Tag: Movies

2019, Movies

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019, JJ Abrams)

The ninth and final film of the now rebranded “Skywalker Saga” is the weakest of the the final films, I think, though I haven’t seen the other two in some time. Like the first two, it’s too long. But the real problems centre around how similar it ends up being to previous films in the …

2023, Movies

Money Shot: The Pornhub Story (2023, Suzanne Hillinger)

This documentary isn’t so much the story of Pornhub as its the story of Pornhub from “Traffickinghub” to the present. It’s a reasonably balanced look at internet pornography in the 2020s, and, specifically, the biggest company in internet pornography, that I wish was a little broader in its scope.

2010, Movies

The Town (2010, Ben Affleck)

This is a sort of one-last-job heist film that focuses almost as much on relationships as it does on the heists. Though I appreciate the (mostly successful) attempt to situate the film in a place that feels real, I also feel like the film is tugged in two different directions and that doesn’t completely work. …

2021, Movies

Django & Django (2021, Luca Rea)

This is a brief documentary about the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Corbucci that really feels like it was meant to be a DVD extra or something. I haven’t gotten around to seeing any of Corbucci’s films yet, so watching it might have been an odd choice. But I watched it because Quentin Tarantino was in …

2016, Movies

Hired Gun (2016, Fran Strine)

This is one of those documentaries that tries to cover a big topic by just interviewing some people and telling their stories. There are a whole series of these and they’re not the most effective. But this one is reasonably entertaining, and has enough stories that it isn’t a waste of time.

2016, Movies

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016, Zach Snyder)

God these DC movies are just so…dour. I am no fan of the MCU, as you know, but every time I watch one of these DC movies from the teens I think the MCU has really stumbled onto something. They may be dumb, but they’re usually at least moderately entertaining. But these films are just …

2022, Movies

The Batman (2022, Matt Reeves)

A little while ago, Jenn and I decided to watch every Batman movie in order. We watched the Adam West movie and then we watched the Burton/Schumacher films. But then, we got this one sooner and ended up watching it before all the other 21st century Batman films. (I’ve most Batman films already, save one …

2022, Movies

See How They Run (2022, Tom George)

This is a reasonably diverting and amusing mystery comedy that riffs on The Mousetrap, the infamous Agatha Christie play that has run in London’s West End, nearly continuously, for almost 70 years. (I have never seen it. It’s run was only interrupted by covid.) I wouldn’t say you have to seen The Mousetrap or read …

1979, Movies

Stalker (1979, Andrei Tarkovsky)

Stalker is a willfully difficult, philosophical medication on the nature of faith posing as a science fiction film that feels like it would have been significantly more dramatic had it been made during the age of CGI. (Though Tarkovsky wouldn’t be the one to have made it, then.) I have not read the novel its …

2022, Movies

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022, Rian Johnson)

It’s likely you have high expectations for this film, if you enjoyed the first one as much as I did. And that’s a dangerous thing. But I’m happy to report that this is both not the same movie as the first one and manages to still hit some similar topical notes. I think it mostly …

1962, Movies

Harakiri [aka Seppuku] (1962, Masaki Kobayashi)

I was not familiar with jidaigeki but I’ve seen a few of them without knowing it. It’s possible that what I’m going to say about this film only makes sense in western genres and not in jidaigeki but, given that I’ve only a few of these films, I have no idea.

1940, Movies

The Great Dictator (1940, Charles Chaplin)

As the only American film (before their entry into World War II) to deal with the Nazis, I think we have to give it, and Chaplin, a lot of credit. It might seem crazy now, but some people didn’t think this movie should be made, or at least should be toned down. And this is …

2022, Movies

The Bob’s Burgers Movie (2022, Loren Bouchard, Bernard Derriman)

Like every 22-minute TV show turned into a movie, this one struggles with enough laughs for its runtime. But it’s still pretty enjoyable and has most of the stuff you’d want in a Bob’s Burgers episode.

2013, Movies

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013, Peter Jackson)

This second film in the hilariously long adaptation of a 310-page novel is mercifully a little bit shorter than the first. (Though not much.) This one I’d actually mostly scene prior to actually sitting down to watch it, as I think it’s been on a lot over the years on channels available in hotels I’ve …

2012, Movies

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012, Peter Jackson)

This nearly 3 hour film is the first part of a preposterous adaptation of a 310-page novel. I have no idea why anyone thought a novel this short needed to be adapted into three films, none of which are less than 2 hours and twenty minutes in length. It’s one thing to make an epic-length …