2022 May
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The World PH: it has been a very rainy week over here, with the mornings typically hot and the afternoons and evenings with daily showers. Weather agency PAG-ASA has declared the official start of the rainy season, making my daily walks more challenging. At least we are hopefully going to suffer less of the summer heat. Covid isn't even over, but apparently there's a new disease to worry about: Monkeypox. I asked an infectious disease specialist I knew if we should be worried about it and she answered "At this point no. But that's we said about Covid too." So -
A Quote In the river I have seen you Through love age and misery In the river I will find you for you will always be you and i will always be me Gwyn Davies, Legends of Tomorrow S07E12 The World PH/Politics: The elections have come and gone and like it not, we must live with the results. I have written some post-election thoughts here. PH/sports: Some good news though: Last Friday the UP Maroons defeated ADMU in the final game of the UAAP basketball season, ending a 36-year drought. The Maroons last won the championship after the dictatorship fell. -
I've been putting my media reviews in the weeknotes but I felt like these two reviews would be long enough to justify a separate post. I posted spoiler-free reviews the other day. This post will have unmarked spoilers. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (2022) (Click photos to view full-size) Watched this with some friends last Wednesday, only my 3rd film seen in the theaters since the pandemic, and the first time I went with friends outside of immediate family. I usually try to avoid watching all except the earliest trailers for MCU film to minimize spoilers, but after -
Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness:
- fun, trippy and very "comic book" movie
- better if you have seen Wandavision
- don't bring kids, they might get scared
Moon Knight:
- some beautiful shots of varied locations
- great performances
- plot was ok, episode 5 was weird but probably the best one
- ending a bit weak
- probably enjoy it more if you're into the comics
2022 April
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Today is Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week. When I was growing up, Holy Week was traditionally a quiet time of prayer and reflection; my grandmother would chastise us if we were noisy, especially from Thursday through Saturday. The period feels a lot less sacrosanct in the modern world, either because I'm an adult now or because people usually just take this time to go on vacations or whatnot, or maybe some combination of both. The World Putin's invasion of Ukraine is now in its 7th week. More and more Russian war atrocities are coming to light. PH/Politics:
2022 March
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I keep shifting between writing individual posts per thing I want to review or doing one of these "Watching Lately" posts that consolidate several items at the same time. I guess when it's a number of "less important" films or shows it's okay to consolidate them together? But if it's something like The Batman or an MCU film which are generally bigger fandoms for me, then individual posts are ok, since I'll usually have a lot to say? IDK, I'm just making this all up as I go along. This one is the last two weeks worth of movies and -
Watched The Batman (2022) yesterday, only my second time in the cinemas since the pandemic began. Spoiler-free review: a different, darker and more grounded take on the Batman mythology compared to previous films. This one is more of neo-noir mystery and has a stronger focus on Batman's investigative abilities. Pattinson's Batman is younger and earlier in his career, still brash and reckless and unrefined and full of rage and vengeance, but he manages to find a bit of growth during the course of the narrative. I really like the Batman costume in this film, especially the whole raised collar thing -
It's even more annoying given that a good part of the world is still in a pandemic, and many would have been unable or unwilling to go out to theaters to watch in the first few days, and after that people just casually drop spoilers wherever.
I was only able to watch No Way Home a couple of weeks ago because there was an Omicron surge in my country at the time it came out and I had no way to watch it safely. To say that I was disappointed with how much the internet spoiled to me is putting it mildly. And that's with me avoiding watching trailers and such. The movie experience would have been so much better if I had been able to watch day one (but even then all the leaks/rumors headlines would have already ruined some stuff for you!)
I'm honestly thinking of just giving it up for Multiverse and Madness and just reading and watching everything, but that seems like a miserable time.
Maybe this is just the price we have to pay for all the comic book films we are getting and for indulging this cinematic juggernaut.
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Watched Free Guy (2021) today on a whim. This film is way better than I expected it to be, given the premise. A fun romp, with decent performances by Ryan Reynolds and Jodie comer (who I had previously only seen in The Last Duel). A fun popcorn flick!
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Last night I wanted to watch a movie and settled on Drive (2011), mostly because of Carey Mulligan, who I really only knew from Blink. This film went from slow burn to sudden, graphic violence real quick. The protagonist hardly says anything. Very neo-noir. The director lingers on every shot, letting the audience soak up the mood. I feel like Ryan Gosling here is playing the same type of character he was in Blade Runner 2046, but I haven't seen enough of his movies to know if that's typical for his range. The film isn't really about driving cars, although it has a couple of good driving sequences.
2022 February
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Watched this last night, since it was the last Jack Ryan movie I hadn't seen yet. (Coulda sworn it wasn't on Prime Video last year). It was ok. Ben Affleck's performance wasn't outstanding or anything, and the setup in the first half took a bit too long and was mostly just people talking and such, but the action-thriller part in the second half was good. I can see how releasing this in the climate less than a year after 9/11 might have been problematic though.
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I'm not big on rom-coms, but I am big on time loops and Groundhog Day is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I decided to give Palm Springs (2020) a shot. It's basically a Groundhog Day-style time loop movie where more than one person is caught in the same loop. And the setting is a wedding, making an easy setup for the romcom. The film stars Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti as the romcom pair trapped in the same loop. JK Simmons and Tyler "Superman" Hoechlin also appear. The performances in the film are pretty good. It's also a -
I've been putting off watching this one because I was afraid it would ruin whatever nostalgia I had for the original 1984 film, one of my all-time favorites. I haven't even watched the 2016 Ghostbusters either for this same reason. A few days ago, Ivan Reitman, who directed the original two films and produced this one, passed away. So I decided it was a good time to finally watch the film. I loved the film! It was a very worthy successor to the legacy of the franchise, full of heart and nostalgia. The setting was moved to small-town middle America, -
After much delay, I was finally able to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home last weekend. The film came out last December so it's a 2021 movie, but only became available for showing locally in the first week of January in my country. Unfortunately, that's right when our omicron surge kicked in! I opted to wait and finally decided that this weekend was safe enough as the surge was in decline. The film was well-received and has earned a lot of money. However, I have mixed feelings. First, a spoiler-free review: it's the kind of adventure where things just keep escalating
2022 January
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Wasn't inclined to watch this as I dislike movies where the people in charge are being idiots. Thankfully, it turns out to be about competent people in a world where incompetent people have all the power, so that is a bit less annoying, mainly because it's easily relatable in these times. The story is highly USA-centric and there are a lot of exaggerations for effect (see marked spoilers below), but the insanity the movie is pointing out is clear and doesn't feel too far removed from real life. Basically politics and capitalism causing the world's problems, as per usual. Lots
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I've only seen 2 of these so far.
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Watched this so I could widen my horizons with a musical. Surprised to learn it was based on a real-life musical and on a real person. The songs were pretty good. Andrew Garfield gave a great performance.
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Finally got to watch Eternals since it was already got a streaming release. (Sadly still unable to go out and watch films in the theater.) This film had mixed reviews, and I can see why. For me, the main problem is that the film tries to do too many different things, and doesn't execute any of them particularly well. This is largely an offshoot of having such a large ensemble cast (there are TEN main characters!), each of whom are new to the MCU and thus are in need of backgrounds, personalities and character arcs. The problems are complicated by
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From the description, I expected some kind of John Wick-style revenge action film; that was nowhere near correct. The film defies expectations at almost every turn, going in directions I never expected. It feels like to explain the film would be to ruin it, so I won't. It is pretty good, and we get a serious Cage performance in this one.
(Click photos to view full-size)
2021 December
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Watched The Green Knight (2021). Wasn't sure what to expect. Description suggested it would be some kind of action movie. It was most certainly not. The movie is captivating, unsettling, ambiguous, and even kind of trippy. Some great shots and visuals. Also it is surprisingly a Christmas movie. And there is a short post-credits scene!
(Click photos to view full-size)
