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I may need to see this.
I won't promise you a "they didn't get it" experience but I was pleased by how much it didn't suck



As someone who thinks the theatrical cut of Part 6 is the worst Halloween film on the franchise*, I'm gonna need to check it out as well.


* i haven't seen Resurrection, 2018, or Kills.
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CRIMSON PEAK
(2015, Del Toro)



"The things we do for love like this are ugly, mad, full of sweat and regret. This love burns you and maims you and twists you inside out. It is a monstrous love and it makes monsters of us all."

Set in the early 20th Century, Crimson Peak follows Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), the daughter of an important businessman and an aspiring writer herself. When an aristocrat called Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) and her sister (Jessica Chastain) come looking for funding for a digging machine, Edith finds herself drawn to their mysterious lives and eventually, their apparently haunted home (the titular Crimson Peak).

From the get go, I found myself engaged in the plot, thanks mostly to the performances from Wasikowska and Hiddleston. I thought there was a very good balance of intrigue and romance, with a surprising sprinkle of violence at one point. I was also surprised to see Charlie Hunnam, who I usually find cringey, deliver a fairly competent performance.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot



Victim of The Night
CRIMSON PEAK
(2015, Del Toro)
A film from Guillermo del Toro





Set in the early 20th Century, Crimson Peak follows Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), the daughter of an important businessman and an aspiring writer herself. When an aristocrat called Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) and her sister (Jessica Chastain) come looking for funding for a digging machine, Edith finds herself drawn to their mysterious lives and eventually, their apparently haunted home (the titular Crimson Peak).

From the get go, I found myself engaged in the plot, thanks mostly to the performances from Wasikowska and Hiddleston. I thought there was a very good balance of intrigue and romance, with a surprising sprinkle of violence at one point. I was also surprised to see Charlie Hunnam, who I usually find cringey, deliver a fairly competent performance.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot
Well, I'm glad you liked it. I wanted to really badly but I found it a big ol' buncha meh.
Much ado about nothing, as it were.
Really, really didn't like the special effects. Horror directors really need to get away from leaning into CGI, it just isn't good for this genre.
Interestingly, for me, it was Chastain who carried the film, as much as it was carried.



Well, I'm glad you liked it. I wanted to really badly but I found it a big ol' buncha meh.
Much ado about nothing, as it were.
Really, really didn't like the special effects. Horror directors really need to get away from leaning into CGI, it just isn't good for this genre.
Interestingly, for me, it was Chastain who carried the film, as much as it was carried.
Yeah, I bring up Chastain in the full review.



A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4
THE DREAM MASTER

(1988, Harlin)



"You shouldn't have buried me. I'm not dead."

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 picks up shortly after Part 3, with the three survivors from that part still struggling with nightmares. When Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is resurrected, a new group of teenagers led by Alice (Lisa Wilcox) are inadvertently drawn into his dream world, and forced to fight for their survival.

Aside from Freddy's jokes and the overall style, my main complaints are with the performances and the script. Seriously, the acting is atrocious from pretty much everyone except Englund. Unfortunately, the actors aren't helped by the cringey dialogue.

As far as slashers go, there are a few creative gory moments, particularly a character that turns into a roach, and an inventive scene where characters end stuck in a time loop. But other than that, there isn't much to dig up here. They should've let him dead and buried.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot



* i haven't seen Resurrection
There's a discussion to be had with this one, oh boy.



Haddonfield Lives Matter.


Jesus, just like people in Wrong Turn can't read a map, people in Haddonfield can't shoot or fight or run!
The only good thing in this film is seen
WARNING: "Kills" spoilers below
Myers killing all the awful characters, Tommy and the last ones that surrounded him in special!

Go Myers, Go. Kill them all.
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Surge (2020)

Ben Whishaw plays a drone in an airport security job whos detached life is breaking him down. He starts to crack and go a bit rogue, throwing off all the constraints of his meek existence. I really liked this and especially Whishaw. Some scenes were a bit far fetched but then the randomness of the setting of London could forgive that and the acting ironed them out. Some scary camerawork when he is in full-on mode!



Well, I'm glad you liked it. I wanted to really badly but I found it a big ol' buncha meh.
Much ado about nothing, as it were.
Really, really didn't like the special effects. Horror directors really need to get away from leaning into CGI, it just isn't good for this genre.
Interestingly, for me, it was Chastain who carried the film, as much as it was carried.
Aye, I felt this went from interesting gothic to outright fantasy with no real need to and ruined the film.



Haddonfield Lives Matter.


Jesus, just like people in Wrong Turn can't read a map, people in Haddonfield can't shoot or fight or run!
The only good thing in this film is seen
WARNING: "Kills" spoilers below
Myers killing all the awful characters, Tommy and the last ones that surrounded him in special!

Go Myers, Go. Kill them all.
Seen it and it's garbage in my view, young uns are not really interested so it's akin to folk buying the last Oasis singles when they were rubbish just to be completists (a word?)



I forgot the opening line.
Back I go again, these three films all vied for the Best Picture Oscar at the 2001 Academy Awards (Gladiator beat 'em.) I saw them way back then, and I revisited them after 20 odd years...


By May be found at the following website: MovieGoods.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34913407

Traffic - (2000)

One of two Steven Soderbergh films nominated for Best Picture that year (the other being Erin Brockovich, the only nominated film I haven't seen) - he won Best Director for this, and it was probably Gladiator's biggest threat. Looks at the "war on drugs" from three different angles, in stories that'll intersect. Michael Douglas is a judge who is appointed to a high-level presidential task force to combat drug smuggling, and he has a daughter who is really getting into hard drugs in a different manner. Benicio del Toro is a Mexican law enforcement officer - one of the rare ones that isn't on the take. Catherine Zeta-Jones is the wife of a high-ranking drug lord in the United States - one who is about to be taken down when one of his lieutenants (played by one of my favourites - Miguel Ferrer) gets caught by a pair of cops. It's a pretty serious film that demands all of your attention, with a real ensemble cast that includes Dennis Quaid, Josh Brolin, Albert Finney, Amy Irving, Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán. Was a bit dry, depressing and complex for me way back then, but this time around I thought it was quite good.

7.5/10


By GoldPoster, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59135844

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - (2000)

Back in the early 2000s, everybody loved Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It really threatened to become the first foreign language film to win a Best Picture Oscar. Traffic has a lot of interesting visual aspects that you wouldn't expect because of it's subject matter (bright coloured filters really impose themselves, forcing you to acknowledge their relevance) - but in this film the cinematography itself tells us a lot, and overall you get the impression from this that this is a visual story. Stylized fighting, that I'd never seen the likes of before (these masters of swordplay can actually fly) is mixed with two love stories in 19th Century China. I'm not the biggest fan of the genre out there, but I'm glad I watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon again with new eyes, seeing and appreciating a lot more than I did in the past.

7/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7984022

Chocolat - (2000)

Considering the other films it was up against, Chocolat never had much of a hope in winning Best Picture. I know someone who would probably love this - it reminded me a whole lot of Antonia's Line. A miserable French town is visited by a Mary Poppins-like character who opens a chocolate shop and starts to transform the lives of people living there. But the religious zealot Comte de Reynaud (played fantastically by Alfred Molina) has other ideas, and plots her downfall. In the meantime, Johnny Depp shows up for 15 minutes or so as a gypsy and transforms our Mary Poppins (Vianne, played by Juliette Binoche) a bit too. Considering how crucial Alfred Molina's character is, and how much more difficult the role was, I wonder how Binoche and Judi Dench were nominated for Oscars and he wasn't. This had a good ending, and wasn't bad - I could appreciate a lot of different aspects - but it's not really my type of movie, so I reckon this is the last time I'll ever watch Chocolat. And yeah - I craved chocolate the whole time I watched.

6/10
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Back I go again, these three films all vied for the Best Picture Oscar at the 2001 Academy Awards (Gladiator beat 'em.) I saw them way back then, and I revisited them after 20 odd years...

Traffic - (2000)

7.5/10


Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - (2000)

7/10


Chocolat - (2000)

6/10
Contenders for the 2000s Countdown?




Victim of The Night
Back I go again, these three films all vied for the Best Picture Oscar at the 2001 Academy Awards (Gladiator beat 'em.) I saw them way back then, and I revisited them after 20 odd years...


By May be found at the following website: MovieGoods.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34913407

Traffic - (2000)

One of two Steven Soderbergh films nominated for Best Picture that year (the other being Erin Brockovich, the only nominated film I haven't seen) - he won Best Director for this, and it was probably Gladiator's biggest threat. Looks at the "war on drugs" from three different angles, in stories that'll intersect. Michael Douglas is a judge who is appointed to a high-level presidential task force to combat drug smuggling, and he has a daughter who is really getting into hard drugs in a different manner. Benicio del Toro is a Mexican law enforcement officer - one of the rare ones that isn't on the take. Catherine Zeta-Jones is the wife of a high-ranking drug lord in the United States - one who is about to be taken down when one of his lieutenants (played by one of my favourites - Miguel Ferrer) gets caught by a pair of cops. It's a pretty serious film that demands all of your attention, with a real ensemble cast that includes Dennis Quaid, Josh Brolin, Albert Finney, Amy Irving, Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán. Was a bit dry, depressing and complex for me way back then, but this time around I thought it was quite good.

7.5/10


By GoldPoster, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59135844

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - (2000)

Back in the early 2000s, everybody loved Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It really threatened to become the first foreign language film to win a Best Picture Oscar. Traffic has a lot of interesting visual aspects that you wouldn't expect because of it's subject matter (bright coloured filters really impose themselves, forcing you to acknowledge their relevance) - but in this film the cinematography itself tells us a lot, and overall you get the impression from this that this is a visual story. Stylized fighting, that I'd never seen the likes of before (these masters of swordplay can actually fly) is mixed with two love stories in 19th Century China. I'm not the biggest fan of the genre out there, but I'm glad I watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon again with new eyes, seeing and appreciating a lot more than I did in the past.

7/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7984022

Chocolat - (2000)

Considering the other films it was up against, Chocolat never had much of a hope in winning Best Picture. I know someone who would probably love this - it reminded me a whole lot of Antonia's Line. A miserable French town is visited by a Mary Poppins-like character who opens a chocolate shop and starts to transform the lives of people living there. But the religious zealot Comte de Reynaud (played fantastically by Alfred Molina) has other ideas, and plots her downfall. In the meantime, Johnny Depp shows up for 15 minutes or so as a gypsy and transforms our Mary Poppins (Vianne, played by Juliette Binoche) a bit too. Considering how crucial Alfred Molina's character is, and how much more difficult the role was, I wonder how Binoche and Judi Dench were nominated for Oscars and he wasn't. This had a good ending, and wasn't bad - I could appreciate a lot of different aspects - but it's not really my type of movie, so I reckon this is the last time I'll ever watch Chocolat. And yeah - I craved chocolate the whole time I watched.

6/10
Not a bad year for the Oscars.
Chocolat is actually a favorite of mine, I consider it a near-flawless film for the film it tried to be. (Oh, and I agree, Molina should have gotten some kind of nod for this, he's just excellent. It's actually my favorite role of his.)
And Crouching Tiger was easily my favorite film of that year, one of my favorites of its decade.
Traffic was pretty good.



I Watched Dune (Starring Jason Momoa, Oscar Winning Director - Timothée).
The movie is good and normally a 7/10 rating. With all due respect to the makers it's too long for not much story.






Dune (2021)

Dune is a reminder of just how good Game of Thrones was...because this felt like a season of Game of Thrones...just not done that well. While the film is long it likely needed another hour or so for all the supporting characters and to cover the deaths. I think most of the plot was given away in the trailer so that was a bummer but also so much of the story is obvious.

Like most Hollywood films the wokeness is evident as the bad guys are white people taking from the good guys brown sand people. It drives me crazy especially when I think if they had cast an AA in the Baron role it might have had a bit more of an impact. Sometimes you can over do it with the symbolism and they really hammer it home.

Visually the film is stunning, and the plot is great for a first part of the series. It's somewhere between Lord of the Rings and Modern Star Wars when it comes to quality.







Let The Sunshine In (Claire Denis, 2017)


Obviously Binoche is the star of the show, and the primary reason for watching her in the 'effortless excellence' period of her career. It's also probably the lightest film one could imagine from Denis, not so much a comedy (as it's been advertised) but more idealistically romantic than what would be Denis' milieu, in that it ultimately remains optimistic about the promise of intimate joy (the better title translation would be The Bright Sun Within) while simultaneously frustrating this promise, but without the kind of chic cynicism that pervades too much modern Euro-cinema. For that reason, it can be seen as refreshing, but hardly satisfying.

I suppose I wanted a film with more aesthetic flourish, instead it's pretty dry visually. The most striking image is its very first one, of Binoche open and radiant, similar to the poster. This is immediately (comedically, I suppose) ruined by some fat jackass jumping on top of her without the first clue of what to do with her. The film has lots of awkward sex like this, as Binoche shrugs "better than no sex". It is amusing to watch this string of lame men in her life, practically advertising their lameness, while Binoche silently wagers her desperation in a mix of pity and pragmatism. I kept wanting her to simply go out and purchase one of those contraptions from High Life instead.

The film eventually fails to have much to say about the plight of a middle-age single woman facing the end of her sex life and (what is suggested) the potential end of her artistic viability as well. The biggest deflation is saved for the end, when psychic (?) Gerard Depardieu shows up to offer perhaps the lamest male advertisement of them all, and his banal blatherings would be embarrassing even without the pretense of their psychic wisdom. Is it a joke that a woman as sharp as Binoche would entertain such wisdom? Her desperation? The ending is left open, but I hope she recognizes this as just another fat caboose on the lame man train in her life. Either way, it's a muddled effort that Binoche seems to carry entirely on her shoulders.

6.5/10




Dune (2021, Denis Villeneuve)

As someone without a point of reference (neither read the book nor seen Lynch's 1984 version yet), I didn't quite know what to expect, but coming off Blade Runner 2049, I had no doubt Villeneuve was going to deliver the eye candy. Well, Dune certainly doesn't disappoint in that regard — it looks simply spectacular, and the atmosphere breathes epicness. You really get immersed in the feeling of grandeur and fatalism of it all. Bad news is, it's a heck of a long movie, so inevitably there's going to be some dull moments along the way — thankfully I didn't count all too many. The story is also incomplete, which will probably disappoint many — it ends on an open note leaving the door open for Part II (no idea if/when it comes out). I thought the ending was kinda meh, tbh (I felt a movie as epic as this deserved a stronger exclamation point).

All in all, an outstanding film no doubt, but not without flaws. A lot of work went into it, and it definitely shows. If you're a sucker for epic fantasy vibes and striking visuals, don't miss it!