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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
2 fast.... 2 furiosa?
When it was announced that George Miller was making a kind of Mad Max reboot with Tom Hardy.... Is was like.... Hmmmmmmm
Then Fury Road came out and it was BLEEPING AWESOME.
Cut to like 8 years later.... And news comes out that they're making a prequel to fury Road... All about young Furiosa and I was like.... hmmmmm
and then it came out and it was....... MEH
So it's a prequel to 2015's FURY road, FURIOSA tells the story of ... a young Furiosa (Charlize Theron's character in FURY ROAD)
The movie acutally opens with audio exceprts from news stories that give you little snippets of the world as it starts to turn into the wasteland post apocalyptic world of Mad Max that we know .... theres not too much and its pretty vague (in a good way) to give the audience jusg a few wee nuggets of info.
We then meet young Furiosa as a 10-12 year old, she's in the Green Place (mentioned in Fury Road) but no sooner to we meet her, she's abducted bua couple of goons who kidnapp her and take her to their Leader.... DEMENTUS (awesome name, more on the names later) played to perfection here by a scene stealing / chewing (delete as appropriate) CHRIS HEMSWORTH
He's the leader of a gang in the Wastleland, he keeps young Furiosa in the gang DEMENTUS' gang crosses paths with Immortan Joes gang (from Fury Road) and as part of a craxzt trade deal, Furiosa is given to Immortan Joe
That sets the movie and its story more or less,,,, what follows is a series of wasteland gang squabbles between the Citadel (Immortan Joe's place), Gastown and the bullet farm (all briefly referenced in FURY ROAD), while Anya Taylor Joy's FURIOSA does some growing up on her way to becoming Charlize Theron.
I think its almost impossible to talk about Furiosa without comparing it to FURY ROAD, so I'm not even gonna try.,
I think the inherent problem with prequels is, you know the outcome of the story (more or less). You know certain characters will live (Furiosa, Joe etc) and you can probably guess certian characters die....(no spoilers!)
eno
And the problem with making this specific prequel is,,.,, its a prequel to a modern classic. Fury Road was (IS!) a PHENOMINAL movie. It topped the list in many critics and publications best movies of the decade, and I think Empire named it best movie of the century....? (hmm)
So, while ANY George Miller directed Mad Max movie is a welcome thing, I think most people would have wanted a SEQUEL to Fury Road, not a PREQUEL. It could still be a Furiosa led movie (I mean, Fury Road was a low key Furiosa led movie anyway,,,, seriously, Max is a passenger in the story and plot of Furiosa)
But yeah, a sequel to Fury Road would have been prefferable,
I think it was James Dyer in the Empire film podcast put it best when he talks about in Fury Road, we meet Furiosa as a fully formed character already., With very little dialogue or exposition, we get who that character is, what shes about..... we don't really NEED ther back story fleshed out.
When you explain away the mythlogy.... it takes away from the MYTH..... ology..,...
CHARACTERS / ACTING
Anya Taylor Joy does an admirable job as the young Furiosa, looks wise you can see how that person grows up to be Charlize Theron so there's no disconnect on the surface level, and she handles the various scenes and states well enough. Buuuuuuuuuut,,,, the whole time I was thinking to myself.... couldn't Charlize just have played young Furiosa in this movie?
As I said before, Hemsworth kinda steals the show here. He walks a fine line between over the top crazy bad guy chewing the scenery, and nuanced tortured past bad guy.
Like theres some subtle things he does in the movie, that kinda hint towards the fact he maybe doesn't WANT to be the crazy, murderous gang leader.... but the events of the world and of his surroundings have forced him into this role,..,.. and he has to play that role to survive
(kinda reminded of Jeffrey Dean Morgans portrayal of Neegan in The Waling Dead in that sense.
Speaking of sense.... the sensible thing to do at this point would be to subscribe to the channel 😏
The supporting cast are pretty good also, the various henchmen and lieutenants of the gangs are wonderfully weird and brilliantly named
(History Man, Organic Mechanic, Rictus Erectus, Scrotus to name but a few)
I don't want to go off road into spoiler territory, but theres a character that appears halfway, ends up being an important character, both to the story and to the character of FURIOSA, but it feels like they're introduced too late, the the relationship isn't earned.... the stakes of the relationship don't feel high.... so we don't care as much as I think the filmmakers would like us to.
One of the things that stands out with Furiosa (and all Mad Max movies) is the dialogue. The world of the wasteland has evolved from the world we know, and so has the way people speak.
Its very subtle but the slightly different way the characters speak to each other, the odd cadence of the their speech, the word swaps that feel like they've used a thesaurus, it really helps to sell the other worldly ness of this reality.
Tonaly, it's pretty spot on, nothing seems out place in that respect, its avery believable apocalyptic wasteland.
It seemed to be quite a lot more CGI, heavy than Fury Road, was The scenes at the end that show you know show you clips of Fury Road. Kind of remind you of that and it kind of just reminds you of how much better. Uh, a movie Fury Road.
Where this movie falters, is in its pacing, and structure,
Where Fury Road clocked in at just under 2 hours, Furiosa tips the scales at almost 2 and a half hours.
Fury road was essentially a relentless, don't stop for anything 2 hour chase movie (with plot and character development peppered seamlessly throughout)
Fursiosa is much more (delibately) slower movie,. Its even split up into 5 or 6 chapters with accompany titles (that are wee bit pretentious,,,,, kinda reminded me of Zack Snyders Justice League and early Tarantino... we don' need the chapter title cards guys, just get on with the movie)
Theres plenty of action scenes so its not like its a dull snoozefest (DUNE 2!), but its definitely a slower movie than Fury Road
There s sequence about halfway through the movie t hat feels VERY much like callback / homage to Mad Max 2 The Road Warrior
CGI
The look of this film is much less gritty than Fury Road, and it feels like there was a lot more (Obvious) CGI in Furiosa.... theres a couple of shots that really stand out .... and not in a good way...
Don't get me wrong, at times it looks stunning, and I'm sure the 4k disc of this will no doubt look AMAZING..... but it did feel a little video game ish.... a little AVATAR ish.... and not the grittyness that we expect from the MAd Max Wasteland Universe.
Similarly, the score by Tom Holkenborg (FKA Junkie XL) is more subdued than his (AMAZING ) score for Fury Road
(I actualyl LOVE the score for Fury Road, there a track on the Fury Road score called Brothers in Arms which made its way stratight the top 10 movie score tracks on my playlist)
Gonna go with 6/10 for Furiosa, perhaps I went with too high expectations and was wanting more of the FURY ROAD type of movie... so If you go expecting a Fury Road type.... you might be little dissapointed.
But as I said, I'm happliy see any George Miller directed Mad MAx movie.... even one without Max.
IF (2024)
What if.... Theres a better pixar than pixar....? It's IF
Thoughts on the movie. Written and directed by John Krasinski, he also has a supporting role in the movie. IF tells the story of B (played by Cailey Fleming)
(it's short for Elizabeth we find out.... Wait... Is that a spoiler.?.? Prob not.... 👀)
Speaking of spoilers, there's a bit of an extended opening scene. That's quite emotional...not goin into too much detail because I don't really think we showed that in the trailers. But it was a very emotional opening, Uh, Cut to a few years later, maybe, I think four or five years later and we catch up with B when she is 12 years old.
She's moved in with her gran, in New York for as her dad is going in for What he says, oe a routine surgery. Which she's obviously a little bit worried about that her dad played by John Krasinski. And as she kind of reconnects to her old childhood home and an old childhood building, she bumps into Ryan Reynolds character.
His character, Calvin, Isn't alone. He has a few friends with him a couple of...IFS (imaginary friends) , chiefly. Phoebe Walla bridge and Steve Carrell. He's the giant. Purple guy called Blue Phoebe. Waller Bridges as the Betty boop, porcelain doll Looking type character. Anyway, turns out... imaginary friends... exist.
At least they are real until the kids who invent them. Stop thinking of them, and when that happens
.. they don't disappear, they kind of just linger around and some of them end up in a kind of retirement home for imaginary friends.
We end up there and B ends up taking on a job as kind of an assistant Matchmaker To try and match these uh old discarded. Well old forgotten imaginary Friends, try and match them with New kids.
That pretty much sums up the plot. I'm dancing around a few spoilers here as I said, because I think the trailers in a good way, didn't give too much away. Um, so we'll leave it there in terms of the story.
Yes, it's very good. Just say that right off about IF, is very good.
First of all, right. Off the bat, the actress who plays B (Judith from The Walking Dead, by the way) 90it was annoying me through the whole movie. I could not quite remember where I knew this young girl from. And, yeah, it's Judith from The Walking Dead. Obviously, she's much older.
She's brilliant in this, like, she carries the movie. She's very much. She's the lead of the movie. I think the trailers made it look like it was a Ryan Reynolds movie obviously.
So, because Ryan Reynolds, he's an a-lister, he will put bums in seats, but he's almost a supporting character. LIt's As I said, the Judith from The Walking Dead is the lead and she has a lot of emotional heavy lifting to do in this movie and she does a brilliant job for someone so young.
Like... On More than one occasion. You know I getting choked up and you know I was staving back the tears, largely in part due to a her performance like or we face. So she's she started to get emotional like you start to get emotional because you just, you see it in our face.
So she first of all, she does a really job. Ryan Reynolds is never bad in a thing.... He's good here but this character isn't much of stretch for him
...he's doin what he does best.... And what we love to see him do.... Be Ryan Reynolds...
John Krasinski, he's not in it that much, but with the little screen time he does have... He leaves an impression.
As good as the human cast are, the non human roles are the unsung heroes of this movie....
Steve Carell and Phoebe Wala Bridges chief among them.
I'm not sure if they did performance capture on set or not. I think they might have done because I saw behind the scenes stuff with Steve carrel and John Krasinski like you know, reuniting from the office. Um, so I'm not sure if they were on sale or not or if it was just a virtual either way, they do a really good job.
So do the animators, who bring their characters to life, the combination of those voices and those performances with the animators, Yeah, those are the the digital performance in. Shall we see are really good as well. Not quite the movie. I was expecting from the trailer I was expecting.
I would say, like a lot of the best Pixar movies. Uh, this is two movies. Running through at the same time, like concurrently you've got, you've got the movie that the adults are watching enjoying and crying at.
And then you've been the movies that the kids are watching are join and laughing at and uh, those two strands. Go through the movie and interweave with each other, really, almost perfectly. Uh, two movies at one's one, for the adults, one for the kids, and they both blend together very well.
The whole family, enjoyed it myself, my partner and the two youngest kids seven-year-old and a 10 year old. We all loved it. The CGI is very well done. It's um, if you think like you know you're mixing live action with CGI kind of like who frame Roger Rabbit but with CGI not um animated I have no hand-drawn animation CGI is, you know, it's not Flawless because CGI is never Flawless, but it's it's as close to Flawless.
As you know, modern movies can be, I would say the CGI. There wasn't any there wasn't any obvious uh seams or standard bad shots, which have plagued recent movies in recent years, Flash, Indiana Jones
.. So that was really nice to see. It was, uh, it was a lot of CGI because there's a lot of imaginary CGI characters in this movie, but Yeah, the CGI stands out really well.
It's kind of inside out... Meets up.... Meets who framed Roger rabbit... .
So the seven-year-old gave it eight out of 10. The 10 year old gave it nine out of ten. Sorry. No. Scratch that the seven-year-old gave it seven out of eight. The 10 year old gave, it 8 out of 10.
My partner gave it nine out of ten. I would go with a solid eight out of ten. This is a very good movie, it's a family friendly movie but as I said, Does the the version of the movie that's playing on screen? That's probably going to go over the heads of the kids.
Um, The adults will enjoy walking in with and will cry at especially if you've got kids yourself. Uh, you know, the themes of Being a child, losing your imagination, becoming an adult growing up. Having your orchid thinking about mortality your mortality, your children, the mortality your parents mortality, follow that, you know, fun stuff.
And that's the, that's the movie that the adults are watching loving and crying at. And then you've got the kids movie with the colorful characters, tracking jokes that the Catcher going off. And those two Australians just flow and entertain together really well really male. So yeah, eight out of ten.
I F. Imaginary friend. I think I got to see you early because in the UK there was Advanced screenings this weekend. It's not actually out until next weekend so that was nice. Thanks to cineworld and you know the other Cinemas that are doing that It was an unseasonably warm day when we saw it.
So the time I was empty, there was about seven people in it. I think. So hopefully that's not indicative of the overall box office for this movie because this is a really good movie and it sails to, you know, make some money and be successful. That's us, folks. Thanks very much for watching.
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Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver (2024)
Snyder Needs to not write.... just direct....
Opening Narration splanation from hopkins
Picking up pretty much where part 1 ended, our merry band of rag tag fighters led by Sofia Boutella are winding down.... Thinking they've defeated the big bad vader (sorry, Atticus Noble) and the star destroyers (sorry, dreadnoughts) are headed back to the other side of the galaxy, tail between there legs...
Our heroes victory celebrations are cut short however as the big bad guy.... Didn't actually die...
He's recuperating in vaders healing chamber and when he's all better... Oh boy is he gonna be even bigger and badder and eviler than before....
That pretty much covers the plot then.
So... Is rebel moon part 2: The scar giver.... Any good.
Does it build upon (improve upon?) part 1...? Or does it double down and end being all style no substance......
Yeah.
It's the latter
Like all Zack Snyder movies,
Echoes of a recovering garth vader chamber
Space age julious cesar killing bit
Wooden dialogue.... Lots of flashback with narration for each character...literally a scene (collection of scenes) where the characters sit around a dinner table and give narrate their own flashback sequence)
They say show don't tell.... Zack snyder does both...
He shows... AND he tells...
He should stick with just showing... I don't thing his strengths lie in writing.... I think he's a fantastic, visually stylistic director.... But his best work comes when he's working from a script he didn't write himself...
Link to slomo guys video with snyder, tag em...
The final battle... Kinda felt rushed and... Unearned... Like the hero momet... Feels like it came outta nowhere (in guessing it'll be better set up in the directors cut.... Like. BVS)
acting is fine......
Ed Skrein does a lot with the little he's given..... (especially considering he was only cast like 10 days before he was filming his first scene)
Sophia Botella, just doesn't seem to have that IT factor to make here a leading lady.
The supporting cast (Djimon Honsou, Michael Huisman etc...) all try there best.... But with the dialogue they're given..... Only so much they can do...
The cross cutting in the 3rd act between the space battle.... The ground battle and the fight on the ship... Very remeniscant of star wars....
There's a very cool, stylised fight scene with energy swords (totally not light sabers) that's a mash up of return or the jedi, inception and watchmen...... I have to say that scene was very cool....
But... That's about the only thing I enjoyed about rebel moon 2...
Rebel fleet, evil space soldiers, laser energy swords....small farming planets... Androids with British accents....
Yeah... Totally not a star wars movie.... 😉
Robots are called Jimmys....so.... I'll take that as a compliment 😉
4/10 for rebel moon part 2: The Scargiver.
Civil War (2024)
It's a road movie... Not a war movie
When i found out, it's not a remake of captain america. Civil war is in fact, an entirely new story. By Alex Garland, about a fictional modern day, civil war in america. It's nothing to do with captain america.
When i heard that Alex garland was remaking. Captain america's civil war only like eight years after the Russo brothers. Made that movie, i was quite surprised. Because, you know, it's only eight years ago but you know, it's the multiverse you know, who knows what can have which team like this takes place in and all that jazz.
Um, And then i was even multiplies. When i found out, it's not a remake of captain america. Civil war is in fact, an entirely new story. By Alex Garland, about a fictional modern day, civil war in america. It's nothing to do with captain america.
Written & Directed by Alex Garland (probably most known for Ex MAchina & ANnihilation), Civil War is set in a fictional (but scarily familiar) modern day America where, a civll war has broke out.
The movie doesn't date itself, theres no prologue or a text dump at the start to set the scene (we do get a bit of this in the opening scene where The President (Nick Offerman) is rehearsing a statement, this gives the audience the bare bones of a set up as to what is happening
After the opening we're just dumped straight into the action, into the middle of (or, the last days of) this Civii War. Theres a few tidbits if info sparesd throughout, from what I put together Texas and California are the main states on one side of the conflict)
Kirsten Dunst & Wagner Moura (of Narcos fame, looking nothng like he did when he was Pablo Escobar) are our 2 leads, playing photo journalist war correspondent types,
They see the end of the conflict is nearing and they hatch a plan to travel cross country to get a once in a lifetime interview / photo op with President Nick
That kicks off the main plot, and we don't really veer off that path for the whole movie
Pretty much every scene is from their perspective, from the insular point of view
We don't cut away to command bases, or news bulletins or anything like that
We just follow these guys on their road trip.
And thats the main thing to keep in mind, this isn't REALLY a war movie, its a road movie.... We follow these guys on a road trip through a war zone, but we only see and hear whatnthey see and hear,
Which is both a strenght and a weakness i think
The way its filmed (lots of shallow depth of field shots, lost of snap shots through the lenses of their cameras) really puts the viewer in ther heads, the audience is literally seeing ehat they see, and the elemenent in and of itslef works really well.
The sound design deserves a special shout out as well as that really helped focus the audiences attention to just ehats happening to and directly around the main characters
But on the other hand, I kinda wanted to see more of the wider conflict, I wanted to know more about the how and the why this modern day american civll war happened. ....
The last 20. 25 minutes is quite uh quite tense quite hot poon. Quite hard pounding. Really reminded me actually of zero, dark 30. Actually, the whole movie kind of reminded me of zero dark thirty and You know, the first like the first two thirds or even the first, you know, three quarters of the movie.
The first 2 acts are fialr slow paced, quite insular and episodic almost as the guys go from stop to stop, town to town along their journey
The last 20-30. Mins though are hreat pounding tension filled action, very giritty, very "in the thick of it' news report style confilct coverage, and that works brilliantly.
The script and dialogue works well also, the characters don't say more than they need to, the depth and history of their relationships is suggested without nbeing spoon fed.
Its a movie made for adults, about adult themes. It doesn't dumb itself down, it does't spoon feed you info, it shows you what the characters see, it gives you little tidbits of info and there and then it lets you fill in the blanks and connect the dots.... which I wish more movies would do these days.
Its also the kind of movie I pleasantly surprised got a cinema release, so kudos to a24 for that.
I even got to this in IMAX (my local cineworld glasgow silverburn has a brilliant IMAX Laser screen) . Like i would expect a movie like this to end up going straight to Netflix or Prime.... so its great to see non franchise movies like this get a theatrical release
So i'm going to go with seven out of 10 for civil war.
(Captain Am erica Civil WAr is a 9/10)
Don't go any expecting a wider war. Movie. It's a very subjective. It's a road movie that takes place during a fictional for the civil war. It's not about the civil war. It's about the characters.
Its kind of The Road meets Zero Dark Thirty meets The Rover.
Madame Web (2024)
Sony... Please stop!
When the latest D list Sony spiderman universe movie comes out.... And it makes Morbius look like a masterpiece......
You know you're in trouble....
Dakota Johnson of (50 shades fame) stars as cassie Webb (subtle)... She's a new York paramedic who's a lone wolf (or... Solitary spider....?)
She does her job, lives her life and keeps herself to herself.... She's an orphan, she has a briefcase of secrets from her amazon spider studying mum and... (That's literally and figuratively her baggage for the movie)
That is until she's develops some freaky minority report esq pre cog powers and starts to see the future....
Before yoh know it she's unwittingly playing mamma bear... (or big sister spider?) to three younger proto spider women whos live are in danger because the bad guy also has pre cog powers and.... That's pretty much it.
Soooooooo... Where to start.....
As you'll have gathered from my into.... I was NOT a fan of Madamme Webb
The story is weak, the plot is paper thin..... The dialogue is pure Cringey at times... And.... The performances.....
I've not really seen much with Dakota Johnson... I've never seen the 50 shades movie (shocking I know....) but from this movie alone..... Yeah.... She doesn't come across well.... Her character kinda acts like she doesn't care about anything.... Before AND after all the chaos.... So.... She's kinda just one note.... She's just blazay... About.... EVERYTHING
Tahar Rahim (who was amazing in 2009s 'A prophet' plays the bad guy here.... And.... He's not great. And it almost felt like ALL of his dialogue was dubbed and they didn't spent the time to actually have it in any with his his lips!
The three proto spider women are kind of the only saving grace.... While there characters are pretty stereotype... Almost caricature.... Their interplay and banter is actually OK....
Went to see it in 4dx at my 2nd closest cineworld and even the 4dx felt like it as minimal effort (side note, the only reason we went to 4dx was there was no additional charge this week at cineworld for 4dx,imax etc....)
Felt like a cheesy bad 90s superhero movie
Cgi isn't terrible..... But not amazing...
(what would be amazing would be a wee sub to the channel.... 😉)
So.... Is this connected to a spiderman.... At all.
(potential spoilers ahead.... I'll leave the spoiler graphic up til I'm done talkin about this so if you want to avoid potential spoilers... Skip ahead til you no longer see the graphic....)
So... Spiderman connection?
Yes. Adam Scott plays unlce Ben (I mean... That's listed on imdb so I'm not sure how much a spoiler than can be....)
The movie doesn't exactly say when it's set.... My best guess is 2003-2010 ish....
We know cassie was born in 1973....and she's about 30-35 years old... So yeah I'm guessing based on that.... Based on the cars... The billboards etc.... I'm gonna day 2003...
So...all of that.... Plus the be parker thing with him NOT being 'uncle ben' yet.... If madam Webb IS set in a spiderman universe... It's possible it's could be the tom Holland one.... But that means it's also technically in the mcu... So... Maybe not....
Then again... The timeline COULD be Andrew Garfield universe..... Or maybe it's an entirely new spiderman universe.... Who knows....
(if anyone does know.... Or anyone has a good theory.... Lemme know in the comments...)
Potential spoiler Chat ends.
So... Yeah.... Actually gonna go with 3/10....it's that bad.....
Sony.... Just give up.... Yes... You own the rights to spiderman.... That doesn't mean you should make movie about every single spiderman related character....
Venom was OK.... You got lucky with that one....
And who knows.... Kraven could be a masterpiece.... 👀
Thats us folks, thanks for watching.
If you liked this video that like button..... And I'll catch you in the next video.
✌🏻
Argylle (2024)
A neutered action spy (comedy?)
Feels like they started showing the trailers for this movie legit like a year ago....
And a year ago I was pretty excited for argyle....
Now that I've seen it.....? Not so much..
Matthew Vaughans latest is kinda familiar territory for him.... Action spy comedy vibes..... With a pop star cameo thrown on for good measure.
Argylle tells the story of Elly Conway (played by Bryce Dallas Howard). Elly is a successful writer of spy novels, and she's on her 5th (I think book)
The lead character in her novels is Agent Argyle (who, in her mind, is played by Henry Cavill)
She's plunged into the real world of International espionage when she meets real life spy Aiden (sam Rockwell) who comes to her rescue when a bunch of goons try to kill her.
He explains the bad guys are after her cos her books are actually so good and realistic, they've started to predict / parallel some real world spy stuff ....
And thus... The plot kicks off and into high gear....
All of that is pretty much covered in the trailer so no spoilers there..
There IS more to the story and there's a couple twists which I genuinely didn't see coming so that's always a good thing...
All of the cast are grest, Bryce is great, Sam Rockwell is great (when is he not) Henry cavil, John cena...
There's not a weak link in the cast.
Like most Matthew Vaughan movies the action is also really good... Theres some grest action set pieces (one involving a slick oil filled floor that... While great.... Is a bit of a rip off of the first transporter movie.)
The general story is good also,
So... Why I'm I not super excited to talk about this one....
Well.... The pace... And the overall length....
It's easily 20 - 30 mins too long....
The first act is great... But after that the pace takes a big hit......and it never fully recovers
(the person sitting to my left (you know who you ate) actually fell asleep during the movie.... And this was a 520pm showing...!)
And if you've managed to not fall asleep during this review, a wee sub to the channel would much appreciated 😊)
Apple TV aspect...
It's apple TV original... Which means 2 things..
1. There's some pretty blatant apple product placement... Not QUITE enough to majorly distracting..... But its there.....
2. It will be available to watch on apple TV at some point in the near future....
Now.... Does the fact that this will be on apple TV mean less people will pay to watch it in the cinema.?
Honestly not sure on this one.... I went to a 5.30pm showing...on opening day (Thurs) Fairly big screen.... And I think there was a total of maybe 10 people in there....
Same with Killers of the flower moon never saw it at the cinema.... Just didn't get around to it.... But I did think to myself.... It's OK I'll catch it on apple tv
🤔
Is this a good thing for movies.... For cinema...?
So gonna go with 5/10 for this one....
I'm fan of the director... I like all the actors.... But this movie just doesn't cut it..
. It never recovers from that post 1st act slump.
Blue Beetle (2023)
The movie no one asked for..... Is actually pretty good
Blue Beetle.... The superhero movie no one asked for.... About a b list character no none other than die hard dc fans have ever heard of........ Is actually pretty good.... Who knew....
Based on the comic book of the same name, Blue Beetle tells the story of Jaime Reyes, he's just graduated from Gotham university, he comes back to his family home in (Palmera city, which I think is a fictional city in the same way that Gotham and metropolis is, but Palmera looks more like a city in florida... Like if metropolis is new York, Palmera is like a Miami)
He comes home to the news that his family is in financial trouble, he gets a job with his sister cleaning rich people's houses, here he bumps into Susan's Sarandons corporate bad villain Victoria Kord, along with her neice Jenny played by Bruna Marquezine. Victoria and Jenny and at odds over the direction of the family company, and krone specifically, about the application and use of a magical, out of this world, super power giving blue scarab thingy...
Jenny steals it, gives it to Jaime to hide... And... Off we go with the plot.
Thats all covered in the first 60 seconds of the trailer, so if you're ruining late for this movie... Fear not... As long as you've seen the trailer, you've seen the first 20 mins of this movie.
Blue Beetle is one of those characters that I'd never really heard of.... Other than I think one or two appearances on Smallville, and I think the character is in one of the injustice games.
It's not like it's one of DCs flagship properties....
So when it was announced they were making a blue Beetle movie.... I and many others were like.... Really...?..... Why...?
Buuuuuuut.... The exact same thing was said about guardians of the galaxy... And look how that turned out.
And blue Beetle does the same.... To a lesser extent I'd say. I'm not saying blue Beetle is on a par with guardians of the galaxy.... It's not....
But it is an enjoyable movie.
It's hard not to draw comparisons to other comic book movies... And this movie had a healthy dose of ant man, spiderman and iron man.
Especially iron man.. Character beats and structure wise.... Theres a lot of iron man in here... But... If you're gonna borrow.... Borrow from the best,
Cast
Everyone does a good job with what they're given....
Xolo Mariduenua carrys the film quite comfortably, and he gets to show case a bit more range than I think he's been afforded on kobra kai...
Comfortably and believably switching gears from likeable and humourous to emotional and thoughtful.
The familiar faces rounding out his family are equally likeable, good, and most importantly, believable. You definitely buy into the closeness of the family and of the culture.
Susan Sarandon isn't exactly breaking new ground as a by the numbers corporate villain.... But... She's. Susan Sarandon, it's not like she's bad in this.. She's just playing a stereotypical bad guy.
Oh... And it's great to see What we Do in the shadows actor Harvey Guillen also.... He's got a very small role in this, but great to see.
(if you haven't seen the what we do in the shadows tv show... Definitely check it out, it's BRILLIANT)
Something that took me by surprise was the social commentary aspect of the film....
Sublte comments on racism, classism, corporate patriarchal traditions, gentrification of poorer areas, plight of immigrant life... ....yeah. All of that is very subtly peppered thought the movie... All of it will go right over the kids heads.... But that's OK cos they'll be busy enjoying what is a fairly enjoyable movie
Speaking of kids, I saw this with my 6 year old and my 9 year old.... And both very much enjoyed it (I'll give their scores at the end)
And speaking of being subtle.... If you like this content be sure so hit the like button... And if you wanna see more....you know what to do....
Both the soundtrack and score is pretty on point also...
There's a couple of needles drops (motley crue and Cyprus hill being 2 standout, grin inducing moments)
The cgi is for the most part pretty good, there's no 'omg look at how bag the cgi is' moments...
So, while this is a good, fun, not overly long movie (about 2 hours...).... Much like the flash.... It feels like too little too late in the dcu or dceu...
Like... Is that part of the old dcu continuity? The 'Snyders verse'? Is it part of James Gunns new continuity?
Blue Beetle, like the flash, shazam, and aquaman 2 is one the movies that was and is kinda caught in limbo... With the regime changes at Warner bros dc....
I know James gunn has talked about it being part of his dc... It least the character... But yeah...the whole dc continuity thing just seems a bit of a mess....
Which is a shame.... Cos the Jaime Reyes character would have been very fun to have alongside the bigger guns in a justice league movie... Bringing aix of spiderman / antman vibes, kinda like civil war...
I could that dynamic working well... But alas.... Who knows what's gonna happen justice league / team up movie wise.
Like if I knew Jaime Reyes / blue Beetle was gonna be in a team up movie next year or the year after... I'd be hyped for that.... Time will tell....
So gonna go with 7/10 for this one....
The 6 year old gave it 7/10 also and the 9 year old gave it 9/10!
Its an enjoyable, if by the numbers, superhero origin story.... With a likeable lead and a likeable, believable surrounding cast, pdecent enough cgi.... And hints of where potential sequels might go.
(btw there is scenes during AND after the credits... So be sure to stick around for them)
And be sure to check out my other movie reviews here
Jimmy
@scottishgeekguy on youtube and all social media
✌🏻
Scrapper (2023)
Not as grim as you might think...
Written & directed by Charlotte Regan Scrapper tells the story of 12 year old Georgie.
Her mum had recently died, and she's taking herself through the 5 stages of grief (as you can guess... George is not your typical 12 year old)
She's also living by herself in the council flat she was in with her mum, she's fooling the local council into believing her uncle is looking after, and she spends her days with her best pal ali, played by Alin Uzun (apologies if I'm butchering the pronunciation)
It doesn't take long for Georgies 'safe at face value' current living situation to be turned on its head with the arrival of Jason, played by Harris Dickinson.... Jason.... Georgies dad... Whom she's never met....
Plot wise that kicks things off, and the movie is really about these 2 lost souls... An immature 30 year old father and and overly mature 12 year old daughter... Trying to navigate their way though their current, unexpected, forced to share existence.
The success of a movie like this... Really hinges on one thing.... And that's the performance of the main character.... Of the 12 year old....
And thankfully, said 12 year old knocks it out of the park
Performances across the board are very good... The entire movie would fail badly if the main character wasn't believable, and Lola Campbell more than delivers on that front.
I'm not sure how old the actress was while filming... But the character of George is 12.... And she looked about 12...so... We'll go with 12
To get this level of natural perfomance from a child is quite an accomplishment, so kudos to director and star for that. Georgie is on screen for id say 85% of this movie.... So it's safe to she she carries it.
The other half of the one two punch performance duo is Harris Dickinson, playing Jason, Georgies dad (eagle eyes viewers might recognise him from triangle of sadness....) and he is equally great and believable.
His performance in particular is very restrained and understated... He says more with the tiniest changes in his facial expressions that he does with his lines... And I mean that as a huge compliment
Scrapper is... As the title suggests... A scrappy little movie. (again, it's a compliment)
Visually, it's a bit of a mixed bag this film
On the one hand there's typical, gritty hand held aesthetic to a lot of the movie...
But in contrast to that, many of the scenes are quite locked off and the frame is very deliberately composed.
In these scenes Georgie is often sitting down, framed st the bottom of the screen with large structures (walls, buildings etc) behind her...
I'd venture to say that's a very deliberate choice on the filmmakers part.... To try and convey to the audience how Georgie Is ACTUALLY feeling in that moment... When she's feeling lost and out of control.... Camera is hand held, shaky and chaotic.... When she's more at peace (internally) the camera is locked off....
There's another element to the visual style I'm gonna talk about here, and thats the.... The fantasy element.
Won't say too much as I don't want to give anything away....but theres a few scenes that are very clearly fantasy.... And it's these scenes that I just don't think work all that well...
They kinda stick out a bit.... But not in a good way.... And the few times we as an audience are shown this fantasy element.... It took me out of the film.... A film which I was very much invested in.
Given that it's a birtish movie about a kid on a council estate whose lost her mum.... I think people might be expecting a bit of a darker movie..
Even though the film does deal with that darknees.... It's a actually quite a light hearted film.
It wears it's heart on its sleeve, and it is a very Ernest, very genuine film...
My only criticism (other than the fantasy scenes mentioned) would be that.... It's maybe a little too light hearted.... I'm not saying I wanted dank and miserable gritty council estate drama.... But it did feel the film was missing one or 2 scenes of... Well yeah... Gritty realism... To give it some pathos.
Thats not to say I didn't enjoy the movie... I did.... But yeah.... Feels like theres a moment or 2 of closure, or realisation that's missing.
That being said., I did like it.
7/10 from scrapper, very VERY strong performances from both Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson. And a safe, assured pair of hands in writer / director Charlotte Regan
Thats us folks, be sure to check out Scrapper in cinemas if and when you can, and I'll catch you in the next video
✌🏻
Jimmy
@scottishgeekguy on youtube and all social media.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)
Good. 7/10
When it was announced that Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg (the writer / producer team behind movies like super bad, the interview... And shows like the boys and preacher...) I was like..... Okay.... That's..... Interesting.....
Then I saw the trailer and I was like..... Okay.... That kinda looks decent....
TMNT mutant mayhem tells the familiar story of Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael & Michaelangelo.... The teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
This is a stand alone movie, not linked to any iterations of the cartoons.... Not linked to the 90s movies, or the 'buff turtles moves ' (as my 9 year old calls them) from the 2010s with Megan Fox....
So it retells the familiar origin story.
Our 4 turtles. And splinter, come into contact with some ooze... And become mutants...
Cut to 15 years later and they've have spent their whole lives hiding from humans in the sewers of net york city...
One night while on a grocery run the turtles bump into high school age, wannabe reporter April o'neill, they strike up a friendship, they hatch a plan to bring an end to the current crimewave led by the mysterious SUPERFLY (voiced by an on top of his game ice cube) and.... They set about doin just that (all while pretending to splinter theyre just out getting groceries and not fighting crime)
Thats pretty much it plot wise.... No more explanation needed.....
So.... Is it any good......
Yes. Yes it is...
I should preface this by saying....
It's a modern animated movie, based on a beloved 80s/90s IP from my youth , full of pop culture references from the last 20 years... With a 90s hip hop soundtrack....so.... Yeah.... I was predisposed to like this 😁
I was a huge fan of the turtles as a kid.... Other than dinosaurs... If you asked me what my 'thing' was a as kid.... 3 things would come to mind...
Dinosaurs, wwf wrestling... And teenage mutant ninja (hero) turtles
(I even remember my legend of a mum making me a Raphael costume, from scratch! For Halloween one year...)
So yeah, I've liked every incarnation of the heroes in a half shell.....
Firstly... It looks amazing. The Animation and visual style seems clearly inspired by spiderverse (and rightly so).... It looks gorgeous.
Great 90s hip hop / r&b soundtrack, the score is really good as well, reminded me of the score for Soul (I think it's the same composing team of trent reznor & atticus Ross)
All voice acting very good, each turtle had a distinct character... A distinct voice.
The turtles actually sound like teenagers.... Cos in a shock move..
They actually cast teenagers!
In a 10th Level meta inception moment.... We have splinter, voiced by Jackie Chan, teaching the young toddlers martial arts... Using videos on YouTube and king fu movies.... Some of which are.... Jackie Chan movies.....brilliant 😊
The voice acting is great, the needle drops are on point, the animations is gorgeous and the story is good...
3 generations of my family went to see this movie and all 3 liked it (although we all agreed the original 90s movie is still the best)
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Comfortably the 4th best Indy movie
Saw indiana Jones and the dial of density last week in a warm Wednesday evening last week here in Scotland.... Let's get into it.
Hello everyone, Jimmy the Scottish Geek Guy here.
Everyones favourite whip wielding hero is back once again, some 40+ years after his debut in RAIDERS of the LOST ARK .
Behind the camera, for the first time on an indiana Jones movie is NOT Steven Spielberg, but James Mangold (who recently direcete the AMAZING Logan, and has been announced as directing an upcoming star wars movie)
Does thst make a difference???? We'll see...
The movie has an extended (like 20 mins or so) opening sequence set in the last days of ww2 (so like.... 1944/45 ish....)
We discover a digitally de aged Dr Jones (more on that later) onboard a nazi loot train led by head nazis Thomas Kretchsmann and a (again, digitally de aged) scientist Dr Voller (played by Mads Mikkelson)
Indy is held captive while the bad guys interrogate him to find the whereabouts of his accomplice played by Toby Jones.
They're after a maguffin type thing call the Antikythera (some ancient clock looking thing)... They find it, well....half of it.... the train crashes.... They escape but the Antikythera is lost..... Or is it....... 🤔
Cut to 'present day' story wise and it's 1969 and all of America is caught up on the wonders of the moon landing...
Indy is on his last day before retirement at a new york college / university.... He's enjoying a drink alone after his last day and he's approached by pheobe Waller-bridges Helena, who as it happens... Is Toby Joneses daughter.... She's after the Antikythera aka the dial of destiny... And she convinces (in a not quite honest way) indy to help her....
And so the main plot kicks which sees indy and Helena trott around the globe to find both peices of the ANTIKYTHERA in order to sell / put in a museum (delete as appropriate depending on whose side you're on)
There's obviously a few twists turns along the way, they're pursued by present day Mads and his henchmen (among them Boyd Holdbrook, who previously worked with Mangold on the EXCELLENT)
Supporting characters come and go, among them Antonio Banderas and a returning John Rhys Davis as Sallah (both were in the trailers so hope that's not too much of a spoiler....)
So.. Is it any good... Does it reach the highs of the first 3 movies....? Or is it in the snake pits with kingdom of the crystal skull....
Well...id say it site in between... It's comfortably the 4th best Indiana Jones movie....
Firstly... Let's talk about the opening scene, the de aging and the cgi....
The first couple shots of indies face are pretty flawless.... But as they scene goes on.... The cracks start to show....
This is supposed to be an in his prime Dr Jones.... But he moves like an 80 year old man.... Cos... Ford is 80 years old.... And the entire scene is just waaaaaay to dark..... Im thinking it's set at night to help hide the cgi and the de aging.... But it just left me feeling a bit detached.... Like it was hard to follow the action at times cos it was so dark.
And while it is great to see Harrison Ford back in the saddle (literally)..... A lot of this movie felt like a greatest hits Tour .... But the kind where the band only play there number 2 hits.... Not there number 1s.
(insert toilet joke here 😉... And speaking of toilet humour.... Be sure to hit subscribe for more high brow chat) 😉
Also... I expected BETTER BANTER between Ford and WALLER-BRIDGE (AND MORE OF IT) .... It's not that they had zero banter of zero chemistry.... But it did feel lacking....like maybe the script needed another pass to punch up their chat....
Boyd Holbrook.... Who was the Co lead in the first couple of seasons of narcos, the lead in The Predator a few years ago.... And was the bad guy in Mangolds Logan (an astonishing film btw) is relegated to a nameless henchmen in this movie.... With barely any lines and zero development.... I don't know / can't remember his characters name... But it might as well have been Henchman #1 (Austin powers style)
There are 2 scenes.... One in the middle... One at the end.... Where Ford really puts on a masterclass in the subtleties of performance.... Very emotional scenes... Nothing loud or showy.... Just pure raw emotion...
But that's the issue.... I wanted more of that... More of that indy.... Not just 2 scenes....
I don't think not having speilberg behind the camera hurts this movie... After all, speilberg directed kingdom of the crystal skull....
And Mangold is usually a safe pair of hands (let's be honest... He gets a pass for life for gifting the world the masterpiece that is Logan....have I mentioned how much I like Logan?)
Gonna give this one 6/10....
The plot is easy enough to follow.... It doesn't stray too far from the Indiana Jones template of travel and adventure...
As I said it's comfortably the 4th best indiana Jones movie.... It just left me feeling a bit disconnected from it overall....
Ford is good and had some raw emotion in display on 2 scenes.... Waller bridge is good but I wanted more from her, more from her and Indy....
Thats all folks, if you liked this video.... Give it a like....
And if you wanna see another movie review of mine, click up here....
Laters
Jimmy
@scottishgeekguy.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Spectacular spider man movie....?
Across the spider verse picks up some time after the events of into the spider verse (I don't think they specify the exact time but I'm guessing.... Maybe a year...?)
Miles is settling into life as brooklynns one and only spider man.... And... All seems good for him....
Meanwhile... In Gwens universe.... Things aren't goin to great for Hailee Seinfelds Gwen
She's still kickin ass as spidergwen.... But her relationship with her dad is.....strained....and she's doin too well with her friends either...
So when she given the opportunity to ditch her universe and go join Oscar Isaacs spiderman 2099 and issa raes spider woman (both characters who look cool asf btw).... She jumps at the chance... And this sets the plot in motion....
Various multiverse shenanigans ensue and that brings Gwen back to Miles' universe....
Miles learns more about the (massive) spider multi verse as he follows Gwen down the rabbit hole (so to speak)
We learn just how vast the multiverse is... And the core conflict here between miles, Gwen, miguel etc is just how to handle it...
Not all of the spider people agree on how best to protect the spiderverse....
I don't want to say to much more about the plot other than that.... The trailers didn't really give too much away (and this is a good thing... Far too many trailers these days just tell you the whole movie!)
This movie is as much Gwens story as miles... So much so that I'm sure if you did a screen time comparison.... It'd be pretty close to 50 50 reckon...
What did I like about the movie....
I'd like to preface my review by saying I probably went into this movie a little bias... And exceedingly high expectations as the first movie, Into the spider verse, is legit an amazing movie IMHO....
Not only is it a great superhero movie, not only is it a great animated movie... It's simply a great movie.
AND... It's the best spidermans movie.
Yes... It's better than spiderman 2...and it's better than no way home (come at me Internet!)
So I went I to this one with HIGH HOPES..
Firstly... It's absolutely gorgeous to look at...
Just like the first movie.... Every single frame is a work of art (I literally got a canvas made of a frame from the first movie... I'll try and put here for you to see)
The animation builds on what into the spiderverse originated and just takes it up a notch (or 4!)
It really is a beautiful piece of art...
The voice talents are, again, phenomenal.... Shameek moore and hailee steinfeld really our their heart and soul (via their voices) into their characters....
The action scenes are top quality as well,
The relationships with their parents are given much more screen time here....
Both Gwen and Miles get quite a lot of scenes with their parents.... (one stand out scene between mikes and mother really is an emotional bomb... Much like the scene in the first one with miles and his dad, when miles is tied up in the chair and can't speak... And his dad has that monologue from behind the door.... (shut up! I'm not crying... You are!) this movie has a similar scene where miles mum has an emotional gut punch of a monologue.... About being a parent, and protecting your child emotionally.... But realising you have to let go of that at some point.... (again... Shut up! I'm not crying... You are!
It's a stand out scene for me (I think they actually released that whole scene as part of the promotion... If they did I link I up here...)
So yeah, plenty of scenes with family drama and emotions.... So the characters have time to grow and develop.... Buuuuuuut.... It's almost too much time....
With a run time of like 2 hours 20.... It does feel a little long... And the pacing is very slow in the first act....
It kinda felt like the movie didn't really get goin until like the 30 minute mark....
And for those who don't know.... This is very much a part one of a 2 part series
.. (or part 2 of a Trilogy....)
Its kinda got empire strikes back vibes in that regard... In that there's a lot happening in the movie, lots of world building and it ends on a cliffhanger and om word.... It's a pretty epic cliffhanger....
I think the kid who was sitting a few seats along from me put it best...
He was clearly a spidey fan (t shirt, hat, collectable spiderman cup from cineworld)... He definitely enjoyed the movie.... But at the end.... When the cliffhanger happened and the text bubble read 'to be continued..... He said' whhhaaaat!? They do this at EVERY movie now.... Cant they just make it one movie!
I think once the third movie is out.... This movie will be viewed as the awkward middle child.
Don't get me wrong... I liked this movie... And I'm hyped for the next one....
I think the film makers had an almost impossible task.... Follow on from the near perfect, universally loved (and Oscar winnin) into the spiderverse.... While setting up the 3rd (and final?) movie in the series.
Time will tell.
So gonna go with 7/10 for this one (for context, I'd give into the spider verse 9/10)
Thats all folks
@ScottishGeekGuy on YouTube and socials
Peace.
Fast X (2023)
Jason Mamoa saves Fast X from crashing n burning
Vin Deisel and (most ) of the gang are back for the..... the 10 Fast n Furious movie (11th if you count Hobbs n Shaw)
I cant believe this franchise has that many movies,,,, I remember goin to see the original in the Odeon in Glasgow city centre (a cinema that shut down just a couple of years later) and here we are, 22 years and almost a dozen movies later.... with FAST X
Louis Leterrier (of the incredible Hulk, and transporter fame) takes over directing duties from franchise regular Justin Lin (who left the production after like 10 days of filming I think) (oh to be a fly on the wall when that kicked off!)
That's the behind the scenes story of Fast X, what the about the actual story....
I mean, on the one hand.....there not much plot to this movie, but on the other hand,,,,,theres so. Much, MOVIE in the movie....
I"ll try to give a brief spoiler free synopsis,,,, but there be MILD spoilers... so, bear that in mind
Fast X opens with some familar lookin scenes.... 10 years ago in Rio, which fast franchise fans (say that 3 times fast) will remember from Fast Five (which btw is STILL the franchise best.... but ranking the Fast movies is something I"ll save for another video, when the franchise is finished.... on the year 2056.... when they crossover with Transformers..... MAKE IT HAPPEN UNVIVERAL / Paramount!)
Anyway, were in Rio, were seeing the safe heist scenes that take place in Fast Five, but from a slightly different point of view (its a mix of reused Fast 5 footage and newly shot footage,,which to the filmmakers credit blends quite well)
So wee see Vin Deseils Dom and Paul Walkers Brian stealing the safe from whats his name (the bad guy in Fast Five) .... but wouldn't you know it,.,..apparently just of frame in all those scenes... was the son of that bad guy....played by JASON MAMOA.....
Thats right, Jason Mamoas DANTE was there the whole time during the vents of fast five (we just didn't see him cos of.... reasons (cough cough RETCONNED cough cough)
Its in the trailer so I dont think this is much a spoiler that he, (Dante) , survived the carnage of fast five, but his dad (the bad guy in fast five) did not.... and now, 10 years later, Dante is out for revenge against Dominic Toretto and his
F A M I L Y
Why did he wait 10 years.....? You know.... reasons//...
Cut to the present day and the gang have a mission for 'The Agency' in Rome.... and shock horror,,,, BLEEP goes sideways and they end up playing a real life version of what can only be described as Twisted Metal meets Rocket League (now that I WOULD watch)
After the Derby Destruction of Rome, the gang are split up into a few wee groups and off on their own side missions and,....thats pretty much it plot wise
So thats pretty much it plot wise, thats all established in the opening 20 mins.... the following 2 hours (yes, cos this is like 2 hours 20 mins long or something like that) is a collection of various action set pieces that take Dom and his F A M I L Y across the globe (again)
Tej Roman and Ramsay are off on there little adventure (which is totally unnecessary and could easily be cut from the movie ... but then those characters would have pretty much nothing to do....)
John Cenas Jacob (Doms brother is back)
Letty has her own thing to get on with, Dom is doin his, Mia is relegated to pretty much a cameo (again) but the bulk of this movie is Jason Mamoa terrorising and tormenting Dom
Also, Its not just the core F A M I L Y (I'll stop doin that now) that are back....
Charlize Theron's Cypher is back, Scott Eastwood is back briefly .... (but sadly Kurt Russels Mr Nobody is AWOL... in his place the Reacher himself Alan Richson, along with Ms Marvel herself Brie Larson.... )
I'm probably forgetting about a few characters.... but theres just so many!
So, what did I think of Fast X.....
Well, its not amazing, its not the best Fast n Furious,,,, but its not the worst... (probably sits somewhere in the middle...ish....)
The best thing about this movie.... BY FAR,,,, is Jason Mamoa....
He CLEARLY having a ball in this, hamming it up OTT villian style and loving every minute.
Like most of the recent Fast Movies, it feels like everyone is just having fun with it,,,, everyone knows its a big dumb exploding action movie that no one takes seriously... well, no one apart from Vin Deisel,,,, he thinks hes in a different movie.
It feels like everyone is in on the joke,,,, apart from Desiel.... hes sadly the weakest part of the movie,... and his groot voice is legit incoherent at times..... F A M I L Y
Even John Cena, whos only been in F9 and now Fast X is in on the fun.... and not only that, it feels like hes playing a totally different character in this movie! In the time between f9 and fast X, hes went from stone faced serious bad guy,,,, to fun loving joking around uncle with Muscles (wink)
Speaking of ,,, whats the deal with the names of these movies! They have no coherence or connectivity
The Fast and the Furious
then 2 fast 2 furious
then The Fast and the furios colon tokyo drift
then fimply Fast and Furious (no 'THE's' in sight)
the Fast Five
then furious 6 (I think)
Fast 7
The F8 of the furious
then Fast and furious presents Hobbs n Shaw
Then a total random one with 'F9 the fast saga'
and now, 11 movies in they decide to impliment roman numerals with FAST X
(deep breath)
Its too long, like I said they could have easily cut the roman tej Ramsay scenes and saved 20 mins....
The action set pieces are for the most part well staged, but theres just 1 or 2 too many.... car action (CARCTION) fatigue kinda sets in....
There is a cool shot in one of the car sequences where the camera kinda flys into the car like a mini drone, goes down the drivers arm, to the gear stick, into the inner workings of the car and out the firey exaust.... definetly a call back to the first movie,... that was pretty cool
But yeah, overall its just a bit .... meh... like we're at the stage where the fast moveis feel like they're just goin through the motions (Hobbs n shaw was a welcome change to that, and was a genuinely decent action buddy movie)
But not since Fast 7 has there been a what I would consider a GOOD fast movie (kinda feels like they should have just ended after Fast 7.... it was a perfect ending....)
I should say that Fast X is part 1 of 2 or possibly 3 movies.... so. We'll see whats to come.... (Fast 11 and 12, Fast X1 and x2.... who knows what the random name generator will spit out next
Gonna give this one 6/10..... as I said not the best Fast movie, not the worst.... Jason Mamoa is really the only reason to watch this one ....
@ScottishGeekGuy in youtube and socials
Peace.
65 (2023)
Does Adam Driver kick dino a$$?
Written & Directed by Scott Beck & Bryan Woods (probably best know as the writers on A Quiet P lace)
, 65 stars Adam Driver as Mills... A kind of space long haul truck driver (anyone remember space truckers? 😉
He's got to do a very long haul job (2 years) in order to get a big pay day to pay for his sick daughters medical treatment....
But wouldn't you know it... Not too long into this journey, his ship (carrying a bunch of human passengers in stasis tubes) crash lands on an uncharted planet....
Well... It's uncharted for Mills... But for us... It's earth... The usp for this movie being.... It's earth... But 65 million years ago.
So mills thinks he's only survivor, he's about to give up but then is surprised to learn there's one more survivor... A young girl not too dissimilar to his own daughter
In order to escape this monster (aka dinosaur) fillerd planet..
They have to trek 15km or so across dangerous terrain to get to the escape pod part of their crashed ship... And... That's pretty much it... Thats the movie...
I missed this one at the cinema so this was a home viewing on YouTube movies (formerly Google play movies So I didn't get the 'cinema' experience on this one...
So what did I think of 65...
Well..
It's OK.
Not amazing, not terrible
The adult male warrior with child ento isn't exactly new territory... Last of Us, madelorian, even Logan a few. Years ago to name but a few...
The hook here is.... Dinosaurs....
What DID I like about 65...
For starters... Adam Driver
He's a very good lead, I've liked him in everything I've seen him in.... He's BY FAR the best thing about the star wars sequels.
He's got a good screen presence, and he doesn't look like a typical movie star action guy... And that works on his favour I think.
His character here isn't all brave and all powerful... Theres pain and weakness and vulnerability in his Mills (and it goes to pretty dark places at times)
But equally... He can flip the switch and be in badass mode quite comfortably (there's small set piece about half way through where he does exactly this.
His co star Arianna Greenblatt does a decent job with what's she's given.. Her character doesn't speak English so she does most of her emoting though non verbal cues and just repeating What her protector says to her in English... While not understanding it... (again shades of Logan here... L...
And for the most part this works well... The language barrier allowing for both added tension at times... But also a bit of levity.
(MCU fans may recognise this young actress as young Gamora in Infinity War)
What else did I like?... Dinosaurs... Who doesn't like dinos...
What didn't I like about 65....?
Right off the bat... The opening sequence has some pretty poor cgi.... But when we get to earth and the dinos, the cgi does improve... But I think the low budget shows with the cgi at times... And does take you out of the movie.
Its got a good opening, a decent final act....
But the middle just struggles to hold your attention....
The dinos look fairly different from what audiences will be used to.... I think they may have done this deliberately ro set this movie apart..... But it felt more like made up cgi monsters....rather than dinos
It kinda feels like a short story idea that's been stretched to 90 mins....
I won't give away too much about the specific timeline of things and events that tie in... But I did like that little twist... We'll it's not really a twist...just a little nod to natural history I guess...
Gonna give it 6/10 (would be 5 were it not for Adam Driver being able to carry the movie.... Especially with a dislocated shoulder 😉)
And thats it folks, hope you enjoyed the video.
If you did, give that like button a tap... And if you want to see more content like this, maybe hit that wee subscribe button also
I've been Jimmy the Scottish Geek Guy and I'll catch you on the next video
Laters 😁