This movie goes back to basics and really recaptures the classic spirit of man (or woman in this case) vs Predator.
Amber does a great turn as Naru, a Comanche trying to show that she CAN hunt and ends up in a battle against the almighty predator. The evolution of the story is a well paced and the combat encounters are well planned and satisfying.
Aesthetically the predator is a more raw tribal type than we've seen before but is well put out.
There's a few CGI moments that could have done with a little longer is post but on the whole it's pretty good.
Fun, exciting and a classic Predator tale without all the fluff, much better than what we've seen in recent years.
Also the addition of a dog companion is fun :-) Although we are in a world where every movie likes to show strong women I think this movie framed it very well and the Comanche and time frame were a great choice.
8/10
[8.3/10] Zombie movies have a long history of social commentary and symbolism. Auteurs like George Romero have used the undead to represent prejudice, consumerism, blind loyalty, and scads of other social ills made manifest in horrific terms. That’s one of the features of this particular subgenre -- the concept of brainless, shambling former humans is malleable enough to fit around any number of concepts and themes.
In Shaun of the Dead Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg use it for something much more mundane -- the layabout manchild who’s failed to launch. For once the hordes of reanimated corpses are less about some wide-ranging societal malady, and more about one dude who needs the zombie apocalypse to prompt him to “sort his life out.” It’s subtle, but the movie kicks off with the idea that Shaun is no better than the living dead he’ll eventually do battle with, having failed to advance his life, work, or motivation to where he’s stuck in the same rut at 29 that he was at 12.
That conceit is part of the brilliance of Shaun of the Dead, which comes from the way it so perfectly walks the line between loving homage to the zombie films of old, ridiculous comedy amid a ridiculous setup, and surprisingly potent character drama about one man coming of age late in the day but just in time. It juggles these competing demands nigh-perfectly, with Wright and Pegg putting together an astonishingly well-tuned film that manages thrills, laughs, poignance, and most of all tone along a viscera-draped tightrope.
It works on all counts. Fans of the classic undead flicks will chuckle and cheer with recognition when one of the characters declares “We’re coming to get you, Barbara” or when a pest of a survivor is pulled out of a window a la Day of the Dead. The approach here presages Community’s stellar genre parodies, where there is so much loving attention to detail that it bolsters both the times when the film wants to play the familiar story beats safe and when it wants to poke fun at them.
That knowing approach to the “zomcom” works like gangbusters. Shaun and Ed’s reluctance to use “the z-word” is a fun meta-gag about how rarely the famed designation is actually spoken aloud in zombie movies. The invocation of common tropes like the survivor who tries to hide that they’ve been bit, the group having to pretend they’re zombies to avoid detection, or a character having to face down an undead version of a loved one is played for both laughs and pathos. This is clearly a movie whose creatives are deeply familiar with the genre they’re spoofing, paying tribute to, and using for compelling character beats, which is what allows them to mix and match those moods so deftly.
At the same time, Pegg and Wright are not afraid to get downright goofy with the proceedings. Watching Shaun and Ed ineffectively toss household detritus at a pair of walkers while arguing over which records to use as ammo is a big laugh. Their crew whacking at an advancing attacker to the beat of a Queen song is delightfully silly. And the life and death stakes of the scenario don’t stop the main character or his pals from dropping wry bits of gallows humor or loopy routines in between encounters with the flesh-eating monsters.
Of course, this is an Edgar Wright movie, so the script plays out like clockwork. Brief mentions of Di as a “failed actress” come back into play when she has to coach up the survivors to act like zombies. A hinted at but unseen skirmish in the second act comes back in a big way in the third act. Video game terminology turns into vital (and amusing) real world strategy. Off-hand quips pre-outbreak become meaningful portents once the undead invasion is in full swing. Wright is the king of setup and payoff, so there’s hardly a stray comment or visual framing that doesn't come back with a twist or an echo or an extra laugh down the line.
Wright’s also a superb sculptor of sequences and images. Some of them are flashy, like a neat shot of our heroes through the hollowed-out hole in a zombie torso, but some are more subtle, like a tableau of the survivors in the Winchester that positions everyone neatly in the frame. He and his team do well to establish long, well-blocked shots of Shaun going about his daily life, only to mirror and recontextualize those scenes once the extras of his routine have turned into zombies. And as with everything in this film, Wright and company are able to walk the line between humor and excitement with the action scenes, evoking some genuine terror when the biters advance on the survivors and our heroes fight back, but also leaning into the lunacy of a random London schlub wacking at corpses with a cricket bat.
But so much of that excellent attention to detail comes back around when Shaun of the Dead wants to play things seriously and isn’t just having a laugh. Barbara’s mantra that she “doesn't want to make a fuss” becomes much more meaningful after she’s hiding a zombie bite and Shaun has to contend with the reality that his mom’s going to die. A running gag where Shaun replies to any invocation of his stepfather, Philip, with a retort of “he’s not my dad,” takes on new, poignant meaning after Philip’s dying declaration of love before succumbing to the zombie virus. Pegg and Wright use their call and response, and their tightly-honed scene construction, to pay homage to George Romero’s filmography and to craft their own silly sequences, but they also use it for genuine pathos, for affecting drama, and most importantly, for character growth.
That puts Shaun of the Dead in line with so many of its undead flick forebears that the movie pokes fun at and pays tribute to. These movies lured audiences in with the prospect of monster mash horror, but lingered in people’s memories because of vivid characters and because of a social subtext reflected in all those shuffling corpses. This movie will absolutely work for anyone just wanting a good time involving ample chuckles and some zombified comic adventures.
But it also uses the oncoming zombie apocalypse as a metaphor for Shaun waking up and growing up. The key scene of the film comes when Philip tells Shaun that he always thought Shaun had it in him to do great things; he just needed the right motivation. There’s comic irony to the fact that this motivating turning point happens to be the reanimation of corpses from the grave, but Wright and Pegg don’t skimp on using that fact to tickle the audience’s funny bone at the same time they cannily show a slacker manchild growing up in real time beneath a blood-spattered cricket bat.
In an ideal world, none of us would need a zombie uprising to take the initiative and turn around our lives. But Shaun of the Dead has its title character accept adulthood in all that mandibular mania -- reckoning with his best friend, having to say goodbye to his parents, and becoming a true and reliable partner to the woman he loves. Few coming of age stories, if any others at all, pay such brilliant homage to classic horror films, elicit such genuine laughs from blood-spattered slapstick, or make the human drama so real and even moving. And yet for this shuffling subgenre, the approach and success are remarkably true-to-form.
With every episode this feels like a tale stretched out beyond what the story will bear. So many of the scenes feel like a paint by numbers dance with little of the soul found in the books. Like the kingdom itself, we are all waiting for Viserys to die and perhaps then things might get interesting.
The setting is contemporary, judging by the automobiles, but the ambience is decidedly 1950's era spy film noir. As for genre, I'm forced to call Counterpart science fiction, in that it involves parallel universes, but it's really like nothing else within that genre.
The general scenario is this: 30 years ago, for reasons unknown, reality split into two bifurcating, independent time lines. Until that point, all was unified, meaning that every character alive at that point shared identical histories. Now, things have begun to diverge. But there is a doorway between the universes in a building in Berlin.
Again, for reasons unknown, the two sides have been both communicating with, and spying on, one another through this doorway, and this is where our protagonist Howard Silk (J.K. Simmons) comes in. "Our" Howard is a low level functionary in this spy agency who hasn't a clue as to what is really going on until, one day, his counterpart arrives with news that a woman from "their" side has been sent over to assassinate people on "our" side, including Howard's comatose wife. No one knows why, which is the prevailing state of awareness in this decidedly curious story. "Other" Howard decides that "our" Howard is critical to his investigation and, thus, the strange alliance begins.
J.K. Simmons is a phenomenal actor, despite often being cast in secondary roles, and Counterpart is truly his opportunity to shine. He plays a single character, but one with two separate backgrounds despite shared childhoods, a role requiring some subtlety and nuance. He plays both characters to perfection as the similarities and differences between the two create something of a broader character that calls into question our notions of identity.
In a way, Counterpart is an examination of the concept of self, or soul, but it is also an engaging mystery/thriller. Like its main character, the sum is both greater than, and equal to, its parts.
And that's it! One of most intelligent, well written and delightfully acted series of the last few years has met its (probable) demise. For me, this was a fitting end that did not leave any stone left unturned, an end that brought peace to some characters and left a bitter taste in the mouth of others.
Oh man, how I've missed having both Howards in the same scene, bickering at one another... That's always been one of the most fun moments of the show!
That dialogue between Emily and Ethel was crushing me, not only because of the delicate and time sensitive issue that was at stake at the time, but also because I knew something bad was about to happen, I just did not know when. And then the first big loss of the show hit us... Poor Howard.
Howard Prime going all Hitman (so, doing what he does best) on those guys from the other side carrying the virus at the train station, surgically killing one by one and letting no single one of them escape was a very, very satisfying scene.
The ending for Quayle and Clare had a certain relief to it, their last scene was very sweet and I hope they'll manage to deal with their issues and raise Sara(h) as a genuinely happy and loving family.
In the end, Karma bit Mira in the ass, and that was also a very satisfying scene, watching Emily Prime savouring her final moment of victory in the guise of revenge (or is it the other way around?).
Fuck you, Starz, for pulling the plug on the most precious thing you had in your catalogue! Fingers crossed for another network to pick this one up, since the show's producers are currently shopping Counterpart around. There has got to be a network with good taste, out there!
Let's reopen the Crossing one more time, see you all in season 3 (make it happen, damn it!)!
I hope people watch this show and realize how bad Obi-Wan was, this show felt like I was watching the same story of Star Wars I watched so many times, but in a more realistic way, a more calm pace, I never saw myself so much involved with rebels and empire conflict such as in this episode, and also no jokes, amazing
"I can't tell if this was extreme, extreme pettiness, or terrorism"
- Darius
This is the first episode that I didn't like very much. Older Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) is nothing like the younger one. It's like we've been introduced to a totally new character.
But the worst thing about the episode to me was Larys. So far he is like a mix of Ramsay and Littlefinger, but without the good writing. He just seems like a total stereotypical villain.
This episode really got me hooked now. The first three episodes were okay but didn‘t do it for me. Here the story get‘s a lot more interesting. A lot of new characters are introduced and I loved to see life on Coruscant during the reign of the Empire. Can‘t wait to see where the story is going.
Actually quite enjoyed this episode, I found it fun and heartwarming. Jen’s character development all season has been about learning how to accept She-Hulk, then accept Jennifer Walters, and now figuring out how to accept both. This episode laid some of that out plain and clear for anyone that wasn’t getting it before, and Jen had some good character growth this episode. I still have my issues with the show but this episode was one of the most enjoyable for me.
As this film was written and directed by Frenchman Quentin Dupieux (whose Rubber (2010) I adored), I had high hopes for this one.
Unfortunately, Au Poste! / Keep An Eye Out has absolutely everything necessary to be a cult comedy except enough comedy.
One of the better episodes but still worse than any mid-season filler of the original series. I can't get over how bland the cast is (especially the mid-season replacements). So much mediocre acting, so many forgettable characters.
Without lots of action, without much of the popular Star Wars lore like the Force, Jedi, Lightsabers, this show delivers with every new episode.
It was very interesting to see that Mon Mothma was reluctant to delve fully into engaging the Empire in open Rebellion. We've never seen that side. I also like that they adressed that people are and will be dying like Luthen told her. It's not much of romantisizing. It's war. And the Empire responds the only way it knows how. By asserting even more power. By being predictable, thus playing into the Rebels hands.
"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."
Which at least some inside the Empire seem to understand while others still think of their position.
We also see the glimmer of hope from the people that things are about to change for the better when they hear off the attack on Aldhani. And althought Star Wars is not known for portraying contemporary problems within the story telling, I wonder if the similarities are just random.
I really interested how characters like Syril and Dedra will develop moving forward. Could they actually (well maybe one of them) end up with the Rebels ?
Oh, and the world building in this show is also great: Bureau of Standards. It's the Empire put in a single building and again something that reminds me of our present.
The visuals this movie creates are nothing like what I imagined while reading the book. The book was genuinely scary, where this movie is disjointed and almost silly. Christopher Walken was not a good choice to play Whitney Strieber. He's too quirky or too odd to generate much sympathy.
I don't recall if the book was this trippy. What I mean by that is Strieber's recollection and later hypnotically-induced memories are so scatter shot. It is really tough to stay with this. I thought Lindsay Crouse was good as Mrs. Strieber. She really grounded things and was the real voice of reason through the craziness.
The alien creations are very disappointing and the special effects are all bright lights and fog.
THEY PROMISED ME ZOMBIES AND ALL I HAVE NOW IS DEPRESSION
What a beautiful episode, I don't remember an episode like this for years, very well done, just perfect.
Which version do you prefer? The Game or the Show? I will have to go with the show, its more happy, kinda.
The total body count is five.
The cause of death is....stupidity.
I wonder if this movie would be funnier on a re-watch with that in mind.
Another good one bites the dust.
So it's not the closure we'd hoped for, but at least we got... something. Fanfic fixes will have to ease the disappointment for many of us... again.
There better be giraffe scene in this one.
This was truly heartbreaking…Worlds collide as Jimmy’s life morphs into Saul’s longterm burden. Seeing Howard be killed so swiftly was gut-wrenching. I particularly love the juxtaposition between Nacho’s heroic/final victory death and Howard’s tragic demise - Jimmy and Kim tarnished his reputation and his death will now cement his defamed legacy and undercut all the success his life and career had seen. Love how both death scenes feel very inevitable and using that fact to heighten the tension and bask in the moment of the scene. I can’t praise the BB/BCS team enough. Emphasized bravo to Patrick Fabian, putting on an award worthy performance all season long.
[9.8/10] What an episode! It's hard to imagine an hour of television that could draw out the differences between Jimmy and Kim better than this one.
In the wake of Howard's death and all the sins she committed and enabled, Kim numbs herself in a colorless world of banal conversations and empty experiences. Everything about her day-to-date life is colorless and dull, resigning herself to a sort of limbo as both penance and protection from inflicting anymore wrongs on the world. And even there, she won't make any decisions, offer any opinions, as though she's afraid that making any choice will lead her down another bad road.
Until Gene intervenes, balks at her command to turn himself in, and tells her to do that if she's so affronted by what they did. And holy hell, she does! If there was ever an indicator of moral fortitude in the Gilliverse, it's that. The courage of your convictions it takes to have gotten away with it, lived years away from the worst things you've ever done, and still choose to return to the place where it happened and accept your punishment, legal, moral, or otherwise, is absolutely incredible. Rhea Seehorn kills it, especially as Kim comes crumbling apart on an airport shuttle, amid all the hard truths she set aside for so long coming back in one painful rush. It's a tribute to Seehorn, and to Kim, how pained and righteous Kim seems in willfully choosing to confess and suffer whatever fate comes down, unlike anyone else in Better Call Saul or Breaking Bad.
It makes her the polar opposite of Gene, who finds new depths of terribleness as the noose tightens around him. As he continues the robbery of the cancer-stricken man whose house he broke into in the last episode, he finds new lows. Even when this risky excess has worked out for him, he pushes things even further by stealing more luxury goods as time runs out. He nearly smashes in the guy's skull with an urn for his own dead pet. He bails on Jeff. And when Marion finds him out, he advances on her with such a physical threat, a dark echo of the kindness to senior citizens that once defined his legal career.
The contrast is clear. Kim will turn herself in even when she doesn't have to and has excuses and justifications she could offer. Gene resorts to ever more cruelty, fraud, and craven self-interest to save himself from facing any of the consequences he so richly deserves. Kim is right to tell Jesse Pinkman that Saul used to be good, when she knew him. The two of them will understand better than anyone else in this universe what it's like to attach yourself to someone who sheds everything that made them a decent human being. Jimmy lost the part of himself that was good, or kind, or noble, even amid his cons. But Kim held onto her moral convictions, and it's what makes her not just Jimmy's foil, but the honorable counterpoint to the awful person he became.
EDIT: Here's a link to my usual more in-depth review of the episode if anyone's interested -- https://thespool.net/reviews/better-call-saul-season-6-episode-12-recap/
Similar feeling you get from watching Red Notice or Uncharted: very international, fast-paced, 3/4 of the time they're shooting at each other or blowing things up, not much more than that.
The cast is on point (Regé-Jean Page a little over the top) but exactly because of that, giving them some more time and having some more build up for the characters would have made a better flick.
I don't know, I still get entertained and enjoy these kind of movies every now and then but - as another user mentioned - I'd rather have a "The Nice Guys" well-scripted, more story oriented, playing on the characters' chemistry. And here there were the possibilities: some buddy cop between De Armas and Gosling, some familiar tone with the niece and Fitzroy, some more Cahill's involvement... good interactions wasted at the altar of explosions.
Rian Johnson is starting to turn into the white Jordan Peele. He's another one of those filmmakers that loves to work in this niche of subversive genre films that include a heavy dose of social commentary, and I'm all here for it. Specifically, with this franchise we’ve gone from satirizing old money with Knives Out to satirizing new money with this new film (chances are Knives Out 3 will center around a group of homeless suspects). Now, a lot of films in that same vein have been released recently (Triangle of Sadness, The Menu), but I think none of them do the satire as well as this film. To me it’s too easy at this point to simply aim your commentary at these people by making a statement about how stupid and incompetent they are. It seems like low hanging fruit to me, because everyone with a brain knows that these types are vapid and contribute nothing to society. Luckily, Rian Johnson understands this too and goes one step beyond that, filtering all of his commentary through this idea of the glass onion. These people aren’t just stupid and incompetent, but they’re using a veil of eccentricity and ‘complexity’ to hide that. This is a brilliant deconstruction that rings very true for today’s society, and of course you can’t quite escape the obvious parallel with Twitter’s manchild CEO firing himself this week. This subtext is woven into a lot of elements of the film (character, location, plot, even some props), which means that some things are a lot dumber and simpler than they appear to be. I think that will annoy some people, but I think it's quite clever. Like the first film, you get a great cast of colourful characters. Some of them are given depth, some of them are just playing funny caricatures. Daniel Craig owns the whole movie again, but Janelle Monáe comes pretty close to outperforming him. Even people like Dave Bautista do a great job, and it’s because Rian Johnson knows how to use these actors despite their limited range. There are plenty of twists you won’t see coming and the filmmaking is again terrific. It looks very cinematic with the blocking, lighting and compositions, and the score feels very 60s (lots of strings, some minor baroque orchestration), which reminded me of The White Lotus and a certain Beatles song. In the end, what puts it over the first film for me is the fact that the tone feels more consistent here. The more tense and dramatic moments of Knives Out didn’t really hit home for me when you have Daniel Craig doing a really campy accent, and this one just fully embraces that it’s a silly comedy. And it’s a great one at that, nearly all the jokes landed for me. Maybe could’ve done with a little less shouting from Kate Hudson, but ok, it makes sense for the character. Probably the most fun movie of the year next to Top Gun: Maverick, and definitely one of the most well constructed.
8/10
Yikes not a strong opener at all. They've got the ingredients right but it's not working. Hoping for improvement with the rest...
Appropriately both wistful and surreal series finale, glad to have the whole gang for one final outing. And it's very Atlanta to have an ending that evokes Inception but changes the totem question from "Did the top topple?" to "Was Judge Judy thick?" lol. Gonna miss this show.
A few exquisite moments in there.
Even though I do believe this, like, "Seinfeld," is a show about nothing -- except scaring you, I've eagerly awaited it's return!
This movie is being targeted by the far right across the internet. Don't take any ratings or comments as useful information, you're on your own for this one. Maybe just watch it and find out. It's perfectly fine for children to watch, so maybe just put it on and find out. The only way it's not suitable for children is if you have a middle-aged man shouting at the screen behind them.
This was a struggle. You want to give it points for quasi-creativity (is it though?), but how you manage to take such a talented cast and put nothing in their mouths to work with is beyond me. There's just nothing else to say about it. People gotta work I guess.
It just sunk in why this is so bad! You know the phrase, "Good artists copy. Great artist steal."? You feel like the people who created this had that in the back of their head with no greater vision or capacity to make it into something better, individual, or worthwhile. They just steal, maybe thinking their idea is great, but end up not even good because it's just a laziest copy you've seen in some time.
On top of that, why hire a bunch of comedians to play in an uninspired drama? It's insult to injury. You spend so much time waiting for the joke or thinking about the funny thing you've seen someone in that you're stuck in a constant reminder that they went out of their way to pack it full of funny people to half-ass do drama? The more I think about this series the more it upsets me.
Elizabeth Perkins playing it straight during her feature is the only time I felt a genuine laugh, so, go her.
SHUT UP NEW PEOPLE & LISTEN TO DONNA
An entire episode of stress, scares and more mysteries.
Give me the next episode already!
That tension during Sally's scene, top notch season!
To anyone who couldn't remember, the shadow man kept saying things like "Did you poke me in the eye? You fucking bitch! What is it, metal?" in reference to the finale of Season 3. Masterpiece scene in so many levels!
