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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 just rewatched the three Tom Holland Spider-Man films in preparation for the new one this weekend. As movies, they're all fine. Tom Holland is an incredible Spider-Man, but the structure of the films themselves suffer from being tied in so heavily to the greater Marvel plots. These are not stand-alone stories. You're constantly reminded of everything outside of what you're watching. Part of why Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy holds up is that all the films stand on their own, there wasn't a greater world to tie them into.
That’s what I like about them. A lot of people still, and at the time, complain about how reliant Peter is on Stark technology. But I like that inclusion. It differentiates itself from the other Spider-Man films by having him be a Stark Jr.
Also, the entire purpose was to have Spider-Man be part of the MCU. I’m pretty sure it was a contractual thing that there had to be an MCU character in the films alongside him. Homecoming it’s Iron Man, Far From Home it’s Nick Fury, and No Way Home it’s Doctor Strange.
I’m not a big comic reader but something that you see in comics is how connected they are to everything else. Frequent references to other superheroes and events. It makes sense to have that, otherwise you’re so isolated from everything you’d think Spider-Man is the only superhero alive. And they already did that for five movies.
With the three films I think No Way Home is probably the worst one, it’s the worst one visually for sure. When Watt’s was hired in 2015 that was when we were still doing, hire an indie guy and bully him around for a big studio film thing that’s since gone out of style.
I love Homecoming, I think that’s such a great script. The writers of that also wrote Game Night and the Dungeons and Dragons movie. I think they should have just been given directing duties.
Does anyone want to talk about:
The Odyssey (2026) ★★☆
Black Panther (2018) ★★☆
Airplane (1980) ★☆☆
I keep striking out on classic comedies :/ I read more after watching, and it seems like there are a ton of background jokes that I didn't even notice.
Lost in Translation (2003) ★☆☆
I liked Rental Family (2025) better. I have the same issue with this as I do with Brief Encounter (1945): this could be a really good movie if the main characters weren't already married to other people.
Disclosure Day (2026) ★★☆
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) ★☆☆
Boogie Nights (1997) ★☆☆
Movie 43 (2013) ★☆☆
Admittedly I was only interested in this movie because of its poor reputation. So now my morbid curiosity has been satisfied, but yikes, this was just as bad as advertised.
Airplane: This movie was considered amazing when it came out but I'm sure most of the humor does not resonate with anyone under 40 or 50 years old. Here's just a small list of things that probably don't click for younger people:
Besides the dated cultural references, I assume that there is a lot of humor that targets marginalized groups in a way that's not funny now.
Not sure I see why that would make the movie better. I see the whole film as sort of an anti-romance, as what the two people are sharing are not romantic love in the traditional sense of a romance movie, but something entirely different. It is more like two half broken people finding some deep connection in a different country, but they are not falling in love - at least not in the way we usually see it depicted in movies. Which of course is the whole films "thing" so to speak, what has been discussed about it endlessly, the ambiguity of their relationship and how to interpret the final scene. Anyways, that whole non clear ambiguity and non-traditional romance that is hard to read is what I like about it.
I think they have an issue with the morality aspect of it. It’s like having an emotional affair.
Don’t know why that would make the movie better, it would make it more sanitized and less interesting.
Movie 43 built up quite a cult following since its release. Theres some sketches I like from it like the homeschool one and the basketball one.
Some of the sketches are better than others, but none of them really stood out to me as funny. The best thing was the kids trapped in appliances.
I somewhat recently rewatched Black Panther; it's in my top 5 for comic book movies. I'm a big fan of just about everyone in the cast. Angela Basset is an actress I have enjoyed since she was in Strange Days in the 90s. I am also a big Chadwick Boseman fan, sort of in a similar way to how I am a fan of Pedro Pascal. I liked them a lot in TV shows that I was watching - Castle / Justified / Fringe for Boseman, Buffy for Pascal - and then got to see these actors that I had enjoyed in bit parts grow into A-listers. I miss Boseman a lot - he elevated everything he was in.
When you watch a movie, are you focused on it or on another device?
Call me a child, but I enjoyed the Minions and Monsters movie. The throwback to the history of film was fun. Not the best movie I've ever seen, but it was fun.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
I liked this. I’d probably put it below Homecoming for me. But, it’s good.
This is the first time in the franchise that I think everyone involved went “we need to lock in” and wanted to make their version of The Dark Knight.
This is the darkest of the Holland films. It’s similar in tone to Raimi’s films. There’s a lot of visual homages to Raimi’s trilogy. Especially with the way he conveyed the Spidey senses.
I could feel which scenes Justin Kuritzkes re-wrote. And the way I could tell is because the dialogue was a lot more sophisticated than in most Marvel films. Kuritzkes wrote Challengers and Queer neither of which I cared for. Challengers was a melodrama, and had a lot of soap opera tendencies, which he applied to his scenes here. I think that works. A lot of the comics I’ve read, that are acclaimed, are quite melodramatic. And because I think the genre tends to skew towards safe nostalgia, especially in recent years, injecting melodramatic moments elevates it.
I respect the attempts made here to make it a real movie. The color, the actual locations, the actual sets, a reduction in the use of green screen, the CGI feeling like there’s more weight behind it. How the actions scenes move with more fluidity, how the camera is more dynamic. I don’t think it completely pulls off what it’s going for. But, that they put in so much effort is great. My biggest complaint would be that it’s long and it feels its length.
I’d add it onto the pile of post-Endgame MCU films that are genuinely good which so far had just been Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Thunderbolts. Definitely better than Destin Daniel Crettin’s previous Marvel film Shang-Chi, which suffered from weak leads, shoddy CGI, and bland cinematography.
The Deer Hunter --- top five for me. I've seen it... many times. Everybody should watch it at least once.
Pleasantville (1998)
Liked: Joan Allen
Disliked: Reese Witherspoon's resolution.
Verdict: 🟠
In Bruges (2008)
Liked: The restaurant.
Disliked: The midget.
Verdict: 🟢
The Accountant (2016)
Liked: The farmers.
Disliked: Final showdown.
Verdict: 🟠