Nothing else to say
Most recently, I finally got around to seeing 1928’s Steamboat Bill, Jr.
It was this film where Buster Keaton (arguably the most influential leading man who did his own stunts) stood perfectly still as the side of a house fell on him, only unscathed due to an open window (your move, Tom Cruise!). Every since Keaton’s days, the stunt man has been risking all for the purpose of the shot (more than enough have sadly died in the process).
Over the last month or so, I found myself watching three films from the 1950s that were definite products of their time (which is not to say they were bad).
The three films (The Incredible Shrinking Man, Them!, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers) most assuredly dealt with fears of the times: radiation, political invasion, and nuclear war. Thankfully, none of that has happened since then (well, maybe the invasion part, but that is not something I want to dive into), but they surely seemed like possible outcomes.
As of now, I have seen only thirteen movies involving Godzilla and/or King Kong (about 19 percent of them all according to Letterboxd).
I mention this at the outset because I now only realize how all the movies have one key challenge to face: balance the monster scenes with the human character scenes. Of course, a vast majority (if not all) of audiences will be going to these films for the CGI monster mashing, making most of the human stories somewhat forgettable (unless you are Godzilla Minus One, the film that finally won Godzilla an Oscar).
I am really coming in to the 11th hour.
With the only a few days left until the Academy Awards, my predictions are finally done, but at the cost of a few things, namely, that I don’t have all the photos I would normally have with this post.
(On the plus side, I did have time to see all the shorts).
Read more: Predictions for the 96th Academy AwardsMuch of that has to do with the same old story of me overthinking certain categories and not knowing what to pick. That is not to say that there are not certain categories that are easy to predict. the real question of Oscar night will be how many awards will Oppenheimer sweep and how many will the rest get?
Here are my predictions
“Dune Part 2 is the The Godfather 2 of Sci-Fi films.”
– My buddy Rudy
Like many, Rudy was able to see this movie this past Sunday (I was unaware of this early showing until I had already had my tickets). As great a movie lover (and friend) that he is, Rudy does tend to over hype things a bit (I fall into this same trap, but I am gradually improving a little).As the storytelling is more gradual and less bombastic as other sci-fi films, so was my appreciation for this epic sequel.
Recently, the MCU announced the long awaited casting decisions for the Fantastic Four going forward.
The cinematic stories showcasing “Marvel’s First Family” have been rather substandard at best. There was a nearly forgotten 90s movie followed by two lackluster films in the mid 2000s. There was promise when a new version was to be displayed in the mid 2010s with stars Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan, resulting in Fan4stic Four, one of the worst comic book movies ever made. I never thought I would see a superhero film stoop that low again.
Enter Madame Web.
There are a lot of positives and negatives to look back on in 2023 when it comes to cinema, both industry wise and personally.
Of course, Hollywood had a big dent in the year with two strikes (which I did support, for what it is worth), While they have thankfully ended, we will probably feel the fall out of them in this upcoming year (and possibly into 2025). Looking back at the amount of films I have seen (just shy of 80, which is more than I have done in previous years), I saw nearly 90 percent of them (whether in theater or streaming) by myself. It would really be nice to have my friends and family have a better schedule for me, but such is life.
There is not as much shame as there used to be when I would admit to going into a movie thinking it was bad and it ends up being good (or vice versa).
I had more of a “mistaken identity” when watching May December. I’m not sure where I read it (or where I thought I did) but I went into the film thinking that the two main actresses, Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, were a married couple. Regardless of how I came to this false conclusion, it is not the case the new film by Todd Haynes, but that does not at all take away from the true film, with one of the more unique and admittedly disturbing premises in recent memory.
Just as I was a few minutes away from the theater to see Wish (the 62nd animated feature from the company), I thought to myself: How many times has that word been used in their past films?
Songs that came to mind include “I’m Wishing” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), “A Dream is a Wish your Heart makes” from Cinderella (1950), and, of course, the king of all Disney songs, “When you wish upon a star” from Pinocchio (1940). If one were to make a word cloud of the dialogue (and songs) in Disney films, “Wish” would most likely turn up more than any other word (with the possible exception of “Dream”). With that logic, it seemed a movie like Wish would be inevitable to be released on the centennial of the most known movie studio in history.
Try as I might, my prior knowledge of Napoleon Bonaparte heading into the latest movie based on him is considerably less than normal (I was going to make a height joke here, but couldn’t think of one).
Aside from knowing him as one of the greatest generals in history, being considered short, and having a complex named after him, I knew nothing more (unless you count him being a fan of water slides thanks to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure). Even still, it seems to make sense that director Ridley Scott, equally as fearless as Bonaparte (and in his mid 80s, no less) would make a film about the historical figure, which results in the film Napoleon.
Nothing else to say