True Romance 10/10 - Still one of my top 10 movies. Cheesy, but I absolutely love it.
True Romance was my favorite movie for a long time. It's still top 10, maybe even cracking the top 5. It's been supplanted by a bunch of horror sci-fi type stuff like The Thing, Body Snatchers '77, Terminator 1+2, and Aliens. Patricia Arquette is so goddamn gorgeous in this movie.
In the last couple of months I went out of my way to get caught up on recent (mostly superhero) movies from the last couple of years. And man, modern movies are pretty fucking bad.
Wonder Woman 84 - 3/10, had some enjoyable moments and the villain was really interesting, but it was clearly designed to make a political statement, didn't really have much meat on it otherwise, and feels more like a DLC to the first movie than a real sequel that does anything important. Probably because it takes place in the past, way before Justice League, and isn't an origin story so why?
Black Widow - 6/10, kind of unpleasant but again it had some good moments, mostly with Yelena who is cool enough to carry the movie. This should have been made ten years ago. Black Widow deserved to be Marvel's first female-led movie WAY more than Captain Marvel did. Also the Scarlett of ten years ago (circa Iron Man 2) was incredible. I wouldn't watch this again but I'm glad I saw it once.
Shang-Chi - 7/10, was constantly distracted by how the hero and the villain were both made to look like total chumps every time they fought the women in the movie and lost. By the end I wasn't interested in their showdown because they'd both looked so weak before that. I'm not even sure what Shang-Chi's motivations are. He's a cool character played by a cool actor, and the movie had gorgeous visuals, but man, they botched the execution here when you consider that it's the introduction of a new hero. You don't make new heroes look this weak right out of the gate. I don't mean physically weak (though they did that too), I mean in terms of lacking agency and feeling like a passenger in their own movie.
Shazam - 8/10, SUPER fun movie here and probably the best DC movie I've seen. I actually loved the hell out of this movie and it's the first thing on the list that I'd watch again. Just a fun romp that does a great job introducing a new hero and making them likeable / a threat. Too bad it's DC so there'll probably be no followup of any substance, much less the Shazam teaming up with Superman movie that they teased. Recommended.
The Suicide Squad - 6/10, another unpleasant movie like Black Widow that was carried by a couple of good characters. I did like how unpredictable and wild it got, at least. Good introduction of Peacemaker, fairly decent use of Harley though she's getting pretty annoying now.
Birds of Prey - 4/10, I barely remember anything to talk about here. Jurnee Smolett is bonkers hot in this movie, but I could also do without seeing the name "Smolett" in anything for a while. Harley is still annoying. The movie is supposed to be about a squad of badass women, but there's nothing feminine about most of them and they're all so masculine that it pretty much negates the "badass women" theme. If female characters have to turn into men to be strong, is that really sending the message they think it is?
Old - 7/10, I actually liked this one a lot, though it seems like M. Night is mostly just getting flack for it because the dialogue is pretty atrocious. I thought the story was interesting and kept me glued to it, and it was a bold choice having Big Pharma be the villains of the film in this day and age.
300: Rise of an Empire - 8/10, enjoyed this almost as much as the original 300. The villain Artemisia is an incredible character and a masterclass in how to make a strong female character who is actually feminine and doesn't shit all over the male lead in the process of being strong. I enjoyed the retelling of the naval battle that occured between Persia and Athens (and ultimately led to Greece uniting to win the war). Mostly though I enjoyed the love/hate interplay between the hero and villain and how goddamn masculine and feminine respectively they were. It felt like a movie from a different era. ...and considering it came out in like 2011, I guess it is. Also has one of the hottest sex scenes I've ever seen, and I can't say I've ever seen a hero and villain of a movie have a hot sex scene before. Recommended.
Matrix Resurrected - 2/10, this was dogshit. It did make me go back and watch the first 3 again and they're still very good.
Dune (2021) - 8/10, interested in seeing the sequel (hopefully a bunch of sequels, but probably not). Only real issue with this is they killed almost all of the actors that I actually like by the end and replaced all of them with the Fremen who are now a tribe of Kindly Black People ala the Witcher show. Maybe Netflix bankrolled this, IDK. Recommended.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage - 4/10, thought this was pretty goddamn bad, and that's unfortunate because I've been wanting a Carnage movie for 25 years since I played Maximum Carnage on the SNES. Movie was short and rushed, dialogue was terrible, and the final fight (which should have been great) made very little sense. Not sure why both Venom and Carnage were weak against that screaming woman's attacks but it just broke up the fight completely. Huge letdown here.
