I think these are perfect examples of a studio wanting a movie made, then finding a director to direct them. They aren’t inherently bad movies (I quite liked the first Sherlock, but agree that without RDJ and Jude Law’s chemistry, it wouldn’t have been as good), but you can tell Guy was out of his element. Same with the new Aladdin. Decent movie, had moments of “Guy-ness”, but clearly a movie Disney wanted to make and then hunted a director to make it.
This ties in with what I said above; when a director like Guy Ritchie is allowed to make his own movies, they’re awesome. When he’s used by a studio to make their movies, not as good.
In music it reminds me of the band Rush. For their fourth album, they were told to sound much more mainstream (they were seeing lower concert and album sales on previous work, and the studio was about to drop them), and not have any songs over 4-5 minutes. They said screw that, and returned with their 2112 album, with the song (2112) meant for radio being about 20 minutes long. It turned out sticking to what they wanted to make for their music was popular, and set them up to be able to be creative and make nerd music for the next 3 decades.
People can pick up on when someone’s passionate about something and when they’re not. I’d way rather watch or listen to something the creator clearly cared about, instead of something that’s well done, but largely lifeless.
EDIT: To expand on this with something super mainstream: I think this is why Thor: Ragnarok was so well received. Taika Waititi really seemed to care about that movie and made it his own. Many of the other MCU films, while entertaining, really just felt like the cut-n-paste style Marvel had become known for.
There is no shame in liking Rush. They are awesome, and the nerds are right.
My biggest concert regret is not seeing Rush I think in 2016. I didn’t want to spend the money, and thought I could see them in the future. What a mistake. It was only like $60 too.
I think he only excels in a certain genre and his characters have to be either the dumbest people alive or just plain deplorable. He tries to make an indie romantic movie and the audience ends up hating the protagonists lol.
I think that’s fine. HK’s Johnnie To is pretty much the same and he’s one of my favourite directors. Throw Down is one of the greatest movies ever made that no one has watched IMO.
He outright admitted he used to make 5 movies a year: 3 movies for investors and 2 movies for himself. I would sit through his romantic comedies, which were somehow commercially successful despite being fucking terrible, cos my friends wanted to see them and feel like ripping my hair out lol.
This is NOT an action flick although it is about judo. It’s some weird deconstructionist drama with lots of black comedy made as a tribute to Akira Kurosawa and executed like a Sergio Leone movie.
This is like one of my favourite scenes of all time in any genre:
Not sure if I’m biased because I’m such a big fan of Led Zeppelin and the song was used perfectly here lol.
It’s also interesting that lots of genre fans would gravitate towards HK movies in the 90s and 2000s because Hollywood movies just couldn’t produce their level of of kinetic action scenes and fight choreography but now Hollywood does this shit even better.
People say this started with The Matrix when they brought in Yuen Woo Ping’s brother(Once Upon A Time In China 1) for the fight choreography.
I say it started with Lethal Weapon 4 when they brought in Jet Li and director Corey Yuen(Fong Sai Yuk, The Transporter - the one with Jason Statham) to direct his action scenes. Jet Li would only use him exclusively to direct his fight scenes in every single Hollywood flick he was in including The Expendables.
On the subject of creative freedom from big Hollywood studios, it’s fucking a lot worse in Asia. I was just speaking to a cinematographer from China who relocated here a couple of weeks ago and he was telling me how much the government is involved in every part of the filming process and how every creative decision that was a little controversial needed approval first.
It was the same story from an old friend who has worked on several big budget movies produced in China directed by a well known HK director.
The aforementioned cinematographer’s work is so fucking good I actually felt guilty paying such a relatively low amount of fees for his services lol. He has the talent to be one of the top tier players in China but he just couldn’t stand the red tape and censorship.
Fuck, The Stand is getting dumber and dumber. And fuck Boulder. I’d probably off myself out of boredom if I had to live there. If you’ve been watching it, see what I was saying when they were fucking up the character development with all the flashbacks and stuff?
Now that they’re trying to move the plot forward, the characters are just one dimensional and boring and I really don’t care what happens to any of them. Even the villains other than Harold suck. And that’s only because the guy who plays Harold is a fucking good actor who manages to elevate the crappy material he’s given.
And, fuck, I’d rather live in this show’s version of Vegas. That’s what I envision Heaven to be like with all the half naked chicks and orgies and shit.
I gotta say that the guy who plays Flagg isn’t as bad as I thought he would be. He’s pretty good, in fact. The problem is they gave him really silly lines and make him do lots of fucking lame stuff.
The problem is they simply can’t decide what Flagg is supposed to be. Is he supposed to be scary? A charming but evil version of Lucifer(from the TV show) kind of dude? A Joker-like dude who derives pleasure out of causing chaos as a “fuck you” to God, which is probably similar to Stephen King’s original intent?
Mother Abigail is supposed to be his antithesis but she has nothing to do in the show because they don’t even know what he’s supposed to represent. She’s like the equivalent of a fucking welcome doormat.
This is real shitty writing that’s just wasted with the ample budget and all the stuff they can get away with now on TV. I’m almost done with the series.
And WandaVision is getting even dumber. I kinda suspected which direction the series was going and hoped they were smart enough not to take this route but they did. One particular scene involving an old TV set really upped the stupidity level way above anything I would have ever expected in a modern Marvel and even a DC production. And I’m taking Justice League and Birds of Prey into account here when making this statement.
Follows the most elite operative at a company that uses mind control to “possess” the bodies of people so they can use them as unwitting assassins.
I’m in love with the premise so I was pretty deep into this one. It’s a very stimulating movie in many ways. The violence is pretty extreme but also very realistic. Combine that with some absolutely gorgeous cinematography, and the relatability of the main character’s conflict, and this movie hit me in some very hard to reach emotional spots that most don’t even aim at.
It’s streaming on Hulu, and it’s only 104 min. Well worth it IMO.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’m seriously, like really fucking seriously, starved for good movies so I’ll definitely catch this one since I trust your taste in movies.
If your main villain who’s supposed to look terrifying in a revelatory scene proclaims, “I am Legion, for we are many.” and you start laughing uncontrollably, it’s a clear sign that your movie/TV show is a steaming pile of crap.
It’s not the actor’s fault. He’s not bad, actually, It’s the fucking writing. But the show’s somehow getting “good” in a bad way so I’m continuing to watch it.
Watched Infinity War again and I’m still contending that if the academy wasn’t full of shit, it should have swept the oscars in 2019. IMO it was an even film both artistically and technically than Roma.
Think about it. Bohemian Rhapsody and Black Panther were nominated for Best Picture in that same year. They were competing in the same category with fucking Roma, which was a magnificent piece of filmmaking though it was a little overly self-indulgent.
And then Green Book won. Holy fuck, just fucking think about it.
Is this the real life?.
In other news, the latest episode of WandaVision has gone full retard so I’m starting to get really entertained. There’s even a cool, and I mean REALLY fucking cool, character crossover from the X-men movies.
However, you know what I loved about Wanda in the movies? All her moves - the way she casted spells and shit - were beautifully choreographed. They made her much of her character come alive just by expressing it through movement. She even looked fucking badass just floating.
It was like how Corey Yuen(the dude I mentioned above who choreographed all Jet Li’s moves in all his Hollywood movies) choreographed Storm’s badass entrance from the elevator in the climax of the first X-men movie. (Yeah, that’s why the first movie was so fucking cool at the time. Corey Yuen did all the action scenes.) I remember that because all the girls I saw the movie with were raving about it right after the movie. Just that ONE scene alone was enough to make her stand out as one of the coolest characters in the movie.
This shit was all done with intent and meticulous attention to detail. They didn’t just pull the actress up in the air with wires or make her just wave her hand nonchalantly to cast a spell like they’re doing in this show. That’s the kind of shit this show doesn’t get. Wanda deserves much better than this.
And they just had to bring up Captain Marvel. Fuck.
Despite being set in a fictional country, Grand Budapest Hotel is an hommage to the literary opus of Stefan Zweig and the lost world of interwar Central Europe.
The atmosphere is spot on, even the “modern” parts ostensibly set in the final days of socialism.
Also, I’ve recently rewatched this timeless classic of French cinema
Do you have any idea what The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is based on? It’s the only Wes Anderson movie I really didn’t like. In fact, I think I hated it.
The life and career of the French undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau and his documentaries that were huge in the 1960ies.
It’s a testament to Wes Anderson’s craft that when the French decided to make an actual serious autobiographical movie about the man, it looked like a spoof of Life Aquatic.
FTR I’m not saying the movie wasn’t well made. I just hated the experience of watching the movie. It’s like I fucking hated sitting through Kubrick’s The Shining but think it’s a great movie.
I am loving this show. Every episode has me thinking, “What the fuck is going on?” It’s such a refreshing change for Marvel.
I’m also blown away by Olsen and Bettany’s acting. I always knew Bettany was a good actor, but I hadn’t seen Olsen in anything except the MCU films, where she was a little flat. Her range in this show is CRAZY.
