Pride & Prejudice rides almost entirely on the back of excellent performances by Knightley, Pike, and other core cast, though it tells this classic tale in a choppy presentation that has little sense of continuity.
I quite enjoyed the change of pace in this episode—the characters had more space to talk, reflect, and simply exist, instead of always being caught up in massive battles. I especially liked the warm setting of the mansion.
After Skyfall, Spectre is a major step backward, doubling down on the wacky Craig timeline (young Bond in Casino and Quantum, jumping to washed up Bond in Skyfall?) by connecting ONLY the villains we’ve seen so far in some grand conspiracy…. Did Bond not encounter anyone of note in the years between Quantum and Skyfall? A further issue is Dave Bautista’s voiceless antagonist who just shows up to be a punching bag in fairly uninteresting fight scenes.
The biggest issue, however, is the weird pacing of the story with Waltz’ villain… I understand that he’s always in the background across the whole Craig story, but I wanted him foregrounded here… instead, we get a comic book villain with a personal fixation on Bond, but who is also planning world domination? And why exactly? I remember being so excited to see what Waltz could do, and they gave him nothing to work with.
The only area this movie truly excelled in was its score…. While Sam Smith’s theme is clearly just an attempt to do Adele’s Skyfall again, the musical motifs of this particular Bond are masterfully woven with the timeless themes of the series by Thomas Newman.
Casino Royale is so good for the first hour and 45 minutes, but once the first major plot thread resolves, the rest of the movie feels like a moralizing (for Bond, that is) mess…. It’s clear this was always Bond’s origin, rather than a compelling spy tale. When all settles, the motivations in this plot are muddled, but the action scenes feel like a modern Bond should.
The do or die twist didn’t work for me; the game is lucky Deshawn was safe with the twist, but it still put way too much at risk for a single player, without giving them due process within the game.
This may have been one of the worst-edited episodes of Survivor ever, especially for the person voted off to be Tiffany, who had a really strong edit up to this point. I have no idea how any of that happened.
This movie has no business being as fun as it is. There were so many moments when this movie simply made me smile from ear to ear because of its awareness of nerd culture. Free Guy also excels at exploiting all the possible references built into its premise, where the main character exists exclusively within a video game world. I’ll be the first to admit that I never expected this movie to be even passable after seeing the trailers, but now, I recommend it for anyone with even a passing awareness of nerd culture.
Fine movie with an electrifying cast, bad script, and fun music. There were definitely moments to appreciate as a Christian viewer; I don’t know if this will work for folks of other faiths.
The set and sound are brilliant, but the cast performances always seem just a bit off, and are often swallowed by the spectacle... On one front, this is true to the spirit of the novel, but on the other, the characters here lack the nuance of Fitzgerald’s original work.
This movie is well-schemed and brought to life by brilliant performances all around. The ride of the plot is empowering, hilarious, heart-breaking, and DARK, but the discomfort of watching the movie speaks to its subject matter most profoundly.
This movie holds up tremendously, capturing the smallness of the early MCU while also providing a constantly entertaining experience. I love that Iron Man’s origin story is Stark’s battle against his legacy. Also, the origin story of the Iron Man suit is still one of the best in the MCU
