@LN78 There is a really good stretch in the film, from Ollie's arrival in Saltburn- - - -> up until his temporary departure with Felix to Liverpool, where I think this movie has great potential. Everything post-Liverpool is a car-crash. I agree the ending was pretty implausible... but I shamelessly did enjoy the dance at the end. I'm all for a Sophie Ellis Bexter renaissance ha!
So I watched the first two Fast & Furious movies this week. The first one had an overall great story and mix of characters, but the second movie's focus on two protagonists and their chemistry with each other was just sublime. It made me like Paul Walker's character even more as he got to shine more here. For that reason, I liked the second movie more than the first one, even though the second one didn't have Vin Diesel, which was a bummer. Not to mention how incredible the last scene was in the second movie where they drive a car onto a yacht. Really good stuff! I can't believe I haven't watched these movies much earlier given how much I love racing games and racing in general.
@LtSarge I'm a F&F "apologist" and love them all (some more than others, though) and the more outlandish and batsh!t insane they get, the more I love them
@LN78 I can hardly remember anything from when I saw Black Adam at the cinema, but it was far from the worst DCEU movie... I think... I remember liking that they got Dr. Fate pretty much spot-on and Hawkman wasn't too bad either, as characters. In the context of the movie, I believe they were pretty much wasted (again, memory is hazy). Here's hoping Gunn can use these characters to better effect. Haven't seen Shazam 2 and probably won't for quite a while either, if ever. I found the first one somewhat charming but completely forgettable.
Just back from seeing Poor Things, excellent film. The entire cast was superb and it was really funny, had a lot more sex in it than I was expecting. My other half enjoyed it as well!
@LN78 It’s a really great question, and I just so happened to have had one of these revisionist outlooks on a film I came across this weekend.
The film — Tombstone. A movie that I really loved when I saw it as a youngster. I thought Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday (a young Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer, respectively) were so cool at the time. I’ve held it in high esteem, despite not having watched it in many eons. I would have easily put it in my top 5 Westerns.
Well, over the weekend while switching channels during commercial breaks of a sporting event I was watching, I came upon Tombstone and figured I’d watch a little of it during the down time. Boy, was I disappointed. It was so ‘Hollywood cheese’, it was unreal. I couldn’t even stay with it more than 15 minutes and gladly turned back to my game.
I figured my change in opinion was mostly due to the evolution of the medium and what seemed like a gritty tale back then, now comes across as a whitewashed simplification which turns Earp into some kind of unrealistic superhero. The dialogue was just so bad too. As was the cinematography. The gunfights were just so over the top too.
Anyways, I think that’s an example of a movie not living up to my memory. As an alternate example, a movie that I really didn’t like and ended up enjoying on a second viewing years later was Forrest Gump. I don’t think I really ‘got’ the movie the first time. It just seemed a random group of events and a mish-mash of greatest hits through modern pop culture, but I was honestly touched emotionally the second time.
From recent memory the first Tim Burton Batman film enjoyed less due to how the fight scenes were filmed. Batman Returns was so much better in that respect.
Some films such Alien, Predator, Universal Soldier I've enjoyed better as I've seen them in 4K, and not watched them since the dvd days.
I tend not to go back to films I've not enjoyed first time round. You couldn't pay me to watch something like Batman and Robin again.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@LN78 The Prestige is probably in my top 5 films of all time, so much to love about it.... the cast, the plot, Bowie(!), and that incredible ending (several great twists). I think it is one of Bale's best roles ever, and Jackman is fantastic as well.
Did Mememto factor in to your viewing? I rewatched this recently, and feel it was pretty 'ahead of its time' in terms of novelty story-telling and the use of the 'unreliable narrator'. A real masterpiece, and a great example of a captivating film on a shoestring budget!
@LN78 I reevaluate and change my mind on movies all the time My tastes just change over time and, also, my first impression of a movie (good or bad) may be influenced by my current mood or the context (watching a movie in IMAX for the first time is more conducive to me having a good time than watching it again at home a second time... some movies hold up, some gets downgraded a notch, but I rarely go from "like" to "dislike" on my second viewing... that may come later, though).
Started watching the old Schwarzenegger movies again a couple of years ago (excepting the Terminator and Conan films, which I will tackle later) and very, very few of them held up. Red Heat is an example of a movie I loved as a teen, but now I just found it boring and grating.
So yeah, definitely happens. I always say that changing one's mind is perfectly acceptable (though politicians will call it "flip-flopping" and then start digging the trenches the second they form an initial opinion )
@LN78 Yes! Wow, I think I was maybe 13-14yrs old watching that for the first time...
It was a great feature actually, and I loved watching it chronologically after an initial couple of watches the 'proper way'. DVD Easter Eggs and special features.... God bless those simpler times eh
Films I've watched over the past month & a half or so. I won't include the annual Christmas movie rewatches, but even so I understand if this is TLDR for most.
The Bullet Train (Blu-Ray) - 70's Japanese flick that inspired works like Speed (terrorists have strapped a bomb to a bullet train that'll blow if it goes below 80 km per hour). This holds up really well & was a good watch.
Clash of the Titans (Blu-Ray) - The 80's version. The special effects were dated as get out (even compared to other stuff I've seen from the era), but it still had a certain charm. I would say I even enjoyed it.
The Flash (Amazon Prime) - Not gonna lie, I actually thought this was pretty fun. It was cringey & lazy how they shoved all those "multiverse" legacy cameos in it, but at least they waited to the last 5 or so minutes to do it. Otherwise it was a pretty fun Back to the Future-esque take on a superhero flick.
Ghost in the Shell: the New Movie (Blu-Ray) - Not as good as the original in many respects, but a decent sci-fi mystery/action film in it's own right.
Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story (Netflix) - I thought the racing itself was fun, but I just couldn't get into the human element of it much at all. Certainly not a patch on something like Ford V Ferrari.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Blu-Ray) - Picked this up while thrifting around the holidays. I actually thought this was really good... when it was focused on rescuing the dinos from the volcano & the ethics surrounding that. It was much less compelling when it became a mansion bound slasher flick. They should have just made the first half the whole movie.
MEG 2: The Trench (Netflix) - Very much a B-movie, but fun for what it is.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Blu-Ray) - Still a visually stunning film all these years later, and I love the design of the tech (gunships, tanks, & the like). A rip roaring good time.
No Hard Feelings (Netflix) - It's been a good while since Hollywood has churned out a raunchy comedy that caught my eye, so this was a nice surprise. It's not the greatest thing in the world, but I enjoyed it.
Only Yesterday (Blu-Ray) - Could be a bit slow at times, but it had it's moments & was beautiful like most Ghibli films. Very cozy.
Perfect Blue (Blu-Ray) - Intensely gripping psychological drama. The aesthetic is great and the animation can be a tad rough at times but it totally works with the vibe of the film.
The Punisher (Blu-Ray) - 2000's version. Comic book films have come along way since this released (though you may not know it based on what most of Marvel & DC have released the past couple years), but I actually think this holds up surprisingly well. A pretty good action flick all things considered.
Star Wars: the Force Awakens (Blu-Ray) - Another one I picked up thrifting. Going back into it with no specific expectations, it was actually a pretty fun time. Sure, you probably don't want to think about the narrative too deeply (it's pretty much just A New Hope, but BIGGER!), but as pure popcorn entertainment I may enjoy it more than the originals (don't shoot me, lol).
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - I really enjoy the opening act of this one, but for some reason it always kinda loses me once it gets to Endor. I mean it still has some cool action scenes (like the speeder chase through the forest) & iconic moments, so it's not bad by any means, I just kinda zone out. Maybe I've just seen it too many times.
Titanic (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - This was the first time I've actually sat down to watch the whole thing, and it was absolutely excellent (may be my favorite watch in this list, though Perfect Blue comes really close). From the modern submersible excursions of the wreck (and that sub tech looks cool AF even today) to being transported back in time to that fateful voyage it was completely captivating from beginning to end & didn't feel 3 hours long at all.
Transformers (Blu-Ray) - Another thrift score. I actually love the vibe of this movie, from the humor, to the male-gazey bits, to the "American military heck yeah" angle (I was a high school aged white dude when it came out, so it was practically hand crafted for me, lol). However I will agree that the titular bots are over designed and it can be tough to actually follow the action.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Blu-Ray) - Ditto of pretty much everything I said above.
Wonka (Cinema) - I've actually done a write up of this one once already, but I'll include it here for completion's sake. Not the type of thing I'd normally go see at the cinema, but my father wanted to see it so we went together. It was actually a pretty nice family film.
Just finished watching Mission Impossible Fallout. I think this is my favourite movie in the entire franchise. The plot was very interesting and there were so many cool scenes. I also wasn't expecting to see Henry Cavill in this movie, so that was a pleasant surprise and it made the movie much better.
Definitely wasn't expecting to watch through all of the movies the past couple of weeks as I lost interest in the franchise last year while watching the third movie. Fortunately, all movies after that one were phenomenal. Absolutely love this series!
@LtSarge Fallout is also my favourite of the franchise. It just fires on all cylinders and feels like the pinnacle of what a Mission Impossible movie could be. Which set me up for a massive disappointment with Dead Reckoning, which to me is not only the worst in the franchise by a huge margin, but also one of the most irritating movies I saw in theaters last year. Hopefully, your experience with it will be better than mine
@FuriousMachine@LN78 This is not knocking the opinion as no matter how good something is, it's not going to work for everybody, but the critic and user reviews for Dead Reckoning are fantastic as a whole. In other words, it's an outlier, and I'd expect more people than not here would end up enjoying it.
I know I fully expect to as I've highly enjoyed the vast majority of the series. It's been so long since I've watched 2 that I couldn't comment on whether I can find enjoyment out of it or not.
@LN78 In my mind it was. M:I2's biggest sin was that it was at times boring and that it didn't feel like a Mission Impossible movie, "Dead Reckoning" was a preview of what we can expect when the script is written by an AI (in this case, an uninspired remix of key scenes from better action movies, including a finale that mirrors the first one so closely that it's truly embarrassing) Also, contains the most egregious example of fridging I have seen in a looong time.. I really love this franchise, warts and all, but the new one? Hated it...
@KilloWertz I know, I've heard people referring to it as the best in the series and one of 2023's most spectacular action movies, so there are people out there that loved it, and I hope that is the case for you as well, when you get around to seeing it
@LN78 I think it was a reasonable success, maybe not to their expectations, and I've only seen a handful of reviews that had the same issues with it that I did, so I was surprised when I read that they were dropping the "part" parts of the titles (I understand that "part 1" is being dropped from the title for the digital releases, too, but don't shoot me if I'm wrong on that )
@LN78 The sad thing is that I did 🤣(like I was going to have a hole in my M:I steelbook collection just because I loathed the movie? Never! Yeah, I know, I need help...)
@FuriousMachine Wasn't aware that there's another Mission Impossible movie. Too bad it's not on SkyShowtime, so I'll just have to wait for it to be added. But yeah, sorry to hear that you didn't like it. I also hope that my experience will be different as I absolutely love this franchise.
So I just finished watching Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. On paper, this movie doesn't sound that compelling. First of all, the movie doesn't star any of the previous cast. Second, it takes place in a completely different setting instead of the U.S. So my initial thought was that this was the black sheep of the franchise.
Turned out I was completely wrong as this is my favourite movie so far! The fact that the movie takes place in Japan made it so much better. I rarely see movies with this setting, so as a fan of Japan I was so happy throughout the entire movie. Also, the movie had a clear and refreshing focus, which was on drifting. It wasn't just about speed anymore but actual skill. Moreover, I actually liked the characters, except for the protagonist. Just seems like a very odd choice, that's all.
All in all, fantastic and very refreshing movie! Once again, really loved the Japanese setting. But I'm excited to go back to the original cast and setting in the next movie.
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