I was telling my parents about the movie and Mom said, “I can’t stand Tom Cruise.” I told her, “No one can, but it’s a great movie.” I agree with all the above. It was really a great movie.
Yep, finally got time to watch it tonight. Great flick. I was super impressed with how they tied in the storylines from the first movie, and handled Val Kilmer's medical condition. Not gonna lie, I teared up in a few spots.
Yep. Even in the start of the movie where he's wrenching on it. And not only was it his plane (which he bought around 2000 sometime), he was flying it. As much as people shit on Cruise for being a Thetan-loving weirdo, which he is, dude earns some serious respect from me for his love of flying (and that Mustang), doing his own motorcycle stunts, and the other physical shit he does. I think it was the tallest building stunt they were doing in Dubai for one of the Mission Impossible shows where they did the shot, and he said, "reset, let's go again". The Director said "why? we have the shot". Cruise said, "because that was really fun and I want to do it again". So yeah... Cruise is one of those bittersweet actors... love him, hate him, still watch most of his movies.
Probably one of the few remaining actors that can draw people to the theater based on their star power alone.
Clerks III It was not the return to form of the films that Kevin Smith made during the 1990s like I had hoped for, but it was also not the abortion that I feared. Randal and Dante now own the Quick Stop and are still working inside of the store. Randal suffers a heart attack and survives, and this inspires him to make a movie about his life. That movie is essentially a recreation of the events that happened in the first two movies. I liked the first two Clerks movies, but when I heard that this was going to be the premise for the third one it sounded pretty lame to me. The Jay and Silent Bob Reboot went overboard with the meta humor, and I was expecting more of the same here. But I ended up being pleasantly surprised. Smith did a pretty decent job of blending the comedy with the message about how we all may think about our own mortality. And I actually found the scenes where they shoot scenes for the movie to be pretty funny. Overall it does not reach the highs of the comedies that Smith made up to and including Clerks II, but it is still passable entertainment. In regards to the ending: Spoiler I didn't see it coming that Dante would end up suffering a heart attack himself and dying, but I am guessing that a lot of fans did. In fact, I thought that the sex scene between Dante and Veronica in her car was setting us up for a predictable ending where Dante and Veronica end up in a romantic relationship. But I'm okay with the ending. I thought that Smith handled the sequence where Dante dies extremely well, and it nearly brought tears to my eyes. 6.5/10
Hellraiser (2022) It's not better than the original or Hellraiser 2, but it's better than any of the other forgettable movies in the franchise. As far as a reboot-ish movie, it's also far better than the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street reboots. It wouldn't be worth seeing in theaters, but for something released on streaming, it's not bad. There isn't much else to say without spoiling it, so I'll leave it there. 6.5 / 10
Not extremely recent, but Elvis. Im not a fan of Baz Luhrmann, so I found it to just be wildly frenetic and weird. Tom Hanks gives a performance as Col. Tom Parker that sounds like Triumph the Insult-Comic Dog. Austin Butler has swagger. I look forward to seeing him as Feyd-Rautha.
All Quiet On The Western Front: This was hard as hell to watch. The shit people go through in the name of war is absolutely insane. That being said, it's a tremendous film and I suggest you see it. It's on Netflix now.
I fell asleep to it and saw maybe half of it. Was really well done. I didnt get the house music though but maybe I missed the point not seeing the whole thing. Plan on sitting through it all here shortly. Prey for the Devil- Girlfriend loves shitty jump scare movies and drags me to them from time to time. I got into them open minded but Im just not that big a horror fan. Movie had a decent enough premise. Catholic Church has school dedicated to exorcism, only male priest can become exorcist, enter Sally the nun the first female to take the reigns. It actually had pretty decent casting and the dialogue wasn't complete trash. Filled with the typical tropes, schizophrenic family members, possessed little girl, this movie wasnt trying to out Exorcist The Exorcist (it was PG13 so no mothers sucking cocks in hell or anything). It would have been a half decent popcorn flick if the third act didn't completely utterly drop the ball. The hero Sally gets possessed and in the final battle of good vs evil, she sloshes around in a pool of Holy water and literally just thinks the demon out of her. No incantations, no priest, nothing. Most anti climatic ending Ive ever seen. 2/10
Weird: The Al Yankovich Story The first two thirds of the movie are pretty decent, about what you would expect from a Weird Al movie, some laughs and absurdity. Then the last third takes a hard left turn into a lame Funny or Die skit from 2010. Even the production and filming of that part looks like one of their shitty web sketches where some intern was in charge and thought ”man it would be so funny if…”. 5/10
3,000 Years of Longing This is advertised as "Aladdin for adults." It's directed by George Miller (Mad Max, Babe: Pig in the City), and stars Tilda Swinton as a narrative history professor who discovers a genie (djinn in this movie), played by Idris Elba. In the movie, Tilda, being the uptight scholar that she is, is very skeptical of the genie, and thinks that she will be tricked if she wishes for anything. However, the genie just wants to grant her three wishes so that he can be set free. Most of the movie is Elba telling his story that stretches from the time of King Solomon and Queen Sheeba, to the Ottoman Empire, to the present day. Ultimately, Tilda, being a lonely woman, just wants the genie to stay around. It was a good movie, with good special effects, but it wasn't what I was expecting; Spoiler I thought this was going to be a soft-core porno movie. Really. Just look at the title: 3,000 Years of Longing... Wanting. Desiring. Yearning. Craving. I thought that Tilda, the divorced, single woman, finds a genie who has been locked up in a bottle for eons, and she either: A) Fucks the genie (it is revealed in the movie that djinn are quite skilled in all the arts of love), or: B) She wishes to become irresistible to men (or women), and fucks her brains out for awhile, but eventually realizes that true love is the key, and finds the right person. I know what y'all are thinking: An erotic movie with Tilda Swinton? EXACTLY! No one would ever expect that! If you picked some younger, hotter woman as the lead, everyone would see it coming. I, for one, can't wait to see the porn parody of this, if one doesn't exist already.
I'm no movie critic, but I thought The Menu was a very enjoyable watch. The underlying theme is a little cheesy, some aspects were very predictable, and I felt like it could have had a little more punch - but it was tight, very funny in places, and kept me engaged throughout. The sound design throughout the movie was also very good. Definitely worth your time.
All Quiet On The Western Front I thought this was filmed really well, but I didn't love it. It felt like 1917 meets Saving Private Ryan, but not nearly as good as either of those. The Menu Individual performances were terrific, and the characters were very interesting, but the entire film was Spoiler far too cavalier with the idea of suicide, imo. That made it very tough for me. The Fabelmans I thought this was terrific. Very on-brand for Spielberg. Not just because it is very autobiographical, but just the family-themed broad strokes were much like E.T. and Jurassic Park. Very enjoyable film experience. Lots of typical scene framing and blocking from him, too, where you get to just enjoy all the actors in the scene without jump-cut closeups. You People I laughed a lot. Some good social thought without being too heavy handed, interesting romantic comedy, nice work from Jonah Hill and Eddie Murphy.
Blonde - If you had told me that this movie was directed by David Lynch, I would have 100% believed you. From the stunning black and white cinematography, to the weird score/ sound effects, to the weird looking people in the movie, there were A LOT of Lynchian aspects. Anyway, I really liked this fictional portrayal of Marilyn Monroe. Most of the negative reviews I've read about it amounted to "LEAVE MARILYN ALOOOOOOONE! THEY MADE HER LOOK LIKE A PILL-POPPING, DUMB-BLONDE DIVA! SHE WAS A SMART, TALENTED ACTRESS!" To which I reply: WASN'T she a pill-popping diva? And wasn't she the stereotypical "dumb blonde"? Seriously, folks, I don't think I've ever heard anything good about Marilyn Monroe, except that she was a hot piece of ass, she captivated the nation, and she fucked JFK and Frank Sinatra (if that's even an accomplishment). Also, Ana de Armas takes it off many times. I definitely recommend this movie.
White Noise What a strange movie. It is at times hilarious, and, despite being set in the 80s, timely in certain themes. The satire is sharp and deadpan. There are some parts that are riotously goofy, and deep with its commentary on the fear of death. But, the whole thing is a jumbled mess with just way too much going on. It's different, that's for sure, but I was mostly just confused about what was supposed to be happening the whole time. And I liked Kajillionaire and enjoyed its quirky rambling. But, this was not that.