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The Predator (2018)
Not good
It is amazing how many bad choices were made. My least favorite choice made was the focus on the kid played by Jacob Tremblay who is supposed to be really smart but he also punches the predators tech when his dad mails it to his house in the hopes of using it as evidence when a predator ship crash lands next to him. It's never really explained what the evidence would be used for. But none the less Jacob Tremblay's character Rory thinks its a video game that he ordered for some reason even though he ordered it and would know what the video game would look like. The kid is smartest and dumbest person alive.
Will Traeger played by Sterling k. Brown is really mean and rude to Rory (Jacob Tremblay) and everyone else for no reason even though he needs Rory to unlock the predator ship. I also hate that everyone knows martial arts in the movie, including Will Traeger who is just a regular scientist.
The new hybrid predator is interesting but I don't like that it changes the motives of the predators and why the come to earth and why they hunt humans. In the first two Predator movies the predators come to earth everyone 10 years to hunt because it's almost a ritual and apart of their culture to do so. In the first 2 the predators took out peoples spines and skulls as a trophy but that's retconned to the predators needing humans spinal fluid to evolve and become stronger. It takes away the most interesting aspect of the predators (their culture), but this retcon makes them just regular movie aliens killing humans for their own benefit.
This is easily the worst Predator movie, sometimes have a feeling to re-watch Predators (I don't) but I don't have that feeling for The Predator.
Seven Minutes in Heaven (1986)
A fun 80s coming of age story
It's 1980 something in a small town in Ohio when A+ student Natalie (Jennifer Connelly) is home alone while her father is away for a business trip. Meanwhile her longtime friend Jeff ( Byron Thames) gets in another fight with his stepdad and retreats to Natalie's house where they live together. And oh yeah there Polly (Maddie Corman) who is Natalie's boy obsessed best friend who she has a crush on Casey who starts dating Natalie but she quickly forgets about him when she meets pro baseball player Zoo Knudson and pretends to be 18 to try to get in his pants.
I went into this movie knowing nothing so I can't say I was disappointed. Jennifer Connelly and Byron Thames have great chemistry together and play off each other very well. However. Maddie Corman as Polly isn't as great Connelly and Thames but you still get why she, Jeff and Natalie are friends. And her subplot is easily the weakest part of the movie, it's very uninteresting when the movie cuts away from Natalie and Jeff. Also when Polly goes to New York in hoping to meet Zoo she gets kicked out of the stadium and stays with this photographer who tells Polly what it's like to orgasm with a girl and he even kisses her. I get what they were going for in that Polly finally learns that looks aren't everything in a guy but it's just so weird and uncomfortable.
Natalie seems to have an estranged relationship with her dad which was probably caused by her father always being at work and he mother dying when Natalie was young which leads to why her character is so uptight and closed off from people who aren't Jeff and Polly until she meets Casey who is a friend of Jeffs and they start going out. Natalie seems to be a bit uncomfortable with Casey as when Casey obviously tries to have sex with her, but Natalie rejects him. Natalie's main conflict in the story is with the Polly when Polly goes to Natalie's house to see Casey's car outside and Jeff sleeping outside to give Natalie and Casey some privacy and then incorrectly assuming that Casey and Natalie are having sex. Polly at the same time being very mad the Zoo gave her a generic fan-response letter and being jealous that Natalie "isn't a virgin anymore", she begins to resent Natalie and telling Natalie to leave her house when Natalie tells Polly that she gets into stuff too much. During a fire drill Polly calls out to Jeff within hearing distance of Natalie that After that Casey is flirting with Lisa. When Casey admits to seeing Lisa the whole time during their relationship she is heart broken and mad at Jeff for knowing and not telling her about it. But Jeff and Natalie make it up almost immediately after. Natalie then wins a writing competition and goes to Washington DC and meets a White House aid. Natalie going to DC feels very pointless in that it's only in the story to give more time to Polly's subplot in New York. Natalie through out the movie seems to be very uncomfortable with intimacy. It's a good message to that it's okay to reject a kiss or to not have sex.
Jeff is the best of the 3, he's charismatic charming and funny. Jeffs resents his mother for marrying his step-father who is really hard on him because he thinks his way of life is the best life for Jeff but Jeff refuses to do so and always gets into fights with his step-dad. His arc with his step-father seems to be concluded very quickly when in the final scene Jeff is seen playing basketball with his step-dad. I guess you could say Jeffs step-dad felt bad about being so hard on him when they fight in the car but he seemed kind of pissed off that Jeff won't cooperate with him, but it is still sweet to see Jeff get along with his step-father. Also according to the trailer, Jeff likes Polly but I never got the sense of that. I just thought he was just goofing around with her like he does with Natalie. But then again he does almost have sex with her which was also odd to watch because they're minors in the story.
Even though there are flaws in the story I still like this movie very much. The characters are likeable except for Polly when she is begins to think that she is entitled to something like when she gets mad at Natalie for not telling her that she "lost her virginity" but your supposed to not like her in those moments or when Zoo sends her a typed fan-response letter. But you're supposed to dislike her in those moments. This movie was a fun experience and I know that the 5/10 rating may seem low but there's alot of odd scenes, mostly with Polly but there is fun in this movie.
War of the Worlds (2005)
The alien invasion movie that I've always wanted
The first half of War of the Worlds is an A+ but in end half it loses steam when Robbie runs off over the hill because he really wants to see the battle for some reason and Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning's characters run into a basement with this other guy who is played by Tim Robins. Tom Cruise and Tim Robins dont get along to the point Tom Cruise kills Tim Robins but Tom Cruise killing Tim Robins isn't shown for some reason.
The fact that this movie is shot from the perspective of the main family is amazing. Not once does the camera cut away to the tripods in another country and thats perfect because it keeps us in eyes of the main family.
The aliens in this version are a massive upgrade to the 1953 version. The 1953 aliens are way too cute and the ships look like toys but the aliens in the 2005 version are much more menacing and scary same for the tripods. The tripods also make a really cool fog horn noise which adds to the scale of them. The characters are also a big upgrade as they have something to lose in this one.
I give this movie a high 6 out of 10.
Becoming Bond (2017)
Doesn't feel like the whole story
Assuming you already know what this documentary is about, I'll just get to what I thought of the 1 and a half hour documentary where George Lazenby tells his "life story" and how he got the role of 007. However the documentary seems to be more about George Lanzenby's sex life at the start. For some reason their is a segment about how he lost his virginity too his hot 23 year old neighbor when he was fifteen, but whats the point of that segment? I guess to segway into Lazenby's sex addiction (if he had a sex addiction). But through out the documentary I didn't get the sense that he had a sex addiction because he is portrayed as dumb, witty, charismatic Australian who is just doing what he wants.
The part where it starts to get interesting is when his agent tells Lazenby that he should become Bond. But George Lazenby was only a male model at the time so he had to lie to get the job. So you see how he used his quick witted tricks to get the role of James Bond.
George later meets the love of his life Belinda and they become hally together but her father doesn't approve of him because of his lower class. So Belinda is sent away with her father in London, but George can't stand not hearing from her after she has stopped sending him letters. So he travels all the way from Australia to London to not find Belinda. He later meets Belinda in a pub with her new boyfriend, but a couple of weeks later she confesses that she still loves him and move in together. However Lazenby's model career kicks off and he has an affair with another woman and Belinda leaves him. A couple of years later George has the role of James Bond and he is told by the studio to go on vacation to escape the press. George invites Belinda to where he is staying in South France and surprisingly she agrees to go with excitement. When Belinda arrives George tells her that the studio has called him to go to London for a press conference and tells her that he will be back in a couple days, but he doesn't know that it would be years before he would return. George wouldn't see Belinda again until 20 years later but by that time she had already been married and had kids. The real George Lazenby telling the story while this all happens on screen begins to tear up and you feel with him. We had followed his adventure and relationship with Belinda so it was sad to see her and George have to leave each other not lnowing that it would be the last time they would see eachother for 20 years.
Later on in George Lazenby's career his agent tells Lazenby that he should become Bond. But Lazenby was only a male model with no acting experience at the time so he had to lie to the casting director, the head of the studio, and tbe director of the movie get the job. You see how he used his quick witted tricks to get the role of James Bond when the casting director asks him his life story and George just keeps naming countries that they couldn't trace him too so that they wouldn't know if it was true. The director outs him as a phony but says that lying his way through an organization is such a James Bond thing to do, so the director makes him 007.
The best part to me was the last few segments were Lazenby turns down a contract to be Bond for 6 more films and a 1 million dollar signing bonus while everyone is trashing him for it, saying it was notoriously one of the worst decisions in the world. But for Lazenby, he just wanted to live the life he wanted too. He just didn't want to be Bond off screen.
I really felt for Lazenby because he struggled in school, he found the love of his life only to lose her 3 times, 2 of which not being his fault. After all that personal stuff he turned down the next 6 Bond films for his own sake only to be ridiculed by everyone. The documentary has some glaring problems with its tone and it feels like the story can get side tracked but I think that was just George Lazenby telling his story and getting distracted by his sexual experiences and Hulu didn't have a whole lot to work with. I have no idea if most of the stuff Lazenby was saying was true, so I began to wonder how this story could be adapted perfectly and I thought of a George Lazenby Martin Scorsese movie, the documentary follows alot of themes Scorsese has dabbled with, such as sex and drugs.
No Time to Die (2021)
A satisfying ending to Daniel Craig's James Bond
Daniel Craig's James Bond is easily my favorite, so I was happy to see the way this movie was handled. This James Bond always had a more emotional side to me and you can really tell that he does when Bond believes Madeleine has betrayed him wile a goon is trying to shoot through a bullet proof window and you really feel that hes think about letting them both die.
Bond's death is handled so beautifully, he sacrifices himself to save the world but you really aren't focused on that aspect but that he's sacrificing his life and life with Madeleine and his daughter to save the world. It actually almost made me cry in the theater since Iron Man's death in End Game. It makes me think why we can't have great character deaths like this, why did Han Solos death have to be so lack luster. I can only pray now that Lashana Lynch's Nomi movie is treated as a spinoff and not the next Bond, and after that the series is rebooted with Michael Fossbender as Bond in the 60s. It was a bittersweet ending and thats perfect.
Blade Runner (1982)
Blade Runner is a flawed masterpiece
Blade Runner has flaws such as the forced romance between Rachael and Deckard, the flow of the story being slowed down when ever Sebastian is in a scene but I don't care. I love this movie. The visuals, the music, the characters and best of all the world are crafted so perfectly. The world feels real. There is little stuff that you can miss in your first viewing, I missed stuff and on my second viewing I learned things about the world that made me think about the world, why is the world like that, why are replicants banned from earth.
The things that bother me though are the Sebastian scenes, they really slow the movie down. It's the only part that feels like a dread to watch. He's just not interesting.
But despite that this movie is beautiful.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
One of the best
With out a doubt one of the best action movies of all time. The action scenes are well shot, you can see and understand whats happening. The characters though are kind of bland and I didn't have much emotional connection to the characters but you still have a strong enough connection to where you care whats happening on screen. The only characters that kind of annoyed me were the wives at the beginning, they get more tolerable towards the end. Tom Hardy is also good in this movie, but it still funny that he is always wearing something on his face in his movies. The score is a bonus, it's really good, you feel the urgency in the action scenes where they have to fend off enemies from their vehicle. Another amazing thing about this movie is the world, everything feels dirty and dry, it does feel like there is no water in this world. Mad Max is a must see for any action fan but also a must see for a casual movie fan. Mad Max Fury Road 8.5/10.
The Giant Claw (1957)
This movie drags
This movie is only an hour long but it feels like 3.
The length of this movie is still the best part though. The actors were alright, the giant claw looks terrible in this movie. But if you're a old monster movie fan I would recommend this to you.
The Hateful Eight (2015)
An amazing crime, mystery, drama
The hateful eight is another Quentin Tarantini film with great characters. I thought Quentin just made another western film with Samuel L. Jackson like Django, but it was delighted surprise when I found out that it was crime, drama, mystery after just watching Django.
Samuel L. Jackson's character Major Marquis Warren is great as a war veteran bounty hunter, he isn't really a good guy but he has more of a villian personality but you still route for him because the real villian Daisy Domergue, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh gives off the vibe that makes every scene unsettling and tense. There is always a reason for her to be alive, starting with Kurt Russel's character John Ruth's code. Walter Coggins is great in this film as Sheriff Chris Mannix who is from the south and is the new sheriff of the town the main cast of characters is trying to get to. Overall this movie is amazing for a film that is 3 hours long. It has amazing characters, a great setting, and an amazing plot.
Aquaman (2018)
A fun superhero movie
Something DC does better than marvel is fight scenes, the fights are shot well and it's easy to tell what's going on. Aquaman has a different tone than other dc movies before it, it is more light hearted as can be told by the brigh colors in the film. The film's color grading is not dark and gloomy like Man of Steel and BvS, the film takes it self less seriously and it benefits from it, Aquaman isn't the type of character to be the lead for a dark and gritty movie. Aquaman does follow a lot of superhero movie stereo types such as losing his first fight with the main villian and having his main weapon destroyed and having to go on a journey to find a better one and then defeat the main villian the second time, but I'd Arthur losing his first battle then winning the second battle is justifiable. Arthur fights Orm and loses under water in the first battle because Orm is a trained Atlantian super soldier and the movie shows us that Arthur is good at fighting regular people on land. Arthur then fights Orm out of the water in the second battle and obviously wins.
Pacific Rim (2013)
A fun action movie
Pacific Rim is a well pasted film with great action, with alright human characters, I can't even remember any of the characters names. Idris Elba and the scientist characters are easily the best human characters in the movie, but even with okay human characters the action makes up for it. The Yeager v Kaiju action is easily the best part of the film, you can feel the weight of the Yeager's movements when it's fighting a Kaiju or just walking. Overall it's a must watch for mecha anime fans, monster movie fans and action movie fans.