Initial Reaction
After two viewings
The Good
• Deadpool himself is as funny as ever. Ryan Reynolds keeps up a fantastic performance and really gives it his all.
• Cable is also really good. Josh Brolin, despite being in many movies this year. Has given a great performance.
• Jokes are really funny when they hit, and they hit hard.
• Secondary characters are also really well done. Some anyway. More on that, below in the spoilers
• It has a true charm to it. Making it more distinct than the first. But not outshining it.
• The action was on point. The director really knows how to capture a great fight scene, and there are plenty here to enjoy and marvel at.
• Villain. This point is actually a fairly good one, but also has spoils. So read below if you really want to know. What I can say is that Ajax is nowhere near as memorable compared to the bad guys here.
• The amount of balls this movie has. It just does things, I would never expect them to do. The first movie gave us shocks at what they could say and show. Now they just go and toy with that to the next level. And I loved it.
The Bad
• Plot. It's not the best. It's also not that simple. The first Deadpool was very straightforward even with the time jumps. Here, it's a bit of a mess. Not to mention it's kind of a rip off of T2. But it acknowledges this at least
• Some jokes don't quite land. They reuse some of the same lines from the first movie, and it feels as if it really is lazy writing. As far as it seems, they are trying to make Deadpool's catchphrases more clear. But to me, it was just annoying.
• The jokes seem to build off the story in this. Whereas the first one felt more improvisational and made it seem like the plot revolved around the humour. Here it just seemed like the comedy was slotted into this action film. But it's not all that bad, just let down the overall tone of the movie.
• CGI is actually pretty bad. It's so distracting, it takes away from the comedy they try to sprinkle over it.
• Wade. He is focused on more than the first. And I just didn't like how they were trying to go about it.
• Along with the focus on Wade, the emotional scenes don't mix that well with the comedy like they did in the first.
Other Things
• You're going to want to stick around for the mid-credit sequences. They are some of the best ever in a Marvel movie, and in movies in general.
• There are two mid-credit scenes (almost back-to-back) and no end-credit scenes.
Spoiler Things
• The X-Force joke is so damn good that I can forgive the lack of build in the team up until the very humorous end. Again such a great ballsy move. Props to the studio.
• The villains in this movie, aren't really present in terms of villains. The first Deadpool had a villain, he had to beat him. Done. This sets it up to be all about Cable, but it actually gives us villains that turn out to be the same as Wade. Which is great for a Deadpool movie to show anti-heroes having a connection with the villains they are fighting.
Conclusion
DP2 is not better than the first. It lacks the simplicity and catchy humour that it had. But, it does grab onto you and takes you on a ride that is not as funny, but is just as enjoyable than the original. I don't see it being as rewatchable like the first. But as its own movie, it holds itself up for a fun experience, wonderful character portrayals, and a damn good time.
Blade Runner is one of the more gaping holes in the list of films I haven’t seen (or at least, don’t remember well enough to talk about). Yesterday’s viewing of The Martian got me thinking about Ridley Scott’s past work so here I am.
I really should have done this sooner.
L.A. 2019, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a ‘Blade Runner’ - a policeman whose sole purpose is to hunt and kill replicants; machines almost indistinguishable from humans, yet banned from Earth. Four have been detected on the planet so he is called up to hunt and kill them.
Scott’s dystopian LA draws you in and holds you captive for 2 hours. This is a masterfully shot, timeless, beautiful piece of work. Every single frame is a work of art. The visual effects are not only highly effective, but incredibly creative and unique; never has anything like this been made before or since.
The plot is simple, one man chases another. However it’s driven almost entirely by its central themes; what is it to be human? Who deserves to live or die? Are we responsible for the things we create? What happens when our creations surpass us? All of these questions go unanswered, yet Scott somehow revels in the ambiguity.
Decker is a blank canvas of a character. The replicants he is chasing are complex, unique individuals. It’s no accident that Rutger Hauer plays the most human character in the film. His is the stand-out performance here, if only for the closing monologue.
Still fresh & still relevant, Blade Runner is indeed a modern masterpiece.
http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/10/31/bladerunner/
So, I just saw Birdman, and it was pretty fucking fantastic. Now, I've been excited to see this movie for a while because it's from one of my favourite directors, Alejandro González Iñárritu. I've seen every single one of his feature-length films and I don't think there's a single one that wouldn't make it on my best of the year list. He's a master at what he does, and in this movie he's really outdone himself. Despite being excited for this movie for a while, there was one detail I didn't know until about a week ago - and that's that almost the entire movie is cheated to look like one continuous shot. And it's pulled off amazingly well. If you understand film-making and editing then there will be some moments where you can tell that would probably be the point where it would make the most sense to make a cut. But that's about as close as it gets, and it's cheated so well that you can never actually see any cuts being made. There was so much careful planning and coordination that went into this movie, and it really shows in the final product. If you've seen the trailer then you should expect that parts of it are a little surrealist, to say the least. This is very true, and those scenes play a prominent role in the film, so although this is a movie I think that most everyone will enjoy, don't be thinking that it's a real superhero movie. This is a movie about a washed up actor that used to play a superhero trying to revive his career in broadway. It's interesting that the lead is being played by Michael Keaton, who used to play Batman. Not only that, but Edward Norton, who used to play The Incredible Hulk, and Emma Stone, who was in the last two Spider-Man movies, are also in the film, and they both do a great job. There was not a single weak performance in this film and everything felt incredibly natural. There was also so much purpose towards every single decision that was made. Like, the fact that the movie's about a theatrical production goes really well with it being all in one shot. If you think about it, that's kind of how theater works. Many of the theatrical techniques to change scenes, like actors changing costumes, were likely used in this film as well. And remember, I say "likely", because I'm not a hundred per cent sure where the cuts actually are. The story was absolutely fantastic, and it's shocking to see a screenplay with four collaborative writers working together that flows so well; they challenged each other creatively and were able to get the very best ideas out of it. The way that this movie is written is kind of like one giant statement on the entertainment industry. And it criticizes a lot......including snobby critics. It also heavily criticizes the superhero genre. But it does it right. And what better movie to criticize a lack of art in mainstream cinema than one that's as masterful as this. Because the way that this was shot was absolutely mind-blowing, and this is probably the best directing I've seen all year. If you couldn't tell from the trailer, this movie mostly functions as a comedy,but as expected from this director it was much more than that. Watching our characters perform their lines in a theatrical play wasn't just time spent not learning anything: we got to see our characters' relationships develop each time they were performed, and the selective lines that we were shown for this play really bring us into the mind of the main character and why he chose to tackle this particular play. Before watching this film, I was a little skeptical knowing that Alejandro's main-man composer Gustavo "Santao-la-la-la-lalla" wouldn't be working on it. But even without him the score was pretty great. But what was greater than the score was the way that it was used: I don't want to be too specific about it and spoil a particular moment, but let's just say that it adds loads of personality to the film.This has all the markings of an amazing film - the decisions that were made were intelligent and had purpose; the film-making went above and beyond impressive. I was absolutely transfixed into this movie.
Quite possibly one of the most amazing episodes of any show I've seen. The humor throughout, addressing/explaining the depression the way it was done towards the end, Jimmy having his own mental fight over which decision to make and then making the less selfish one. Acknowledging that he truly does care for her, and loves her. Right after having said to her what he thought it would be like in ten years with her. He saw the car and it reminded him of all the good times that she was there for & with him, just so much going on throughout the whole episode.
Most importantly for me though, was when he built her a "box" to separate her from the rest of the world. He got in it and took care of her. Saying, without words, that he's there for her no matter what and she is his life now, she is everything he wants and he'll go through any amount of hell for even a moment of heaven with her. Aya Cash's acting, particularly at the time she said the line, "You stayed?!" - so many surprise feels.
I've recently started dealing with depression issues that have been undiagnosed for a number of years. I'm still learning about it & myself, and my amazing wife is learning with me and helping when I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel or when I can't see how I've become. I can never explain it to her and this show has helped to give a voice to something I can't understand enough to explain. Every bit of this season, and the end of this episode, was incredible, witty, funny when it should be, serious when it needed to be. Perfect balances all around. Nothing I've watched in a long time has evoked as much emotion for me as this episode did. My wife & I watched the ending SEVERAL times.
Far and away the best episode Agents of Shield has ever produced. The only episode that can give it a run for its money is last season's spotlight episode on how May earned her nickname. There's a lesson there -- centering an episode on an individual story, particularly one that centers around one of the better actors in the cast, gives the show a focus that is often lacking when trying to juggle multiple intersecting plotlines at once.
This was a hell of a showcase for Elizabeth Henstridge. The production design team helped. (Production design as a plus in 'Agents of Shield"? I"m as surprised as you are.) The blue tint was a cheap way to sell the alienness of the world, but it totally worked, and the dessert topography really sold the desolateness of the environment and contributed to the sense of hopelessness in that world.
But Henstridge is what made the episode work. She sold the isolation, the small moments of crestfallen loneliness and discouragement, the little joys of success and friendship, the simple humanity of a survival story. Her burp, her wistfulness when she says "My dad would like you," and her conversations with an imaginary Fitz (a nice nod toward Fitz doing the same routine last season) all made her feel like a three-dimensional person in an extreme situation. There's a sense that this is Marvel's take on 'Castaway' or even 'Last Man on Earth', and doing this kind of laser-focused narrative requires a lot of the actors involved. These types of stories are, by necessity, character pieces; Henstridge was more than up to the challenge, and it deepened my appreciation for Simmons.
The actor who played Will was pretty good as well, and while his story could have felt too cliche, it worked in the context of the episode as a whole. Really, this felt like a well-structured science fiction short story as much as it did an episode of an ongoing series, and that's not a knock. Knowing Fitz and Simmons's relationship helped give certain moments more weight and significance, but it could almost work as a standalone piece. That's how strong and self-contained this was.
There was also a legitimate sense of menace from the planet. The zomibe-like astronaut, the tentacle creature, and the dust storms all suggested something frightening and alien about this world. It prompted so many great emotional moments from the two characters stuck on it. Doing an episode like this, so unlike AoS's usual M.O., was something of a gamble, but it paid off like gangbusters here.
Fun movie!
As a comic book fan (and long-time reader/collector), I appreciated the nods to the comic version of the character, but like they did with all the other Marvel Cinematic Universe characters who've appeared on screen so far, the story is original and I think it can be followed and enjoyed by those who know nothing about Ant-Man before the movie starts.
I won't post any spoilers, but I will say I was satisfied how this character fits into the rest of the MCU and really enjoyed the special effects. The filmmakers did a good job of poking fun at some of the ridiculousness of tiny people fighting each other without it actually detracting from the story. The movie keeps a real sense of humor, which is one of the things I enjoy most about the Marvel movies. I'm interested to see how and what role Ant-Man will play in "Captain America: Civil War" next year.
Paul Rudd does a great job and is actually believable as a title character in an action film, (he's really come a long way from Clueless, huh?) and I love that bigger-name actors like Michael Douglas are all getting on board with these superhero movies. Evangeline Lilly, who already proved she can do action with the "Hobbit" movies, gets to kick some butt in this movie as well. I don't know anything about Corey Stoll, but he makes a pretty good bad guy.
Marvel seems to have figured out how to handle movies like this (ones where most of the mainstream audience knows little-to-nothing about the character.) Put them after most, if not all, the HUGE blockbuster movies of summer, but make them so fun that word-of-mouth will get people to come out. It worked with Guardians of the Galaxy last year, and I think it'll work with Ant-Man this year. For what it's worth, I liked Ant-Man better. I'd give this movie 3 out of 4 stars.
It isn't an easy task, trying to sum this film up in a couple paragraphs, but I will do what I can. This is one of those films that I walked into with sky-high expectations and it is one of the very few that not only met those expectations, but beat the piss out of them as well. Kingsman: The Secret Service has all the makings of a great thriller/comedy/action/spy/romance film and if you are a fan of movies at all, I highly recommend it. I am not going to go into detail about the movie, you should really just go watch it.
Throughout the film, there were a couple of times that I was reminded of the Men in Black franchise. Though Kingsman has nothing to do with extraterrestrials, the humorous secret service theming is very familiar. But I found Kingsman to be superior in several ways. The story is complete and satisfying with a few decent twists but nothing totally mindfucking. And if you are like me and expect a certain level of character development in order to be happy, you won't be disappointed.
There is a small bit of disbelief that you have to suspend in order to enjoy the movie, but I had no trouble with that. The fight scenes were ridiculously cool, even for someone like me that isn't really an action kind of guy. I am more about finding an emotional connection to the characters in a film and I became fairly attached to several of them in this one. My only real complaint was that a couple instances in the film that utilized a green screen were very noticeable and almost hard to get past. But what it lacks in green screen effects, it more than makes up for in humor and other special effects.
So, in conclusion, this was a movie well worth seeing. So hurry up and catch it while it's still in theaters.
Orange Is The New Black is really a good show, and much different compared to other shows which are currently high rated.
The writers don't need that long to build up the characters. This is what I don't like at the beginning of many shows, because most of the time this is the boring part - until the whole story starts to develop. In Orange Is The New Black you got kicked in right from the start.
The actors are really good . All of them. And well written; and I got to admit that my favorite character is "Red". Not just because Kate Mulgrew played Captain Kathrin Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager, but because the character is build up so strong, and she's got so many facets.
You also get to know her in more backflashes (that explains how the people got into the prison). Some TV shows are using backflashes as well to explain some things, and usually I find that annoying, because it is a hard cut in the current plot; but the director in Orange Is The New Black is doing that so well, that it doesn't me bother at all - just the opposite: I want to know why the women got in there.
After watching the first three episodes I wrote that the show shouldn't be drama. It should be a comedy show. That is not true, after I watched the other episodes. Yes, there are funny scenes in it, but it defiantly got the strong drama parts as well.
I highly recommend to give this show a try, because you might wanna love it!
