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Midweek Movie Free Talk
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
I rewatched Linklater's Before Sunrise last night and it works as a comforting nostalgic form of escapism. This movie converted me to give romantic movies another chance. Previously I had little interesting in romance in movies, because I rarely believed the attraction between the people on screen. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy showed that it is possible to do a convincing a believable portrayal of two people being attracted to each other. While it is basically a fairy tale version of two young people falling in love, it still comes off as more realistic than anything else. Even though this movie is entirely made up of dialogue, it is not really important what they talk about. It is the vibe and chemistry that makes this movie a little masterpiece. How can you not fall in love with Julie Delpy seeing this. Does Ethan Hawke have the same effect?
I didn't think this needed a sequel, but somehow they made it work with Before Sunset - which is almost as good. Before Midnight is a great film my all metrics, but still a bit behind the two others.
I watched Seven Samurai last night for the first time, after having finished Ghost of Tsushima and still being very much in the mood for samurai content. Went for Seven Samurai as it's usually regarded as Kurosawa's best, and his samurai movies had such an impact on the GoT game makers that they included an entire black and white mode to the game in his honor, explicitly calling it "Kurosawa Mode".
I think the movie really holds up for a movie made in the mid 50s. Considerable amount of action, no really long stretches of not much happening or no meaningful dialogue (oddly a thing with really old movies), good characters, nice cinematography in quite a few scenes, and a thoughtful ending. Not to mention it really set the formula for a lot of other action/superhero movies to come (eg: good entity is at risk from evil, unfamiliar heroes band together one by one and assemble as a group to protect good entity).
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
I think Bad Boys 2 is a masterpiece and I liked Bad Boys for Life back in 2020. So I was looking forward to this.
I didn’t like it. I thought it somehow looked cheaper than the 2020 film, VFX and all. I thought all the performances were worse. And the jokes didn’t hit as hard. Bad Boys For Life was much better written and none of the jokes here hit as hard as the “I’m trying to penetrate his soul with my heart” from For Life. Ride or Die is also a messier script, with weaker character motivations.
People are loving this though, even the Letterboxd crowd, but I just don’t see it.
This week's post is brought to you by my YouTube Shorts recommendations. I normally don't watch YouTube Shorts but it recommended me various clips from these three movies so I decided to give the movies a watch.
First up, The Truman Show (1998). This is a classic film that I've watched a handful of times prior to this week. If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend you do. I remember first watching this movie as a kid and thinking it was a unique comedy film. However, after re-watching it as an adult, it really is more of a dystopian science fiction film masquerading under comedy. The more you re-watch the film, the more you notice small details sprinkled throughout the film that really give the movie its unique character.
Next up, Green Book (2018). I honestly hadn't heard of this movie and I'm surprised it did, given the numerous awards the movie has won. The various clips I saw of the movie highlighted most of the racial conflict scenes of the film and that caught my attention. Conflict in the comments about Don Shirley's relatives' criticism of the movie also made me want to watch it more haha. Overall, this movie is amazing. I really enjoyed watching the characters on screen interact with each and understand each other's worlds more and more as the movie progresses. Definitely recommend giving this a watch.
Finally, Extreme Job (2019). Wouldn't be a post from me without some South Korean content being mentioned. I only saw 1-2 clips from this movie but it immediately caught my attention. Watched it tonight and it had me laughing from the very first clip. Haven't laughed this much watching any movie or TV show in a while. Despite having a handful of well-known actors and actresses, I somehow didn't recognize them until after reading the cast list on Wikipedia. If you love Korean comedy, definitely give this a watch!