Another stunning and thouroughly entertaining movie from Marvel Studios who continue to gain momentum with each successive film. Delivering something new and original all within the framework of the same genre and universe.
A coming of age film of sorts that sees T'Challa return to his native Wakanda following the events of Captain America: Civil War to deal with the pressures of the thrown and fulfill his potential as both warrior and king, T'Challa and Black Panther alike. Thus being an origin adventure without the obligatory origin story.
Wakanda itself is visually breathtaking and looks as spectacular as one can imagine.
Wakanda itself is an unofficial character in the film with a rich visual palette and identity. It's people, along with most visuals in the movie, are brightly coloured and looks like an.artists dream, as rich and colourful as the comics that spawned them.
All the principle and supporting cast bring it. There's hardly anybody that doesn't stand out or get a moment to shine in this deep ensemble, so much so that T'Challa himself is almost outdone in the movie by the performances of Michael B. Jordan (Erik Killmonger) and the female supporting characters who are so good, I'd be disappointed if they didn't at least cameo in Avengers: Infinity War in a few months.
Highly recommended for any fan of Marvel Studios' movies, Superhero movies or action adventures with hints of political.drama thrown in for good measure. Not to be missed.
I found this to be a disappointing movie. I understand everything in PedroPT's post, but it still seems to me that the religious themes are very superficial.. often obnoxious. The snakes & mazes were especially gimmicky.
All of the characters behaved in reckless and absurd ways. Loki lets snap judgements dictate all of his actions, breaks into basically every house in the movie, and randomly disregards possible leads while doggedly pursuing others. The police chief and him yell at each other constantly and thus encourage each other to act even more rashly (one hopes that this is not how actual police behave). Jackman's character immediately turns violent, psychopathic, and insulting at every opportunity, and worse, the movie seems to justify (or at least consider to be of ambiguous merit) vigilante torture as a means of obtaining information.
It is shocking to me that people believe this movie raises any serious moral questions or issues (whether about torture, vigilantism, or 'the individual and the institution'). As far as I can see, it does not; it has nothing significant whatever to say on these topics.
The connections between the different possibilities which Loki followed are very contrived; is there even a single piece of clue or information that they don't force to be valid and relevant at the end? Perhaps some people see that as a developed and intricate plot, but it makes me feel somewhat like rolling my eyes.
For all that the atmosphere and cinematography were praised, I was also unimpressed with them. Yes, much of it is dark, but I didn't find the use of light or darkness to be particularly meaningful. Maybe I just didn't get the style... I was hoping it would be more like the old german expressionism in use of light, but oh well. I think it would have benefited from some longer and wider shots, but I can't really pretend to know anything about cinematography.
As others, I'm a fan of Gyllenhaal, but I think it's a shame he does so many bad movies like this. His unique charisma and acting style are probably the only redeeming part of this mess.
I don't think I have ever been in love with a movie, like I'm in love with La La Land. From the first few seconds, till the very end. This movie had me and didn't let go. My english vocabulary is not good enough to express my love, heck, my dutch vocabulary is not good enough to express it. This movie is everything.
It is beautiful, happy, magical, romantic and I could go on for a little while longer but I won't. I wasn't expecting it to be this musical-y, but I mean, I love musicals so I'm not complaining. I think this is a great "musical" because there isn't non stop singing, so people who don't like musicals might like this one because it's more "subtle". I can only imagine how much practice went into all those dance routines and don't get me started on the impressive piano skills Ryan Gosling showed us.
Something that really impressed me as well was the way they filmed everything. It's a very creative and different way, which I really enjoyed and think makes this movie a great inspiration for those who love film and camerawork themselves. The build up and flashbacks and stuff were really cool as well. Yea I really enjoyed that. Also, the storyline, which does so much for a movie, was so great.
This is normally the part were I talk about the actors, but seeing that there were mainly only two actors and they were both amazing (I do think tho, that Ryan Gosling his character wasn't a very challenging one for him because we have seen him in roles like these before. Mixing it up with all the dancing, singing en piano playing though, you got something quite different and I loved it), I'm going to skip this part and say that you should watch this movie, do nothing more, just watch it, enjoyed it and love it.
"If my best friend hides his farts from me then what else is he hiding from me, and why does that make me feel so alone?"
Honestly, I am just glad a movie like Swiss Army Man exists.
Coming from the directors of the "Turn Down for What" music video comes one of the weirdest films I have ever seen in my entire life. The film opens with Hank (Dano), attempting to hang himself on a stranded island, but instead ens up finding Manny's (Radcliffe) deceased corpse wash ashore. After this, Hank discovers Manny is not only just alive, but he has an array of unexplained supernatural abilities, including an "erection compass" (I shit you not), extreme flatulence, super human strength, and even more.
The film's premise is so bizarre, but it constantly manages to be relatable, no matter how crazy the movie continues to get. The film feels rewarding as you watch it, and not just based on a gimmick to show a bunch of dumb stuff happen on screen for 90 minutes. The film has an apparent purpose, and thats what makes it stand out; Beneath all the insanity, it has a lot of heart.
The cinematography is beautiful, and coupled with the score, there are many scenes in this movie which are absolutely serene
Its well acted, its genuinely hilarious, and it really will make you think at times - which was a pleasant surprise, to be honest. My only gripe with the film is that the third act (the last twenty minutes to be specific) drags on too long and the momentum is somewhat lost by the time the credits roll by.
All in all, Swiss Army Man is an extremely enjoyable film, and one that truly is memorable, especially in a time when we're constantly being plagued by sequels and unnecessary reboots.
Millennium Actress, which is directed by Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Paprika, Paranoia Agent), is without a doubt his defining masterpiece in my opinion. This movie is a complete directorial tour de force and Kon literally blew my mind away with the editing, style and art that he displays in almost every scene. This is ultimately a biographical story about a young girl chasing after her first true love while becoming a popular Japanese movie actress but it morphs into something much more.
Millennium Actress probably had one of the most unique forms of story telling that I've ever seen in a movie. I loved how Chiyoko's story had a dualistic perspective as Kon seamlessly melds together images and scenes from the story of Chiyoko's own real life and from her famous films (which vary wildly from taking place in the Sengoku period to post-WW2 Japan to outer space). These transitions really add to the feeling and intensity of Chiyoko desperately chasing after and searching for her lost love. And you can't help but fall in love with the passion shown by both the main characters, Chiyoko and Genya. Just as Chiyoko says at the end, it was the "chase" that she truly loved and, by god, this film was one hell of a thrilling chase. This is an absolute must-watch for fans of Kon's other works.
8.5/10. Loved the way this one was shot and edited. There were so many interesting POV shots that conveyed how Jessica and others were feeling in the midst of her marathon without sleep. There was an impressionistic bent to the way a lot her scenes were shot, that really helped tell the story of how she was feeling without making it explicit.
And the rapport between Jessica and Trish is probably the best it's ever been in this episode. From the sprinkled in backstory that took a page from sister show Daredevil in parceling out the origin story without devoting one single episode to it, to the way that the pair just seemed to only trust one another, only feel comfortable with one another, the central relationship in the show so far has never felt more lived-in or real that it did here.
This was, in many ways, a regroup episode. After pretty constant escalation on the Kilgrave front, this was an episode that served as a bit of slack tide between that big mid-season climax and the final push at the end. It worked as a chance to sort of survey where all the characters are and point them on a path forward. There was a sense that everyone is still reeling from the events of the prior couple of episodes, but still gearing up for the last battle with Kilgrave. Seeing how Jessica in particular had a different attitude now that Hope--the symbol of her crusade--was gone, made a difference.
I wasn't a big fan of the Simpson part of the storyline. He was nicely unsettling as he was stalking Trish, but the whole super pill thing just doesn't jibe with me, especially when you had the sort of perfunctory twist of Trish taking the same pills and having to get saved. But hopefully that's at least finished now.
And I also appreciated Malcolm's crisis of conscience about whether it's worth it to help. It's some emotional, heartbreaking stuff when he doesn't call Jessica, and it's very earned with the character's arc over the course of the season.
Even though, ugh, we close on Luke coming back, it's still a nice lead in to the show's final push.
3.5/10. This was, if you will pardon my french, a shitshow, especially afer how good the last episode was. The plotting was contrived, the acting was off, and the character motivations were haywire.
Let's start with the worst part. Robyn has been an unpleasant character from the moment she's been on our screens. Sure, to some extent that's the point, but it takes any story involving her down a notch from the getgo. She's a very broad character on a show that aims for something approaching naturalism even as it depicts super-strong heroes and mind-controlling villains. While I appreciated Malcom's dliemma (his character has quickly become one of my favorites for his quiet earnestness and strength despite what was done to him), giving Robyn such outsized characteristics and personality quirks just made it hard to have sympathy for her even in what should be a situation filled with pathos for the character.
And my god, how ridiculous was it that this crazy woman is able to not only rally the troops to go after Jessica, that it happens to coincide with Malcolm baring his soul, and that they just so happen to show up at Jessica's when she has Kilgrave on lockdown and things are otherwise fairly stable. The concept of the misguided outsider thinking the hero is the real villain, and that the villain is the victim, thereby freeing the bad guy and unraveling the hero's good work, is such a tired cliche in superhero stories especially. Channeling that story through Robyn was a poor choice especially, and it was all too convenient that it happened when it did. It seemed as though the writers said, "we need something to upset the applecart here, and this is just random enough to do it."
Speaking of convenient, I'm apparently one of the few people who's enjoyed the Hogarth-Wendy-Pam triangle this season, but Pam showing just at the right time to unintentionally kill Wendy was a bridge too far. There were tons of ways you could have had Pam realize that Hogarth is full of crap and realize that she was trying to use Kilgrave to get Wendy to sign the papers without ending up in this contrived, all-too-on-the-nose morality play where Pam ends up in jail. The scenes with just Hogarth and Wendy were actually pretty solid. The combination of Wendy's disgust and woundedness worked, and the "death of a thousand cuts" setup was tense. But the utter plot-convenience of how it ended up, especially with the hamfisted scene in the jail afteward, were facepalmingly bad.
And then what was with crazy Simpson? I mean, I get that he's taking some strange super solider pills, but his going all crazy Riley Finn seems unmotivated. His killing Detective Clemmons and torching the place felt out of character, and even if you can sell it as a Jekyll and Hyde situation with Dr. Koslov's pills, I just didn't buy the actor's performance. The insane incarnation of Simpson just seemed kind of goofy, rather than a deranged extension of the character we already knew. I don't know what to make of him.
Then the flashback with Jessica Jones in the dreamy past was so strange as well. Again, it was an extraordinarily blunt way to deal with the idea that she and Kilgrave look back at things differently. Plus I nearly died of ugh when Jessica said, "I'm all ears." And then we have some weird setup where Kilgrave's dad is trying to make a vaccine and has to use Trish? It's fine in principle, but it all goes so fast and strangely.
Then, of course, there's the end with Hope. I actually like the idea of Jessica allowing lots of collateral damage from Kilgrave's continued existence because Hope is a symbol for her -- of herself, of innocence, of a way she can make herself right with the world, and I like the idea of Hope rejecting that because she's much more pragmatic, her wounds are fresher, and she can't imagine what kind of life she can have now anyway.
But ye gads, did we really need this sort of complicated SAW-like set up from Kilgrave in the restaurant. There's a point in most seasons of Dexter where after the show has spent a great deal of time introducing characters and setting up cool conflicts, you get these more and more elaborate and convoluted setpieces as the cat and mouse game continues and the show keeps throwing more and more balls into the air. I think we reached that point here, and it's not a good look for this show, especially if, as Dexter did, it struggles to stick the landing after all the insanity it invokes.
This is my go-to joke-answer when people ask me what my favourite Christmas film is (the truth is I don’t have a favourite anything), but what always catches me out is just how Christmassy Die Hard really is. From end to end, in his own way, McTiernan captures the spirit of Christmas nicely without making a saccharine or overbearing film.
Bruce Willis is just a regular guy trying to get home to see his kids, and patch up his failing marriage. What says ‘Christmas’ more than family? Alan Rickman is the Grinch that tries to get in the way of his plans. I don’t know who Santa is in this analogy; maybe the limo driver. The cop on the outside is Joseph and the film itself is baby Jesus.
In all seriousness though, something about Die Hard clicks with me every time. The regular-guy-having-a-bad-day idea borrows from the better Hitchcock films, and the way it melds with the action scenes is so fun to watch. Willis clearly enjoys playing a bad-ass. His cocky charm is infectious, as is his determination.
It’s not easy to take a simple idea and execute it well, but Die Hard shows that with carefully orchestrated action scenes and slick screen writing one can achieve greatness without having to stray from a central story. Makes a very difficult job look easy.
http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/12/19/diehard/
