Best Films Of 2024

You Must Destroy, In Order To Create Space For Something New...

To me, this is probably the greatest feature film directorial debut in all of the world since David Lynch's absolutely mind-blowing, Eraserhead. Which is well, roughly as old as the original Star Wars. I was a kid when those films came out.

I would also say that this is easily among the greatest revenge films ever made. In fact overall, I feel this is the best film I've seen from the last 7 years combined.

The John Wick comparisons are mostly mindless. Sure, John Wick's name is even brought up in the film, however the film has little resemblance at all to any of the Wick films. In fact, this film makes the Wick films seem like they were written by children, especially the sequels.

This film reminded me a decent bit of the great cult classic Joshû 701-gô: Sasori, AKA Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion, because somewhat like that film, this is both brutal to some degree, and yet it is also quite a beautiful film overall.

At this point, it just makes me laugh to see how many critics have called this film's story, simple. This film without doubt has many levels to it, far beyond what any of those clowns were able to notice. I'm not even against simple to begin with, sometimes simple can be incredibly beautiful. However here, these critics are just entirely clueless. This film has it all in my view. Underneath, it's actually a strong political statement, and at the same time, it's a timeless tale that never ends. Films can't be about more than this. It has soul, it has primal energy, it has emotion, it has intelligence, it has a great rawness and grit that is so genuinely captured, and it has a sort of light poetry Terrence Malik, Peter Weir like feel to it as well. I could go on and on. Though, remember what many of the critics said. A very simple and standard story. Who are these clowns? And are they deaf and blind? Mentally, probably!

As far as most of the critics go on this film, or the Oscar's that I see some saying this film deserves. Let me just tell you the honest truth on this. Most of the people voting for Oscar's and writing reviews on this film are not nearly thoughtful enough to even come close to fully appreciating, or even understanding a film such as this. Forget the Oscar's, and forget the critics.

Even the many critics who have given this film very strong reviews, (Because there have been quite a few.) have almost ALL entirely missed the truer depth of this film on some levels. During my first viewing, I also thought that the underlying story wasn't entirely cohesive, but I still thought the film was brilliant. However upon watching it a second time, I noticed how many little things I missed during my first viewing. The story here is far more ambitious and deep than almost every single critic has noticed. It also is quite a wonderfully cohesive story, even the deeper spiritual aspect is if you pay extremely close attention, and even more so of course if you have a reasonable understanding of the Hindu ancient wisdom.

Very few filmmakers out there right now are making art that even comes close to this in my view. This was a spectacular film. I think I'm honestly going to go see it for a third time in the theatre next week. And as much of a theatre junkie as I am, I actually haven't ever gone to see a film 3 times on it's original theatre run. I saw all of the Dune's twice, even Lynch's version in the 1980's when I was young, and I have seen Denis' first Dune film in the theatre 3 times now, but I saw it for the 3rd time just recently, before seeing Dune 2.

I'm in love with this film. It has some great action sequences, it has amazing depth to the story, it also has a good dose of humor. Even myself, a person who studied religions for decades, I found myself noticing even more depth to this story the 2nd time I saw it. Once is nowhere near enough for this beauty!! According to Dev, he spent 8 years writing this. While most of the critics are completely lost on how, I can entirely see the how and the why, and I'm entirely enjoying the result. There are not many action films out there that could be called real jewels or gems of the genre, but in my view this one certainly fits.

I have heard some say that this is a leftist film because it does have some transgender characters in it. I do not agree with that assessment whatsoever. In fact on a political level, Dev (The writer) never goes there at all in terms of modern political debate around any gender issues. I was sort of wondering if he was given more money to fund this project, if he had some transgender characters in the film, some type of modern DEI incentive. I don't know the answer to that, but I absolutely thought what he did with the transgender characters was somewhat brilliant and even somewhat funny at times. Personally, I would rather die than be considered closely associated with either the modern right or left in America. However I have no qualms about being called a lover of this film. This truly is arthouse action as another reviewer here wrote. A stunning and brilliant film.

9/10

Hopefully, The Middle Piece Of A Grand Epic!

Saw this opening day and I'm already drooling for the 3rd and final Dune film from Denis. I strongly recommend everyone to see both of the Dune films in IMAX, as they were truly meant to be seen.

All that said, at the same time I really don't agree at all with the hype around this film. Obviously I did enjoy it a good bit and do appreciate it greatly, as I gave it an 8. However to me this is actually quite easily Denis Villeneuve's least interesting feature film in about 15 years. Nonetheless, I feel the final installment will only ad to how great this film series is overall, and I truly feel that this film on its own is not as good as the first Dune. To me, it just wasn't nearly as interesting of a film. It was so much more spectacle, than it was anything else. Anyhow, together the Dune films by Denis are great, and as said, I greatly await the final installment which is likely still years away.

8/10

Far better than most dramas of this sort, and mainly because the overall execution is very strong. The writing, acting and direction here are all quite wonderful. I was surprised and delighted by how funny and interesting the film actually is. Most dramatic films with similar stories, I find tend to get somewhat monotonous by the end. As of course stories such as this are to some degree quite predictable in a fairly major sense. Here however the pacing is exceptional, and the writing is easily good enough to keep the viewer fully involved for the nearly 2 hour ride. This really is a beautifully inspiring family drama. Bravo to all involved. Films like this also help reassure thoughtful people, that it doesn't always have to be about some big payoff at the end. In fact, it's often far more about the entire journey.

I'd also like to note here after reading a few responses from critics. To me it looks like some of them may have skipped this film altogether, and just wrote their review based on the trailer alone. It's easy to see this, because the film looks very standard and predictable in the trailer. However that is not really the feel I got whatsoever while watching the entire film. I decided to take a chance on seeing this because of a couple of factors, and the trailer was definitely not one of them. I in fact almost didn't go see this because of how generic the trailer made the film seem. However this is not at all a generic feeling film because of how well it's put together by the many people involved. So, boo to those critics, and another cheers to all of those who chipped in to bring us this surprisingly excellent film.

8/10

In my view, far better than most modern horror films. 7.5/10

It does feel like there's some missed opportunity in this film. Yet at the same time, I also really liked quite a few things about it. Overall I think the film does a pretty good job of capturing a real person, rather than just creating an idealistic vision of his legend. I was surprised to see a few critics call this film "hero worship", which I feel is entirely untrue. In fact one of the things I did love about the film, is that Bob is not shown as anywhere near a perfect person.

This, like all biographical films is really just a glimpse at a person, and far from the entire story of their life. All in all I think the film is a pretty decent entry point to discovering Bob, though of course his music itself, is really the best avenue in.

I was actually somewhat hesitant about this film ever since I first saw the preview. I worried that they would overdo the film. I was happily surprised that the story presented seems to be a fairly genuine and reasonably wide view of Marley. In my view they did quite a good job here with an important and highly influential figure.

7.5/10

As Coen films go, this is probably most reminiscent of Raising Arizona because it's also a very quirky film. While I didn't love this film, or like it as much as Raising Arizona. I still felt it was worth the watch.

6/10

Good for a while but it gets entirely silly, as in it becomes entirely nonsensical. 3/10

Not all bad, but mostly bad.

2.5/10

Ultra generic junk.

2/10

Cash grab garbage.

2/10

Pure Nonsense, Offered For Your $ 26 April 2024 Just say no!

What can I say? I got hustled thinking that this may actually have something interesting to say, or look at, or think about. I was suckered.

Personally I thought this was among the dumbest films I've ever seen. Basically everything feels forced and unauthentic, (Which seems to be all too common these days in American films.). There really is NO STORY here at all. The vast majority of the film feels almost entirely aimless and pointless. There's certainly not anything of much value here. Not even much of any entertaining, thought provoking, or even interesting moments really. It's just silly and pointless, far more than it is anything else. I won't even tell you to watch it at home, instead of the theatre. My advice is just to skip this severely unimportant and ridiculous film altogether. Hopefully I help a few of you people save some valuable time, because there's certainly no reason to waste ANY on this nonsense.

I do agree with some that it's basically a character driven film, or at least it tries to be. However the characters are almost entirely superficial feeling, highly generic, and often silly to the point of absurdity. The whole film really is absurd. This would likely be among the bottom 250 worst films I've ever seen.

1.5/10

More like Land Of Total Crap. This is like watching paint dry while someone insults you. Some of the worst writing in Hollywood film history right here, and some of the most unfitting product placement moments as well. What an all out stinker. Calling this film "bad" doesn't even begin to cover it. The target audience they're looking for here seems to be the braindead.

1.5/10

This film tries very hard to be gritty, way too hard in fact. Nearly every single scene in the film feels overly staged and unauthentic. I'm not sure how anyone could care much for this very hollow and down right boring film. Out of the over 8,000 ratings I've now made on IMDb, this film easily makes my Bottom 250.

1/10