Parasite
9/10
Finally got around to watching it and I liked it. The first half of the movie was a sort of standard and well done movie but the turn in the middle is what propelled to being a cut above.
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Reminiscence
3/10
Itās not a good movie. Hugh Jackman stars in a sci fi noir with Rebecca Ferguson as the femme fatale who might not be what she seems. Somehow Jackman and Ferguson donāt have chemistry, the story is not very interesting, and the production was mid tier.
Only points awarded for being set in Miami post global warming sinking half the city and Rebecca Ferguson in femme fatale dresses.
Iām āwatchingā ghostbusters: the fan service movie that came out last year and it is THE WORST SOUND MIXING IāVE EVER HEARD. Like you literally have to turn down/turn up the volume on this every 2-5 minutes. It blasts you with volume/bass every time (at least 20x) they turn on a proton pack and yeah. Carrie Coon though 
I canāt say enough good things about The Fable and its confusingly-named sequel The Fable: The Killer Who Doesnāt Kill, both on Netflix. Itās a franchise that effortlessly shifts between crazy John Wick-style action, brilliant deadpan comedy, and seedy crime drama without ever missing a beat.
Iāve had No Way Out on my to-watch list for a while, but the death of Sidney Poitier moved it to the top of my agenda. Absolutely incredible debut performance by Poitier, the premise had me hooked immediately, completely uncompromising look at race in America circa 1950. A+
I had high hopes for Zero Focus, a Japanese film noir from 1961 and maybe the only noir I can think of from this era with a female lead. A new bride discovers her husband missing and tries to track him down. Ultimately it felt like a sub-par Murder She Wrote ep.
Les Vampires might be the most rowdy thing on the Criterion Channel right now. A ten-part, seven-hour serial from 1916(!). Every episode is ludicrously complicated. I love me some silent movies, this has some of the most well-preserved film Iāve ever seen from this era. Looks great. Show is batshit crazy. Like, hereās the summary of episode 1 of 10:
Philippe GuĆ©rande (Ćdouard MathĆ©), a reporter working for the newspaper āMondialā who is investigating a criminal organisation called the Vampires, receives a telegram at work stating that the decapitated body of the national security agent in charge of the Vampire investigations, Inspector Durtal, was found in the swamps near Saint-Clement-Sur-Cher, with the head missing. Being turned down by the local magistrate (ThelĆØs), he spends the night in a nearby castle owned by Dr. Nox (Jean AymĆ©), an old friend of his father, along with Mrs. Simpson (Rita Herlor), an American multimillionaire who desires the property. After waking up in the night, Philippe finds a note in his pocket saying āGive up your search, otherwise bad luck awaits you! ā The Vampiresā, and discovers a mysterious passage behind a painting in his room. Meanwhile, Mrs. Simpsonās money and jewels are stolen in her sleep by a masked thief, but Philippe is suspected of the crime. Philippe again visits the magistrate, who now believes his case, and they trick Dr. Nox and Mrs. Simpson into waiting in an anteroom. At the castle, Philippe and the magistrate find the head of Inspector Durtal hidden in the passage in Philippeās room. Back in the anteroom, they find that Mrs. Simpson is dead and that Dr. Nox has vanished. Her pocket contains a note from the Grand Vampire saying that he has murdered the real Dr. Nox and is now assuming his identity.
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Iām not a big history buff, but I feel like France had a lot of big things going on in 1916. Somehow they still had enough creative energy left over to produce the wildest spy thriller serial of all time. Itās too rowdy for me in 2022, idk how people felt watching this in 1916.
Speaking of silent films, this is how the lead actor in the last movie I saw described his performance :
I wanted to find a way to go back to the German expressionistic style (like Nosferatu or Cabinet of Dr Caligari), with gestures and the eyes etc, but still have it be rooted in something organic.
The performance in question :
and of course
Anyway, as Iām becoming more and more of a Nic Cage enthusiast, I thought it was finally time to watch Vampireās Kiss (1988) (the mentioned interview managed to convince my gf to give it a shot), as it is supposed to be his most unhinged performance.
It certainly didnāt disappoint in that regardā¦I think everyone knows the memes that came from this performance and the movie is more or less that kind of weird over-acting non-stop. NC really goes full crazy with not a hint of irony, it must have taken a lot of courage (or self-delusion) for an actor to do this so early in his career lol.
The movie itself I somehow expected to be a light romantic comedy, but it is not that at all and despite the constant laughs that come from NCās antics, it goes to very dark places and by the time it ends itās fully tragic. I donāt know if I would recommend it as a good movie, but itās for sure interesting and definitely not one you quickly forget. At least for any NC fan this is a must watch.
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This is almost certainly not bad sounds mixing. Itās that they were too cheap to remix if for home viewing and you are stuck watching the theatre mix.
Nic Cage is not the āstarā of this movie, but based on the above you should watch this one ASAP. This is the Nic Cage performance to end all Nic Cage performances IMO.
The movie itself is just lunacy. Listen to the How Did This Get Made episode afterward, itās a good one.
4 Likes
Thanks Iāll keep it in mind (and if you know of an interview where Cage describes the movie as art lmk 
)
Mandy is still the greatest Nic Cage performance. I have spoken.
Not to be a debbie downer, but I know somebody who worked on these films, and I am told that Willis has severe early-onset dementia and barely knows that heās there making movies.
Yeah I can see that from one of these movies I saw.
Lol itās the same picture
https://twitter.com/ArjSaj/status/1479508222822256642?t=5uPnI7vii7MwP79xcByfIg&s=19
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Waterloo Bridge
It was pretty good. Vivien Leigh is abolsutely stunning and there are small scenes where she does amazing acting as well. Robert Taylor does great as a charismatic officer.
Willis did 7 movies this year? Did he go broke?
maybe he just likes making terrible movies?
i really enjoyed that thread, excellent reviews. and wtf Bruce Willis, didnāt realize he was the straight to video or streaming king now, taking the throne from Nic Cage
Ugh, I hate it if Bruce is legit being exploited because of a health issue. Nic Cage is more a victim of his own financial irresponsibility, although perhaps that is also a mental health problem.
Iām a half hour into Shang-Chi. Loving Awkwafinaās performance. Fight scenes are A+ over-the-top comic book stuff with so many callbacks to classic Chinese martial arts movies. Would have loved it even more it if theyād dialed back the CGI a bit; some of the shots would have looked so incredible if theyād gone with old-school wire work.
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This is my concern. But according to the person I know, as the memory problems started to set in Willis sat his family down and said that no matter what he wanted to keep working. But lord only knows where that story is coming from. Regardless it definitely doesnāt sound like heās really able to choose to continue to be in movies right now, which is disturbing even if heās not acting under duress.