Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Directed by: James Gunn
Starring: The cast of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. Marvel is the most dominant film franchise on Earth, I feel like you'll already know the names. If you don't, just follow the link. 

I'm resharing reviews I wrote shortly after ending my mission and getting to watch movies and TV again. This review is extremely trimmed down compared to others, though, 'cause I wrote a LOT about this initially. I'm quite fond of it. 

Guardians 2 flipping killed it! 

I could talk about it all day, but wow. Just wow. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. 

What a great film! This really felt like it was a family movie, in that it was ABOUT a family. Critics said the plot felt a bit obvious, but obviousness doesn’t matter, execution does! And the film nailed execution in my book! 

This feels like the best possible prequel to Infinity War, because so much of that film was about Gamora’s feelings towards HER father, and THIS film is all about Star-Lord’s — and Rocket’s, and Yondu’s, oddly enough — feelings about THEIR fathers! They change some of the writing from the first movie to make that happen, but I didn’t like the first film as much, so I don’t mind! 

This has the best first fifteen minutes I've seen in a long time. Just wow. Going from a flashback with some character backstory and a story hook (young Kurt Russell!), to a big epic scene establishing the setting (giant space monster!) to a three-minute dance video with the awesome space fight ... AS BACKGROUND?!It’s like the writers are saying, “Guys, this is a comedy. Life is serious AND funny.” The confidence and resources it took to make that the starter for their many-million-dollar, summer tentpole movie and then pull it off is just amazing. And that scene has become a meme for that reason. 

I mostly like this film 'cause I watched it shortly after my mission, and the Guardians’ bickering reminds me of what trying to control a bunch of missionaries is like (although we’re a bit nicer)

Similarly, the main message of the movie felt like it was saying, “if you care about ANYONE, it’ll make a big difference, and if you don’t care about anyone, that’ll make a big difference too,” and that was probably one of the bigger lessons of my mission, since you need to care about the people you work around, or nothing is going to happen with them (some guys learn this BEFORE their missions). 

Overall, very good! Two hours and fifteen minutes (WITH credits, which you’ll wanna watch), so it’s already shorter than the last five or so movies Marvel has produced. Some snippy language, but you’re probably good for that. Looks amazing, sounds amazing, and is just a great time overall. 

Gladiator

Directed by: Ridley Scott, director of Alien, Blade Runner, Black Hawk Down, and Thelma & Louise
Starring; Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, the first Dumbledore, and Wonder Woman's mom
I'm re-publishing reviews from shortly after I finished my LDS mission and got to start watching movies again. I've cut some parts out, and the italic sections were added today, but everything else is the first version. They were originally written for missionary friends who were still serving. I was very excited by everything

Looked awesome. 

Joaquim Phoenix (Commodus) killed it!

Loved the running-his-hands-through-wheat/rubbing-his-hands-in-dirt-before-a-battle thing they had going for him. Very earthy. I grew up in a desert, so it’s super-unnatural for me to see that; it’s very relaxing to see something alive between my fingers or when I look down. No green = no life and all that. 

You get the sense that Maximus is like a super-duty-driven guy who also happens to be a soldier. Truth in Television there, since IRL you have to work constantly to get anything you’d want or need in life and the easiest way to do that is to be part of something bigger.

Super-long. I got one of the DVD cuts where they added extra scenes and the whole thing was like two hours fifty minutes. Too darn long! I heard that they added extra political scenes that weren’t in the original release, which makes perfect sense. The normal version is two and a half. 

Those outfits tho. Commodus was Lord of the Bling in this. 

The meme value in this was huge. I wrote a whole separate article for the missionaries in my mission that was just #relatable moments from the movie's run. "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!" and so on

Sad as heck

Overall, I see why people like it. Violent, naturally, and there's some very unpleasant language at one point, so maybe look that up beforehand, but overall good as it's hyped as being. Basically every guy from my generation quotes this film, and it earned its place in our vocabulary. Remember, friends, what we do in life echoes in eternity. 

True Grit (2010 remake)

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Thanos

Directed by: Joel and Ethan Cohen

 The way I understand it, the directors of this are famous American writer-auteurs, and they loved the original classic with John Wayne so much they just had to remake it. They use modern-day cameras and color-grading and editing, so it feels like they told the same story with a shiny coat of paint, the way someone remakes "The Three Musketeers" every fifteen years or so. It was quite good.

Holy smokes! This got nominated for TEN (10!) Oscars! It didn't win any of them, which is why you haven't heard of it as much, but that's high praise for the product! Most of it is technical stuff like sound mixing and art direction, but it also got nominated for Best Director, Picture, Actor, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actress. This ain't no spring chicken. Wow. Like I said, shiny new coat of paint.

So, the premise of this is that a 14-year old girl whose papa got killed by an impulsive employee hires a US Marshal to track him down and the two of them go into wilderness to try and get him. She's very precocious - a great bargainer, leveraging people around her into following when they wouldn't have otherwise. The rest of the movie is showing a picture of the Old West, and the question over justice versus revenge that's driving her actions.

If the original is written like this is, then it's one of those classics I mentioned that's remembered 'cause the screenplay's so darn good. It's quite sad to see her going after him, 'cause it's clear she won't get justice unless she gets him, and we see she has a grieving, inconsolate mother and two baby siblings to take care of. If they can get the guy who did it, that's gonna go a long way towards helping them heal. And we see people don't take her AS seriously 'cause she's a cute, young-looking girl, and women didn't have as much perceived independence in that time. She has to fight with every bit of verbage to convince people to follow her. But she does. So it's cool

An hour and fifty; PG-13; pretty good. Recommend

The Mandalorian

SO good!

This encompassed in forty minutes what Star Wars books spent HUNDREDS of pages talking about. We don't need Karen Traviss writing about Mando honor, or Mando parenting ethic, or Mando culturalism, or Mando history, or Mando diaspora, or Mando reps - they just chose to SHOW it. That forge scene was like five of those topics all done in one scene. It's the macho skill of acknowledging a life-changing subject while still being cool about it

I like how they've turned the most iconic prop in Episode 5 into a delivery worker lifehack - it sounds stupid but makes perfect sense. After that opening where we see all the frozen-in-carbonite bounties, I realize Boba didn't freeze Han Solo because he was a jerk, he did it because it's much easier to transport bounties safely if they're not talking your ear off every five minutes. They're safely stored, you don't have to feed them, they can't get away from you, you get peace and quiet - is there a way to do this with kids on car rides? It's genius

They're writing this like it's a modern epic videogame - like God of War or Uncharted 4. THAT'S how they're gonna write eight forty-minute episodes and NOT have them become filler while having a minimum of dialogue! They're Master Chief'ing it

I was expecting this to be like A Fistful of Dollars, since that's a guy with a cape and a gun wandering around the desert, fighting, and saying little. When he rode up to the settlement with all the sand-colored buildings I was like, "Look! It's San Miguel!" But it also captured the bit I forgot about AFoD - the coolness in the hero's silence. They fit whole arcs of understanding and action into him just looking at things and reacting to things. It's a lost art. The closest thing to it is Breaking Bad, and that's usually about people doing some task slowly, so the mystery is figuring out what they're doing, not how they're feeling. They've resurrected a lost art! I don't know how many modern Westerns even do this! Or anything

And now the music is so uplifting! This is straight Spielbergian! Wonder and adventure in a brand new setting! These peeps are geniuses

They're really gonna do it. They're gonna make this, and The Falcon and Winter Soldier and WandaVision and Loki and it's all gonna be great. Because they're pouring feature film's worth of work into the episodes AND using videogame-style storytelling to make a step-by-step adventure that people care about, and they have the resources and fanbase to keep doing it. Well done. Well done, Disney and co. You pulled it off

Godzilla (2014)

Starring: Scarlet Witch, Walter White, Quicksilver, the guy from Inception, the girl from Shape of Water, basically every famous person
Directed by: The guy who directed Rogue One 

Not as good as its sequel Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), but only because King of the Monsters is one of the most rock star movies EVER! That said, this film clearly laid the foundation for KotM and I am in awe of what I see 

This feels like a BETTER version of Pacific Rim mixed with a BETTER version of Transformers. Did Pacific Rim feel too silly? Did Transformers feel too militaristic? This is the perfect balance. 

The characters are really good. This is like Marvel-level screenwriting. They cast enough famous faces and give them enough good lines where you care about what their plot is, and they know how to throw in suspense so you’re invested but not too stressed. The film’s a hair over two hours so it’s also not too long. 

The cinematography (by which I mean the framing, visual effects, and lighting) are a-maaaz-ing. Godzilla’s not in it all the time if I’m honest, but everything else you’d expect — aircraft, seacraft, explosions, bombs, soldiers — are there in abundance, and they make it SO interesting. It’s like a Marvel film, but without the comic-book heritage that makes it easier to style Marvel films. The people were just that good.

It’s basically a sci-fi horror film built around G’s discovery. If a giant radioactive lizard monster DID exist, what the heck would that mean? What would its discovery look like? How would we react? It’s a good introduction to the character (this was my first ‘zilla film) that doesn’t feel too grim. Overall, recommend if you can catch it

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Directed by and Starring: Clint Eastwood
Also Starring: Famous People or Future Famous People. There’s so many there’s a list near the bottom

Sometimes it feels like a writer had a really interesting idea, but it ends up being Jurassic Park — they get so caught up in wondering IF they can, that they forget about wondering if they SHOULD. That’s what this film’s ending is. Like, I see the skill in the execution, but maybe they should have thought through it a little more. 

Ending aside, this film is decent; you care about the characters, and the boxing matches are good. It won like four big Oscars (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Director) so it clearly did SOMETHING right

Virtually EVERYONE in this is a future famous person - Anthony Mackie, Micheal Peña, Jay Baruchel, Mike Colter. And if they’re not a future famous person, then they were probably already decently famous (Morgan Freeman, Margo Martindale, Hilary Swank). 

I like it better than Gran Torino, Eastwood’s OTHER big “flea-bitten old guy takes a student” film from the 2000’s. 

Star Trek lll: The Search for Spock

Starring: The Cast of Star Trek
Directed by: The Guy Who Plays Spock 

My first full Trek film! Besides the new ones. I watched this ‘cause I’m told there’s lots of Star Trek influence in Animorphs and there’s a plot in this movie that’s a bit like one of the books.

I’m also seeing a lot of Guardians of the Galaxy inspiration here! I always thought they were mostly Star Wars, but the basic Guardians premise is really pure Trek with a worse ship and dysfunctional people

Star Trek is surprisingly solid! This film is one of the mediocre entries, but even then I was entertained. The emotional hook is really good, and I’m a sucker for good characters

Maybe watch some of the original series if you’re looking for Trek. It’s on Netflix and Hulu AND Prime, so at least one of those should be available. Look up “best episode lists” to realize why people like it

KHAAAAAAAN! 

Malcolm X

Starring: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Christopher Plummer
Directed by: Spike Lee
Pretty good! I’ve read the autobiography this is based on and this is a loyal adaptation that goes by faster than the book. That said, it’s three and a half hours, and the first hour could’ve been thirty minutes. You’re never gonna have a better time to watch this, ‘cause you’ll never have time to watch it otherwise. Aside from that, it’s great.

Denzel Washington kills it — he’s a leading man who can channel X’s swagger and not feel like a copy. After the slow hour, the last two hours are straight fire from beginning to end.

This is PG-13 so you can watch it with the kids. Maybe split it up over a few nights due to length.

Black Panther’s mother is Malcolm X’s wife in this! What a resumé!

Overall, very good piece of American history. Also, Nelson Mandela is in it! This came out in ‘92! He hadn’t even gotten elected yet! Wow!

I don’t want to wholeheartedly recommend this and then have someone get surprised by some of the content, so I’m gonna suggest that you check the content advisory if you’re worried about what you’re gonna get. Guilt absolved