I'd agree. It smacks of "Well, I *always* knew he was a bad 'un and a hack", which tends to come across as quite masturbatory.
Though Scott does say pretty stupid things, which is largely why I was surprised that The Last Duel was such an eminently well made film that is both nuanced and very clear with respect to its central themes. My impression is that Scott should generally let his films talk for themselves, because he's got vastly better instincts as a filmmaker than as a commentator on current issues of any kind.
*thinks back to him asking out loud ‘what if Jesus was an alien?’*
Agreed.
And don’t forget his plans for a Gladiator sequel.
I don't know about Ridley Scott's plans for a sequel, but Nick Cave's were an absolute hoot.
Yeah I consider myself a pretty big Ridley Scott fan and didn't even know he fucking released a movie recently. Advertising needs to change. I haven't been to the theater since 2019 so maybe it's just because I don't see movie trailers anymore. But if I don't know the movie's coming out then I can't see it. Hell I didn't even know Ghostbusters came out last week until RLM did a review of it.
Dune I watched because I logged into HBO Max to cancel my sub and saw the poster show up.
Modern consumers, at least a large chunk, are doing their level best to avoid advertising. How do you market to people who actively insulate themselves from marketing?
People complain when Prime or Apple+ put prerolls for other content on that service in front of their selected show. They’d lose their shit if they started advertising off-platform media. But when you’ve cut the cord and installed an ad blocker (for good reason) you’ve to some extent taken it upon yourself to go check out what’s coming out. Because you’ve walled yourself off from all the normal routes marketers would use to reach you.
Personally I felt like Last Duel was aggressively marketed. I don’t specifically recall which outlets I saw it promoted on, other than trailers in front of multiple other movies I watched, but it was definitely out there. Same for Ghostbusters. I probably saw like eight spots for that during a single football game. And also trailers in front of multiple other films.
But if you aren’t going to the theater, don’t watch any television with ads, and pi-hole your internet you can’t be shocked if you didn’t hear a movie came out. You’ve basically built yourself an ad-free bunker, something most people would say they prefer…up until the realize they don’t know what’s outside it anymore.
Personally I use “new and upcoming” on Rotten Tomatoes, get there for trailers when I go to the theater, and check the “coming soon” in the AMC app to see what’s on the horizon and when it releases. I get some during things like sports, and I think Last Duel was advertised there same as Ghostbusters, but obviously that’s gonna give you a limited look at what’s coming and only the most mainstream stuff. The other options above will show you slightly wider view.
I don't really have an answer. But the pre-roll stuff sucks because it's just random shit that I obviously won't watch. I'd prefer it open to a "Coming Soon!" section with a list of movies (horizontal scrolling) with dates below them and you can scroll to view the trailers if you want.
It's just weird that I follow a bunch of movie folk, sub to a bunch of movie subreddits, and I still didn't see anything about Ghostbusters/Last Duel. I feel like I'd know this by osmosis at this point.
I mean I got a pre-roll for Schmigadoon before Ted Lasso, I watched it and enjoyed it enough. Also got a preroll for Shrink Next Door, and Physical. Plan to watch the former, watched a bit of the latter. I discover a fair amount of content through prerolls like that. Same way I discovered Justified through a commercial during Sons of Anarchy. I like prerolls that show me potential new content…as long as they’re skippable.
The real question is where a “coming soon” section like describe would live. If we’re talking about theater releases…like Last Duel and Ghostbusters…it’s not like platforms that aren’t going to have that content anytime soon will want to advertise it or waste UI space on it. It makes sense for day and date releases like Dune on HBO, except then you’re balkanizing your trailers across all the various platforms associated with the studio or distributor behind the film. HBO isn’t gonna include trailers for Disney/Marvel releases on their site, and vice versa.
So for as long as you’re living inside streaming apps on your television there’s no good place to do what you’re describing, because none of them have an incentive to market general theatrical releases to you. There *are* apps that specialize in this, I believe. Apple has an app called Trailers for both mobile and TV platforms that has trailers for both content coming to their movie store and content coming exclusively to theaters. I believe there are some semi-curated trailer apps for Roku and the like as well.
Sure the streaming apps know exactly when something is going to show up on their service. We know the Last Duel is going to end up on Disney+. They could just as easily have a listing in the app that just shows upcoming movies or shows to be released. That would be a way to get people engaged.
But I didn't realize that RT had something like it so maybe I'll just bookmark it and hit that up once a week or something.
Le Chiffre - just pop your clothes over there and take a seat, please
I guess the various Cinema divisions are going to have to start paying Google/YouTube more than Nerf, Walmart, or my local car dealership for ads in front of the content I watch.
Reviews are coming in for house of gucci and they are oof.
He tried to immulate, "American Gangster", but in Italy and about Gucci.
I mean the trailer bored me. When you are making a period piece about a gaudy 80's fashion family that ended in a a fucking hit, and you bore me with your trailer? Jesus.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Robert Young is on trial for murder. He takes the stand and tells his story, at which point we flashback to the events leading up to his trial, which involve his wife Rita Johnson (whom he is accused of murdering), Susan Hayward as a femme fatale, and Jane Greer as another person.
It's fine. Robert Young does a really good job as a dude who's quite a cad, but not so despicable that we can't sympathize with him. Rita Johnson does a really good job as the wife who is unhappy with his caddish ways, and Susan Hayward is fine as the femme fatale. So what's the problem? Well, I've basically exhausted the amount of characterization these people get. Most of the movie is concerned with the plot, of which there is plenty, and there's relatively little suspense because you know who ends up dead, who gets put on trial, etc. Someone on Criticker says that the film does a great job with the unreliable narrator motif but I never got the sense the movie was trying to portray him as unreliable at all. Maybe I just misunderstood things.
There are some nice points besides the performances. There are some prettygoodcostumes, and much of the movie takes place in the southwest on a ranch, which is a nice change of pace from the typical noir city. And the ending is pretty good, although you can see it coming from 100 miles away. This was cut for one of its reissues (the one showing on TCM) so make sure you watch the version that's 95 minutes, if you watch it. All in all, not my favorite, but not bad. 72/100
+5
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Hairy Porter & The Half Chud Wince is the take me srsly plz installment, as evidenced by the Xbox360 brown and gray filter applied to everything. I was hoping for more interactions with the real world or maybe some shinigami shenanigans if the baddies are starting to attack normies, but nope, that's to the side, whatever. This is a movie where things just happen and don't really get built upon, way too focused on the Voldemort situation. You know what, I'm about to say it, I don't care that you broke your elbow that Dumbledore died. Yamamoto was the better fire based leader with a long beard. There was something incredibly weird about the entire plot of Harry trying to be nice to the potions professor, like a freaky honeypot thing that doesn't make me feel better knowing Dumbledore is pretty much pimping Harry out to do the job. Add to it the srs camerawork and darker tone, it felt off and I can't believe this didn't get caught by anyone. Well, considering it's Hollywood they think nothing of the premise a truth bomb.
You also have Draco trying to be pushed more this movie when he's never been set up as a rival or a real threat so it's too late to make me care, which really makes everything with him just going through the motions. Lack of Neville this movie hurt my heart, but I did like the romance subplots finally getting ironed out and established more and I do like Ginny. Not as much as Luna but at least we never had a love triangle with the main three. I actually liked Lavender, at least she was fighting for what she wanted without some love potion reveal. Stop being so stupidly simplistic with characterizations, I'm not buying what you're selling, Harry Potter Universe.
As the movies continue on I feel more and more like I am missing chunks of story that is staying in the books, or the books weren't that solid to begin with if they gloss over things. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw are just the fodder houses I guess? Quidditch is just gonna be more rugby now because we have better uniforms? The entire magic society are cowards, and the school is such a joke with defense they should be studying on a SHIELD helicarrier a dabus maximus. I joke in writing these reviews throwing in some animoo stuff but at the same it makes me respect them a bit more, as I thought something that became this beloved new franchise would be innovative in stuff, but it's really no better than shonen or even TNBC shows. If Harry drops a spirit bomb to defeat Voldemort I'm going to drop kick every single one of you.
I found The Power of the Dog to be surprisingly different from what I expected. I went in thinking that Benedict Cumberbatch's character would be a larger-than-life, Daniel Plainview-style monster of a man, but while he's undeniably toxic, he's smaller than that, and also sadder - both in the sense of being pathetic and having odd moments where I felt pity for him. More than the trailers suggested (or than I gathered from them, at least), the film isn't just about toxic masculinity, it's also about gender, sexuality and class. It takes some clichés about alpha males and sexuality that are perhaps a bit tired by now and reinvigorates them.
Cumberbatch's performance is very good, it's probably my favourite performance of his, but he doesn't overpower the film, which I'm glad about. It's very much about all the characters, and Kirsten Dunst and Kodi Smit-McPhee leave a strong impression as well. There are other films by Jane Campion that I've liked better, but The Power of the Dog is well worth watching, on all levels: acting, writing, direction, cinematography, and the supremely discomfiting music (even if it isn't miles away from some of Johnny Greenwood's other work).
Thirith on
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Ida Lupino is basically trapped in the middle of nowhere with her almost comically terrible parents, Fay Bainter and Henry Hull, who hate each other. Change is perhaps in the air, though, because they're building a new highway through the land near the house, and witht he highway comes Wayne Morris, the engineer in charge, and Dane Clark, a convict who is working on the construction.
Lupino is pretty much always great and she's no exception here. She has a pretty tough job to play, since she portrays a young woman who basically has zero social skills, and a stutter to boot. But she does a fine job. The parents are almost comically bad but crucially they're not unbelievably bad: the melodrama is cranked up pretty high but it's not ridiculous.
A dog (Lupino's) is basically the sixth lead, which is always great. Lupino loves to go on walks in the woods and even though the movie almost dips into Disney princess territory it never gets too silly. There's some nice suspense and the classic noir emotionality, plus a pretty good ending. 85/100
+10
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Hairy Porter and the Deaf Lie Hellos Part 1 suck-diddly-ucked, worst of the franchise. This goes beyond being a shitty part 1 that means you have the thing adding an extra hour of bullshit where it definitely didn't need it (fuck all the walking around trying to make it seem like The Road or some dystopia). The way the movie kills off characters is shit, because not only are they largely done offscreen they are largely characters who were ancillary but we're supposed to still care for them, that is a cheap as fuck writing tool, at the very least you can pretend to not make it seem so slow piano sad. The death later in the movie is filmed in such a poor way I laughed more than felt sad about how it was unfolding. This is also the movie where the magic feels completely fuck you plot specific, even Naruto made more sense. I brought this up before but it feels very cheap to have the death spell be a no call flick and boom, green spark, if there isn't also super easy deflect or shield spells. Plus you have the stupidity of this big sky battle but oh well, gonna have a wedding anyway, all people just sitting there for nice targets, but I guess the death eaters just run away and don't burn the party and largely Phoenix members to the ground because Ginny is still going to Hogwarts later and anyone with a fucking brain would realize maybe you throw her in a dungeon if you're actually trying to lure out Harry. And that's something I liked about the later movies, showing relationships grow, but here it seems like Ginny is actively pushed aside like this is some fan fiction where they want to make some new OTP. She's clearly set up to be the fourth member but nope. At least try this movie to show the two finally getting over their teenage worries and hold hands or something, korean and indian soap operas show more affection a multicultural dab.
Nothing makes sense anymore, and it seems for the past 7 years Harry did fuck all learning or any basic training so at this point just die already, you are not a good protagonist, I care more about Neville than you. The falling out between the three is too fake, and while the names of the books/movies always made more sense in the previous films, this one feels stupid and almost like Rowling was told by WB their plans to pad the final movie into two parts so make up some stupid name for a Three Little Pigs type story we can shove in for a final fetch quest.
I was really gung ho on this franchise last weekend because after the third it felt like I was going to get some good stuff, but this....this isn't even cut with the right baby formula, you fucking cut it with flour. It's not Mockingjay Part 1 horrible but I can't believe there wasn't better padding or maybe a worthwhile training montage.
+9
RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
Alec Trevelyan - his accent occasionally slips but he's doing it for England
Rewatching LOTR as is my thanksgiving tradition. I wonder if Samwise has to rewrite how the ring is destroyed versus how Frodo tells it, I'm guessing yes.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Rewatching LOTR as is my thanksgiving tradition. I wonder if Samwise has to rewrite how the ring is destroyed versus how Frodo tells it, I'm guessing yes.
"Sam says Gollum was there, but I don't remember that as I had been huffing volcano fumes the whole ride on Sam's back. I do remember Sam having a sword at some point, then waking up to nine fingers, no ring, and a suspiciously-alive ten-fingered Samwise. Think of that what you will."
Le Chiffre - just pop your clothes over there and take a seat, please
We can't stop here, this is Gollum country!
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
After having posted about like 8 movies in a row from 1947, Noirvember is moving on with this 1950 film:
No Man of Her Own (1950), dir. Mitchell Leisen
Barbara Stanwyck and her husband John Lund are involved in a murder one, the other, or both committed, and honestly it's not grat for their marriage, or so we learn in the opening. We flash back to how this happened, a process involving Stanwyck's mother- and father-in-law, Jane Cowl and Henry O'Neill, and Lytle Bettger, a monumentally despicable dude.
A very decent movie, all told. Bettger is one of the world's biggest slimeballs, Stanwyck's role has a lot to chew on (and she's the right person to chew on it), and Lund is fine as what is basically just some decent guy. Two things hold it back from greatness. First, the flashback structure gets rid of a lot of the tension: you know a murder is coming, and you don't have to wait long before you can guess who's getting got, so a lot of the movie is just waiting for stuff to fall into place. It would've been way tenser without the opening scene. Second, there are some sparse Stanwyck voiceovers which aren't super effective.
The plot is also rather ridiculous, but it's done about as well as a ridiculous plot like this can be done, so that's not a big knock. And once you get past the murder, the movie does a nice job with the tension. Edith Head did the costumes, for those keeping track. Verdict: thumbs up, but not too far up. 82/100
+5
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Hairy Porter and the De-fly Helios Part 2 is better than part 1, but still a fart of an ending. Movies of buildup, waiting for character payoffs, and nothing. I feel like memeing the shit out of this movie (doge meme of Snape movie 1 vs. Snape movie 7) but I don't want to give it the time. Really though, Snape is ultimately one of the shittiest payoffs for a character in literature, and again you have Rowling just through sheer stubbornness and denial trying to make him important. Oh, and we can't forget a last minute twist (that is almost immediately rescinded) about Dumbledore and how he treated Harry. Draco and his family's entire arc is also another waste, the series is written more without real long term payoffs but just trying to sweep away the old for the new, in ADD style. And the epilogue was bad, not in idea but in execution. No one looked older, they just looked like they were playing dress up, and again you act as though Ginny just shouldn't be allowed near Harry. You repressed english people, a guffaw and a good day, sir or madam. The best thing the movie can provide is two good set pieces, the bank heist and the final Hogwart's fight, but at the same time for a padded two-part movie so much happens offscreen when it deserves to be given time. I hate being a broken record but you don't kill people off this way, show some respect for your creations. You have the time, show it. And maybe, just maybe, don't make everyone in Slytherin baddies. Last second changes of heart mean nothing, at least Darth Vader started good.
Final movie power ranking:
3
1
2
4
5
6
8
-
-
-
7
A depressing end to a very promising start, never going to touch those prequel movies ever ever. I have gained a massive amount of respect for mangoo and animoo now after seeing how feeble this franchise is, it skipped leg day every day. One Piece really is something that should be looked at in terms of long-term storytelling, whatever hiccups are mainly in the beginning but are always covered later on without a "fuck you, that's why."
An aside, I watched that "Ron's Not Dumb" video from a few pages back (along with a Slytherin video) and I have to ask because I just didn't see or care when Harry Potter mania was around; was the community as rabid and defensive about people pointing out WB/Rowling's own blunders then as say, MCU fans are now?
An aside, I watched that "Ron's Not Dumb" video from a few pages back (along with a Slytherin video) and I have to ask because I just didn't see or care when Harry Potter mania was around; was the community as rabid and defensive about people pointing out WB/Rowling's own blunders then as say, MCU fans are now?
Pretty much, though people were pointing them out, as you note.
It got a lot more acceptable after she mishandled the Dumbledore thing, and then she burned most if not all of her remaining cred by being a very loud and visible TERF.
Goblet of Fire is simultaneously the best book and worst movie of them all. I was furious they cut the world cup stuff. This is why we need a TV show version... Is what I would say if I wasn't done with the franchise and Rowling as a human
Anyone else find the Gollum CGI to be slightly jarring upon rewatching LotR movies? They pull the character off fantastically well, and the VA is great, but I was conscious of him not "fitting" with the scene when I rewatched the movies last year. I wonder how well it would have worked to attempt Gollum via make-up or puppetry.
Texiken you continue to be my favourite disheveled madman on the street corner with a poorly xeroed manifesto.
Deathly Hallows pt 1 is one of the better films in the series. It's got great atmosphere and isn't rushing through plotpoint at a mile a minute.
Reading your reviews I feel like a lot of the disconnect is with never having read the books and not getting the tone. Because a lot of the plot-based issues with the movies is either inherited directly from the books or is the result of adapting volumes that don't structurally fit nicely into a 2.5 movie format but without the leeway to drastically change things up.
oh, most of the problems absolutely originate in the book(s). Harry just fucks off and goes camping for most of a year so that things can be properly dire by the time he shows up again, the Slytherin are (despite Rowling's occasional half-hearted claims otherwise) all rotters every one, etc.
Commander Zoom on
+11
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
I don't bother with the books past the fifth one. It's clear in six the Rowling doesn't know what to do with the story, and then by the seventh she's just killing off characters left and right because she can't manage anything better. Basically, the story should've never left the school; once the main focus is away from Hogwart's, everything jut becomes grim and tedious.
I think it's more that after Book 5 Rowling realises she's spun out a lot of shit to deal with, some of it pretty big and weighty about wizarding society in general but the structure she's locked herself into for the series says there's only 2 more books. So at some point she or her editor or someone is like "we need to refocus on the core conflict here to deliver an ending" and so book 6 basically ditches almost everything in favour of a tightly focused story that exists entirely to set up the final volume, which is another fairly focused stab at resolving the Voldemort plot. And everything else just kinda gets left to the side or half-heartedly referenced.
Though she does also take the final volume approach of sniping a few characters just to show the series means business. But that's pretty normal honestly.
I read books 1-6 of Harry Potter as they came out, saw a couple of the movies (4 and 6, I remember being okay with 4 and thinking 6 was lame). I think I wasn't reading for pleasure much when book 7 came out and then just never got around to it.
Alec Trevelyan - his accent occasionally slips but he's doing it for England
Something I've come to wonder about the Harry Potter books is whether house elves were always going to be happy in their slavery with Dobby as an outlier, or whether she wrote Book 2, realised it might not be great having a literal slave race in her magical world, so tried to correct in possibly the worst way
Anyone else find the Gollum CGI to be slightly jarring upon rewatching LotR movies? They pull the character off fantastically well, and the VA is great, but I was conscious of him not "fitting" with the scene when I rewatched the movies last year. I wonder how well it would have worked to attempt Gollum via make-up or puppetry.
Some scenes on better looking tvs its not as good as it once was, but for the most part he fits, its only when they have to blend him with live action a lot he comes off a little jarring.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
Alec Trevelyan - his accent occasionally slips but he's doing it for England
Texiken is usually running inverse to the rest of us, so he may actually find something to love about the Fantastic Beasts movies
I mean the American Wizard Cops have enough power and bloodlust combined with no meaningful oversight that it makes the Judges from Judge Dredd look tame, so that's something
Goblet of Fire is simultaneously the best book and worst movie of them all. I was furious they cut the world cup stuff. This is why we need a TV show version... Is what I would say if I wasn't done with the franchise and Rowling as a human
It wasn't just that they "cut" the world cup stuff.
If Movie4 was your first exposure to Harry Potter and you wanted to see what the fuss was about, the first 15minutes or so until they get back to hogwarts is a bewildering mix of rapid cuts, scene shifts, and things not being explained. It relies on book fans to fill in all the bits that were cut from the movie, to the point where movie-only fans find it hard to follow, and to non-fans it is utterly incomprehensible.
Goblet of Fire is simultaneously the best book and worst movie of them all. I was furious they cut the world cup stuff. This is why we need a TV show version... Is what I would say if I wasn't done with the franchise and Rowling as a human
It wasn't just that they "cut" the world cup stuff.
If Movie4 was your first exposure to Harry Potter and you wanted to see what the fuss was about, the first 15minutes or so until they get back to hogwarts is a bewildering mix of rapid cuts, scene shifts, and things not being explained. It relies on book fans to fill in all the bits that were cut from the movie, to the point where movie-only fans find it hard to follow, and to non-fans it is utterly incomprehensible.
I mean let's be fair, if you jump in four movies into a series with a continuing, developing story, I would kind of expect you to be lost :P
Also The Green Knight, another medieval romp, did double the domestic business of The Last Duel despite being far more inaccessible and difficult to market.
Sir Ridley can go muffle his gob with some avocado toast, he’s talking out his ass
I feel a lot happier about having gotten this now.
I freely admit it's a flawed film, but it sure is a pretty one, and $8 is criminal.
The Green Knight had a trailer that said "you need to see this in theatres". Even if in the end the film didn't deliver what I'd hoped.
The Last Duel uh ... did it have a trailer?
shryke on
0
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Le Chiffre - just pop your clothes over there and take a seat, please
Also, it's not a movie, but anyone even remotely interested in noir and/or Cowboy Bebop should check out episode 5 of the Netflix version.
It's basically a stand-alone crime drama episode about Jet Black and his ex-partner trying to hunt down an ex-con, and it has some pretty massive noir vibes.
The whole episode felt like a love letter to the genre, and was arguably the best episode of the series(low bar, but still).
+3
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Le Chiffre - just pop your clothes over there and take a seat, please
Posts
I don't know about Ridley Scott's plans for a sequel, but Nick Cave's were an absolute hoot.
I mean I got a pre-roll for Schmigadoon before Ted Lasso, I watched it and enjoyed it enough. Also got a preroll for Shrink Next Door, and Physical. Plan to watch the former, watched a bit of the latter. I discover a fair amount of content through prerolls like that. Same way I discovered Justified through a commercial during Sons of Anarchy. I like prerolls that show me potential new content…as long as they’re skippable.
The real question is where a “coming soon” section like describe would live. If we’re talking about theater releases…like Last Duel and Ghostbusters…it’s not like platforms that aren’t going to have that content anytime soon will want to advertise it or waste UI space on it. It makes sense for day and date releases like Dune on HBO, except then you’re balkanizing your trailers across all the various platforms associated with the studio or distributor behind the film. HBO isn’t gonna include trailers for Disney/Marvel releases on their site, and vice versa.
So for as long as you’re living inside streaming apps on your television there’s no good place to do what you’re describing, because none of them have an incentive to market general theatrical releases to you. There *are* apps that specialize in this, I believe. Apple has an app called Trailers for both mobile and TV platforms that has trailers for both content coming to their movie store and content coming exclusively to theaters. I believe there are some semi-curated trailer apps for Roku and the like as well.
But I didn't realize that RT had something like it so maybe I'll just bookmark it and hit that up once a week or something.
MWO: Adamski
He tried to immulate, "American Gangster", but in Italy and about Gucci.
I mean the trailer bored me. When you are making a period piece about a gaudy 80's fashion family that ended in a a fucking hit, and you bore me with your trailer? Jesus.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Can they give me a discount for including the Hobbit films?
Blizzard: Pailryder#1101
GoG: https://www.gog.com/u/pailryder
They Won't Believe Me (1947), dir. Irving Pichel
Robert Young is on trial for murder. He takes the stand and tells his story, at which point we flashback to the events leading up to his trial, which involve his wife Rita Johnson (whom he is accused of murdering), Susan Hayward as a femme fatale, and Jane Greer as another person.
It's fine. Robert Young does a really good job as a dude who's quite a cad, but not so despicable that we can't sympathize with him. Rita Johnson does a really good job as the wife who is unhappy with his caddish ways, and Susan Hayward is fine as the femme fatale. So what's the problem? Well, I've basically exhausted the amount of characterization these people get. Most of the movie is concerned with the plot, of which there is plenty, and there's relatively little suspense because you know who ends up dead, who gets put on trial, etc. Someone on Criticker says that the film does a great job with the unreliable narrator motif but I never got the sense the movie was trying to portray him as unreliable at all. Maybe I just misunderstood things.
There are some nice points besides the performances. There are some pretty good costumes, and much of the movie takes place in the southwest on a ranch, which is a nice change of pace from the typical noir city. And the ending is pretty good, although you can see it coming from 100 miles away. This was cut for one of its reissues (the one showing on TCM) so make sure you watch the version that's 95 minutes, if you watch it. All in all, not my favorite, but not bad. 72/100
You also have Draco trying to be pushed more this movie when he's never been set up as a rival or a real threat so it's too late to make me care, which really makes everything with him just going through the motions. Lack of Neville this movie hurt my heart, but I did like the romance subplots finally getting ironed out and established more and I do like Ginny. Not as much as Luna but at least we never had a love triangle with the main three. I actually liked Lavender, at least she was fighting for what she wanted without some love potion reveal. Stop being so stupidly simplistic with characterizations, I'm not buying what you're selling, Harry Potter Universe.
As the movies continue on I feel more and more like I am missing chunks of story that is staying in the books, or the books weren't that solid to begin with if they gloss over things. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw are just the fodder houses I guess? Quidditch is just gonna be more rugby now because we have better uniforms? The entire magic society are cowards, and the school is such a joke with defense they should be studying on a SHIELD helicarrier a dabus maximus. I joke in writing these reviews throwing in some animoo stuff but at the same it makes me respect them a bit more, as I thought something that became this beloved new franchise would be innovative in stuff, but it's really no better than shonen or even TNBC shows. If Harry drops a spirit bomb to defeat Voldemort I'm going to drop kick every single one of you.
Cumberbatch's performance is very good, it's probably my favourite performance of his, but he doesn't overpower the film, which I'm glad about. It's very much about all the characters, and Kirsten Dunst and Kodi Smit-McPhee leave a strong impression as well. There are other films by Jane Campion that I've liked better, but The Power of the Dog is well worth watching, on all levels: acting, writing, direction, cinematography, and the supremely discomfiting music (even if it isn't miles away from some of Johnny Greenwood's other work).
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Deep Valley (1947), dir. Jean Negulescu
Ida Lupino is basically trapped in the middle of nowhere with her almost comically terrible parents, Fay Bainter and Henry Hull, who hate each other. Change is perhaps in the air, though, because they're building a new highway through the land near the house, and witht he highway comes Wayne Morris, the engineer in charge, and Dane Clark, a convict who is working on the construction.
Lupino is pretty much always great and she's no exception here. She has a pretty tough job to play, since she portrays a young woman who basically has zero social skills, and a stutter to boot. But she does a fine job. The parents are almost comically bad but crucially they're not unbelievably bad: the melodrama is cranked up pretty high but it's not ridiculous.
A dog (Lupino's) is basically the sixth lead, which is always great. Lupino loves to go on walks in the woods and even though the movie almost dips into Disney princess territory it never gets too silly. There's some nice suspense and the classic noir emotionality, plus a pretty good ending. 85/100
Nothing makes sense anymore, and it seems for the past 7 years Harry did fuck all learning or any basic training so at this point just die already, you are not a good protagonist, I care more about Neville than you. The falling out between the three is too fake, and while the names of the books/movies always made more sense in the previous films, this one feels stupid and almost like Rowling was told by WB their plans to pad the final movie into two parts so make up some stupid name for a Three Little Pigs type story we can shove in for a final fetch quest.
I was really gung ho on this franchise last weekend because after the third it felt like I was going to get some good stuff, but this....this isn't even cut with the right baby formula, you fucking cut it with flour. It's not Mockingjay Part 1 horrible but I can't believe there wasn't better padding or maybe a worthwhile training montage.
How long do owls live?
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"Sam says Gollum was there, but I don't remember that as I had been huffing volcano fumes the whole ride on Sam's back. I do remember Sam having a sword at some point, then waking up to nine fingers, no ring, and a suspiciously-alive ten-fingered Samwise. Think of that what you will."
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No Man of Her Own (1950), dir. Mitchell Leisen
Barbara Stanwyck and her husband John Lund are involved in a murder one, the other, or both committed, and honestly it's not grat for their marriage, or so we learn in the opening. We flash back to how this happened, a process involving Stanwyck's mother- and father-in-law, Jane Cowl and Henry O'Neill, and Lytle Bettger, a monumentally despicable dude.
A very decent movie, all told. Bettger is one of the world's biggest slimeballs, Stanwyck's role has a lot to chew on (and she's the right person to chew on it), and Lund is fine as what is basically just some decent guy. Two things hold it back from greatness. First, the flashback structure gets rid of a lot of the tension: you know a murder is coming, and you don't have to wait long before you can guess who's getting got, so a lot of the movie is just waiting for stuff to fall into place. It would've been way tenser without the opening scene. Second, there are some sparse Stanwyck voiceovers which aren't super effective.
The plot is also rather ridiculous, but it's done about as well as a ridiculous plot like this can be done, so that's not a big knock. And once you get past the murder, the movie does a nice job with the tension. Edith Head did the costumes, for those keeping track. Verdict: thumbs up, but not too far up. 82/100
Final movie power ranking:
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A depressing end to a very promising start, never going to touch those prequel movies ever ever. I have gained a massive amount of respect for mangoo and animoo now after seeing how feeble this franchise is, it skipped leg day every day. One Piece really is something that should be looked at in terms of long-term storytelling, whatever hiccups are mainly in the beginning but are always covered later on without a "fuck you, that's why."
An aside, I watched that "Ron's Not Dumb" video from a few pages back (along with a Slytherin video) and I have to ask because I just didn't see or care when Harry Potter mania was around; was the community as rabid and defensive about people pointing out WB/Rowling's own blunders then as say, MCU fans are now?
Pretty much, though people were pointing them out, as you note.
It got a lot more acceptable after she mishandled the Dumbledore thing, and then she burned most if not all of her remaining cred by being a very loud and visible TERF.
Deathly Hallows pt 1 is one of the better films in the series. It's got great atmosphere and isn't rushing through plotpoint at a mile a minute.
Reading your reviews I feel like a lot of the disconnect is with never having read the books and not getting the tone. Because a lot of the plot-based issues with the movies is either inherited directly from the books or is the result of adapting volumes that don't structurally fit nicely into a 2.5 movie format but without the leeway to drastically change things up.
Though she does also take the final volume approach of sniping a few characters just to show the series means business. But that's pretty normal honestly.
To this day I don't know how that series ends.
Some scenes on better looking tvs its not as good as it once was, but for the most part he fits, its only when they have to blend him with live action a lot he comes off a little jarring.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I mean the American Wizard Cops have enough power and bloodlust combined with no meaningful oversight that it makes the Judges from Judge Dredd look tame, so that's something
If Movie4 was your first exposure to Harry Potter and you wanted to see what the fuss was about, the first 15minutes or so until they get back to hogwarts is a bewildering mix of rapid cuts, scene shifts, and things not being explained. It relies on book fans to fill in all the bits that were cut from the movie, to the point where movie-only fans find it hard to follow, and to non-fans it is utterly incomprehensible.
I mean let's be fair, if you jump in four movies into a series with a continuing, developing story, I would kind of expect you to be lost :P
And wouldn't consider that too be a problem
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I feel a lot happier about having gotten this now.
I freely admit it's a flawed film, but it sure is a pretty one, and $8 is criminal.
The Last Duel uh ... did it have a trailer?
It's basically a stand-alone crime drama episode about Jet Black and his ex-partner trying to hunt down an ex-con, and it has some pretty massive noir vibes.
The whole episode felt like a love letter to the genre, and was arguably the best episode of the series(low bar, but still).
I really don't get the 'it had no marketing' complaints, because I saw plenty of trailers.
Did they make me want to see it? Not particularly, no.
The Green Knight's trailer? I watched it probably a dozen times.