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The Imagineering Movie Discussion Thread
- Thread starter PerGron
- Start date
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
I loved it in the first half, I just thought it dropped off HARD as it went on, with the peak probably being the dinner scene. Idk, the entire third act where they try to squeeze in a colonization/animal abuse (I guess?) theme on top of all the other anti-capitalist themes the movie had been running with up until that point just felt super messy. It kind of reminds me of the random left field turn into being a jazz history lesson that happens in the third act of Be Kind Rewind. Movies trying to introduce too many concepts in the second half of the run time are by and large a pretty major pet peeve on my end. By the time we get to the climax I don't even think there being multiple Mickeys really matters that much.
I'll definitely be willing to rewatch this on Max in like a month though. Seeing that this was produced by WB was one of the biggest surprises I've had in a while. I'm sure Zaslav had a damn heart attack when he saw the finished product.
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
The Day the Earth Blew Up was absolutely freaking magnificent. Eric Bauza is a shoe-in for a "Best Voiceover Performance" Golden Tiki nomination. What a damn triumph for 2D animation!
I had to reschedule my showing tonight (it was a 9:30 pm showing and I ended up just being too tired to do it) but I’m very excited to hit tomorrow.
Black Bag on the other hand I did see and I was a pretty big fan of it despite not thinking I’d like it at all. Two movies in three months for Soderbergh and both I really enjoyed
Lord Fozzinator
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
The reviews for Snow White are, surprising, to say the least. Still ain’t watching it but if it turns out to be good, then good on them, but no matter if this movie is good or bad, it is still gonna get massively hated on.
I’ll be seeing it Sunday (alongside Alto Knights, The Assessment, and Locked) so it’ll be an interesting weekend at the very least.
Next weekend Death of a Unicorn drops though so I could skip this weekend just to get there
We bid adieu to March and enter April by ending one of the most tumultuous movie months I think I've experienced since the pandemic. The box office took major hits with big budget movies flopping all over the place and the movies put out were (with a few exceptions) exceptionally mediocre. That said, I managed 25 new releases in the month of March and as always I'm gonna break them down over here.
#25- High Ground
[Watched on VOD]
I like westerns but at this point I think it's time to let the genre die. Everything that can be done with a western has been done at this point and these nu-Westerns that get released straight to VOD every year are just giant nothingburgers every single time. This one follows a dude looking to get revenge, like every single other one of these things. This movie is nothing and I'll genuinely never think about it again.
#24- Holland
[Watched on Prime Video]
Nicole Kidman is really good in what is essentially Don't Worry Darling meets Clue except not nearly as good as the latter (and about on par with the former honestly). I truly can't comprehend how someone can make a mystery thriller movie and make it neither mysterious nor thrilling but somehow the director of Holland managed to, so kudos I guess.
#23- Chaos: The Manson Murders
[Watched on Netflix]
Have you ever wanted to hear some conspiracy theorist drone on about how Charles Manson was a government experiment in brainwashing in the MKUltra program? If so, I have the doc for you! But for me, someone who doesn't just bite at every tiny little conspiracy, especially ones with no serious backing there, this was just an absolute waste of a "documentary" recounting a 60 year old crime that has been documented to death but with the flavor of if that one guy with the wacky hair in Ancient Aliens was less obsessed with pyramids and more obsessed with predator Roman Polanski's murdered wife.
#22- In the Lost Lands
[Watched in theaters]
Knowing that George R.R. Martin was overseeing this and not actively writing Winds of Winter almost had me crashing out.
There is some creativity and imagination here, I imagine all of that came from Martin's story, but it's all trapped beneath this veneer of muddy brown sludge CGI and Milla Jovovich's incredibly wooden acting. When the poster proudly boasts about how it's by the director of Resident Evil, yeah, it's pretty much just that.
#21- Control Freak
[Watched on Hulu]
The concept of this movie is actually a really interesting one following a tormented and haunted wellness author's life as she struggles with a generational demon in the form of many many ants. However, the movie drops all the interesting stuff in the first twenty or so minutes and ends up being a really boring and forgettable possession story that we've seen a billion times before. The only horror here comes from the ASMR-like sound design where you just see and hear Kelly Marie Tran scratching her head constantly, which is an effective gross out to have in the movie, but beyond that nothing really stands out. It's unfortunate too because I do think Kelly Marie Tran is a good actress and unfortunately thanks to the giant babies who bullied her off the interned because they didn't like The Last Jedi she's not getting scripts better than this.
#25- High Ground
[Watched on VOD]
I like westerns but at this point I think it's time to let the genre die. Everything that can be done with a western has been done at this point and these nu-Westerns that get released straight to VOD every year are just giant nothingburgers every single time. This one follows a dude looking to get revenge, like every single other one of these things. This movie is nothing and I'll genuinely never think about it again.
#24- Holland
[Watched on Prime Video]
Nicole Kidman is really good in what is essentially Don't Worry Darling meets Clue except not nearly as good as the latter (and about on par with the former honestly). I truly can't comprehend how someone can make a mystery thriller movie and make it neither mysterious nor thrilling but somehow the director of Holland managed to, so kudos I guess.
#23- Chaos: The Manson Murders
[Watched on Netflix]
Have you ever wanted to hear some conspiracy theorist drone on about how Charles Manson was a government experiment in brainwashing in the MKUltra program? If so, I have the doc for you! But for me, someone who doesn't just bite at every tiny little conspiracy, especially ones with no serious backing there, this was just an absolute waste of a "documentary" recounting a 60 year old crime that has been documented to death but with the flavor of if that one guy with the wacky hair in Ancient Aliens was less obsessed with pyramids and more obsessed with predator Roman Polanski's murdered wife.
#22- In the Lost Lands
[Watched in theaters]
Knowing that George R.R. Martin was overseeing this and not actively writing Winds of Winter almost had me crashing out.
There is some creativity and imagination here, I imagine all of that came from Martin's story, but it's all trapped beneath this veneer of muddy brown sludge CGI and Milla Jovovich's incredibly wooden acting. When the poster proudly boasts about how it's by the director of Resident Evil, yeah, it's pretty much just that.
#21- Control Freak
[Watched on Hulu]
The concept of this movie is actually a really interesting one following a tormented and haunted wellness author's life as she struggles with a generational demon in the form of many many ants. However, the movie drops all the interesting stuff in the first twenty or so minutes and ends up being a really boring and forgettable possession story that we've seen a billion times before. The only horror here comes from the ASMR-like sound design where you just see and hear Kelly Marie Tran scratching her head constantly, which is an effective gross out to have in the movie, but beyond that nothing really stands out. It's unfortunate too because I do think Kelly Marie Tran is a good actress and unfortunately thanks to the giant babies who bullied her off the interned because they didn't like The Last Jedi she's not getting scripts better than this.
#20- Snow White
[Watched in theaters]
Shocker, a Disney live action remake isn't very good. Honestly though, I don't think this movie bastardizes the original classic because I also don't think Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a very good movie either. Like all the hate this movie gets is crazy because wow, it's such a non-issue. I'd argue this is a purely lateral move with the biggest change being that Snow White has a little bit more agency in her story and that they couldn't just pad the runtime with clips of the dwarfs washing their hands so they had to do something else like introduce seven new bandits for a whopping way too many characters.
Rachel Zegler is talented and I thought played a fine Disney Princess. Sure, it wasn't exactly Snow White, but Snow White has zero character at all so I don't know what everyone expected. The dwarfs are gross looking CGI monstrosities and the bandits do absolutely nothing for me, but the biggest crime here is casting Gal Gadot because good lord can she not act. The Evil Queen should be this bombastic and frightening character but Gal Gadot delivers her lines like she's reading them for the first time and also she can't read. All the stuff behind the scenes means genuinely nothing, I cannot imagine a world in which I get worked up about any element of this movie. It flopped, let's move on with our lives.
#19- O'Dessa
[Watched on Hulu]
Kind of the exact opposite from Snow White, where that movie was an imagination and creativity vacuum nothingburger, O'Dessa is a brimming with imagination and creativity TooMuchBurger*. A post-apocalyptic dystopian future rock opera musical about a rambler who has a destiny to take down the evil corporate overlord is the simplest way to pitch you this movie, and in a way, I seriously commend the creative team behind this, it takes insane leaps that makes it feel wholly unique and original and in its first third, I was super on board. Unfortunately, the movie has to do a romantic plot in the middle that drags the whole thing to a screeching halt with two clearly gay characters in a somehow straight relationship. They have no chemistry and you clearly don't buy them as a couple and it takes up so much of the movie. I wish I could say I loved this and send you all to watch it, but despite its creativity and ambition, it all fell flat.
*term coined by me.
#18- Plankton: The Movie
[Watched on Netflix]
Significantly (and I do mean significantly) better than last year's Sandy Cheeks Movie, unfortunately, Plankton: The Movie still has very little for anyone who isn't exactly seven and three quarters years old. The whole evil Karen taking over the world bit is something we've seen in significantly better movies, Plankton as an antihero isn't interesting enough to carry his own movie, and the "Gal Pals" dynamic that stepped in to save the day was straight out of the princesses save the day scene in Ralph Breaks the Internet. I maintain the position that it's time to retire the SpongeBob IP and this movie just helped solidify it. It's not even bad, it's just bland and toothless in a series that used to have serious bite.
#17- The Woman in the Yard
[Watched in theaters]
The title does not lie; that woman is, in fact, in that yard. She also never moves from it.
This movie is Blumhouse at its most Jason Blum, and I do mean that negatively. It's an incredibly basic story about a person going through grief and that grief's manifestation haunts and torments them and their family. Throw in about a billion cheap jumpscares (door slamming, sudden cut to headlights, character appears behind another character, etc.) and you've got this movie. The ending too (I won't spoil it, not because it shouldn't be spoiled but because it has really dark implications that I don't want to discuss here) is one that I've seen a few interpretations of but I am absolutely not a fan of it either way. Honestly this one may fall lower down the line as I think about it.
#16- The Electric State
[Watched on Netflix]
This month's punching bag pre-Snow White, and while I absolutely agree that its $320 million dollar budget is asinine and probably also money laundering, I really didn't think the movie was that bad. It's certainly not good, but aside from the price tag on it, I found it to be a pretty standard Netflix movie with some admittedly very good visuals. Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown play Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown and the voice cast comprised of every living actor working in Hollywood today feels cheap and gimmicky, but I don't think it's the worst thing ever. I have heard that the graphic novel is amazing and also not at all like this movie and I believe that wholeheartedly. But it really is that price tag that got people up this movie's a**, but I thought it was overall meh, not truly bad.
#15- Aquariums: The Dark Hobby
[Watched on VOD]
I won't waste much time here because my Letterboxd review for this was basically my novel, but it's an interesting conservation documentary about the damage of wild catching fish for the home aquarium hobby, something that damages reef ecosystems. Unfortunately, the movie sidelines the really interesting experts and local opinions to have some PETA and Humane Society of the US goobers yap for the whole duration, tainting what could be a really eye-opening look at keeping pet fish and how to do it better with a bunch of animal rights nonsense that doesn't further the conversation. I wish this was way better.
#14- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip
[Watched on Disney+]
Bet you didn't even know this existed. I did. I've been cursed with the knowledge of this movie since last year when it was supposed to come out. I HATE the 2014 Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and so I was expecting much the same reaction here, but I actually thought this one was pretty harmless and cute. It's certainly nothing overly interesting or exciting and it very much follows every trope of the family road trip comedy genre, but it also has the added benefit of the characters being of Mexican descent so they can do some interesting stuff with the cultures, especially once they reach Mexico. There's one joke in here that is VERY relevant and funny in today's day and age, but for the most part it's a pretty cute and whatever movie for young families to enjoy and not too many other people.
#13- Opus
[Watched in theaters]
Hey, A24 released a horror movie centered around a cult, daring today, aren't they? Opus is kind of a mess that stems from interesting ideas. John Malkovich as an Elton John type singer who runs a desert cult and invites his biggest critics out to his commune to just overall be insane is a fun idea, but the movie plays it too safe and doesn't let Ayo Edebiri or John Malkovich go full Ayo Edebiri or John Malkovich. It's a standard and predictable story that we've seen a bunch of times, but it's at least entertaining and that's more than I can say for most of what's below it on the list.
#12- Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League
[Watched on VOD]
The most "rule of cool" movie ever made. Batman is a ninja and he's fighting shogunate styled evil Yakuza versions of the Justice League. Pretty much the whole story is forgettable and I didn't really care because the reason you watch this movie is the artwork and the fight scenes. I could take most shots from this movie, print them out, and keep them on my wall very happily. It's not a movie I plan to ever watch again, but for the time I did watch it, it was pretty fun and enjoyable, though as someone who isn't a Harley Quinn fan in general, this is the most insanely annoying version of the character ever.
#11- The Rule of Jenny Pen
[Watched in theaters]
This is what The Front Room (2024) should have been. It's gross and depressing as nursing homes tend to be, but it's also dark and sadistic and evil and malicious in all the best ways. John Lithgow is the most disgustingly vile old man ever in history and you just want to see him and his baby doll puppet get their comeuppance, but thanks to the most incompetent staff ever, he just gets to do terror and murder all in this nursing home. There's one moment near the end where a character performs a Haka (it's set in New Zealand and he's Māori) that actually emotionally affected me and it's a sequence I haven't stopped thinking about.
This is a weird and gross and mean and hateful movie and I don't really think too many people would enjoy it, but I did for the time that I watched it and so it gets this high.
#10-1 at some point tomorrow.
[Watched in theaters]
Shocker, a Disney live action remake isn't very good. Honestly though, I don't think this movie bastardizes the original classic because I also don't think Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a very good movie either. Like all the hate this movie gets is crazy because wow, it's such a non-issue. I'd argue this is a purely lateral move with the biggest change being that Snow White has a little bit more agency in her story and that they couldn't just pad the runtime with clips of the dwarfs washing their hands so they had to do something else like introduce seven new bandits for a whopping way too many characters.
Rachel Zegler is talented and I thought played a fine Disney Princess. Sure, it wasn't exactly Snow White, but Snow White has zero character at all so I don't know what everyone expected. The dwarfs are gross looking CGI monstrosities and the bandits do absolutely nothing for me, but the biggest crime here is casting Gal Gadot because good lord can she not act. The Evil Queen should be this bombastic and frightening character but Gal Gadot delivers her lines like she's reading them for the first time and also she can't read. All the stuff behind the scenes means genuinely nothing, I cannot imagine a world in which I get worked up about any element of this movie. It flopped, let's move on with our lives.
#19- O'Dessa
[Watched on Hulu]
Kind of the exact opposite from Snow White, where that movie was an imagination and creativity vacuum nothingburger, O'Dessa is a brimming with imagination and creativity TooMuchBurger*. A post-apocalyptic dystopian future rock opera musical about a rambler who has a destiny to take down the evil corporate overlord is the simplest way to pitch you this movie, and in a way, I seriously commend the creative team behind this, it takes insane leaps that makes it feel wholly unique and original and in its first third, I was super on board. Unfortunately, the movie has to do a romantic plot in the middle that drags the whole thing to a screeching halt with two clearly gay characters in a somehow straight relationship. They have no chemistry and you clearly don't buy them as a couple and it takes up so much of the movie. I wish I could say I loved this and send you all to watch it, but despite its creativity and ambition, it all fell flat.
*term coined by me.
#18- Plankton: The Movie
[Watched on Netflix]
Significantly (and I do mean significantly) better than last year's Sandy Cheeks Movie, unfortunately, Plankton: The Movie still has very little for anyone who isn't exactly seven and three quarters years old. The whole evil Karen taking over the world bit is something we've seen in significantly better movies, Plankton as an antihero isn't interesting enough to carry his own movie, and the "Gal Pals" dynamic that stepped in to save the day was straight out of the princesses save the day scene in Ralph Breaks the Internet. I maintain the position that it's time to retire the SpongeBob IP and this movie just helped solidify it. It's not even bad, it's just bland and toothless in a series that used to have serious bite.
#17- The Woman in the Yard
[Watched in theaters]
The title does not lie; that woman is, in fact, in that yard. She also never moves from it.
This movie is Blumhouse at its most Jason Blum, and I do mean that negatively. It's an incredibly basic story about a person going through grief and that grief's manifestation haunts and torments them and their family. Throw in about a billion cheap jumpscares (door slamming, sudden cut to headlights, character appears behind another character, etc.) and you've got this movie. The ending too (I won't spoil it, not because it shouldn't be spoiled but because it has really dark implications that I don't want to discuss here) is one that I've seen a few interpretations of but I am absolutely not a fan of it either way. Honestly this one may fall lower down the line as I think about it.
#16- The Electric State
[Watched on Netflix]
This month's punching bag pre-Snow White, and while I absolutely agree that its $320 million dollar budget is asinine and probably also money laundering, I really didn't think the movie was that bad. It's certainly not good, but aside from the price tag on it, I found it to be a pretty standard Netflix movie with some admittedly very good visuals. Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown play Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown and the voice cast comprised of every living actor working in Hollywood today feels cheap and gimmicky, but I don't think it's the worst thing ever. I have heard that the graphic novel is amazing and also not at all like this movie and I believe that wholeheartedly. But it really is that price tag that got people up this movie's a**, but I thought it was overall meh, not truly bad.
#15- Aquariums: The Dark Hobby
[Watched on VOD]
I won't waste much time here because my Letterboxd review for this was basically my novel, but it's an interesting conservation documentary about the damage of wild catching fish for the home aquarium hobby, something that damages reef ecosystems. Unfortunately, the movie sidelines the really interesting experts and local opinions to have some PETA and Humane Society of the US goobers yap for the whole duration, tainting what could be a really eye-opening look at keeping pet fish and how to do it better with a bunch of animal rights nonsense that doesn't further the conversation. I wish this was way better.
#14- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip
[Watched on Disney+]
Bet you didn't even know this existed. I did. I've been cursed with the knowledge of this movie since last year when it was supposed to come out. I HATE the 2014 Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and so I was expecting much the same reaction here, but I actually thought this one was pretty harmless and cute. It's certainly nothing overly interesting or exciting and it very much follows every trope of the family road trip comedy genre, but it also has the added benefit of the characters being of Mexican descent so they can do some interesting stuff with the cultures, especially once they reach Mexico. There's one joke in here that is VERY relevant and funny in today's day and age, but for the most part it's a pretty cute and whatever movie for young families to enjoy and not too many other people.
#13- Opus
[Watched in theaters]
Hey, A24 released a horror movie centered around a cult, daring today, aren't they? Opus is kind of a mess that stems from interesting ideas. John Malkovich as an Elton John type singer who runs a desert cult and invites his biggest critics out to his commune to just overall be insane is a fun idea, but the movie plays it too safe and doesn't let Ayo Edebiri or John Malkovich go full Ayo Edebiri or John Malkovich. It's a standard and predictable story that we've seen a bunch of times, but it's at least entertaining and that's more than I can say for most of what's below it on the list.
#12- Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League
[Watched on VOD]
The most "rule of cool" movie ever made. Batman is a ninja and he's fighting shogunate styled evil Yakuza versions of the Justice League. Pretty much the whole story is forgettable and I didn't really care because the reason you watch this movie is the artwork and the fight scenes. I could take most shots from this movie, print them out, and keep them on my wall very happily. It's not a movie I plan to ever watch again, but for the time I did watch it, it was pretty fun and enjoyable, though as someone who isn't a Harley Quinn fan in general, this is the most insanely annoying version of the character ever.
#11- The Rule of Jenny Pen
[Watched in theaters]
This is what The Front Room (2024) should have been. It's gross and depressing as nursing homes tend to be, but it's also dark and sadistic and evil and malicious in all the best ways. John Lithgow is the most disgustingly vile old man ever in history and you just want to see him and his baby doll puppet get their comeuppance, but thanks to the most incompetent staff ever, he just gets to do terror and murder all in this nursing home. There's one moment near the end where a character performs a Haka (it's set in New Zealand and he's Māori) that actually emotionally affected me and it's a sequence I haven't stopped thinking about.
This is a weird and gross and mean and hateful movie and I don't really think too many people would enjoy it, but I did for the time that I watched it and so it gets this high.
#10-1 at some point tomorrow.
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
The Woman in the Yard was genuinely baffling. I didn't know a thing about it going in besides the title and the striking visual on the poster which had me intrigued. I think at this point it's really time to put the "horror monster as a metaphor for mental health/grieving/trauma" trope to rest. Not every movie can be The Babadook, and this was one of the most clear rip offs of that I've seen since the trend started. I totally agree on the implications of the ending too. Genuinely offensive and dangerous messaging right there.
#10- The Parenting
[Watched on MAX]
This was an incredibly dumb but also self aware horror comedy that found the right-ish balance of dumb schlocky horror and dumb schlocky humor. The leads were alright but the side characters played by Brian , Lisa Kudrow, Dean Norris, and Edie Falco were the ones who stole the show. It makes the top 10 for being watchable enough but we're not really at the movies I would wholly recommend, but if you're looking for something dumb and light, this one works.
#09- The Alto Knights
[Watched in theaters]
I really didn't love The Alto Knights but at the same time I don't really love mob movies so that probably plays into it. The dueling DeNiros were good and both characters felt very distinct from one another and while it's certainly just a gimmick, it wasn't as distracting as I expected it to be. Otherwise it's a pretty standard mob movie with some drama, some murder, some political scheming, etc. all the fare you expect. It's certainly not anywhere near the true greats like the first two Godfather films or Goodfellas or even Casino, but I'd say it's a decent enough movie that if you're into the genre you'll walk out having liked it and if you're not a fan of the genre you will not care about it at all.
#08- Novocaine
[Watched in theaters]
Jack Quaid is having a great year so far between this and Companion and is showing his personality well. I do like him a lot as Hughie in The Boys and unfortunately I found this role to be VERY Hughie. This movie doesn't let him branch out in the type of character he plays (he was at least a schemer in Companion even if he was still a dork) and I worry he's gonna end up being typecast, but he does play the role well and it works here too. The story itself is just as fun and exciting as it needs to be and while the love story doesn't really work for me, most everything else did. It was a fun time and I'd recommend checking it out.
#07- A Working Man
[Watched in theaters]
My guilty pleasure is dumb beat-em-up action movies starring Jason Statham and this year we get another one. Between The Beekeeper and The Meg and The Meg 2 and all the others, I just consistently find myself having a blast even if the characters, story, and everything else isn't exactly great. Realistically, I do think this movie is worse than Novocaine and The Alto Knights, but I just enjoyed myself so much that I had to put it higher.
#06- Locked
[Watched in theaters]
Locked looked like a pretty boring thriller and I was afraid Bill Skarsgard was going to lose the goodwill he built up from Nosferatu and fall back down into his The Crow moment from last year. Luckily, he did not and he actually played a really interesting and compelling character that gets stuck in this terrible situation and struggles through it. Anthony Hopkins was incredible here in his most sadistic villain since Hannibal Lecter and you can tell he just absolutely relishes in it. I think this movie was my biggest surprise of the month in how much I enjoyed it compared to how much I thought I wouldn't.
Also, it's not important or anything but Bill Skarsgard is at his most Pete Davidson ever in this movie.
#05- The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
[Watched in theaters]
Looney Tunes are back baybee! This was a super fun and refreshing 2-D animated film with some great gags and a fun story that feels very Looney Tunes. I'm not the biggest fan of these characters having not really grown up with them (I was born post-Space Jam in an era where the most we saw of any of them was in the WB animation logo with Bugs eating a carrot) but I am constantly rooting for them. They are pop culture icons and honestly I wish this movie had any amount of marketing because I feel like it could have been a hit. It's fun, quick, quirky, funny, and refreshing compared to the other animated films we've seen recently and brings us back to a time when simple 2D could capture the hearts of millions. The best news from this though is we're going to get to see Coyote vs. Acme next year thanks to Ketchup Entertainment.
#04- Death of a Unicorn
[Watched in theaters]
A lot of people are disappointed by this (and compared to how hyped I was for it, I was a bit too) but kind of like A Working Man, I just had so much fun with it. The premise is just dumb enough and just tongue-in-cheek enough to work while satirizing the private medical industry and uber rich capitalism. Of course it's not the most well thought out and original allegories, it's very standard and the characters are more like caricatures, but I had fun with it. Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega as are Richard E. Grant and Tea Leoni, but man were Anthony Carrigan and Will Poulter absolute standouts. These two stole every scene they were in and any scene they were together had me laughing. Will Poulter especially has gone from "the eyebrow kid" to one of the funniest and charismatic actors working today. Warfare doesn't really interest me that much, but when I do check it out it will be for Will Poulter because I want to see this dude in everything.
#03- The Assessment
[Watched in theaters]
This one was a very A24-coded sci-fi horror drama about two people who want to have a kid in a restricted government society and for the most part it worked for me really well, especially in the scenes where they are being tested by Alicia Vikander who acts like a child to analyze their potential as parents. This movie gets dark and depressing and also insane and has one of the best performances of the year thus far from Vikander. There is a scene in here that I was very uncomfortable with and did not like the way it played out in the story down the line or how it was passed by and that's what knocks it down a bit (you'll know the scene if/when you see the movie) and the third act didn't wrap up as well as I had hoped it would, but for the most point I did enjoy this one quite a bit.
#02- Black Bag
[Watched in theaters]
I really tossed around this and first place because I think either could take the top spot on a different day. Black Bag is Steven Soderbergh's second film of the year and stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett in one of the sexiest and most intriguing spy thrillers I've seen in a really long time. This was another huge surprise because based on the trailers I didn't think I would like it, but man did I. I don't want to give anything away because I really do think everyone should go check this out. Soderbergh is a shoe-in for a best year nomination at the Tikis this year.
#01- Mickey 17
[Watched in theaters]
I'm definitely higher on this than some people are and compared to Parasite, no, there's no comparison, but I enjoyed Mickey 17 A LOT. The dual Pattinson performances are incredibly distinct and unlike the DeNiros, they aren't caked in makeup to make themselves look different, these are just straight up clones who feel like such individual characters it's crazy. As the resident animal and nature guy, I really liked the on the nose messaging about protecting the environment and whatnot and I definitely see eye-to-eye with Bong Joon Ho on most of his political perspectives so I don't mind the messaging in this movie. It's certainly a weird movie and I get if people aren't enjoying it, but I'm devastated it flopped as hard as it did because people ask for original movies (I know it's based on a book, but still) and then they don't go see them when they end up being really good. Mickey 17 lost Warner Bros. a ton of money, but thank God they have A Minecraft Movie to prove that IP > director-led original creative projects when it makes a Minecrillion Dollars.
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April is here and it comes with it some movies I'm stoked for. The Amateur with Rami Malek looks like a John Wick knock-off, but I do think it still looks good. The previously mentioned Warfare is Alex Garland's follow-up to his movie Civil War last year about the Iraq war and could be alright. Sinners is very high on my most anticipated list and is probably the movie I'm looking forward to the most this month while Sneaks looks so terrible that I can't wait to see it. The Accountant 2, Until Dawn, and The Legend of Ochi have the weekend of the 25th looking fun even if the movie I'm most excited for that weekend is Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith coming out for it's 20th anniversary. Beyond that, who knows what'll hit on streaming or VOD, but I'm just hoping April is better because while I liked the top 8 quite a bit this month, we're still having a pretty rough year. See y'all next time
[Watched on MAX]
This was an incredibly dumb but also self aware horror comedy that found the right-ish balance of dumb schlocky horror and dumb schlocky humor. The leads were alright but the side characters played by Brian , Lisa Kudrow, Dean Norris, and Edie Falco were the ones who stole the show. It makes the top 10 for being watchable enough but we're not really at the movies I would wholly recommend, but if you're looking for something dumb and light, this one works.
#09- The Alto Knights
[Watched in theaters]
I really didn't love The Alto Knights but at the same time I don't really love mob movies so that probably plays into it. The dueling DeNiros were good and both characters felt very distinct from one another and while it's certainly just a gimmick, it wasn't as distracting as I expected it to be. Otherwise it's a pretty standard mob movie with some drama, some murder, some political scheming, etc. all the fare you expect. It's certainly not anywhere near the true greats like the first two Godfather films or Goodfellas or even Casino, but I'd say it's a decent enough movie that if you're into the genre you'll walk out having liked it and if you're not a fan of the genre you will not care about it at all.
#08- Novocaine
[Watched in theaters]
Jack Quaid is having a great year so far between this and Companion and is showing his personality well. I do like him a lot as Hughie in The Boys and unfortunately I found this role to be VERY Hughie. This movie doesn't let him branch out in the type of character he plays (he was at least a schemer in Companion even if he was still a dork) and I worry he's gonna end up being typecast, but he does play the role well and it works here too. The story itself is just as fun and exciting as it needs to be and while the love story doesn't really work for me, most everything else did. It was a fun time and I'd recommend checking it out.
#07- A Working Man
[Watched in theaters]
My guilty pleasure is dumb beat-em-up action movies starring Jason Statham and this year we get another one. Between The Beekeeper and The Meg and The Meg 2 and all the others, I just consistently find myself having a blast even if the characters, story, and everything else isn't exactly great. Realistically, I do think this movie is worse than Novocaine and The Alto Knights, but I just enjoyed myself so much that I had to put it higher.
#06- Locked
[Watched in theaters]
Locked looked like a pretty boring thriller and I was afraid Bill Skarsgard was going to lose the goodwill he built up from Nosferatu and fall back down into his The Crow moment from last year. Luckily, he did not and he actually played a really interesting and compelling character that gets stuck in this terrible situation and struggles through it. Anthony Hopkins was incredible here in his most sadistic villain since Hannibal Lecter and you can tell he just absolutely relishes in it. I think this movie was my biggest surprise of the month in how much I enjoyed it compared to how much I thought I wouldn't.
Also, it's not important or anything but Bill Skarsgard is at his most Pete Davidson ever in this movie.
#05- The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
[Watched in theaters]
Looney Tunes are back baybee! This was a super fun and refreshing 2-D animated film with some great gags and a fun story that feels very Looney Tunes. I'm not the biggest fan of these characters having not really grown up with them (I was born post-Space Jam in an era where the most we saw of any of them was in the WB animation logo with Bugs eating a carrot) but I am constantly rooting for them. They are pop culture icons and honestly I wish this movie had any amount of marketing because I feel like it could have been a hit. It's fun, quick, quirky, funny, and refreshing compared to the other animated films we've seen recently and brings us back to a time when simple 2D could capture the hearts of millions. The best news from this though is we're going to get to see Coyote vs. Acme next year thanks to Ketchup Entertainment.
#04- Death of a Unicorn
[Watched in theaters]
A lot of people are disappointed by this (and compared to how hyped I was for it, I was a bit too) but kind of like A Working Man, I just had so much fun with it. The premise is just dumb enough and just tongue-in-cheek enough to work while satirizing the private medical industry and uber rich capitalism. Of course it's not the most well thought out and original allegories, it's very standard and the characters are more like caricatures, but I had fun with it. Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega as are Richard E. Grant and Tea Leoni, but man were Anthony Carrigan and Will Poulter absolute standouts. These two stole every scene they were in and any scene they were together had me laughing. Will Poulter especially has gone from "the eyebrow kid" to one of the funniest and charismatic actors working today. Warfare doesn't really interest me that much, but when I do check it out it will be for Will Poulter because I want to see this dude in everything.
#03- The Assessment
[Watched in theaters]
This one was a very A24-coded sci-fi horror drama about two people who want to have a kid in a restricted government society and for the most part it worked for me really well, especially in the scenes where they are being tested by Alicia Vikander who acts like a child to analyze their potential as parents. This movie gets dark and depressing and also insane and has one of the best performances of the year thus far from Vikander. There is a scene in here that I was very uncomfortable with and did not like the way it played out in the story down the line or how it was passed by and that's what knocks it down a bit (you'll know the scene if/when you see the movie) and the third act didn't wrap up as well as I had hoped it would, but for the most point I did enjoy this one quite a bit.
#02- Black Bag
[Watched in theaters]
I really tossed around this and first place because I think either could take the top spot on a different day. Black Bag is Steven Soderbergh's second film of the year and stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett in one of the sexiest and most intriguing spy thrillers I've seen in a really long time. This was another huge surprise because based on the trailers I didn't think I would like it, but man did I. I don't want to give anything away because I really do think everyone should go check this out. Soderbergh is a shoe-in for a best year nomination at the Tikis this year.
#01- Mickey 17
[Watched in theaters]
I'm definitely higher on this than some people are and compared to Parasite, no, there's no comparison, but I enjoyed Mickey 17 A LOT. The dual Pattinson performances are incredibly distinct and unlike the DeNiros, they aren't caked in makeup to make themselves look different, these are just straight up clones who feel like such individual characters it's crazy. As the resident animal and nature guy, I really liked the on the nose messaging about protecting the environment and whatnot and I definitely see eye-to-eye with Bong Joon Ho on most of his political perspectives so I don't mind the messaging in this movie. It's certainly a weird movie and I get if people aren't enjoying it, but I'm devastated it flopped as hard as it did because people ask for original movies (I know it's based on a book, but still) and then they don't go see them when they end up being really good. Mickey 17 lost Warner Bros. a ton of money, but thank God they have A Minecraft Movie to prove that IP > director-led original creative projects when it makes a Minecrillion Dollars.
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April is here and it comes with it some movies I'm stoked for. The Amateur with Rami Malek looks like a John Wick knock-off, but I do think it still looks good. The previously mentioned Warfare is Alex Garland's follow-up to his movie Civil War last year about the Iraq war and could be alright. Sinners is very high on my most anticipated list and is probably the movie I'm looking forward to the most this month while Sneaks looks so terrible that I can't wait to see it. The Accountant 2, Until Dawn, and The Legend of Ochi have the weekend of the 25th looking fun even if the movie I'm most excited for that weekend is Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith coming out for it's 20th anniversary. Beyond that, who knows what'll hit on streaming or VOD, but I'm just hoping April is better because while I liked the top 8 quite a bit this month, we're still having a pretty rough year. See y'all next time