Jesus Seph...

If Dr. Strange is your favourite I’m genuinely scared to watch this new one.
I’ve been waiting on the HD version on my pirate site.

tbf I prefer Dr. Strange because of all the mind bending shit. I'm a sucker for that type of stuff.

visually dr strange was a treat. narratively...eh

Eyes Wide Shut - 9/10


There's a lot here. Like most art worth discussion is hands you very little and expects you to find meaning.

The score is outstanding. the way to piano is used to create tension is legitimately masterful. it may be the films the greatest strength because the tension is immense and its all driven through the score. this of course is a reliable cnstant through the bulk of Kubrick's work and its front and center here.

another constant is the frame compositions. in a lot of ways Kubrick frames his scenes to be murals. there's a good ammount of steady cam thats used to create satisfying one shots in some pretty tight spaces that i really appreciated.

one thing i found interesting was in the bed room scenes Kidmans character was shot hand held and there was an effort to follow her movements to keep her head in center frame through a medium close up shot. this was an active choice but one i dont fully understand. it added a chaos to the framing that makes everything seems unhinged. the why i dunno but the feeling it created i do understand.

there was one scene however very early in the film where kidman was shot hand held and cruise was shot steady which is find but they were mic'd different so kidmans half contained the acoustics of the room and cruise did not. i dont think that result was deliberate. the scene played oddly in what felt like an unintended way.

the acting from the films leads leave a lot to be desired. kidman and cruise have shockingly little on screen chemestry and it burdens the films primary throughline. cruise's performnce is reasonably strong when his wife isnt on screen however kidmans is never particularly revelatory. shes a fine actess but not here. perhaps not all of it falls to them however as the dialogue isnt written particularly well but i do have to imagine others could have gotten more out of the material mediocre though it was.

film itself is superbly eerie especially now in a time where we know with complete certainty that these satanic sex cults are very real and very much enacted by the cultural elites. and this is magnified by the notion that Kubrick had been high enough in society long enough to know for certain they were true as well. but thats obviously the surface observation and isnt what the film is actually about.

the film delves into sexual anonymity. nearly every scene has sexual context, even if its just undertones and this plays very well. even in the early scenes this sexual tension plagues the viewer. hauntingly. this is juxtaposed with the window dressing of christmas. silently loarding in the background. and thats a crucial factor.

in the background of the world is christmas. the shiny happy beacon of goodness...but its superficial. in the background of the mind is sexual deviantcy. and its much much louder.



that resolution is both dark and honest. i dont think id have accepted any other ending.

what i appreciated most by far was the tension and its done so well i cant not praise the film

You can split the Marvel movies any way you like, as long as you don’t put Ant Man last.

He’s the best one.

Yeah, there's no fucking way a Shyamalan movie would be the one where I risk going out to see in the middle of this crisis.

I'll go for you. you can live through me

We talking like a "Being John Malkovitch" type scenario?

theres plenty of room in my head so im sure that would work out just fine

it should be noted however that when i say "i will live for you" this does not mean i will watch an m night shamalan picture. this of course sounds like death

Jim Carrey is doing another Ace Ventura film...

Written by the guys who brought you National Lampoon’s Dorm Daze.

the 1st 2 were largely improv as far as the gags are concerned. anyone can slap a plot around the gags.


(the 1st 2 films werent any good either however)

fun fact the 1st film was written for rick moranis in the early 80s. script never saw the light of day and was workshopped for half a dozen comedians of the next 10 or so years. Carey did as much of the rewrite as anyone.

i dont enjoy wacky carey though. Cable Guy, Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine are 3 carey movies i reslly enjoyed. closest to the wacky carey i get is liar liar.

man on the moon was solid

i'm ready for the onslaught of netflix and shudder horror content

I must have seen them both twenty times

at the time they were huge hits. clearly resonated with audiences. the 2nd film played nearly daily on comedy central for what seems like a decade.


at the end of the day though the writer that matters is carey and he's still coming back. as long as he is given the room to work he was given the 1st 2 times in dont see why it wouldnt be able to be consistent.

unless the plot is what hooked you... then you might be fucked

I wasn’t big on plot development when I was nine.

A grown man crawling out of a rubber animatronic asshole though?

Hell yes.

that is a legitimately funny scene and the best part is on the page its just *ace crawls out of rhinos anus*


its all carey there. theres nothing any writer did or couldve done for that scene.



ALLS IM SAYIN is dont give up on the project just yet.

I still wish they would do some kind of big comedy ensemble movie that has a general plot to it that is laid out but let all the actors just go with it and ad lib all their lines for the entire film. Would be interesting to see how it would turn out I think. Would either be a hilarious masterpiece or hilariously awful but would probably be entertaining either way.

Jim Carey's films haven't aged particularly well, though I still enjoy watching them whenever the opportunity presents itself.

i think to enjoy them you have to be under 16. his early work atleast

but in all fairness most comedy ages really poorly. the point of comedy is to work along the edges of normal. thats where the misdirection lives. once someone works there its not as "edgey." in 20 years its tame.

Jim Carey is too old to get away with doing talking arse impressions both as a spectacle and as an expectation of his near sixty year old body.
If he really hurts himself trying to be wacky then they should keep it in the film. I’m thinking a broken wrist from a pratfall would heal slowly at his age.

i do have to wonder how much physical comedy he's capable of. not a lot of tumblers in the old folks home

There's some good stuff on shudder.

Dear Evan Hansen - 8/10

after listening to the motion picture soundtrack i went into this assuming the absolute worst. the tracks were all overly produced. tons of autotune and synthetic instruments being used. major somgs missing and the 2 new numbers didnt add even half enough to replace what was lost.

to my complete surprise half of these issues werent issues. the motion picture soundtrack isnt used in the film. instead the use the best method: the songs are (overwhelmingly) sung live in camera. this is always best. actors are able to act through their singing. instead of matching their faces. for a musical that is as heavy as this one its crucial to hear the pain through theirs mouths as well as to read it on their faces.

the lost tracks are problematic. the 2 tracks added dont add anything of substantial merit. the tracks lpst are all from the parents leaving only 1 (and a half i guess) of the parents tracks. the one track they left is the final number which is a solo by the mother...and its her first number of the picture. so a song that should be reconciling the 2 major plotlines it only deals with 1 since the other is heavily neutered.

this brings me to wonder would the "final" number give the resonance if i didnt already know the value of it since im so familiar with the stage play. hard to say.

i say "final" becauae this film continues for 10 min after having a new ending and a very brief final song. the song is fine but the ending weakens the point by a large magnitude.

all the adaptation quirks aside the film is very good. the performances are really top notch and the editing is very good. and everything not mentioned from the play is just as great as it always was.

Waiting for the Seth Hanson sequel.

just wait for the chris hansen prequel

I’m interested by Clayne Crawford’s comeback joint “The Killing Of Two Lovers”.

Looks pretty heavy, getting reviews like it’s my sort of movie. Sometimes I just want to watch a fuck up destroy himself.

Promising Young Woman - 9/10

Good film. Well-acted, well-written, smart and stylish.

Free Guy 8/10

I found it to be a genuinely entertaining film, with some real 'lol' moments.

I found it pretty forgettable.
Jodie Comer isn’t really my cup of tea. She should stick to TV.

Magnolia - 9/10


the score could rise or fall after a second or third viewing but likely it would rise. ill be brief since there is a depth here that a single viewing cant grasp.

what i will say is this structurally is a stunning achievement in writing. there are multiple scenes that play congurently that have an outlandish divide in stakes but dont feel like they have any divide at all. im not sure ive ever seen anything crafted this way tonally and if i have it certainly wasn't as successful at it. i have a lot of thoughts but theyre all half formed so ill stop here but it was very very good.

That was another one of those films I stumbled upon by chance years later and had always meant to watch. That never seems to work out for me...
It’s a strange film. I’ve only seen it once because it made me feel so bad.
I don’t know why he made it or what he was trying to do but it was well acted and a couple of the story threads were at least entertaining rather than soul destroying.

Paul Thomas Anderson doesn’t make happy films though.

maybe a hot take but the scene with Cruise at his fathers bed is very likely the best scene ive ever seen him in

my thoughts are still very underdeveloped but actually think this films point is a happy one. im not ready to defend this statement but i think the point is something along the lines of "the tragedies of the past must be faced forthrightly even if it brings ultimate strife; only after we suffer can we embrace hope and make a new beginning."

something like that. again half formed thoughts

I saw it a long time ago and remembered enjoying it.... remember very little about it now

the cipher for the film likely is inside the boys rap at the top of the film. he's probably a profit. there's a lot of biblical parallels obviously

I'll rewatch it in a half a year or so after ive digested it a bit

Dunkirk - 7/10

i had been told by people i trust that this was a masterpiece but i went in with very tempered expectations because while nolan is a very quality director i dont believe he has a masterpiece in him. many directors are good, few ever manage anything in the neighborhood of great.

even still this film left me underwhelmed. mostly because it doesnt really have anything to say. its just a war film. its done very well and its historical accuracy is high and thats all well and good. if thats what you want from a picture this will deliver that for you. its tension is often incredibly high and genuine tension is the ear mark of a good film maker.

for me however it isnt nearly enough. i dont feel like nolan, in general, is capable of making a film that merits discussion and ultimately this film simply exists for the time its on the screen and once its run time has ended so is your entire interaction with it. there's absolutely nothing lasting about it.

...and in a world where we have apocalypse now and full metal jacket i dont think making a film about "war is hell" is a particularly worthwhile endeavor. its been done masterfully already and i doubt anyone manages a masterpiece on strictly that topic ever again.

i dont dislike war films, i dont think a 7 out of 10 =a bad movie, but this doesnt have the depth to rise above just "a very good action/war film" and become something truly memorable.

inception merited discussion to some degree but mostly from people who were initially confused by its timeline and whatnot. once they sussed that out though...eh

Memento is always going to be his best film.
Pure genius.

Looking forward to the new Ben Wheatley film “In The Earth” and I looked at his filmography just to see if I’d missed any. Well he’s making The Meg 2....


I feel like that’s possibly the strangest hiring decision a major studio picture could ever make.
The man is a genius but I dunno how this could ever work.

I started watching Sleepers on Netflix without any prior knowledge. It's a bit overwhelming and dark at times, the narration and acting are on point.

“Sleepers” has quite an impact on me when I first saw it, and every subsequent viewing since. It’s a Hollywood movie but it’s actually worth watching.
I feel like indie versions of this sort of film get too ugly too quickly and it always sticks in my craw.

The British film “Scum” is also worth a watch but again, pretty harrowing stuff.

I should probably watch “Girl, Interrupted” again to see if that holds up.

Free Guy - 7/10

Was surprised to find this on Disney+ so soon, so I watched it. Was entertaining enough for what it was. It was like a slightly better Ready Player One.

Colour out of Space - 5/10

Weird and not very good. Some nice visuals but they can't compensate for the rest of the film. Nicolas Cage in MANDY this is not.

She Never Died 8/10

A surprising semi sequel to He Never Died

In The Earth - 1/4

Ben Wheatley makes unique films usually, but this is so much like a pagan horror version of “A Field In England” that it amounts to nearly two hours of repetitive weirdness that never resolved itself.
The two leads deserved a lot better than they were given here, both of them performed with a quality that was thoroughly out of place in such a silly film. The two supporting actors were hamming it up so much that any ambiguity in their motivations held absolutely no interest to me.

This is an impressively bad film.
I think it was trying to be like “The Ritual” which was too recent and too good to be replicated or borrowed from so lazily.

British film makers do films about mysterious happenings in the woods a lot better than this usually.
This is officially the worst one.

is it bad enough to watch for the train wreck factor or is it pure avoid at all costs

I can not explain how hyped I was for this movie. Lovecraft is one of my favorite authors ever. I've read everything he ever wrote. And I also like Nick Cage for some reason.

That said, this movie was the hugest of letdowns for me. Did not do the story justice at all and Cage's performance was flat out awful, one of the worst of his career. I wouldn't have been nearly as generous with the score as you were. Prob 2/10 for me.

Also it was kind of baffling that out of all the Lovecraft stories they chose this one. It's a fine story, but so many of others deserve the film treatment more than this did. Give me The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadanth. At The Mountains of Madness (QUIT CANCELLING DEL TORO'S PASSION PIECE YOU HOLLYWOOD ASSHOLES). A new version of The Dunwich Horror even.

Sleepers - 7/10

Excellent watch, although difficult at times. Cheesy in parts but solid acting overall.

I couldn’t turn it off, mate.
It is completely off the rails from the get go but it loses any semblance of restraint by the end.

It’s jumps from being science fiction to horror by act two and by act three it’s almost Shakespearean. People will compare it to “The Wicker Man” but it’s not that straightforward.

I admire the effort but the last act was objectively mental by anyone’s standards.

Just watched Chappelle’s last Netflix special.
Not great by his standards, but I did enjoy it.

A Quiet Place: Part 2 - 4/5

Short, sweet, and to the point.

THE MORTUARY COLLECTION - 7.5/10

Clancy Brown is great and it's fun horror anthology flick.

V/H/S 94 - 7/10

Much like the first V/H/S film each segment actually feels like it was shot on VHS. There's one segment that is just wildly gory too -- turns out it was directed by the same guy who made the Indonesian Cult segment in V/H/S 2. Fun and creative flick overall, especially if you are a fan of found footage horror.

New James Bond 8/10 would recommend.

Make sure you see the previous movie first if you haven't already.

No Time to Die-8/10

Definitely should watch the last movie as well as the first one. Quite a few call backs to those. This was the best one other than Skyfall, and a fitting, definitive and even ballsy way to end Craig’s run as 007. Very much enjoyed it. Although it needed more Ana de Armas running around in a plunging neckline dress kicking the shit out of evil foreigners.

3 hours long? Shoulda named it “No Time To Watch”.

I’ll see myself out.

It didn’t feel like 3 hours I’ll give it that

The Many Saints of Newark: A Sopranos Story - 6/10

alt title could have been Member Berries Strike Back. film spends far too much of its run time asking the audience "hey member this guy?" and its very unfortunate because that might be exactly what viewers want from this film but its not what i was after.

i was seeking a story told in the style of sopranos instead of a film constantly winking at me. its made worse by the fact that, excluding Gandalfini son, the actors spend all their energy doing impressions of these giant characters and it all feels very hacky.

there is promise in future sequels though. with all the nostalgia credit spent perhaps now we can get into some real story telling because there is potential.

and its for that potential that im left wanting. a film in the vein of what could be argued as both the best telivision series of all time and the single most influential series of the past 30 years (not by me but its a reasonable take [id say top 10 in quality and top 3 in influence {but whatever; its moot}]) it should simply be better. and when what im handed is good its lack of greatness hurts the film more than it would another.

I was worried about that...

im not saying dont want it. im saying lower your expectations if you want to have a good time

Destor was really hoping for a Jersey Boys type dance number.

i dunno what jersey boys is but you have my attention

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f1R2yZItS_I" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

id totally be down

lamb - 3/10

beautifully shot, well acted by a very small cast, interesting concept, but none of it really came together for me. and it's slow as fuck in a way that i don't think helps.

That's a bummer to hear

No Time to Die - 8/10

Was enjoyable... might be being generous with the score.... Casino Royale and Skyfall definitely above it for Daniel Craig movies, but it is above Quantum and Spectre....

Will agree that it needed more Ana de Armas

Halloween Kills - 6.5/10: Started off strong but was then sort of 'just ok' in the middle. Enjoyed the mass hysteria scenes.

Overall, seems like Kills was more of a setup to Halloween Ends in October 2022. I'm not crazy about Michael basically turning into Jason Voorhees super demonzombie but I'm also ok with it I guess, I don't know. I prefer Michael human and Jason 'unkillable'. Scream better not get any ideas about making 'ol Ghosty supernatural...

The Green Knight - 3.5/5

Not sure what all the hype was about. Might need to watch Sword of the Valiant to compare.

It really should have been split into two movies. One focusing on the 60s and one on the 70s. I'm halfway through the movie and everything feels so rushed. And I totally agree with "Member Berries".

i could def get on board for splitting the film in half. the 3rd act was VERY rushed

They should have done it like the “L’il Rascals”.

I’d watch it.

I watched the new “Dune” movie.
It’s a dark and joyless affair, beautiful though it is.

I’m pretty disappointed that it was only the first half of the book but I won’t be sad to watch another two and a half hour film filled to the brim with all the crazy shit they left out of this one.
There’s an awful lot they didn’t even hint at.

Is dune going to be the first big box office flop of the post pandemic era? It looks good and I want it to do well. But I don’t see an audience for it.

thhat already came and went. Tenant by Nolan

Can't really treat Dune the same in regards to the box office since it's streaming on day 1. That will eat a chunk out of box office sales.

Watching Dune rn myself.

Dune will struggle to make money. It must have cost a fortune.
Honestly it is one of the most beautifully realised films I’ve ever seen. It isn’t light in any sense though and the source material is far better suited to a mini-series.

It’s not hard to see why Denis Villeneuve wanted to do it though. I have been fascinated by it since I was a lad and it seems impossibly huge to contemplate making profitable films from.
I just want to see the details thoroughly explained and shown in a way that no film ever will.

He did give it an admirable shot though, so hopefully he gets a crack at the second half.
I really need to see more sandworm action and a guild navigator up close.

Well the CEO of Warner Bros all but confirmed earlier today that the sequel has been greenlit already. Apparently was originally going to be one film but Villeneuve insisted on it being split into 2 parts as part of his contract as well. They were supposed to film them both at the same time, but logistics (read: pandemic) messed that up. Either way I am eager for how part 2 is handled.

This movie was art. So beautifully done. I love the original and the miniseries but I feel like I came away with a much better understanding after this version for some reason. Also came away thoroughly pleased with the casting. The score is simple yet amazing.
Everything about it came off far better than I was expecting tbh. Will prob watch again this weekend.

I thought the cast was actually pretty weak for a film that size. The most bankable names are Bautista, Momoa and Zendaya by the looks of it.
I can’t fault anyone’s performance too harshly but they could have used a few bigger marquee names to give it a boost.

i think little lord chalemet is considered a "big" name atm. not sure how many viewers he'll drive in for dune, though.

I suppose Josh Brolin is a huge bankable star but he’s always in an ensemble.
Mickey Rourke as Baron Harkonnen seems too obvious, but I’d have liked that a lot.

I wonder who’ll play Feyd Rautha...

Chalamet is lined up to play Willy Wonka ffs

Dune was pretty good. I was confused as to why the Emperor would replace the Harkonnens on arrakis if he was just going to send them back to take it by force. It's not until well after the attack that we learn the Emperor fears house atreides, and it's in a single line that's easily missed. Even then, it's still confusing, as the movie doesn't explain the tense political rules of the universe which require the Emperor to use such a roundabout method to crush a possible rival. I had to look that up to find out. It's the crux of the story's conflict and it's barely explained.

Also the mother talks really fast, in a whisper voice and 90% of the time I had no idea what the fuck she was saying.

Other than that, gorgeous film that I mostly enjoyed.

There is some dialog earlier on that foreshadows why the Emperor removed the Harkonnens from Arakis and replaced them with House Atreides. It's the scene nearish the beginning where BATISTA barges in angrily asking The Baron why the Emperor would betray them in favor of The Duke and The Baron says something along the lines of a gift isn't always a gift and that the Emperor is a very jealous man.

Dune - 9/10

One of the biggest compliments I can give Dune: I'm not a big Sci-Fi person and this is probably one of the best Sci-Fi films I've seen. It won't be for everyone. It has stunning visuals and is very philosophical. Those looking for a pure action film will be disappointed. Dune is smart, very smart. I watched the 80s film and couldn't tell you the plot but here I understood it perfectly. So many themes and topics on display. Looking forward to part 2.

I'm waiting until next month, once I'm back in England, before watching Dune; hopefully it will still be showing on the IMAX.

I do remember that, but again, it's extremely vague. I don't need to be spoon fed everything, but there needed to be a bit more explanation imo. I get what they were going for, by being so cagey with exposition, but I just think they leaned into it a little too much.

I thought it was pretty well laid on between Rabban and the Baron in that scene but I’m familiar with the story, however I think most people can see the classical influence in the way it is done. It’s Shakespearean cloak and dagger talk.

That scene does its job in explaining that there are sinister motives in giving the planet to atreides and that its basically a trap.

I guess what I specifically feel is glossed over a little too much is the relationship between Leto and the Emperor and why the latter feels threatened. From what I understand, the book does a better job of exploring that.

Either way I'd prefer the way they did it over boring exposition, so it's a minor nitpick.

Finished The Many Saints of Newark 6.5/10

I maintain my stance that it should have been split into two movies. Too rushed. I'm also a MEGA Sopranos fan (I've watched the whole series about a dozen times) so I probably had unrealistically high expectations.

The movie overall was alright.