“Inception” (2010)
Honestly, I do need to watch it again because I didn’t understand it. But I liked many things about it. I’m still very confused though. But I liked it. Confused, mind you.
The top spins on.
I give it 3.14 out of 5 sheep.
Valerian:
1/4 of the way through: Really cool!
1/2 of the way through: Pretty good.
3/4 of the way through: Is this really necessary to the plot?
All the way through: Well that was formulaic.
My recommendation: Watch it in reverse.
You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)
Baby Driver (2017)
Pretty good, although the action scenes were probably cut a bit too quickly for my liking. There was only one scene in the whole movie I disliked but it was an enjoyable experience.
Valerian:
1/4 of the way through: Really cool!
1/2 of the way through: Pretty good.
3/4 of the way through: Is this really necessary to the plot?
All the way through: Well that was formulaic.My recommendation: Watch it in reverse.
But with my back turned, I can’t even see the screen! How am I supposed to enjoy?
JEDIT: That worked much better in my head.
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Sounds intriguing. How was it?
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Sounds intriguing. How was it?
It was probably better backwards anyway.
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From your meeting with the Russians?
Itchy trigger finger = double post.
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From your meeting with the Russians?
I was there.
I was the janitor.
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From your meeting with the Russians?
No…
LEGO BATMAN, LOGAN, GUARDIANS 2, WONDER WOMAN, SPIDERMAN HOMECOMING
All outstanding. 2017 is quite a year for the genre. THOR 3 has a series of tough acts to follow.
Recently, BABY DRIVER and WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES were both great.
STOP SHOUTING
DUNKIRK - in IMAX laser at the Texas State History Museum in Austin.
Wow! This felt less like a movie and more like a historical experience. Despite the massive scale of the evacuation, it felt very personal and gave you true insight into what it must have been like to be a soldier on that beach, a spitfire pilot, and a civilian in one of the rescue boats. It all looked and felt so real.
I had the good fortune to see this in a massive IMAX laser theater, which is one of only two ways you could see the entire 1.43:1 image of the film (the other way being actual IMAX 70mm film). It disappoints me that so few theaters are available to show this film in its proper format because it was VERY impressive. And the VAST majority of the film was shot on IMAX film and therefore filled the entire screen. In fact, so much of the film was in true IMAX it felt kind of pointless for the few shots here and there that were in scope. I actually wish that they had abandoned the changing aspect ratio for this film. I understand that some shots may have needed to be shot on 35mm for technical or budgetary reasons, but I would’ve preferred them to be filmed at academy ratio (1.37:1) and then very modestly cropped vertically to fit the IMAX 1.43:1 screen. Then, while you’d still notice the slight drop in image clarity in the occasional 35mm segments, you would at least maintain the entire giant screen being filled with the image instead of reverting to this narrow band of the scope image across the center of this massive screen. Of course, choosing that method would’ve resulted in a lower quality image for all the non “true” IMAX theaters.
Now I have to spent a minute talking about the aerial sequences. They used real WW2 Spitfires, Me109’s, and He111’s for most of the shots, and it was AWESOME seeing these beautiful antique warbirds on this massive format! Spitfires are my single favorite airplane (I gave a little internal cheer when one character has a line about the spitfire being the greatest plane ever built). I was incredibly blessed to see four of them fly in person at the Duxford air show several years ago and flying one myself is a top-of-the-bucket-list goal I’ve had for years and hope to achieve some day. The way Nolan presents the aircraft and pilots is magnificent. Even with over a decade working in aviation and a lifetime pouring over books, visiting museums, and attending air shows; I’ve never felt like I had a better sense of what it was REALLY like to be a ww2 fighter pilot as I did after watching this film. Sure there’s some leeway given for artistic license (that one spitfire sure had an awful lot of ammo, and man could it glide a long long way…). But the actual job of being a fighter pilot, flying the plane, navigating, managing the systems and the fuel, all while strategizing with your wingmen and then actually having to fight and defend yourself are presented in truly magnificent fashion. I particularly loved the scene where he had to manually pump his landing gear down. Most people don’t even know you can do that. But even modern jet liners have ways to manually pump or crank the landing gear down if the normal system fails. And it’s usually just as much of a pain the rear as it was in that spitfire.
Tl;dr -
if you have any interest in WW2 history GO SEE THIS MOVIE
If you have any interest in WW2 aviation, or really any interest in aerial combat GO SEE THIS MOVIE
If you have any interest in history and learning about the harrowing experiences of others GO SEE THIS MOVIE
And see it at the biggest, best theater you can get to. I didn’t mention it before, but the sound design is also SUPERB.
If you have the chance to see this on IMAX 70mm or laser, DONT MISS IT!!!
How many neck twitches did you do? It got me three times.
How many neck twitches did you do?
Must be some Millennial hook up app.
You mean did I jump from the gun shots? Many times. I think there were two that genuinely caught me off guard and made me jump. The others I KNEW they were coming, but they were such loud, sharp cracks that they STILL made me jump. It was such a tense movie.
How many neck twitches did you do? It got me three times.
I did a lot and I haven’t even seen it yet. Neck twitches and rapid tapping on my collarbone are my go-to nervous tics.
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You mean did I jump from the gun shots? Many times. I think there were two that genuinely caught me off guard and made me jump. The others I KNEW they were coming, but they were such loud, sharp cracks that they STILL made me jump. It was such a tense movie.
LMAO
There’s no use in anyone trying to buy a nice sound system rig because the only way to experience this film properly is in IMAX. I might see it again just because of this fact.
EDIT:
How many neck twitches did you do? It got me three times.
I did a lot and I haven’t even seen it yet. Neck twitches and rapid tapping on my collarbone are my go-to nervous tics.
Then seeing his film would be an act of masochism. The last 25 or so minutes are going to destroy you.
You mean did I jump from the gun shots? Many times. I think there were two that genuinely caught me off guard and made me jump. The others I KNEW they were coming, but they were such loud, sharp cracks that they STILL made me jump. It was such a tense movie.
LMAO
There’s no use in anyone trying to buy a nice sound system rig because the only way to experience this film properly is in IMAX. I might see it again just because of this fact.
EDIT:
How many neck twitches did you do? It got me three times.
I did a lot and I haven’t even seen it yet. Neck twitches and rapid tapping on my collarbone are my go-to nervous tics.
Then seeing his film would be an act of masochism. The last 25 or so minutes are going to destroy you.
Guess I’ll have to go see Valerian instead 😛
(Which I actually do kinda want to see, despite all the bad things I’ve heard about it)
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Dunkirk
I’ll have to see this again to solidify my opinion but I was actually somewhat let down by this movie which I was really excited for. As you can guess, my biggest gripe was my absolute lack of connection to any of the characters. And it didn’t help that many of them were written as pretty selfish. More details below in spoilers:
SPOILERS…
My favorite part of the film was probably the people on the boat since that is where the most character development was done in my opinion. They actually fleshed out the interactions between the first solider they save (the mentally shaken one) and the civilian sailors. And probably the most compassionate act of the movie (my Dad’s favorite moment) was when the solider asked if the boy was alright and the brother knew he was dead, and instead of lashing out, he chose to comfort the solider by saying that his brother was alright. A really beautiful moment that shows the humanity of others at it’s best.
The rest of the movie however was severely lacking in anything that pulled my heartstrings. This is not a rip on the execution or quality of filmmaking which was exemplary. Cinematography, sound design, and composition of shots were stellar. Visually speaking, I have absolutely no gripes with Dunkirk and think it is where this film excels the most. But I simply could not connect with any of the troops on land or Tom Hardy’s pilot. Especially the troops on Dunkirk. Harry Styles’ character was exceptionally annoying and selfish. And though his peers were not nearly as offensive, they still didn’t do a single heroic thing or struggle to make a decision that was not selfish. But one other thing I liked was the ending of the film. The montage with the voice over reading of the newspaper was a smart choice of how to end the film.
I understand your complaint of lack of character development. It’s why I keep describing Dunkirk as less of a movie and more of a historical experience or reenactment. It didn’t tell a story so much as show you in as real a way as it could what it was like to be one of those soldiers, one of those civilians, or one of those pilots. And at that, I think it wholly succeeds.
No Country For Old Men - 9/10
I should have watched this years ago.
I felt the same way when I watched it last year.