Thoughts on Recent Movies/Shows

 Everything since beginning July. Spoilers.

Thor: Love and Thunder- 7.5/10. Solid but disappointing. Christian Bale, Natalie Portman great and Chris Hemsworth another good turn as Thor but everyone else gets left behind. Thought Crowe as Zeus was cringe and the comedy there didn't hit at all. Just a mess of a movie that doesn't live up to Ragnarok at all, but still some cool, the best being the black and white scene where Gorr captures and tortures them. Also, it was really dumb how Jane becoming Thor wasn't really explained or shown at all.

Train to Busan- 8.5/10. Wow, great movie and much better than expected. Dull/boring first 15 minutes then non-stop exciting thrills, one of the best zombie films I've seen. Great thriller. A little ridiculous how much the COO villain character was able to pretty much kill everyone and the end was silly (the army is really just going to shoot potentially safe humans just because they can't tell if they're zombies down a dark tunnel?). Every Korean film I've seen has been pretty violent/disturbing and this was no exception (I Saw the Devil, Oldboy, Parasite).

West Side Story- 6.5/10. Pretty solid musical, might be higher if I enjoyed musicals more. Thought some of music hit really well, other ones I didn't love. Ariana DeBose was good but not sure why everyone thought that such an awesome performance rather than a good one, thought Rachel Zegler's was better. The super fast transition to everyone getting killed could have been done a lot- rushed and a lot of deaths where people grieving went from upset to nonchalant very quickly.

War Dogs- 6.5/10. Seen this several times now. Entertaining throughout, but just solid all around. 

Death on the Nile- 5.5/10. Pretty mediocre, but mostly entertaining at least. I guess Armie Hammer will never act again but he was pretty solid here. Not as bad as Murder on the Orient Express, but can't say the reveals were super satisfying here. It takes a long time to get to the action and most of it is underwhelming. Decent performances by Kenneth Branagh and Tom Bates, Russell Brand surprisingly not actually bad. Gal Gadot unsurprisingly very bad.

In the Heights- 5/10. Didn't love this one. I preferred the style of West Side Story where they'd have musical scenes and plot scenes, but here they'd just burst out singing at any time which I've never been a fan of. (Much prefer having a set number of musical pieces rather than just signing any time). I don't like singing their everyday casual lines- it doesn't sound good to me and comes off weird. Anyway, just didn't find this to be good or satisfying, I didn't like how he gave up on his dream of moving at the end when that was the whole plot of the movie.

Casino Royale- 9/10. Best bond movie, just can't beat it. So many fantastic action sequences and lines. 

The Gray Man- 4/10. Trash movie, disappointing coming from the Russo brothers who have struggled post-marvel. I thought the Prague crazy action scenes were solid, but generally a big waste- bad characters, bad plot and mostly really incoherent and shaky, blurry action made this one a disappointment. Chris Evans was decent, Ryan Gosling and Ana de Armas totally wasted on terrible and bland characters. The other villains were just awful and really cringe. 

Dirty Harry- 7.5/10. Classic thriller, short and not an unenjoyable movie. Clint Eastwood kills it. 

Lost City of Z- 7.5/10. Surprisingly good historical epic. There are slow bits but Charlie Hunnam is really good throughout, probably his best performance and really carries the movie. The points in the Jungle exploring are really fascinating and the historic setting is very well done.

Shows: Started the show "You". Not sure why, it's not high on my list compared to many other shows but it just seemed like something that would be really entertaining. So far, I'd say it's good but flawed on not great. Big issues- it's 75% romantic drama, 25% thriller. The thriller stuff is great but way too much time is devoted to cringe over the top drama that can be hard to watch. Another problem is that while Joe is great to watch the rest of the characters suck and anytime the spotlight is taken off Joe, it becomes a short to watch. The episode (E4) surrounding Beck and her Dad was just really tedious and unenjoyable. I just watched E6 and it was really uncomfortable to watch him sneaking around the house and eventually get caught due to his stupidity. Just frustrating to watch Joe, a smart character, be put in tough situations due to stupid decisions he absolutely would not make. Hated Peach, she was starting to ruin the show for me so I'm glad she's out. If the cringe romantic drama plots dominate so much of the show in S2, I'll probably switch to something else.

Rewatching Fate of the Furious and F9

Recently rewatched Fate of the Furious and F9 for the first time. I find I don't remember a movie well or gain complete clarity until I watch it a second time (some movies I think are great the first time around then the second time I'm able to see its shortcoming or vice versa). I thought both were not quite as good as I thought initially in theaters but still solid overall. Fate of the Furious makes great use of Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, but isn't a great cohesive experience and the story is so bad it's distracting. The story isn't anything to write home about in F9 and not having Statham and Johnson is a loss but I find it flows better as a cinematic experience and the action set pieces are awesome. 10 should hopefully be good following up on those action and adding Jason Momoa + the return of Statham. 

Overall: 

Fate of the Furious- 7/10. Fun action, set pieces, decent cast. Horrible plot/villain/use of Dom Toretto

F9- 8/10. Awesome action, backstory is surprisingly interesting. Lack of plot/main characters not compelling.

I've seen 7-9 a second time and Hobbs and Shaw a second time so I'll need to watch 1-6 to gain complete clarity/understanding. I doubt I'll ever watch 1-4 again though. Hobbs and Shaw is a lot of fun and probably my favorite tone with comedic action hints but the action isn't as good as the mainline series and the story and villain, even for Fast and Furious standards, is embarrassingly bad. 

Ranking of Series:

1. Furious 7- by far the best. Outstanding action and peak characters/story. A lot of really cool blockbuster moments. The closest the franchise has come to being a cool superhero/MCU like movie without being bogged with F&F nonsense. 

2. F9

3. Fast Five. I know people love this one, I'll need to rewatch. Possibly better than 9 but I really like the blockbuster feel of the new ones and this one feels more old school thriller. Certainly some great scenes though and not too many flaws.

4. Fast and Furious 6. Don't remember this movie at all, but I think it was solid all around without too many flaws.

5. Hobbs and Shaw

6. Fate of the Furious. I think I had this way higher but the plot and villain is just so awful, even with the low standards the franchise has. I'm not looking for a great story in these kinds of movies but I'm not expecting it to be distractingly bad either.

7. The Fast and the Furious. Solid but flawed overall

8. 2 Fast 2 Furious

9. Tokyo Drift. Apparently people like this one. Can't defend why I don't like it since I don't remember but I doubt I'd want to watch it again

10. Fast & Furious. Absolute trash

Favorite Characters

1. Brian O'Connor. I like Statham and Johnson much more but they always play the same characters and O'Connor certainly has much better character than probably anyone in the franchise without Paul Walker being a horrible actor like Vin Diesel.

2. Luke Hobbs. Can't beat Dwayne Johnson in action comedies. Just so fun to watch

3. Deckard Shaw. Love Jason Statham but prefer Johnson and Johnson has more movies

Ranking Every 2021 MCU Projects

 4 Movies, 5 Shows. Some good stuff but overall a weak year.

9. What If?- 2/10

Absolute garbage, explored ideas that aren't interesting/people don't care about. Maybe 1 or 2 decent episodes in the whole thing. Watching S2 is going to a be a chore.

8. Wandavision- 3/10

Don't understand why people liked this show. Boring, weird, vision was decent but Wanda just really annoying. Side characters mostly terrible.

7. Eternals- 4/10

Awful character development, a few stood out (Kingo, Sersei, Gilgamesh) but most were terrible (Ikaris, Thena). Flashback format was really choppy and hurt the flow of the movie. Plenty of stupid character decisions. 

6. Black Widow- 5/10

This was fine, just hard to get too excited about a black widow when she's one of the worst characters in the MCU. Really awful final act. Yelena was great.

5. Loki- 7/10

Pretty consistently solid throughout, but never really got great for the most part. Thought the story would be more exciting/thrilling. Disliked Sylvie but really liked Mobius. 

4. Falcon and Winter Soldier- 7/10

Unlike Loki where just about everything is solid but nothing great, this show has big high and lows. There's a lot of really bad subplots/characters like the Louisiana Stuff, Villains, and Sharon Carter but the stuff with Zemo and John Walker is great, and there's some nice action + visuals in there. 

3. Hawkeye- 7/10

This is again similar to Loki being pretty solid throughout but mostly lacking great moments. There's nothing bad here but nothing amazing. I generally enjoyed the setting/action and lead characters more so it's the best MCU show so far in my opinion but these three are very close in quality for me.

2. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings- 8.5/10

Awesome movie with minor flaws. Action sequences/soundtrack is phenomenal and makes it a joy to watch. I like the central trio of Shang/Xialing/Katy but Wenwu is absolutely the standout character, great backstory. There are a few scenes/moments that are so well done that's its just something to behold (bus fight, Shang and Wenwu reuniting in Macau with the head touch, Wenwu massacres his mother's killers). Only complaint is the climax feels a bit rushed/unearned with Katy suddenly becoming an incredible archer in no time and Shang-Chi mastering his mother's skills almost immediately.

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home- 9/10

There's actually a lot of things I don't like about this movie but the second half just has so many amazing moments that it comes out on top. The three spiderman moments is fantastic superhero cinema while Green Goblin and Doc Ock are fantastic. The ending is so great, it's chilling. I think the secondary villains are pretty weak and get little development/interesting plotlines. The whole premise/setup is just kind of bad and hinges on Doctor Strange being a bit of a moron.

2022 Marvel Project Ranked by Anticipation:

5. Ms. Marvel- 2/10

Who Cares?

4. She-Hulk 3/10

Who Cares?

3. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness- 8/10

This looks interesting, but I don't really like Scarlet Witch as a character. More interesting in the evil Strange plotline.

2. Moon Knight- 9/10

Really excited for this show, has a cool look and Oscar Isaac is always great.

1. Thor Love and Thunder: 10/10

This follow up to Thor Ragnarok should be fantastic with Hemsworth and Waititi returning. The addition of Christian Bale and the Guardians should be great. Just don't see any way this movie turns out to be a disappointment.

Thoughts on 2021 movies

 Ranked Worst to Best: Updated 1/1/2022

I don't remember a lot of these.

24. Woman in the Window

-very boring, weird

23. Coming 2 America

-just so many bad ideas in the writing of this one: wesley snipes and semmi are decent, but every other character is basically totally disgraced by the writer, especially Akeem

-Lavelle is an awful character

-The music bits are terrible and take up way too much screen time

-Chris Morgan detracts from the movie

-James Earl Jones is fine

-Very disappointing overall, feels like a straight to DVD kind of film. Surprised it got around a 50% on RT, feels like a 5% kind of movie

22. Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run

-Keanu bits were good?

21. Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard

-lazy, unfunny jokes throughout

20. Eternals

-just terribly developed characters on the whole, no real villains

-A few decent characters with potential

-Ikaris and Thena very bland/bad

19. Godzilla v Kong

18. Spiral

-Chris rock great performance

-Terrible ending

17. Red Notice

-Tired of Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson always playing themselves

-Gal Gadot awful

-Terrible twist

-Still entertaining

16. Venom: Let There Be Carnage

-Lazy writing, huge tonal shifts between murderous Carnage and joking Venom, doesn't work at all

-Carnage's transformation then death is so rushed

15. Black Widow

-Yelena is pretty good

-Solid humor

-Awful villains, terrible last third

14. The Tomorrow War

13. Quiet Place II

-moronic decisions made by many characters ruins a lot of it

-sweet ending twist, cillian murphy pretty good

12. Raya and the Last Dragon

-largely mediocre, not especially funny but entertaining enough

-Sisu by far the best character

-Great ending

11. No Sudden Move

10. The Suicide Squad

-Harley Quinn and Idris Elba great

-first group of characters terrible

-enjoyable but forgettable

-starfish is ridiculous

9. Army of the Dead

-Fun action film

-Everyone dies way too suddenly

8. Judas and the Black Messiah

7. Jungle Cruise

-fun and entertaining throughout, Dwayne Johnson very likeable

6. King Richard

5. No Time to Die

-Rami Malek is bad

4. Dune

3. Shang Chi

-Wenwu is a fantastic and sympathetic villain

-Shang Chi and Katy's skills in the final battle are very rushed/not believable at all

-Katy seems to have no purpose most of the movie

-Awesome action sequences, especially the bus scene

-Great visuals and soundtrack

-Family scenes are so well done

-Great Wenwu moments: vengeance on mom's killers, head touch with Shang, Death/realization of his wrongness

-Wish Shang Chi/Simu got more dramatic moments

2. Fast 9

-worst characters of the franchise (no statham, johnson, walker anymore) but Tej, Roman and Ramsey are very funny and entertaining

-Everything with Vin Diesel is terrible

-Surprisingly dramatic and awesome flashback sequences

-John Cena is terrible

-Awesome action sequences throughout, really carries the movie

1. No Way Home

-Everything with all three spidermen is excellent and so well done

-Ending is fantastic and really sad

-Doctor strange is poorly written/stupid

-The plot is poorly setup, hinges on Peter going to Dr Strange and Dr Strange screwing up which is out of character

-Doc Ock and Green Goblin are outstanding but Electro, and especially Sandman + Lizard are way underdeveloped

Spider-Man Rankings

 Movies:

1. Spider-Man: Far From Home 9/10 

2. Spider-Man: No Way Home 9/10

3. Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse 9/10

4. Spider-Man 2 9/10

5. Spider-Man 8/10

6. Spider-Man: Homecoming 8/10

7. The Amazing Spider-Man 7/10

8. Spider-Man 3 6/10

9. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 5/10

Villains:

1. Green Goblin (Dafoe) 

2. Mysterio 

3. Vulture

4. Doctor Octopus (Molina)

5. Sandman 

6. Lizard

7. Green Goblin (DeHaan)

8. New Goblin

9. Electro

10. Shocker

11. Venom

Characters:

1. Peter Parker (Holland)

2. Quentin Beck

3. Peter Parker (Maguire)

4. Adrian Toomes

5. Peter Parker (Garfield)

6. Norman Osborn (Dafoe)

7. J. Jonah Jameson

8. Otto Octavius (Molina)

9. Gwen Stacy (Stone)

10. George Stacy (Leary)

11. Ned Leeds

12. Flint Marko

13. Michelle Watson

14. Ben Parker (Robertson)

15. Curt Conners (Ifans)

16. Mr. Ditkovich

17. Gwen Stacy (Howard)

18. Flash Thompson (Revolori)

19. May Parker (Tomei)

20. May Parker (Field)

21. Richard Parker

22. Roger Harrington

23. Liz Toomes

24. May Parker (Harris)

25. Dr. Curt Conners (Baker)

26. Mary Jane Watson (Dunst)

27. Ben Parker (Sheen)

28. Harry Osborn (DeHaan)

29. Ursula Ditkovich

30. Herman Schultz

31. Betty Brant

32. Flash Thompson (Zylka)

33. Harry Osborn (Franco)

34. Max Dillon

35. Aaron Davis

36. Eddie Brock

37. George Stacy (Cromwell)

38. Rajit Ratha

39. Alexei Sytsevich 

Thoughts on Squid Game

 Fantastic show, placed it as my 7th favorite and it'd be higher if there were more seasons to judge it on. Spoilers ahead

1. House, M.D.

2. The Wire

3. Spongebob Squarepants

4. Lost

5. Black Mirror

6. The Mandalorian

7. Squid Game

8. The Office 

9. Parks and Recreation

10. Stranger Things

I expected this to be somewhat of Saw gimmick- brutal hunger games style death games that were entertaining and worth watching for the pure crazy factor but not much in the way of plot or characters. Instead, we got that but with meaning behind every game and death with fantastic characters, story and pacing throughout. The mystery and intrigue was excellent. I do think the series took a dip towards the end- the last two episodes were by far the weaker and the plot twist the old man just wasn't very good. But everything else delivered so well that it was great overall. I've now seen 4 korean TV shows/movies and all have been disturbing dark and most of them very violent: Oldboy, Parasite, I Saw the Devil. 

Character Rankings:

1. Kang Sae-Byeok (death was so sad and upsetting)

2. Seong Gi-Hun (I liked how he was very flawed with his gambling, but deep down was caring and knew he made horrible mistakes)

3. Front Man (by far the most mysterious and intriguing character, excited to see his development in further seasons)

4. Hwang Jun-Ho (Awesome storyline)

5. Cho Sang-Woo (terrible person, but well developed and interesting)

6. Ali Abdul

7. Jang Deok-Su (I would have liked to see more of him)

8. Oh Il-Nam (great until the terrible twist ruined him)

9. Han Mi-nyeo (consistently extremely annoying, couldn't care less whether she got her "revenge")

Hard to rank the episodes, 1-7 were just fantastic. 6 was soul-crushingly dark and 7 was probably the most thrilling game but the intrigue in 1-5 was excellent and I also really enjoyed the outside world of 1 and 2.

Thoughts on F9

Just watched the latest fast and furious movie, F9. I wasn't particularly excited for this given my two favorite actors/characters Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham wouldn't be in it. Sure, I didn't have those guys for the first two movies, but I always really liked Brian O'Connor, who of course departed after Paul Walker's tragic death. This would be the first film in the franchise where I didn't really like the main characters. Vin Diesel simply has never been good or likeable in any movie outside of Guardians of the Galaxy due to his lack of acting ability or charisma. Went to see in theaters anyway since I did watch the whole franchise (interestingly Hobbs and Shaw and Furious 7 are the only ones I've seen a second time). 

In the end, F9 was a great movie. It hasn't had great reviews and a lot of people seem to think it's one of the weaker films in the franchise, so this may be an unpopular opinion. I really liked this one though, which took me by surprise as none of the actors here I'm a big fan of. The two major fantastic positives of the film are awesome, fast moving, explosive and highly enjoyable action sequences and great supporting characters. Every action sequence is really great and combines humor, spectacle and stunts to create thrilling set pieces. On the characters side, this is an ensemble film and most everyone delivers. The standout is the comedic duo of Roman and Tej, and I thought Ramsey was a good edition to the group as I haven't really noticed her before. Han was great, Helen Mirren was fine, Otto was fine, and the trio of Tokyo Drift guys were a funny callback. While the story was a bit rough and had some low moments, I found the flashbacks to be the best acted portion of the story and the younger versions of Dom and Jacob made for a compelling storyline. 

Not everything in the film was great as there were several flaws. The two biggest issues are the story is kind of whatever, there isn't really a story. The villains aren't really there as there's several of them and isn't much of a buildup or development of what they're doing and why. The biggest issue for me is that the three main characters of Dom, Letty and Jacob are incredibly bland, have no emotion and aren't even remotely likeable. Why Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez, two people who have no acting ability were chosen to head to a major action franchise is beyond me. John Cena has been funny before, but the decision to write him as a mirror of Dominic Torretto was a huge mistake because it just feels like there's a second vin diesel in the film. Fortunately these issues never really derail the movie since the supporting cast as well as the flashback cast are great and there's few scenes just with the three main characters. Also when it comes to fast and furious, 90% of the importance is the action which shines here so it's easy to forgive the other shortcomings. I'll note Cypher and Mia are both mediocre/forgettable, neither are good or bad. 

I'd also like to note the scene where Dom tries to sacrifice himself for no reason, then has a weird seeing death moment in the water, then is saved by Letty is just awful and probably one of the worst moments of the franchise for me, which has plenty of bad moments. 

My franchise ranking:

1. Furious 7

2. F9

3. The Fate of the Furious

4. Fast and Furious 6

5. Fast Five

6. Hobbs and Shaw

7. The Fast and the Furious

8. 2 Fast 2 Furious

9. Fast and Furious

10. The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift

(top 7 are at least good)

I'll have to see them all a second time before making a definitive ranking.