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I forgot the opening line.

By Wonder Woman Movie Poster (#6 of 16) - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51137764

Wonder Woman - (2017)

Why fight it, and who needs logic and common sense - this is a superhero movie. Straight from the computer graphics guys to us. Since I'd seen Batman v Superman I decided to check out the DC side of things, and not just limit myself to Marvel - after years of just shutting myself out of the whole genre. Curiosity always gets me in the end, and it's a big part of cinema these days - plus there are oodles of titles to occupy me. Last night was Wonder Woman, which looked nice (there's a limit though - with CGI) in a visual sense - running the spectrum from the golden greens and blues of Themyscira to the dark grey and green of our world. Nice evil character in Doctor Poison, with suitably horror-infused mask. I didn't even mind the story, with a young Diana (Gal Gadot) on a quest that takes her to the heart of the battlefield in a fictional version of World War I. I just thought occasionally the writers took the easy way out - such as when Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) fakes his way into a high-level conference pretending to have lost his ticket. Some reveals feel a little off as well - but I won't go into spoiler territory. Of the two big franchises, DC feels very much the weaker one. All up a decent, if very typical, superhero flick. Gadot was nice, and played her part well.

6.5/10



The Dark - (1979)

Good lord. I wanted to be able to be informed about this film when I mention it in my Tobe Hooper thread, because he spent a few days directing it before he was sacked - and I just have to say it's a shame, because maybe he'd have done a better job than John Cardos. Anyway, The Dark was the most boring film I've seen in years, and crept along with absolutely no suspense, no fun, no humour, no excitement and nothing much in it worth mentioning except for the final battle with the "alien" which had been a zombie during principle photography - before the producers decided to change direction. Plodding, dull and awful.

2/10
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My God, the acting. Not much of a story either. Actually, I only watched this because of all the fuss around Terrifier 2. Moving on.
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I watched the new movie Falling For Christmas today. It is a sufficiently pleasant Netflix Christmas movie. Lindsay Lohan did a decent job and Chord Overstreet was alright. I think Olivia Perez gave the best performance in the film. There are a couple funny scenes and some cute and sweet moments. I have seen better Christmas romances, but this is fine for what it is. Worth a watch if you are a sucker for Christmas romances (like I am). My rating is a





The Banshees of Inisherin is a dark comedic drama about an old man who decides one day to stop being friends with his middle-aged drinking companion because he finds him dull. This causes the younger man to question his entire identity. The feud eventually escalates into threats of violence.

This movie is hilarious and also a thoughtful examination of human relationships. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson basically reprise their roles from In Bruges: Gleeson is the intellectual who appreciates art and Farrell is the simple man who likes spending all his free time drinking at the pub. The fact that their relationship is post-friendship here though changes the dynamic. Now Gleeson has been putting up with Farrell for years to the point where he's finally had enough of him.

That being said, I had a hard time understanding Gleeson's character Colm's mindset. I've definitely had friends like Padraic (Farrell), where the relationship is held together more by proximity than by similar interests, but Colm is simply uncaring to his former friend's feelings and doesn't give good enough reasons to act the way he does. That made me totally understand Padraic's confusion and frustration. Add to that the other misfortunes that befall Padraic and I just felt terrible for him by the end of the movie.

Padraic's sister, played by Kerry Condon, is similar in a lot of ways to Colm, but much more mature and reasonable. She's also an intelligent person who feels time slipping away from her. She deals with it by making a major life change that hurts Padraic, but isn't cruel. Her character seems like a commentary on how men are quicker than women to resort to violence.

Being a Martin McDonagh film, Banshees of Inisherin also manages to be really funny. A lot of the humor obviously comes from Padraic's total daftness and Farrell plays that role brilliantly. I love moments like when he has to ask the town idiot to explain what touche means. Said idiot is played by Barry Keoghan, who is also quite funny and just accentuates how ignorant Padraic really is. The other Inisherin citizens have their quirks and the nosiness that comes from small town life. The blunt priest gets the biggest laugh of the movie.

The Banshees of Inisherin is a funny and intelligent film that is more cynical than I am, but I appreciated its sincerity and humanity.



But there's still very little ambiguity in Liberty Valence on who the good and bad guys were, which I think is where a lot of the moral black-&-whiteness in the genre came from.
I disagree.

I think that there is a lot of moral ambiguity to be had in
WARNING: spoilers below
a man taking credit for an act that he did not commit.


For me, feeling that an action is both right and wrong in its own way is a very strong form of moral ambiguity.



Yeah, but I think the real "white hat/black hat" aspect of The Searchers isn't so much its portrayal of Native Americans (which is still worthy of some criticism anyway, IMO), but the way that
WARNING: spoilers below
Ethan randomly decides to start being a "good guy" at the end, even though the entire film had been building itself up for a final confrontation with his own racism, a confrontation the film pretty much completely wussed out from, for lack of a better term.
But there's still very little ambiguity in Liberty Valence on who the good and bad guys were, which I think is where a lot of the moral black-&-whiteness in the genre came from.
What do you think a “confrontation with his own racism” would look like? How is that not exactly what happens?



I enjoyed the start of this one, but it was just trying a little too hard to be cute for my taste. Cloying. Needy. And winkingly meta (trust us, we're doing this on purpose!). A cutesy attempt to recreate a vibe that the makers were never really a part of -- kind of like little kids putting on their parents' clothes. Kinda cute, but the garments don't fit and the kids only have a vague sense of the purpose and style of the clothing. Meh.
Well put, and I agree. I'm a big fan of Adrien Brody's, but this script was off the mark, and it couldn't escape the hackneyed set ups. There really were no laughs in it, and --as you say-- they were trying a little too hard. I made it 30 minutes then reluctantly had to bail.



Victim of The Night
So, Commando, which I have not seen in over 30 years, is quite possibly the silliest and most ridiculous movie I have ever seen.
(I'll be back with more later, but I have another film to do first.)



So, Commando, which I have not seen in over 30 years, is quite possibly the silliest and most ridiculous movie I have ever seen.
(I'll be back with more later, but I have another film to do first.)

For me, this one was like "Arnold Schwarzenegger does a Chuck Norris movie." Closer to Invasion USA than is to Predator.



I forgot the opening line.

By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101912/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3840903

Frankie and Johnny - (1991)

I thought Frankie and Johnny was good - it reflected what middle-aged romance is really like, and expanded Terrence McNally's play into the real world - a play that I would have loved to have seen with it's original leads - F. Murray Abraham and Kathy Bates. By casting Michelle Pfeiffer as Frankie you've changed the whole story, because Frankie is meant to be "frumpy, fat, and emotionally defined by her unattractiveness." That's certainly not what we've got here. We do get her being reluctant and cautious about love however - while Pacino's Johnny is eager to just jump in and get things started. There are so many scars and so much damage that Frankie pushes Johnny away every chance she gets - and the film walks a dangerous line, because Johnny does cross a line or two, showing up at places Frankie has asked him not to. He comes on so strong I'm surprised this didn't turn into a horror movie. I think it would have played better if an actress less attractive than Michelle Pfeiffer had of played that part. Anyway, by the film's conclusion I thought it had wrestled with the whole subject of love for two damaged older people well enough that I gave it a thumbs up.

7/10



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.

Confess, Fletch (Greg Mottola, 2022)
- 6.5/10

Mark Duplass got a year's worth of Spanish lessons from his husband, but when the latter suddenly dies, Duplass and the instructor (Natalie Morales) develop a close relationship through Zoom in this warm, honest film.

Do you have to see the Chevy Chase Fletch movies before watching Confess, Fletch, or is this a stand-alone movie?
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So, Commando, which I have not seen in over 30 years, is quite possibly the silliest and most ridiculous movie I have ever seen.
(I'll be back with more later, but I have another film to do first.)
Yes it is. But how about 'dem steel drums though? And Rae Dawn Chong looking foin in that business suit. And "What'd you do with Sully?" "I let him go." And me getting my mind blown when I found out Bennett was played by the same guy who played Wez in The Road Warrior. How 'bout dat?



Frankie and Johnny - (1991)
I barely paid attention to Pfeiffer. I was too busy checking out Kate Nelligan. For some reason I thought her character was just so hot.




Jester's Rotunda (Carlos Gonzalez, 2021)

SOV cut on a VCR little home movie that's kinda fun and cute. Some interesting visual ideas here and there and some decent laughs.




Nazarin (1959, Luis Buñuel)

One of Tarkovsky's favorite films, and it's easy to see why. In many ways it mirrors his own cinematic explorations of faith, the dichotomy between the individual and the collective, as well as his affinity for asceticism. In the film's protagonist, priest Nazario, we clearly see parallels to the priest of Ambricourt from Robert Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest, the tormented Russian artist Andrei Rublev, and of course, Tarkovsky himself.



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Yes it is. But how about 'dem steel drums though? And Rae Dawn Chong looking foin in that business suit. And "What'd you do with Sully?" "I let him go." And me getting my mind blown when I found out Bennett was played by the same guy who played Wez in The Road Warrior. How 'bout dat?
Let’s not forget the indestructible 911!

You really hit it with the steel drums and Vernon Wells.



Victim of The Night
For me, this one was like "Arnold Schwarzenegger does a Chuck Norris movie." Closer to Invasion USA than is to Predator.
But it's almost a parody of even Invasion USA.

I have to talk about The Rescuers first but I am also stalling because I need to tease out whether this idea of "they knew they were doing a sort of parody" is a ret-con or truth.