After the hatchet job which Disney pulled on Rogue One, I was interested to see whether the lack of emotional investment which I felt toward its characters and the unearned plot beats and payoffs were the fault of their corporate meddling or Gareth Edwards' original directorial choices. After watching The Creator, I do believe that it was Edwards' vision, shining through brightly and blandly.
Without realizing it, I seem to have now viewed Edwards' entire feature filmography--including Godzilla (2014) and Monsters--and I see a common thread between all of his films. He is very focused on achieving key "moments" which he hopes to see in the end film, along with striking imagery to accompany them. However, the connective threads which lead between these key moments, which could be used to add depth to the characters and emotional weight to the subsequent plot beats.. these sections seem like afterthoughts. No finer example can be found than in his breakout film Monsters, which literally did not have a script! The actors in that film were told to ad lib their lines for entire scenes, leading to lots of riveting dialog, such as, "So, uh, what do you think we should do now?"
These problems are on full display in The Creator. In the opening scene, two people are rolling in bed together, whispering about how much they love each other. Who are these people? We don't yet know. But them saying that they love each other is good enough motivation for the entire film, apparently! Then, to set things in motion, our main character shoo's some people out of the room and loudly shouts into a radio, "I'M UNDERCOVER!! [sic]" and is shocked to turn around and see that he was overheard. I nearly laughed out loud in the theater, and we're less than 5-minutes in.
From there, Edwards begins "artistically" transitioning from key scene to key scene with literally no transitions in-between, and characters continue spouting one-dimensional dialog which we are meant to take at face value: "I feel this. Those people did X because of Y." There is a lot of telling rather than showing (breaking film rule #1).
I will admit that Edwards has a very distinctive visual style, but he really needs someone else to be writing the script.
I'm not saying this is a bad film. It's fine. It's competent. It looks great and feels like a lived-in SF universe. It's a good little adventure travelogue. And I'm happy to see a story that is more about how key events impact people on a personal level, rather than being about some world-ending event. I want to see more of that in contemporary mainstream SF.
But when it did come down to how the people in this film were impacted by the events which unfolded, I felt nothing. Not even a tickling of emotion. The desired story payoffs were completely unearned.. just like in Rogue One.
A rather average UFO movie. A scientist lady gets abducted and her boyfriend begins investigating what happened, trying to get people to believe him. There are a lot mystery box setups that keep you interested throughout the runtime and the acting is consistently engaging, but the story ultimately goes nowhere worthwhile.
What little CGI was in the picture was surprising good for a movie which was clearly made on a tight budget, with better compositing than many current Marvel productions. I also appreciated the minimalist computer displays that didn't get carried away with themselves when dealing with the science stuff.
The one song sequence was quite nice. Again, there was clearly no budget involved, but the director did a lot with just the actors and locations.
With a more satisfying conclusion or a more fleshed out story, I would give this a recommendation, but it's just kind of "meh" when you reach the end credits. Watch if you have nothing else to do.
Too zany to take seriously.
Not zany enough to make an impact.
A lot of the humor in this one fell flat, with a combination of absurdist character acting and very mundane, unambitious directing. It never felt like the film was picking up steam, and I felt like I had missed part of a first act where the close sisterly bond and the hopes and dreams of the two lead characters were shown prior to their being put to the test.
We were told some of these things in dialog, but not shown. (Film Rule #1: SHOW, don't tell) Example: Apparently the big sister is passionate about making art.. but we never SEE her creating art, looking at art, or talking about how much she likes art. It's a conflict point which is pulled out of thin air and is meant to have emotional weight, but was never developed.
For a good portion of the film I felt a strong dislike for the lead character. Her delinquent sister started seeing a seemingly nice guy from a nice family and she hate, hate, hates this because.. why, exactly?? Between the script which could have used more development and the very stilted direction, something felt off for the entire runtime of film.
To make a comparison, I grew up watching Jim Varney in the Ernest P. Worrell film series. I loved those movies! They were full of absurd humor, goofy characters, and a wild director: John R. Cherry III. John directed them all. Except for one.. the worst one.. "Ernest Goes to School".. Although its Director, Coke Sams, had been a long-time Producer on the series, he couldn't quite nail the Ernest style as a Director, and the whole film felt wrong and not very funny. Watching Polite Society reminded me of watching Ernest Goes to School, waiting to laugh.
The actresses did great work with what they were given, but what they were given just didn't come together very well.
Well, Mokoto Shinkai definitely goes full force in this one, but it seems like something may have been lost in translation. I understand that the subtext of the film is about Japan's 3/11 tsunami and its lasting impact on people.. but that subtext is so buried that it's just about in the sub-basement.
I didn't feel like I got to know know any of the main characters before they were off and running around, or that I had any kind of adequate explanation for the rather wild fantasy elements in the film and how they work. The story left me hollow, wanting more.. waiting to connect with something. I feel like I really could love these characters, but didn't have the opportunity to learn to love them.
The animation was, as you would expect from Shinkai, absolutely beautiful.. with only one or two bits of some rather janky CGI.
I enjoyed catching this in IMAX, with a packed crowd for the Japanese dub. However, the energy in the room was rather subdued and restless.. I think this one missed the mark a bit with the audience. The many Japanese girlfriends in attendance did not "squee" even once, even while the film was very clearly attempting to trigger the reaction.
quote:
The biggest audience reaction came when Studio Ghibli's "Whisper of the Heart" was mentioned for a split second.
Suzume is totally worth seeing for any anime fan, but not urgently so.. This isn't a new classic, sorry to say. It's just a good, solid picture that doesn't do anything too amazing.
Wow! UFOs, international assassins, psychic aliens, and an Avengers-style kaiju battle royale that doesn't disappoint! They were really pushing the envelope on this one! The film constantly clips along with a fun, comic book-style pacing and great character acting. All of the effects work was just lovely, and it's always a pleasure to see the venerable Takashi Shimura dropping in to help with Big G-related troubles. This is one very fun film!
Fun, amusing, and forgettable. With its mix of legendary characters, brilliant marketing, and totally safe/bland storyline, I won't be surprised when Super Mario Bros. cracks a billion at the box office. However, I can't say that I will be a repeat viewer.
Beyond the in-jokes and name recognition, there is very little happening in this film. I kept waiting to have some kind of emotional investment or for the story to rise past name drops and visual references, but that never happened.
Mario and company are here, you'll recognize things from the games, and there are some cute musical motifs paying tribute to the source material. It's fun, lightly amusing, and the kids will love it. But this is, ultimately, a 90-minute toy commercial--which still can't compete with the greatest toy commercial of them all: Crossfire!
Escape From New York is some of the best straight-faced 1980s action schlock I have seen. Each scene effortlessly flows into the next one, with extremely strong character performances and never a dull moment. Combined with its brilliant synthesizer soundtrack, this almost feels like a 90-minute music video. It blows by in what seems like a moment and leaves you wanting more. This is movie magic.
I'll admit, I actually do enjoy this franchise. Cat and Dog secret agents? That's fun! But this 3rd entry is a large step down from the silly enjoyment of the first 2. Very little effort was made to be clever or inventive (remember the ninja cats in the other movie?!), the human actors are outright bad, the stakes are low, and there was way too much bathroom humor--a common crutch of bad kids movies. This is a low-effort cash-in movie. It's not painful, but it cannot be recommended for any reason.
In technical aspects, Avatar 2 is a near-impossible marvel. Run!! Don't walk, to your local Dolby Cinema 3D theater. It's worth it! I really enjoyed the pace of the story, which took its time and wasn't in a rush to get to the bang-bang-pow scenes. They really let the viewer slip into the world of Pandora and get to know the characters before putting any of them in dire stakes. Other modern blockbusters should take notes in that aspect!
The character of Neytiri was severely underutilized, reduced to little more than an angry mom, which was a bit disappointing. But all of the other new characters in this very large cast each got their moment to shine.
More than anything, though, what I was reminded of was the kind of big blockbusters which we had in the mid-1990s.. From the bright colors, to the corny on-the-nose dialog, to the steady non-shaky cam, and simplistic cackling villain. It felt really nice to see a major blockbuster which wasn't afraid to get back to basics. There are no swirling loop-de-loop camera angles, no muddy CGI fogbank antagonist, and NO MODERN POLITICS. It's just a solid story, with solid filmmaking, told in the best traditions of the Hollywood blockbuster..and it just so happens to be a mind-bending marvel of digital filmmaking.
What's so impressive about Avatar 2 is just how mundane it manages to appear, like you are watching actors on a physical set. It allows you to forget that 99% of what you are seeing is fake.
In the Japanese animated TV show, Naruto, a bunch of young students enlist to become ninja warriors to defend their village from various dangers. A large amount of time is spent in following their training, in evaluating their skills, and in their graduation to become ultimate ninja warriors. One of the students--the titular Naruto--is a smart little sass-mouth brat who doesn't follow the rules and has a hidden secret sealed within him. Along the path of the story, there are many meaningless side plots that the show would probably be better off not including, and they eventually face a major threat to the survival of the village.
The Woman King follows this outline perfectly.
It is nice to see a very African-feeling major Hollywood production. The story held my interest consistently throughout the film, but never elevated itself into something special. The direction and scene composition are little better than what one might expect from a moderately-budgeted TV series, and the battle scenes are quite messy, without a clear idea of what is happening from moment to moment. I would never call any of it bad, just uninspired.
The many subplots which the film meanders into water down what could have otherwise been a taut story about the internal politics and survival of this African kingdom. And as someone who recently spent close to a month on the continent, I did not care for the color-grading applied to the film--particularly when outdoors--which felt far too gloomy. If there is one thing that Africa is not, it's gloomy.
However the sets, costumes, hair styles, dances, speech patterns, tribal cheers, and general look of the film was a joy! The story is very old-style Hollywood, with rather predictable twists and turns, but it was nice to see the old tropes of "joining the elite club" playing out in a new setting.
I enjoyed seeing this in Dolby Cinema, which certainly added to the experience with plenty a chair-punches and thumps. It's worth seeing, but isn't changing anything much in cinema. You could wait for streaming.
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For anyone wondering about the various controversies surrounding this picture.. No, this is not a "girl boss" woke fest. Yes, it addresses the fact that absolutely everyone's hands were dirty in the slave trade, repeatedly. And very little time is spent talking about or showing white folks.
By in large, this is a movie about internal African issues. I found that to be the most interesting thing about it.
- The scope of the MCU.
- The plot of the X-men.
- The straight-faced stupidity of G.I. Joe.
Mix it all together, throw in romance, rave parties, and some surprisingly great CGI and you've got a pretty good time at the movies!
There is a lot of obvious filler plot to pad out the Bollywood run time, and the dialog is so very cheesy and cliché. But if you embrace this film with a "so bad it's good" mentality, I honestly stopped caring that this was not RRR or some similarly genius piece of cinema.
The leads are consistently beautiful and engaging. The action scenes are a ton of fun, with clear direction that you can easily follow. And it even has a powerful hero music track that you will doubtless be humming on the way home!
If all you want from your movie night is a reasonably well made thrill ride that is inoffensive and not too cerebral, I would give Brahmastra a shining endorsement. It is a lot of fun, and I was glad to see it in IMAX 3D. It was a very good experience!
Wonderfully enjoyable and suitable for the whole family, Moon Man is what I had hoped for from The Martian: The jokes are better, the science is good [enough], and the main character is far more likeable, with many moments of laughter and genuine emotion.
In a packed house of mostly Chinese viewers, everyone was having such a good time that even after 2 hours, no one budged from their seat when the end credits started appearing. The woman behind me must have said "oh my god!" to the events on screen at least a dozen times. The film is silly and fun in a way that you simply don't see in Hollywood any more.
Also, major props to the CGI and strong direction! There were so many downright beautiful scenes, taking full advantage of the space setting! This is definitely one to catch on the big screen, if at all possible!
(I'm considering starting a list of non-English films which prominently feature the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads")
Emergency Declaration won't set the world on fire, but it very successfully sticks the landing with an old formula: A large cast disaster drama. I was reminded a lot of the star-studded 1970s productions coming out of Hollywood, with a lot of time spent on the detailed minutiae of the situation: among the passengers, the crew, the government, the families on the ground, and the determined detectives. The personal drama and moments of action are pretty light, but the plot is consistently taut, with dire stakes always on the line. I was very impressed with the film's ability to juggle such a large and high-performing cast in a believable manner, without ever losing track of who is who and what matters to each of them.
I also really appreciated the practical filmmaking and stunt work which helped to sell the immersion. When people start flying around the cabin, you can feel the bruises. The few fully CGI moments are brief enough to forgive their slight jankiness, and I liked that they were only used for impossible exterior shots of the plane. This is wonderful, old-school filmmaking on big sets!
Taking shelter from the summer heat with my unlimited movie pass, the best part of Super Pets is definitely the opening scene which features some loving visual and musical nods to the Christopher Reeve era of Superman. Hearing John Williams' theme again in theaters was a definite tug on the heart strings.
The rest of the film is typical disposable kids movie nonsense, with forced humor every 30 seconds, an inability to take itself seriously, and some weird jokes and plot points involving profanity and sexuality. Basically, all of the normal trash that parents need to endure after a corporate marketing blitz.
The laughs were few in my moderately family-filled theater, and I almost fell asleep several times. But the air conditioning and leather recliner was nice..
Catching "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" is still the best choice for theater-going families, while it's around.
Gorgeous volcano footage captured by the subjects of the documentary. But I could really do without the breathy, disinterested female narrator, acting like all life is a passing dream. You don't learn very much about Maurice and Katia's work except that they sure did love volcanos!
I ended up having similar feelings with this documentary as I did with "The Biggest Little Farm": A film made for California hippies who want to gaze wondrously at nature without actually learning anything.
I think that I would be more inclined to seek out the films which Maurice and Katia created themselves, rather than watching this one again. But this is a decent, pretty-looking time killer.
Probably the first "chick flick" I've watched in theaters, "Where the Crawdads Sing" is a perfectly enjoyable movie that does very little to surprise you. I was enjoying the setting, cinematography, and budding romance at first. But then it fell into love triangle tropes, started bringing up plot threads that didn't go anywhere, and failed to deliver any kind of emotional punch by the end.
Crawdad girl is obviously super special and doesn't fit in with the cool normies who make fun of her, and you don't learn very much about any other character except that they're big meanie faces. Solid performances for the material, but this can easily wait for a home viewing. I'm sure that this will be excellent Stream and Chill material in the future.
I took my mother for her enjoyment. As someone who has never seen the show, it was quite ok. Solid performances, good characterization, nice sets and clothes, and compelling twists and turns in the lives of these aristocrats. It's a well made British period drama..
John Candy plays a hack TV writer who helps or hurts the careers of actresses based on how horny he is for them and whether they'll go out with him or not. Imagine Groundhog Day, except Bill Murray didn't learn anything by the end of the film. The soap opera reality concept overstayed its welcome and never became clever enough to justify its existence. You can take or leave this one; you're not missing much.
No one can go cuckoo-bananas with their films quite like M. Night Shyamalan. I love the dude for making movies like no one else. This one is all concept, and severely lacking in any kind of characterization. In one scene, several children were play-acting a short story with a war robot and a barbie doll having a domestic argument. This is a fitting analogy for the kind of character depth which you can expect to find within Old. It is a massively interesting film which quickly begins to tread water after the main concept has been established, and lacks any kind of emotional punch. All the while, the entire cast starts going nuts, with ludicrousness which borders on comedy.
Please, Mr Shyamalan, keep making these crazy movies! I'll keep watching them, happily.
The Biggest Little Farm follows the journey of a hippie-minded Californian couple who are evicted from their apartment because they are bad neighbors who let their dog bark non-stop. Someone gives them a bunch of money to start a hippie farm where all of nature will coexist in perfect harmony, another person tells them how to do everything because they are not farmers and don't know anything, and still more people do the actual farming for them.
You will not learn anything about their farming process, anything about their lives, or even anything about the subjects that the film does focus on. Each thread of attention is dropped before resolution in favor of another rambling motivational speech about how amazing nature is, because it's so pretty!
This is a 90-minute hippie lecture saying, "Corporate farms are bad. Learn to live with mother earth, kumbaya!" The sheer First World privilege of this couple is amazing, creating what is essentially a massive flower garden and calling it a farm.
The cinematography of the plants and animals is very good, but not moreso than what you can see on the Nature Channel at any time of the day or night.
If you want to marvel at nature being pretty, not learn anything, and believe that you are the most wonderful person in the world because you purchase free-range eggs, then this is the film for you.
This attempted spoof of B-movies aims for the "so bad it's good" crown, but ends up being just plain bad. The film is aware of its stupidity and believes that by being stupid it will be funny. It's not. I laughed/smiled exactly 1 time at a single one-liner that actually worked. The seemingly real helicopter crash at the beginning was worth seeing, and is a fitting metaphor for the remainder of the film. The rest of the runtime is a series of disconnected 1 to 2-minute skits that are funny in the same vein as a toddler yelling "poop" repeatedly for 83-minutes.
A perfectly solid end-of-the-world blockbuster, where One Man fights against the system. Some of the characters are too stupid for words, leading to laugh-out-loud moments as they end up covered in virus blood. Special mention goes to some very impressive helicopter stunts and flying. Don't expect too much and you will enjoy yourself.
Comments 1 - 25 of 152
Movie comment on The Creator
KuroSawWhat
After the hatchet job which Disney pulled on Rogue One, I was interested to see whether the lack of emotional investment which I felt toward its characters and the unearned plot beats and payoffs were the fault of their corporate meddling or Gareth Edwards' original directorial choices. After watching The Creator, I do believe that it was Edwards' vision, shining through brightly and blandly.Without realizing it, I seem to have now viewed Edwards' entire feature filmography--including Godzilla (2014) and Monsters--and I see a common thread between all of his films. He is very focused on achieving key "moments" which he hopes to see in the end film, along with striking imagery to accompany them. However, the connective threads which lead between these key moments, which could be used to add depth to the characters and emotional weight to the subsequent plot beats.. these sections seem like afterthoughts. No finer example can be found than in his breakout film Monsters, which literally did not have a script! The actors in that film were told to ad lib their lines for entire scenes, leading to lots of riveting dialog, such as, "So, uh, what do you think we should do now?"
These problems are on full display in The Creator. In the opening scene, two people are rolling in bed together, whispering about how much they love each other. Who are these people? We don't yet know. But them saying that they love each other is good enough motivation for the entire film, apparently! Then, to set things in motion, our main character shoo's some people out of the room and loudly shouts into a radio, "I'M UNDERCOVER!! [sic]" and is shocked to turn around and see that he was overheard. I nearly laughed out loud in the theater, and we're less than 5-minutes in.
From there, Edwards begins "artistically" transitioning from key scene to key scene with literally no transitions in-between, and characters continue spouting one-dimensional dialog which we are meant to take at face value: "I feel this. Those people did X because of Y." There is a lot of telling rather than showing (breaking film rule #1).
I will admit that Edwards has a very distinctive visual style, but he really needs someone else to be writing the script.
I'm not saying this is a bad film. It's fine. It's competent. It looks great and feels like a lived-in SF universe. It's a good little adventure travelogue. And I'm happy to see a story that is more about how key events impact people on a personal level, rather than being about some world-ending event. I want to see more of that in contemporary mainstream SF.
But when it did come down to how the people in this film were impacted by the events which unfolded, I felt nothing. Not even a tickling of emotion. The desired story payoffs were completely unearned.. just like in Rogue One.
Movie comment on Mandala: The UFO Incident
KuroSawWhat
A rather average UFO movie. A scientist lady gets abducted and her boyfriend begins investigating what happened, trying to get people to believe him. There are a lot mystery box setups that keep you interested throughout the runtime and the acting is consistently engaging, but the story ultimately goes nowhere worthwhile.What little CGI was in the picture was surprising good for a movie which was clearly made on a tight budget, with better compositing than many current Marvel productions. I also appreciated the minimalist computer displays that didn't get carried away with themselves when dealing with the science stuff.
The one song sequence was quite nice. Again, there was clearly no budget involved, but the director did a lot with just the actors and locations.
With a more satisfying conclusion or a more fleshed out story, I would give this a recommendation, but it's just kind of "meh" when you reach the end credits. Watch if you have nothing else to do.
My first Kannada-language film.
Movie comment on Polite Society
KuroSawWhat
Too zany to take seriously.Not zany enough to make an impact.
A lot of the humor in this one fell flat, with a combination of absurdist character acting and very mundane, unambitious directing. It never felt like the film was picking up steam, and I felt like I had missed part of a first act where the close sisterly bond and the hopes and dreams of the two lead characters were shown prior to their being put to the test.
We were told some of these things in dialog, but not shown. (Film Rule #1: SHOW, don't tell) Example: Apparently the big sister is passionate about making art.. but we never SEE her creating art, looking at art, or talking about how much she likes art. It's a conflict point which is pulled out of thin air and is meant to have emotional weight, but was never developed.
For a good portion of the film I felt a strong dislike for the lead character. Her delinquent sister started seeing a seemingly nice guy from a nice family and she hate, hate, hates this because.. why, exactly?? Between the script which could have used more development and the very stilted direction, something felt off for the entire runtime of film.
To make a comparison, I grew up watching Jim Varney in the Ernest P. Worrell film series. I loved those movies! They were full of absurd humor, goofy characters, and a wild director: John R. Cherry III. John directed them all. Except for one.. the worst one.. "Ernest Goes to School".. Although its Director, Coke Sams, had been a long-time Producer on the series, he couldn't quite nail the Ernest style as a Director, and the whole film felt wrong and not very funny. Watching Polite Society reminded me of watching Ernest Goes to School, waiting to laugh.
The actresses did great work with what they were given, but what they were given just didn't come together very well.
Movie comment on Suzume no tojimari
KuroSawWhat
Well, Mokoto Shinkai definitely goes full force in this one, but it seems like something may have been lost in translation. I understand that the subtext of the film is about Japan's 3/11 tsunami and its lasting impact on people.. but that subtext is so buried that it's just about in the sub-basement.I didn't feel like I got to know know any of the main characters before they were off and running around, or that I had any kind of adequate explanation for the rather wild fantasy elements in the film and how they work. The story left me hollow, wanting more.. waiting to connect with something. I feel like I really could love these characters, but didn't have the opportunity to learn to love them.
The animation was, as you would expect from Shinkai, absolutely beautiful.. with only one or two bits of some rather janky CGI.
I enjoyed catching this in IMAX, with a packed crowd for the Japanese dub. However, the energy in the room was rather subdued and restless.. I think this one missed the mark a bit with the audience. The many Japanese girlfriends in attendance did not "squee" even once, even while the film was very clearly attempting to trigger the reaction.
Suzume is totally worth seeing for any anime fan, but not urgently so.. This isn't a new classic, sorry to say. It's just a good, solid picture that doesn't do anything too amazing.
Movie comment on San daikaijû: Chikyû saidai no kessen
KuroSawWhat
Wow! UFOs, international assassins, psychic aliens, and an Avengers-style kaiju battle royale that doesn't disappoint! They were really pushing the envelope on this one! The film constantly clips along with a fun, comic book-style pacing and great character acting. All of the effects work was just lovely, and it's always a pleasure to see the venerable Takashi Shimura dropping in to help with Big G-related troubles. This is one very fun film!Movie comment on The Super Mario Bros. Movie
KuroSawWhat
Fun, amusing, and forgettable. With its mix of legendary characters, brilliant marketing, and totally safe/bland storyline, I won't be surprised when Super Mario Bros. cracks a billion at the box office. However, I can't say that I will be a repeat viewer.Beyond the in-jokes and name recognition, there is very little happening in this film. I kept waiting to have some kind of emotional investment or for the story to rise past name drops and visual references, but that never happened.
Mario and company are here, you'll recognize things from the games, and there are some cute musical motifs paying tribute to the source material. It's fun, lightly amusing, and the kids will love it. But this is, ultimately, a 90-minute toy commercial--which still can't compete with the greatest toy commercial of them all: Crossfire!
Movie comment on Escape from New York
KuroSawWhat
Escape From New York is some of the best straight-faced 1980s action schlock I have seen. Each scene effortlessly flows into the next one, with extremely strong character performances and never a dull moment. Combined with its brilliant synthesizer soundtrack, this almost feels like a 90-minute music video. It blows by in what seems like a moment and leaves you wanting more. This is movie magic.Movie comment on Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite
KuroSawWhat
I'll admit, I actually do enjoy this franchise. Cat and Dog secret agents? That's fun! But this 3rd entry is a large step down from the silly enjoyment of the first 2. Very little effort was made to be clever or inventive (remember the ninja cats in the other movie?!), the human actors are outright bad, the stakes are low, and there was way too much bathroom humor--a common crutch of bad kids movies. This is a low-effort cash-in movie. It's not painful, but it cannot be recommended for any reason.Movie comment on Avatar: The Way of Water
KuroSawWhat
In technical aspects, Avatar 2 is a near-impossible marvel. Run!! Don't walk, to your local Dolby Cinema 3D theater. It's worth it! I really enjoyed the pace of the story, which took its time and wasn't in a rush to get to the bang-bang-pow scenes. They really let the viewer slip into the world of Pandora and get to know the characters before putting any of them in dire stakes. Other modern blockbusters should take notes in that aspect!The character of Neytiri was severely underutilized, reduced to little more than an angry mom, which was a bit disappointing. But all of the other new characters in this very large cast each got their moment to shine.
More than anything, though, what I was reminded of was the kind of big blockbusters which we had in the mid-1990s.. From the bright colors, to the corny on-the-nose dialog, to the steady non-shaky cam, and simplistic cackling villain. It felt really nice to see a major blockbuster which wasn't afraid to get back to basics. There are no swirling loop-de-loop camera angles, no muddy CGI fogbank antagonist, and NO MODERN POLITICS. It's just a solid story, with solid filmmaking, told in the best traditions of the Hollywood blockbuster..and it just so happens to be a mind-bending marvel of digital filmmaking.
What's so impressive about Avatar 2 is just how mundane it manages to appear, like you are watching actors on a physical set. It allows you to forget that 99% of what you are seeing is fake.
Movie comment on The Woman King
KuroSawWhat
In the Japanese animated TV show, Naruto, a bunch of young students enlist to become ninja warriors to defend their village from various dangers. A large amount of time is spent in following their training, in evaluating their skills, and in their graduation to become ultimate ninja warriors. One of the students--the titular Naruto--is a smart little sass-mouth brat who doesn't follow the rules and has a hidden secret sealed within him. Along the path of the story, there are many meaningless side plots that the show would probably be better off not including, and they eventually face a major threat to the survival of the village.The Woman King follows this outline perfectly.
It is nice to see a very African-feeling major Hollywood production. The story held my interest consistently throughout the film, but never elevated itself into something special. The direction and scene composition are little better than what one might expect from a moderately-budgeted TV series, and the battle scenes are quite messy, without a clear idea of what is happening from moment to moment. I would never call any of it bad, just uninspired.
The many subplots which the film meanders into water down what could have otherwise been a taut story about the internal politics and survival of this African kingdom. And as someone who recently spent close to a month on the continent, I did not care for the color-grading applied to the film--particularly when outdoors--which felt far too gloomy. If there is one thing that Africa is not, it's gloomy.
However the sets, costumes, hair styles, dances, speech patterns, tribal cheers, and general look of the film was a joy! The story is very old-style Hollywood, with rather predictable twists and turns, but it was nice to see the old tropes of "joining the elite club" playing out in a new setting.
I enjoyed seeing this in Dolby Cinema, which certainly added to the experience with plenty a chair-punches and thumps. It's worth seeing, but isn't changing anything much in cinema. You could wait for streaming.
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For anyone wondering about the various controversies surrounding this picture.. No, this is not a "girl boss" woke fest. Yes, it addresses the fact that absolutely everyone's hands were dirty in the slave trade, repeatedly. And very little time is spent talking about or showing white folks.
By in large, this is a movie about internal African issues. I found that to be the most interesting thing about it.
Movie comment on Brahmastra Part One: Shiva
KuroSawWhat
- The scope of the MCU.- The plot of the X-men.
- The straight-faced stupidity of G.I. Joe.
Mix it all together, throw in romance, rave parties, and some surprisingly great CGI and you've got a pretty good time at the movies!
There is a lot of obvious filler plot to pad out the Bollywood run time, and the dialog is so very cheesy and cliché. But if you embrace this film with a "so bad it's good" mentality, I honestly stopped caring that this was not RRR or some similarly genius piece of cinema.
The leads are consistently beautiful and engaging. The action scenes are a ton of fun, with clear direction that you can easily follow. And it even has a powerful hero music track that you will doubtless be humming on the way home!
If all you want from your movie night is a reasonably well made thrill ride that is inoffensive and not too cerebral, I would give Brahmastra a shining endorsement. It is a lot of fun, and I was glad to see it in IMAX 3D. It was a very good experience!
Movie comment on Du xing yue qiu
KuroSawWhat
Wonderfully enjoyable and suitable for the whole family, Moon Man is what I had hoped for from The Martian: The jokes are better, the science is good [enough], and the main character is far more likeable, with many moments of laughter and genuine emotion.In a packed house of mostly Chinese viewers, everyone was having such a good time that even after 2 hours, no one budged from their seat when the end credits started appearing. The woman behind me must have said "oh my god!" to the events on screen at least a dozen times. The film is silly and fun in a way that you simply don't see in Hollywood any more.
Also, major props to the CGI and strong direction! There were so many downright beautiful scenes, taking full advantage of the space setting! This is definitely one to catch on the big screen, if at all possible!
(I'm considering starting a list of non-English films which prominently feature the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads")
Movie comment on Bisang Seoneon
KuroSawWhat
Emergency Declaration won't set the world on fire, but it very successfully sticks the landing with an old formula: A large cast disaster drama. I was reminded a lot of the star-studded 1970s productions coming out of Hollywood, with a lot of time spent on the detailed minutiae of the situation: among the passengers, the crew, the government, the families on the ground, and the determined detectives. The personal drama and moments of action are pretty light, but the plot is consistently taut, with dire stakes always on the line. I was very impressed with the film's ability to juggle such a large and high-performing cast in a believable manner, without ever losing track of who is who and what matters to each of them.I also really appreciated the practical filmmaking and stunt work which helped to sell the immersion. When people start flying around the cabin, you can feel the bruises. The few fully CGI moments are brief enough to forgive their slight jankiness, and I liked that they were only used for impossible exterior shots of the plane. This is wonderful, old-school filmmaking on big sets!
Bring a tissue, buckle up, and enjoy the ride!
Movie comment on DC League of Super-Pets
KuroSawWhat
Taking shelter from the summer heat with my unlimited movie pass, the best part of Super Pets is definitely the opening scene which features some loving visual and musical nods to the Christopher Reeve era of Superman. Hearing John Williams' theme again in theaters was a definite tug on the heart strings.The rest of the film is typical disposable kids movie nonsense, with forced humor every 30 seconds, an inability to take itself seriously, and some weird jokes and plot points involving profanity and sexuality. Basically, all of the normal trash that parents need to endure after a corporate marketing blitz.
The laughs were few in my moderately family-filled theater, and I almost fell asleep several times. But the air conditioning and leather recliner was nice..
Catching "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" is still the best choice for theater-going families, while it's around.
Movie comment on Fire of Love
KuroSawWhat
Gorgeous volcano footage captured by the subjects of the documentary. But I could really do without the breathy, disinterested female narrator, acting like all life is a passing dream. You don't learn very much about Maurice and Katia's work except that they sure did love volcanos!I ended up having similar feelings with this documentary as I did with "The Biggest Little Farm": A film made for California hippies who want to gaze wondrously at nature without actually learning anything.
I think that I would be more inclined to seek out the films which Maurice and Katia created themselves, rather than watching this one again. But this is a decent, pretty-looking time killer.
Movie comment on Where the Crawdads Sing
KuroSawWhat
Probably the first "chick flick" I've watched in theaters, "Where the Crawdads Sing" is a perfectly enjoyable movie that does very little to surprise you. I was enjoying the setting, cinematography, and budding romance at first. But then it fell into love triangle tropes, started bringing up plot threads that didn't go anywhere, and failed to deliver any kind of emotional punch by the end.Crawdad girl is obviously super special and doesn't fit in with the cool normies who make fun of her, and you don't learn very much about any other character except that they're big meanie faces. Solid performances for the material, but this can easily wait for a home viewing. I'm sure that this will be excellent Stream and Chill material in the future.
Movie comment on Top Gun
KuroSawWhat
Basically a hot-for-teacher high school romp with jet planes instead of sportsball..Movie comment on Downton Abbey: A New Era
KuroSawWhat
I took my mother for her enjoyment. As someone who has never seen the show, it was quite ok. Solid performances, good characterization, nice sets and clothes, and compelling twists and turns in the lives of these aristocrats. It's a well made British period drama..Movie comment on Delirious
KuroSawWhat
John Candy plays a hack TV writer who helps or hurts the careers of actresses based on how horny he is for them and whether they'll go out with him or not. Imagine Groundhog Day, except Bill Murray didn't learn anything by the end of the film. The soap opera reality concept overstayed its welcome and never became clever enough to justify its existence. You can take or leave this one; you're not missing much.Movie comment on Old
KuroSawWhat
No one can go cuckoo-bananas with their films quite like M. Night Shyamalan. I love the dude for making movies like no one else. This one is all concept, and severely lacking in any kind of characterization. In one scene, several children were play-acting a short story with a war robot and a barbie doll having a domestic argument. This is a fitting analogy for the kind of character depth which you can expect to find within Old. It is a massively interesting film which quickly begins to tread water after the main concept has been established, and lacks any kind of emotional punch. All the while, the entire cast starts going nuts, with ludicrousness which borders on comedy.Please, Mr Shyamalan, keep making these crazy movies! I'll keep watching them, happily.
Movie comment on Persepolis
KuroSawWhat
Interesting inclusion on the top "Family" film list with its multiple uses of the C-word..Movie comment on The Biggest Little Farm
KuroSawWhat
The Biggest Little Farm follows the journey of a hippie-minded Californian couple who are evicted from their apartment because they are bad neighbors who let their dog bark non-stop. Someone gives them a bunch of money to start a hippie farm where all of nature will coexist in perfect harmony, another person tells them how to do everything because they are not farmers and don't know anything, and still more people do the actual farming for them.You will not learn anything about their farming process, anything about their lives, or even anything about the subjects that the film does focus on. Each thread of attention is dropped before resolution in favor of another rambling motivational speech about how amazing nature is, because it's so pretty!
This is a 90-minute hippie lecture saying, "Corporate farms are bad. Learn to live with mother earth, kumbaya!" The sheer First World privilege of this couple is amazing, creating what is essentially a massive flower garden and calling it a farm.
The cinematography of the plants and animals is very good, but not moreso than what you can see on the Nature Channel at any time of the day or night.
If you want to marvel at nature being pretty, not learn anything, and believe that you are the most wonderful person in the world because you purchase free-range eggs, then this is the film for you.
Movie comment on Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker
KuroSawWhat
I don't think that I have ever before said "Huh?" and "What?!" quite so many times while watching a film.Movie comment on Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!
KuroSawWhat
This attempted spoof of B-movies aims for the "so bad it's good" crown, but ends up being just plain bad. The film is aware of its stupidity and believes that by being stupid it will be funny. It's not. I laughed/smiled exactly 1 time at a single one-liner that actually worked. The seemingly real helicopter crash at the beginning was worth seeing, and is a fitting metaphor for the remainder of the film. The rest of the runtime is a series of disconnected 1 to 2-minute skits that are funny in the same vein as a toddler yelling "poop" repeatedly for 83-minutes.Movie comment on Outbreak
KuroSawWhat
A perfectly solid end-of-the-world blockbuster, where One Man fights against the system. Some of the characters are too stupid for words, leading to laugh-out-loud moments as they end up covered in virus blood. Special mention goes to some very impressive helicopter stunts and flying. Don't expect too much and you will enjoy yourself.Showing items 1 – 25 of 152