute, which is funding his research, to evaluate his work, and ends up working with him to replicate the cure before that area of the forest is destroyed by bulldozers coming in to build a road.

A good story-driven film, with some nice Amazon scenery porn.

Watch the one where Hopkins thinks he’s a baboon while you’re at it

Its been years since I watched that film; I'll add it to my Prime watchlist.

Greenland- not great, not terrible 4/7

Chungking Express - 9/10

Mad Max 7/10

It is dated and the first 45 mins or so are a bit sketchy, but the second half saves it and the film ends up being pretty good.

Mad Max 2: Road Warrior 7.5/10

An improvement on the first film, even if it does have Vernon Wells camping up the place (as always).

Mad Max 3: Beyond the Thunderdome 6/10

Jesus, man, the only thing that saves this film is the final 30 mins or so.

Out of interest which audio did you listen to Mad Max in - the original or the American dub?
The dub is funny but totally pointless so you should always go original.

For some reason I can’t remember the end of Thunderdome but I remember the first 45mins to an hour being far superior to the second half. It all goes wrong when you hear the nonsense the kids call language.

The Road Warrior is a damned fine action film though so you’re right in your rankings.

The original audio.

Yeah, the colony of children section was annoying, but the obligatory chase at the end was pretty good. I did like that they brought Bruce Spence back for Thunderdome, as a slightly different character to the one he played in Road Warrior.

Watching “Vacation Friends”.
Good mindless fun, some big laughs early on. Always a good sign.

John Cena and Lil Rel are a good combo. John Cena really is a likeable comic actor.

The 13th Warrior 7/10

A solid action/adventure film.

It certainly isn’t as bad as it’s numbers would suggest.

Watching "Come As You Are" on Netflix. It's about three disabled men who embark on a road trip to go to a brothel in Montreal.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms - 7/10


If i gave half ratings this would prob be a fuzz lower but ill round up cause it is good fun. like the first MK legends its a super busy movie. theres basically 3 films of plot here and because of that everything just happens. and constantly.


the action is good even if just like the 1st one it likes gore for the sake of gore. in both films i would have prefered if it took its time both in plot and gore and let things mean more. give them more weight.


but again the movie is a good time. the characters are themselves. they arent bastardized version a studio exec slapped a stamp on and said this'll sell. they let the characters be themselves and they get out of their way and i appreciate that.


they also hit on lore elements from the 3d era (5, 6 and 7) and i really appreciate that. despite the mechanical issues of the games i enjoyed the mytbos immensely at that time.


tl;dr theres 3 seperate movies happening at once but its still fun

Come As You Are - 6/10

It was wholesome and inoffensive. I wish such movies weren't categorized as comedies with respect to some of the heart wrenching scenes.

Flatliners (1990) 7.5/10

One of Joel Schumacher's better films, along with Falling Down, before he gave us the abomination that was Batman & Robin.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: 3 1/4 stars out of 4.

First trip back to the movies in over a year and it was quite the film to make that return. The action is top notch, the cinematography is gorgeous in a lot of the scenes, and the interactions between the characters help sell what is a pretty ridiculous premise. Xialing is pretty awesome and the relationship between Shang-Chi and Wen Wu keeps things grounded. Removing all of the fantastical elements, it's a relatable situation. It's worth putting up with Akwafina doing her Darcy schtick for 2 hours. I had my doubts but it's a welcome addition to this universe. It has its own identity. There is a mid-credits scene and a post-credits scene, the former being legit funny as it brings a bit of a gag full circle. I'm not keen on recommending people go to the movies under the circumstances but if you think things are safe enough, it's worth a look.

I’m not watching anything with Akwafina in it.
Such an easy decision to make.

Smart, I suppose. Had to deal with her in Raya and the Last Dragon but there I didn't have to look at her and the world was gripping and beautiful enough to distract me.

Shang-Chi- 7/10

There's a lot to like here but there's enough thats pretty poor that keeps it from being as good as it could be.

The action is mostly excellent. theres a good attention to keeping the shots wide and long. lots of practical kung fu action and some really great wire work. effects are also pretty great. the mostly though is while you will get an action sequence thats a ton of long shots that are shot wide theyll randomly fall back to heavily editing sequences almost randomly. its jarring visually and i have to wonder if they just ran out of time to get the shots perfect so they decided to "fix" it in post. unfortunately whatever the case it keeps the action from being exceptional and leaves it mostly good. which isnt bad mind you. it could have easily been all bad.

the characters are also mostly good. shang-chi is pretty great an he'll be a great addition to the line up in time. Mandarin is a very well fleshed out villain and the complexities of his interations with the protagonist are strong. however his side kick, despite having good material on the page, is woefully exectued in the action sequences. the actress is great in the smaller scenes but cant turn it up to hold the screen when it counts. Xialing isnt fleshed out at all is simply "dad no like girls. me angry." some hits some misses.

the films greatest flaw however comes in a massive 20 min exposition scene in the 2nd act. this was truly painful. im not exaggerating when i say no fewer than 8 people got up to go to the bathroom during this and at least 2 didnt come back. the guy i went with fell asleep. its brutal. the problem is thw information in this scene is completely nessicary to set up the 3rd act its just a shame they couldnt find a way to make it evem remotely interesting. but barring this horrendous rough patch the pacing is mostly good.

and thats the movie in a nutshell: its mostly good. but the bad is PRETTY BAD. which is a shame because if you fix its flaws you have a movie you could really hang your hat on.

So you went with a guy, there were long side shots and you both stayed for the climax.

Lovely stuff.

10/10. would expirience a climax with him again

It's always great when you experience the climax simultaneously. No one gets accused of being selfish.

But to add on to your take, I'd also point out a nitpick I had where the film never really spells out what the rings can or cannot do. I mean, you see them in action, sure, but you see them doing what the character requires them to do at a given moment. In the comics, you know what each ring is capable of and what limits they may have. Also the final battle, neat as it is, after a while felt like it overstayed its welcome, at least for me. Still a good flick.

i think, and hope, the rings were deliberately left underdeveloped because if whats done in the film is all they do then theyve left a lot on the table. but i def think we'll get deeper into them over time. magic is clearly going to expand in the coming phase and id imagine the 10 rings will be a part of that.

and i do agree about the climax. i touched on it briefly in my 2nd post but I'll go more into it:

but yes the "2nd climax" wasnt needed. i agree.

but i do think it will play very well in china.

Crumb -10/10


i wont give this a big review because ill need to chew on this for a few weeks to really give anything that resembles coherent. what i will say is its easily top 1 or 2 documentaries ever made. fascinating work. amazing.

Venom- 5/10


A film with as talented of a cast as you could hope to find with nothing interesting to do. rushed with a complete lack of vision. one of the major conflict resolutions is venom deciding to save humanity and form a partnership with eddie. how do they do this?

thats literally it. eddie didnt do anything to bring this on. venom just says he did. film feels like it was meant to run 150 min and they cut it down to 120 and whats left is film vomit.

Superhost on Shudder. decent

Crumb is a good documentary on a transgressive subject. I'm not a fan of the artist or his work but getting a good look at the family he was raised in tells you everything you need to know about why he's such a weirdo.
It's one of those documentaries where you'll look online for things afterwards and it will only really lead you to a dead end. The stuff about his brother is poignant, not the one who sits on nails but the one who thinks he's a paedophile because he was obsessed with a child actor who is actually older than him... That kind of breaks your heart in a way, but it's easy to look past if you just think "look at that sweaty paedo" and leave it at that.
It's a lot like a documentary about the Heavens Gate cult or G.G Allin in that it gives you as much as the people themselves know about the subject but which ultimately still feels like it isn't enough to fill in the void that you're left with by watching it.
The why isn't really important. It's the what that counts even if the what is very superficial.

I'm still curious about Crumb's dead brother. He was a tortured soul if ever there was one. A man too afraid of himself to ever do anything.

The whole film should have been about him to be honest.

my thoughts are still too scattered to have a decent conversation about it but i view all 3 brothers as completely integral.

they all have this same compulsion to create and its similarly interwoven into their sexuality. Robert is the only one of the 3 who manages to integrate himself in way that he can both accept his shadow and function in society.

Max, convicted sex offender, is completely unable to exists socially becauss he has the very same violent sexual urges but unlike robert cannot integrate them into himself and fails to exist in society.

Charles, the elder brother, is also enveloped by his urges but he's worse off because unlike his brothers who have severe inferiority complexs he has a superiority complex. and this is much more destructive because he's smart enoguh to know that if he is as great as he thinks then he shouldnt be the failure he is. sexually or otherwise. and this leaves him as a man who sees his shadow but not only cant integrate it he cant face his persona either ultimately killing him. the only reason he made it as long as he did was due to the tranquilizers.

but all 3 have an intense need to create only rivaled by their sexual desire and its endlessly interesting. highly creative people are extremely rare let alone compulsively creative people so this trio seems...improbable to say the least. but here they are. authentic as anyone can be.

again my thoughts arent fleshed out very well yet. not been able to really chew on this and get deep with it yet. still very low resolution with what ive taken away from this.

but there's a lot here to take away and thats what makes it so good. i think my favorite aspect of it is it doesnt moralize. it would be very easy for the film to take a stance and tell you what it thinks. it doesnt. it never tries. it just digs as deep as it can go and explores the subject as far as its able to. the rest is up to you. judge them. dont. whatever. thats not what its here to do. this is what is. take what you find.

Shang-Chi - 7.5/10

I learned that Shang is pronounced Shawng and not Sh-ann-g. Very educational film.

Old - 2/10

Believe it or not, this is the first M. Night Shamayalanana film I have ever seen. Friend wanted to go see it at the cheap movie theater right across the street from me.... I would not have gone if I had to drive somewhere, but all I had to do was walk across the street so I said sure.....

Probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Horribly written, badly directed, badly acted... it had it all.

unbreakable is the only film of his ive ever cared for. i do think its pretty excellent though...

Malignant - 7.5/10

Loved it. Basically a modern Giallo film. Very fun. Last half hour is bonkers and over the top gore.

I was thinking malignant was an ok mystery horror movie, but not really all that interesting. Then the 3rd act hits, and it goes fucking bananas. All I could think of was "what the fuuuuuuuuuuuuck for a straight 10 minutes.

Vacation Friends - 8/10

Was entertained.... John Cena is good... think he is really finding his "groove" in acting...

Vacation Friends is funny.

That’s all you really need from John Cena and Lil Rel.

World Trade Center - 4/10

I finally watched this yesterday after a week of watching Hulu and Netflix's doc's on 9/11 and the aftermath in Afghanistan and Iraq. Both are great and I learned a lot and saw a lot of footage I'd never seen before.

WTC by Oliver Stone is a movie that really shouldn't have been made especially just 3-4 years after the tragedy. To make a movie without complete mastery totally cheapens the actual events in a way, it's almost disrespectful. It's not disrespectful I'm sure the intentions were very good for all involved. But why?

Why would this story need to have been made into a movie? Attempting to portray these events with what amounts to a basic script and some pretty bad acting from the supporting cast, it's quite insulting. It's essentially a propaganda film to support the war in Iraq. There is no point to anyone making a movie about this day. Doc's are all we need to revisit this experience. Reenacting this day is an insult. Watching actors scream in pain and horror is just wrong and fake.

Fuck this movie it's worse than 4/10.

They made movies about WW2 while it was happening. Propaganda always works.

except in this case where it clearly didnt

Sure it did.

Bin Laden isn’t knocking any more towers down now is he?

oliver stone killed bin laden confirmed

Was that so much to ask?

That's not really the same. The more accurate equivalent would be a pearl harbor movie.

Do you think you’re disagreeing with me there?

Two quick wikis later and I discover an “Arnold Schwarzwald” making music for film in the 40’s.

Shang-Chi-7/10

It’s a Marvel movie. I liked the flashback and cultural scenes more than anything else. Interested by the second post credit scene.

Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut 8/10

I've always liked the theatrical version, Orlando Bloom's underwhelming presence not withstanding, but the director's cut feels like a superior version to me. The story is allowed to breath and develop, instead of just rushing to get to the final confrontation at the end.

SHang-Chi. It's a great marvel movie, easily one of my favorites, but I cant give it an accurate score quite yet. I went to the drive-in to see it and I could not read ANY of the subtitles unfortunately so I feel like theres a solid 30 minutes of stuff that I just have no idea what it was about. The score will be high regardless though. At least an 8.

Prob my second favorite Marvel movie at this point behind Dr. Strange. I fucks with Dr. Strange.