Is that the one where a girl falls face-first into a pit of golden maggots? I've always wanted to know what that moment was about, mainly so I can avoid it.

Evangelion : 3.0+1,01 Thrice Upon a Time (Spoilers ahead!)

What a mess. It's even worse than the predecessor. The first third is mostly about whiny Shinji again (if we haven't seen enough of that already!). Then come some poorly made, hard to follow arbitrary CG action scenes with weirdly designed flying battleships. The last third is filled with whiny esoterical, expository dialogues, monologues and deus ex machinas ("additional evangelion"...).
The first two movies where (mostly) great, and so I foolishly hoped for a better ending 9 years after the bad third part...
Avoid!

The Siege

Well this sucked. I wasn't expecting greatness, but I was expecting entertainment. With an over the top plot like the military basically occupying New York and Bruce Willis playing a villainous general, I was expecting this to be more like The Rock. Instead it actually tries to be a much mroe serious and I guess ambitious movie... but the writing is so bland and the characters so boring it's impossible to stay invested.

Hello Breja!

Thank you for directing my attention to this entertaining 80's movie!
I looked it up and watched it for the first time, now. Still very enjoyable.

And I totally agree with you, there is something special (to me) about the movies and literature from the 80's to which more modern or recent stuff can not compare.

Kind regards,
foxgog


Hello kai2!

This is one of the few modern movies which I consider to be a true classic.
The well chosen cast (including foremost but not exclusively Russel Crowe), believable acting, era authentic costumes, ship designs and naval procedures, as well as the calm camera movements, a greatly measured overall pace and the evocative soundtrack all contribute to this masterpiece.

Last time I watched it, was around the release of the game "Return of the Obra Dinn".
Thanks for the reminder!

Admittedly, I am hooked by all things around the 'Age of Sail' theme.

Kind regards,
foxgog

How to Train Your Dragon 3: Hidden World

I loved the first How to Train Your Dragon. It was a movie I did not expect much from at all, and it impressed me in pretty much every way possible. A smart, funny, touching, well written, very well acted movie with nice animation (and I don't even like most CG animation) and great music. It's one of the few times the movie is vastly superior to the book. But it was such a self contained, story, it never felt like sequels are a good idea. The second movie already was kinda iffy in many ways, but still had some of that heart and emotional centre.

But this... the first film was never an action film. It was about relationships and evolving characters. This is just chases, battles, rescues, fire and explosions. The characters ring hollow. No one goes through a satisfying arc. The villains is about as forgettable and bland as I've ever seen. And the ending feels forced and pretty much undoes what was accomplished in such a satisfying way in the first film. Even the music is bland except for what is repeated from the original soundtrack.

It's not a horrible movie in itself, just a bland one, but it is a pretty piss poor sequel.

Moontrap: Target Earth

I wasn't impressed. It tries to be mysterious and leans too much on the secret rich conspiracy killers. The movie doesn't explain why the Moon is a trap or why the target is Earth.

I went to see Shang Chi and it's great! Also glad to see Breja's positive mention of Adventures in Babysitting:)

Tampopo (1985)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092048/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

I've been meaning to watch this odd movie, and finally I did.

Glad I did, it certainly is quirky but in a good way. I found it quite refreshing as you didn't really know what will happen next. I consider it as a quirky feel-good movie, and I really liked its low-keyed humor... The way the protagonist started teaching the lady how to make perfect noodles made me laugh.

Or how another lady was trying to teach younger ladies how to eat spaghetti silently in a French restaurant because foreigners allegedly hate it when people make noise while eating... yet some foreigner was eating spaghetti next to them, slurping very loudly.

Or how the junior colleague in the restaurant ordered a completely different food and drinks than the rest of the group...

I give it 4/5.

Ad Astra (2019)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2935510/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Sorry, I fell asleep somewhere between Moon and Mars... So I guess I found it somewhat boring, and it appeared it was trying to also convey some kind of ideological message... not sure about that, just got such an impression when it talked about how humans are some kind of pests which destroy all the places they go, like Moon. I dislike when movies try to brainwash me.

I need to rate it when I've seen the whole movie, fully awake.

Upgrade (2018)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6499752/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

I had rather low expectations, but it was considerably better, and more complicated, movie than I expected.

I was expecting a common revenge-story with a twist (like "Taken" or "John Wick" or "Nobody"), but in the end it reminded me maybe more of e.g. Ex Machina, at least towards the end.

The Gentlemen - a very entertaining movie, quite funny and well acted. I especially liked Hugh Grant. It's the second time he steals the show in a Guy Ritchie movie. However, it has to be said that the movie is very reminiscent of, almost to the point of being an unofficial remake of, The Long Good Friday, a vastly superior, truly stellar classic british gangster movie. So I would definitely recommend watching The Long Good Friday first.

Boss Level - I didn't expect much from it, mostly watched it because of Mel Gibson as the villain, but the movie actually turned out much better than I thought. The premise is basically an action movie Groundhog Day with a sci-fi element, and as it starts out it looks like it won't be much more than a decent, slightly Deadpool-ish action comedy, but it actually strives, and succesfully, for some gravitas and genuine emotion with a quite touching father-son relationship. Well worth watching.

Still nothing I've seen since entertained me more :)

Bill and Ted Face the Music. Some funny parts but it never really generates the kind of momentum the first two movies had. I think part of the problem is that they kept cutting away to other characters like their daughters but the rest of the cast doesn't really click.

Just watched The Green Knight, it's a great reversion of the Arthurian legend, great photography and a really interesting color combination.

Birds of Prey and blah blah something Harley Quinn - I could not even watch the whole thing, I gave up after 20 minutes. I actually liked Robbie's Harley in Suicide Squad (the first one, haven't seen the new one yet), but in this film I was just sick of her. She never. Shuts. The. Fuck. Up. From the first second her narration just goes on, and on, narrating everything, telling us the same shit over and over, with really unfunny jokes, spelling everything because "show don't tell" is hard, instead let's have an obnoxious character talk constantly. They also get pretty much every other established DC character pitifuly wrong. After 20 minutes of Harley's exposition I was bored out of my skull...

... so I watched The Breakfast Club instead. Really good movie. I guess it would resonate more strongly if I watched it as a teen, but then again even then I wouldn't really identify with any of the characters. But it's so well written and acted, funny and emotional, that it's still a strong film even if it's in no way "personal". I especially like how it confines itself to that one afternoon and never betrays that premise. There's no epilogue, no hint of what happened to the characters later. It's great, because it's not supposed to be a story of their lives, to offer anything definite about their future. It's just this one funny, sad, weird day, and the rest is unwritten.

Though, I have to admit, I've no idea why it's called The Breakfast Club, and why the characters choose that name. Maybe I'm an idiot missing something obvious.