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At the Movies with Kane and BN

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Small Things like These

I miss the days when you could make a side-scrolling video game adaptation about any movie because depressed Oppenheimer vs evil nuns would make millions.

A fantastic & gloomy drama set during Christmas time in the mid-80s in Ireland that highlights the Magdalene Laundries situation. The movie does a great job of being slow-paced, quiet, and introspective but has a sense of mystery and being confronted with a moral predicament that's all told through Cillian Murphy's incredible & understated performance. I love how this movie looks and moves and it makes you feel like you're right there with Cillian Murphy going through all the different emotions that are happening almost in a documentary style in certain scenes. Overall, I really enjoyed it, it's definitely one of the types of smaller well-made adult dramas that usually don't get the award season recognition that I always look forward to every year.
4/5
 
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Mufasa: The Lion King

The entire time I was just questioning what those white lions were doing on Jan 6.

Despite all my lack of enthusiasm for this prequel/sequel even with Barry Jenkins directing it, I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It's an improvement over the last live-action Lion King just based on the fact that it's not retelling a story we've already seen in a different animation format. This almost has the idea and structure of a Godfather Part II where you go in and out between the present day and more importantly the origin story of Mufasa and Scar. I actually dug what Barry Jenkins improved on the last movie both visually and aesthetically, the CGI animals do have a more cartoonish expression just like the 2D animated movie but not too much that it feels completely out of place. There are a lot of swinging camera movements that feel more artistic than the last one and I was more interested in seeing the origin even though we know where the story eventually goes. And for the most part, the voice cast was pretty good especially Aaron Pierre & Kelvin Harrison Jr. Still, the movie falls into a lot of prequelitis and it's got some problems with the current-day stuff. I thought there was one song that stood out among the rest and everything else felt forgettable. Overall, it's a better film than the last one but not enough to reach the heights of the original 2D film.
3/5
 
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Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Keanu Reeves putting more effort into his voice work as Shadow than his line delivers in all 4 John Wick movies combined is so wild to me.

Just a pretty generic sequel outside of Jim Carrey trying to carry this franchise solo. Each film feels more and more like a Saturday morning cartoon and I guess that is the point but these films aint for me, clearly. It's a thin plot that moves constantly and is just an excuse to pull some hijinks at every turn. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails are just kinda boring as characters, especially with Sonic trying to do some bad oneliners and references to other things. Shadow gets the only semi-interesting plotline and that feels so hilarious when they try to get serious about it. It's pretty much seeing Jim Carrey do his routine that makes this movie somewhat watchable and there are some good moments with him that work. James Marsden & Tika Sumpter are really enjoying their easy checks in this and I don't know why Krysten Ritter is in this other than getting more film roles in the future. Overall, not that it matters with anything I say to people and kids going into this movie already giving it 5/5 stars, but that Sonic kid who ranted on youtube years ago is suddenly prolific, you freakin fricks!
2/5
 
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My Spy: The Eternal City

When did Flula Borg get so ripped and evil?

Super predictable but enjoyable. It's pretty much what you'd expect this sequel to be, especially with the whole "teenager going to Rome for a class field trip" cliche. Just like with the first one, a lot of it feels like an early 2000s family/teen movie that Nickelodeon or Disney would have made. I will say it's strange after watching this that this also went directly to streaming after the first one had to be because it was covid. This one obviously has a bigger budget and scope and I thought some parts worked because of that. Dave Bautista & Chloe Coleman were decent and I thought all the comedians they got in this were kinda hit or miss between Kristen Schaal, Ken Jeong, Anna Faris, Flula Borg, and Craig Robinson who shows up out of nowhere. Overall, pretty average.
2.5/5
 
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Maria

There's a moment in the movie where I literally thought it was gonna turn into the Avengers of sad gal pals with Jackie and Spencer.

Somewhat decent and somewhat underwhelming for Pablo Larraín's third in his trilogy of tragic and recluse historical women in the 20th century. This one is based on Maria Callas and her life as a famous opera singer, but much like Jackie and Spencer it's told in a retrospective sheltered way that it keeps focus entirely on Angelina Jolie's performance, perspective, and story who is really good in this. To me, this is a bit of a lesser story than his previous two subjects but what keeps it interesting enough for me is the incredibly well-done cinematography and direction that gives it a painterly style. I thought another part that I found more interesting than spending a lot of the backstory on her life was the moments with her in the present time and her family-like relationship with her butler and maid. You can also tell a lot of her singing was lipsynced, but the final one she does (which is actually her singing) was pretty good. Overall, for an Oscar-bait contender, I thought it was pretty decent. It falls short behind Jackie and Spencer for me and I kinda wish Pablo Larraín would go do more movies like El Conde from last year which was severely underlooked.
3.5/5
 
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Silent Night, Deadly Night

The movie is pretty mean-spirited, dark, and disturbing, but I lowkey could have watched that goofy-ass '80s toy store montage for 90 minutes along with young Billy decking tf out of Santa.

It's oddly what I expected this movie to be and not how I expected it to go in certain places. It's a pretty dark slasher with some direct nods to Texas Chainsaw, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Black Christmas that deals with childhood trauma more head-on than your usual slashers but it also has moments of being really campy and silly. I thought the kid version and grown-up version of Billy were great and I thought the middle section of the movie was where it works the best. There are some great horror shots in this that fits in with the festive vibe and you do see where later movies like Terrifier 3 get their inspiration from. I do think the movie has some weird pacing issues where some scenes do go on for too long but it didn't really bother me as much. Overall, not perfect but definitely a really solid Christmas slasher.
3.5/5
 
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Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2

The assclown at the back of the theater is basically CinemaSins and all forms of annoying online film bros, I'm glad he got his.

What a movie. The first 30 MINUTES might be the most egregious attempt at saving the movie's budget by recapping the first movie almost entirely and I've seen all the Friday the 13th films. What you really have is a movie that is roughly an hour long and is less than half of the budget of the original and it all relies heavily on Eric Freeman's gonzo "so bad it's good" performance as Ricky, the younger brother from the first one now grown up. When the movie does finish its recap of the first, it starts another recap of stuff we haven't seen before told by Ricky and that's when the movie does get so insane and wild. All of his line deliveries were something out of Troll 2 and all the scenarios he gets himself into are so bizarre and so hilariously awful that it's so entertaining to watch. The entire "Garbage Day" sequence lives up to the legend now that I saw it in context. It's a shame that it took forever to get to the second half of the film because this would have been an easy 5/5.
3.5/5
 
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Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!

I'm gonna insinuate that Granny was probably at the March on Washington with MLK based on that huge ass framed portrait of him.

What a weird vibey sequel that at times feels like David Lynch made it in secret. It's definitely more put-together filmmaking-wise than the last two movies despite it not being a typical slasher and the blind final girl being pretty awful performance-wise. You definitely feel the late 80s/monochrome of it all with how everybody looks in this. There's a point early on that I thought this was gonna be more like Dream Warriors and that didn't even come into play like I hoped. They changed the actor who played Ricky to Bill Moseley and it really shifts the vibe to be more real and sinister even if they don't do as much with him. Samantha Scully plays the blind clairvoyant final girl who looks like a Jennifer Connelly clone and she could not act to save her life... but it also weirdly adds charm to it all because of how bad she is. Overall, this is probably gonna be sacrilegious to say but this might be my favorite so far just based on vibes.
3.5/5
 
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Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation

Damn, they really wanted us to be disgusted about eating pitted dates.

I guess this is the Halloween III of the series because they pivoted the story in a completely different direction. This definitely feels like they had an unproduced script about a coven of witches they bought and changed up a few things like having it set during Christmas and making Ricky the lackey of the group. If this wasn't attached to a murdering Santa Clause franchise, this would maybe get a better reception because I thought some things were pretty interesting and it's funny seeing this and knowing movies like The Craft would come out a few years later. I thought the best thing about this movie was Neith Hunter as Kim Levitt. I also thought some of the effects were pretty gnarly and some moments were campy fun. They also changed actors again for Ricky and this time they got Clint Howard to play him and while I thought he was not bad, they definitely neutered the character into a simple lackey. It was also cool seeing Reggie Bannister from the Phantasm series in this even though he's not in it a lot. Overall, as a Silent Night Deadly Night film, it's super disappointing but as an early 90s cheesy coven horror, it was not bad.
3.5/5
 
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Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker

There's a toy maker named "Joe Petto" who runs a toy shop with his son... "Pino Petto"... Need I say more?

This yet again shifts from the last film into something almost completely different but this time it fits in with the Christmas theme more. It's basically movies like Small Soldiers and Pinocchio's Revenge before either of them were even a thing. It's by far the most 90s horror of the series for obvious reasons and while they do bring in Neith Hunter & Clint Howard from the last movie, they don't at any time bring up what they did before, it's as if they were brand new characters which was weird. The new family this story follows weren't as interesting as they hoped but I thought Mickey Rooney as Joe Petto & Brian Bremer as Pino Petto were easily the best part. The first hour was honestly kinda generic even for this series, but the 3rd act is where it really hits off and the special effects were really well done. Overall, while I probably rank this last in the series, it's got some really wild moments towards the end that saves this movie.
3.5/5
 
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Nosferatu

A film that once again answers what lies in the shadow and darkness of man a century later... real estate bureaucracy.

Someone play the All The Lights LeBron highlight reel meme for Eggers, he's done it yet again. A damn near perfect adaptation of the Nosferatu/Dracula story that is shaped by his vision and sensibilities. It is a film that is epic in scope, much like The Northman, but as personal and intimate as his other film The Witch with the berserker mode of The Lighthouse. It's a film that gets the sensory madness just right where you are able to fully immerse yourself into the story even though it's a story that's been told before. You can see Eggers's love for the original silent film, but also the precode Universal Monsters where he gives more life to the sections that get quickly passed over like scenes with the village or the city being overrun by a plague. It is visually unbelievable and it takes what we've seen in The Northman with the moonlight cinematography and amps it up even more and seeing this in IMAX was so perfect. Everybody brought their A-game performance even no matter how small the role was like Emma Corrin as Anna Harding or Simon McBurney as Herr Knock. Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Willem Dafoe were all incredible, but Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård is the movie and what they were able to do in their performances was unbelievable. If anything this is Lily-Rose Depp showing to everybody that she is a real actress who can do it all. I also really dug the creative choice of not replicating the iconic Max Schreck look of Nosferatu but giving it a more humanistic appeal while keeping the haunting imagery intact and keeping him in shadow and quick cuts as much as they can until they fully reveal him. Also, there are some scenes in this that are so Evil Dead coded that it had to be fully intentional. Overall, Eggers is still undefeated as far as I'm concerned and his version of Nosferatu is as perfect as I would have hoped for.
5/5
 
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A Complete Unknown

When Simon and Garfunkel showed up in the end credits and asked Bob if he wanted to join the Folk Avengers initiative, I thought it was a little too much even for Mangold.

A wonderfully crafted and old-fashioned music biopic that only James Mangold knows how to execute. They do the smart thing of just focusing on the more crucial years of Bob Dylan instead of regurgitating a whole Wikipedia page of his life. It's more of a concert film than really diving into the history and characters but I thought what they did with the characters that revolve around Bob Dylan was pretty interesting enough. Timothée Chalamet, Monica Barbaro, and Boyd Holbrook were the real standouts to me for obvious reasons, especially Boyd Holbrook who honestly plays a better Johnny Cash than Joaquin Phoenix (and I probably would watch a remake of Walk the Line with him). I also did like Edward Norton & Elle Fanning but I kinda wanted more from them. They did an incredible job on the sound, set designs, costumes, and using Jersey City to recreate Greenwich Village in the 60s. Overall, really solid.
4/5
 
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The Fire Inside

The Fire Inside or also known as, the missing Atlanta episode where Paper Boi coaches a boxing prodigy.

A pretty typical "based on a true story" underdog boxing drama that felt like they looked at the back of the box ingredients of Rocky & Creed and skipped all the necessary steps to let it simmer and cook. A lot of the characters are pretty conventional, the dialogue is predictable, the filmmaking is nothing too special, and the plotting feels rushed... until Claressa Shields (played by Ryan Destiny) wins her Olympic boxing match a little more than halfway into the film and goes home... then the movie really starts and becomes way more interesting than what led up to it. They do a good job in those last 30 minutes exploring what it means after winning a gold medal especially if you're a female poc from a poor neighborhood and all the pomp and circumstance is over. It's a movie that definitely needed another 30 minutes to explore the aftermath of the Olympics and it would have made it an even better film. Brian Tyree Henry & Ryan Destiny are both the best parts of the movie by far and the rest of the cast were just okay. Overall, it ends up being just above average, especially in the realm of bio sports dramas.
3/5
 
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Nightbitch

I too would go crazy and feral if I only had hashbrowns for breakfast for months on end.

It's an interesting dark comedy about motherhood that I don't think completely works. It's definitely trying to be both an earnest and real look inside how soul-draining motherhood is while also being a wacky werewolf satire that is about the body horror of a woman turning into a dog. Sometimes it does work in certain scenes but other times it monologues to you what the main character is feeling at the moment. While I think Marielle Heller did a great job directing this, the script needed to be more focused and more clever to pull something like this off. The saving grace is that I think Amy Adams still manages to pull off a great performance and I thought the kid they got here was really good. The movie works more when it's strictly about her trying to be a mother by herself and not the whole werewolf fantasy aspect. Overall, disappointing but not too bad.
3/5
 
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Robot Dreams

Quite possibly the most crucial to the plot needle drop to ever happen in a movie?

Wow, I can't believe it took me this long to finally get around to this masterpiece of animation. For a movie about loneliness, friendship, and deep connection with a robot and a dog, it was both heartwarming and tragic all in one stew. It is a masterclass of how to tell a story strictly through impressive 2D animation with no dialogue and an incredible foley artist. The story, style, and format of the animation reminded me of stuff like Rocko's Modern Life, Sheep in the Big City, and Zootopia where they have anthropomorphic animals living like humans. With the more mature themes and no dialogue, it also reminds me of other animated films like The Illusionist and The Red Turtle. They do such a great job setting this movie in 1980s Manhattan and the filmmakers really do a deep dive on all the things real New Yorkers recognize. This couldn't get any more New York than animating folks flying their kite in Central Park and having a Mister Softee right after. The Earth Wind and Fire needle drop of Setepmber is also what really makes this movie just as impactful. Overall, an undeniable masterpiece. Because of the awkward release date, I'm still counting this as one of the best movies of the year. And while I really enjoyed The Wild Robot, Robot Dreams takes the cake by far.
5/5


@Drizzle @Shinobi Shaw you ain't real New Yorkers if you haven't seen this yet. :o
 
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Robot Dreams

Quite possibly the most crucial to the plot needle drop to ever happen in a movie?

Wow, I can't believe it took me this long to finally get around to this masterpiece of animation. For a movie about loneliness, friendship, and deep connection with a robot and a dog, it was both heartwarming and tragic all in one stew. It is a masterclass of how to tell a story strictly through impressive 2D animation with no dialogue and an incredible foley artist. The story, style, and format of the animation reminded me of stuff like Rocko's Modern Life, Sheep in the Big City, and Zootopia where they have anthropomorphic animals living like humans. With the more mature themes and no dialogue, it also reminds me of other animated films like The Illusionist and The Red Turtle. They do such a great job setting this movie in 1980s Manhattan and the filmmakers really do a deep dive on all the things real New Yorkers recognize. This couldn't get any more New York than animating folks flying their kite in Central Park and having a Mister Softee right after. The Earth Wind and Fire needle drop of Setepmber is also what really makes this movie just as impactful. Overall, an undeniable masterpiece. Because of the awkward release date, I'm still counting this as one of the best movies of the year. And while I really enjoyed The Wild Robot, Robot Dreams takes the cake by far.
5/5


@Drizzle @Shinobi Shaw you ain't real New Yorkers if you haven't seen this yet. :o
I saw this pop up recently somewhere but I can't remember where. Sounds like my kind of jam.
 
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Asphalt City

Everyone I know is probably watching something cheerful right now, but of course, I picked this on the last day of the year.

A super bleak, nihilistic, and emotionally brutal movie about the life of an NYC paramedic during their darkest days. It's a movie that is very much trying to be Paul Schrader, especially with Bringing Out the Dead and a little bit of Taxi Driver. It's by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire who hasn't made a movie since A Prayer Before Dawn and both movies shares a very similar feeling in how utterly realistic and hopeless you feel inside these worlds. I must say, there's an obvious complicated racial undertone throughout this movie that I don't think the movie knows how to quite articulate as well as it should. It feels like it was missing something that would have made this feel a little smarter about why they chose to focus just on minorities and poor communities. That being said, I thought Tye Sheridan and Sean Penn both had excellent "sad man" performances and how both work together was interesting to watch. I didn't recognize Michael Pitt for almost an hour and he's fantastic in this as the really "dead behind the eyes" nihilistic co-worker who bullies Tye Sheridan. Katherine Waterston yet again plays a mom/wife figure for the story and while she was good, she's not in it enough for her to be in this. Kali Reis who is pretty good, probably gets the most crucial part in the movie even though it comes in late in the movie. And finally, I don't know how they got Mike Tyson as the chief, but he was pretty bad. Not only he's so miscast in this, but they had to cut out a lot of his scenes when he shows up and only gets a handful of speaking lines. Overall, aside from some problematic things in this, I thought it was super well-made and super bleak as hell.
3.5/5
 
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We Were Dangerous

If only the matron knew that island would become an expense as hell Airbnb in about 60 years.

A pretty decent little indie drama about a group of girls in 1950s New Zealand who were sent to an English institution for delinquents that feels somewhat incomplete by the time you get to the ending. It uses the British oppression as a backdrop for this coming-of-age story that really works when it does and the comedy does show up every now and then. I thought Erana James in particular was fantastic in this and did a great job opposite of Rima Te Wiata who was also good in this. There are lots of great on location shots and it's got a pretty quick runtime that keeps the story going. Overall, solid film.
3.5/5
 
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Goodrich

You can tell Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis were executive producers because they looked like they walked outside of their house and immediately started shooting, same clothes and all.

A nothing burger of a family dramedy about fatherhood that is at times funny and interesting but other times kinda boring. A lot of it reeks of first world/LA problems with what the movie wants to focus on which isn't too interesting to me. Michael Keaton does try to hold the movie together with his charm but it's not enough and Mila Kunis isn't given much to do. I will say I thought the young daughter they got was really good and talented for a kid actor. Other than that while not too terrible it is kinda forgettable.
2.5/5
 
Everyone I know is probably watching something cheerful right now
I watched Serpico earlier today and I'm currently watching Trap so your assessment is correct. :o

This guy did not disappoint, FYI:

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House of Spoils

If print media was still alive, I'm sure some critic would have written a review with the headline "House of Manure"

Pretty bad. This feels like it was made by someone who was disappointed there weren't enough spooky ghost moments in The Menu. It's a psychological horror about a chef who wants to open her own restaurant and finds an abandoned one out in the countryside. The movie kind of writes itself from there, but it fails to be scary, interesting, and deliver good performances. Ariana DeBose is all over the place and there's even a point where she gives up trying to act scared. Arian Moayed is in a funnier version of this movie who would have fit in more with the cast of The Menu. The supernatural horror part of the movie could have been interesting if they had given it a better setup and delivered a more eerie vibe, it just becomes goofy after a while. The only person trying to make lemonade out of this is the cinematographer who's working overtime on trying to make this look somewhat interesting. Overall the movie ends up being a chore to watch with squandered potential.
1.5/5
 
The fact that M. Night gave him a credits stinger was just *chef's kiss*

I liked Trap a lot more than I thought I would, definitely up there with Split among the better of Shyamalan's more recent films. I'm also here for the continuing Hartnettisance.
 
The fact that M. Night gave him a credits stinger was just *chef's kiss*

I liked Trap a lot more than I thought I would, definitely up there with Split among the better of Shyamalan's more recent films. I'm also here for the continuing Hartnettisance.
I get people who hate it though but it's so much dumb fun.
 
I get people who hate it though but it's so much dumb fun.
Normally I'd be yelling at the screen over how many times he escaped in the last half hour but Hartnett was having so much fun that I didn't even care.
 

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