Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is about hubris. Man playing god, creating life, that sort of thing. Poor Things is a Frankenstein movie without a moral or message.
Category: Movies (Page 3 of 4)
John Cena seems like he could be another Arnold Schwarzenegger. A big meat lunk who can do action believably, but is smart and self-aware enough that he can do drama and comedy.
Freelance isn’t a great movie, but it is good. It’s a bodyguard-in-a-dangerous-country movie. John Cena does a great job with the action. He has good timing and can deliver the dry wit convincingly.
Alison Brie may have peaked on Community. She owned the part of Annie. In Freelance, there are dozens of actresses who could have been the aggressive journalist.
Christian Slater is always worth watching.
Freelance doesn’t seem to be available for free on any streaming service, but if it come up, it’s worth watching. 6.5/10
Everyone knows that the replacement women of the MCU have been a disaster, but nobody is supposed to point that out.
It doesn’t matter that the female characters have been in the comic books for decades nor does it matter that they are women. They are just insufferable.
In 2011, when Thor was released, Natalie Portman was a drag and had no chemistry with Chris Hemsworth. Kat Dennings had much more on-screen charisma. This was way before the M-She-U, and Portman had already worn out her welcome.
In 2021, when the Hawkeye TV show aired, Hailee Steinfeld was so juvenile and impetuous, watching the show was a tedious chore. Florence Pugh saved the show.
Tatiana Maslany was incredible in Orphan Black. If you haven’t seen it, she plays something like eight different characters, all clones and all distinct. The viewer could tell which character she was portraying without her even speaking. I thought I could watch her in anything, but She-Hulk was about as bad as a TV show can get.
It isn’t the fault of the actresses. The writers didn’t just decide to introduce female characters, but thought that tearing down and discrediting the men was the way to do it. The audience doesn’t have to be particularly attentive or knowledgeable to notice that the MCU hates men.
The Critical Drinker explains it in his review of The Marvels.
I am not happy that Disney destroyed the MCU franchise, but I am pleased to see the company get hammered for taking such a divisive and hateful approach to an established portion of our pop culture.
I’m not proud of the immense schadenfruede that comes from The Marvels being beaten at the box office by Five Nights at Freddy’s, a movie with a budget of $20 million.
Other MCU movies are on the schedule, but not as many or very soon. It will be interesting to see if Disney fires anyone or changes direction.
Dinklage said. “You’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way and you’re still making that f–king backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f–k are you doing man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.“
I need some clarification.
In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, are the dwarfs human? They were a different, anthropomorphic species like faeries, elves, gnomes or leprechauns. Actors with dwarfism played them in TV and movies because they were the easiest choice to match the artistic vision. Similar to how the actor, Kenny Baker, played R2-D2 in the Star Wars trilogy.
In Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage played Tyrion, a human with dwarfism who had full-sized siblings. Dinklage is confused. I don’t know if it is considered polite to call people with dwarfism, “dwarfs”, but when it is done, no one is asserting that the person is a non-human mythical creature with an affinity for caves and tunnels.
Peter Dinklage is a human actor with a genetic syndrome, not a dark elf.
Disney should change the name of the movie to Snow White and the Seven Dark Elves, then portray the mythical characters as little people with exaggerated features. I offer no solution for choosing an unlikable actress of color to portray a character whose defining feature is her fair skin.
Being progressive = being stupid in a self-contradictory way.
Because it was talked about so much when it came out, I decided to watch Barbie to see for myself.
It’s an easy watch. Margot Robbie, as Barbie, is gorgeous, dresses cute and doesn’t say anything objectionable. Almost everything she says is vacuous. Ryan Gosling, as Ken, is fun and dumb. It isn’t clear why Michael Cera, as Allen, is even in the movie. He pops up occasionally and does stuff, but if Ken is a fantasy man and Barbie is a fantasy woman, what is Allen? An incell? Gay? I don’t know.
The important humans are a mom and her daughter. America Ferrera is the mom and self-described as weird and dark and crazy. Ariana Greenblatt is the daughter and is a marxist eco-feminist. She is exceedingly tedious to be around. Nothing she says makes any sense.
If Barbie is a message movie, the idea is so muddled, it doesn’t feel like preaching. I expected it to be a girl-boss movie, like everything coming out of Disney. It isn’t that. If anything, it’s a feminist parody.
At the start of the movie, Barbieland is like purgatory. Kens are treated like appliances designed to fuel Barbie’s ego. Barbies all have self-esteem titles like president, doctor and Nobel Prize winner, without having accomplished anything. It is so superficial, it’s like an island of fembots and appliances. This dystopia argues for not letting women be in charge of anything.
The real world refutes the entire idea of a patriarchy. Ken reads leftist books thinking that he can be or do anything because he is a man, but nothing works like that in the real world. For Ken, being treated like a human, rather than an appliance, is so gratifying, he goes back to Barbieland and turns that into a patriarchy.
The Patriarchy Land is actually engaging and fun for everyone. Barbies and Kens are having a good time flirting and partying with each other. Crazy Mom and Margot Barbie hate this happy world.
Crazy Mom gives a speech about how pathetic and incompetent she is, and motivates a couple of oddballs in Patriarchy Land to help brainwash Barbies back to the vacuous life.
When the Barbies get brainwashed, the Kens are kind, attentive and helpful to the Barbies who are acting helpless. When the Barbies and Kens are apparently getting along, the Barbies emotionally manipulate the Kens into going to war with each other. That distraction will allow the Barbies to take back the fantasy land.
The message seems to be that women can’t accomplish anything by themselves, but need shady manipulation to get men to do what they want.
After the Kens tussle, Barbies take back everything, and the movie completely lost focus. It was like Lincoln freed the slaves and the Civil War was settled by a dance number. Barbies didn’t want Barbieland to go back to the way it was, but weren’t prepared to grant Kens full citizenship and representation. Kens weren’t sure who they were now that they weren’t appliances anymore. Like freeing the slaves and then telling them to compete in a free market economy with no transition phase.
They didn’t seem to know how to end the movie, so Barbie became a real woman. Everything up to this point made it seem like women in the real world lived with impossible expectations. Based on the logic of the movie, the only reason Barbie would want to be a real woman is because she looked like Margot Robbie.
It’s a fun movie and each viewer can make up and support any message they want. 7.5/10.
After the refrigerator delivery, I thought Sparky might be racist, and this didn’t help
While I was log splitting, I was listening to Ice Cube on Joe Rogan’s podcast. They were talking about the movie, Friday. that Cube wrote and starred in. I hadn’t seen it for a long time, so I’m watching it now. I forgot how funny it is. Every character seems like a real person who probably lived on his street when he was growing up. They are exaggerated versions, and all those events wouldn’t have happened in a single day, but it’s all plausible, funny shit.
Ice Cube is Craig, a guy who got fired on his day off work. His dad is a dog catcher. In this scene, Craig’s dad is trying to get him to apply for a job as dog catcher. Craig’s dad takes his frustration out on the dogs he catches. His story is animal cruelty if you think about it, but it’s funny the way he tells it. Sparky was watching the movie with me, and he felt threatened.
This movie is not a message movie or telling the way the neighborhood should be, but what it was.
Nobody cares about the Academy Awards because they got so stupid, but there is some validation when the Oscar winners are chosen well.
Everything Everywhere All at Once won a bunch of awards. I didn’t understand that movie, but many people liked it, and it was well made. It is impressive when an actor has to portray believable versions of the same character. Michelle Yeoh deserves Best Actress on that basis.
The Indian movie, RRR, was really something. I like the feeling of being a little stunned after watching a movie, like I need to think about what I just saw. RRR could have won more awards, but it got something.
Top Gun: Maverick got an award, so they don’t hate America.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever wasn’t a great movie, but winning for Costume Design is fair enough.
Overall, Everything Everywhere All At Once received too many awards, but the remaining awards were distributed to recognize other good performances. If the Academy can get back to acting normal, people may start to care about them again.
Robert Blake passed away at 90 years old. He was charged with murdering his wife, but was eventually acquitted. He knew you don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
We probably watched every episode of Barreta. I don’t imagine it holds up, but Electra Glide in Blue was an emotionally charged movie.
The Critical Drinker does reliable movie reviews. He actually understands plot structure and character arcs. When he is enthusiastic about a movie, it’s worth watching.
The Critical Drinker was very surprised by Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, considering it one of the best movies he’s seen this year. That’s not a movie suitable for Movie Night and not a movie I’d normally watch. Based on the review, I tried it.
When I watch movies at home, I usually get distracted. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was engaging and witty enough that I actually focused on it. Many modern animated movies that are supposed to work for adults and children, are too sentimental or obvious. This movie had snappy dialogue and humor that is subtle and quick, even adults can miss it. The pacing is brisk, with the story moving along at a good clip. The plot and themes are pretty advanced.
Sparky doesn’t pay much attention to TV. He will watch some World War II documentaries, but that’s about it. Animal documentaries don’t intrigue him. He watched this movie for a little while, and barked at this scene. I don’t know what bugged him or inspired him to comment. This is the first time he ever barked in the house. He’s a quiet dog, and had been with me for a month before he howled at the neighbor dog.
For Movie Night, we watched Troll. It’s Norwegian, dubbed in English. It was your standard Godzilla movie. Something happens to awaken a creature that was thought to by mythical. People in the government are skeptical until the evidence can’t be ignored.
Troll was a serviceable movie. Decent plot, the dialogue was natural, with a little humor to accompany the tension. I enjoyed the Norwegian version of a few stereotypes, like their version of a computer nerd, that were thrown in to fill out the characters.
I’d give the movie about a 6/10.
Troll Hunter was a much better Norwegian Kaiju movie. It’s shot in a documentary style, and has more of the dry Norwegian wit.