CyberD.org
C:\ Home » 2023 » September

Old (2021)

Old (2021)

A vacationing family discovers that the secluded beach where they're relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly, reducing their entire lives into a single day.

Saw an ad for this on the train from the airport last summer. Added it to my watchlist then, and finally I see it...

If half an hour is a year, and three days pass in the matter of seconds, then there are definitely certain inconsistencies here.

Like the rust, it should've spread quicker. If the bones healed as quick as they did. If the baby died in a minute. If the dog was gone so soon, too.

Age is a sad thing though, and so is this movie.

Little inconsistencies don't matter. Nor that they had a limited amount of lookalikes to reflect each person's individual growth.

The scenery's great, the actors are great, the idea is genius, and overall... it makes me want to live my own life. Fast.

Don't watch this if you need some uplifting y'all.

Watch it if you need to grieve, or need to find a way to just go on with your life. If you need to let something go maybe.

It doesn't matter where you are at the moment. How old you are. How far you've come. Who you are or where you are or what people you're surrounded by - though keep your family close if they're there for you.

I think I might just come back to this one down the line to remember...

It ends with a twist too. Good twist, sad tale, well made.

 rated 5/5: friggin awesome

137 Shots (2021)

137 Shots (2021)

Here's a documentary about Mr. and Mrs. Tim Russel, for a moment.

It starts with a wedding - most pixelated footage thereof you could've managed to get, and from there it moves on to the tragedy, and to other people, and to the madness that was the sixty car police chase through Cleveland some years back where two suspects got shot up with 137 shots - with one of the police officers standing on the hood of the car, shooting straight into the cockpit.

It's a documentary on cops and blacks.

On the injustices within the judiciary system of the USA. On the problems with and lack of proper community policing. Of how police officers who accidentally shoot an innocent person don't get prosecuted properly, and innocent people die, and it all just sucks.

Not less for the police, though, traumatized and scared as they most probably are and seem to be with what situations they're faced with - and that most of them probably do seem to be doing for the right reasons.

It just doesn't always turn out that well.

When it's over I feel it was maybe skewed a little too much to the disadvantage of the popo. They're only humans too. Who can actually have a job like that and NOT fear for their life? Is it possible?

For psychopaths, possibly, but it doesn't seem they'd be a proper choice for the black and blue either. You need officers with empathy, yet those will inherently feel fear too.

Injustices like this seem like an issue that needs to be worked on from both sides, and that the side this movie takes focused a bit much on the one of them, though possibly the one that's typically also focused on the least.

Maybe it is fair.

It was a good recollection. Captivating, compelling, but in the end not with a proper solution presented for the problem, yet...

Hope some day we sort out all these problems somehow, and until then: figure out how.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

Ant-Man 3 - Quantumania (2023)

Ant-Man 3 - Quantumania (2023)

The trailer showed visual awesomeness, but actual awesomeness...? I went into the movie theater with restrained hopes, but hopes nevertheless!

It's the third Ant-Man movie. The second was good but maybe not as good as the first? Or was it better? I'm not sure anymore.

It's Marvel, so I went in expecting good things, but maybe not as good as say Guardians of The Galaxy good.

Not all sequels are equal. Black Panther 2 most recently definitely wasn't on par with the first one.

But antyway: It was good! Visually, very. Villianally, almost.

At first the evil one was convincing, and in the end he was too, but along the way he loses a bit of his candor... he's not Thanos after all.

Oftentimes the movie feels almost like Star Wars, in a way. With colorful aliens, and humans, and the ooze with no holes... very creative character designs.

Most throwbacks and hybrids and entities seem reminiscent of other franchises, as they may be, but they still are good.

They have solid, and somber dialog too, and I like that they focus on the elements that make us human - even if sometimes a bit too much.

The CGI-heavy MODOK... just you wait for that. He is a little entertaining but eh... hmm...

Cast list? Evangeline Lilly, Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer - even Bill Murray for a moment, before he's killed by a gigantic octopus/squid(?)!

The cast's top-notch.

Jonathan Majors plays Kang - promising dude! He overacts occasionally, but for the most part he's solid. A stone cold warrior with a perceptible sadness about him.

The atmosphere could've been better, and feelings deeper, but it was fun. And for the most part both entertaining and convincing.

As Marvel movies tend to be.

Great watch yet again.

 rated 4.5/5: almost awesome

Random GOG Giveaway: Requiem: Avenging Angel (1999)

Requiem: Avenging Angel (1999)

Another free game while I'm away!

This one this time. One copy's available here - redeem or share. ;)

Speak more in the new month yeah?

Asterix & Obelix 6 - The Middle Kingdom (2023)

Asterix & Obelix 6 - The Middle Kingdom (2023)

AKA Asterix & Obelix: I Drakens Rike, in Swedish, as I saw it...

Watched this one in a small room. Unexpectedly small - a kids room, it felt like. At the cinema. Where rooms are usually bigger!

I sat there like an adult in a ball pit, and felt particularly out of place as adults came in with their kids, and eyed me suspiciously. A loner on the best row. Dead center.

Not sure if they envied the placement or wondered what I was doing there, or both, but who cares! It was a fun movie. For all ages. Comedy. I had every right to be there.

Considering the dark things I've been watching lately I needed something like this too.

And considering it actually isn't a kids movie I wondered how all those parents felt about having brought their kids there when it was over. Even if the more adult stuff's suitably veiled, so it does work pretty well for all.

For example Cleopatra at one point towards the end of the film says to Caesar something along the lines of: I'm moving out! You won't see my small pyramid ever again.

There's a lot of quick-wittery like that, with new Rome-era names as well, like the unsinkable shipper Titanix... who surprisingly enough does make good on his name!

Though I wonder if there is as much witticism as there was in the earlier era of Asterix & Obelix films. I recall there being more.

Now it seems the movie's all the more set on keeping up with trends and politics - with for example Asterix temporarily opting for a vegan diet at the start of the film, and a lot of women in the cast speaking up on topics of female empowerment.

Some is fun, but they overdo it a bit I feel, it seems done more so for virtue-flagging than just for the sake of comedy.

The special effects and trademark air-time punches remain the same though, visually there's nothing to complain about, and the step into China... that's cool.

I love the martial arts and Eastern influence additions overall (the acupuncture lol), and even if the choreography's not perfect it was better than I thought it'd be.

I wonder who managed the martial arts choreography specifically...

Guillaume Canet and Gilles Lellouche are now the two actors that portray the iconic Asterix and Obelix duo. They look very similar to the earlier ones.
I wondered if they might've been the same ones initially...

Wonder if they sounded the same too. Unfortunately I don't think the Swedish dubs did this movie justice. Sometimes they don't even lip-sync properly.

Vincent Cassel plays Caesar and Marion Cotillard (Lily in the Taxi movies - still just as beautiful!) Cleopatra now, and though they do look different from their previous counterparts they seem perfectly suited for their roles too, and there are other notable French names like Franck Gastambide in the mix, whom I don't think I've seen before... (nevermind, I have - action movies).

The most notable Eastern presences are played by Leanna Chea, Linh-Dan Pham and Julie Chen. I wonder if I recognize some of the less notable names from Asian cinema otherwise. Do they know martial arts? Do they do HK action too? Some look familiar, though I'm bad with names...

There's an unexpected Zlatan Ibrahimović cameo as well (I did not expect that!) which of course is awesome. Even if I'm not a fan. He's Swedish though. So that's cool.

There's also a lot of romance, and with that... I wish there was closure.

More closure.

Obelix seems wrought into a distance-based relationship, with the potential to live alone until he's old and gray, and Asterix loses the potential love of his life to an Easterner with unusually golden hair, whose repetition is fraught with fright and shame...

It usually ends that way, but then again didn't they have at least a little better luck? Was there no replacement love? Wasn't there at least a little temporary romance before they get back to simple but ample friendship; brothership, that special bond that only Asterix and Obelix have?

I'm a little disappointed...

I enjoyed this overall, but still am a little disappointed.

 rated 3.5/5: not bad at all

The Holy Virgin Versus The Evil Dead (1991)

The Holy Virgin Versus The Evil Dead (1991)

The Moon Monster's come to procreate with a possessed lady, and the Holy Virgin's there to stop her, with some help from said lady's ex (recently accused of murder) and new lover, and this other dude who I think is a friend.

There's some fighting, there's some running through a forest with machine guns, some creative Northern Lights-like effects, fire and exploding face props (close to, at least), explosions and tribal rituals and all, a set of naked ladies participating in ditto...

It's got moments, some martial arts, some exotic animals, some nice locales and exotic scenery, some good chemistry, some special effects ahead of its time - be that a good or a bad thing, but it doesn't really climb past the B-movie category on this one.

I do love the name and naked ladies but...

 rated 3/5: not bad

Privacy   Copyright   Sitemap   Statistics   RSS Feed   Valid XHTML   Valid CSS   Standards

© CyberD.org 2024
Keeping the world since 2004.