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What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?
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- hotseatgames
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I imagine it will be much less powerful for someone who didn't live through last year. I wish I could find out for myself, but that train has sailed.
I come to this from the perspective of someone who has no real idea who this guy is. I have never seen any of his standup. I would say it's worth watching, but don't expect to feel great about it after.
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Hard disagree. I would easily place Black Widow in the top quartile of the MCU, which I guess is top seven or so. The stakes were appropriately personal until the last ten minutes, the jokes and family themes weren’t overly hammered, and all of the leads seemed to be enjoying themselves and made their roles their own. David Harbour running around the prison and the final escape from the Red Room made me laugh at the audacity of cinema.ChristopherMD wrote: Black Widow - If I made a Top 20 MCU movie list this wouldn't make it. ScarJo can carry an action movie with a bad script (see: Lucy) but she couldn't make this movie entertaining. David Harbour was fun in it although sadly underused.
My only complaint (beside Taskmaster absolutely refusing to run) was that Black Widow kind of got lost in her own film. Her sister shared all of her motivation and skills but got to have a bigger personality. Scarlett Johansson, unfortunately, never went as big as Chris Pratt at the end of the second Guardians or Hemsworth in Infinity War, and I don’t think the character will ever have that one moment everyone remembers.
We’ve also officially passed the point where you can just drop into an MCU movie without doing your homework. For a straightforward story of a super spy destroying a secret organization that brainwashes children into assassins and without any significant cameos or lead-ins to the next movie, I have to imagine people would be pretty confused by everyone talking about the Avengers breaking up and constantly asking their friends “Who’s that? Are they important?”
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I hope you are able to carve out the time to take care of yourself, Frohike.
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And just to uncross the streams, I moved this over here from the tv thread...
Watched Palm Springs on Hulu. This is another "Groundhog Day" scenario, which after Boss Level was even more interesting. The wife picked this one out. Adam Sandberg keeping it surprisingly toned down compared to most of his performances, J.K. Simmons being excellent as always, and a female lead, Cristin Milioti, I'm not familiar with but sorta carried the film. Anyway, it hits all the familiar GD tropes but continues to add to the genre and like I said before, I'm a sucker for this stuff. These type films seem to split along a "we gotta science our way out of this" and "its a morality play!" divide but the best ones hop back and forth IMHO
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avensis wrote: black widow. Lots of action, a lot of background from the Avengers universe, a little humor, effective for distraction
With a little editing this could be a haiku
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DarthJoJo wrote: Hard disagree. I would easily place Black Widow in the top quartile of the MCU, which I guess is top seven or so. The stakes were appropriately personal until the last ten minutes, the jokes and family themes weren’t overly hammered, and all of the leads seemed to be enjoying themselves and made their roles their own. David Harbour running around the prison and the final escape from the Red Room made me laugh at the audacity of cinema.
I watched Black Widow at home on Disney+ with 3 of my kids. Not having to go to a theater was absolutely delightful, and saved me some money (tickets around here are $12/each). Especially because my youngest is 11 and unvaccinated. I don't care if I never go to a theater again.
Anyway, I thought the movie was fine. Another solid, competent outing from Marvel. As always with the MCU, the secret weapon is the casting. Everyone was great, especially Florence Pugh and David Harbour. I liked the first 3/4 a lot, and then it turned into a super formulaic "giant thing falls from the sky" Marvel climax. But, the formula works, so I don't begrudge them going back to it, I suppose.
In some ways the movie felt like old news. Maybe because it's been postponed for so long, but also because it rolls back to pre-Infinity War. I'm excited about the rest of the MCU slate this year (Shang Chi, Eternals, Spidey 3), as those will push things forward, and also introduce a ton of new characters. I feel like Marvel is a baseball team who just traded off a bunch of old expensive players (Tony, Steve, Nat, etc.), and are retooling for another run by signing a bunch of prospects. Can they do it again? I wouldn't bet against them.
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As for the movie, it's fine. Florence Pugh was great. She's like Black Widow except emotionally available. The action set pieces were well done, which is hit and miss with MCU stuff. I've mentioned (I think?) that the set pieces in THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER are trash. The end scene was nuts and noted it out loud. The story has cool beats, but the bad guy monologue is so over the top. SO over the top. Just ridiculous mustache-twirling evilness. Everyt time they win with the writing they blow it like 30 sec later. Pretty uneven.
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Spider-man: Homecoming is a pretty decent movie. I am grateful that they skipped his origin story, which was already handled in each previous Spider-man franchise, both live-action and animated. And the comics, of course. Most super-heroes that can carry an ongoing monthly comic actually have a decent origin story, but Spider-man's is a little small and personal for the big scale of the MCU movies. This movie is funnier than most superhero movies, but in a particular way where the protagonist ends up in many awkward situations, which is not my favorite type of comedy.
Like most MCU movies, Homecoming runs slightly long, but it covers a lot of ground. Unlike most MCU heroes, Peter Parker has a secret identity to protect, plus he is dealing with school and growing up. He is also struggling to prove himself as a hero. Tony Stark isn't in this movie much, but his presence is felt and the scenes with Parker are all worthwhile. And when Spider-man gets the upgraded suit with the Alexa-style assistant, their interactions are amusing and very relatable. And then there is the Vulture, played by Michael Keaton. He is a hard-working business owner who gets screwed out of a major contract by a new federal agency created to deal with the aftermath of the Chitauri invasion in the first Avengers movie. He turns to crime to take care of his employees and his family and gradually loses his way but never quite loses his humanity or honor. Zendaya has a small role, but manages to steal a couple of scenes, setting her up for a bigger role in the next Spider-man movie.
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I don't know quite why I'd never gotten around to Midnight Run, the DeNiro-Grodin mismatched-buddy comedy-action movie about a discontented cop-turned-bounty-hunter (DeNiro) and a white-collar criminal on the lam (Grodin). The interpersonal aspects are the best part here, with DeNiro and Grodin shining, while the situational comedy and fairly barebones action plot fare adequately after some 30 years.
I don't really have anything much to say about Black Widow other than it's not particularly great at anything it tries to do but, admittedly, had a big hole to dig out with how the title character had been often poorly treated by past films. It would certainly have been better had it released during its point in the narrative timeline.
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In any case, Bo looks to be a bit of a renaissance man with a supporting acting credit as the romantic lead in an Oscar nominated film (Promising Young Woman), a directing credit in a critically acclaimed film (Eighth Grade) all in addition to his standup/musical/YouTube stuff. I'll be checking out his back catalogue after this. The lighting/production of Inside was amazing; the fact that it was a one man show makes it all the more impressive.
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