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  1. #2221
    CBR's Good Fairy Kieran_Frost's Avatar
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    ENCANTO (2021)
    dir. Jared Bush & Byron Howard
    It's very cute, and credit to Stephanie Beatriz, she can SING! I'm becoming more and more impressed with her range and variety. The music... I was torn on. I really loved each song, individually, but it felt... hmmmm, there didn't feel like these were songs in the same musical. If that makes sense? And plotting got a little odd and made no sense when you actually think about it, but it was a very enjoyable film nonetheless.
    ★★★☆☆

    THE POWER OF THE DOG (2021)
    dir. Jane Campion
    ★★☆☆☆
    (For a more detailed review of this one, go here: https://community.cbr.com/showthread...57#post5900557)

    TICK, TICK... BOOM (2021)
    dir. Lin-Manuel Miranda

    Andrew Garfield is sensational. You'd never guess this wasn't a life long Broadway musical theatre actor; the way he moves, the energy, his voice... I was shocked. I thought it was an outstanding performance, the best I've seen this year. The film is wonderful directed, and made me ugly cry by the end, so props to Lin-Manuel Miranda. My only critique is if you're gonna build 2/3rd of your film to 'THE song'... maybe get a better song?
    ★★★★☆

    THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH (2021)
    dir. Joel Coen
    ★★★☆☆
    (For a more detailed review of this one, go here: https://community.cbr.com/showthread...65#post5901365)
    Last edited by Kieran_Frost; 01-19-2022 at 03:13 PM.
    "We are Shakespeare. We are Michelangelo. We are Tchaikovsky. We are Turing. We are Mercury. We are Wilde. We are Lincoln, Lorca, Leonardo da Vinci. We are Alexander the Great. We are Fredrick the Great. We are Rustin. We are Addams. We are Marsha! Marsha Marsha Marsha! We so generous, we DeGeneres. We are Ziggy Stardust hooked to the silver screen. Controversially we are Malcolm X. We are Plato. We are Aristotle. We are RuPaul, god dammit! And yes, we are Woolf."

  2. #2222
    CBR's Good Fairy Kieran_Frost's Avatar
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    DON'T LOOK UP (2021)
    dir. Adam McKay

    The first half I loved, it was such a clever way to explore climate change by using this metaphor of a comet coming to Earth, and the humour was right up my street. It wasn't my favourite Leonardo diCaprio performance BUT I will add I stopped seeing 'Leo' and it was a very, very different role than he'd done before (so kudos for always pushing himself). At around two-thirds of the way through though, I really needed it to step up a gear. And while we briefly got a change of pace and morals at the very, very end, it wasn't enough. It was an excellent idea, delivered very amusingly, but stretched too thin. That humour can't sustain, on that level of absurdity, indefinitely. It needed a jolt to take it into a different route. I enjoyed it vastly more than the Big Short (2015).
    ★★★☆☆

    ETERNALS (2021)
    dir. Chloé Zhao

    This was just not good. None of it made sense, or was delivered in a believable way. I didn't believe these were thousands of years old characters, they all acted... too modern; in their speech and attitudes. Too immature, I've met 30 year olds wiser than this group. I don't believe Sprite would still be struggling with her appearance and not found a loophole in thousands of years. I don't believe Gilgamesh would still be making tired jokes after thousands of years about Sprite's age. I don't believe the atomic bomb was the straw that broke the camel's back for Phastos. This just all doesn't seem believeable. If it was a hundred years, MAYBE. But thousands? No. The most interesting thing about the film was Richard Madden, and they wasted that character by the end. A noble idea, and I loved seeing Marvel trying something new, but it just didn't work.
    ★★☆☆☆

    THE FATHER (2020)
    dir. Florian Zeller
    ★★★★☆
    [DETAILED REVIEW TO FOLLOW]

    HILDA AND THE MOUNTAIN KING (2021)
    dir. Andy Coyle
    It's somewhat difficult to give a fair rating, because A LOT of this is entirely dependent on having seen the TV series (which is wonderful, please go watch it); as well as a pre-existing bias. So all I can do is say: as someone who loved the show, the film is great. It's quite a simple plot, but that's the point, it's making a clear concept while maintaining that playfulness, innocence and solution solving that made the Netflix animation so much fun. They don't try to re-invent the wheel (GOOD), they stick to what they do best while still taking a bold step forward that will change a lot of the landscape in season 3 (the final season, coming next year). How enjoyable it will be for people who's never seen the series? Who knows, possibly not that fun, it doesn't spend anytime introducing any of the concepts or characters. This was just for the fans.
    ★★★★☆
    Last edited by Kieran_Frost; 01-23-2022 at 02:31 PM.
    "We are Shakespeare. We are Michelangelo. We are Tchaikovsky. We are Turing. We are Mercury. We are Wilde. We are Lincoln, Lorca, Leonardo da Vinci. We are Alexander the Great. We are Fredrick the Great. We are Rustin. We are Addams. We are Marsha! Marsha Marsha Marsha! We so generous, we DeGeneres. We are Ziggy Stardust hooked to the silver screen. Controversially we are Malcolm X. We are Plato. We are Aristotle. We are RuPaul, god dammit! And yes, we are Woolf."

  3. #2223
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    I loved Mamoru Hosoda's Belle film as both the better anime and musical film I've watched in a while (and I watched Sing 2 but didn't catch West Side Story).

  4. #2224
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    The harder they fall

    Pretty boring. Idris Elbas performance as a stone cold killer guy didnt work for me here. Meh.

  5. #2225
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    Commando(1985)

    I always like a good dumb Swartzenegger action schlock, and this movie is no different. It’s violent and dumb and kind of makes no sense but the film is fun and cheesy. I dig it a lot.
    "I love mankind...it's people I can't stand!!"

    - Charles Schultz.

  6. #2226

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    The Public (2019)

    It's a good hopeful film.

  7. #2227
    Loony Scott Taylor's Avatar
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    Been on a Sherlock Holmes kick lately. Any good recommendations on that front, let me have 'em! Here's a couple I watched very recently.

    Dressed to Kill (1946) - A woman who is a master of disguise is collecting music boxes that contain a secret message on how to find some stolen counterfeit plates. Not bad, not great, pretty average.

    Voice of Terror (1942) - Sherlock Holmes fighting Nazis. From what I understand, everyone was making war movies and Universal decided to jump on the bandwagon by translocating Holmes to the modern era. He doesn't really fit well outside of the Victorian period, honestly, and this movie was just pretty odd.

    Neither of these were really what I am looking for, I'll keep looking.
    Last edited by Scott Taylor; 01-31-2022 at 12:02 AM.
    Every day is a gift, not a given right.

  8. #2228
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    I saw the new West Side Story. Really enjoyed it, first and foremost that's a testament to the excellence and timelessness of Bernstein's and Sondheim's music, but also to the talent of the young actors involved. Most of them really brought their A-game. I thought Ariana DeBose did a marvellous job capturing the energy of Rita Moreno's old performance as Anita. David Alvarez as Nardo brings different stuff to the table than George Chakiris did in the 1960 movie, but he manages to be charming and stern at the same time and it really works. This might sound like blasphemy, but I think that Mike Faist as Riff may just be better than Russ Tamblyn was in the role. There's an intensity and tragedy to him where, if Faist and Tamblyn were swapped out to their respective eras, and you'd put Faist in the 1961 movie, I'd call him the definitive Riff.

    As for the romantic leads, I thought Rachel Zegler was captivating as Maria, but Ansel Elgort as Tony was just a tad underwhelming. But not enough to ruin the movie for me. I haven't seen a stage production of West Side Story yet, and apparently my favourite song/dance number 'Cool' was used in a different spot in the 1961 movie than it was in the original musical where it was sung by Riff instead of Ice (in the movie it really made me like Ice), but here in this new movie, it is moved to a different time and setting, and it's Tony who sings it. I'm not sure what to think of the pacing, the 1961 movie felt somehow more compact, and skipped along nicely from scene to scene and number to number, and here I felt as though some of the added dialogue and plot points/character motivation made it feel like it was plodding along at times, but overall it was a great experience.

    Could have been not better way to celebrate the re-opening of movie theatres here in the Netherlands. A real shame that this is movie flopped.
    Take my dreams, childish and weak at the seams
    Please don't analyze, please just be there for me

  9. #2229
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    Saw Tout S'Est Bien Passé French movie by François Ozon, and starring André Dussollier, Sophie Marceau, and Géraldine Pailhas. It's about an elderly father who suffers a stroke and is admitted into a clinic where his partial paralysis impacts his quality of life, and he requests of his daughters that they aid him in ending his life, the problem being that euthanasia is not legal in France, and so his daughters must find an alternate option.

    The third movie themed around euthanasia I've seen within a year, after Blackbird and Supernova, I thought it was likewise a great film, distinct from those two films, well-acted, with good, subtle humour despite the heavy topic, and at its centre a touching story between the characters of the father (Dussollier) and the main daughter (Marceau) who have a strained history as the father was very dismissive of the daughter when she was a child. The final act introduces a new problem I did not expect, as I thought the story might trod happily toward a more predictable ending. From start to finish I thought this was great. Very different movie from last week's West Side Story, not nearly as flashy, but it shines in its own way and was just as enjoyable an experience, so... I'd recommend it.
    Take my dreams, childish and weak at the seams
    Please don't analyze, please just be there for me

  10. #2230

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    "Judas and the Black Messiah" (2021)

  11. #2231
    Incredible Member Indian Ink's Avatar
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    James Bond, You Only Live Twice.

    Amazing mid-century modern sets. Great James Bond film plot, but I think the only Sean Connery film where he could have been swapped out for any other Bond actor with absolutely no loss. Though on screen, his personality and character barely seems present. Bond seems to be just shuffled about from place to place, but then that also happened in 'Goldfinger' without this effect. I've heard Connery was getting tried of the part, but on the other hand most of the charming lines and double entendre are actually spoken by the other characters. I think the script needed a little pep up and the director to wake up Connery a bit. I want to like this film, but it's a little disappointing.

  12. #2232

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    Mission Kashmir (2000).



    Rewatching it today was interesting. It's commercial action movie that tried to talk about the Kashmir crisis 20 years ago. There was a lot of subtext I missed as a 10 year old watching it.
    Last edited by the illustrious mr. kenway; 02-06-2022 at 06:55 PM.

  13. #2233
    Incredible Member Indian Ink's Avatar
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    Another one from a few days ago. The Ninth Gate. 1999

    Johnny Depp directed by Roman Polanski. This film was often cited as an endorsement for Depp playing Dr Strange. Based on the book The Club Dumas; the characters in the film all follow the descriptions from the book, except the "green eyed girl" whom is supposed, so I'm told, have a child like face. I can't help but think of Christina Ricci, Depp co-star in The Sleep Hollow from the same year. This part was instead played by Polanski's attractive but wolfish looking wife. (I imagine a, "You're not directing anyone younger than me!" situation.) It's a satanic hero story. I suspect Polanski might well have been a follower of the late 1960's 'The Method' group, popular with some actors and pop stars. Apparently (As I know very little about them) they discovered what your religion method was supposed to be. One of which was Satanism. Anyway I'm guessing that Lucifer isn't necessarily a bad guy in Polanski's belief system.

    Though about the occult, the film is more a love note to old books. Ironically however, they aren't well treated in the film. Johnny Depp's character is heartless, has greying temples and is only concerned with the bottom line in the film's beginning. Slowly as it progresses he becomes a believer. So I can see why some thought of him as a future Dr Strange.
    '
    The film is good-ish I suppose. Imperfect, but found it worth watching.

  14. #2234

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    Nightmare Alley (2021) was great.

  15. #2235
    Loony Scott Taylor's Avatar
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    Rewatched Battle of Five Armies and I liked it.
    Every day is a gift, not a given right.

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