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What'd ya last watch? (Movies)


terminoob

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Spiral: From the Book of Saw, my first time in a theater in over a year! Probably the best offering the franchise has had since Saw VI, but it’s not without its own share problems. I can appreciate the new direction with a return to a more grounded story (ala the first Saw) and less extravagant traps, but the twist was predictable and the ending was kinda whack. The predictability didn’t impact my thoughts on the motive and whatnot too much, but the ending as whole could’ve been better executed. Chris Rock did pretty well I thought, and his passion for the project’s production showed through in his performance. Samuel L. Jackson’s character isn’t involved in this as much as the trailers would make one believe, which I thought was kind of a bummer. When he is onscreen, it’s pretty much what’d you expect from Samuel L. Jackson in a Saw movie. 

Interested to see where the franchise goes from here; continue the Spiral thread, return to the storyline from the original movies (which this movie doesn’t overwrite) or start a new chapter in the Book of Saw entirely like some sorta anthology. I really wouldn’t mind the first or third options. Jigsaw (2017) showed me that there’s really not much mileage left in continuing the original plot line unless they come up with something really, really good to justify it, which I doubt at this point. I feel like, from a creative standpoint, they’ll get the most out of this franchise by experimenting with even more different components for the future.

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At my local movie theater (recently re-opened!), I saw the new Billy Crystal movie "Being There". Very good, sometimes funny, but also sometimes hard. It deals with an older man who's starting to deal with dementia. I recommend watching it if you haven't done so yet.

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Last thing I watched in theaters was this early access screening of Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard about two weeks ago. It was good for a laugh, and I’ve been needing every good laugh I can get in recent months. They somehow made it seem like a parody of the original movie (at least to me it was) which was, interesting to say the least. Salma Hayek and Ryan Reynolds really held down the fort while Sam L. felt like he was only “just there” most of the runtime. The inclusion of Antonio Banderas was a welcome one on my end, but I wish they fleshed him out a bit more than what they did. Gary Oldman definitely had more room to breathe as the threat of the first movie, in comparison. And why bring someone like Frank Grillo in if they’re not gonna give him a goddamn action sequence! An even bigger wasted opportunity than his role as Crossbones in Avengers: Civil War. But yeah, comedy was on point at least. That’s all I can ask for.

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At my local movie theater, "Cruella", I like it because it has a lot of rocking great music from the 1960's and the 1970's, which is when the movie is set. And the story if pretty good, to. I recommend watching it if you haven't done so already! Enough said, true believers!

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Watched F9: The Fast Saga last night. Watching it felt a lot like watching a bad episode of WWE Raw: the budget is there, the talent is there, but where that all gets lost in translation is in the creative department I think, since this installment isn’t written by the usual writer who’s written for the series since Tokyo Drift, and who pulled out of writing duty here so that he could focus on Hobbs and Shaw (which I enjoyed more than F9, as well). It almost almost felt like self-parody if it didn’t take itself so serious at the same time.

Dom and Letty in the beginning scene came off pretty selfish (especially in Letty’s case) and boneheaded. Roman and Tej have fully become those insufferable characters who point out the ridiculousness of everything and beat you over the head with it after every ridiculous thing happens. Sean and Twinkie are like completely different characters than from who they were in Tokyo Drift, not the way that I expected (or wanted) them to finally be included in the Fast Family. Han sorta comes off like a huge dick since his supposed demise is what set the events from Furious 7 onwards into motion, and a lot of shit happens between both F7 and F8 as a domino effect from that. It felt like they completely wrote off Tokyo Drift in general since they add a lot of ridiculous for the sake of being ridiculous stuff to Han’s story that just doesn’t quite match up in line with the events of Tokyo Drift at all for me (that combined with the complete overhaul of Sean and Twink’s characters and the explanation for Han’s survival that I’ll get to later felt like the death knell for that movie’s relevance in the bigger picture). Mia Toretto’s return felt pretty excusable so I was willing to let that slide. I kinda wish they’d stop milking the Paul Walker/Brian O’Connor return cheap pop because he’ll never return in full, but I guess that’s just me. Helen Mirren came back as Mama Shaw for a hot minute and she was one of my favorite things about F8, so that was nice.

The technical main villain had like one funny scene and that’s all of note really from him, he seems very much like a movie villain with Donald Trump as president in mind. Cypher was trapped in a box for majority of the movie. I guess she still had her role to play in the bigger picture regardless, but at least she seems poised to take a more active role in the next installment. And John Cena’s inclusion as Jacob Toretto was aight, I guess. The whole story between him and Dom came off very convoluted on first watch which sorta took me out of it. The whole street kids somehow becoming super spies angle reminds me of CJ working for Toreno in GTA: San Andreas, so for that, I’ll turn my brain off and enjoy it for what it is. That aside, Cena did well enough in the role he was given. They definitely set up more for him down the road, so hopefully they come up with some gooder shit by then pal.

The explanation given for Han surviving Tokyo Drift felt very “let’s just sweep that under the rug and deus ex machina the shit out of it”. It honestly felt pretty insulting as someone who considers Tokyo Drift one of the Top Two of the franchise alongside Fast Five, and I know I’m far the only who’s passionate in their fandom for Tokyo Drift. They left room to elaborate more on it in future installments (tho I wouldn’t be surprised if they decide to just leave it at that at this point), especially with the post-credits scene, so I’m hoping they do so in a slow burn way like how they had Han return to the fold between both F4 and F5.

I watched this movie with about as packed of a theater as covid restrictions could allow and the vibe was definitely not the same as the packed crowd that I watched F8 with. The crowd then felt way more lively and engaged with what was going on on the screen. The moments that were intended to get the laughs and “wows” going got their intended reactions, but all I could really hear F9 muster was the occasional laughter from Roman and Tej’s shtick. There was a dude with his gf next to me who was all like “I’m so excited to see this!” when they first took their seats and then he was like “alright, let’s go” about halfway through and they left lol. The crowd I was with went nuts when Deckard and Owen Shaw did their thing and saved Dom’s kid in F8. Nothing like that last night, which is pretty sad and disappointing, especially with Justin Lin returning to the director’s chair since his past installments were all bangers in my book. Idk how much quality control he had, but it sure didn’t seem like a lot.

Not to mention that the plot is pretty much a rehash of Furious 7 with this villain seeking a world ending device which requires a key that turns out to be this girl who ends up joining The Fast Family, all while also having to contend with a super spy in a story thread about vengeance.

I guess in closing, F9 is a movie that you go into looking for more good, dumb fun but it ends up insulting its audience’s intelligence in the worst way instead. With no real sense of risk or danger to our heroes and with no real threat to even pose that risk and/or danger. Ya know, like a bad episode of WWE Raw.

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Watched Black Widow this past Monday. I thought it was really good for the most part. I didn’t mind the Taskmaster twist as much as most people since at least there was a whole storyline reason for why it was instead of it just coming completely out of nowhere and feeling too forced, but I’m still a tad disappointed since I think the Taskmaster as I know him from the comics could still translate pretty well into the MCU without too big of a change up. And this movie would’ve benefitted a lot from just coming out before Infinity War in general. It also didn’t really feel like as big of a farewell to Black Widow, at least to me. It felt more about introducing and building things up for the future which, unless Scarlett Johansson’s coming back as Natasha in the future, felt kinda jarring. But this was a good final hoorah as far as action goes if this is it.

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Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog

i couldn’t help but have the biggest smile on my face through the whole thing. I think they did a good job of meshing both series’ formulas together and it all in all felt like a really nice love letter to the Cartoon-Cartoon that I loved the most as a kid. Definitely needed this after the day I’ve had. And I’m glad we get to hear Muriel one more time. Rest In Peace, Thea White.

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