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The Last Movie(s) You Watched... (quick one or two sentence reviews)

Don't Look Up (2021)
I guess I just really dig Adam McKay; I liked this a lot and think it deserved most of the nominations it got. McKay shows a real mastery of the different styles of filming, lenses, lighting, tone, etc. Most common criticism I heard was that he's preaching to the converted, but I don't think he's preaching...this is just pure absurdist comedy; unfortunately comedy that's so accurate I sat through most of it feeling sad.

Brightburn (2019)
The absolute most tired trope in superhero stories: "What if Superman was evil?", this is the kind of cash-in film that people have to wade through to find the superhero stuff adding anything with depth and new ideas. There are really none to be found here, just some dog whistling for the Gore Horror fans.
 
Continuing my Oliver Stone Marathon (film 11 now!) with

Any Given Sunday (1999)
Damn, I love this movie. Covers nearly every aspect of American football in a style that's just as testosterone-fueled and overly-complicated as the game itself. First time watching the Director's Cut, and I think the (longer, differently-edited) Theatrical Cut is probably better, but it seems really hard to find now...

The Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Watched this back around Father's Day but only just got to log it now. I generally do not vibe with Italian films and/or 1940s films, but this was one of the rare ones that does have that je ne sais quoi. Not something I'd recommend to just anyone, as it's often slow and I found the central character problematic, but I'm glad I finally checked it off the list.
 

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DC League of Super Pets 2022​

The movie was funny and was interesting I'm not fan kids movie but this one was
different and kept me clued Batman was hilarious. 4 of 5 stars.
 
Star Trek: Beyond (2016)
The generic title and generic action trailer turned me off watching this in the theater, but I finally caught up with the last outing of a really fantastic cast (RIP Anton Yelchin). Yes, it rather loses a lot of the heady sci-fi introspection that sets Star Trek apart, but at least it wasn't another script from Damon Lindelof that thinks it's smarter than it is (Into Darkness).

The Gray Man (2022)
I'm seeing a lot of hate for this and dismissiveness over on Letterboxd, and I can only attribute that to people watching who either don't really much care about action movies and/or expected a lot from this due to who all was involved. I thought it was the best modern re-envisioning of James Bond since...well, ever. Forget Bourne, Jack Ryan, XXX, Kingsman, The Man From Uncle, even the Mission Impossible series. What charms they've had have run their course. I'd easily watch more of super spy, Six, though. ("007 was taken.")
 
Gray Man is a garbage Michael Bay rip off, with atrocious action scenes and a lot of that usual marvel quipping dialogue that is so fucking annoying. I am a huge action fan, and I was at least expecting some good fight scenes like we had in The Winter Soldier, also the Russos, but this was just bad. A few decent moments, but overall terrible. I also just watched Kingsman again, and the action scenes and comedy in that one are so much better (except that ending ass gag). Oh, and The Man from UNCLE is awesome. I also disagree with you on Beyond, to me it’s the worst of the trilogy. Watchable, but not as fun as the first two.
 
^I can understand the opinion that some of the CG in some action sequences for The Gray Man is not up to snuff. That said, the CG in many of the recent MCU films people love has been comparable or worse. There's little else to compare to Bay. The fights are objectively better, sorry. Except for the editing in the final battle, I could throw up a shot by shot comparison with most action film fights and show you exactly why these are some of the best. They're from 87Eleven Action Design team, the same crew that does the John Wick films and almost all the top action movies. Sucks you weren't able to appreciate it. 🤷
 
1) My opinion on the action being atrocious was not due to the CGI (however it certainly wasn’t the best).
2) Never said I was a fan of the MCU, especially it’s more recent outings.
3) The comparison to Bay is for the overabundance of fly by drone shots, many of which felt extremely out of place and were also just plain bad. Bay knows how to use a drone from what I’ve seen (which isn’t much, I’ll admit, but I know the tropes he’s known for).
4) My issue with the action isn’t the choreography, it was the editing. It cut a lot and at awkward times, and didn’t feel connected to the choreo at all. I love John Wick, and so if this was the same design team, either they didn’t have enough control over camera placement and editing, they had a misfire with this one, or the directors/editors just aren’t very good at action. I think it’s probably down to the latter, as all three John Wick movies action has been stellar, so it’s probably due to the editor/directors.
 
^As I wrote in my review, the final fight is edited much worse than the rest. It's pretty bad. Though the others show you much more than in a Bourne or Bond film: fast editing, yes, but not like Taken 3. They use wide shots, steadicam sweeps, no shakicam, drones for some of the fireworks fight, for obvious reasons. Unlike Bay and many other directors, the drones are used for a particular effect in these scenes, not just because it's tech that's available. Anyway, I liked it, you didn't, moving on.

Racially Charged: America’s Misdemeanor Problem (2020)
A pretty powerful short documentary on how the US justice system uses "misdemeanors" as a method of continuing Jim Crow laws. Link to watch it is in my full review.

Fist of the North Star (1986)
August is my month to celebrate all things Japanese, so I'll be catching up on a healthy dose of anime. Hadn't seen this classic since I was a 13-year-old, which is really the best age to appreciate bodybuilder dudes with tiny heads punching people so hard that their limbs explode.
 
Extraction (2020)
Pretty awesome action flick that should have a sequel dropping any day now. Chris Hemsworth finally gets another role worth reprising. Sam Hargrave seals his place as the next 87Eleven action god, which I wrote a whole piece about tracing their legacy from Bruce Lee to this.

Assassinated: The Last Days of Kennedy and King (1998)
TV doc produced by Oliver Stone. It's fairly by-the-numbers, but nice to get more about Robert "Bobby" Kennedy and his role and effect throughout the civil rights movement.
 
Last Night In Soho

Wow. Edgar Wright strikes again. Can't say much, despite its style being a treat on its own, its story can be spoiled by knowing too much, so don't look up the plot on Wikipedia or something. If you're into the trailers you'll probably love it.
 
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
A bit of a bore along the way, but a great twist at the end. 7/10
 
"Winter Days" (冬の日, Fuyu no Hi - 2003)
An amazing anthology of short animated films, each about 1 minute long. They're a kind of classic Japanese haiku, where each line was farmed out to a different animator to visualize, the whole thing linked by beautiful music. The entire poem is collected into a 40-minute playlist here.

Comandante (2003)
11th film in my Oliver Stone marathon: a documentary compiled from interviews between Stone and Fidel Castro over several days in Cuba. Stone asked harder questions than I expected, though I think by the end you get an idea of where his sympathies are leaning.

The Day Reagan Was Shot (2001)
A better-than-average TV movie produced by Stone, starring Richard Dreyfuss as Secretary-of-State Alexander Haig and Richard Crenna as President Reagan, in his final film. The behind-the-scenes trivia is shockingly true here, turns out the event really was a cluster****. Mediocre direction is trumped by good performances all around.
 
T2: Judgement Day
I'd seen bits and pieces of this movie, but never all of it. It reminds me a lot of the X-Files in the presentation and production value (and no not because of Robert Patrick. The 1st and 2nd act are pretty poorly paced and a bit boring. The third act has enough movement and dire stakes to keep it moving along. The two highlights are John and the Terminator's relationship and Joe Morton's amazing performance. While the others were acting, he was living his part. Now the music was pretty bad. It would be interesting to see how a modern synthwave/cyberpunk soundtrack or a Tenet like soundtrack would work with this movie. Maybe one day I'll try that out. 6/10
 
Elvis (2022)
Led by one of those transformative performances where you know this role is just going to haunt the actor for years, Baz Luhrmann captures the intensity and insanity of Elvis and makes him feel fresh and relevant and exciting for a modern audience. No small feat.

Looking For Fidel (2004)
Oliver Stone follows up his cancelled documentary on Castro by going back for a kind of emergency topical interview. Less than one hour, this one is interesting for interviewing the criminals and dissidents in Cuba, but the new filmmaking crew behind it suuuuuucks.

Samurai Assassin (1965)
Not the exploitation film that the name might conjure, I put this one right up there with cinephile darlings like Hara Kiri, Samurai Rebellion, and Kill! as an artful and dramatic samurai tale. A bit more action than those though, and bigger, more evocative performances.
 
News of the World (2020)
I saw all the average/mediocre reviews for this Tom Hanks Western and thought it was just a middling, nothing-special film. In fact, I'd say it's a case of really interesting bits and really dull, tired bits averaging each other out. The most interesting part is the exact time and place it's in, which is sadly explored little.

America: A Dialogue With Oliver Stone (2004)
This hour-long documentary by Charles Kiselyak attempts to apes Stone's own style as it interviews him about his career. The piece itself ends up as nothing special, though some of Stone's comments about his later films in particular are really interesting and insightful.

The Debt Collector (2018)
Scott Adkins budget action vehicle where Louis Mandylor (brother of Costas) surprisingly almost steals the film. Great rapport between these buddy... anti-cops, which I'm sure led to the impossibly-greenlit sequel.
 
Lost City (2022)
Beginning was uninteresting, then a character comes into the story and it's fantastic for a little bit. The rest is ok but is your run of the mill adventure romance. Great credits scene. 5/10
 
South of the Border (2009)
Oliver Stone's documentary where he interviewed the progressive state leaders of the South American "pink tide" movement. It's quite well-done actually, a good mix of learning a bit about them personally while also discussing their goals and accomplishments.

A Wind Named Amnesia (1990)
Not content to merely be a post-apocalyptic story, or a sci-fi about out-of-control police-bots and AI cities, this retro-80s-style anime throws in random bits about psychic powers, aliens, religion, and questions about the nature of "society" itself. Plus a few requisite moments of T 'n A and headshots, of course.

The RKO Story: Tales From Hollywood (1987)
This 6-part docu-series was recommended by @TM2YC and I have to say it was a worthwhile watch. Originally on BBC4, you can find much of it on Youtube now, though the middle bits about the female stars and sexism at RKO Studios are (un)ironically less available.
 
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