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Yes, ouch indeed!
Love how Olga gets the drop on Purefoy in the end! I won't spoil it for anyone who hasnt seen it!
This film atrocious WT....
This film is a I wont say. Who the F green Lit this piece of....
It takes immense incompetence to make a film this bad.
This film is an abomination, I feel insulted.
I hate this film its that offensive.
An immense improvement on the businessmen s preferred version from 4 years ago. Back then I didn t care about or for more than half the characters. I do now. Brilliant film.
Well, @Fire_and_Ice_Returns, I'm "glad" you agree. Not that I want this film to be hated, but I too was tremendously disappointed. With WW arguably the best (or at least one the best) of the DCU films, and Wonder Woman making kick-ass appearances in BvS and JL, another Wonder Woman film should have had little trouble impressing the hell out of us...
... until people decided to make this a weird love-story with a meagre villain and a heavy-handed message of anti-violence. Apart from the Amazonian intro, which was good, the film feels like a lovestruck teenage girl's idea of a good Wonder Woman sequel to be featured on Nickelodeon. From WW to WW84 I come down from "one of the best" to "decidedly the worst", and that means I think SS is better even. Thank Darkseid for the Snyder Cut giving me a few new Wonder Woman action scenes to wash WW84 away with.
My reaction was over the top, decided to have a few drinks first time in some time and was still buzzing from the Snyder Cut so decided to purchase WW1984, £13.99 totally wasted I was a bit aggrieved. I should have waited until it was a cheap rental. I love the first film, how could they go so wrong with the Sequel it's one of the worst films I have seen.
This was clever and thought provoking. Reminded me of Philip K. Dick, and the surprise ending cemented it as a great film.
Across the universe: I keep coming back to this film and realizing in spite of the annoyance I had with Boyle’s Beatles film (only saw the trailer and that was enough to piss me off) there are great things one can do with Beatles music I always wished there was a sequel discussing the 70’s and 80’s and using songs not in the film could be cool but still love the music love the film love everything here
Batman: dying is easy: let’s discuss this 22 minute fan film I normally don’t post these sorts of reviews here but I have done 2 part tv episodes lost films and almost films in the past so why not review this here it’s good but I have said this 1000 times and I fear I will say it 1000 more I am tired of the Joker again Penguin and Riddler are not my favorite villains by any stretch of the imagination but I am beyond happy they are the villains of the new Batman film and not the joker I am just so tired of the character that his inclusion in this film brings the grade down that being said I love Kevin as Batman don’t know where they found him but he is brilliant (see cave talk and the mask for proof)
Batman Ninja: what the hell drugs did I take before watching this film I swear I have no idea what the hell is going on and I think that is the charm. I love the way the characters are designed but the issue is Batman doesn’t come across as well Batman again the issue with a hero is that you put him in an impossible situation and watch him overcome it but Batman doesn’t really over come it he just whines a lot and then nightwing and redwood convince him to work with the ninja clan also the Joker is the main villain again because why not... at this rate joker is being used more often and poorer then Lex... I hate how Dc keeps saying “Batman has the best villains of all time.... but we are only going to use like 5 total in main stream media and really only 4 in the films” again I love how Burton killed off Joker because other wise he would of kept popping up.
Quantum of solace I love this film but two points
1. I feel the film peaks at the opera house don’t get me wrong the rest of the film is great too it’s just the opera scene is so fantastic
2. God I hate that Eon got spectre back remember when 2008 happened and we were all wondering about Quantum and what the organization will become and now it’s like nope it’s just an arm of Spectre... sigh I just kind of wish they had finished the Craig era before reintroducing Spectre but oh well
Films I have seen in 2001
1. Casino Royale
2. Quantum of solace
3. Batman: dying is easy
4. Across the universe
5. Batman ninja
6. Casino Royale 1954
Full of cliches, but delivers the suspense.
That would have been the best option. Once they had secured the rights, there should not have been a rush to hastilly reintroduce Spectre. They shoudl have waited for the next actor, then plot out the reintroduction of Spector over say.... 4 films. From the name Spectre, being uttered by someone under interrogation by Bond, through to the revelation of Spectre being a global entity with it's tentacles scretching across the globe. They blew it.
I am not normally into anime, but this was quite excellent. May have served as an inspiration for Inception.
@Gerald. Not Much :-).
Starring Joseph Cotton, Alida Vallo, Trevor Howard, Orson Wells
Screenplay by Graham Greene
Music by Anton Karas
Cinematography by Robert Krasker
Harry Lime: Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don't. Why should we? They talk about the people and the proletariat, I talk about the suckers and the mugs - it's the same thing. They have their five-year plans, so have I.
Martins: You used to believe in God.
Harry Lime: Oh, I still do believe in God, old man. I believe in God and Mercy and all that. But the dead are happier dead. They don't miss much here, poor devils.
Briefly: Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) arrives in post war Vienna to meet an old friend, Harry Lime (played by Orson Wells), only to be told that Lime was killed in a traffic accident recently. That said, however, we – and Holly – soon learn that things are not what they appear to be, as everyone as conflicting accounts of just how many men were viewed at the scene. Was it two or three? And, naturally - given that this is a film noir - we discover that Lime was far less than an outstanding citizen.
A classic? What an understatement, as “The Third Man” more than lived up to its’ reputation as being one of the greatest film noirs of all time. Even if you’ve never seen the movie, you have probably heard some of the film music as the score by Anton Karas (played on a zither) was a pop hit in the 1950s and continues to be “sampled” to this day. Also notable were the disorienting angles (“Dutch Angles”) that director Reed used throughout which gave the bombed-out ruins of the city an especially menacing effect. And we also have, Alida Vallo - playing Lime’s girlfriend Anna – who doesn’t appear to be all that upset by what is discovered.
Anna Schmidt: A person doesn't change just because you find out more.
And Wells (spoiler alert!), who doesn’t appear until well into the picture, makes one of the greatest character reveals that I’ve ever seen. From the opening (which shows a dead body floating in the river) to the chase scene in the sewers of Vienna, I can’t say enough great things about this film.
Harry Lime: Don't be so gloomy. After all, it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long, Holly.
Why Harry Lime…..you old devil, you’re not dead after all!
Quick…this actor looks mighty familiar 😊
Ladies and Gentlemen….Actress Alida Valli
….and that haunting (and heart-braking) final scene
FYI Bond Connections:
Bernard Lee (as Sergeant Paine – credited)
Robert Brown (uncredited)
Geoffrey Keen (uncredited)
Guy Hamilton (assistant director)
John Glen (assistant sound editor -uncredited) **
**The Ferris wheel from TLD is the same one from "The Third Man” and one could also take “the mother and child with the balloons” scene as being yet another homage to a film that started his career.
Next, the 2014 american version of Godzilla. Suffers from not enough monster fights, and the ones we get are mostly in the dark, sometime too dark to make out anything. Still, one of the best finishing moves in the entire series.
“Attack All Monsters”? Do you mean “All Monsters Attack” (1969) or “Destroy All Monsters” (1968)?
Admittedly, I not a massive fan of either film 😊, but they are tonally polar opposites. “Destroy” was originally intended to be the final Godzilla film, but….$$$$$$$ :)) Within Godzilla Fandom "All Monsters Attack" is considered a poor entry, although I remember reading somewhere that Honda really liked filming that one - since the plot was more focused on the humans.
Also, remember that many late Showa period Godzilla movies made use of stock footage. Footage that they were hell-bent on using, whether if fit the plot or not!
If you are a fan of the “Big-G”, you may find this article of interest.
https://www.slashfilm.com/godzilla-movies-ranked-2021/
Thanks @Gerald.
There is an old joke among Godzilla fans about “All Monsters Attack” (or “Godzilla’s Revenge” as it was originally titled in the US dubbed version).
“Godzilla fans are very divided about the merits of this film: half of the fans think that this is the worst Godzilla film ever made, while the other half considers it to be only the second worst Godzilla film.”
The US version (at-least) does have a catchy theme. Unfortunately, when Criterion acquired the distribution rights to the Showa era titles in 2018, many of the US versions went away (at Toho's request BTW). The older Classic Media DVDs (of which I still have) had both the US and the Japanese (sub-titled) versions.
** Godzilla vs. Megalon takes the bottom spot for many in the latter camp.
And then, on a more comedic vein (pun not intended, but it fits), Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I liked Kristy Swanson in those days, and Paul Reuben hams it up like he wants to win a contest (and his death scene is quite hilarious).
Batman: Death in the Family (2020)
I held off on watching this because I assumed it was an adaptation of A Death in the Family, one of the dumbest and most cynical Batman comics of the '80s.
Fortunately this animated feature is a different sort of beast. It's an interactive movie--think of it as a Choose Your Own Adventure story designed for Blu-Ray--inspired by the excellent DC animated film Behind the Red Hood. Footage from that film is repurposed and combined with new animation.
I enjoyed the interactive format more than expected; skipping back and forth to see how the alternative story branches worked out was surprisingly interesting and easy to do. Make sure you watch Death in the Family on Blu-Ray, because the digital version skips several story branches.
The film opens with familiar scenes of the Batman rushing to rescue Robin from the Joker. You're then presented with three options: "Robin Cheats Death," "Robin Dies," and "Batman Saves Robin."
I won't give away any spoilers, but here's some hopefully useful information. "Robin Survives" leads to a really intriguing story but ends too soon. "Robin Dies" is just a recap of Under the Red Hood, with dialogue replaced by narration from Bruce Wayne. If you haven't watched Under the Red Hood, do so before watching Death in the Family (if you have, fast forward to the final scene of this branch).
The "Batman saves Robin" branch is where most of the new content is, where the film really becomes fun and the story further branches and further branches. Some of the results are shocking and twisted, with haunting images and ingenious references that will please hardcore fans and startle casual ones.
A couple of branches are hampered by schematic dialogue or abrupt endings. Additionally, the film seems to have been budgeted as a short rather than feature (it's part of DC's Showcase line). The new animation is not quite as good as the reused Red Hood footage. Some of the new footage is not even animated--there are way too many still shots. Despite these flaws, I recommend Death in the Family, because it presents several fascinating counterfactual storytelling choices that would easily justify a future Jason Todd film.
I had been skeptical of the idea of interactive films before watching Death in the Family, but now I see their potential. However, in the old Choose Your Own Adventure books the writers could get away with rushed, near-flippant endings because the game aspect was far more important than the dramatic one. But an interactive drama film like A Death in the Family works best when each branch and resolution hits as hard as the other and carries equivalent dramatic weight. This means that creating a good interactive dramatic film might require more hard work than a "normal" one.
Love that one, glad I got to see it in theaters. I'm still itching for a sequel. I hope Leitch and Theron can make it happen.
I haven't watched this film since shell suits were fashionable. I didn't remember much other than the domes out in the middle of the cornfields, possibly because of the bees (I have a perfectly rational phobia of bees).
I was even more surprised to see a David Cronenberg film on there!
Cronenberg and Disney are two names you don't normally see together 😄
Any day is a good day for some Monty Python!
Thanks for posting that Lego tribute @Gerard.
Starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis
Screenplay by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman
Music by Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography by James Wong Howe
J.J. Hunsecker: Don't remove the gangplank, Sidney - you may wanna get back onboard.
Sidney: J.J., it's one thing to wear your dog collar. But when it turns into a noose, I'd rather have my freedom.
Hunsecker: The man in jail is always for freedom.
Sidney: Except, if you'll excuse me, J.J., I'm not in jail.
Hunsecker: You're in jail, Sidney. You're a prisoner of your own fears, your own greed and ambition; you're in jail.
A film Noir with a difference. In the “Sweet Smell of Success” there is no crime mystery to solve, there is no “fem-fatale” to entice us and no characters to corrupt. Instead, the two leads - J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) and Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) - start the film, already in a snake pit of their own making. The question is just how far they will go and will either of them redeem himself at the film’s conclusion. And at the very end, Curtis’s Falco finally does – but just barely.
When the movie starts, we see Sidney Falco’s (a New York press agent) growing frustration at being frozen out by all powerful newspaper columnist, J.J. Hunsecker - which is critical, since Sidney’s livelihood depends on getting the columnist to write about his clients. We soon discover that J.J is doing this out of spite, since Sidney was unable to break up the relationship that his sister has with a Jazz musician. A relationship that J.J. sees as being unworthy of her.
To get back into J. J’s good graces, and become “a big player”, Sidney – with J.J.’s full knowledge and backing - comes up with a new plan. And it’s a plan that works – up until the film’s final minutes, when Hunsecker’s meek little sister plays the two men off against each other.
This is a tough movie to write about, since the relationship between J.J.’s sister and the musician isn’t really a major issue or even particularly interesting. Instead, among the things that make this film a classic, is that it lays bare the truth about the all-too powerful and the naked ambition of those that seek that power.
Match me, Sidney.
The film’s dialogue is great – and very quotable - as is the chance to see New York City’s mid-town area as it looked in the late 1950’s. And for that credit must go to James Wong Howe. You can really “feel” the nighttime energy of the Times Square area during this period. An era that was both “dirty”, yet electric with excitement as the rich and famous moved from club to club and columnists like J.J. Hunsecker assumed the role of all-knowing king makers. And of course, Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis give extraordinary performances. In fact, you could view Lancaster’s J.J, Hunsecker as a proto version of Jonathan Pryce’s Elliot Carver from TND.
While not a commercial success upon its’ release in 1957, this film has become very influential in the decades that followed, and I really enjoyed it.
I love this dirty town.
Son, I don't relish shooting a mosquito with an elephant gun, so why don't you just shuffle along?
** The role of J.J. Hunsecker was loosely based on actual columnist Walter Winchell, who was both feared and admired during the 1930s’ and 1940’s. His “America: Love or Leave It” (an actual expression of his), and association with U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy – think Hollywood black listing – eventually made him unfashionable.
** The Sweet Smell of Success was re-imagined as a musical stage production in 2002. It starred John Lithgow in the role of J.J. Hunsecker and the musical score/songs were done by Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia. It was not well received. Yet, I think that a “straight” stage presentation of this material might still work.