What movie have you seen recently?

The new Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers movie was surprisingly great! More like a spiritual sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit than a traditional Disney live action/cartoon hybrid.

I went into this movie hearing lots of good things, but being very skeptical, and I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. Definitely more for adults than for kids with all the 80s and 90s references.

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It’s D-Day so once again I am obsessing over this insane, one-take crane shot from THE LONGEST DAY (1962) depicting the French commando assault on the occupied town of Ouistreham.

https://twitter.com/Zeddary/status/1534012064196345856

It really is a tremendous shot.

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Everything Everywhere All At Once, I can confidently say it’s the best multiverse movie this year, and I haven’t seen the other one.

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I watched Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness last night. It’s okay. Actually, in many parts it’s really good, in that it made me feel something, which a lot of the recent MCU attempts haven’t managed. Usually I’m just looking at the action and visuals and being mildly amused by the comedy banter. But Doctor Strange part two had a lot more visceral gore and horror and spookiness than I’ve seen before in the MCU, and it had me tense and sometimes squirming in an enjoyable way.

However it falls down quite a bit in terms of plotting and, unfortunately, the treatment of the villain. I thought after Wandavision, Wanda would have a bigger role in the MCU rather than being demoted to coming up with moustache-twirling evil nonsense.

Like Thor Ragnarok, it’s a movie I enjoyed for one aspect (comedy) despite the story not making much sense, and the movie itself being flawed.

The villain in EEAAO was fantastic. There’s a line about them “having no real motives or desires”, and it pays off by the end!

The Gray Man is not good. But remember when you watched those 15 minutes in No Time To Die and realized it should have been about Ana de Armas? It’s like 25% of that.

Torn on the other hand, is really something. The footage from the day of the accident, and immediately after (same day?) of the friend who survived is gripping.

And also it’s not really a plot twist per se, but the second half is different, and both halves are good.

After hearing how good Prey is, I thought I should check it out myself. In preparation though I went and watched the “good” Predator films beforehand. Didn’t watch the whole series as I didn’t have time and I heard there are some stinkers in there, particularly in the direction of AvP.

Predator (1987) is of course a classic to a degree as a semi-schlocky action film. I do think it isn’t given enough credit though for the thriller parts of it, as the ratcheting up intensity punctuated by extreme violence. The effects work also mostly holds up to modern day.

The Predator (2008) kind of unfortunately goes the other direction. It is extremely action heavy and lacks the feel of dread that is kind of necessary. It is also extremely gory which isn’t exactly out of place but feels like overplays its hand. It could still be a decent watch as a mindless action flick, but unfortunately the portrayal as autism as a super-power is also a bit distasteful in my opinion.

Prey (2022) is easily the best of the bunch though. I feared that the setting if 1719 america with native americans as the primary characters could lead to some exoticism but it was pretty tasteful in that regard actually (at least as far as this pasty european white guy can tell). The action was great and returned to the tension and release model and is well executed. The film is directed by Dan Trachtenberg who already impressed me a lot with 10 Cloverfield Lane. I also liked the themes of emancipation and anti-colonialism that are sprinkled in.

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Didn’t watch Predator 2? It’s got the tie in at the end of Prey too!

I watched Predator 2 a year or so ago, and at the end, they give Danny Glover a flintlock pistol. I’m guessing that features in Prey. I’m going to watch it next week.

Just saw the film RRR in a theater and it is absolutely glorious. Fucking fist pumping awesome. Been a while since I’ve seen a film make the crowd cheer and go wild over and over and then burst into shouts and applause when the credits roll. Goddamn show stopper.

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I finally got around to watching Knives Out. I heard good things about it and it keeps those promises. It is a classic murder mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie, but with modern sensibilities and a whole slew of additional twists thrown in. An old manor home, a family with everything to gain from the patriarch’s death, employees with their own secrets, a detective on the case, and a number of other staples. The jokes also land for the most part. Great film and I particularly liked that it set up a number of loose threads and adding more while collecting existing ones.

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Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

Holy shit! This movie was just amazing! I heard good things about it, but I think this is the best movie I have seen since Fury Road. Maybe even better. Not only a ridiculous exploration of multiverse theory, but at the same time relentlessly funny and incredibly heartfelt with more character development in two hours than some movie series are capable of delivering in multiple films. It is also a fantastically well choreographed martial arts film at the same time.

If you have not watched this one yet, do so at your earliest opportunity! This one will be talked about for decades.

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Just got back from the Queens World Film Festival where I saw the world premiere of

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1803843886/nwhl-history-begins

I backed this film way back in 2015, so it was pretty exciting that it actually finished production and got released. Way back then they got permission to film the very first NWHL season behind the scenes. It just took them all these years to edit it and get it together.

After the screening the organizers of the film festival came in to publicly complain about how this film really pushed the deadline and got finished well past the last second. They also proceeded to award the director, Rachel, with their filmmaker of the year award. That should tell you how good this movie is.

The best part of the film is just the incredible footage they were able to obtain. They showed things I’ve never seen in any sports documentary before. Things that people would usually never give permission to be released, even if they gave permission for it to be recorded, are included here. If this had been a documentary of a big time men’s sport, it would be a sensation.

There is footage from the commissioner at actual business meetings preparing to talk to the NHL. There is footage of the commissioner checking their e-mail shopping for trophies from Tiffany’s. There is footage from locker rooms and players on the team bus. There is footage of players at their day jobs. There is footage of injured players getting medical care. There is footage of players at their homes living their lives and talking with their families.

The one that got me the most, and that I asked about, was audio from the Boston coach cursing out the players on the bench! It happens every game, but nobody ever lets anyone release it publicly. Incredible! They told me that the coach is actually the nicest sweetest person and they found that audio very late during production, like buried treasure, and added it in at the last second.

Most of the film really focuses on sports storytelling. They even said that as a sports fan themselves, it’s not the score that people care about as much as the story, and they are exactly right about that. For a sport to grow it needs people in the media to tell its stories to make people care. This movie serves exactly that purpose for women’s hockey.

Stylistically it’s most similar to “The Last Dance”. It’s not as purely detached as “Senna”, but it’s also not injecting the director’s voice like a Michael Moore film. There are a few text titles providing some purely informational updates regarding more recent events, or replacing footage that they, for good reason, did not want to show. There are interviews, but all the questions being asked are cut out. You only hear the answers.

I also commend it for being so well balanced. It doesn’t try to hide or sugarcoat any of the reality, but simply present it as-is. The audience is left to make their own judgements regarding the events that took place, and the people that took part in them. There are really high highs and really low lows, and they’re all included.

One thing I particularly enjoyed was that they spent a lot of time telling the story of one player who was basically on the bubble for the CT Whale. Some games they were in, some games they weren’t in. They got injured at one point as well. By focusing on this person more instead of an Olympian, they painted a much more realistic picture of the life of a professional women’s hockey player.

Negative things I would say about this film. I assume due to travel difficulties it focuses mostly on the CT Whale and the Boston Pride. The Riveters and Buffalo Beauts get much less screen time. Also, production wise, there were some audio issues. One scene had a player cooking an omelette at home, and the noise of spatula on pan was very unpleasant.

They said they are re-doing their trailer, so it will be up soon-ish. Also, their distributor is going to get the film on the purchasable places like iTunes and Prime soon enough. I think anyone who enjoys sports documentaries and anyone who cares about hockey should definitely see it.

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Green Room taught me a Dead Kennedys song.

Nazi punks
Nazi punks
Nazi punks
Fuck off

That’s pretty much the whole song.

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“Nazi Punks Fuck Off” is basically the story about the bartender kicking out a Nazi in musical form. The band wrote the song after noticing dipshits Sieg-Heil-ing when they performed the very sarcastic California Über Alles. They also released it as a single with an anti-swastika armband.

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The way of the blue people is worth watching IMO. Even if just to experience that new level of Imax 3D.

I saw Devotion recently, and I really enjoyed it. It’s a good aviation movie for those who appreciate airplanes and flying. From some interviews, many of the people who made the movie have backgrounds around aviation, or family who were pilots and so-on. And it shows in the reverence paid to a lot of the details: pre-flights, checklists, qualifications, tow hooks, calibrating gyros, etc, And in how much it just revels in the sounds of big radials and sunlight glistening off propeller arcs while flying along the beach. It’s certainly a more subtle and nuanced appreciation vs Top Gun’s bombastic display of similar subject matter (albeit separated by a few generations)

I find it interesting that overall it is the story of the man who was first black US naval aviator, but it isn’t a movie about the first black naval aviator, if that makes sense. While that is a part of who he is, and it brings it up when it makes sense to, It’s more about what he and his squadron did, the friends he made, the family he left at home while he sailed around the world, and the sacrifices they all made. I think they nailed the balance of all those different aspects without glossing anything over.

That all said, while it’s a movie about fighter pilots entering the Korean War, I wouldn’t consider it a big war movie (such as Fury or Saving Private Ryan or Midway) in that It’s not about a specific battle or conflict or mission. I think it would qualify as a bit more of a military biopic, that does cover some missions that the characters were part of. I like that the officers and flight leaders are painted as sometimes tough, not always friendly, but they were certainly not antagonists. Some movies would probably cast a hard-ass and insufferable commander to act as some dramatic antagonist but this movie doesn’t need that and thankfully doesn’t try it.

Another fun note for me: it was interesting to see the beginning of the movie is set at NAAS Charlestown which is a now-closed air base turned nature reserve in Rhode Island which was built during WWII as a training station. I had been to that park and practiced riding my bike on the old overgrown runways a lot growing up. Then they tore up the runways and since then it’s mostly returned to nature though you can still tell there had been runways there from the air. Clearly for the movie those scenes were filmed somewhere else but the aerial work that is supposed to be them flying over southern RI more or less checks out with what you would actually see flying over those beaches.

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Where did all the Korean War movies go? WWII, hundreds. Vietnam, a lot. WWI even has a number.

But Korea? I don’t think I could have named a single one off the top of my head.

Interesting point. From this Wikipedia list, looks like the vast majority of US movies were made contemporaneous or soon after the war, and not many after the 1960’s. Of course M*A*S*H is a well-known example of a Korean War setting, but the exception proves the rule.