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The question I always have is just how he's shipping out so many movies in a given year: is there some hidden mass market for these things? A major group of diehard Seagal fans who eat this up installment after installment? I can't get a sequel to 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' but I'm seeing a new Bloated Seagal movie crop up every couple of months.
Fantastic film. A favorite. For all the humor and token 80s dance sequences, it's such a raw and honest film.
My least favorite too...by a significant margin. It seems like they just completely ran out of budget and out of ideas. It didn't deliver on Retribution's setup at all. Retribution should have been the final film. It was great fun and brought back so many of the previous cast together (Colin Salmon, Michelle Rodriguez, Sienna Guillory, etc.).
If nothing else, this was really entertaining. The "twist" towards the end was a bit dumb, though.
Mirrors my thoughts exactly.
My brother got me this for my birthday. I vaguely remember seeing it on telly many moons ago.
Our Rog plays a marketing exec who gets into trouble with a model in this swinging 60s romp. Rog is great and it moves along at a brisk pace. It ends with him trying to foil an assassination at a race meeting. Bond connections dont end with Rog as it also has Bernard Lee in a supporting role. Its rather trivial affair, but it does have an excellent chase involving a vintage car and a helicopter, which, for me is more exciting than the TSWLM one!
First watch of this Ridley Scott directed crime thriller, based on a screenplay by Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men). Michael Fassbender plays the eponymous character, a high priced lawyer with deadly Mexican drug cartel clients. He proposes to his girl Laura (Penelope Cruz) and in order to pay for the expensive ring & fund his retirement from the shady business world he inhabits, he gets involved with a drug deal (his first). The go-between is his client Reiner (Javier Bardem), a colourful club owner who lives in Texas with his greedy & skanky girlfriend Malkina (Cameron Diaz). Reiner immediately advises him of the perils of getting involved in the deal & even Westray (Brad Pitt), another associate of Reiner’s, suggests this is a risky proposition. The cartel are apparently known to extract violent revenge on those who wrong them or who they dislike or mistrust. Despite these sage warnings, the confident Counselor somewhat hubristically goes ahead anyway, as he sees this is as his way out for a life of peace with Laura. He decides to bail out a client’s son, who works for the cartel and who has been imprisoned for speeding. Unfortunately, this unrelated act of kindness has dramatic unintended consequences, as the young man is beheaded mysteriously & a related drug shipment is stolen, leading the cartel to suspect the Counselor of wrongdoing. With everyone he has come into contact with suddenly in jeopardy & his own life also in danger, the Counselor must move quickly to escape the cartel's wrath, although it increasingly appears that all is in fact lost.
This is a very frustrating film to watch. One the one hand, there are a lot of interesting elements sprinkled throughout it and it looks absolutely fantastic (cinematographer Dariusz Wolski should be seriously considered by EoN for the next Bond film) despite being graphically violent in parts. The characters are also quite charismatic & intriguing in a larger than life caricatured sort of way (Fassbender’s Counsellor is as slick and cool as they come, Bardem’s pointy haired Reiner looks like he’s been electrocuted, Pitt’s Westray looks like a 70’s used car salesman, and Diaz’s Malkina looks like a trashy female predator personified). However despite all this available high priced talent (and a few more that make small appearances here and there like Rosie Perez, Edgar Ramirez, Natalie Dormer, John Leguizamo & Goran Visnjic among others) the film falls woefully flat. Scott’s direction & McCarthy’s script aren’t able to inject any life into the narrative and so it all comes across very procedurally on screen. It doesn’t help that these are, for the most part, greedy & unsympathetic individuals. Only Cruz’s Laura is worthy of our compassion, but she’s not on screen much. The all powerful & deadly ‘cartel’ for the most part operates behind the scenes, & so we only see their nameless minions on the screen doing their bidding. So it's frustrating because one feels there's a masterpiece just waiting to burst out, but the audience never sees it.
Ultimately this film comes across like a misguided attempt to mesh Pulp Fiction with Breaking Bad by way of Sicario. It’s beautifully stylish though and is worth a watch for that alone. Michael Fassbender looks so damn effortlessly cool in it too, and once again demonstrates that he should be James Bond.
Just got back from it and really had a good time. This is a 'fun' movie, which is most welcome after the overwrought angst driven depression of the Webb films (which I thought were rubbish). Is it as good as Raimi's best? No, in my opinion. Not even close to Spider Man 2. Tobey is still my favourite Spidey/Parker for now, but Holland is damn close and could eventually surpass him. He captures the character's wonkish awkwardness well. Still, the film doesn't delve into his loneliness and challenges all that much. I'm assuming that's for later installments. Michael Keaton is excellent (as always) as the villain of the piece and I enjoyed every minute he was on screen. He's bitter and angry, but also quite cool. There is little of the emotional depressive tendency in him that we have sadly seen too much of lately from Spidey's foes (Dafoe's Osborne Sr, Franco's Osborne JR, Haden Church's Sandman, Fox's Electro, or DeHaan's Osborn). Downey Jr is in the film quite a bit as Stark/Iron Man, and sort of inhabits the Uncle Ben role to a degree, lending pearls of wisdom to young Peter. He also saves his rear on more than one occasion, and perhaps it would have been better if Spidey were able to fend for himself more. Having said that, Downey is so charismatic in this, his signature role, that I can't complain. Marisa Tomei is quite fetching as Aunt May, but perhaps is too much of a hip babe for this role. I still think Rosemary Harris was the best. Peter's high school peers are a pretty forgettable multi-cultural lot however, but sure to appeal to the global audience this film is no doubt intended to cultivate. I realize I'm being cynical - this is Queens after all, and so all colours are expected. Despite that, the only one with even a little bit of spark/edginess is Michelle (Zendaya), who I hope to see more of in the future.
The best Spidey scenes in this film are when he's hanging around and being a friendly neighbourhood superhero. Like the recent Wonder Woman flick, the action heavy ending has way too much CGI, and in this case some of it is a little difficult to follow too. Having said that, the 3D in this film is spectacular, right from the opening frame.
What's great about this film is even though it's a reboot, it doesn't delve (yet again) into Spidey's past. I'm extremely grateful for that. He already has his powers when we meet him, and we just go along for the ride with him in his rebooted universe. Moreover, as I said at the start, they've got the tone right. It's much lighter and more ebullient. EON take note. That's what I want you to do once Craig leaves.
Recommended and easily the best superhero film I've seen in some time, but it's not in the upper leagues. Like WW, I feel it's being overrated on RT. It's on par with Ant Man imho.
Great film!
The latter being a classic teen movie. Nothing much happens, the cast is small, but the characters , their interraction with each other and their backstories still keep me entertained for an hour and a half. Kinda reminds me of Reservoir Dogs, but with teens replacing bank robbers and psychopaths. In both cases the movies both mainly take place indoors tied in one location and I like how we slowly learn and begin to like these characters. Well, in tbc at least.
Might be my favorite film from the year of my birth.
I read a review online from someone complaining that
A) it's not a full-scale, global war and so the title is misleading;
B) many apes communicate via hand gestures and so we need to do a lot of subtitle reading, which, apparently, puts people off.
Well I for one have none of these complaints. No POTA film, not even the Chuck Heston original, ever went 'World War' on its conflicts. Even CONQUEST and BATLLE stayed, no doubt due to budget restraints, in a fairly small place despite their promising titles. The "War" in WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES is about the personal wars of Caesar and 'The Colonel'. But don't be alarmed, there's fighting all right.
As for the subtitles, well, some apes talk, some don't, but the subtitles are neither too plenty nor a disturbance. And for the subtitle challenged among us, well, that's what you get with all your dubs, folks. ;-)
Taking off a short time after the events of DAWN, Caesar faces what is arguably the greatest endurance test he's ever had to undergo. A brutal human colonel, played by a very convincing Woody Harrelson, relentlessly subjects him to one trial after the other. Deprived of almost everything he's ever fought for, Caesar learns a tough lesson about honour and loyalty among apes and about the desperation that drives people.
WAR is another A++ achievement in one of the most solid science fiction series I've seen in years. The CGI is impeccable and Andy Serkis gives a truly Oscar worthy performance. The ape design has come a long way from the charming yet, by any modern standards, imperfect Cornelius and Zira suits from 1968, or even from Burton's highly anthropomorphic simians. They emote, they charm, they convince; like seeing the real thing. The highest praise for this brilliant result. With the cool designs and spotless graphics comes a lot of spectacle too. And though it's computers everything, I have felt tension like I haven't in a long time; I have had to suppress tears; I have marvelled at the credibility of it all. The money is on the screen.
But between the great visuals and Giacchino's exciting score, is a wonderfully engaging story too, filled with allegorical references to painful moments in American history and delivering an almost 'Old Testament' type of subtext. Lastly, for those who have, for three films now, been yearning for the futuristic vibes of the Pierre Boulle novel and / or the Franklin Schaffner film, I have some good news. If you want, you can put together your own myth built on which the future world of Dr. Zaius actually makes sense. The missing space mission they hint at in RISE, combined with several tiny clues dropped left and right in DAWN and WAR, is enough to take us to the '68 film or, who knows, a future sequel that re-imagines said film.
I've actually had the good fortune of seeing all three of the recent APES films in my theatre yesterday. Though I had already seen the first two when they had come out back in the day, I must admit that the complete experience was tremendously fascinating. Seven hours of tough scenes, philosophical themes and emotional exhaustion were well worth the catharsis effect I got out of it. "It's a madhouse! A MADHOUSE!" But I loved it.
Huge recommend.
The filming technique of this film was stunning! Although their is not a lot of action, it sure made up for in drama.
Nail-biter of the film, that one. I've recommended it to several people who weren't blown away by it like I was, unfortunately, so I'm glad to see someone else enjoyed it.
I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't love to see his longtime collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki shooting the film, too. Would certainly be different.
I am embarrassed to admit that I watched it all the way through and laughed out loud quite a lot.
I have the sense of humour of a nine-year-old boy.
What I thought was really clever was the silent destruction going on behind her which I thought was very scary to be honest.
I love that the film opens up with a calm 15 minutes or so of that breathtaking one-take, really allowing you to appreciate the beauty of it all before the shit truly hits the fan.
Good and enjoyable.
Not as bad as it's made out to be. Two takeaways.
1. Never visiting Southeast Asia anytime soon.
2. Pierce Brosnan is badass once again.
Possibly Peter Lorre's most impressive role in one of Fritz Lang's most intriguing films ever. A painful subject, though sadly still very much relevant today, is expertly explored in this dark masterpiece. The very idea of a child murderer taking central stage in a film, got the Nazis to fear they'd be depicted in a very negative way. Luckily, Lang didn't include Nazis and got away with it. Nearly nine decades since its release, M hasn't lost any of its power. This is a film everyone should see!
Yes, an incredible film. Lorre's performance is haunting, mesmerizing, bone-chilling. I never knew he had such acting talent. He had me floored.
Great movie