Jump to content

Films watched in 2021


Raylenth
 Share

Recommended Posts

I watched Point Break (the original, obvs) for the first time. Technically I watched the last hour (it was another watch-along and I was late). 

I very much enjoyed what I saw; although I was a bit disappointed that Keanu and Patrick Swayze didn't make out at any point. 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Monster_Hunter_Film_Poster.jpg

MONSTER HUNTER (2020)

2.5/5 (Mild spoiler)

The holy trinity of Paul W.S. Anderson, Milla Jovovich and Capcom returns once more for yet another videogame adaptation. And this one was surprisingly fun...at least for the first hour as we're presented with a cross between STARGATE (1994) and HELL IN THE PACIFIC (1968) but after that things take a drastic dip and the film never recovers making this an uneven mess.

The film introduces a bunch of soldiers complete with typically cheesey macho banter but like a lot of Anderson's films the side characters are basically doomed random monster fodder leaving Jovovich to showcase her cartoony one-man-army skills. Tony Jaa shows up, probably tempted by the fact he doesn't have to speak English in the film but I can't imagine what the appeal for Ron Pearlman was. Once again the fanboy in Anderson borrows from the action films of the 80s/90s he grew-up with most notably the soldiers vs bugs carnage of STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997) and the gunpowder self-surgery of RAMBO III (1988). 

The ending feels pretty rushed and a desperate attempt to set-up a sequel. The cliffhanger ending doesn't work as not enough story or characters have been introduced so far for anyone to give a s*** including the giant bipedal CGI cat! Milla's reaction says it all. I can tolerate a lot of Anderson's films but when the cat showed up I just lost it.

Edited by nicky
Link to comment
Share on other sites

220px-Godzilla_vs._Kong.png

GODZILLA VS. KONG (2021)
3.5/5 (No spoilers)

I didn't care much for the Monsterverse apart from KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017) so was happy to see King Kong back again compared to Godzilla who I always felt lacked characterization. But despite Zilla's short-comings, GODZILLA VS KONG didn't disappoint although it did feel like chunks were missing and Big G was quite side-lined.
 
I quite liked the plot - everything felt justified but it was obvious we were skipping-over what Kong had been doing since his last film set 50 years prior. Similarly, there's a backstory involving Alexander Skarsgard's dead brother and another with a little mute girl that Kong has bonded with - both of these plot-points could've been expanded to make the humans more developed but they're reduced to just a couple lines of exposition. The same goes for the sudden discovery of the Titans' home and ancestral history - it was fascinating to learn about their origins but again, it needed more time spent on it.
 
The fights are the best thing here; they look spectacular and we're treated to many bouts and not just with Big G or Kong. The rumbles are everything you'd want from giants like these easily surpassing similar scenes of destruction in the TRANSFORMERS or PACIFIC RIM films. Furthermore, Godzilla and Kong finally facing-off actually feels like the grand historic cinematic event that other 'VS' films should have been. The battles look gorgeous and its easy to see why the finale is set in Hong Kong with all those lights but the close-ups of Godzilla's face looked a bit too "man-in-a-suit" and unintentionally funny.
 
The film could easily have been a mess since there's three narrative threads running; one for Kong, one for Godzilla and another for the three human conspiracy theorists which the film could've omitted since they took the focus off the monsters. The "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" was by far the most interesting part of the film so hopefully we'll see more of that in future installments but now that the two big bads have finally fought I'm not sure there's much more story to tell in this franchise.

 

Edited by nicky
Link to comment
Share on other sites

220px-Sound_of_Metal_poster.jpeg

SOUND OF METAL (2019)
3/5 (No spoilers)

Describing a film about a heavy metal drummer going deaf as "quiet" is an ironic criticism. But that's the whole point of this Oscar-heavy film as director, Darious Marder, tries hard to make the audience see and hear the story from Ruben's (Riz Ahmed) point of view by using its sound design and (non-use) of subtitles to tell the story.

The plot is straight-forward but as often with films with such simple premises, I found myself thinking, "OK so he goes deaf, now what?" I felt similarly about THE FAREWELL (2019) in which a dying grandma's family throw a secretly fake wedding banquet to honour her - like that film, SOUND OF METAL also has a very unsatisfying ending where you're asking, "oh, is that it?" The flat ending also makes much of the 2nd act seem rather pointless OR very relevant depending on how you see it. What should have made the film is how Ruben comes to deal with his condition and forms friendships within the deaf community and its inhabitants - the film focuses on this for a while and you start to feel glad for Ruben's progress but the 3rd act just changes everything and so its easy to feel betrayed by our protagonist.

Of course without much sound or music in the film the audience's patience will be tested as the pacing of the film is compromised. The sound design has been praised for being 'inventive' but when you see the film, isn't it an obvious choice to let the audience hear things from Ruben's point of view? The use of sound design and subtitles here is hardly rocket-science and shouldn't be a surprise at all.

I really wanted this film to be about the triumph of the human spirit or over-coming great odds - I think the film wants to be those things but I don't think it really hit the nail on the head. What we get instead is a story about a man wanting to fix himself. Like Joe, the deaf community leader says in the film, "We're here to fix this (*points to forehead*), not this (*points to ears*)."

Edited by nicky
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Promising Young Woman poster.jpg

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (2020)
4/5 (No spoilers)

Carey Mulligan is 'Cassie', a troubled lonely woman haunted by the rape of her best friend years before. What follows is a  sociopathic feminist revenge-thriller loaded with creepy-manipulative schemes - think GONE GIRL (2014), FATAL ATTRACTION (1987) and a bit of FALLING DOWN (1993). But unlike those films, I found it hard in this movie to root for our misandristic/'jaded' heroine.

The first 20 minutes presents Cassie as a crusader looking for trouble and baiting men; she feigns drunkeness in bars just to teach men a lesson about taking advantage of women - its as pointless as deliberately leaving my wallet on display in an unlocked car just to catch-out opportunist thieves. Whatsmore that plot-point should've been saved for a separate movie all of its own since it served NO purpose to the main plot (except to highlight the film's feminist agenda). It's easy to sympathize with Cassie but equally easy to find her unlikable; sure she deserves justice but she's so calculating and angry like an incel. 

The plot and pacing is very good and there is a lot of "plotting" going on...but I had a major problem with characters not questioning Cassie's excuses and explanations (or lack thereof) for her schemes. And this won Best Original Screenplay?! Also the love interest (Ryan) is presented as such an embarrassing simp, was this an attempt to satirize or make fun of good guys? The message here was men are either misogynist A-holes or weak saps who beg for dates, either way they're all crap...except your dad of course. 

There is humour in the film but its awkward (the pharmacy scene was cringey). The production design is colourful and girly in a candy-store way but although the film deals with sensitive political issues, I feel they're dumbed-down by the 'need' to be a commercial hit with its use of pop music and girly colours. 

The ending was unexpected and brave but I lost all respect and stopped rooting for Cassie completely because she crossed the line and the final plothole here just lost me. This is probably the most feminist film since THELMA & LOUISE (1991). I really enjoyed it but I didn't like the character.

Edited by nicky
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Mortal Kombat (2021 film).png

MORTAL KOMBAT (2021)
2.5 (Mild spoiler)

I was looking forward to this and was quite pleased to see that the fans had generally been positive about it despite many critics hadn't. But then I realized that fans of videogames are generally fans of that medium first and cinema second. In other words, take a film fan's word for it when they say the movie sucks, not a gamer's. 

The film's opening 10 mins are great but the rest just doesn't live up to the start so it's quite obviously a horribly unbalanced film. The plot is boring; there's all this talk of tournaments and a rivalry between 'Earthrealm' and 'Outworld' but we never see any of it and there's almost no explanation given for why any of this s*** is even happening. It's like the film was made purely with fans in mind so if you aren't very familiar with the property a lot of it will go over your head. The plot lost me quite early on but what's worse is that nothing redeeming made me want to go back and try to understand it.

It's a fairly over-crowded film with too many characters squeezed in, they're also pretty weakly-written and feel very randomly placed - its like a messy superhero team movie. Josh Lawson (Kano) has a lot of charisma but his constant plays for comic relief become too much at times (eg. the dinner scene) while Lewis Tan (Cole) feels rather flat as a leading man. 

Overall, the film feels like a 90s B-movie due to its casting of little-known TV actors and lack of scope - it wants to be a big blockbuster but it feels like the focus on action, violence and fan service is trying to compensate for lack of story.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
A man with many fists flying towards his face
 
NOBODY (2021)
3.5/5 (No spoilers)

While hardly original this was still an enjoyable action romp, it's greatest strength being it's main character played by Bob Odenkirk who has a bit more realism to him than the other middle-aged action men we're used to.

I didn't watch the trailer first so was quite disappointed and unprepared for the change in direction the story took after the first 30 mins. The film started off interesting but then after the scene on the bus everything changed, up until that point I was watching something different but then the film rapidly descended into the same old 'John Wick' s***. I really wanted to explore more of the character's reluctance to fight, his rustiness and desire to be a peaceful family-man but this theme was overshadowed by the need to be a straight-out bullet-fest.

There are obvious comparisons to JOHN WICK (2016) of course; it's another assassin picking a fight with a Russian gang who's boss wants to avenge their brother/son against a backdrop of nightclubs, basements, techno music and even the same blue/violet cinematography. It's safe to say so if you enjoyed JOHN WICK then you'll like NOBODY. I actually preferred the latter.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

First cinema trip in 7 months and I thought Spiral (or Saw IX if you prefer). Was a good horror. It was different to the Saw movies in it's tone (although I did miss Tobin Bell's voiceover). The twist was clever too. Saw fans won't be disappointed.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw Godzilla Vs Kong finally at the cinema today. I thought it was really good. Fantastic visual effects and paid homage to older movies. I am a fan of both the King Kong and Godzilla films and was impressed how both were portrayed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

220px-Army_of_the_Dead_(2021_film).png

ARMY OF THE DEAD (2021)

3/5 (No spoilers)

I had high hopes for this film following Zack Snyder's excellent DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004) but found ARMY nowhere near as good. It's not a total disappointment but certainly not worth the 14 year wait in development hell either. That's plenty time to improve a script!

I absolutely love the premise; a team of mercs is sent into a quarantined zombie-filled Las Vegas to pull-off a heist. However, I found the film to be lacking in consistency as most of the zombie-action (bar the one great tense scene halfway) wasn't seen until towards the end of the film making the structure quite unbalanced. It's a slow build-up including Snyder's signature slo-mo opening titles (that take forever) and culminates in a very rushed climax where things happen too quickly or too easily - the writing, pacing and editing are all quite messy and characters defy logic.

Yes, the plot is predictable and some parts were so cliche and reminded me of ALIENS (1986); there's even a tough Latin chick with a red headband like Vasquez and a shady corporate guy. Each character had decent stuff to do though and thankfully wasn't just random fodder but there's always that one annoying cliche person who stupidly endangers everyone else - just like in DOTD. The emotional-arc of the film felt really weak, tiresome and unnecessary like most survival-horror schlock.

Overall the film lacked consistency and should have been more concise. Nevertheless it was still mildly enjoyable in a dumb way simply because of the premise and visuals (despite Synder's use of a shallow depth of field looking like vaseline on the lens) - but the ending is so unsatisfying with things left unresolved and questions unanswered, even the zombies' origins are left a mystery and why does the leader wear a eff-ing cape?!

Edited by nicky
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought Cruella was a fun backstory on Cruella Devil with a fantastic performance from Emma Stone. The costumes and make were terrific too. I thought it the best live action film based 101 Dalmatians to date.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Isle Of Dogs.  I'm a bit late to the party with this one but I've finally watched it.  It's a silly film really plot wise, but it's very good and I enjoyed watching it.  It's really well made.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Dogtanian & The Three Muskehounds was great for nostalgia. I was a big fan of the cartoon series as a kid so it was nice to see a fairy faithful big screen adaptation. It should be enjoyable to kids who aren't familiar with the original series too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fast & Furious 9 was good and fun action film. It was at times extremely far fetched but I think that was the point. The action scenes seemed relentless and the humour was also amusing. Fans will not be disappointed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Freaky was a brilliantly entertaining comedy horror version of Freaky Friday. Great performances Vince Vaughn & Kathryn Newton and another good movie from Blumhouse Pictures. If you enjoyed their previous comedy horrors you'll probably enjoy this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...