FWIW, I kinda enjoy his role in Pulp Fiction. He makes Jimmy seem like such a loser, I think it's kinda well done, might be accidental but either way I think in that instance he pulled it off.
I just watched Sonatine (1993). Going in all I knew that it was a Beat Takeshi yakuza film. I've seen quite a few of his films, and this is pretty much just Kitano: The Movie. He wrote it, edited, directed it, and played the main character, so that's pretty much to be expected.
The Big Short Really interesting story based on the Global Financial Crisis and how it was predicted years in advance by a smart few. Also predicts voting in Trump as a follow on effect. Highlights that the smartest people that predicted the GFC were ignored by the Government in terms of seeking advice for the future but were treated like the criminals rather than the ass hats that contributed to the situation.
Stylised film based on true events and real people but I found it really interesting to watch.
The Secret Life of Pets I had my reservations about this movie but was pushed by friends to watch it. It sucks, it's average, like super bland average 3d animated movie that was solely sold on star power. Do not watch this.
Because apparently I am a masochist I finally got around to watching batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I watched the trailer when the trailer first came out and thought it was not good, mostly because the trailer gives away the entire plot of the film and that it absolutely did. But even with that absolutely nothing in this movie makes any sense whatsoever.
What is Lex Luthors motivation? Only thing I can tell is that he thinks that there shouldn't be gods because only man should rule over man, but why then would he create an even worse version of Superman, something he is aware of doing considering he calls Doomsday "the devil" (compared to Superman as "god").
Then, why would he try to frame Superman with a gunfight and a bomb explosion, neither of which are Superman's MO. The bomb in particular is idiotic considering that its origin can be directly traced to his company and apparently forensics did but did not go public with it for some reason. Or even arrest Luthor in private. And the fact that he "randomly" survived it doesn't help it, though it was also idiotic for him to just sacrifice one of his best aides that is never named but strongly visually distinguishable in the movie.
What's more, there shouldn't even be a necessity to frame Superman with anything. Considering that this is a direct sequel to Man of Steel, the general public should despise Superman. They were basically caught in the crossfire in the despite of an alien army hunting for a traitor that was hiding on earth. Humanity should hate Superman, not build monuments for him.
Other things that make no sense: How can Clark Kent have a relationship with Lois Lane and also be undercover as Clark Kent working for the Daily Planet after the events of Man of Steel? Why does Batman basically murder every single henchman he comes across? Why does Batman brand criminals? And why would other criminals kill kill the branded? How does "Martha" being the name of Clark's mother change ANYTHING for Batman? Why does Superman trust Batman, the guy who just tried to kill him a minute earlier, with rescuing his mother? Shouldn't Superman rescue Martha Kent and Batman go after Luthor considering that's their personal stakes (Batman being pissed for having been inadvertently used as Luhtor's pawn)? Why does the movie pause and look at trailers for three other movies? (And how does Batman attach what I can only guess to be at least 10 gigabyte of data to a single e-mail?) Why does The Flash just randomly show up out of nowhere for absolutely no reason and absolutely no value to the movie? Why is this movie constantly jumping from scene to scene with complete whiplash?
Oh yeah, and the movies has a grand total of three funny moments in it. Two of them are in the trailer. The rest is a completely joyless slog. Fuck this movie.
How does "Martha" being the name of Clark's mother change ANYTHING for Batman?
I think it might have been poorly communicated, but I think that's meant to be a moment of realization for Batman, not that their mums have the same first name, the name is irrelevant, but that his mother isn't just some rando alien on another planet, but that his mother is from earth, and considering Supes American midwest accent, propably just some regular Midwest American woman. That he's a person, with a family and friends and all that, not just some alien come to earth to fuck shit up. It's hard enough to kill someone, it's much, much harder to look someone in the eye when you've got them at your mercy, and straight-up murder them.
Why does Batman basically murder every single henchman he comes across?
I think a better question is how has batman been doing the shit he's been doing for years, throwing knives and bombs and shit around, crashing cars in getaways, dangling people from rooftops, smashing people's faces into walls, all that shit, without killing anyone?
I think the Flash randomly appearing is DC attempting to do some Marvel-style interweaving and foreshadowing, setting up a Flashpoint movie some time down the road. I didn't even realize who it was supposed to be until somebody told me.
I think the Flash randomly appearing is DC attempting to do some Marvel-style interweaving and foreshadowing, setting up a Flashpoint movie some time down the road. I didn't even realize who it was supposed to be until somebody told me.
Their doing a shit job at it then. I've been watching the DC straight to DVD animated movies from the past 6 years; and while they aren't great, they would be a vast improvement over the DC live action movies. Personally I wasn't a fan of the Flashpoint movie, art was janky and pacing was off. Gods and Monster, Under the Red Hood, and JL:Doom are my top picks
How does "Martha" being the name of Clark's mother change ANYTHING for Batman?
I think it might have been poorly communicated, but I think that's meant to be a moment of realization for Batman, not that their mums have the same first name, the name is irrelevant, but that his mother isn't just some rando alien on another planet, but that his mother is from earth, and considering Supes American midwest accent, propably just some regular Midwest American woman. That he's a person, with a family and friends and all that, not just some alien come to earth to fuck shit up. It's hard enough to kill someone, it's much, much harder to look someone in the eye when you've got them at your mercy, and straight-up murder them.
Yes, that is a sensible interpretation. But it is terribly executed. Batman has no context for who this "Martha" is to Superman. The movie exploits a random coincidence of the characters background and treats it as a world-changing revelation to Batman when it is a triviality.
Here's how the movie could have executed the same thing better: Batman has Superman at his mercy and about to ram the spear down. Batman starts his downward motion, Lois comes out of nowhere and jumps in between Supes and the spear. Batman stops the spear a centimeter from Lois body and starts screaming at her to get out of the way to which Lois screams back "He's trying to save his mother!"
Basically the same thing, sensibly explained and hung up on the actions of the characters instead of Batman acting blindsided by hearing the name "Martha". In addition this would have been an interesting reversal of the damsel in distress dynamic for Lois and Superman and it double illustrates that actually real people care about Superman whom he has actual real relationships with and is not "rando tyranic alien dude".
Why does Batman basically murder every single henchman he comes across?
I think a better question is how has batman been doing the shit he's been doing for years, throwing knives and bombs and shit around, crashing cars in getaways, dangling people from rooftops, smashing people's faces into walls, all that shit, without killing anyone?
What I mean is that he Batman acts in completely cold blood and complete disregard to any harm he causes. He callously tortures people for no benefit except inflicting pain and escalates situation to cause the most death and destruction he can. The best illustration of this is when he anchors a car full of henchmen that has already been disabled to the Batmobile, drags it for a couple of hundred meters behind him and then uses it as a ram to kill some more henchmen who have already put themselves out of the chase and who can no longer harm Batman.
I think the Flash randomly appearing is DC attempting to do some Marvel-style interweaving and foreshadowing, setting up a Flashpoint movie some time down the road. I didn't even realize who it was supposed to be until somebody told me.
Yes, that is indeed what they are doing. So is the "press-kit" scene with Wonder Woman looking at the files from Luther's drive. But none of this is relevant to this movie at hand whatsoever. The Flash scene should have been cut completely and so should have been Wonder Woman looking at the files. All the sequel baiting should have been the logos on the obscure filenames onscreen, and it should have been better integrated with Folders for Batman and Superman too.
So because I wanted to see how deep the rabbit hole goes I watched Suicide Squad today. And to my surprise the movie was better than what I expected, perhaps because it was universally panned both here and on other sources I trust. That doesn't mean the movie is good, but at least it is a passable bad.
The biggest issue with the movie is with the number of characters they included that basically do nothing. Slipknot is the biggest standout here because despite being shown alongside of the rest of the Suicide Squad he is barely introduced before getting killed off to show that Amanda Waller and Rick Flag aren't kidding around. It would have been a great fakeout for Slipknot to get the same buildup treatment and being featured in the trailers only to be killed off in the same manner. Here you basically knew immediately that he was getting killed off and you could smell the reason for that a mile away.
Similar for Captain Boomerang. I actually liked that he immediately bolted when Flag said "you're free to go" only for him to join back up like 2 minutes later. He should have just been gone but perhaps stumble back into the big fight at the end through his own incompetence. He still essentially did absolutely nothing in the entire movie except be the comic relief and could have been cut out completely.
Sneakily the most superfluous thing about the movie is the whole subplot of Harley Quinn. Why was she even included in the Suicide Squad? She adds basically nothing to the combat strength and is just a destabilizing force to the whole operation. Why would Waller include her in her Black Ops operation at all? I understand the reason for her to be there from the marketing standpoint of the movie and its desperate need for a female presence in the group, but she could have been completely cut and replaced by simply elevating the presence of Katana to the main heroine Katana could have probably also completely made Rick Flag obsolete too.
Ironically I must concede though that Margot Robbie's performance of the character is one of the few things that keeps the movie afloat, together with Will Smith and Viola Davis.
There are also issues with the plot itself, with Waller's black ops squad essentially only cleaning up her own fuckup in this which is never even addressed. Also despite the diverse cast and characters the movie is stuffed with absolutely racist and sexist stereotypes. There are also a number of "this character shouldn't behave this way at all" moments in this, the most egregious in my opinion is Batman confronting Deadshot in the presence of a small child.
I should also mention that for Suicide Squad and BvS I watched the Extended Cuts. I hear that the studio hacked both movies to the bone making scene transitions in the theatrical release even worse. Since that was already an issue in BvS for me I am not sure what the Extended Cut improved there. In Suicide Squad it was less noticeable though.
P.S. Before I forget, the movie pissed me right the fuck off too by introducing Harley Quinn as "accomplice in the murder of Robin". Not only is this lazily handled with screen on text, it is also completely out of context. The audience has no context of who Robin is or why this is important. Sure the audience does know about the character of Robin from other versions of the DC Universe, but in this Universe the character hasn't even been introduced yet.
I just watched Watchmen. I put off watching the movie for years until Juliane had read the comic, and she finished it a few days ago.
This movie was panned by almost everyone. I thought it was pretty good! At least it was an interesting retelling of a story I knew from the comic. While it couldn't do some things as well due to being so compressed, it certainly had a better ending than comic!
However, if I hadn't read the comic a few years ago, I'm not sure it would have worked for me. And if I was a massive fan of the comic, I could understand why what was changed and left out would annoy me.
But I have read the comic, and while I liked it a lot, I don't hold it as some kind of sacred text, so the movie worked for me pretty well.
Seriously, the end of the comic is dumb and let the entire thing down. The end of the movie is a massive improvement on the comic... but the rest of the movie doesn't have the same strength or depth.
Sneakily the most superfluous thing about the movie is the whole subplot of Harley Quinn. Why was she even included in the Suicide Squad? She adds basically nothing to the combat strength and is just a destabilizing force to the whole operation. Why would Waller include her in her Black Ops operation at all?
In the comics, it's because she's a genius Psychiatrist and extremely competent medical doctor, skilled con-artist, along with being immune to all poisons, having enhanced speed, strength and agility, high combat proficiency, being skilled with improvised weapons and devices. Plus, way less crazy than the film.
As for why she's in the film, it's because she's in the team in the new 52, and comic relief.
Actually Luke, I think it became hip to hate Watchmen after it became cool to hate Zack Snyder, from his other films.
I actually really enjoy the film, the opening of that film actually moved me to tears. Though I'm a sucker for sentimentality.
Yeah but I see what Luke is saying in that so much of the character's backgrounds are removed that some of the pivotal actions don't mean too much and may seem confusing to the viewer without prior knowledge.
The movie amplified the hero's physical strength whereas in the book it was made to look like humans, when contrasted to a regular super hero book this is a portion of the deconstruction.
Most of the character's backgrounds are removed or super concise to just make it work.
The "Keene Act" seems to not make sense in the movie or be explained and hence the scenes where the super heroes are doing super hero things doesn't deliver the riskiness (this also deconstructs all super hero registration stories).
Somehow the Nite Owl is portrayed quite heroically while in the movies he's just a super vulnerable person. Making him too human for a movie audience wouldn't make complete sense for a super hero movie.
The complex relationship between the Silk Spectre and the Comedian was removed, there is an insinuation from one scene but the sub plot has great importance in the books and somewhat explains Sally's perspective towards the Comedian and Laurie, including the latter relationship. (Deconstructs the stupidity of some how some super heroes just happen to have kids that pop out of nowhere for the purposes of plot or for lineage continuation).
While it is agreeable to change the final scene for the movie I don't take the movie as being better than the book ending. The movie just changes the story.
Jon in the books was off to make like on another planet and explaining / insinuating to Ozymandias that the same problems with humanity will recur regardless of what he tries. While Ozymandias is a deconstructed super villain made to look silly on purpose with a silly plan of having all of humanity unite to fight against his telepathic squid.
Watchmen the movie is a super hero story. Watchmen the book is a deconstruction of the super heroes.
The book is far better but the movie is also quite good to watch.
The Finest Hours Another movie based on real life events. A young coast guard team does some crazy courageous stuff. The environmental audio of this film is pretty amazing as were the water special effects, it was seamless compared to the occasional CG that I could pick on land.
Seems to be classic 70s hero type film, not sure why it tanked at the box office but it was pretty great, worth watching once if you're into uplifting movies.
Watched Arrival (And Rogue One but no need to discuss that here)
I enjoyed the hell out of it but I had some parts I felt were drawn out for no real gain. It makes me super pumped for Blade Runner 2049, based on how patiently it is shot and how it was scored.
I loved the visuals of the movie and how it explores language, and politics, and time, and all the things all quite interconnectedly too. Packed a lot into it for how constrained it was in setting and characters.
I went in hearing good things and bad things... I'm glad I heard some good things, and avoided spoilers, as im glad I was able to experience it unspoiled in the narrative order intended.
Watched The Heat today because two colleagues at work talked about it and wanted to see what's it all about. And it was surprisingly not bad and actually quite funny. It is definitely a bit gross, vulgar and rather american type of comedy but it made me laugh a number of times. Unfortunately some cringe was also involved.
Bullock and McCarthy have a good character dynamic and play their parts very well. The movie is a bit formulaic and some of the jokes are obvious, but it works and on the whole it is just a competent film. Nothing outstanding but also not anything to just dismiss either.
I must admit that on the outset I found it kind of weird to see two women as the protagonists in a buddy cop film. I mean it shouldn't and it is unfortunate that for now we live in a world where this is unusual, but that's how it is. It works perfectly fine though and was in my opinion better than for example The Other Guys, a rather similar recent film (which I also only watched because people at work talked about it).
Last year we marathoned the Mission Impossible movies over Christmas. This year we went with a slighter load with the Toy Story trilogy.
Toy Story 1
When we picked up the three blu-rays from the video rental store, I gave the money and when taking the changed said "Moneymoneymoney!" which wasn't because I had Toy Story in my hand, but because I say "moneymoneymoney" literally every time money is handed in my direction, or I look at my bank statement online and find I've been paid. Yes, it is originally a Toy Story quote, it's what Mr. Potatohead says in the opening of the first movie. But it's also become part of my daily life! That I said I when renting Toy Story was just a coincidence.
Anyway, that might be explained by me having watched Toy Story many many many times. I had it on VHS, and because we had no TV license as a family when I was younger, the limited number of VHS tapes means I saw some movies a disproportionate number of times.
Toy Story still holds up! In terms of story and characters and action and excitement.
And because it is a historical artifact, being the first fully CGI feature length movie, it ages very well in that it doesn't hide the fact everything is geometrical shapes and basic shiny textures. The rendering technology is right on the surface of the film. This is the best quality I've ever seen it to, being crisp crystal clear blu-ray.
Toy Story 2
I'd only seen this one before, and wasn't impressed. There are some fun scenes, but overall I couldn't understand why people say it is the best movie of all three, or better than the first.
After this, my second watch, I'm still just as confused. It's just not very good. And the action happens at the wrong scale.
Also the animators thought they could do hair and textures. You know what? The technology wasn't ready. In many ways it looks worse than Toy Story 1, due to not quite being able to drag itself out of the uncanny valley.
Toy Story 3
Wow, what a closer! This is, by far, the best movie, though like all movies where a sequel is better than the original, it relies on the existence of the previous movie to do some of the heavy lifting.
It's my second viewing, but even knowing what happens, the first third is hilarious, the middle is a really solid dystopia/prison drama, and that last third of the movie destroyed me. It's rare that a movie can move me to tears of at least four distinct emotions at different times.
Other than the pizza aliens, I can't remember anything from TS1. I use “Somebody poisoned the water hole!” from TS2 all the time though. Haven't seen TS3.
On the heels of watching the Netflix series The Get Down and Hip Hop Evolution plus listening to a bunch of old school hip hop, I thought I might as well watch this on Christmas.
Straight Outta Compton The casting was pretty great (other than Paul Giamatti, but no one likes him so he sort of filled in the role required). Eazy E, Ice Cube, Dr Dre, DJ Yella and MC Ren were very well cast, both with facial features, accents and mannerisms although the latter 2 would likely be from coaching. While fairly truthful in its retelling there was some gloss, emphasis and melodrama at various points of the movie. The movie unfortunately tried to just string together emphatic memories without altogether coherently filling the time between these chapters. They felt like chapters rather than a flow of story telling. The film makers would have been better off explicitly separating everything out into chapters. The lack of the above also forced me to know certain things that people who would just be watching the film may not, kind of like some super hero films. e.g. you see all the protagonists driving through the LA riots when it was only Ice Cube who went out to see the destruction. At Detroit they had pre-planned not to perform Fuck tha Police and one or two must have started playing it (based on documentary interviews with the remaining members) and they just performed it. While in the movie it seems as if it was an explicit action.
I would watch it again but am on the fence on whether I would purchase it.
Definitely worth hearing in 5.1 especially some of the concert scenes and the soundtrack is not going to disappoint especially if you're aware or heard a bit of hip hop history.
After the movie I've been playing NWA albums and The Chronic through Boxing Day. Wow those early tracks were not mastered too well but the cleaned up and remastered versions really remove or dull the raw severity of many of the tracks.
That film is so very intense. The movie had me tensed up almost the entire way through, at the very least from the moment the wham happens and everything changes.
It is kind of hard to talk about it without spoiling it but it is a tremendous thriller. Personally the setup also had me hooked in, though I would understand not everybody is familiar with punk rock subculture, though I guess everybody who reads this here would understand how the bad guys in the movie are absolutely disgusting from the outset.
Comments
Really interesting story based on the Global Financial Crisis and how it was predicted years in advance by a smart few. Also predicts voting in Trump as a follow on effect. Highlights that the smartest people that predicted the GFC were ignored by the Government in terms of seeking advice for the future but were treated like the criminals rather than the ass hats that contributed to the situation.
Stylised film based on true events and real people but I found it really interesting to watch.
The Secret Life of Pets
I had my reservations about this movie but was pushed by friends to watch it.
It sucks, it's average, like super bland average 3d animated movie that was solely sold on star power. Do not watch this.
What is Lex Luthors motivation? Only thing I can tell is that he thinks that there shouldn't be gods because only man should rule over man, but why then would he create an even worse version of Superman, something he is aware of doing considering he calls Doomsday "the devil" (compared to Superman as "god").
Then, why would he try to frame Superman with a gunfight and a bomb explosion, neither of which are Superman's MO. The bomb in particular is idiotic considering that its origin can be directly traced to his company and apparently forensics did but did not go public with it for some reason. Or even arrest Luthor in private. And the fact that he "randomly" survived it doesn't help it, though it was also idiotic for him to just sacrifice one of his best aides that is never named but strongly visually distinguishable in the movie.
What's more, there shouldn't even be a necessity to frame Superman with anything. Considering that this is a direct sequel to Man of Steel, the general public should despise Superman. They were basically caught in the crossfire in the despite of an alien army hunting for a traitor that was hiding on earth. Humanity should hate Superman, not build monuments for him.
Other things that make no sense:
How can Clark Kent have a relationship with Lois Lane and also be undercover as Clark Kent working for the Daily Planet after the events of Man of Steel?
Why does Batman basically murder every single henchman he comes across?
Why does Batman brand criminals? And why would other criminals kill kill the branded?
How does "Martha" being the name of Clark's mother change ANYTHING for Batman?
Why does Superman trust Batman, the guy who just tried to kill him a minute earlier, with rescuing his mother? Shouldn't Superman rescue Martha Kent and Batman go after Luthor considering that's their personal stakes (Batman being pissed for having been inadvertently used as Luhtor's pawn)?
Why does the movie pause and look at trailers for three other movies? (And how does Batman attach what I can only guess to be at least 10 gigabyte of data to a single e-mail?)
Why does The Flash just randomly show up out of nowhere for absolutely no reason and absolutely no value to the movie?
Why is this movie constantly jumping from scene to scene with complete whiplash?
Oh yeah, and the movies has a grand total of three funny moments in it. Two of them are in the trailer. The rest is a completely joyless slog. Fuck this movie.
Here's how the movie could have executed the same thing better:
Batman has Superman at his mercy and about to ram the spear down. Batman starts his downward motion, Lois comes out of nowhere and jumps in between Supes and the spear. Batman stops the spear a centimeter from Lois body and starts screaming at her to get out of the way to which Lois screams back "He's trying to save his mother!"
Basically the same thing, sensibly explained and hung up on the actions of the characters instead of Batman acting blindsided by hearing the name "Martha". In addition this would have been an interesting reversal of the damsel in distress dynamic for Lois and Superman and it double illustrates that actually real people care about Superman whom he has actual real relationships with and is not "rando tyranic alien dude". What I mean is that he Batman acts in completely cold blood and complete disregard to any harm he causes. He callously tortures people for no benefit except inflicting pain and escalates situation to cause the most death and destruction he can. The best illustration of this is when he anchors a car full of henchmen that has already been disabled to the Batmobile, drags it for a couple of hundred meters behind him and then uses it as a ram to kill some more henchmen who have already put themselves out of the chase and who can no longer harm Batman. Yes, that is indeed what they are doing. So is the "press-kit" scene with Wonder Woman looking at the files from Luther's drive. But none of this is relevant to this movie at hand whatsoever. The Flash scene should have been cut completely and so should have been Wonder Woman looking at the files. All the sequel baiting should have been the logos on the obscure filenames onscreen, and it should have been better integrated with Folders for Batman and Superman too.
The biggest issue with the movie is with the number of characters they included that basically do nothing. Slipknot is the biggest standout here because despite being shown alongside of the rest of the Suicide Squad he is barely introduced before getting killed off to show that Amanda Waller and Rick Flag aren't kidding around. It would have been a great fakeout for Slipknot to get the same buildup treatment and being featured in the trailers only to be killed off in the same manner. Here you basically knew immediately that he was getting killed off and you could smell the reason for that a mile away.
Similar for Captain Boomerang. I actually liked that he immediately bolted when Flag said "you're free to go" only for him to join back up like 2 minutes later. He should have just been gone but perhaps stumble back into the big fight at the end through his own incompetence. He still essentially did absolutely nothing in the entire movie except be the comic relief and could have been cut out completely.
Sneakily the most superfluous thing about the movie is the whole subplot of Harley Quinn. Why was she even included in the Suicide Squad? She adds basically nothing to the combat strength and is just a destabilizing force to the whole operation. Why would Waller include her in her Black Ops operation at all? I understand the reason for her to be there from the marketing standpoint of the movie and its desperate need for a female presence in the group, but she could have been completely cut and replaced by simply elevating the presence of Katana to the main heroine Katana could have probably also completely made Rick Flag obsolete too.
Ironically I must concede though that Margot Robbie's performance of the character is one of the few things that keeps the movie afloat, together with Will Smith and Viola Davis.
There are also issues with the plot itself, with Waller's black ops squad essentially only cleaning up her own fuckup in this which is never even addressed. Also despite the diverse cast and characters the movie is stuffed with absolutely racist and sexist stereotypes. There are also a number of "this character shouldn't behave this way at all" moments in this, the most egregious in my opinion is Batman confronting Deadshot in the presence of a small child.
I should also mention that for Suicide Squad and BvS I watched the Extended Cuts. I hear that the studio hacked both movies to the bone making scene transitions in the theatrical release even worse. Since that was already an issue in BvS for me I am not sure what the Extended Cut improved there. In Suicide Squad it was less noticeable though.
P.S. Before I forget, the movie pissed me right the fuck off too by introducing Harley Quinn as "accomplice in the murder of Robin". Not only is this lazily handled with screen on text, it is also completely out of context. The audience has no context of who Robin is or why this is important. Sure the audience does know about the character of Robin from other versions of the DC Universe, but in this Universe the character hasn't even been introduced yet.
This movie was panned by almost everyone. I thought it was pretty good! At least it was an interesting retelling of a story I knew from the comic. While it couldn't do some things as well due to being so compressed, it certainly had a better ending than comic!
However, if I hadn't read the comic a few years ago, I'm not sure it would have worked for me. And if I was a massive fan of the comic, I could understand why what was changed and left out would annoy me.
But I have read the comic, and while I liked it a lot, I don't hold it as some kind of sacred text, so the movie worked for me pretty well.
Seriously, the end of the comic is dumb and let the entire thing down. The end of the movie is a massive improvement on the comic... but the rest of the movie doesn't have the same strength or depth.
As for why she's in the film, it's because she's in the team in the new 52, and comic relief.
I actually really enjoy the film, the opening of that film actually moved me to tears. Though I'm a sucker for sentimentality.
The movie amplified the hero's physical strength whereas in the book it was made to look like humans, when contrasted to a regular super hero book this is a portion of the deconstruction.
Most of the character's backgrounds are removed or super concise to just make it work.
The "Keene Act" seems to not make sense in the movie or be explained and hence the scenes where the super heroes are doing super hero things doesn't deliver the riskiness (this also deconstructs all super hero registration stories).
Somehow the Nite Owl is portrayed quite heroically while in the movies he's just a super vulnerable person. Making him too human for a movie audience wouldn't make complete sense for a super hero movie.
The complex relationship between the Silk Spectre and the Comedian was removed, there is an insinuation from one scene but the sub plot has great importance in the books and somewhat explains Sally's perspective towards the Comedian and Laurie, including the latter relationship. (Deconstructs the stupidity of some how some super heroes just happen to have kids that pop out of nowhere for the purposes of plot or for lineage continuation).
While it is agreeable to change the final scene for the movie I don't take the movie as being better than the book ending. The movie just changes the story.
Jon in the books was off to make like on another planet and explaining / insinuating to Ozymandias that the same problems with humanity will recur regardless of what he tries. While Ozymandias is a deconstructed super villain made to look silly on purpose with a silly plan of having all of humanity unite to fight against his telepathic squid.
Watchmen the movie is a super hero story.
Watchmen the book is a deconstruction of the super heroes.
The book is far better but the movie is also quite good to watch.
The Finest Hours
Another movie based on real life events.
A young coast guard team does some crazy courageous stuff. The environmental audio of this film is pretty amazing as were the water special effects, it was seamless compared to the occasional CG that I could pick on land.
Seems to be classic 70s hero type film, not sure why it tanked at the box office but it was pretty great, worth watching once if you're into uplifting movies.
I enjoyed the hell out of it but I had some parts I felt were drawn out for no real gain. It makes me super pumped for Blade Runner 2049, based on how patiently it is shot and how it was scored.
I loved the visuals of the movie and how it explores language, and politics, and time, and all the things all quite interconnectedly too. Packed a lot into it for how constrained it was in setting and characters.
I went in hearing good things and bad things... I'm glad I heard some good things, and avoided spoilers, as im glad I was able to experience it unspoiled in the narrative order intended.
Bullock and McCarthy have a good character dynamic and play their parts very well. The movie is a bit formulaic and some of the jokes are obvious, but it works and on the whole it is just a competent film. Nothing outstanding but also not anything to just dismiss either.
I must admit that on the outset I found it kind of weird to see two women as the protagonists in a buddy cop film. I mean it shouldn't and it is unfortunate that for now we live in a world where this is unusual, but that's how it is. It works perfectly fine though and was in my opinion better than for example The Other Guys, a rather similar recent film (which I also only watched because people at work talked about it).
Toy Story 1
When we picked up the three blu-rays from the video rental store, I gave the money and when taking the changed said "Moneymoneymoney!" which wasn't because I had Toy Story in my hand, but because I say "moneymoneymoney" literally every time money is handed in my direction, or I look at my bank statement online and find I've been paid. Yes, it is originally a Toy Story quote, it's what Mr. Potatohead says in the opening of the first movie. But it's also become part of my daily life! That I said I when renting Toy Story was just a coincidence.
Anyway, that might be explained by me having watched Toy Story many many many times. I had it on VHS, and because we had no TV license as a family when I was younger, the limited number of VHS tapes means I saw some movies a disproportionate number of times.
Toy Story still holds up! In terms of story and characters and action and excitement.
And because it is a historical artifact, being the first fully CGI feature length movie, it ages very well in that it doesn't hide the fact everything is geometrical shapes and basic shiny textures. The rendering technology is right on the surface of the film. This is the best quality I've ever seen it to, being crisp crystal clear blu-ray.
Toy Story 2
I'd only seen this one before, and wasn't impressed. There are some fun scenes, but overall I couldn't understand why people say it is the best movie of all three, or better than the first.
After this, my second watch, I'm still just as confused. It's just not very good. And the action happens at the wrong scale.
Also the animators thought they could do hair and textures. You know what? The technology wasn't ready. In many ways it looks worse than Toy Story 1, due to not quite being able to drag itself out of the uncanny valley.
Toy Story 3
Wow, what a closer! This is, by far, the best movie, though like all movies where a sequel is better than the original, it relies on the existence of the previous movie to do some of the heavy lifting.
It's my second viewing, but even knowing what happens, the first third is hilarious, the middle is a really solid dystopia/prison drama, and that last third of the movie destroyed me. It's rare that a movie can move me to tears of at least four distinct emotions at different times.
It also looks AMAZING.
Straight Outta Compton
The casting was pretty great (other than Paul Giamatti, but no one likes him so he sort of filled in the role required). Eazy E, Ice Cube, Dr Dre, DJ Yella and MC Ren were very well cast, both with facial features, accents and mannerisms although the latter 2 would likely be from coaching.
While fairly truthful in its retelling there was some gloss, emphasis and melodrama at various points of the movie. The movie unfortunately tried to just string together emphatic memories without altogether coherently filling the time between these chapters. They felt like chapters rather than a flow of story telling. The film makers would have been better off explicitly separating everything out into chapters.
The lack of the above also forced me to know certain things that people who would just be watching the film may not, kind of like some super hero films. e.g. you see all the protagonists driving through the LA riots when it was only Ice Cube who went out to see the destruction. At Detroit they had pre-planned not to perform Fuck tha Police and one or two must have started playing it (based on documentary interviews with the remaining members) and they just performed it. While in the movie it seems as if it was an explicit action.
I would watch it again but am on the fence on whether I would purchase it.
Definitely worth hearing in 5.1 especially some of the concert scenes and the soundtrack is not going to disappoint especially if you're aware or heard a bit of hip hop history.
After the movie I've been playing NWA albums and The Chronic through Boxing Day. Wow those early tracks were not mastered too well but the cleaned up and remastered versions really remove or dull the raw severity of many of the tracks.
That film is so very intense. The movie had me tensed up almost the entire way through, at the very least from the moment the wham happens and everything changes.
It is kind of hard to talk about it without spoiling it but it is a tremendous thriller. Personally the setup also had me hooked in, though I would understand not everybody is familiar with punk rock subculture, though I guess everybody who reads this here would understand how the bad guys in the movie are absolutely disgusting from the outset.