John Wick 3.5 Ballerina. Fine, good to see many of the continuing characters.
Instead of a dog, she saw her father killed, grew up to be an assassin in the Hungarian clan (and dance too). Body count was up to standard along with action and gun/skate play. Not just every other street person but an entire town was armed to the teeth and out for our protagonist, Ana de Armas (Eve). JW appears and goes after her at the behest of Angelica Huston (Hungary chapter). Best efficient lines were when JW reported back on his mission to stop her going after the Croatian chapter/evil boss:
JW to AH: It’s done.
AH: She’s dead?
JW: He’s dead.
Several monologues from the old guys about history, honor, blah, blah. Eve ends the final boring speech by plugging Gabriel Byrne (father’s killer) before he can finish. Reminded me of Indy shooting the sword wielding guy instead of a great battle.
One other thing. No one expects the flame throwers
Nice shout out to Lance Reddick (he was the front desk manager at the Continental and more who recently died).
How to Train Your Dragon (live-action, 2025, in IMAX)
Spectacular film. Definitely worth watching on the biggest screen possible. They keep all the characters of the original, adding only a couple of minor characters who barely get any lines. A lot of the film is a shot-for-shot remake of the original animated film, which is one of the best animated films of all-time.
I loved the casting, especially for Hiccup and Astrid. Gerard Butler returns to his role of Stoick the Vast. You’ll fall in love with Toothless all over again. He looks gorgeous in this film.
Most of the funniest lines from the original are in the remake.
“And now, the spinning. Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile!”
“THAT’S for kidnapping me. And… that’s for everything else.”
I’ve watched this one maybe three or four times. Very good stuff. For an independent film made before independent films were really much of a thing, it’s incredible. And I’ll assert that the director knew what he was doing a lot better than a more recent although better-known dead-but-didn’t-know-it director. It’s about the journey, not the reveal.
I think Disney started the trend, if that’s the right word, of making live action remakes of their animated films. I believe they are all, more or less, shot for shot remakes. It’s kind of sad, though. All of those resources devoted to making nothing new.
I think most if not all of them made significant changes to the original story. That’s not without issues either. The purists always complain about changes. A good example is happening now. Look at Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon. Both original movies were written and directed by the same person, Dean DeBlois. He had nothing to do with the live action version of Lilo and Stitch. He came back and directed the live action How to Train Your Dragon. The former made significant changes especially to secondary characters. The later is basically a shot for shot remake. I’ve read a lot of criticism from fans about ruining their favorite characters in Lilo and Stitch.
I think the Lilo & Stitch remake started as a made for streaming film but later they went for a full release. And I think it’s turning out to be a big success at the box office.
I also recently saw Carnival of Souls (on TCM with Paul Giamatti, his favorite movie since he was four years old!) The organ factory was great, in that it established that because she was an organ player, there is creepy organ music throughout the film. I was really impressed with the quick cut about 15 minutes into the film, where she asks where the boarding house is, and it cuts to the door opening. Slick!
We had a “private screening,” because nobody else showed up! Just me and my wife in the very nice theatre. The program director gave us a little talk before the movie, telling us about the history of the weird building in SLC that was used.
I didn’t like the live-action Lilo & Stitch as much as I did Dragon. Gantu wasn’t even in it. Pleakley didn’t cross-dress. They picked the wrong person to be the villain, and they botched the ending.