hylian_elf wrote:

DS is definitely trolling. No one can be that stupid.

How is a belief trolling now?

Rather than taking the rollercoaster ride of watching the best and worst of a series save yourself time and effort by only watching the one mid-tier entry.
Jurassic Park: Lost World
Ant-Man and The Wasp
Beverly Hills Cop 2

I mean, I’m not arguing that DS is right or wrong here, simply that the view he expressed is widely-held so accusing him of trolling for stating it seems off.

Thank you Raiz, apology accepted and I will unhumble my feelings.

I think DS's original point was the English equivalent of 'chacun à son goût', but the meaning was lost in translation.

Lord of War One I've seen partially over the years at different times so thought it worth getting ticked off as I love a bit of Cage.  Turns out I hadn't seen much of it. Good outing for him. It felt a tiny bit slow but I'm not sure why - think it took longer to get going than it should have perhaps. Still a good film though.

I've been on holiday - which means I've watched lots of stuff on planes that I previously hadn't bothered with.  (In other words, don't expect my usual long glowing appraisals followed by breathless recommendations...)

Matrix Resurrections

I actually didn't hate this as much as a lot of you seemed to at the time. It has some pretty obvious faults - the most egregious of which is that the action scenes feel unbelievably flat - but I'm a sucker for tongue in cheek meta silliness, and I kind of appreciated the way in which it both kept the continuity from the two sequels whilst simultaneously undoing them entirely, and getting us back to the possibilities offered by the ending of the first film.  

In fact, ultimately that's what I thought it was, an amusing two and a half hour statement on how you should probably just watch the first film and leave it at that.  

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Mads is a better baddy than Depp was.  I think that's about it for positives. A messy, convoluted nothing that sort of ties up most of the plot strands from the previous films, whilst managing to make them all mean nothing whatsoever. What's most curious about the Fantastic Beasts movies is that they only ever come alive when they focus on, well, fantastic beasts, and yet they rarely bother to do so. As hinted at by the title this is chiefly just tedious fan service for people who want to flesh out brief references from Harry Potter, at the expense of actually telling a story.

Bullet Train

By the time I watched this I hadn't slept for roughly 30 hours, so any views should probably be taken with a pinch of salt, but...  Yeah, I enjoyed it.

It's a deeply stupid movie, but does at least know it. It's probably the most 90's film I've ever seen that wasn't made in that decade, and feels like one of the many lazy copy cats that were spawned on the back of Pulp Fiction. Every character is, at best, a cartoon - prone to long, silly monologues about nothing of consequence, delivered in dubious accents. (One character, for instance, is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine) The film squanders much of the potential for great fight scenes you'd expect from the premise ("multiple assassins with conflicting priorities meet on a train and subsequently set about killing each other") but it has a certain chaotic cheesy charm

Not high art. Big, stupid, loud, and as subtle as briefcase to the face - but I somehow enjoyed it on its own terms.

The Gray Man

This, on the other hand, fell absolutely flat for me.  It's every bit as empty as Bullet Train, but without the self knowledge.

If Bullet Train's characters are thinly sketched cartoons, Gray Man's are empty ciphers. There's a Good Man who kills people but not children, and a Bad Man who kills everyone, and a hot lady who sometimes kills people and... that's about it.  Chris Evans is at least having fun chewing the scenery playing the world's most incompetent villain. (His singular characteristic is his lack of scruples, but he's certainly no mastermind.)

Similar to Bullet Train the action scenes are a whole lot of nothing. Lots of fast cuts, with no real impact or tension. It's directed by the Russos, who previously packed more excitement into a single elevator scene (Winter Soldier), than they do in this entire movie.

Lots of people die, but none of it appears to matter to anyone, and the final show down is so contrived it made me laugh out loud.

I know loads of you loved it so...  Maybe I missed something.

I watched Predator again, this time with the kids (13 & 17) and they absolutely loved it. Youngest thought it was ludicrously camp (which it is) and oldest really, really, really loved the old school action vibe. He said that the village action scene was the best he'd ever seen - because it was real explosions and squibs.

Result

Nope. Not sure what to make of it. Enjoyed the set up and the sound design was great. But lost a bit of interest towards the end.

Definitely different.

104. MIFF - R.M.N.
A glimpse into modern life and cultural identity of small village Romania. Or at least what it must be like for some. Interesting film, not perfect like 4 Months was but largely because the story is spread across more characters. There's a lot of sub text in this I think and it stayed in My mind for a while after.
[8]

105. MIFF - Aftersun
A Sofia Coppola style mood piece and character study from a first time feature director and a young father in holiday with his daughter. At times this felt a bit first film in how it held onto some shots a bit too long and tried to be a bit too arty but it was quite beautiful at times and well told. A shitty day at work probably got in the way of me letting go and sinking into the slow moody side of it.
[6]

The Dark Knight says hello.

It's no Dirty Dancing

Gremill wrote:

58. Logan
It's the best superhero film, with great performances across the cast - Jackman is brilliant in his last turn as Wolverine, Stewart is superb as degenerating Prof X and Dafne Keen is feral and vulnerable as his daughter. A touching story of age, Parenthood and family it has some incredible action scenes that are matched by the drama surrounding it. What a film. 10

Have you watched it in black and white? Takes it up another notch.

The casino seizure fight scene is class

106. MIFF - Dual
I had a good time with this black comedy from the Art of Self Defence guy. Don't really want to say much about it. I like his Yorgos-lite tone and being shorter films they don't outstay their welcome. First film in a while to make me actually laugh.
[8]

107. MIFF - Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon
New one from Girl Walks Home Alone at Night that fits in that Spring Breakers kind of realm of a small journey through slightly seedy USA. Some good performances and a bangin' soundtrack made this with the watch.
[7]

108. MIFF - Bodies Bodies Bodies
Final MIFF movie this year was a pretty fun gen-z slasher thing. Had a good crowd for it as it's quite funny at times. Unfortunately it's not scary and the "mystery" seemed pretty obvious and so the middle section really lagged for me.
[5]

Thanks Cosby!!