Nothing else to say
Before I could finalize this list, it was rather fitting that the last movie I caught up with was Hundreds of Beavers.
While it did not make the list (despite being hilarious), it summed up the 2024 movie year with one word: Ambition.
After the memorably disappointing Moana 2, it seemed like the end of the line for animated films in 2024. While the leader of the pack was clearly The Wild Robot, there was not much else apart from the admirable Inside Out 2 and the humorously bizarre Memoirs of a Snail (it may be hard for me to listen to John Denver for some time now.)
Then, as can only be described as a tsunami, entered Flow.
Like many my age, my cinematic discovery of Michael Keaton was the same as my cinematic discovery of Tim Burton (well, it was actually Batman Returns before Batman.) The third for each would end up being Beetlejuice.
As a kid, it took me a lot of convincing that the guy behind the Batman mask was the same playing the bio exorcist. Still, it was a near perfect introduction to the mind of Tim Burton (I did not get to Pee Wee until later in life), as it made me aware at a young age directors could have there own sense of style.
In the thirty years since its release, it has been nearly unanimous across the globe that there is no other film about prison that can be any better than The Shawshank Redemption (it has sat at the top of the Top 250 IMDB list since I was in High School.)
I am not arguing against that (it is one of the very few movies you can find any dislikers for). I bring it up only because it gives a warm feeling of sorts that you would not get in many movies (let alone one about prison). That feeling does not come around often, and no other film about prison has passed that on to me since. Enter Sing Sing.
Let’s try something new here.
Rather than tell you that this movie is simply a bland, by the numbers bore fest that glamorizes our 40th president (at least Quaid is honestly trying to go for it), I present an alternative (this is one of the rare occasions when AI will help me in a review.)
It’s no secret that movie trailers nowadays are prone to giving away too much of the movie* (a prime example is the remake of Speak No Evil).
Recently, I have made a personal choice to see a trailer only once or so (and very rarely do I seek out a second trailer of a film). This is one of the key reasons as to why I went into Blink Twice without knowing anything about it other than seeing the poster and possibly (I can’t remember) seeing the trailer once a few months ago.
It is weird timing for a film like Deadpool & Wolverine.
Ever since the end of Thanos in Endgame, a majority of the shows and films have been, at best, just good (I exempt No Way Home). A lot of super hero fatigue can play into this, along with the termination of Jonathon Majors as Kang and both a writers and actors strike. The film also needs to live up to being not only the MCU debut of both it’s title characters, but the first MCU film to be rated R (more on that later).
Prior to watching Kevin Costner’s first directed film in over two decades, I looked at my Letterboxd account to realize that this film would only be the eleventh western film I have ever seen in the theater.
Granted, this is largely due to my age (which is why my first “western” experience in the theater was sadly 1999’s infamous Wild Wild West), so it is safe to say all the westerns I have seen have been on a smaller screen. It was with this lack of big screen western experience and the fact that Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 has a 40% score on rottentomatoes (it was not screened for many critics, which is rarely a good sign) that I went to see the film,…and was actually surprised at it.
You know how you can sometimes be oblivious to any form of accent you have when speaking?
As someone who has grown up in the midwest his whole life, I definitely never picked up on having an accent of any kind. Even so, it was impossible for me to not notice the accent work of Jodie Comer is using in The Bikeriders.
Sadly, it was only until a few years ago that I finally saw the OG Planet of the Apes from 1968.
My reasoning was mainly due to the fact that I had already had the famous plot twist spoiled for me as a kid (most likely from The Simpsons), and was unfortunately introduced to the idea of talking apes in Tim Burton’s disastrous 2001 film. Thankfully, the 2010s gave us a trilogy (all of which I just recently revisited) that was nothing short of solid entertainment, to the point I was worried this new film would be a de-evolution, as it were.
Nothing else to say