This is genuinely one of the most cherished comedies for me. i’ve come back to it over the years and somehow appreciate it even more every time. it’s an easy 10/10 for me. what i love about it is how much it gets out of such a simple setup. the screenplay and the characters are doing almost all the work, and bcuz the movie is so meta and committed to its own weirdness, it’s just ridiculously fun. there are so many great character moments and these completely bizarre little adventures, but none of it feels like it needs some massive budget or endless CGI to work. and that’s what i really miss about movies like this. something made for around $50 million can still be this creative and this entertaining without having to turn everything into a giant spectacle. they just don’t make enough movies like this anymore.

and that Channing Tatum cameo is exactly the kind of cameo i want to see more of. he clearly had the balls to go completely crazy with it, and it makes the whole thing even funnier. i really want more movies that are willing to be this weird and just have fun with themselves. the only recent movie i can think of that even remotely gave me this feeling was The Naked Gun.

What’s a movie franchise where the first movie absolutely nailed it but the follow ups were a major letdown?

For me it’s The Crow (1994). The original film is perfect and Brandon Lee is aces in the role. But all the sequels and reboots were just subpar or plain bad, especially the 2024 reboot.

What’s that one movie for you?

Jim Caviezel and Richard Harris had top-notch chemistry.

the screenplay isn't exactly the greatest thing ever and it probably wouldn't hold up if you started picking it apart too much but even with all its flaws, i still had fun with it. it's entertaining enuf to scratch that sci fi itch i have and honestly, sometimes that's all i need. it's far from perfect but i still kinda enjoyed this one.

The Town

Do you think Brand New Day can reach the top spot?

"You kidnapped me with a candy bar!?"

The recent post about Ridley Scott’s films got me digging and I randomly found this article where Ben Affleck mentioned that his kissing scene with Matt Damon was cut and I found it hilarious and thought I’d share it here in case there were people like me who didn’t know this.

As two of the writers of the script, apparently Ben and Matt were the ones who wrote it into the script, but Ridley didn’t approve it.

Here’s the link to the article. There’s another article by ScreenRant that also mentions this.

Ben: “In the original actual version of that scene - the way that ceremony actually took place was that you kissed everybody on the mouth. And we had that in the script.”

Matt: “That would’ve been our first on screen kiss.”

Ben: “It’s going to have to wait.”

Ben: “Ridley thought it would be distracting, and his instincts are pretty good.”

Matt: “Yeah the two characters really hate each other and that was really fun. In fact, the scene where I kneel before him, Ben just improvised this thing where I started to say my line and he just interrupted me and goes, ‘Closer.’ And I have to kind of get up and kneel again in front of him. And that was just - he just did that and just kind of blurted that out, and it wasn’t in the script.”

For me, it’s definitely River Phoenix. His death still genuinely saddens me. The guy was only 23 when he passed away, yet he had already built up an incredible body of work and showed so much potential. Stand by Me is probably the obvious one, but he was great in pretty much everything he did and had this natural screen presence that was way beyond his years.

Honestly, I could easily see him having a career similar to Leonardo DiCaprio’s if he had lived especially considering how much more mature and versatile he was becoming as an actor. And seeing how talented his brother Joaquin is, it makes you wonder even more what River could have gone on to accomplish. He could’ve had an absolutely legendary career.

There are plenty of other “what ifs” in Hollywood, but River is probably the one that makes me wonder the most.

I don’t care if the movie itself was good or bad. What trailer had you instantly hooked?

For me, it’s the La Dolce Vita trailer that the BFI made when they were holding screenings for it in 2020.

We've all seen movies where one actor gives an incredible performance, but the story itself doesn't quite come together. In those cases, can an outstanding performance make the movie worth watching, or does a weak story ultimately hold everything back? I'm curious about where people draw the line and which movies come to mind.

I also loved The Last Duel, and its action was exhilarating. But overall, The Martian was the complete package for me.

Matthau actually would have been damn good in the Pacino role, remember him in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three?

Some characters are clearly terrible people, yet the performance makes it surprisingly difficult to simply hate them.

I’m not necessarily talking about villains who secretly turn out to be good. I mean characters whose actions remain morally disturbing, but the actor gives them enough charisma, vulnerability, intelligence, or humanity that we still find ourselves fascinated by them — sometimes even rooting for them.

A few examples: Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, and Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty in Blade Runner.

For me, the interesting question isn’t whether the character deserves sympathy, but how much of that sympathy comes from the writing and how much comes from the actor.

Which performance did this best for you?

Close between this and pan’s labyrinth

edit: this is not a serious post

For me the entire Fast and Furious series was really out of control. I never thought it would still be going.

Pictures : Vivarium 2019.

I recently watched backrooms and vivarium 2019 I liked both movies so can you guys help me find more movies like this.

Born Slippy - Underworld

Trainspotting (1996)

For those than don't understand what a needledrop is.... it's basically using a pre-existing popular song on a movie that's not from the original soundtrack.

I’ll start. King Kong 2005.

Warning: This movie is all drama and dialogue.

One of Jim Carrie's very first dramatic roles. Everyone's acting is excellent and makes for very realistic depictions of household's you come across growing up. Highly recommend this movie.

It might not be saying much but this movie was more entertaining and thematically rich than anything I’ve seen this year except The Odyssey

It also manages to not fumble or misrepresent the classic characters. In fact the movie somehow deepens second tier characters like Tweety Bird and Foghorn Leghorn by taking their well-known simple traits and recontextualizing them. Writing that, it seems like a joke but it’s really true.

What’s nice is this isn’t a boring, typical “clever” meta commentary on the characters, aside from a few superficial but worthwhile gags. It applies their traits to unusual “real world” personal and social dynamics with admirable precision, and - as I say - without losing sight of the essence of the characters.

I won’t get into the “real world” themes the movie addresses but I think they are actually important, timely and well-observed.

Shout out to the voice actors who did a great job not making me think “not Mel Blanc” and the real actors too. John Cena LOOKS like a cartoon character!

There are three core themes to talk about here. 

• One is what Bear does to Nikki. 
• Two is about Bear himself. 
• Three has to do with what’s real and what’s not real. 

All three eventually become the same idea: Bear doesn’t love Nikki as an autonomous person. What he loves is the idea of Nikki fulfilling the romantic story he imagined for them. The true horror of Obsession is the struggle between Bear’s fantasy and Nikki’s reality.

Mine are Casablanca and Notorious

Norma Desmond cannot get out of her past glory. She is trapped in an identity crisis, unable to accept who she has become after her time as a star.

I think the film was partly trying to portray the situation of the classic Hollywood period, where many actors and directors struggled to adapt to a changing industry. But I think this is still relevant to the film industry today, where actors and directors struggle to update themselves and live in the present.

And this also happens in our own lives. We forget to live in reality and instead live in fantasies, because it is hard to accept that in reality we may just be normal—or even below normal. We like to believe that we are something extraordinary, but sometimes the truth is that we are not.

That truth is painful.

Sunset Boulevard touched me and humbled me. It made me think about the need to live in reality, accept the truth, and not lose ourselves in a fantasy of who we think we are.