After slacking on my vow to seek films from the 20th century (and paying for it), this is a lovely tonic.

"Dodsworth" is about people in a marriage refusing to evolve. Americans getting the supreme shock when they enter the freer land of Europe. The aspect of our titular lead being surprised by the lustful nature of European men and his wife's willingness to succumb to them, speaks to an utterly ordinary marriage, yet one not conducted on equal (as shown when we are introduced to Ruth Chatterton's character). At one point, a side character mockingly reminds Walter Huston of "Othello". That too focuses on an emotionally immature relationship: that here being a near fatal age gap. Its undoubtedly a conservative Hays Code film, but it does explore the obstacles women face when they naturally age. One example being the look on Ruth Chatterton's face after a smug Walter Huston talks about being "old grandparents." The standard rich American bored with life practically drowns in Europe, a land with less defined social Taboos. A large part of this is that Ruth Chatterton is seen as judgemental and mean spirited, something her husband partakes in as well. The preconceived image of a continent by two ignorant Americans; do things ever really change?

Wyler's film has your 30s melodrama but also a swift yet quiet dramatic touch to enhance proceedings. The reaction of our characters always takes precedent: Walter Huston's numbness to his wife, Mary Chatterton's scene in the train station, Mary Astor's tearful shots alone. All of it paints a visceral image of the relationships present. The opening scene also stands out, the worn out music as Dodsworth walks among his former employees only for him to gaze back at the plant form his car. Wyler mastered the art of dissecting the character by simple direction.

Yes, this is a jolly old time, sport. Bristol fashion, one may say. *drinks tea* ah yes the European life.

"You all just be careful now."

Hey, I like two of these! "Final Destination 5" is undoubtedly the gnarliest entry yet, doubling down on the grief our characters face and the goriness of the deaths. It opens with a slow burn opening, which plays the corporate drama well, into the most dynamic vision sequence yet. The vision sequence may not be the most suspensèful, but it is viciously entertaining. The deaths, while continuing some tropes from previous entries (like crushings, water in electrical sockets, impalements, stabbings), manage to shake things up with delightfully deadly scenarios: the gymnastics scene, the massage parlour and the eye clinic surgery, the latter disturbing me greatly.

The character work is solid here, and I like how they introduce a "life for a life" situation, which adds interesting stakes. Tony Todd continues to be the best part of this franchise; he always makes me smile with glee. The setups for the deaths feel more natural than ever before. The opening credits were quite creative. This has the best ending of the series, a shocking twist that had me surprised.

This may not be a great film (the casual sexism and xenophobia courtesy of PJ Byrne's character, the hit or miss human drama, Miles Fisher's characters downward descent) but it is a fun time at the movies.

I don't think I'll see "Bloodlines." I'm saving my capital for "The Final Reckoning"! New Line: if you want me to, I will write a treatment for "FINAL DESTINATION: DEATH HATES BUREAUCRACY".

"It's invisible."
"Oh! Right."
"And that's where we lost the Department of Homeland Security."
Why does Jon Voight have so many lemons? I don't trust Jon Voight anytime, but it's really suspicious that she has so many lemons.

Maybe this rating is higher than the film deserves, but I watched this at my grandparents house with my grandmother. She was having the time of her laugh and was heavily invested into the plot. Any of these action thrillers are right up her alley. We spent a while looking at the IQ's of US presidents (Jimmy Carter was in the 150s!). We exclaimed violently when the film buffered during the final 20 minutes. We agreed that Justin Bartha's character was just like my brother. We agreed George W Bush would be fun at parties. We took many cracks at Jon Voight (we both despise tr*mp). She was paying more attention that I was!

If anything, this is a great time on it's own. This is lavishly shot by Caleb Deschanel, with glamorous on-location scenes that give off a lovely shine. There is so much fun enthusiasm for history that makes me happy. You can tell how proud they were to include these niche historical facts. Christopher Plummer is in this! Films don't get more enjoyable than this! There's a heist sequence for Pete's sake! They filmed in the National Archives! You can see Washington DC at night! Diane Kruger!

My grandmother and I agreed to watch the sequel another day. She was happy to learn that Helen Mirren was in the sequel. I'll talk about it then!

I shouldn't be surprised that the worst "Final Destination" film has no Tony Todd. Despite the gravitas that Mykelti Williamson brings to his scenes, this film is a total mess. As if David R Ellis couldn't get any worse, now the film is shot in 3D with so many on the nose deaths to prove that. It gets old very quickly. The deaths here are undoubtedly recycled from the previous films: car pileups, way too many explosions and impalements, fans, shredding. It really begins to wear, it shows how creatively bankrupt this franchise had become. The films looks very ugly; the putrid grey hospital is one of the ghastliest things I've ever seen. David R Ellis can't direct for crap, overusing CGI and continuing the overlong and opposite of dynamic setups he did for the second film. Why were there "Mortal Kombat" graphics?

He also removes the moments of grieving that improved the third film. There's no breathing room and no humanity. A main character dies with over 30 minutes left and is never mentioned again. There is still uncalled for amounts of women being objectified by men. The whole film retains such mean spirited cruelness that the third film managed to get out of its system. The Hunt character pissed me off.

I will say that the racist dying to "Why Can't We Be Friends?" was very funny. Everything else just annoyed me. I woke up from a very nice dream only to watch this? Sigh.

This is an idea for a "Final Destination" movie I had while watching this.

Title: FINAL DESTINATION: DEATH HATES BUREAUCRACY. (FINAL DESTINATION: THE IMPERIAL CABINET or FINAL DESTINATION: SCYTHING THE BUDGET would do as well.)
Plot: The film centres around a White House cabinet, serving under a disliked President halfway through his second term. During a meeting, the dorky vice-president has a premonition of the Cabinet dying in an explosion and the aftermath thereafter. They leave the room, inadvertently being saved from a terrorist attack, perpetrated by *definitely not the CIA*. However, Death doesn't like that one bit. Slowly, the Cabinet start to die faster than they can be confirmed. The vice-president comes to a shocking realisation: the President was supposed to be the last to die during his premonition. No amount of Senate filibusters can stop Death.

Note: Bludworth would've been the Secretary for Health and Human Services. He never attends cabinet meetings, so he wouldn't be in danger of dying. In fact, nobody ever sees him doing his job; why is he in the basement so much?
The Cast: You, reader, can come up with the cast. Willem Dafoe can play the UN ambassador, he's played enough crazy characters to prove himself worthy of being associated with the UN.
-----------------------------------------------
"SpongeBob lives underwater!"
"It is so sad you know that!"
(HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT?!)

They finally made a "Final Destination" film I liked! It still has the same pitfalls as the two predecessors: an overcomplicated story, which often hinders its suspense, and the ending is a bit much. There are also many concerning moments of misogyny, like the Frankie character and the male gaze camera in the tanning salon scene. And someone screams the f-slur during the gym scene. I'm also sad that Bludsworth isn't here (but Tony Todd's tremendous voice is a treat).

However, it is much better than the 2nd film and an improvement to the first as well. The characters feel more genuine this time around, especially Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Wendy, who delivers a tour de force performance, nailing the tragic and intense moments. The kills put less emphasis on setup, and they also feel refreshingly theatrical and camp. You can see the CGI, but the over-the-top madness and mania work nonetheless. The big set pieces, like the amusement park, the hardware store and the tricentennial fair, are both bright and colourful (the colour red, fireworks, the creepy shelves, et al). James Wong's return to the franchise was a great choice. The soundtrack was snazzy as well.

I suppose I like this due to the soft character moments and natural progression of points, as opposed to stupidity right in your face. A talented cast, a committed director and the right levels of camp and tragedy intertwining lead to a job well done.

"Dead, yet still fresh."
I watched "Final Destination" in August last year, so I didn't feel inclined to rewatch it. I didn't continue with the franchise at the time due to my lukewarm feeling towards it. I'm continuing in the name of gross curiosity, and my unfortunate completionist nature.

This was incredibly mean-spirited and nasty in a way that I really disliked. The quiet moments of grieving and pondering the unjust nature of the characters deaths from the first film have been removed so the film can choke down obnoxiously simple and paradoxical plot beats at you in under 90 minutes. The film is built on nostalgia bait. The characters are dull again and there's not even a cheesy YA romance to enhance the human element, which is comprised mostly of people screaming for one scene before miraculously recovering to get involved in the plot. It doesn't help that this takes place across three days, leaving no time for introspection or recovery. The film takes itself 100% seriously on that front, despite the amount of hilarious out-of-context lines ("That's the night I scraped up Billy Hitchcock", "Can we go get the guys? I'm getting horrnnny", "Alex and I cheated Death, not once but dozens of times", "Can we find the pregnant woman now, please?").

The highway pileup death is the best part, slowly examining the individual factors before glorious explosions and anarchy. But every other death is formulated in the same way with little to none spontaneity, a very poor directorial choice from the second-unit director who made this. Not to mention how the third act has so many explosions. Is the Reaper that lazy? Was HE having an off day? Did HE forget his coffee? Was HIS scythe too blunt, meaning HE had to sharpen it, but this meant HE was running behind so he moved doubletime?

"Final Destination 2" is a lazy sequel, forged on bland nostalgia bait and so many poor directorial choices. Tony Todd is absolutely wasted; he can always deliver a magnificently morose and gleeful role. But apart from him and Ali Larter, not much else of the film works. AND THEY MADE FOUR MORE OF THESE?!

PS: Oh my god, I've seen 5 Andrew Airlie films this year.
PPS: My body is worn down because I did a lot of running yesterday (school trip). Didn't help the experience of watching this.

I watched this because I was very intrigued by the variation of reactions this film has received on Letterboxd. This is my first Shyamalan! I wanted to experience this as the premise struck me as creative.

First off:
M. Night has made the best "Hitman" movie.
- Large event with multitudes of security.
- British lady talking via earpiece.
- Disguises are worn.
- Keycards.
- Distracting guards.
- Listening into enemy communications.
- Meticulous focus on minute details from our main character.
This is a "Hitman" level through and through. I know that there is no correlation between Agent 47 and Cooper. But once I saw the comparisons I couldn't stop thinking about it.

M. Night shoots this with a gleefully mad style, putting a joyful emphasis on the major events and character moments; his style of up close reactions rarely fail in their effect, especially with Cooper. The cinematography is unbelievably great. Sayombhu Mukdeeprom shot this on 35mm film and the work shows. You can tell how much fun M. Night had with delivering the concert with it's massive colourful crowds and vibrant lighting effects for Lady Raven. But even apart from that, all the wondrous uses of rotating camera effects, zoom in shots, long takes and the camera readjusting to focus your attention on events and imagery had me captivated. I unapologetically say that this a viscerally beautiful film, one that shines with colour and life no matter where the story is. M. Night, at this stage of his career (his first film was made when George H Bush was in office, and he's now made a film where a character says "slay"), is a master craftsman. He understands with ease when to make the audience focus, but not in an overbearing way. His intent is purposefully clear, as he literally puts you in Cooper's shoes.

I understand many have complained about the script. Yes, events can feel a little convenient at parts and often quiet contrived. But as a mostly campy thriller, the tone set works wonderfully. M. Night doesn't dive deep into Cooper until the second and third act but that's a decision that serves the underlying unnerving nature of Hartnett's performance. Cooper isn't the most original serial killer in recent film when it comes to his fractured psyche, but it's the execution of twisting the American family man into a meticulous killer that works for me; not merely with how committed Hartnett is, but the mysterious symmetry of Cooper's mind. You can see Hartnett's emptiness behind the facade of emotion, the calculated twist behind every kind act, the ease of his lies. I think that if M. Night wanted to turn the suburban dad into a demythologized being of rage and seething anger, using the image of sanity as a mask of sorts, he did a fantastic job. Harnett was perfectly cast here. He has the physical nature halfway between a bulking animal and your neighbour heading for church that gives him a lot of vigour to his performance. He plays both sides completely straight. You can see the amusement written on his face, his eyes throughout the film.

Just to add, Saleka Night Shyamalan is very talented. I would unironically listen to a Lady Raven album, you can tell the effort put into the songs presented here. She also nails her big dramatic beat.

Other notes:
- I was pleasantly surprised by the direction this took!
- Alison Pill is excellent in her screen time.
- Hayley Mills is entered into "The Cool Old People on Film Hall of Fame." I love when old people are badass.
- This reminded me of how late style Eastwood has a regretful feeling of not having been a good father. You can tell that Cooper is trying to become more connected to his daughter. I don't think this reflects anything on Shyamalan's part (who seems like an awesome dad) but I do think this is a reflection of how Cooper feels about family himself.

This was highly entertaining and enjoyable. Is a 9/10 overkill on my part? Maybe. I don't care. "The Killer" for girl dads. Just so intentionally silly and weird in such an endearing manner.

"Professor Plum, you were once a professor of psychiatry specialising in helping paranoid and homicidal lunatics suffering from delusions of grandeur."
"Yes, but now I work for the United Nations."
"So your work has not changed."

This goes from 0 to 100 in 15 minutes flat, and it stays there until the end. Or rather, the three different endings! I can't believe I didn't watch this sooner: it's a classic murder mystery, by the way of "The Naked Gun", all the hilarious dialogue touches and absurd moments of comedy ("I didn't know it was *that* free", that whole sequence killed me). The third act is mostly Tim Curry talking very fast, running between rooms and physically assaulting everyone, and it is as golden as it sounds.

Curry is, as usual, a glorious presence who never misses a beat ("This is getting serious" in context is hysterical). Christopher Lloyd as a horny United Nations employee is as good as it sounds. Lesley Ann Warren as the femme fatale is a pleasure as well. Eileen Brennan is a scene stealer ("Uh, is there a little girl's room in the hall?").
All the jabs at the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover are similarly on point; I like how this takes a lot of comedy cues from 50s American politics.

Finally, any film set in a decadent mansion with soft-flowing cinematography works extremely well. This is a delight from the 80s, and a comedy classic that I wish I had discovered sooner.

"I was in the hall.
[beat]
I know because I was there."

You know this film was made during Reagan's first term as they keep talking about the president making decisions (as in making them himself). And later in the film, they dare to jumpscare us with Ronald Reagan! 😠

It's undoubtedly very cheesy, with many by-the-book characters and satire on the US military that I wished digged a little deeper (deeper than white men shouting at each other and saying "Heavens to Betsy! I need ot call the President!"). The YA romance is also from "The Book of Screenwriting Tropes". During the third act's opening, I thought I missed a scene due to the fast pace.

But overall, it's a great time made better by the quaintness of the time in retrospect. I love these 80s and 90s films about computers because hacking seems like it is the easiest thing ever. I also love the massive sets emulating NORAD perfectly. The opening is fantastic as openings go, with tense moments and clever foreshadowing. The third act, similarly, puts you on the edge of your seat, it's completely exhilarating (the flashing computer graphics going haywire was one point of glorious mayhem). That's what the film is best at: sheer, unhinged, glorious mayhem and a maniacal tone. To end my points: Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy are quite charming.

This is the "M:I- Dead Reckoning" of the 80s; both practically have the same message about fearing the machine. And is that so far fetched?

PS: Ally Sheedy's reaction to seeing John Wood in the documentary is golden.

This film feels like if Guy Ritchie found an unfinished Tom Clancy novel, tried to polish it, gave up and thusly decided that it was the next "Metal Gear Solid V".

I can take propaganda but boring propaganda is where I draw the line. It defeats me how Guy Ritchie managed to make a generic war film but here we are. The characters are surface level; John Kinley is merely an amalgamation of boring military guy clichés slung together and Ahmed is barely much deeper than that. The film shoots itself in the foot due to how seriously it takes its own story of debt. The film's final hour is spent with the hope that you are now incredibly invested in these characters. But that's not the case: the script is full to the brim with action sequences that neglect character moments, the best parts of the film (Ahmed saving Kinley, Kinley trying to get Ahmed his visa) are cut into impersonal montages and Jake Gyllenhall is giving a performance far too distant and volatile (between this and "Ambulance" I am sick of him shouting) for audiences to latch onto.

The film has nothing whatsoever to say on US involvement in Afghanistan. Apart from it's standard portrayal of the same Middle Eastern stereotypes (drug dealer, nomad, terrorist), it doesn't show much of anything about the Afghanistani people and their troubles. In fact, the film is coded as some kind of "Green Book" message about a white man learning to appreciate his non-white colleague! The film, clearly neglecting any condemnation of the Bush era politics that brought America to Afghanistan (but it hates military bureaucracy, goddamn libertarians), instead is a John Ford tale of debt and honour. You know this due to his forcefully this symbolism is shoved down your throat! "John Wick" films are less heavy handed in their portrayal of fatal agreements .

To give credit where credit is due: the film looks lovely (I bet this was shot in Spain) and there are neat action sequences. It's such a shame that the plot is this febrile, the characters this loose and the subtext so forced. Guy Ritchie the vulgar auteur does not exist, if you ask me. Take a look at the editing: the montage of Kinley being saved from his perspective is headache inducing, because it moves at lightning pace. This film scream amateur at points.

PS: This has the worse nicknames ever.

"It doesn't work that way with people who have problems, Ann... It's not a series of little boxes that you can line up and count. Things just don't happen that way."

The same wavelength as "Black Bag", where monogamy is presented as something of an odd defect in a lying and uneven world. In this, Soderbergh captures a creeping alien feeling, like you're watching something completely foreign and distant, the camera circling like a predator around all our characters (a little like "Presence").

It's an uncomfortable film to watch, fraught with the realisation that you are watching self-immolation of a sort you can't look away from. It's a film about looking at sex from the most detached form, trying to painfully understand it, from the view of broken relationships. Andie MacDowell's character states that she doesn't understand what men see in sex. That's the big question of the film: trying to interrogate why we place so much stock in intercourse. The film discusses this with a quiet tone of emotion, with not many loud scenes. It's a film that takes its time to look and listen to the sounds and little actions of a relationship.

Soderbergh is such a viscerally powerful filmmaker, taking his form in long, faint, long takes and a lack of major editing transitions. James Spader is my favourite in the cast, and Robert California has never been better.

I'm tired, I wish I could've written more. The third act left me incredibly chilled in a disturbing way. Soderbergh is a poetic and descriptive artist who never fails to amaze.

If Disney want a universe of straight people (which let's be real is what they really want), they're failing. Captain Marvel is in a lavender marriage that she describes as "convenience."

"Okay, I'm getting a lot of negative energy from you and I don't like it."
One of the few films where a character is happy to have a government file on their every movement.

When I was 10, I saw "Captain Marvel" in cinemas and adored it. I mean that. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I still own a sticker activity book from the films release time. If "The Marvels" (which I shall henceforth name "Captain Marvel 2" because "The Marvels" is a vague and formless name) had released even a year earlier, I probably would've seen it. I saw "Thor: Love and Thunder" twice, both times against my will, in 2022. That experience was the start of my not caring.

I watched this because:
A)- It's under 100 minutes total, which was a godsend considering I watched this at my aunts house.
B)- Morbid curiosity.
C)- I didn't want "Doctor Strange" to be my 20th Tilda Swinton watch.

I tried to go in with an open mind. I will it: I quite enjoyed the first act. I discovered why everyone loves Iman Vellani (I haven't seen "Miss Marvel"), whi I found to be refreshingly energetic and charismatic. There was a neat animated sequence at the start. There were actual physical sets built!? The action scenes weren't terrible?!

But pretty soon, I ed I was watching an MCU film.
Lets start with the villain. Dar-Benn is atrocious. She's easily the worst part of this. Poor Zawe Ashton seems to have no idea what movie she's in, playing the role expressionless and lifeless. The villain just shows up out of the blue, with no introduction, in the first scene, before the one short scene of exposition later. Her revenge plan would've been nice to know sooner! Speaking of which, I'm tired of the "evil minion who we never met before who suddeny wants revenge" trope. It's lazy. It's a painfully simple plan but the script leads to a mumbled execution that squanders any meaningful payoff. Not to mention that she is defeated off-screen and is an invincible rock beforehand.

I felt like I needed a glossary of the films key words and a plot map to keep up with the film. It's really convoluted for a film thats wrapped up in 90 something minutes. Carol Danver's arc feels like it's missing a major push. The MCU have to stop resorting to trauma when they run out of character ideas. Monica Rambeau's arc is resolved way too quickly. Theres a section of the film on Nick Fury's magical spaceship where they just ripoff "Alien." I hope that Kamala Khan's final scene goes somewhere. I still hate when the MCU does the annoting and unoriginal morality card. We need more superhero films like "X-Men (2000)" and "Batman Returns" where there is no value on life. The Skrull's are irritatingly dull, I couldn't care less about them. Valkyrie's cameo was confusingly short.

There are parts where you can tell Nia DaCosta had the control and freedom to experiment (genocide, the strangled musical number, Kamala's story) but most of it is cut down by, what you can infer to be, overpowering studio editing. There is way too much CGI, there are many ugly and colourless moments, espcecially during the boring third act fight scenes, for a $300 million (!) film.

I was going to give this a 3/10. However, unlike "Eternals", "Captain America 4" and "Spider Man: Homecoming" at least I can feel attempts to shake up the MCU's core structure, with the main trio's delightful chemistry (the "Intergalactic" scene for example). It's shorter and I can feel some attempts at creativity. That's why it is slightly higher in score.

But, my word. It's a bad sign when a film that was clearly hacked to pieces only to be spat out and assembled with a butchers knife is one of the less bad MCU films. The MCU is starting to get really inaccessible: aside from "Captain Marvel", you need to watch "Miss Marvel", "Wandavision", "Guradians of the Galaxy" and whatever avenue where they explain why Nick Fury is in space to understand this.

I'm pretty sure I've seen this before, considering that my family own a copy on DVD and I vividly the opening balloon sequence. I watched this at my aunt's house again; keeping up my Muppet streak.

The Muppets are consistently delightful. This doubles down on the hilarious self awareness (Diana Rigg's joke about exposition killed me) and all the absurdities of the first film (Kermit and Fozzy being identical twins, Miss Piggy's ruthless efficiency, the surprising horniness). The musical numbers are still exceptionally memorable, I especially liked "The Happiness Hotel" and "Miss Piggy's Fantasy" (Charles Gordon has an amazing set of lungs). It ditches the Hollywood storyline of the first for a journalistic setting (Kermit and Fozzy cannonically have journalism degrees) and flies/parachutes across the Atlantic to London. Oh, yes, the sequence starring John Cheese and his wife is golden; playing off that standard British dry wit with hilarious ease. Jim Henson in the director's chair works so comfortably, especially his grand eye for set pieces.

The puppetry confounds me with it's unthinkably clever work; Kermit doing a handstand on a bicycle, Kermit shaving, the rats riding a bicycle, every time a Mullet climbed a drain pipe and Miss Piggy swimming. Oscar the Grouch is here as a cameo! Statler and Waldorf are the best characters.

The world (of cinema) forever changes.

I love how they took the politically charged idea of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", changed it to the Bush II era from a focus on McCarthyism, yet still had no interesting ideas beyond "Americans: imperialistic. Humans: evil. Human nature: natural. World peace: silly idea. Russians: communist."

I was going to watch this between two days, but instead I chose "White Bird". I was aware of this films reputation as a bad remake but I thought that 99 minutes of hot people would be watchable.

Barely watchable is a better description. Yes, Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig are hot. Yes, Jeffrey Wright is still my favourite person to deliver exposition. Yes, any film with Veronica Cartwright and Josef Sommer is cool in that regard. Sometimes the editing is somewhat creative, like the first scene. The embassy conversation could've laid the basis for a much better movie. Nicole Kidman chugging Mountain Dew is National Archive material.

However, most of the film is somehow a second rate "Bourne" knock-off. Absurd amounts of people running, car crashes and shouting. This film is the kind of thing that RFK Jr would use as evidence as a uniform autistic cabal infiltrating America- that's derogatory by the way.

The characters have no personalities and the ones that do are just pale imitations of better characters. The film's scale is way too big to be scary; it just leads to a way less compact tone and a laughably cliche ending. The action sequences are awfully uniform in their feel and the opposite of creative in their design. Most of all it's just a remake that coasts off the original, with nothing new to add which makes this so embarrassing. It ebbs and flows without rhythm or control.

I am aware of the fact that this was reshot by a different director and has major script revisions (by the Wachowski sisters nonetheless! I refuse to believe they worked on this). Still, I doubt that impacted much. Nicole Kidman's best efforts are wasted by an awful script and an overburdened scale.

PS: What the hell, because the same person who wrote this also wrote "Suspiria (2018)" and "A Bigger Splash"! Talk about a glow up.

I haven't seen this since before I was 10, but I can pretty vividly picking up the DVD at the library my family love to go to. That and the fork in the road gag. (I wish someone had told me how meta this was. Kermit gives Electric Mayhem a copy of the script for heavens sake! "Oh, grief; a running gag").

The movies really and truly can be magical, can't they? Having the audacity to start your film with two critics joking about the studio being afraid to release this to the public is part of it. Fade into Kermit singing "Rainbow Connection", one of the best songs ever. This film is like if the comedy of "The Naked Gun" was given the plot of "The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie", two of the highest compliments I can give. Every song is a hit after hit, meshing genres perfectly, from the blues to bluegrass. The physicality of the puppets is a sight to behold; Kermit riding a bicycle, Kermit being thrown into a piano from a ceiling fan, Miss Piggy's dilated eyes, Kermit's head sinking into his neck, the wind swaying Animals hair, Dr Teeth (I wonder what his PhD was) and his wide grin. Simply marvellous. It knows how to use cameos in an effective way; I loved Carol Kane, James Coburn and Mel Brooks as a "leading expert on mind control in frogs."

Rainbows exist freely. They don't care about frogs legs. A film remarkably tailored for the dreamer in all of us. "La La Land" plagiarised this for 90% of it's script.

I'm tired. I watched this at my baby cousins house; my mom and I are minding then today and tomorrow. I hade a busy day at school, that was also refreshingky fun. I love my charmed existence.

I'm surprised to say this but Helen Mirren was 20 years too old for this role.

This is a 5/10 by the skin of its teeth. This is one of the most absurd ideas for a film I've encountered for a long while. It's technically a "Wonder" sequel; this doesn't even have "A Wonder Story" in it's on screen title! Why is a "Wonder" story tagged into a Holocaust novel?

First off, I have read the book. It's fine. If I wanted to introduce children to the Holocaust, I would give them "White Bird". It touches on the delicate issues in a mature way. The rest isn't exceptional; it's simply the "be kind!" theme from "Wonder" and most of the novel is almost YA fiction, incredibly. I was interested in seeing this, but this being pushed back two years threw me off.

This immediately stretched my disbelief by opening with a Post Malone song. I believe that to be a first for a Holocaust film. Then Helen Mirren jumpscares us and promptly gives up her French accent to speak in her normal voice. In fact, all of these French people speak on British accents, which is exceptionally jarring, especially when they say "hi" instead of "bonjour". And Nazi's speaking in British accents is hilarious.

Speaking of which, Thai film has the redeemable Nazi trope! The book most certainly did not have that! I know this films message is that everyone is redeemable, but why do it for a Nazi character? (WHO SPEAKS WITH A BRITISH ACCENT)

The filmmaking is fine for the most part but when it's bad, it is bad! The camera wobbles up and down like this is a "Bourne" film, even during dramatic scenes! Sometimes the lighting is far too bright. The child acting is extremely stiff with so many poor directorial choices in that front. It has laughable CGI at points. And focusing mostly on the YA romance, the books primary sin, is in poor taste.

For the most part, this is watchable and sweet. But there are so many absurd directorial decisions that just degrade the quality. You know those "History channel at 3 AM" jokes? Thus film feels like one of those amateurish re-enactments; poor camera work, strangled performances, camp tone and bland messaging in particular. The ending was so strange, and I laughed when something I knew would happen happened. It's funny how this film with an ambiguous "be nice" message, particularly in the ending speech, could easily be applied to the war on Palestine. Such an odd experience.

It's pretty telling that they had to market this towards American Christians for anyone to see it.

"I can sit there and do nothing as good as anyone."

The painful accuracy of the corporate world, pacing through cold and isolating office spaces, with no real work to be achieved as we all wait for something to happen. The lost people; lost in a corporate dystopia, all left with nothing do do but dream, hope and stare at the clock until 5 o'clock. The temps are the most prevelant for this messge, "Sometimes I feel like I could disappear for weeks, and no one would even notice." Coporate America is a place where to be trampled upon and forgotten is just a fact. Unlike "The Office", this is no cutesy portrayal of office life. There's a iciness to the human interaction in the office, very much grounded in the idea of doing a job. The real moral of the film is that we have to wait for something good to happen. The world has a habit of whirling and degrading itself around us. We just have to hope we have the courage to escape.

This is a great joy to watch. Parker Posey continues to lead me down the right direction. Jill Sprecher is doing a marvelously subtle work with the tone and the loneliness of its images, particulary with Iris's first scenes. She places a lot of currency in the quiet images with no dialogue, particularly when we see Cleo. Theres a symbolism in the small objects; when you barely have a desk they are all you have. The cast is delightful, particularly the dependably cutting Parker Posey (also Bob Balaban is here. He made me laugh).

"You look around - all those characters trying to kill time. Going around in circles. Even if a person wanted to break free, they could find out they've got nowhere else to go."- Maybe there is a hope.

"You keeping up, baby?"

I watched the director's cut for Ethan Hawke. That and the idea that it may expand what is ittedly a very bad idea. Some may say that it is anti-art to compare this to Verhoeven's masterpiece, but considering that this remake keeps several of the characters invented for the original (the love interest, the wife, Coohagen, the resistance leader, the best friend) and it has the general same structure I think the comparison is fair game.

Total Recall (1990): Is ambiguous about whether or not the events shown happened, with only subtle indicators otherwise.
Total Recall (2012): The director's cut ending spoils the ambiguity in one fell swoop.

Total Recall (1990): Sharon Stone's character is used wonderfully, has a deceptive presence, all the while Stone plays it utterly demented.
Total Recall (2012): Kate Beckinsale is basically The Terminator, with no personality. Imagine if Selene from "Underworld" wasn't a vampire. That's Lori in the remake.

Total Recall (1990): Is an anti-capitalist text about the rich monopolising the basic everyday needs of the working class to maintain control.
Total Recall (2012): Is an anti-colonialist text, but in a very loud way, that's just a libertarian anti-government slant. Needless to say, there are no underlying comparisons as the oppression ISN'T SHOWN AT ALL.

Total Recall (1990): Looks like it was crafted by the masters themselves. It has so many colourful landscapes, creative technological flourishes and some of the most legendary practical effects put to the silver screen. It feels very reasonable, grounded in the technology of the time, but with a 50s or 60s sci-fi idealism. It's a masterclass in emulating not only a feature-length Saturday morning cartoon but also how practical creativity can be shown onscreen. Mars is the opus of Hollywood's grandiose auteur filmmaking.
Total Recall (2012): Looks grey. Very grey. It's designed like a "Blade Runner" remake directed by Renny Harlin. The technological advancements here are faceless white robots, phones inserted into people's hands, plain collars instead of the elaborate cloaking contraption, and floating cars. Incredibly generic. The opposite of creativity. Mars is replaced with towering grey apartment blocks, making it the opposite of dynamic. Far too much CGI to be genuine.

Total Recall (1990): Can be cautious about picking its big action moments, but when it does, you can bet on every sequence being unique and incredibly fun.
Total Recall (2012): After a slow 25-minute opening, it's just shootout after shootout, stale setpiece after stale setpiece through the same flat landscapes. Wiseman could deliver a few thrills in his "Underworld" films, but here everything is sterile, almost willfully over-directed.

Total Recall (1990): Arnold is such an exciting protagonist, plays his role so gleefully with juicy one-liners and a pleasurable delivery of his lines.
Total Recall (2012): Colin Farrell plays a funeral director.

Total Recall (1990): Has Michael Ironside as a highly entertaining psychopathic man
Total Recall (2012): Ironside's character isn't in the film; he's morphed into Kate Beckinsale for some reason.

Total Recall (1990): Has a character named Miss Lonelyhearts.
Total Recall (2012): Does not have a character named Miss Lonelyhearts.

The most interesting thing about this film is that Bill Nighy has an American accent. This is like a Netflix original. A guidebook on how not to (re)make a film.

This is the best example of dialogue in this film:
"What did you learn in school today?"
"Revenge."
Boy, the 90s were a precious time for humanity. Civilisation peaked under Bill Clinton.

I'm not going to pretend that this film is anywhere good. The script is mostly nonsense terminology, with the occasional flash of absurd fun when the hackers are running people's lives. It's mostly characters saying drivel about computers and taking themselves so seriously, as all their actions are so convoluted: strange fantasy sequences, thin characters (especially the villains), awful queer-coding, and one of the worst transphobic jokes ever.

But it's a cute time capsule for the '90s. It's directed with the erratic madness of all the best '90s thrillers. I'm not sure if the cast is terrible or acting on a different level of quality. Fisher Stevens can get it, however, he's priceless. Lorraine Bracco is just sort of there, but she's enjoyable nonetheless. The PS2 CGI of the computer interfaces are gold. The soundtrack is typical '90s lunacy, so its pretty good.

Please watch SNL's 2000 presidential debate between AL Gore and George W Bush. I don't have anything else to say. This is "Hackers." It's like if "The Matrix" was made by name people pretending to be cool.

This reminds me of those campy '90s action films that are on TV all the time. Sure, it was written by cocaine-induced madness. But the vibes are near holy. So, yes. This is highly enjoyable. I would've loved to have seen the version of this directed by Tony Scott.

But let's get straight to it. When I say this was "written by cocaine-induced madness", I mean it. The plot has no structure. Events and actions are taken just for the sake of it. It is ridiculously convoluted, there is one major contrivance that (in '90s fashion) makes your head spin. The main puzzle of the film is silly every step of the way, with plenty of assumptions that prove true somehow and characters acting in quite unpredictable ways. It's irable how committed it is to it. It doesn't make or break the experience; you'll enjoy this either way, but even I have to call out the giddy insanity presented. I will also say that the film is about 10 minutes too long. Some of the unnecessary and overlong gags could've been cut.

The film throws all its chips into the action and the brotherly dynamic between Christian and Braxton. Somehow, it works. The action has its exhilarating highs that made me feel as frivolous as a schoolgirl. The opening sequence was a blast. All of the professional assassin scenes (especially the silenced pistols!) made me happy. The high-intensity work with all the running and gun-toting. Gavin O'Connor isn't a bad director and, paired with Seamus McGarvey, can create striking images (the showy interiors of bars, the skylines of LA and Berlin). Most of all, I adored the character moments. Christian's speed dating scene was hilariously funny. Braxton and Christian's relationship growing through understanding and spending time together led to many light-hearted moments that I felt too. I forgot how charming Jon Bernthal can be. Affleck and Bernthal have such great chemistry, I adored their brother dynamic.

This is what I really wanted to talk about, however: the autism representation.

Firstly, Braxton is a dick and I wanted to punch him. I hate how his repeating what Christian says and him throwing away his sunscreen are treated as laughs. If my siblings did that to me, I would tear them a new one. I especially detested it when he said that Christian is wearing "Forrest Gump shoes", the most base insult towards an autistic person. People who do that don't feel empathy or understand autistic people and their fixations, as we can see with Braxton, who feels a victim mentality from having to stand up for his brother when he needs help. Christian is a saint for putting up with someone as intolerant as him. The film is about Braxton trying to understand Christian, so I am glad that they do show the flip side, gaining understanding.

Secondly, the autism representation with Christian is much improved. The speed dating scene is funny, but above all, it's meant to show how Christian is finally opening himself up, something that is very hard for autistic people. The line dancing scene really stirred emotion in me, because of how brave Christian had to be to do that, to make with a stranger in a public place and then to do something entirely outside of his comfort zone. Braxton redeems himself by being proud of Christian. I don't think that Christian spurned Braxton's attention because he was autistic; I think he did it because he didn't want to feel that he had to rely on someone all the time. I think that Christian's character is very much improved from the first.

Finally, everything to do with the Harbour Neuroscience Academy made me so happy. It was an indescribably joyous feeling. I won't spoil it massively, but I love seeing highly effective autistic kids triumph.

To conclude, I would say that "The ant²" does have its narrative flaws, but overall, I do think it triumphs on the emotional front. I want RFK Jr. to see this and get his ass handed to him by the kids from the Harbour Neuroscience Academy. I'd watch 10 more of these is it meant more line dancing.

This film reminds me of the England episodes in "Phineas and Ferb", where everyone talks with silly Cockney accent, dresses like the earldom and England is a Shakespearean fantasy land halfway between the Tudors and Churchill.
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There's a reason why everyone re "Royal Wedding" for the superb rotating hotel room dance sequence: it's the best part of the film. It has a clever setup and a personification of how love makes people feel like they can do anything. It's one of those impressive filmmaking feats that seems endangered in the modern day. If expect nothing less from Stanley Donen. The dancing is sublime in general, but particularly during the afformentioned dance sequence and the swirling hat rack dance on the boat; both take particular care to creatively maximise the use of the surrounding landscapes.

The rest of the film is good. It's nothing too remarkable. The story is almost non-existent, the way it decides to wrap everything up in the last three minutes is ridiculous and Fred Astaire treats his sister in a disturbingly controlling way. But the songs aren't bad (which is all you can hope for), the Technicolour cinematography is wonderful and it's charming and grandiose in the way these old musicals thrived on.

Thank you, Aunt Kate, for giving my family your Prime Video !

"Protect the homeland."

Inches away from being CIA propaganda. Instead, it's a film about a decade of false starts and brutality that morphed into the emptiest "So, what now?" in American history. It immediately opens with the viscerally upsetting audio from 9/11, and it's never slow to remind you what they are chasing. But was it worth it? What were the stakes to it? "Zero Dark Thirty" represents a world outside the imperialistic CIA's control. "Do your fucking jobs." The War on Terror was a farce that demonised America. How could it ever recover? Not by killing one man. Bigelow wants you to reckon and weigh the outcomes of 9/11. She's not pushing that any good came of the War on Terror. She simply wants you to witness a calamitous policy of epic proportions.

Bigelow shoots the "enhanced interrogation" with a light bleached filthiness and unrelenting bitterness. This is what America drove itself to. The dialogue with Jason Clarke's character is nearly unreal, a sick and sardonic portrayal of someone who, by all convention, would be one of our heroes. "This is what defeat looks like, bro."

Maya is a being that's never not been exposed to vengeance, nearly her entire CIA career has been chasing al-Qaeda, and she has no life outside of the CIA. There aren't any scenes of her calling her mother or going for a meal. She has been conditioned to this epic quest to find Bin Laden. She has no strong emotions or feelings throughout the movie. At the start, she has no visual qualms with the "enhanced interrogation". Her response to a colleague's death is muted, with no masquerades of tears. She only shouts when unimpressed with the CIA system and needs to get something done. She only displays anything remotely down to earth at the end, when nothing is left to be done. It helps that Chastian is wonderful at acting cold and professional.

"You're a garbage man in the corporation!"

Kathryn Bigelow films this with outstanding tradecraft, as the CIA would say. The third act raid is a master in refined pacing, unconventional presentation (the bewitching night vision shots) and patience. There's no glory in her presentation, no goodwill in the shootings presented here. Greig Fraser is a fantastic cinematographer, with his wide shots of these military bases and the artificial lighting at night. The sound design is also exemplary; the archive audio at the start, the sound of the helicopters, and the scene where the phone calls are being traced.

"You must be pretty important."
I wouldn't blame you if you hated this. But there's something wistfully detached about Bigelow's work that I adore.

When I was younger, I thought Marvin the Martian was a girl because of his Roman soldiers' skirts. Estrogen could've saved her. :'(

"It's 'cause I'm white, isn't it?"- The point during the film when Bill Murray plays the race card. I wish I were joking.

I'm not quite sure how to put this because if you have seen "Space Jam", you understand already the experience and intricacies of watching this wacky film. I have no idea how they arrived at this. I blame David Falk ("Air" was recently on television). Trying to mix a Michael Jordan star vehicle with a Looney Tunes film is such a strange idea. I enjoyed everything with the Looney Tunes characters. Bill Murray and Wayne Knight are both delights. Charles Barkley for Best ing Actor 1997.

But what didn't I like? I can't explain. It's objectively an 88-minute-long ment. Did I have fun? Yes. Was this a cohesive experience with a linear plot? Definitely not! Also, there's something about Lola Bunny that feels oddly in poor taste.

I haven't seen "Looney Tunes: Back In Action" since I was 10, but that's much better. Studio films in the 90s were a whole different form of uncanny.

PS: This has the best "Pulp Fiction" joke I've seen in a while.

"Santa Claus rides alone."

This is another typically strong showing from Eastwood, taking another paperback airport thriller (like "Absolute Power") and turning it into a thoroughly watchable (and libertarian) adventure. Eastwood is quite cynically aware of the flaws of journalism, how self-serving it is and how it creates "issues" to give people what they want to read, instead of what they should read. "It wasn't my story." He has to do a human interest piece, with him saying he barely even knows what that is. His character is stifled by unsympathetic editors, who don't draw a line between personal issues and professionalism.

Eastwood is never too idealistic about America. In "True Crime", he discusses institutional racism in law and order and how mass media are often unwilling to focus on these heavy topics. He's not ignorant too how race is still perceived in America, and you can tell he's a little guilty about that. He very much displays his libertarian instinct in portraying the DA as unhelpful and Beechum's story as brutally fateful before Steve Everett gets involved. It's not his first time portraying America as a place where the institutions give you no help.

This is also perhaps the most introspective of Eastwood's work I've seen so far. In this film, his character is a recovering alcoholic and a womaniser trying to save his career (exploiting the case of Beechum after a previous failure in a similar vein). But most of all, he's a shitty father who doesn't spend nearly enough time with his child. In "The Mule" and "Absolute Power", you can feel the regret that Eastwood feels for not being there in his children's lives. Here it's felt especially acutely, considering he messes up when he does have to take responsibility for his daughter. "True Crime" is very much about interrogating the degrees of a man's guilt, in relation to his past and future.

Finally, like all Eastwood films, it is formally outstanding. The flying camerawork in the execution room, mixed with the doomed sound design, is a wonderful touch for invoking tension. I love how Eastwood shows characters in their cars.

So, I know what you are wondering:
"Sean! You hated Minecraft the first time! You called it morally bankrupt and a cinematic trip to the dentist! Why would you rewatch this IN THEATRES? DO YOU HATE ART?!"

I went to see this with my baby cousins and my aunt. They were planning on seeing it, and they asked if I wanted to come. I would do anything for my baby cousins, therefore, I agreed to accompany them. I went to see this on a bigger screen than last time. During the third act, my three-year-old cousin said, "I'm scared, Seanie (yes, they call me Seanie, they're so adorable)" and he climbed onto my lap, where he stayed until he realised I had no popcorn left. He also had earlier cried out, "Look, a buzzy bee!" My five-year-old cousin was in stupefied silence for most of the film. At one point, I left for a walk and was delighted to see posters for "The ant 2", "Warfare" and "The End."

This is the second time I have seen a film with them that I had previously seen before (the previous being "Sonic The Hedgehog 3", which they are still obsessed with). I feel I don't need to stress which time I preferred more.

This made me miss real movies. I groaned at the lines I was supposed to laugh at. The one thing that confuses me the most: why was the Garbage Man once on the front cover of "TIME" magazine? It befuddles me!
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TRANSCRIPT OF THE SCENE WHERE STEVE TRAVELS TO THE EDGE OF THE OVERWORLD AND MEETS THE CREATOR, NOTCH (played by Ed Harris, of course):

(After he played the fiddle as the Overworld™ burned, Steve has been on a holy pilgrimage, call it a crusade, to rediscover his sanity. He has travelled wide and far. He seeks to find the edges of the Overworld™, as the Oracle of Delphi suggested. He has now reached it. A wall of heavenly cyan stand before him. Solid to the touch. It flickers and glows. It looks alive. But there is nothing behind it, nothing that Steve can see. He has a flash of what the Oracle spoke to him: "You shall encounter only a bad dream if you persist in this quest. Reconsider, Stevual. Reconsider." He has a flight of regression where he stands.)

Steve: "Holy guac! Where am I, some kind of The End™?"
Notch: "Look up, Steve."

(Steve looks up into ethereal light. He flinches and recoils, as a cowboy dressed in leather rides a horse from Hell or Texas from the light to Steve. The cowboy stops, checks his pocket watch and takes off his Stetson. He stands next to his horse from hell or Texas. He takes a swill from his hip flask.)

Notch: "I am the daddy of this domain, Steve. This is my baby. I wanted to create a place where I could hide from George H.W. Bush. Where I was not persecuted for owning 10 copies of Robert Ludlum's "The Bourne Supremacy". Don't you see, Steve? This has been your journey, your quest, your Minecraft™. Every action you have taken, every step you have made, every Villager™ you have trolled upon, every Piglin™ you have brought to desecration: it has been for me. The Overworld™ is a failed experiment now that the ghost of George H.W. Bush and the Nether King shall use it to fight their evil fights. The Oracle of Delphi spoke this to me when I was a babe. But I did not listen. I have persisted in this foolish fantasy for far too long. Malgosha was supposed to destroy you, goddammit! But you lived, Steve. You lived."
Steve: "Whoah, dude! You chose the deuce, too?!"

(Notch gets off his horse from Hell or Texas. He has spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle when he walks. He comes over to Steve with a detonator. Meanwhile, with his other hand, he takes off his belt. He throws the detonator at Steve's feet. He takes a chug from his flask and checks the hourglass he keeps hidden in his Stetson. It is 89 minutes past the hour. Time was never fluid in the Overworld™.)

Notch: "You do not listen to me, fool! You were not meant to live. I had to recalcualte all the the checks and balances of my plan. It was nearly fooled by you irable erstwhile will to live. This, this moments has caught us squarely in the mouth. Oh! Oh, gazooks! If only had I listened to the Oracle of Delphi! So this must be the cry of opulance. My meme on earth. You shall becomes one with my machinations, my child. So here is the stick by which the carrot is laid before: at this moment, a train is travelling across the borderline into the Guantanamo Bay™ biome! I have laid C4 on the rail tracks. This you must do if you want this world to live! Don't you see? The juices and slimes of American waste have steeped into my beautiful creation! There are none to be judged, no souls to be weighed at St Peter's Gate™! The Overworld™ must be born anew. Press the detonator, Steve. Show me how much you love me, Steve. In many ways, I am your daddy. Daddy wants you to show him your love. The Overworld™ must be cleansed by a holy fire; using namely Legients Bleach™, the bleach a family needs to create at their best!"

(At this, he holds up a bottle of Legients Bleach™.)

Notch (cont): "Do this for Daddy, Steve. It is the only way."

(Brings out the Overworld Bible™ for it is holy. He goes to page 453 to read the poem: "Notch's Tale".)

"I sought to wish the world away
Alas, back it came
The worst I thought I knew
On that, the vitriol grew
Finished, the rains came
To bring back time
But time had been forsaken by the hail
For one erroneous line of rail
The contents were left from the trial of man
The judge, my old friend Death™
And yet he brought me only pain
Of justice, I am to persuade him yet"

(Tears in Notch's eyes.)
"Do this for ol' Notch, Steve. What do you say, son?"

Steve (confused): "So, you want me to unalive the Nether King, the ghost of George H.W. Bush, the Oracle of Delphi and the Enderman? Gnarly, man!"

(Notch wraps the belt around his fist. He steps onto the holy plateau that Steve rested upon. He begins to whip him. Steve begins to scream, primordial shrieks. But Notch is a man wasted by time. To say he has no patience is a lie. He simply has no vital instruments left to form more useless words. In his mind, Steve had already made the choice. Notch finishes. He was slow and meaningful. Steve is now a bloody pulp. The ruins of a man. Notch picks up the detonator. He did not tell Steve that the Oracle of Delphi had already foretold that the train would fall off a cliff. The C4 was for the suicide vest he wears under his slick leather jacket. He presses the seductive red button on the detonator.

Annihilation.

Time es. Notch's ex wife, played by Lance Henriksen, comes out of the ether. She kicks the two mangled corpses. She jumps on the horse from Hell or Texas, giving it a spoonful of grain. As the horse rides away, Notch's ex wife turns around.

"You never paid alimony, you sick fuck."

There is nothing more for humans to say. Only the wind shall mark the ledgers of this tale again.)

"Congratulations, liars! You know who you are, and you know who you want. Ain't nothin' gonna change that."

This left me feeling so happy, and I nearly teared up at the end. It's a beautiful film about queerness. While it does not show fully how dehumanising conversion therapy can be, it does show how absurd the notion of trying to change human nature is. By portraying it through satire, it ends up giving a much more effective image of the self-righteousness of the people behind these groups and how ludicrous their MO is. It also manages to effectively create an image of how these 90s American parents would respond to their children's identities by weaponising the love and a child would expect from a parent. Mary Brown is a successful showcase of a villain, having the people under her care agree to risible statements and ideas about themselves (especially with the female characters, whom she tries to prepare for an insulting 50s role as a housewife). It's about subverting traditional gender roles; all the bright colours of the rainbow show how phoney True Directions are. I also like how it shows the flip side, proud queer people trying to inform undereduacted youth. It's not as angry as, say, "The Living End" or "Edward II", but it achieves its major points.

Most of all, it portrays magnificent queer realisations and coming to with the life you are meant to live. Only you have the ultimate control over your mind. Megan's story with Graham is one of many examples of queer love but it's especially touching. There's no point in living a lie.

This has the same colourful and expressive interiors as Gregg Araki does. There's so much colour and the look of True Directions is very clever in showcasing a subtle irony against Mary Brown's wish for these queer youth to see in black and white. There's plenty of light and life in Jamie Babbit's film, with so much eloquent usage of the environment to tell the story. The cast is stellar, and even though our main leads, Natasha Lyonne and Clea Du Vall, are both fantastic, my favourite is Cathy Moriarty as Mary Brown, the overly zealous and serious camp leader who kills all her lines with an unchanging straight face. RuPaul does not disappoint as well ("...you'll be watching sports... the whole weekend!").

Overall, this was such a loving experience. I can't be happier to be bi. Queer love always wins :)

"We must stop the terror. I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you...now watch this drive (tee shot)." – George W Bush to reporters while playing golf.

"Warfare" has your standard ideas for a war film: no character development, continuous fight scenes, no long dialogue exchanges, only a few locations (if there's more than one) and rarely any showcase of the time before. The men are puppets with barely any soul beyond their names.

Yet, "Warfare" is the disturbing continuation of making you experience this simple fact: that war is hell. Watching this in a theatre means you are exposed to visceral booming sound; endless radio chatter, the sharp draw of gunfire, ceaseless shouting, loud thumps signalling tank shells pounding buildings, the shouting and screeches of wounded men. The sweeping booms of the repeated "show of force". The most awful little sound flourish is the sound of Joseph Quinn's laboured breaths as the soundscape is smothered by ringing after an IED attack. Unfathomable. Like "Civil War", the soundscapes are outstanding.

Garland and Mendoza are firm in their imagery; sharp flashes of bloody savagery, as bodies are ripped open wide in the street. The trail of blood left by a body being dragged. The shivering hand as Ray tries to apply a tourniquet. Smoke. The smoke obscuring everything in the street as it comes in waves of green and grey. It's colourful and it's also brutal.

I understand how there is discourse on the film being pro or anti-war. I believe this to be anti-war. The start is the only time you get any sort of brevity, anything that could be used as propaganda. There is no glamour, no shininess. Nearly every character is a shivering and screaming wreck by the end of the film, lying in pools of blood. Nothing meaningful is achieved during the course of the film. The American soldiers do not behave cordially toward the Iraqi civilians at all, tugging them roughly and desecrating their houses. The Iraqi translators are used as bait by the US during the med evac. The soldiers are unable to answer the Iraqi woman who cries, "Why?" The Americans can blow up the house and leave it covered in blood. But they are not the ones who will have to mop it up. To me, the most telling part is that many of the real-life counterparts' faces are blurred out during the final montage.

Alex Garland continues his hot streak from "Civil War" with this. Ray Mendoza shows his strength as a director. Their ultimate goal was to utterly immerse us in this battle, to the best of their ability. "Warfare" is not the first of its kind, but nobody can say that it is not exactly what it sets out to be: a deep-seated portrayal of hell.

"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office."- George W Bush.

"Thank you, Sergeant. It's been an education."

It's a testament to the sheer level of craft behind this that what on paper sounds like a goofy and campy airport paperback novel ended up becoming an awesome neo-noir with Harrison Ford. Peter Weir was the perfect director for this material because you have his dynamic landscapes and visual flourishes (the third act silo scene) mixed with an amazingly stirring score by Maurice Jarre. Weir can make the most mundane and boring Amish chores seem like a sight to behold. I never thought I'd find a barn raising cool, but that's "Witness"; making barn raisings fashionable again. He also manages to deliver a tight police conspiracy thriller, and while that takes the back seat in the second act, I could've watched much more of Weir in investigative mode; Harrison Ford connecting the pieces of the murder. The final third act fight is delivered well, taking its time as Harrison Ford formulates a plan, running and hiding. The remote farm setting doesn't stand in the way of plenty of intrigue.

Harrison Ford is giving a more vulnerable performance here, not at all the invincible Indiana Jones, as he deals with an intricate human situation between him and Rachel (what's with Harrison Ford and falling in love with people called Rachel?). He brings an almost dad-like feeling to the role as he mixes with the Amish, as well as an against-the-grain yearning in his scenes with Kelly McGillis. His "Wonderful World" scene is delightful, his character is easy to empathise with as compared to Rick Deckard.

In his four-star review of the film, Roger Ebert wrote that it is a thriller "that Alfred Hitchcock would have been proud to make." The feeling is reciprocated here.

"Sharing the world has never been humanity's defining attribute."

While I agree that Bry*n S*ng*r is a terrible person, his dark political subtext is exactly the push these superhero films need. This starts with an attack on the President (two years after 9/11), followed by him giving Stryker (who is Donald Rumsfeld lite) carte blanche to do whatever he needs to deliver "a special operation". Stryker proceeds to forcefully drug Magneto to tell him about Charles' mutant secrets. David Hayter's script is about government conspiracies to attack the presidency and the usage of the US military to target a select group of people. It's an utterly film kept up to date with the war in Iraq, with a touch of "The Manchurian Candidate." Not to mention how it also shows Mystique taking part in espionage to discover state secrets. There's a reference to "mutant terrorists". It's safe to say that 9/11 changed the face of many blockbusters in the immediate years after the tragedy, but it's rare to have dealt so devilishly with the Bush istration's failings like "X-Men 2" does.

There's plenty to enjoy on rewatch: Brian Cox's delightfully juicy villain role, the flamboyant sexualisation of Mystique, the tackiness of Iceman and Rogue's relationship subplot, the hour-long third act, Magneto's theatricality and the way that genocide is casually thrown around with these characters. The action is fast paced; the best scenes are the opening with Nightcrawler (the shot of the Secret Service men getting ready in the Oval Office, pan through the lookhole, the Secret Service men on their haunches in the secretaries room, all in one take is awesome) and Magneto's escape (which is just so cool). The panning shot of the military rappelling into the X-Mansion. The shot of Magneto dropping all the grenade pins.

There's a lot to love. I will say: it's awkward and a little sad that they set up the Phoenix so well, only for it to flounder so hard. You can even see the Phoenix Force swirling behind Jean's eyes when she uses her powers! However, this remains a enticingly fun watch, that was perfect for a day when I needed something easy.

PS: If you pause during the scene where Mystique accesses Stryker's computer, you can see the "Maximoffs (2)" on one file and "Franklin Richards" on the other. I'm not kidding.

"Why should you love him whom the world hates so?"
"Because he loves me more than all the world."

I haven't been exposed to Christopher Marlowe's play or Derek Jarman before this. I watched this due to my great love of Tilda Swinton (I can do no other).

This was phenomenal. I love how Jarman takes the essence of the play's setting and then translates it into an anachronistic post-modern labyrinth in 1991; there's no great palace, merely wide open spaces sparsely decorated. There are many creative uses of the anachronistic design scattered around (characters smoke cigarettes, drink Coke, listen to the radio, soldiers are dressed in World War 1 era uniforms, the police have riot shields). Annie Lennox sings Cole Porter, Tchaikovsky plays on a Walkman during a final scene, and lively electronic music plays when the King and Gaveston reunite. The sumptuous costumes are grounded in the modern day; the men wear tuxedos with bow ties, and Tilda Swinton dresses like a 60s socialite; at one point wearing sunglasses (I don't think this often, but I would kill for Tilda's wardrobe in this).

Most of all, Jarman manages to make a text on the demonisation of homosexuality written in the 16th century modern again. He uses the subtext of Thatcherite Britain to translate Edward II's struggles to keep his lover Gaveston, as the nobles and Isabella hound him to throw him away, to make this relevant to a time in which homosexuality was still a major taboo in Britain during the AIDs epidemic. There's a scene in which a crowd carry banners in of gay rights as the police surround them. That is Jarman's most effective use of imagery. Queer people have always had to fight for what should be there's; that things have not changed since the 14th century. Jarman relates the tragedy of Edward II to his own life as a gay man in Britain. "Thy worth, sweet friend, is far above my gifts. And therefore to equal it, receive my heart." The fear they experience when they see what true love looks like is enough to drive them to murder; look what Thatcher did. One could argue that Queen Isabella is supposed to be a representation of Thatcher in Jarman's work.

Tilda Swinton (as always) is my favourite cast member. She is fragile yet resolute as Isabella. She rarely betrays emotion, the tightness of her face and her unmoving body. Yet there's also the elation you can see when she is happy, when she feels she is loved. Queen Isabella cannot have her husband either way, and she reflects that in her necessary affair with Mortimer. Yet, she's not happy. She's fallen for second best. Tilda never truly looks pleased here; her performance is dripping with regret. Tilda is so regal and commanding. She's my queen forever :)

"But what are kings, when regiment is gone, but perfect shadows in a sunshine day?"
90s queer cinema is unlike anything else.

So, I decided to watch this because:
A)- I saw my friend, Emily (one of the few people on this site I know in real life as well), had watched and liked this. She didn't expressly say to watch this, but considering that I recommended "Sunshine" (which is one of the darker films I know of this side of "Alien: Covenant") to her and she watched that, so I thought I'd do this.
B)- I was curious whether I'd watch an ableist film on the level of "The Predator" or "Alien: Resurrection."
C)- I need to watch more films from female directors.
D)- The cast.
So, let's run through this shall we? It's been a while since I've watched three films in one day.

Things I liked:
- Thomas from "Underworld"! (I did not expect to watch this many Charles Dance films this year.)
- The food critic from "The Menu"!
- Mr Bates from "Downton Abbey"!
- The White Widow from "Mission: Impossible"!
- Joanna Lumley (who my grandfather loves, if I correctly)!
- Classist Philomena Cunk (I didn't expect that)!
- This film looks very nice. Of course, you'd have to be an MCU director to mess something like this up. But this looks very nice; shiny but not in an overbearing way. The beach scenes look lovely. It's also hard to screw up Paris.
- The wedding sequence was the best part of the film.
- The costumes are not unmemorable!
- The final scene felt sweet, he really does love her after all. I could feel something stir in me as I watched it. If Charles Dance or Janet McTeer had cried, I would've cried as well.

Things I disliked:
- The Traynors definitely voted for Brexit.
- Maybe it's because I associate him with Neville Longbottom, but Matthew Lewis did not fit the role at all. He doesn't seem like enough of a dick to play Patrick.
- I did not get Sam Claflin as severely depressed, or that he would dress like someone from Silicon Valley.
- I hate Ed Sheeran. If you are going to copy "50 Shades of Grey" (which was definitely the intention here!), you at least must have a good soundtrack! GET OUT OF MY LIFE EDWARD.

[SPOILERS AHEAD. SPOILERS AHEAD. WARNING. WARNING]
-While the disability content was not as awful as I thought it would be (keep in mind that I am no way connected to anyone who has quadriplegia), it's still not good. I hate that they frame it as Will feeling like he has completely lost his personality and can't adapt to his new life. Especially as they reiterate that point far more than he is constantly in pain. He acts in such a blithe way to the emotions of others around him and he treats Lou in such a selfish way. He treats himself as a burden for Lou, refusing to hear her out, going with his plan anyway. It's awful; he never truly cared for her enough to consider that point. He gives himself no chance to adapt to a different world, not even considering going back to his career. He is not better off dead, and I hate how they don't push him harder to reconsider. What was the point of giving his parents six months if his mind was already made up? He isn't a Cormac McCarthy character! It feels very exploitative and I can tell that this does not speak for all disabled people, who most definitely have life's and move on. I understand that the whole message is that it is his choice but only a dick would do something like that after what Lou had done for him. Is he meant to be sympathetic after acting rudely for most of the runtime?

- Will also acts like an asshole, with his Stephen Hawking impression.

I would've rated this lower but I enjoyed this nonetheless. Oddly charming, in its own evil way.

"Hey, listen, we got a report of a guy coming through here with, uh, eight reindeer."

This film is objectively racist (why do they accuse Zeus of being the racist one? Why was he okay that McClane lied to him? His character is written in quite an insensitive way), is about twenty minutes too long with a little too much stretched out at the end and relies on silly plot points and convenience (like that kid giving John the big realisation, the aspirin bottle among others).

However, I enjoyed myself way too much to dislike this. This is a rip-roaring action movie that tears the screen away with it's larger than life grandiose and usage of New York as a malleable disaster zone where anything goes. To say that this film is wild is a massive understatement. It is the height of the mid 90s excessive action film craze. John McTiernan has so much finesse with the material, continuing the maximalist trimmings of "Die Hard" with even bigger action setpieces.

My favourite sequence is when Simon's true plan is executed is so smooth, with military music playing in the background, Simon transitioning between American agent to Dutch businessman, all the while it cuts to the garbage trucks. It's many simple choices all adding up to a wonderfully executed sequence. The dynamic execution of New York's city desecration across the film never ceases to thrill. I adore Jeremy Irons in this film; he seems like he is having so much playing with the silly accents and the devilish villain role.

It's clearly not as strong as the first, but it's arms and legs above "Die Hard 2". Between the outlandish puzzles (surely the jug puzzle allows for a margin of error, right?), the car chases (how did they film the park scene?) and all the other avenues along the way (trains!), this was a delightful affair to partake in.

Yesterday, I finished reading "The Beach" by Alex Garland, the novel that this film is based on. Alex Garland's novel is a mysterious slow burn, that leads to a gripping release of details. Richard, in the novel, strikes me as someone who spent a lot of time day dreaming as a child, engrossed in video games and Vietnam movies; the latter creating wild expectations of Southeast Asia. The novel uses Vietnam as Richard's point of reference for the beach, even using like "DMZ", "FNG" and calling the armed guards "Vietcong." He constantly hallucinates varying conversations with Daffy, the person who gave him the map to the beach, about Vietnam and miscellaneous questions Richard has. The primary themes of the novel are civilization and the disillusionment with a cruel reality; the latter strikes me as the main reason why the characters are so afraid to confront the world and leave the idyllic beach even after things start to go wrong. "The Beach" is a facsinating novel that I enjoyed greatly, seductively written, subtle as not to be crass and with characterisation that clinches the deal.
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"...you gotta ask yourself, what is the point of that?"

Danny Boyle's "The Beach" however is not that. The narrative choices that just add tacky melodrama and cheap suspense pained me; this could not be further away from the novel. In the novel, Richard has a crush on Françoise; in the film, it is a fully blown romance affair, that is every bit as cliche as it sounds. Jed, a major character from the novel, is missing here, with his role mashed between Sal and Etienne.

Speaking of which, I do not like the decision to *enhance* the relationship between Sal and Richard. Richard is a boring American tourist now, with practically no personality as every character beat from the novel isn't here. The ending has been changed to make it much more safe, a poor choice compared to the uncompromising source material. The film reeks of trying to add Hollywood glamour and sentimentality to dark source material. The film doesn't show how self-centred, narrow and irrational Richard becomes, at least not in a comical way, as there is a 20 minute stretch where he becomes Rambo. His stoic narration at the start is garish and his overloud shouting is irritating. Leonardo DiCaprio does not suit this role; it was made for a bookish nerd with a punchable face.

To be frank, you can tell that the novel was butchered in the adaptation phase. It wasn't until the end when I saw that the script wasn't written by Garland that I understood all the poor choices. The film tries too hard to be showy and accessible, neglecting the source material.

I will say that this is exceptionally well made. Danny Boyle is an effective director. The cinematography is gorgeous, especially during the underwater scenes and the film irradiates life. The score by Angelo Badalamenti is great. The soundtrack has so many wondrous and atmospheric hits. I adore Tilda Swinton in everything, and I can't help thinking how much better her role would've been in source accurate material.

This is not a great film. Well made and watchable, yes. But cohesive and narratively sound, no.

So, happy Easter! 20 minutes into this, my uncle and aunt came with my 14-month-old baby cousin. My cousin is the most adorable baby girl ever, with a luscious head of hair, a devilish smile where you can only see two of her bottom teeth and SpongeBob eyes. She's perceptive and very inquisitive. She's crawling now, and my brother remarked that she crawled like Solid Snake. She liked my mom best, but she was smiling at all of us. She waved goodbye when she was leaving as well! She was playing with stray Jenga blocks, and she was handing them to us when we were sitting by her! She lives nearly three hours away, so we don't see her often, but she's such a lovely darling to see each time. I adore all my baby cousins, but she's like a little princess unto herself. Babies, man. Just babies.

Yes, I know that was random to put in, but that was the best part of the film. When you watch a film this bad, you want to write about something you love, like time spent with baby cousins.
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"What's burning?"
"Us!"
"Shit! You're right!"

The film starts with Ripley being reborn for no other reason than the plot. There's a dumb joke about Walmart buying Weyland-Yutani that makes no sense. The film is at a loss to explain itself, with the military now being essentially what Weyland-Yutani was in the first three.

Almost immediately, they explain that Ripley is a clone and that she has now bonded with the Xenomorph queen's DNA, which has given her superpowers and acid blood. Then they say, explicitly might I add, with no hidden meaning or misinterpretation on my part, that she now has "EMOTIONAL AUTISM". This means that Ripley now acts coldly to every human character and has a distant personality transplant, so now she plays basketball and rips out an alien's tongue for Winona Ryder as a souvenir.

I want to kill Joss Whedon. I know I'm not alone in this sentiment, but Ripley having "EMOTIONAL AUTISM" just so she can behave strangely at every avenue is nearly Shane Black's "The Predator" levels of offensive.

There's so much ableism in this film, not least all the horrendous autism stuff. Dominique Pinon's character, Vriess, is in a wheelchair. He is introduced with Ron Perlman throwing a knife into his leg. He is later called a "cr*ppl*" and the film presents him as dead weight who gets another character killed because said character had to carry him on their back.

And, to wrap this all up in an awful little bow, as with all Joss Whedon films, there are excessive levels of misogyny and evil "jokes" about women. Vriess tells a joke crudely describing male genitalia to Winona Ryder right away, Michael Wincott's Elgyn talks in a disgusting sexual fashion to Kim Flowers before he describes Winona Ryder as a "good piece of *ss" to Dan Hedaya, Ron Perlman and Gary Dourdan both call Wonona Ryder a "b*tch" multiple times and Ripley says the foul line "Who do I have to f*ck to get off this boat?" to Ron Perlman who spends the entire film eyeing her and making ghastly sexual retorts.

That isn't to mention that the film looks far too shiny at times (the best comparison being 2000s Tim Burton), takes place mostly in dark environments and destroys Ripley's character from previous films, all the while having no grasp whatsoever on a smooth narrative or themes. Jeunet tries to make this into one of his odd B-movies, to no avail. The fantastic cast is wasted on a terrible product.

"You're programmed to be an asshole?"
At least "Alien³" had good ideas. Did I mention I watched the Special Edition? Great googly-moogly, I need to rewatch the prequels to get this out of my mind. This film is so bad they forgot the colon in the title. Happy Easter!

Cathy and Ron have it, if you understand me. They are at Marge and Norm Gunderson's level of being on the same wavelength. It's either that or the "50 Shades" binge has messed me up forever. Speaking of weird stuff, I viscerally cringed during the "American Beauty" joke (compliment).

"Ooh, I love puzzles. I just saw Inferno."

Setting aside all of the callow and juvenile jokes expected of a studio comedy (your standard overused drug fare, Ike Barinholtz childishly repeating lines, the *ahem* chugging scene), this was a delight and easily one of the stronger studio comedies we've gotten in the past few years. On a narrative level, maybe it's cliche (it has your typical cutesy realisation scenes and one where everyone's problems are *audibly* aired). But the main dynamic with our parents and the story about accepting your kids growing up is sweet as ever. It also has a great message about body positivity and making your own choices. See what happens when you allow women to direct comedy? They make more meaningful ones then men.

The LGBTQ+ storyline is the best part, though; how non-judgmental it is, how well it is resolved and how ive everyone is. It's also not diluted or ever thrown aside for the straight people. It's especially great for a blockbuster!

My favourite scenes were easily the ones with Ron and Cathy, which had me laughing like this was "The Naked Gun" (a level of laughter all comedies seek to reach). The shared time with Julie and Austin was also adorable; I'm very happy to be bi! Rudy was charming, he knows his job! I also love how committed John Cena is to playing delightfully nice dads.

Final note: Leslie Mann dresses up as Sarah Palin at the start and says, "I can see Russia from my house!" So yes, excellent comedy. (Considering how worse the GOP has become on disability rights, what with that b*st*rd RFK Jr saying all those nasty lies about autistic people, I can't believe that Sarah Palin looks like a goddess in retrospect. I'm not even American!)

"No one hated it more than me; to this day, no one hates it more than me"- David Fincher on "Alien³".

So, I intentionally gave this the slip after watching "Aliens" due to: A)- Its poisonous reputation. B)- I already knew what they did to Newt and Hicks. And C)- I don't own this on DVD. I finally decided to watch this out of morbid curiosity and my completionist instinct (the sound logic being that if I could watch the three "50 Shades" films, I could watch this).

So, first things first, what I liked. "Alien³" is undoubtedly the most brutal and violent of the franchise; its bloody and crass simplicity sures "Covenant's" calculated nihilistic self-hatred. From the start, there are masses of bugs on Fury 161. The autopsy scene is viscerally upsetting. There's a death involving an industrial fan. I can get that Fincher was onto something here, especially with the underwriting of abortion and the sense of terminality in Ripley's story. Sigourney Weaver is deeply quiet for much of the film, and works wonders with the material. Lance Henriksen's scenes in the third act really could've been something amazing, what with the vanity of Weyland-Yutani (the being eventually explored in "Prometheus") in full display. The Prison Planet setting is an irable idea, especially the caveat that they don't have firearms and that the prison is falling apart. The cremation scene is fantastic, one of the few times I saw the vision for this film. Finally, the Xenomorph pov shots in the third act are awesome.

Did I forget to say that I watched the Assembly cut? I did, didn't I? So, what I knew beforehand was that the Assembly cut was supposed to correct many mistakes and make it watchable.

Sadly, no amount of respectable ideas can save the final product, extended or not. "Alien³" is slow and unyielding in its grey prison setting. You forget about Newt and Hicks very quickly, because you keep waiting for something to happen in the first hour, yet the film moves at a crawl. Never mind that the Xenomorph's presence undermines the entirety of "Aliens". "Alien³" is comprised of dull grey settings with no life to them, and side characters that all fall flat.

Charles Dance and Ripley's relationship is painfully thrown aside after the first hour, squandering the only genuine human storyline the film has. The rest of the film is the boring inmates (who all look the same) with no personality shouting at each other; shouting at each other; SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER. Charles S. Dutton is doing a great job, but yet again, he just shouts. He and the other inmates have a shallow religious shtick that just wears thin after a while, with no real purpose, especially in the same franchise that gave us the deconstructive prequels. Also, there's one scene of Christ imagery that utterly falls flat.

I know that Fincher was smothered by a repressive Fox, but the film feels like it could've been directed by anyone, with no style whatsoever. "Alien³" is sluggish and soulless, a film with no heart or distinctive voice; most of it is characters running in circles. This could've been something special, but instead it just drags as Ripley is totally wasted on this film. This is easily the most frustrating franchise film I've seen in a while. I don't even mind dark and grimy films or intense tone changes (see my love for "Alien: Covenant") but there's something immensely draining about watching this as none of the ideas connect.
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"Director David Fincher later stated that the constant studio interference made the film stray so far from his vision, that the only way to make a 'director's cut' would be to burn the entire negative, and start over. He also itted that when the 1992 L.A. riots started to get close to the lab where the film's negatives had been developed and stored, he hoped that the entire building would burn to the ground, and the film with it."- IMDB trivia.

PS: That tagline is one hell of a lie.

"Make no mistake, it's not revenge he's after. It's a reckonin'."

Val Kilmer is the coolest person ever in this. He has the funny Southern accent I love, every line he says is gold with his quick-as-a-whip timing and line deliveries, and even though he spends most of the film looking like death and sweating, he plays it so smooth and tough, with a moustache to put a Victorian gentleman to shame. Not to mention that he nails all of his frail dramatic beats, especially his final scene. Doc Holliday is one of the most memorable characters in Western history, and mixed with the slick dynamite of Kilmer's performance, makes "Tombstone" a classic. His introduction had me grinding from ear to ear, and the film reinvigorates itself every time he appears.

"I stand corrected, Wyatt. You're an oak."
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"Tombstone" doesn't feel like the refined and patient offerings of Eastwood, with solemn and wistful cowboys enetring town, ruminating on natures evils and doing what is needed to be done when the time comes. In contrast, "Tombstone" doesn't waste anytime getting down to business, with the opening being the bloody storming of a Mexican town. The main quartet of the Earps' and Doc Holliday don't have any particular morals, beyond executing justice, and even then they are forced by the realisation of merely chasing wealth before they do anything. It's not a slow burn and there are often montages of justice being served. It's not very philosophical apart from allusions to the Four Horsemen given in the first scene (like Eastwood's "Pale Rider").

That aside however:
It is a simply awesome film. It has everything a Western needs: grandiose gun fights, horse charges, men shaking hands, shootouts, vintage trains. Kurt Russel! Powers Boothe! Sam Elliot! Michael Biehn! Bill Paxton! Unethical law enforcemnt practice! Guns! Lots and lots of shotguns and revolvers.

If I had to sum this up in one line, I would choose this "Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater" qoute: "But, that was some fancy shooting. You're pretty good."

Look, I spent all my time writing the Val Kilmer paragraph. If that can't convince you, I'm sorry, you simply are not cool.

"Heart in ribs like bird in cage. When it flutters, set it free."

Wow, this was just totally my kind of film! It's like "The Doom Generation" with a dash of "West Side Story"! It's a delight to watch, with its vibrantly colourful practical sets (so much opulent craftwork, like the blue Apartment 10H, the dreamy Blue Angel Club, the red theatre scene, the lighting in the streets, Billy's musical number by the phone booth) and many splendid uses of blue and pink. The fantasy musical numbers have such lively choreography and colours; whenever Andrea Riseborough is dancing, the film takes a tumble towards the beautifully abstract in its design, thus the Araki comparisons. Andrea Riseborough is amazing here, delivering so many laughs with her upfront New York accent and all her unhinged mannerisms. Harry Melling is also stunning. The score is vivacious, the costume designs are dazzling, and Amanda Kramer is, on the whole, a wonderfully sensual and stimulating director.

The film is an ode to decades of queer art, from Brando's impact on the community, to John Water's trademark camp, to the important of musicals in queer art, to drag with Cole Escola; hell, it even touches on bdsm a little. Most of all, it navigates gender dysphoria and the feeling of uneasiness that comes with understanding your true sexual identity spectacularly. It all too well captures the feeling of interdependence with the person who makes you realise your self. I related to Harry Melling's arc in this, how he hates the typical gruff and burly image of a man and his confusion at his attraction towards Teddy. His arc is reminiscent of James Duval's in "Nowhere." Andrea Riseborough's arc is about existing outside the confines of cisgender normality and discovery, a willingness to exist outside the grain.

This spoke to me so well. I'm not sure if I've put this down or said this before, but I've often thought critically about my own gender identity. It's a tricky thing to think about, especially in such a cruel world as this. Sure, I use he/him pronouns in my everyday life and dress like a teenage boy would, but I've thought about whether there's more to existing than what I present as. Needless to say, "Please Baby Please" wonderfully encapsulates such feelings.

"Maybe freedom begins with remorse."

It's not surprising that only a women could make a film that aims to demythologize the colonial machine and all the allure the military might have. These men are not at war, they aren't serving some great cause or ideal, they aren't doing anything meaningful. There aren't any flashes of "Call Of Duty" warfare. The men here dig holes, they iron clothes, they shave, they walk the streets of a town in Djibouti utterly aimless; they do this with a uniformity, the safe confines of routine that defines the life of Galoup.

Claire Denis's protagonist is one utterly lost into the military machine, an unremarkable man, who is bitter of that. He is envious of his commandant's qualities and the film is defined by his all-encoming hatred of Sentain. Galoup is jealous of this younger man. Galoup (sic) describes his handsomeness in an almost resentful way, he easily hates his popularity and his ability to be game for anything. Galoup wills himself to destroy Sentain. The film is a deconstruction of masculinity in a closed environment, the drive of competition, I suppose. The patriarchal atmosphere of the military plays a part too, as Galoup is this monsterish figure trapped inside a failed colonialist system, doing to his subordinates the might of the mundane French military powers.

The film has such exceptionally stirring imagery. The cinematography of the lonely sights of Djibouti is sweeping, the solitary images and all the long takes that the film presents; the arid sands, the deep blue ocean, the dark streets and lamp lit nights. The blocking is confined, it's only ever one object at a time. The ending is profoundly electrifying, the sense of one dance to celebrate freedom. "Beau Travail" is about the lengths men will go to finally free themselves of all myths and bounds, as they finally stay in touch with their own tribal imperfections.

This would've killed Jimmy Carter. Can you imagine how awkward the reception to this would've been if it had been released under the Biden istration?

Things I liked about this film:
-Carl Lumbly is truly fantastic here. Easily my favourite performance in the MCU. The scene where he's arrested tugged a little at my heartstrings from the power of Lumbly's performance. Maybe the most empathetic in MCU history.
-I liked the scene at the hospital. It's the only time where Sam's mindset on having to replace Steve Rogers, his worries about that are explored. It's also what a cameo should be (hint, hint, very obvious hint).
-The end credits have a cool animation style.
-This has the funkiest mind control song ever.
-The Indian Ocean fight sequence was the closest to stimulated I felt watching this. It pales in comparison to, say, "Top Gun" from nearly 40 years ago, due to an overuse of CGI. But fighter jets and missiles are more interesting than people blandly punching each other.
-Anthony Mackie was born to play Sam Wilson. It's a shame that the script trips him up so constantly.

Things I disliked about this film:
-This is a worse version of "The Manchurian Candidate" with Tim Blake Nelson (who feels so strangled as Leader) as Angela Lansbury.
-The political context makes no sense and is never explored. The optics of the MCU political situation is just left in the open to drown beneath all the forced attempts to make this relevant to the real world. The version of the presidency here is tragically true to real life now, but not beyond that he's a dickhead. The wider malaise of the American political situation is never explored, apart from vague refernces to bringing the country together. You can't say that without context! The closest it gets is Isaiah Bradley's reluctance to accept Sam being a White House fixture. But even then it misses an opportunity to comment upon how America screws it's veterans, like Bradley.
-The Leader's plan is ridiculously convoluted.
-The film never explores Sam's leap to Captain America. It doesn't include a word on the existing racial bigotry in America that Sam would probably face. The film forgets to give him a character arc for most of this. Even a scene where he recognises the mass challenge of emulating a Steve Rogers role would've been sufficient.
-The dialogue isn't consistent at all. People just flipflop between points at whim.
-You can't just mention the CIA in a "political thriller" and leave it at that!
-The Red Hulk CGI is atrocious. The effects in general suck; this film mostly looks like a PS3 cutscene. Speaking of which, if you've seen the trailers, you've seen the Red Hulk fight.
-The lighting is awful, it's either way too dark or way too bright.
-This has the worst post credits scene ever. We know the multiverse exists, you don't need to remind us!
-50% of the dialogue is just people asking rhetorical questions or explaining the events of the plot. The audience isn't stupid, we can tell what is happening without these monologues.
-Why is most of Danny Ramirez' dialogue just annoying one liners?
-This is objectively military propaganda.
-The denoument drags on for a long time. It also has a really forced, weird and sentimental message about being able to change, or something like that. Why should we forgive Thaddeus Ross? The film never gives a compelling argument for that. It's like one of those Angel Studio messages.
-The film has so much tacky melodrama, almost soap opera in it's comical appliance. These people can't have a conversation without shouting at each other.
-You can tell that Giancarlo Esposito was dragged in for reshoots, because all his scenes are mostly exposition and he looks bored.
-Harrison Ford also looks bored and unhappy.
-I'm happy that this wasn't MOSSAD propaganda like I thought it would be, but Shira Haas is pretty unenthusiastic in her line deliveries.
-How dare you cut Rosa Salazar?!
-Using "The Incredible Hulk" and "Eternals" as the films major jumping points makes no sense for a Captain America movie. It feels like Disney cleaning out their garage. "The Leader is still here? Put him in Captain America! Finally acknowledging the giant Celestial in the ocean? Sure put that in too! What do the audience care; they'll see it, it's Captain America!"
-The introduction of Adamantium here will make Wolverine's origin in the MCU lame. Instead of giving Wolverine time to become a lonely drifter in the wild, I bet you once the Adamantium is in his skeleton Charles Xavier will find him. Yet again, this feels like Disney rushing at every avenue.

I spent most of this film in awe that a major studio spent such a large amount of money to make something so discombobulated. Believe me when I say this is just so trite and confused; amateurish to the core. You can tell that this was directed by the studio, not Julius Onah. This film is special in a way that only a film with 5 credited writers, that went through extensive reshoots can be.

There's a scene where Dakota Johnson has a dream while wearing a scarlet dress. Her web connects them all!
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"I just can't believe this is my life, that I get to live with you."
If you spend enough time with these crazy, stupid, rich white people and get as invested as I did, how can you not feel meditative and joyful at their ending? The final scenes instilled sunny happiness in me, and I was a few steps away from tears. Yes, I nearly cried at this awful and thoughtless film. How's that for you?

This third entry still has the undeniably aimless filler scenes, the repetitive structure (50% of this franchise is just people receiving texts and phone calls) and the tacky dialogue, while also continuing the ludicrous Jack Hyde plot for way too much of the runtime, with has a very unoriginal twist (to be restrained) and resolves itself way too quickly. It doesn't help that Eric Johnson is legitimately terrible in the role.

However, this ending satisfied all my urges. The opening sequence with the wedding and the Honeymoon in , while the Hailee Steinfeld song plays, with the white wedding title card and all the sumptuous scenery! I only wish it were longer! James Foley didn't lose the theatricality of his directing, as well as his colourful imagery. The soundtrack here still blows me away with its sheer craft and level of talent. I still adore Dakota and Jamie Dornan. I still love Danny Elfman's work. The car chase after the new house scene was neatly directed. The eye for location and costume design stays so consistent across the franchise.

The main theme of this film is rebirth; of Christian Grey finally being reborn anew as a better man for Anastasia. The film continues to show him coming to with his past while, new to the narrative, he learns to finally accept Anastasia's sense of agency. It's a film about the responsibility of marriage and mending broken links in the chain of our psyches, as Christian and Anastasia learn to overcome and move on with their love.

Yes, the sexual content is dependably absurd and comical (why did they do that with Ben and Jerry's?). But I ended up enjoying this film.

Wow, I can't believe that I enjoyed the franchise to this extent. This time last year, I would've laughed and possibly shuddered at the notion of liking this. But crazier things have and will continue to happen. The power of Dakota Johnson? Perhaps. I wish you all the best if you violently disagree with me, as this is an evil opinion to have. Can you tell I'm weird? Oh well, on to the next.

"You have to go up there and you have to blow their minds!"
It turns out that this is a sequel to "Greetings." Oops!

"Hi, Mom!" is Brian DePalma's hilarious and chaotically executed social comedy about the 1970s. It centres around Robert De Niro, who goes on various escapades around New York; filming people in an apartment block from an opposing view, hurriedly seducing someone and playing a policeman (his rehearsal is amazingly funny) in a black theatre troop. DePalma certainly manages to convey the darkly farsical and socially satirical elements of the material (the long sequence of "Be Black, Baby!" in particular), presenting it as his take on voyeurism, educating ignorant white liberals on the black experience and the social travails of this time in America. I'm not quite sure if the film finds enough time to cover all the ground effectively, however. The opening is slow, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be about the absurdity of making movies. I'm also not quite sure what the purpose of the ending is; to reaffirm the social madness of the 70s? Apart from that, I can't understand. I certainly think that the film is bold, and I find what it does sufficiently fascinating to hold attention (especially the "Be Black, Baby" performance). I'm just not sure how it lands as a work of cohesiveness.

But it's immensely entertaining and vicious. I understand its major points, even if I think that the presentation of the arguments is lacking. Robert De Niro is playing an utterly sociopathic creep with a mid-Atlantic accent. The different aspect ratios and colour changes (especially for the TV program) work well. The intertitles were neat. The sequence where the theatre troupe were arguing with people was the best part of the film's satire. Overall, there is more that works than doesn't work. When is DePalma not gold?

2024-2026!
Warfare- Search For Squarepants (2025).
28 Years Later: Part II- Shrek 5 (2026).

1. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

   May 21st

2. The Phoenician Scheme

   May 30th

3. From the World of John Wick: Ballerina

   June 6th

4. 28 Years Later

   June 20th

5. Superman

   July 11th

6. The Bad Guys 2

   July 25th

7. The Naked Gun

   August 8th

8. Weapons

   August 8th

9. Nobody 2

   August 15th

10. Materialists

    August 15th

...plus 32 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My book collection may be my holy grail, but I must say I'm really proud of my Film collection.
Franchises are grouped together (mostly).
This is a mix of DVDs and Blu-rays. Check the notes if you want to know who's who. I have a higher proportion of DVDs.
Some are technically owned by my brother (The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: The Last Stand only actually), but what he doesn't know won't hurt him.

• 12 Angry Men

  DVD

• 1917

  Blu Ray

• 2001: A Space Odyssey

  4K UHD+Blu Ray

• The 39 Steps

  DVD

• 45 Years

  Blu Ray

• Ad Astra

  Blu Ray

• The African Queen

  DVD

• Alien: Covenant

  4K UHD+Blu Ray

• Aliens

  Blu-Ray

• All About Eve

  Blu Ray

...plus 217 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Black Bag
2. Warfare
3. Mickey 17
4. Companion
5. Presence
6. The ant²
7. Dog Man
8. The Gorge
9. Opus
10. A Working Man

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I made a commitment at the start of 2025 to watch as many films directed by Eastwood as I could this year. He's easily one of the greatest storytellers of all time.

1. High Plains Drifter
2. Changeling
3. True Crime
4. Juror #2
5. The Mule
6. Sully
7. Absolute Power
8. Pale Rider
9. Cry Macho

I don't really have a favourite film of all time. My favourite variates over time. The rest are in alphabetical order. I think this speaks to my personality, as the genres are all over the place.

Most Frequent Actors (4+):
Anjelica Huston (The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, The French Dispatch, John Wick: Chapter Three- Parabellum)

Alec Baldwin (Beetlejuice, Mission: Impossible- Fallout, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, Tár)

Bill Murray (The French Dispatch, Ghostbusters, Lost In Translation, Moonrise Kingdom)

Bob Balaban (Asteroid City, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, The French Dispatch, Moonrise Kingdom)

Christina Ricci (The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, The Matrix Resurrections, Speed Racer)

Christopher Walken (The Addiction, Batman Returns, The Deer Hunter, Dune: Part 2, Man On Fire, Pulp Fiction, True Romance)

Cillian Murphy (The Dark Knight, Oppenheimer, Small Things Like These, Sunshine)

Daniel Bernhardt (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, John Wick, Logan, The Matrix Reloaded)

David Dastmalchian (Blade Runner 2049, The Dark Knight, Oppenheimer, The Suicide Squad)

Halle Berry (John Wick: Chapter Three- Parabellum, X-Men, X-Men 2, X-Men: Days Of Future Past)

Harrison Ford (Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, The Conversation, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Raiders Of The Lost Ark)

Hugh Jackman (Logan, X-Men, X-Men 2, X-Men: Days Of Future Past, X-Men: First Class)

Ian Mc Shane (John Wick 1-4, Kung Fu Panda)

James Hong (Airplane, Blade Runner, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Kung Fu Panda)

Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City, The French Dispatch, The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds and Snakes, Moonrise Kingdom, Scott Pilgrim VS The World, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse)

Jeffrey Wright (Asteroid City, The Batman, The French Dispatch, Game Night, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)

John Lithgow (All That Jazz, Conclave, Killers Of The Flower Moon, Shrek)

Keanu Reeves (John Wick 1-4, The Matrix 1-2,4, Sonic The Hedgehog 3)

Lance Reddick (John Wick 1-4)

Laurence Fishburne (Apocalypse Now, John Wick 2-4, The Matrix 1+2)

Michael Fassbender (Alien: Covenant, The Killer, X-Men: Days Of Future Past, X-Men: First Class)

Michael Keaton (Batman, Batman Returns, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Toy Story 3)

Patrick Stewart (Logan, X-Men, X-Men 2, X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Ralph Fiennes (A Bigger Splash, Conclave, The LEGO Batman Movie, The Menu)

Randall Duk Kim (John Wick 1 and 3, Kung Fu Panda, The Matrix Reloaded)

Scarlett Johansson (Asteroid City, Lost In Translation, The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, Under The Skin)

Tilda Swinton (Asteroid City, A Bigger Splash, The Eternal Daughter, The French Dispatch, The Killer, Moonrise Kingdom, Orlando, Suspiria)

Tom Cruise (Eyes Wide Shut, M:I Fallout, M:I Dead Reckoning, Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick)

Ving Thames (M:I Dead Reckoning, M:I Fallout, Pulp Fiction, The Wild Robot)

Willem Dafoe (Asteroid City, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, The French Dispatch, John Wick)

• 45 Years
• About Time
• The Addams Family
• Addams Family Values
• The Addiction
• Airplane!
• Alien: Covenant
• Alien
• Aliens
• All About My Mother

...plus 152 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Final Destination 3
2. Final Destination 5
3. Final Destination
4. Final Destination 2
5. The Final Destination

These films suck. I try to be objective and I do love movies a lot more than I hate them, but damn me if any of these films are good.

• Alien Resurrection
• Assassination Nation
• Beautiful Creatures
• The Blind Side
• Blue Beetle
• Bodies Bodies Bodies
• Damsel
• The Electric State
• Eternals
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

...plus 40 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

HER WEB CONNECTS THEM ALL

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2. Madame Web
3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
4. Spider-Man
5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
6. Spider-Man 2
7. Venom: Let There Be Carnage
8. Spider-Man: No Way Home
9. Kraven the Hunter
10. The Amazing Spider-Man

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Predator
2. Prey
3. Predators
4. Predator 2
5. The Predator

"The desert has nothing. And no man needs nothing."
"To compose something so majestic, one could die happy... if one died."

1. Alien: Covenant
2. Aliens
3. Alien
4. Prometheus
5. Alien: Romulus
6. Alien³
7. Alien Resurrection

This guy rocks.

1. Black Bag
2. sex, lies, and videotape
3. Ocean's Eleven
4. Ocean's Twelve
5. Ocean's Thirteen
6. High Flying Bird
7. Presence
8. The Laundromat

My opinion only. I base this off my personal enjoyment and overall content of the film. As you may tell I'm not the biggest fan of the MCU (never was, never will be), but it cuts both ways with the DCEU. Moral of the story: no cinematic universes. Media like Hellboy and Sin City will also be included, because it's only fair. Also, Megamind is here because 😍.

1. Batman Returns
2. Joker: Folie à Deux
3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
4. The Batman
5. The Suicide Squad
6. Logan
7. Superman
8. The Lego Batman Movie
9. Madame Web
10. X-Men

...plus 65 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

This is a list of every film I see in theatres during 2025 ranked in order of preference. This may include films for 2024 and previously before that.

1. Black Bag

   March 17th

2. I'm Still Here

   March 1st.

3. A Complete Unknown

   January 25th.

4. Warfare

   April 23rd

5. Mickey 17

   March 15th

6. Companion

   February 18th

7. Presence

   January 26th.

8. The ant²

   April 26th

9. Dog Man

   February 21st

10. A Minecraft Movie

    April 6th
    +
    April 24th

1. Nowhere
2. The Doom Generation
3. Totally F***ed Up
4. Splendor
5. The Living End
6. Kaboom

Nobody has named a list after old Gerry so I guess I had to be the first. He was a pretty cool president compared to his Republican successors. My favourite part of his life is his sweet relationship with Jimmy Carter. They were good buddies and forged a strong relationship over time.

The three films listed are here because I saw Gerry during them, either via archive footage or pictures.

• Frost/Nixon
• Network
• Nixon
• Three Days of the Condor

1. Resident Evil: Retribution
2. Resident Evil
3. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
4. Resident Evil: Afterlife
5. Resident Evil: Apocalypse
6. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
7. Assassin's Creed
8. Resident Evil: Extinction
9. Monster Hunter
10. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

This is my ranking of 2024 films. Unlike my other 2024 list, this includes films I saw on streaming. I'm counting films that received wide or limited releases in the UK or the USA. If a film premiered in 2023 but wasn't theatrically released, it can be on this list. For anyone curious, quality trumps any hearts I give to films.

Best Picture:
Civil War
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
His Three Daughters
I Saw The TV Glow
It's What's Inside
Joker: Folie À Deux- WINNER
Love Lies Bleeding
The Wild Robot
Will And Harper

Best Director:
Alex Garland- Civil War
Denis Villeneuve- Dune: Part Two- WINNER
Edward Berger- Conclave
Rose Glass- Love Lies Bleeding
Todd Phillips- Joker: Folie À Deux

Best Actress:
June Squibb- Thelma
Kirsten Dunst- Civil War
Kristen Stewart- Love Lies Bleeding
Lady Gaga- Joker: Folie À Deux- WINNER
Natasha Lyonne- His Three Daughters

Best Actor:
Cillian Murphy- Small Things Like These
Joaquin Phoenix- Joker: Folie À Deux
Justice Smith- I Saw The TV Glow
Ralph Fiennes- Conclave- WINNER
Timothée Chalamet- A Complete Unknown

Best ing Actress:
Aubrey Plaza- Megalopolis, My Old Ass- WINNER
Carrie Coon- His Three Daughters
Connie Nielsen- Gladiator II
Elle Fanning- A Complete Unknown
Isabella Rossellini- Conclave

Best ing Actor:
Chris Hemsworth- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Denzel Washington- Gladiator 2- WINNER
Edward Norton- A Complete Unknown
Jack Haven- I Saw The TV Glow
Stanley Tucci- Conclave

Best Original Screenplay:
Civil War- WINNER
His Three Daughters
I Saw The TV Glow
It's What's Inside
Love Lies Bleeding

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Conclave- WINNER
Dune: Part Two
Joker: Folie À Deux
Small Things Like These
The Wild Robot

Best Film Editing:
Civil War-WINNER
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
It's What's Inside
Joker: Folie À Deux

Best Cinematography:
Civil War
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
It's What's Inside
Joker: Folie À Deux- WINNER

Best Original Score:
Conclave
Dune: Part Two- WINNER
Gladiator 2
Joker: Folie À Deux
The Wild Robot

Best Song:
"Claw Machine"- I Saw The TV Glow
"Folie À Deux"-Joker: Folie À Deux
"Even When I'm Not"- The Wild Robot
"Kiss The Sky"- The Wild Robot
"Harper and Will Go West"- Will and Harper- WINNER

Best Sound:
Civil War- WINNER
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Joker: Folie À Deux
Love Lies Bleeding

Best Production Design:
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Dune: Part Two
Gladiator 2
It's What's Inside
Joker: Folie À Deux- WINNER

Best Costume Design:
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Dune: Part Two- WINNER
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Gladiator 2
Joker: Folie À Deux

Best Hair and Makeup:
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice- WINNER
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
I Saw The TV Glow
Joker: Folie À Deux

Best Visual Effects:
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Civil War
Dune: Part Two- WINNER
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Gladiator 2

Best Ensemble:
Civil War
A Complete Unknown
Conclave- WINNER
Dune: Part Two
It's What's Inside

Best Soundtrack:
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Civil War
A Complete Unknown
Joker: Folie À Deux- WINNER
Will and Harper

Best Stunts:
Civil War- WINNER
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Gladiator 2
Twisters

Most Wins:
Joker: Folie À Deux- 5 Wins
Dune: Part Two- 4 Wins
Civil War- 4 Wins
Conclave- 3 Wins

Most Nominations:
Joker: Folie À Deux- 14 Nominations
Dune: Part Two- 13 Nominations
Conclave- 11 Nominations
Civil War- 11 Nominations
Gladiator 2- 9 Nominations
It's What's Inside- 6 Nominations

1. Joker: Folie à Deux
2. The Wild Robot
3. I'm Still Here
4. Love Lies Bleeding
5. I Saw the TV Glow
6. Will & Harper
7. Conclave
8. Civil War
9. It's What's Inside
10. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

...plus 65 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films that throw away notions of the conventional. They exist to mess with the audience and simultaneously make them think.

• The Addiction
• Aftersun
• Alien: Covenant
• American Beauty
• American Fiction
• Annihilation
• Anomalisa
• Asteroid City
• Batman Returns
• Being John Malkovich

...plus 36 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I promised myself wouldn't do this, but the idea was irresistible. This is my top 50, ranked by how much I love these films.

1. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
2. TÁR
3. The Matrix Resurrections
4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
5. Batman Returns
6. Joker: Folie à Deux
7. Oppenheimer
8. Carol
9. Blue Velvet
10. The Truman Show

...plus 40 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My opinion only!
1-7: My Favourites of all time :)
8-11: Very good films.
12-15: Films that I enjoy, frankly.
16-20: The Middle of the Road.
21: Mediocre.
22: Awful.

1. The Matrix Resurrections
2. The Suicide Squad
3. Bo Burnham: Inside
4. The French Dispatch
5. Nobody
6. Spencer
7. In the Heights
8. Happening
9. Belfast
10. Dune

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

"Trash" isn't so much an insult but a stylistic endeavour concerned with maximum entertainment for the audience regardless of quality. I don't mean to insult any film (plenty of films I like are on this list). This is merely my interpretation of a films style and overall presentation. Most of the time this is a filmmakers intention. It's prevalent in mid to high budget blockbuster American cinema.
Hallmarks of Trash Cinema are:
- a campy tone (performances, script, presentation).
- a focus on action and entertainment.
- a lack of subtlety.

No, "The Two Popes" being on here is not a joke. The link is to my review, just for context on how I think the film meets some of the above criteria.

• Ambulance
• Assassin's Creed
• House of Gucci
• Final Destination
• Kraven the Hunter
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life
• Monster Hunter
• The New Mutants
• Predator 2

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

when you recorded things on your TV? I still do that. This is just so I can catalogue which are in my watchlist and which I haven't seen. I will remove films as I finally watch them (I have films I have seen before recorded).

Removed:
15.12.24: Good Night, and Good Luck.
20.12.24: La La Land
22.12.24: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
23.12.24: A Bigger Splash
24.12.24: House Of Gucci
28.12.24: The Incredibles
29.12.24: Incredibles 2
30.12.24: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
5.1.25: Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
15.1.25: Absolute Power

• Memoria
• The Souvenir: Part II
• You Were Never Really Here
• Youth
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• Atomic Blonde
• The Night House
• Letters from Iwo Jima
• Flags of Our Fathers

...plus 118 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I hope you know how to use a photocopier. It's brutal out there if you don't.

• Conclave
• Hunt
• Mean Girls

Films that let me down. Even if some are not particularly bad, they did not meet my expectations of quality.

For example: I spent most of 2020 in a level of high excitement to see "Wonder Woman 1984." I was gutted every time it was pushed back. Ultimately I did not see it in theatres due to COVID lockdowns. I finally saw it in the summer of 2021, and even in my impressionable state, I knew it was mediocre (my hatred has only grown since).

• Alien: Romulus

  CGI Ian Holm. Do I need to say more?

• American Gigolo

  I did not expect this to be ridiculously outdated.

• Assassination Nation

  Trite and self absorbed with some terrible social commentary.

• Borderlands

  I had fun, but the moment I saw the 12A rating I knew I wasn't getting the ideal "Borderlands" movie.

• The Contender

  It has everything to make it an engaging and smart political thriller, but it fails in a bland presentation and confusing narrative choices.

• Emilia Pérez

  I had not seen the negative reviews before watching this, and I especially had not seen reviews from trans people and Mexican people. Go search for their view before cisgender white film critics.

• House of Gucci

  I knew this films reputation, but I still gave it a chance. Disappointed by an insanely confused tone.

• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

  As a big fan of the books, yikes!!!

• Jason Bourne

  Unnecessary nostalgia bait sequel with some of the most insulting choices to fans they could've chosen.

• MaXXXine

  I expected this to be a slick thriller set in 80s Hollywood, but instead it was narratively messy and every single time it tried to do social commentary it failed.

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Billion dollar movies ranked.

1. Toy Story 3
2. Jurassic Park
3. Top Gun: Maverick
4. The Dark Knight
5. Barbie
6. Joker
7. Inside Out 2
8. The Avengers
9. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
10. Furious 7

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I usually wouldn't start this so early, but compared to 2024: this is gonna be an amazing year!
Note:
-I added some undated films. However, most have been confirmed and others are surefire bets.

1. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
2. From the World of John Wick: Ballerina
3. 28 Years Later
4. Superman
5. Black Bag
6. Warfare
7. Mickey 17
8. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
9. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
10. Bugonia

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Not my original idea.

• X-Men
• Shrek
• Spider-Man
• The Matrix Reloaded
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
• Lady Vengeance
• Mission: Impossible III
• No Country for Old Men
• Speed Racer
• Fantastic Mr. Fox

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Ranking every film I see in theatres in 2024. Some of these films may have came out in 2023; keep that in mind.
"The Amazing Spider-Man" movies were rereleases for Sony's 100th anniversary.

1. Joker: Folie à Deux
2. The Zone of Interest
3. Anatomy of a Fall
4. The Wild Robot
5. Civil War
6. Conclave
7. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
8. Dune: Part Two
9. Small Things Like These
10. Sonic the Hedgehog 3

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Red One
2. The Predator
3. Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie
4. Insurgent
5. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
6. Hitman
7. Wonder Woman 1984
8. Free Guy
9. X-Men: Apocalypse
10. Fantastic Four

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Batman Returns
2. Toy Story 3
3. Small Things Like These
4. Shrek
5. The Nightmare Before Christmas
6. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
7. Die Hard 2
8. Scrooged
9. Sweethearts

1. Alien: Covenant
2. Blade Runner
3. Alien
4. Gladiator
5. Prometheus
6. Gladiator II
7. The Last Duel
8. American Gangster
9. Kingdom of Heaven
10. Napoleon

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is not here because this is films he directed only. Please don't make me include 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.'

1. Batman Returns
2. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
3. Beetlejuice
4. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
5. Batman
6. Sleepy Hollow
7. Corpse Bride
8. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

The Sequel.

1. TÁR
2. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
3. The Batman
4. Nope
5. The Eternal Daughter
6. Everything Everywhere All at Once
7. Downton Abbey: A New Era
8. Top Gun: Maverick
9. Watcher
10. Aftersun

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

A collection of any review of mine that is over a paragraph.

• Alien

  boxd.it/6TpJ5D

• Alien: Covenant

  My ★★★★★ review of Alien: Covenant on Letterboxd boxd.it/75SRR7

• The Batman

  boxd.it/56A8qx

• Belfast

  boxd.it/4XoTjN

• Bodies Bodies Bodies

  boxd.it/6NTsZb

• Civil War

  boxd.it/6mh4qd

• The Deer Hunter

  My ★★★★★ review of The Deer Hunter on Letterboxd boxd.it/7e7ow7

• Godzilla: King of the Monsters

  boxd.it/5MZmgT

• His Three Daughters

  boxd.it/7n3JA3

• The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

  boxd.it/5g4s9d

...plus 14 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Alien: Covenant
2. Knives Out
3. About Time
4. I'll See You in My Dreams
5. Carol
6. Gone Girl
7. The Old Man & the Gun
8. John Wick
9. Resident Evil: Retribution
10. Lady Bird

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 45 Years
• About Time
• All About My Mother
• Anomalisa
• Belfast
• Bo Burnham: Inside
• Broker
• Carol
• Cry Macho
• Downton Abbey: A New Era

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

V skipped due to lack of good films and Y skipped due tonthe fact I haven't seen any films starting with Y since I've ed Letterboxd. Oops.

• Alien: Covenant
• Batman Returns
• The Conversation
• The Deer Hunter
• The Eternal Daughter
• The French Dispatch
• Gone Girl
• His Three Daughters
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• Joker: Folie à Deux

...plus 14 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

This is every spooky film that I watched during October. I know that some are not technically horror films, but anything that deals with the supernatural or is a thriller is fair game here.

1. Manhunter
2. The Batman
3. The Silence of the Lambs
4. The Exorcist
5. Rosemary's Baby
6. Resident Evil: Retribution
7. Addams Family Values

   Somehow even funnier than the previous instalment. Joan Cusack delivers a hysterical villain performance. The summer camp has so many dark jokes, ending with a glorious exhibition of violence. I loved this.

8. It's What's Inside

   Some of the most fun I've had watching a film in a while.

9. The Addams Family

   Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia are hilarious, their line delivery kills me. The style is Burton levels of Gothic with rich sets. Christopher Lloyd is dependably funny.

10. Hellboy II: The Golden Army

    "Can't Smile Without You" by Barry Manilow. This film couldn't be any crazier and I love it.

...plus 19 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

This is just a list of 2023 films I saw this year ranked. This counts films I watched on streaming.
Wins:
Best Picture: Oppenheimer
Best Director: Christopher Nolan Oppenheimer
Best Actor: Cillian Murphy Oppenheimer
Best Actress: Lily Gladstone- Killers Of The Flower Moon
Best ing Actor: Robert Downey J.R-Oppenheimer
Best ing Actress: Emily Blunt-Oppenheimer
Best Original Screenplay: Air
Best Adapted Screenplay: Killers Of The Flower Moon
Best Cinematography: Oppenheimer
Best Editing: Oppenheimer
Best Production Design: Barbie
Best Costume Design: Barbie
Best Original Score: Oppenheimer
Best Original Song: Am I Dreaming-Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best Hair and Makeup: Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3
Best Visual Effects: Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3
Best Animated Feature: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse

1. Oppenheimer

   100%

2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

   100%

3. Killers of the Flower Moon

   100%

4. Anatomy of a Fall

   100%

5. The Zone of Interest

   100%

6. John Wick: Chapter 4

   100%

7. May December

   100%

8. The Killer

   100%

9. Asteroid City

   100%

10. Past Lives

    100%

...plus 45 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My opinion only! I don't want to make anyone angry!

1. TÁR
2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
3. Oppenheimer
4. The Matrix Resurrections
5. Joker: Folie à Deux
6. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
7. Everything Everywhere All at Once
8. The Wild Robot
9. The Killer
10. Anatomy of a Fall

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films I like with a low average rating, 2.6 or lower. I know most are unpopular opinions, but I don't get the hatred for some (Joker: Folie À Deux!!!).

• Assassin's Creed
• Dark Phoenix
• Despicable Me 3
• Destination Wedding
• Fast X
• Holidate
• Joker: Folie à Deux
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
• Megalopolis
• Mission: Impossible II

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

"Let them come"- Optimus 'Badass' Prime

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2. Bumblebee
3. Transformers: The Last Knight
4. Transformers
5. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
6. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
7. Transformers: Age of Extinction

• The ant
• The Bourne Identity
• The Bourne Supremacy
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• The Guest
• John Wick
• John Wick: Chapter 2
• John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
• John Wick: Chapter 4
• The Killer

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Controversial Opinion: the "X-Men" films are better than most of the MCU. In a universe where films like "Eternals" and "Thor: Love and Thunder" exists, the "X-Men" are a great showcase of powerful blockbuster film-making.
72/100= 7.2 Average

1. X-Men: Days of Future Past

   10/10

2. X2

   10/10

3. X-Men: First Class

   10/10

4. X-Men

   9/10

5. Deadpool & Wolverine

   9/10

6. Deadpool

   9/10

7. Deadpool 2

   8/10

8. The Wolverine

   8/10

9. Dark Phoenix

   7/10

10. The New Mutants

    7/10

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
2. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
3. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
4. The Hunger Games
5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

These are films that I have seen in Cinema's in 2023. Some came out in America in 2022 though. Does not count 2023 films on streaming.
1-6: Masterpieces
7-14: Phenomenal
15-21: Great to Amazing
22: Bad Film I Love.
23-24: Bad Films

1. Oppenheimer
2. Everything Everywhere All at Once
3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
5. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
6. TÁR
7. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
8. The Killer
9. Air
10. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

...plus 14 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 8½
• A Man and a Woman
• Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
• All the Real Girls
• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
• The Color of Money
• Cruising
• Day for Night
• Dead Ringers
• Far from Heaven

...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

A great ending makes some movies. A bad ending may break a movie. These are all endings that I feel service the film, and give us, the viewer, clarity.

• Aftersun
• Air
• Alien: Covenant
• The Batman
• The Bourne Supremacy
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• Casablanca
• Civil War
• The Dark Knight
• Dunkirk

...plus 29 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films that remind of episodes of SpongeBob: in presentation, in humour and in style. But most importantly the biggest indicator is how crazy or over the top it is. I don't usually give direct comparisons; if it feels like SpongeBob, it's on here.
PS. Obviously not counting the actual SpongeBob movies.

• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
• Bee Movie
• The Boy and the Heron
• Cocaine Bear
• Deadpool
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
• Drive-Away Dolls
• A Haunting in Venice
• F9
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I didn't know what to call this list. These films have a lasting impact and hit you hard. You don't understand them fully the first time. But you always them, and they grow on you. Dark films that have a very much deeper meaning. These are films that will very much make you sad, yet they are also deeply rewarding.

• Annihilation
• Aftersun
• Blue Jasmine
• Bo Burnham: Inside
• The Boy and the Heron
• The Eternal Daughter
• May December
• Quo Vadis, Aida?
• Under the Skin
• The Zone of Interest