Original Movies (not sequel, not reboot, not spin-off)
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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
This one is fun, very creative, very imaginative. Yes, there is quite a bit of emotional content -- mother-daughter angst, daughter-father angst, inter-generational immigrant family struggles, small business hard knocks, tax problem with the IRS, sexual orientation coming out to your family struggle, etc. But ultimately this is a movie where the writers and directors run wild across the multiverse. And since this is a Chinese-hyphenated action movie, it has got to have a lot of kungfu in it. My only criticism, similar to the one I have for Shang-Chi, is the insufficient number of guns in this movie. Lots of kungfu fighting in an American federal government building, very hard to believe the security guards do not pull out a lot more guns a lot sooner. Surely given the multiverse backdrop there must be something the writers/directors can dream up to counter the guns. Yeah, watch this one, lots of fun, with bits of deliberate stupidity that makes the movie even smarter overall.
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The Unbearable Weight of Massice Talent (2022) directed by Tom Gormican
This is about a fictionalized version of Nicholas Cage. You do not have to like Nicholas Cage to enjoy this movie, you just need to not hate Nicholas Cage. The plot is basically about a down-on-his-luck celebrity actor getting roped into helping the CIA defeat some weapon smuggler's plan to sell weapons to terrorists. While watching this film I am frequently reminded of "Adaptation" (2002 meta comedy-drama directed by Spike Jonze), in that the plot's development mirrors the protagonists talking about how they want to develop the plot for their movie. With quite a bit of smart, self-deprecating humor, this is a fun movie to watch.
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The Bad Guys (2022) directed by Pierre Perifel.
Animation, lots of fun to watch. Funny, kid-friendly, not stupid/boring for adults, good for the whole family (with young kids). Sure, there are gigantic plot holes, but it's animation with talking animals, so who cares about plot holes? Just have fun watching it and laughing it up with the young children in your family.
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The Northman (2022) directed by Robert Eggers
Viking film, lots of physical violence and quite a bit of gore. Competently produced, but ultimately not all that special. Lots of male nudity that seems unnecessary. You would think that with the Nordic temperature they would cover up a lot more, but maybe that's just the Viking way? Many scenes showing various Viking rituals and Viking mythologies that seem unnecessary and I cannot tell whether the portrayal or those rituals and mythologies are authentic anyway. A bit of a plot twist when the grown-up child, on his way to avenge his father's death, learnt some secret from his mother. Otherwise the plot is fairly straight forward, fairly straight-line predictable.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Bây Ngot Ngào (Vietnamese, trans. "Naked Truth", 2022) directed by Ha Uyen Thu Dinh
The story centers around a small group of four friends helping one of their own to escape from domestic violence. I cannot that I say find that this film is profound of ground-breaking, just thought it could be different as Vietnamese cinema may approach the subjects of friendship and domestic violence differently. Maybe the writers/director tried to tear-jerk by having one of the friends die at the end, but that just came across as unnecessary. I ended up not getting much from it.
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@Axtremus said in Original Movies (not sequel, not reboot, not spin-off):
Uncharted (2022) directed by Ruben Fleischer
This is a good action-adventure treasure hunt movie. The plot is fine although there is nothing ground-breaking about the plot for this genre. But the cinematography, CGI, and action sequences are very, very good. Powerful helicopters airlifting huge ships from the Magellan armada while the protagonists duking it out with the bad guys on the ships as well as on the helicopters. That's exciting stuff. Worth watching on the big screen.
This is from the video game. (WHich I have actually played and enjoyed. The movie follows the plot of the video game pretty good)
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@George-K said in Original Movies (not sequel, not reboot, not spin-off):
@Axtremus said in Original Movies (not sequel, not reboot, not spin-off):
All of them. In this thread I only write about movies that I have actually seen.
That's about 6 movies a month.
Yeah, I have been averaging more than that, probably closer to 8 or 9 a month. In this thread I only write about “original” movies I have watched. I have also watched other “not original” movies that I do not write about here (e.g., Spider-Man: No Way Home, Nightmare Alley, Death on the Nile, The Batman, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the Secrets of Dumbledore, Heropanti-2).
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Interesting story about a Iraq war vet who becomes a professional gambler. Having spent 8 ½ years in prison, he had a lot of time on his hands, and he learned to count cards - poker, blackjack, etc.
While at a convention, he meets someone with a connection to his dark path. That leads him to a conclusion of violence.
Interesting premise.
Very dark movie. Oscar Isaac was quite good.
Low budget indie - film. If you've got nothing better to do with 2 hours, give it a watch.
3.5 out of 5 stars, mostly for the acting.
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The Duke (2020) directed by Roger Michell
Not sure if it has been released in the USA earlier, but I've have only seen it in theater this summer (2022). The story centers around an elderly working class pensioner in the UK who has an issue with paying the "TV tax" (yeah, it was a thing back then in the UK) as a matter of principle. Through some machination he came to possess an expensive painting that some one had stolen from the National Galery. While hiding his own identity, he proceeded to write ransom notes demanding that the government exempt pensioners from having to pay the "TV tax" as a condition for the return of said painting. Not a bad movie, a bit slow, a fairly mellow drama, sufficient emotional content, frankly not all that memorable, but the story telling is quite good. No need to go see it in theater, but won't be a bad idea to queue it in your streaming service to pass a couple of hours. As non-action, non-suspense, non-sci-fi, non-horror, non-comedy, non-romance movies go, as "drama" this one I consider quite a bit above average.
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Crimes of the Future (2022) directed by David Cronenberg
A sci-fi horror depicting a dystopian future where through evolution, humans evolved new physiologies and some even started growing new/extra organs. Biotechnology advancements have also reached a point where just about any bodily function can be assisted by technology, hence leading to the human race contending with redefining "sickness" and "pain". The story centers around a couple -- one with a special ability to evolve/grow new organs, and the other a skilled surgeon-artist who then tattoos his new organs and then extract those new organs as a performance act. You'd figure given this rich, innovative background, a lot more could have been done. But a I watched it I kept feeling the write/filmmaker leave so much on the table, and fell into old tropes. The so-called biotechnology also look like special effects from the 1980s. Really the background idea, really respect the originality of the background idea, but not thinking very highly about the execution.
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Mr. Malcolm's List (2022) directed by Emma Holly Jones
Looks like a period romance/drama set in old (Victorian?) England, and stuffed with actors of colors. Felt a lot like watching yet another Jane Austen adaptation. Love lorn, misguided young (and not so young) people playing stupid games to find love. The overall plot is quite predictable, the whole film just look very contrived to the point of cringey.
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Paw of Fury, the Legend of Hank (2022) directed by Rob Minkoff
Kid-friendly animated feature film. Story centers around a dog that has been made a samurai tasked to guard a cat village. It's a kids film, so don't take the plot too seriously. Lots of laughs, some more contrived than others. Not as moving as, say, the Pixar stuff (e.g., "Lightyear" that also came out thee same summer), but overall it's good fun can that be enjoyed without turning the brain on.
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Bullet Train (2022) directed by David Leitch
What an awesome train wreck!!! Seriously, this movie has the most spectacular train wreck scene I have ever seen. It's worth watching just for the train wreck scene alone. Overall it's a film about a bunch of (supposedly world class) assassins being sinisterly arranged to converge on a Japanese bullet train. They have their personality quirks and their emotional baggages. Predictably, they end up trying to kill each other with all sorts of creative and exciting ways, and mutual appreciation and comradely developed among some of them along the way. The assassin stuff is mostly old trope, but executed very, very well. The cast and the production crew really know what they're doing. It's just a lot of fun and excitement to watch. And the train wreck ... seriously, if nothing else, go watch it for the train wreck scene!
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Easter Sunday (2022) directed by Jay Chandrasekhar
Comedy-drama about a comedian returning home to his Filipino American family and reuniting with his cousin triggered all sorts of shenanigans, including stealing a gangster boss' prized possession and trying to find a way out from the mess. Lots of laughs, with many jokes that are centered around being Filipino, but I suspect I may have missed quite a bit for not being sufficiently familiar with the Filipino culture. Not high art and I don't expect it to win awards, but I enjoyed watching it nonetheless.
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Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) directed by Halina Reijn
Horror-comedy, about a group of stupid young people moving into a big house to party, started playing a party game called "Bodies, bodies, bodies", and end up killing each other. Lots of blood, lots of screaming. Not much new in the genre. A bit of a plot twist at the end, but even that plot twist isn’t all that original or innovative.
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Orphans: First Kill (2022) directed by William Brent Bell
Psycho horror film, lots of blood, lots of slashing/stabbing, but visually not much gore. Overall plot is about an Estonian mental health patient escaped from confinement and got herself received into an American family then wrecking havoc. One third (or may be one half) of the movie in, I thought it's going to be predictable. Then a really, really good plot twist comes and turns the entire movie around. The plot twist made the rest of the movie exciting, captivating, and worth watching until the end. Recommended if you're down for a psychological horror movie.
