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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
Godzilla & Kong team up in a Monsterverse Avengers Movie
OK, I'm biased as I loved Godzilla vs Kong and loved the preview scenes so couldn't wait for this one and had Godzilla x Kong rated 10 stars before I even walked into the theater - but it fully earned that rating, it was such a fun movie to watch, I read a complaint that there was not enough time with Godzilla, it was Kong's story so naturally the focus was on him but it looked like time between Godzilla & Kong was evenly split to me, if anything the Humans took too much time away from both, as always the Humans were the weakest part of the movie and got in the way of the action, but at least they were somewhat interesting this time around (The Dr. Dolittle of the Monsterverse was pretty funny) loved the Monster Mash fight scenes (there was a certain Batman vs Superman aspect to Mothra being the Monster that both Godzilla and Kong liked - lol) - the Cairo fight was epic if to short and the big Rio finish (imagine sunning yourself on a Rio beach when the Monsterverse descends on you) was awesome but felt a bit rushed and I would have liked a final Godzilla/Kong scene to wrap things up, but those are minor quibbles as seeing the Big Boys join forces on the Big Screen was a blast and the film was so fast paced it felt much shorter than its 2 hour run time - the ending set up nice for a sequel and have to say I loved the recent Godzilla vs Kong vs The Justice League Comic and if that is where they go next it would be awesome.
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Quentin Tarantino's love letter to 1960's Hollywood
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is by far the slowest paced of Tarantino's movies, but as a lover of movies and the Golden age of Hollywood, that is one of the things I enjoyed most about the film, It is about the friendship between a has been actor trying to recapture his past glory and his stunt double who also functions as his driver and gofer, I love seeing behind the scenes of Hollywood movie making and there is a lot of that in this movie.
The film is set in the months leading up to the Manson murders and therein lies the tension as we see the the main characters, played by Brad Pitt and Leo DiCaprio, living next door to Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski (This is one of those movies that is best watched for the first time spoiler free) - The Manson murders ended the innocence of Hollywood and the idealism of the 60's hippie culture, so going in I thought that was going to be the emotional impact of the movie, however in a surprise the ending twists into an alternate reality where the would be murderers walk into the house next door to Tate's and are themselves savagely and rather humorously killed by the main characters, the closing shot of Sharon Tate still alive is touching and emotional and leaves you wondering what her life would have been like if this ending had been reality.
However, is the ending in good taste? - it is one thing to mess around with Hitler's history as Tarantino did in Inglorious Bastards - who cares about him? - but most everyone above a certain age knows what really happened to Sharon Tate and how brutally she was murdered, is it insulting to her memory to give her life a feel good Hollywood ending the way Tarantino did or will seeing the Manson Murderers getting their just deserts, even if it's in an alternate reality, be a catharsis for many? - That is still an open question for me and one that I am sure will be debated by movie watchers for a long time.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Rehash Of The Jedi
As The Force Awakens had many elements of A New Hope, The Rise of Skywalker echoed Return of the Jedi in many elements, right down to the Ewoks making a cameo - Emperor Papatine returns and is revealed to have been to have been behind everything in the sequels (a much bigger surprise than when it was revealed in the Prequels) - Palpatine just oozes evil and remains one if my favorite Star Wars characters, the ending confrontation between him, Rey and Kilo was very reminiscent of the confrontation between Vader, Luke and Palpatine in Jedi - things are switched around enough not to make it a complete rip off but in the end Kylo(Darth) dies saving Rey(Luke), Palpatine becomes a victim of his own arrogance (again) and dies (again) and and having succeeded in turning Kylo(Darth) back to the light side of the Force, Rey (Luke) survives to continue the Jedi and Skywalker legacy, so yeah pretty similar although Darth and Luke didn't kiss in the end like Kylo and Rey.
Another similarity between the two movies - Rey's mentors - Luke & Leia - failed to mention that Palpatine was her Grandfather the same way Obi-Wan & Yoda failed to mention to Luke that Darth Vader was his Father, seems like something you might want to mention to a person.
It was great to see everyone from the original trilogy get a final bow, Luke Leia, Chewy, Lando, Han and of course C3PO and R2D2 all appear and we get a very emotional goodbye for Princess Leia, in which everyone will be thinking of Carrie Fisher, the problem with the sequels was the new characters could never measure up to the original trilogy's characters - Rey and Kylo were the strongest and their story flowed well through the three sequels, culminating in a satisfying way in The Rise of Skywalker , but I waited three movies to see if there would be any point to Poe and Finn being in the movies and in the end there really wasn't any, there was little development of their characters as their storylines meandered about from movie to movie without much consistency and ultimately led nowhere - but while it wasn't perfect, even with it's flaws The Rise of Skywalker was a fun, fast paced, enjoyable film that will please Star Wars fans and made for a satisfying conclusion to the Star Wars saga.
The Irishman (2019)
The On Golden Pond of Mob Movies
Scorsese, De Niro, Pacino and Pesci together again for the first and most likely final time, it is more than likely their swan song as far as mob movies go anyway and what better way to bow out than the 3 and a half hour epic The Irishman? - which tells the story of Jimmy Hoffa and ostensibly answers one of the greatest mysterious of the 20th century - what happened to him - it is familiar ground for Scorsese with mobsters portrayed as devoted family men who are religious and fiercely protective of their families but who also spend their days ruthlessly killing people, but the story is is told well, is riveting to watch and of course the acting is phenomenal, aided by marvelous movie magic that deages the actors, some may think a 3 1/2 hour film is to long but it flew by for me, and being able to watch De Niro, Pacino and Pesci together was a gift, and if it is to be the final bow for them it was a in a movie worthy of their gifts, because the Irishman should be the odds on favorite to sweep the Oscars, but does it finally solve the mystery of what happened to Jimmy Hoffa? - well it is as good of an explanation as any and as Occam's razor holds, when there are multiple theories to explain a mystery, the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one.
Toy Story 4 (2019)
A Sequel to Far
My rule about movie franchises is unless it's Star Wars they should stop at 3 - if the Lord of the Rings can tell their story in a trilogy then any other franchise should be able to and that goes for the Toy Story movies too, and actually Toy Story 3 was a perfect ending to the trilogy, if the ending didn't make you cry you don't have a soul but Disney being Disney they had to go for more money and make another one - Toy Story 4 was Ok as its own movie although it pretty much rehashed the plot of the 1st three movies, and it was fun to see the characters again but it undercuts all the messages and good feelings from the first 3 films - at the end of Toy Story 3 Andy entrusted his favorite toy Woody to Bonnie as he went off to college, but instead of loving Woody she apparently just abandoned him in a closet to gather dust, so much for that feel good ending, Woody would have been better off going to college with Andy - and the guiding principles of Woody for the first 3 films were leave no toy behind and be loyal to your child but at the end of this movie Woody abandons his friends and leaves Bonnie to pursue romance with Bo Peep and be a lost toy with her - So after all he went through Woody doesn't care about a child's happiness anymore just his own and doesn't care that he is never going to see his friends again, the friends he abandoned Andy for? - really? - Toy Story 4 is a sequel we didn't ask for and didn't really need, you are better off keeping your good memories of the first three films and skipping this one.
Elf (2003)
One of the worst Christmas movies ever
I know to some Elf is regarded as a Christmas classic, however I can't imagine anyone over the age of 10 enjoying it - a boring stupid predictable unfunny plot, atrocious acting especially by Will Ferrell, miscasting in nearly all the roles with none of the actors looking like they were having much fun, a climatic chase scene that came out of nowhere with no real point - the scene between Ferrell and the department store Santa was good and saves Elf from getting one star, other than that this film was completely forgettable and gets three lumps pf coal.
Rogue One (2016)
For Carrie Fisher
I watched Rogue One today, the day after Carrie Fisher died, so of course my thoughts were of her as I watched it and I hoped she'd be included in the film in some way - suffice to say the final scene and the word 'Hope' made the movie for me and will forever cement Rogue One in Star Wars lore.
The film itself is a prequel of sorts to the Original Star Wars Film - A New Hope - I thought the film stumbled at the start with an unfocused story and unfamiliar characters, but as the story continued the film gains its footing as a small band of rebels goes in search of the blue prints of the dreaded Death Star - the best part being it finally puts to rest the reason the Death Star had a rather large design flaw - the film has a darker, grittier look than the other Star Wars films and the battles have the look of a WWII movie, especially with the colorful band of characters in the rebel band.
One of the problems I had with the film was that the lead character, Jyn, was to much like a pale imitation of Rey in The Force Awakens, but as with the movie as a whole she grew on me as it went along until I was really rooting for her by the end - but while Rogue One held up well as its own movie, my favorite parts of it were the call backs to previous Star Wars films - from Darth Vader (Thank the maker that James Earl Jones is still with us) to Death Star Commander Tarkin (his digital recreation was impressive, but must be a little disconcerting to working actors) to Jimmy Smits return as Organa and of course a brief cameo by R2D2 and C3PO - the only characters to be in every Star Wars film.
Even with a darker grittier look, the climatic battle was pure Star Wars with battles on multiple fronts and was thrilling to watch - and the way everything tied together in the end to the beginning of A New Hope was brilliantly done - so while not perfect and a notch below The Force Awakens - Rogue One is must viewing for any Star Wars fan and is a worthy addition to the franchise - also I can't say how much fun it is that after starting to believe Star Wars would be just a wonderful but distant memory - we now can look forward to a new Star Wars movie as a glorious yearly event.
Ghostbusters (2016)
It didn't ruin my childhood but it is still pretty bad.
The Original Ghostbusters was one of the seminal, iconic movies of the 80's and one of my all time favorite films so I was dubious about this remake, but the all female switch sounded cute and Dan Aykroyd gave it a thumbs up, so I decided to at least give it a chance.
Unfortunately Ghostbusters '16 lived down to my expectations - it generally followed the plot of the original, but with none of the heart and humor that made the original so much fun. The characters had no depth or development to make me care about them and I had no real idea which ones were supposed to be the counterparts to the original characters. The actors also did not seem to have very good chemistry or seem to be enjoying themselves very much, plus the script was all over the place and, as to often happens, the film was practically drowned in CGI to the detriment of the film and characters.
I did like some of the nods to the originals, but even with that why not have the original actors play their characters in the first movie rather than cameos as different characters and act like the original movie never existed? - if you are going to have the original actors appear, why not have them be their original characters and be mentors to the new Ghostbusters? So while Ghostbusters '16 was entertaining enough to avoid being a total disaster, it is just a shadow of the original Ghostbusters - it actually reminded me more of the far inferior Ghostbusters 2- and it joins the list of unnecessary 80's remakes that did not need to me made.
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
Not Star Trek V bad - but bad
Always been a fan of the Star Trek series' and movies so I was looking forward to the Reboots - the first one I loved although making original Spock watch Vulcan destroyed was horrible, the 2nd was good although reworking the Khan story seemed odd after going through so much trouble to change the timeline in the first film - I was hoping the third would match them However, Star Terk Beyond just fell flat for me.
The Main problem was that nothing about the premise of the film made very much sense so the film never grabbed me from the beginning - basically a swarm of space locusts downs and destroys the Enterprise - again - and the villain, who I never understood the motivations of, takes most of the crew prisoners, while the main guys try to rescue them - The swarm of locusts gets destroyed ultimately by loud blaring rock music -which is comedy right out of Mars Attacks, also the bad guy for some reason morphs into a guy who looks like Lou Gossett in Enemy Mine, which just made the final battle confusing.
As usual with action movies nowadays they also overdo it with the CGI to the extent it was hard to follow what was happening at times and it detracted from the story and characters - Star Trek has wonderful characters but none really got to shine in this film - there was little depth and very little humor. In addition after all the publicity about the subtle scene that was to reveal Sulu is gay, it ended up being so subtle that I never ever actually saw it, just the picture of his daughter with was a nice throwback to Generations - I read that the scene happened on the space station - but the crew was supposed to have traveled 3 years into deep space - so how could've Sulu's partner and daughter have gotten there?
I did like the nod to Leonard Nimoy's death by having Spock deal with Ambassador Spock's death, a mind bending experience for him - and I like the dedication to Anton Yelchin, who died so tragically in June - but other than that this was a disappointing largely forgettable entry in the Star Trek franchise that had me checking my watch by the time it was over.
Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)
They had 20 years to prepare and they messed it all up.
Let me start out by saying that I loved the original Independence Day, I know it is one of those movies that people either loved or hated, but I loved it and it remains one of my favorite films of the 90's - so I was excited about Resurgence, even though I am aware of Hollywood's history with sequels and remakes, but though I went in really wanting to like it, I came away from it disappointed.
Independence Day: Resurgence was just a convoluted mess from the beginning, with characters jumping back and fourth from the Moon like it was going across the street to get a soda - then once the Aliens showed up the film looses all of its focus with a disjointed story that made it hard tell what was going on or why, for the people who thought the originals computer virus ending was ridiculous, I hope that they get a chance to see this film to see what true ridiculousness looks like - even the city destroying part, which should have been a slam dunk, was done in such a way that you couldn't even tell what city was being destroyed.
It was nice seeing returning characters such as Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch and Jeff Goldblum, but the new characters didn't really add anything and it seemed like the casting was looking more at the international box office than creating strong rootable characters like there were in the original - and just repeating some of the lines from the first film didn't cut it.
As usual with a lot of sequels and remakes they were so intent on making this film bigger and better, stuffing it with overdone CGI and making it look cool for 3-D - that they forgot what made the original so good - which at is core was a pretty simple story of people banding together to survive an impossible situation, and for all the global destruction, the original had a keen sense of humor that never let it take itself to seriously - this film gets bogged down in it's own self seriousness.
To be sure there were some moments to enjoy - hearing the original soundtrack was great, and the Queen Alien was well created, I also like Judd Hirsch and Jeff Goldblum bantering again, although there was far to little of it, but on the whole this film lack everything that made the original such a fun film to watch every Fourth of July - they didn't even get this film released on Fourth of July weekend like the original - they made mention at the end of a possible 2nd sequel, but after this half baked mess I would hope they forget about that idea.
The Revenant (2015)
I felt bad for the Bear
The Bear was just trying to protect her cubs, of course she attacked, and then instead of playing dead after the first attack, the idiot takes a shot at her, thus instigating the 2nd attack - now there are two orphaned cubs wandering the woods, did they survive, did some kindly person take them in like in Born Free, are they plotting their revenge for the death of their Mother? - unanswered questions I'll never know the answers to - and I won't even get into what happened to the poor horse, except that I now wonder if the inside of a horse smells as bad as the inside of a Tonton.
Anyway, The Revenant is a beautifully shot movie and DiCaprio acts the heck out of it, but at over 2 and a half hours, it is way to long for such a simple story, most of the film consists of Hugh Glass crawling through the snow in order to survive and to exact revenge on the man who left him for dead - the survival story is good, but gets stretched out beyond the point of reason - we get it, Glass is a survivor. I also had a problem with the beginning of the film which just jumps right into an Indian battle without establishing who the characters were or why we should care about them, and the ending in which Glass decides at the last moment to let the Indians do his killing for him because that makes him a better person somehow. The Revenant from all prognostications is the film that will finally get Leonardo DiCaprio his Best Actor Oscar, with that I am more than OK with as he should have gotten one a long time ago, however I think he has made better movies than this one.
The Hateful Eight (2015)
My Favorite Tarantino Movie Since Pulp Fiction
I have been a fan of Quentin Tarantino since I saw Pulp Fiction, one of my top ten all time favorite movies - so I always look forward to his next film, you always go in expecting a high octane bloodbath with Tarantino, and this movie certainly has that aspect, but this time he has woven a very intriguing mystery element into the story to go with it, instead of the usual predictability of revenge movies like Django or Kill Bill - the plot has been described as Agatha Christie like and as fan of hers, I can say yes it is - and Agatha Christie as told by Quintin Tarantino is as much fun as it sounds - lots of surprises and twists that kept me enthralled in the movie despite its nearly three hour run time - I have seen 90 minute films that seemed to drag on forever, but this film flew by and I can't wait to see it again - The Hateful Eight is my favorite of Tarantino film since Pulp Fiction.