Nosferatu. Everyone acts their socks off and it's entertaining enough but the drama felt, I don't know, a little overcranked? And I'd call it creepy rather than scary. I enjoyed it though.
And last night I rewatched The Transporter for the first time in years. It pains me to say it's not as good as I remember. I don't think I'd noticed how edited the fights are, sooo many cuts so it all seems so much faster than it is. And I love Jason Statham, his movies are reliably entertaining if a little formulaic, but his acting wasn't great in this, I felt he came off a little wooden at times. I remember at the time finding Matt Schulze's character a bit weird and he still is. What's with stroking the envelope of cash? And had Ric Young had plastic surgery? Super weird looking. Anyway, even with all my complaints it's still good fun.
And I’d call it creepy rather than scary.
I found the first portion of the film set in Transylvania very scary. Honestly I think it peaked around then and the rest of the film, although still good, never got close to reaching those heights.
Re: Nosferatu
I also liked the Transylvania bits, the crumbling castle especially.
I enjoyed the physicality of Lily-Rose Depp's performance as not-Mina, although her overacting got on my nerves a bit.
I finally finished On the Silver Globe. What started out as an amazingly ambitious sci-fi for being shot in the late 70s, it falls of a cliff after the prologue. It’s probably budget constraints but later parts are something between way too artsy theatre play and a Burning Man festival. Watch first half an hour and then go check out stills from the rest of the movie because scene compositions and art direction is insane. Alternatively just watch a modern trailer, leave everything to imagination and skip it entirely.
Gladiator 2. Meh. Would've gone over better if they left out the baboons and sharks. Or maybe not.
I watched the 'Melchior the Apothecary' trilogy over three nights. I was surprised at how great the sets, costumes and sound design were. It seems like they shot these films within a relatively short period and on a reasonably low budget, but I thought they looked and sounded great and that helped connect me to the world and the characters which, again somewhat surprisingly, really paid off in the final film. All three are around the 90 minute mark, but don't feel rushed (although I think they all could have benefitted from a slight extension to the runtime). The mysteries are passable but nothing special - actually I'd say they're probably one of the weaker aspects of the films. However, if you enjoy historical dramas or medieval settings then I think you'd really enjoy these three films like I did. I'd like to read the novels they are based on, but unfortunately it doesn't seem like many have been translated from the original Estonian to English.
I’ve watched Finch. It’s a serviceable, small scope post apocalyptic movie with a reliably charming Tom Hanks.
Also there was Tetris - I thought I’d love this movie but it’s just ok. Sadly it’s another movie about entrepreneurship and the struggle to be a 'good' capitalist so it falls a little flat in the end. The struggle with communism and the fall of the Soviet Union is more of a backdrop and not really explored well. It has its moments but overall it’s not for me.
The last one was The Greatest Beer Run Ever which I’ve liked. There’s not much to it but another coming to terms with the Vietnam War, the lies and the uselessness of it all. It’s told in a farcical manner and the pacing was ok.
All those movies are Apple TV because I’m in the trial period so I’m watching it dry. What stood out to me was the use of very prominent music which I presume is very expensive. Oh and all of the movies were at least 20 minutes too long.
Alien Romulus. It’s the first alien movie I’ve ever seen. I loved it and am very excited for the sequels.
After finishing, I just started doing some googling and came across a Reddit thread that was bashing this movie to pieces. None of it made sense, but I could only assume it was cause I’ve never seen the first two.
Anyway, I will definitely watch the first two at some point, but I doubt it will make me dislike this movie the way the alien die cards do.
I am not an Alien die hard fan, but I'd say that is definitely a factor. The movie reuses a lot of ideas from the older movies and some of the references are pretty on the nose. Still an entertaining movie though.
As a comparison i think Prey (2022) did a better job in being a fresh entry to a similar and established franchise (predator in this case) and standing on it's own.
Police Story
It was a bit disjointed and silly for my taste, but Jackie Chan is always fun and the stunts were insane. Will likely watch the sequels.
I laughed out loud when he did the stunt juggling all the phone calls
Yeah, that one was great. The outtake at the end where he caught the pencil made it obvious just how hard it was.
A lot of the falls in that film looked brutal, even as stunt falls they looked like they hurt. And they went through so much breakaway glass lol.
I've been working my way chronologically through They shot pictures don't they for ten or more years, and was stuck in 1975 for nine or so months. Finally got through with a big push:
- Dog Day Afternoon
- Picnic at Hanging Rock
- Grey Gardens
- Xala
- The Man Who Would Be King
- Welfare
- Seven Beauties
- Sholay
- Numéro deux
Watching Almost Famous again—it still holds up. A true classic!
The Brutalist. It was great.
The most recent James Bond movie No Time To Die (2021).
The plot was like a Bond fanfic. Okay, great you got to do all the stuff to Bond that wouldn't fly in previous runs:
spoiler
Bond finally spawns a kid after all that sex, actually loves some gal instead of using her, makes a mistake in judgement, and he maybe even dies, although no body is offered as proof.
Now what? That pretty much ends the franchise, because they've written themselves into a corner, and there's pretty much nowhere to go without a reboot.
Covenant, truly a well-made film with excellent score, cinematography, and script.
Substance, a disgusting aimless heap of shock and barely thought out "and then" writing.
The original The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Little Shop of Horrors. Both excellent!
The Brutalist. It sucked.
