Poor Things was really good. Captivating from start to finish, even though it’s 2.5 hours long. Emma Stone gives an amazing performance. We need more smart movies for adults like this.
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Hear hear!
What did you like better from the 2010s?
If im going for a “best film since” list it goes:
Killers of the flower moon
The social network
There will be blood
Zodiac
Honorable mentions to Children of Men, Parasite, The Master.
CODA and TWBB both are near the top.
Was more commenting on how far movies have fallen.
We used to have movies like Cuckoos’s Nest much more often.
2023 was a stellar year for movies. Easily in top 10% of years.
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Parasite was also very good.
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Please proceed
Saw Eraserhead for the first time last week. Thought it sucked. Come at me.
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Cause you’re not used to seeing him with hair
I watched the whole thing, and definitely see where you’re coming from.
Goddamn did that take FOREVER to get going. Haven’t seen anything start that slow since Power of the Dog and this may have been slower than that. And the second half wasn’t even that interesting. Acting was pretty good, but that can only go so far.
4/10
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Hope you’re right. Will be catching up on this year over the next two months.
Only seen Barbie, Maestro, and May December. Barbie was great; latter two were disappointing.
Went and watched The Beekeeper, which is proof that my standards have dropped through the floor in my pursuit of deriving value from my A-List subscription. Why did I see this? I only kinda like the original Equalizer movie, didn’t really like the sequels, and Jason Statham, while perfectly capable is - to put it mildly - no Denzel Washington or Liam Neeson. So I’m not even really a fan of the vigilante subgenre, and I shouldn’t have been drawn into becoming morbidly curious about this one, but here we are.
And I’ve gotta tell you: for the first 30-45 minutes, I’m very much into this silly nonsense. I’m having a blast. I’m laughing out loud at the multiple exchanges where characters are going back and forth with utter seriousness, saying things like:
Person A: “This guy’s gonna kill me.”
Person B: “What? Come on. Who even is this guy?”
Person A: “I don’t know; some beekeeper.”
Person B: “MOTHER OF GOD.”
That eventually gets explained to an extent that it retroactively seems less funny; I thought it was funniest when people were just level-one horrified by the notion of, “Holy shit, you pissed off a BEEKEEPER? How could you be so reckless??” Anyway, the movie is ridiculous, but I’m having a good time, while noticing the fact that the special effects looked so shitty that they made Quantumania look like high art.
Unfortunately it loses steam, as these things sometimes can. The violence scenes become repetitious, the beekeeper never really shows an ounce of vulnerability in any of his fights that would suggest that he can ever even get into serious trouble, and at some point it has clearly become difficult to stretch their thin concept into an entire feature-length film. And by this point it has also become clear that the supporting characters are almost all dogshit and being played with the lowest level of performance. So we’ve begun our descent; I hope against hope that I haven’t seen my last enjoyable part of this, but it’s beginning to feel a bit grim.
And then they introduce a major plot detail. A really, really stupid one. Our apparent big bad is…the son of the President of the United States. And the beekeeper, who seems to know this, is undeterred. This is where our descent becomes a full-on nosedive. The final chapter or so of this is absolutely horrendous, and not in an entertaining way. Statham is solid, and seems to have the chops to maybe carry one of these well enough if the material was good, but this material was not that. I end up giving this a 2/5, and it’s only being buoyed to that score by how much I enjoyed the first 30-40% of the movie.
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i still plan to see it only cuz of A-List but won’t have high hopes.
I didn’t make it to see Memory last night because we got ice here in Birmingham today so can’t go anywhere really, probably be after 24th now before I can.
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Unfortunately I think you might miss Memory altogether due to the driving conditions; think that one is projected to have a short run. Beekeeper is doing alright and should still be around. You might easily like it better than I did; it’s got a positive RT score.
Watching Jennifer’s Body. lol wtf Chris Pratt is in this?!
Omg and JK Simmons with a hook hand!
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Looks like it’s still running at least till 24th albeit at a shitty time
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Jason Statham has been delivering B-action for like 80 years now, he’s like the most consistent guy in Hollywood.
Yeah, I know he’s been around and been pretty prolific for a long while. I’ve never watched a Fast and Furious movie, so I’m not as exposed to his stuff.
If you’ve seen any of his movies, you’ve basically seen them all, except Lock Stock and TSB, where Staham gets to play a comedic role.
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My personal fav is crank
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