Serendipity (2001) - 4/10

The casting is thus films issue. The premise i think works on the page atleast. Destiny and love at first sight distilled into becoming the plot itself. You can easily see how youd end up here when putting pen to paper. Its so obvious its preposterous that it wasnt made sooner.

Kate Beckinsale is exactly the kind of woman men hppe would be cast in a romcom they were drug to and she's as stunning here as you'd hope she'd be.

And no one else in the film seems like they would be allowed to breathe the air she breathes. Male lead is John Kusack. 15 years past his prime and even in his prime would be an odd fit. If Kusack is the 10 that she should be so lucky to have the guy who plays Beckinsales fiancé is a 4. Molly Shannon of SNL fame plays her BFF and looks 15 years too old for her too.

And none of them have any chemistry whatsoever
They all feel like they put together by a marketing agency instead of someone with a vision. And that includes Jeremy Piven who gives his standard, but enjoyable, Piven performance but like the rest of the cast i struggle to believe he's spent 10 min with Kusacks character despite being his alleged best man.

So the fairly solid script lands flat. Nothing lands outside of Beckinsales smile and it cant save this forgettable film.

The Dead Dont Hurt (2023) - 8/10

Without recency bias i might go to a 7 on this one but as the credits play i feel really good about the film. Written Directed and Starring Viggo Mortensen and honestly he shouldve started writting much earlier. The script is excellent. The direction is at least journeyman. Its some real quality work.

Its a western but closer to a period piece. Husband goes off to fight in the civil war but we follow the story from the perspective of his french wife left at the homestead. The scrilt unravels as we go in a very satisfying way. Id recommend it to anyone who likes the genre but it is action light if thats what you expect from the genre.

Favorite Piven role was PCU. Love that movie.

Ricochet - 1.5/4

How John Lithgow and Denzel Washington ended up in this piece of shit is anybody’s guess. Directed b Russell Mulcahy of “Highlander” and “Highlander 2” infamy, it’s essentially a revenge thriller told from the wrong perspective and with far too much malarkey to be taken seriously. On the plus side it is quite funny and I wasn’t mad that I watched it, it was just very silly and oddly enough would have been more believable if Christophe Lambert was playing Denzel’s role. He is far more likely to suffer at the hands of Dick Solomon in prison.

Dont lump Highlander in with Highlander 2. Highlander is a scifi classic

It’s classic pap. Enjoyable rubbish, a few missteps from being as laughable as the sequel.
Most importantly they were both directed by the same bloke, so you kind of have to lump them in together when you see how bad his other stuff is. It all treads the imaginary line between mental and batshit fucking crazy. A line that only clinical psychologists are inclined to draw.

“Highlander” would be a great film if it had the Scotsman in the right place and no trace of Christophe Lambert who was easily the worst action hero of the time. A time that included Franco Nero leaping around in a ninja costume…

The Nightingale

Highly unpleasant... powerful though... would not rewatch. Strong though

Nosferatu - 8/10

Gothic horror dripping in macabre, mood and incredible cinematography. Lily Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård give excellent performances.

Thelma - 9/10

A real good time

Wait til the sequel "& Louise". it's a helluva ride.

Strange Darling - 8.4/10

"Civil War"

stupid title... was more about a camera journalist than a war

Nosferatu . 7/10. Felt kinda long. Really cool visuals though
Gf thought it was boring.

Beetlejuice Beelejuice it was ok 3/7

Cadillac Man... so funny...

The Room Next Door

Been a while since Ive seen "Almodovar"... always with the big art pieces and the symbolism... the acting felt kinda weird... definitely a Thinkingfilm... beautifully "shot"...

Oppenheimer. 4/7 it was ok but the bomb scene wasn't nearly as good as Indiana Jones in the fridge

Wolfman 6/10


It was ok. At least it wasn't long.

Juror #2 - 9/10

The film mad me incredibly angry.

Why? This is Directed and Produced by Clint Eastwood. Easily one of the best directors to ever do it. He's 95 now. This is very likely his last picture.

Warner distributed this film to 28 theaters

28

Twenty fucking eight.

This is one of the best courtroom dramas ever. Certainly not as good as 12 Angry Men but its wayyyy up there especially in the Juror sub genre.

So Eastwood makes a truly phenomenal film. A script that should be a front runner for Best Screenplay. That film is likely the last one he will ever make. Nicholas Holt and Zoey Deutch and Toni Collette and JK Simmons give outstanding performances and Cedric Yarbrough gives what will certainly be the best performance of his career

And Warner only shows this in 28 fucking theaters and no awards push.

9/10

27/28

Not enough trans people being represented I guess.

Well thats all it took for Emilia Pérez to get 13 nominations so there's definitely a road map

People were probably confused by not seeing Juror #1 first

Captain America: Brave New World - **3/4 out of ****.


A bit underwhelming, but this corner of the Marvel universe is usually tackled competently enough. The action/spy thriller motif is pretty hard to screw up, and, yeah, there's enough decent action and intrigue to keep you dialed in. I think it's weighed down a tad with its callbacks to previous outings, which are necessary for this story to happen, though. A couple of characters could have been utilized more, too. Nothing overtly terrible here. Just some passable fun. You get one post-credits scene to set up what I'm assuming is one of the Avengers movies and a couple of notable cameos on top of it all.

Captain America: Brave New World - 6/10

Another "ok" Marvel movie that never really does anything memorable or cool.

Captain America: Brave New World - 6/10

This is just barely a 6 and very nearly a 5 but i think it gets just enough thats atleast visually interesting, namely in the climax, to feel more positive than neutral about it. That said I'll probably spend most of this post shitting on because there's a lot to improve.

At a broad stroke level excluding Ross no characters in this film are interesting and this is especially true for Mackee. Now its hard to put his head on a pike here because the reshoots really expose the bad writing. They clearly restructured this film at least once and the solution was to bring Mackee in and have him give exposition in really flat scenes. He has 2 or 3 of these in the film. Just Mackee and a character explaining details that were cut from a movie we'll never see but we still need to get the plot to work. So its hard to blame Mackee for a flat performance when the writing forces him to Exposition-Man. Regardless his performance is never interesting. Ever.

He's a sidekick and he feels like it and his sidekicks feel laughable. The film has an insistence that being just a man is a boon for his symbolism. That by not being a superhero he's superheroic. That his greatest power is he's uninteresting. I dont think anyone is actually going to be duped into thinking this actually a laudable trait but there's a scene where his sidekick tells him how much he idolizes Falcon and its just preposterous. "Ya know what my favorite part of super hero movies are? When normal people are the focus!" Said no one ever.



tl;dr

The film is a mess but there's some decent ideas here. I dont think Mackee works as a leading man and would strongly recommend either recasting him or strictly use him in buddy cop/team-up movies so he can do what Mackee can actually do: be a sidekick.

Final Prayer (U.S.)/The Borderlands (U.K.) - *** of out ****.

I love the set up here and the slow burn that builds to a final ten minutes that goes all out, delivering a neat and surprising and grim payoff to the events. It could be argued that despite the presentation, it's not really found footage per se, more like you're witnessing it all live along with the characters. Speaking of which, it's a refreshing experience to have main characters that you like and feel very real instead of the usual type in these kinds of movies who get afflicted with "horror movie stupidity". This is a great example of "less is more" as it delivers despite the limitations, including the very brisk runtime. I would recommend it, even if you're feeling a bit out of it in the first 15 minutes. I would say stick with it, and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Addendum: while there are some creepy moments, it's hard for me to be scared of that lame, stock crying baby sound used in the film after hearing it used in shit like Silent Hill: Downpour. It's more eye-rolling than anything else, especially in that fucking game.

Moana 2 - 7.5/10

I was entertained. Some catchy songs. I can definitely see it's origins as a Disney+ show before they decided to just make a movie instead. Plethora of characters added to the cast so not as much time for Moana and Maoui characters to have as much focus as they got in the original.

eephus - quaint

Mufasa - 7.5/10

I was entertained. Not so much by any of the songs though. Story was ok, but made me feel bad for Scar....

And really, isn't that what we were all demanding of the Disney villains while growing up? I know I always wanted to feel for an upper-class snob who wanted to skin puppies.

patch adams

Dead Poet Society for doctors. noble but a little kitsch

Dead Patients Society

Sinners (2025) - 8/10


Really enjoyable. My fav movie of the year so far

Ballad of wallis island

Like a unbearable weight of massive talent meets inside llewyn davis

Watched all the Final Destination movies this month

And Paddington in Peru

Sinners was decent but I don't understand the hype at all. It was nothing greater than a decent vampire film. Jack O'Connell does the worst Irish accent you'll hear since the last time he played one.

James Woods in John Carpenter's Vampires is the best role in a Vampire movie.

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Mickey 17

Real good... kinda "on the nose" politically but thats ok

Love science fiction plot holes... fun

What was that accent... weird

Watched Mickey 17 yesterday. Definitely ham fisted in its messaging especially with Ruffalos paper thin performance but i did like it fairly well all the same


7/10