Glass Onion (A Knives Out Mystery) - 6/10

The fundamental issue with the movie is does the one thing a Whodunnit absolutely can never do: its stupid. It tries to make that a plot point but it doesnt work. Its never clever. The characters are all very weak and honestly calling them characters is wrong to begin with. Theyre paper thin memes. The performances are good and I always like Jessica Henwick just as a rule.

Kate Hudson remains a smoke show and i would drink her bath water.

Shoutout to the original Scream. It reamins the most recent truly great Whodunnit

Our son is a HUGE horror fan, tons of collectibles (including an autographed Jason mask from Kane Hodder and autographed pic of "The Shape" from Nick Castle ((fun fact, The Shape was the name of the Michael Myers character before they gave him a name))



He watched the OG scream with my wife and I last Halloween and was hooked. He started getting Ghostface merch after, and even got a shirt for Christmas. I was worried because it had some pink writing on it, but he didn't even care. Woot.


Scream remains a solid great movie, and I'm the type of person who really dislikes multiple re-watches (I get bored).

the menu - 9/10

i absolutely loved this movie. the marketing campaign has you thinking it will be a cannibal affair, and it absolutely is not. everyone turns in really solid performances, but extra special praise to ralph fiennes, anya taylor-joy, and especially nicholas hoult. he really shines when he's playing a bit of a creep, and he's a real scum bag in this one.

it's working in a similar world to glass onion thematically in that it certainly critiques the rich, but this does it in a more elegant way through the use of artistry and the service industry. the intertitles for each course are also great, and get increasingly funnier as the action goes the opposite way. i will definitely be watching this one again.

and i have to concur with destor on glass onion. i wanted to like it more, and it is a fun movie, but it's as deep as a puddle across the board. considering i spotted the hand off between norton and bautista that lead to bautista's death, that part of the mystery was already done for me and it made getting there for the finale a bit tedious. i agree that all of the performances were great, and i'll give a special tip of the hat to janelle monae for convincingly playing two different parts.

You forgot to mention kate hudson is sex incarnate

I preordered The Menu based of WeXs take. Anya Taylor Joy is the best young actress going so its an easy purchase. Her eye for scripts (or her agents at least) is highly consistent.

she did look absolutely stunning

i wish that i enjoyed last night in soho more than i did, but she made it worth watching. she's really grown on me over the past year or so. not that i didn't like her before, i just wasn't paying enough attention.

Soho was visually captivating. Story stumbled on a few beats but i really liked the movie. As much for its technical aspects as anything. Some of those shots were REALLY complex

agreed. they had me hooked with the ads giving a very suspiria-esque vibe with the lighting alone.

I watched “The Menu” a couple of nights ago and it was very good. Ralph Fiennes is always good but Nicholas Hoult caught me off guard with how well he turned in a character performance to support ATJ, and Fiennes.

Tonight I’m watching “The Banshees of Inisherin” and I had to pause it in the middle just to post that it’s shaping up to be Martin Mcdonagh’s best film. I might do a proper review because his and his brother’s films are always worth watching a few times each. It’s films like these that make film the greatest art form for me.

That was quite the film…
Though it feels almost as if the other Mcdonagh brother wrote it. It’s reminiscent more of “Calvary” than “In Bruges” but it’s another film about deep, dark interpersonal shit and the good old human condition. Colin Farrell was great in this, this is probably the best performance he will ever give.

Manhattan (1979) - 7/10

I loved the visuals. Especially the city shots. Film is done in black and white and coupled with an outstanding score it creates a very old hollywood feel and aesthetic. Easily its peak is the atmosphere.

I think what makes it inferior to Annie Hall is its 3rd act is a bit of a mess on the page and on the screen. Its a fine romcom that isnt really about the specific relationships so much as a meta commentary on dating in the period. Objectively a lot of that is lost as the now of it has become then and with that change we see the details of the moment fade beyond memory.

All of it works though. Until the 3rd act when it just becomes a bit of a jumbled mess. Some characters who were played for laughs are now needed for higher drama and there's no character progression getting them or the audience there, and theyre still sort of played for laughs on top of it, leaving a string of scenes that just kind of fall apart.

Ultimately i think Allen had something say on dating at that time of his life but didnt have an answer to the problems, and who does really. The problem is if he had admitted that he'd have had a better ending.

Its still good and very funny. Its just not as good as it should have been

Thinking about this a bit more. The visual/audio style call back to a bygone era mostly of the 50s. This would have played nostalgicly in 79. This is juxtaposed over the material which is the state of dating post the sexual revolution. It doesnt impact the 3rd act in any way but it adds a layer to the style of the film thats worth noting.

Soon Ye will see a sexual revolution, just be sure to keep your night light on after Rosemary goes to bed.

The Purple Rose of Cario- 7/10

Im struggling to put my thoughts together on this. Its impressive how on the surface this is a very digestible film. Easy to follow and straight forward. A woman during the great depression who is broke and married to the worst kind of man uses film to escape her life and imagine happiness. One the day reality breaks and a character leaps from the screen and falls in love with her.

The movie is genuinely funny and jeff daniels, playing two characters, is a show stealer. But under all that is a much more interesting film and im trying to get a handle on it. Woody Allen has touched on the essence of not just the catharsis of film but in dreaming. Longing. And how film, perhaps more broadly; narrative as a whole, facilitates that.

This is definitely a picture I'll have to chew on a bit to really be able to put it into words. On the surface its very cute. Some of this bits are as funny as they were 30+ years ago. The romantic, and idyllic, scenes maintain the magic of the classic film. All while being underpinned with a really rich layer depth that seems to go as deep as youll care to look.

And at no point does it demand you look any deeper than the surface. A lesson modern film could really learn from.

Knowing (2009)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ngposter08.jpg
- negative/10

just watched the trailer for ari aster's beau is afraid. got major charlie kaufman vibes and I dig it.

Charlie Kaufman is one of the better writers and one of the worst directors, which is something I suppose.
I guess I’ll avoid that like the plague until any and all hype dies down so I can trash it to my own standards if need be.

Yeah, that one looks really great.

Fuckin' A24 dude. Always reliable.

That movie Get Out from 2017 was pretty good. Didn’t expect it to be that great but it was!

I also liked that movie UnFriended from 2014.

If you liked unfriended, look up Host.

Will do thanks man

“Sick” - 2/4

Standard slasher fare dressed up as Covid commentary. The unforgivable crime was making the hot protagonist look less hot as the film progressed. Whatever happened to Ally MacGraw’s syndrome for horror, huh? Jamie Lee Curtis Concussion or something…

The Menu- 8/10

Such enjoyable performances from everyone involved. Sense of disbelief takes a beating in certain parts, but given that there are very clear satirical elements, thats excusable.

The Kings of the World - 7.7/10 Sad story......

Fall - 6/10 Friend wouldn't shut up about it so I watched it... was pretty much what you'd expect....

Fall is just tits on a pole

As DAMN iNATOR would put it, those were a nice couple of reasons to enjoy the movie at least a little bit.

Rurouni Kenshin “The Beginning” 7.5/10

Rurouni Kenshin “The Final” 6.5/10 The action is great, but there was 30-45 minutes where not much happened. Also they used a few too many scenes from “The Beginning.” Again though great action.

Rurouni Kenshin “Orgins” 8/10 awesome all the way around.

So I watched movies 4 and 5 of the series first, because I thought I had scene the first 3 movies. After watching clips of the first 3 movies on YouTube I realized I had never seen them.

So either way these are really awesome anime adaptations. It’s really hard to believe how good the movies are. The fights are really good and really
impressive how they were able to bring them into a live action movie.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery - 4/5

I thought the first one was slightly better.

Skinamarink - 8/10

I really enjoyed this.

Note - this type of movie will not be for everyone. It's a very liminal spaces meets found footage type of film...it's not a traditional movie. I really enjoyed it and have gathered the part that caught me most 'off guard' is the same part that caught everyone else most off guard while watching.

M3GAN - 8/10

What a fun horror film. That was a good time.

Spring - 3/4

I forgot to watch this after I found it online and ended up watching it two nights ago. I went in knowing it was created entirely by two geniuses and bore the typical hallmarks of their outstanding filmography - tiny cast, ethereal atmosphere intermittently disturbed by the precipice of an unseen abyss, real dialogue… Every film that Benson and Moorhead make is special for the pleasure it brings on both sides of the creative fence. The viewers get a great gift and it’s always given with a wry, knowing smile.

If anybody hated “The Shape Of Water” as much as I did and for the same reasons - watch “Spring”.
Lou Pucci is always a great choice in a dialogue driven film with dark/light running parallel through it(watch “Thumbsucker”) because he looks like he has attitude born from tragedy in the centre of his soul.

I wasn’t particularly impressed by the actress opposite him but she had a lot of disadvantages going into it so it’s a minor quibble that possibly won’t matter when I see it again.

I really like SPRING

Before I read what you wrote I said to myself "I hope it's the horror movie from Moorhead/Benson" so I was very happy to see it was indeed

They’re creating an entire universe one film at a time. I didn’t see the red flower/drug in this one though, but I probably missed it.

“Housebound” - 3/4

From the mind behind “M3GAN” coincidentally, and a very funny if slightly exasperating horror comedy. It reminded me of “A Fantastic Fear Of Everything” only with a bigger cast and more contrived plot but with a far higher laugh ratio and some real horror in it.
New Zealand cinema is either dark and dramatic or dark yet absurdly funny. Watch out South Korea…

I’ll watch M3GAN later tonight.

M3GAN - 8.5/10

Best Terminator movie since T2.

M3GAN - 3/4
Riddled with inconsistencies but visually impressive and sharply written for some dark laughs. I wanted the robot to win.

I think that is actually a 3/4 film in retrospect.
I did enjoy it a lot.

Slik advising me to watch a 15K budget film now…

This isn’t the 80’s anymore… lies have clearly been told here with regards to budgets. A break down is necessary.

I haven’t seen any of it, but unless it’s 90 minutes of iPhone footage released directly onto a streaming site with no advertising or production of any kind…it didn’t cost 15K.

“It cost us 15 K to film the footage” is possible. Maybe.

Candy Land - 6.5

I can tell the director has promise but not everything lands in this horror flick. Some good and creative ideas, but I think there's a better film in the future from whomever made this, but this wasn't quite there yet

M3GAN - 8/10

Was enjoyable

The Price We Pay - 3.5

It started as an interesting film and then became a cheap, uninteresting and stupid film.

Gonna watch M3GAN tonight or tomorrow.

M3GAN pretty good. The CEO and his assistant are either horrible actors or were given shitty direction tho....

This post is sponsored by the football that hit Marcia in the nose
 

The Muppets/Muppets Most Wanted - 3 stars out of 4

Watched them both back-to-back and I think they both deserve the same rating, however, for completely different reasons.

Speaking as someone who wasn't really raised on the Muppets, having missed out on the original show and a lot of the major motion pictures, I can honestly say that the first movie of this bunch still managed to pluck at the right strings. There's this air of innocence to it. Like the town from the beginning is something out of Norman Rockwell, but at the same time, as with everything else, you're also supposed to laugh at the level of absurdity it reaches. The story hits the right beats as it cleverly tackles the real-life journey that the Muppets property has taken over the years. They kind of were forgotten relics and the film knows how to play with your emotions. The movie also makes me wish that other properties that try to meld human actors with fictional characters take more of a page from the Muppets as the human cast is equally enjoyable. It's nostalgia done right and I feel bad that I didn't watch it sooner.

Now with the follow up, Muppets Most Wanted, the filmmakers say, "OK, enough with the mushy stuff. Let's go nuts!" A criminal doppelganger of Kermit the Frog? Yes. Tina Fey as a Russian gulag warden? Sure, why not? It's basically The Great Muppet Caper but with better focus and snappier exchanges and gags. And like Caper benefitted from the phenomenal Charles Grodin, this film also earns points with the comedically villainous Constantine. Everything about him is just ridiculously gold. Like blowing up a payphone right after using it; did he have to do that? No, of course not, but just the fact that he would do something like that is funny. Other visual gags also hit bullseyes, like the battle of the badges with Sam the Eagle, the small INTERPOL car, the Vaseline on the camera lens, or the fact that it's obviously not Jason Segal and Amy Adams in the beginning number. The more over-the-top, the better. Like I love the warden saying, "Good night, Danny Trejo" as if it's not just him playing a character in prison. It's actually THE Danny Trejo locked up. The plot is absolutely cliche but they have fun with it, so as a result, we have fun with it. Both of these movies are excellent returns to form.

Murder By Death - 2.5/4

Very funny but dwindling returns on gags by the finale. Peter Sellars knew good racial comedy.

The Frisco Kid - 2/4

Embarrassingly bad in parts, fucking hilarious in others.
LOL’d at the dancing in the street screaming “Wahoo!” part.

15 minutes into skinamarink and i don't think i am gonna last the full hour and forty. complete waste of time. seems like maybe something might start happening now...

Maybe by the end it will go apeshit like malignant

absolute dog shit. possibly the most boring movie i have ever seen. MAYBE could have worked as a short but dreadful as a feature. 2/10. close to a 1 honestly.

yeah but i was feeling nalignant from the outset. that it went absolutely bonkers at the end was just the icing on the cake.

Slik tried to make me endure this.
Luckily I have never trusted Slik.
I do love him though.

because i'm a masochist i followed that up with shotgun wedding. 3/10, pretty high body count and decent action, awful performances, jlo still unbelievably attractive.

maybe i should consider something i have higher hopes for this weekend. i do want to see Infinity pool.

how do i wash my brain of this skinamarink stink???

slik how on earth...

Barbarian 7/10
Enjoyed this a good bit. Inspired by a true story too, which is fucked up.

Black Adam 3/10
Only redeeming quality of this, is its fun to watch Adam fuck up army dudes. Awful dialogue, awful acting. Rock doesn't play Black Adam. He plays a slightly meaner version of the same guy he plays in every other movie.

No way was Barbarian inspired by anything remotely true

It was fun though

Google Josef Fritzel

The Wild Bunch - 4/4

Perfect.

Ride The High Country - 3.5/4

A forgotten classic. No showboating in any way, pure performance. Peckinpah wasn’t all stunts. He knew a great story could work on its own if he had no cash for big explosions.

The Ballad Of Cable Hogue - 3/4

Brilliant but sketchy. Sympathy is hard to come by but that ending is pretty good. Unique at least. Another performance based western. Westerns were all about story and scenery usually, at least until big budgets allowed for your Peckinpah style violence and grit. I always like a Randolph Scott style film where it’s about law, order and sorting it all out within 90 minutes. This film is like somebody just made a western without any cool stuff and only really grim, dirty reality. It works because Jason Robards is the perfect Everyman and his antics are really a sideshow towards a story that feels a little bit more advanced for a Western.

Fuck are you on about bro?

near dark
30 days of night

Ben Foster has an incredible bit-part in 30 Days Of Night and it was that performance which made me think that some day he’d win an Oscar.

I’ve been surprised by how poorly Ben Foster has followed up “Leave No Trace”. His agent needs firing, the guy is clearly chasing an award in the wrong places. That WW2 boxing film he did was prime 50’s Oscar fodder, but it fell flatter than a nun’s tit coming out now.

Emile Hirsch should be doing better too.
All of the talent in the world.

I quite enjoy villian work by Peter Stormare.


He also had a series of commercials for some Volkswagen car that were funny as hell.

Precious Cargo....0/10....pretty terrible

Now I have to watch Skinimarink, just to see how bad it is.

i pray you are capable of finding something worthwhile there. otherwise i am so sorry.

We are on total opposite sides on this one :lol:

Skinamarink- 2/10

Fuck you, slik.

It's definitely the most divisive horror flick in a while, even on Rotten Tomatoes

People like it or hate it, there's zero middle ground

I’d better get in on this before the hype dies down

I’ve seen a few of movies since I left. I should lisy them soon.

There are a few moments that would be good as a 20 second tik tok video, but making a whole movie out it is just a bore.

Remember that time Damian Rey predicted Marvel’s biggest surprise?

I do wish it was about 65 -70 min long...it needs to shave some time off

Trying to find Knock at the Cabin online but not having luck on the sites I use so far...

I’ve just stuck “Skinamarink” on.

I will do one of my in-action reviews.
If I hate it badly enough, the juice might be worth the squeeze…

This is painfully slow already. No dialogue… just things moving slowly or not at all.

This is going to get me twitching and angry if it stays like this.

It’s filmed in some static effect.
This was made in an app wasn’t it

Cool, somebody spoke and a light turned on.
It took 9 minutes to happen.

This is bad man.
This is deliberately bad.
Or made by an autist…not auteur.

Camera angles deliberately obfuscate every occurrence, not that there are many. There’s a terrible static effect, the audio is rank and it all seems to be played as though somebody left a camera recording on the floor despite the constant scene shifting.

The dialogue is all oblique, the footage is all oblique.

It isn’t interesting, most importantly.
I am 19 minutes in.

I’m done.

I can’t watch that shit.

Well done to the creator for conning the money men into buying it. That takes the cake.

Washing my eyes and ears out with a classic Western “The Professionals”.
It will undoubtedly have lots of occurrences and dialogue, probably cost £15,000,000 instead of £15 though…. worth it.

Trying to decide which western to watch next because I am going round the big stars and trying not to focus on anybody too much. Might be back to Clint, John Wayne or Sam Peckinpah… cannot decide. I could start on the Jimmy Stewart stuff but he’s awful gangly for a cowboy.
High Noon was good, not as great as everyone says but for when it came out it had a lot of great stuff.

Hmmm

Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin are great in The Professionals, it’s a classic pairing of tough and unforgiving matched with cool, risky and fun. I like Burt Lancaster, I should watch more of his stuff…he’s not hard to like. Lee Marvin is also great but it strikes me funny that all of these actors likely fought in at least one war so they were all a lot tougher than today’s lot.
Burt Lancaster wouldn’t be a pretty boy today. He’d be the Lee Marvin guy. Lee Marvin would have to play a baddie…

About a year ago, I watched a bunch of amatuer, found footage horror movies on youtube, hoping to find a hidden gem. There was no hidden gem. Just the worst attempts at cinema I had ever seen. Skinamirink fits right in with those abortions.

There was nothing good in the half hour I watched. Literally nothing.
When that happens you have to cut your losses. No film deserves more than half an hour to get the ball rolling.

If it was sold as maybe some sort of art experience then ok, but it’s not a movie.
Things have to move in a movie.

They don’t call them stilly’s

Once Upon a Time in the West

A fine Western. Probably the best role Charles Bronson ever had because they keep him quiet for most of it and Henry Fonda is playing evil incarnate as the antagonist. Best use of a harmonica too.
I’m watching a wide array of Westerns right now. I’m not tired of them and I doubt I ever will be. Tonight I’m going to check out:

The Outlaw Josey Wales
Rio Bravo
Any Randolph Scott film

I am due a deep dive into the Audie Murphy stuff but I am saving that so I can link it up with his War stuff. I’m still holding off on the Jimmy Stewart stuff because he’s just awful isn’t he? Jimmy Stewart is too wimpy for the genre.

Randolph Scott makes the best short westerns. Almost none of them are 90 minutes, loads are 78-80 minutes…
You can see the money was used sparingly but I will always love practical effects and every Western uses them. It’s a box that has to be ticked if you are making one.
I can’t accuse most Westerns of feeling too natural but a few of the big players always know their role. John Wayne, Randolph Scott and Henry Fonda can carry the atmosphere that the film needs, guys like Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster and Van Heflin all just play essential character roles every time. Strother Martin is always a name you want to see involved if there’s moral ambiguity. Warren Oats too, both have marvellous western faces.

Men with a purpose.

I love Westerns.

Think I have to watch “Soldier Blue” again. I remember thinking it was a bit more grown up when I saw it as a kid.