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Got excited for the sequel. Still a big fan!
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Sally Hawkins, you evil bitch.
An ugly, mean, hurtful, Australian Evil Dead by way of New French Extremity?
I’ve seen some people roll their eyes at the “trauma horror” of it all, but I genuinely believe this to be the best of the bunch. Its total commitment to ugliness is commendable, both viscerally and emotionally, as well as the simplicity of its mythology? But what really makes it stand out in my book, is its perfect balancing of dramatic attention and true “genre” stuff.
That these dudes ed up directing Street Fighter to deliver this sadistic uber downer, is pretty punk rock.
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This movie hurts.
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One of the best SciFi action films ever. Everyone involved absolutely firing on all cylinders.
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“We’re in Tech.”
“Oh, that’s all going away.”
One of the greatest pairings of director / material to make it out of the oughts, and one of the only films in recent memory to capture that Spielberg-Ian sense of awe.
Handing this dude Jurassic Park is the smartest move they could’ve made.
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Mission Impossible is my favorite franchise of all time. I watch the entire series ively at least once or twice a month (no exaggeration).
The first hour broke my heart. Clumsy and expository in a way I never thought McQ was capable of… UNTIL it isn’t. That rocky first hour gives way to the most insane and emotionally overwhelming back half you could imagine. I found it hard to keep from tearing up every 15min or so.
Not ready to say goodbye to this franchise, tbh.
EDIT: surprise MVP - Rolf Saxon.
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Crazy how much of an actual movie this is.
Sentiment that’s not constantly undercut by lame jokes? Check. Action that’s not CGI’d within an inch of its life? Check. Something, anything that might resemble a theme? Check.
I don’t need blockbusters to be defining works of art, but I do need them to try. It’s nice to see Marvel acknowledge this for once.
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A perfect theatrical experience. Seriously, every beat hit like gangbusters.
Clever in a real way, none of that Ryan Reynolds bullshit. Great kills, even if they’re a bit too CGI heavy. Subversive in a way that doesn’t undercut the core gimmick of the franchise. BIG FAN.
I’ll always prefer the more psychological take of the first film, but this is a great runner up.
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To have lived through New York in the 80’s…
Friedkin is a god.
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Deeply moving. Absolutely gorgeous.
Almost like a brief, Chinese, Ray Bradbury short story?
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My college was not like this.
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I like my Refn a little more on the sociopathic side, but it’s hard to deny how profoundly this thing impacted the medium over the last fourteen years.
I wish Gosling would gravitate back towards his arthouse shtick.
Periodically I’ll see someone proclaim Tom Cruise as a great physical performer, but not a great actor.
Those people are morons.
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"I'm running out of heroes, man. Guys like you are in short supply."
"Yea, guys like you too."
Can’t stop thinking about Mann’s work lately. Threw this on at 1:30am to soak up some of the best cinematography of all time and ended up watching it through.
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Feels like you can trace a lot of Tim & Eric / Tim Robinson’s shtick back to this film, but also shares just enough space with Dazed & Confused to actually hit sincerely.
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Ha, I feel that.
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EDIT: I think I sounded kind of down on it? I’m not. At all. I will watch this 100x.
Put insomnia to good use and caught this when it dropped. About an hour in the ambien hit and this transformed into the wildest fever dream.
I stand by The Raid 2 being the best action film of the last fifteen years. The set pieces are incredible, the characters are well drawn and the story feels genuinely epic.
Havoc’s action is something to behold, and Tom Hardy is perfect in this kind of Hard Boiled meets Max Payne blend, but the narrative here just doesn’t carry the same weight. It feels small and by the numbers. Which is FINE. The selling point has and will always be the action, which is fucking wild. I just feel like it could’ve been so much more with a better drawn screenplay.
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Can’t believe Refn hasn’t made a film in almost 10 years.Dude cuts the difference between artist and shitposter better than anyone. Genuinely hilarious.
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Hilarious that what essentially boils down to a John Carpenter flick is being talked about like prestige art.
Coogler is an incredible craftsmen and the first half is a perfect synthesis of his skills. THAT shot, one of the coolest things I’ve seen in ages. The latter half, though… once the genre stuff is introduced you can practically feel the script dumb down in real time. The way characters enter and exit the main location, the way they talk about the situation, and the action itself is all a little clumsy? Fun? Yes. Clumsy? Very.
Overall great time at the movies! Second coming of film Christ? No. Movies like this should be the norm, not the exception.
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Starts pretty rocky and gradually gets better until eventually landing on something genuinely fun and quirky?
Malek is great as a tweaky weirdo, and the location work is super refreshing.
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It takes some creative balls to collect a handful of the most promising young actors, reject all formal narrative, and instead deliver a ninety five minute sensory assault on the audience. No paint by numbers character development. No score. No jingoism. It might sound overly dramatic to call this “an experience” but there’s really no other way to describe it. The first war film tone poem?
I worship the ground Garland walks on and this might be his best film, but it’s also obvious that this movie doesn’t exist without Mendoza’s technical contributions.
See it in IMAX.
Larry Fong shot this?
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The textbook definition of a first draft screenplay. So many great little ideas that could’ve produced something cool had they been given time to develop.
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Soderbergh out here running laps around everyone.
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How dire are the state of things that I had the nostalgic urge to revisit Terminator: Salvation?? I HATED this when I was 15, but decided to give it another go after catching the (brilliant) trailer on YouTube.
Color me surprised, I honestly kind of loved it? The action is spectacular, and the commitment to practical effects really elevates it all. Bale is Bale, but Worthington is honestly a much better actor than most give him credit for.
Leagues better than the garage that are Genysis and Dark Fate.
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An inverse Beauty and the Beast, Beowulf, Inquisition-core western that drops you into its insane fantasy world with zero context, feeds you stilted dialogue, and spoils you with incredibly tactile digital imagery?
Some of the best stuff Anderson’s done, and even when it gets a little dopey, it’s still more inspired than 90% of the bullshit being released now.
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Enjoyed this much more the second go around. I think on first watch I was too tripped up by the choices made in the back half, and while I still wish it would’ve gone in another direction, I was able to just enjoy the ride.
That said, I think the first 40 are about as perfect as a thriller can get.
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Fascinating how Bong’s biggest movie is arguably is least accessible? It’s an interesting affair that I wasn’t sure I loved until the final stretch. I think I wanted something with stronger adventure elements? But his love of animals and Pattinson’s performance really won me over in the end.
Edit: Having spent the day brewing on it, I think what’s stopped me up most is just how unexciting it all is? Bong’s almost Spielberg-Ian set pieces are always such a highlight and this one just has… none?
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Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah!
One of Paul W.S. Anderson’s best.
Much darker and methodical than the marketing would suggest, and just oozes style. The ending is a bit abrupt, but that’s my only real complaint.
Thank fuck Niven Howie is editing his films again.
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Got me to sit down and watch a short film in full, which is some of the highest praise I can think of.
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Unclear if I laughed because I thought it was funny, or if I laughed because I wanted it to be funny.
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It’s so so so refreshing to see a director understand what makes great slasher iconography. Great design. Great savagery. Great rom-com?
Didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did. It’s just so damn well made.
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Hilarious choice to show a 5 second clip from “The Incredible Hulk” and have it look 10x as cinematic as anything else in your movie.
Honestly, not a bad time. Dumb as dirt, but not a bad time.
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“You want to shake hands with the devil, that’s fine with me. I just want to make sure you do it in hell.“
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The only way they could’ve made this better is if they had somehow gotten Jared Leto in it.
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An incredible achievement given the resources, that was super influential to me as a film student.
An interesting case of a movie that for the first hour I kind of want to wrap up as it’s a little aimless, but after the last scene I wish there were another 30 minutes?Edward’s just understands majesty in a way few other blockbuster filmmakers do.
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Did a double of this and Apostle. It’s funny how in conversation this feels with that one.
Aesthetically this is all very cool plus the ending is aces, and while I think the no dialogue thing is a neat exercise, I feel like it actively hurts the propulsion of the movie? BUT, there’s some great brutality and the religious angle is fun in a sadistic way.
I don’t know, It’s a film I really like thinking about after the fact, but find hard to pay attention to while watching.
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Double featured this and Azrael, which I feeling had a lot in common. I think if you slammed these two movies together, you’d have a masterpiece.
I’ve always enjoyed this, I just wish it were like 20% better.
I like the crueler moments and wish there were a few more of them. It gets bogged down in Island melodrama a little too frequently for my taste? Best when it leans into the Clive Barker / twitchy Dan Stevens / martial arts of it all.
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What a blast!
I think any qualms I have can be boiled down to marketing: A. Spoiling the central twist. I understand why they did, but it really undermines an otherwise clever first act.
B. Leaning so hard on the “From the Makers of Barbarian”. Which primed me for something a little more brutal?
What I was left with was a seriously entertaining Sci-fi / comedy with a nice body count, a perfect runtime, and some great music supervision.
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“You'll believe a child should be beaten”
I think a lot of people associate Joe Wright with the same kind of formal British stuffiness as Sam Mendes, when in reality he’s considerably more experimental.
The structure here is a bit of a mess, but it all hits so poignantly because of it? That last act rug pull is a doozy.
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Way darker than I imagined it would be!
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I’ve been obsessed with Resident Evil since I was a kid, so I’m never going to have a bad time learning about it.
That said, this is WAY too long with a good amount of time spent meandering in circles around the same points.
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Genuinely insane that this is up for five Oscars.
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Incredible how prescient this was.
What also struck me this go around is how much it MOVES.
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Was waiting for Diablo to update and ended up watching this in full. Couldn’t tell you why.
Dude has a Chronicles of Riddick poster in his bedroom.
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Started Daredevil (10 years late) and found myself really enjoying it. I’ve always thought Drew Goddard was a talent, and figured I was due for a revisit of his work.
This is great and has aged like fine wine. Maybe a little longer than it should be, but exceedingly well designed, acted, and written. I just wish Jon Hamm stuck around a little longer.
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Watched on Saturday January 18, 2025.
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Crazy to see a Netflix film where the car crashes, stunts, and locations are shot practically.
That said, not good!
]]>- Eyes Wide Shut
- Funny Games
- Hanna
- Strange Days
- Blue Velvet
- Vox Lux
- Birth
- Eastern Promises
- The Mist
- Transit
...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>My treasure trove of films unfairly maligned upon release.
]]>- Super Dark Times
- Jupiter's Moon
- Thoroughbreds
- Tiger Girl
- Love & Saucers
- Gemini
- The Endless
- The Killing of a Sacred Deer
- Thelma
- Haunters: The Art of the Scare
...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- Smile
- Hunt
- Nothing
- The Menu
- Kids vs. Aliens
- Project Wolf Hunting
- The Banshees of Inisherin
- Decision to Leave
- Bones and All
- Werewolf by Night
...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- The Death & Life of John F. Donovan
- Daniel Isn't Real
- Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
- Bliss
- Too Old to Die Young
- The Lodge
- Knife+Heart
- Parasite
- Ad Astra
- Wounds
...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- Guns Akimbo
- Saint Maud
- The Other Lamb
- After Midnight
- Swallow
- The Lodge
- VFW
- Bliss
- Synchronic
- In the Tall Grass
...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- Under the Silver Lake
- Hold the Dark
- Lords of Chaos
- Luz
- The Standoff at Sparrow Creek
- Halloween
- Destroyer
- Border
- Apostle
- Cam
...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
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