Amsterdam, a.k.a. Three Characters In Search Of A Coherent Film. Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington put in great performances as interesting characters with compelling backstories and interrelationships, and then get plopped into this clumsy murder-conspiracy thriller extremely loosely based on the General Smedley Butler incident, with heavy dollops of soapboxing along the way. I mean, yes, fascism and racism are bad, but honestly this would have been a better film if they’d just developed what happened after the war in Europe vs in America with regard to racism and the treatment of veterans on a personal level and done the character piece in depth rather than trying to “educate” the audience via a rather obvious plotline in such a ham-handed fashion. Disappointing (although damn, Margot Robbie is excellent in everything).
I saw It’s a Wonderful Life for the first time. Right until Clarence showed up, it was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. I thought the ending was a bit rushed, but it’s still a great movie. It was really notable for some outstanding scenes. And a hell of a villain.
It also leaves you with a lot to think about. There are a lot of different potential messages there. There are very few people who lived as impactful of a life as George Bailey, and even fewer who are that virtuous, so I’m not sure what the average person can take from it beyond basic gratitude.
But it did make me more grateful.
Napoleon I am a hardcore military history buff and Ridley Scott fan that understands that millions in public school funds couldn’t make Americans care about that Coriscan simp and so I tempered my expectations. And they still weren’t even close to being met. I do not need to see this again and I would not recommend it to my daydream fictitious Highschool AP History class. In fact, no one needs to see this. It wasn’t entertaining, it wasn’t accurate, it wasn’t even a story.
Small shout out to Phil Rhys, the guy playing Tallyrand. His portrayal was alright and I would have loved to have seen more of him.
I saw this for the first time a few years ago and was blown away. I thought the entire movie was a re-visit of his life without him, not just the final portion.
I did like it and it was honestly quite emotional at the end. Well made.
I have much the same opinion of Chevalier (from both a musical and military history standpoint). It is sometimes amazing how they can make films about such extraordinary individuals and screw them up so badly.
Interesting take; can you elaborate?
I’ve seen it so many times that now I just start watching when the money is lost. I still get the same emotional payoff.
I think what @Mahaloth is referring to is that the part where George is shown what would have happened if he had never existed is the part that “everybody knows” about the movie, and the part that’s often imitated, played off of, or spoofed, so that it’s easy to get the impression that it makes up a bigger part of the movie’s run time than it actually does.
Maybe because they left off the “lost ending” (as shown on Saturday Night Live)?
Yep. I feel like it was only 20-25 minutes and I thought most of the movie was that part, not just the ending portion.
Yes, I think it might make it seem more abrupt if you’re expecting it to be the main focus.
This film is interesting for me because I saw an early screening of it as a test audience in college. We got to see movies for free with the only requirement being that you had to fill out a questionnaire afterwards. The movies were usually off-beat and eclectic, with Raising Arizona being a perfect example.
Ah. I thought you were offering an alternate interpretation of the first 2/3.
Never mind.
No. It’s just one of the movies that is in the culture, but the main focus in the culture is the final 30 minutes where we see the town without him. Any spoof or homage focuses on that part of the movie.
I just saw It’s a Wonderful Knife, a horror-comedy and in that movie, she wishes to have never been born within the opening 20 minutes of the movie. The rest is her seeing the impact her life made and trying to figure out how to undo her wish.
Oh, I also wanted to say the ending portion of It’s a Wonderful Life has serious A Christmas Carol vibes, right down to stumbling upon his brother’s grave and running around effusively showering everyone with affection at the end.
Doctor Sleep
Excellent horror film; my second favorite adaptation of a Stephen King work (after The Mist). Haven’t read the book, so it stands on its own. Rebecca Ferguson is outstanding as the main heavy and Kyliegh Curran is simply phenomenal as “Abra,” (where are they getting all these fantastic young actors?). Cool SFX. Scary, grim and ultimately satisfying.
This is indeed great horror, but I have trouble rewatching it because of the intensity and (more importantly) duration of a certain scene. There’s also an extended version of the film available, and it’s worth watching, but that scene’s even worse.
You said it! Skates a very fine line between gratuitous and necessary.
For some stupid reason I decided to watch Bone Tomahawk. I say “stupid” because not only is the movie stupid, but right at the end I realized I’d seen it before. Cannibal Indians and Kurt Russell sounding like his Wyatt Earp character on steroids. What a waste of time.
I can abide zombies but when they left for a long long journey yet only took one horse each it strained credulity
An extremely strange film – an Ealing production! - I had never heard of, this is an adaptation of an action-less, not-quite post-WWII play that has dated very badly. Nine disparate characters disappear in the dark, only to find themselves in a foggy no man’s land where a big door leads to a (never-seen) city with (never-seen) people. An allegory full of gloom grasping for an optimistic, vaguely socialist outlook, it does have some striking art direction to go along with its ridiculous dialogue.