ティージェーグレェWatched a bunch of movies in theaters the past couple days, brief run down:
The Fire Inside: I don't care about boxing, or sports; yet this was by far the best movie I watched yesterday. It's based on the real story of Claressa "T-Rex" Shields who was the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing (when she was just seventeen) and is the only American boxer (male or female) to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in boxing. Brian Tyree Henry's performance as coach Jason Crutchfield has Oscar "best supporting actor" caliber acting IMHO.
Sonic 3: I didn't even watch Sonic 2, so I am not the best person to review this. I fell asleep during parts of it. Bad guys, can also be good is the takeaway I guess? I dunno. If you stay all the way through the credits there's a teaser for something, but what that something is I couldn't tell you.
Homestead: I hated this. During the credits they do one of those QRCode "pay it forward" BS campaigns and tell you about how it's actually a TV series and you can watch the next episode if you buy someone else a ticket to see this movie? I don't think it deserved to be shown on a big screen. Candidly, I would have hated this movie even watching it at home (if I had a home). It's also one of those televangelist Angel Studios movies. Which means, it's not even good religious sanctimony, it's the most vapid cash grab kind of televangelism all "thoughts and prayers" kind of BS without real spiritual insights. I shit you not, the offhanded remark by the rich prepper's wife about "fishes and loaves" is about as deep as this gets into Biblical parables it's so superficial as to be blasphemous. Apparently none of these so-called "Christians" remember "Thou shalt not kill" given how they stock pile weapons with abandon. Absolutely not going to give anyone the right message about anything. Deeply laden fear mongering preachy pablum for the masses fiending for their opiates.
Nosferatu: I watched this in IMAX. I fell asleep multiple times. Some shots were really well done as far as cinematography and frame composition, but overall; I just don't care. I am not into horror, there are way better horror films and it's totally not my cup of tea. It's almost as if they picked some of the best looking cast members just to make them seem even more beautiful in contrast to the freak show of Nosferatu. However, some of the lines they gave to Lily-Rose Melody Depp (clearly one of the gorgeous cast members if not the most gorgeous one perhaps) are so bad I heard audience members laughing out loud during her uttering them. Meanwhile, if you want to see a movie with the fantastic Nicholas Hoult playing a sycophantic suck up to a vampire? Watch Renfield instead, which is hilarious and Nicolas Cage's Dracula portrayal is also outstanding in that, both of which successfully overshadow another grating Awkwafina appearance. Meanwhile, if for some reason you're a Bill Skarsgård fan and thought The Crow didn't need a remake, you'll feel right at home with another movie that didn't need a remake; alas Bill Skarsgård is covered in so much makeup here as to be unrecognizable so you would still be better off watching the IMHO, underrated Boy Kills World to actually enjoy a Bill Skarsgård performance. As far as I know, Nosferatu originally was basically a Dracula movie which side stepped Bram Stoker's copyright I thought? Given that copyright has expired and the credits even explicitly mention Bram Stoker's Dracula, I kind of felt as if they didn't need to remake Nosferatu? YMMV but I think the original had a lot more going for it than this ever will and in a decade, unless you're some horror fetishist, most will have probably even forgotten about this remake entirely just as most will probably have forgotten about the remake of The Crow too.
Viduthalai Part 2 (Tamil with English subtitles): I think I may have seen the movie that this is a sequel to, but I am not sure. Moreover, I don't think it needed a sequel. This movie is not good. I fell asleep multiple times during it and even with the intermission it felt excessively long. I appreciate that Indian cinema has a lot of "cops are so corrupt, the criminals are actually the heroes" tropes and this is in that vein for sure; but it's not a very good take on that kind story IMHO; even Pushpa 2: The Rule (which is another sequel that probably didn't need to be) would be a better take on such a tale currently in theaters. Or 2023's Jawan being a superlative, almost V for Vendetta levels of antihero being on the right side of justice as being a substantially better exploration of that cinematic trope.
Babygirl: I am not a fan of Nicole Kidman. You would think that having previously been Senior System Administrator for CNEMedia (aka Kink dot com and affiliated sites) I might have more empathy for D/s sorts of mainstream movies, but I don't. Just go watch actual porn instead, please. It's so much better than crap like this. Trivia: my past employer was approached to help make a sequel to 2002's Secretary. They passed. I get the impression that whomever was behind this movie, wanted to make something similar? The best character IMHO in the entire movie was Esther McGregor as Isabel Mathis (one of Nicole Kidman's character's daughters) and they gave her a friggin mullet. It's as if they were trying to make her look uglier than her mom and still failed? It has two upshots in the entire film: 1. a couple of songs from Barong Family/Yellow Claw collaborators, "Creep" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wPqyaIxV54) being one of them the other in the credits is "LSD" but good luck finding a Barong Family/Yellow Claw song under the same name, even though when you hear it on a theater sound system you'll recognize it if you're a Yellow Claw fan. There's also a decent INXS song (not that they recorded many of those if we are being honest) and a completely played out George Michael tune haunting us from the grave. In other words, the sound track is all over the map and some of the choices are much worse than others. The second semi-redeeming part was the ever so short discussion around consent in the movie, but that lasts for all of 30 seconds, if that. So, a resounding no. Seriously, BDSM porn from the 1990s spends more time discussing safe words and consent than this thing. Meanwhile, Nicole Kidman's character has been married for 19 years, has two kids and seems embarrassed about admitting that she wants to watch porn with her spouse? And goes so far as to sneak off to watch it on her own? To use a line from home-wrecker Harris Dickinson's (that sure seems like a porno last name) character: that seems "dated". Maybe this will appeal to glass ceiling smashing women CEOs? I think that is an obscenely small demographic though and more or less everyone in the movie is completely unrelatable.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl: this was probably ranked 2nd best viewing out of the movies I saw the past couple of days. It's hard to go wrong with Wallace & Gromit and their stop motion antics. However, if I am being honest, this feels more like a rehash of the first break out success "The Wrong Trousers", as we meet Feathers ("Have you seen this chicken?") the penguin again as the villain and are even given a plausible return of Feathers in another sequel conceit possibility left in for the future. I fell asleep during parts of the start and really only seemed to be able to stay awake after Gromit had escaped his confines. Nick Park, who created Wallace and Gromit and apparently co-directed this, is also not really featured prominently in the credits, which makes me wonder if he was more hands off and coasting on his laurels and leaving most of the work up to others? Anyway, it still has a good heart and it's difficult to be super negative about this franchise in general but it's definitely not feeling super fresh. Kind of like more recent Lupin the 3rd installments (Monkey Punch passed away and while we can celebrate the 45th Anniversary of Castle of Cagliostro now in 2024 which was Miyazaki Hayao's feature length directorial debut, a lot of the stuff since then in the Lupin the 3rd realms has just been kind of mid and that's sort of how I feel about this installment of Wallace and Gromit as well.)
#Movies #TheFireInside #Sonic3 #Homestead #Nosferatu #ViduthalaiPart2 #Babygirl #WallaceAndGromitVengeanceMostFowl
The Fire Inside: I don't care about boxing, or sports; yet this was by far the best movie I watched yesterday. It's based on the real story of Claressa "T-Rex" Shields who was the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing (when she was just seventeen) and is the only American boxer (male or female) to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in boxing. Brian Tyree Henry's performance as coach Jason Crutchfield has Oscar "best supporting actor" caliber acting IMHO.
Sonic 3: I didn't even watch Sonic 2, so I am not the best person to review this. I fell asleep during parts of it. Bad guys, can also be good is the takeaway I guess? I dunno. If you stay all the way through the credits there's a teaser for something, but what that something is I couldn't tell you.
Homestead: I hated this. During the credits they do one of those QRCode "pay it forward" BS campaigns and tell you about how it's actually a TV series and you can watch the next episode if you buy someone else a ticket to see this movie? I don't think it deserved to be shown on a big screen. Candidly, I would have hated this movie even watching it at home (if I had a home). It's also one of those televangelist Angel Studios movies. Which means, it's not even good religious sanctimony, it's the most vapid cash grab kind of televangelism all "thoughts and prayers" kind of BS without real spiritual insights. I shit you not, the offhanded remark by the rich prepper's wife about "fishes and loaves" is about as deep as this gets into Biblical parables it's so superficial as to be blasphemous. Apparently none of these so-called "Christians" remember "Thou shalt not kill" given how they stock pile weapons with abandon. Absolutely not going to give anyone the right message about anything. Deeply laden fear mongering preachy pablum for the masses fiending for their opiates.
Nosferatu: I watched this in IMAX. I fell asleep multiple times. Some shots were really well done as far as cinematography and frame composition, but overall; I just don't care. I am not into horror, there are way better horror films and it's totally not my cup of tea. It's almost as if they picked some of the best looking cast members just to make them seem even more beautiful in contrast to the freak show of Nosferatu. However, some of the lines they gave to Lily-Rose Melody Depp (clearly one of the gorgeous cast members if not the most gorgeous one perhaps) are so bad I heard audience members laughing out loud during her uttering them. Meanwhile, if you want to see a movie with the fantastic Nicholas Hoult playing a sycophantic suck up to a vampire? Watch Renfield instead, which is hilarious and Nicolas Cage's Dracula portrayal is also outstanding in that, both of which successfully overshadow another grating Awkwafina appearance. Meanwhile, if for some reason you're a Bill Skarsgård fan and thought The Crow didn't need a remake, you'll feel right at home with another movie that didn't need a remake; alas Bill Skarsgård is covered in so much makeup here as to be unrecognizable so you would still be better off watching the IMHO, underrated Boy Kills World to actually enjoy a Bill Skarsgård performance. As far as I know, Nosferatu originally was basically a Dracula movie which side stepped Bram Stoker's copyright I thought? Given that copyright has expired and the credits even explicitly mention Bram Stoker's Dracula, I kind of felt as if they didn't need to remake Nosferatu? YMMV but I think the original had a lot more going for it than this ever will and in a decade, unless you're some horror fetishist, most will have probably even forgotten about this remake entirely just as most will probably have forgotten about the remake of The Crow too.
Viduthalai Part 2 (Tamil with English subtitles): I think I may have seen the movie that this is a sequel to, but I am not sure. Moreover, I don't think it needed a sequel. This movie is not good. I fell asleep multiple times during it and even with the intermission it felt excessively long. I appreciate that Indian cinema has a lot of "cops are so corrupt, the criminals are actually the heroes" tropes and this is in that vein for sure; but it's not a very good take on that kind story IMHO; even Pushpa 2: The Rule (which is another sequel that probably didn't need to be) would be a better take on such a tale currently in theaters. Or 2023's Jawan being a superlative, almost V for Vendetta levels of antihero being on the right side of justice as being a substantially better exploration of that cinematic trope.
Babygirl: I am not a fan of Nicole Kidman. You would think that having previously been Senior System Administrator for CNEMedia (aka Kink dot com and affiliated sites) I might have more empathy for D/s sorts of mainstream movies, but I don't. Just go watch actual porn instead, please. It's so much better than crap like this. Trivia: my past employer was approached to help make a sequel to 2002's Secretary. They passed. I get the impression that whomever was behind this movie, wanted to make something similar? The best character IMHO in the entire movie was Esther McGregor as Isabel Mathis (one of Nicole Kidman's character's daughters) and they gave her a friggin mullet. It's as if they were trying to make her look uglier than her mom and still failed? It has two upshots in the entire film: 1. a couple of songs from Barong Family/Yellow Claw collaborators, "Creep" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wPqyaIxV54) being one of them the other in the credits is "LSD" but good luck finding a Barong Family/Yellow Claw song under the same name, even though when you hear it on a theater sound system you'll recognize it if you're a Yellow Claw fan. There's also a decent INXS song (not that they recorded many of those if we are being honest) and a completely played out George Michael tune haunting us from the grave. In other words, the sound track is all over the map and some of the choices are much worse than others. The second semi-redeeming part was the ever so short discussion around consent in the movie, but that lasts for all of 30 seconds, if that. So, a resounding no. Seriously, BDSM porn from the 1990s spends more time discussing safe words and consent than this thing. Meanwhile, Nicole Kidman's character has been married for 19 years, has two kids and seems embarrassed about admitting that she wants to watch porn with her spouse? And goes so far as to sneak off to watch it on her own? To use a line from home-wrecker Harris Dickinson's (that sure seems like a porno last name) character: that seems "dated". Maybe this will appeal to glass ceiling smashing women CEOs? I think that is an obscenely small demographic though and more or less everyone in the movie is completely unrelatable.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl: this was probably ranked 2nd best viewing out of the movies I saw the past couple of days. It's hard to go wrong with Wallace & Gromit and their stop motion antics. However, if I am being honest, this feels more like a rehash of the first break out success "The Wrong Trousers", as we meet Feathers ("Have you seen this chicken?") the penguin again as the villain and are even given a plausible return of Feathers in another sequel conceit possibility left in for the future. I fell asleep during parts of the start and really only seemed to be able to stay awake after Gromit had escaped his confines. Nick Park, who created Wallace and Gromit and apparently co-directed this, is also not really featured prominently in the credits, which makes me wonder if he was more hands off and coasting on his laurels and leaving most of the work up to others? Anyway, it still has a good heart and it's difficult to be super negative about this franchise in general but it's definitely not feeling super fresh. Kind of like more recent Lupin the 3rd installments (Monkey Punch passed away and while we can celebrate the 45th Anniversary of Castle of Cagliostro now in 2024 which was Miyazaki Hayao's feature length directorial debut, a lot of the stuff since then in the Lupin the 3rd realms has just been kind of mid and that's sort of how I feel about this installment of Wallace and Gromit as well.)
#Movies #TheFireInside #Sonic3 #Homestead #Nosferatu #ViduthalaiPart2 #Babygirl #WallaceAndGromitVengeanceMostFowl
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