I listened to a bunch of spoilers!!! I can see why some people didn’t like it for that one very specific yet integral plot point.
Different strokes for different folks, but that’s such an odd opinion. At worst, it’s an ok, entertaining enough movie. I thought it was great. I just can’t fathom someone watching it and thinking it was downright bad.
GotG is the best trilogy/franchise of the MCU. Better than Captain America. Gunn did such a wonderful job of combining humor and emotion with this group of outcasts trying to find family and purpose.
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I saw the first one. Not the second.
They are just not for me in any way. They are anti movies in my mind.
I will say the fact this is doing well is a real bummer as the recent trend of poor performance was restoring my faith in the movie going audience. But it looks like we are in for years more of “but will the world end this time?!?”
Super hero movies aren’t my thing, so I haven’t seen it. NPR said it was sappy, overwritten, with an obnoxious sound track obsessed with needle drops. Plus some excessive animal torture and a messy plot that’s hard to follow for casual Marvel fans. This was Pop Culture Happy Hour anyway. 1 of the 4 hosts thought it was great, so shrug.
I’m not gonna poo poo people shitting on superhero dreck like Venom and Green Lantern, but James Gunn is an auteur too often dismissed and undervalued due to the genres he likes to work within.
He is an expert at storytelling and evoking authentic emotional experiences in crossover audiences.
If he did one for “them,” as they say, he’d win an Academy Award.
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The Menu didn’t get great reviews, but I thought it was solid movie that made me think a bit about fine art and the many toxic ways we interact with it. Strong recommend if you like horror/comedy. Also, looks great. If you’re shooting on a budget, shoot the whole movie in one room but make that room look super baller, that’s my tip for the day.
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James Gunn is a good director who treats his characters and the audience with respect. GOTG looked good and didn’t have the same VFX issued as ant man.
I have very high hopes for DC with him at the helm.
No problem with not liking GOTG 3, I thought it was fine not amazing but hey, they made a pretty good movie where the plot has you caring about the well being of a talking racoon.
We are probably past the point where minor marvel characters with mediocre directors can make 100 million. You have to respect the audience. They aren’t all morons.
But Gunn is a great director. If Coogler does another BP it will rake it in. But The Marvels probably won’t.
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Tubi wins again with the 1940’s Captain America:
https://tubitv.com/series/300008703/captain-america
Edit: damn, they got the 1940’s Batman as well
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This is one of my go to movie critiques too and for good cause but not only did they lose so bad in the 2018 avengers movie that half the people in the universe died, but so did James Bond in his last movie which I thought for sure I’d never see.
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It’s a treasure trove. They even have Turkish Superman.
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I loved The Menu and have been rolling the dice on other culinary movies that give a serious spin to the authenticity of the first Waiting…
For many years, Waiting… was the most authentic movie about restaurant life. But what if you took out the jokes and killed a different character every time the audience was supposed to laugh?
In that spirit, time to check out Dinner Rush.
https://tubitv.com/movies/100000026?utm_source=justwatch-feed&tracking=justwatch-feed
Dinner Rush has a 91% positive rating from Rotten Tomatoes, and is included in Leonard Maltin’s book 151 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen. Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times described it as “a mouth-watering display of talent, technique, and patience” with “more intrigues here than in the court of the Medicis.” Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote “Dinner Rush piles on the complications to the point of overdoing it, only to reveal at the climactic moment that this is but a ploy––that in the wholly unpredictable way everything plays out, the picture makes perfect sense.”
So we have Air and Tetris and to complete the trifecta of product biopics:
https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1656374649981218817
Saw some comments on the YouTube trailer that the story this was based on wasn’t even true but they made it anyway. Lol
I see Menu as less about the art of cooking and more about how all of the characters approach fine art. Anya’s date is so into it that his head is up his ass, the rich couple are snobby and nitpicky, the business bros are just there for clout and don’t even care about the food. The chef has obviously totally lost perspective. Anya’s character is totally indifferent to high culture and really doesn’t want to be there, which is kind of a toxic response in its own way.
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That’s a good point. Some people just cook. I like The Menu because it’s about people who treat food as art.
And it’s about the cost of obsession. I like watching Whiplash for similar vibes. Just tough when you see the main character conclude that the cost of obsession…is worth it if it gets you greatness.