Sorkin does have a gift for snappy dialogue. Shame he’s so polarizing, because he’s not afraid to get up on his soapbox and bang his drum.
Downsizing (3/10) +2 stars for Hong Chau's performance. 'If you don't turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else's story.' Terry Pratchett Sometimes when you read a book the main character is left a bit blank so you could insert yourself into the tale. This happens in this movie, It's attempting to be an Alice in wonderland but with a miniaturization concept. People are shrunk to 6 inches tall and as we all know, a penny can really be stretched when you're only 6 inches. What actually happens is that the main character (played by Matt Damon) ends up as drifter. Someone that has no life or choices of his own and instead just follows others resulting in a slow and rather dull movie. The sound track actually added to this. looking at a screen that is nothing but white, people doing nothing and soothing music just made me sleepy. The sad part is, This would have been ten times better if they decided to commit and follow any of the other characters. They were all given a very distinct personality and life. Why not let us see this tiny world from their eyes? Even the ending left you with the feeling of something incomplete as Matt Damon is still not making his own choices, just following someone else around being nagged into doing this or doing that like a mindless puppet. This movie got an extra two stars for the amazing Hong Chau, she gave a great performance and I just couldn't help but wonder why we had to wait to the second half of the movie to follow her around. Her character is interesting, motivated and very expressive. Spoiler Matt Damon = American drifter Mom got sick so left med school to stay at home and care for her Downsizes because his friend who did is happy and rich Is forced into community service because the maid nagged and shamed him into it. went to visit another tiny city and got brainwashed by all their talk of global warming and doomsday. movie ends and the maid is still nagging him into community Service. Hong Chau = Vietnamese Immigrant (maid) The government forced them out of their homes to build a dam. She and other villagers organized protests that landed them in jail. As her punishment she was downsized against her will. trying to escape to the US (in a flat screen box!) she was the only survivor of the twelve prisoners with her. After weeks in the hospital her leg had to be amputated. To survive she now works as a maid, wooden ill fitting leg and all. Whatever food, medicine, anything really! the rich folk give her she disturbs to those that need it in the slums where she lives. Got an invitation to see another tiny city as part of humanitarian out reach but never went. There was always something else that needed to be done, someone that needed to be looked after, someone that died and needed to be buried. Visited the tiny city, thought they were nice but crazy, came back home and back to work. Lots to do and now she has this stupid but good man to care for as well. Which story do you find interesting?
Saw the 2017 version of IT. Rather decent for a horror movie. Admittedly I have some nostalgia goggles for the time period, they definitely nailed the costumes, hairdos, and other period details. The sets were fantastic, even though moving Pennywise's lair from the sewers to a cliche haunted house was puzzling. The scene with Bev and the hair/blood monster was terrifically gross and easily the best scare in the flick. I do have some gripes: Pennywise missed the mark somewhat, since what is the point of looking like a clown to lure kids in when you're so obviously feral and creepy? I know they needed to keep all the characters from the book, but in a movie length time span this meant several kids ended up getting short shrift. The kid actors were all astoundingly good. I felt that the movie was trying to hard to focus on Bill when he was not the most interesting kid - Ben and Bev were far more interesting, but that's just me. It also ground my gears that Bev is hooking up with Bill when Ben was the one who actually saved her. The director relied a bit too much on the usual horror movie tropes - boo scares, dutch angles, zoom-trucks, screaming on the soundtrack. Also the Tim Curry Pennywise doll in the one scene made me laugh, but that took a bit of the creepiness out of it. Overall, I did enjoy it despite the flaws and I'm glad it did so good in the theaters, because I much prefer traditional monster-y horror movies like this to torture porn and found footage flicks, and hopefully this will goose other studios into making more of them.
Kung Fury, a few weeks ago. Probably a month ago now. Maybe even two months. I don't remember. I just remember the movie itself. That was the first time I had ever seen it, and it was like Woodstock with 80s vector graphics. Coincidentally, I plan on finally fully watching another over-the-top kung fu-based action-comedy— Kung Fu Hustle. Or as I like to call it from the clips I've seen, "Live Action Dragon Ball Done Perfectly Right". That would be even more true if I see Stephen Chow's Journey to the West: Demons Do Stuff movies. I also have an urge to watch Eragon after seeing the Nostalgia Critic suffer it. Now I've already seen it in chunks and blocks, but I want to watch it the whole way through.
Eragon suffered because the author was too young to object to what was going on. It was sad to see it go down in flames like it did and I still hope for a resurrection of it at some point.
My had a kung fu phase so I randomly rented Shaolin Soccer once upon a time, when blockbusters were still a thing. That was the one Kung fu movie I fell in love with Hustle any good?
It's freaking brilliant. It's so good you're going to want to call everyone who hasn't seen it yet and invite them over to your house so you can watch it again with them.
I'm going to agree with this one a lot. The movie is incredible. It's neat subtitled, but, I've got a dubbed version on disk, and that's pretty darn good too. It is one of the best martial arts movies i've ever seen. Beats Shaolin Soccer, but, not by very much.
The Shape of Water (2017) 7/10. It was good, but didn't really blow me away. Del Toro, as always, makes beautiful films to watch and he has a solid cast so I understand why some people rave about it. But the story felt somewhat predictable and most of the characters were caricatures and by the end of the movie I thought: Okay, watched that. Next? Just to put it into perspective, I think Three Billboards is a better film both in story and performances from main cast, while Water is prettier but without as much substance.
Just watched the LEGO Batman movie - it was completely predictable but very cute. Nice to watch something lighthearted for a change of pace now and then. I would have liked to see more of the monsters destroying Gotham, but that's just me. Biggest laugh was Batman's tantrum when Alfred tries to get him to go to the retirement party (I have pretty much the same reaction to social engagements).
So, is it true the creature is Abe's father from Hellboy? Just marathoned John Wick with my wife. All I can say is this is why you don't mess with someone's dog. For the second movie, why the Hell don't these people remember what he did not a month ago?
According to the movie I would say yes, the theory about Abe is definitely plausible. As for John Wick, I loved the first movie but found the second one rather pointless. It's just the same fighting moves repeated over and over with a less interesting story. Watched Jumanji (2017) tonight. Fun, but felt like it was a little too YA and typically Rock and Hart comedy show. It's basically the same movie they've made several times in the last couple of years, just in a different setting.
Haven't seen everything and didn't care for everything I've seen. These are the only nominations I really care about and I only really care about two: Leading Actress and Supporting Actor. These votes are completely subjective and personal. Nominations I want to see win: Best Picture - Three Billboards Leading Actress - Frances McDormand Supporting Actor - Sam Rockwell Director - Guillermo del Toro Sound Mixing - Baby Driver Adapted Screenplay - Logan Original Screenplay - Three Billboards
So, let's see: Best Picture - Shape of Water. Well, I'm happy for Del Toro. I preferred Three Billboards because I thought the story was more interesting, but by no means do I think SOW is a bad film. Leading Actress - Frances McDormand. Yes! Supporting Actor - Sam Rockwell. Yes! Director - Del Toro. Yes! Sound Mixing - Dunkirk. Haven't seen it yet but my brother did and he's mentioned it a few times, so good for Dunkirk, I suppose. Adapted Screenplay - Call Me By Your Name. Bugger (no pun intended). Romantic dramas aren't really my thing, so I can't comment on it because I doubt I'll ever watch it. Original Screenplay - Get Out. Well, not a bad movie and good for Jordan Peele. Again, I preferred Three Billboards but, like SOW, Get Out was a good alternative.
