Week of Dec 18 – Crashing the Party?

I’ll let you a bit behind the scenes here. I have been working on my Top 10/Bottom 10 post for next weekend for a couple weeks now. I was assuming I wouldn’t be able to see Poor Things or Zone of Interest before that post went live. Well, I checked the AMC app, and lo and behold, Poor Things showed up for the day before I head up to the Thumb. After finally seeing it, do I have revisions to make on my post next week? Only one way to find out. On to the reviews!

#108 Anyone But You

Romantic comedies are only as good as their leading couple, and Powell/Sweeney really work in this one. Their chemistry really is believable. This movie isn’t too hard to guess where it is going as it moves along. The plot is really straight forward. Two people have an amazing first date, then something bad happens, and they hate each other. They are then forced to be around each other at a wedding for her sister/his friend. To make everyone leave them alone, they pretend to be a couple. If you don’t get this is based on Much Ado About Nothing, that exact title shows up at one point of the movie. I did chuckle at a lady sitting behind me when they finally hook up an hour in to the movie. She must not have seen one of these kinds of movies before.

One thing I didn’t really like though was that the reason for issues between Powell and Sweeney mainly Sweeney’s fault. The things that make her mad at Powell are directly caused by her actions. Two examples: she ghosts him/he is hurt and calls her names to his friend; she says it was a mistake they hooked up/he tells his friend this hurts him and accidentally tells him she dropped out of college. It might have looked better if he instigated an issue or two. Also, if you happen to find a certain song by Natasha Bedingfield insufferable (it isn’t to me though), you are going to have a bad time. Still, this was an enjoyable time and might be the best romantic comedy I have seen in a few years. 3.5 out of 5 Koalas

#109 Poor Things

This was a strange one for me. I fell for the hype train going into this one, and I do like Lanthimos’s films, especially The Killing of a Sacred Deer. This one just let me down I little. I’m fine with it being weird, and I liked the story, but there were are a couple areas that I thought were not that good. Like I think in a lot of movies, this one was about 20 minutes too long. The third act really didn’t work for me. It introduces a new character into the story, that while it makes sense, he really is just another awful person that the movie didn’t need. Another area that missed with me is Bella’s awakened sexuality really is gratuitous. I thought the the first part with Ruffalo’s Duncan was ok as it fitted in the story at that point, but once we got to the brothel, it got too much for me.

All of that makes it like there was nothing I liked about his film. That is so wrong. There is a reason this film is up for many Oscars in March. First, there is the Production Design and Cinematography. This film looks awesome, and the choice to make real areas like Paris look like weird versions of those places was just a good choice. It just makes the world look that a weird place for Bella and us after she and us leave her home for the first time in the first act. That place might be the only one that look like it it should, and I think that is the purpose. Next is the cast. Everyone is great in this. Ruffalo and Dafoe should be up for Best Supporting Actress, and Stone probably had Best Actress wrapped up with what she does here. I’ll get into that more in a post on Wednesday. Also, there is a scene in Bella’s time at the brothel that made me think of the a scene in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life when Cleese is teaching his class about sex, and that made me laugh. Overall, this was a good movie and I see how it is a Best Picture favorite with Oppenheimer. There was just two or three area in the film that kept me from being part of the crowd that loved it. 3.5 out of 5 Experiments

So far this week we have a movie that I was a little surprised by, and one I was a little disappointed by. The next one though………

#110 Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Going into this one, I had the lowest of expectations. The trailers looked terrible, and I was sure the best jokes were in the trailer. Oh man, was I right. This was a disaster to sit through. The plot was pretty simple even for a comic book movie. It’s not like an Aquaman movie couldn’t work either. I liked the first one in 2018. The sequel just takes whatever worked there and just throws it aside for a pretty boring and dumb movie. In the first one, Black Manta, one of Aquaman’a main adversaries is a lackey of sorts to Ocean Master, the other main adversary. That was fine as he was just becoming Black Manta. You knew he would be back in the sequel, and he is. However, he is possessed by a magic evil by the real bad guy, so he is a lackey basically again. It’s baffling how they still don’t know how to use that character.

Another baffling thing of this movie: basic storytelling. This is a light spoiler (it’s in the trailer, so ifWB doesn’t care, why should I), but how does Black Manta know where Aquaman lives? The movie doesn’t say. He just appears. This broke me. After that we get a secret kingdom, zombie fish people, blood magic, and I just prayed it would end. I always like to think every movie has something good in it, so what is it in this movie? Well, it’s 20 minutes shorter than the first movie, so that is something. Wilson still is good as Orm too. His banter with Aquaman did make the middle third watchable.

This slog is the last entry in the DCEU until the whole thing is rebooted to the DCU in 2025. There were some good entries in there (The Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Snyder Cut JL) but overall the DCEU was just WB trying to be the MCU and failing over and over. We can point out a few of the recent MCU entries have been mediocre, but none of them have hit the lows of the DCEU to me. The DCEU is dead. It will be missed by few. 1.5 out of 5 Evil Magic Tridents (this movie was dumb)

This upcoming week I have at least two movies on the schedule. On Wednesday, I will also be posting my predictions for the Golden Globes. Until then though, I hope you have a Merry Christmas tomorrow!