2023 June
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A fantastic follow-up to the original 2018 movie, further developing Miles and expanding on Gwen's back story as well. Fantastic use of animation not only to portray the different universes, but as also as a storytelling tool to convey emotion, tone and depth. Also I must commend the marketing for preparing trailers that while they showed a lot of the fun stuff in the films, never spoiled any of the deeper plot moments or the cause of the ultimate conflict that arises between Miles and the other Spiders. Looking forward to Beyond the Spider-verse next year!
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When I told my friends I'd never seen this film before they told me it's fun so I watched it. It was indeed fun, but not as fun as I'd hoped and I feel like my expectations were set too high. I think I was expecting more Indiana Jones type hijinx and instead got body horror and cheesy 90s CGI.
That being said, still very entertaining; Fraser and Weiss gave good performances that prevented the movie from being too cheesy. I like how the protag starts out rough and a bit belligerent but comes around to show he really cares about the girl.
I was thinking about also watching the Tom Cruise remake, but I read that Fraser said it was "less fun" than the original so maybe not.
2023 May
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I forget why I added this to my list but wow such a good film with magnificent performances. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins were great in this, and even a lot of the supporting cast were great. A dark and tragic tale of loss and trauma and vengeance and endless cycles of violence
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Intense and action-packed, great fight scenes
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Watched this only because I heard young Michelle Yeoh was in it, then realized afterwards that I've never actually seen Police Story 2.
It was fine, lots of good fighting and stunts as would be expected. Michelle Yeoh looks so different especially during the earlier scenes; I think if I had seen this blind it might have taken me a while to recognize her. She did great though.
I think I like the original Police Story a bit more; like the bus sequences in the third act of the first film were a bit more interesting than the train sequences here. Though it is nice that Jacky has someone else on his side who can do kung fu.
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Feels like this had a darker, more somber and much more emotional tone than the first two films. A very hateable villain, especially for animal lovers. The Guardians crew are at the best they've ever been; the banter and the coordination fighting alongside each other are a testament of how they've grown together as a found family. The films gives a fitting end to the story arcs for most of our Guardians crew.
Some plot nitpicks here and there, and my brother though the film was just a tad too long, but nothing too problematic. James Gunn has more or less stuck the landing on his final MCU film.
2023 April
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Pretty good as far as video game adaptations go. The plot of the film is definitely for kids, but that can't be avoided as the source material isn't exactly deep. A fun romp with lots of references for fans of the Mario franchise in general. Huge improvement over the last film!
+ performances by Jack Black and Seth Rogen who were obviously having fun
+ Charles Martinet (original Mario voice) playing Mario's dad!!
+ Peach kicking ass
+ the existential Luma lol
- not explaining if their last name is Mario -
I remember seeing the trailer for this one back in the day and thought it might be interesting. I was wrong. There was one decent action sequence in there but the rest of the film was forgettable.
I also have trouble with the idea that the use of surrogates is so widespread that homicides are unheard of, yet there are these large anti-surrogate reservations right next to the big cities where the residents all look like homeless people. Also surely only middle class and up are able to afford surrogates, so does the rest of society just live in these dread places?
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This was so good. Fresh, fun and witty adventure, and so many references for those familiar with the source material. I liked the Paladin and the Druid, but all the characters are quite good and reasonably fleshed out and likeable and the performances are pretty good. This is what I wish MCU movies could be like since Endgame.
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Wanted an action film to watch while doing other stuff, this was a pretty good choice. Was honestly a bit bored at the start but then they had this insanely long set of action sequences that look like they were all a single shot (I found out later that they weren't, but still pretty impressive) and I started paying attention.
The plot isn't much to speak about, but the action sequences are pretty good and Hemsworth gives a pretty decent performance actually. Not bad, will probably give the sequel a shot.
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Needed a light film to watch in the background, settled on this one from NF recommendations. I have almost no memory of what happened in the first film.
Sandler and Aniston's characters are now bumbling amateur detectives who rapidly stumble into happening to solve a kidnapping (and several murders). The humor is about what you'd expect for this kind of movie.
It reminds me of Rush Hour 3 for some reason, but that might just be because they also went to Paris (and that is the only detail I remember from Rush Hour 3)
Film is entertaining enough as popcorn fare that you shouldn't think too much about.
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My mom said she tried to watch some Brad Pitt film about sports but found it boring because there was so much talking. I realized later that she was referring to this film and decided to finally watch it.
It's pretty good! It's a film about sports, but not really a sports film. And also a film about trying out new things and challenging industry preconceptions. The pacing and shots and how the pivotal moments in the team's season are portrayed are all well-executed.
Definitely the sort of film for my mom though.
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First time rewatching this in a long while, mostly because I've been reading the old Thor comics and couldn't remember what the Warriors Three looked like in the MCU. Volstagg is nowhere near as voluminous as he was in the comics!
I think the film holds up reasonably well, though it's nowhere as good as say, Iron Man. Does a reasonable job of introducing the Asgard mythos and the Asgard set pieces still look pretty good.
2023 March
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My friends asked me how this movie was and I was like "It meets expectations. You kind of imagine what a new John Wick movie would be like, and this is exactly that." Great action sequences as usual. One of the characters I had no idea why he was in the script at all, didn't seem like he added anything of interest.
While I did enjoy the film, I do think the whole John Wick saga went on a bit too long, and each additional entry, while entertaining, will just never have as much bang as the previous entries, so I'm glad this film concluded the way it did.
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Some friends wanted to watch this in the cinema so I went with them. I hadn't seen a lot of Makoto Shinkai before. I've seen 5cms/second and know a bit about Your name by reputation, so I was expecting something similar to either of those, which I am willing to sit through, but not really the sort of thing I'm super into.
My expectations were broken. I ended up greatly enjoying this film. It had a lot more action than I expected, the animation was fantastic, and the script and plot were very clever and had the sort of timey-wimey shenanigans I always enjoy.
Lol that chair!
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I really enjoyed Interstellar, and also this very late review of Interstellar
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A fun little superhero movie, kinda predictable. Gave me some Thor the Dark World vibes for some reason.
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Watched this one because I recently read about how Marisa Tomei's oscar win was a bit controversial because she was a newcomer. I really enjoyed the film and the way it set up expectations for Vinny's courtroom smackdown in the third act. Not sure if Oscar-worthy, but both Tomei and Pesci gave good performances, especially with Mona Lisa on the stand. Thoroughly enjoyable!