Recently Watched Films

This one was quite interesting. I've always loved Benedict Cumberbatch, so I figured I'd be a fan of him in an MCU movie, and he certainly did not disappoint! I also found the action to be quite unique, due to how the magic works, which is quite unusual. I'm not sure how I feel about a few things (the ending in particular felt kinda anticlimactic, imo), but overall it was a lot of fun, and one of the better origin stories, for sure.

This is the last Nuri Bilge Ceylan film I had to see (three more from the boxset to re-watch still) and it turned out to be the hardest for me to get into, though I ultimately found it a solid film. 

Re-watches:

A great Spanish language supernatural mystery. 

The original and best. 

A long time favourite of mine, though the older I get, the more I interpret this in a more realistic way from the fairy tale fantasy it appears to be: that it may just be all a child's imagination used as a coping mechanism for the harsh reality she lives in. Which makes the ending all the more darker. 

This is a very good sequel. 

Hunted down the 4K restored version of one of my favourite films, complete with a collector's booklet and letter from Scorsese about the film. Looks glorious and as ever so rewatchable. 

Surprisingly, I  think this is my new favorite MCU movie. It has the same amazing comedy and action as the first movie, along with fantastic character interactions and story-telling, except if anything I found everything to be even better than before, and the ending actually made me cry, which no Marvel movie had ever done before. A legit 5 star movie for me, tbh. I guess Vol. 3 is now my most anticipated MCU movie ever!

This less well known movie is what Dennis Hopper did after Easy Rider. Unfortunately it is nowhere near as good and probably forgotten for a reason rather than be an overlooked gem. First blind buy from Indicator which hasn't hit the mark for me. 

One of the greatest sequels ever made. I do prefer the slow burning horror atmosphere of the original, but this action follow-up is also so damn good. 

Next come the tricky ones though. 

Yeah I'm not a huge fan either, especially of his earlier works. I'm watched this, The Brood, Shivers and Scanners and I didn't care for any of them.

He's made some really good movies after all of those though including The Fly, Videodrome and also A History of Violence and Eastern Promises, both of which are really good crime films. 

Mixed feelings on this one. I like Tom Holland, and Michael Keaton was an excellent villain, but I found the overall tone of the movie to be somewhat annoying, and man, Ned was just unbelievably annoying, and some of the comedy was just dreadful. I really don't get my sense of humor sometimes, because I find a lot of the Avengers humor funny, and I clearly love Guardians of the Galaxy humor, but then stuff like this and Ant-Man comes around and just drive me insane, lol The movie itself was still decent enough, with some good action and I like this version of Peter a lot so far, but the school parts are not impressing me at all.

This isn't an especially great film, but it is an oddball in the Columbia Noir series since its the first and only film in colour and in truth is actually more of a neo-western, especially in setting. 

And the Three Stooges:

Okay, this is a rare instance of a Stooges short which has aged so badly that it actually got banned from reruns. It's not paired overly well with the feature either beyond each having a remote setting, and it's a surprise Indicator picked this for the Columbia Noir series given its content. The first half is pretty standard Stooges slapstick but it culminates in them murdering Japanese-Americans who have escaped from the US 'Relocation Centres' during World War II. 

Actually found this one really solid and fun. 

I wouldn't say I was disappointed, since I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact nothing is likely to top the first two Tobey Maguire movies, at least for me. I'm actually at a bit of an awkward spot for my MCU run, though, which could derail it, because next is Ragnarok, which I fear will be even cringier than this was from what I've heard about it, then the second Ant-Man movie is two movies away, I think? (Is that one skippable, btw? I will watch Ragnarok and hope for the best, since I'm invested in Thor at this point, but I really couldn't care less about Ant-Man, so unless it's super important, I may just skip it for now, lol)

And once again, my sense of humor continues to be confusing, because this was actually one of my favorites so far, easily the best Thor movie. I found the Grandmaster annoying, but everything else was near perfect (especially Skurge and his cheesy one liners, LOL) 

Okay, I'll bite. Exactly how does Aliens give a middle figure to the first one?

To me, it's pretty much the perfect sequel. It does zero harm to the first movie's plot (unlike Alien 3 which makes everything Ripley does for Newt worthless) and doesn't try to completely emulate its style, making it a rare case where a sequel is not a total rehash.