Movie review rant 2020

TheMightyOrca

TheMightyOrca

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
I saw Cats opening weekend and it was everything I dreamed it would be. I hope it becomes a Rocky Horror type thing where you go to midnight showings dressed up and get rowdy. OH WELL, I NEVER HAVE I EVER HEARD OF A CAT SO CLEVER AS MAGICAL MISTER MISTOFOLEES
 
Throwing this here since all of these are 2019 releases, I've decided to sit through the AMC Best Picture Showcase this year. All 7 Academy Award nominees that opened in wide release are going to be screened (The Irishman and Marriage Story won't be, although since they're Netflix films I can just watch them anytime I suppose). I'm not a big enough glutton for punishment so I'm not doing the 18 hour one day marathon, but rather two separate days. I plan on posting short reviews of all of the nominees after each day. I've already seen Joker, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, 1917, and Marriage Story going into this. I'm most excited to see Parasite and Jojo Rabbit (which I missed during it's original theatrical run).
 
Brum said:
Is that no longer showing in the US? I'm debating going to watch it tomorrow, and it's still in its original run over here.
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It was released in the USA several weeks prior to the UK release date.
 
Yeah the theatrical run of Jojo Rabbit ended around late November to early December here I want to say? At least that's around when it stopped showing at my local theaters and one of my local places is an arthouse theater that screens limited release movies long after they leave mainstream chains.

And I'm not sure I fully understand the comment about 1917 either? If you aren't interested that's totally fine, but I'm curious as to why. I've seen it twice by now, it's a fantastic and very emotional film.
 
I hadn't seen any of the MCU movies, so I've decided to watch them all for the first time now. I am watching them in the order my uncle recommended to me, it's very close to the release order with just a couple movies switched around. I've watched to "The Avengers" so far and I'm going to do a quick review on each one:

NOTE: These reviews contain some minor spoilers. I cannot guarantee that future reviews will not have more heavy spoilers.

Iron Man
This was a pretty good movie, a great one to launch off the universe. I liked all of the characters, although Tony could be quite annoying at times. The biggest complaint I have about this movie is that it takes a little too long for Tony to become Iron Man, it felt a bit tedious. Other than that I have very few problems with this movie.

The Incredible Hulk
This movie was very good. I love "on the run" movies and this was a very good one. It was also great to see that this movie was mostly plot driven and the fight scenes never lasted too long (except for the last one). I'm not sure if these MCU movies will be mostly action rather than plot driven but I have a feeling it will be the ladder. It was very interesting how there was basically no origin story, but I liked it. Of course 99% of viewers knows the origins of the Hulk, so all it does is refresh your memory with a quick sequence of images and sounds. I appreciated this here but I don't think I want to see it done again with any other superheroes. My biggest complaint was the end action scene. It felt like it came from a different movie and it went on a bit too long for my tastes.

Iron Man 2
This movie was fairly good, I can't decided if I like it more than Iron Man 1 or not. It certainly has less plot and more action, which I'm not a huge fan of, but the I enjoyed the action scenes in this movie more than I did the ones in the first movie. My favorite character was the cockatoo.

Thor
This was a really good movie. It's not as good as The Incredible Hulk but I like it more than both the Iron Man movies. This movies strikes a good balance between plot and action, and I enjoyed seeing how the world of Marvel is beginning to come together in this movie. I just don't understand why the Asgardians has a giant robot guarding their weapons room. Or why they decided to represent Sif like that (she's totally different in the actual myths). I guess they just needed one of the Asgardians to be a woman and didn't have a better option?

Captain America: The First Avenger
In some ways this movie might be the best one so far. But I can't call it that. Throughout the whole movie, I just kept thinking this was so dumb. It started out fine. The scenes with Steve Rodgers before he gets to Europe were great. I can't tell which torso is the one that's actually on the actor, the scrawny pre-serum one or the buff post-serum, so the effects work well. I liked the first action scene in New York. And the "going on tour" montage. But them the Captain went to Europe and we got the dumbest villains ever. The Hydra, who are basically Nazis with lasers. Why do Nazis have lasers? Why can't Captain America just fight regular Nazis? Or some other less stupid villains? And don't even get me started on Red Skull. If the villains hadn't been laser-Nazis I would have really enjoyed this movie, it would have been the best one yet. But I just cannot get behind this idea of laser-Nazis!

The Avengers
Yet another scenario of a movie starting out really good but ending badly. The first 2 hours or so of this movie is great! Loki is back and stole this infinite power source, using for who-knows-what evil intentions. There is a great balance of action and plot that is so hard to achieve but is done well here. But then we get to the end. A half hour fight scene!? Why? You were doing so good balancing the action and plot, and then we have a giant fight for half an hour! Other than that this was a really good movie. I do have two nitpicky complains though. I don't like the new actor for Bruce Banner, and I hated the post-credits scene here. It's stupid and pointless. CA: TFA has a better post credits scene than this, and that movie's post credits scene was just an ad for this movie!

Next Review: Iron Man 3
 
Liam Graff said:
I have seen all of the MCU movies and I can tell you Endgame is the best but they were all really good.
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Infinity War was better! :p

By the way, I recently watched Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was astounded by the number of Glass lizards they used. I understand they were a dime a dozen back in the day, but I never realised they used so many. Forget the Lost Ark, I want to know how so many Glass lizards (along with a random assortment of snakes) ended up in a tomb in Egypt and survived!
 
Mr. Zootycoon said:
By the way, I recently watched Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was astounded by the number of Glass lizards they used. I understand they were a dime a dozen back in the day, but I never realised they used so many. Forget the Lost Ark, I want to know how so many Glass lizards (along with a random assortment of snakes) ended up in a tomb in Egypt and survived!
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It's funny how obvious they are in the scenes (along with the random bits of rope and hose filling in for snakes). Supposedly they used 10,000 "snakes" in the scene by buying up all the available ones in London pet shops - the scene was filmed at Pinewood Studios.

I read an article a long time ago, and I can't find anything on the internet about this so it may have been lost to the mists of time, but apparently even after cleaning out the pet shops they were still thousands short. However they fortuitously found out about a mass emergence of snakes from hibernation in a European country which I cannot remember the name of, and so went there and cleaned out that wild site. These may have actually been legless lizards rather than snakes, explaining the number of them in the scene.
 
Iron Man 3
What an incredible movie! I loved everything about this movie, pretty much. This movie is miles ahead of the other two Iron Man movies and is the best Marvel movie so far. This movie has a well thought-out plot and has a lot of action without having too much action. Take the giant fight scene at the end. All of these movies have a giant fight scene at the end. Most of them, I enjoy it for a while, but quickly get bored of it and want it to be over. When I finally wanted the fight scene of this movie to end, it did. At the exact moment I wanted it too. I hope the rest of the movies are like this.

Next Review: Thor: The Dark World
 
Thor: The Dark World
Meh. I have no other thoughts.

Next Review: Captain America: Winter Soldier
 
birdsandbats said:
Thor: The Dark World
Meh. I have no other thoughts.

Next Review: Captain America: Winter Soldier
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier
This is an incredible movie. Plot and action were balanced just to the right amounts, and the plot had lots of unexpected twists and turns. Seeing more of Captain America was great, he's probably the best of the Avengers (so far anyway). Possibly the best MCU movies yet, though Iron Man 3 might beat it out.

Next Review: Guardians of the Galaxy
 
Chlidonias said:
It's funny how obvious they are in the scenes (along with the random bits of rope and hose filling in for snakes). Supposedly they used 10,000 "snakes" in the scene by buying up all the available ones in London pet shops - the scene was filmed at Pinewood Studios.

I read an article a long time ago, and I can't find anything on the internet about this so it may have been lost to the mists of time, but apparently even after cleaning out the pet shops they were still thousands short. However they fortuitously found out about a mass emergence of snakes from hibernation in a European country which I cannot remember the name of, and so went there and cleaned out that wild site. These may have actually been legless lizards rather than snakes, explaining the number of them in the scene.
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What happened to the animals after they took them?
 
birdsandbats said:
Iron Man 3
What an incredible movie! I loved everything about this movie, pretty much. This movie is miles ahead of the other two Iron Man movies and is the best Marvel movie so far. This movie has a well thought-out plot and has a lot of action without having too much action. Take the giant fight scene at the end. All of these movies have a giant fight scene at the end. Most of them, I enjoy it for a while, but quickly get bored of it and want it to be over. When I finally wanted the fight scene of this movie to end, it did. At the exact moment I wanted it too. I hope the rest of the movies are like this.
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I really dislike IM3, probably one of my least favourite MCU movies, along with The Incredible Hulk. And no AC/DC? I had expectations that were not met! :p
birdsandbats said:
Thor: The Dark World
Meh. I have no other thoughts.
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As an unashamed Dark World fan I don't get all the hate and indifference to this film, it's a bit of a slow burner but there are some great moments and performances, just a shame that Chris Eccleston didn't give his all.
birdsandbats said:
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
This is an incredible movie. Plot and action were balanced just to the right amounts, and the plot had lots of unexpected twists and turns. Seeing more of Captain America was great, he's probably the best of the Avengers (so far anyway). Possibly the best MCU movies yet, though Iron Man 3 might beat it out.
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Controversially I'm not a huge fan of this movie, and I'm well aware that I'm in the minority, but there is just something about it that I don't get. I mean on paper it ticks all the boxes but I just don't love it like everyone else seems to, can't explain why though.
 
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