Monday, December 19, 2022
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
As far as I’m concerned, an Avatar movie does not need to be 3+ hours long. This one treats the audience to the best VFX yet seen in a major motion picture. It’s 90 minutes of anti-war VFX, 90 minutes of anti-whaling VFX, and a few minutes in the part of a screenplay called “resolution” to tie up loose ends.
I don’t see the point of these big dumb Hollywood blockbusters. If this were 30 minutes shorter and had more than a dozen non-VFX shots, I might recommend it.
Sunday, August 14, 2022
Bullet Train (2022)
This is a mixed bag if I’ve ever smelled one. I liked the actors and performances. I hated the direction and pacing. Maybe I have different tastes from the dumb hicks in the audience, but while they were lapping this schlock up I just wanted to catch the next train.
Friday, June 3, 2022
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Return to a time when a movie could just be about planes and the men who fly them. Though a few decades late, Maverick is as good a sequel to Top Gun as I could ask for.
Friday, December 31, 2021
The Matrix: Resurrections (2021)
Even for a hardcore Matrix fan, this is a difficult film to describe. Other critics didn’t cover it on release day, and still haven’t covered it. That’s not to say it’s bad, it just asks a lot of its audience.
Thursday, December 9, 2021
No Time to Die (2021)
This is the kind of movie that you might like if you only watch action movies. A better example is Angel Has Fallen (2019), a sequel in the Has Fallen series with some genuinely tense moments. I prefer movies where the protagonist has weaknesses rather than being an indestructible superhero. This latest Bond’s only weakness is the writing, and it’s a fatal flaw.