Films You Have Watched

[Dogg Thang]

Kickboxer Retaliation. Adds kidnapping plot element. Otherwise exactly the same.

I quite enjoyed that one. The Mike Tyson role did not turn out like I expected.

[Dogg Thang]

After around 10 months living in shared houses and little apartments, I finally have my own place and, as of last week, a new 65 inch television. For me, that’s a big television. Big enough to finally allow myself to watch Fast X which, yes, I could have watched in the cinema but didn’t and so I didn’t want to watch it on an iPad screen.

I enjoyed it. It’s as stupid as ever and maybe a touch better than 9, although almost every criticism I had of 9 I could find in this movie too. They’re actually very similar movies and, for me, a distraction is how some characters from old movies just pop up in a scene or two uninvited for no reason other than to have them in the movie. I can’t imagine anyone jumping into this series and having a clue what’s happening. On top of that, this introduced new characters where there seemed to be no need or no room. Except for Mamoa’s big gay villain - there was room for him.

Oddly enough, I felt it was John Cena who managed to shine a little more here even though he was probably only in it for around 3 minutes. He was actually really good with that kid (I had a question over the casting of that kid but I’m not going searching because I’m willing to bet the internet is being a total dick about it).

Maybe it was my new telly but I also felt it looked a bit better than 9. Yes, there was CG but I wasn’t aware of it quite as often and generally the car stuff looked really good.

As with most recent FF movies, I feel there was a little bit of a wasted opportunity here. It could have been a great sequel to Fast Five but it was just the same old stuff as 9. Still, it kept me entertained and that means it did its job.

In years to come, I can imagine religions being born from these movies with all their resurrection stories.

Edit: one last thought - at this point, I feel like the FF films are close cousins to the Saw movies. Endless rectons of stuff we’ve seen before, twisting the story in knots.

[Finsbury Girl]

Extraction 2 - a snorefest to be honest. What really got me is in the prison fight sequence he takes out dozens of dudes - THERE ARE NO BODIES ANYWHERE! Also the contrivance around his sister in law was just plain bad. Surely professional writers can do better than this.

[charlesr]

Weren't they all on strike? Probably chatgpt...

[charlesr]

Heart of Stone. Unsure why this wasn't a lot better. It was just so cheesy. I could deal with all the tech mumbo jumbo fun stuff, but the bit that got me was when they made an airship with hydrogen lol.

It was like they were trying to do a female bond. It should have worked, but again the script was lacklustre. Netflix...

[Neon Ignition]

The Intern
Nancy Myers film in which Robert De Niro plays a bored, retired 70yr old who takes on an internship at a fashion company and thus inspires the young people there with his wisdom. Well, not so much and there's not really much plot to the film either. His character finds it all immensely easy and just kind of coasts through the film giving slight nudges to others to do the obvious.

Elemental
So, not as dull as the bland trailers made it look to be but still nothing essential. It's an incredibly simple tale that is effectively one that mirrors the idea of the element based characters falling for each other with mixed race couples and the objections they face from some people but it pulls its punches too much to make much impact.

Cobweb
A bullied young boy begins to suspect that his odd parents may have committed a crime when he hears the voice of a young girl through his bedroom wall at night. It just about works, not as a horror as the shocks are lacking, but mostly on how it twists between genres enough to keep itself interesting enough to the end. The ending is very lacklustre though.

Bodies Bodies Bodies
This was... okay. The main issue was that it leant a little heavy on shifting from everyone having a good time to accusing each other meaning that you clock the answer well before it is delivered.

Blue Beetle
Another DC release, another film that struggles way more at the box office than it deserves to. The opening half hour has an air to it that kind of gives away its original HBO Max origins but as soon as the powers kick in the film has a very breezy, fun and endearing quality to it. Xolo brings a strong Cobra Kai air to it too, that similar vibe of it all coming together better than should do and the end result is one of the most enjoyable sueprhero films of the last year or two.

[Yakumo]

[B]
X (Prime) - I wanted to like this more, but it's a horror-by-numbers that's been done many times before. Worth a watch for genre fans, but you'll find yourself comparing it

Watched this on Prime tonight. The missues came in to my room thinking I was watching a porno . Ah, the delights of a cinema sound system
Got to say that I'm not sorry I missed this one at the cinema. It was a very average horror with very little to excite. In fact, the extreme softcore porn sections were the best thing about it!

[Dogg Thang]

I found it spent way too much time not being a horror and then just sort of played out in a very pedestrian way. I can see it being one of those films enjoyed by younger people who don’t really know the types of movies it’s trying to be.

[Neon Ignition]

Its prequel Pearl is less of a horror but the more interesting of the two in terms of execution

[Yakumo]

I found it spent way too much time not being a horror and then just sort of played out in a very pedestrian way. I can see it being one of those films enjoyed by younger people who don’t really know the types of movies it’s trying to be.

I totally agree. Its only the last quarter of the movie which I'd concidered to be horror.

[fuse]

Watched Ghostbusters Afterlife on the weekend, and really didn't like it. I don't have the original Ghostbusters on the same pedestal a lot of people do, so just found the hyper-fixation on it in this to be weird and tonally disconnected given it's such a dark and drab looking/sounding film that manages to suck the fun even out of its quips. The ending in particular was particularly clumsy. Not just saying this to intentionally rile folks up, but I enjoyed the last one so much more.

[Atticus]

I watched True Romance last night. Either it hasn't aged well or I haven't aged well. Nearly turned it off a couple of times. What I once viewed as a bit of a fun crime caper I now see as a corny nerd's fantasy. So much of QT's writing is just cringy now ... 'best goddamn burger' this and 'rotten in Denmark' that (maybe a reference to the supreme cheesiness going on) ... or maybe I'm just a grumy old man now ... but other than decent turns from Gandolfini and Hopper it's poor.

The previous night I opened the Jaques Becker box set. A mate loaned me Touchez Pas Au Grisbi (Hands off the Loot) a while back and I loved it ... amazing mob/crime film ... so picked up the Becker box set on Amazon Prime day. First pick from that was Casque D'Or ... a love story rooted in a world of lowlife characters where a couple of decent ones find one another. The leads are amazing and the film has a proper Barry Lyndon quality to some of the visuals where it could be an old painting come to life.

[Neon Ignition]

Not just saying this to intentionally rile folks up, but I enjoyed the last one so much more.

[Dogg Thang]

I’m curious to revisit Afterlife because, while I enjoyed it, somehow I seem to have entirely forgotten it. That’s less a criticism of the movie and more and indication of my failing memory generally but I’m interested to watch it again to see how it holds up or how I feel about it.

[Neon Ignition]

Good one to revisit in the new year just before GB4 lands