Veltigar

And that sequence from film 9 is still better than anything in Fast X!

I'm not really familiar with Reacher per se (though I have to say this for the series, I'm intrigued enough to buy one of the books), but I think I have read a few series that follow that template. The one that comes to my mind the most as a comparison are Bernard Cromwell's Saxon Stories and it's due to the familiarity with the concept that I'm a bit worried for the future of the series. I don't think it's a coincidence they decided to adapt the two books that featured a personal connection to Reacher first. Usually, these kind of adventure novels just work better if on top of the fighting and mystery, there is something to be learned about our protagonist. A bit similar to how in the Saxon Stories I'm enjoying this a lot, but I'm not sure whether I'll be enjoying this for 10 seasons, especially if there is no evolution in either our main character or in his relationship to others. Contrast that with something like Justified, which had a seasonal arc, but also had the wider story of Rayland and his relationship to Harlan and its inhabitants that carried over and accrued worth over time. It makes for a far more satisfying series in the end I think. It's depressing to think that Fast X cost 340 million USD. If you ask me to give you a top 10 of worst films of the year, I'm pretty sure it will be high on that list. Cool to know that the average was 172 million USD. Even better than double then for The Creator. No analysis per se, but I was struck by the fact that Toho took a relatively long time to develop Godzilla Minus one. Apparently the previous Japanese Godzilla film (which I haven't seen), also got great reviews and Toho was scared to come out with a lukewarm successor. So, they did something which I don't think Hollywood knows how to do, they took their time and allowed the creative team to explore interesting options for a follow-up. That certainly helped to keep the budget tight and probably also explains in part the film's high quality. One of the main flaws in project management is that leadership is usually allergic to planning, despite the fact that good planning in advance is relatively cheap (just a few people in a room with laptops and a whiteboard as per the stereotype) and saves you a lot of money down the road. I guess Hollywood, being under constant pressure to pipe out content, takes more of an "agile" approach where they don't spend enough time in pre-production to allow ideas to germinate properly and planning to be done correctly. The first leads to half-cooked films with bad scripts and shallow characters, the latter leads to reshoots, last minute interference in VFX work and the like which will massively inflate the budget. To build further on my reply to Deadlines, perhaps Edwards just has a clearer vision of what he wants from the start due to using a better/longer pre-production or planning process. If he didn't have delays or reshoots for The Creator, he could throw every bit of money on the screen, instead of spending money in vain on two alternative versions of the CGI blue beam slugfest à la Marvel. Fair, I didn't think of it like that.

Watched the South Park (Not Suitable for Children) special and I liked it a lot. I'm very happy that we still get South Park and that the creative team gets to explore different formats. I don't think they are anywhere near their best level, but it's still reliable enjoyment. This special felt like a good step forward from the previous specials, with a good coherent plot and a use for the runtime. I hope they can build further on this for future specials. I watched The Sound of Music on Christmas Eve. This film is wild, and I was struck not only by the fact that I didn't care much for some of the songs, but also the societal message included in them. Particularly the song of the eldest (clearly twentysomething actress pretending to be a teenager) daughter and her beau was quite cringy. Glad to have seen it and the IMDB trivia for the film is quite funny, but not something I think I'll want to watch every holiday. I also kept on going with Reacher. Finished season 1 and I'm now in season 2. This series is definitely lit, but my earlier review has basically not changed. My fears became true, but there was enough action and narrative drive to offset the unfortunate anthology feeling that I do kind of feel hovering around the edges of my screen whenever I watch it. Season two so far has managed to introduce a bunch of good new supporting characters, but I do agree that it is leaning into the tropes a bit more. I also wonder what they'll pull out of their hat for a third season, because I do think these type of stories are enhanced when something feels more personal to the inscrutable protagonist. I'm not entirely sure whether this will still be as engrossing as it is currently if they introduce a random mystery that doesn't really tie into Reacher's life. I agree with your take so far. I still have not seen all episodes that are out of the second season, but they did manage to get a good bunch of actors together to portray some interesting characters. I do wonder how they'll handle a third season. Like I wrote above, it feels like they plundered the well dry with significant characters from his past (unless his French grandfather rises from the grave to reclaim his medal). If he now goes and does adventures with rando's I don't think it will feel as engaging. Hopefully @Mexal's take on it is more correct and they'll be able to get a model that works out of this, but we'll see this down the road. Since it's also been mentioned at length in the last two pages of this thread, I'd also throw The Creator some love on that front. It's not quite as big a discrepancy as with Godzilla Minus One, but The Creator is probably the best looking blockbuster I have seen all year and the budget was 80 million USD if I recall correctly. Not sure what the average Hollywood blockbuster costs to produce, but I think it's probably about double. The execs really should call Edwards and Toho Studios to get some tips.

Given all the excitement about the second season of Reacher, I decided to give the first one a chance. It's really addictive and I'm almost done now. It feels like a less pulpy version of Banshee and I really dig that vibe. The plot is ridiculous, but they do a good job of keeping everything moving so fast that it doesn't really bother me. Throw in the occasional fight scene or shoot out, which I think Reacher handles very well for a TV-show, and it becomes a very bingeable piece of no-brain television. I can also clearly see the appeal of Jack Reacher as a character. He reminds me a lot of Uthred in Bernard Cromwell's original Saxon Stories (clearly not the same Uthred as in the Netflix adaptation), in the sense that he's a total power fantasy. Heck, he might even be a bigger power fantasy than Uthred. Not only can he beat the living daylights out of every other character in this show (sometimes several at the same time), he's also pretty much the smartest guy in the room and his ex-military background is basically a free ride to give him all sort of specialist knowledge on top of that. The actor who plays him does a very good job evoking that. I remember the fuzz around the Tom Cruise version of the character and Alan Ritchson certainly feels like a clear response to the prayers of fans who were disappointed at the time. I was actually shocked when I looked up the actor and found that he's only 6′ 3″. I have several friends and acquaintances that size and taller who do not strike me as gargantuan as he comes across as Jack Reacher. Admittedly, he's built like a brick outhouse, but I'd be very interested to see what tricks (if any) they used during filming to make him look even more tall and intimidating. I also really like the supporting cast in this first season. This will probably be my biggest gripe with next season, as I'm assuming this show will start basically from "scratch" every season. Again a bit like the Saxon Chronicles where Uthred resets after every novel and I hope that is not the case because so far I have been enjoying Anyways, I think I have two more episodes to go. Between this and Blue-Eye Samurai, the end of year is proving to be a lot more rewarding in terms of television than I had anticipated. If only the movies could follow suit, but I guess we are condemned to Aquaman 2.

I feel like they mellowed a bit with age. Old Rick and Morty was the college kid with no responsibilities, now they are on their second job and have learned a lot about themselves so to speak. I'm also going to use this place to give more love to the Pope. Loved Mort: Ragnarick the most of all the episodes this season.

Watched the season finale of Rick and Morty season 7. Not as good as the Pope episode that came before, but still highly enjoyable. If they can keep up this level for the remaining seasons, I'd be happy, as it is very comforting to spent time with these characters. That sounds like a diss When Deadlines dreams about the Snyder Cut, he isn't dreaming of an extended version of the Justice League!

Man, I am not on here for one day and the board has basically torn itself to shreds with these pointless discussions... Of course Top Gun: Maverick is awesome. For shame that I need to intervene again after stopping the Scott Civil Wars. I hope you all find it in your heart to be better in 2024. I feel like that's a reveal that warrants spoiler tags

I tore through the remaining episodes of Blue Eye Samurai. It's very good, though not quite on the same level as Arcane. I could pretty much copy-paste my review from the first three episodes, as I think it holds up rather well now that I have seen the whole thing. Amazing animation, excellent action and good characters. One thing I didn't remark on is that it clearly loves Samurai films and much of its more ridiculous moments stem from an obsession with paying homage to those roots. Accepting it on those terms however, is not very hard. I have come around to the idea that while the star forged sword and magical flowers annoy me a bit, I still can enjoy the result a lot. I think the show is better when it focuses on simpler, more realistic things but even outside of that, it's still a towering achievement. There are a lot of individual scenes and story telling devices that I'd like to give a shoot out to I think the best episode featured the story of the Oryo and a bit more information on Mizu's back story. I was also very happy to see that

Based on the recommendation of the board, I decided to give Blue-Eyed Samurai a try. I am now three episodes in and I have been enjoying myself so far. That being said, there are elements in this series that I both hate and love. On the love side, I think the visuals are great. Love the aesthetic and the way the action is rendered. I also think the voice work is very strong and that the characters are well-drawn out for now. It sort of feels like an R-rated update of the type of story ATLA season 1 tried to tell, which I also think is quite a good basis for solid entertainment. On the bad side of the ledger, the series relies a lot on tired cliches. I roll my eyes whenever someone uses a sword to do something completely impossible like cutting down a thick tree of chopping down a table in half. Since this show tends to do that quite a lot, it does break my immersion. I also puked a little in my mouth when the story chose to foreground the fact that she made her sword from a fallen star... I know meteoric iron was a thing and perhaps I'd be more forgiving if this was set during the bronze age, but the inclusion of this type of cliché does make me a bit worried about the rest of the show.

Given the mentions of Hannibal Lecter in this thread, I was triggered to give The Silence of The Lambs another watch. I barely remembered it (I think I read the book and might have never seen the film in full) and have a much better recollection of its sequels, which used to be on television constantly. It's safe to say that I found out that the sequels are really inferior compared to the genuine article. I thought the film was really strong, with convincing performances by Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. I also thought the story was developed rather nicely (with perhaps the one exception of the first victim of Bill, which deviated from the book and is a bit puzzling) and that the focus on the roadblocks and advantages Clarice Starling had in law enforcement were executed exceedingly well. Sadly enough, despite the positive progress we have made since 1991, I think this is still far to identifiable for a lot of women. My favourite adaptation of the story will always remain NBC's Hannibal and Mads Mikkelsen remains my Hannibal, but I appreciate how strong this film was and how it basically paved the way for all what came after.

I had the good fortune to attend a screening of Godzilla Minus One. If you had told me at the beginning of this year that I would end up enjoying a Toho Godzilla film over Ridley Scott's Napoleon, Gareth Edwards' The Creator, Fincher's The Killer, Gerwig's Barbie, Scorcese's Killers of the Flower Moon and Nolan's Oppenheimer, then I would have declared you crazy, but it is exactly what ended up happening. This film is absolutely amazing. I was expecting a lot based on the positive reviews, but the film still managed to outperform even my wildest expectations. Really impressive to see how they were able to keep my attention engaged even though the titular monster only appeared in about 9% of the film (figure from IMDB Trivia). The characters were incredibly well-drawn, the themes were clearly articulated (I particularly enjoyed its praise for transparency, civilian oversight of military matters and in general its belief in the power of citizens to make a difference) and the action was amazing. The fact that this film cost only 15 million USD to make is utterly bewildering. That's lower than the budget of the American Godzilla from 1998 (unadjusted for inflation) and more than 10 times lower than Gareth Edwards Godzilla from 2014 (again unadjusted for inflation, so if you do that, the discrepancy is even higher). You can harp all you want about the historically low position of the Japanese Yen or the differences between the various systems, but if you see how good this film looks, there are a lot of people in Hollywood who should really do some introspection. If I have to offer three points of criticism I watched this scene on YouTube. I definitely never saw this film, because I would remember that

I was in the mood for some more action last night and after a quick search, I decided to try out Extraction 2. I have to say I had my doubts, since I thought the first Extraction film was rather unspectacular, but I was pleasantly surprised by how the film turned out. It definitely retains some of the same problems as the first film, namely that the protagonist is incredibly generic and that the villains are hilariously powerful (it is implied they basically own Georgia) until the actual fighting starts, but I did really like the first 2/3 of the film. The film can be divided into three action set pieces, with the first two being really enjoyable to watch, with lots of creative kills (and these are not just reserved for the protagonist, I thought his supporting team members were also given good slices of action). Unfortunately, it does run out of steam in the final act where it chooses to reduce the size and scale of the action for the standard morality play type ending we get a lot in action movies. Sadly, since I did not care for the main villain, nor the stakes, nor the protagonist really (despite a marked improvement in comparison with the first film), it just failed to really capture my attention. This, unlike the earlier henchmen-consuming melees and shoot-outs, which I would have loved to see more off. I also think it was a mistake to Anyways, this has given me appetite for a third Extraction film, which I didn’t think I would ever desire, so it is worth a watch if you like this type of film. I think I have seen it. Not sure whether I remember much from it, or confuse it with scenes from Escape from NY.

It's actually on my list to watch both the first and the second one this Christmas, as I have seen neither of the two Paddington films.

Terminator 2 can't even hold a candle to Terminator, which in and of itself is not as good as Aliens. This one gets closer, but still Aliens for me! I mean, sure, and the example is apt since they basically changed genre. But it hardly bats in the same league as Empire Strikes Back, Godfather 2, Top Gun 2, Road Warrior, For a Few Dollars More and naturally Aliens. I never actually dared to finish this but if this one counts, I'll be forced to nominate Grease 2 and no one wants that! Come on Ran, no love even for the Pope?

This is awkward, I have enjoyed season 7 so far. I agree that it’s not the best they have ever been, but the level remains reliably high and I came here specifically to say that I feel that the latest Papal themed episode they made was the first classic of the season! For the rest, I also watched Aliens. This film slaps so hard. Truly a masterpiece that would exhaust my entire arsenal of superlatives if I tried to describe it here once again. By far the best sequel ever made.

Rewatched Ridley Scott's Alien (I wonder what gave me the idea). It's a film I admire, but that I do not really love. Still, I tend to rewatch it every so often, since I feel like you cannot watch Aliens (my personal favourite in the franchise), without first watching Alien. This time around I paired my viewing of Alien with a long video essay about the film which I thought was rather good. It's always fascinating to see a breakdown of a classic like this, it always adds to the viewing experience when you get to discover the sources of inspiration for the film and what other people perceive to be the subtext.

Given the fact that most of the other material he starred in during that period is a variation of Dirty Grandpa, we all saw it as a given Load up the trebuchet boys!

I see that in my absence, the Scott Civil Wars have threatened to tear this board apart. As the self-proclaimed Pope of the Church of Scott, I would like to ask you all to look deep into your hearts. If you do this, you shall surely find room for both Tony and Ridley. The next step on your anatomic exploration, should be the mind. There I urge you to purge all memories of Days of Thunder, Domino, Exodus, Napoleon and so on. Just remember that Tony gifted us Top Gun and Ridley reciprocated with Gladiator. Let's now take a page from US Democracy and detach from reality to protect the Pax Frater Scott.

I guess we'll have to wait for the 4 h version to find out, but you'll have to do a lot of convincing for me to give that a chance.

The trick is, you don't go to see his bad ones Like, I have never seen Exodus and the Counsellor. All The Money in the World is a short so that doesn't count either. If you just follow that guideline the quality of his output markedly improves

I'm pessimistic about this because I don't think Phoenix works at all as Napoleon. Even if we did give that character more room to breathe, it would just be more of the same, since I don't see any meaningful evolution in his performance for the entirety of the film.

I have caught up on the seventh season of Rick and Morty. Good season so far. I don't think any of the episodes will become classics, but I also haven't watched any duds yet. It's just a reliable good time throughout, and as long as they keep at least this level, I'll be very happy to tune in every week. Also did not notice that they swapped the voices out until someone reminded me, so that's also pretty wel done. For me it was House of Gucci (no better place to release style over substance than there) and The Last Duel right before that I really thought was great. I want to believe @polishgenius I think that has been my problem all along. Seriously though, I always assumed I could tell which one of his many movies would turn out good (The Last Duel) and which one would turn out to be bad (Alien: Covenant, Exodus). Napoleon has shattered that assumption. I think pretty much all his children are in on the family business. He's still responsible for a lot of the storyboarding though. Apparently, he makes these drawings called "Ridleygrams" to map out his vision for a film. There was a good article about all this stuff in the Napoleon thread. Over the last couple of years he was doing fine though. So sad that he falters here. It was written explicitly to invoke the music of the time, so don't feel too bad about it

Most likely yes, otherwise the lawyers will have their field day. Good article you link to, as it gives even more context to why this choice is so baffling. I was just mad since I love Pride & Prejudice, and it felt wrong to have its most recognizable musical piece being defiled in this shit film. I feel like Ridley just wants to crank out as many films as possible and is not overly concerned with quality control anymore.

I don't think it's possible to save this train wreck.

I went to the theatre last night to see Napoleon and now I feel betrayed by Sir Ridley. Such a terrible film, I actually fell asleep a few times during whatever this was supposed to be. It's really a massive let down in comparison to Gladiator or The Last Duel or even the almost 50 year old The Duelists. I'm usually quick to excuse Scott's historical inaccuracies. His approach is not ideal, but if the story he tells is exciting, then who cares that he twists some historical facts the wrong way around. It's the overall vibe that counts. This film, however, baffled me by defecating on history without actually offering anything compelling in return. Like, the battle scenes in Gladiator are historical bull crap, but at least you get pumped when Maximus leads the opening charge in Germania. Here I was looking at the muddled interpretation of Napoleonic warfare and constantly asking myself what am I looking at? Who am I looking at? Why are they even fighting? And why should I even care? There are no stakes. Nothing is exciting or memorable. Phoenix gives one of the worst performances of his career and Vanessa Kirby is kind of there as well, but I simply failed to care for her, her relationship with Napoleon and that doomed this film since it's clearly the only thing it cares for. I also hated the score. Terribly lazy. It used 'Dawn' from Pride & Prejudice (2005) twice and it made me angry. That's such a special song, how dare they smear shit all over it by associating it with this raging garbage fire.