Finally got my 4K setup with surround sound all installed and working so decided to test it out with my 4K Criterion Edition of Raging Bull. I definitely made a good choice because this looked fantastic. The black and white photography is so crisp in the higher definition with the deeper blacks coming through excellently. I do agree with Marty and DP Michael Chapman that black and white was the correct choice both because it's authentic to how…
Criterion Challenge 2024 - 5/52: Most recent Criterion film added to my watchlist
This movie would've been awesome if it was just Michelle Yeoh in her red jumpsuit fighting her old master. But The Heroic Trio isn't satisfied with just that. It goes ahead and gives us the most sexy, most badass, most hilarious Maggie Cheung performance in history as well. I seriously don't know how I've gone on living this long without seeing Maggie Cheung in The Heroic Trio.…
Holy shit it's Mary Elizabeth Winstead. What an impressive step up in acting quality from the first two installments. Having director Wong back from the first one is also a positive.
I like the addition of the pictures giving the group clues. It worked as a way to keep the audience a little off kilter too since the kills didn't happen exactly as expected.
Speaking of kills, there are some good ones here. I'm partial to the girl getting nail…
Criterion Challenge 2025 - 15/52: 1920s
This movie begins with a disclaimer that it is a dramatic work, the first of Chaplin's career, and that it also doesn't feature Chaplin himself on screen. Much like the audience of the time I assume, I almost walked out (turned it off) right then. Can't say I'm all that happy with decision to watch it anyway because I didn't feel like this did anything with the silent cinema medium.
There's a lot of…
Scavenger Hunt 100 - 21/31: A movie in a theater that was released this year
I feel like the trailer was kind of misleading which led me to be slightly let down on this first viewing. Only slightly though because I very much enjoyed the film and the 3 hours totally flew by. The one scene I was anticipating (the bomb drop) didn't disappoint in the slightest. What an amazing achievement.
The performances across the board are excellent. Cillian Murphy…
It feels so good to walk out of the theater and feel like your hype was justified. Coogler 100% delivers on everything the promotional material promised in the lead up to this release. Doing that is pretty hard and if Sinners was just that I'd still be quite positive on it. The thing is though, Coogler ALSO delivers on an entire second movie that was basically absent from the promotional stuff. AND, he weaves the two parts together seamlessly to…
