Lainfan

77 followers

Netherlands
35

True Detective: Season 4

I don't see what the whiners are seeing; I thought this was great and especially Jodie Foster was fantastic. Sure, the season is slow, but this isn't an action Jackson show and if you're just looking for your daily adrenaline fix, this show won't please you. The rest of us, though, may find plenty to enjoy here.

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@werecatf I didnt understand it either. Sure, the mythical aspect was a bit off for this anthology, but other than that everything was quite in line with earlier seasons. Both in quality and style.

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True Detective: Season 4

Made the mistake of reading the IMDB comments. Lots of angry guys complaining about the big “Eskimo” cop somehow taking on someone who is twice her size. Obviously, these people don’t know who Kalis Reis is. I’d like to see them try.

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@jackdecarlo_ I didnt know her, looked her up while watching, then was surprised she lost the fight vs 3 dudes xD but ig that made more sense for her story at that point :P

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Doctor Who: Special 4 Christmas Special: The Church on Ruby Road

First time I watch a Doctor Who Christmas special on (around) Christmas, amazing feeling!

Ncuti's first episode was a lot of fun, the Doctor is living his best life after years of processing the past (following that theory at least) and Millie's first episode promises an interesting companion.

The musical number was a bit odd but I could dig it.

I saw a theory that Mrs. Flood could be River Song, that's too exciting to believe in right now.

I also wonder what the deal is with Ruby's parents, excited to find out. The trailer for the first season looks great and I'm very much looking forward to spring 2024.

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@walkingkev Ruby's parent(s) is going to be a major plot point at some point for sure.

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Doctor Who: Special 4 Christmas Special: The Church on Ruby Road

I loved it. Ruby is brilliant. I don't get how people can say that the 15th isn't doctor-like. Basically Matt Smith's doctor no? I'm hyped.

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@sebbejohansson Agree, reminiscent of the Amy & Rory Pond intro, with Matt running around frantically.

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Doctor Who

Why was my comment deleted? It did not break any rules nor was it disrespectful in any way. I came here to reply to the person who commented my message and I saw it's gone. I will repost it since it did not break the rules. The comment could also be helpful to the newcomers who might think this is a brand new show.

-------Comment posted on 26 Nov 2023

Why in the world is this marked as separate show and the one from 2005 marked as Ended? This is not a reboot, but a direct continuation of the previous episode The Power of the Doctor! I know they want to call the new season Season 1 because of Disney Plus, but it is not, it's actually Season 14. It makes no sense at all. Not to mention that the specials also reference previous seasons. This is not like a reboot from 2005 when newcomers could just start watching from there and ignore Classic Who. Newcomers can't start from here! I don't understand why it couldn't say Season 14 on Disney. All the previous seasons could be imported at some point once the whatever deal they have with BBC expires (I assume that's what is stopping them from putting them on the platform right away).
This is just insane, an insult to the fans, Jodie (doctor not regenerating into her clothes), Chibnall, everyone...

How do we organize our collection now and sync with Trakt? I don't want to label it as a separate show. What's interesting is that IMDB and TVDB show seasons correctly and have Season 14. TMDB does some weird stuff.


Update: If someone is wondering how to organize the collection in Plex, just follow TVDB and it will be shown correctly.

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Probably gonna get named Doctor Who (2023) at some point. It will (hopefully) clean up the mess in the special numbering.

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Paradise City

Is it me or I just feel sorry for Bruce Willis and John Travolta.
They used to be good actors but they are old now. They should retire and stop making those shitty movies.
Just avoid this movie at all don't look at the poster.

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@johnattar Bruce Willis has retired by now due to health problems (aphasia.) This will be one of the last movies he stars in.

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Westworld: Season 4

Way better than season 3, and possibly better than season 2 during some moments but the first is absolutely still the peak of this show. I hope they get to wrap things up in season 5 but overall I think this season was solid!

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@thetrophymunchers I thought the end of this season (4) was a great place to finalize the story. I thought this would actually be the last season lol.

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Nope
6

Shout by Corvus
BlockedParent2022-02-22T23:45:12Z— updated 2022-08-27T19:59:19Z

What's with the bad votes it didn't even come out yet-

Edit: Fair enough.

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@rubilior Plenty of films can be watched before their official release date, most notably on film festivals. Also, release dates are still often at different dates in different countries (and the us. date or country of origin date is also not always the most earliest date.)

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

The end of the movie was the very first time I agreed with one of Wanda's actions... Good thing it was her last action too.

  • Christine living to the end was odd. I get WHY it happened, but really? She could at least have closed that last door to the Good!Book.
  • Why dear Xavier had to bite the dust???? Again???? WHY????
  • Stephen finally Let It Go. ("It" being the gorgeous Xtine, that totally deserved the hot husband she got to marry)
  • Zombie!Dr.Strange was Dope.
  • America Chavez is Badass AF.

Can't wait for the next movie!

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@abstractlegend With Stewart his age, i doubt we will be seeing that much of him in any Marvel universe. Just seeing him die a pathetic death (again) was tasteless and memorable of the trauma of The Last Stand. It was not needed anyway, we have seen him die 4 times now, including the DOFP retcon death. Hearing the epic 90s X-Men medley partly made up for it though.

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
6

Review by Paul Vincent
VIP
5
BlockedParent2022-05-06T08:55:05Z— updated 2022-05-07T23:12:15Z

I felt like this was missing something and didn't live up to the full potential it could've. Maybe it was the title, "Multiverse of Madness", maybe it was all the trailers that did a great job misleading us while also spoiling all the best parts of the movie, or maybe I just didn't like how two dimensional they made Wanda after she spent an entire show already learning how her power can hurt people and exposing everyone to her grief. How many times did Wanda need to indirectly quote Thanos before we got the point? "I call that mercy", "They'll never know..." etc.

Overall this has kind of cut down my excitement for phase 4 a bit, and coming from someone who LOVED the infinity saga that hurts and worries me to say. I feel like the movie tries to over simplify things and these were characters that aren't simple. This needed to be deeper. I feel like we needed to see Kang here, even if just for a moment or two. I feel like we needed Loki too. The only trouble with opening the multiverse can of worms is now it REALLY doesn't matter when some of these heroes are getting killed, "Oh that's just Mr Fantastic from 818, this is 6 1 whatever".

It wasn't bad, it just wasn't really good either, and with how much hype they put on it I'm let down. This needed a real villain. It's not that Scarlet Witch didn't make a good villain, it's that I didn't want to see her be one after the journey we've gone on with her, and her doing the right thing in the end doesn't excuse her murdering like a hundred people no matter what universes they were in and her logic was flawed from the start.

And where the F is "real" Mordo?

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@paulvincent83 I have the exact same problem with Wanda in this. This might have been one of the marvel movies i most looked forward to bc of the high quality of WV, and especially to see how they would grow Wanda her character further. Instead we kind of got a repeat of the show but with some different variables.

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Shout by Jimmy
VIP
2
BlockedParent2022-05-04T11:32:52Z— updated 2022-05-18T18:14:49Z

You don’t really need to watch what if to understand this but it’ll help. You really do need to see Wanda vision though, you don’t have to but it would be incredibly confusing if you don’t understand wandas motivations as she is the main antagonist

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@kieranlittleuk I would say yes and no. It is an important backstory for the events in this movie, but at the same time it contradicts or cancels out the character development Wanda goes through in WV. (This was tbh quite the disappointment for me in the movie. I was not looking for a rehash of the same development.)

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

World Premiere Review: Sam Raimi, you legend. This was one of, if not the most, fun MCU movie yet. It's very Evil Dead inspired visually, particularly the camera work. The character arcs here are fantastic, the action is wonderfully violent (the multiverse gives so much opportunity to kill off characters without impacting the main timeline too much), and the pacing is great, just go see it.

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And just how many times can they kill off Stewart's Xavier xD Sad to see him die again.

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Atlanta: 3x05 Cancer Attack

Such a good Paper Boi episode. Also I need that gif of Darius dancing.

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@pongpeng Hahahaha I was legit looking for that gif xD

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Strange Days

A fantastic cyberpunk action/thriller with a decent mystery. Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett (particularly Angela Bassett) are amazing in it. Even Juliette Lewis, despite not being the best actress in the world, is perfect for her role.

Also, the best New Year's movie ever, and a fine chaser to Christmas's Die Hard marathon. Make a new tradition today!

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@ladysorka oh, that explains it haha. I feel you. I am having a (different) problem with Kodi myself and gave up on fixing it :')

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Strange Days

A fantastic cyberpunk action/thriller with a decent mystery. Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett (particularly Angela Bassett) are amazing in it. Even Juliette Lewis, despite not being the best actress in the world, is perfect for her role.

Also, the best New Year's movie ever, and a fine chaser to Christmas's Die Hard marathon. Make a new tradition today!

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@ladysorka 216 plays, are you kidding me? :laughing:

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Doctor Who: 12x03 Orphan 55

Shouldn’t the TARDIS have caused the Cyrillic sign in the underground tunnel to appear as English?

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@danterner Who is very consistent in being inconsistent. The Tardis was not with them though, although that not explains how they understood the other people.

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The Card Counter

I can't even put into words my distaste for this movie. Only Americans will ask you to feel bad for their war criminals. The quote by Frankie Boyle describes this film perfectly, “Not only will America go to your country and kill all your people, they’ll come back twenty years later and make a movie about how killing your people made their soldiers feel sad.” The whole point of The Card Counter is to try to get you to sympathize with a war criminal who tortured, killed, terrorized people. Not only that but it's extremely unrealistic to ask the viewer to believe that anyone responsible for Abu Ghraib faced meaningful consequences. Like, come on, now!

This movie followed the most boring protagonists, who are as dull as they can get. Zero chemistry between any member of the cast. Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, and Tye Sheridan are basically in 3 different movies and each one of them is total garbage:

  1. "Abu Ghraib torturer, but make him seeeexy" How? Oh, cast hot actor with beautiful eyes. Plus, he did his time, 8 years for the most vile crimes you can possibly imagine. But he is a good guy now. He fucks girls and support college kids. For someone I guess we're supposed to dislike (?), the movie spends a lot of time showing how cool he is.

  2. Tiffany Haddish must’ve been the only actress to audition for the role of La Linda because she was radically miscast. She is not ready for dramatic acting. As for her character – she is independent and has connections with rich folks … that’s it. Wow, so interesting, right?! The 'chemistry' between her and Isaac was weird. It wasn’t seductive, it just felt like watching high schoolers flirt, but even more painful.

  3. Cirk seemed like he is dumb as rocks. To expect us to care so much about a kid who we don't even know is irresponsible. I couldn't care less about his death or revenge killing.

Oh, and there is another character introduced like "USA!" guy with no point. But he was born in Ukraine, so he is not American. Oscar Isaac was born in Guatemala, grew up in USA and plays an American dude, while people born in Ukraine who grew up in USA are only Ukrainian. Even if you want to follow American rules, you just can’t because the Yanks are very inconsistent and hypocritical.

Most bad movies have some redeeming qualities. I can’t think of anything with this, everything just felt so bland to me:

  • Nothing is happening, and the movie is sooo repetitive . Oscar Isaac looking serious and walking in a casino,with suspenseful music - this is like 80% of the movie.

  • Almost every scene is an end in itself, nothing is explored, and doesn’t progress the story at all scene to scene.

  • The music. Oh, the music, which mainly featured vapid, brooding indie/electronic songs, is just all over the place here. I hated it!

  • There is basically no concept of tension or mystery, which is pretty important when you’re watching a fake game of poker.

  • The philosophy was so juvenile, and the movie lacks anything interesting to say. We are supposed to believe the main character is very mysterious and smart but he is one of the most boring, dull and flat characters I have ever seen.

  • The dialogue is godawful, no exaggeration here! "I have no goals", "Have you ever read a book", "What is your story" etc. It felt so awkward and as if the characters aren’t even talking to each other.

  • Why is it called The Card Counter when the main character counted cards once onscreen and then spends the entire movie playing poker?

Did I see a different movie than all of these people rating it high?

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@cutecruel I think the ending of the movie gives away that the torturer remains in his cycle of violence, and is not redeemed. I just thought it was all a rather pointless story.

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The Last Duel

Excellent movie. If you're one of the people saying it's boring because they show the same thing from three perspectives, you missed the whole point of the movie. Every perspective has a slightly different interpretation of what happened. The changes are very subtle, but are crucial to the overall story.

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@blazer380 I thought it was boring, but not because of that. The first act was actually the most boring part to me xD

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Moonfall
3

Review by Jordy
VIP
8
BlockedParent2022-02-02T15:45:02Z— updated 2022-02-05T16:17:38Z

Ever since the mid 90s, Roland Emmerich has attempted time and time again to repackage and recapture the ideas from Independence Day. After many failed attempts, I wonder why there’s still a theatrical market for films like this. Or rather, it’s odd that Hollywood thinks there’s still a market for it, given that all of Emmerich’s films since 2012 have flopped at the box office. And, he’s about to add another one to his resume. This should’ve gotten a streaming release at best, as it belongs in the same category as a film like The Tomorrow War. It’s background noise you throw on while you’re doing the dishes or folding the laundry. It's too disposable, phony, poorly acted and boring to pay any serious attention to, let alone pay money for. There's a sense of authenticity and fun to dumb action movies like Independence Day that you're never going to capture with the way these kind of films are made now. You have to applaud Emmerich for making a big, original studio film, but it’s still generic schlock that doesn’t have a single ounce of personality. Fuck whoever financed this.

Edit: after a little bit of digging I found out that the primary investor of this thing is a Chinese company called Tencent Pictures. They’re also responsible for financing other great films such as Terminator: Dark Fate, Warcraft, Kong: Skull Island, Men in Black: International, Monster Hunter and the 2 Venom movies. To put it mildly, it appears that it’s this company’s sole purpose to flood the market with trash, and not exactly the fun kind. Now I know what you’re thinking: maybe their involvement helps with receiving a Chinese release from the CCP? But here’s the problem: Venom 2 was banned in China. So, they’re clearly just a bunch of incompetent investors, given that all of their films (the Venom films excluded) have been massive financial and critical flops. The takeaway for Hollywood should be pretty simple: if Tencent wants to invest in your production, cancel all plans before you have another Moonfall on your hands.

2.5/10

Watch it if you’re a fan of Toto, or genuinly laugh at any point during the first scene.

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@jordyep Tencent is not just any company though. It is one of China's biggest companies, especially concerning consumer products, and a global fortune 500 ranked company. Even though I agree they don't have the best track record (concerning movies) but imho your conclusions are also a pinch exaggerated.

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The King's Man
6

Shout by J.T.
VIP
8
BlockedParentSpoilers2021-12-27T06:51:29Z

Not quite what I was expecting. The backdrop of World War I to do some The Matrix/Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon stunts was some serious juxtaposition. There was history but this was a lot of fluffed up action, which wasn't always done really well. Some of the scenes involving the goat laden mountain top area just didn't work, specifically the parachute jump. Absolutely ridiculous. The special effects used a little bit after that where characters were being suspended off the side of the mountain looked terrible on the big screen of the movie theatre. We are talking Darth Maul falling to his cut in half death in The Phantom Menace.

Last big problem was making Woodrow Wilson into a Great War era Bill Clinton getting caught in sexual misadventures in the White House. COME ON!

The easter egg in the closing credits with a smirking Adolph Hitler makes you think there is more of these to come. I hope they improve on them a little bit.

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@bob-frapples You forgot to use some spoiler tags.

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The Expanse: 6x06 Babylon's Ashes

Well its done... it turned out the best way it could with the time we had.... It was not a train wreck, but it was certainly rushed. The writing never waivered and that made it much more palatable. The characters were strong till the end as well. It was emotional and charming as always. Overall it didn't ruin the series, and I'm overall happy with it.

--BUT--
My main issue is the narrative feels SEVERELY incomplete, and I'm beginning to wonder if that was done on purpose.
I might just be an optimist as much as Holden here, but it truly does not feel like its done. ESPICALLY with the protomolecule ship coming thru the ring at the VERY END. IDK they'd include that if there was not something up their sleeve. I really hope and pray there is more story to be told from the roci and this amazing universe.

The one thing I am disappointed in is Marco. His end was just so unsatisfying and overall he was severely underwritten and ended up being one of the most underwhelming villains ever. He had no characterization and they never really fleshed him out, nor really did anything with his and Phillips relationship. Their whole arc was just a nothingburger and that is really a shame

If this is truly the end though, I thank everyone in this show involved for the joy its brought me. It was truly something special we had here and I am so happy I got to experience it.

Till next time folks.

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@mattdeezly1996 I agree. There are several (massive) questions left open without answer, and it is clear that the source material continued after this. It is disappointing and unsatisfying they were unable to finish this in the show, but they did the best they could within the 6 episodes that were left and I think it could have been much worse. From what I understood, the last 3 novels skip 30 years into the future, so if you would cut the story anywhere before the true ending, this was probably the best place to do it.

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Don't Look Up

Funny and also worrying. Idiocracy 2.0 in my opinion, much more grounded in what's actually happening in the world right now.

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@mynsc This was my exact thinking.

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Don't Look Up

This movie would be way funnier if we weren't living it.

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@teogramm The Comedy version of this movie is the in 2006 released 'Idiocracy'

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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
7

Shout by Aiven
BlockedParent2019-05-19T18:12:41Z— updated 2019-09-28T20:37:37Z

Great animation, but full of cliche, with hollow predictable plot.

Edit after finishing 1st season:
Half way through it became more interesting, I'm glad I didn't drop it after first 3 boring episodes.

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@aiven Same here. Just watched it (Season 1) for the animation bc it is from Ufotable, but disappointed about the writing.

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Dune
Dune
9

Review by Jordy
VIP
8
BlockedParent2021-09-15T13:12:54Z— updated 2022-05-17T16:59:33Z

Denis Villeneuve is the man!
There’s only one word that came into my mind after watching it: finally.

Finally, a blockbuster that isn’t afraid to be primarily driven by drama and tension, and doesn’t undercut its own tone by throwing in a joke every 30 seconds.
Finally, a blockbuster that puts actual effort in its cinematography, and doesn’t have a bland or calculated colour palette.
Finally, a blockbuster with a story that has actual substance and themes, and doesn’t rely on intertextual references or nostalgia to create a fake sheen of depth.
Finally, a blockbuster that doesn’t pander to China by having big, loud and overblown action sequences, but relies on practical and grounded spectacle instead (it has big sand worms, you really don’t need to throw anything at the screen besides that).
Finally, a blockbuster that actually feels big, because it isn’t primarily shot in close ups, or on a sound stage.
And of course: finally, a blockbuster that isn’t a fucking prequel, sequel, or connected to an already established IP somehow.

(Yeah, I know Tenet did those things as well, but I couldn’t get into that because the characters were so flat and uninteresting).

This just checks all the boxes. An engaging story with subtext, very well set up characters, great acting (like James Gunn, Villeneuve's great at accentuating the strengths of limited actors like Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa), spectecular visuals and art design (desaturated but not in an ugly washed out way), pacing (slow but it never drags), directing, one of Hans Zimmer’s best scores: it’s all here.
I only have one real criticism: there’s too much exposition, especially in the first half.
It can occasionally hold your hand by referencing things that have already been established previously, and some scenes of characters explaining stuff to each other could’ve been conveyed more visually.
Other than that, it’s easily one of the best films of the year.
I’ve seen some people critiquing it for being incomplete, which is true, but this isn’t just a set up for a future film.
It feels like a whole meal, there are pay offs in this, and the characters progress (even if, yes, their arcs are still incomplete).

8.5/10

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@jordyep "And of course: finally, a blockbuster that isn’t a fucking prequel, sequel, or connected to an already established IP somehow." Hate to point this out, but Dune is very much an already established IP. As you mention at the end of your review, it is an adaptation of a novel (with a rather large following), and it has several earlier adaptations in several media including a not so small movie in the 80's.

"I only have one real criticism: there’s too much exposition, especially in the first half." + "... conveyed more visually."
Totally agree, my main issue with this movie is the same. Even the impressive big shots do not manage to distract from the pacing issues of all the exposition that had to be discussed. Also, I found the main character somewhat lacked to show some character in the first act. It was mostly others describing/planning for him.

(Edited for some nuance)

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Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two

Such a different type of Batman story that we're used to these days. So much thought has been put into the story and characters rather than just the action. While I personally quickly figured out in part 2 who Holiday was, their reasons for doing it were something I never expected.

The new animation style DC has been going with recently has had very mixed response from people, but personally I love it and feel it's adds a lot to the direction of the movie.

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@woffingshire I am not a big fan of the new animation style I guess, since I have been mostly disappointing with the movies for a few years(?) now. This was a very welcome and positive exception for me though. The quality felt much higher, and it also reminded me more of the 90's Batman The Animated series. (And story wise this is fantastic compared to the average.)

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The Protégé

The movie is ok, a guess. A lot of good action scenes, capitalizing the fact tha Maggie Q use to be Nikita in another life.
I get that Michael Keaton is a household name and all of that... but that was a little bit cringy for me. I'm all about diferent type of couples, and i don't wanna sound prudish or anything but he's too old for Maggie Q to make any sense. I din't like that paring at all, and it took me away from the movie big time. Maybe with an actor not 28 years older than the female lead it would have made more sense to me. Or maybe I don't find Michael Keaton with that kind of appeal ...

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@marguis Although I like Keaton, I have to agree on the age gap being a slight problem here.

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Kate

legitimately such a visually stunning and fun entry into the action genre. the number of times bullets run out is one of my favorite aspects of the action sequences, but also there's a scene later on that, combined with mary elizabeth winstead's increasingly horrifying deterioration, puts this on my body horror list. it's not a horror, but it's pretty and there's bodies being horrific, so it works. i'm really digging the recent action films that use just enough stylistic choices borrowed from video games to bump up the immersion.

when i was checking on who the stunt coordinators were i saw some Highly Bitter articles calling this a john wick clone but honestly every action movie follows a formula because the formula works and being poisoned with radiation is a great reason for revenge even if it didn't involve a dog.

also, i don't even fucking care i loved that ridiculous car chase scene

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@birdcages Because John Wick being an influential movie in recent years for this type of flick, in a sense you can compare most of them to Wick. But imho doing that only makes sense for a few of them. This is not one of them, so let them be bitter. I mean, this movie certainly has its flaws and contradictions (mysteriously recovering from the most severe injuries in moments is one of them) but it does not takes itself too seriously and goes way over the top, and it is intended that way. It also gives for some interesting styling and directing choices.

So I definitely agree the car chase was a lot of fun.

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The Flight Attendant

If I have read all the reviews here instead of at Imdb, I would have never bothered to turn my TV on to watch it. And it would be a mistake, because it is funny and engaging, acting is excellent, fresh editing really good for the action's tempo, For me it was great fun.

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@jerzyjerzy Same here. I did not expect much before I watched it, so I was positively surprised.And tbh it shows how Cuoco's talents were wasted on BBT.

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