Totally Killer: Another teen movie that ended up disappointing. The cast is fine, the black comedy is amusing and the action is brutal, but it's hard to see how the characters would act that way. The usual way the victims act stupidly through the first half of the show. 6/10
Killers of the Flower Moon: It's acted great as you'd expect, but like the book the perspective is on the wrong person. Hopefully we can get someone to do it under the lenses of Mollie. 7.75/10
Priscilla: It's a pretty standard affair for a biopic from a person you wouldn't expect. It's still good at its job 7/10
The Marvels: At times there's plenty to laugh at and has some solid action scenes, but it's hampered by a meandering plot and the most boring Marvel villain yet. 5/75/10
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: I can see the appeal the movie has. I liked most of the acting for the most part and the Hunger Games part was well done. Unfortunately the second act felt too plodding. And Snow's actor just didn't have it in him to portray him well. Not that the script did him any good. 6/10
Napoleon: I'm just not sure what Ripley Scott was trying to do with this movie. It's too much of a farce in dialogue to be a serious biopic, the action's too serious for it to be satire, the Napoleon/Josephine dynamic could be in contention for worst chemistry between actors this year and the dialogue's just completely ridiculous. And all of this is on top of the fact that it's a shortened version of the story that left out some key details. The battles themselves are the best you can when it comes to entertainment even if I think it's well done. 4.5/10
Wish: Rant time.
What the actual fuck is this?
Really Disney? This is supposed to be the cap of to 100 years of animation? This wouldn't be worthy of being one of your Direct-to-TV movies. The voice acting is fine and all, but at this point the franchise needs to evolve from 'quirky girl'. Not to mention you hardly used much of the rich history of Moors culture you could have used. Disney decided to try their hands on a Disney villain and we end up with trying to have their cake and eat it. Yeah, the king is reasonable... until he takes a permanent turn to evil for reading a book. Not that he's innocent or anything. This was an obvious ponzi scheme which at this point I'm shocked it didn't fall apart in the first few decades. And this is why. Either the king doesn't do enough to ensure that his kingdom is secure without dissent from the crowd complaining about their loss of focus or he's seen as too incompetent to know a damn thing about magic. All of this could have been explained if we got an actual explanation on how this stupid world works. We don't even get an explanation about how he became a sorcerer or how no one else has been able to get magic or even that dangling plot thread about his parents being killed by thieves which is probably bullshit yet we have no idea what went down.
The animation... it's alright. I appreciate that Disney is trying to do a hybrid form of CGI and hand-drawn animation, but here it seems more like cel-shading than anything. And it pales in comparison with what Dreamworks and Sony Animation has been doing as of late.
And then we have the characters themselves. Disney tried to be cute and put in references of various characters but only raised more questions.
But the most offensive thing about this movie is the songs. Like... I don't understand. Encanto was 2 years ago. How the fuck did it regress this much? Well we do know that they hired a pop songwriter to try their hand in Broadway music (specifically Lin Manuel Miranda), but that songwriter was way out of their depth in this aspect. All of this combined to what has to be the worst soundtrack I've ever seen from Disney. Just look at these lyrics. 'I let you live here for free And I don't even charge you rent'? 'When it comes to the universe we're all shareholders Get that trough your system (Solar!)'? How are these songs getting blown away from the damn copycat 90s movies? I'd take watching Quest for Camelot over this shit.
And you know what? We could have gotten a decent movie out of this. Not just the rumored changes like the star being a humanoid or Asha being the daughter of evil parents. The kids all could have had been tempted with wishes for their conditions. The scheme itself was actually pretty good if we got an explanation that Magnifico wiped everyone's memories on the concept of magic. Asha could have gone ahead and given everyone the chance to chase their dreams and live their lives in their own ways by giving access to magic to those who want it. We could have gotten that 100th anniversary celebration. Instead, we get this.... and the short film of all the characters that was actually pretty good.
When I look back at Space Jam: A New Legacy, I was horrified with how they saw their franchises (which was referenced pretty well in Rick and Morty). At least Warners Brothers was being honest about what they felt. Disney thinks they an imitate old stories into new things, throw in meager attempts of diversity and pat themselves in the back for a job well done. Well, all forms of media should be held accountable for standards that are acceptable for all. For a studio like Disney, this is an indictment of what's honestly been a shitty year for them. And if they continue with movies like this, then they deserve all the hate they're getting. 3/10
Trolls Band Together: Oh look. A movie that has characters go through believable arcs, funny humor and good songs. Seems like these things are hard to come by these days. Trolls 3 is far from perfect by any means, but it at least called back to characters I was wondering where they were (which I'm surprised they weren't referenced in the second movie). I wasn't expecting this to be the best movie I watched in November, but it gets the trophy be default. 6.5/10
The Buddy Holly Show (1978): This is an example of a movie that treated the biopic as too much of a biopic and not enough as a story to tell. It's pretty much a typical story of a musician who made it big and whose life was cut short in tragedy. I look back at La Bamba, a movie about another singer who died in that same plane crash, and see just how much better it does in making you care about the person and the people he interacted with. If you want to see a precursor of the live concert experience, it could be interesting for you to see. Otherwise it's a bit of a slog to get through. 5/10
Stranger than Fiction (2006): I think I'll be spending a lot of time in this era. In a way I miss these kind of mid-budget movies about well-known actors in quirky yet acting-rich stories. And this coming from Will Ferrell of all people? Emma Thompson sounded like she would be the perfect role as a narrator in a Larian CRPG game (and I want to wish that into existence). It also brings us an interesting question about giving agency to fictional characters much like Ruby Sparks did. It just puts you into a thinking mood. I liked what we got here and wish we had more movies like this hanging around. 7.5/10
Suddenly Last Summer (1959): After watching Devotion, I wanted to see if there were any other Elizabeth Taylor films I hadn't watched yet, and this one popped up. It's definitely a fascinating tale of a doctor walking into the entanglement of a mental health institution. I can't really say if it's actuate or not, but we got some great performances from Taylor as well as Hepburn and Montgomery Clift. There's some excellent unspoken acting from the women here as they both transform over the course of the film. 8/10
Eileen: Finally, some good fucking movies. After a disappointing November, we get what may be my favorite film of the year. Great acting from everyone involved which help put ourselves in the protagonist's shoes. Not even the abrupt ending hurt the film that much 8.75/10
Johnny Guitar (1954): If this movie shows one thing, it can show how horrifying mob rule can look for those on the other hand of a lynching. It also shows that Mercedes McCambridge is incredible playing the part of an unhinged maniacal antagonist... almost to the point that it's hard to believe people don't think she's crazy (of course she made it big in soap opera). It's a good watch if you're patient. 7/10
My Sister Eileen (1942): Here we have one of my favorite actors of all time Rosalind Russell in a bit of a crazy slapstick comedy with some serious moments sprinkled it. Here, she only uses up 20% of her power given she's supposed to be a Cincinnati newcomer of the big apple, but she still does great work here and there's a ton of funny moments throughout the movie. There's a lot of interesting characters here, some less savory than others and those characters do detract from the general tone of the movie. Otherwise, it was a fun movie to check out. Might as well see the 50s version as well. 8/10 (Wait, there was a 1960 show too? Goes to show that reboots are an evergreen trend).
Good Burger 2: I can't recommend this. The magic is long gone from here by now and the new characters can't really bring in anything memorable either. At least it's not terrible. 5/10
Sunshine (2007): Now this was an odd movie to check. Special effects wise, it's pretty impressive with what they were able to do at that time. We also have the rare sight of scientists actually acting like such. Even Chris Evan's classic brashness coincides with his mind as part of the group. It also goes in a bit of a crazy turn with attempts of sabotage and... super-humans? Anyways it's an insane movie. Not the best or my favorite but one I'd recommend just to experience what I did. 7/10
Sugarland Express: Now this is crazy because I actually lived in the area the movie took place. Both what happened in real life and what was shot in the movie. Hell, I still see that railroad bridge shown in the beginning today. It also made for a hilarious experience given the plan was to drive together to Sugar Land when the actual trip from the prison pictured would have taken at most 30 minutes even without the freeways built later in time. This is much of the same experience as Dog Day Afternoon as you believe the actor were lovers and the connection they get with the hostage feels believable... which makes it all the more depressing as the story continues. Inaccuracies aside, it's still a great movie. 8/10
It's Always Fair Weather (1955) : It's a classic tale of friends reconnecting, requiring the actors to make it believable, which they succeed here. I especially liked how the commercial business was explained where things were much worse here. You thought product placement was bad? Imagine watching a variety hour based on the company. It makes it a the more hilarious when they take the task of reconnecting the friends and take the credit for it when if it wasn't due to them (though they did inadvertably help save the day). The music's good even if it's not memorable and takes elements from other music. 7.5/10
Wonka: It's a good movie with good music and some good acting. It's not Paddington good, but good enough. 7/10
Poor Things: May well be my film of 2023. 8.75/10
Ferrari: I liked it and the driving animation is pretty good. The same goes for the acting, but I don't remember anything outstanding. 7/10
The Iron Claw: The way the television matched how it was back then was nice to see and the acting is pretty good (Ric Flair aside), but I was still a bit irked at what was left out which could have made it a better movie. 7.5/10
The Color Purple: It's a movie that has a lot of great acting and the songs are done well... but I don't think the transitions into the songs are done well. It felt like the movie didn't want to be a musical and struggled to find ways to make it one. 7/10
Triple Frontier (2019): It's more or less a boring bit of action film with the characters acting like idiots throughout the movie. 4/10
RRR (2022) Finally I got the family to watch this... with a little compromise with the movie above. It's just as crazy as I imagined with some insane stuntwork. 7.5/10
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