Every year I pick out one or two cheesy christmas movies as part of my holiday season. Last week I watched the mediocre Lindsay Lohan movie and this week I settled on this movie. More cheese, right? Um, no. This movie is good. I mean really good. Sure, there are the occasional reminders that it is the holiday season but it almost certainly is not a holiday movie (although I do expect that the christmas village scene in the middle of the movie was a wink at the audience from the director). First, the two leads have ridiculous chemistry. And it isn't the crappy syrupy kind that we see in so many other xmas movies. The supporting cast is also excellent, of course (Bonnie Bedelia should have been a bigger star). It is the rare movie that completely sucks me in and allows me to give myself up to it. I didn't want it to end. Some reviews were critical of the fact that there is a bit of a mystery in the movie. I don't agree with that sentiment. As I said earlier, this movie would have been just fine on its own if it hadn't gotten tagged with the "holiday" tag.
Finally, the best thing about the movie is that it is subtle. It didn't beat you over the head with the potential for romance. I would image that many people were disappointed in the last scene (probably the same group that hated the ending of the Sopranos) because they didn't show you exactly what happened. The best movies allow the viewer to fill in the blanks. We don't need to see everything on screen to know that something happened. That's not the point.
The worst part about the movie? I think that this movie ruined the Hallmark-ish kinds of movies for me. The movie started in a traditional way and for the first 20 minutes I had the mindset that cheese was on the way. Instead I was blown away. How do I go back to the traditional schlock? Damn you, Netflix.
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My favourite DC movie so far , I might have a few new favourite superheroes...
Much better than I thought it would be. The Rock and Ryan Reynolds surprisingly work well together, and Gal Gadot is just divine as always. It is a fair bet that there's going to be a sequel, the ending made sure of that.
I wanted to like this movie, but the main couple has no chemistry , I liked the ending :full_moon_with_face:
Almost the whole time I was watching this movie (including the bath-scene with Margot Robbie) I felt like the biggest idiot on the planet.
I'm not a numbers guy nor do I know all the terminology in American banking and mortgage systems and most of it looked like watching some kind of alien language. In the end though I knew what happened, I saw people warning us for what was about to happen and watched it all crumble down when it did happen.
All in all though it's an excellent portrayal of a system that is quite frankly a big con, stripping away money from those "below" with people at the help that don't really know what they are doing. An intricate web of rules, regulations, lingo, faces and characters who don't know the full picture. I think the movie quite nicely mimicks this chaos in the way it is set up, the catchy camera movements and often loud and noisy environments the scenes play out in. Here's a famous face that will teach you plebs what it's about, "let's simplify this for ya" so you're lured in.
Despite it's dry subject, the vast amout of stuff I personally didn't fully grasp it is a very enjoyable movie that will keep you hooked till the end.
Oh and it took me about at third the movie to realize Brad Pitt was that one guy.
Predictable but all these Cinderella movies rope me in. To see the wicked stepmother get what’s coming to her. Plus Kat Decker is completely likable.
This is not as bad as some people claim it is. A fun little flick that doesn't reinvent the wheel but it would be a lie to say that it didn't entertain me over it's pleasant 80 minutes. You can have a good time, but probably forget about it in a few weeks - but that's fine. Films like this one are needed from time to time.
It started off good and wholesome then it quickly jumped the shark. It was nice to see some familiar faces but it just wasn't enough in the end.
The Murderville Christmas special deviates in some aspects from the formula established in the series. This is certainly something I appreciate. There is, for example, more than one guest star. Maya Rudolph and Jason Bateman both have their moments. Of course, everything is still improvised. The humor is hit or miss throughout. But there are enough funny moments to make this one of Murderville's better episodes.
Okay, what the f? How did they pull this brilliant piece of cinema off? I am your standard hater of Disney live-action and I am pleasantly surprised they made me enjoy a Cruella origin film. Wtf. I want that little dog Wink. What a boss.
Honestly Gyllenhaal nailed his role. What an insane take on a lifestyle that is actually some peoples job. Well done movie
Like lego toilet paper, Old is pretty clunky and rubbed me all the wrong ways.
From the point of view of someone who probably likes M. Night Shyamalan a tad more than most people, I find Old to be one of his weakest efforts.
The predictable script (surprisingly so, for Shyamalan) relies too heavily on the graphic novel (I really, really hope having characters state their names and jobs outright wasn't a device he thought of himself), looks cheap and, tbh, is poorly directed. Shyamalan's stubborn refusal to show us any of the action (try too hard for a PG-13 much?) ends up being more annoying than intriguing.
This combined with some dubious acting in lead roles (not Thomasin McKenzie, Alex Wolff, Abby Lee Kershaw, or Rufus Sewell who all turn in strong performances) make Old weak, fragile, and tired.
[7.6/10] Solo has the scruffy confidence to be its own movie. Of the ten Star Wars films, it’s the only so far not to tie directly into the events of the main saga. That alone makes it interesting and laudable as the first real cinematic step of Star Wars ceasing to be a film series and starting to be a “cinematic universe.”
Which isn’t to say the film isn’t closely connected to its predecessors. Solo reveals how Han and Chewbacca first became a team. It features the first meeting between its title character in Lando Calrissian. It even shows how Han ended up with the Millenium Falcon. And that’s setting aside references to a “gangster on Tatooine” and hints of a growing rebellion and familiar characters popping up in unexpected places. Make no mistake -- the film is certainly interested in reminding its viewers where all these characters will be in ten years time.
But it’s also good enough not to be about that. Solo is part-heist flick and part coming-of-age film. It’s more interested in Han’s big adventure in this movie and how he gets to be the sarcastic smuggler we meet in A New Hope than it is in how he fits into the broader Star Wars Universe, to the film’s benefit. The promise of these “Star Wars stories” is that they can use the diverse, elaborate world that George Lucas and his collaborators created to spin all kinds of yarns untethered to the concerns of the Skywalker family. Solo still anchors its story on familiar faces, but tells its own tale, and comes out the better for it.
The big problem with Solo is that it has two modes: (a.) irreverent action/adventure flick filled with colorful characters and (b.) semi-serious interrogation of What Han Solo Is™, and it’s much more entertaining and effective at the former than the latter. The script, penned by Empire Strikes Back scribe Lawrence Kasdan and his son Jonathan, does a superb job at introducing all these figures, old and new, and then letting them bounce off on another in the confines of a rickety old ship and a job pulled at various rough-and-tumble locales. But it falters when trying to use that setup to get at its title character’s true nature.
The film’s thesis on that front is a solid one -- that he is unavoidably rough around the edges, and wants to be “bad,” but deep down he’s good. That is, after all, his essential arc in the Original Trilogy, where a seemingly good-for-nothing smuggler is revealed to have a heart of gold and sympathies to the cause of the Rebellion, or at least his friends. Solo retraces that arc a bit, and weakens Han’s progression in the saga films a little in the course of that, but the Kasdans get Han: the talk that’s bigger than his paydirt, the cocksure improvisational confidence, and the innate goodness that peaks through his rough-hewn if charming exterior which he’ll deny to the end.
The film just does a much better job of showing us those qualities through Han’s actions and attitude than in having various other characters ham-fistedly comment on it and wax rhapsodic about who he’s been and who he’ll be.
The best parts work, as they must, thanks to Alden Ehrenreich, who takes over the role originated by Harrison Ford in 1977’s A New Hope. Following in those iconic footsteps is a tall order, but Ehrenreich makes it work. He doesn't stoop to doing an impression of Ford, short of a few conspicuous mannerisms, but still manages to capture the character’s rakish charm and overconfident, anything goes spirit. Yes, it’s a little hard to grok that this guy becomes 70s era Harrison Ford in ten years, but Ehrenreich absolutely works as Young Han, and the movie wouldn’t work at all without that.
The other characters that populate the film vary a bit more, but are largely fun and entertaining. Woody Harrelson’s turn as Beckett sees him filling the weathered good ol’ boy niche he’s carved out for years now. Emilia Clarke does fine as Qi'ra, who manages to be a little bit more than just Han’s love interest, but only a little. Donald Glover’s charisma carries the day as he inhabits Young Lando, but occasionally he comes across like Glover doing his best Lando impersonation than a fully convincing character (though his chemistry with Ehrenreich sparkles over that nicely). And there’s plenty of other fun, if seemingly disposable side characters, like Paul Bettany’s genteel but menacing villain, Dryden Vos, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a delightfully irrepressible droid revolutionary named L3. Even relative newcomer Joonas Suotamo brings character beyond the fur to Chewbacca, alongside Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt’s traditional groans and growls.
When Solo deploys these characters well, it’s a hell of an action-filled romp. Seeing Han’s Oliver Twist-esque origins blossom into his up-and-down efforts to live on the fringes of both the law and the galaxy are fun and thrilling. The movie takes the viewer to new, scrappier corners of the galaxy, packing the frame with wild new creatures and settings that help make Star Wars feel big and diverse again.
Han’s goals and wants are clear; his compatriots are well-if-quickly sketched, and the set pieces are nicely chaotic and spontaneous, as befits the way any plan involving Solo should shake out. The pacing is off here and there, and certain action sequences extend to the point of exhaustion (likely a casualty of the hand off from the nixed boundary-pushers Phil Lord & Christopher Miller to steady hand Ron Howard). But the core setting of the film -- a band of well-traveled and wannabe outlaws does a job with pitfalls and smart remarks -- works like gangbusters.
Then, the final act hits, and the film stops being fun and starts being serious. There’s double-crosses on double-crosses, heavily sign-posted character-defining choices, and cliché, ponderous statements about who Han is supposed to be or can’t be or might have been that one time (we’re not really sure).
Solo, like its protagonist, has its heart in the right place here. It’s laudable to try to turn this adventure into something revealing about one of the franchise’s biggest characters and not just an empty-calorie escapade. But the film can’t support the weight of that introspection (not to mention all of that clunky extrospection) and becomes bogged down when trying to unravel both its less-compelling plot threads and its character study in one big convoluted finale.
But one thing is for sure. This movie is not about the Skywalkers. Despite an eyebrow-raising tie-in, it is not about the broader Star Wars Universe. It’s about Han Solo, and It is, for the first time, a genuinely independent Star Wars story. For most of its run time, Solo is a standalone (if franchise-winking) adventure from the days when Han was still cutting his teeth as a smuggler and outlaw. The film has its problems when it departs from that, but still shows the benefits, and the fun, of Star Wars movies that follow the lead of Solo himself and aim to go it alone.
This was such a thrill to watch!
It didn't feel like your average Christmas movie. I genuinely enjoyed every minute of it, the plot and pacing was well done.
Kristen's charmingly awkward role played very nicely into it. Her and Mackenzie made an adorable couple - I didn't expect their chemistry to be this good throughout the movie. The rest of the cast was great too; many familiar faces, everyone really nailed their role.
Recommended! It's definitely going down as a holiday classic in my book.
Funny, touching, incredible talent, with a really beautiful and important message. Loved every minute of it. The dynamic between the characters are gold.
After the first movie, I was expecting something worse, as it is more common for sequels, but this one surprised me positively. This one may be less slasher than comedy, but is nonetheless just as entertaining. Doesn't need a sequel, but if there will be one, I'm going to watch it.
I rarely assign the highest possible rating here, but "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" simply blew me away. The first movie was almost perfect, with an incredibly varied animation style, good characters, and an exciting and humorous story. The sequel is now a flawless expansion of these elements. This time, for example, even more different animation styles are blended, and the result is simply stunning.
The voice actors are also strong again. I was especially pleased to see Spider-Gwen's (Hailee Steinfeld) role expanded significantly, as her story perfectly complements Miles' (Shameik Moore). And the return of Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) provides a good laugh or two. Oscar Isaac as Spider-Man 2099, the Indian Spider-Man (Karan Soni), and the villain The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) are also clear highlights. There are also numerous Easter eggs that can't all be discovered during a single viewing. For fans of the comics, "Across the Spider-Verse" is one hell of a treat.
This is not least due to the fact that the story is once again very strong. While the first part was perhaps held back a bit by the fact that it was also an origin story, there's no holding back this time. The focus is on the multiverse, and it has never been done so well and creatively in any Marvel movie. Amidst all the spectacle, there is also time for smaller moments and character development. Scenes with Miles and his family, as well as Gwen and her father, stand out in particular.
Overall, "Across the Spider-Verse" is a perfect Spider-Man film. Looking ahead to the sequel, which will fortunately already be released in March 2024, my expectations couldn't be higher.
An action movie, but a thoughtful one, with important social commentary on the rights and respect of individuals, corruption, and honoring those who sacrifice for their country.
This movie is unbelievable. I could write a whole book explaining how insanely amazing the animation, the plot, the details, literally everything is. I think you already know it all.
I truly believe we are witnessing a literal revolution of movie animation.
This is automatic Oscar material, don't even bother having other candidates because it would just be embarrassing to put them against this.
The ending lets the Harper character totally off the hook for her shitty behaviour.
There is something very special going on in this movie. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of Christmas movies, and I'm not a fan of Will Ferrells comedy, but this movie just hits the sweet spot. After watching it, I'm always smiling like an idiot.
The basic idea is really quite weird, but the story is told with a sweetness that really sells it. Will Ferrells performance is spot on, his over the top kind of comedy just fits with the character perfectly. And it has Zooey Deschanel (even singing), which never hurts.
My absolute favorite Christmas movie, miles ahead of everything else.
[9.7/10] Three different characters say the phrase “diamond in the rough” multiple times in the first fifteen minutes of Aladdin. While an age appropriate lesson, you would have to be dozing through most of the movie to miss its moral that a person’s worth comes from what’s inside them, rather from than their appearance or wealth or station in life. Aladdin is a rags to riches story, about a “street rat” whose inner-decency let’s him find love and fortune when he’s finally read to “beeeeee himself.”
But however trite that aesop may seem on the service, this crown jewel of the Disney Renaissance earns every bit of it. You’ll struggle to find a tighter script in all of the Disney Animated Canon. It quickly introduces each of its characters, giving them each struggles and goals; has each make choices that are self-flattering and those that are difficult, and lets the consequences of those choices lead to changes of heart and just deserts for everyone involved.
The meaning of what happens after Aladdin, and Jasmine, and even Jafar each choose to be themselves comes from how much time the film spends on exploring what happens when they try to be someone else.
Because Aladdin is also a story of wanting to control your own destiny, of having the agency and the capability to direct your own life, and about desperate people who feel they have to go great lengths to make that happen. The script underscores the point a little too neatly, but Aladdin and Jasmine each only see the limitations in their own lives and the possibilities in the other’s. The Genie’s central want in the movie is to finally be free. Even Jafar, with his power-hungry plotting, is that idea taken up to eleven -- the ability to throw off any restrictions on the life he wants, whether legal, romantic, or metaphysical.
That makes us care about the characters at the core of the film. Each of them essentially wants the same thing, while wanting very different versions of it, and their quests to get it conflicts and intersects in amusing, heartwarming, and occasionally frightening ways. Beyond the standard “true to yourself” messaging, Aladdin is just a cracking good story about characters with clear wants and wishes that drive the action, create the conflicts, and eventually provide a way through for all of them.
All the while, Disney is also offering the peak of its musical, visual, and comic abilities. Despite only boasting a few songs for a musical, Aladdin is all killer, no filler. From the mood-setting introduction of “Arabian Nights”, to the bombastic fun of “Prince Ali” to the coo-worthy duet of “A Whole New World”, each of the film’s tunes is at risk of getting stuck in your head. And the orchestration itself makes a perfect accompaniment to the scenes, whether it’s to heighten a tense moment in the marketplace or encompass Aladdin’s exaltation after his first kiss with Jasmine.
At the same time, Aladdin is a dazzling film to look at. The film mainly adopts a dusky blue palette for its desert setting, contrasting it with hot reds and oranges and yellows that flash and grab amid that azure landscape. The use of light is tremendous, creating shadows and setting moods as the two young paramours canoodle or the eponymous hero stalks his way through a torch-lit cave. And it’s characters are all expressive and move with an intuitive fluidity that marks a path between believable realism and the fantasy of this tall tale perfectly.
That’s all before you dive into the movie’s stellar action set pieces. Aladdin’s race into and out of the cave blends traditional animation and CGI better than most films released decades later. Little sequences like Abu being stranded amid lava or Aladdin needing to avoid a rolling turret are edited for maximum tension. And the final showdown with Jafar shows such imaginative visual verve, with a rapid-fire array of attempted saves and renewed threats before the street rat’s improvised trick that brings down the villain for good (or at least until the next movie).
But that creativity also extends to the film’s more comic character. Part of why the bits of sappiness or moralizing in Aladdin go down so easy is that at almost every turn, they’re undercut by some thoroughly enjoyable bit of comic relief. The animal sidekick trio of Abu, Iago, and Rajah each have their outstanding comic moments and bits of both exasperation and even pathos in connection with their human friends. The magic carpet is an understandably wordless character who not only fuels some of the movie’s most exciting sequences, but who manages to memorably express emotion and personality with nary a line of dialogue.
That’s all to say nothing of the tour de force performance that Robin Williams, and the stellar team of designers and animators, put in to create The Genie, one of the most stunning and memorable Disney characters of all time. The magical wish-giver is the perfect manifestation of Williams’s manic id style of humor, conjuring his impressions, fostering his rapid-fire wit, and even drilling down into that well of humanity he would put on display in more strictly dramatic roles.
It’s telling that The Genie doesn't show up until nearly half an hour into the film and yet he is one of its most iconic elements, carrying the humor, the moral, and even the emotion of the piece in the final tally. His and Williams’s presence in Aladdin are a nearly unrivaled achievement when it comes to the Disney Renaissance, and perhaps animated films writ large.
The Genie is, in many ways, Aladdin’s Jiminy Cricket and Blue Fairy rolled into one. He uses Williams’s panache to make Aladdin’s dream of being a prince to woo his princess possible, but he’s also the one trying to steer him toward the right choices beyond the costumes and cons that a little fairy dust can provide. Aladdin believes that there’s more to him than just his shabby clothes and denigrated position, but thinks that it’s the surface level bits of station and presentation that he lacks, rather than the utter decency and kindness that the movie takes pains to show, that will prove it.
His efforts are not academic. He wants to do all this to win the love of his life. As quickly as the film brings Aladdin and Jasmine together, it does a superb job of making them a root-worthy and intuitive likeable couple. There’s an instant rapport, an ability to improvise that brings them together. It’s easy to see them as each offering what the other wants -- the liberation of wealth and position vs. the liberation of no royal restrictions. But there’s also a sense that, as much as these two crazy kids really are from two different worlds, they’re joined not only by that hope for a particular kind of freedom and agency, but also by a desire to see and be seen for something that no amount of gold or titles or legal expectation can provide.
That’s all a little grandiose, but it’s the idea that powers the movie, and makes those moments so memorable and affecting. Jasmine is Disney’s most fully-realized princess yet, who goes after what she wants, rejects what she doesn't want, and cares about more than just her handsome crush. The Genie has weight beyond his uproarious comic asides because he too has hopes and dreams, the realization of which are not only heartwarming, but which come from a choice that marks Aladdin as being true-of-heart in a way that no narration or prophecy ever could. Even Jafar, as rankly evil as he is from the word go, has a fall that’s strengthened by the irony of his quest for unlimited power and freedom leading him to the same unexpected shackles everyone in the film is trying to escape.
That goes double for Aladdin himself, whose journey is as much a personal one as it is ridden with heart-pumping cave escapes and magic-boosted thoroughfare unveilings and international jaunts. He gets what he wants, as all characters must, but only after trying to get it the wrong way and paying the price for it. He stumbles, hurts his friends, out of an understandable insecurity that the truth will only keep him from the liberty and happiness that seem reserved for people with a different pedigree than he can offer. But he sets things right, and is rewarded for it, when he sticks to being the innately good, decent person he truly is.
There are worse lessons to pack in to a family film, particularly when it’s chock full of such memorable characters, melodies, and crowd-pleasing spectacle. There is no wasted second in Aladdin, with each moment perfectly-calibrate to make you laugh, cheer, sigh, or scream. It is the peak of Disney’s 1990s revivification, an endlessly stunning paean to the desire to chart one’s own path in life, and the true-to-oneself characters whose grace and decency earn them the right to that, and to share it with one another.
Not great by any means, but also not that terrible.
However, is it just me or did Wes Craven and writer Ehren Kruger tried to call out Harvey Weinstein, the producer of the movie, because characters constantly kept mentioning "sleeping with the directors and producers to get certain jobs" and "Hollywood is full of criminals whose careers are flourishing."
Very scary, but not as scary as Courtney Cox’s hair! I mean, what the heck was that!
The strongest entry since Azkaban, Half-Blood Prince begins to lay the pieces of the backstory that up to now has largely been hinted at. Memories are a key theme of the film and there is a melancholy feel to the story as characters old and young begin to realise that huge changes are imminent. Amidst all the darker threads however, the film also has a lot of fun portraying teenage angst over relationships and the central trio’s refusal to express their feelings. But it’s Harry’s relationship with Dumbledore that is brought to the fore and after fumbling a little with Sirius, here the filmmakers do a wonderful job of showing the respect and affection the two characters have for each other - it helps to have five films behind this, but Gambon is much warmer and caring towards Harry and there is a much stronger bond shown here that ensures the plot developments hit home when they should. This is also the first film to give Tom Felton something more to do than sneer at Harry and it’s great to see Draco develop into something more interesting than a childish foil to the heroes - his bravado unmasked throughout the film in small vignettes that show his uncertainty and fear. The reveal of the identity of the Half Blood Prince feels like an afterthought in many ways but this sets up the prospect of a great finale.
One of my favorites of the franchise ! The atmosphere is different (sinister) and the introduction of the dementors adds to the danger felt in this movie. Time is a central theme with new interesting characters establishing a link between the past and the present.
Will Poulter will never, EVER have a moment, not just in his acting career, but in his entire life that will top making out with Emma Roberts and Jennifer Aniston at the same time. Good for him!!!
Totally awesome Adam Sandler film! Christopher McDonald rocks as Shooter McGavin. Never get tired of this movie!
Loved this. It’s so slick and brimming with style, and a wonderful modern day homage to blaxploitation, levying it’s satirical strengths instead of only parodying the genre. Boyega is deeply magnetic, doing so much even when saying little. Foxx shows off why he’s one of the most enduring and electric movie stars, dazzling the screen with every second. And Parris is a rising star, more than holding her own with boundless charm and a vibrant heart. The trio just sizzle together, the chemistry so rich I’d happily take more movies with them. The script is tightly written as well, with a mystery that unsettles, engrosses, and entertains all at once while having some smart things to say about assimilation, governmental control, and community and our place in it. Forget Barbenheimer, this was a real highlight.
