I saw it. One of my friends is a super nerd and insists on seeing every comic book movie. It was as terrible as the critics are saying. A courtroom drama musical where the Joker gets raped at the end, or at least implied. Plus, Spoiler He's not the real Joker. I get that it was a meta-criticism on nutbag fans, but it just wasn't fun to watch. Neither was the first one for that matter.
Circling back to this. I think because of the extremely heightened tensions in the United States right now, when people heard they were making a movie called "Civil War," they expected it to be a commentary on those tensions, when it's really not. It's a movie that tries to make us care about the wars we see on television, by transposing those conflicts to our own backyard to try to make us empathize with what it must be like. To show us what these people are living through by presenting what it would be like if it happened to us. To put it succinctly, it's not a movie about Americans, it's a movie for Americans.
Sorry, still think this is bullshit. They needed to create some kind of connection to the actual country other than blowing up recognizable memorials. There was no story, so empathy is impossible. If they had swapped the scenery for another English-speaking country, it would have felt like the same movie. I still think there was a better story that got cut out. Surely they didn't skip filming literally every single indicator or explanation of conflict. But regardless - all that was presented was a cynical mentor trope and a coming of age/loss of innocence story against a distracting backdrop. They just missed. It either needed to focus more directly on the 3-4 characters so that I would give a shit when someone died, or it needed to focus more on the war so I would feel more involved.
Okay, Marissa Tomei, Glenn Close, Brendan Fraser, M Emmet Walsh are also in this. It won't win any awards, but it's 90 minutes of entertainment. I thought it was funny and different. Amd there's a big monkey.
The story you're looking for, which did the "War Comes Home" better than this movie, is the game Modern Warfare 2 from 2009. https://youtu.be/jTmrwWsb9kY?si=FmlvNQB696dnO9JJ
Here (2024) Robert Zemeckis has directed some of the most iconic movies of the last 40 years, and this can be added to that list. This movie does an incredible job of encapsulating life and the meaning of place. I’ve always been fascinated with the concept of “place” in life. What was here, where I’m standing, before I arrived? What will be here after I’m gone? This fascination is why I’ve hiked the same trails for 50+ years, visited my old neighborhoods, and still go to my old bar. Those places hold my history and memories, and I somehow feel like I can connect to the past by existing again in those spaces. In my opinion it’s simply a fantastic movie, but It hits particularly hard if you’re in your 50s or 60s, and have experienced love, loss, losing your parents and friends, watching children grow up and find their own lives, etc. I almost feel like this movie was made specifically for me. You may not feel that way, but I highly recommend watching it.
The family watched The Substance last night. I’ve watched a lot of fucked up movies over the years, and this one is now very high on that list. I’m aware that there is social commentary buried in there, and this movie delivers that message with the subtlety of a chainsaw. I’m not saying it’s bad, but it is very twisted, and is hard to watch at times. If you’ve ever been simultaneously incredibly grossed out but also really turned on, you’ve experienced what it’s like to watch several scenes in this movie.
They used twice as much theatrical blood (as “Dead Alive”… which was “The most violent movie ever”…. Until the last ten minutes of this movie. Every second of the film is designed to make you squirm and make your skin crawl, and it does it in shades, like all the best Cronenberg orifices. The make- up effects, the sound effects, the exploitative camerawork… it’s an assault on the senses.
My son is the world’s largest Dogman fan. He has all 14 books. He won a Dogman trivia contest at the library. He has dressed as a Dogman character the last two Halloween’s. So we went to see it on opening night. I enjoyed it a lot more than most kid movies. There was no laugh track. There were some funny adult jokes. The scenes didn’t move as fast as most kids films do. There weren’t as many flashes. Etc. This was way different than Sonic. If you are unfamiliar with the source material the plot won’t make much sense.
The Substance was 30 minutes too long. Ill allow going overboard to make a point then there is the tediousness that this move falls into in the last half hour. Hard to be grossed out or introspective, as the move hopes to be, when the last act drags on well beyond its finishing point. Im not really grossed out by special effects. It's not real. Too many liveleak videos or real horror have dulled my senses. Beyond giving special effects artist more work, the buckets of spraying blood got BORING. I liked the movie and would recommend it but it's not on my repeat viewing list.
I’ve noticed this in a lot of movies and TV lately. The story gets dragged out at the end, and you wind up with a final scene or two that go way too long, or are unnecessary. It feels like, for nearly everything we watch, we comment to each other that it should have ended already. Some of the series we’ve watched recently could and should have ended but they tack on another episode or two, adding nothing to the story.
Friendship Caught it at an early screening last night. Easily the funniest movie I've seen in the last 10 years, and by far the best theater experience I've had in quite a while. I thought it was just going to be 2 hours of I Think You Should Leave and it was even better. Some jokes were duds, but overall I liked it a lot. 9/10
I’ve been looking forward to that one. I was trying to figure out what kind of movie it is, since the trailer is dubious and gave hints to a very dark tone.
I saw it and I still don't know what kind of movie it is. Between this and The Rehearsal, I don't even know what I'm exactly laughing at anymore. But it's worth it.
Sinners - 2025 We watched this last night, and I agree with 'Wildered; go into it with a fresh mind, because it takes an interesting turn about halfway through. With that said... Spoiler This started out with a young guy who liked to play guitar in 1932 in the Mississippi Delta. A couple of twin brothers who were local legends (the "Smoke Stack twins") have returned from hitting it big in Chicago, and they came back home to start a blues-bar/ casino out in the woods. They recruit the young guy, and an old drunk (played by Delroy Lindo; it's good to see him getting some work again) to play music for the opening night. It's worth mentioning that all of these main characters are black, and it's the 1930s. From the very start of the movie, they already seem to be running afoul of the white folks, and so I'm pretty sure I knew where all of this was headed. The evening's festivities start, and wouldn't you know it, some white people show up wanting to get in, and they're turned away. Here comes trouble, but not the kind you'd think. The white people are vampires. What ensues next is the black folk holing up inside the club, trying to keep the vampires out. People get bitten and turned into vampires, one twin brother has to kill the other, and a couple of survivors make it to the morning. Does this all sound familiar? Because to me, it sounds a lot like "From Dusk 'til Dawn." All things considered, it's still a good movie with interesting characters, but once the vampires showed up in the middle of the movie with little warning, it just kinda took me out of it, and I started comparing the two movies. Now I have an idea how my dad felt when I tried showing FDtD to him years ago.* Interesting side note: Writer/ director Ryan Coogler must have a real thing for eating pussy, because that gets brought up about four or five times, and there's even a pussy-eating scene that goes on for awhile. I'm not complaining or anything, it just stood out to me. There's also a joke to be made about black guys and eating pussy, but I'll let you draw your own conclusions. *My dad always hated the movies I liked, even though we liked similar genres of films. He liked stuff like "The Godfather" and "Goodfellas," but he hated "Reservoir Dogs" and "To Live and Die in LA," for example. Well, one day I decided to show him FDtD, AND HE REALLY LIKED IT... Right up until the vampires came out. He turned to me, and asked: "What in THE HELL kind of movie is this?" I explained it to him, and he looked genuinely pissed off, like I'd deceived him or something. After some convincing, he watched the rest of it, but I could tell he wasn't happy about it.
Yeah, I didn't want to give it a real review because it would spoil it. Seriously, if you haven't seen it and want to, go in blind. Spoiler Like my husband said, the best kind of vampire movie is the one you don't know is a vampire movie. It was definitely a big turn in the plot. Felt like some.of the racial tension was a red herring but that part kinda resolved, too. I didn't really care for the ending after the credits. Did you know they got like ALL their costuming from a Blade movie that never came to be? Also, edited to say: this is a really beautifully shot and directed movie. I just really enjoyed watching it.
I watched part of the trailer and it look like it gets a bit scary/creepy/horror? I don't mind that but the Wifey does not.