Every Film You've Watched in 2024

[Dread]

7 Kills, 3 Songs & a Banana/They Call Her Death/Life of Pain/The Damnation: features for the festival.

• Features: 72
• Shorts: 
• Documentaries: 4
• Rewatches: 2

[Donomark]

Deadpool & Wolverine: 

A fun movie that I enjoyed. I like all the Deadpool movies because they really nail that devil-may-care attitude with referencing both the comics and the larger context of Hollywood. I had heard that this one is mostly flash over substance, and that's kinda true. But I'm not looking for spiritual release in a DP film, and there's always a decent amount of heart in them all the same.

Without spoiling, I have to say this might be my favorite Hugh Jackman performance as Wolverine. For a victory lap performance, they made sure to make him as comic book accurate as humanly possible. All the references I loved. In the third act, specifically the final action sequence, it's the best he's ever looked.

[Professor]

Deadpool & Wolverine - I had fun.  Not much else to it.

Robocop - The helmet-less Robocop head might be my favorite practical costume. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -  As I approach my 40s, one thing is still the same as it was when I was 6: The Foot Clan headquarters is awesome.

[Dread]

Deadpool & Wolverine: a hell of a lot of fun. I really lost my mind when a certain progenitor to the MCU walked out considering said actor's prior treatment of Ryan Reynolds. 

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: the classic of course. I talk about it in a recent episode of Dread Media. One that comes out tomorrow maybe? I have three episodes banked and it's hard to keep them straight. 

Highway to Hell/Under Paris: reviews forthcoming.

There are at least three more movies I'm not thinking of. 

• Features: 76
• Shorts: 
• Documentaries: 4
• Rewatches: 2

[Donomark]

Oppenheimer: 

12 months late to this party, but hey at least I made it.

It's good! I do enjoy period pieces like this, and it certainly helps when the film has a killer score as well as subject matter. All the actors crush it. What I will say as criticism, and this may dissipate with time is that while I followed the overall plot well enough the scene-by-scene bits were tough to follow insofar as there were so many characters it was tough to get every out-of-scene reference and proper significance. That's especially the case when there's so many big name actors. Rami Malik hardly has any lines until the very final tenth of the movie. Similar with Josh Peck who you're not sure is going to make any big deal of being there. 

I also did think that the sex scenes were kind of silly and ultimately unneeded, particularly the last one which takes place in someone's imagination. It's even more amusing because the character are still acting fairly robotic and passionless despite what they've just been doing.

But I really did enjoy the film. The ending was killer. Everything that happened once Truman got hold of the bombs was intense.

[S-T]

 The Super Mario Bros. Movie: This was a lot of fun. Including the DK rap from Donkey Kong 64 was a cool moment. I wish they had included Pauline, but as they make more movies they can include more characters.

[dc20willsave]

Pauline is in the film briefly. She's The Mayor. They just based her appearance off Super Mario Odyssey.

[Professor]

Renfield - Disappointing.  I wanted fun Nicolas Cage Dracula.  I did not get what I wanted.

Sandlot - Still a classic.

[Professor]

The Crow (2024) -  It's not the worst, but all felt very calculated.  All the changes I can understand the thinking behind and are not necessarily bad.  Some I agree with.  But in total it doesn't work.  The violence was upped to a level that I don't think was needed.

The one I think would have worked the best (changing the characters names) would have gone a ways in avoiding comparisons to the original.   I'd place it behind the original & Stairway to Heaven and above all the sequels (low bar that those are).

 

 

[S-T]

On 8/11/2024 at 8:34 AM, dc20willsave said:

Pauline is in the film briefly. She's The Mayor. They just based her appearance off Super Mario Odyssey.

That is freakin' awesome.

There was so much fan service I am sure I missed more than just that.

[S-T]

Deadpool & Wolverine - Excellent send-off to Fox's Marvel Universe, and seeing Chris Evans as Human Torch again was a lot of fun.

Question, though this is a bit of a spoiler for this movie:

Spoiler

Has the Human Torch ever fought Pyro in the comics?

Jennifer Garner hasn't aged a day in the 20 years since Elektra came out.

[Davedevil]

Alien: Romulus -

Spoiler

It's pretty common knowledge among scifi fans that Aliens has the same basic structure as Alien. However, this fact is hidden so well through the change in genre to action and the expansion of the lore. This movie feels like a compilation of every single entry in the series, plus the Alien: Isolation game, and doesn't hide its inspirations at all. It's so distracting, especially with one scene which would've been so damn cool, if it wasn't for the payoff being an easter egg line that made no sense at all.

Otherwise, it had a great cast, solid structure and great tension. But it just gets in its own way sometimes.

 

[Donomark]

On 8/31/2024 at 7:24 AM, S-T said:

Deadpool & Wolverine - Excellent send-off to Fox's Marvel Universe, and seeing Chris Evans as Human Torch again was a lot of fun.

Question, though this is a bit of a spoiler for this movie:

  Hide contents

Has the Human Torch ever fought Pyro in the comics?

Jennifer Garner hasn't aged a day in the 20 years since Elektra came out.

Probably

[Donomark]

Upgrade (2018): Written and Directed by Leigh Whannell, starring Logan Marshall-Green

An entertaining bit of throwback pulp cyberpunk exercise, well performed and generally well directed with a script that just it not there yet. From nearly the beginning I could pick out some pretty bland placeholder dialogue, kept above water by the actors who don't let on that the premise is better than the finished product. Don't get me wrong, the concept and overall story is solid, and the comparisons to 2018's Venom are apparent (Logan Marshall-Green also looks a lot like Tom Hardy in this movie, like a LOT a lot). But the script has things like a tonal imbalance that watches like the product of a few too short of a finished draft. This is ostensibly a revenge film, but, like Venom, once the sci-fi things start happening the main protagonist starts getting all sarcastic and one-liner-y in a way that makes you forget the whole reason he's out for revenge to begin with. It helps with the suspense and potential horror of the story that he doesn't want to kill people and his horrified by the violence happening, but at the same time image if The Punisher first went out into the streets for revenge on his family, and started mouthing off at everyone he bumped up against. This escalates in the final act when the true plot and twist of the movie are unveiled, as the plot starts to fall in on itself (Think "The Call" from Batman Beyond, particularly regarding how the reveal doesn't make sense once you think about it). What kills me however, is the final twist ending, which shows its hand after about 30 seconds, a full 90 way sooner than it should, and guts the dramatic impact. Even though I called exactly what was happening the moment I saw it, for the sake of directing it still revealed it's Trap Card far too soon and practically guts its own ending.

There should be more movies like this, despite how howlingly imperfect this one is. It remains a decently entertaining 90 minute actioner with an ever-beguiling premise. But I was expecting a bit more Ex Machina with more action, but it unfortunately ended up being slightly dumber than that. Not a bad movie, but nowhere near its potential for cult greatness.