Honestly. Day-Lewis is oozing some hard machismo in that movie. Women in that time were told who to marry, and she's suddenly presented with the manliest human to ever exist who basically turns up and pisses on her like a wolf marking his territory.

Couple that with her other suitor being that shriveling penis of a Major.

You're not wrong, though. A few beats would've helped us as the audience get into them more. But I get why they're into each other on that base level.

Chingachgook is the last of the Mohicans, so it had to be him.

Uncas’ actor later starred in a Tommy Lee Jones Western called “The Missing” where he was the bad guy and nowhere near as handsome. Talented actor that Eric Schweig.

I love the bit where the Englishman is being burned at his own behest, and Natty Bumpoe shoots him out of decency. Madeleine Stowe was so hot back then.

If I was that English dude, I'd have let Natty Bumpoe die for her (or let her die).

Sadly (for him), he got caught on the wrong end of a dick-measuring contest and had to commit to that particular fatal game of chicken.

I'm sure there's some more profound, subtextual interpretation that Michael Mann or the writers would offer--something symbolic about the French-Indian war. Something poetic.

But I'm sticking to brass tax here.

And he basically died due to being the ultimate cuck, mercy killed by the (far manlier, more handsome) man cuckolding him. Now, that's Cinema right there.

brass tax

Tass Brax.

The Ghost and the Darkness 6.7/10

Set in 1898, Val Kilmer plays a Royal Engineer sent to Africa to build a railroad bridge over a river. Shortly after arriving, the work camp is besieged by man-eating lions, and Kilmer and a professional hunter, played by Michael Douglas, endeavour to defend the camp and the workers.

The film is actually good at creating suspense, and it can be quite grisly at times. However, Kilmer's attempt at an Irish accent is naff (not as bad as Titus Welliver's Jimmy-O accent), and Douglas sports a dodgy southern American accent as well.

Leave The World Behind

I give it a meh out of 10. Was enjoyable for a bit tbh but then it just...meh. I don't even wanna talk about it.

The Boy and the Heron
birds/10, was really good, another Ghibli classic

going to see the English dub tonight, can't wait to hear Christian Bale and Dave Bautista in an anime

Charley Varrick - 2/4

It’s a smart film but Walter Matthau chewing gum like he’s eighty years old when he was about forty is the worst thing in the world. If you enjoy repeated instances of loud chewing for no reason then this is the film for you. That’s the tragedy of it, it’s a crime romp that is held back by the director and the star when it should really have been incredible with the right people in front and in charge.

Joe Kidd - 3/4

Clint Eastwood playing a more verbal, more human character. It’s Duvall who threatens to steal the show though. It’s also a much more on-point film with regards to runtime. For every 2-3 hour affair Eastwood and Wayne should have done more Hondo’s and Joe Kidd’s.

I’ve thought about this comment a lot recently and you’re right. He is much more prevalent and necessary in “Unforgiven” but he is superb and more outwardly impressive in “True Romance”. In Googling his character name there, apparently he is tied to the spin off “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” book somehow.

Godzilla Minus One - Probably the best zilla film I have ever seen. Very good - 8/10

The Boy and the Heron - 5/5

Took a bit to get cooking. But once it did, it never stopped. Hard time holding back tears too.

Wall Street 7/10

Everybody talks about Michael Douglas' performance in this film (which they should), but they seem to ignore Martin Sheen's low-key strong performance. He doesn't have much screen time, but he makes best use of what he has, putting Charlie in his place as the lesser Sheen. However, Charlie isn't that annoying in this movie.

Godzilla Minus One: 9/10 It was really good.

Barbie: 4.5/10 It turned out to be kinda bad. Really disappointed in this one after the "hype".

Walden - 3/4

Emile Hirsch is too talented for the material to fail. I was enthralled.
Recommended for Slik.

I see Emile has fully embraced the genre film and is currently grinding out several every year, not quite on the Nic Cage or Bruce Willis level but headed in that direction, he might actually pass Nic going in the other direction fairly soon given his renaissance.

Emile Hirsch is one of my favourite actors of all time so I’ll watch anything that sounds remotely interesting with him in it. I’m pleasantly surprised to see that he isn’t just turning out turkeys, there are clearly worse ways to continue.

Ben Foster is obviously another of my favourite actors and his career has gone strangely since “Leave No Trace” with several egregious bids for critical acclaim in dog-shit prestige pieces. It’s effectively the opposite of Emile’s workload right now.

I think I’d rather be the best thing about a genre film than the biggest disappointment in an outright bad independent film. He has his own production company so this is his own doing.

Dennis Hopper came back from it so hopefully Ben does too.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania 6/10

The tonal shift to being grander/darker didn't really make sense to me, considering the previous two outings were fairly breezy.

lol I feel ridiculous for admitting this, but I just watched Apocalypse Now for the first time. I want to say it was the original version (it wasn't Redux) but it coulda been the final cut or whatever. I get all my shit off the ol' firestick now so who knows what's what.

10/10. Coppola pulls this magic trick where he romanticizes without being overly sentimental and diminishing the impact of his topic matter. You see it in GF 1 and 2. There's this wistful, cinematic component to these films working in harmony with the uglier truths he's exploring. It's a magnificent balancing act.

The immediate comparison is Scorcese, but Marty embraces the grit and grime of his topic matter way more.

I think I'm going to watch The Conversation next.

The book it's based on "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad is also good.

Was considering reading Heart of Darkness but late 19th-century prose is typically a slog for me.

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I already hate it.

Similarly, I remember reading a bit of Puzzo's Godfather and was like, "lol fuck this." Heart of Darkness is actually a proper work of literature, though, in fairness. Coppola's Godfather is an example of a fucking master of his craft successfully squeezing blood from a pot-boiling stone.

It's a fucking slog for a while, that's for god damn sure. It also is a venue change, Africa instead of SE Asia.

We had to read it in college and then debate about the depiction of the Congolese and also Colonialism, and all the shit that goes with it.

The entire time we read the story, I wasn't even thinking of that shit, but it made a ton of sense after we were finished and given directions.

Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom - 8.5/10

Not as good as the first but another real solid superhero movie from James Wan. I do feel like Amber Heard/Mera was super awkward in it... I know that Wan tells the line that the story was always like that with not a lot of Mera... but when one of your "main protagonists" barely gets time to talk and no story journey in the entry it is just weird.....

The character of her dad (Dolph Lundgren's character) gets more lines/spotlight and even a tiny story arc. So it was super awkward to not even have the mother of his child have no story beat.

Saw Body Heat with Kathleen Turner and William Hurt. A steamy noir thriller from 1981 written and directed by Lawrence Kasden (who wrote Empire Strikes Back, funnily enough).

A purposeful throwback to the femme fatale trope. Hurt and Turner are a couple of animals in the movie and are believable/magnetic in their roles.

It's fun because you basically know the whole time where things are going, but they dangle you along as the viewer as Maddie Walker dangles Ned Racine by his cock.

9/10, would watch again, and am considering entering an affair and murdering my lover's husband.

Also, a Mickey Rourke cameo--he's fucking awesome, especially when he's young and handsome. And a young pre-Cheers Ted Danson is featured, and I found him to be very entertaining.

“The Beast” AKA “The Beast Of War” - 3/4

I have begun a war movie phase and this already stands out as a great but completely forgotten contribution to the genre. I would put my money on the reason being that it is a Russia/Afghanistan war film with Americans playing the Russians and Steven “I’m actually pretty clearly Hispanic” Bauer playing the Mujahideen Khan who takes vengeance against them.
It’s a claustrophobic affair, Russian tank crew pisses off natives by way of war crimes and find themselves trapped in a desert cul de sac surrounded and perpetually hunted by guerillas using discarded Soviet tech and weaponry.

The cast is lead by a young Jason Patric and antagonised by the Tank Commander played by George Dzundza who has never done better character work. Directed by Kevin Reynolds of Kevin Costner association, it is clear that the budget was spent very wisely.

This was a great watch and I thoroughly recommend it.

The Drinker also recommends it. It has both the Seanny and Drinker stamp of approval; I'll have to watch it myself.
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I watched a few of his videos a couple of months ago and to be fair there is some surprising overlap beyond the loud, drunken Scottish parts. I’ll watch that video now because I thought that film was tits and I had never so much as heard of it until last night when I found it on that movie site.

I like how he says it doesn’t glorify or condemn either side when the antagonist is a battle hardened Russian lunatic who habitually does terrible things arbitrarily and the mujahideen are shown to have a deeply moral perspective in their treatment of their enemy even after seeing their enemy commit atrocities.

He’s right about it being a top drawer film at least.

the theatrical cut is really good

Twink Wonka

PASS.Pass

Yeesh. I was curious about it since it was a musical

A Few Good Men. 8 out of 10.

I'm going to qualify this as a "first-time" watch because I've seen this movie in bits and pieces on TV countless times but never saw it whole until yesterday.

Part of me feels 8 is a BIT generous, but the Jack scenes alone, plus some of Cruise's courtroom work really make the movie work. Plus, the overexposure to the "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH" might actually hurt the movie a bit, so 8 is probably fair given how I've SEEN that scene numerous times, it's been parodied to death, and it still FUCKS.

Kevin Bacon absolutely slays too. I enjoy the roundedness of his character. A likeable, charismatic guy, competent at his job. He knows Jessup is a piece of garbage and probably ordered the code red, but he has a job to do. That's my shit right there.

The Verdict is way better, though, as far as courtroom dramas go.

Love and Monsters

Watched this on NYE with some friends while doing other stuff. The opening scene was really neat. Premise didn't feel terribly groundbreaking but it was a fun movie. I kept wanting the main character to be Adam Brody instead. Was good background noise with some fun moments

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