Last Movie You Watched

Great choices, I saw Jaws recently on Netflix & Venom Let There Be Carnage, yet to see Shang-Chi but I've heard it's a good one.

 

Yeah I had fun with all of them. I think you'll have fun with Shang-Chi! It's not the most original MCU movie, but it's high quality, heartfelt, and very intimate and unique despite the stakes and MCU-ness of the third act. But watch it yourself when you can, and you be the judge!

 

My Non-Spoiler Spider-Man No Way Home first reactions:

Spider-Man: No Way Home is a complex movie. It's hilarious in a multitude of ways (with several jokes coming from Memes and others coming from cheeky references), dramatic in others, and supremely bittersweet overall - as Spider-Man should be. There is major catharsis in this movie in a variety of ways, but as I said, it's supremely bittersweet at the end of it all. This is a Spider-Man film for newcomers and old-time fans alike, and ironically is the least connected to the MCU despite Doctor Strange's presence. You'll see what I mean when you see it. Overall, I don't think this is my FAVORITE Spider-Man film - Spider-Man 2 and Into the SpiderVerse still top the list. But if you like those, you'll love this.


My parents both really enjoyed the movie! I'm sure they'll have more to talk about in the morning (it's been a VERY long day for both of them, for different reasons), but their first reactions were incredibly positive.


Other same-night thoughts:
Once again, I like Doctor Strange more when he's NOT in his own movie. I hope Doctor Strange 2 will change that for me.
Since TROS sadly lives in my head rent-free in the most toxic of ways, after the movie I realized that I could compare this movie to TROS in some spoilerific ways. But the least spoilery way I can say about this is that NWH bravely forges a path that TROS was afraid of going, and walks that path WELL.


Recommended if you like:
Any Spider-Man product in the past 21 years (no specifics given)
Doctor Strange
Harry Potter

 

Nah it ain't bad but not great either. 7/10

 

Just watched Matrix 4...


It's crap. A total waste of time.

 

I grew up watching this 1959 mexican christmas movie every year on christmas morning!

 

The Matrix: Resurrections

This movie seems to divide people's opinions. Personally I enjoyed it quite a bit. Mainly because I'm glad Lana Wachowski could bring her story and her vision to the big screen. Nowadays that's not a given anymore.
But, people should stop claiming that she doesn't understand Matrix. If she thinks it's about love, then her movie is about love. IMO she was successful with that.

Yes, this movie isn't a masterpiece, but it's not bad either. The movie has a lot of ups and downs.

Ups:

- the look
IMO this movie is beautiful to look at. Finally a movie which colour grading isn't 50 shades of gray. It's colorful and vibrant.

- the story
Yeah, you have to like the concept of meta story telling. But I think the first half of the movie handled this very well. Unfortunately the second half dropped this idea. Focusing on Neo's and Trinity's relationship is also quite nice.

- the characters
I liked most characters, especially Neo, Trinity, Bugs and the Analyst. They were much more likeable than the characters overload in Reloaded and Revolutions. The need of new Morpheus and new Smith is debatable though.

Downs:

- No Kung Fu and Gun Fu
The action was just bad and forgettable.

- flashbacks
This is my biggest complaint. Why did the movie need these little flashback clips? Is the audience getting that stupid, to not remember key moments of previouds movie on its own?

Neutral:

- the music
The music could have been better. But it's not worse than any Marvel movie's music.

- acting
Some acting was good, some acting was bad.


I think a lot of people expected another Matrix 1999, but that was very unlikely from the get go. The first Matrix was a product of its time. Resurrections is also a product of its time.

As my final conclusion I can say- The Matrix Resurrections is a movie for those people who wanted a more grounded and happy end for the Matrix story. Let's face it, Revolutions was pretty dark and lost its most important element- the characters.


Final verdict: 6.5 / 10

 

Well said!

 

It's a Wonderful Life!



It was a very great movie. Not my Top 10 of this year, but definitely in the Runner-Up style.

The "alternate world where you weren't born" was good, but I don't think it lined up with George's main problem - George's problem wasn't just that he was "worth more dead than alive," but rather that he always put his "duty" before his desire. I think most of the alternate world's things could have happened, only that George went off to college and his brother stayed home. People could hate George since his brother couldn't run the company well and/or sold it out. The town still changed, his mother is still a little bitter, the soldiers still died, and Mary can either move on (and be in a miserable marriage) or...well, something can happen with her. Meanwhile all of those adventures could have done something to George - either he died of sickness out in the world, or he regrets the adventures because he has nothing substantial in his life but stories to tell at a bar. Anyways, these are ideas for a remake, not a true critique levelled at this classic.

Other notes:
The phone scene was just phenomenal. The chemistry, pull between desire and duty, and the giving in at the end - 10/10
My mom and I related Sam to an old school friend of mine, for better and for worse.
The dancing was on-point!
There are some other notes that I forgot...
EDIT: Oh! It was that George reminded me of Benedict Cumberbatch! I don't think I'd like Sherlock to play George in a remake (as I think I'd lean towards the roles of George and Mary being gender-flipped, and a few other changes), but I couldn't not see it at times!

 

Watched Die Hard with my mom last night! She didn't want to watch it for Christmas, since she doesn't view it as a Christmas movie (I know, I know). But she views it as a good post-Christmas (aka Boxing Day) movie, so we watched it then. It was a blast to watch, and it was fun to see how nearly every keyed-in on item or reference came back full-circle by the end. (The only thing not there was the dropped missile container, IIRC. But that may have been blown up.) Watching this actually makes me want to watch the next two movies...but I'll settle for Die Hard 2 or Community's first paintball episode (which I also really wanted to watch right after the movie) if I'm really needing to scratch that itch.



I'm slowly working my way through Shang-Chi's Writer and Director's commentary as well as the first Lady Snowblood movie, but those should be my final movies of 2021. I'm hoping to start the new year with a few new movies, a few old ones that I'm willing ot give a second chance, and a classic that y'all will be SHOCKED that I haven't watched in full yet.

Other notes: Die Hard makes me want to pitch a game to Lucasfilm about a character who is put in a hostage situation (potentially within a warzone) but escapes and must use their wits to survive long enough to gather weapons and materials to fight back and kill their (in my mind, her) kidnappers. But the twist will be that this is all training to join a Dark Side group (I'm thinking possibly a Post-ST revamp of the Knights of Ren). The escape, desire to survive, and willingness to kill and harm others are all tests to create a worthy apprentice that can gain a worthy kill. Or something like that.

 

It’s a shame how no one mentions the actor who replaced/played Morpheus as if, he is irrelevant. I’ve watched several commentaries and reviews of the film and people overlook his performance entirely. They speak about everyone else, and some throw around that disgusting word: WOKE. I will personally never use that word and it will not be part of my vocabulary the way they use it.

 

While the acting of Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was fine, I wish his role would have been replaced by Bugs. Everything he did could have been done by Bugs. It actually would have been even more intriguing, at least for me. IMO Bugs should have been the main character or at least the secondary main character of this movie. I liked her the most.