Recent theatrical viewings

[M.10rda]

Note: I was distracted at the beginning because a couple of teenagers seated right in front of me were basically having sex until they got kicked out of the theater. I mean, they kept their clothes on, but they might have slid their pants aside (the girl was wearing leggings). It was highly distracting and they ignored comments from people to stop until the usher came and actually led them out. Wow! 3.5/5 (the movie, not the dry-humping teenagers).

Very bold of them. I managed movie theaters for about 8 years in my youth and we'd find condoms more often than you'd like to think... though almost always in the back row. Kids have no shame these days! 

[M.10rda]

 I still say that CRYSTAL SKULL was better than TEMPLE OF DOOM.

Both have good points and plenty of dumb parts. I'd say CRYSTAL SKULL is the more disappointing overall, but maybe that's just 18 (?) years of anticipation talking. I think Spielberg is often a great director and sometimes an inept and/or lazy one - not an effortless genius - and the huge gap in overall quality between RAIDERS and CRUSADE on one hand and then TOD and CS on the other really underlines his inconsistency.......

[Rev. Powell]

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER: When the Black Panther dies (offscreen), Wakanda must reorganize its government while facing a new threat from an undersea kingdom. Letitia Wright may grow into the role, but Chadwick Boseman is truly missed; by necessity, it's a reboot origin story that begins as a fantasy war epic focused on minor characters and fishmen, which never really finds its narrative footing. Production design is excellent, music is good. It's also too long at almost 3 hours. On a side note, this is the first truly packed theater I've been in before Covid days. 3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

I'm back in theaters for

INFINITY POOL: A couple on vacation in an unspecified third world paradise in the unspecified future accidentally run down a local while driving drunk and learn of that country's strange legal arrangement: for a generous donation, they can substitute a clone for execution in death penalty cases. Moral corruption from son-of-David Brandon Cronenberg, who has a magnum of his fathers' style but continues to deliver strong sci-fi/horror that's both familiar and new; this slick, sick satire serves as a dual metaphor for first-world privilege and for self-destructive behavior. 4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

M3GAN (2022): A cybernetic toy robot prototype grows overzealous executing its primary directive. Silly but mostly entertaining paranoid android flick; the writing falls apart in the third act but hey, killer dolls gotta kill, or no movie. 3/5.

[RCMerchant]

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER: When the Black Panther dies (offscreen), Wakanda must reorganize its government while facing a new threat from an undersea kingdom. Letitia Wright may grow into the role, but Chadwick Boseman is truly missed; by necessity, it's a reboot origin story that begins as a fantasy war epic focused on minor characters and fishmen, which never really finds its narrative footing. Production design is excellent, music is good. It's also too long at almost 3 hours. On a side note, this is the first truly packed theater I've been in before Covid days. 3/5.

Was Namor, the Sub-Marinier in this?

[Rev. Powell]

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER: When the Black Panther dies (offscreen), Wakanda must reorganize its government while facing a new threat from an undersea kingdom. Letitia Wright may grow into the role, but Chadwick Boseman is truly missed; by necessity, it's a reboot origin story that begins as a fantasy war epic focused on minor characters and fishmen, which never really finds its narrative footing. Production design is excellent, music is good. It's also too long at almost 3 hours. On a side note, this is the first truly packed theater I've been in before Covid days. 3/5.

Was Namor, the Sub-Marinier in this?

I was going to say no, but Google says yes, he was the villain. (I forgot his name and didn't realize it was the comic book character).

[Gabriel Knight]

Recently I got two free tickets to the theater so I went with my girlfriend planning on getting there and just picking something. Very bold of us.

The experience was lame, I have to admit. A total of 7 movies to choose from: 2 crappy horror ones, 2 kids flick, the Cameron thingy that I don't care about, a drama with Colin Farrell, and an action movie with Gerard Butler that looked entertaining enough. We decided to go with the latter, but the only open room to see it was 3 hours away (!), so we had to stick with the drama, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN.

Insanely boring, the plot made no sense and never got resolved anyways, and it's running time felt like an eternity. Supposedly was a drama / comedy but the humour got lost on me. Of course it got a million awards because it was a metaphor of Irish Civil War or something.

Cinema is so dead right now.

[Rev. Powell]

MISSING: 18-year-old June is forced to become an online detective when her mother doesn't return from vacation with her new boyfriend. From the makers of SEARCHING, this is another mystery that plays out (almost) entirely on screens--Face Time conversations, Google searches, password hacking, smart doorbell footage--it's a gimmick, but it's cleverly done and works one more time thanks to solid plotting, decent suspense, and believable characterizations. 3.5/5.

Oddly, there were about 13 people in the theater (including me), which seems high for a movie with basically zero advertising that's a sort-of sequel to a movie I didn't think was a big hit originally. Happy to see a little low-budget movie pulling in some theatrical receipts.

[Rev. Powell]

WHAT WE DO NEXT (2022): A NYC councilwoman with a bright political future finds that a good deed from her past may threaten her political future. With only three characters staged in seven scenes, the movie's stage origins are blatantly obvious, but the smart script makes us feel the nuanced moral dilemmas, and the acting is awards-worthy. 3.5/5.

[Alex]

Fall.

One woman decides to help another woman get over the death of her husband who fell off a mountain by taking her climbing up a 2000-foot high transmission tower. They don't take basic precautions and soon end up in a whole world of trouble. If you have a fear of heights, this may not be a film for you, as many of the film's shots are looking down from a great height. If it gets a sequel I really hope they call it something like Fall 2 Your Death. It came highly recommended, but it didn't feel particularly tense or scary to me (again if you have a stronger fear of heights than me, it might work better that way), and it was decently acted if a little lacking in the suspense factor. I never really cared if either of the women got back down or not.#

Well ok, they were always going to get down. It is the being alive after getting to the ground bit.

[Rev. Powell]

CREED III: Now retired, Adonis Creed risks his reputation to help an ex-con old friend get a title shot; the fallout leads the champ to unretire. The aging CREED nearly goes the distance--I appreciated the arty treatment of the middle rounds of the final bout--but the cliche-ridden, credulity-straining script makes it average at best. Franchise fans seem to like it despite its faults, probably because it's so familiar. 2.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

DEMON SLAYER: TO THE SWORDSMITH VILLAGE: Tanjiro and allies battle an Upper Level demon; then, when recuperating, Tanjiro travels to a secret village seeking to reforge his damaged sword. The last DEMON SLAYER theatrical movie was a standalone story arc that people unfamiliar with the TV anime could (pretty much) follow; this is just a string of episodes, with the climax misplaced in the middle of the film. The visuals are still impressive; DEMON SLAYER's color schemes, multiple styles, remarkable demon designs and blazing-fast sword battles translate beautifully to the big screen. Still, this entry is for series fans only. 2.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

JOHN WICK, CHAPTER 4 (2023): Legendary renegade hitman John Wick devises a plan to free himself from the bounty set on his head once and for all by killing a high-ranking official known as the Marquis, while a blind assassin and "Mr. Nobody" are on his tail. Basically, it's still just an excuse to shuffle John Wick from international set piece to international set piece so he can slaughter a bunch of extras, but there is a legitimate epic feel this time out, with echoes of Zatoichi and Sergio Leone. 4/5.

[Alex]

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves.

Given its big screen history and with recent events with the company that owns the D&D brand it was not without some trepidation that I went to see this today.

First off I will say, it is better (by quite far), than the previous non-straight-to-DVD movie. It isn't absolutely great must-see watching, but it is good. It made me laugh at a few points. It had plenty of nods to the game (some of which felt a little shoehorned in to link it to the game, but I suspect that is just a me complaint and other people will have found those touches charming (two rust monsters fighting over a meal of metal for example)). I didn't feel that those points would exclude anyone who isn't familiar with the game from watching and understanding it. It also sticks to the game in that Chris Pine's character (a bard) is useless. That isn't to say he is bad at what he does. He is good in the film, but his character doesn't really do much except sing a couple of times.

Sounds like a bard to me. Could have been worse, he could have been a monk. I was expecting some cameos from some of the big celebrity D&D gamers, but the film was free of them as far as I could tell. On balance, I'd say that could be a good thing as it would distract from the film itself, but then again there was a cameo of a gaming party from the 80s that seemed to work.

I am avoiding giving spoilers, but I do have to say "Wow, that dragon is one chonkey boi." If you watch the film you'll know what I am talking about when you see it. the dragon is present in D&D lore, although I am not going to try and remember how you spell his name.

My favourite Forgotten Realms villain is in it a little bit (presumably being saved for a sequel though. He is a bit like the Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back, lurking around but not there much.

Overall, I'd give it a 7 1/2 out of 10. Worth watching, but I wouldn't go out of my way to do so. At least it doesn't have a starving Jeremy Irons* in it.

Just on a side note, while we were getting refreshments, the cinema manager offered to let Ash go behind the scenes and see the projector and gave him some posters (The Little Mermaid and Avatar 2). Ash doesn't care for either movie, but it was a really nice gesture and I'll see if I can find the posters more appreciative homes.



*I have always thought that no one was feeding Jeremy Irons during the filming of Dungeons & Dragons, and his scenery-chewing performance was in fact the result of extreme hunger.