cinema.
Top Movies of 2023- Evil Dead Rise - Cocaine Bear- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse- Barbie
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The First Omen - 4/5✪ ICONIC. It's giving Suspiria (2018) vibes. It's aesthetically pleasing, generally kind of vague, and a lot of fun! Personally, I felt the store was pretty weak, and I knooooow hardcore Omen fans are all like "but it was a jackal!" but SHUSH. This is FUN! Give me nunsploitation or give me death. -April 1 2024 |
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Barbie - 4/5✪ My dude. Man. Bro. Bestie. This movie was so much FUN! Like, I was actually grinning and laughing throughout a solid half of the movie. It's cute and feminine and silly. The patriarchy bits were less fun, but still necessary, if a bit heavy handed. It felt kind of like getting hit over the head with a giant brick, honestly. But overall, a good time! -July 25 2023 |
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Oldboy - 3.5/5✪ HOh my GOD. So, I had seen the Ameriican remake. I thought it was...fine. Not great, but not the worst thing I'd ever seen. Compared to this masterpiece, that remake was a PIECE OF GARBAGE. This was visceral and petty and awful. I loved every second of it. I can't wait to watch the rest of Park Chan-wook's movies, because this set the bar extremely high. -July 3 2023 |
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse - 4.5/5✪ HELL YEAH THIS MOVIE RULES. Practically dripping with style, this is probably the most visually stunning movie I've seen in a long while. The clear delineation in styles between the universes helps keep things from getting confusing, while simultaneously pushing the aesthetic appeal into overdrive. The soundtrack wasn't qute as captivating with this movie, when compared to the absolute bangers in Into the Spider-verse, but it still slaps. It definitely felt like Into the Spider-verse was more focused on the audio aspects, while this movie was focused on the visual. I was definitely NOT expecting this to be a "to be continued" movie, however, which was kind of frustrating. I can definitely understand why, given the scope of the movie and the sheer volume of interpersonal relations they explored, but c'mon. Don't leave me hanging! All in all, this movie freakin' rules, and if you have the opportunity I strongly encourage you to see this in theatres. -June 25 2023 |
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Blues Brothers - 2/5✪ I feel like I would like this movie more after repeated viewings. This movie is very 1980 - it's bizarre, over the top, and interspersed with musical numbers. Which usually I would love! But I really didn't like the main characters, Elwood and Jake, as played by Dan Akroyd and John Belushi. They felt too much like douchebag kids that thought they were cool in high school, and it's just not my vibe. I was also viscerally reminded of my own fedora phase, which wasn't a good time for anybody. Is it cringe? I may have been feeling the cringe. But I can very easily imagine two douchebag bros writing the characters, who constantly wear suits and fedoras, and thinking they're soooo cool. Eugh. I can see why my husband loves it so much, but this just wasn't a good time for me. I'll probably end up watching it again in the future, because he freaking loves this movie, and hopefully I'll like it more then. -June 6 2023 |
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Castle in the Sky - 4/5✪ I forgot how much I love this movie! As always, the background paintings are gorgeous, and the art style is adorable. My main thing with this movie is the soundtrack. Holy hell, the soundtrack is amazing. No exaggeration. If at all possible, sit your ass down and let the soundtrack sweep you away. As far as the story goes, I'm honestly not sure how faithful this movie is to the original book. The movie progresses at a pretty good rate, with minimal slow spots and no excruciating filler. The animation is standard Studio Ghibli, very cute with lots of soft rounded lines - it's comfortable to watch, and feels like childhood. Breaking news, it's hard to write a new and fresh review for something that I've seen probably 4 times now. But still lots of love! -June 04 2023 |
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Fast X - 1/5 ✪ So, we took my father to the movies for an early Father's Day gift. He decided he wanted to go see Fast X, the latest installment in the Fast and the Furious franchise. Now, I had pretty low expectations going in. "They're just dumb racing movies," I said to my husband. "I know what I'm getting into." It was the most disjointed, confusing, and ridiculous movie I've ever seen. There were several sub-plots that went nowhere, a bunch of cameos from past movies that were questionable at best, and the villain was so goofy you couldn't take them seriously. There were several times in the movie where characters just decided that hey, it was time for a gratuitous fight scene! The writing physically pained me - the monologues didn't make sense, for one thing, and every time they needed to move the plot forward they techno-babbled their way through to a new scene. Like, it was literally a word salad of thngs that I think were meant to sound impressive? I'm suffering just thinking about it. Please, for the love of God, let the franchise rest. I'm literally begging the movie industry to please stop making these movies. We have a finite amount of time on this planet, and nobody needs to spend time on this garbage. |