Japanese movies amirite?! This reminds me of another recent watch... that I don't recall anymore, cause these reviews get lost in the draft stage all too long, and lead to blank and unnecessary references like this.

Regardless though the premise here is different. It's sexy and ferocious, polished though much on poses, action in luscious doses, and females with view exposes. Which I do like, and everybody knows is: a good selling point.

Really hope this one gets a sequel! It's great. Dystopian but hopeful. Without too big a cast but it still feels big. It's fascinating how they manage to build entire worlds like this with so few characters.

I mean not that it's PERFECT. The intro narration was... not good. The choreography's not ALWAYS good. The characters are part of a culture I sometimes feel foreign to - they act in ways I don't understand.

But overall the action's fuel, and the love and all is grand.

Iron Girl's a bad name for this. She's all flesh and attitude. But Ultimate Weapon indeed.

 rated 3.5/5: not bad at all

That Ryan Reynold's movie I've been hyped up about for a couple years now? Where he plays an NPC, in a fake but free (but falsely so - draw some parallels will you) world, where he meets a girl and falls in love and his world changes forever?

It was good. The special effects were good. The characters were good. Jodie Comer looks great - and she's apparently a master of dialects too - she used no less than sixty-four different ones in this movie!!!

Also always appreciate a Channing Tatum cameo - he does his part awesomely. The main boss and villain's a great one too. Taika Waititi. So much character. So unlike the boss I'd personally like to have.

That super buff guy btw? That's Aaron W Reed. He's been in a few movies so far. What a presence. Although I thought he was someone else.

But then somehow it just ends up feeling superficial and plastic.

It's a potential 13th Floor/The Matrix/Ready Player One/Tron existential hybrid all jumbled together, bridging worlds and bringing in a complex self-evolving AI concept into the mix no less, yet it still all falls back to the common love story, and it ends up being more about making a good game, and a lawsuit, and random streamer cameos, and simple injustices in the real world than... what it could've been.

Forbidden love. A paradigm to the complexities of life and existence and everything. Something that'd transcend the world as we know it; the elements we were expecting.

I was expecting entertainment (it's Ryan Reynolds y'all), and I did get that bit in plenty. It is entertaining. Towards the end though I was hoping for way more DEPTH. Something new.

Alas it wasn't all THAT.

Guy's and Buddy's friendship does somewhat redeem the ending though. It's wholesome. Final hug. What warmth. Maybe things won't be so bad there after all.

The real world end was alright too but... too simple.

Was all of that just for this? Was the moral of the story really that it doesn't matter if the world's real or not, as long as you care about those close to you, and truly live in the moment?

I guess if you see it that way it's not all bad after all, and maybe it does go deep after all, in a surprisingly simple and not-at-all-superficial way...

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

AKA Nurse No Oshigoto: The Movie.

What a feelgood comedy. :)

Though it's a little exaggerated, and a little drawn out, and if you're not used to the culture... well, maybe you'll enjoy it regardless.

It's CUTE. Japanese style. A hostage drama in a hospital in a bit more upbeat way, with a fun little dance scene and romantic honeymoon drama and the woes of work...

It feels low budget until the police pull up, but they manage well anyway. You don't mind the simplicity.

And the serious moment towards the end... woah. It doesn't get better than that. Unexpected...

 rated 3.5/5: not bad at all

The Spanish are GOOD with horror movies...

Was thinking this might be something a bit like It Follows, but it was a whole new beast entirely. Like a mixture between Hellraiser and... well, Spanish horror maybe? The few other Spanish horror movies I've seen so far have been surprisingly uncomfortable, but this was a new combination to me. It's grotesque and eerie, just somewhat sexual, and my god what a good child actress they managed to find. Hope she won't be scarred by this...

Ester Expósito as Lucia is great too. As for her sister I should've started wondering when first she disappeared, and the three ladies on the bottom floor are suspicious the first time you see them - though I did not realize how much. Or what role they had to play.

It turns into a trail of blood and pain before it's over this one but also... sunshine.

Plenty surprising. Novel horror but gruesome too.

 rated 5/5: friggin awesome

The way some guys play rich guys you wonder if they really are rich guys! Like the Cavendish guy... he was equally caviliarish in Fast & Furious. I'm reminded also of the mediator in the latest John Wick movie - Harbinger (Clancy Brown). Some just have a natural charisma and calm that befits them so well; makes them seem like they were made for such stature.
Truly destined for aristocracy.

This movie overall goes from rinky rackety begins to good things as soon as Cavendish pops up, and as with a lot of Adam Sandler movies I start watching somewhat on the offensive. Not convinced. Not thinking I'll thoroughly enjoy this. But just like with the second - or with Glass Onion before it - I'm all the more impressed as it goes on.

And some of the witticism and re-occurring comedy in the second one makes all the more sense now!

I do think this was the better of the two though.

Even if the second had even grander sights and décor, this one feels legitimate. Sets and characters and all.

The premise reminds me of the Detective Conan mystery with that rich family on the boat - where some of the couples become re-occurring segments in future episodes.

Of course here unfortunately most of them die.

But it still feels right that way. With the richness, and the relations.

It starts simple, then comes in with that killer twist at the end - as if all is explained just with a little simple afterthought. Or dumb luck. I didn't see it coming at all. The ending with the Orient Express as well. Genius.

I love how it builds. Adam has a way of reducing expectations initially, and then WHAM.

Maybe that's his secret. Why his simple movies somehow work so well....

 rated 4.5/5: almost awesome

Guess I gotta catch the first one too now! This came out of nowhere, but I'm vaguely reminded that maybe I did catch a glimpse of the original one earlier on, maybe, years ago...

It's Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. Detectives. An unlikely duo in a comedy all about embarrassing themselves, and others, and their respective partners, with the ever so professional Mark Strong as the impeccable straight guy.

It starts out with luxurious scenery a la Glass Onion. Though so much so I wonder if maybe they didn't mix in a little CGI too.

Is it real? Can it be? All of it?

The comedy takes a while to win me over, but it does eventually.

The detective script's not really the cleverest, but it does provide some twists. The locales are good, Paris is as magical as that wondrous mountain isle, and the characters - though an almost caricature-like bundle - are charming. You can't not like 'em after all.

It may not be the most advanced movie but it was fun.

Sandler seems to have a certain formula with these movies. They feel dumbed down initially. He feels almost incompetent at first. And yet... it's nice. It's friendly and riveting and real in a good way. With the constant bickering, the interactions, the liveliness of it all... and eventually you realize the dumbing down was maybe just a way to ease you in and make you comfortable, and then they surprise you...

And I like Aniston. Keep rocking the free world y'all. This is definitely not the best detective franchise of all time but I hope there'll be a third.

Simple or no it's an adventure. And it's not predictable.

Maybe that's what makes it great after all.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle