brianmlucas

What doesn't this movie have? Nothing. A list stars doing their A list thing. Check. Great action. Check. Duh. Comedy. Check. Sci Fi. Check. Soundtrack. Check. Meta in jokes. Check. Cute Dog. Check.

Can not remember the last time I had this much fun at the movies. Spill the popcorn out loud belly laughs with mouth agape Oh No They Didn't stunts and just enough emotional gravitas to keep it all from being too campy. Ryan Gosling apparently can do anything while looking amazing and Emily Blunt just could not be more precious and / or precocious. Aaron-Taylor Johnson plays a heal with absolute believability and Hannah Waddingham once again proves that the whole world has been sleeping on her for far too long. I'd pay to see it again.

Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones, Fallout...OK.... Dr. Who if we had 5 faces. The point is, it's that good. We all knew Walton Goggins was gonna what he does. Since The Shield we know he's been doing it, Every. Single. Time. How this man is not buried under the weight of multiple Oscars and Emmys is a question for all of Hollywood. What we did not see coming is Ella Purnell. Ella carushes it here as Lucy. With one lip snarl she conveys fear and confidence in the same, well, lip snarl. She goes from Okey Dokey newlywed to Okey Dokey survivalist to Okey Dokey stone cold killer. The Lucy McLean she portrays could successfully sell me everything from toothpaste and hair conditioner to armor piercing bullets to Santa Claus.

Never played the game and do not give two F's to ever do so. This series is all it needs to be. The world building, character development, editing, music, props, wardrobe, everything are all fantastic.

What I you want from a Warner Brothers Godzilla / Kong movie? Giant CGI monster fights. Don't get me wrong, Godzilla -1 was great. But that's a different monster, literally. Samuel Jackson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Millie Bobbie Brown, Rebecca Hall, all great actors, love their other work. I don't care about their collective back story / family drama when it gets in the way of giant CGI Kong / Godzilla / Monster fights. This is the Warner Bothers version finally done right. From literally the opening shot it's a giant Kong monster fight followed by another giant CGI monster fight followed by another, and then another, every 5 maybe 10 minutes tops. Spaced thankfully very sparingly with just enough human narrative / exposition to keep the movie humming along with just enough plot and then, yes, get to the next giant CGI monster fight. Which all Dah-liver in glorious IMAX 3D. Don't waste your time seeing this in anything other than IMAX 3D. It's not going to win any awards other than Special Effects (Godzilla -1) and it should win that in a walk away. The effects are spectacular in IMAX 3D and they had the audience I saw this with standing up and cheering.

Don't get me wrong, I love me a good bad movie. The original Roadhouse for example, They Live, Showgirls, etc. This is worse than bad. This is "doctor" / model that grew up in the clearly not Florida Keys and yet still has some weird Eurotrash accent that is not the same as her father / decades long local Sheriff's weird Eurotrash accent worse than bad. Would've been better if they put Conner McGregor in the lead role cuz at least he over acts which is more than the flat line delivery of the least likeable role of his career Jake Gyllenhaal worse than bad. Everyone gives a worse acting performance than the child who is only cast because of her truly awesome hair worse than bad. They kill off or don't follow up on multiple characters that should be of significance but you don't care because none of them brought anything good to the movie so you don't miss them worse than bad.

Movie actually starts with a giant phallus coming through what can only be described as what a giant phallus is meant to go through. And that's about as subtle as it's going to get. Sci Fi tropes? You betcha. Got your technologically advanced bad guys versus the simple rural folk. Charming space pirate is he a good guy or a bad guy? Robot with a soul. Fantastic space beasts. Big CGI battle at the end. Dune like power squabble and race of master soldiers. There's even a character with mythical abilities weilding what might as well be light sabers. The only thing thinner than the plot and character development appears to be the CGI budget. But, it somehow works when the stars do what stars do best, make you want to watch them. The lead actors charismatic performance, both the good guys and bad guys, pulls it all together into a great big craptastastic fun to watch mess.

It is no surprise British director Ridley Scott portrays Napoleon as so totally unlikeable as he is here. He is physically and emotionally abusive to Josephine throughout. In fact, Vanessa Kirby's Josephine is probably the only likeable character that inspires any empathy in the whole movie. It was others in French leadership that were responsible for his rise to power, not anything Napoleon did on his own. Although the battles are portrayed as truly epic in scale and furiosity (I would definitely recommend seeing it in IMAX not waiting for Apple +) Napoleon's battle victories in this movie are due more to his opponents stupidity than Napoleon's leadership and likewise his defeats are all laid at the feet of Napoleon not following his own strategy and not following the advice of his Marshals. Like the battle scenes the cinematography, editing, dialogue, sound, and costumes are all superb. But nothing that can overcome watching a totally unlikeable character for over 2.5 hours.

Gotta love an out of nowhere short sweet to the point indie flick with no one you've known before giving a great performance. Actors, set designers, writers, cinematographers, effects both practical and CGI, tactical advisors, direction, editors, all deliver here. I loved the pacing, sometimes slow, sometimes intimate, sometimes fast, sometimes surprising, sometimes comforting, sometimes surprising. Hits the war / alien invasion movie cliches without pounding them into submission, just enough to deliver the impact so well it's why they became cliches. On a small budget. All in all a great indie.

A list actors Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russel Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gary Sinise, Lance Henriksen and more B listers than can be shot, hung, stabbed or blown up playing it straight for both drama and high camp comedy with over the top music and so many zoom in shots they must have blown the budget on camera lenses. All directed deftly by a pre Spider Man Sam Raimi. He was pretty much just the Evil Dead guy until this and all these stars just said yeah, sure, this is stupid let's run with it and see where it goes. If you can't enjoy this you take movies and probably lots of other things too seriously.

Why even make this movie if key elements of what made the first two so good aren't even it? We all know, and they go out of their way to repeat over and over again, that this isn't the same Gamora. And the movie is just not as good without her and her relationship with all the crew in general, and especially the very compelling relationship with Peter. It's bad enough to remove the two biggest stars from their biggest relationship roles in driving the franchise. They also take Rocket away from the crew for the vast majority of this movie as well. And he was the primary driver of so much of the rest of the relationships, not to mention the action and the fun. Mantis and Drax can't carry the whole movie any more than Nebula and, well, Nebula, as her character also suffers from the loss of her relationship with her sister Gamora. The Rocket backstory was interesting but it's not take up nearly half the movie with four brand new all CGI characters that pretty much only interact with each other interesting. The first act is mildly amusing and fun. The second act drags on forever. The only really good part is the final act when they are finally all back together in a way that vaguely resembles the action, fun, and spirit of the first two movies. In a way in glad this isn't doing as well at the box office as the other two because if this is the best they can do with these characters we don't need any more.

A list performers just nailed it. From incomparable Viola Davis to our heroes Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and the ageless one Jason Bateman and the supporting cast. Even though you already know the outcome they manage to make it dramatic. In part thanks to the stellar direction of too talented to be human Affleck. How does anyone get to be so good at so many things? The soundtrack takes me back to high school dances and recording songs off the radio onto a cassette tape. And, his Airness, Michael Jordan, when they cut to the footage of him in "the speech" scene, it is all too powerful, especially with his father right there. And the end song, MJ such a force they included a whole other ad campaign from Gatorade in the Nike biopic.

You gotta have an energetic, boisterous, charming, confident to the point of cocky and at least sometimes likeable Peter Pan for this tale to, um, fly. Which is a really tough thing to put on a child actor, or any actor. It's a role that not even Robin Williams always nailed. No amount of CGI wonderment or heart string pulling nostalgia can make up for simply not having the essential characteristics of Peter Pan in a Peter Pan movie. Not even the title sharing Wendy, with her well performed trepidation about impending maturity, nor Hook and the deeper than usual dive into his PTSD, can make up for a flat, boring, Peter Pan that gives you no reason to root for him.

It's been said you can only be disappointed by your expectations. I had great expectations for this movie. I mean come on, Idris Elba fighting a lion in Africa to save his kids! How cool is that? Turns out not very cool at all, at least not here. Idris, normally one of my favorite actors is boring and unlikeable here. I get it that he's supposed to be estranged from his kids. But that appears to be for good reason. He's not likeable and has zero chemistry with the kids. By the end I'm rooting for the lion. The lazy direction is compounded by sloppy writing, technical errors, wardrobe malfunctions, awful hair and makeup, and an overall lack of credibility.

It is not just as the trailers showed us, Santa with a sledgehammer. It hits all its' Christmas movie tropes with a sledge hammer. Cute kid, belief in Santa, naughty or nice, family staying together, sibling drama, greed, all the big names are named from Scrooge to Gingerbread, to 8 not so tiny reindeer, in a I am surprised it's only R not NC 17 level violence. The cast is stellar. Best role for John Leguizamo since Spawn, David Harbour is back rocking the Hopper dad bod, and Beverly D'Angelo delivers bravado and brass as she does. All of them, ALL OF THEM, get their scenes stolen by Leah Brady. She is the heart of the Christmas movie here and she fills the role at every opportunity.

All talky talky no fighty fighty, it makes Phantom Menace look fast paced and exciting. The producers go to great lengths to say it's not Game of Thrones. And they are correct. No characters you like or dislike enough to care about either way. Characters you might get to like are stymied by plodding dialogue, chunky story telling, plot place that either drags on far too long or story lines that go no further than one episode. When a character does actually start to resonate, they're a totally different character in the next episode. There are almost no dragons in House of the Dragon. Not until the very last minutes of the very last episode, which are shamefully more of a teaser trailer for Season 2 than anything to do with season 1.

Enjoy the stunning visuals and don't worry that you're watching pretty much the exact same story as last time; colonizers are bad, natives are good, fantastic third act battle sequence. This movie is such a copy of the original they brought nearly everyone back, whether they lived in the first one or not. Techno babble, flashback, memory recall, video recording, whatever, if they were in the first one it's a good bet they get at least a scene in this one. Maybe bring some gummies so you're not looking at your watch after 2.5 before the final battle. They could easily cut 40 minutes from the opening act that they did not need. I know they have to give screen time to the new characters but Zoe Saldana's character, so important to the first movie, is stripped of time and importance.

The mostly excellent cast and crew are just that in their roles, costumes, set design, cinematography, editing, direction, effects, score, everything. It's just about two episodes too long though with story lines and subplots that do not need to be included. Especially for the supporting characters, who are great in their own performances, story lines, and character arcs with no need for the multiple back stories. That is minor compared to the outstanding performances of the leads the supporting characters. Even though they totally gave away the ending in the first episode and the twist was as predictable as the cliff hanger.

Whole plot lines, scenes, and characters were totally unnecessary and dragged the run time into 2 and a half hours that seemed like 4. They could have cut at least 45 minutes. And in doing so made Letitia Wright the lead of the movie. As it is she is just one of way too many characters that don't really have anything to do until the end. But by then we really don't care because there's already been a Phantom Menace level of boring drawn out dialogue. At least Phantom Menace was in English. Half the boring dialogue is in subtitles, and half of that is...oh, you speak my language?!? Worst Marvel movie ever.

I know it is not a high bar to be the best since the original Predator, but man does this one clear the bar with plenty to spare. Like the OG, this is a character driven movie that happens to have a really cool Predator. It has a great and memorable cast that is given an excellent story to tell with meaningful dialogue that delivers more than just one liners. And when the one liners come, they actually work because of it. Excellent cinematography, wardrobe, and locations round out this very welcome and long waited worthy addition.

Chris Hemsworth is an Aussie beau hunk, maybe THE Aussie beau hunk. And that's a good thing. Natalie Portman is an Ivy League Academy Award winner. And that's a good thing. The two don't mix. At all. The whole Ragnarok redux wasn't a problem. It worked just as well this time as last. It can't fix two leads that have no chemistry. Zero. Still, they are both great individually, the rest of the cast and crew deliver excellent work, and I'm still faklempt over the end / post credits. That new intro music is terrible. Tear Rib Bull. THAT'S gotta go..

It's Ryan Reynolds, aka the hot Adam Sandler. He's been doing the same bit since Van Wilder and the whole if it ain't broke don't fix it thing has been churning out the goods for so long you don't mind that they now quote his other movies' catchphrases. It helps to have an absolute A list cast. And although they really don't too have much to work with other than time traveling daddy issues, they deliver all that they need to when they need to in several scenes and much dialogue with poignancy, affection, rapport, and humor. And the kid is just great as Jr. Ryan Reynolds. The whole thing moves along quickly helped with better than expected Netflix CGI.

Eddie Izzard is great. I've watched and enjoyed Eddie perform for decades. Seen Eddie live twice. Eddie was always best at stand up when feeding off the crowd. I got a reply out of Eddie at a show in Washington DC. I was the only one in DC to get a reply out Eddie's opening joke "Well done, America.... Thank you" Unfortunately, like DC, this London crowd was also a bit stiff. Eddie can get trapped in a self referential rabbit hole. The crowd interaction helps Eddie focus on both the rehearsed bit and where the crowd reaction takes the act and still bring it back to the rehearsed but with a Geoff and a smirk. Still love Eddie. Look forward to seeing Eddie live again ASAP.

Pedro Pascal and Nicholas Cage come across like they've been doing buddy movies together as long as Hope and Crosby. The trailer does give away some of the best bits but there's plenty more. There is bit of a lull in the lead up to the transition to the finale. But that is forgiveable as you really want to root for these characters and their relationship and see how they get through the finale. "Surprise" ending really wasn't but still satisfying.

Too many subplots that went nowhere with character arcs that didn't either, in way too many scenes that didn't matter other than to bloat this into a monotonaus 3 hours. The editor needed to cut a third of that waste into a much better paced and more enjoyable movie.

Pattinson in Kravitz both look great in their respective bat/cat suits. Although with Zoe that is more because not even the ridiculous WTF were they thinking ski hat/ cutout burglar mask thing she wore "in disguise" can hide her incredible beauty. Also, she definitely out performed Robert with the poor man hobbled by trying to use a "bat voice" that was more old Clint Eastwood than Dark Knight. The two stars combined on screen chemistry matched what was reported off screen.

The Batmobile was very cool. And along with Colin Farrell had an excellent chase scene that was by far the best sequence of the movie.

Paul Dano had his best performance since There Will be Blood as he was skin crawlingly creepy.

You won't get me started on the score....cuz there wasn't one! Only a few durge like chords repeated over and over and over again.

I know it is set in Gotham and the set designer understood that assignment. Wayne Mansion...Goth.... Bat Cave.... Goth.... Night Club.... Goth...... Hospital.....Goth.... Police Station.....Goth.....What I did not know is that Gotham is apparently located in the Pacific Northwest because it rained buckets in nearly every scene. That or the North Pole because it was always at night. Always.

Please please please let this be a one off. None of these versions of these iconic characters needs a sequel.

Mershala Ali's voice in the after credits scene is the best thing about this movie.

Give us the Day Walker.

Some MF Are Aways Trying to Ice Skate Uphill.

I know there are so many tropes in the end of the world genre that the only thing harder to avoid them is to come up with anything new. The best of the new here is the relationships between the characters expertly acted out by the all star cast. Leo and Jennifer get the mostly hashed out characters to work with, duh. But Jonah's consistently funny one liners hold up to Streep's conniving anctics and Cate's narcissism is both sad and enticing.