Underwater (2020) with Kristen Stewart. What can I say? I’m a product of my triply landlocked environment, and I find the ocean in general to be primally terrifying, let alone whatever antidiluvian secrets may be mired in the sea floor. Like The Descent (2005), I found myself relaxing as the scares became more about what was stalking the characters than the hostility of the environment, but it’s an enjoyable enough creature feature in the back half. Also, while I was initially unsure of the practically en medias res opening and the occasionally jarring edits which scream of scenes deleted (apparently this movie languished on the shelf for three years before getting unceremoniously dumped in January), it’s nice to see a big budget studio picture with a 90 minute runtime. There’s kind of a twist towards the end which I can imagine will be divisive, but I was on board with it, and I don’t want to spoil it if anyone is unaware. One thing I will spoil, in the name of selling the movie, is that there are two really gnarly deaths in this (which surprised me given the PG-13 rating), and one of them belongs to TJ Miller. 3.5/5
I watched The Covenant which I really, really liked. It was a little different from your average war film, and I was emotionally effected by the “i owe you brother” theme. Will watch that again.
I also finally got round to watching Interstellar which I liked but didn’t blow me away
That looks super good, thanks for mentioning this.
Mystery in Paris movie collection, specifically Mystery at the Place Vendome. It was good but not as good as the first 2 movies in the collection
Pizza Movie 3/5 - Between this and The Napa Boys it seems like the writers thst influence other writers are interested in exploring how you can do the raunchy teen sex comedy without being exclusively gross to women. I’m not entirely sure that this vein is worth mining but like most raunchy teen comedies, it’s fun enough to watch stoned with your buddies
Exit 8 3.5/5 - Liminal Horror is in baby! I think Backrooms is trying to be the tentpole movie for the subgenre but until it comes out this is a pretty fun version. I think this is the only video game movie where I beat the game quicker than I watched the movie
Mortal Kombat (1995) 3/5 - Honestly for being a 90s video game movie it’s not bad. It mostly sticks to the “plot” of Mortal Kombat which barely has one anyway. The CGI is bad but Paul W. S. Anderson can at least pull off edgy cool pretty well
The Drama 4.5/5 - This is nightmare fuel if you’re mid wedding planning. I think there’s a lot of interesting discussions happening in this movie, I like the acting, and it is sufficiently tense
Rat Race 3.5/5 - It’s basically a bunch of really complicated set ups to huge visual gags. It’s not groundbreaking but it’s funny. Also Rowan Atkinson should avoid speaking roles
Mars Express 4.5/5 - Wow! Watching this feels like watching a classic Sci-fi movie despite it being less than 3 years old. So many cool ideas that aren’t just handed to you. They use visual and environmental story telling to just cram in a crazy dense story in 90 minutes. This is a masterful intersection of art and technique. A high recommendation to fans of classic sci-fi like Blade Runner, Nueromancer, Ghost in the Shell, and Akira
Crime 101. It was pretty good. But it had the potential to be really really good.
