I remember really liking his Owen Wilson action hero style war movie called Behind Enemy Lines when I was younger but I see it's like 37% on Rotten Tomatoes so I'm curious if I just had terrible taste back then lol

I liked it too, but I know if I go back it definitely won't age well, so I'll just leave my positive memories alone lol

Standards for movies have changed so much. I also liked movies like Enemy of the State which was panned by critics at the time and 71% on RT, but every time I watch it it's entertaining and more relevant every day.

I keep wondering how the heck did owen wilson still have such awesome hair LOL.
yeah... enery of hte state was great at the time.. but stupid reviews didn't do it justice....

we had so much more give in leniency in plots and story lines back in the days.

There were a lot of really good "bad movies" back then. Pure shit movies existed back then too, but the "good bad" movies seem to be gone.

Which sucks because the Netflix era should give us a ton of them! Instead they're just shit.

Modern writing sucks.

Crimson Tide [1995] - 7/10

It was nothing groundbreaking but it was still an interesting post-Cold War thriller. The only unrealistic bit was how spacious some parts of the submarine appeared to be lol.

https://i.scdn.co/image/ab67616d0000...0bb0d21df71f2c

Finally got to watch
I wanna dance with somebody - aka Whitney Houston.

I was too young to appreciate her (not really), but all i know of her is the epic movie of The Bodyguard. Didn't know she was so big.
1) beat elvis, beat beatles, and tied with M Jackson.
2) 2 diamond albums
3) 9 or 11 consecutive songs etc....

I thought the movie was decent as I had zero expectation with the wife.
Bit sad to see the movie didn't do so well in the theatres; 45 budget, grossing 59. I did enjoy it but as many siad, it had so many aspects which were just very lightly touched upon; she was christian, family dynamic, money issues, her bFF friend, bobby brown, drugs, etc...The movie was a good 2 hrs long.. was it needed? It didn't feel as long yet the only part I did like was her journey in seeing her music style change.

Each of these coudl have been developed more but only barely touched lightly I guess so it won't scare off everyone. Naomi Ackie who played her did a great job;and of course she never did any singing as it was just lip singing the whole time but dang she pulled it off.

you watch a lot of movies dude haha

smile 2.
7/10
i found it a little too long at around 2 hours when i really didnt have to be.
there were a few jump scares but overall wasnt too scary for a horror movie based on demons. it was more of a psychological horror. naomi scott did a great job, it was fun watching princess jasmine lose her shit.
also really liked the ending and how it sets up the 3rd one

https://images.justwatch.com/poster/...4/s166/smile-2

just watched this.
north pole = wakanda
fight scene = antman
why is santa so ripped? because the rock??

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PBJ3zgH4pGM/h...8pOyTKbvNkIyTw
Small Things like These
10000% not catered to a lot of us here. Not going ot be getting any awards for best action; cause it's a very slow grind.
1985 working man irish town and dealing with major influences of churches.
I can't even explain how slow the movie is but Cillian did put in a lot of work to play.
All I can say it - hard working man, family of 5 girls, man visits church, church doesn't do things properly, man feels compelled and that's about it.

There were a few scenes I had a chuckle - Cilian Murphy has a flashback wishing for a xmas present as a kid (a jigaw puzzle) and all he got was disappointment - red hot water bag. He's so sad and he goes to the barn and punches a barrel of ice.

Hilarious... i guess as a kid, i don't even know how many times we get disappointed on gifts that we never got. All the red pocket money that we know the mom and dad will just take away...

suck it uppp.

I think they kinda addressed Santa being ripped with how much cardio and work he needs to do on Christmas Eve parkouring through all the houses and stuff

Although I have seen other videos where JK Simmons got ripped because of working with the Rock so much and taking an interest in it

This is background of story, wonder if this helps to understand the story in bigger perspective:

Small Things Like These is a powerful historical fiction centred on the character of Bill Furlong. He works as a coal and timber delivery man for his small town and is the father of five children and husband to his wife, Eileen. On the surface of it all, Bill should be content with his life and lot. Yet, as Keegan so eloquently unfolds the story, we learn that things are not quite what they seem for Bill.

Keegan’s historical fiction tackles the issue Magdalen laundries in Ireland, which were essentially workhouses for women (especially young and teen woman) who had fallen pregnant out of wedlock. They were run by the Catholic church and families would drop off their female family members there so they could hide their pregnancies from society. Once the child was born, the child was often forcefully removed from the mother and adopted out. There have been cases as recent as today that suggest many of the children born in these laundries died en mass. While the Magdalen laundries were particularly severe in Ireland similar establishments existed all over the world – for example, Melbourne, Australia had three such establishments.

^ Yeah, I didn't want to post this cause it might ruin the story for some. I didn't watch this going in so I had to go back and re-read.
Which was also a reason the director didn't really communicate that in / during the movie.

Hey 679, how is The Last Dance? The Mrs. wants to go and see it.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...oster.webp.png

Trivisa - 8.5/10

Cantonese movie out of HK about the intertwining story of three notorious thieves looking for one last score before the 1997 takeover.

Really enjoyed it, the actor who plays Cheuk, the extortionist, is clearly having a blast playing the character. Loved the irony of the AK47 mob boss turned white collar criminal having to kow tow to bribes from Mainland Chinese officials.

Anora 3.5/5 despite it winning the palm d'ors at Cannes and an Oscar front runner.

Yeah the t'n'a is nice but the first two acts were too long. The courtship (if you could call it that) didn't add much dimension for each additional scene. The search in the second act was funny but also dragged too long.

The true interest in the story is the third act which was the most interesting, despite how unlikely it is.

Tbh for a sexy comedy/drama in 2024 I 100% prefer challengers over Anora.

go watch it if you're born before the 90s.
It's really about the circle of life.
It's been a huge hit at the theatres, however, you really have to understand how this is different.
1) Circle of life
2) This is a VERY UNIQUE experience for HKongers - "last dance" is a tradition that's not done anywhere. *this was the reason why they wanted to do this movie.
3) Last dance is a way for spirits or for the dead to throw away all their things they have not finished yet, unfinished business.
b) the key of the movie (daiyo wong) line was "there are a lot of last dance for people who are still alive".

My grandma passed away during Covid, and I was one of the grandchild who was in one of the last dance ceremony. If you go in thinking it's going to be a huge comedy it's not. Will it make you happy and feel uplifted - really depends on age you're at.
20 yr old CBC went in and thought it was 6/10; but in the movie, esp in HK, stubborn fathers stuck int he old modern thinking, or a daughter who was rebellious and wants to get away from previous generational gaps... will really apprecaite what the film maker is trying to do.

https://cms-assets.webediamovies.pro...8bb2e064a.jpeg
Gladiator II
Thought it was decent surprise. Given a bunch of different casts, and theme, they did waht they could to keep it close.

I was at Colosseum last year and did the newly opened guided tours to actually go to the dungeon so that was pretty cool; to see it on screen again.

Script was limited because they can't off too tangent, and despite a good backdrop, they had a hard time doing financing for this film. Long story short, Denzel Washington did a solid job, being the bad / good supporting cast.
He didn't really over act, just had this demeanor where you just wnat to keep watching how it will end off for him.

They did one thing diff in this film was a) limit the CGI on having 50,000 people on screen. (Actual real numbers back was 50-85k attendance)
b) rhinoceros, sharks, underwater were a bit weak in the CGI department.
c) they did have water battles back then so that was pretty cool to see.

Can't say it was movie of the year; i just felt a bit more tied with the character in the 1st one than this one. I was actually more interested in denzel.

https://images.justwatch.com/poster/.../gold-2024.jpg

Movie name - GOLD
Based on a true story.
Famous Gold 2024 Malaysian sports docudrama biography film based.

Very cool to watch, true walk of life between player, what they had to go thru along with the dynamics. You can google Cheah Liek Hou's - it' shim and how he has to go thru to be in Paralympic Games in badminton (category SU5).

It's Malaysia gov't funded, it's badminton = sponsor brand name all over.

Happy go lucky film, just a bit weird you get malay, mandarin, and english so it's definitely subtitles all the way.

BTW, it's Very very rare to see asian movies breaking the 4th wall, (eg/ deadpool) so it was refreshing... was it needed? not really. Did it bring

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pqi45Qhq3CI/h...wdRLrZDMIyUdeA
Wicked was wicked
Wife's turn to pick and thought it was a blast. Well... look, I'm not a fan of Joker 2 cause that one just sucked, but this one was nicely done.
From twist of a script, characters being turned around, the blonde being annoying while the Cynthia Erivo played her role so well. Truly impressed.

First of all, we went in thinking the typical blonde, winning it all, and a "fairy god mother" michelle y being asian.... so i was totally jaded. Without any story background, I only know maybe 2 characters from wizard of oz.... so that's my background LOL.

Movie budget was 150 Million and it came out crazy on top at 653 M. That's pretty legit.

Fun fact
- Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth made an appearance. Idina (sang Let it go as Elsa)
-Cynthia Erivo was casted first.
-they spend a lot of time paying tribute to the stage musical as well.
-Director was Jon Chu who did Crazy Rich Asian; Step Up, Now you see me 2.
-the were trying to find the outfit for wiz or oz (jade color tux etc), but no luck, somehow they went into an antique store and found a PERFECT fit outfit. Had a name tag on it; and it was from the author of wizard of oz (wife told me this story, i have to fact check).
-they begged michelle Y to be in this film
-many of the flowers were real / actual flowers (maybe some fake) in the movie and not CGI-ed
-Ariana Grande went thru multiple auditions and was always the most interesting person in the room - as she was never in any huge film.

Side note, i really did NOT like her in the movie. Somehow watching a 30 yr old (totally fine, with a solid singing background (not as good as Cynthia), but no idea why, she was SUPER skinny in the movie, made me feel like she was anorexic did NOT do it for my wife and I.

Did not like her face because of 2 things - extremely long eye lashes.(which meh); wife and I had to think after 40 mins in, but she was missing her eyebrows making it really weird looking at her for 1/2 the movie.

Long story short, without any spoilers, I would love to see this movie win best costume design.

Great film, can't wait for it to come to part 2.

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Conclave.

WOW, what a thriller ride. 100% amazing and wife and I just sat there taking it all in.
Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto all acted extremely well BUT that's because of the script.

Think about it, no action, no gun fights, no CGI (well, they had to add some in to make it look like Sistine Chapel, so the script and acting better be freaking epic.

What is it about? Well, they did a movie called The Two Popes (Anthony Hopkins &
Jonathan Pryce) few years ago so I'm like.. really??? how good can this be. We saw The Two Popes.. very legit.. learned lot.. what ELSE can there be.

They did NOT repeat any of the crappy explanations, just went right into the story. It's not much of the internal battles between people, but the 3-4 unique situations going on. How to tell if it's the truth, battle between 2 evils, dealing with modern society... Boring? Not at all. No filler, enjoyable, just sit tight and not take a break as I felt like nothing was wasted.

Truly great script writing and proud the movie (being a non action film) grossed 3X (20 M to 68M in box office).

BTW - Music score by Volker Bertelmann - AMAZINGGGGG. Who's the director - Edward Berger - he's the guy who did "All Quiet On the Western Front"

https://musicart.xboxlive.com/7/54e2...?w=1920&h=1080
The apprentice recommended by mikemhg

I really liked the movie - it didn't do well and people gave shit for this.
Didn't think it was that bad.
Acting was good, decent story line and it was good to know how it all came together. It was very well rounded of characters, olden 70/ 80s type feel. Jeremy Strong who played Roy Cohn was so epic. i don't think he ever smiled in the movie but so so so solid of acting.

Never liked Trump, only knew what we know and enjoyed HOW he got to where he's at. I even liked Sebastian Stan even got a lot of how the speaks, talks, hand gestures all spot on. Heck, even his face makeup was so so good.

with all the shit movies going on, was not expecting to liek this but awesome watch.

https://www.filmofilia.com/wp-conten...n-Action-1.jpg
back in action should be called back in the trash bin.

Surprisingly, Cameron is old but still held on as being 52 and came out from retirement. Both of them can't act, both of them had no chemistry, and the entire story line even with the jokes, 00s music which surprisingly was ok, couldn't save the film.

Even with Glenn Close and Kyle Chandler; movie is straight to DVD worthly only. I feel this woudl have been a great kids / family movie - if only they cut out the F bombs / swearing, it wouldn't be so bad.

All the scenes which J Foxx was at hospital, they used a stunt double to finish the rest of hte scenes.

Leave the world behind 8/10 but the ending 0/10

What a great movie, but the entire time i could feel the ending would be ass, and sure enough, it was ass.

One of those movies that makes no sense the entire time, and everything joins together at the end, except they just butchered the shit out of the ending

Underwater (2019) 10/10

Cant recall the last time i watched an entire movie without my adhd kicking in. Action thriller with a side of horror

Deepwater horizon 9/10

Glass 10/10