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Movie Night (Official Movie Discussion Thread)

Meg 2 The Trench





Trench Troubles

PRAISE : Jason Statham returns as Jonas to protect the environment,fight humans and prehistoric creatures.
I found that I had to forget all logic and reason otherwise I would have had a terrible time watching this movie. So I sat back and took in all the carnage,fight scenes and good kills.
In fact the movies last 30 minutes are so action packed and over the top I barely had time to judge how certain things inexplicably played out.
There's some good SFX and action sequences mixed with a little Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
I also enjoyed the POV moments that were all too brief.

PROBLEMS: Characters make horrible decisions. There is a blend of intentional and unintentional laughs. There's a huge lack of common sense from the characters. Some of situations the characters find themselves in are either far to convenient or I wondered how their bodies weren't completely obliterated. I could go on about how one character somehow had Aquamans powers but I won't.

Harsh criticism I would give this a 4½ ...kick back and enjoy the mayhem presented a 7½
 
Heart of Stone





Heart Pumping !!

PRAISE : Gal Gadot continues to fulfill her contract obligations for Netflix in the movie Heart of Stone in which she portrays a spy who may be holding wild cards up her sleeve as she fights to stop several world crushing villains.
The first 90 minutes of this movie were very entertaining I liked the characters and the actors. Several story threads were pretty good and ones things for sure Netflix was generous with the budget with all of the globe trotting, sets and action sequences i saw in this movie. Going back to the cast Gadots MI6 teammates Parker (Jamie Dornan), Bailey (Paul Ready), and Yang (Jing Lusi) definitely added flavor to the movie.
Gadot was pretty good in this and i definitely liked her more in this than her previous Netflix flicks. I also enjoyed Alia Bhatts performance as a mysterious hacker
I liked how the movie at one point asks the audience which characters good or bad truly have hearts of stone.
The villains were definitely interesting especially how sadistic they were.There was also an outstanding kill that made me laugh.

PROBLEMS: After the 90 minute mark the movie started to feel drawn out. It had escaped the basic spy plots due to good characters and I know they wanted two characters to bond but I was definitely checking the clock.
I'm starting to wonder if writers are sharing to many of their ideas with each other when they are writing spy movies because I have seen the same plot thread in the last 4 spy movie and TV shows I've watched.
About 8 minutes into the movie I could see the twist coming.
The movie tries to jump over a couple of plot holes and there's definitely a couple of why didn't they just do that moments.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7


The Last Voyage of the Demeter






Vampire Voyage

PRAISE : Director: Andre Ovredal and writers Bragi F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz,take all the creepiness of Nosferatu and some of what made Dracula so legendary and turn it up a few gory notches in this story about the crew of and last Voyage of the doomed ship Demeter.
As Clemens Corey Hawkins does a great job as a black man carrying the weight of racism and exclusion from a promising carLiam Cunninghameer in the late 1800s. Equally great is Liam Cunningham as Captain Eliot ready to retire and take care of his beloved grandson Toby (Woody Norman).
The rest of the cast does a fine job including Cast: Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian, Woody Norman,and last but definitely not least Javier Botet as the legendary character Dracula.
There are some truly haunting, frightening and gory moments(not for the faint of heart) laced with some good visuals and jump scares as the crew does their best to stay alive.
Some nice nods to classic horror films with great visuals and the personalities of the various characters.

PROBLEMS: The movie makes a couple of missteps as it plays out when characters don't do the obvious things they should do.
I think the movie would have worked better for me if it had been structured differently instead of the basic well how did this all come about start.

Scale of 1 to 10 an 8
 
GRAN Turismo





GRAND GRAN !!

PRAISE : I remember being obsessed with 3 car racing video games back in the day. Pole Position, Out Run and Hard Drivin and they took a lot of my hard earned quarters. So I could definitely relate to Jann's (Archie Madekwe) obsession with Gran Turismo in the movie who may have a chance to actually be a part of professional racing . I last saw Madekwe in Midsommar and he is excellent in this turning in a laser focused performance.
Also turning in an extremely believable performance is Djimon Hounsou as his concerned but loving father Steve. They both display a lot of raw emotion in some great scenes together.
Equally excellent is David Harbour as Jack Salter a veteran race car driver and mentor to Jann.
There is a great father,son and mentor dynamic throughout the movie which when is coupled with some very impressive SFX and camera work made this a very involving experience. I liked the game in the minds eye moments in the movie.
I thought they were going to go down an oily path with one character but fortunately they didn't.

PROBLEMS: I know people are going to complain about the tons of product placement in this movie but it didn't bother me.....well not much.
I wish a handful of characters had been developed more so when certain things played out it would have been far more effective. There was some head to head predictableness.

Not a bad movie to end the Summer with.

Scale of 1 to 10 an 8½
 
Blue Beetle





Beetle Blues

PRAISE: The most I knew about Blue Beetle over the years was the original Blue Beetles Ted Kords story arc. But I was aware that Jaime Reyes had taken up the mantle.
I had to get past a few hurdles in the movie to actually start enjoying it.
Xolo Mariduena turns in a very good performance as Reyes/Blue Beetle.
Belissa Esccobedo was pretty good as his sister Milagro actually reminding me of a young America Ferrera. George Lopez was good as his Uncle Rudy and as Jenny Kord ....Bruna Marquezine looks great in leather.
The villains in the film Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon) and Carapax (Raoul Max have a couple of good moments especially towards the end which is tied to one of the best scenes in the movie.
Some of the Familia stuff worked. I was pleasantly shocked by a couple of things that played out in the movie. They definitely got the BB look right and I enjoyed what they did with the various gadgets and their inclusion in the action sequences. There is definitely enough here for huge fans of the characters to be happy about.

PROBLEMS : The hurdles I spoke of are attached to what I have been seeing in superhero movies as of late. Why do the writers feel the first 45 minutes must be filled with silly antics and comedy ? Most of it fell flat for me and I kept hoping it would pass quickly. A lot of it is just eye rolling and obnoxious. There were various plot holes throughout the movie.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7
 
Just finished watching House Of Wax, the 1953 film.
This was pretty good considering how old it was. Did a little digging and apparently this movie got added to the Library of Congress in 2014.
One of the girls in this movie wound up getting the role of Morticia Addams in the original The Addams Family TV show.
 
Rub









Rub

......to dud

Starts off well enough and I thought I was going to get a blend of Taxi Driver and The Owl and the Pussycat, but Like I said the beginning is great and involving with Neal (Micah Spayer) the ultimate lonely guy and Perla (Jennifer Figuereo)a hooker with a heart of gold. They meet get into trouble with some thieves, go on the run and aside from a cool drug induced scene......NOTHING HAPPENS!!
Jennifer Figuereo is stunning ,a good actress and voluptuous but the last 45 minutes are so dull I was easily distracted. It was amateur time and then some.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 4
 
I resisted watching Past Lives cause it's A24 but so far its a dope watch. Definitely meeting the hype so far.

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Ol girl and her husband some weirdos and was out of pocket but that's another discussion. If dude doesn't steal back his one I'm gonna go to sleep bent.
 
I resisted watching Past Lives cause it's A24 but so far its a dope watch. Definitely meeting the hype so far.

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Ol girl and her husband some weirdos and was out of pocket but that's another discussion. If dude doesn't steal back his one I'm gonna go to sleep bent.



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I should have just gone to work. It was good but just ruined the evening. Knew I shouldn't have fucked w A24. Gotta a real nigga teary-eyed and shit.
 
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